Raw Food Gathering

We are going to be doing our Raw as We Wanna Be gathering on June 24th @ 7:00 pm; in My Home. . . We are going to be demoing Family-friendly cooked Vegan dishes and encourage you to google or somehow find a Vegan recipe make it up and bring it for tasting. I will be making Lentil Tacos and Eggplant Fajitas.

Come for Laughs and fun! and getting to taste some yummy food!

Raw Food Restaurant

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time on the computer searching for Raw Food or Vegan/Vegetarian restaurants in the Boston area. I found a Raw Food restaurant only about 10 minutes away from where we were staying! Yippee! I even called to make sure that they were open because a Raw Food restaurant that I found in Boston last year has closed. . . Sad. . . But the Prana Cafe is OPEN!! So hubby called and got directions. It was a little confusing getting there, but we made it. I was going to be sure and take pictures. . . guess what? I FORGOT!!! Ugh! I was so upset with myself as we were leaving.

We decided to share an appetizer, a salad, an entree and then we each had our own dessert. We had the Onion Bread with Olive Tapenade, this was hubby's favorite of the night. then the Best Salad (their version of a Caesar salad) it was BIG and yummy. The Lasagna was very pretty and yummy. A neighboring diner commented to the server that the Lasagna was a little bland, and we agreed. It could have used a bit more Italian seasoning. . .

But all in all the experience was awesome. . . I was just so excited to be actually dining in a place that was dedicated to health!! and hopefully the hubby will see that he can go there and get some healthy yumminess when he comes to Boston on business!

What are you planning?

I never know whether I should say. . . Hi I'm back! Because I doubt anyone missed me, but I'm back!

Actually I'm on vacation with the hubby while he's working, I finally have time to Blog! I might actually update the family blog, that the kids have been bugging me to update.

While we were packing for the trip and getting our mindset for the vacation, hubby asked me "How are we going to eat? You know we're going to be on vacation, and it's going to be hard." It made me think about how much we think about food and how we connect vacationing with "treating" ourselves with food.

So my Question is. . . Do we plan to Succeed? or Do we plan to Fail?

I hope that I plan to succeed while I'm on vacation. It's a challenge to me to find ways to succeed. I'm excited to find restaurants that have raw/vegan options. It's a problem to figure out and I find it challenging to be on vacation and eat right. . . But there are some who plan to fail with the thinking I'm on vacation and there are no options to eating the way I know I should. . .

I hope that we can overcome the ingrained thinking that we're going to Fail. Let's all SUCCEED!!

Juice Feasting Diary - Addendum

I need to add a couple of notes about juice feasting. It's not something that you just jump into without researching it. . . When you begin juicing, your colon shuts down because there is no fiber in your diet to activate your colon. However, your body will be dumping toxins into your colon, so you need to be doing enemas or colon hydrotherapy to get those toxins out of your body. Juice feasting gives your digestive system a rest and lets your body concentrate on cleaning out the toxins.

Another thing that you need to be careful about is coming off a juice feast. Since your colon is basically shut down during the juicing, you need to reactivate it slowly, two different ways of doing this is with prunes or drinking green smoothies. Depending on how long you've been juicing is how long you spend coming off the juicing. Since I only did 7 days, I spent 2 days on green smoothies, and took an herbal colon cleanse formula to get my colon back into action.

Happy Green Health!

Juice Feasting Diary - Ended

I was feeling really good on the juicing, but I just couldn't put down the 1 - 1.5 gallon a day that is recommended by the experts. The most I ever got down was about 3 quarts. I could feel the belly fat decreasing and the cravings were also decreasing. For the ultimate juice feast one juices for 92 days. . . Now I don't know that I could ever do that, but I was thinking that I might juice to the end of May. . . then along came the first clear, warm day in weeks, and I decided I wanted to go for a jog. I made it around the 2 mile circle without passing out. However, the rest of the day I was wiped out!

Conclusion, maybe one should not go for the first jog in over a month when only drinking juice, especially when they're not taking in enough calories (ie: the 1 - 1.5 gallons). I had a decision to make. . . Do I want to continue juicing and not exercise or do I want to finally get out and jog? I opted for the jogging. I wish I wasn't such a fair weather jogger, but I am and now that it's finally getting warm. . . I want to RUN! So I finished my juicing in favor of jogging.

I will juice again. . . Maybe not this summer, but I definitely know that I will do it again especially when I need to reboot when my eating habits have gotten a bit out of control. I know that I can do it! and it was not that hard.

