Party and Potluck Nibbles that Nourish

There are many who treat entertaining as an art. Carefully decorated dinner tables and meticulously planned meals can be the talk of friends and neighbors for years to come! Now that the holidays are just around the corner, you may have more parties to go to, potlucks to attend, or your own guests to serve and delight.

Which leads to the inevitable questions…

What do I bring?
What should I serve?
What can I make that’s both healthy AND will make people happy?

Rather than always wondering what to do for such events, you can load up with light-on-the-waistline raw food party and potluck dishes for your guests and hosts! These fresh, finger-food recipes, all part of our Raw Food University series, will not only delight the eyes and reward the taste buds of your friends and loved ones, they will also nourish them with nutrition!

All dishes are made from completely from living foods: 100% gluten-free and dairy-free! There are no sugars, no processed oils, no grains, and no cooking!

You can listen to an interview with Dr. Ritamarie and Chef Karen Osborne as they talk about making fun and fresh holiday dishes you can serve at your next party or potluck:

You’ll be surprised when you discover how quick and easy all of these raw food Party and Potluck nibbles are to make! Join us and ensure your next holiday party is one that’s memorable, healthy, and healing!

Gluten-Free Fast Raw Food: Collard Green Roll-ups with Sauerkraut and Mango Filling

One of the laments I hear all the time is that “there just isn’t enough time”  to eat wholesome foods.

In my world, I don’t have enough time to NOT eat healthy meals.  The cost of  eating processed food containing all that gluten, dairy and sugar  instead of  healthy meals is far too great for me to even consider. Let me explain.

The Cost of NOT taking time for Healthy Meals

If eating healthfully DID mean spending a lot of time in the kitchen, as most people believe, it still would save me time in the long run.  The cost of eating processed food is feeling sluggish, getting sick and performing below my ability.  The result is I accomplish less and lose out on all the fun of having lots of energy and feeling great.

If I were to eat fast food instead of whole food, I’d spend more time sleeping, feeling unfocused and unproductive and going to doctors or seeking answers to my myriad of health challenges.

When I eat whole fresh plant foods, my body is filled with energy, my mind is sharp and clear and illness stays far away.  I have more time for fun, exercise, family and work.

I’ve posted many recipes, videos and even entire articles on how to eat healthfully even when you’re super busy.

A couple of my favorites are tomato slices with “cheese:” and herbs, pineapple chipolte salad and green soups.

The recipe I made tonight was brimming with nutrition, easy to make and tasted delicious.  Unfortunately I ate it all before I remembered that I should have taken a picture.

Collard Green Roll-ups with Sauerkraut and Mango Filling

Ingredients

• 2 large collard green leaves
• 4 cups mache salad mix
• 2 handfuls broccoli sporuts
• 3 handful of sunflower sprouts
• 4 tablespoons Creamy Nut Cheese
• 4 tablespoons guacamole
• 4 tablespoons sauerkraut
• 1/2 large mango, cut into cubes
• 1 teaspoon Mexican seasoning

Directions

1. Rinse collard leaves and lay on plate
2. Pile the half of the remaining ingredients on each of the collard  leaves, ending with the guacamole or creamy nut cheese
3. Roll collard leaf tightly around filling.  Slice and serve.I made this recipe up on the fly.  Use whatever ingredients you have on hand.  If you make up some dips and dressings at the beginning of the week, you’ll have them hand to put together a quick meal.

In our classes, hosted by Raw Foods University, we demonstrate how to make foods quickly and easily.

It’s a skill worth learning.  That way you can have lots of pare time and energy for FUN!

Gluten-Free Fast Food For Health Resources

1. Deliciously Quick Lunch and Dinner Ideas for Healthy Meals on the Run e-book
2. Quick Meals Video Class with Recipe Guide
3. One Dish Meals Video Class with Recipe Guide
4. Quick Soups e-book
5. Kids in the Kitchen Video Class with Recipe Guide

QUESTION of the DAY: 

Post your answer below:  What’s your favorite fast food?

Let’s see if we can come up with healthier alternatives to your favs.

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

Deceptive Advertising in Children’s Snack Foods

Knowing what to feed hungry kids that’s satisfying and nutritious is a dilemma faced by many parents.

While there’s lots of really good information on the web and in the bookstores, there’s also lots of misinformation that’s confusing and downright dangerous.  And just because someone has initials after their name, like MD or RD or CCN or PhD I does not mean you can blindly trust their information.

In preparing for my next blog post “Healthy Snacks for Hungry Kids” I decided to see who else is writing about the topic and how what they are saying fits into my world view.

I was shocked by what I found.  One nutritionist is promoting a product called Bagel Bites®.  There were many links throughout her site for these, and everything I could find (advertising) touted them as healthy wholesome whole grain pizza snacks foods for kids.

This particular nutritionist referenced Bagel Bites® in one of her tips for healthy snacking called “Don’t Forget the Whole Grains.”  In essence she said that kids don’t eat enough whole grains and we should look for ways to incorporate whole grain with each snack so they reach the target of 3 whole grain servings per day.   She goes on to say that one serving of Bagel Bites® provides 1/2 serving of whole grains.  To reach the target she suggests of 3 servings of whole grains, you’d need to eat 6 of these.

