Thank you to everyone for your kind and supporting comments on my last post about Zeus. So far, he’s doing better it seems. He’s basically acting like his old self, but he’s still drinking a lot of water (likely from the hypercalcemia). He goes back to the oncologist Thursday for more blood work and treatment. We’ve been staying at my mom’s this week and he’s enjoying himself… there are 4 other dogs here. He’s eating more but that might be out of competition rather than wanting to actually eat it himself – lol. But, hey, whatever works, eh? In addition to his medicine, I’ve been giving him a few things:
I ordered E3 Live, and it’ll arrive Wednesday. I can’t wait to introduce that to his diet.
Here’s a great recipe that I’ll be making around the holidays. I included it in a recent email newsletter.
When I was a little girl, my mom used to make date bars for dessert. Oh how I loved them! It was a simple little recipe / mix from a box (Betty Crocker I think), and it was one of my favorites. I remember how they were warm from the oven with a sweet squishy date center and a crumbly bottom and top. Mmmm! So, I decided to come up with a healthier raw version. This one is warm from the dehydrator with a squishy, sweet raw date filling surrounded by a slightly crunchy top and bottom from ground nuts. Perfect! When I shared it with my mom, she couldn’t believe how closely it resembled the old version.
Date Bars Recipe by Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com Yield 1 8X8 glass baking dish
Date Filling Ingredients: 25-30 medjool dates, pitted* 1/4-1/2 cup soak water (from the dates)
Crumble Ingredients: 1 cup almonds 1 cup cashews 1/4 cup Rapadura** (optional) 2 tablespoons raw coconut oil pinch Himalayan crystal salt
Date Filling Instructions: Place the pitted dates in a bowl with water to soak them for about a half hour. *If your dates are large, you can use 25 and if some of them are smaller, then use a few more. Once the dates are soaked, place them in a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, along with 1/4 cup of the soak water. Process until smooth, adding a little more water as needed. Set aside in a bowl, while you make the crumble.
Crumble Instructions: Place all of the crumble ingredients in a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, and process until it starts to stick together a bit when pressed gently between two of your fingers.
Assembly Instructions: Take a little more than half of the crumble mixture and press it firmly into the bottom of your glass baking dish. Spread the date filling on top. Then, sprinkle the remaining crumble on top of the date filling, and very gently press it.
If you have a dehydrator, now is a great time to use it. Place the Date Bars in it and dehydrate them at 115 degrees F for about an hour. Enjoy! Store leftover Date Bars in your refrigerator.
** Rapadura is not raw. It’s organic, whole cane sugar that adds a lovely depth of sweetness to the recipe. If you’d like the recipe to be all raw, simply omit the Rapadura.
If you look through all of the recipes in all of my books, you’ll notice that not one is for kale chips. Honestly, I have no excuse other than… well… no, I have no excuse. I guess I just didn’t jump on the kale chip bandwagon. I’ve bought some over the years online and at Whole Foods Market, but none of them excited me. They were either too chewy/sweet or crumbled up so much I had to eat them with a spoon or – eeewww! – there was a dehydrated bug in one bag. Eeek!
But. I recently tried some kale chips from another company (blogged about it here), and I fell in love. Blue Mountain Organics, you have forever converted me to a kale-chip-lovin’-chick! Even though I directed you to the other blog post of mine where I’m just short of doing cartwheels because I loved them so much, I’ll say a few words here. THEY ARE AWESOME! Specifically, I’m referring to the Cheezy-flavored kale chips they sell. However, I decided to try their Chocolate Kale Chips the other day, and I’ll be honest, I did not have high expectations – only because I wondered how kale and chocolate would be super good – they’re probably decent, I thought, but I didn’t expect much more. Wrong. They rocked. It was love at first bite.
