Guest guest Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 I went to a Raw Workshop in Santa Cruz, CA at the Café La Vie with Michelle Gronen. I am posting my 3 favorite recipes (in a separate post) that she made: Hearty Pecan Pate, Almond Milk, and Mellow Chocolate MilkShake. Hope you like them too. If you try one of these recipes, please let me know what you think. Plus I am posting her " Storing Food " tips. [My comments are in brackets.] The workshop was great. There were many little helpful hints and I got to taste recipes that I liked. If you're new too and if there are workshops in your area I would definitely recommend going! I also I'm going to start going to Raw Potlucks in my area. ************************************************************ Storing Food Nuts, Seeds and Grains are best stored for up to 3 months in a glass jar in the cupboard. They can be stored in the refrigerator if you have room for up to a year or in the freezer as a back up. If they are soaked and dehydrated, they should not be frozen. Dried Fruit should be stored in the refrigerator to prevent bugs from hatching. If the fruit is very fresh, you can keep it in the cupboard or in cold storage for up to 3 months. You can also freeze dried fruit with little or no effect on its vitality since it lacks water. Spices should be replaced every 6 months, and stored in clear glass jars in your cupboard out of the light. Fresh fruit is best at room temperature as the flavors are much better. If you put them in the refrigerator, put them in a separate drawer with fruit only as the gases will make other foods possibly go bad. Vegetables are best stored in green plastic bags found for sale in a lot of produce sections now. They help the vegetables to last much longer than regular plastic bags. If you store in any type of plastic bag, make sure the end is closed to prevent wilting. If you can fit your veggies into a glass container, that is always best. You can revive wilted herbs by placing them in a glass of cold water like a flower. [cool] Glass is always the best choice when storing food. In a personal experiment, I found that strawberries lasted 2 times longer when stored in glass instead of a plastic bag. Even large salads can be stored in 1/2 gallon glass jars. They look beautiful, and you can see them smiling at you in your refrigerator. Always store your food in clear glass and label it by writing on it in permanent ink (the ink washes off with a good scrubber). Find cases of pint, quart, 1/2 gallon and gallon mason jars at hardware and grocery stores. [i was desperately looking for replacements lids and they were at Orchard Supply all that time. Man, this workshop was so great.] There are also lots of glass storage sets with plastic resalable lids available at a variety of stores. Plastic is a good second choice to glass. Reusable plastic containers should be a food grade plastic and clear so you can see what you have (no expensive science experiments). Freezing destroys some of the nutrients in fresh food because of its water content. Some recipes can be frozen and defrosted and still be quite tasty. Some examples are raw lasagna, raw apple pie, or anything that has low water content. Dried fruits, nuts, seeds and grains are fine frozen because they have no water. Refrigeration- Go through your refrigerator at least once a week to prevent fresh foods from spoiling. You never know what's hiding back there! [My trick is to get the older fruits and vegetable and then just juice them all together.] Storing in Cupboards is good for spices, nuts, seeds, grains, and dried fruits for 3 to 6 months. Any longer than that, and they should go in the refrigerator to prevent spoilage. Countertops are great for foods you really want to eat like fresh fruits, prepared crackers and raw snack foods in glass jars. If you can see it, you are more likely to make a healthy choice. Labeling is important to keep foods rotated and fresh and to remember what that little " is it a seed or a grain or what? " thing is. Using a piece of masking tape or store bought label, write the date including the year purchased, and the name of the item and whether or not it's organic. Michelle Gronen web-site: www.PureJoyLivingFoods.com ************************************************************ Hope you find this helpful too! Minnie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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