Zucchini Chips

Green Leaves and fruit

Bunch green chard
1 small banana frozen
1 cup pineapple
Ice
Almond milk
Blend

Rawhab - raw habanero hot sauce

Habanero, cut in half
3 med size tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup white onion, chopped
Oregano, lots (would have preferred fresh cilantro)
Cumin, lots
Salt
Pepper

Spanish Rice, Only it's Cauliflower

Garden Goodie Bags

My niece just had her second birthday and our cilantro bush was growing beautifully in the garden at my sister's. My dad's girlfriend and I got to clipping it so I thought, "Why not a garden goodie bag?!"

The take away: No candy or plastic toys made from china here. Treat yourself to some cilantro freshly clipped from the backyard garden! It doesn't get fresher than that, friends.

Raw Dessert Shakes

I should have left these as is...banana, mango, strawberry, raw chocolate, walnuts...but noooo, I had to go and make them sweeter (like they weren't sweet enough already) by adding these raw chocolate balls. I was worried our guests needed that extra punch and apparently they did. Everyone loved them, but they gave me a stomach ache. And mine is the smallest one in the background on the left! 

Note to self: if you are sensitive to sugar don't forget you can still over do it on raw. This was a lesson learned for me! Wine is my dessert. Smoothies are my breakfast. 

Rawkin Party of Four. Rawkin

The Dinner Table:


Man's Wrap:

My Wrap:

The Fixings:

Wild Rice - 1 cup dry was plenty for four people plus left overs. Costco was actually selling Organic Wild Rice so I had to buy it. The directions say 1 cup rice (rinsed) to 1 1/2 cups water (I use my homemade vegetable broth). Using an organic spray oil, I like to do a low saute of onion, garlic, and jalapeno/serrano/or habanero for fun. I know it's cooked but sometimes it's just fun.

Once the broth comes to a boil I add my seasonings which are usually cumin, cayenne, fresh cracked pepper and himalayan sea salt.

Matchstick Veggies:
Red Bell Pepper
Carrots
Celery
Zucchini

Toss all vegetables into large mixing bowl. When the rice is finished cooking, let it cool and then stir in as much of it as you want into your mixing bowl.

I was having anxiety about rolling up wraps for everyone but also about asking if they wanted to make their own. My fiance and I had had so much fun the night before rolling our own so we decided to go with roll your own. It was so much fun, our friends loved it!

I made a double batch of cilantro pesto with, you betcha, green chard instead of spinach, and a batch of stuffed mushrooms, only dehydrated for about an hour due to timing but it was all good. 

Farm Fresh Magic

Guess how many bunches of chard there are. I dare you.

~

I'm sure you can imagine my surprise as I was going through my produce box at work and could not count on one or even two hands how many bunches of green chard I had. For real. I couldn't even count until I got home because I kept losing track.

Do you know how many bunches there are in the picture above? Twelve. I counted twice and there were twelve bunches of green chard. At this rate I am going to have to go through two to three bunches a day. Remind me to google "eating too much raw chard" later...

One time when I was eating a lot of raw bok choy I googled it to find that this 80 year old woman ate too much raw bok choy and she sent herself into a thyroid induced coma. Apparently she was eating two  to three pounds of raw bok choy a day so I would keep it to a minimum of a few cups.

With Farm Fresh To You you can edit your exclusions (which is brilliant), so I'm pretty sure getting this many bunches of chard is a direct result of my exclusions list but I could have used more fruit.  Anyway, I knew I had to act fast because the life on the chard is a week if you're lucky. Twelve divided by seven...yeah.

So this is what I threw together that very night. In the yellow bowl in the back we have rainbow chard, sliced in ribbons, and on the  cutting board we have matchstick carrots and celery and sliced white onion on top of the collard. All of this from our produce box.

The sauce is a walnut cream cheese, and seriously turned out to be the best ever. It is the closest to cream cheese I have created. To top it all off, my fiance didn't have to douse it with Cholula. That's kind of a big deal.

Walnut Cream Cheese:

1 cup walnuts, I soaked mine all day but even an hour or so would be good
2 sun dried tomatoes, soaked for 10 or 15 minutes to reconstitute
1 jalapeno, cut into a few pieces
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
a splash of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar
cayenne pepper - lots

Place all ingredients in blender and pour one cup of (preferably filtered) water into the mix. Blend on low variable and low speed. It should taste how you want it to so season or spice according to your taste buds. We like it hot. Add more water for desired consistency.

This is a collard wrap turned salad. I used the leftover collards we had, sliced them into ribbons, tossed them with the left over veggies, and added broccoli and chopped walnuts for lunch the next day. The walnuts I chop and put on our salads in the morning. I added some feta to my fiance's and he ate it without dressing. I used the Bragg's Liquid Aminos on mine.  It brings the flavor together perfectly.

Avocado Salsa

This. Was. Amazing! Exactly what I have been looking for.

Avocado Sauce:

2 avocados, peeled and sliced 

1 Serrano, sliced

1/4 cup nutritional yeast, to make it cheesy/nutty - if you don't have it don't let that stop you

Himalayan sea salt, few dashes

cumin, to taste

Cayenne pepper, to taste

garlic powder, to taste (we were out of fresh garlic, so I had to make do!)

oregano, to taste

2 cups, filtered water

Put everything in the blender and slowly pour in about a cup of water. Begin blend and slowly add more water in as needed. I used the entire two cups.

Goes amazing with the Quinoa Salad: http://beginwellness.blogspot.com/2012/03/quinoa-salad.html

Quinoa Salad

The Quinoa Salad...Beautiful.

1 cup organic quinoa, cooked --I cooked mine in homemade vegetable broth http://beginwellness.blogspot.com/2011/05/easy-vegetable-broth.html

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 1/2 cups broccoli, sliced and broken into small pieces

1 zucchini, sliced into little sticks. I slice the zucchini and stack three circles on top of each other and then slice into little sticks.

