The Winner Is


Hello Everyone,

Sorry for the DELAY in announcing the winner of the FOODMATTERS DVD. I have a good excuse. I was at a 2 night lecture this weekend on Raw Food done by David Wolfe.!!!! So I was out of town and things were pretty hectic.

Thank you everyone for entering my contest. The winner was chosen by Random. org. and comment number 8 is the winner.

Comment number 8 belongs to Erin C!!!

Congratulations to Erin C. Please contact me via email or face book so I can send out your DVD.

Thank you for all of your questions that you came up with. I will be going over some of the answers this week, so stay tuned.
I have so many exciting things to share with you all, however I will have to get it to you in the next couple of days.

Giveaway: FOODMATTERS DVD

It is giveaway time again. I am excited to announce that the 2nd giveaway here on Blyssful Health is a copy of this amazing documentary FOODMATTERS.



This documentary cuts through the mass of information out there today on Nutrition and Natural Healing and presents it all in an easy to understand format leaving you ready to take steps to improve the quality of your health and life today. It is packed with leading edge nutritionist and health experts. If you are wondering why so many people are sick and how you can change your own eating and health, then watch this documentary. It is very eye opening.

You can check out the trailer at the bottom of my blog.

CONTEST RULES:

1. The contest will only be open to Canadian and U.S. Residents.

HOW TO ENTER:

First answer the mandatory question?

"If you could ask a raw food/health food expert one question about your health or eating raw. What would your question be?"


AND THEN DO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING AND TELL ME IN YOUR COMMENT :


1. Write about this contest in a blog post and link back to this site.

2. Join my Facebook Group

3. Add Blyssful Health to your blogroll

4. Mention and link to this contest on your Facebook Page

5. Recruit a friend to join Blyssful Health via Facebook or email subscription

6. Tweet about this contest (@BLYSSFUL HEALTH: Giveaway: FOODMATTERS DVD http://t.co/cURdAJ0)

7. Join Google Friend Connect



Example: My question is how to get more energy? and I tweeted.



Want to enter more than once?

All you have to do is complete another one of the options listed above and leave a new comment.

Example: I joined your facebook group!


Contest ends Friday April 29th at 4:00pm

Good luck!!!!
I will not make comments until after the contest as I will be using random org for the draw and I don't want to have my comments impact the draw.

Just wanted to say thank you to FOODMATTERS for sending me this DVD for our contest.

Family Meal...Raw Style

I firstly want to say a big thank you to my sister in-law Erin and her family for coming to visit us for Easter. I had a lot of fun preparing a raw meal for Erin and myself and having some of our family member's try it. You will have to go over to her blog Raw Therapy to see the pics of the food. Erin takes great pictures, so I asked her to take all of the photo's while I was getting the food together.

Our Raw Easter Meal

(Raw)Mock Tuna and celery
Falafel & Hummus Wrap with Mediterranean “Roasted” Vegetables
Kale Salad

The Mock Tuna was great. I got the base recipe from Animal Friendly Eating I have posted this recipe before as I think great tasting and it has kelp in it which is great for your radiation protection.


The Wilted Kale Salad With Creamy Chipotle Dressing and Falafel & Hummus Wrap with Mediterranean “Roasted” Vegetables were taken from Russell James. He also has some home study courses that you may want to check out Russell James . I adapted these a bit due to my ingredient on hand but they turned out great.

When I make raw food for myself I like to experiment a lot and do a whole bunch of different things. However I wanted to go out of my element and make something new. I was not disappointed at all. The Falafel & Hummus Wrap with Mediterranean were totally a new recipe for me and they were awesome. I am making my second batch of the recipe today. Yummy!!! I hope you will give these a try.

You will see eating raw can be so easy and yummy. Also check out April in the Raw

Medicinal Herbs & Upcoming Contest

Oh YES and Easter Pics. I couldn't fit that all in the tittle. Happy Easter and belated Earth Day everyone! Hope you are having a great time with your family and friends. I wanted to share some photo's of my daughter's Easter Eggs.



