Raw Food Snacks

Nuts for You

Nuts, like seeds that are sprouted in a raw food diet, are a concentrated source of nutrition. The Alkaline Lifestyle is filled with easy, quick and nutritious foods that can be used as snacks. Nuts are one of those foods. Included in this article are recipes for making the following list of Raw Nuts taste just as good if not better as the Burnt and salted variety most of us grew up on, not knowing there was a better tasting way.

Here is a list of Nuts that are eaten Raw:

1. Almonds
2. Brazil Nuts
3. Pecans
4. Walnuts
5. Black Walnuts
6. Pine Nuts
7. Macadamia Nuts
8. Hazel Nuts
9. Sunflower Seeds
10. Coconut (one of the biggest and best)

There is a difference between foods that are called nuts in a culinary sense as opposed to being nuts in a botanical sense. This article uses the term nut in the culinary sense.

Some Principles:

• Burn nuts, and they become more harmful than helpful to your body
  



• Salted Raw nuts are Ok for most people
  



• “Balance is The KEY”
  



• Spice up your life, meaning try spices with your nuts (once you get into this way of snacking you might say, you’ll just go nuts!)
  



• Warming nuts is OK, just don’t exceed 110 degrees, use a separate alarm Thermometer when using most home ovens as almost all modern ones have lower temperature limits that start at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. A Dehydrator is a valuable piece of Raw Food Culinary equipment.
  



• CRITICAL: Rinse and soak all nuts in Ozonated water or at least in pure filtered water. To assume that nuts are ready to safely consume right from the store is dangerous, especially when feeding infants, children or persons with impaired immune systems. I have stood afar at the local Health Food Markets and watched, as people stick their hands into bulk containers, put their hand to their mouth and then back into the container ,with some of the nuts in their hand falling back into the container, after, being in contact with their mouth, before they move on to steal from another bulk container. One person I observed doing it I immediately confronted and then reported to store management because I new him to have Aids and Hepatitis. Sampling is allowed and even encouraged at most stores but not everyone follows sanitary practices. If you had seen what I have seen in how most nuts are handled from grove to market, with any good sense, you would diligently properly rinse all nuts and seeds before use.

Now the what to, and how to, part.

Almost all the nuts listed above can be ground into Nut Butters. Then smear them on your favorite wraps, crackers and vegetables.

Recipe One with Nut Butters:

Take almond butter and spread on Organic Rice cake.
Place slices of Hass Avocado on top of Almond Butter.
Sprinkle on Real Salt and or Maine Seacoast Dulse Flakes (Great source of Iodine)
Rice cake gives crunch and Almonds and Avocado give live nutrients.
Then Try eating only One! Just joking folks, discipline is part of life.

Recipe Two with Nut Butters:
Take any Nut Butter and spread on a Whole Grain Wrap
Then roll it up tight and fold the ends to seal in the Good Goo
Through a hand full of sprouts or as I prefer a hand full of Organic Greens Salad Mix drenched in Spectrum Brand Organic Olive Oil with Salt added to taste.

Recipe Three with Nut Butters:
The old stand by, Organic Celery dipped in your favorite Nut Butter, just don’t use peanut butter.(I so called “loved” peanut butter until I learned that my skin eruptions were my body’s reaction to the mold products found in almost all peanuts.)

Recipe Four with Nut Butters:
Here’s one I discovered for my taste buds. Organic Cucumber dipped in Raw Organic Sesame Tahini.The combo appeals to me. I discovered it because I was in a rush out the door and wanted to eat something really quick.The rule is experiment, just don’t experiment on other people.

Recipe One with Just Whole Nuts:
Soak hand full of Almonds overnight in a Glass bowl covered in pure water, 12 hours is a sufficient amount of time. Rinse off well and lay out on a cloth or paper towel to dry to the touch.
Place in a bowl, the one you soaked them in will do fine after being rinsed and wiped dry.
Spray with Almond Oil until moist but not dripping, Salt to taste with Real Salt and mix well and then eat.
Another version of the same is to place the nuts directly from soaking on to a cookie pan and place in an oven or Dehydrator to heat the nuts up to 110 degrees, then remove immediately, salt and spray with oil. Eat right away or store unused portion in the refrigerator for no more than a day.

”Fresh Is The KEY”

Recipe Two with Just Whole Nuts:
Just eat them as they are after rinsing and or soaking.
Not all nuts should be soaked over night. Walnuts and Pecans being the two most unsuitable to soaking and sprouting due to their soft structure.

Almonds, Hazel Nuts, and Sunflower Seeds are suitable for overnight soaking and if you examined them under a high power Magnifying Glass or a microscope you could actually see the beginning of the root emerging from the seed within 24-36 hours of soaking, if the nuts are fresh.
That is another point worth mentioning; if you soak Almonds for at least 12 hours and they do not swell to at least twice to three times their size, then the Almonds are not fresh and or they are roasted. Many times it can be difficult to determine whether almonds have been dry roasted or blanched. Due to the high price of Organic Raw Almonds, some unscrupulous markets substitute the lower priced roasted and or blanched Almonds as the raw. My advice, if you bought Raw organic Almonds and they fail to Sprout then take them back and get a refund, regardless of what the reason may be for the Almonds not Sprouting. Many times it is because it is late in the year after the Almond harvest and the Almonds are just stale.

When going out and about for the day, simply put your nuts in a Zip lock bag or small Tupperware type container and take them with you. The Zip Locks take up less space and are disposable thus eliminating cleaning a container.

So Just Go Nuts!