Raw Food Class: Quick and Easy Healthy Fast Food

A Sneak preview of our Quick and Easy Healthy Fast Food Class

Join us on March 27 for this informative and fun class.  You’ll get to attend live and receive access to the fully indexed by recipe online videos.

http://www.drritamarie.com/glutenfreeclasses/quickmeals2011-03

Quick and Easy Healthy Fast Foods Recipe Guide

Mock Tuna

Sour "Cream"

Hummus

Mock Salmon

Fruit Salad

Guacamole

Salsa

Creamy Cheddar Dip

Cuucumber Dill Dip

Would you like to learn to make delicious, nutritious,
quick and easy sugar-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, trans-fat free delights?

Here’s a Sampling of the Quick and Easy Fast
Food Delights You’ll Learn To Make

• Vegetable Rich Sandwich Spreads
• Creamy Dips
• Tacos
• Wraps
• Burgers
• Sandwiches
• Spring Rolls
• Nori Rolls (Sushi)

We look forward to connecting with you Sunday.  If you’re on the webcast, you can submit your questions and get answers.

Quick and Easy Healthy Fast Food Class

Join us on March 27 for this informative and fun class.  You’ll get to attend live and receive access to the fully indexed by recipe online videos.

http://www.drritamarie.com/glutenfreeclasses/quickmeals2011-03

Love, Helath and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

Raw Food Diet: Dairy Free Cheese Options

For many of us, cheese is a cherished comfort food.  However, there is an increasing amount of evidence that dairy products can result in serious health conditions ranging from allergies to cancer.  Cheese is certainly tasty, but how good is it for your health?

Eliminating dairy from your diet is an effective way to increase your energy and boost your zest for life!  It will also decrease your health care costs in the long run.  There’s a great Youtube series of 8 videos called Udderly Amazing that gives very nice explanations of why cow’s milk is not a good food for humans.  Video 2 explains why drinking milk of any species after weaning is a bad idea.

Here’s the first two in the series:

Making the shift away from milk is not that difficult for many people.  There is such a wide variety of milk substitutes to choose from.  Typically, when you enter a grocery store, there will be almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk, and sometimes even coconut milk on the shelf.  There are sweetened and unsweetened options and some milks come in different flavors.

If you would rather try to avoid the processed milk substitutes at the grocery store, you can make always make one yourself.  It is a fairly easy process to do at home.  You just need the right tools.  Basically, a nut milk bag and a blender is all you need.  You’d be surprised at how simple it really is.

Good cheese substitutes are harder to find.  Most of the available cheese substitutes are not even really dairy-free.  Nearly all of them are soy-based and contain casein.  Casein is a protein extracted from cow’s milk.  The video series above explains all about casein.  It is the most common cause of dairy allergy symptoms.  So, it seems like it would defeat the purpose to make a cheese substitute with casein in it.  There are a few almond or rice based cheese substitutes, but they’re all highly processed and they include iffy ingredients like canola oil.

Locating a healthy and nourishing cheese substitute was a nightmare, until now!  You can make your own cheese substitute right in your home kitchen!  Your dairy-free cheese substitute comes complete with probiotics to boost your digestive system and other nutrient dense ingredients that will promote health and energy.

You can enjoy substitute cheese in any shape or form.  Make it solid, slice it, make it into a sauce, spread it on vegetables.  Do whatever you like with it!  You can make creamy, sharp, or tangy cheese!  Make whatever suits you!  You can enjoy the cheesy taste that we all know and love while strengthening your immune system at the same time!

Our cheeses are comprised of raw nuts and seeds, probiotics, some lemon juice, seasonings and binders like Irish moss and psyllium husk.  They are delicious and nutritious additions to any diet.

We’ll be teaching our secret cheese making techniques on January 16.  The live class is in Austin, Texas and it will also be broadcast over the internet and available on digital video afterward.  Learn our secret recipes for soft ricotta like cheese (we use it to make ravioli), cheese ball rolled in nuts,white and cheddar cheese blocks, macadamia nut feta cheese, swiss cheese slices and a beautiful party spread made with a white cheese layered with pesto and sun dried tomatoes.

