Adventures in Raw Food

Cleaning Teflex sheets isn’t hard, but it can be unwieldy. Here is a tip to clean Teflex sheets easily, and with minimum of fuss!

I was in a store a few days ago, and I happened to notice a box, 14″ x 14″, made to hold scrapbooking paper. It was about 4 inches deep, with a hinged lid. Nearly perfect for holding Teflex sheets.

I bought the box, and ran home with it. I laid my Teflex sheets in the bottom of the box, and filled it with hot, soapy water. Then I left the Teflex sheets soak for a while, while I did some other things.

When I came back to the box, I opened the lid, which opened all the way out and became a work surface for scrubbing the Teflex sheets! (Not that they really need scrubbing – wiping will usually do.)

It was incredibly easy to put the box next to the sink, remove a sheet from the soapy water, slide it onto the opened lid, give it a scrub, and rinse it in the sink!

See?:

And where do you put your Teflex sheets to dry?

Why, on the racks in your dehydrator, of course!

The only thing which would make this more perfect would be if I could find a box which was 14.5″ x 14.5″, just to allow a tiny bit more room.

This is incredibly easy, and really lovely!

The basic recipe:

Just before you go to bed, take:

1 cup whole raw almonds
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried goji berries

Put them in a bowl, and cover them with filtered water. Loosely cover the bowl, and let it sit on your counter until you get up in the morning.

In the morning, drain the water off, and dump the bowl into your food processor. At this point I like to add a chopped up apple.

Pulse in the food processor until coarsely chopped, about the consistency of granola. I sometimes add a little cinnamon at this point too.

Enjoy this with a little honey stirred in, or with milk (or almond milk) over it, or with yoghurt stirred in.

This is such a healthful cereal, and so yummy! And so darned easy!

It’s one of the latest fads – portabella mushrooms for sandwiches. Portabella mushrooms are delicious, and a great source of vegetarian protein. But how do you do portabella mushrooms raw?

Once again, it’s the trusty dehydrator to the rescue, and it is so easy!

Take your portobello mushrooms, and clean and destem them. Save those stems!

Now, you are going to make enough of the following to allow you to coat the mushrooms well (by submerging them, turning them, and removing them to a dehydrator tray):

1 part balsamic vinegar
1 part Nama Shoyu
2 parts olive oil
salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the above well, submerge the portabella caps in the liquid, turn to coat all parts of the mushroom caps, and then place the caps on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet.

Now cut the stems in half length-wise, and put them in the liquid, turn to coat, and put those on the dehydrator sheet as well.

Set the dehydrator to 115 degrees, and leave the mushrooms in until they are just tender and soft. For me it takes between 3 and 5 hours, depending on the size of the mushrooms.

These portabellas are perfect on a sandwich or, if you want to go 100% raw, just on a plate cut up like steak. They are delicious!

And use the stems to toss into a pasta or other dish, or as a garnish.

These will keep for up to a week if wrapped well in plastic wrap, but they are so delicious you will want to eat them right up.

Even though I was aware of Samson Juicers (heck, Samson Juicers are some of the finest available, and the Samson Ultra reviews are glowing), for the longest time I put off getting a dedicated juicer. Why, I reasoned, with my wonderful Vitamix, would I need or get a stand-alone juicer?

And, let’s face it, the Samson Ultra, the one I would want, is not cheap. It’s not for everybody.

But then two events conspired to land a Samson Ultra Juicer in my lap. The first was that a friend of ours offered us a huge amount of concord grapes, fresh from her garden. Concord grapes with seeds, which meant that they weren’t likely to get eaten up very quickly, and we couldn’t just plop them into the VitaMix to juice them.

That lead me to lament how we didn’t have that Samson Ultra Juicer, and on a lark I checked eBay, and just happened to find someone selling one that had been used only once, and she was letting it go for a song. I mean, it was a good price. So I bought it.

And am I glad that I did!

This thing could juice a Chevy!

Twin gear juicers have a reputation for making some of the best juice, and being the most difficult to clean. The Samson Ultra is actually surprisingly easy to clean (at least relatively speaking), in large part because it comes apart so easily.

That said, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Even though the Samson comes with a cleaning brush, buy one of these:

Actually buy a few of them, they’re only .50 each!

These soft nail brushes will make cleaning your Samson twin gear juicer a snap!

Anyways, I know that what you really want to know about is the juice.

Oh, the juice!

The first thing I tried juicing was an apple. The juice was fantastic! It was like the wonderful cider I remember from back east, rather than the thin, clear stuff kids drink nowadays.

The Samson Ultra Juicer also makes nut butter, grinds nuts, and does a bunch of other things. So I next ground up some pecans (I didn’t turn them into nut butter, but that’s next!) It’s amazing how easily and quickly the Samson grinds nuts!

And then, the grapes arrived. Being able to juice all those grapes, seeds and all, just tossing them into the juicer, was a treat.

I now have 2 quarts of fresh pressed concord grape juice in my fridge, and it is fanastic! I also have two trays of concord grape fruit leather going in the dehydrator.

I am so very glad that I got this juicer!

Oh, I’ll still use my VitaMix to make whole juice, but there is definately a place in my heart – and a spot on my counter – for our new Samson Ultra Juicer.