Hemp Picnic Recipes In Honor of Hemp History Week

Prep Time: 8 minutes

Servings: 2-3 (double the recipe to serve four)

Salad Ingredients

1 head butter lettuce

1 large beet

2 tbsp hemp seeds

¼ cup feta cheese

Dressing

3 radishes

1 tbsp hemp seeds

¼ cup organic grapeseed oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove

Pinch sea salt

Pinch black pepper

Directions

Boil 1 beet in medium saucepan for 45 minutes. Wash and tear butter lettuce and place in salad bowl.

In blender, mix together all dressing ingredients.

Dice the cooled boiled beet and add on top of the butter lettuce. Add feta cheese, dressing, two tablespoons of hemp seeds, and toss everything together. Serve immediately.

Blythe Metz

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Hemp Picnic Recipes

In Honor of Hemp History Week

* Dehydrator needed

Prep time: 30 minutes to make, 14 hours to dehydrate

Servings: 11 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup raw shelled hemp seeds

1 cup raw walnuts

2 apples

1 pear

1 cup dried fruit mix of choice (I used SuperBerry Symphony from Essential Living Foods)

1 tbsp cinnamon

½ tbsp vanilla powder

Directions

In a food processor, puree the apples, pear, and spices. Add the hemp seeds and puree until smooth. Add the dried fruit and nuts and pulse until mixed but chunky. Using a ¼ cup measuring cup, scoop out cookie dough and smooth the top with a spatula. Flip measuring cup over onto a dehydrator tray lined with a teflex sheet (the solid sheet that covers the mesh-like dehydrator tray). Continue until all the dough is scooped out to make ¼ cup size cookies. Dehydrate for 12 hours. Flip and remove teflex so the cookies are now on the clean mesh tray and then dehydrate four more hours.

About Hemp History Week

The 5th annual Hemp History Week is June 2 – 8 2014. Find out about special events and how to get involved. Hemp History Week celebrates America’s rich history with industrial hemp before it was outlawed; advocates for a federal policy change to let hemp farmers frow this versatile and profitable crop; educated consumers by showcasing the range of hemp products available and the nutritional and environmental benefits they provide.

Come learn about this wonder crop by viewing the Industrial Hemp documentary film, Bringing it Home, which tells the story of hemp: past, present and future and a global industry that includes textiles, building materials, food products, bio-plastics, auto parts and more. Delicious refreshments will be available from our beverage sponsor, Reeds Ginger Brew and Kombucha.

Documentary Film Screening Monday, June 2, 7:00 P.M. Santa Monica Main Library Auditorium. 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.

Blythe Metz is dedicated to helping people create and maintain optimum diets. To do so, she hosts a healthy lifestyle show on Hulu called Blythe Raw Live. You can find her quick and easy raw food recipes on: BlytheRaw.com. In addition, Metz is an actress and producer of independent feature films

While traveling, Blythe stays balanced by always carrying spirulina tablets (she sources spirulina from Essential Living Foods) and having these essential oils on hand: eucalyptus, lavender, and grapefruit.

Blythe Metz

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Ingredients:

1). 1 scoop Growing Naturals Vanilla Protein

2). 1 Tbsp organic chia seeds

3). 1 Banana, peeled

4). 1 Orange, peeled

5). 2 cups water

6). 1/2 cup ice

7). 1 Tbsp raw honey (optional)

Directions: Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. This is a quick and tasty protein, vitamin, mineral and enzyme rich breakfast.

Blythe Metz is a raw food educator whose creative food and beauty recipes inspire health from the inside out. Her 30 minute show Blythe Raw Live is available to view on Hulu: Hulu.com/blythe-raw-live. Read more of her recipes, view interviews, and find resources at: Blytheraw.com

Blythe Metz

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Ingredients:

1). 1 scoop Chocolate Protein

2). 1 scoop Powdered Rice Milk

3). 1 Tbsp organic chia seeds

4). 1 Banana

5). 2 dates, pitted

6). 1 1/2 Tbsp raw cacao powder

7). 2 cups water

8). 1/2 cup ice

Directions: Remove the pits form the dates. Dates blend easier if soaked for at least 10 minutes. Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Yields 3 cups.