This year we experimented with homemade colouring and some traditional ones. We got to use some rose hip tea for red, curry for yellow (I could not find the turmeric in time) and some raspberries too. My daughter had a great time doing this and she was truly delighted.



Then yesterday we went outside and planted some seeds. It was pretty cold. Both children were wearing winter coats.



We lasted outside for about 15-20 minutes. Then back indoors.



Loving the feel of the soil on our hands.



This year I am growing my own little medicinal garden. I am going to use the herbs for teas and tinctures(if I get time).



I love the open the package and dump all the seeds in the pot "method" that my daughter had.



We planted:

RED CLOVER
ASHWAGANDHA
MILK THISTLE
BURDOCK ROOT
MUCUNA(still to be planted)
DAIKON

and more to come...

I was really inspired to plant a more medicinal garden this year while studying David Wolfe's Ultimate Raw Nutrition Course. In the course I was able to get a very detailed explanation and view of what he grows in his garden. It totally makes sense to have at your fingertips the best vegetables and herbs for your daily use.

What are you planning on planting this year? If you can't grow your own garden due to space and time? Consider joining a CSA in your community.

Stay tuned for my next giveaway in a few days. It is another GREAT one. I am so excited to share it with you.!!! I love sharing things that I believe in and that have impacted my life in someway.

April in the RAW & Cake Pop Challenge



I am not sure if you heard about the event April in the Raw. I think this is a great event to support raw food. It is always fun to get some new inspiration for the kitchen and share recipes with others. So thank-you Brittany at Real Sustenance for putting this on this event.

I have submitted my Chocolate Blyss Treats.



I also submitted my Wonderful Kale Smoothie Recipes.



So I know we are heading into the last few days of April......but go and check it out. You won't be disappointed.

CAKE POP CHALLENGE




Well this has been fun, truly I have been in the kitchen a lot trying to figure these little guys out. To be honest I have not eaten very many cake pops in my life time. Certainly not raw pop cakes. So when I saw that Nicoleand Lisa created a cake pop challenge I thought that I would try it.

Wow I am on a learning curve to say the least. It was fun and I have learned a lot and have a lot more to learn. My husband and my daughter have tried what seems like a zillion recipes. My daughter was helping me in the kitchen a lot. This evening she woke up from her sleep and was talking about rolling the cake pops.( I kid you not)

I just kept trying new ones and my main thing was not to look at any recipes. I wanted it to be from scratch. Here are a few that I made.

macadamia nut pops
cashew nut pops
carrot pops
and more......




They are not perfect by any means but yummy and definitely healthy.

The first one is a CACAO RASPBERRY CAKE POP!

The Cake:

1/2 cup raw cashews (not soaked)
1 tbs cacao nibs
20 ml golden flax seed (previously was soaked in 15-20ml of water)
2tsp raw cacao powder
2tsp flax powder
1/4 cup raspberries(frozen)
10 ml vanilla powder
7 drops stevia

(optional to add one tsp of agave)
Blend in food processor. Until mixture starts to create a ball. Roll into individual balls and put sticks into balls and keep in fridge.

Icing # 1: Hard Chocolate Coating


125ml of melted cacao butter
pinch of salt
2 tbs agave
3 tbs strained raspberry puree
2 tbs coconut oil

Mix all ingredients into melted cacao butter. As it cools dip cake pop into mixture and refrigerate. If you want a darker colour add more raspberry puree.



Option# 2: Soft Raspberry Icing

1 cup cashews
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
20 mls fresh lemon juice
3 tsp coconut oil
3 tsp agave
2 tsp water

Blend in food processor. Put icing on cake pop with knife and then add cacao nibs for decoration. Stick back in fridge or freezer until ready to eat.





This fun fluffy icing is my favourite of the 2.


Next....

