Raw+Breakfast

**From** "** Raw Food Starter Guide: 10 Healthy Recipes to Get You Started on Raw Foods! **" **by Cecilia Benjumea** "When starting out, eating a typical raw food breakfast of a large meal of seasonal fresh fruit or a smoothie may not fill you up completely until your body adjusts to eating lighter. What I like to suggest, to people starting out, is to prepare a raw pre-breakfast, which is what you would eat right when you get out of bed. If you are hungry again in a few hours you could eat something raw such as a smoothie or large fruit salad or you could just prepare what you would typically eat for breakfast. Or you could try just drinking water when you get out of bed and then wait to eat until your body is hungry.

I like to start out my day with a cleansing green drink because of all the alkaline minerals found in leafy greens. When you wake up you literally have been fasting for 8-10 hours so I like to flush out my system with high water content fruits, a green smoothie, or a green juice. Here are some typical morning recipes.

** My Favorite Green Juice ** **5 ribs celery** **1 large English cucumber** **1/2 lime**

**2 large handfuls of spinach or swiss chard (wash thoroughly)** Put all the ingredients through a juicer. If you don't have a juicer an alternative would be to chop the cucumber and celery and place it in a blender (cucumber first) with spinach and peeled lime. Blend on high for about thirty seconds and then pour and squeeze the mixture through a sprout bag over a big bowl. The sprout bag will strain out all the pulp and leave you with a smooth and silky juice. Pour the juice back into the blender carafe and then pour into a glass. Sprout bags are relatively inexpensive and have a variety of uses. For more information about sprout bags please go to @http://www.rawglow.com/sproutbag.htm

** My Favorite Green Smoothie ** **1 young coconut water or 1 cup water** **3 ripe fresh or frozen bananas** **1 rib celery**

**2 small leaves kale or collards** Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy. **Variation #1:** Substitute 1 of the bananas for 1 large mango. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">**Variation #2:** Substitute 1 of the bananas for 1 large mango and substitute the celery for 1 Fuji apple. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">The trick to green smoothies is not to add too many greens at first. The smoothie should be sweet and pleasurable to drink. For more information on green smoothies please read "Ode to Green Smoothie" by Victoria Boutenko @http://www.rawglow.com/greensmoothies.htm To learn more about young coconuts <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">please go to @http://www.rawglow.com/youngcoconuts.htm <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">Your second breakfast could be a bowl of seasonal fresh fruit. In summer you could munch on melons and in wintertime perhaps you could enjoy a bowl of persimmons. You could even make a fruit salad out of a combination of any of the following: chopped apples, berries, peaches, pomegranates, grapefruit. . . the possibilities are endless. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">These two recipes above are a wonderful and healthy way to start your day. Even if adding one of these recipes to your daily routine is the only change, you will have added valuable nutrients and fiber to your diet!!"

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">