The weekend :)

Having a fabulous weekend! Yesterday we took ourselves to the forest and hiked for a couple hours. Our 2.5 year old went with us! He hiked for about 45 minutes (i'm so proud of him) and then he was tired.

Luckily we purchased this yesterday...

I'm all about checking children's consignment stores and we found this one for $50, hardly used. Brand new this brand and style cost around $200-250, so we were happy hikers. It goes up to about 50lbs, which will probably give us a good use out of it. We are so excited because we can take our lil guy with us on the longer hikes. What makes me so happy is he gets to experience things hasn't seen yet, like seeing his first waterfall.





On our long trek we got a bit hungry and low on energy. We refueled with this mix I made up :)

It includes Goji berries, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, carob chips and raisins. I still can't believe what an energy boost this mix was for us. We burned through the last 45 minutes of our hike, which was a fair bit of an uphill climb.


The hike was so pretty, here are a couple more pics I wanted to share with you :) I love moss and wild mushrooms, they make for great photos!

I've been asked about what I eat when I'm not eating living foods and I thought I'd make my next post about this. After we got home yesterday I made a delicious and mostly cooked dinner, which we ate out in the evening sunshine. I took some great shots of our dinner and will share with you next time :)

Have a beautiful Sunday:)
~Maggie

It's Borscht!

I had no idea how full of history and influence this soup had on many cultures around the world. There are so many varying recipes, things to add, things to omit that make Borscht unique to every culture's cuisine. One thing in common is how breathtaking this dish is no matter how you make it, the color from the beets are such a show stopper. If you have never tried Borscht I recommend it, and I am not a huge beet fan. Although I am starting to give beets a break and a chance to win me over. Borscht sounds like a complicated soup, or at least that's what i thought. Really it isn't, if you have a high living foods diet most likely you will have most of the ingredients already in your fridge and pantry. I stumbled upon this recipe and luck would have it that I had all the ingredients. If you are wondering what it is like compared to cooked borscht than your in luck because I've tried cooked borscht several times in the past. This recipe is surprisingly similar! I found it to be just as flavorful, yet not sit as heavy as it's cooked counterpart. I brought some over to my family who are not on a high living foods diet, and well they didn't get to try it because my dad ate it all before they got a chance!

Let me share the recipe...


Here is the link to the wonderful recipe I found by Victoria Boutenko(I love her and her family's recipes). I cut this recipe in half and it was still about 5-6 servings. This would be a great recipe for a dinner party or large gathering. I might make it for my birthday dinner party, since the original recipe feeds so many folks without breaking the bank account.

One more thing I wanted to mention for all the beet dislikers out there, which used to include me....

Facts on Beets

-The pigment that gives beets that beautiful color is actually a cancer-fighting agent that has been researched in several studies.
-Very high in the B vitamin folate, which is important for tissue growth. I ate lots of folate rich foods while pregnant to help the baby develop :)
-The greens of beets have a higher iron content than spinach.
-Beets and Swiss chard are in the same family, just different varieties.
-Beets are rich in chlorophyll and vitamins!

Beets do so much more good for our bodies, so eat your beets!
~Maggie

A trip to the healthfood store

We went to the health food store yesterday and we had so much fun exploring. The store we went to incorporated foods, household & hygiene products, supplements, vitamins, natural remedies and local handmade products all packed into one store. Look at the goodies we bought... My guy said that this was an early birthday present for me! My goodies included a dry brush, cacao butter, spirulina, and bee pollen.

We also bought ourselves some treats....raw bars :) Yummy!



Not seen in the picture was coconut water. I still am getting adjusted to the taste of young coconut water. I enjoy it mixed with a juice or smoothie, but the more I try it on it's own the more I am liking it. Sort of.

I tried the spirulina in a green juice this morning and it was great! I wasn't sure if it was going to taste like it smells, but I can happily say it did not.

Spirulina Green Juice
2-3 apples
1/2 Lemon
Big handful of Leafy Greens
1 Cucumber

Juice it up! Add 1 tsp of Spirulina to the juice, and mix. It made the juice a nice dark green color, so pretty!