Carrot Cake POP

Carrot Cake

1/3 cup shredded carrots
5 ml vanilla powder
10 mls cinnamon
1ml shredded ginger
pinch of salt
2/3 cup raw cashews
1 tsp agave

Blend all ingredients in food processor. Roll into balls and place sticks into each ball.

Carrot Icing

2/3 cup cashews
4 dates (pitted)
20ml pre soaked flax seed ( soak flax seed in 20-30 ml water)
1/2 cup fresh carrot juice
5ml cinnamon
2 tbs agave

Blend in food processor and cool in fridge.

Take carrot pops and dip into icing. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Put in fridge or freezer for icing to harden.




Enjoy. Have a little fun in your life...try making a cake pop!

Russel James: Raw Food Chef

Okay can I just tell you that I am loving Uk Raw Food Chef Russel James. I first found him on a couple of blogs. So I got really curious about him and signed up for his newsletter. Then... he was posted in a contest on Raw Rehab this month. I have tried several of his recipes and I think they are great. He has put out some free video's and if you haven't checked them out I would highly suggest it.

I have made a couple of his dishes so far and really enjoyed them. I made a creamy kale salad that used avocado in it. I have made it twice and it is so yummy. Of course I adapted mine a little bit. I know you will all like this as you all love kale. Here is my version. His look a lot better than mine do. I am usually rushed and still trying to figure out my camera....so go check out his pictures to see the really great photo's.




So this is my own adapted version as I didn't have cherry tomatoes an I also added some sunflower cheese. So Yummy.



Then I also made a Mango Timbale today. The combination is so different that I just had to try it. I was totally intrigued because I would never put these things together on my own. Like avocado, mango, grapefruit, bee pollen and more. This dish was so easy to make that it will be one of my new staples. It took me about 10 minutes. It should have lemongrass foam on it, but I didn't have any on hand. I will give it a try next week. I do love lemongrass, so I bet it would be good.






I am going to purchase one of his packages I just haven't figured out which one yet. I like his e-books package and it has a great price. I found out that it is easier for me to have the e book on the computer or watch a video. Instead of looking through my hard copies. Of course I would love to take his home study program. However I am still finishing up some other courses right now. I can always hope that I win the Raw Rehab contest where the prize is one of his courses. A girl has to be lucky sometime, right?

I think one of the things I really enjoy about him is that his straight forward down to earth approach and personality in the videos.
If you haven't seen him, check him out. Just got an email today(Friday) that he is also launching his home study course and it's open to the public now.


Love to hear if you tried any of his recipes?

Raw food in a HURRY

A lot of the time I make some of my raw food dishes at night and do my blog posting at night when the children are a sleep. I should have called this blog the "Midnight Foodie", or something like that. It has been a bit hectic this week. We were out all day for medical appointments for my son Wysdom. For those of you that may not know I started blogging about my son almost two years ago. I loved blogging so much that I then started this blog to talk about my raw food and health journey.

This week I have made quite a few new things. To be honest when I am in the kitchen I just throw together whatever I have. I have a lot of raw food books, but I often don't get the time to look through them. So I just wing it a bit. For the most part things go pretty well.

This week it has been really simple though.

A simple salad with marinated corn.



Ingredients:

lettuce
kale
avocado sliced
corn (marinated in cumin, coconut vinegar, splash of olive oil,salt, pepper and sweetener if needed)
tomatoes

I had planned to do more with the corn, but time did not allow it. The corn had at least 1 tbs cumin and I was pleasantly surprised how yummy it tasted. I left it sit in the marinade for a while and the cumin flavour was nice and strong and made the salad work.

Next I made a broccoli & carrot dish with a nut sauce. This turned out to be so yummy.




I added scallion, some cilantro, ginger, garlic,salt and a touch of tamari. The ginger made it work really well. Put all together and mix. I think the key is to let the broccoli to sit in the sauce for a bit and soften.




My husband who HATES broccoli and never eats it. Ate this dish and asked for more!! Loving it. He may soon be a raw foodie too.


Lastly I also made some dried apples with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Yum.




