Wheatgrass misconception

The name, wheatgrass, conjures up thoughts of gluten, right?  While yes, this IS a wheat product, it does NOT contain gluten.  It comes from the common wheat plant when it's young and full of chlorophyll.  Wheatgrass juice is a powerful raw, living food.  If you buy your wheat grass from a reliable source, it is harvested when the grass reaches it's nutritional peak, this is just before the jointing stage, when the plant is between 7 and 11 inches tall.  At this point, it has accumulated energy which will soon power a massive growth spurt, it's this energy that is captured in the juice.

"Wheatgrass is literally condensed sunlight energy.  It is one of the most potent healing agents on the planet."  -Steve Meyerowitz, Wheatgrass Nature's Finest Medicine

What about growing your own?  Well, if you don't want to ingest molds, I recommend buying yours flash frozen from a reputable source who grows their wheatgrass outside.  Molds release mycotoxins which have a terrible taste and cause side effects such as dizziness, nausea, headaches and vomiting.

In addition to clearing up allergies, reducing colds, clearing skin and even reversing graying (yes, this is true!), here are a few more little known facts about wheatgrass (courtesy of Energise for Life, an alkaline diet resource), oh right, it also alkalizes the blood:

• Wheatgrass contains over 90 minerals, including high concentrations of the most alkaline minerals: potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium
• It contains the essential enzymes: Protease (assists in protein digestion), Cytochrome Oxidase (a powerful anti oxidant), Amylase (facilitates digestion), Lipase (a fat splitting enzyme), Transhydrogenase (strengthens the heart muscle) & Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) (found in all body cells and is known for its ability to lessen the effect of radiation and slow cellular aging)
• Just one teaspoon of Wheat Grass powder, weighing a mere 3.5 grams, is nutritionally equal to an entire spinach salad weighing a full 50 grams – it packs a punch!
• Wheatgrass has more vitamin C than oranges and twice the vitamin A as carrots!
• Wheat grass juice helps your body to build red blood cells which carry oxygen to every cell. By increasing the oxygenation the body you can help offset smog and carbon monoxide and increase your endurance during physical exercise
• It also contains 19 amino acids, the building blocks of protein

You can get a whole lot more on the benefits of wheatgrass here.

What ever it does to the blood (it's been studied and said that the chlorophyll molecule in wheatgrass is almost identical to the hemoglobin molecule in human blood) has been proven with testing in Grayson.  We had two different CBC panels, months apart,  that showed VERY elevated platelet (also known as sticky blood) counts.  We started giving him wheatgrass daily shortly after that last CBC and have been giving it for a few months.  He had another follow-up CBC and his platelets are completely normal!!  I was told by Dr. Woeller that elevated platelets are very common in kids with chronic intestinal infections which Grayson struggles with, so we weren't surprised.  We were more surprised when they came down to the normal range even though we are still battling the intestinal infections! 

I have read various information from doctors saying that wheat grass is extremely healing even topically, so imagine what it does to the intestinal lining when ingested on an empty stomach and allowed to coat the intestines!  It is known to heal colitis and Chrone's disease.  We have also tested these topical capabilities of wheatgrass.  I had broken out in an awful cold sore that grew fast and furious, I didn't think of using the wheatgrass topically until it had already grown out of control, so I had this sucker for a good week, BUT, as soon as I started using the wheatgrass topically, it dried it up right away!  So when Grayson caught whatever it was that caused this cold sore, and he got one covering his jaw and lower cheek area (yes, HUGE!) I immediately went to the freezer and softened up some chunks of the wheatgrass between two fingers.  We turned his cheek into the green monster, lol.  It took ONE morning of letting the juice dry on his cold sore and it was completely eradicated!!  GONE!  Nothing has ever worked that fast on a cold sore, that I know of anyway!  And his didn't scab, we caught it early enough to reverse it quickly. 

I am now currently in the process of doing my own little test with on effects of wheatgrass on PH.  I have chronic low PH around 5 so I am going to increase my wheatgrass intake until I see changes in my PH, without changing anything else I am doing.  So stay tuned!!  In the meantime, this wheatgrass farmer is the only one I recommend for a quality flash frozen product delivered right to your door!  Yes, it appears pricy, but when you think about how much you are getting, it will last a LONG time and isn't it worth your health?  If you order the smallest box, you are paying only $1.60 per ounce (juice bars charge well over $3 for a 1/2 ounce shot of wheat grass in a smoothie!), if you buy the next size up, it's $1.45 an ounce, and the next $1.40 and so on....I would even recommend going in together with a friend or two and ordering one of the larger boxes, then splitting it, for the cost savings.  I like to be greedy and buy our family one of the 25 pound boxes and drink as much as we need since it's a healthy raw, living food that ensures my kids are getting enough greens in their day.  It's the sneaky, easy way to get your toddlers drinking greens, he he he!!

Finally caved and bought it - the Excaliber!

