SALAD MANIA!!!

Hey all!

I am embarking on a "One new salad per week" extravaganza. I am doing this to keep switching it up and also cut down on grocery bills. The idea is that I only buy the ingredients for one variation of salad and eat that for about one week before switching to a new salad I've never tried before.

This is only lunch, mind you. Breakfast smoothies are still on the menu and often we have a healthy, whole, cooked meal at dinner with a regular side salad or veggie sticks or some other raw side.

Heres where YOU come in handy. Please send me your favorite ever salad recipes!

So far, mine is:


Arugula and Baby Italian Greens
Red Onions
Dried Cranberries
Almonds
Raspberry Vinegar Dressing

:)

What is yours?

Cucumber + Nectarine Green Smoothie

OH MY GOSH I AM SO FULL!!!

I just ate a huge green smoothie and I might explode. But, I wanted to tell you how delicious it was and give you a recipe. This is sooo goooood. I love this smoothie. A lot. Seriously. I personally like to think I am a master smoothie maker now that I have the hang of it, and this smoothie is just proof of my genius.

Nectarines are in season and apparently so are cucumbers (they are only fifty cents each right now! WHAT WHHAATTT!). Thus, cucumber nectarine smoothie. Alas, here is the awaited recipe:

Ingredients (Makes 2 Pints = 2 Servings)
* 2 Nectarines
* 1 medium Cucumber
* A handful of Fresh Spinach
* 2 tablespoons of Flax Seeds
* 2 Bananas
* 1/2 c. Water

Directions
Blend. haha. For those of you who don't know, I blend flax seeds and veggies first, then fruit, then bananas. I have a regular blender. One day I'll have a VitaMix or something. I use it enough to justify the cost!

....exploding now. I am so full. UGHHHHH. I don't know why I feel so full! Maybe its the flax seeds. I don't know but I am going to go sit in my smoothie drunk state for a few minutes.

Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie--by Choosing Raw

So while I was waiting for Andrew to get up on Christmas morning so we could open our presents, as you may remember, I was planning our morning smoothie and attempting to find ways to waste time. Well, as any good "foodie" (though I'm more of just an "eatie"...I just love eating) would do, I spent that time looking at other raw blogs and checking out some interesting holiday posts.

And then .. I found this :

Gena of Choosing Raw created this masterpiece. The Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie. Taken straight from the website, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie (serves 1)

1 tbsp carob
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen or regular raspberries
1 cup almond milk
1 tbsp coconut butter

Blend all ingredients in a blender till smooth and even. Enjoy!

SO I MADE IT!!!!!! 

I used frozen raspberries and a non-frozen banana. I doubled the recipe, of course, to share with Andrew. We also didn't have coconut butter so I just used coconut oil and it turned out delicious, but a bit more red in color than the picture Gena provided. By the way, the picture I'm about to show you has "Puppy Chow"/"Snowman Poop"/"Muddy Buddy" ingredients in the background. Totally not raw, vegan, vegetarian, etc..but who doesn't like that stuff?? Seriously.

It had a really nice chocolate taste but with the amazing flavor of the raspberries...and a hint of tropical sweetness in the background from the coconut.  Ok, guys, 5 raws for this. RAW RAW RAW RAW RAW!!! :O YUM!

Andrew was really glad we had it, also, because it really was tasty! In fact, he found some more in the freezer today and pulled it out to finish it off.

...And the smoothie is full of manganese and Vitamin C from the raspberries plus a ton of antioxidants. YUM! It made for a great Christmas morning breakfast before stuffing ourselves full of non-raw, traditional Christmas food.

Anyway, Check out Choosing Raw and Gena's blog...definitely worth it!

YUM YUM YUM YUMMY YUMMY YUM!

Not-All Raw Tomato Wrap

Well hello there.

