Discover new Fruits and Vegetables: Cactus Pear or Prickly pear

One fun part in the fruits and vegetable lifestyle is to discover new fruits and vegetables!
Not long ago I discover the Cactus pear, also called the prickly pear.
Here what I've learned about it:

Prickly pear is one of the fruit that content the higher amount of vitamin C, it's rich in Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and rich in fiber.

There is different kind of prickly pear, some are orange and the one that we find in North america are usually deep red (like a beet!).
They are cover with tiny spines and it's highly recommended to handle them with gloves.
If you found them in a supermarket, the spines are usually burned over but be careful, one could have escape this treatment!
What you want to do is to wash them and brush them with a knife:

To open them:

 Cut both ends

 Slice along the prickly pear

 Push inside,maintain the border...

 and unroll the inside fruit!

 It might have his name because the inside fruits looks like a pear!

 When you cut it in half you will feel that there is hard seeds inside

 The seeds are edible but very hard

 You can see the little seeds here.

You can eat it like that (it's not very sugary, more like a unripe watermelon for me!)

so I prefer to juice it to get all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals and to avoid the seeds!

 in this juice, I added, an apple, a pear, some red kale, celery and lemon

and this was my lunch!

Hope you enjoyed!

Discover new Fruits and Vegetables : Golden Beets

What I like in this new lifestyle is that you can discover new fruits and vegetables and experience new awesome taste from mother nature!

Last week-end at the Farmer market I bought a bag of yellow (also known as golden) beets.
I steamed some and later on made a nice salad.
Their taste is lighter and fresh.

You can also make some raw grated beets to include in your wrap, salad...

Here is the recipe of my yellow beets salad and artichoke hearts:

3 handful of green mix and baby spinach,

1/3 of a cucumber sliced

1/2 steamed yellow beet

2 artichoke hearts

1 tbsp of alfalfa sprouts (optional)

1 or 2 baby carrots

1 tbsp of pine nuts

1 tsp of hemp hearts (optional)

I added 1 tsp of hemp oil for the 'dressing'

Hope you'll enjoy!

Cooked Vs Raw

As we all know cooking vegetables kills some of the nutrients and vitamins.

So you get more of them if you eat raw and juicing is a great way to get a good amount of these nutrients a vitamins.
When you see what a real green juice is, you wouldn't want to eat all of this green bounty in one serving!

In a basic Green Juice, you'll find:

apple, cucumber, celery, kale or spinach, carrots

in addition you can add:

any herbs (parsley. basil, mint... ), wheat-grass, other fruits and vegetables.

Juicing is not only better for getting minerals and nutrients but your body assimilate them way faster and it helps detox from the SAD* Diet!

if you need to have something to chew on, grab some zucchinis slices, baby carrots and such.

Green juice will also help you to loss weigh...

Don't think that green juice does taste bad! If you add some fruits like apple, grapes, watermelon... it will taste delicious and surprise you. Give it a try!

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Some friends asked me if I am on a 100% raw food diet...

My answer is No!

Somewhere between 80 to 95% because there is some vegetables that I prefer lightly steam or cooked like:

Beets, green beans, asparagus, artichoke, potatoes, broccoli and other cabbages!

and I like variety in my diet!

Also I like to eat some times to times some brown and wild rice, quinoa and tofu.

*SAD = Standard American Diet

Healthy Breakfast: CHIA DELIGHT

If you want to change your lifestyle, you need to start somewhere!
So, one step at a time... forgot about coffee, cereals, bacon and eggs...

Here is one healthy breakfast for you:

CHIA DELIGHT

and here is what you need (easy and quick to prepare):

First mix together the chia seeds and a bit of the almond milk.
While the chia seeds are expended, peel and grate your apple
cut your banana and add all the ingredients to the bowl.
add the rest of the almond milk and stir.
Add the cinnamon to taste.
and Enjoy!

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For those who doesn't know what Chia seeds are:
Chia seeds are consider a superfood;
It's rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, rich in fiber, naturally gluten-free, antioxidants, protein source, full of vitamins and minerals and it's also great for your health (promote cardio vascular health, good for joint and mobility, improve digestion and natural detox, help in weight loss...).
Chia seed is a specie of flowering plant in the mint family that grown in central america.
Some of you know chia seed as chia pet! Yes, this is the same seed that have been sprouted and can be use in salad, smoothie ...

Welcome to a new healthy living!

With this new blog, I want to share with you what I have learned in this vegetarian, vegan and raw food journey.
I want to share and to help you realize that the food industry have been manipulating us to became unhealthy in order to feed the pharmaceutical industry!...
I've decided to open this blog after a talk with a vendor in a Farmer's Market who said that these information must be shared to all to be aware and understand how manipulated we have been since our birth and how WE can change it.
The information that we talk about with him was about Dairy products...
In fact, we are all dairy product intolerant!
Why?
Because cow milk is design to feed baby calf, that grow in average 730 pounds in their first year! (2 pounds per day!)
Do you think it's designed for the human body?
Plus there is so many false ideas about our standard diet (Called the SAD diet = Standard American Diet),
That I think it's really time to get informed and to take action for our health and our planet.

In the raw vegan food lifestyle, we substitute the cow milk with any nut milk (or organic soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk and such).

We are meant to eat food that grow from mother earth, not in process packages with tones of chemicals and addicting products.

You are welcome to leave a comment below!

and let me know if you have any question!

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Here is a little recipe that I've made for my morning drink:

For 1 serving: 1 banana, 2 cups of almond milk, 1 tsp of carob powder

Blend it all together and enjoy!