Day 12!

Here we are, day 12 of the Wiebe Family Raw for 30 Days Challenge, and we are doing great!  Seriously, not only are we surviving, but we're really enjoying it.  The food is delicious, we all feel incredible physically, and I am just having so much fun finding and trying and modifying new recipes.  I was so worried about not getting enough calories, but the food has been so good (especially all the healthy treats!) that if anything, I'm eating too much!

So, to add to the reasons that I liked raw food last week, I add a few more:

11. I love that every single day I have made healthy food for my family.  There is something very empowering about providing for the health of my family.
12. I have never been very good at following recipes: with raw food recipes it doesn't matter!  I can change them up anyway I want without worrying if it will ruin, because there is no chemical reaction to be made or rising to fret about...  It's actually been really fun to take a recipe that I like and change it up to be even better.

And, something I don't like?  Well, I spend so long on each of these recipes and after dehydrating for two days they are GONE in hours! Seriously.  This week we made 10 heads of kale into kale chips.  10 heads!  We took them out of the dehydrator yesterday afternoon, and they were devoured before we went to bed.  Silas loved them more than anyone, I think, and I can't blame him, because they were delicious.  It's just that making your own chips seems like a lot of work just to see them disappear so quickly.   I suppose I should be glad that at least it is something healthy, but still...

Another one of those recipes that will be gone before I know it is my granola.  It is packed full of healthy goodness, and oh so good for you!  While I don't want to rip off someone's hard work, I'll tell you how I've made it, because I really, really love it!

Living Berry Nut Granola

 That's right, that's what I call it!  I adapted the recipe from "Cranberry Maple Granola" from Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis.  Like I said, you can change it in any way you want, but this is what I did, and it is absolutely wonderful. (I made a mega batch so that it would last a little longer. It could easily be halved if you don't want to make so much.)

Living Berry Nut Granola

2 apples, cored
2 cups date paste
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup of agave
Juice of one large lemon
2 Tbsp vanilla powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 TBSP salt
1 cup Sunflower Seeds, soaked over night
4 cups almonds, soaked over night
6 cups walnuts, soaked over night
1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked over night
8 oz of frozen berries (I used 1/2 a package of cranberries, and 1/2 package of raspberries)
2 cups of dried currents

1. To make date paste soak 2 cups of medjool dates in hot water for 15 minutes.  Separate dates from water and in a food processor mix until a paste forms.  Add some of the soak water if you need more liquid.
2. Add apples, maple syrup, agave, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and 1/2 cup of the sunflower seeds to the food processor and process until smooth.  Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the remaining sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds to the food processor (you may have to do this in two batches - it's okay - and don't bother rinsing the food processor) and process until coarsely chopped. Add nuts to the mixing bowl.  Add the frozen berries and dried currents and mix well.  If it looks like it needs more moisture, add more agave or maple syrup.
4. Spread the granola on a lined dehydrator tray (you could also do this on an oven sheet in the oven) and dehydrate at 115 degrees F for 8ish hours.  Flip, remove the liner, and dehydrate for another 12ish hours. (Dehydrate less if you want a chewy granola instead of crunchy.)
5. Remove from the dehydrator, break into pieces and once it is cooled store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a few weeks (it won't last that long!)

There you have it.  Living Granola, or G'raw'nola, if you will!  Do you know that walnuts have the highest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids of any nuts?  Well, you'll definitely get your share in this granola.  If you don't have access to those nuts though, add some cashews, pecans, pumpkin seeds, chia, hemp, flax, buckwheat...  Really, anything will do.  Make sure that the nuts and seeds you buy are not pasteurized though, or the whole dehydrating thing will be kind of useless. Try it, and enjoy!

More recipes to come, I just need to have something last long enough to take pictures.