Robyn's Blog

Some people have a holiday season. I have that, plus Birthday Season. As I’ve mentioned, all four of my kids were born within a couple of weeks of each other. A primetime TV show made hay about me having a combined birthday party. (The producers cooked up something about an obsession I supposedly have with efficiency.)

Unfortunately they failed to mention the proximity of the birthdays, and the fact that they get an individual “friend” party. They just get a combined party for my very large extended family who has to drive 45 – 90 minutes to get to my house.

Here’s what I did this year. I made whole-grain, naturally sweetened Chocolate Beet Cake for my kids and me. I made the usual stuff for everyone else. At the family party, I served my kids the healthy stuff. Then I put that cake in the fridge, serving everybody else cake-mix stuff they’re used to.

The next day at noon, I had Tennyson’s baseball party at the city park. Three hours after that was over, we had Libby’s water party in the back yard. I didn’t want to make two or three beet cakes. (It is easy, though.) As it is, I had to make cakes and cupcakes for 3 parties in 24 hours.

I got the leftover healthy cake out for my kids, for both “friend” parties.

See if you can tell which cake is which, in the photo below. (You can’t.) Also check out Ten’s birthday party—he’s the kid in the middle drinking a GS.

Maybe I’m obsessed with efficiency after all. But if so, let me plead my case here . . . it lends itself well to writing books that have REAL moms with REAL time-and-budget constraints in mind.

Not naming any names, but I’ve bought so many raw recipe books that have laborious instructions, expensive and exotic and hard-to-find ingredients. I’m not a gourmet, though I like food to taste good. I don’t love spending my whole day in the kitchen, though I’m willing to spend more than the average modern person’s 20 minutes in “food related activities.”

I’ve improved the chocolate cake and frosting recipes. Coconut sugar is better for you and has less impact on blood sugar than Sucanat (what’s in the original recipe in Ch. 11). The frosting is now more spreadable with the addition of hot water. Here they are:

Chocolate Beet Cake

3 eggs (organic, free range) or 9 Tbsp. water with 3 Tbsp. chia soaked in it
1 1/2 cups unrefined coconut sugar
3/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup pureed, steamed beets (about 3-4 medium size)
1/4 cup baking cocoa (non-alkalized) or raw powdered chocolate
2 cups finely ground whole-wheat flour (soft white wheat is best)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Steam beets until soft, about 15 mins. Puree beets in a VitaMix or BlendTec until you have 1 3/4 cups. Add eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add chocolate and other dry ingredients. Bake in 9″x13″ greased pan at 350 degrees for 30 min.

Fudge Frosting

1 cup unsweetened non-alkalized cocoa or raw powdered chocolate
2 cups coconut cream concentrate (soft, room temp or slightly warmed)
2 cups coconut sugar, blended in dry blender container until “powdered”

¼ to ½ cup hot water, to make frosting spreadable

Cream together all ingredients by hand until smooth. This frosts a 9″x13″ cake and leaves some extra for a treat.

Once on this blog, I posted a Hot Fudge Pudding Cake recipe, and reader Paula has converted it to gluten free with interesting ingredients like teff and sorghum. Here’s here post, running again here so it’s not lost and buried as a comment to an older post. Thank you Paula!

“I just tried the Hot Fudge Pudding Cake recipe, but converted it to gluten-free with the whole grain flours I had on hand. It turned out great! I used agave for the sweetener, and I did NOT cut down on water because teff is VERY absorbent and needs even more liquid.”

Gluten-Free Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

1/3 c. teff flour
1/3 c. coconut flour
1/3 c. sorghum flour
1/4 t. xanthan gum
2/3 c. agave
3 T. organic cocoa
2 t. baking powder
½ tsp. Original Himalayan Crystal Salt
3/4 cup filtered water
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix & blend together in your high-power blender or using a hand mixer. Pour into 9″ square or oblong glass or non-teflon baking pan. Double recipe for 9×13 cake pan.

1/4 c organic cocoa
1/2 c. agave
1 3/4 c filtered hot water
½ cup chopped nuts (sprinkle over the top, optionally)

Combine this mixture & pour over batter. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 min until done. Serve warm or cool.

Want more recipes? Click Here 12 steps to whole foods.

So I just made this recipe in my dehydrator yesterday. They didn’t even finish drying before my kids finished them! So I’m starting a new double batch now. It’s a great treat to get RAW, SPROUTED nutrition into your family’s routine, and it’s a great way to use your raw almonds you got in the group buy.

