Rejuvelac

Peach Mango Melon Lettuce Smoothie

Peach and watermelon is a GREAT combination. These are two great summer fruits that always go over well on a warm sunny morning. Even if the peaches are not as ripe as you want, they will still work in this recipe. The trick is the mango. It provides the creaminess if the peaches can’t.

Now the lettuce, well, this smoothie would probably be ten times better if you didn’t add ¾ lb lettuce! The lettuce always brings in a bitterness that’s hard to mask. As much as I love lettuce, I’d probably mix spinach in with this fruit next time. It’s too bad I don’t have much spinach in the garden this year for I’d do just that. It just so happens that I’ve got tons of lettuce. So, lettuce it is…

Recipe:

2 peaches

  • 3 cups watermelon
  • 3 larger medjool dates
  • 1 large mango
  • 1 cup rejuvelac
  • 1 large bowl fresh garden lettuce

Place all the fruit in the blender and spin it for a few seconds to liquefy the fruit.

Now stop! Drink it like this – unless you’re really bold.  J 

If you know you want ¾ lb lettuce, stuff that into the blender and spin on high for about a minute. Don’t let the liquid heat up for you’re not making soup.

With this one, I got a ½ and ½ treat for the morning and a quart for brunch later. I love being able to get multiple flavors in the same glass. That’s king of fun.

Remember though that the idea is to get the greens. Smoothies are all about increasing your green intake. Your greens should taste good and be something you can eat in larger quantities.

It’s a great day for a smoothie – have you had yours?

Strawberry Pineapple Banana Lettuce Smoothie

Pineapple and lettuce is such a great combination. For some reason, they complement each other very well. Then, when you add some additional flavor – like fresh strawberries, you get a meal and a happy plate both at the same time.

I love it when I can find really good ways to eat lots of lettuce. Consuming it in a salad takes way too much time. There are so many things to do and so little time outside of work to get it done. Thus this smoothie!

Recipe:

  • 1 inch pineapple peeled and cored.
  • 3 medjool dates
  • 1 banana
  • 1 bowl strawberries (probably 3+ cups)
  • 1 cup rejuvelac
  • ½ cup juice (orange pineapple mango is this one)
  • 1 large bowl lettuce

Start out by blending all the fruit to liquefy.

Then add the lettuce.

When you pack in all that lettuce, you’ll be amazed that it all fits. Even though it’s a huge bowl, it doesn’t really take up much space. It might have taken 1 cup (wet measure) when I added it. Once it’s in, blend for an additional 60+ seconds until everything it broken down well.

As you can see, it makes about 8 cups. You’ll want to find someone to share this one with or stretch it into a breakfast and lunch.

One of the nice things about using rejuvelac is that the living culture will come alive as it sits for a little while. If you want to grow some B vitamins, let the second half (lunch) rest a room temperature until it’s time to consume it. I haven’t let it sit any longer than that, but I would expect that it would get tangy if left much longer. Maybe one day I’ll try it and see! 

Life is an adventure, even if you do the same things every day, the subtleties of each moment can be enjoyed with new enthusiasm!

Spinach Strawberry Mango Smoothie

It’s the perfect time of year for this smoothie. Mangos are still available, the sun is helping the strawberries get sweet and the spinach is fresh and tender. The amount of strawberries really makes this smoothie shine. The pile might not look like a lot, but it’s probably more than four cups. Yet, because they tend towards the tart side, dates are pretty much in order here.

If you’ve got the strawberries, this one’s worth placing in the morning rotation.

Recipe:

  • 1 large mango
  • 4 large medjool dates
  • 4 cups (or so) fresh garden strawberries (or the next best thing)
  • ½ lb fresh young baby spinach
  • 1 ½ cup rejuvelac

There really isn’t anything special about this combination. Just place all the fruit in the blender and liquefy.

After a couple seconds, it won’t have any lumps to get in the way of adding the greens. Do so and blend until creamy (that should be about 60 seconds on high). Makes around 7 cups smoothie.

The baby spinach is so mild that it doesn’t stomp on the essence of strawberry like a lot of other greens do. The mango works like a ripe banana making it all come out creamy.

This one is easy, easy, easy! And, best of all, everyone will thoroughly enjoy it.

Strawberry Melon Spinach Smoothie

Today’s a good day to post another smoothie recipe. This one is mainly Strawberries, but it carries a hint of honeydew melon. The melon is subtle, but noticeable. The spinach, well, it just kind of blends in.

The thing that’s different about this smoothie than most others that I’ve posted is that this one is mainly one fruit – strawberries. I used a handful of fresh berries (what you see on the cutting board) and then finished it off with frozen berries.

Also, I’m using rejuvelac as one of the liquids. There is nothing like being able to create your own probiotic that actually has living yeast in it! If you haven’t made rejuvelac before, you’ll get an idea after viewing my previous post on it.

Recipe:

  • 1 cup homemade Honeydew melon juice
  • 1 cup rejuvelac
  • 16+ fresh strawberries (plus frozen ones to fill the blender)
  • Couple medjool dates to counter the tartness of the berries
  • ½ pound spinach

Place everything but the greens in the blender and get it spun up.

After just a few seconds, the mixture should be liquid enough to add the greens. When you and them, add a handful and press them in with the tapper. You’ll be surprised how the liquid fills in the space around the greens allowing you to shove in ½ pound without affecting the liquid level all that much.