I wanted to share with you this yummy yummy lunch that Andrew and I enjoyed recently. The wrap on my wrap is not raw, but bought from a package of pre-made wraps at the store (and yeah, they were really REALLY tastey). Inside is some red pepper hummus that we bought, also, rather than making raw. I've made some raw hummuses before but honestly, I really prefer the taste of bought hummus!

I couldn't get a great picture of our plates, but you can see what we had.

HUGE wraps made with the bought tomato wrap, red-pepper hummus, red, green, orange peppers, cucumber, spinach, romaine garden lettuce, red onion. 

On the side, we had carrot sticks and fresh fruit.

MMMMM I loooooooove this. Its making me hungry!

So, it might not be all raw, but it definitely has plenty of raw elements. Mostly raw. You do NOT have to be 100% raw to make healthy (and extremely tasty) choices. My favorite part about raw food is that the point is just to add more and more raw into your diet, rather than taking and taking food you love. I love tomato wraps and hummus, so I incorporated those two things into my raw diet and came up with a mostly-raw lunch that knocks my socks off. 

And that keeps me happy.

*Happy Dance!*

And by the way, if you haven't guessed, ALL the food we purchase for our home is organic or naturally produced from local farmers (who don't use pesticides/herbicides but don't bother with organic labeling). That doesn't make us better than conventional eaters (just as eating raw does not make us superior to people who cook. In fact, I love this blog ), it is just something I feel strongly about (see yesterday's post hah).

Blueberry Honey Granola

Hello all you raw-fooders and non-raw-food people who are coming to my blog!

Today I am going to tell you about one of the most life-saving, easiest raw-food recipes I've ever made. Its just granola, but its made with all raw ingredients and dehydrated (thus keeping it raw and not destroying the essential enzymes and good stuffs in the nuts and seeds). By the way, this is probably my husband's all-time favorite thing in the world. He loves it. And it makes the house smell good while its dehydrating.

So, what does it look like?

This:

Blueberries drying with other stuff. :)

So, what I do first is put a layer (about 1/4 of an inch) of honey in my dehydrator. I add a couple drops of vanilla extract and, if I am feeling like it, maybe a squirt or two of agave. Then, I add a random amount of raw (soaked, dried) almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and then a ton of raw oats. You can add whatever nuts and seeds you'd like, but this has become my favorite mixture. 

Process until the honey is all over everything, then spread out on dehydrator trays. I added some fresh blueberries on top because Andrew bought a HUGE bucket at the farmer's market. I dehydrate on 105 degrees until the granola nice and crispy. This time I added a little too much honey so it took about two days to dehydrate! My goodness! But it was SO good.

I would recommend this with almond milk for breakfast or as a quick treat to keep you full between your early green smoothie and your later lunch! 

Enjoy!

Our lunches--almost every day.

Hello!

Greetings!

Cheers!

Welcome!

Etc!

So, I know I promised to blog about my raw apple pie, but I am at work and forgot to upload the pics before I left this morning. As you can guess, I will blog about it instead on Wednesday of next week. So, I would like to share with you what Andrew and I have for lunch most days. Salads. Of course, there are days (like today) where I brought a vegan veggie sandwich on flax seed bread for lunch. But, in general, Andrew and I have tons of salads. You know why? That's right--tons of vitamins and minerals and lots of much-needed nutrients.

But, what KINDS of salads do we have, you ask?

The beautiful kind.

That's right.

This salad you see here looks smaller than it was. We have gigantic salads, generally speaking. This one had romaine, organic garden lettuce (various varieties), bok choy, onions, red cabbage, tomatoes, sesame seeds, broccoli, with a side of carrot sticks. 

Then, I got bored and added raisins and sunflower seeds to it, too!

YUM!

And what, you ask, do we put on our salads?

Sometimes nothing. 

And other times....

This is my Asian Sweet and Sour Sesame dressing with red pepper flakes.

I love love love love love this dressing. I can't get enough. YUM!

So anyway, that is the scoop for now. We love loading our plates with leafy greens and hopefully are getting the vitamins we need. Next month, we will be getting health insurance and, therefore, will be heading to a physician to make sure we are getting everything we need to stay healthy. YAY!