Blythe Metz is a raw food educator whose creative food and beauty recipes inspire health from the inside out. Her 30 minute show Blythe Raw Live is available to view on Hulu: Hulu.com/blythe-raw-live. Read more of her recipes, view interviews, and find resources at: Blytheraw.com

Blythe Metz

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Raw Chocolate Ice Cream

(Easiest recipe ever, best chocolate ice cream ever!)

Prep time: 3 min

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

4 bananas peeled, broken up, and frozen

¼ cup rice milk or freshly made almond milk

2 Tbsp raw cacao powder

Directions:

Simply combine frozen bananas with rice milk and raw cacao powder in blender and blend until smooth. I generally need the tamper accessory for this recipe because there isn’t much liquid to blend it on its own. If you don’t have a blender with a tamper accessory you may have to pulse it a few times, stirring in between. Resist the desire to add more rice milk because you don’t want your ice cream to become liquidy. However, adding more rice milk makes a stellar chocolate shake. NOTE: you may also use hemp, coconut, or any milk of choice.

If you want to learn how to make your own almond milk in minutes, search ‘Blythe Raw Live Almond Milk,’ and a few videos will pop up. I show how to make it in a blender and in a press juicer. Both methods are great, but I’ve found I now use the juicer method more often because it eliminates the straining step.

Blythe Metz

The post Raw Chocolate Ice Cream appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Chocolate Honey Salt Scrub ~ bath recipe

Raw chocolate is a nourishing ingredient for beauty treatments. Use this Chocolate Honey Salt Scrub once or twice a week for glowing skin. The chocolate scrub allows the powerful Vitamin C and skin-building minerals to be directly absorbed. It fills the shower or bath with the decadent aroma of chocolate.

Prep time: 2 min.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp raw cacao powder

1 Tbsp sea salt

1 Tbsp raw honey (use liquid honey)

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl using a small wire whisk.  Dampen your skin and fill your hands with a quarter-sized portion of the salt scrub. Scrub in upward circular motions all over your body, avoiding your face if you have sensitive skin. I do this particularly vigorously on my upper thighs, upper arms, hands and feet. It’s also nice to use with a washcloth or an orange peel or grapefruit peel. I love to use my large citrus peels to hold the salt scrubs, they work perfectly as a washcloth for this use.

Blythe Metz

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Health benefits of our Valentine’s indulgence

Our perception of chocolate has taken a complete 180-degree turn since my childhood, when my mom used to advise, “Don’t eat chocolate, your skin will break out.”  As our collective awareness has progressed, we have come to understand that the ingredients that are often commercially mixed in with chocolate, like milk and refined sugar, are really the culprits that give chocolate a bad rap (including the stimulation of allergic-type reactions in the body). The cacao nut itself is really quite beneficial to our health in small doses.

The raw cacao nut, or chocolate, as it’s often referred, is high in antioxidants and minerals. When I give people chocolates I’ve made, I tell them it’s like taking a vitamin. You can ingest an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes in one tiny bite.

Chocolate also contains flavonoids, phytochemicals whose antioxidant properties help the body thrive and help protect against a long list of diseases. For example, a Swedish study found that eating about two bars of dark chocolate per week led to a substantial 20% decrease in stroke risk among women. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, cacao contains a compound called pentameric procyanidin, which disrupts cancer cells’ ability to spread. Researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University treated cancer cells with this pentamer and discovered that the proteins necessary for cancer growth were suppressed; the cells stopped dividing.

We now also have proof that cacao’s stellar chemical make-up isn’t only beneficial for building a healthy body, but also a sharp mind. Professor David Kennedy, director of the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Center at Northumbria University in England reports that chocolate helps with mentally challenging tasks. This British psychologist found through his study of 800 participants that the flavanols found in chocolate helped people perform mental math tasks.

