Creamy Basil Dressing

¾ cup soaked raw cashews
½ cup water
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup fresh basil
spicy pepper to taste (optional)

Blend in VitaMix til smooth.

Salad Dressing - Quick and Easy

Into your Vita-Mix put the following ingredients:

     ½ cup Braggs apple cider vinegar
     ¼ cup light olive oil (or any oil of your choice)
     ¼ cup honey
     1 tbsp. lemon juice
     ¼ tsp. salt

Blend well (about a minute)Will keep in refrigerator about one week.

Raw Pizza

Here's one of our recent experiments: a great pizza crust recipe we got from Tamara on the VegPeople site ...

Raw Pizza Crust

3/4 cup golden flax seeds (ground fine)
2 cups almonds (ground fine)
2 cups sunflower seeds (ground fine)
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. dried basil
2 cloves fresh garlic (chopped)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 tbs. honey
1/2 cup water or as needed

How to: Put the water, honey, salt, basil and olive oil in a food processor. Pulse everything till smooth. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine the flax, almonds, and sunflower seed powders. Pour the water mixture on top, using your hands form into a big mound. Add more water if necessary. Knead the dough to form a smooth round. Give it a taste to test for seasonings. If it needs more salt add some. Divide the mound into four equal sections. Form these into balls. Take the first ball and put it onto a teflex sheet. Shape it into a thin round. About 4 mm thick. Make the "lip" (crust) around the pizza a little thicker. Do the same thing for the other mounds. Place each tray of pizza into a dehydrator set to 105 F. for 10 hours. Then remove from teflex sheet and continue to dehydrate on the tray for 10 more hours. Leave pizzas in the dehydrator until ready to put the sauce and toppings on.

Then we added toppings:

- Wendi's super recipe for Marinara Sauce using raw and sundried tomatoes

- a "Nut Cheese" from a recipe in Allisa Cohens' book "Living on Live Food"

- some sliced sweet red peppers

- some alfalfa sprouts

What's Wrong with Eggs?

Where to begin? Let’s start with the obvious egg facts. Eggs have zero dietary fiber, and about 70 percent of their calories are from fat—a big portion of which is saturated. They are also loaded with cholesterol—about 213 milligrams for an average-sized egg. For reference, people with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or high cholesterol should consume fewer than 200 milligrams of cholesterol each day. (Uh oh.) And, humans have no biological need to consume any cholesterol at all; we make more than enough in our own bodies.

In addition to these excessive (for humans) natural components of an egg, other human-health hazards exist. Because eggshells are fragile and porous, and conditions on egg farms are crowded, eggs are the perfect host for salmonella—the leading cause of food poisoning in the U.S.

Those are some facts and figures. But how do eggs affect real people in real life? Luckily, researchers have conducted good studies to help answer that question.

Read the full article here

Sour Cream

Sour Cream (vegan)

1 cup raw cashews

¾ cup water

½ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

Pour water over cashews and let soak for 3-5 hours or more, then put this mixture along with all the other ingredients into the VitaMix and blend until smooth, creamy and fluffy (mixture “grows”). The sour cream will thicken up somewhat after being refrigerated. Gets better the second day.

He He He ...