I've been eye-balling all these fabulous recipes that require a dehydrator, wishing I could find another way to make them, oh how the kids would love the crackers, burgers, breads and cookies!   Well, the ONLY way is with a dehydrator, since it blows very low temperature air around the food keeping the enzymes in tact and provides more readily available nutrients.  So essentially you can still "cook" a food and it's still considered raw!  This sounds so appealing especially for my nutrient-deficient kids with gut issues.  I still plan to post a thread about raw foods and all the unbelievable benefits they offer, when I get around to having the time to pull all of my data together.

With school rounding the corner for Grayson, I want to provide healthy (and of course, gluten and casein-free), yummy and fairly normal looking snacks for him to take to school.  What better way to do that than providing raw foods bursting with live enzymes and bio-available nutrients?!  The only way to make them though, is with the use of a dehydrator.  In my research, I found the Excaliber to be the best bang for your buck and it has a nice warranty too.  So I placed my order hesitantly, because any machine that I have to spend over $100 for makes me cringe....fast forward....delivery day.  I couldn't wait to open it up and start using it, which of course I did, however, I didn't think about the drying time of my new project.  I just jumped right in, so anxious to try a raw cracker recipe for the kids.  Let's see, if I started it dehydrating at 4:30pm and needed about 10-12 hours of dehydration, that leaves me with a project completion time of ummmm, oh boy, 2:30-4:30am!!!  I did a little more reading and also found that, if I adjust my temperature to around 110 degrees, they could just dehydrate indefinitely, they wouldn't "overcook".  Phew.....After a weekend of chelation around the clock the last thing I want to do is set my alarm clock for the wee hours of the morning for CRACKERS!  I like this dehydrator and all, but no thank you! 

So this morning I woke up to nice crunchy LIVE crackers!!  Here they are, I call these Nuts for Veggy Crackers, because they are 50% vegetables and 50% nuts!

 
























The kids would love to gobble these up in one sitting, I guess they are good?  I also saved the edges that crumbled and fell apart for sprinkling on top of veggies and salads.

Oh, you want the recipe? Silly me, of course, here you go!  You can blend any combination of nuts and vegetables.  The nut and vegetable ratio should be 50/50.

This recipe requires a dehydrator

-2 cups soaked nuts (these are almond and walnut)
-2 chives
-1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
-2 kale leaves, spines removed
-2 carrots, chopped
-some fresh chopped rosemary
-1 1/2 tsp himalayan sea salt
-a touch of fresh ground pepper

I also added my nutritional yeast "cheese topping" to 1/3 of the batch to make savory cheese crackers. The cheese topping is just a blended mixture of nutritional yeast, ground walnuts and sea salt, tastes just like grated parm!

Blend all of the ingredients in a food processor or a strong blender.

Spread the mixture out on the dehydrator trays (on nonstick liners or parchment paper) about 1/4 inch thick or less and use a pizza cutter to make lines where you will break the finished crackers.

Dehydrate at about 140 degrees for the first 2-3 hours, then 110 for the remainder of 10-12 hours, depending on how crispy you like them. I did it for well over this time and they were still a nice consistency, not too crispy. 110 degrees is a good safe temp for not overcooking. Flip them halfway to prevent spoilage.

This is how much this size recipe made.

Chef Grayson shares some of his favorite foods with you

The fun part about raw foods is that the kids can make it!  Two of Grayson's favorite foods are salads with home made dressings and veggie wraps made with collard greens as the wraps.

This cool mint salad is made with cucumbers (which are soothing natural gut healers), tomatoes, fresh mint and parsley (natural cleanser), lemon (alkalizes the blood) and olive oil is so refreshing.  I also like to add a sprouted grain, in this case we chose quinoa.  As Grayson says, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy!"

 

 

For the wraps, you can essentially fill them with anything!  We chose celery, cucumber, carrots, red cabbage, purple onion and fresh basil.  All you do is cut a large collard green leaf in half, removing the stem, line the inside of the wrap half with a dressing or sauce of choice, we used our raw GFCF ranch dressing (recipe in an earlier post) then lay sliced veggies and herbs along the center of the collard green, with the curved side at the bottom, take that curved edge and pull it slightly up over the veggies and start rolling it from one side until it looks like like a mini burrito.

Simple raw food "cereal"

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of this one, my kids gobbled it up too fast!!  We all really loved this recipe and it's very easy.  One important piece of the recipe though, is to remember to soak whole buckwheat groats the night before, but it's so easy to do, just toss it into in a jar with a lid and enough water to cover the groats before you go to bed then when you wake up, it's ready for breakfast.  Grayson decided it tastes like apple pie, and he's absolutely right, so I am going to name it Apple Pie Porridge!  This is light and totally refreshing, plus it hits that sweet tooth so many kids (and adults) have.