I also got an order that I placed last week and in it are some of the things that I talked about in regards to radiation protection. I am really interested in the the bag of Chaga Mushroom, but I haven't been able to try it out yet.


Love to hear what things you make when you are really REALLY pinched for time or on the road all day?

All Things Raw & Sweet!!

One of the things that I do love about raw sweets is that often after tasting a raw dessert many people love it and want to try more raw foods. So if you know someone who is skeptical about raw foods, I suggest offering a dessert. In today's post you will find a yummy pink smoothie and my favourite Chocolate Blyss Treats.




First up...This lovely Pink Smoothie

Frozen Raspberries
Banana
Sunwarrior Chocolate Protein Powder
Hemp Seeds
Water

Blend well and top with some raspberries. Enjoy.



Next onto one of the staples in my home. Chocolate Blyss Treats. These are great, healthy for you and perfect for a little snack. You can't make this wrong. I posted these before but without a recipe. So here they are again. I have to be honest each time I make them a little bit different depending on my mood and what's in my pantry, however they are always a BIG HIT.

Ingredients for batch #1
1/4 Cup Sunflower Seeds
1/4 Cup Raw Cacao Powder
1/4 Cup Organic Nut Butter
Vanilla Bean or Vanilla Powder
1/4 Shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1 Tbs Agave(or you could use honey, maple syrup, yacon)
2 Tbs Ground Flax Seed
2Tbs Coconut Oil

Hemp seeds and shredded coconut needed for decorating.

Mix together in a large bowl. If the nut butter is clumpy mash with a fork. If the mixture is dry add more coconut oil. If it is too wet add more seeds or flax powder. I ended up adding a little more flax and then one more tbs of nut butter.


Roll into balls. Use your hands and roll in your choice of shredded coconut or hemp seeds Put in the freezer and take out just before eating. I love eating them frozen and so does my family. They will look like this. You can substitute chia seeds, cacao nibs, carob or tahini.





My second batch has the following added ingredients. They are the dark ones that are not rolled in seeds or coconut.

Ingredients for batch # 2:
bee pollen
blue green algae
pinch of Himalayan Salt



These are by no means sweet in the traditional understanding. They are slightly sweet so you can adapt them to the level of sweetness that you prefer.

Next.....Just joking. I will save my raw chocolate making experience for a future post. But here is a sneak peak.



Don't forget to check out my guest post over at Healthy Heyday this Friday.

Enjoy!

Wonderful Kale Smoothies

I am not going to lie, I am in love with kale. I never knew that I would have such a personal relationship with kale, but it just happened. It seems to be my go to vegetable these days. I am so looking forward to growing some this year as I keep consuming tons of it, mostly in my smoothies and for kale chips. I usually tend to lean towards my favourite green smoothie mix of kale, lemon and green apples. However since we have two huge watermelons rolling around on the table and consuming a huge amount of space, I thought that I better switch it up.

I am going to nickname this as my "welcome to green smoothies" drink. I made two versions and the first is just perfect to share with someone who is new to the green smoothie movement.( where you combine fruit and green vegetables into one healthy smoothie). It is so mild tasting and would be great with a frilly little umbrella on it and you can pretend you are at the beach.

Here is the first batch I made today.

You will need
2 cups of cubed watermelon
1 frozen banana (can use more if you want it sweeter or less)
1/3 cup of water
1/3 cup raspberries
1 cup spinach

Put everything in a blender and serve. I love the fresh light green shade and taste. It is perfect for those that have never had a green smoothie.


My daughter and hubby loved it.


If you have been drinking green smoothies for a while you could do this version. It is still light and fluffy and would work in a nice summer setting or really anytime of year. I added this to the recipe ingredients listed above:

6 kale leaves
1 capsule of blue green algae or E3Live

I blended in the kale and then poured out the mixture. To that I added the algae and mixed it around. This turned it a shade darker. You could also half the amount of banana if you don't need your smoothies to be sweet. I have also been in love with blue green algae. If you don't have it you could use spirulina or chlorella.