4 small tomatoes, diced 

3 sticks celery, finely sliced

Cook the quinoa. Did you know quinoa is actually a seed? I have read several different ways to make quinoa and here's what I prefer: soak 1 cup quinoa for 5 -30 minutes. If it's not soaked, don't stress. Just give it a good rinse.

 Place all other ingredients into a large mixing bowl. When the quinoa is done let it cool and slowly stir it into your salad mixture however much quinoa you want. I stirred in a little over half of the quinoa and saved the rest for luch and dinner today. I just bulked up yesterday's salad. You can enjoy it like this, or you can make it with the Avocado Sauce that goes on top.
http://beginwellness.blogspot.com/2012/03/avocado-salsa.html

Zucchini Pasta with Cilantro Pesto

This is my go to dish. I made it last night and my fiancé said it was his favorite...right after he smeared his (organic) ground beef all over it. He said he was making it a meat dish.

That's fine. 

Cilantro Pesto: 

adapted from fromsadtoraw.com this is my version:

2 cups fresh cilantro leaves

2/3 cup pine nuts

2 pinches sea salt

4 cloves garlic

1 jalapeño or Serrano or habanero pepper, cut into thirds just to help blender process

3-4 TBS evoo 

Blend all ingredients. Set aside. 

Pasta: 

2 zucchinis, sliced with mandolin, spirilizer, potato peeler, or by hand

2 cups broccoli, cut into small pieces

4 small tomatoes or 1 large, diced

1/2 cup leeks, sliced (I didn't have onion) 

Put all ingredients into large mixing bowl. Stir in pesto until pasta is well coated. 

Cayenne pepper and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

Makes 4 servings. My fiance had 2 servings for dinner. I split the other two servings up between my dinner and lunch.

That's a Chili-Chipotle Bracker in the background. Perfect companion for my lunch.
http://beginwellness.blogspot.com/2011/05/brackers.html

Coconut Oil and My Face

Don't mix.

Mimi Kirk, author of Live Raw, basically my new Bible, says to use 100% pure organic coconut oil as a moisturizer. Enter acne. Are you serious?! My forehead totally broke out. I mean, it's like spreading oil on your face. Oh wait. It IS spreading oil on your face! I read somewhere you can use it as deodorant so I'll stick with that for now.

(She's 73, by the way.) 

So Friday night I was freaking out about my acne and my fiance said he didn't think I was supposed to put it on my face.

Enter Mimi breakdown moment. "Yes you do, it says! The book says! Mimi says!" I'm pretty sure between that, trying to find vegetable glycerin to make my own face soap, raw potato slices on my eyes, and the deer antler he sees me squirting under my tongue, he thinks I've lost it.

I try not to talk about raw food, being raw, or Mimi too often. He is still trying to grasp the thought of me no longer eating cheese. I'm not being fascist, I have had my ups and downs, but I always get right back on the wagon. The hard part is not getting stuck under the tire and letting the wagon run you over. You want to be the driver, obvi.

If one bad day turns into two, it makes it even more difficult to "get right with Jesus" by day three. If you have a bad day, get over it. Move on. Let go. Make better choices now. Begin!

Apples and Bananas

 Apple and Banana Smoothie Time! 

1 apple

1 banana

6 kale leaves

1 small handful of almonds and walnuts
1 handful of spinach

1 cup almond milk
6 ice cubes

oh! and how could I forget the raw chocolate?!

I soaked the almonds and walnuts and then dehydrated them over night but I have been known to grab a handful of raw walnuts, run them under water and toss them in...

And Blend! 

No fancy garnishes this time but it was still just as delicious =)

Heaven in Leftovers

What you're looking at is a raw food goulash. We have vegetables from Sunday's collard wraps, and quinoa, collard greens, and broccoli leftover from Monday's dinner, all over a fresh bed of romaine lettuce which you probably can't even see.
I have been making smoothies w/ pineapple, banana, kale, and spinach too! So delish!

Cilantro Pesto Collard Wrap

After my "Best Ever" smoothie on Sunday I was feeling really inspired. We decided to have Rumil's parents over for dinner. Rumil was preparing flank steak for tacos so I knew I had to come up with something equally exciting. I made some cilantro pesto (my go too ;) stuffed mushrooms with some beautiful organic baby bell mushrooms from Farm Fresh To You.

OH. Major Sidebar right here for a minute: my nifty celery in water technique...total fail. I tried to rinse it first and it went limp. I tried not rinsing it, and it still went limp. I put it in the door instead of on the top shelf, and it still went limp. Finally, I tried to do what Mimi, the author of Live Raw, my Bible, suggested and keep it in the crisper and then when it's ready to be used, rinse it, wrap in a paper towel and put back in crisper. All of these tactics to no avail.

Back to Sunday night dinner...I went all out and made Collard Green Wraps, baby. That's right! Was I in the kitchen for four hours? Yes. Did I love every minute of it? Maybe not every minute, but for the most part, it was a great experience. And honestly, if I had a mandolin I would probably have only been in there for two hours. But I was like slicing, and slicing again. To julienne by hand ain't easy! My fiance was doing homework so I used him as my taste tester for the first two wraps I made.

Mimi suggested rubbing down the collard leaves with oil, lemon, and salt...seemed greasy. I decided to just rub down the inside of the wrap. Also, while chopping, slicing, and dicing vegetables for the collards, I had my bin out for veggies for our salad for the week - which is now lasting three days. So a little went into this pile and a little went into the that pile. After I made all the wraps the left over red bell peppers (which I never buy but are in so many raw food recipes so I did - organic - so freaking juicy and beautiful delicious), sliced carrots and radish went into the salad bin.

I had made my fiance a raw trail mix so I put that out for the parents in addition to the stuffed mushrooms and we had some organic tortilla chips and fresh made guac. When my FMIL saw me making the collard wraps she thought I was attempting to make dolma! Ha! She is an amazing cook so I would never even attempt that without her help.  She asked me if I was going to cook the wraps. I said, "They are Good. To. Go."