All of this excitement made me take a stab at making my own organic raw vegan kale chips and save a little money. After all, I have a super awesome cheese sauce (you all know the one I’m talking about right?). Well, if you’re new to my blog, it’s my Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce (recipe and video demo for the sauce here). It kicks ass! I figured it would be the perfect sauce for kale chips. I sent Greg to Whole Foods to buy some kale while I stayed home and made the sauce.
Here they are:
They are awesome. Seriously – you’ve gotta make these. We all went nutso for them!
Here is how you can make your own Cheezy Hemp Nacho Kale Chips…
Basically, you make the Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce I linked to above. Then, take one bunch of kale and wash it. Tear it into pieces (you can use curly kale or dinosaur kale – they both work great – and I usually leave the stem in but you can take it out). Put the torn kale in a large bowl and pour the Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce on top. Stir it all up with a big spoon, or your hands, until the kale is as covered with sauce as you can get it. Place the saucy kale on a dehydrator tray lined with a Paraflexx sheet (or parchment paper if you’re not using an Excalibur dehydrator). Dehydrate for an hour at 130-140 degrees F. Reduce the temperature to 105-110 degrees F and dehydrate another 7-9 hours. Transfer the kale chips to a new dehydrator tray without a Paraflexx sheet and finish dehydrating until you reach your desired texture of kale chips (maybe another 7-10 hours).
They’re so delicious! I couldn’t stop there though. I started thinking about all the different cool sauces I could use to make kale chips, and the next one I tried was my Velvet Wine Sauce (see picture below; the recipe for the sauce is from my newest book Kristen Suzanne’s EASY Raw Vegan Transition Recipes – I also shared this recipe in a recent limited edition email newsletter). Basically, follow the same directions as you do with the Cheezy Hemp Nacho Kale Chips, but use the Velvet Wine Sauce instead. These were so friggin’ delicious that I sent Greg to Whole Foods for more kale. I had to make another batch.
This batch has the Velvet Wine Sauce and it’s just about to go into the dehydrator.
As you can see, we’ve been enjoying a lot of kale chips in this house the past few weeks. They’re so satisfying, flavorful, and nutritious.
If you don’t have a dehydrator, or you simply don’t like making your own stuff, then I highly recommend heading over to Blue Mountain Organics and loading up on their Cheezy Kale Chips and Chocolate Kale Chips.
I like eating pumpkin and sunflower seeds because the pumpkin seeds give my body zinc, vitamin K, iron, magnesium and more. The sunflower seeds are a great source of vitamin E as well as vitamin B1, selenium, folate, copper, and more. Yum!
So, I sent Greg to Whole Foods the other day with the intention of having him buy a bag of GoRaw’s seeds (about 10 bucks) because I figured I didn’t want to make them myself… and then I thought better of it. I can make those in no time… even with an infant (and it’ll save us money)! So, instead I had him buy a pound each of raw organic sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. Here is what I did with some of them. Take these to the next movie you go to and you will not miss the popcorn!
Salt-n-Pepper Snacky Seeds Recipe by Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com Yield 2 cups
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds 1 cup raw sunflower seeds 1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Place the seeds in a bowl with enough filtered water to cover by about an inch. Let them soak like this for 6-8 hours. Drain off the water and give them a quick rinse. Put them back in the bowl and stir in the salt and pepper. Place them on a dehydrator tray and spread them out until the tray is covered (I use an Excalibur dehydrator and I used only one tray). Dehydrate them for one hour at 130-140 degrees F. Reduce the heat to 105-115 degrees F and dehydrate until thoroughly dried (approximately 14-20 hours).
When using an Excalibur dehydrator, it’s recommended that you begin the dehydrating process at a temperature of about 130-140 degrees F for 1 – 2 hours. Then, lower the temperature to 105 – 115 degrees F for the remaining time of dehydration. Using a high temperature such as 140 degrees F, in the initial stages of dehydration, does not destroy the nutritional value of the food because it’s during this initial phase that the food does the most “sweating” (releasing moisture). When this occurs, it is cooling the food. Therefore, while the temperature of the air circulating around the food is about 130-140 degrees F, the food itself is actually cooler. These directions apply only when using an Excalibur Dehydrator, because of the Horizontal-Airflow Drying System.