Followed the smoothie with a quick salad. Messy, but yummy.



Enjoy!!

What vegetable are you in love with these days? Are you having a green smoothie everyday? I would love to hear if you have tried blue green algae and what you think of it?

Asian Chickpea Salad & Curry Chickpea

On any given day I am making a whole lot of food. Raw food and cooked food. My family is very willing to eat raw foods, but they don't eat as much as me. They try a lot of the things that I make, but they still have a vegan style meal a lot of the time. Their food is healthy and contains some of the best ingredient, so I thought that I would share a typical night for us. I make my raw meal and their cooked meal often by using the same theme.

I made myself this chickpeas dish which is not all raw, but still very good.


Salad Ingredients
Chickpeas
1/8 Cup Dulse
1/4 Cup Scallions
1/2 Cup Celery
Few Raisins (yes this is a weird idea with the dulse but it worked well)

Dressing
miso
apple cider vinegar
olive and algae oil
salt (this will depend on what type of seaweed you use-you made not need any)


For mine I scooped some onto some mixed greens and added a few sprouts. My daughter actually really liked this and took it to school for her lunch the next day.

Then....

I made a Curry Chickpea dish for my husband. This is a really tasty vegan dish that you can make for your family. It is so quick that I can make it in about 30 minutes and it is healthy for you. There is barely any oil, and the oil we use is good for you.


You will need:
Chickpeas (soaked and boiled or or canned)
I tbs curry powder
I medium sized onion
1tbs coconut oil ( Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil by Nutiva)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bay leaf & 1 sprig of thyme
1/4-1/2 Cup shredded cabbage
1 carrot slice or shredded
1/2 Cup Coconut Milk (Organic)
1/2 cup water
hot pepper to your liking ( I used about 1/4 green chili)
pinch of Himalayan salt or sea salt

Heat the coconut oil and lightly saute the curry, onion, bay leaf, thyme and garlic. Add in chickpeas, carrot, cabbage and stir to get all veggies coated with the curry powder. Add your water and coconut milk. Allow to come to a slight boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes. Add hot pepper, salt and pepper to your liking. If it is too thick add water, if it is too runny mash a couple of the chick peas and the curry will get thicker. Enjoy.

I like it when the vegetables are just slightly cooked and still crunchy. I have made this many ways and you can change the vegetables that you use. You can use kale or spinach and add it to the mixture just before serving.




You can serve this over steamed brown rice. Or even quinoa or millet. This is so quick that it a great meal to have in your recipe file. There is usually lots left over for lunch.

Now my favourite part. Use the left over coconut milk for a treat for all of your hard work in the kitchen. I use mine in my Matcha Green Tea.

I hope you ENJOY!. Does you family require different meals? How do you incorporate new foods into your family meals? I would love to hear from you on what works for your family.

Green Smoothies and Victoria Boutenko

Last week when I was detoxing from my computer I watched a raw food video that I bought many years ago. This video is of Victoria Boutenko doing a food preparation class. I haven't watched this video in a while. They don't sell it any more but there are a lot of other dvd's for sale. I was extremely fortunate to meet her and the family and hear them speak. At the time I was just getting into raw food and she shared a wealth of information and research. My sister and I sat in the front rows and soaked up all of the information she was talking about. I immediately lined up after the workshop and purchased a couple of books and a video.

The thing I liked most about watching the video this week was that it brought raw food back to it's basics. I love the ease and simplicity of her recipes. I feel the focus is not on gourmet raw, but functional daily raw. So after watching her video last week I found out that she was doing a free talk on Omega 3 this week. Not sure if any of you had a chance to listen to this call? I would love to know what you thought of it?