I will update if I start noticing some of the benefits. This morning I was very sleepy, until I had my juice. Now I have a ton of energy bursting from my toes to my nose, so I could be seeing a benefit already :)

Enjoy!

~Maggie

Apples and Pears..oh my!

I mentioned last post about the great deals I found on some produce....Well it's all about apples and pears at our house after my mom found this 2.99 deal. My parents came over to our place the other day and asked how often I use apples to juice. The answer is almost every time I juice! They are so great for there sweetness, so we went out a bought at least 36lbs of apples for 2.99! The catch was that these apples are assorted and some are bruised. That cardboard box was filled to the brim and I've been separating the ones that are bruised to juice immediately.

First juice we made was....

Easy, Peasy Pear-Apple Juice

It's basically a few apples and a few pears. Juice and drink! :) You can also strain it if you like, I found that by the end of the juice it was getting a bit thick from the pear.

My guy was sweet and made a yummy apple pie. I realized that there are only so many apples to juice in day. This recipe is based from ani phyo's book, but with a little variation. You can find her recipe for apple pie here, which she uploaded on YouTube. Our variation was that we purred the apple and spices. Then stirred in raisins and a few small pieces of apple. It gave it that soft apple sauce texture with a crunch.

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We still have a lot of apples and pears left over, so if you have any raw recipes to share that incorporate either of those please feel free to share :)

~Maggie

Our weekend

I can't believe it's Monday already! I had such a great weekend that the days just flew by. On Friday we took a day trip to a small island near us and adventured out into nature. We were surrounded by ocean, mountains, forest and beaches. About 90% of the time the only things we could hear was nature itself or people's voices from far off on the water. There was hardly any noise pollution, which to me is like white noise. Once you stop hearing it, you are totally aware that it is around you all the time. I found it so relaxing to only hear the sounds of nature for 8 hours of my day.

This is my favorite spot in the whole world at the moment. I am assuming my favorite spot will change again once I find another :) At the moment though, this is it. I want to lay here daydreaming, reading and then falling asleep :)

We also took a picnic to the beach consisting of all living foods. It was pretty easy, since raw food is the fastest food you can make if you consider just taking fruit or veggies. We did take some fruit, but I also made a big salad and some hummus. I packaged it all in these glass bowls w/lids that I received as a gift one Christmas. They worked so well :) There is salad underneath that hummus i promise! My eyes were hungry :)

I have end this post a bit short. I had planned to tell you about my great produce deals in which I am making endless amounts of juice, but another time. I am actually going into the city today with my family and hopefully we will end up at park :)

~Maggie

Yard Work + Chocolate = A Great Day!

Yesterday was a busy day for us, we spent most of it outside in the gorgeous weather. We did a ton of yard work, which involved grass cutting, weeding, putting in new patio stones and sweeping up any debris from winter/spring.

At one point in the day I felt this nice, warm breeze and I paused to enjoy it when suddenly this beautiful bird flew about 2 ft away from me. He pecked a bit at our tree and then made his calling before he took off with the breeze again. Such a great part of my day. This little guy is called a red-naped sapsucker, check him out :)

The best part about our day was purchasing our composter! We are so excited about it. Even our lil guy keeps searching for worms, so he can give them a new home. Check it out! Between composting and recycling we hardly have any garbage, which makes us and the earth feel a bit better!

To celebrate we ate chocolate! I made these yesterday, remember my mention of un-baking. In the first picture is the cashew bar and in the second photo is the almond-raisin bar (as requested). They are both so delicious. I was inspired by Joanna, whose chocolate recipe I used. Check out her post here.

Raw Chocolate Bars

1/2 cup of cacao butter (melted)

1/2 cup of cacao powder

2T of agave

Any nuts or dried fruits

Sprinkle of sea salt

To make the shape of these I used the bottom of a brand new muffin tin.

Put nuts in the base of the tins and sprinkle each with a bit of sea salt. Melt the cacao butter, place in bowl and then add the cacao powder and agave. Mix till smooth and creamy. Then take a spoonful of chocolate and pour over the nuts in each muffin tin. Once done, pop it in the freezer for 15-30minutes. After they have hardened they popped right out of the tin.

