Day 5!!! plus a review of Glass Dharma.

Happy Friday Split Platers!!! It’s Day 5 of Brad’s 7 Day Raw Challenge and I’m feeling fab! Watching what you eat, eating clean and working out really pays off! So here we go! On to Day 5!!

Breakfast: Young and Raw pulled out a delicious super green smoothie for today! It’s loaded with fruit, herbs, greens and healthy, fats! This is another favorite of mine. I love the taste of powdered greens and this one satisfied my green cravings.

Day 8: Pineapple Cilantro Detox Smoothie

• 1 Cup fresh or frozen Pineapple
• 1 Handful of Cilantro
• 1 Rib of Celery
• 1 Cup of Water or Coconut Water
• 1 Tbsp of Chia or Hemp Seeds (Or like me, add both!)
• 1 tsp of Spirulina or 1 Tbsp of favorite raw Green Powder (I used Green Vibrance)
• ½ Lime, juiced
• 1 inch slice of Aloe Leaf, gel only

PRODUCT REVIEW

Glass Dharma

Okay, I know this isn’t a food product but without this wonderful, earth friendly product, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my smoothies, especially on the go go! I’m clumsy and I can only imagine trying to sip these smoothies while driving…it would be a mess!!

Now I know you can just go buy a plastic cup with a straw at Target to sip your smoothies out of, but soon or later the cup will get old, stained, it will smell and soon or later you’ll throw it out and buy another one. Plus, dried smoothie goop always sticks more to plastic than glass making it a major pain to clean. Instead, keep and clean an old food jar to hold your smoothie in and sip away using a glass straw. It will last a LOT longer than plastic will, it’s easy to clean, and recyclable should you ever decide to get rid of it (which you won’t!) And guess what, you can earn one for FREE starting March 4^th!

On March 4^th, Glass Dharma will be releasing the details on how to earn a FREE glass straw on Earth Day which is April 22^nd. For more details, check out their blog here. I’ll be sure to post details on our FaceBook page once more info is released! http://www.glassdharma.com/blog.html

Honestly though, you can’t just have one regular sized glass straw. What about your kiddos? Your friends who come over? And your cocktail glass!? It looks a bit lonely without a sipper straw to sip up all the deliciousness sitting at the bottom of the glass. Oh and how are you going to carry it on the go so you can save the earth while out?

Glass Dharma sells a variety of sizes and widths for ever beverage possible, from tall smoothies or Bloody Mary’s, to kids cups and cocktails, for smoothies and even bubble tea! Yes, they created a straw for every beverage and for every occasion. They even have decorative dot ones that come in several different colors, bent ones, brushes to clean your straws with and hemp carrying cases so you can protectively take them wherever you go.

I love my glass straws! I’ve used them to sip on green juices, smoothies, water and even kombucha and no matter how long I left them covered in green goop, they always cleaned easily, looking brand new each time. They are thick, durable and kid friendly too. And yes, I do carry one around everywhere I go and no, it hasn’t broken or chipped. Who knows how many straws I have prevented from entering the landfills! It’s a great feeling knowing that such a small investment can make such a great impact! Oh, and don’t worry if they do break; they’ll either try to fix it or replace it J

Check out Glass Dharma and I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on how you can earn one for FREE so you try such an amazing, earth saving product.

Snacks: Lemon-Ginger MTO Kombucha,

Lunch: Friday is always leftover day in my home. It’s my time to see what leftover foods I have and get creative. Last night I noticed I had half of a medium zucchini, some mushrooms in need of eating, some tomatoes that were slowly losing their firmness and tons of kale, cauli and herbs. The talk of raw tabouleh and hummus on Brad’s FaceBook page gave me the idea to make my own little raw Mediterranean platter. And that is EXACTLY what I did. And boy am I happy I did!!

The hummus recipe is my own – shocker I know! – thanks to an awesome pal on the community page that suggested using raw sunflower seeds instead of raw sesame seeds! Best hummus I have made so far!

Raw Cauli Tabouleh

adapted from PureWow, adapted from "The Clean Plate Cookbook" 

modified to serve one

• ½ heaping cup of cauli florets (makes about ½ cup of cauli rice)
• ¼ of cucumber, peeled and diced (about ¼ cup)
• 10 grape tomatoes, quartered (about ¼ cup)
• 2 Tbsp of chopped parlsey
• 2-3 tsp of dried dill
• 2 large leaves of mint, sliced
• 1 Tbsp of Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• Salt, to taste

1. In a food processor, add the cauliflower and process until it resembles rice. Pour into a large bowl.
2. Add the cucumber, tomatoes, parsley, dill and mint and mix well to combine.
3. In a small bowl, add the lemon juice and olive oil and whisk to emulsify
4. Pour the dressing over the cauli tabouleh, adding only half at first, and stir until the cauli tabouleh has been well coated. Salt to taste. Add more dressing according to your taste preference. I prefer mine lemony and less oily.

Raw Zucchini Hummus

by Beth Mickens

Serves One

• 1 cup of diced Zucchini
• 2 Tbsp of Sunflower Seeds
• 2 Tbsp of Hemp Seeds
• 1 Lemon, juiced
• ¼ tsp of garlic paste
• Salt, to taste

1. Place all the ingredients into a food processor (or your Magic Bullet with the S Blade) and process until smooth. Don’t worry if it seems a bit watery at first, it will thicken up.

Enjoy your Cauli Tabouleh and Hummus with some raw veggies like cukes, tomatoes, and raw olives. If you have any raw chips, add them too as a substitute for pita bread! This would also go great into avocado halves…stuffed Mediterranean Avocado Halves with Hummus Dressing! Yumm yumm yumm!

Dinner/Dessert: Dessert became dinner. I had great intentions to come home and eat a healthy, hearty snack of apple and celery with homemade raw almond butter and a drizzle of honey. But as I opened the fridge door, I noticed my raw brownie crackers that I had forgotten I had made with my almond pulp just last week. My intentions was to make raw brownie crisps but they didn't firm up the way I wanted them to. I have more experimenting to do on that one before I can post a recipe. The taste still resembles that of a brownie, semi-sweet and super cocoa-ey but the texture is chewy and crunchy due to the added cacao nibs. I smothered my brownie bites with some raw almond butter, unsweetened shredded coconut, cacao nibs and a drizzle of honey. DELISH!

Raw Almond Butter

by Beth Mickens

• 1 cup of raw Almonds
• 1/4 cup of raw Cashews
• salt
• Honey or other liquid sweetener, optional
• Cacao Nibs, Coconut, etc.

1. In a food processor or Vitamix, blend the Almonds and Cashews for several minutes until they form a warm and creamy nut butter. If you're using a Vitamix, slowly raise the speed to 7 and allow to blend while using the tamper to push the nuts down and towards the middle. It should only take 2-3 minutes in the Vitamix.
2. Once your nuts have transformed into a creamy nut butter, sprinkle with salt and blend a bit more.
3. From this point, you can either store the nut butter in a jar or container as is, or pour it into a bowl and then mix in your add ins, including honey, cacao nibs, etc. I have come to find that adding honey or coconut oil straight in while blending causes the nut butter to seize up and become more chunky and not spreadable.