Have a wonderful, wonderful Friday!

"ITS HOT" Salad (Edit-its not really that hot)

So, I have three recipes, with pictures, ready to be blogged about so I had to choose between them. I decided, since it is just SO HOT here in southern Indiana, that it would be great to share something a little more.....cool. What's funny about that is that my non-raw friends often think that ALL raw food feels cold when you eat it. Not so, I say...not so! Some is warming!

But this...THIS is cooling. Well, the salad itself is. Actually, now that I think about it, the dressing has tons of ginger in it, so its probably more of a "warming" salad. Hah! Well, anyway, now that I have gone on and on about that AND discovered that my "hot" theme really doesn't play out--a cool salad with warming dressing, let me just TELL YOU about the salad.

This is my all-time favorite salad to date. Its got garden-fresh organic lettuce (romaine and some other varieties), baby spinach, red cabbage, black olives (MMMMMMMMMMM--they were left over from some black olive hummus I made from Ani Phyo's book), red onions, and cucumbers--topped with a Sweet and Spicy Sesame dressing. You'll notice on Wednesday's blog that we are these salads AGAIN with some raw soup. It was just that good.

Honestly...10 raws (this can't happen. There are only 5 raws on the scale. That's how much I LOVE this salad). MMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yum! I want one now! Look at more pictures of it:

YUMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Ok, I'll stop freaking out about how good this salad is...but only if you promise to one day try this baby.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

ok, sorry.

...

yum!

Salsa Cruda

One of my biggest joys in life is SALSA and CHIPS. I just can't get enough! I honestly sometimes sit and eat entire jars of salsa for lunch (not quite the full nutritional content I could get with some added leafy greens.......). I LOVE salsa. I LOVE LOVE it. So, I have been wanting to make a chunky, raw salsa. And I did!

It was SO GOOD! I give it 5 raws. Andrew gives it 3.5 or 4 raws. He says, "It was delicious but there was room for improvement. It was a good chunky salsa." What a turd. I promise, it was closer to a 5 ;)

Anyway, here's what I did:

Ingredients:

6 Roma tomatoes, chopped into tiny sweet little chunks

Onion

Cilantro

Cumin

Chili Powder

Lime Juice

After cutting the tomatoes into chunks, I washed and rinsed them. While they were being rinsed, I cut up everything else. I threw it all in the mixing bowl you see, and taste tested for amounts. The cumin and chili powder were equal parts, but everything else was a mix and match fest!

A really really tasty one! A 5 raw recipe!

By the way, I didn't use my food processor for this at all. I read online that salsa cruda gets too mushy in the food processor, so I chopped and hand mixed the ingredients. It was really good and I can definitely see why the mushy would be bad! The chunks were just so good.

MAKE THIS and enjoy! :)

Andrew UNCOOKS! (Basil Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms)

The other day, Andrew decided he would like to try his hand at uncooking, so he made our raw, living foods dinner! Check out that picture! YUM!!!

Yeah, so he made an INCREDIBLE basil-pesto sauce and stuffed it in the mushroom caps. he also put it between some of those dried roma tomato slices you can see in the picture. Then he made us a beautiful side salad (with onions YUM!) and topped it with the chopped stems with olive oil and basil. This was probably THE BEST dinner we have had so far. It seems so simple but the taste was INCREDIBLE!!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF MY RAW/LIVING HUSBAND!!! Yay!

Check out these pics:

Doesn't that look beautiful? I'm so proud of him. We used walnuts in our pesto instead of the usual pine nuts because walnuts are WAY cheaper. It was still VERY good! Here is the recipe we used:

Ingredients

1/2 cup organic raw pine nuts

1/4 cup fresh basil

2 Tbsp organic unfiltered cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil

1-2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1-2 cloves of organic garlic

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup filtered water

Mix this in blender and stuff into mushroom caps! We dehydrated our mushrooms for 35 minutes so that they were warm and a little crispy.