I’m practicing babywearing with Kamea a little every few days. I’m not crazy about doing it too much right now because her head control is not stable and I freak out when her head almost bobbles. I’m always trying to position my body so she has support (like she’s leaning back in it), and that just doesn’t feel too good on my back. Still, I’m comfortable sometimes using the ERGO babywearing system with the infant insert (organic). I was sent one by the company to try out. In the few times I’ve attempted babywearing, I’ve tried the Moby, the Gypsy Mama, and the ERGO with infant insert. The ONLY one I’m comfortable using is the ERGO right now because it’s so easy to put on and Kamea seems most comfortable and safe in it (keeping in mind the aforementioned head control issue I’m still working through). I can’t wait until her head control gets better. By then, I’ll be better at the wraps, too, I suspect, but with how easy the ERGO is to put on AND take off I can see myself using this a lot (the Moby/Gypsy Mama are hard to get her out of and that scares me… I bend over and basically feel like I’m twisting into a pretzel to get her out and get it off – I know though, I’m just not good at it yet).
Today is an ALL RAW DAY for this pregnant, eco-friendly mama! I started the day by taking the dog for a nice long walk. My midwife says that walking is the best exercise in prepping for birth. Therefore, I make it a point to walk 1-2 (usually it’s 2) miles 5-6 days a week. It’s also instrumental in helping keep my weight in check for a healthy pregnancy weight gain. So far so good! My weight is right on track.
All food is organic.
Green Juice (1 quart)
2 tomatoes, 1/3 bunch celery, 2 large cucumbers, small bunch swiss chard
It was really great. Look at all that GREEEEN!
I took the leftover pulp and made a small batch of Raw vegan crackers by adding ground flax meal, tamari, coconut vinegar, and orange zest. They are dehydrating in my Excalibur dehydrator now and they smell fantastic. I can’t wait to enjoy them tomorrow.
Gently Spiced Omega Protein Shake (3 cups)
I’ll post this recipe on January 28, so be sure to check back for it. It’s one of my new faves!
10 Raisins - Yummy little snack
Zippy Energy Soup (3 cups)
This is sooooo fresh and good. Love this recipe – I’ll be sharing it with you January 26, so come on back to get it. It’s nourishing and makes a perfect light lunch or snack. Mmmmm!
2 Small Raw Chocolates
Same as the other day. I dove into my freezer for 2 pieces of the Mint Chocolate Jazz. I’ve been asked many times now about my feelings regarding chocolate while trying to conceive and while pregnant. I am featuring this as a post on my blog on January 24th, so you can check it out then.
Large Fresh Salad w/ A Creamy Tangy Dressing
This salad had romaine, cabbage, red bell pepper, and it was topped with leftover dressing from the other day, a revised Light-n-Livey Tahini Parsley Dressing. Only this time, I took the left over dressing and blended 1/2 of an avocado into it. The result is a decadent creamy and tangy dressing. Avocado is especially great for pregnant mamas because it’s loaded with fiber, B-vitamins, folate, and healthy fats. Yum! Oh yeah, I had a pickle on the side… of course.
That’s it so far. I’ll probably get hungry later because I’m going to need more calories. If I do here is the plan…
I’m really enjoying raisins the past 3 days which is unusual for me. I’ve always liked them but was never drawn to them like now. The walnuts give me an extra boost of protein and omegas.
Carrots
I love snacking on carrots because they have a little sweetness coupled with a lot of crunch. It’d be smart if I ate these with something that had some fat because the beta-carotene is better assimilated when in the presence of fat. Hhmmm… I know. I have leftover dressing from above, so I’ll dip them in that!
