Mango Mail & Raw Food Recipes

Dear Miss Mango
As a breastfeeding Raw Momma do you find it sustainable? Do you find it lessens or increases milk production? What do you eat on an average day?

Thanks so much for your time!
Angie P. Madison Wisconsin

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Hi Angie in Wisconsin! Thanks for your questions!
I am exclusively breastfeeding which typically demands an average of 500 to 1000 extra calories or "fuel" more than what I would normally eat in a day just to sustain.

Now I am not big on counting calories; however I do recognize my body needs more “fuel” in order to feed my baby as well as a intense workout or daily yoga I have gotton myself back into. It is important to plan smart.
I do several smaller meals or shakes throughout the day to keep me sustained and fueled for mega milk production. Doing so also keep my metabolism revved.

I find that my milk production now is perfect for my son’s needs! The only time I noticed a decrease was when I was figuring out how to pump so I could be away from him for periods of time. The more he eats, the more my body produces. He is well fed, has big bright eyes, is growing perfectly through me which tells me I am doing something right!
Based on the facts that I am breastfeeding a four month old, working out as well as eating a fairly clean diet high in raw foods; here is what I consume that is really working for me in this now.

Tuna pate inside a nori with bells, romaine and cabbage.

8am Upon waking I have 2c hot herbal tea or 3c water with lemon
8:30am Do my work out OR go right into my breakfast smoothie
*Post workout smoothie (recipe below)I drink this within 30 minutes of my INSANITY workout.
*Breakfast smoothie if not working out (recipe below)
12 noon Seasonal salad or nori roll with homemade dressing and tu-not pate (recipe below). Sometimes I do a little steamed quinoa.
2pm Deep Green coconut smoothie (recipe below)
4pm small seasonal greens salad with avocado and homemade dressing.
And or Raw soup gently warmed with sometimes quinoa
6pm Hot tea or a raw soup
10 pm Bed time
I try to make it a habit of having a glass of water every time I nurse Zavi Hope this helps!

Recipe note: I don’t mind a room temp smoothie, so if you desire cold smoothies I would freeze your bananas or place your smoothies in a sealed jar into the freezer for a few to chill. xx

Breakfast smoothie serves one hot momma
1 orange peeled / seeds removed
1 banana (frozen if you like it cold)
½ tsp Spirulina (or more if you like it reaaaaly green)
Three 4 inch dandelion greens from the back yard
OR 2 leaves of kale or 2 loose cups baby spinach
Blend all ingredients until smooth. add a litle water to help turn and get the desired consistantcy. Enjoy!

Momma tip: Iron in greens helps your body absorb the vit C! Momma's needs good amounts of Iron and Vit C.

Post workout smoothie serves one recovering momma!
1 banana (frozen if you desire a cold smoothie)
1 pitted date
1 c pure water
6 whole cashews soaked in water overnight
2 loose cups of spinach
3 wild dandelion greens from my back yard.
Step1: Place banana, date and water in blender. Blend till smooth.
Step 3: add remaining ingredients and blend for 5 seconds.

Deep Green Coconut Smoothie serves one breastfeedin’ momma
One whole Thai coconut water and meat
¼ tsp Spirulina
2 pitted dates
2 loose cups of baby spinach
Step 1: Open Thai coconut. Place water and meat in blender along with dates. Blend till smooth.
Step 2. Add spinach. Blend for 5 seconds. Enjoy!
If you want a colder smoothie, simply add a few ice cubes or place this in a sealed jar in the freezer for a little bit.

Tuna pate Yields 6c pate
2c sunflower seeds
3 celery sticks chopped
3green onions chopped
¼ c fresh dill
1 TB dulse flakes
Dressing
3/4 c pure water
1 c already soaked sunflower seeds (or cashews for a creamier texture)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/3 c lemon juice
3/4 TB salt

Step 1: Place sunflower seeds in water before you go to bed. In the morning, rinse and drain. Then they are ready to be used! Grind them in a food processor then place in bowl.
Step 2: Add celery, green onions, dill and dulse. Mix well.
Step 3: Blend dressing ingredients until smooth. Pour over seeds and veggies in bowl. Mix and serve!
This can be eaten with cucumber rounds, with celery, in romaine boats or atop salads!