APPLE PIE PORRIDGE

- I used 1 shredded apple and 1 shredded pear, but you can use 2 of either, the apple is what gives it the tartness though.
- Use the pulp from making a nut milk (we make daily hemp milk so it was perfect and I don't like to waste the pulp anyway!)
- A handful of dried cranberries, goji berries or raisins
- Cinnamon
- 1/4 cup soaked, drained buckwheat groats (they become soft and are easier to digest this way)
- If you choose, you can add extra sweetener, but we choose not to, it's sweet enough with the fruit.  A good extra sweetener would be: honey, coconut nectar, stevia or xylitol.

Enjoy!!

Update, here is a picture!  We made it again and this time I remembered to snap a shot.  This one doesn't have the dried fruit in it.

Our favorite raw dish so far - "pasta" alfredo

Tonight we made our first entree and all I have to say is OMG....I didn't know raw could be SO good!!  Of all things, pasta alfredo, with no pasta or dairy in sight!  I had no idea it could be so surprisingly good!  It even looked JUST like a pasta dish.  The kids gobbled it up and wanted more.  I could have eaten the entire bowl myself!  Ok enough babbling, here are pictures and the recipe.  I would say, if you are even considering raw, this should be your first recipe!!

- 4 small or 2 large zucchini
- Olive oil (we chose to use grapeseed oil)
- Fresh rosemarry and basil
- Sea salt
- 2 Tbsp Hawaiian Mellow White Miso (I used gluten-free soy sauce)
- 2 cups brazil nuts (we used a 1/4 of brazil and the rest cashew, because you CAN get too much selenium and we already supplement with it)
- 1 cup water
- Lemon
- Chopped tomatoes (optional)
- Sliced olives (optional)

Use a mandolin to create thin slices of "pasta" with the zucchini and then use the knife to cut "pasta noodles" then marinate with a squeeze of lemon, oil and sea salt.  (A trick to the noodle slicing is to pile pieces of the sliced zucchini and roll, then slice it) Let that sit while you prepare the sauce. 

In a blender combine: water, several squeezes of lemon, nuts, a few dashes of sea salt, miso, some finely chopped rosemary and blend until smooth. Adjust water and oil to desired consistency then pour over zucchini noodles and add chopped tomatoes, olives and a dash of olive oil and sea salt.

You'll notice that I didn't put any of the toppings on it.  To be honest, I totally forgot.  I was so engrossed in the amazingly yummy taste of the sauce, I completely forgot to do anything other than pour it over the zucchini and serve it!!  Well, of course, I stopped to take a picture too, he he he.  

And here are my kids enjoying it, thoroughly!

RAW-some food!

I have been exploring the concept of raw food for some time and finally took the plunge and bought a few simple recipe books.  I am loving the way it feels to eat mostly raw all day!!  The recipes are so easy, we are making easy tasty dips, creative salads, dressings and snacks that the kids love and ask for.  We never plan to be 100% raw, because I do believe in animal protein, although it is from natural, organic and grass fed sources only, especially for growing children.  Here are some pictures of my newest raw fun foods.

These look like cookies, but they are power bars made from nuts, seeds, dried fruit and honey, then placed in the sun to dehydrate a bit.  The kids want these every chance they can get!  Oh and that is my home made hemp milk (from a previous post) in the background.

This is one of the many dips/dressings we have made using cashews and spices.  It is a ranch dressing believe it or not!  This one disappeared faster than I expected, and a few others have followed, a garlic pesto made with sunflower seeds and sweet mustard dressing.  The ranch dressing actually encouraged my very picky veggie-hating two year old to gobble down TWO, yes you read that right, two bowls of salad for dinner!!

This morning I made a "cereal" out of pears, walnut pulp (after making and straining walnut milk), cinnamon and honey.  We have even been sprouting, the kids actually sit and eat sprouted lentils like they are M&Ms!  No joke! 

It's easier than I thought to get raw foods into the kids, most of the recipes involve throwing some ingredients into a blender, I can do that!!  Make it look like a cookie and they are fans!  ha ha ha

Here are the recipes for the two pictured above:

Raw ranch dressing:
‎-1 cup cashew butter (I just blended 8 ounces of raw cashews with some grapeseed oil)
-1/2 cup water
-3 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed, about half a lemon, but I think it needs more)
-1 tsp raw cider vinegar
-pinch of salt
-1 tsp Italian seasoning or dried dill
-1 clove garlic
-1 stalk celery

Blend until smooth and creamy.

Raw energy bars:
Choose a combo of up to any five seeds/nuts and use 1 cup of each (mine are: sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds and sprouted lentils) other options are pine nuts, soaked buckwheat, walnuts, cashews, and so forth. Blend in a powerful ...blender like the Blend Tec or Vitamix, just enough to chop them up into a thick powder.

Put the mix into a bowl, add a 1/4 of agave or honey with some water to moisten them for stick-factor, add in dried berries of some sort like goji, cranberries, mulberries, raisins, currants, etc.

Then you can make very compressed balls out of them and press them flat with your hands or use cookie molds so they can be pressed firmly into the mold. I laid them out in the sun to "dehydrate" a bit which firms them up and gives them a harder texture. That's it!