Pepper Paints

Thursday’s Quarter Recipe

Remember I used to post recipes on Thursdays and invited readers to join in the fun and link to recipe on their blogs on Thursdays? Well let’s try again!! If you need the whole sorted explanation of why I chose to call them quarter recipes you can read about it here.

So here is my meager but tasty and healthy recipe for this week.

We enjoy smoothies many mornings. On this day we mixed up a couple of frozen bananas, about 3 large handfuls of spinach,  some orange juice, a couple of tablespoons of goji berries, a couple of tablespoons of chia seeds, and a whole lot of frozen blueberries in my VITA-MIX.

I keep my chia seeds in the freezer, that’s why they look sweaty.

This may be a green smoothie, but the blueberries really make it more purple.

If you have a favorite recipe to share (it doesn’t have to be raw) leave a link in the comments to your blog’s recipe post.

Or think about joining in next week. Because I have the world’s best salad recipe to share next Thursday! (I have been eating it for days)

No Recipe Thursday

Where have I been? Nowhere special, just sucked into the wonderful world of Spring cleaning! I don’t much like to clean so I do a massive clean up, top to bottom a couple of times a year and then just clean the middle of the room the rest of the time.

Last weekend I ran my first 5K. I have NEVER been a runner, even when I was young and in sports I hated running. So it is amazing to me that I was able to run that far. I did a couch to 5K training schedule and it worked. So, what I am saying is that, if I can run anyone can run! Just do it!

And the week before, I, along with my other Mother Artist friends put on the kids art show, KidzArtz. It was a huge success!

These are a couple of photos of the art making area where kids wrapped and weaved and decorated teepee structures with various materials. It was loads of fun to unwrap rolls of TP and balls of yarn. I would love to make one of these in the back yard this summer!

And this week is also Birthday week/Mother’s Day week. Both Jake and Ginger have Birthdays this week.

So I have been a little busy and blog neglectful. Sorry -when my house is clean and my garden planted I’ll be back!

Oh, and I have no new recipe to post. But if you do-leave a link in the comments to your raw recipe post!

Thursdays Raw Recipe

The grocery stores around here have been having some great prices on fruit-some organic and some not. I try to buy organic whenever possible-which is about 90-95 % of the time. But there are a few things like pineapples and mango that I don’t often see here as an organic choice. But the last few weeks these have been really cheap. So I stocked up and have been making this smoothie over and over again with a few minor changes here and there.

These measurements are just guesses because when it comes to smoothies-I just dump things into my Vita-Mix.

1 to 1 1/2 cups pineapple chunks

1 to 2 mangos

1 frozen banana

a handful of ice

almond milk-enough to make it as thick or thin as you want

a handful of almonds

2 Tablespoons of chia seeds

2 Tablespoons of hemp seeds

dash of cinnamon

This tasted a lot like orange sherbet!  I almost always make green smoothies and adding spinach to this didn’t change the taste too much.   Other additions to this basic mixture that tasted good have been spinach, frozen strawberries, flax seeds and a cut up orange. You can pack tons of nutrition into these smoothies, which is a great start to the day!

If you have a raw recipe to share this week please leave a link to your raw post in the comments. Thanks!!

Thursdays Raw Recipe

I made this raw potato salad this weekend and it was really good! Definitely tastes better when it’s not ice cold and the dressing does get runny the longer it sits, but it still tasted good a few days later.

RAW POTATO SALAD

2 c diced jicama

1/4 c diced yellow pepper

1/4 c celery

1 T minced fresh rosemary

2 T minced green olives

1/4 avocado, smashed

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

fresh parsley

Now for the dressing:

2 t tahinin

1/4 t ground cumin

1 1/2 T lemon juice

2 T water

2 t parley

1/4 t nama shoyu

1/4 t agave

pinch of chili powder

and more than a pinch of salt

I blend all the dressing ingredients in my Vita-Mix. Dressing should be a little thick as it does thin out after the potato salad is all mixed up.

If you have a raw recipe to add this week, leave a comment with a link to your raw recipe post.

Thursday’s Raw Recipe

This is my new favorite—Kale Salad.