Yay! It’s recipe time! In today’s video, I’m showing you how to make an EASY yummy bread recipe, Soft n’ Savory Hemp Onion Bread. If you’re a fan of savory onions, then you’ll be one happy camper with a slice of this! Soft n’ Savory Hemp Onion Bread is delicious, pretty, and filled with nutrition… essential fatty acids, protein, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Essential fatty acids are necessary fats that we basically cannot synthesize on our own, so we have to get them from our diet. Enter: hemp and chia! Not only that, but hemp foods are an excellent source of complete vegetarian protein. Personally, I consider hemp foods as superfoods because they are loaded with important nutrients and they make me feel great. As a pregnant gal, I’ve been upping my intake of them – great for my growing baby. So… back to the bread… It’s perfect for snacking on by itself, dipping in Raw hummus, and spreading with Raw hemp seed butter or guacamole. Depending on the size you cut, you can also use it as a nutrient rich bread for hearty Raw sandwiches. As I’m typing this post, it’s dehydrating in the kitchen and it smells soooooooo awesome!
In this video, I feature a few different kitchen tools, ingredients, and appliances. You can get your hot little hands on them buy purchasing from these links…
Yield approximately 20 – 32 pieces (depending on size you cut)
3/4 cup hemp seeds (lightly ground)
3/4 cup chia seeds
3 pounds red onions, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup spinach, packed
1/3 cup raw agave nectar
1/3 cup tamari, wheat-free
1/4 cup hemp protein powder
Place the ground hemp seeds and whole chia seeds in a large bowl and set aside. Process the onions, tomatoes and spinach in a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, into small pieces – don’t let it get too mushy though. One thing that might help is to do this processing in two halves (half each of the onions, tomatoes, spinach in one processing, then do it with the other half) so that you can keep it a little on the chunkier side. If you process it too long, it can get too wet (as you’ll see in the video, I should’ve done mine in two processing batches, but I shoved it all in one – lol).
Add the onion mixture and the remaining ingredients to the bowl of seeds and stir well to mix. Let the batter sit for up to 5 minutes. If you find that the batter is too “wet” then add more chia seeds to soak it up (1 – 2 tablespoons at a time and wait a few minutes).
Use approximately 4 cups per tray and spread the batter onto 2 dehydrator trays, each lined with a Paraflexx sheet. Dehydrate at 130 – 140 degrees for one hour. You can score the bread into the desired size at this time, or you can wait to cut it after it’s done dehydrating.
Lower the temperature to 105 degrees and dehydrate another 8 hours. Flip the bread over onto another dehydrator tray and peel off the Paraflexx sheet. Dehydrate another 6 – 10 hours (until you reach your desired dryness – I like mine a little moist). Cut into 16 squares per tray. These are best stored in the refrigerator.
Announcement time! My latest book is now available, Kristen Suzanne’s Ultimate Raw Vegan Chocolate Recipes. (The ebook is not available yet; it should be this week.) If you’d like to view some pictures of featured recipes in the book, go here.As with all of my books, the pictures are not in the book. To keep the cost of the books as low as possible, I have pictures posted on my website.
This book is the ultimate introduction to chocolate in its most pure, natural form by using raw, dark chocolate (also called “raw cacao nibs”), raw chocolate powder, raw cacao butter, and raw cacao liquor. These are my favorite chocolate-based recipes — both sweet and savory.
This Raw food vegan recipe book is filled with delicious recipes, including:
30 Chocolate Desserts 11 Chocolate Beverages 11 Chocolate Snacks, Soup, Salad Dressing, Crackers & Breakfast A “Raw Basics” introduction to Raw food (with 6 basic “must have” recipes) for people who are new to the subject.
Want to try a recipe from the book? Here you go!
Chocolate Chia Crackers By Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com Yield 1 tray (quantity depends on size you cut)
Soak your chia seeds for 30 minutes in a large bowl with 1 1/2 cups of the water. Blend the remaining ingredients (including the remaining 1/2 cup of water) together. Add the blended mixture to the bowl with soaked chia seeds and stir to mix. Break up any chia seed clumps with your rubber spatula or spoon. Let the mixture sit (as is) for 15-30 minutes.