I also want to make a couple different versions of these, one with mint leaves and the other with orange rind. I think they would be so yummy!

Enjoy your day!

~Maggie

Ice Cream

I've been slowly building up to this post, by making ice cream once a week as a dessert. I love making desserts from living foods. It still amazes me how delicious a raw dessert can taste..what no white flour? no refined sugar? Awesome! I have two ice cream recipes to share with you in this post.

The great thing about making your own ice cream is you can put whatever you would like in the mix, plus it's fun to make and eat. I figured since I had so much fun making these recipes, my lil one would probably love it too. I can't wait till his birthday party in the summer. I plan to have an ice cream making station set up with tons of fruits ready to go. I also can't forget the ice cream toppings. This is my lil one's favorite part, plus I love how creative he gets to be with his food. His usually includes carob chips and fresh strawberry slices. He always gobbles it up and gets a great serving of fruits :)

Berrylicious Ice Cream
2 Cups of frozen berries
1 frozen banana
Toppings: Goji berries, carob chips, cacao nibs

Mix in a food processor till it becomes creamy and smooth. This can take a few minutes. Eat plain or add your favorite toppings.

Here is another variation.

Blueberry Bliss Ice Cream
1 Cup of frozen blueberries
1 frozen bannana
Toppings: Cacao Nibs

Mix in a food processor till it becomes creamy and smooth.

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Be creative with your ice cream. Add whatever fruits you love plus a frozen bannana and your set. Incase your wondering the frozen bannana adds that smooth, creaminess to the mix. Also if you are using citrus fruits just realize that it won't be as sweet of a treat.

There you have it two awesome ice cream recipes made with a food processor not an ice cream maker for those of us without one.
Enjoy!
~Maggie

P.S. Stay tuned because it's "un-baking" day in our house and something really yummy is being created!

Sunny weather and rainbow salad

Today was a perfect spring day...finally! The past couple weeks we've been having rain, and major cloud coverage, making the days seem dark and dreary. Today was full of sunny weather and we tried to take advantage of it as much as possible. We took our lil guy to a few different playgrounds and played hide-and-seek together like cute little kids. After all our outdoor fun, we were full of energy and vitamin D, so we went to a large thrift store. I didn't find much, it was way to busy. I spent about three dollars, which bought a t-shirt for my lil guy and a nice shirt for me. I love not spending hoards of money on clothing. You can find such treasures at thrift stores, but you really have to make sure you have time to search. Think of it as a treasure hunt!

Speaking of treasure, check out my dinner....rainbow salad!



Tomatoes, avocados, purple onion, red pepper, purple cabbage, and grated carrot.


I dressed it with some sea salt, pepper and lemon juice.



I love rainbows and I love days spent with my family! Perfection.
~Maggie

Silly Pancakes

I had to post this because we were giggling all morning about them. My lil guy and I were prepping the leftover "coconut cake" mix and started having way to much decorating them. See what I mean...

My two year old loved doing this and so did I. It put a big smile on my face all morning :) This is a great way to encourage children to have fun with food and still be eating healthy.

Silly Pancakes

1 coconut cake

1 tbs of almond butter and 1/2 tsp of honey

Half a banana, carob chips, and almonds

Directions: Spread the almond butter on the pancake and then spread the honey on top of the almond butter. Then decorate with whatever you have. We used banana for the hair style, carob chips for eyes/mouth and almonds for the nose.

Other ideas...

For eyes/mouth/nose: blueberries, raspberries, or nuts

Hair: Slice of fruit, or shredded coconut

~Maggie

Pancakes Please!

