Here it is: Putting it all together. Here you’ll see what we use for our taco shells and how we build up our taco. Quite often, we also make a raw sour creme using cashew nuts and lemon juice. But, for these tacos, it’ll just be meat, salsa, and guac. Enjoy!

Taco Assembly

Use Romaine leaves for your taco shells or, as Wendi says, do a search for making other kinds of taco shells. (A good place to search out raw recipes is the All Raw Directory.) Top with:

• Shredded lettuce
• Taco meat (see previous recipe)
• Guacamole (see previous recipe)
• Salsa (see previous recipe)
• Optional: Raw Vegan Sour Cream (search our blog or the All Raw Directory)

There you go: Celebrate TACO WEEK by making your own tacos!

(And, by the way, we’re celebrating something special today, too:  KDcat turns 15 today!!! )

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

Here’s the next component in our raw taco recipe — the guacamole. This is Wendi’s favorite component! Enjoy!!!

Raw Guacamole Recipe

• 3 avocados
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
• 3/4 tsp salt
• optional: 1 med. tomato, scallion

Pulse in food processor until “meaty” consistency is obtained. Set aside in a serving bowl for the taco dinner!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

COntinuing with our Taco Week, here’s a quick and easy (and delicious) salsa recipe. You can really have a lot of fun with salsa, and can get highly experimental if you like. Almost anything tastes great in salsa. This one is fairly basic, so feel free to spruce it up with some of your favorite ingredients. Let us know in the comments section some of your favorite variations so you may inspire others!

Raw Salsa Recipe

• 4 med tomatoes, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 scallions
• optional: fresh garlic, onion, chilis, cayenne, etc.

Pulse in food processor until “meaty” consistency is obtained. Set aside in a serving bowl for the taco dinner!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

EVERYONE LOVES RAW TACOS!!! So, this week, we’re going to show you FOUR “Makin’ It Monday” videos instead of just one. These were filmed in Berkeley, CA, at our dear friend Carolyn’s apartment. We hope you love these recipes. We actually eat raw tacos quite regularly — especially when tomatoes are in season.

Taco “Meat” Recipe

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup Brazil nuts (or more walnuts)
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• dash garlic powder
• 1 1/4 Tbsp. Tamari or Nama Shoyu

Pulse in food processor until “meaty” consistency is obtained. Set aside in a serving bowl for the taco dinner!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

Last night, Jim ate the first warm food he’s had in over a year! I created a dinner that was placed in the dehydrator for about an hour before it was served. This dish is delicious at room temperature, also, but I thought it might be more special if I served it a bit warm. Jim thought it was a nice change to the colder temperatures of the smoothies he’s been practically living on!

Here’s the recipe, if you think you’d like to try it.

Boiled Pierogies with Sauteed Spinach and Steamed Peppers

“Sauteed” Spinach
3 oz. fresh spinach
Drizzle olive oil
Sprinkle salt

Place ingredients into a dish, toss well and set aside.

“Steamed” Peppers
1/3 large red pepper

Thinly slice and put aside.

“Boiled” Pierogies
1 small turnip, peeled
Drizzle olive oil
Sprinkle salt
Squeeze lemon

Thinly slice peeled turnip into rounds using a mandoline slicer, or a very sharp knife. Place rounds in bowl with some olive oil, salt, and lemon. Coat well and let sit (this softens the turnip).

Pierogie “Cheese”
1 cup Macadamia nuts
Fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1/3 red pepper
Drizzle olive oil
salt (adjust to taste)
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
Few dashes cayenne pepper
Water (enough to create a mashed potato-like consistency)

Place ingredients into food processor and process until you achieve a mashed potato-like consistency. Note: You’ll have extra cheese to eat as a dip for another meal.

Garnish
1/3 red pepper, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon ground rosemary

Assembly and “Cooking” (Serves 2-3)
To create pierogies, place some turnip rounds on a plate, top with small amount of “cheese” and cover with another turnip round. Place some of the pierogies you’ve created on top of a portion of the sauteed spinach. Garnish with chopped peppers and ground rosemary.

Add a portion of steamed peppers to the plate, garnish with ground rosemary.

“Cook” in a dehydrator set at 105 degrees for about one hour (this “cooking” is optional).

Enjoy!

This meal was followed by leftover “cake” from Jim’s birthday party. It’s not a filling meal, so be sure to either eat a salad beforehand or include a dessert to complete the dinner!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

Jim here… Here’s part two of a video of Wendi showing how to make raw pasta. (If you did not view part one yet, click here to go there now.) She, with the help of her friend Melissa (of Food Under Foot), prepared a beautiful platter of pastas and some sauces that we all enjoyed when I returned home yesterday for lunch.

We hope this video shows you even more how fun and delicious eating raw foods can be!