If you got almonds in the group buy and you’d like to try this, and you’re one of the first three to respond by commenting on this blog, I’ll have Organics for Everyone send you a 12 oz. jar of their organic date syrup, which was WONDERFUL in this recipe (unprocessed, highly nutritious sweetener):

Chocolate Almonds

2 cups raw almonds
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbsp. date syrup
1 Tbsp. raw chocolate powder (or nonalkalized unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp. Original Himalayan Crystal Salt

Soak your raw almonds in water overnight, then drain and allow them to air dry (an hour or two). Make sure coconut oil (warm it in hot water if necessary) is liquid, and mix all remaining ingredients well. Stir in nuts. Spread evenly on dehydrator tray and dry until no longer wet/sticky, about 14-18 hours, below 116 degrees. Enjoy!

These recipes were submitted by RuLea Taggart when I blogged about my kids’ birthday cake last August. (I have made healthier ingredient substitutions for these two recipes. Note that I have not tested the recipes, and any comments are welcome!)

If you don’t have Original Crystal Himalayan Salt, read my report on it here with a link to get some:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/robyn-recommendations/salt/

Hot Fudge “Burn the Fat” Pudding Cake or

Healthy Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

1 c organic whole-wheat flour, hard white, ground fine

3/4 c. Sucanat

3 T. organic cocoa

2 t. baking powder

½ tsp. Original Himalayan Crystal Salt

½ cup filtered water

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix & blend together in your high-power blender or using a hand mixer. Pour into 9″ square or oblong glass or non-teflon baking pan. Double recipe for 9×13 cake pan.

1/4 c organic cocoa

1 c Sucanat

1 3/4 c filtered hot water

½ cup chopped nuts (sprinkle over the top, optionally)

Combine this mixture & pour over batter.  Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 min until done.  Serve warm or cool.  It is delicious and nutritious!

(I, RuLea, cut the sugar down & it is still plenty sweet.  I also substituted agave & used less liquid.  Make as directed. It seems very runny, but the cake bakes up & pudding settles on bottom….yum yum.)

Note from Robyn: substitute 2/3 cup agave for 1 cup sugar in BAKING recipes. Rulea says cut the liquid. I have not tested this recipe, so please post if you have more specific alterations after trying it.

Yummy All-You-Can-Eat Cake with variations

Base:

3 c finely ground whole-wheat flour

2 t baking soda

2 c organic sugar

2 t vanilla

2 tsp. Original Himalayan Crystal Salt

(Spices to taste – cinnamon, allspice, clove)

Blend in:

2 c cold water

2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

(Add apples, nuts, carrots, raisins, zucchini, dates, etc)

Mix together for 1 min in blender or 2 min by hand. Pour into 9×13 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 min.

Check out GSG reader Jenna’s daughters, with their green smoothie mustaches!  They’re beautiful! (The girls more than the green on their faces!)

Jenna is a beautiful redhead living in Switzerland (an expat, I think), and this is part of her email to me:

“Thank you for inspiring me to eat healthier. I have recently made the change in our home to a plant based diet. We were already eating pretty healthy before but have now completely eliminated dairy and animal meats. Not easy to do in a country that is filled with cheese and meat. I am finding my way. My husband is completely supportive of this lifestyle change and I could not be more pleased.”

And here’s Jenna’s blog with her favorite GS recipe:

http://jennalovestocookandeat.blogspot.com/2009/08/green-smoothies-are-whats-cooking.html

Here’s my everyday green smoothie “template” recipe.  It allows you to use virtually any green, and any fruit, maximizing the greens.  Enjoy!

Robyn’s Green Smoothie Template Recipe

Makes 8 cups of 100% raw smoothie.

Put 2 1/2 cups filtered water in the BlendTec Total Blender.

Optionally, add:

½ tsp. stevia (herbal sweetener) or ¼ cup raw, organic agave nectar (low glycemic index)

¼ whole lemon, including peel (anti-skin cancer, high in flavanoids)

2-3 Tbsp. fresh, refrigerated flax oil (omega-3 rich oil)

Gradually add greens until, briefly pureed, the mixture comes up the 5-cup line (or less if you are “converting”):

¾ to 1 lb. raw, washed greens, added up to 5 ½ cup line:

spinach, chard, kale, collards

Puree greens mixture for 90 seconds until very smooth.

Gradually add fruit until the container is very full, blend 90 seconds or until smooth:

1-2 bananas

1-2 cups frozen mixed berries

any other fruit to taste: pears, peaches, apples, oranges, apricots, cantaloupe, mango, pineapple

Make a full blender and you’ll have some to drink, and some to share.  I know from my research that 84 percent of my readers who have adopted a green-smoothie habit are teaching others about it!