Juice Feasting Diary - Update

I've been juicing for 6 days now. . . I have had an occasional avocado or a couple of pecans in the late afternoon once or twice, but other than that, just juice. One day I juiced 1/2 a watermelon and drank that for lunch. It was Sooooo yummy! Mmmmmm. I love watermelon. I put the watermelon flesh in the blender seeds and all, blended, strained through my nut milk bag and drank the juice for the whole afternoon! Hudson even drank some with me and loved it!

It's interesting that I've not really craved anything. In my research, they mention how juicing is about freedom. . . freedom from food. I thought, sure... But it's true, I walk through the kitchen and know I can't eat anything, so I don't. I don't have to worry that if I eat something that I will eat too much. . . or not be satisfied. I feel free from making decisions about food because my decision is to drink juice for now.

The "experts" say that you might feel aches and pains from old injuries or from organs that have been overworked by your bad food or drug choices from the past. The only ache that I've experienced is my left knee that I had arthroscopic surgery on 28 years ago. . . I was even surprised to feel the twinge because I haven't even thought about it in ages.

Happy Green Health!

Juice Feasting Diary

I was doing a Green Smoothie Cleanse for 7 days and decided, "Why not? Let's go Juicing." So on Tuesday I began my Juice Feasting cleanse. I've been reading, hearing quite a big about Juice Feasting and I admit it's intrigued me. Supposedly we are walking around carrying with us all the toxic baggage from all the times we took antibiotics and used pharmaceuticals, not to mention all the toxic foods we eat. . . I know that I've done all of these, and I'm just grateful that I never drank alcohol, took drugs, or smoked cigarettes that would add to all the toxicity I am supposedly carrying around.

Why talk about toxicity and Juicing? Because the experts say that a Juice Feast is the perfect way to get rid of this toxicity. Where to we carry all this toxic baggage? In our fat! Get rid of my Toxins and fat at the same time?!?! Yippee! Well, not maybe that excited because the thought of drinking only juice 24/7 sounds pretty intimidating. So I thought I'd let you in on my experience that may or may not convince us both whether or not this is a good thing.

After having limited myself to Green Smoothies and blended soups for a week (ok I did have a salad or 2 and maybe a handful of pecans), I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try the juice thing. So on Tuesday I broke out the Hurom Juicer and a bunch of veggies that I bought on Monday and pushed through 2 cucumbers, romaine lettuce, celery, kale leaves, an apple enough to make 4 cups of juice. Then I strained it through a nut milk bag to make sure that all pulp was out of the juice.

From Raw Blog

I drank down this yummy green stuff. . . Ok I liked it, but to a novice like my kids, it's not so yummy. I can feel a rush of energy after gulping down this pure nutrition.

From Drop Box

When Juice Feasting you are supposed to drink 1 - 1.5 gallons of juice a day. Well I only made it through 2 quarts! Yep, I survived all day on 2 quarts of veggie juice.

Happy Green Juicing!

Happy Mom's Day!!

I hope all the Mom's out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. . . It can be a thankless job sometimes, but it's nice to have a day set apart to say thanks to the Mom's that raised us, and have our kiddos say thanks. We don't do it as often as we should. . .

Also, this is a shout out to my daughter Amanda for making the blog looks so cute! Luv you Manda!

Green Smoothie Cleanse

So a few from our Raw As We Wanna Be group have been doing a Green Smoothie Cleanse. . .. This has been drinking green smoothies for Breakfast and Lunch and eating a RAW savory soup for dinner. Some have substituted a salad for the dinner time, and we have been avoiding nuts and seeds and other fats like avocados as they can slow down the digestive process. We've had some feedback and forth on the yahoo group and most seem to have lost a few pounds and are feeling more energy.

As for Bob and I. . .

Well, he jumped ship last night. He had it in his mind he’d make it to Friday and he did! Whoop! He lost 4 pounds! He can’t comment on how he feels because he’s got a cold that’s bumming him out. . .

As for me, I’m gonna see how long I can go. I might even kick it into high gear next week and do a Juice Feast. I’ll let you know how that goes. One thing I have learned is that I reach for food almost every time I walk through the kitchen! I know it’s pretty pathetic, but I find myself in front of the fridge opening the door to see if there is something that calls to me. On this cleanse, I’ve started telling myself NO! Wow, what a concept. I’ve let myself grab a handful of nuts every time I walk through the kitchen cuz I think they’re healthy, but now I realize that I am eating way too many of them every day and that they are filling me up so that I don’t turn to the greens like I should be doing instead. I’ve also gotten into the mindset that one corn chip isn’t gonna kill me. . . then that turns into probably 10 as I walk back and forth past the bag lying on the counter (that my kids didn’t put away). So guess what? I put it away, and out of sight out of mind really helps. As of yesterday I’m down 4 pounds and would like to get down a few more. . .