Pineapple Banana Smoothie

Oh yes... Its another day in another week of our crazy, awesome, lovely, married lives. That's a good thing! Andrew and I have noticed a real difference in our bodies, our minds, our moods, etc. since starting the 100% challenge that turned into a high raw challenge. It really is amazing. I almost don't know why anyone would want to eat a SAD. I will say that I have been having some serious cravings for Mexican food so I have been making a TON of guacamole and eating a TON of salsa! I can't get enough!

Well--let me talk about the actual point of this post! Today, Andrew slept a little later while I got up and prepared our wonderful lunches (I made a pretty yummy honey/lemon salad dressing) and our breakfast. Andrew has told me once that he is not a huge fan of green smoothies and much prefers some eggs or pancakes or other yummy-tasting food that fills his belly with warmth. Well, for the next 3 weeks, Andrew will probably not get much of a chance to have that kind of breakfast because we are on a high-raw high-vegan diet.

As for this beautiful spring morning, though, I made these cute, green, speckled smoothies. Here is what I threw in:

A few handfuls of spinach

Apx. 1 cup of orange/mango juice

Apx. 2 cups of pineapple

1 banana

Apx. 1 cup of frozen banana (so cold I love it)

2 Romaine leaves

So, I blended the spinach and juice first until that was pretty much mush. Then, I added the pineapple and blended. Once that was smooth, I threw in all the banana-frozen and regular. Then, because I didn't think it was enough for the two of us, I put in the romaine lettuce.

This smoothie tasted SO GOOD! I think its the best one I've made yet. They just keep getting better!

Asian Salad + Sweet and Spicy Sesame Dressing

Well, we are on our 3rd day of the 100% 30 day raw challenge.

Wait, let me change that.

Ok, so....... we kinda decided that 100% raw just doesn't work for us. After being very hungry our entire first day, we decided to kick it down to 90 or so % raw, because for our household, 100% just isn't practical. Ok, so ... yeah, but it was a challenge, right? That's the idea? Well, we decided the challenge for us is better put to work if we challenge ourselves to eat MOSTLY raw, something that we can actually continue doing into the future. Now, I want to do a juice feast this summer sometime-I think that would be great...5-7 days or something, but 100% raw for 30 days just doesn't do it for us.

Well, don't fret--we are still eating TONS of raw stuff and I am having SO MUCH FUN making new and exciting recipes like this one:

Candice's Asian Salad with Sweet & Spicy Sesame Dressing!!!!!!!

WOW! This salad gets 5 raws. RAW RAW RAW RAW RAW! I am totally obsessed with the dressing I made for this. But first, let me tell you that this salad is full of romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, snow pea sprouts, and sesame seeds. 

For the dressing, I experimented with ingredients based off of a recipe I found on Raw Food Rehab . I seriously hope I can recreate it because it was incredible. The dressing had olive oil, nama shoyu, a TON of ginger and garlic, honey, sesame seeds..I think that's it. :/

Anyway, it is INCREDIBLE. The recipe has made enough dressing for 6 salads-three each for Andrew and I. And let me tell you, we are LOVIN it! Andrew wolfed it down, so that means it MUST be good! 

Now, for those of you following my blog, today is Monday which means I have to update you on my progress with the 4 week FITNESS CHALLENGE! Today marks the beginning of WEEK 2 (since I started over). This week, I lost 3lbs!!! I ran 5 of 7 days, walked my dog a bit more than I have been, and did some weights. I didn't do quite as much as I had originally planned for the week, but I think I did a pretty darned good job! Hoorah! Also, Andrew and I started the 100% raw thing, which is more like the past 3 days were 80-90% raw! :)

Ok, well, its time to get ready for finals week. Yikes! Have a great May!