That’s your goal for today!

To Your Health,

–Robyn Openshaw

p.s.  Tips:  For beginners and those trying to convert children, consider using LESS greens and MORE fruit (especially berries and bananas) in the beginning, gradually working up to a 50/50 ratio as described here.  With kids, consider using only spinach the first few days, then sneak in chard, collards, and kale, the other mild but excellent greens gradually.  Add other savory or bitter greens only when your family are “experts” in green smoothies!  Add a bit more water if you feel the smoothie is too thick.

I also have a collection on the site of 230 green smoothie recipes, most of which were contributed as “favorites” by readers! Check it out:

http://secure.ultracart.com/catalog/GSG10/category/recipes/10008.html

So today’s the day that the professionally photographed, professionally edited HOLIDAY recipe collection went live in the GSG store. We are getting wonderful feedback in emails already this morning—thank you!

Desiree Ward (Kyra Sedwick lookalike) is a GSG reader and vegan nutrition aficionado with amazing kitchen talents. Katie Dudley is another GSG reader who amazed me with her “food photography” skills (it’s different than taking pictures of people, you know—most photogs don’t do it). I introduced them and I think the synergy (with some of my recipes too) is the very best recipe collection we’ve ever done on this site.

Thank you, ladies—you are artists and geniuses. Here’s Katie’s shutterfly site to see photos of Halloween Chili, Raw Cinnamon Ice Cream, and lots more:

http://dudleyphotography.blogspot.com/2009/11/green-smoothie-girl-cookbook.html

We are offering it at $9.95 until next week, when it goes up to $14.95, so snatch it up. I think you’ll love it!

Here’s the link to it in the store, and the photo is Raw Pumpkin Pie you just might like better than the sugary cooked version:

Healthy Holiday Favorites for Rave Reviews

Healthy Holiday Recipes

Here’s a taste of the BEST recipe collection I’ve ever released on this site (coming tomorrow!)—Healthy Holiday Recipes for Rave Reviews.

Below is Desiree’s recipe for Carrot Cake Cupcakes that blew Craig’s mind and had him thinking of marrying her until he found out she was otherwise occupied (lucky for me).

And Craig says Desiree looks just like Kyra Sedgwick—don’t you agree?

Here’s a photo of the cupcakes, as well as a photo of Desiree and her little boy Isaiah’s green smoothie mustache (yes, OF COURSE you get a holiday green smoothie recipe in the new collection).

I’m also tossing in a photo of the Chia Snowballs, for those of you who got chia in the group buy. This recipe is EASY and YUMMY!  Chia absorbs 10x its own weight in water, so it’s GREAT for filling you up and helping you lose weight, plus it’s a nutritional powerhouse. (The recipe in the collection gives you more info about that.)

And just for fun, today I’m posting a photo of Butternut Squash and Lemongrass Soup, which is so lovely, and Raw Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon Ice Cream (better than what you’ve always thought of as the “real thing!”).

I think tomorrow I’ll post the whole list of recipes. Can you tell I’m excited?

Carrot Cake Cupcakes  (2)

Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients—these cupcakes come together beautifully and are really quite easy.

3 eggs (organic and free-range)

¾ C plain kefir

½ C coconut oil

⅓ C banana, mashed

1 C Sucanat

¾ C honey

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. sea salt

2 C Kamut flour (or whole-wheat flour ground very finely)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten (to help the cake be light)

3 C fine shredded carrot

1 C crushed pineapple with juice

optional: 1 C shredded unsweetened coconut

optional: ½ C golden raisins

optional: ½ C rough chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Blend the eggs with the Sucanat and honey. Add the coconut oil, kefir, mashed banana, vanilla and blend again. Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and vital wheat gluten through a fine strainer.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the shredded carrot and the optional walnuts, coconut, and raisins, if using. Drop the batter by ¼ C into a greased muffin tin and bake for 15-20 min. To test if they are done, stick a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, they are done.

[This is one of two excellent frosting recipes in the collection—the other one is vegan:]

Cinnamon Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

The perfect rendition of the all-time favorite cream cheese frosting, naturally sweetened with maple syrup. After trying this, you won’t want to turn back to the other sugar-filled cream cheese frosting.

8 oz. Nuefchatel

4-6 Tbsp. maple syrup (to taste)

½ C Sucanat

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp pure vanilla

optional: 1 tsp. ultra gel, if the frosting isn’t thick enough, add ultra gel and blend

Blend the Sucanat in a high-power blender until fine. Add the cream cheese, maple syrup, and vanilla and blend until smooth.

