Begin with a fresh pineapple. Slice off the ends so you have a flat surface for cutting.

Use your knife to peel the pineapple thickly.

Place the peels in a large bowl or stock pot. Use the fruit in another recipe (or eat plain… yum!).

Next, slice a small piece of fresh ginger root. Add the slices to the pineapple.

Next, slice two limes. Add these to the pan or bowl as well.

Lastly, add two whole cloves.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Pour the water over the fruit and spices.

Cover and leave in the refrigerator 24 hours.

When ready to serve, strain the mixture. I use a mesh colander and a large bowl for straining. Discard the pineapple peels, lime and ginger slices, and cloves.

If your first strain doesn’t get rid of all the fruit bits, you may wish to strain again through some cheesecloth. Simply attach the cloth to a bowl using a rubber band, then pour the liquid through the cloth.

Sweeten your punch to taste using agave nectar, a low-glycemic-index sweetener made from the agave cactus.

Serve over ice with a garnish of sliced lime. Enjoy!

This easy, refreshing punch will be a hit at your next party! Ginger, lime, and cloves add an extra kick to the sweet taste of fresh pineapple. This is a great way to use your pineapple peels!

1 ripe pineapple
2 limes, sliced, plus extra for garnish
1-inch piece of ginger root, sliced
3 whole cloves
4 cups water
agave nectar to taste

Thickly peel the pineapple with your knife. Use the flesh for another recipe (or eat alone). Place the peels in a large bowl along with the lime, ginger, and cloves.

Boil the water and pour it over the fruit. Allow to sit for 24 hours.

Strain out the fruit and discard it. Sweeten the strained liquid with agave nectar. Serve over ice with a garnish of sliced lime.

See step-by-step photos of this dish!

Pineapple-Ginger Punch

Begin with baby spinach leaves (proportions are up to you, or you can use my suggestions in the recipe archive — I think it’s easier and more fun just to freestyle it!). Place them in a serving bowl.

Add some chopped walnuts. You can toast these beforehand, if you like.

Slice some fresh strawberries or other colorful fruit and add them to the salad.

And chop up some scallions and add these as well. The scallions provide a nice touch of unexpected flavor in this salad.

Instead of a dressing, I like to add some brown rice vinegar to taste, along with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Start with quinoa, a delicious and nutritious whole grain available in natural food stores. Measure out 1/2 cup. Rinse the quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer.

The next step, toasting, is optional; it helps to bring out quinoa’s nutty flavor. Simply place the rinsed quinoa in a dry skillet and stir until the quinoa is golden and fragrant. Set the dry-roasted quinoa aside.

Next, you’ll need some coconut milk. This is available in cans in the Asian/macrobiotic section of the natural foods store. Be sure to get full-fat coconut milk. (“Reduced fat” coconut milk is actually just regular coconut milk with water added; you can add your own water and save your money if you want to cut back on the fat!)

Place 1/3 cup water and 2/3 cup coconut milk in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

Add the toasted quinoa, 2 cloves of minced or pressed garlic, a dash of cayenne pepper, and a pinch of sea salt (or more to taste).

Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, you can chop your red bell pepper. You want about 1/4 cup diced pepper.

After the quinoa has absorbed the liquid, add the bell pepper to the saucepan, along with 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil has quite a strong flavor; you may like this dish with just 1 teaspoon. Cover the pan, turn off or remove from heat, and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Begin with one zucchini, one yellow squash, and one carrot. Wash all the veggies and peel the carrot.

Slice the vegetables into rounds, like I did with this carrot, or…

…cut them into shapes. Begin by cutting the vegetable into smaller (more manageable) sections, then cut small slits around the edges using a paring or chef’s knife, then slice. This is optional, of course, but it does make this dish a little more festive and fun.

Place the vegetable slices into a steamer basket or pot insert and steam over boiling water until just tender. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your pieces; for these slices, it took about 5 minutes.

Place cooked veggies in a serving bowl and drizzle with 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, squeeze 1/2 a lemon overtop, and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Stir well and serve!

