Easy Healthy Recipes

If you love pasta but can do without regular intake of refined carbohydrates, give this recipe a try - it calls for noodles that are made by thinly slicing raw zucchini into long strips; many raw food enthusiasts have long enjoyed zucchini noodles in place of conventional flour-based varieties.

The easiest way to make raw zucchini noodles is to use a special spiral slicer. There are a few different brands of spiral slicers on the market - my favorite is the LURCH Spiralo, as it seems to have the sturdiest and most simple design, and I find that it's easier to make long zucchini noodles with the Spiralo than it is using other slicers.

Looking for more healthy recipes for the full body cleanse program? What follows are five green smoothie recipes - smoothies that are made with green vegetables and ripe fruit - that provide loads of flavor and nutrients to keep you going throughout the day. All of these smoothies are substantial enough to be full meals, so feel free to have "green smoothie days" during the full body cleanse program - days when you drink as many green smoothies as your appetite calls for, and nothing else.

If you're doing your body good by avoiding pasteurized dairy products but you miss eating cheesecake, give this delicious dairy-free, all-raw, blueberry cheesecake recipe a try.

The "cheese" in this cheesecake is made with raw cashews, and the crust is made with a combination of macadamia nuts, dates, and dried coconut. The recipe requires some work, but it's definitely worth the effort!

All of the following juice and smoothie recipes are suitable for our Full Body Cleanse program.

If you don't have a juicer and are thinking of getting one, I recommend the Champion Juicer; we've had one since 2003, and it continues to serve us well.

If you prefer a lighter-weight and powerful juicer, I recommend the L'Equip XL Juicer - it's the best wide-mouth centrifugal juicer that I've ever used.

Sesame SeedsIf you love hummus but have a hard time digesting chickpeas, this chickpea-free hummus recipe is definitely worth trying. It calls for raw tahini (ground sesame seeds), but if you can only find tahini made with roasted sesame seeds, it's no problem to use that instead.

This raw hummus is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, and tryptophan. Because of its high tryptophan content, when eaten along with a healthy carbohydrate-rich food, it's an excellent evening food choice for promoting a good night's rest.

When made with raw, organic milk, butter can be a healthy food choice, since it's naturally rich in healthy fatty acids, healthy cholesterol, and vitamin A.

If your body can't tolerate high quality dairy butter, you can still enjoy butter by mastering the following dairy-free butter recipes; extra-virgin olive oil and coconut oil are used as bases to create buttery goodness.

If you love spinach dip but your body doesn't love the milk and sour cream that are often used to make most commercially prepared varieties, give this tahini-based spinach dip a try.

Not only is this raw spinach dip out-of-this-world yummy, it's rich in tryptophan, which means that when eaten with a carbohydrate-rich food (like baked, whole grain crackers), it makes for an excellent evening snack that promotes deep sleep.

Though hummus made with chickpeas is a favorite dish in our home, occasionally, we like to mix things up and make different types of hummus that are chickpea-free.

If you're a fan of almonds, I encourage you to give the following almond hummus recipe a try - it's rich in naturally occurring vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium, all of which can help keep your heart and blood vessels healthy as you age.

I've long maintained that pasteurized dairy products should be avoided whenever possible, as eating them regularly is associated with a number of health challenges, the most common of which are: chronic ear infections, nasal congestion, acne, eczema, a variety of autoimmune illnesses, and even cancer.

I almost never eat dairy products, but like a lot of people who follow a dairy-free diet, I find myself craving different types of cheese from time to time. I mean, come on, nothing provides a mouthful of flavor like a nice helping of cheese, right?

On days when I feel like having an all-raw and relatively light meal, I turn to some type of salad with a handful of raw nuts. Yesterday, I found a recipe for baby spinach salad with pecans and Bosc pear in a wonderful raw foods cookbook called Living Cuisine. I tweaked the recipe a bit, taking into account the ingredients that we had on hand in our kitchen, and proceeded to have a truly memorable salad meal.

If you enjoy healthy salads that provide a number of contrasting textures and flavors, I encourage you to give the following recipe a try. Did I mention that it's really good for your health? It's rich in calcium, iron, folate, healthy fatty acids, healthy protein, and complex carbohydrates, including fiber.