I’d like to qualify that not all chocolate is created equal. When I travel, I bring my own chocolate since the healthy chocolate I’m referring to here is not likely to be found in gas stations or airports. Even some of the higher quality dark chocolate bars in mainstream America still contain white sugar, which is not advisable. In fact, in South America where the cacao trees thrive, the locals drink their hot chocolate not as a sweet but as a bitter drink. Ayurvedic principles remind us of the importance of the bitter taste in our diets.

An important distinction to note is that chocolate should be consumed in small amounts. It’s a powerful substance, and needs to be recognized as such.

We all have our own metabolic variables. As yogis, we are aware of what works for us and what doesn’t.  Chocolate, like wine, may support someone’s health and not others. The claims that have been made that chocolate is addictive or toxic for the liver and kidneys has not, to my knowledge, been substantiated with real scientific study; rather, it is based on the experience of individuals who may be allergic to it or have rare sensitivities. If someone has adrenal abnormalities or allergies to caffeine, chocolate may not be advisable. I have a friend who doesn’t assimilate copper well, so he can’t eat chocolate; another friend, a well-known raw chef, feels that chocolate is toxic, so she only uses carob.

For me, learning to prepare truly healthful chocolate treats has been a delightful experience that has provided for me the understanding that eating clean and pure doesn’t mean sacrificing the whimsical foods. Along these lines, one of the best things about cacao is that it blends well with so many other superfoods like maca, lucuma, goji berries and other superfruits, protein powder, nut and seed butters.

Almost everybody loves chocolate, and now you know it loves you too.

Blythe Metz is a raw food educator whose creative food and beauty recipes inspire health from the inside out. Her 30 minute show Blythe Raw Live is available to view on Hulu: www.hulu.com/blythe–raw–live. Red more of her recipes, view interviews, and find resources at:BlytheRaw.com

Find 5 Minute Meals on The Blythe Raw Live Studio on AOL

Blythe Metz

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Beyond stereotypes—hemp is a nutritious superfood.

George Washington said it best, “Oh, the mighty hemp seed; sow it everywhere.” Our forefathers reaped the financial and industrial harvest of this versatile crop used for fuel, food, clothing, building materials, skin care products, biodegradable plastics, paper, and more.

It wasn’t until 1937 when the petroleum and lumber lobbying powers prevailed, and hemp was deemed illegal to grow in the USA.

Decades later, people are seeing a variety of economic and environmental solutions in the humble hemp plant.

We can ask: Why on Earth would our culture be using a non-renewable resource like petroleum for single use purposes like bottled ice tea? We buy items packaged in non-biodegradable petroleum-based plastic, to consume in a moment and then throw away. (It’s important for us to remember that there really is no such place as away.)

This is cause for me to pause and think. For more than eighty years, we’ve possessed the technology to transform industrial hemp (a plant far different from THC-rich marijuana) into a biodegradable plastic that is much less toxic than petroleum-based plastic in all parts of its lifespan, from processing to manufacturing and including its afterlife.

Consider the hemp plant: it grows to full-size in merely fourteen weeks; it delivers oxygen to the atmosphere; it is naturally pest-resistant and can be grown without pesticides (making it a far superior choice for textiles than cotton, the cultivation of which dumps over 300 million gallons of pesticides into the soil annually); it can be used to make paper; and it provides a source for fuel that is based on current sunlight. It takes millions of years for petroleum to be formed; it lives deep within the earth, needing enormous amounts of effort and strife to extract. Not to mention petroleum is horribly messy, and creates pollution at every level of production. I can’t help but wonder if all that oil deep within the Earth is meant to stay there.

In addition to its other uses, hemp is a wonderful superfood, and it’s even gained a bit of mainstream notoriety with a recent appearance on television in Dr. Oz’s superfood smoothies. Hemp seeds are rich in protein and in the essential fatty acids known as the Omega 3, 6, and 9. Our bodies require ample quantities and ratios of these oils for optimum regeneration, skin and cell membrane integrity, hormone and neurotransmitter production, and immune system function. These quick and delicious recipes below will help you incorporate hemp seeds into your every day diet.