Begin with yams or sweet potatoes. I made half a recipe for the photos, so remember you will have need more ingredients when you make the full recipe. I used one small yam.

Clean, peel, and chop your yams. You can also leave the peel on — your choice.

Place the yams in a deep skillet or wok and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover skillet, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until yams are soft when pierced with a fork. While the yams are cooking, you can prepare your other ingredients. Chop your onion (1/2 an onion) and press your garlic (1 clove) — the beneficial phytochemical allicin in these vegetables is activated by exposure to the air, so it’s good for them to sit out for a minute or two before being added to any recipe!

To prepare the collards, first wash them well, then remove the tough stems. I used about half a bunch of collards.

Stack the leaves and roll them up tightly into a long tube. Slice the tube thinly. This is a chiffonade cut — chiffon is French for “rag,” and the sliced collards look like a little pile of (pretty, edible, nutritious) rags.

When the yams are cooked, add the onions and garlic to the skillet and continue to simmer until about half the water has boiled away.

Next we’ll be using some Thai red curry paste. This is where the “zip” comes in! This condiment is very spicy, so employ discretion when using it. Thai red curry paste is available in ethnic markets, large grocery stores, and natural foods stores in the Asian foods section.

When half the water has boiled away, it’s time to add your curry paste (I used about 1/4 a teaspoon). Be sure to mix the curry paste well — it usually requires a bit of mashing. You don’t want anyone to end up with a whole mouthful of hot curry paste. Also, add some natural Worcestershire sauce (I used about 1/2 a tablespoon); good natural brands are Annie’s and The Wizard.

Add the sliced collard greens and mix well. Continue cooking until collards are tender.

When the collards are tender, squeeze half a lemon over the vegetables. Before cutting the lemon in half, roll it around on the counter briefly — this makes it easier to juice.

Garnish your dish with lemon slices and add sea salt to taste, if desired. Enjoy!

This delectable and healthful recipe was inspired by raw foods chef extraordinaire Claudine Stone — although my version is not 100% raw. Feel free to experiment and adjust to your tastes and needs!

Start with 2/3 to 3/4 cup nut milk (I’m currently really into this hazelnut milk, but almond milk is also very delicious!). You can use rice or soy milk if you prefer — just be sure to use a plain version without refined sugar. Place your nut milk in a blender. A high-speed blender (such as a Vita-Mix, K-Tec, or Blendtec) is preferable, but a regular blender will work, too, as long as it can crush ice.

Next, add about 3 tablespoons raw cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are pieces of the chocolate bean or seed from the cacao tree. You can buy them at rawfood.com. These things are amazing — a real chocolate experience like no other! Real cacao will really satisfy your chocolate cravings without any commercial dairy, sugar, or other undesirables found in standard candy bars. Now, if you really don’t want to get some cacao nibs, you can also try some grain-sweetened chocolate chips, such as Sunspire. But trust me on this one… the cacao is worth it!

My favorite sweetner for this smoothie is agave nectar. Agave has the consistency and sweetness of honey, but it’s much lower on the Glycemic Index and therefore causes less of a blood sugar rush (translation: no sugar crash an hour or two after eating agave!). Sweeten to taste (for me, this is about one to two tablespoons agave).

If you’d like, you can add some maca powder (I use about 1/2 a teaspoon). Maca is actually a root vegetable — very strengthening and grounding and wonderful for stamina. It’s available as a supplement in powdered form in your health food store or from rawfood.com, so you can pick some up to try when you get your cacao nibs!

Add a pinch of sea salt, 1/2 a frozen banana, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (my secret ingredient!) to the blender and process until completely smooth. Observe as the mixture turns a deep chocolate brown! Taste and adjust as necessary (not sweet enough? Add more agave. Not chocolatey enough? Add more cacao. Can’t taste the cinnamon? You need a little more!).

Add about 15 to 20 ice cubes and blend again until smooth and frosty. Keep adding ice and blending until you reach your desired consistency.