When we sat down for dinner, she said, "This is how a table should be." What she meant by that was you should only have what's necessary for your dinner. At her house they always have a HUMONGOUS spread out. I'm talking about a few different kinds of cheese, a couple baskets of warm bread, a few different kinds of meat, rice and/or potatoes, etc. etc. There could be two people or twenty people...it's a full on feast. His parents still think I'm crazy because I drink my tea without a "sweet."

You know by now my directions for recipes are all over the place, so please, if you just remember one thing, do whatever you want! Make it yours!

What you need:

Collard Greens

Little bit of EVOO, oil, and fresh lemon 

Radishes

4 Carrots (If you have huge carrots, I would use one - I had small ones from produce box)

1 Red Bell Pepper

Mushroom stems

Celery

Cilantro

Jalapeno (you choose how much - I used half)

2 Cloves Garlic

Red Onion (I didn't have any but it would have been a great addition)

Cilantro Pesto (see http://www.fromsadtoraw.com/Recipes/CilantroPesto.htm and don't let the picture scare you - it looks nothing like that. Also, I use twice as much spinach and a fourth of the oil. It calls for way too much oil. Another thing, you can pretty much use whatever nut you want. If you use pine nuts, you really don't need a lot of oil.)

Step One: Make the cilantro pesto. Go ahead and stuff some mushrooms with it while you're at it.

Step Three: Using a mandolin (or lots of time) julienne red bell pepper, carrots, and radish. Set aside

Step Four: Mix oil, lemon, and dash of sea salt. I poured oil into 1/4 cup measuring cup, added fresh squeezed lemon and a few cracks of Himalayan Sea Salt. Keep on cutting board next to collards.

Step Five: Slice stem out of collard green. Hopefully I don't have to tell you to rinse them. Mimi suggests rinsing, wrapping in towel and putting in crisper until ready to use, so that's what I did. Dip your fingers (yes, your fingers, like my FMIL said when I apologized for using my fingers: "If you don't use your fingers, you can't cook") into the mixture of oil, lemon and salt and rub gently on dull side of leaf. 

Take one small spoonful of pesto and spread down center of collard green (shiny side down but it doesn't really matter. I go with natural shape of collard). 

Take one large pinch of stem/cilantro/celery/etc. mix and place along cilantro

Take few carrot, radish, and bell pepper sticks and place longways (so they stick out of top of collard) on top of mixture

And Wrap. Just like a burrito; wrap it up. If you want to leave it open on both ends, go for it. I wrapped it up so everything stayed in there nice and neat. It was a blast.

I will note here that I used the remainder of the cilantro pesto to lightly coat our vegetable mixture for lunchtime salads and in the morning I have been placing that over a bed of lettuce. The Pyrex are perfect for this. Last night the mixture was already getting low so I sliced cucumber and gradually stirred it into the mix. Perfecto.

"The Best Ever" Almondmilkshake

Kale strawberry banana walnut almondmilkshake. My fiance said this one was the best ever!

My Neck, My Back

Let's talk about leg cramps. Have you ever heard of anyone doing the master cleanse and getting crazy cramps? Like wake you up in the night cramps? I have heard of but never experienced this, and let me tell you - it's gnarly. Super gnar.

My fiance was tossing and turning all night so I got up and slept on the couch, which I never do. It was 2:45 am. I was having super vivid dreams about car accidents and Vegas, mind you two weeks ago I was having dreams that David Wolfe and I were deep in the amazon tripping on some weird raw shiz. Anyway crazy vivid dreams and I was waking up at 15 minute intervals with these super crazy, intense cramps in my calves.

I tried to keep the blanket over my face to prevent me from being able to see the glowing clock on the ihome. Rule number one: no glowing clocks in your sleeping area. I promote no clocks or tv in general. I read once that even if you wake up to go the bathroom, you should never look at the clock. Apparently the energy psyches you out or something.

Back to the cramps.. I would think that after two weeks and one day of a mostly raw food cleanse, that I would be over that phase of detox but I guess if the aforementioned equation is correct, I could be experiencing these symptoms for two years. That shit cray. I mean it's hard for me to stand for a long time. And not to continue the tirade, but my back is killing me too. Definitely in need of an intense stretch sesh this afternoon. For sure.



Fiesta, Fiesta:

Celery, sliced
Broccoli, sliced
Speciality cauliflower, sliced
White onion
Sliced mushroom
Sliced kale, de-stemmed
2 cloves diced garlic
1/4 habanero pepper (bad idea unless you like choking)
2 cayenne peppers from the vinegar jar

I made this mixture for tacos last night. Romaine lettuce tacos, that is. My fiance made homemade guac that I used for a spread - he had nachos. That used to be a once a week meal for us. He made the same size that we used to share and threw 1/3 of it away! You live and you learn.
He's actually been very understanding and hasn't made me feel badly about not eating the things I was. Namely cheese, but between you and me, I can't stand that processed three cheese Mexican blend. It tastes like plastic. He really wanted sour cream and I offered to make him some from pine nuts but that was clearly not happening.

We both had the rest of the veggies for lunch today. I squirted the bragg's liquid aminos on mine, which I highly recommend as a staple item in your kitchen.

Have a salubrious weekend.

Pink slim and other stuff

No that's not pink slime on my shirt. Just breakfast.

Let's get straight to the point: I feel amazing. Whole new lease on life. God bless. Got home after a hellish 12 hour day, had a couple handfuls of cashews, a pear, and a mandarin orange for dinner (I ate my trail mix that was supposed to last three days and an entire bag of brackers in addition to my smoothie and salad at work), walked the dog, and was in bed at 8. Amazing what a difference a day makes. Yesterday was definitely an, "I'm hungry all day day." So glad it's over. 

