ⓒ iStockPhoto - kcline

This recipe evolved from huevos rancheros, a Mexican dish with a fried egg served over a tortilla with tomato-chile sauce, and sometimes beans, cheese, sour cream and whatever else Tex-Mex cooks decided to throw in.

Some healthy modifications make the vegetables an equal partner in the meal, rather than a flavor accent, and poaches the eggs in the juice from the vegetables instead of frying them. Eliminating the tortilla makes it suitable for gluten-free or low-carb diets, with a bed of lightly wilted spinach serving as a base for the eggs and sauce. Low carbers may want to reduce the number of tomatoes and increase the mushrooms, zucchini and green pepper; however, much of the poaching liquid comes from the tomatoes, so a few are necessary. (continue reading…)

Photo: Janet Harriett

You can make this with fresh or thawed frozen fruits.

3 cups plain, unsweetened applesauce
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup sliced peaches with peels on
2 kiwi, peeled
1 cup blueberries
Whipped cream or vanilla yogurt (optional) (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - meikla

Perhaps the only thing more plentiful than zucchini are recipes for zucchini bread or zucchini cake, which don’t do a whole lot of good for those on a gluten-free diet. However, zucchini’s versatility means plenty of ways to cook the summer squash to fit in with any type of healthy diet. Here are eighteen ways to prepare and serve zucchini (and any summer squash).

Recipe ideas are labeled according to whether they’re vegetarian (either lacto-vegetarian or ovo-vegetarian), vegan, raw, gluten-free or casein-free. Several of the recipes not labeled gluten-free or vegan could be adjusted to accommodate those dietary needs with specialty products like rice pasta or soy cheese.

Dip: Mix 1 cup zucchini shreds with one 8-ounce package cream cheese and herbs to taste. Serve with raw veggies. Lacto-vegetarian, gluten-free.

Marinated Zucchini Salad: Slice zucchini paper thin and marinate at least 4 hours in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Raw, vegan, gluten-free, casein-free. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - Ever

Have you subscribed to the Green Diva Mom newsletter yet?  Every week (during the summer, alternate weeks), you can get a roundup of the best recent articles from Green Diva Mom and previews of upcoming articles, plus a bonus healthy recipe, generally featuring quick preparation and seasonal ingredients, that you’ll only get through the newsletter. Subscribe through the sign-up box on the right sidebar or by sending an email to newsletter@greendivamom.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line. We don’t send any solicitations or messages other than the newsletter to our subscribers.

If you’re not subscribed to the newsletter, you missed this tasty recipe for carrot raisin salad last week. Green Diva Mom reader and subscriber Catherine wrote back, “I tried the carrot raisin salad recipe from GreenDiva and it is really good and easy to make.  The same dressing could be used on shredded cabbage as a coleslaw (and add some sunflower seeds for extra crunch)!”

(continue reading…)

Break your morning coffee habit with this delicious tea. It is chock full of vitamins and minerals to get you started on the right foot.
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoon (30ml) roasted, chopped chicory roots
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) raspberry leaves
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) chopped dandelion root
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) dried apples, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) German chamomile flowers
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) nettle leaves
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) alfalfa grass
• 1 tablespoon(15ml) oat straw
• 2 tablespoon(10ml) dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon(5ml) rose hips
• 1 teaspoon(5ml) cinnamon bark
• 1/2 teaspoon(2ml) crushed or powdered nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon(2ml) stevia leaves (sweet herb)

(continue reading…)

Salad recipe provided on behalf of Nomi Shannon

Baby Greens
Endive
*Raw sheep milk Gorgonzola cheese (leave this out of yours if you don’t want to eat it)
*Candied pecans
1 very ripe pear per every 2-3 people
Nomi’s Signature Salad Dressing (below) (continue reading…)

From LivingNutz.com

Raw and Living Foods are foods that contain enzymes. All cooked food is devoid of enzymes. Cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food. In general, the act of heating food destroys enzymes in food. Living and raw foods also have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked.

This belief is based on the work of Artturi Virtanen, a biochemist, and on the research of Dr. Edward Howell, an Illinois physician born in 1898, who researched how enzymes played a role in a person’s diet. He concluded that eating cooked food leads to health problems. In 1985, Howell published a book in which he claimed that laboratory rats fed cooked foods had an overly large pancreas size. Some raw food diet proponents believe that Howell’s book shows that the pancreas is forced to work harder on a diet of cooked foods and that food enzymes are just as essential to digestion as the body’s self-generated enzymes.

Professor Karl Eimer, director of the Medical Clinic at the University of Vienna studied the effect of a 100% raw diet on athletes. He placed his subjects on a two week program of intense physical training while they continued to consume their usual cooked diet. Their athletic performance was monitored and evaluated. They were then put on a 100% raw diet and continued their training. Without exception the athletes demonstrated improvements in reflex speed, flexibility and stamina. Eimer, and his colleague Professor Hans Eppinger, concluded that raw foods increase cellular respiration and efficiency. Their findings were reported in the July, 1993 edition of Zeitschrift fur Ernahrung entitled Klinik Schwenkenhacher.

Anthropologist Peter Lucas of George Washington University in Washington, DC, was reported in NewScientist magazine on 19/2/2005 as having the theory that man being the only mammal with chronic poor dentition and the only mammal to significantly process and cook his food, are causally linked. He believes that the adoption of food processing and cooking reduced the size of our jaw through evolutionary processes, but not the size of our teeth. Hence the expanding science of orthodontics. Conversely, the research suggests that a diet of unprocessed and uncooked food is more likely to promote health.

The benefits of going raw-vegan are boundless. Raw foods are easy to digest, and they provide the maximum amount of energy with minimal bodily effort. Studies have shown that living foods have healing powers that can alleviate many illnesses from low energy, allergies, digestive disorders, weak immune system, high cholesterol, candida, to obesity and weight problems (weight normalization), etc.. Research and real life experiences have also shown that a person can prevent a body’s healthy cells from turning into malignant cancerous cells by consuming mostly a raw food diet and whole organic foods!