Garnish with mint leaves and/or cinnamon sticks and serve immediately! Enjoy!

Start with 1/2 cup millet. Millet is a wonderful whole grain you can find in natural foods stores.

Rinse your millet in a fine-mesh strainer. Millet is a very small grain, so I double up on my strainers to make sure I don’t lose any grains when I rinse!

Combine your rinsed millet with 1 cup water in a small saucepan over high heat.

When the mixture comes to a boil, turn down the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook on low for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the millet has absorbed all the water.

When the millet is done, fluff it with a fork (scrape the fork across the top of the grains). Transfer to a serving dish.

Add 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt to taste, and about 2 tablespoons chopped tamari almonds. You can buy prepared tamari almonds in the bulk section or in the nuts/snacks section of your health food store. Alternatively, you can use raw or plain toasted almonds, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds! All are scrumptious in this dish.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Start with sweet potatoes or yams — 1 medium or 1/2 a large sweet potato per person. Preheat your toaster oven to 350°F (375°F if you’re using a regular oven). I like to use a toaster oven when I’m only cooking one or two sweet potatoes to conserve energy.

Rinse and scrub your sweet potatoes well. Stab them with a fork a few times if you’d like (this is a very positive way to release aggressive, angry feelings!).

Run a metal kabob skewer through the center of each potato. This step is optional — your potatoes will bake up fine without it — but the metal conducts heat right to the center of the potato for faster, more even cooking. Bake in your preheated oven for about 50 minutes or until potatoes are tender when pierced by a fork.

While the potatoes are baking, prepare your fresh herbs. I decided to use flat-leaf Italian parsley and lemon juice this time, but the citrus-herb combo is limited only by your imagination… lemon-basil, lemon-thyme, orange-mint, and lime-cilantro are just a few ideas to get you going! Chop your herbs finely. You can use a knife or a mezzaluna (a half-moon shaped blade perfect for finely chopping herbs). Simply rock the mezzaluna back and forth over the herbs on your cutting board.

When the sweet potatoes are easily pierced by a fork, they are done. Remove them from the oven and split them open. Drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil on top (you can use organic, unsalted butter or coconut butter if you prefer).

Squeeze fresh citrus juice (I used lemon) over the potato and shower with your chopped herbs (about 2 tablespoons of each per serving).

Serve with extra fresh herbs to garnish. Enjoy!

Start with 3/4 cup aduki beans (also called adzuki beans, red dragon beans, or red wonder beans). You can find these dried in natural food stores. Spread the beans on a plate and pick out any stones or other foreign material.

Rinse the beans in a strainer or colander.

Place beans in a bowl and cover with at least 2 inches of water. Soak overnight.

Pour the soaked beans into a strainer or colander and rinse again. Set aside.

Next you’ll need some kombu. Kombu is a sea vegetable that you will find dried in the macrobiotic/Asian section of natural foods stores. It’s very helpful in preventing problems digesting the beans (as are all those extra rinses we did earlier). You need about a 3-inch piece of kombu. Trim the long strip with kitchen scissors. I like to rinse off my kombu before adding it to the pot.

Place the kombu in a medium-sized soup pot and add 2–3 cups water. Add soaked, rinsed beans. Bring to a boil and skim off foam if necessary. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your winter squash (you can use any winter squash; I chose butternut). Peel the squash, then cut it into sections. Remove seeds with a spoon. Chop squash into bite-sized pieces.

After your beans and kombu have simmered 25–30 minutes, add your squash pieces to the pot and cook another 15–20 minutes or until squash and beans are just tender.

At this point, if your kombu hasn’t disintegrated into the stew, you can remove it, chop it, and add it back to the pot. This step is optional, but the kombu adds a lot of extra nutrition to the dish and isn’t really noticeable, so it’s a great way to sneak in extra veggies!

Stir in a handful of chopped greens, such as kale, arugula, or spinach, if desired. Add 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and sea salt to taste.

Garnish with more chopped greens and serve. Yum!