Kale Chips (Alkaline, GF, Raw, Vegan)

Love love love these things! They don't taste like kale, they taste like some sort of other salty snack, awesome sub for potato chips! If you haven't had kale chips before, give them a try for real!

Kale chips with a pestocado sandwich

1 bunch of kale (in the pic I used purple kale, any kale works)
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS Bragg liquid aminos (or soy sauce, tamari or nama shoyu)
1/2 tsp Real Salt (or sea salt)
*optional sesame seeds

Rip the kale into 3-4 inch pieces, and put into a large ziplock bag. Put in oil salt and aminos, and make sure kale gets fully coated. Put in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (to overnight) to marinate. Place kale on dehydrator trays and dehydrate for about 4 hours. If you want the sesame seeds included, you can put them in with the marinade, just a few sprinkles, or you can sprinkle them on the kale after it's layed out on the trays.

If you don't have a dehydrator, you can put the kale on a cookie sheet, and bake them in the oven on the oven's lowest setting with the oven door slightly open so that it doesn't just burn them, they are pretty thin. The time will be cut dramatically, but you will have to check and see how crisp the chips are periodically. I'm guessing it would be done in 30 min to an hour, though I haven't done it myself.

Apple Cinnamon Smoothie (GF, Raw, Vegan)

I'm doing a cleanse (yes, again) this week and it is a high liquid one, this was one of today's creations that was post worthy. A tastey smoothie that can be for breakfast or basically whenever. 

smoothie shown with optional goji berries added (thus the color)

Makes about 32 oz, so 2+ servings

3/4 C coconut water

1 1/4 C almond milk

2 apples cored and quartered

1 TBS chia seeds

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 medium banana

1/2 C ice cubes 
10 drops vanilla stevia (OPTIONAL)

1/4 pumpkin pie spice (OPTIONAL) 

4 tablespoons dried goji berries (OPTIONAL)

Place all items in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.

Onion Flat Bread pt 2 (Alkaline, GF, Raw, Vegan)

What can I say, I like onion bread, it goes so well with so many dips and spreads. So I make different versions of it.

a pestocado sandwich using Onion Flat bread pt 2

Makes about 5 cups of batter

2 (large) sweet onions, peeled
1 1/2 C pumpkin seeds, soaked
1/2 C raw sunflower seeds, soaked
1 1/2 tsp Real salt
1-2 cloves garlic
2/3 C flax seed, ground (I use a coffee grinder)
1/4 C chia seed, ground (if you don't have chia, you can use all flax)
2 TBS Bragg Liquid Aminos (optional)
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil


Put onions in a food processor and pulse chop, so there are still small(ish) chunks of onion. Separate from onions, mix pumpkin & sunflower seeds, garlic, salt, oil and Bragg/soy sauce and process until well ground. Now add in the ground flax and chia seeds, blend until smooth. In a large mixing bowl, mix onions with the seed mixture
In a large bowl mix, by hand, onions and the pumpkin flour/chia until well blended.
Spread onto dehydrator trays (make sure to have parchment paper down or use teflex so it doesn't fall through the cracks) and score into whatever size bread you would like. You can spread the batter as thin as you like, knowing that a thinner bread will be more like a cracker and take less time to finish.
Dehydrate for about 5 hours then turn the sheets over and dehydrate for another 12 hours or until dry and somewhat crispy.

Pumpkin Seed Pesto (Alkaline, GF, Raw, Vegan)

This is one of the BEST pesto's I've ever had. It has a buttery flavor to it, I guess it's something about the basil oil and pumpkin seeds. It makes an awesome mix to go with pasta (be it a raw version of pasta or not). It also is fabulous on a Pestocado Sandwich or just with crackers. Either way, it's simple to make and really really good to eat.

yellow squash 'noodles' tossed in  and topped with pumpkin seed pesto with sundried tomatoes and a side of Onion Flat Bread pt 2.

Makes about 3 cups

2/3 C raw pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds without the shell)
2 C packed basil
5 cloves garlic
1 tsp Real Salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 /2 C extra virgin olive oil

I recommend putting the garlic cloves into the food processor first and turn it on until basically all of them have stopped getting spun around by the blade. Then scrape down the sides and put in the basil. Pulse a few times to get a rough chop, then add in the rest of the ingredients. Some people like their pesto runnier than others, so if you like it more runny, feel free to add in more olive oil.

Almond Five-Spice Snaps (Vegan)

A lot like ginger snaps, but a few other spices in the mix and the ginger is much more down played. I believe they would be enjoyed by people who like ginger snaps, as well as those who don't. They make awesome ice cream sandwich ends!

I made a few minor changes to this recipe that I got from "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan". So, thanks Dreena Burton!

Makes 12-15 cookies

1 C spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 C sucanat (or turbinano sugar, or other unrefined sugar)
2 Tbs chopped almonds
1/4 tsp RealSalt
1 1/2 tsp five-spice powder (*What's in five-spice?  Also called chinese 5-spice powder)
1/3 C agave nectar
3/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 C olive oil
1-2 TBS sucanat

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix together wet ingredients until well mixed. Add wet mixture to dry, and stir until combined well, but don't over mix. Mixture will be semidry. Put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and scoop tablespoon size balls onto it.  After all balls are laid out, press each down slightly and add sprinkle of sugar. Bake for 10 min then remove from the oven and let sit for about 1 min, then transfer to a cooling rack. If you leave the cookies in longer than 10 min, they will get dry.