Happy Green Health! Let us know how you did, or are still doing. . . Lauri

Smoothie Cleanse

Our Raw As We Wanna Be group are planning to do a Green Smoothie Cleanse starting on Monday, May 3rd. This will consist of Smoothies for Breakfast and Lunch. Then a nice RAW savory soup for Dinner. . . If you want to join in join us on the Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawaswewannabe/

We will be posting some smoothie recipes and soup recipes that we can use for the Cleanse and hopefully we will share our feelings and help each other pump up the energy for feeling and looking better and bump up our energy to eat better.

Book Review by Peggy

(From April’s Green Smoothies group meeting)

Title: Super Foods; Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life
Author: Steven G. Pratt, M.D., and Kathy Matthews
Purpose: To help people choose foods that will let them live a healthy and disease-free life. This book discusses the qualities that are in what is called “Super Foods”. These foods have some of the best disease fighting properties as compared to other food choices that we make.
Organization of Chapters:
The first part of the book talks about the how our diets are creating chronic health problems; the principals of great health; micronutrients; and how to incorporate super foods into your diet. The second part of the books talks about each of the super foods as separate chapters. It tells what each food does for your body and even give alternatives called “side-kicks” to give you variety. The third part gives menu planning ideas and additional nutrition information.
Fourteen Super Foods:
Beans Blueberries Broccoli Oats Pumpkin Wild Salmon
Soy Spinach Tomatoes Walnuts Yogurt Turkey Tea
My Opinion:
I really love this book! I have taken a lot of time to study this book and feel that it offers excellent information that I refer back to often. My only issue is that I don’t drink tea.

RAW Cheesecake - minus the cheese!

This recipe comes from Raw for Dessert by Jennifer Cornbleet
I doubled this recipe to make a 9" cheesecake

Cheesecake

Crust
1 c raw walnuts (unsoaked)
1/4 c unsweetened shredded dried coconut
1/2 c whole cane sugar (sucanat)
pinch salt
1/4 c raisins
4 pitted medjool dates

Filling:
1 c raw cashews (soaked 8 - 12 hours)
1/2 c young coconut meat (from 1 coconut)
1/2 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 c light agave syrup
1/4 c Date Paste (see below)
1/8 t salt
1/2 c virgin coconut oil
1 Tbsp soy lechithin powder (healthfood store)

Crust - place walnuts, coconut, sugar, and salt in food processor w/S blade. Process until finely ground. Add the raisins and dates and process until coarse crumbs begin to stick together. Press into bottom of 6 or 7" springform pan

Filling - place cashews, coconut meat, emon juice, agave syrum, Date Paste, and salt in a blender and process until very smooth. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the blender w/a rubber spatula. Add the coconut oil and optional soy lecithin powder and process until blended. Pour the filling into the crust and spread it evenly. . .

I like topping this with Jennifer's Raspberry Coulis. . . 2 - 10 oz pkgs of unsweetened frozen raspberries process these through a food mill or push through a strainer with the back of a spoon. This deseeds the raspberry mush, then wisk in the agave syrup and I put this into a squeeze bottle and can make the pretty swishes on the plate before plating the cheesecake. YUM!

Date Paste - ok this is kind of a bummer on this recipe. This makes a lot of date paste and is used in several of the recipes in the book. . . and unfortunately it doesn't work well when I cut it in 1/2 because there isn't enough volume for the dates to get whipped up nice and smooth. It can be kept in the freezer for a month or two. . . Use it for a natural sweetener

32 pitted medjool dates
3 c filtered water

Place the dates in a medium bowl, cover with water and let soak for 20 minutes. Drain the dates but reserve the water.

Place the dates and 1/2 c of the soaking water into a food processor fitted w/the S blade. Process until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the processor and process. . . Now ready for use in other recipes or use as a natural sweetener.

More RAW Desserts

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Tarts compliments of GLiving.com Click here for yummy gorgeous pics of this dessert.
Makes about 4-5 5” tarts; mine made 6, or one large 9" torte

For the Crust:
1 c almonds
½ c Cacao Powder (can use cocoa powder)
¼ C virgin Coconut Oil
¼ C raw Sucanat sugar (organic evaporated cane sugar; healthfood store)
2 T Maple Syrup
2 T Cacao Nibs (healthfood store)
2 t Vanilla Extract
1/8 t Sea Salt

Step 1 Place the almonds in a food processor and process until coarsely ground. It’s ok if there are bits of almonds not broken down, this will add extra crunch and texture to the crust.