A Healing Dessert

Hemp Seed Crusted RAW Chili Fudge

Making living fudge is a great pleasure, for you and for whomever will be eating the fudge. It’s quick, easy, super delicious, and incredibly good for you! These superfood ingredients have high levels of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes.

Ingredients

1 cup raw organic cacao powder

1 cup + 1 tbsp raw coconut oil

¾ cup raw honey or maple syrup

¾ raw organic hemp seeds

8 dates or 1 ½ cups raisins

1 or 2 chili peppers (For different flavors, substitute the chili with 1-inch fresh ginger root, or 4 drops lavender 100% essential oil, or orange zest, or any spice you like.)

Supplies

8×8 inch glass dish

Food processor

Instructions

Soak dates for 20 minutes (if you’re using raisins there is no need to soak.

Liquefy coconut oil by placing the glass jar in hot water (the oil liquefies in just a few minutes).

In a food processor, using the chop tool, puree the dates or raisins.

Remove the chop blade and stir in hemp seeds with wooden spoon, leaving about one tablespoon of hemp seeds to sprinkle on top of fudge.

Scoop the entire mixture into 8×8 glass dish and spread evenly on the bottom of the dish. Place this in the refrigerator as you make the fudge.

To make the fudge:

Pour the liquefied coconut oil and chili pepper into the food processor or blender and mix thoroughly.

(Remember that instead of chili, for a different flavor, you can use 1-inch fresh ginger root, or 4 drops lavender 100% essential oil, or orange zest, or any spice you like.)

Add the raw honey or maple syrup and blend or mix.

Slowly add the cacao powder and mix until thoroughly blended.

Pour the fudge mixture into glass dish on top of the dates and hemp.

Sprinkle with the hemp seeds that you’ve set aside and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Remove the fudge from the fridge and let it sit out and come to room temperature for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Living Hemp and Cilantro Salad Dressing

Ingredients

¼ cup raw hemp seeds

4 sprigs of cilantro

1 ½ cups cold pressed sesame oil

1 tsp sea salt

Dash of black pepper

Instructions for Dressing

Soak the hemp seeds overnight so they germinate; this activates the seed, making it a living seed instead of a dormant seed. Strain and rinse. (I like to pour the soaking and rising water onto a plant or in the garden.)

Place the rinsed hemp seeds in a blender.

Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

Toss on any salad greens to make an instant fabulous salad. Pour the remaining hemp dressing into a covered glass jar and keep it in the refrigerator.

Kale Salad with Dressing

For a delicious a kale salad, take bunch of organic kale (kale is one of the dirty dozen of crops that are best to buy organic).

Tear the kale into pieces and de-stem.

Pour ¼ cup dressing on one bunch of kale and massage into the greens for about one minute; this action is similar to kneading bread. The kneading action breaks down the kale (or any other fibrous green such as collards), giving them the texture of lightly steamed greens, making dark leafy greens more enjoyable to eat.

 Why Make your Own Dressing?

Bottled store bought dressings contain cooked oils and pasteurized ingredients.  Oils that have been heated change, molecularly speaking, causing them to read in your system more like a plastic that can’t be digested and assimilated, rather than a healthy cold pressed oil, which digests and assimilates with ease. Cooked oils are injurious to our liver for this reason. They are a toxin that is hard to process and release, so cooked oils remain in the system becoming rancid, causing an acidic environment within.  Making your own salad dressings with cold pressed raw oils is simple and provides fresh living options to enjoy over greens.

Hemp Milk is Easy

Ingredients

1 cup raw hemp seeds

1 quart water

2 dates or 1 tbsp maple syrup (optional sweetener)

Supplies

Nutmilk bag

Glass pitcher

Directions

Soak the hemp seeds overnight to germinate.

Drain and rinse seeds and combine them in the blender with fresh water. Add dates or maple syrup if you want a sweeter hemp milk.

Blend at least a minute.

Pour the mixture from the blender through a nutmilk bag into a glass pitcher. (The nutmilk bag strains out the seed shells, leaving you with a beautiful hemp milk in your glass pitcher.)