Don’t forget:  If you’re thinking of purchasing a spiralizer, spirooli, ceramic peeler, or other raw food goodies, please consider making your purchase from our friends at Natural Zing. Purchases made through Natural Zing help support the work we’re doing at Pure Jeevan! Make sure to go to the URL http://tinyurl.com/NaturalZing, or just click on the banner on the right margin of this blog.  Thanks so much!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

Jim’s mother, JoAnn, LOVES pasta. I’m sure many of you can relate to that—pasta is a big part of the cooked diet and just about everyone loves it. When going raw, many individuals say they just can’t do it because they miss pasta too much. Well, that’s no longer a problem. There is a raw way to make pasta and you are going to love it if you haven’t experienced it, yet!

As a gift for Mother’s Day, we sent a pasta-making tool to JoAnn along with a pasta sauce recipe we created for her (see the Paradisio Pasta Pomodoro entry). To make it easier for her to learn how to create pasta, and to answer some of the emails we’ve been receiving about the device we used to make the pasta, we have put together a two-part video showing how to make delicious, beautiful raw pastas! You’ll learn how to use two different pasta-making devices, as well as how to use a simple vegetable peeler to create delicious noodles!

Below is part one, and tomorrow we’ll post part two. Our friend, Melissa (of Food Under Foot), helped film the videos. Thanks, Melissa!

NOTE:  If you’re thinking of purchasing a spiralizer, spirooli, ceramic peeler, or other raw food goodies, please consider making your purchase from our friends at Natural Zing. Purchases made through Natural Zing help support the work we’re doing at Pure Jeevan! Make sure to go to the URL http://tinyurl.com/NaturalZing, or just click on the banner on the right margin of this blog.  Thanks so much!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

Jim here… Happy Sunday morning, everyone!  We don’t normally post on weekends, but we’re sharing this video as a special gift for my mom on Mother’s Day. As Wendi likes to say, “Every day is mother’s day!”  But, I do like to do something a little special for my own wonderful mom. So, check out this video of a recipe Wendi (mostly) and I created for her.  If you remember my reaction to the soup we made recently, it may not surprise you to hear me say that this sauce is the “best #$%^&*^%! sauce I’ve ever tasted!”

We’re typing up and formatting this recipe for Pure Jeevan family members (you know, those who subscribe to our mail list). So, once it’s ready, we’ll be adding it to the queue of mailings we sent out to keep everyone inspired.  This recipe is a keeper!

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  We love you!

p.s.  Most of the ingredients and tools featured in the creation of this recipe are available at Natural Zing. Just remember to go to tinyurl.com/NaturalZing for your special raw food needs! Visiting that specific link — tinyurl.com/NaturalZing – helps support Pure Jeevan, too! So, thanks!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

The other day I made a recipe from “Rainbow Green, Live-Food Cuisine” by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. I modified his recipe a bit and what resulted was amazing. Perhaps the original recipe tasted even better, but this is what I did with it.

Sweet Pepper Marinara Sauce

(Serves 4)

1 very large red bell pepper, deseeded
1 very large yellow bell pepper, deseeded
1 1/3 cups tomatoes
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano

I placed all of the ingredients into the Vitamix blender and blended until it was smooth. It is delicious! I served this on top of some “meat”balls from a recipe I didn’t like very much (so I won’t be sharing that). You can serve this on top of spiralized veggie “pasta” and enjoy it that way, as well!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

Perfected Raw Vegan Potato Pancake Recipe!

I’ve done it, I’ve done it, I’ve DONE IT!!!  I’ve perfected a recipe for raw vegan potato pancakes! My friend Melissa shared her potato pancake recipe with me and, like always, I had to play around with it (I rarely go by a set recipe). Had it not been for her original recipe, I wouldn’t be writing this post! So, thanks, Melissa!!

In the next day, or two, I’m going to type up the recipe and send it out to all of our subscribers. So, if you haven’t signed up recently for either our newsletter or the two free eBooks, do it soon! In addition to the potato pancakes recipe, I’m going to share another amazing recipe I created for Jim’s birthday this past weekend: Raw Vegan Ice Cream Cake!! YUM!

Raw Vegan Ice Cream Cake!

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments

This video is nearly 10 minutes long (sorry, we’ll aim for shorter ones in the future), but shows a full process for making a delicious, spicy nut dip. From there, we show two options for making the sandwich — one using dehydrated raw bread, another using lettuce as the wrapper.  I wanted to add that the packaged raw bread used herein is from Love Force, a great company that has provided sponsorship support to Pure Jeevan in the past.  Here’s a link to their site in case you’re interested acquiring some of their bread or finding out where it’s sold. (It’s very good, as are their raw organic energy bars!)

Please Post on Facebook!	Please Tweet This on Twitter!
Visit:	View Comments