You might have noticed that I usually start my day with a green juice made from greens, lemons, cucumbers and apples. Other days I'm in the mood for a morning fruit juice made up of whats in season. If your new or curious about incorporating raw foods into your lifestyle than breakfast is a easy way to do so. Enjoy a fruit salad, a couple pieces of fruit, a smoothie or juice, whichever it may be your going to feel a lot better for choosing it over old SAD breakfast comfort foods (ie/muffins, pancakes, french toast, biscuits, bagels). If you are feeling like it may be to difficult, especially in the beginning, to let go of those breakfast comfort foods, then there is a solution. Try making them out of living foods. Yesterday my lil guy asked if we could make pancakes for breakfast. I thought this was the perfect chance to make a Raw version of pancakes, luckily I had Ani Phyo's recipe for Coconut Breakfast Cakes.




I cut this recipe in half because it makes a lot of pancakes. With half the recipe we were able to make 4 pancakes and I was able to eat about 1.5 before feeling to full to go on. :)

Coconut Breakfast Cakes

1.5 cups of ground flax seeds
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 cup agave
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup water

Put the flax meal, coconut oil, agave, sea salt and water in a bowl and mix well. Form balls and flatten into a "pancake" shape. Serve with your favorite fruit or chopped nuts. Drizzle with syrup. They keep in the fridge for 4-5 days. Optional: Mix blueberries or walnuts into your breakfast cake mixture.

Enjoy your breakfast! There are so many healthy options to choose from that are delicious.
~Maggie

Dinner Time!

This was our dinner tonight! I am so proud of our dinner tonight because it had three dishes, which were all made from living foods! They were all delicious and easy to make.

I found the funkiest recipe for avocados! The woman who posted this is so inventive, which I love. Check it out Avocado Fries! They are buttery with a crunchy coating. I want to try the same "breading" with zucchini. I can't wait!

I made these tonight with her recipe for Raw Nut Burgers.

Three dishes for us is a huge step, we were usually able to make about one dish per meal mostly due to poor planing and time restraints. This leads me to our third dish which was kale chips, sadly I didn't get a great picture of the kale chips on their own yet. The kale chips I made this afternoon. They just have a couple tablespoons of olive oil, salt and grated garlic. I dehydrated them for 4 hours or so.

So lets start off at the beginning. Yesterday I made Ani Phylo's Black Sesame Sunflower Bread, which is always a great bread for burgers and I also like it as a cracker for dipping in soups. This bread took about 4-6 hours to dehydrate, so it is something you could do the same day as making the burgers :)

The raw nut burger was one of the best raw burgers I have tried. It's meaty, spicy and fast to make! All the other raw burgers I have made take a long time to dehydrate, where as I left this burger on for about 30minutes and it was good to eat! I should note that I didn't have a full cup of walnuts, so I added what I had plus some almonds. It worked wonderfully. The recipe made 4 patties.

Then I added all the fixings! Tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, and red pepper were all in the mix! So good, however after making it i thought "how am i going to eat this?" I went in fork and knife at first, which works well. Then I tried eating it with my hands which was a little messy, but way more fun!

I am so full now :( I couldn't help but eat to much, this was way to good. We have left overs too, which is going to be in both our lunches tomorrow. Go have fun with your food, I know we enjoyed tonight's dinner. We were both so excited and giddy to be making such creative, fun dishes that tasted delicious :)

~Maggie

Fruit Juicing

The Sunrise
3 Oranges
1/4 Lemon
1 Apple
6 Strawberries
Juice it up, roughly 2 cups of juice :)

This tastes so delicious! I drank it in 5 minutes maybe less. It's a nice balance between sweet and sour tastes. I can't wait to try this in the summer when the weather is really hot, over some ice.

Some of my favorite juicing creations are made simply from fruits, it's not always about green juices in our house. There are a few things I've learned along the way when juicing fruits, whether it be from books I've read or from my own experiences. I've gathered some of my thoughts and tips on juicing to share with you :)

Juicing from my point of view :)

-I try a new piece of fruit, to eat or juice, every week to keep it fun.

-Do not try juicing bananas or frozen fruit, only blend them.

-Use citrus fruits as a base (ie/oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits) and then add sweet fruits to balance (ie/ apple, watermelon, mango, berries, pears, pineapples).

-I only juice 2 cups of juice at a time because it is typically what I can drink in one sitting

-Always try to make juice fresh, you won't lose the minerals, enzymes and vitamins that might have deteriorated while it was being stored.