Rumil called me in a panic this morning about pink slim  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/70-percent-of-ground-beef-at-supermarkets-contains-pink-slime/

while I was freaking out about kony. Kony2012.com

"All I can think about is all that ground beef I just bought from Costco." God bless the Internet. I'm not comparing kony to pink slim, but Rumil would never, ever, ever have any idea about pink slime if it weren't for things going viral. I'm like, "this is old news, honey. And this is why you buy organic, grass-fed beef." 

Sidebar: NYT first came out with the article in 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=1

While he does buy organic ground beef from Costco (budget shopping, my friends), restaurants are a whole other story. I'm 100% positive our favorite hole in the wall Mexican restaurant in Santa Ana uses conventional ground meat fried in fat. For sheesy. But this a great concept for him to consider that I had nothing to do with! Manufacturer's lie. They are all out for profit. They'll even sell you pink slime, call it an "additive," and toss it in your meat without you ever knowing...until now! Yes! It's true! 

When you're a veg in a meat eaters world, news going viral like this is a miracle! He still might not fully get why I'm trying to (and for the most part am) off of packaged food, but at least he's one step closer. 

Sent from my iPhone

Help, I'm in hell!

Yesterday when I mentioned that I am extremely sensitive to sugar, what I failed to mention was that it took years, YEARS, to train myself that a basket of rolls or a loaf of French bread is the same thing as a basket of cookies or a cake. I would never eat a basket of cookies and I hate cake, but a basket of fresh baked rolls or a warm loaf of French bread?! Now that's another story.

Sidebar: my dad's mom was known as the bread lady. She never showed up anywhere without white bread and butter. One of my favorite things about sleeping over was that we ate warm bread and butter for breakfast. She also loved her wine. She also died from cancer.

So there I was in agonizing pain all day, note: at work. My head was raging, my eyes wanted to clamp shut, and I basically felt like an all out wreck. And I bit my lip and it's super swollen. Ever read that children's book Alexander and the no good, very bad, horrible day? This is that.

Moral of the story: stay the course. The upside to this is I can only feel better from here. Wah Wah

Wild Rice Mushroom Mix

I'm taking this cleanse for Lent one day at a time and it is seriously the only way to go. And I know that, I mean I tell my clients that everyday! I don't want to go back to processed foods when this is done. 

I watched some really great youtube videos yesterday about raw foodism. One raw foodie girl who I adore said take your age and divide by 15 to figure out how long it will really take you to detox. Something to do with our 31.5 foot colons and our body's regenerating cells every 6 months. Well I'm about to be 30 so that's two years. She is crazy raw. Fully raw and only organic. I love that she is pure veggie and anti packaged food. She kind of even hates on dehydrators and sun dried tomatoes, but also said that sitting down and eating 16 oranges as a complete meal was totally normal. As a Health Educator, I am confused by that notion.

For me personally, I would rather have a little wild rice or quinoa and massive raw vegetable salad than ever sit down to 16 oranges. I mean honestly, I got a little stomach upset today and I'm pretty sure the culprit was too many goji berries. I'm very sensitive to sugar. I knew when I was making the trail mix on Sunday that I added too many goji berries to the mix, but I figured I could filter them out. Think again. Between that and the little bit of my smoothie I drank, I could barely eat my salad at lunch. Now I'm quite tired. #re-detox

Last night I made my first successful (vegan) meal. By successful I mean my fiance didn't have to pour half a bottle of Chulula on it. In fact, he didn't use any! In order to keep him satisified he needs to be eating more than just veggies. He does eat meat and cheese, but not every night and I just don't mention that I have completely changed my "cooking" style. The less I say the word "raw" or "vegan" the better. Ya feel me?

Wild Rice Mushroom Mix:

1 cup wild rice or quinoa, cooked

8 mushrooms, sliced

2 cups, sliced broccoli 

1 habanero, diced

Cook rice on stove and slowly mix vegetables in after the rice has cooked completely. Keep covered for two minutes. Stir well.

While the rice is cooking prepare a massive bowl on the side of:

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped - leaves only 

2 cups cauliflower, sliced and broken into small pieces

1 cucumber

4-5 small tomatos, sliced  

2 cups broccoli, sliced and broken into small pieces

5 mushrooms, sliced

3 garlic cloves, diced

1 jalapeno, sliced  

We had leftovers for lunch.

So basically what happens is, he eats a lot of the rice mixture while I eat a about 1/2 cup of the rice mixture and then probably 2 cups of the raw veg mixture. My secret to the rice this time around?? Add in the old habanero. Oh yeah. Slice and Dice, baby!

I was pretty surprised when I asked Rumil if he wanted feta on his salad for lunch and he said no, that the rawmesan I made was fine. Well of course he didn't say rawmesan but you catch my drift. Rawmesan is finely diced walnuts and garlic in this household. Mimi, the author of Live Raw, says use cashews, but we're fresh out.

And Shake

Salad Fixings:

1 cucumber, sliced

bunch radish, sliced

3 TBS walnuts, very finely diced with garlic

3-4 sticks celery, sliced

salad sprinkle

fresh cracked pepper

Dijon mustard, squirt on top

ACV, just a TBS or so 

and shake...after you put the lid on ;)

I added the romaine lettuce and some tomatoes this morning. Looks fab! 

Get In Where You Fit In

With the crazy amount of nuts we have, a trip to the container store was imperative. We got some really cool jars (see far right with orange lid) and put all the nuts out on display. I think it's important to have things out where you can see them. No Betty Crocker, put everything away in the pantry kitchen for us! We totally gave our kitchen a new look and it feels great. Scrubbed down the entire house too, so everything is nice, fresh, and clean.
I got to reading in the afternoon and in Mimi's book she talks about storage for nuts. Oily nuts like walnuts, almond, and pine nuts should be stored in the fridge to prevent them from going rancid. What you are looking at is actually the back up nuts. We have containers out and these were the ones that were put in pantry, so I quickly moved the back up pantry nuts into the fridge. Gave that a little make over too.
Back on the celery in water thing...don't rinse it first. I made the mistake of rinsing it last week and it began to get lifeless pretty quickly. No rinsing until you are ready to eat them. Whatever vegetable it is. Except for lettuce. But with lettuce you want to rinse, spin, take spinner out, wipe out well and place a paper towel down. Then put lettuce on that and it should stay good for your salads M-F.