Raw Guacamole- YUM

I promised a post on my recent adventure creating guacamole and here it is! I made this:

The first thing I did was cut into a very dark avocado. Let me just say that this avocado was probably the most beautiful vegetable I have EVER seen. It was the most incredible green color (can't you tell by the photo?) and the brown seed thing inside complimented it so well. It almost took my breath away. Is that cheesy or weird? I might be in love with the aesthetics of the avocado! Even the word rolls off my tongue. MM avocado, how I desire you! ...I think I am probably going to decorate my next kitchen based off the colors of the avocado... Ok... sorry. Back to the recipe.

So-After cutting it, I scooped out the stuff I wanted with a big spoon. Mashed it with a fork. Then, I cut up some onion and grape tomatoes (on second thought, would probably try a vine tomato or something similar--and a red onion rather than a sweet onion. I couldn't find organic red onions at the market this week so I had to get yellow. *sad face*). I mixed those all together with a dash of lime juice and some salt and pepper. 

The guac tastes GREAT and is wonderful on raw wraps and salads and chips and anything else you can think of. With salsa, it makes great appetizer! I had this for lunch today. MMM!!!!

Me dipping into the guac with non-raw chips! Look at that color! MMM

Raw Coleslaw-with a twist

Hello! I wanted to share with you my newest creation--raw coleslaw. Now, I've never been a huge coleslaw fan but this recipe is just destroying me with coleslaw cravings! It is such a great feeling to crave a totally raw dish rather than a cheeseburger! I've noticed raw food cravings more and more as I try to add more raw foods into my diet.

Anyway, I made this first experimentally and on the fly for some friends one night who came over for dinner. I had been so overwhelmed with coming up with a raw dessert that I completely neglected a side dish! So, I sent Andrew to the store and this is what I made:

Raw Coleslaw:

1 head cabbage

1 head bok choy

1 grated carrot

a small piece of grated ginger root

about 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil

about 2 or 3 tablespoons of nama shoyu

sprinkles of salt and pepper

For this, I like to put the cabbage in my processor until it is all cut up into small pieces. Then, I put that in a bowl. I put in the bok choy and allow that to be a bit larger. Grate a carrot and ginger on top, put in the toppings, and mix together. 

Ta Da! There you have it. A raw coleslaw that is SO GOOD. I have seen a variation of this which added Asian Pear and Lemon juice, but this is what I did and I LOVE it. I made it for a pitch-in yesterday and am taking another batch to another dinner tomorrow. It really is just that good! :) :)

NUTRITIONAL ELEMENTS: What is also cool about raw coleslaw is that it is FULL of some really awesome vitamins and minerals. Bok Choy is full of glucosinolates, which can help prevent certain cancers. It is also full of carotenes, vitamin C, and CALCIUM (good recipe for pregnant women who need calcium in their vegan diets). The cabbage also has TONS phytochemicals (glucosinolates) (PHYTO=FIGHT-) for fighting cancer! Actually, cabbage family veggies have more than any other veggies out there! Also, cabbage is good for treating peptic ulcers!

Enjoy!

Bubbles Spice Smoothie

So, why is this smoothie called the "Bubbles Spice" smoothie!? Well, I have a rabbit named BUBBLES,  of course!

...ok, so why would someone name a smoothie after their pet rabbit!?

Well, its full of carrots (can you tell by the picture??). AND, it is adapted from the "Bunny Spice" drink in Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis's "Raw Food, Real World" cookbook!

Here's what I did:

Grated some ginger root into the bottom of my blender. Filled it with chunks from two carrots (not peeled, just washed with ends cut off), a cup of almond milk and blend. Once that is fairly smooth, I threw in one GIGANTIC organic banana and one half of a GIGANTIC organic banana (so probably two regular sized ones) and dumped in some cinnamon. Blend.

It tastes AWESOME! 4 raws!

My favorite part about this smoothie?? It's ORANGE. Which means (@Justine Dell) that it is the first GREEN SMOOTHIE I have made that is a beautiful color that has nothing to do with green. Hoorah! My quest for a non-green green smoothie is now complete!