Spread the mixture on a dehydratortray lined with a non-stick Paraflexx sheet and score to desired size. (For a thinner cracker, divide between two trays.) Dehydrate at 135 degrees for 60 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 105 degrees and dehydrate another 6-8 hours. Flip crackers onto another tray without a Paraflexx sheet and peel off the Paraflexx sheet being used. Dehydrate another 6-10 hours, or until you reach your desired dryness.
If you are trying to decide whether or not to buy one, then this book is for you! There are SO many fun and interesting things you can do with dehydrating Raw foods, such as making breads, crackers, wraps, pancakes, granolas, plant leathers (fruit roll-ups, etc.), seasonings, and much more. You can also intensify flavors, add cooked-like textures to your foods, and even serve warm dishes with the food’s nutritional integrity totally intact!
This book is a great, thorough, and comprehensive introduction to dehydrating for people who are curious about the subject. It’s also a must-have for Raw food enthusiasts who want to experience the full range of experiences in the Raw food cuisine.
This book also comes with a special offer: 10% off Excalibur dehydrators & products.
Calling all Raw Vegan Chocolate lovers! Are you ready for a super fun trio of recipes? Get out your dehydrator because my Chocolate Chia Crackers are BIG fun. Need a snack for your kid’s lunch box? Want something super healthy to munch on while watching this week’s VP debates? Then, look no further because this is it! I wrote in a past post that Chia is a dieter’s dream food. And, raw chocolate mixed in… HELLO! YUM!
What? Don’t have a dehydrator yet? Why not??? Having a dehydrator is such a fun addition to your Raw Vegan kitchen because it adds tremendous variety to your diet as well as shelf life to some of your food. Now you can have crunchy foods, warm foods, marinated foods with a texture reminiscent of cooked food, and foods that can last a long time in your refrigerator or freezer. Need I say more? Or, maybe you have a dehydrator but want some delicious dehydrated recipes, then check out my ebook, Kristen Suzanne’s EASY Raw Dehydrating.
Okay, back to this wonderful trio of Raw Vegan recipes. Here you go! Enjoy!!!
Chocolate Chia Crackers Yield 1 tray (quantity depends on size you cut)
1 cup chia seeds (get them here) 2 cups water Juice of 1 orange 1 apple, cored & chopped 1/4 cup raw chocolate powder (Navitas is my all-time favorite brand) 2 tablespoons raw agave nectar 6 dates, pitted dash Himalayan crystal salt
Soak your chia seeds for 30 minutes in a large bowl with 1 1/2 cups of the water. Blend the remaining ingredients (including the remaining 1/2 cup of water) together. Add the blended mixture to the bowl with soaked chia seeds and stir to mix. Break up any chia seed clumps with your rubber spatula or spoon. Let the mixture sit (as is) for 15-30 minutes.
Spread the mixture on a dehydrator tray lined with a non-stick paraflex sheet and score to desired size. (For a thinner cracker, divide between two trays.) Dehydrate at 135 degrees for 60 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 105 degrees and dehydrate another 6-8 hours. Flip crackers onto another tray without a paraflex sheet and peel off the paraflex sheet being used. Dehydrate another 6-10 hours, or until you reach your desired dryness.
Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Spread Yield 1 1/4 cups
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts 3 tablespoons raw chocolate powder 1 1/2 tablespoons agave nectar 1/2 cup cashews 2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil pinch Himalayan crystal salt
Process all of the ingredients in a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, until creamy. That’s it! Easy!
Sweet Southern Peach Jam Yield 1 cup
1 cup frozen peaches, thawed 3 dates, pitted, soaked 20 minutes, drained 1 tablespoon raw agave nectar
Blend all of the ingredients together. Voila, Sweet Southern Peach Jam!
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. More...
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. 