These cheeses are amazing.  Karen Osborne gifted me with two types of cheese for Christmas.  One was a spreadable block, the other was firm enough to cut into slices.  I enjoyed both  on chia crackers, topped with sunflower sprouts!

It’s such a great feeling to enjoy the tangy creaminess of cheese, knowing it’s so nutritious.  What a delicious way to replenish your gut with probiotics.

We look forward to a very good turnout for this class.  If you have a conflict or live far away, please join us for the webcast  and videos.

Click HERE to Register for Cheeses – No Dairy, No Guilt, 100% Raw and Living Foods

Raw Food Recipes for Gluten Free Diet and Healthy Holidays

Eating a gluten free diet and making raw foods recipes during the holidays need not be difficult.  You especially need not feel deprived.

Here’s one of my favorite  raw food recipes for gluten free gingerbread cookies, taken from my book Healthy Holiday Traditions.  Before I switched to a gluten free diet, high raw foods and greens, I would bake gingerbread cookies and have lots of fun shaping them into people of various sizes and shapes.

This recipe results in raw vegan gluten free cookies that taste even better than the baked kinds.

I’ve given you two versions to try.  If you have a food dehydrator, I recommend you try the first recipe.  They come out warm and fragrant.  If you don’t have a dehydrator yet, the freezer cookies are great too. I’ve even included a recipe for a creamy frosting to top the cookies with and decorate as you choose.

Additional gluten free raw foods recipes for healthy holidays are in our new book “Dessert:  Making it Rich Without Oil”, Sweets for the Holidays online videos and Healthy Holiday Traditions e-book.  All are available for immediate download.

Enjoy and have a happy, healthy  holiday.

Gingerbread Cookies – Dehydrated

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds, soaked overnight and rinsed
• 1 cup walnuts, soaked overnight and rinsed
• 1/4 cup raw date paste (see recipe below)
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 2/3 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/3 teaspoons cloves
• Pinch sea salt
• 1/2 – 1 cup shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Combine almonds, walnuts,  and date paste with salt and spices in food processor until well combined.
2. Knead the coconut a little at a time into dough. Use between ½ and 1 cup – as much as it takes to result in a rollable dough.
3. Roll or press dough onto paraflex sheets and use cookie cutters to make into desired sizes of gingerbread people.
4. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for a few hours until the cookies are firm enough to remove to mesh sheets.
5. Flip onto mesh sheets and dehydrate for another 8 hours or to desired texture.
6. Make a variety of colored frostings and apply using pastry bag and various tips.
7. You can also decorate cookies with dried fruits, nuts, seeds, or coconut.

Variations:

• Eliminate spices and use raw cacao powder to make chocolate cookies.
• Use a variety of cookie cutter sizes and shapes.
• Form cookies into rounds instead of using cookie cutters.
• Shape cookies by putting dough into a cookie press.

Creamy Cookie Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw cashews or macadamia nuts (or half and half)
• 1/3  cup water, or coconut water
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup date paste
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth and creamy.
2. If  too thick, add just a tad more liquid
3. Use dehydrated fruit powders and spirulina to pigment the frosting.

Date Paste

Many recipes that use liquid sweetener can be made with date paste instead.  It’s easy to make and keeps in the refrigerator for at least a week, if not longer.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dates, pitted
• ½ cup water

Directions:

Blend ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.

Alternative:

Soak the dates in water for 20 minutes.  Then blend the dates and the soak water in a food processor until smooth.  You may need to add a little more water.

Holiday Indulgence Without the Guilt

Whenever I break out of my sheltered world of health conscious people who eat organic whole foods and use natural products to clean their clothes, homes and bodies, I am reminded of just how much work is left to do to educate the masses about the importance of diet and environment on our health. As a nation we’re obese, sick and for the most part unconscious. We’re fueled by sugar, caffeine and artificially flavored and colored manufactured consumables that don’t deserve to be labeled food. In spite of a seemingly raised awareness of the role of our daily choices on the state of our health, there are still huge segments of the population that hasn’t a clue.