It took a lot of digging and I was finally able to locate the ingredients.

Turns out that each serving contains 190 Calories, 45 %  of the recommended Daily Value for Fat, 2.5g of saturated fat and  370mg Sodium.

So let’s take a look at what’s inside these “so-called” healthy snacks, Bagel Bites®.

Bleached Wheat Flour, Water, Mozzarella Cheese (Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes)Tomato Puree (Tomato Paste, Water)Pepperoni (Pork and Beef, Seasonings [Salt, Spices, Dextrose, Oleoresin of Paprika, Flavoring, BHA, BHT, Citric Acid]Water, Cure [Salt, Sodium Nitrite]Lactic Acid Starter Culture)Green Bell Peppers, Red Bell Peppers, contains 2% or less of the Following: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Salt, Romano Cheese (Cow’s Milk, Cheese Cultures, Sat, Enzymes)Soybean Oil, Parmesan Cheese (Part Skim Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes)Yeast, Modified Corn Starch, Nonfat Milk, Methylcellulose, Citric Acid, Oregano, Garlic Powder, Spice, Natural Flavor, Dough Conditioner (Ascorbic Acid)Enzymes.

Am I missing something?  I don’t even see the whole grain at all!  Bleached wheat flour is NOT a whole grain.

Even if Bagel Bites® do contain ½ serving of whole grain, as our nutritionist suggests, they are still a poor way to get whole grain servings, in contrast to ½ grain serving of quinoa or brown rice which is about ¼ cup cooked and contains  about 55 calories, no fat and only 3 grams of sodium.

Bagel Bites® are a prescription for disaster for anyone who’s gluten or dairy intolerant and contains pepperoni, a processed meat from factory farmed animals.

The concept is great.  Kids love pizza so why not give them a snack of pizza bites. And in all honesty, these are much better than many other commercially available snacks for kids, but I believe you can do much better.

In our class Kids in the Kitchen , we teach how to make similar snacks in a jiffy, from whole organic fresh foods.  There are several possibilities for a quick wholesome crust,  including, in order of “wholeness”,  jicama slices, polenta slices,  flax crackers, rice cakes, brown rice crackers, and gluten free whole grain English muffins.  There are even commercially available gluten free pizza crusts.  Our family favorite is one we get at whole foods that contains nothing but whole brown rice and potatoes.

For cheese the best choice is a home made  dairy free nut or seed cheese.  We offer several quick and easy recipes in the Kids in the Kitchen class  and more sophisticated fermented versions in our Dairy Free Raw Cheese Class.  For sauce, the quickest is a jar of organic tomato sauce and the most wholesome is a raw marinara, made in minutes in your food processor.

Here’s a review I wrote on the site that had the Bagel Bites® ingredients:

http://www.drritamarie.com/go/bagelbites

Here’s a copy of what I below, just  in case they took it down!

“This is a prime example of a product that claims to be a healthy snack and is NOT.

The first ingredient is bleached wheat flour. This is white flour in disguise. Not good for anyone even if they are not gluten sensitive. They claim to contain whole grains. I don’t see any listed.

This product is just another attempt at clever marketing designed to steer unsuspecting and trusting parents to continue the devastation of feeding junk to kids and expecting them to be healthy.

There is nothing healthy about pasteurized hormone laden cheese, pepperoni, white flour, soybean oil, BHA and BHT, and high fructose corn syrup.

As a doctor who sees the effects of nutrition, good and bad, on kid’s health, I am appalled that such a product can be called a healthy snack for kids.

I teach my parents and children to make pizza using a base like jicama, rice cake or flax cracker topped with organic jarred tomato sauce or fresh from whole ripe tomatoes. The “cheese” we top it off with is made from organic raw nuts, bursting with high quality fats, protein and minerals. We teach them to discriminate truly health enhancing food from deceptive advertising.

At www.drritamarie.com/go/kids we teach kids to make their own healthy choices and give them the tools and recipes to make delicious nutritious easy to make foods.”

If you’re disgusted with all the misinformation and would like to teach your kids to make healthy choices, join us for the Kids in the Kitchen class .

We’ve set it up so if you join us in person, your kids will get to make their own food, with your assistance if need be.

Online, we set it up so that you can purchase the ingredients in advance (you’ll get a shopping list as soon as you register) so your kids can make the food during the class or afterward.

This is the 4^th time I’ve done a class like this over the past 5 years and it’s always been a big hit.

So whether you have kids or grandkids, nieces and nephews or family friends,  It pays to learn to feed them right and to empower them to make the best possible choices.

If you can’t make the class live,  if you sign-up now you’ll get the videos at the pre-event investment of just $19.95 and can watch at your own pace.  In fact, you can create some summer  activities days by planning a recipe making session.  Make a full learning experience out of it, and even ask your child to invite a friend.  You can take them shopping, then watch the lesson together and then head to the kitchen to make food.  You can replay as often as needed for them to get what to do!