What to do with the leftover hemp shells?

You can spread those hemp seed shells on your dehydrator tray (if you have one). Sprinkle them with sea salt, and dehydrate for a crumbly hemp topping for salads.

If you have at least a cup of shells, you can mix them with one cup of dates or raisins in the food processor, then press into pie dish and refrigerate. Fill with my favorite pie filling: blended coconut meat (from 4 – 7 coconuts plus 1/4 cup coconut water) and 1 Tbsp vanilla powder or extract.  Usually it takes the meat of 4-7 coconuts and about ¼ cup coconut water to make the pill filling.

Compost the shells, or use a shovel to bury them in the yard to add more organic matter to your soil and increase its living potential.

Vote Hemp:

When we as a culture live on current sunlight by cultivating this crop for our everyday needs, the health, happiness, wealth, and creativity of our culture will expand greatly.  Use your voice and visit www.votehemp.com to sign a petition to legalize industrial hemp for food, clothing, paper, and fuel.

For weekly live food recipes, natural beauty treatments and the best in eco fashion, watch Blythe RAW Fridays at noon on wwwBlytheRAW.com. To purchase a nutmilk bag, visit the store at: www.BlytheRAW.com/store.

Resources {sidebar}

Blythe’s Favorite Hemp Products:

Clothing

Rawganique’s fine hemp linens

The Hempest 100% hemp dress and vintage pant

Crocs Santa Cruz hemp shoe

Think Substance, Hemp Can Save The Planet T-shirt

Body Care

The Merry Hempsters organic lip balm

Food

Nutiva hemp oil

French Meadows hemp seed bread

Living Harvest Tempt Ice cream (coconut lime is my favorite)

Miscellaneous

The Hemptress Mercedes Satchel

Hemp Sisters store http://www.hemp-sisters.com/

Blythe Metz

The post Hemp in the Kitchen appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

By Blythe Metz

Photos by Carla Cummings http://home.earthlink.net/~carlacummings/

The chia seed is an exceptionally nutritious and versatile food. This small black seed, made famous in the 1980s by the Chia Pet, tops the charts for foods with high levels of bioavailable omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, protein, calcium, iron, magnesium and more.

By itself, the seed is generally flavorless but when mixed with water, it becomes a gel-like substance that can be dressed up or down. Given that it is packed with power and nutrition, chia seeds are an easy ingredient to add to recipes to as a base for tasty and nutritious meals. Chances are that with time, you may even develop a special taste for the raw seed.

Chia seeds are no newcomer to the field. As early as 3,500 BCE, chia seeds were a significant part of the diet of the indigenous peoples in Central America, particularly the Aztecs and Mayans. The Aztecs used chia seeds as a grain, or mixed it with water for a beverage. In addition, these potent seeds were used to prevent infections and stimulate healing when used as the base of a poultice for application on wounds and injuries. Chia was used medicinally to treat constipation, sore throats, and colds and was even offered to the gods in religious rituals. For all these reasons, it became valuable enough to be traded as currency.

As the Aztecs well understood, chia seeds (because of their mucilaginous fiber content) help keep our digestive tracts functioning optimally. With proper digestion and assimilation of nutrients, we sleep better, shed unnecessary weight, and feel physically and emotionally lighter, partly because we are not weighed down by undigested food in the colon.

It is believed that the chia seed disappeared from popular use for a time partly because the European conquest of the Americas suppressed many of the agricultural and religious practices of the Aztecs. Luckily, and perhaps due to the raw and natural food movement, the seed is making a comeback. From savory chia seed sandwich wraps to chia popsicles, the rediscovery of this nutritious staple crop is surely transforming tummies across the country.

Here are a few simple raw food recipes to help you incorporate chia seeds into your own diet. Enjoy!

*Raw Chia Porridge

Yield: 4-6 servings

 Ingredients

Chia base

¼ cup chia seeds

2 cups water

Directions
Pour chia seeds into glass bowl then cover with water and stir. Let stand for twenty  minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the mixture reaches a light, gel-like consistency, the porridge is ready for consumption. Because the gel-like mixture lacks much flavor, you can sweeten or spice this up by adding in fruit, spices or nuts (see below). This base will last in the fridge for a week in a covered glass dish. If it becomes too thick, add more water.