Quinoa                            Wild Rice 

Nutritional Yeast, Pumpkin Seeds, Sun dried Tomatoes, Cashews

Pine Nuts, Walnuts, Almonds, Gogi Berries

Making my way

I'm feeling like a really bad raw foodist this weekend. Last night I ended up at a British pub and the crab and avocado salad - hold the crab - just didn't seem enticing. I had (organic) tortilla chips and a (gasp) flour tortilla (it was filled with vegetables) at lunch and so I to go out on a limb with the vegetable curry. It came highly recommended and it's vegan. So that's that and it was amazing and I only ate half.

I could be in a black out justifiable haze, but I haven't had any cheese or any "prepared" foods since Ash Wednesday. This can't be that big of a disaster, right? Oh wait, I might have forgotten to mention that I sliced the cheese stuffed crust off of a piece of pizza and nibbled on that while I prepared my smoothie yesterday for breakfast, and I might have had another piece for dessert tonight. Warm baked bread and cheese + PMS. Yes, Rumil re-baked the pizza in the oven. See what I mean? Worst raw foodist ever.

I'm going to keep plugging away. Lunch is prepared for tomorrow and the schedule sets back in. I'm anticipating an amazing week. I'm just going to throw in that I don't want to do this for 40 days and then go back to my old ways, so part of me isn't even bothered. Just like getting off of anything takes time, I am going with the flow and adapting along the way. I say: don't hate. I'm just a girl in the world. That's all that they'll let me be.

Moxie Bars

The Moxie Bars are amazing! Just like a chewy granola bar. I made them with my sister and we didn't dehydrate them or anything. If you like something sweet in the morning, it's perfect for that, although I prefer one in the afternoon with some tea or almond milk. They stay good for a week! We used blueberries for the fruit and Warrior Food Superfood and raw cacao nibs for antioxidants. 

I wouldn't worry about your materials being raw. If you have a nice honey or agave, that will be fine but I have been surprised to fine those products at mainstream super markets such as Ralph's. We used raw honey and honestly, I'm not sure if a few drops of stevia would do the trick because the honey was like the glue that held it together...I would go honey or agave for sure.

My sister and I were thinking the blueberry spread is supposed to be like a "frosting" since if you dehydrate them it becomes cake like. I say, screw it, throw the blueberries in the mix with everything so it's gooey throughout.

If I haven't mentioned this already or if you don't know by now, my idea of following a recipe is looking up a few different ones and then picking what I like most from each one. It's all experimental! 

Moxie Bars:

Tools: Food Processor S Blade, Small Glass Dish (brownie size), Dehydrator (optional - makes it cake like)

2 cups walnuts

4 TBS coconut or almond butter

1/4 cup of superfood (good for blood sugar, greens for protein, antioxidants such as raw chocolate, probiotics)

2 Cups low glycemic fruit - blueberries, strawberries or soaked dried figs

3-5 drops of stevia or 1/3 cup of raw agave or raw honey

dash of cinnamon

Blend walnuts, superfood, honey and cinnamon (if you're adding agave or honey add while blending to keep smooth) to create dough balls. Put mixture in glass dish and press down. Top with fruit such as pulsed blueberries

Ramble On

Blogging from the pool today and I'm slightly annoyed that my pictures won't upload like they should from my phone. Ahh well. Life could be worse. Friday night I ended up in Pasadena at a brasserie. Luckily they had a farmers market salad that was just perfect. There was no cheese and no croutons. Other than partaking in some libations, I was pretty on course.

Rumil didn't make it out so he treated himself to a couple of cocktails, a plate of homemade nachos, oh and a medium stuffed crust meat lovers pizza. That's right. One of these things is not like the other!

My sister and I made the moxie bars which I was trying to post via mobile blogger to no avail. Let me see what I can do now that I'm logged in here. Well, that was a fail. I can't upload pics from my phone. I won't give up though.

This morning I had the second half of my smoothie from yesterday, made some cilantro pesto stuffed mushrooms (dehydrated for 3 hours) went to the container store to get some sweet glass jars for nuts, quinoa, wild rice, nutritional yeast, goji berries, and rumils coffee.

What I really want to be doing right now is showing you my cool picture of the bars. Now that I had a brief tutorial on instagram, you can expect my blog to be a lot cooler. A lot.

Instead of continuing to ramble on, I will sign off with the intention to, at some point today, get my new groovy pics posted. Promise.

Cheers to the sun.

Chewy Trail Mix

Goji berries, sprouted almonds, pumpkin seeds.

A great snack and perfect way to make expensive nuts, seeds, and berries last a little longer!

Cancer Pop

Cancer Pop
Ay ay ay

This is what I deal with...on a nightly basis since he made the purchase a few weeks ago.

I grew up on air popped pop corn. Let's get back to that. We were planning on registering for one for our wedding, but I think we'll splurge and make the purchase now!

And Blend

Simple Smoothie:

few handfuls of spinach, freshly rinsed

2 Mandarin oranges, peeled and separated

small frozen banana, sliced

small handful frozen berries

almond milk - approx 1 cup - add more for desired consistency.

And Blend.

Magic Mushrooms

Magic Mushrooms

7 baby bella mushrooms, wiped and sliced

3 tsp evoo

4-5 cloves of garlic (depends on your preference)

jalapeno/serrano (again, your choice)

broccoli, couple handfuls

Slice mushrooms, place in pyrex. drizzle oil over mushrooms, stir in garlic and jalapeno. Put lid on pyrex and shake. Let sit over night and enjoy for or with the next day's lunch. I wanted to bulk it up, so I tossed in a couple handfuls of broccoli as well. It made the perfect lunch! 