Let's hope this smoothie fixes my eyes, though! The beta-carotene (healthy Vit A) in this smoothie is THROUGH THE ROOF! MM MM! Carrots have a great amount of Carotenes (no pun intended...or maybe intended), which promote better heart health and fight against cancer. Some studies show that eating Carrots and other orange squashes can reduce the risk of heart attack by up to 60%! They also, of course, help fight bad eyesight! WOW! (These findings, of course, from Healing Foods my Michael Murray). I can feel myself getting healthier with each sip I drink!

Bubbles and me lovin' each other...staring contest, anyone?

Salads, salads, and MORE SALADS!

Well, at least there's......

Aren't all of God's natural creations simply beautiful!?

THE (totally awesome) SIDE SALAD!!!! 

So, what can I say? Is this salad a beauty or what! I made this salad with a bit of crispy romaine, baby greens, green pepper, red pepper, yellow peppers, cucumbers, and grape tomatoes. All organic, of course! I topped this basic side salad off with a nice raw red wine vinaigrette. It. Was. Awesome!

Clearly, Andrew and I love certain veggies--all of the ones in this salad, more or less. They are our staple veggies (except the grape tomatoes) and we buy them every week.. Yup, every week we stock up on our leafy greens (mostly lettuces right now, rather than kale, spinach, etc. However, there is a lady who was at our farmers market who sold all natural spinach that was extremely tastey). We always make sure to get two of each of our favorite bell peppers, though soon we will be growing some (God willing) in our organic garden plot! We get two cucumbers, and red onion. These I eat ALL THE TIME. AND, they make the great side salad you see above (if you add the grape tomatoes). 

What's awesome, in my opinion, about the side salad is how AWESOME it tastes (5 raws by the way. An excellent side salad, for a side salad)!!! And, it fills us up, so we can make less of our main course and save money (red pepper/coconut soup anyone?! Coconuts are expensive!). Yeah, I'll say that again: we save money eating these things! And not only that, here is some nutritional information for the side salad pictured here:

This salad is FULL of the following:

Vitamin A

Folic Acid

Vitamin C

Vitamin B1 and B2

beta-carotene

Vitamin K

Thiamine

Silica (Cucumber)

Potassium

Magnesium

Molybdenum

Lycopene

Biotin

Fiber

WOW! I know, right!? Just make sure you are making your side salads with ORGANIC produce, so as not to cancel out the benefits of these vitamins! And what ARE the benefits of a side salad full of so many vitamins?? Well, these vitamins help with these things:

Vitamin A: Proper growth/development, eyesight

Folic Acid: Critical to cell division

Vitamin C: Makes collagen, the main protein of the body. Metabolizes fats. Vital for wound repair, healthy gums, and prevention of bruises. Critical to immune function. Antioxidant. 

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine): Energy production, carbohydrate metabolism, nerve cell function.

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Energy production.

Beta-carotene + Lycopene: Antioxidant, converts to Vit A. 

Vitamin K: Blood clotting, bone health, 

Potassium: Electrolyte. Water balance, kidney and adrenal function, muscle and cell function, heart function.

Magnesium: Activates enzymes. Maintains cell charge in muscles and nerves. Energy production, protein formation, cell reproduction.

Biotin: Utilizes fats and amino acids.

Whoa! Lots of goodness! What would we do without all these vitamins! Next meal, add a beautiful side salad--and feel GREAT about the choice (because the rest of your body will)!

Please tell me, what is your favorite thing to use in your side salads?! Mine is by far red onion. I am a red onion fiend! 

Btw: For the nutritional information, I use The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray and Joseph and Lara Pizzorno. It is a super guide for me! I use it ALL. THE. TIME.

The Case for Asparagus

Asparagus officinalis

Liliacae!

Picture from Epicurian.com

Asparagus: Its perennial. Should be planted in early spring. Sunny, wind protected spot. Water heavily. Watch out for Asparagus rust and fusarium wilt. Asparagus helps with Arthritis and Rheumatism and helps as a diuretic. It is very low in calories: 24 per cup. Excellent source of potassium, vitamin K, folic acid, vitamins C and A, B6, riboflavin, thiamin. Also it is full of dietary fiber, niacin, phosphorus, protein, and iron! WOW!