Step 2 Add the cocoa powder, sugar and salt and process to combine lightly, then add the rest of the ingredients and pulse several times until incorporated and slightly damp.

Step 3 Line your tart pans w saran wrap and then on top of it, gently press the crust mixture into the bottom and sides

Step 4 Place them in the freezer while you prepare the fillings

For the Chocolate Filling Layer:
1 c Young coconut meat (healthfood store or Asain Market)
¼ c Virgin Coconut Oil
2/3 c maple syrup
½ C Agave Nectar
8 oz. Dark Bittersweet Chocolate (Greens & Blacks)
¼ t Sea Salt
2 T Vanilla Extract

Step 1 Melt the chocolate by chopping it and melting it over a double broiler or make your own double boiler using a heat safe bowl over a pot of hot water. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

Step 2 Scoop out and clean the meat from a young baby coconut (the ones with pointy tops and shaved white)

Step 3 Add the coconut meat along with the rest of the ingredients to a high speed blender and blend on high until everything is completely smooth and creamy with no lumps. Set aside to cool.

Note: One of the best coconut oils is Virgin De Coco Crème. If you can’t find it, get a virgin centrifugal coconut oil with a very light scent to almost no scent.

For the Peanut Butter Layer:
1 c natural smooth peanut butter
1 T Virgin Coconut Oil
¼ c Agave Nectar
¼ t sea Salt

Step 1 In a small mixing bowl, mix in the coconut oil, agave and sea salt with a large spoon.

Putting it all together:

Step 1 Take out the tart pans out of the freezer. On the bottom of crust spread a layer of Peanut Butter Mixture.

Step 2 Pour the chocolate mixture on top.

Step 3 Place these back in the freezer to set overnight. You can garnish them however you like. I like a lot of chocolate, so I garnished mine with chocolate shavings and chocolate sauce.

RAW Desserts

So tonight is our RAW Dessert night and I've vowed to get the recipes up sooner than I did after last month. . . Was it just yesterday I finally posted my salad recipe???

I just finished up the Peanut Butter Fudge and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Tarts. MMmmmm.....

Peanut Butter Fudge AKA Chi Snowballs compliments of Green Smoothie Girl Holiday Recipe Book

She rolls her's into balls and rolls into unsweetened shredded coconut (people in this house don't like coconut especially if they can see it) so we skipped that part and just cut it into 1" squares like fudge.

1 c peanut butter (pref. natural unsweetened)
1/2 c honey
1/4 c brown rice syrup (found health food store, I personally think it doesn't need it)
2 1/2 c puffed brown rice cereal (found as above but is needed!)
1/2 c rolled oats
1 - 2 Tbsp chia seeds (health food store)
optional: 1 c finely shredded unsweetened coconut

Mix all ingredients together except for the coconut. Roll the mixture into balls and then roll in the coconut. Or press into an 8 x 8" pan and let sit until soft about an hour. I put mine in the fridge. Comes out nice and firm like fudge. . .

Let's keep our fingers crossed that if I leave my camera out tonight, I might remember to take pictures.

GSG Kale Salad! Mmmm!

Marilee emailed me and reminded me that I hadn't put up the Kale Salad recipe I did for Salad night. This recipe comes from the Green Smoothie Girl's Holiday Recipe Book. This is SO yummy!

Colorful Christmas Salad *
This salad presents well. It looks like Christmas, with vibrant greens and reds! Take this
to your next holiday party.
4 C kale and/or collards, cut into ribbons (LD's note: I just chop this up into little shreds w/my chef's knife)
1 C green cabbage, finely chopped
1 C red cabbage, finely chopped
2 lrg. tomatoes, chopped
1 C radishes, finely chopped or julienned
2 apples, shredded
1 large mango, finely chopped
seeds from ¾ of a pomegranate
2 avocados, diced
Note: To save time, I chop by hand only the kale, collards, mango, and avocado. The
cabbage, apples, and radishes I coarsely grate in my food processor. (LD's - this works great in the food processor)Mix all well. The Tangy Dill Dressing (below) is perfect for this salad.

Tangy Dill Dressing *
¼ C fresh lemon juice
¼ C fresh orange juice
½ C extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos
¼ C apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. honey
2 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp. dried (or ¼ C fresh) dill weed
Blend all ingredients in a high-power blender.

Reminder

Next Thursday, April 8th is RAW Dessert Night, MY house @ 7:00 pm. If you are interested in helping to make a RAW dessert I could email you a recipe. I will demo how to make a pie crust using nuts and dates in a food processor. Sometimes the biggest hurdle in transitioning to RAW food is wrapping your head around how to make these food items in a new/non-traditional way. . . I will also demo how to open a Young Thai Coconut.