Reminder of why I'm making the switch

now read: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/29/new-vermont-gmo-labeling-policy-officially-introduced.aspx?e_cid=20120229_DNL_art_1

What set this whole cleanse thing off for me was GMO's. There was so much discussion of GMO's at the Women's Wellness Conference. I figured if I stayed away from the white stuff and packaged food I would, for the most part, be avoiding GMO's. They are everywhere. This is why I really want to start buying all organic. Yes it's expensive, and I'll be the first to admit I bought non-organic cashews yesterday from Costco. I made the justification for non-organic too. "These are affordable." "These are practical."

I also purchased Houweling's green house grown tomatoes on the vine and I stood there for 15 minutes researching the company so I could justify buying those too. When grown in a greenhouse you don't need soil, therefore they don't get weeds, therefore you don't need herbicides. They're also grown locally, in Camarillo, and are a family business that has been around since 1956. They use renewable energy, solar electric power, water conservation, and are award winning in 2011 for environmental and economic leadership.

Am I trying to make myself feel better? Yes. Did I justify buying the tomatoes? Yes. Did I do research first? Yes. I didn't just blindly buy them. There were three to choose from. The other two options were conventionally grown in Mexico, so obvi they were out.

After all this rampage, I just googled, "Are Kirkland Cashews GMO?" and PCC Natural Markets website came up. They support non-GMO and have a page dedicated to it on their website. This is good.

What's slightly annoying is that my eye only caught the bold print...Contains: cashews. Funny how I completely read over the part that said Ingredients: cashews, peanut oil and salt. At least they're non-GMO, but that is a fine example of how an extremely aware and mindful consumer is just as easily confused as the person that doesn't give two hoots about whether those nuts have been processed.

It's only been a week since being off the white stuff and packaged foods, and I have made great strides. The hardest thing so far is the almond milk. It's just so easy to use the stuff from the box. This is a work in progress but I am happy to say, other than the nuts, this is basically the only processed food I have been using.

On a funny/maddening note, I forgot to mention the goji berries I bought from Whole Foods for the bargain price of 20 bucks a pound...my fiance happened to take a liking to them and started dumping them down his throat! It makes me crazy. He did this before and after eating an entire package of GMO movie theater "butter" popcorn. Which, btw, he bought on a Costco trip solo.

Raw Cheesy Noodles

Monday I work a 12 hour day and I knew as I was driving home that I was not going to be able to prepare anything without having a melt down. I b-lined to Whole Foods and picked up a raw marinated kale and mushroom salad with red onion and bell pepper and a zucchini pasta with lemon pesto. The pasta was  super bland and not my thing but the kale salad was delish. 

On Tuesday I had time to go to Costco to get what organic vegetables they do sell (I'm a budget and yes Costco actually has good quality organic or pesticide free so cal grown veggies) and then a trip back to Whole Foods to spend a million dollars on nuts, zucchinis, sun dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, 100% pure virgin organic coconut oil (skin, hair and cooking), some jalapenos, Serrano's, and habaneros. 

I had a reality check with myself that if I really want to make this thing work, I need to get on the sauce wagon. Enter Cashew Cheese. I don't want to be a crazy zealot, so I am basically doing what I can do. I did buy cashews from Costco because they were way more affordable than the 16.99 a pound at Whole Foods. They might be roasted but all the ingredients say are: cashews. I'm okay with that. I'm making it work and most importantly, I'm not making myself crazy. If you're a raw food fanatic, be supportive. Don't judge. If you're someone who is trying to turn the train around, let this be a reminder that one choice out of ten makes a difference! Do whatever you can to live a little better. I will never buy these cashews again, but for now they are helping me stay afloat and keeping me away from tortilla chips.

I got lucky on Monday night, when I forgot to write down the sku number for my sprouted almonds. The cashier charged my 3.99 a pound. When I went back yesterday I checked the price: 16.99 a pound.

Raw Cheesy Noodle Sauce:

1 cup cashews

3 cloves garlic (your preference)

1/4 white onion

1 jalapeno (should have used 2 or 1 serrano or habanero)

2 TBS nutritional yeast

pinch of sea salt

fresh cracked pepper

Zucchini Pasta:

3 zucchinis, sliced thinly long ways. stack one on top of the other and then slice again into strips to create "noodles." 

4 small tomatoes, sliced, chopped, however you prefer

2 cups of baby bella mushrooms, chopped

cilantro to taste

Put all of the sauce ingredients into the blender and cover just to the top with water. Blend well. Add more water if you want a thinner consistency. 

Put pasta ingredients into large mixing bowl, cover with sauce and stir well. I let mine sit out on the counter for about 20 minutes before serving. It was amazing! 

This morning's smoothie:

5 rainbow chard leaves (saved stems for broth)

2 clementines

2 small handfuls frozen mixed berries

almond milk - maybe a cup

1 large handful ice

blend well. 

IT'S SO GOOD! 

It's All About the Gynostemma

http://www.dragonherbs.com/prodinfo.asp?number=601

I am a huge tea lover. I practically drink tea for a living. My latest craze was with the Kusmi Detox, but I'm fresh out and on to the next. In order to drink this tea properly you need a thermos and a cup, or two cups. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, try to pour water over this tea bag and drink out of the same cup. Over steeping this tea (it steeps for 3-5 minutes, BUT, one bag brews three cups) causes it to be extremely strong and may make you feel a bit nauseous. Yes, I am speaking from experience. 

How to Brew Gynostemma:

Steep in cup or thermos

Pour into mug.

Pour only what you need for that one cup. Pour it all in your cup. Then, when you are ready for your next cup, steep fresh water. You can do this three times. I do it all day. 

Gynostemma is an amazing Chinese herb used for longevity. At the Women's Wellness Conference I was at, everyone spoke in length about the gynostemma and Chinese Herbs. After learning about all these herbs: dandelion root, milk thistle, horsetail, schizandra, black shilajit, tree mushrooms, astragalus, cat's claw. etc. etc., I mean the list goes on and on, Truth Caulkins gave a presentation and delivered what we needed to hear. He said, "If there are only two things you can afford to buy, get the Dragon Tea and the Shilajit." 

