from The raw food site dot com

Green Smoothies

For those with a Vita-Mix, put in the ingredients below and blend for 15 to 20 seconds.
Ingredients:

• 2 handfuls of spinach, mixed greens, kale or turnip greens
  (Yes I know, you don't want to eat any of those. Me, too, but in a green smoothie with all the other stuff, you won't even taste them.)
• 1 banana
• 2 ripe mangoes without the skin or pit (or 2 peaches, a cup of blueberries, strawberries, pitted cherries, or an additional banana)
• 2 cups of refrigerated spring or distilled water

Fruit Smoothie

For those concerned about their protein in the morning or wonder what to have instead of eggs to start their day, this smoothie makes a wonderful start.
Ingredients: Soaked flax seeds, Banana, Fresh or frozen fruit and water (dates and grated orange rind optional)

1. Place 1-2 heaping tablespoons of soaked Flax Seeds* in your blender.
2. Add 1-2 cups of water.
3. Turn on high speed until the seeds turn thick and "goopy." Add more water if needed.
4. Add one peeled banana.
5. Add frozen or fresh fruit. If you didn't add frozen fruit and want it chilled, add ice cubes.
6. If you want it sweeter, add 4 - 6 soaked dates without the pits.
7. If you want a nice orange tang, add a bit of grated orange rind.
8. Mix and match any fruits you like:
   Strawberries and bananas;
   Peaches, strawberries and bananas; or
   Peaches, pineapples, bananas and coconut.
9. Add raw (unroasted) carob powder to any smoothie.

* I keep a container of flax seeds soaking in the refrigerator just like other people keep milk or eggs on hand. I also keep a small dish of soaking dates in water to use as a sweetener.

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Veggie Dip

This dip can be made thinner to use as a creamy salad dressing or thickened with veggies for a pate to spread on carrots or crackers or to roll up in lettuce leaves or nori seaweed sheets. Take a pint container to work with you along with your favorite veggies and/or lettuce or kale leaves.
Ingredients:

• Water (start with ¼ cup and add more to make it easy to blend the nuts until smooth)
• Cold-pressed olive oil (start with 2-3 Tablespoons and add more to desired creaminess)
• Sweet: raw cashews 7 ounces (or soaked and drained almonds, pecans, etc.)
• Sour: lemon or lime juice
• Spicy: fresh-grated garlic (the longer the garlic is in the mixture the stronger it gets), fresh-grated ginger root, chilies, cayenne pepper, or some sliced jalapeno pepper
• Bitter: fresh cilantro (or your fresh or dried herb of choice), or poultry seasoning
• Salty: Celtic Sea Salt, dulce (a dried, salty seaweed) and soy sauce, tamari or shoyu (These are just three grades of the same thing.)

Mixing:

1. Blend the nuts until finely ground in the food processor or blender.
2. Add a bit of water slowly until a thick "goop" forms.
3. Add a few cloves of fresh garlic and slices of ginger root.
4. Add some olive oil, Nama Shoyu (aged soy sauce), Celtic Sea Salt and blend.
5. Taste. If too sweet, add some lemon or lime juice. If too thick for the blender to handle, add more water.
6. Then make adjustments for sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and bitter using the above ingredients or substitutes. (I found that the chilies, garlic, salt, soy sauce, lemon juice and ginger were key for balancing the sweetness of the cashews or nuts.)
7. For extra spicy, add 1 whole chopped jalapeno pepper or other chili pepper.
8. Blend and at the end, add dried or fresh basil or cilantro or your favorite herb. (If you blend too much at the end, the green herbs will turn it an unappetizing greenish beige.)
9. Serve with raw veggies (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, green beans, sliced sweet potatoes, tomatoes, jicama—a Mexican root that is firm like a water chestnut—bell peppers, cabbage, etc.) or with dehydrated flax crackers.

This can also be used as rich, creamy salad dressing. Just add more water and salt, if needed. This dip gets thicker when it sits in the refrigerator. You can always add more water and stir before serving.
Optional ingredients (add to the blended mix or just chop into the dip):
Grated horseradish, chopped spinach, chopped bell peppers (any color), mashed avocado, chopped tomatoes, sliced or diced green onions, or red onions.
Ideas:
Try emphasizing one herb for a dominant flavor (dill, basil, tarragon, etc.).
You can add carrots if you're using a food processor and make it into a paste and use it as a spread on crackers, rolled up in nori seaweed sheets (used for sushi rolls) or on lettuce leaves as a "green burrito."