-Juice is easy for our body to digest!

-Fruit juice tastes so yummy, especially on ice on a summers day!

My last thought is to enjoy making your juices, whether it be fruit juices or green juices. It's all about keeping it interesting and not going overboard on how much your juicing. Some of my best juices have only consisted of 2-4 ingredients, not that it should stop you from experimenting with lots of ingredients. It's just sometimes simplicity is the key!

~Maggie

Two in One

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. The bunny came by and visited my little one, brought him a few coloring books, crayons, finger paints, and other arts/crafts. Lots of fun crafts to make this spring!

We also attended the local museum, which had a scavenger hunt and train rides for everyone all day long. My little one adores trains, so he was in his element. What I loved about the scavenger hunt was the prize in the end. They gave out baby tree saplings to plant, which was such a great idea. We are most likely going to plant ours on my parent's property, so we can continue to take care of it as it grows.

On ward to my two in one breakfast idea!

Yesterday, I wanted some fruit & granola with my green juice. Here was my mixture:

1 Orange

1/2 cup of blueberries
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds

1 Tbl of flax seeds

This morning I decided to make smoothie, and that was when I came up with the two in one breakfast idea. You can have the recipe mentioned for my fruit/granola mixture as a smoothie! The only additions in the smoothie mixture are an organic frozen banana, and 1 cup of filtered water, otherwise I used the exact same ingredients/measurements.

Enjoy it either way!

~Maggie

A stormy day...

Rain, rain and a lot of wind! Woke up this morning to rain hitting the windows and the wind wanting to blow our house down. Needless to say we slept in and lost the morning to our dreams.

Around noon we decided to head over to my parent's place to do some Easter decorating for tomorrow. On our way there I took some shots of the ocean, its waves and of course the rain. We had originally thought the rain and wind might let up, but we were wishful thinkers. My guy and I wanted to go hiking and normally we probably would if it was a little rain, but this stuff was pouring down so hard it hurt when it hit your skin. I was soaked within 3 minutes of standing in it. I honestly do love west coast weather! :)




I made a green lemonade before we left and it tasted a bit stronger than usual. I bought some local romaine lettuce for 58cents each. I could taste the chlorophyll and its sunniness! This is my little guy proud of the green juice he helped his mama make :)




When we did get home I made myself this...

Tropical Spring Salad
4 leafs of red leaf lettuce
1 tomato
1/2 a cucumber
1/2 orange
1/4 pineapple
2 radishes
Rinse, slice and chop the way you like :)

Enjoy the weather where ever you might be!
~Maggie

Last juice of the feast

My last juice of the 3 day feast, was a sweet fruit juice. During this feast I realized how much I love making my own juices. I can't wait to make my green juice tomorrow morning, but I also can't wait to eat solid food! I'm reading up on what to eat to gradually bring back solid foods into your system. Tonights juice....

"Sweet Sunset"
1 Pear
3 Apples
1/4 of a Pineapple

It tastes like apple cider! It's quite sweet, but has a tangy taste. I feel like it's a dessert juice :)

~Maggie

Green lemonade with a twist

It's the last day of the juice feast (day 3) and after a long nights sleep i'm feeling so much better. I'm still a little fatigued, but my sinus and throat issues seem to have disappeared. I woke up this morning wanting a green lemonade with a twist. I've been doing some reading on green smoothies and juices and have come to the realization of how important it is that we incorporate a variety of greens into our drinks. The obvious reason being the difference of minerals, vitamins, etc... that we attain from different greens. The other reason that I learned from doing this juice feast is it keeps things interesting! Incorporating a variety of greens will less likey cause us to get bored with taste and can encourage us to keep drinking a green smoothie/juice a day :)


Green Lemonade with a Twist

1 small head of romaine
1/2 a head of green cabbage
1/2 a cucumber
2 apples
1/2 lemon
1 orange
1/2 cup of fresh pineapple

Juice it up! Makes about 2 cups of juice :)


Enjoy your day!
~Maggie