Keep in mind all these crazy herbs from all over the world, organically grown, and harvested using only pure raw natural spring water are expensive! I was incredibly thankful he said that because I was so overwhelmed trying to figure out what the heck I could tangibly walk away with at  the conference. Truth is pretty groovy. He opened the first tonic bar in LA. If you looked up "far out" in the dictionary you would see his picture. Along with David Wolfe's. They truly are fascinating people.

Back to gynostemma: it's all about longevity! It is a super potent herbal formula in a tea bag that is 5 to 10 times stronger than just a blend of chopped herbs. I think it's amazing. Still need to try to shilajit.

Quick Snack

So, you're probably thinking, "What the hell is that?" That is what I call a super quick snack. We had a killer day in the garden; everyone ate In In Out while I slaved away pretending it wasn't happening, and quickly came home before heading to Manhattan Beach for dinner with friends.

Raw Food Tacos:
First, I rinsed the romaine leaves. Simple.
Then, I opened up the snapware container that had the chopped celery in it from last night that wouldn't fit into the cup I had put the rest of the celery in.
Sidebar: if you put celery in just a touch of water and keep it on top shelf of fridge, it will stay fresher longer. You need a wide cup, hence 3 sticks not fitting. And celery is on the Dirty Dozen List, mind you, so be sure you get that ish organic.
http://vegan.sheknows.com/2011/06/14/the-new-dirty-dozen-and-clean-15-fruits-and-vegetables/

Mmmk, so then, I quickly marinated the celery. By quickly, I mean squirted some dijon mustard directly on top of it (yes, I know it's a prepared food, thank you) along with some ACV (that's short for apple cider vinegar, remember that) quickly sliced shallot, salad sprinkle http://www.frontiercoop.com/products.php?cn=Salad+Sprinkle&ct=spicesaz (if you don't know, now you know) and one green bean and one cayenne pepper from the vinegar jar from my dad's girlfriend. Same jar as last night, which has totally been neglected since before this raw food thing began. When all you're eating is cheese you forget about everything else, or at least I do.

Put lid back on snapware and shake so mixture is "marinated." Add more ACV if needed. Oh, I forgot pumpkin seeds. Always add some kind of seed or nut for good measure.

Shake, shake, shake the water off those romaine leaves, set them on the plate with stems intact.
Squirt mustard on each leaf and spread with spoon...it takes two seconds, I swear.
Then scoop celery mix onto each leaf. Sit down at the table.
Take the left side of the leaf and roll burrito style, using stem for added crunch. Am I making any sense? If it were a burrito, you would tuck the bottom part of tortilla before completely folding. This is not a flour tortilla; it's lettuce. See the far left side of the leaf above? It rolls easily, covering the mixture and then you snap the stem toward the top. Super crunchy, super satisfying, and yes I ate all four. You got beef? I don't.

This week's bounty

http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php

Yesterday on the way home from work, (by the way, five people showed up for the presentation on diabetes and one woman said she learned more at this meeting than any she's ever attended), I started thinking about making a smoothie. Then I started thinking about almond milk. Then I realized almond milk comes in a carton. Then it hit me: almond milk in a box is a...dun dun dun...processed food! Ahh! No! How can this be happening?! 

I spent the better half of yesterday afternoon by the pool perusing google for "what is a processed food?" I mean really? I'm a health educator. Get it together. Do you really need an article from huffington post to tell you what a processed food is? I think not. The good news: almond milk is so easy to make, I am fully prepared to take on the task. The bad news: we just bought a six pack of unsweetened unorganic vanilla almond milk from Costco. Oopsies.

The best news of the week though is that we survived our first sober Friday. Neither of us even metioned alcohol, cocktails, wanting a cocktail or even admitted to thinking about cocktails. I had nearly convinced myself (secretly of course) that a cocktail wouldn't be so bad if I just had a salad, all the while reading my new book "Live Raw" by Mimi Kirk. Ay ay ay. Let it go. Let it go. 

We have some really nice organic wild rice so I decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to steam it with some onion and garlic. That's not a processed food right? I mean when it comes down to it, aren't almonds a processed food? I'm not the one that crawled up into the tree, picked them, deshelled them, rinsed them, bagged them, shipped them, etc. This could borderline make me crazy, so I am doing my best. And by the way I feel and by what the scale is reflecting, I am doing a good job!

Back to dinner. As you can see above, we have some beautiful rainbow chard, kale, onion, etc. etc. While the rice was steaming (it took extra long because I kept the heat reeeeeeally low - - justify, justify) I rinsed the rainbow chard, chopped up the stems, sliced each leaf down the middle, put half on top of the other, rolled it burrito style and sliced away. I threw the ends of the chard in with the rice and it was absolutely beautiful. I then de-stemmed the kale and ripped it up into small pieces. 

Here's the fun part: I had no idea what I was going to do next so I got a large bowl and threw the kale and the rainbow chard in it. I squeezed lemon over it...sprinkled some salad sprinkle on it...okay now what...I have some apple cider vinegar in here, threw that on top of it, oh! cayenne peppers in vinegar from my dad's girlfriend, chopped two of those up and threw that in there, and of course, added a couple dashes of ground cayenne pepper, just for good measure. The rice was just about done so I  turned off the heat and put half of the vegetable mixture over the rice to steam it just a bit. I put the other half of the vegetable mixture in my bowl and scooped just a bit of the rice and vegetable medley. Holy heat wave. It was so delicious. Rumil had mostly rice, I had mostly vegetables, and in this household, that's what we consider a win win.

We had some strawberries for dessert and a couple nibbles of this amazing raw chocolate that my raw foodie chef friend made and sent to me. The one on the bottom right tastes like flipping cookie dough. For real. Amai Health, people. Get your fix on! It's so rich you only need a nibble. 

http://www.superstevia.com/amai.html *She is also the one that makes Super Stevia and Brackers.