Note: If the frosting is not thick enough to hold onto the cupcake, whip 1 Tbsp. of ultra gel into it and let it sit for 5 minutes.

You want to get raw almonds in the group buy (because you can’t get TRULY RAW anywhere else, and the price is awesome) but don’t know how MUCH to get. You love your friends and family. You find the holidays slightly annoying because of all the junk food, right when you want to be strong and healthy against H1N1 and influenza.

I have an idea for you. Make sprouted/dehydrated teriyaki and candied almonds—all natural ingredients, no sugar, no cooking—from Ch. 7 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods. Package a bag of each kind all cute in a lined coffee bag (I bought them online) or cellophane bag from a party store, with a sticker on the bag explaining that these homemade sprouted almonds full of life-giving enzymes with the enzyme inhibitors unlocked, 200% of the fiber, and 200-500% of the vitamins and minerals of regular dry almonds. Give them to your neighbors, kids’ teachers, everyone in the family, co-workers, and everybody who shows up at the last minute with a gift for you and (oh no!) you don’t have anything for them. It’s an easy, inexpensive, unique, homemade gift.

By the way, those two recipes may be better if you add MORE almonds to the mix, if you feel the coating of teriyaki or sweet spices is too much. When I make one or both of those recipes, I make some PLAIN dehydrated almonds, too, because that’s what I want most of the time. And that way, you can add more almonds to the mix for either of those recipes. (It’s hard with raw recipes to gauge ingredients exactly, because unlike food from McDonald’s, whole plant foods vary widely in size, texture, color, and flavor.)

Then whatever you don’t use, keep for yourself.

Your friends will love you for caring about their health in the sugar-and-flu season (those two things ARE related). It’ll be a delicious treat that they can feel fantastic about eating. They’ll know you’re a health nut (get it? haha) and come to you when they’re ready to make some changes.

And if that’s too hard, just give them truly raw almonds in that cute bag. Tell gift recipients in your card or sticker on the bag that it’s no longer possible to get the most nutritious raw almonds any more, but you went the distance to get them right from the ranch.

You know I love my dehydrator, especially this time of year when I’ve got so much stuff coming out of the garden that I don’t want to go to waste. Right now I have all 9 trays full in my dehydrator with two recipes contributed by readers. (I love y’all! Thanks for your ideas and support of each other!)

Tonya’s cheesy kale chips are filling four trays and they are INCREDIBLE, hard to believe how much nutrition you’re getting just snacking. I just took them out and ate a bunch of them while I wrote this. Just press one side of your leaves of kale in the “sauce.” Doubling the recipe will fill your 9 trays:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/blog/index.php?s=Tonya

Here’s my recommendation on the site, if you don’t have a dehydrator yet and want more info (plus one of my recipes for flax crackers):

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/robyn-recommendations/dehydrators/

Tara C. gives this tip for using those baseball-bat sized zucchinis in the garden and I’ve got 4 trays of zucchini moons almost dry—just tried one, and I like them. Super easy!

Silly Dilly Zucchini Moons

Slice zucchini in half length-wise.
Scoop out inner core of seeds.
Turn over and slice thinly (about 3/8-inch thick).
Spread on dehydrator trays and sprinkle with dill.
Dehydrate until crispy.

Enjoy plain or with a yummy, dilly dip.

Now that I’ve removed the kale chips, I’m going to use up the big boxful of cherry tomatoes my son hauled in yesterday, with this idea also from Tara C.:

Cheery Cherry Pizza Snacks
(My kids say these taste like mini-pizzas.)

Slice cherry tomatoes in half, toss with pizza seasoning (I get it from Azure Standard) and dry till crisp. Enjoy! (Tara would like suggestions to improve on this idea.)

Here’s Tara’s last idea, which I’ll try next:

Gingered Zucchini Bites
Slice zucchini as above. Before dehydrating, soak for 30-60 minutes in pineapple juice mixed with 3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, 1/2 cup agave, and a dash of cinnamon. Dry in dehydrator until crispy.

These look lovely in your pantry stored in Mason jars with a little raffia tied on top–pretty enough to give away!

This morning at 5:30 a.m., I made some pesto from the basil, spinach, and tomatoes in my garden. See your Jump-Start collection on the site for that recipe–whole-grain pasta with pesto is one of my kids’ favorites. Then I made a variation on that, some zucchini pesto with barely steamed zucchini, basil, kelp, cayenne, walnuts, sea salt, olive oil, mustard seed, and Bragg’s. I put these two types of pesto in pint jars, labelled them, and froze them. I think I’ll share a pint with a few friends this weekend.