As a part of some seminars I’ve been investing in to improve my ability to more fully service my tribe of health seekers, I was asked to identify my mission in life. My mission was described as the far reaching and BIG impact that I yearn to have on the world. I was told that it needs to be big enough that it is unlikely to be reached in my lifetime, yet throughout my life, my day to day actions contribute to the its fruition.

I spent a lot of contemplative time exploring my inner crevices to determine what my mission is. After some deep soul searching, here’s what I came up with.

“My mission is to end needless pain and suffering from lifestyle related diseases. These include “The BIG Three”, cancer, heart disease and diabetes” as well as so many others.”

As the flight attendant came around and asked if I wanted to purchase a meal and described the choices, I realized that another mission, a step if you will on the path to the big mission, is to facilitate the creation of a world where whole, fresh organic food is the ONLY choice on airplanes, fast food restaurants, private homes and all other places where food is available.

Imagine a world where EVERYONE returned to eating only real whole food. Imagine no temptations, no pressure to eat processed food from well meaning yet misguided friends and family members. In such a world, there would be vibrant health, compassion, joy and true peace.

As we head into the holiday season, I’d like to offer a suggestion to you IF you’d like to enjoy vibrant health, powerful energy and joyful interactions throughout this season of celebration. Do this exercise only if you’d like to wake up on January 1 in a body that you love – a comfortable, energetic body that is at or on the way to your ideal body weight.

Sit down in a comfortable place with pencil and paper and make a list of all the foods that you associate with your enjoyment of the holidays. Rate each on a scale of -5 to +5. Foods that are negative have a negative impact on your health, positively numbered foods have a positive impact on your health. The larger the number the more positive,. The more negative the number the more harmful the food. An example of a -5 food is anything containing hydrogenated o heated oil, such as margarine or many commercial pie crusts and snack foods. Foods that qualify as +5 are foods that are very nutrient dense, like green juice and sprouts. Make a commitment to yourself to only eat foods with positive numbers.

It’s quite possible that you can find or make variations of your favorite negatively rated foods that would rate as positive.

We’ve created a class called “Healthy Holiday Feasts: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Living Foods versions of Traditional Holiday Favorites” to provide you with the tools you need to create delicious and satisfying versions of traditional holiday favorite that you can enjoy without guilt and with the assurance that this year you’ll sail through the holidays with your waistline in tact and wake up on New Year’s Day feeling energetic, strona anf on your way to a phenomenal year, without the need for soon to be broken New Year’s resolutions.

We’re excited to offer the class as a webcast as well as a live and in person one, and to make the high quality videos available afterward. These videos will nicely round out your holiday recipe collection.

In a few short hours, you could be learning recipes like eggless egg-nog, turkeyless turkey loaf, potatoless mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie and more. The pumpkin pie is a new lighter, lower fat version of the one in my book “Thanksiving Feasts” book and it tastes just as delicious.

Whether you’d like to create a complete Thanksgiving feast or simply replace some of your old favorites with healthier gluten-free, vegan living foods versions, you’ll learn lots of tips at the class. And you’ll be giving yourself the best gift of all this holiday season – the gift of health!

Learn more and sign-up at

http://www.drritamarie.com/videoclasses/holidayfeasts2010-11

On the web, in person or on video afterward, this class is a winner.

In love and gratitude,

Dr. Ritamarie

Holiday Feasts cover

5 Simple Strategies for Avoiding Food Ruts with Gluten Free Raw Foods

When you decide to start eating a gluten free, allergy avoidance  or raw foods diet for healthy weight,  strength and stamina, and to help your body heal from chronic health challenges, it can seem overwhelming.  There are new foods to experiment with, comfort foods you’re not really happy about letting go of and all new ways of preparing and timing your meals to get all the nutrients you need and avoid the toxins that are making you ill.

Stay tuned over the next few days for several blog posts and the announcement of a free teleseminar to offer give you lots of strategies about how to eat, what to eat and how to deal with cravings for the foods you’ve created an emotional attachment to.

For today, I’d like to address strategies to keep you from getting into a rut around your food choices.