It's Saturday morning now, and someone is making bacon. I don't even eat bacon but the smell gets me sometimes. Today is techinically our day off, but I am going to do my very best to stay the course as much as possible...we're heading to my sister's to garden and then having dinner with friends (albeit very healthy friends) in Manhattan Beach, but I know the red wine will ensue. If we can prevent it from being a purple haze, we''ll be golden. We'll see how it goes! 

What is this about?

Day two of Lent was yesterday, and we went to my fiance's parents house to visit with his mom who just had shoulder surgery. When you're fasting, it's important that you have your time alone. As David Wolfe just said at the Women's Wellness Conference: don't eat, hide, sleep and turn your phone off.

I was hesitant to go over there because he said they were ordering pizza, which just so happens to be my favorite naughty food. So I sucked it up, grabbed an apple, a lemon, and the salad fixings for today's lunch, just in case. Turns out, all I needed was the lemon for some warm lemon water, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

When we got to his parents house, his brother's were there along with a bottle of tequila and a 12 pack of Pacifico. My fiance asked me if I would be mad if he drank...hmmm...this whole fasting, Lent thing is not supposed to be about me getting mad at you for not following through, oh on day two. So I let go. That's right. I'm on day two of 100% raw food and I let go. It felt good. Today I feel amazing. I have a presentation at a doctor's office this afternoon on diabetes education and if more than three people show up, I'll be psyched.

Here's the thing though...this is not about getting mad at your partner when they decide to fall off the wagon. This is about you (or me in this case) and our personal decision to commit to something and follow through with it. I am off of processed foods for the next 38 days and if this doesn't bring me closer to God, I don't know what will. I am letting go of control. Letting go of trying to get someone else to do something that maybe they really don't want to do. He said he would give up alcohol and at the first temptation he gave in. I can't dwell on that.

I made a bomb ass smoothie this morning with two handfuls of spinach, an orange, half a banana, almond milk, and ice, which I will be nursing all morning.

Restore, Revitalize, Regroup. This is about me.

Lent Day 2

So my deal with the cleanse is no packaged foods, mostly raw foods, so my friend and I went to Raw World in Santa Monica last night and it was pretty good. Would it be terrible if I said I liked Cafe Gratitude better? I appreciate both business entirely but that shake that tastes like cookies and cream, the spring rolls and the kale and almond salad at Cafe Gratitude really can not be beat. So yesterday was a great day of staying on course, and getting closer to Jesus. That's the whole point, right?

My friend just so happens to be Catholic (or was Catholic or whatever) and he said they don't take Sunday's off. Well after a little googling around, I have found that most people do take Sunday off (it's a mini-Easter slash day of feasting -- news to me) so we will stick with the original plan. BTW, did you know the Pope himself will be tweeting once a day about #lent? http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-pope-twitter-lent-20120222,0,6561776.story

Back to Lent, giving things up, taking a day off, etc...my dad's girlfriend had to switch gardening to Saturday instead of Sunday because she has to meet with her AA sponser. Via text she said, "Once you get in a recovery group, it seems that you have to relinquish a lot of control over your own life to have any peace in the program. Like Zombies. I'd like to just run from everything."

She plays in the band though and she does love that. But imagine, giving something up FOREVER. Lenten FOREVER. You're an addict and you can never ever ever ever have one single drink again. I assured her that although it must be difficult they are really just looking out, and that really, everyone wants to run from everything when there is a problem. That is the problem. This is reality. Dealing with reality. Living in your reality.

I had several clients in SF that were part of AA and one of them said to me once that sugar was his first addiction. It took all this time, eating sugar as a kid, drinking and doing drugs, going through recovery, being sober for 10 years and then coming into my office to realize that his childhood is where the addiction began. Sugar. That white poison that ruined him for several years of his life was only manifesting itself it different forms...FOR YEARS. And it will continue to manifest itself and rear it's ugly head forever. You're not drunk off doughnuts or high on bagels...or are you?

It's Lent!

It's been awhile but Lent is here and that can only make me think of one thing: another cleanse!

We're not Catholic, but let's get straight to the point. Lent is a great time for people to jump on the healthy lifestyle bandwagon. It's very similar to making a new year's resolution, however, when you throw Jesus in the mix, things get a lot more serious. So give it up! Whatever it is!

My fiance and I are giving up alcohol. We don't really eat sugar in other forms, so this should be interesting. One of my clients informed me that "they" (the Catholics that is) do six days on and Sunday off...go figure. So we're on that bandwagon, you know to keep Jesus happy. We're taking Saturday off, but that's a different story.

I just attended a Women's Wellness Conference by David Wolfe, a major raw foodie, so I am also giving up the few processed foods I do still indulge in...read: cheese. tortilla chips. more cheese. more chips (they're organic tortilla chips, mmmk?!) I think it will be great and I am feeling very inspired since I was just surrounded by the raw foodie crew. Also, a great friend of mine (who I first dabbled in raw foods with) is already on the wagon, so that will be of great help and support.

When I asked my fiance if he wanted to do another cleanse, he said he can't because he doesn't want to lose any more weight and he already bought his suit for the wedding! Come on! It's all gravy though. It's all raw gravy. Made from mushrooms I suppose. So he's not into, and I'm okay with that. Better to stay focused on just giving up the alcohol.

At my last post he was at 185ish and now he's down to 180. At 6'3", he's right. He really can't afford to lose any weight. I believe I was trying to recover from our SF trip where I gained six pounds. I am now down to 120 and loving every minute of it. It's a far cry from the 163 I once was. Even a far cry from the 143 I thought I was doing so well at. And I'm eating! That's the best part!

Anyway, the moral of the story today is, get a buddy, set a goal, give something up for the next 40 days and be thankful you're not fasting in the desert for real. It's just you. And Jesus. PS. Don't wait until next Monday. B E G I N !