Add to chia base:

1 ½ cups fruit of choice: Fruits such as mangoes, grapes, berries, apples, kiwi, oranges, bananas, peaches, kumquats, and pineapple work well as chia porridge additives.

Optional: 1 Tbsp maple syrup, or raw agave;

Optional: chopped germinated walnuts, almonds, or sunflower seeds;

Optional: dash of cinnamon, ground clove or nutmeg.

Directions for spicing up the chia:
Cut up your fruit of choice and stir it into the chia seed porridge. Mix and match fruit with maple syrup or nutmeg, cinnamon, or ground clove. Sometimes I put a few drops of my pink grapefruit organic essential oil.

Chia popsicles

Ingredients

¼ cup chia seeds

2 cups water

2 cups berries, mango or peaches

 Directions

Pour chia seeds in glass bowl, then cover with water and stir. Let stand for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.

Purée the fruit in a food processor. Once the base fruit is puréed, you can stir in diced grapes, kiwi, or pineapple to give the popsicle more texture and color.

Stir fruit and chia seed mixture together in a glass bowl with a pour spout. Pour into do-it-yourself popsicle makers, found at any kitchen store. Simply freeze in popsicle trays.

 Chia Fruit roll ups:

* Dehydrator required

Ingredients

2 cups puréed fruit of choice (I prefer apples or mixed berries.)

1 Tbsp chia seeds

Directions

In a medium-sized bowl, stir together puréed fruit and seeds. There is no need to pre-mix the seeds with water this time. Let sit for 20 minutes.

Using a dehydrator, place a teflex sheet on the dehydrator tray. Spread the chia and fruit mixture onto the teflex sheet on the dehydrator tray, in a thin layer.

Dehydrate for 6-10 hours at 105°F.

It will become the texture of a traditional fruit rollup, but much healthier.

Peel right off the teflex sheet and enjoy. Dehydrated fruit becomes very sweet, so this is a tasty treat for you and the kids.

I take these everywhere I go because they contain nutrients that keep me satisfied and sustained.

For a video demonstration on how to make fruit roll ups, or to learn more about dehydrators, go to www.BlytheRAW.com

Savory Chia Wrap

* Dehydrator required

Ingredients

¼ cup chia seeds

3 tomatoes

1 avocado

1 Tbsp oregano or 2 sprigs fresh oregano

1 Tbsp olive oil

dash of sea salt

dash of pepper

Directions

Put all ingredients in the food processor with the chop tool and purée until smooth.

Place a teflex sheet on the dehydrator tray. Pour contents unto tray and smooth into a thin layer. Dehydrate for 10-12 hours at 105°F.

Flip sides, remove teflex sheet, and dehydrate for 7 -10 hours on the other side.

This will create a wonderful wrap that you can fill with anything from sliced avocado and turkey, to sprouts and bell peppers.

For a video demonstration on how to make wraps and breads in the dehydrator, or to learn more about dehydrators, go to www.BlytheRAW.com

Side note on dehydrators–dehydrators use very little energy. I’ve noticed no difference in my electricity bill after incorporating dehydrating into my weekly routine. I also make several things at once in the dehydrator, cutting down energy use.

For a source of pink grapefruit essential oil, visit: www.BlytheRAW.com.

~Blythe Metz is an accomplished actress, writer and producer with a passion for helping people and earth. Her new show about Live Foods, Natural Beauty, Environmental Consciousness and Eco Fashion airs live weekly, Fridays at noon (PST) www.Ustream.TV/BlytheRAW

B. RAW Body, Blythe’s line of Organic and Wild Crafted essential oils and body butters are available on www.BlytheRAW.com.

Photos by Carla Cummings: http://home.earthlink.net/~carlacummings/

Blythe Metz

The post The Chia Seed: A New, Old and Raw Alternative appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.