I found this talk to be very so interesting. The focus was on omega 3 and omega 6 and how our bodies are craving omega 3 fatty acid and how we have an abundance of omega 6 fatty acid in our food. She touched upon a lot of points that she has been researching. She brings up the topic that many raw food diets have too much focus on nuts and seeds which are more abundant in omega 6 fatty acids. She believes that we should be focusing more on the green smoothies and therefore getting more omega 3's which help with inflammation, brain development, vision and flexibility. The only seeds and nuts that she is consuming right now is flax seeds, chia seeds and walnuts. After she switched her diet and removed most nuts she began to feel better and loose weight.

She also touched upon being 100% raw vs high raw. ( Wow can I tell you that seems to be a big topic lately, but that's a whole other post). She also brought up the topic of how there is negative energy sometimes between different diets. For example raw food vs vegan vs non vegan. I do love all of her research but also her honesty. She is sharing a chart with all of her information on the percentage of omega 3 vs omega 6 in seeds and nuts. It is on the Green Smoothie Queen Blog

If you can try to listen to this call it is very interesting and challenges a lot of beliefs raw food. I am not sure how long this link will be available.

Also check some of the products that Victoria and the raw family offer. I did make a few things from her family books including a yummy raw soup and some cookies that I will post about later. In the meantime....drink your green smoothie and get your omega 3's.


My favorite is kale, lemon, apple and sprouts. Sometime a small piece of date is added for my daughter. However after a few smoothies, she doesn't need it anymore.



Love to hear what you thing about reducing the nuts and seeds in your diet? Omega 3's in the raw food diet? 100% raw vs high raw?

Radiation..What are you doing?


Over the last couple of weeks I have been reading a lot of articles relating to radioactive material leaking from Fukushima plant and thinking about what I should add to my daily routine. Around the same time that the leak started in Japan there was also a leak in Ontario Canada at the Pickering Plant. I live in Canada about an hour away from the leak. If you are interested in eating healthy food, now it a great time to start incorporating more super foods into your diet to help offset all of this toxic matter.

I have included a few articles from some of the top health experts in my opinion. I read most of these articles and then made a list of what I want to purchase and incorporate into my diet or just simply increase. For example the soup above has some dulse flake in it. I also love adding my things to my smoothies such as algae, bee pollen, camu camu and more. So this is the perfect place for me to incorporate some of their suggestion. If you want a more detailed protocol they provide it for you.

In the articles you will notice that there a lot of common recommendations such as adding kelp and other sea vegetables into your diet by supplement or as food. Boosting your immune system with vitamins and herbs. Some other points touched upon correcting our nutritional deficiencies and eating chelating herbs. I think there is some great information here on how to support and protect our bodies at this time. I am not in a panic by any means, but I do want to be aware of what I can do to support my body in the best way and that's why I looked to these experts on what to do.

A summary of some of the supplements that are mentioned in the articles are:
Vitamin C
Kelp and
Sea Vegetables
Chlorella
Spirulina
Vitamin/Mineral Supplements
Ginseng
Ashwagandha
Fulvic Acid
Medicinal Mushrooms
Iodine
E3Live/Blue Green Algae
MegaHydrate

Natural News
Has up to date information on the current situation in Japan. Shares information on test they are doing in the US to see how much radioactive material has spread and is found in our food supply.

Body Ecology
Article talks about radioactive Iodine 131 and how it effects our bodies and why we need to make sure our iodine levels are not deficient.

Dr. Mercola
If you scroll down to the section on what to take there is a nice chart of herbs, vitamins and supplements that are listed.

David Wolfe
Amazingly detailed information on products that he recommends and what protocol to take. Very eye opening information on how radiation effects us and what to do to protect ourselves.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens
In depth look at radiation we face everyday and what to do in light of the situation in Japan.

This is my smoothie with an extra dose of blue green algae, vitamin c and bee pollen.


What are you doing to help your body deal with radioactive material? Love to hear if you are doing anything? Go ahead and post your link in the comments section sharing one of your kelp or seaweed recipe below for others to try. We might as well help each other out and swap some of the good stuff. I am sure you have lots.

Thanks to one of my fellow blogger's Kelli She has been posting some great recipes with kelp in them and information on radiation as well. Go take a peak.