Did I mention that I am currently a spinach freak! I will blend, chop and stuff it into anything and everything I eat throughout the day! It's in season too!

xxxMelissa

Raw Food Recipe: Momma's Oat Meal

Good Morning lovely Momma’s! Today is a cloudy, rainy day in Watsonville California so I’ve decided to make something warming for breakfast.
Oats are sustaining for those who have a long morning like most Mommas, or for super active folks in need of slow burning fuel.
Need to increase breast milk production? This recipe is perfect!
They say oats help prevent cardiovascular disease. I wonder if this is because the people at risk are no longer frying up bacon and eggs in the morning; instead reaching or a bowl of oat meal? Hmmm Maybe the studies show a decrease in disease in people because they are no longer eating the foods that cause the dis-ease.
Anyway, I prefer my oats raw and whole as opposed to the steel cut flat versions found in the fancy packages. I find that they are less “sticky” in the body compared to cooked oats and they don’t leave me feeling sleepy as long as I enjoy them sprouted and raw.
Below is the perfect recipe for a delicious breakfast that warms the heart, prevents cardiovascular issues and boost abundant breast milk production!

Momma’s Oat Meal Raw Style

Serves 3-5 Hot Mommas

4 c soaked whole oat kernels

(soak 2 1/2c for 24-48 hrs) They will almost double in size.

2 c Fresh Thai coconut water
¼ tsp sea salt or pink salt
5TB agave nectar or 3-4 T Raw Honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
½ c black raisins folded in last
Step1: In a blender, blend all ingredients except for raisins at medium speed till texture is relatively smooth!

If mixture seems watery, you need to blend a little more. The measurments are perfect! Trust me. =)

Step 2: Once meal is the perfect texture, place in bowls, or in large container for storing then fold in black raisins.
Step 2: Before serving, garnish with walnut pieces, a sprinkle of coconut palm sugar and or fresh banana slices

Kitchen Tip: Preparing a batch of this delicious meal ever few days will help save time when you need a quick breakfast. Portion this out into smaller easy to grab and go containers for yourself or your little ones. Love porridge should last 3 days.
Be aware that this may ferment rather quickly if left out on the counter, so keep refrigerated!

Photo: HorrorShirts.com

Love! \m/ \m/ Melissa Mango

doing RAW on a budget!

Two dollars for a few apples and eighteen dollars for a jar of almond butter sounds crazy to the average shopper not yet converted to raw. The price of organic produce and raw snacks can be obnoxious and even put a damper on your excitement into raw foods. Yet there is hope! When I first started purchasing foods for my raw food exciteo-prep, my grocery bill tripled which is scary for someone who already doesn’t have a lot of money to eat or set on fire. When I first began playing with raw recipes, I purchased all sorts of expensive foods and in quantities that were even wasteful.

Anything in the produce isle does cost more indeed yet try to look at your food from a new perspective. Instead of viewing your food in how high you can pile it on your plate, put the value in the nutrition and life force it brings to your body. When you are used to buying five, toxic, greasy burgers for the price of two organic raw apples, it can be difficult to see the value at first. By buying foods that do not clog your colon, make your butt bulge, skin erupt, or age you pre-maturely, the fresh raw foods are priceless! The cleaner foods you eat now, the less mess you need to clean up in the body later. What food have better value? Huge plate of processed man made cheap chow or apples straight from Eve’s flawless hands?

Ready for change? Ready to take the plunge into Live Raw Foods?

Have fun: Go ahead and buy all the fresh foods you wish to experiment with! Help yourself to the snackie-snacks offered in the raw food section. In the beginning of your raw food journey, there will be much to taste, enjoy and savor. Eventually there will come a point when you find balance and narrow it down to the nutritional and most delicious essentials, thinning your grocery bill back down to a more realistic expense.

Smoothe transition: Once our bodies get used to eating nutrient-dense food, our bodies run much more efficiently and need less food in portion and weight. For example the size of salad I ate when I first became raw was Gi-normous compared to the present. Back then, I ate what most families shared at the dinner table for holiday. Today, realizing that what I eat is far more nutritionally sound; I eat much less. My body is also cleaner (detoxified), there for utilizing what fuel (food) I do put in. I get much more out of my food because it is alive and organic and my body was able to utilize all that was consumed. Not to mention like mine, your body too will become more efficient as a result of being cleaner from years of sticking with the raw food program.

My transition and tailoring of food was gradual, so it was much easier on my psyche! Psychologically, you may feel that you need more food to be satisfied and that is okey. Just be aware that sometimes we eat more than we truly need.

Be reali-istic: By making major changes with foods or portions too quick, we can put a damper on the whole point and cause an internal conflict; even discontent. Do what feel best and that you can stick to constantly and make gently upgrades as you gain more momentum. Remember what your health goals are, the reasons for making the change and take pride in that you are doing better every day. Strive for consistency rather than perfection.
Budgeting more conservatively and enjoying the process may take time, so do not hurry to scale down your food for the sake of saving money unless that is comfortable with you. Expect to pay more in the beginning, and know that just like a newly tuned car, your engine will burn much cleaner and waste less. Less is more! Below are ways you can get more!