Here is are a Salad Recipe helpful and ideas from Jodi

My "salad" if that is what you can call it.
I break apart several broccoli spears into bite size pieces
Add fresh strawberries cut into quarters
slivered almonds
Use your favorite vinaigrette dressing to top and voila a side dish that is yummy, colorful and different.

Then I like to keep a mix of peppers (all three colors), green onions and carrot in a container in the fridge. I only keep enough to last a few days. When I am busy I can just throw these veggies on some greens, add a fresh tomato, and a few almonds and I have an instant salad. I have used it as a base to many other things also.

Also, Teresa learned why we use a Salad Spinner, because the oil in our vinaigrette won't stick to wet leaves . . .

More Salads

These recipes are from Lara . . .

Grapefruit Salad

greens
grapefruit
pecans - saute in a pan with a couple tablespoons of honey and coconut oil
top with honey vinaigrette dressing

Dressing - Honey Vinaigrette

This is my standard dressing that I eat on my greens every day.

Blend:
1 cup olive oil (you can substitute half of this with water if you want a lighter dressing)
1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar (or any other type of vinegar, lime or lemon juice)
1/2 - 3/4 cup honey

Lemon Tahini Dressing

Blend:
1/4 - 1/2 cup water or raw olive oil (I usually use 1/2 cup water)
1/4 cup raw tahini
juice from one lemon
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I usually use 1/2 tsp)
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt (I usually use 1/2 ts

I think tahini is an acquired taste. You can also grind up your own sesame seeds instead of buying tahini.

Sunflower Seed Salad Dressing (Vegan Ranch)

We also use this like sour cream on veggie fajitas or dip our veggie pizza in it. If we're eating taco salad I mix in some salsa and it tastes just like the spicy ranch dressing from Costa Vida or Cafe Rio.

1 cup raw sunflower seeds (soaked in water for a couple hours and drained if you can but you don't need to soak them first)
1 cup water
4+ Tablespoons lemon juice
1 or 2 cloves of fresh garlic
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Salads!! They're Here!

The Salad night was WONDERFUL! We had a great time with Trenton (the chef in training) demo vinaigrette and we ate yummy salads. Woot!

And I have been promising everyone that I would get the salad recipes posted. . . Sorry on that everyone.

So here is the Salad that Darci Brown sent in. I will post the Kale Salad and dressing tomorrow.

Citrus summer Salad

Baby Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Purple Leaf Lettuce
Red Onion Sliced Thin
GrapeFruit Sectioned and Skinned
Orange Sectioned and Skinned
Sliced almonds or Walnuts
Strawberries Sliced
Fresh blueberries


Dressing

Juice of one Orange
Juice of one Lemon
Juices of one Lime
1/2 cup of canola oil
1 Tablespoon of Raw honey
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tablespoon of Cilantro

Pour over Salad and toss. Not too much dressing.

**The amounts of ingredients in this salad just depend on your likes of the ingredients.
Depending on the flavor of the fruit in the dressing I adjust the amounts of ingredients in the dressing
also. These amounts are approximate

YaHooo!

We've developed a Raw Foodie group on Yahoo, so if you want to subscribe to the group. Send an email to this address rawaswewannabe-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and I can confirm you on the group. Then I will start sending out group emails this way and everyone can reply or send emails to rawaswewannabe@yahoogroups.com.

I hope that all makes sense. Also, check your junk email folders because the invitation to join the group might have gone there and you'll need to approve emails from this address.

Check back Salad recipes are coming!!

Raw Foodie Support Group

I guess I should mention here that I'm starting up a support group for myself! Yep, I decided I need buddies on my journey and so I'm inviting anyone remotely interested in a Healthy Lifestyle to come along!

The First meeting will be at my House. . .
February 11th @ 7:00pm
We will be making and tasting Green Smoothies!

Life is . . . .

In this house life is kind of crazy right now. The 4 year old and I are sick and the painters are downstairs painting the kitchen. Paint fumes don't really help a sore throat and a hacking cough! I'm just gonna say, if the 14 year old comes home with germs from the JR High again and tries to share, I'm sending him out to live somewhere else!

Being sick does give time to surf the web and I ran across this article about Why RAW foods are good for you. . . Maybe it's more like why cooked foods aren't good for you!

Health News Digest

New Ideas

I have planned to share how I did over the Holidays, but til then, here are some Raw Food blogs that I've been loving!

Raw Food Photos
Choosing Raw
Raw Dawg Rory