I used to love orange creamsicles when I was a kid. Today, I was craving something creamy, sweet, light and yes orangey. This recipe is fabulous and so easy. Be sure to blend well if you don’t have a high power blender like a Vita-mix or Blendtec.
Recipe is adapted from The Rawtarian. I added vanilla and used almond milk instead of orange juice. Here is the link if you want to view the original recipe for Raw Orange Smoothie, which makes 2 servings (by the way this is a great site for simple raw recipes)
For one serving:
1 orange peeled – try to get off as much white pith as you can.
1 banana – fresh or frozen (I used frozen)
¼ cup plus 1 TBL almond milk (use homemade to keep it raw)
½ tsp vanilla
½ TBL coconut oil or butter (I used coconut butter)
zest of the orange you are using.
Make sure to zest the orange before you peel it. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend well. Enjoy!
As I continue to add a variety of more raw foods to my diet, I continue to search for breakfast options that go beyond eating only fruit or green smoothies. During the winter months, I always loved making cooked steel cut oats. To shorten the cooking time in the morning, I would put the oats in a pot with water and let it sit overnight. The oats soften and voila! – they cook up in no time. That led me to search for ways to have raw oatmeal using soaked oats. As I searched the internet, the recipe I liked the best was one by Angela Stokes Monarch.
I use her basic recipe, which includes the soaked oat groats (not rolled oats- these are the oats used for the steel cut variety), raw honey, lucuma powder (a low glycemic sweetener made from a fruit that grows in Peru), maca, cinnamon, and water. I add other superfoods like hempseeds, bee pollen, and chia seed gel, which is simply chia seeds in water. The Chia seeds soak up the water like a sponge in a matter of minutes. This gel can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. I’ll blog more about Chia in upcoming posts.
Here’s what I do:
I place about a ½ cup of organic oat groats in water to soak overnight. The next morning, in a blender I add:
the oat groats, rinsed after soaking
about 2 TBL of Chia seed gel
1 tsp lucuma powder
1 tsp raw honey
1 tsp maca powder
1 TBL hempseeds
½ tsp bee pollen
a bit of cinnamon
enough water to blend to desired consistency. This will be about ¼ – ½ cup of water. Add water slowly so you don’t add too much or the oatmeal will become watery.
You can top the oatmeal with extra cinnamon, sliced banana or apple, berries – whatever you like. You can buy oat groats in bulk at a ridiculously low cost. They are high in both fiber and protein. This is a really filling breakfast that will power you up till lunch. I love it!
My first introduction to the concept of an all-raw diet came about 11 years ago when I was working for Barnes & Noble Distribution. The office was abuzz about a new book that had just arrived. That book was Juliano’s “RAW – The UNcook Book.” It was filled with beautiful images of foods that I couldn’t imagine weren’t cooked. I was intrigued and bought a copy.
I was always interested in healthy eating, but this took things to a whole new level. I had been a vegetarian for most of the previous decade. I tried going vegan, but that lasted about a week. To be honest, these recipes intimidated me. The lists of ingredients (some I had never even heard of) were lengthy, with recipes of some of the ingredients on other pages of the book. I had good results with a few of the simpler dishes, which required either juicing or simple assembly. I ordered a dehydrator, but it mostly sat unused. I had no clue how to approach this new way of eating.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, and I was willing to give it another try. By then, there was so much more information available. I knew this wasn’t going to be something I would accomplish overnight – if ever. But I figured that adding more raw foods, which are truly 100% natural and unprocessed, had to be a good thing. I don’t remember how I learned about green smoothies, which are just blended leafy greens and fruit, but the thought of not having to clean that annoying mesh screen of a juicer every day really appealed to me. Also, you keep the insoluble fiber that gets lost when you juice. So I blended my very first green smoothie consisting of spinach, an apple, a banana and enough water to get the consistency I wanted. I couldn’t believe how good it tasted. You can easily get 3-5 servings of fruits and greens in one smoothie, which comes out to anywhere between 20–32 ounces depending on the amounts of ingredients you use.
Got Green?
The basics of a green smoothie are listed below. Try to use as much organic produce as you can afford. If greens make you cringe a bit, I would recommend that you begin with more fruit to start so you can get used to tasting greens this way. By the way, there is tons of info out there on the green smoothie. Explore and have fun!
Base – about a cup of water (you can use fruit juice if you like, but I prefer water)
Leafy Greens – I love using romaine, spinach, green/red leaf lettuce, and tender spring greens. They are a bit lighter in flavor. As you progress, you can add the stronger greens like kale and collards.
Something for creaminess – Banana, fresh or frozen, or ½ an avocado
Other sweet fruits –cored but unpeeled apples and pears, peaches, berries (you can use frozen), mango, pineapple, oranges – whatever you like.
Sometimes I add a little Stevia for extra sweetness. You can also blend in ice if you like. The simplest green smoothie consists of romaine, bananas and water. So simple and so good.
Green smoothies opened a door for me. My odyssey continues and I’m happy to report that I’m no longer intimidated by Juliano’s book.
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