Get more Tip #1: Start or join a CSA in your local area. Getting fresh produce from local farmers is very economical and beneficial in all ways. Buying produce with friends or forming a co-operative can also help keep your costs minimal. Farmer’s markets are a great place for inexpensive produce as well.
Top secret Get more tip #1.5: When I first began eating raw foods, I would visit my local co-op’s composting bin in the back of the store for produce they were tossing out. Most of the produce was just fine just not perfect enough for the average shopper! I found pounds of juice able produce that equals pitchers of fresh juice that equals nutrients! Find out who is in charge in the produce department; make them a magnificent raw dessert and presto! You have a friend on your side and your in! They will set aside all kinds of delicious foods their store would normally toss out or let you know when the best dumpster diving time.
Get more tip #2: When I lived in Arizona, a friend of mine would walk the neighborhood scouting out trees with fresh oranges, grapefruit, lemons, olives, pomegranate, and persimmons even large gardens! I would knock on the door and offer to rake their lawn or do some yard work in exchange for fresh fruits. Ten times out of ten, they would say..”naw..just help yourself!” There are plenty of fresh, free foods growing in your neighborhood if you just look! There are even wild greens that you can snack on such as dandelion, malva, lambs quarters, persaline, and mint . You will never starve! Just have to think outside of the store!

Just recently I was surfin’ the net and found a fun site to be inspired by! Here is a woman who is proving you can eat fresh prepared raw food for $10. A day or less! Take a look!
She is not chewing on celery sticks for dinner. She has full on recipes and pics too!
http://rawon10.blogspot.com/

I will do this same experiment for a week using my own recipes and get back to all of you on the results!

\m/ \m/ Melissa Mango

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Raw Food Recipe: Where the wild things are

There is more buzz about "re-wilding" these days and it is not about stripping down to your wild self and bounding through the Forrest. Although that is much needed! Adding more truly "wildly grown" foods into your daily meals is taking your raw food meals to the next level. So how do we re-wild ourselves while in the city habitat? well....here is what I did today and I am certain you can do the same.

I live just outside Santa Cruz in a small neighborhood and have a large untamed yard. Our space around our home was just dirt when we moved in April. We have not sprayed or dumped any yukk into the soil. Aside from planting our own garden beds, we let what wanted to grow just GROW! We had kamikaze tomato plants under the deck, wild roses springing up next to the kale and huge thistles the size of Christmas trees bushing out amongst the peppers.

Wild greens are easy to find when you consciously look and notice they are everywhere! Thing is, most people pull up, burn or spray these nourishing plants because they don't recognize them as food or even "pretty". It is a shame we have been programmed to snub our noises at these wild foods commonly referred to as pesky"weeds". Wild edibles are free food and do not need to be cultivated like our average food supply that would not last in the wild.

Wild greens are packed, I mean super pumped with protein and other medicinal properties from the wild. Here are some examples of wild greens even you could find right this nano-second by rooting around in your back yard or un sprayed hiking trails.

Meet Mighty Mulva: This "weed" grows like wildfire! The petals are all sizes and resemble a Lilly pad. Malva Leaf is said to help loosen and expel phlegm and congestion from the lungs. It aids the body in expelling excess fluid and mucus, and because of its soothing, demulcent qualities, it not only removes phlegm, it also acts to soothe and relieve inflammation of the larynx and tonsils, dry coughs, sore throat, hoarseness, lung catarrh, bronchitis, asthma, emphysema and irritation of respiratory passages. Lovely Lambs quarter: Sometimes growing waist high with thin branches, this very common backyard snack strengthens our immune system much like most bitter greens. The only weed that round up cannot kill is you guessed it! Lambs quarter! Gimme sum! High in Vit A and C and calcium.
King Daddy Dandylion: The leaves amongst this ever famous yellow flower it use to be used to treat liver issues such as jaundice, gall stones, congested lymph, breast sores and swelling, suppresses lactation, diabetes, delayed menstruation and ulcers.

Here is what my WILD smoothie for today had:

Wild things are smoothies Served 2 yard snackers

2 c ripened on the tree in East LA mangos (organic)

1/2 c frozen Watsonville strawberries

1/2 c Grass fed organic blueberries

2 loose cups of back yard kale with stem

3 palm sized mulva leaves

2 c cage-free pure water

1/2c lambs quarter leaves. stem and bally things removed

Step 1: Place all ingredients into blender.

Step 2: Pour into your favorite recycled glass jar and enjoy!

Dahveed asked me "Aren't you going to take pictures of our smoothie in nice jars?"

well..no. This is just to show how wonderful it is to re-use your jars for your beverages. I you need to take it on the go, you simply snap a lid on and go!

Isn't it wild to know that those with manicured yards or pavement are really missing out.

~Melissa