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Recipe: No-cook Spaghetti: Spaghetti: 1 package kelp noodles (you can find in the refrigerated section of Whole Foods, most health food stores, or order online at www.kelpnoodles.com.) These are great, as the have only 15 calories per serving, compared to 200-300 for pasta! Tomato Sauce: 1 cup tomatoes, ½ cup sundried tomatoes, 2-4 dates (pitted) Pesto Sauce: 1 cup pistachio nuts, 2 cloves garlic, ½ to 1 bunch fresh basil, 1 tsp. Himalayan or Celtic sea salt, ½ cup pure water (NOTE: use only HALF this recipe---or use with 2 packets of noodles) Soak the noodles at least 20-30 minutes in pure water. This will make the texture soft, like spaghetti, instead of crunchy. (The noodles can be used as is in a salad for a crunchy texture, but for spaghetti they should be soft.) Blend the tomato sauce ingredient in a heavy duty blender (such as a Vitamix or Blendtec). If you don’t have one, blend in a food processor using the “S” blade, but be sure to soak the sundried tomatoes for 20 minutes in pure water first! Blend the pesto ingredients in a food processor using the “S” blade. Drain the noodles. Mix the tomato sauce in with the noodles. Blend thoroughly by hand. Then top with the pesto sauce. Enjoy! Health benefits: The kelp noodles contain iodine, which is good for the thyroid and boosts the metabolism. They contain only 15 calories per serving, compared to about 250 of spaghetti! The red tomatoes contain lycopene, a phytochemical good for preventing prostate cancer. Some say that the lycopene is not released enough from unless the tomatos is cooked, but you can juice or blend the tomato to get the lycopene. Pistachio nuts lower cholesterol and benefit the heart. They are rich in monounsaturated fats. Garlic is a natural antibiotic. It also helps prevent colds and flus and helps manage high cholesterol levels. It is believed that people who ate raw garlic survived the Plague! Benefits of Green Smoothies A green smoothie is a when you blend some raw greens with fruit in a heavy duty blender, as opposed to juicing them. The advantage is that you get the fiber. The fruit makes the bitter greens palatable. The advantage to eating green smoothies is that greens are the most alkaline food available, and our diets should be 80% alkaline. (Acidity leads to diseases such as cancer.) Also blending the greens makes them easier to digest, and has been proven to increase your stomach's hydrochloric acid, improving overall digestion. Greens are also rich in Vitamin K. I used to get nose bleeds and bruises constantly all my life before going raw and consuming a lot of greens. These are symptoms of Vitamin K deficiency—as are other ailments such as liver or skin cancer, osteoporosis, and more. I have noted that when I consume greens in the form of green juice, wheat grass, or green smoothies (all of which are easier to digest than green salads, since they are “predigested” by the juicer or blender), I feel a burst of energy, a second wind. I believe this is because the chlorophyll helps the blood in carrying the much needed oxygen to all cells and tissues. Your basic green smoothie consists of maybe half a bunch or 5-6 leaves of greens and enough fruit to make it taste good. (Be creative!) As you progress, you need less fruit because the greens taste better. If you are fighting candida or are on a low-carb diet, you can use stevia and lemon juice instead of fruit to distract your tastebuds from the bitterness of the greens. (If that isn’t enough, add an inch or 2 of fresh gingerroot!) Here is a recipe from Victoria Boutenko’s new book, Green Smoothie Revolution. Pineapple Spice Cake (donated by Marie-Noelle Maltais ½ pineapple 1 mango 2 bananas 1 small piece fresh gingerroot ¼ tsp. cinnamon ¼ tsp. nutmet 1 cup chard, packed 1 cup water Blend in heavy duty blender. Find out more information by reading my review below or looking at it now at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=864085 Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko Review by Susan Schenck, author of The Live Food Factor Inspiring, informative and entertaining As the author of a raw food book myself, I rarely come across a related book in which I find many new facts. But it is clear that Victoria did her homework, because I found myself highlighting sentences on nearly every page. Though Victoria includes ample science in her book, the tone is very conversational and easy to read. I was delighted to come across many surprising new tidbits such how, if you blend the greens you only need half as much as you do if you eat them in a salad; green grapes, tomatoes, apples, bell peppers (and more) are really unripe fruits; a zinc deficiency can create a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, and much, much more! Victoria also teaches us how processed foods have created degeneration that progresses with each generation! She found that ear lobes get smaller, which reflects a lack of cartilage in the body. She points out that the current generation of children is not only more obese than ever, but also is using more psychiatric drugs, braces for the teeth, and glasses. Our lack of good nutritious food (especially greens) is clearly degenerating us as a species. I was most impressed with the research Victoria did on greens. For example, I used to have a nosebleed at least once a week until I switched to a raw diet 7 years ago. From reading this book, I realize now it was a lack of Vitamin K. Victoria lists the many symptoms that come from a lack of Vitamin K, which is f ound abundantly in greens. There plenty of other useful lists, such as cultivated greens, wild edibles and weeds, herbs, medicinal herbs, and most important: poisonous plants (with a stern warning to learn how to identify these before going foraging for wild plants!) Victoria assures us that if we start blending the greens with plenty of fruit we will love the smoothies. She argues that this is good food combining, since greens are not really vegetables—because they are not starchy. Then, as we get used to them, we will not need so much sweet fruit, but will crave and enjoy the bitter greens. There is info on how to get even your cat to eat green smoothies (dogs are easy!) and also guidelines and tips for green smoothie production. The book also contains personal stories, such as the delightful one about how her grandchild became hooked on green smoothies while in the womb, and another about leaving green smoothies out for wild animals –which led to, among other creatures, a bear coming for green smoothies! In one appendix we learn about how the Boutenko family went raw, and in another we read about how one guy lost 230 pounds in a year by doing green smoothies. (When will the TV “Biggest Loser” contestants catch on to this?) All of the above makes the book worth the price even without the recipes. Yet the recipes make up the bulk of the book—there are 72 pages of them! Many were donated by readers from all over the world.
Included are recipes for PETS, and also for green smoothie soups, puddings, and even body care! This book has truly inspired me to get back on track with more green smoothies. I had gone down to just one a day because of my fondness for chewing. But reading this has definitely inspired me to upgrade my “raw glow” to a “green smoothie glow.” Order now at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=864085 | 