Andrew and I have some great stalks of Asparagus in our fridge right now, and I am debating on how we are going to eat it. It was given to us by Andrew's father. Now, Andrew says you can't eat it raw, but I know I've seen it on salads and things before. Perhaps I can throw it in a nice green smoothie today? A salad? Well, here's a variation I found online by Chef Jonathan Waxman from EPICURIAN

Ingredients:
12 Medium-sized asparagus spears. Snap off the tough ends.
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup raw olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 ounce wedge parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Carefully shave the asparagus lengthwise into long, graceful strips. Place the strips in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Finally, using a vegetable peeler, shave the cheese over the top. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Variation:

Shave 1 large fennel bulb and 1 or 2 Belgian endives on the mandoline (or veggie peeler) and toss with the asparagus shavings. You may want to increase the olive oil and cheese to your taste. 

How do YOU like your Asparagus!?

How To Get Your Husband to LOVE Raw Food!

So, as I thought about what to write after why my husband dislikes our diet, I found it to be the perfect "next step" to write about why he loves it thus far. Here's a picture:

Yes, these are the most amazing, beautiful, and incredible tasting Steak and Potatoes equivalent: Marinated Portabella Mushrooms and Mashed Cauliflower.

I found the recipe for this incredible delight here: http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/marinated-mushrooms-and-cauliflower-mash/

Theirs looks a lot prettier than mine, but the taste was DELICIOUS. Honestly, this tasted so much like steak it was unbelievable! My husband absolutely LOVED these and gave it 5 RAWS!!!!! 5!!!!! (cue Lady Gaga: raw raw raw raw raw)...Our first 5 yet!!! And he gave me a backrub because he was so very pleased with dinner! I definitely recommend this recipe to anyone, even those who aren't raw. I DID serve them warm, though, which made it perfect! We enjoyed this lovely dinner with a side salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots.

Another reason my husband loves to eat raw:

These little munchkins are banana coconut pancakes. 3 mashed bananas and some dried coconut mixed into little patties. I dehydrated them in my little toaster oven on "warm" with the door open about 3 inches. I did this for a couple hours and got some AMAZING treats! So so so good. They look gooey, but after dehydrating, they really aren't at all. I found the recipe somewhere on the internet (sorry!) when I was looking for breakfast ideas. Now, I personally think these are too sweet for breakfast, so we ate them as dessert with chocolate soy ice cream (not raw, but so yummy!). I could eat 100 of these in one sitting! Luckily, there were only 5 total (one is missing in this picture, isn't it??). Warm, they were incredible. Room temp they were incredible. Cold they were incredible. Definitely good for a sweet treat.

I give them 5 Raws, too!  Raw Raw Raw Raw Raw!!!! :) :) :)

OK! Go out and get your husbands/spouses/sig. others involved in a raw diet with these two INCREDIBLE recipes!

Busy Day ...but we got bread from God...

Oh boy. We are SO busy. This raw diet is hard to figure out when you have class all day then work all night and have a husband at work all day and at various Church events all night. Ugh! So, what do you do when you are so busy?

Today, to consolidate prep time, we had breakfast (I had a breakfast smoothie, not sure what hubby had...I was still sleeping *hehe*). I'm pretty sure he had GrapeNuts or something. For lunch, husband took spelt bread and hummus with some veggies (the rest of our cucumber). I had some veggies. I had an apple for a snack. Husband had left over veggies and leftover breakfast smoothie for dinner. I am having some veggies on an Ezekiel 4:9 wrap.

This wrap is the bomb. I think. I haven't tasted it yet, but it smells like it. AND, I think it is awesome that it was made based on a Bible verse. What better way to learn a little bit about God than to take something directly from his word and eat it--while learning about the book it comes from. The verse talking about this bread is as follows (ESV):

And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. 

