Today's Raw Lunch: Raw Cashew Pesto on Zuchinni Fettucine

For today's raw lunch:

Raw Cashew Pesto on Zuchinni Fettucine

For your raw pesto sauce:

1/2 cup cashew nuts (soaked in water for atleast 20-30 minutes)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

a handful of basil

a handful of cilantro

sea salt

Just throw everything into a blender/food processor and process until smooth.

For your "pasta", just use a peeler to peel off fettucine-like strips off the zuchinni. Pour some cashew pesto sauce on top and top it off with some chopped tomatoes (and any other vegetable you like!) and some Bragg's Nutritional Yeast for "cheese".

Yummy & easy!

...and for today's Green Smoothie:

bokchoy

lolla rossa lettuce

frozen mango

frozen bananas

freshly-squeezed lemon juice

wild honey

Chop fruits into chunks & throw into the blender with your greens. Pour in juice from half a lemon and put in some wild honey if you want your smoothie sweeter. Pour in just enough cold water to cover half of the ingredients in the blender. Blend away! :)

This combo is a new favorite of ours. We love bananas & mangoes and the bit of lemon juice really gives it an add'l zing (not to mention Vitamin C)! It was our first time to use bok choy, too, and it's great! Bok choy is a great source of Vitamin C, calcium and Vitamin A which makes this an extra healthy green smoothie! :)

And while I'm at it, here's a few of notes on green smoothies:

1) If you noticed, I intentionally left out quantity since it should really be up to you how much of each ingredient you'd want to put in. No measuring needed! It's all about experimenting with the quantity and the fruits you use before you get the "perfect" combination that suits your taste. As far as fruit to greens ratio, the general rule (as I've gathered from many green smoothie advocates & websites) is that you put 60% fruit, 40% green vegetables. I tend to go 50-50 though and it still tastes great!

2) I almost always use fresh fruit, as opposed to using frozen. However, I started to use frozen fruits during a time when we had way more bananas & mangoes than we knew what to do with, so we had to put some in the freezer so they won't go to waste and now, I'm beginning to learn that using frozen fruits may actually be better since I end up with refreshingly cold green smoothies without having to add ice. I'm assuming though that the freezing process takes away a bit of the fruits' nutritional value (I need to research some more on that actually!) but hey, frozen fruit is always better than no fruit at all!

3) There're many green smoothie drinkers who prefer their smoothies with no water at all to really make the most out of the greens & fruits in it. I for one cannot enjoy a warm, way-too-thick green smoothie so I always add a bit of water to thin out the smoothie's consistency. Another great alternative is to use fresh fruit juice instead of water so that it's still a fruit base!

I'm so hooked on green smoothies now! It's always a great drink for a quick energy boost plus it's so filling, I actually don't crave so much for junk now. What I love about it though is that you can pretty much use any green vegetable (lettuce, cabbage, spinach, pechay, bok choy, arugula, etc.) and any favorite fruit so the green smoothie list is just endless! And it's always fun to just experiment with different combinations everytime and every once in a while stumble upon a favorite (like this one is for us!).

Enjoy your green smoothie!!! :)