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Raw Ice Cream

If you have a sweet tooth or love ice cream especially late at night or have kids that love ice cream, this is a fast and easy recipe. My grandson loves to make it whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner or for a quick snack.
Ingredients: Nuts, bananas, frozen fruit

1. Place a handful of raw (not roasted) cashews or soaked, then drained, raw almonds in the food processor.
2. Blend until smooth. (You can leave the mixture slightly grainy for more texture in the ice cream.)
3. Add a bit of water (1-4 tablespoons) to make it into a thick cream.
4. Add chopped frozen fruit. (See below for ideas.)
5. Add a banana, frozen or not, to make it thick, smooth and sweet.
6. Taste and adjust sweetness, frozenness and creaminess by adding more of the above ingredients, dates, etc.
7. Serve right away. If you want the ice cream firmer you can place it in a container in the freezer until it is as thick as you like. If there is any left over, store it in the freezer in a covered container. Allow time to thaw when you want to eat it again.

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Mikey's Milkshake (Unbelievably good!!)

Makes 6 services
Soak 2 cups of fresh pecans (about 1/2 pound) for about 5 minutes, rinse them, soak them another 5 minutes and rinse them again.
Then put into a Vita-Mix (or powerful blender):

• 8 pitted dates
• A level teaspoon of Celtic Sea Salt (or to taste)
• 2 - 3 teaspoons of honey (or to taste)
• 1 and 1/2 vanilla beans (optional)
• 5 - 12 macadamia nuts (make it creamier!!)
• Refrigerated cold water to total 60 oz.

Turn on low until the nuts are ground up. Then whip it on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.

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What do I usually eat on my raw food diet?

Q. Peter, I am on day 14 on my cleanse and plan to go 40 days. I have lost some weight and hope to lose more before my 40 days are up. On the website, you say you ate 100% raw and lost quite a bit of weight. 40 pounds in 6 months or something like that. I was wondering if you could give me an idea of what you ate on an average day when you did that. I am planning on doing 100% raw at home and then eat SAD occasionally, e.g. dinner with a friend. I think that you can probably eat unlimited fruits and veggies as they are so low in calories. I am planning on using nuts and seeds as my protein. That is where I am concerned. I tend to go a little overboard with those because I love them so much. Did you limit those and how much did you do per meal? Any ideas and a sample menu would really be appreciated!
A. First, I should say that my wife has been a professional chef and went raw 6 months before me so she made a number of delicious things for us to eat. Her cashew dip (Veggie Dip recipe above) routinely gets raves. Breakfast is usually a green smoothie (See Victoria Boutenko's Green for Life book for recipes and its amazing results). I liked to make salads with varied greens, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, sunflower seeds, raisins, crushed tomato (I like the flavor of a tomato crushed by hand better than sliced.), olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, carrots and celery. I do the olive oil, sea salt and lemon juice to taste. It's important to alternate various kinds of greens as eating exclusively one kind, such as spinach or romaine, can create mineral imbalances or even kidney stones.

The thing you need to know about preparing raw food as opposed to cooked food is that cooked food or prepared foods always taste the same. Pasta always tastes like pasta. Not true of fresh tomatoes or pepperoncini. Sometimes more flavor, sometimes less. So measuring is out. Tasting is in.

Always try to ensure you have all five flavors in dishes: sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter (usually herbs). They don't have to be intense, but just a little of each really enlivens the taste.

The next thing to know is that when you transition to raw vegan from cooked food, you generally want complex prepared dishes, like the veggie dip or maybe the veggie dip done so that it has a thicker consistency and with tomatoes or avocados and rolled up in nori seaweed (like that used for sushi). Put some Nama Shoyu (organic aged soy sauce) on it!!

After a month or two, I just wanted an apple with soaked almonds that had been re-soaked in Nama Shoyu to make them salty; or raisins and soaked almonds with some kalamata olives and pepperoncini; or a glass of fresh carrot-apple juice. Or apple-fennel juice—unbelievable!

Evening or 4 pm snacks were sometimes figs or dates with soaked almonds. Every once in a while, sliced apples with raw almond butter and sea salt. Wow! (Don't depend on almonds as a daily food as they are very high in calcium and can throw off your mineral balance.)

About using nuts and seeds for protein: greens such as spinach have a great deal of protein by weight as well as being great sources of calcium and magnesium. You should try to include dark greens each day. Your protein requirements are much less when you are getting vegetable protein. Also, the best nuts are almonds and they should be soaked for 12 to 24 hours before eating. Most nuts have enzyme inhibitors that prevent them sprouting unless they are soaked for a long time. These same enzyme inhibitors will inhibit your complete digestion if you don't soak them off. You'll see the tannic acid in the brown water that you pour off. Seed typically don't require soaking.

You want to be sure you eat greens for the reasons above, oils (avocado, olives or olive oil, coconut oil, etc.), and sweets (dates, raisins, sweet fruits). The sweets are required for complete digestion of the oils!

There you go.