RAW Living and Learning

Oil Free Pesto Sauce Today I was in the mood for pesto. I had a perfect little organic zucchini waiting to be spiralized into some raw noodles and I have pots full of herbs right out the back door, on our upper deck. I put the two together and came up with the most delicious oil free pesto sauce. It is loaded with nutrition and enzymes. I love how each and every herb shined through in the finished product. With each bite I would taste a hint of the lemon balm, sunflower greens, oregano, parsley and basil. It was like an herb party in my mouth. I added the grape tomatoes for color and sprinkled on some black sesame seeds for contrast. After I took the final picture I threw on some of my homegrown fenugreek sprouts and a handful of raw sunflower seeds for a little crunch. Here is my recipe, hope you enjoy making it! Oil Free Pesto Sauce (one serving) by Elizabeth @ RAW Living and Learning handful of organic sunflower greens 8 parsley leaves, flat leaf 4 lemon balm leaves 2 s...

Berry Tropical Smoothie I posted a few days ago that I am keeping my meals simple during the 40 days of our Lenten season. I am focusing my attention on the Lord and trying to increase my prayer time and also working on fasting, abstinence and almsgiving. This week, the third week of Lent, our family is working on "Good Thoughts". Filling our minds with The Truth, filling us with light; keeping any dark and ugly thoughts out. Powerful to say the least; difficult as well, considering our world is filled with so much darkness. We have to make an effort to be the light for others. Not always easy, but paramount.  And we continue to add to our Jesus Tree the symbols representing scripture readings we are focusing on. Look how our tree has blossomed! Here are some simple, clean raw foods that I have been eating lately. Let's start with some power packed green smoothies. My Berry Tropical Smoothie was a hit with the children!! And of course I loved it too. You can'...

I saw these videos some time ago, thanks to 'Going Raw- A University Student's Experience' Thanks for posting the links!! I've had this post in "drafts" for a while now and just wanted to finally get it posted.  I really enjoyed watching these two young men try living the raw living foods lifestyle for 30 days. It is a shame that they concentrated on so many salads and didn't have the chance to experience truly gourmet raw recipes also. I think they would have been blown away by the possibilities had they been exposed to more raw desserts, green juices, sprouts, and fun, gourmet raw food dishes. (Maybe they did have all of these things, I don't really know). But I know for me, when I began creating dishes like these below I was in love with this lifestyle and knew that I didn't ever want to look back. RAW BURGER SUNFLOWER GREENS COBBLER WITH RAW ICE KREAM CHOCOLATE TART  SWEET POTATO CHIPS  COLLARD WRAPS NORI CHIPS ...

My garden is growing (more on that later plus a killer recipe!!), my herbs are growing and even our ladybug larvae and butterflies are growing. Yes we are raising ladybugs and butterflies, again. Years ago we had quite the butterfly habitat set up in our front and back yards. We also had ordered ladybugs and released them in the yard, hoping they would stay around--but they didn't. We were raising Monarchs. I really enjoyed that and miss it greatly. It is time to replant and get back to raising butterflies in a serious way. What a wonderful science lesson for the kids and so symbolic of what is to come on Easter Sunday; when we celebrate the Risen Christ. New life symbolized in a simple act of raising insects, respecting life in all forms, growing your own living foods, all become learning experiences and make me appreciate just how fragile and special living things and creatures truly are. (Right as I'm typing this our oldest child says, "Mom, look we have two adult lady...

We are still working on our "Good Words" this week as we tend to our individual weaknesses. Speaking of tending, I have been tending to my new little square foot garden and my potted herb garden all week, and everything is growing beautifully. It looks like things are growing overnight! I think my homemade compost is super charged or something. I have never seen plants grow so quickly.  I am afraid to admit though, that I have faltered on my "Good Words". It seems like everytime I set out to work on something openly, the evil one latches on and drags me down. No sooner did I get it set in my mind that I was going to work on good words, and low and behold, over critical comments came spewing out of my mouth! Yikes. This is going to be harder than I imagined--working on my short comings requires focus and mental clarity or else I become so easily distracted from the task at hand. This leads perfectly into my focus for today. Friday for me is a day for fasting and...

Today we woke up to a cold morning, for us that is. It was in the low 50's. I am still cold to the bone and trying to warm up with a cup of my herbal detox tea. Three warm little bodies crawled into bed with me this morning--that was nice. But reality hit and we had to get up and start our homeschool day. For theology today the focus is on "Growing Good Fruit for God", Five Ways to Become More Like Jesus. This is a wonderful Lenten activity written by Sandra Garant. The focus for the first week of Lent is Good Words; helping us to be   aware of the fact that our words are powerful. Our words can make wonderful things happen not only for ourselves but for others as well. Our personal focus will be on using manners, compliments that are sincere, being good listeners and praying more so we can hear what Our Lord is telling us through the scriptures.  I wanted to introduce the topic to our son today so come Monday we are ready to begin cultivating some good fruit!!...

There is PEACE in P-E-N-A-N-C-E . (Can you find it?) It is so easy for me personally, to find true peace in penance because I trust that God's mercy abounds. It is during this time that we prepare to renew our baptismal vows through penance and reconciliation. This is a time to enter into the healing spirit of this season and restore relationships with our household, neighbors and most importantly, God. It can also be a time to heal the body with raw living, life giving foods. When I think of this time of year not only do I think of fasting, abstinence and penance but I think of reconciliation and NEW LIFE. The word "lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for springtime, lencten. The importance of the integrity of life and the preciousness of life. Life represented in new growth and life being protected from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. And life as seen in the planting, sprouting and growing of life giving plants, nuts and seeds. I...