Here's a link to Wikipedia, talking about the book of Ezekiel. Pretty interesting stuff. I'm going to read more about this later tonight! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Ezekiel

Well, I'm about to dig in. It smells good. I know its not raw, but luckily it is made out of live grains. The mixture to go inside this dinner wrap is:
A leaf of romaine lettuce, mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, red peppers, cayenne powder, olive oil, basil, black pepper, chili powder. I mixed these all in the food processor and will spoon it onto my wrap and lettuce and enjoy! :)

Day 1-and a pepper smoothie??

Helloooo! Candice here.

It looks like today is THE DAY to start eating totally live, totally raw. I know I said in the last post that we were going to just do about 3-5 recipes a week, but we just kinda dove in during our shopping and are ready to go! I think we will still cook about 0-20%...I mean, we got some awesome cooking stuff for our wedding! :)

Our first raw disaster happened two days ago: Andrew and I attempted to make a veggie/fruit smoothie out of peppers and clementines. Yeah, I said it... Ok, I know...but we used red, yellow, orange peppers and cucumbers to make it taste fresh and clean and the clementines were thrown in to uh, well, make it taste less like peppers and cucumbers. I don't know why we thought randomly throwing stuff together (in a FOOD PROCESSOR that does NOT blend) was a good idea. Here is the picture evidence of our chunky, not smooth, pepper smoothie:

Now, we totally thought that we would be able to blend this and that it would taste great! Luckily, we still had a couple gift cards from the wedding so we left to the store. After embarrassing myself by asking the lady, "so, do any of these blenders, like, break down vegetable cells?" and confusing 2 different people in the store, we were able to leave with a nice looking machine. We blended the smoothie and it looked a little better, but still kinda ...uh... peppery... Next time, I need to stick to SOME KIND of recipe. Any recipe...eek!

Well, here's a picture of our live/raw veggies and some raw unleavened bread (not live, but we're not there yet in our adventure)

...pretty exciting! So much produce! Tonight, we will have stuffed red peppers. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
* 2 red bell peppers
* 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes (we are using regular tomatoes as a cheaper substitute)
* 1 stick of celery
* 1/2 tsp cayanne powder, paprika, basil, oregano, and garlic
* 1/2 small onion (chopped)
* 2 tbs lemon juice
* 1 tbs olive oil
* A pinch of salt.

Process the ingredients in a food processor (S blade) and put mixture onto/into bell peppers. I might make some seasoned rice to go with this. mmmm!

Easy and yummy! Full review coming soon! :)

The First Post...

Hello to you, the infinite internet space to whom I am speaking!

Well, where to begin? I am a new wife, married December 19th, 2009, to an amazing man named Andrew. We are having a blast thus far, with a few newly-wed hiccups that are to be expected. As of today, we are going to start implementing live/raw foods into our diet! I love the live/raw theme...both words are so beautiful. Live, to be so close to the Earth, natural, growing, like sticking your hands in dirt. The other word, Raw, is just so pure, edgy, scraped clean. We are hoping to stewerd our relationship in this way, living LIVE, living RAW and as close to the natural state God intended as possible. These are my words, not Andrew's. He might have a different take ("I just LOVE veggies!").

The hope is that we will be all-raw by next year and growing a thriving, but probably small, garden. Here, I will document my adventures, Julie/Julia style. I am going to begin with a book entitled "Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine" by Gabriel Cousens, M.D.. It seems great, with a ton of yummy looking recipes! I can't wait to look into this system more, and I will soon begin researching how to garden organically!

So, the plan is to start by attempting 3-5 recipes a week. Not quite the "Julie" in Julie/Julia, but I am simply not that brave! As I get better at planning grociery lists and other things, I will add recipes and lists and cool info as I go!

Please follow me! I am also going to try to find a forum to link to the blog, so people (primarily wives and moms) can discuss recipes, links, book reviews, and helpful information! Make sure to comment a lot, too.