I tear up the kale and pour some olive oil and fresh lemon juice on it-mix or massage the oil into the leaves. Add some sea salt and cayenne pepper to taste. I like it hot so I add a lot. Then sometimes I add tomatoes. This tastes better if you let it sit at room temperature for awhile. Relly fresh and the kale is more satisfying than a lettuce salad if you are really hungry.

These wraps I made out of left over raw slaw this week were really good too. I made the raw cole slaw using the bag of pre cut broccoli slaw. They were on sale buy one get one free. These are really convenient!

For the slaw dressing I processed lots of sunflower seeds and a few cashews with a bit of olive oil, salt, lemon juice, a bit of cider vinegar, a bit of agave, and thinned it all out with  water. I mixed it all up and then added lots of celery seeds to the slaw. After eating it as coleslaw for a few days I decided to wrap some inside some mustard greens and top them with lots of black seseme seeds. This was another easy and filling meal.

If you have a raw recipe to share this week just leave a link to your raw post in the comments.

Thursday’s Raw Recipes

So while on our trip I did bring lots of fruit and veggies and nuts and seeds, I also ate lots of cooked foods too. I ate and tasted lots of stuff I wouldn’t usually eat or make  here at home and I didn’t get sick or feel terrible like I thought I would. It was fun, it tasted great and now I’m home and back to eating healthy.  I know in the long run I would feel bad and while at home I don’t walk nearly as much as we did while visiting these big cities, which I think made a huge difference in the food not just sitting in my belly.  All things in moderation!

I had really wanted to go here on our way into to Philly , but it was a bit out of our way. While in New York I scrolled through the list of raw restaurants (-yes I said list-there are several, and unfortunately here in Ohio there is only one), to find one conveniently located. I was really excited about possibly going to Sarma’s Pure Food and Wine,  but after reading the reviews of the cost decided on Quintessesnce.

The menu was full of salads, soups, smoothies and lots of raw entrees and appetizers. We decided to try a few desserts.

Ginger had a coconut cream pie with a carmel sauce-It was really light and tasty.

Molly had a strawberry-banana smoothie

I had a chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. One bite of the cake and it was way too rich for me. Too many nuts and coconut oil. But the ice cream-OMG. If you are local and you have ever had Jeni’s salty carmel real ice cream-let me tell you this tastes just like it! It was too die for! I wish I would have gotten just a bigger scoop of ice cream.

It was a cute little place. We ate outside. Makes me wish we had more raw food choices and a more walkable city here in Columbus.

If you have a raw recipe to share this week, please add the link to your raw post in the comments.

Natural Hand Sanitizer

I don’t buy into the anti bacterial, commercial,  chemical laden soaps. I’m a soap and water girl. No need to make those bugs stronger! I actually have these great soap pumps that I add about one Tablespoon of castile soap-(lavender, Rose or citrus Mmm good smelling) and I add a few drops of essential oils, again lavender or a citrus oil. Not only are essential oils aromatic, but they fight germs too!

Lavender oil is an antiseptic, disinfectant, bactericide

Lemon oil is an antiseptic, disenfectant, insectiside and fungicide

We are getting ready to leave for vacation and I usually carry  hand sanitizer with me for times when we aren’t close to soap and water.  After reading theis Mothering Magazine article and googling around the internet I decided to make my own hand sanitizer without harsh chemicals.

First I gathered up all my ingredients:  Bragg’s Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, Aloe Vera Gel, Witch Hazel, Rosemary oil, Lemon oil, sweet orange oil, Lavender oil, tee tree oil and grapefruit seed extract (citracidal), a bowl for mixing and easy pouring, and some little squeeze bottles.

These are approximate measurements.

4oz aloe vera gel

less than 1/4 c witch hazel (I filled the 1/4 c about 2/3 full with witch hazel and filled the rest with the cider vinegar)

1 to 2 T Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

at least 40 drops of grapefruit seed extract

20 drops tee tree oil

and 20 to 30 drops of the remaining essential oils. I added more of the orange for scent. I mixed it all up well and poured it into the little bottles. An easy way and natural way to fight those germs!

As I said we are hitting the road again for some fun and excitement! My dear hubby has a conference and we get to tag along. He has such a nice boss! We will be visiting Philadelphia and NYC. I don’t know if I will post while we are away. I am hoping to visit at least 1 raw restaurant while I am gone so Thursdays recipe post will hopefully be  a restaurant review!