Creating Healthy Kids is your responsibility as a parent and what you feed them and the choices they make for themselves are critical to their success.

For additional resources related to kids’ health, we’ve posted three radio show recordings on the Dr. Ritamarie Radio Blog.

Kids Health Month Radio Shows

Creating Healthy Children with author Karen Ranzi

Join Dr. Ritamarie and Karen for a lively and informative discussion on the importance of food on children’s health and hear about her son’s miraculous recovery from lifelong asthma within weeks of adopting a raw food diet.

Put Your Kids In Charge of Their Meals

It can be a challenge as a parent to make sure your kids eat wholesome and nutritious food. In this show, Dr. Ritamarie discusses how to  empower kids with information about the effects of food on their body and shares fun ways to teach them to make delicious meals and help them to make wise choices.

How Gluten Effects Kids Behavior, Focus and Concentration

Teachers report lack of focus in classrooms. Parents notice hyperactivity, mood swings, depression, and many other emotional behaviors. What is happening that is causing such issues in our kids? The answer may be a simple ingredient present in just about every meal…gluten!

Reversing Dyslexia with author Dr. Phyllis Books

If your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia, take heart.  A dyslexic diagnosis is not barrier to success.  Join Dr. Ritamarie and guest, Dr. Phyllis Books, author of “Reversing dyslexia: improving learning and behavior without drugs”  and find out what you can do to help your child reverse their dyslexia

With Love and Gratitude,

Dr. Ritamarie

Eating on the Run: Gluten Free, Dairy Free Healthy Fast Food

You can indeed eat healthy foods on the run.  In our class Healthy Fast Foods, we demonstrate how to make quick and easy meals using 100% fresh whole, gluten free, dairy free, sugar free  whole fresh foods.   That’s for when you’re in a hurry and at home.

Sometimes you’re on the road and you just don’t have the tools or foods to whip up a quick meal.  That’s when having handy- dandy convenience packages of super foods comes in handy.  On today’s video you’ll see a show and tell form my trip to the health food store in search of high nutrient density fast food.

Take a peek:

Question for YOU! What are your favorite on the run healthy fast foods?

Comment Below.

Love, Health and Joy To You,

Dr. Ritamarie

Raw Foods Recipe for Bone Building Sesame Ginger Coleslaw

I love creating new  delicious health enhancing gluten free recipes, raw food recipes and recipes loaded with nutrients that support various organs and glands.   Today I’m going to tell you about Sesame Ginger Cole Slaw, a dish that is not only  raw and  gluten free, but also is very good for your bones.  Since osteoporosis is becoming an epidemic among women over 40, the more you can do on a daily basis to support bone health, the better.

In April 2011 we hosted a class  “Eating for Bone Health”, that is now available as a video. (http://www.drritamarie.com/rawfoodsuniversity).  In that course material we provided detailed lists of bone building nutrients and gluten free dishes that supports healthy bones, along with other gluten free recipes and videos of both information presentation and preparation of the recipes.   Since then, I’ve been experimenting with adding bone fortification to all my recipes. Today I would like to share a delicious summer picnic recipe for bone building Cole slaw.

In addition to supporting healthy and strong bone development, it’s loaded with antioxidants that fight cancer and contribute to hormone balance.

Sesame Ginger Cole Slaw

Ingredients

• 1 small red and 1 small green  green cabbage
• 4-5 carrots
• ½ – 1 bunch of dark greens, like kale, collards, bok choy, chard or spinach.
• Sprinkle of whole, unrefined salt
• ½ cup sesame tahini
• 1-2 inch piece of fresh ginger, depending on how much you like ginger
• juice of 1-2 lemons or limes, depending on size
• 5-10 pitted prunes, depending on how sweet you like it
• ½ teaspoon kelp powder, or more to taste
• ½ teaspoon salt (optional)
• ¼ cup of unpasteurized vinegar. I used coconut vinegar, and apple cider works well too.

Directions

1. Finely shred cabbage and carrots and place in a large bowl.
2. Finely chop greens  and place in bowl with cabbage and carrots. Shredded broccoli stems are a nice addition too.
3. Sprinkle with whole, unrefined salt and massage well to break down the cell walls and tenderize the vegetables. If you are on a salt restricted diet, rinse to remove the extra salt.
4. Blend tahini, ginger, lemon or lime juice, prunes, kelp powder, salt (optional) and  vinegar.
5. Pour sauce over vegetables and adjust seasonings to your preferences. If you like it sweeter, blend a couple more prunes or some dates with a small amount of water to a smooth paste and add to slaw. If desired, add a handful of sesame seeds for garnish and extra calcium.

This yummy dish and is good for your bones, is loaded with cancer fighting sulforaphanes and hormone balancing indole-3-carbinol and iodine to feed your thyroid. Enjoy it and share it with your friends using the Facebook and twitter links below.

Please use the comment field below to let me know what your favorite bone building foods are. To submit your recipes for inclusion on a blog post or in my newsletter, visit

http://www.drritamarie.com/newslettercontributions/

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie