The Organic Climber – Vegetarian running, cycling, swimming, rock climbing and raw foods.

Just wanted to send out a huge thanks to everybody who made our project on Kickstarter a huge success. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. Check out the video below for the latest news about Bearded Brothers and see the new logo.

You can also check out the original project on Kickstarter.

Cross Training, Health & Fitness by OrganicClimber
almonds, cashews, energy bar, gluten free, organic, RAW, seasoned, snacks, vegan
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First of all, it’s important to understand why nuts are healthy and good for you. Next to hemp seed protein, nuts are one of the best plant sources of protein available. They are also rich in fiber and antioxidants. Additionally, nuts are high in fat – the good kind! They contain mostly omega 3 fats (most nuts), which are great for reduction of inflammation and helping metabolize fat, this is very important for athletes.

Almonds are one of the post popular nuts and are especially high in vitamin B2, fiber and antioxidants. Almonds are the most nutritious nut of all. Walnuts are also a very healthy nut, and highly beneficial to athletes. They are rich in B vitamins, potassium, and magnesium. They also help retain electrolyte levels, which is important to help athletes stay hydrated.

Now that you know some of the health benefits of nuts it’s time to learn how to include more of them into your daily diet. It should be noted though that since nuts are high in calories they should serve as a replacement food, and not an addition to our daily caloric intake.

1. Snacks: Everybody loves snacks, but often times we tend to choose unhealthy options. Making healthy choices can be difficult when vending machines are readily available and clients bring good into the office. Nuts are great to keep around your desk to curb those hunger cravings. Seasoned nuts make for an very tasty snack, there are many store bought options, but most are not raw. You can make your own raw, seasoned nuts, at home; just check out my recipes here.
2. Nut Butters: Almond butter is pretty much a staple food in my diet, I often put it in my smoothies or spread it over a piece of Ezekiel bread, topped with banana and occasionally agave nectar. Cashew butter is considered a delicacy in my book, but can be easily made at home if you have a high-speed blender such as the Vita-Mix.
3. Raw Deserts: You would be surprised at how many delicious raw deserts are out there that involve nuts. Susan over at Rawmazing has a new book out full of delicious raw deserts; it’s well worth checking out. There are also plenty of great raw food (and a few cooked) recipes on the site.
4. Energy Bars: Nuts are a great source of complex carbs and protein, and are easily consumed in the form of an energy bar. Check out the recipes I have here on my blog. There are also plenty of store bought raw energy bars, but it’s much more cost effective to make your own if you can find the time.
5. Almond Milk: Easy to make, and highly nutritious! Simply blend up 1 cup of almonds to 3 cups of water and strain through a milk bag or fine cheesecloth and you have your self a highly nutritious non-dairy beverage that is great in smoothies, with granola, or as a simple morning drink. You can also sweeten your nut milk by using dates, stevia, or agave nectar. Almond milk is also a great substitute for dairy and soy products to use in your tea or coffee. Store bought almond milk is also a good alternative.

The Benefits of Soaking Nuts

Soaking nuts before you consume them is very important. Nuts have a natural enzyme inhibitor that makes them more difficult to digest. Soaking nuts (and seeds) neutralizes the enzyme inhibitor and makes them easier to digest. Additionally the amount of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and essential fatty acids your body can absorb increases. Soaked nuts are simply put, more nutritious.

Soaking Times

• Almonds            8-12 hours (the only nuts that sprout*)
• Cashews            2.5 hours
• Walnuts            4 hours
• All others          6 hours

Although these nuts sprout, you will not see tails. They only swell.

Feel free to share your favorite nutty recipes here. Also, be sure to check back on future Fridays for great nutty recipes.

Nutty Friday, RAW Food by OrganicClimber
almonds, cashews, healthy, macadamia nuts, nuts, omega-3, pecans, RAW Food, raw nuts
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The other day while picking up some fruit at Kroger I ran across some seasoned cashews under the name brand Yumnuts. They were seasoned in black pepper and other spicy spices, so I decided to attempt my own raw version. They are very simple to make, all you need is your choice of raw nuts, olive oil, and spices.

I chose cashews, and for the spices I went with a black pepper medley, chipotle, and cayenne pepper. To season the nuts, place about 2.5 cups into a mixing bowl and pour about 1/2 TBSP of olive oil over them and mix well. Once they are coated with olive oil season generously. You can consume immediately, but I opted to throw mine in the dehydrator overnight to let the olive oil dry. I imagine they would air dry just as well.

Enjoy your homemade yumuts!

Nutty Friday, RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
almonds, cashews, nuts, seasoned, yumnuts
3 comments

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This post is essentially a re-hash of the Larabar post I did a while back. These recipes are different and the date to nut ratio is far better. After seeing some raw energy bar recipes in Thrive by Brenden Brazier I got a better idea of how I should actually be making these. It is far simpler than what I was originally doing. Rather then pre-chopping the nuts I just toss all the ingredients into a food processor. So, I will actually be presenting to you two recipes here. One for Cashew Cookie and the other Pumpkin Spice Energy.

The Cashew Cookie flavor is my favorite Larabar, so now that I can make these on my own I will be buying them a lot less. Especially since I found out it’s easier than I had been making it out to be. For this recipe all you need is cashews and dates. It’s that simple!

The Recipe – Cashew Cookie

• 1 cup of pitted dates
• 1 cup of cashews

Directions: Place all ingredients into a food processor and process until the dates and nuts are well mixed and the nuts are coarsely chopped without any large chunks lingering about. There can, and likely will be a few but you don’t want too many. After your mixture is complete you have two options. One, place them on a teflex dehydrator sheet and shape into bars. I found myself creating one large square and then using a pizza cutter to divide into shapes. Once you have your bars shaped on the dehydrator sheet, place them in the dehydrator at 115 degrees overnight. In the morning flip them over onto the mesh sheets and remove the teflex sheet. Then dehydrate a few additional hours if needed.

Option two is to place them in the refrigerator overnight. They should also be stored in there as well. Your dehydrated bars won’t need to be stored in the fridge. My experience though with doing the refrigerator method with similar recipes is that they start to turn to mush after they warm up, so they have to be consumed relatively quickly after removing from the fridge, this is why I prefer using the dehydrator. When storing in the fridge wrap the bars in cellophane or place in a Ziploc bag.

The Recipe – Pumpkin Spice Energy

This one is destined to be one of my favorite raw treats. The Pumpkin Spice Energy bar is 100% my own invention too. Granted it was inspired by other raw goodies. Pumpkin Spice is one of my favorite flavors, so I will be more than likely making this recipe again and again. Another thing I like about it is I incorporate chia seeds. I have mentioned this potent little seeds before in Eating for Energy. The nice thing about chia seeds is that they slow down the breakdown of glucose when consumed with fruit (dates in this case), thus giving you loner lasting energy. Great for a long day at the crag, running or cycling.

• 1/2 cup of dates
• 1/2 cup of organic raisins
• 1/2 cup of almonds
• 1/2 cup of cashews
• 1 TBSP of chia seeds
• 2 tsp of pumpkin spice
• 1-2 TBSP of raw honey or agave nectar

Directions: Follow the same directions for the Cashew Cookie energy bar.

Oh, and on a side note. I fixed the overlapping comment box that occurs on shorter posts. So you will now be able to see the entire comment box without it being hidden by the sidebar. Yeah! Finally took the time to find the line of code that needed to be changed.

RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
almonds, cashews, chia seeds, dates, energy, energy bar, Lara bar, Larabar, nuts, organic, RAW, RAW Food, recipe, snack, sweet
6 comments

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