Naraya Cooking Health Recipe

• 1 3/4 cups water
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 large lemon, squeezed
• pinch of cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon raw, coconut or organic sugar or maple syrup (optional)

This is epic. This is pizza. This is how we broke the liquid fast on this fine day (4/20). I have been thinking about making this since like the second day into the fast, and I think it's pretty much perfect. I wanted to create a raw pizza recipe that was NOT nut-based. Nuts are great, don't get me wrong, but they have a high fat content and so you only need a handful every day. The thing is... I wanna eat a LOT of pizza, and so if I wanna eat a lot of NUT-based pizza, then I'm gonna be consuming too many nuts and too much fat for a day! Get it? The base for this recipe is actually zucchini noodles and other veggies! I got the idea from this dude. So in fact you could make the pizza crust and just eat that because you're essentially making a giant bowl of zucchini noodles in a garlicky tomato sauce... then you just have to shape it into circles and dehydrate it for awhile! I am definitely remaking this recipe but stopping at this giant spaghetti bowl stage and nomming that up. Another bonus about this pizza crust is that you can use your leftover nut pulp in it (from when you make nut mylk)! I used the walnut pulp from when I made walnut mylk a few days ago. Now you have even more reasons to make your own fresh nut mylk. It's approximately 1723 times better than store-bought, and you have an excuse to make the best pizza ever. C'mon. No down sides.

All the ingredients in this are organic and most are from the farmers market. *Beaming smile*. I think I've successfully made the switch to an almost all organic diet! Yes it is more expensive, but it is worth it to me. I want to nourish my body with the most excellent food available, and that means organic! Preferably local too (which will be easier now that summer is headin' our way). The flavour of organic food is also incomparably better. These heirloom tomatoes we got from the farmers market are IN.SANE. You don't even know. Run to your farm market and grab some right now. We got them for a dollar each because they were SO ripe that they burst open while the merchants drove them to the market. Better for me! I dehydrated them and holy LAWD they are like pizza bites. So we've now got pizza bites on pizza slices. Life cannot be improved.

In case you wanna hear about the last day of our liquid feast - we went eight full days and most of today in total - it was fantastic! Energy levels were great, I wrote my last final exam with an optimally-functioning brain, then went to see my friends' band perform at a record store (it was record store day). By midnight I was tired and hit the hay. My partner and I likened today to Christmas, 'cause we were so stoked to eat. Having said that, after I got up, did yoga and went for a quick run, I just wanted a smoothie. But I'm not surprised by this since most of my diet is liquid anyways, except my dinners, so this wasn't a huge change for me; but enough of a challenge to make me REALLY excited to eat solids again, and appreciative of such. Whenever I fast my passion for food is recharged 333%, so then all I wanna eat is zucchini pasta and raw chocolate and fruit bowls... mmm.... *drool*. Oh, and this pizza.
Pizza forever.

ULTIMATE RAW VEGAN PIZZA (LOW-FAT, OIL-FREE, SALT-FREE)

Crust:
3 zucchinis
2 tomatoes (I used beefsteak)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 onion
1 garlic clove
2 dates
2 bell peppers
1/4 cup walnuts (or nut pulp leftover from nut mylk)

Sauce:
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped zucchini 
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Handful fresh basil leaves 
1 date
1 garlic clove

Toppings:
2 tomatoes (I used heirloom)
2 cups mushrooms
1 bell pepper
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

To make the crust: slice the zucchinis into noodles with a spiral slicer, mandolin or a cheese grater. Set aside in a large bowl. Blend the rest of the ingredients until smooth, adjusting according to taste. Mix this into the noodles. You should end up with a huge bowl of really saucy noodles. Like I said, it's hard not eating all of this by itself. Spread this evenly - keepin' it thick - into a big circle on a dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 115 °F for 6 hours or so, until pliable. Flip over and do the same again. Note: you can use your oven at it's lowest temperature if you don't have a dehydrator. Keep checking on your crust as it is drying though, because everyone's will turn out different.

To make the sauce: put all the ingredients a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Spread on your crust.

To prepare the toppings: slice all the veggies thinly, then coat in the apple cider vinegar and place in a warm spot, dehydrator or oven for around 40 minutes until they soften. Decorate your pizza with the toppings, slice, then ENJOY THE HECK OUT OF IT. Optional: add some raw vegan cheese! I also threw on some avocado, cilantro and hemp seeds. 

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3 large beets
8 carrots
1 garlic clove
1 bell pepper
1 lemon
4 pineapple slices
6 celery stalks

Wash, peel and chop as needed. Juice. Drink. 

BEST BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE EVER

2 mangoes
5 bananas
5 dates
2 cups walnut mylk 
8 ice cubes
1 cup blueberries

Blend until smooth, adding walnut mylk or water as needed. Omg. So good. I drank this all myself. 