It’s so easy to become overwhelmed when making diet changes. You may feel that there’s nothing familiar left to eat, start eating lots of fruits and salads or packaged foods that claim to be nutritious, and then start to feel frustrated and unfulfilled.  I know how it is…I’ve been there.

Over the years of working on my own eating habits and counseling thousands of patients and students on optimizing their own health, I’ve developed strategies that have helped a lot.  SO I thought today I would share 5 of them with you.

1- Everytime you go shopping, choose at least one food you’ve never made or tasted before.  Then check your recipe
books or do a web search and and choose a recipe you’ve never made before that features the new ingredient.

If you do this a couple of times a week, you’ll soon develop a repertoire of satisfying recipes that you can make quickly and easily.  I have several good recipe books in the shopping area of my website if you need inspiration.

2- Make friends with herbs and spices.  You can capture the essence of a particular type of ethnic cuisine my liberally sprinkling your food with seasoning blends.  I like to purchase pre-made mixtures for convenience to use when I am short of time and create my own when I’m less busy.  I’ve made my own seasoning blends using tried and true combinations of ethnic seasonings and added extra punch and nutrition by grinding kelp powder and adding hemp seeds.

3- Purchase a dehydrator and learn to make your favorite comfort foods in healthy new ways.  You can still eat bread, cheese and crackers, cookies and chips on a health supporting diet.  You just need to learn new techniques and have a selection of tried and true recipes to follow.  A dehydrator allows you to make delicious comfort foods from vegetables, herbs spices, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and fruits.

I’ve spent the last year putting together two amazing products that teach you just how to do this step by step.  There’s an e-book with over 250 pages of detailed instruction plus over 160 recipes and a DVD set with recipe guide and laminated charts that shows you every step of the way.

You can get on the early notification list by going to www.DriedandGoneToHeaven.com

4- Experiment with food combinations you wouldn’t ordinarily think about doing.  I recently discovered that I love mango with avocado and a pinch of cayenne.  It couldn’t be easier to fix and it tastes divine.  Just yesterday, I blended some coconut butter (whole organic coconut flesh blended into a cream) with vanilla and poured over frozen cherries.  The coconut hardened on the cherries and it was like eating candy.

5- Attend food preparation classes regularly to get new ideas and learn new techniques.  It’s helpful to find classes taught by people with lots of experience.  You’ll benefit from their vast years or even decades of experimentation and perfecting their technique.  If you can’t be there in person, attend online.

About a month ago I discovered that there’s is a huge demand for high quality food preparation classes. We had over 100 attendees worldwide attend our Bread Making class last month…and it was announced within only 2 weeks of the start date.  We’re expecting even more participants for our upcoming series.

We’ll announce the entire lineup of classes tomorrow when the website is completed.  In the meantime, check out
our “Thai Food Goes Raw” class and learn to make delicious, nutritious recipes that are so satisfying and aromatic,
you’ll be making them all the time.

http://www.drritamarie.com/videoclasses/thaigoesraw

The class will be held in Austin Texas and broadcast over the internet.  As a participant in either the in person class or the online broadcast, you’ll get access to the high quality videos after the event is over and a pdf format e-book of the recipes, complete with a photo of each recipe.

The price of the videos will go up as soon as the class is over, so even if you can’t make the live call, you’ll be able to watch the videos and get started making the recipes right away.

It’s so exciting to teach these classes, and I’m priveleged to have on my team two amazing chefs, Karen Osborne, a graduate of Living Light Culinary Institute and Pamela Weems, trained by me as a certified Alisa Cohen Living on Live Foods chef and instructor.

The Thai Raw Food menu is amazing!  check it out at http://www.drritamarie.com/videoclasses/thaigoesraw

In my over two decades of coaching and consulting patients and training people in the art of whole fresh foods for optimal health, I’ve found the the most profound changes to health come from the power of your fork.  What you put in becomes the building blocks for your fit, trim, comfortable and joyfully present body, mind and spirit.

Eating wholesome nutritious foods does not have to be boring.  Get out of your food rut and enjoy the foods that are rebuilding your body into an amazing vessel of love, health and joy!

Love, Health and Joy to YOU,

Dr. Ritamarie