When done, you’ll have a brown mess that looks somewhat like the following:

Notice that I’m using the larger craft for my Vita-mix and I’m using the whole thing. The result is two glasses to share and one quart for my breakfast. If I were to drink the full 64 oz’s, wow, that would be filling! Instead, I’ll drink just enough of the quart until I’m full (usually 2/3rds of it) and then I’ll have what’s left as the first course for lunch.

Smoothies are so easy, I can’t believe everyone doesn’t make them. It’s a great way to get more life-energy from greens into your diet.

If you haven’t made one, this is a great start!

Fermented Cashew Cheesecake

Wow! Who would have ever thought that something as ugly as a cashew could be transformed into a decadent desert with a little fungal help! If you haven’t made the time to brew up some Rejuvelac so you can make a fermented nut cheesecake, well, you just haven’t lived! Really. I’ve now made three and everyone that’s tried it has nothing but praise (they like it – really).

After starting my first batch of Rejuvelac (a couple weeks ago), I did a little research to figure out what to do with it. When Googling around, I found The Raw Seed website. Hidden on that sight is an amazing fermented nut cheesecake recipe! It’s got some great pictures too, so I highly recommend stopping by (The Raw Seed Cheesecake). They’ve also got some videos there, but I still haven’t found the time to watch them all the way through. I guess this one is so easy that the videos should have been about 90 seconds long!

Wha-da-ya-think?

Does that look good or what? That was the bulk of my lunch today!  Yes, I know it’s a quarter of the cake! But it’s only an 8 inch spring-form. This slice is probably about the size of a slice of ‘real’ cheesecake you’d get at The Cheesecake Factory. It’s also loaded with oils so I give it an A+ for keeping me warm in the winter.

This is the third one that I’ve made so far and I’ve already been asked to make a fourth – for a wedding party (of all events). So I’ve learned a bit about it that I can actually share – more than simply the pictures. So here it is…

Process (Recipe):

To start, you’ve got to create the Rejuvelac. The Raw Seed has a little video that outlines the process, or you can look back at what I did here and here. Making good Rejuvelac is key to making this work.

I’ve also soaked 2 cups raw cashews over the day and rinsed them well.

Now, following the recipe outlined at The Raw Seed, I take the two cups soaked cashews, the teaspoon nutritional yeast and 2/3 cup Rejuvelac and blend until it’s smooth as butter.

This is what you see in the bowl. I took the picture as I was wrapping it up so it can ferment for the next 24 hours. I’ve also got an old nut milk bag that I’m wrapping it in so as to keep bad stuff out.

The next day, it looks like this:

Notice all the little ‘air’ pockets around the edge of the bowl. The normally heavy feeling ground up nuts are light a fluffy. It’s spongy!

Next, we process up the crust.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that I’ve got ½ cup almonds, ½ cup pecans, ¼ cup raisins, ½ teaspoon vanilla powder, 1 Tablespoon honey, 1 Tablespoon coconut oil and more than a pinch of salt. This all gets blended in the food processor until it starts to stick. At that point, you press it into a oiled spring-form pan. Looks something like this:

Now we get out the blender to mix the fermented nuts with 2/3 cup liquid coconut oil, ½ cup honey, ½ teaspoon vanilla powder and 1/8th teaspoon salt. Even though the nuts are light a creamy, it’s hard work for the blender to mix. Turn it on and do just that. It’s going to end up rather thick, so you’re not going to get it to run out of the blender. This is something that you’re going to have to dig out.

Once you’ve got it all in the spring-form, smoothen the top and give it a gentle giggle to help it settle. You don’t want air pockets in the cake. Here is what you should end up with.

The pecans give the crust a strong appeal that’s complemented well with caramel. If you have a little latte syrup sitting around, drizzle a bead back and forth over the top as an accent. When I did this, everyone marveled at the presentation for they don’t know me as a chief at all!

This is another desert that I highly recommend. And it’s much easier on the digestion than you might think when you think about eating a cake of all nuts. The Fermentation really changes this. After having tasted fermented cashews, I’ll probably never want them any other way.

Let me know what you think!

Update:

Ok.  I’ve made a few slight modifications to this cheesecake recipe. For starters, I’m now using a full size cheesecake spring-form. The little 8 inch just doesn’t cut it. It’s not BIG enough!

For the crust – I really like pecans and dates. The flavors seem to go better with the fermented cashews. I spell it out like this:

Filling:

  • 3 cups cashews (soaked for 8 hours)
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup rejuvelac

Split into two halve and blend each half independently. 3 cups cashews is too much for a blender. 1 cup is not enough, so look at running almost two cups, remove a cup or more and then add the remaining nuts. Place this mixture in a bowl, cover with cheesecloth (or nut milk bag) and let stand for 24 hours.

Crust:

  • 1 cup almonds (soaked overnight and let sit)
  • 1/1 cup pecans straight from the freezer
  • About 6 large medjool dates (makes for a sweeter crust)
  • ½+ tsp vanilla powder (get the best you can find)
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • 1 Tbsp melted coconut oil

Run it in the food processor like shown above and press it into the pan.

Back to filling:

  • 1 cup melted coconut oil
  • 2/3rds cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla powder
  • 1/8th tsp Sea Salt
  • Plus fermented cashews

Melt the coconut oil and place it on the blender first. Add honey and then the fermented (bread dough) cashews (then add the remaining ingredients). The order is pretty important. You want the oil first so that as things get spinning it get lubricated. Placing the cashews in first makes it really hard for the blender to suck in the oil.

I guess my spring-form pan is about 12 inches. The resulting cheesecake will have a very thin crust and a cake that’s a bit over an inch high. It’s perfect for the person that complains about large treats after dinner. Just cut it small and it won’t seem too big to anyone!