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• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 2 Tazo Zen tea bags (or your favorite green tea or matcha blend)
• 2 - 3 teaspoons coconut or organic pure cane sugar

Sorry I didn't have time to post yesterday about the liquid cleanse and how it's going. I am feel physically okay, but I think I am emotionally detoxing right now. I've been in a strange mood since I got out of bed, and I slept for a long time. I was taking the bus home in the rain, but decided to get off and walk because I loved the feeling of being soaked with the water falling from the sky. At the skytrain station I bumped into my friend from Vancouver island who is supposed to be staying with me this week... I had completely forgotten. She had tried calling my phone and knocked on my door for awhile but of course I was wandering around getting drenched and trying to figure out why I was feeling so grey, so I didn't notice my phone. Fortunately she had made plans with another friend so she's out right now, but I'll see her later. Once I got home, I realized I was really hungry so I made a mango-banana-date smoothie and it tasted good. Yet even after consuming it, I felt like laying down and crying. I've been feeling that way a lot lately, but I've been too busy to let myself actually give in. I don't have time to be sad.

I think that although I devote much of my time to actively confronting all my emotional demons, I let some become repressed unconsciously, and then convince myself they aren't hidden there. I have let that happen now, with emotions coming from my past relationship. My current partner's roommate is a friend of my ex-boyfriend, and so occasionally my ex will be over at my current partner's house. Inconvenient for us all, to say the least. Well, fate finally wanted to have a laugh so last week I went over there with my friends to see my partner and hang out but ended up walking into a room full of guys laughing together... my ex being one of them. My past relationship was very intense and emotional for me; I tell myself I have healed from it but obviously this is not so, because whenever his name is brought up, I have trouble breathing and speaking; and when I saw him a few days ago by surprise I was basically paralyzed. No one in the room seemed to notice this and they call kept laughing at jokes being told. I didn't know what to do so I just left. A little later I broke down in tears by the road without being able to explain precisely why. By the next morning I felt better... but evidently this was temporary because I think the same clump of suppressed feels has surfaced again and is making me glum as scum today. I suppose I need to allow myself to soak in these emotions and then hopefully they will leave me... I don't know. Sorry for making This Rawsome Vegan Life more like This Rawsome Vegan Depression but I gotta get my thoughts out somewhere.

As far the liquid fasting is concerned: it's going well. Yesterday was probably the toughest for me and partner, I wrote a final exam for archaeology then we went grocery shopping... we ended up getting way too hungry and really wanted to bite our meal instead of drink it, but we are strong willed and it wasn't a serious issue. We drank a bunch of amazing soup - seriously it was one of the best things I've ever tasted - and watched a documentary, then felt much better. And now we come full circle back to today: after having that mango-banana-date smoothie, I wrote the bulk of this post and did other blog/computer tasks. Then I made some soup, wrote in my journal, and still felt hungry. I made a blueberry smoothie with bananas, cacao and almonds. It's pretty good albeit a little grainy because I didn't let the almonds blend fully. If I feel hungry again later, I'll make some vegetable juice.


PARSLEY BEET JUICE

1 bunch parsley
2 beets
5 carrots
1 garlic clove

Juice. Drink. Mmm.


MANGO-BANANA-DATE SMOOTHIE

1 frozen banana
2 mangoes
5 dates
4 ice cubes
Water, as needed

Blend it all up until smooth. 


MEXICO-INSPIRED SOUP 

5 tomatoes
2 cups corn 
1 avocado
Juice from 1/2 lime
Coriander 
Pepper, to taste
Vegetable broth, as needed

Blend everything until smooth. 


BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE with CACAO & ALMONDS

1 banana
1 cup frozen blueberries
3 dates
1/4 cup almonds
1 tablespoon cacao powder
Water, as needed

Blend until smooth. Enjoy.

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Ingredients

• 8 oz. package chow mein noodles or thin spaghetti noodles
• 2 (8oz.) packages tempeh
• 1 tablespoon sesame or grapeseed oil
• 1/2 head green cabbage (about 4 cups), shredded
• 1 large celery stalk, sliced diagonally
• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced diagonally
• 1/2 onion, sliced

Sauce

• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, optional
• 1- 2 cloves garlic, minced or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 inch knob of ginger, grated or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• mineral salt and pepper to taste (white pepper would be great here)

If using chuka soba or chow mein noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil, add noodles, reduce heat to medium and cook for 4 minutes. Drain, rinse and set aside. If using other noodles, cook as directed on package.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce, set aside.

In a large wok, heat olive oil over medium to medium-high heat, add tempeh, crumbling it between your fingers, onion and celery, cook 1 minute. Add a couple tablespoons of sauce mixture, continue to cook for another 2 -3 minutes. Add in cabbage and carrot, stir to mix, cover and cook another 5 - 7minutes, stirring occasionally until cabbage has shrunk down and softened. Add in noodles and remaining sauce, toss to coat, continue cooking until noodles are warmed through. Add additional tamari or other seasoning to taste.

Serve warm topped with scallions, red pepper flakes and cilantro. Sesame seeds and/or chili sauce would also be great!

Serves four.

Notes:

Feel free to use only one package of tempeh instead of two. The two packages does serve four but one package will still add a fair amount of protein to each serving.

I love the added sweet from the maple syrup using 2 tablespoons. Feel free to use 1 tablespoon instead of 2 and add more vinegar or tamari in its place.