Sour Cream Kale Chips

I make sure there is a healthy supply of these kale chips in the pantry at all times.  They put packaged sour cream chips to shame in both the health and flavour categories and are the perfect no guilt snack for movie night!

I used to grab a bag of kale chips for $8.99 every time I went to the health food store.  The thing is, they’re actually really easy to make, and your dollar will stretch further.  Here is the catch: a food dehydrator is highly recommended.  We have the Excalibur 9-tray, which runs around $260 CAN – totally worth the price tag.

You can always make them in the oven by using the lowest heat setting, but you’ll have to check and mix often to avoid burning.  Since I pretty much forget everything all the time, I prefer to use the dehydrator rather than end up with burnt kale chips!

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Sour Cream Kale Chips

  • 1 large head of kale
  • 1 1/2 cups cashews
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup hemp seeds
  • 1/4 cup diced chives
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt

Pull kale leaves off of stalk and rip into bite sized pieces.  Wash and dry using a salad spinner, getting as much water off as possible.  Set aside.

Place the rest of the ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth.  Add more water if necessary.

If you don’t have a high speed blender, blend ingredients in a regular blender until as smooth as possible.  Let sit in the blender for 30 minutes and then re-blend until smooth!  This is my “pre-soak the cashews” life hack.

Pour the sour cream mixture onto the kale and mix thoroughly.  Use your hands and get messy to ensure every tiny piece of kale is covered!

Spread kale out onto non-stick dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 118 F until the top is dry and crisp, about 2-3 hours.  Turn over onto the mesh screen (removing the non-stick sheet) and dehydrate until fully dry.  Store in an air-tight container or devour all at once.  You know you want to.

Raw Key Lime Pie

We were in Montreal this week for a family wedding, and after it was all over it felt like we had pretty much eaten non-stop for 36 hours.  Feeling that we needed to get back on track instantly, we went for a grueling morning run to Mont Royal and then up and down, up, down, up, and down the staircase of death that is the Mont Royal Staircase.

Starving and barely able to walk, we were so excited to try out Montreal’s raw food restaurant: Crudessence.  Once there, we were bitten by the raw food bug once again.  When we got home I dug out my dusty raw food word docs and pulled out this gem!  Here is a recipe that I initially wrote 8 YEARS ago, back when I discovered raw food, David Wolfe, and was attending the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition!

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Raw Key Lime Pie

Crust:

  • 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 1 cup pecans
  • 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt

Place walnuts and pecans in food processor and pulse until nuts start to stick together.  Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until well combined.  Press into the bottom of a tart pan and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Filling:

  • 2 cups cashews
  • 1 cup coconut cream (the solid mass in one can of coconut milk)
  • 2/3 cup fresh key lime juice (or regular lime juice)
  • 1/3 cup local honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into your tart shell and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

 

 

 

 

Creamy Coconut Cashew Nut Milk and a Creamy Strawberry Shake

Creamy Coconut Cashew Nut Milk

2 cups filtered water
1 cup cashews
2 tbsp coconut butter
4 dates
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1/4 of a vanilla bean, seeds only)

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth.  If you don’t have a high speed blender like the vitamix, you can place all ingredients in a blender and let them sit for a couple of hours until the cashews and dates soften.

I HIGHLY recommend investing in a vita-mix.  It’s so powerful that it can turn an ipod into dust – I’m sure you can find some interesting videos on youtube.  I use my vita-mix at least 4 times a day.  You can make nut milks without having to use a strainer, and make the smoothest raw cheesecake you’ve ever tasted.

And since I happened to have fresh strawberries in the fridge – voila!  Instant strawberry shake.

Silky Strawberry Smoothie

Creamy Strawberry Shake

1 batch Creamy Coconut Cashew Nut Milk
1 cup fresh strawberries

Blend all ingredients in a high powered blender until smooth.

The funny thing about strawberries is that when you pick them yourself, their size range from that of a raspberry to…a slightly larger raspberry! They taste so sweet and just downright incredible.  When you buy them imported from who knows where, they’re the size of peaches and they taste sour and just gross!  If you missed them this time around, don’t miss out on picking your own (or buying, although picking your own can be fun) local berries next season!

My Return to Raw: Day Two

Today started with a:

Green Super Smoothie

1 tbsp spirulina
1 mango
1 tbsp bee polin
1 cup strawberries
few cubes ice
1 tbsp chia seeds
2 dates
1 tbsp sesame seeds
water to desired consistency

Then it was off to pick berries at Whittamores Farm on Steeles Ave.  So many delicious berries!  I think we picked for a couple of hours, and I got sunburnt 😦 but it was worth it.

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