These gorgeous red pears showed up in the market, and we had to bring some home. To create a delightful meal, I whipped up a batch of this thick, yoghurt-esque cream made from soaked almonds, ginger, and dates, blended to creamy deliciousness, and topped with slivers of lemon peel.

Serve on a pretty plate, and treat yourself to a refreshing repast—or share the moment with family or friends.

Ingredients: Serves 2
2 pears
1/2 cup pure water (To make the cream less thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time until reaching the desired consistency.)
1/4 cup almonds, soaked, skins removed
2 teaspoons grated ginger root
2 Medjool dates
Garnish: lemon zest (peel)

Directions
Soak almonds 8 hours, rinse well, and remove skins. They slip off easily by squeezing the skin between thumb and index finger. Be ready to catch flying almonds!
Put almonds, ginger, and dates into a blender and blend on highest speed until creamy smooth.
Rinse pears, quarter, remove pits, and slice.
Arrange on plates.
Spoon cream over pears.
Using a zester tool, slice off slivers of lemon peel, and sprinkle on top. The slivers can be minced, if desired.

After making the shift to an all living food diet (with an occasional cooked dish), the arthritis disappeared. Hormones came into balance. Rex shed fifty pounds. With the flood of energy-packed, enzyme-rich nutrition, our attitudes about how we felt in regard to being in this world began to shift. Old symptoms from problems we’d had years before started to come to the surface and would pass in a few days. Our difficulties with chemical sensitivities started to ease. Most importantly, we stopped feeling shut down. We could see that prior to this time we had not wanted to do things or go places because of the effort involved, or the toxicities we might encounter. Once again, life held meaning. This change felt like a rebirth on every level. We were excited to go out and explore our environment instead of staying home and being safe.

Sometimes we experienced ecstatic states for days at a time. Our bodies felt sacred. They were buzzing, alive, melting in a feeling of love. Life appeared to come in an amazing array of forms—through colors, shapes, tastes, textures, healing practices, chanting holy names of God, being in nature, loving a friend, preparing a meal, holding a child, tending the earth, giving service to the world—it didn’t seem to matter what we were doing—it all felt like an expression of One Life through various vibratory manifestations and activities. All of which brought us deep and meaningful states of joy.

We began to notice striking similarities and correlations in the living foods we were eating and the spiritual and physical energy in our bodies. The quiet ways of island life allowed us to access our thoughts—to actually listen to, and hear them, in ways that we never had been able to when living in a city.

The lightness of the diet and the peacefulness of our environment allowed all manner of emotions and beliefs to come up to be examined with new clarity. Without the heavier comfort foods that often masked our feelings, we stayed in a more accessible and open state.

I began to imagine the kinds of food that I could take to a temple as an offering of gratitude, to give thanks for the changes that were happening to us. What would those foods be? In my mind I envisioned the freshest, most beautifully and artfully prepared fruits, vegetables, and flowers, all offered with love to the Creator, the Source of all Life.