Beating the Winter Freeze

Hello!

Long time no post, I know. And I've been saying that for the one or two times I've actually posted during this pregnancy.

Well, I'm cold. Its winter in Indiana and the past few days the windchill has been in the negatives (*F). It has been almost a year since our raw journey began, obviously with a break here and there. I remember last winter when I began attempting a raw diet that the most trying thing about raw food was being cold in the winter and trying to suck down a smoothie made with frozen bananas or eating soup that's been barely warmed in the food processor.

So, my plan is this: find raw foods that warm my body! I heard ginger does this, or cayenne, or some other spices. Do you all have any ideas for raw food that has a warming effect?

Oh, and on a side note, I was diagnosed with gallbladder problems (not sure if it is just sludge or actual stones) and put on a very strict, no-fat diet. Since then, we have been eating a lot more salads, raw fruits and veggies, and I've been considering adding smoothies back into our morning routine. I just really miss everything being in season, cheap, and locally produced! Pineapple is extremely expensive, strawberries are 6.99/pkg, etc. The co-op was even out of bananas yesterday. I bought frozen fruit, but it really doesn't hold a candle to fresh, local produce. Wah!


Anyway, let me know if you have ideas for me!

I'm baaaack!

Yes, you guessed it!

The reason I have been MIA has been because I AM HAVING A BABY!!!! A sweet, little, tiny, adorable, kickboxing baby GIRL!

Isn't she precious!?

So, are you questioning why being pregnant has kept me from blogging? Well, let me tell you something. One of the first "symptoms" of pregnancy occurred on my way to work one day. As I was sipping my delectable, incredible, amazing pineapple/banana green smoothie, I began to feel a little nauseated. To put it lightly, it took a lot for me to keep that smoothie down that morning. As the week progressed, my nausea transformed into an all-out aversion to all raw vegetables. I couldn't even look at them without vomiting. Or almost vomiting. My first morning sickness that ended in the bathroom occurred because my husband took a bite of a slice of green pepper as he was preparing his beautiful lunch salad. 

Weird, huh? I could eat fruit (and I did), but I also have craved hot fudge sundaes, pizza, and some other non-raw foods. I was so sick of raw veggies and foods that during the first trimester, I even stopped reading raw food blogs that I love. Well, folks, I am not COMPLETELY over these aversions now that I am well into my second trimester. HOWEVER, I am trying to eat more salads/fruits/nuts/etc. so that my baby gets plenty of good food and plenty of good nutrition.

So I have no food to update you about right now (as my husband is on a brownie run), but I am going to update you more and more as I begin to add raw foods back in to my diet.

See you soon!

Out of Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk

Hey everyone. Long time no see!

Well, let me tell you what's been up. At least half of the information. Unfortunately, something has happened that has caused me to stop eating raw food temporarily! Yes, something. I can't tell you what until my husband has made one last phone call! Until then, you will have to wait!

Anyway, so I created a team and am walking in the Out of Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk, which is sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I lost a good friend to suicide in 2008 and am excited to take this opportunity to use my time and resources to help fight suicide and to raise awareness about it + give support to those affected by suicide and depression.

Check out my personal page and consider donating some prayer or finances to our team!

Thanks!

My Individual Page

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).

Why is Organic Food so Expensive!?

Yeah, why IS organic food so much more expensive than conventional?

Well, Adriana Velez tells us in this helpful post about farming and why the cost is so high in the supermarket.

So, with that being said, yes, eating organic can be expensive. Andrew and I have seen an increase in our food budget. Luckily, Andrew finds it just as important as I do to put more in the food budget and less in other, less important areas in order to feed ourselves the best foods...why? because our bodies are worth it and we have the means. Like I said, we sacrifice in some areas for this but we do it with 100% belief that supporting smaller, organic, clean, local farms is what we should be doing with our money.

Personally, my favorite organic foods are fruits. The taste, colors, and individual uniqueness of every God-given fruit is, well, invigorating! I love how organic fruit tastes compared to conventional. It really is my favorite thing ever. I love grapes, kiwis, eco-friendly organic pineapple, and Andrew and I have had a few cantaloupes this season that have been out of this world!

Finally, now that I've given you my opinions that probably mean little to you, check out this cool video I found about organic foods:

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!

Apple PIE! MM

When was my last post???

I don't know, but it was a LONG time ago! Where did my life go? Well, I'll let you know that another day. I promise I'll tell you what's been going on, but just wait first.

Until then, let me tell you about this raw apple pie I made. I promised this post a LONG time ago, so now it is time for me to deliver!

So this is what it looked like.

As you can probably guess, I used my new Ani Phyo book, Raw Food Essentials, and put together this AMAZING apple pie. I was absolutely astounded by how apple pie-y it tasted and there was not ONE DROP of sugar or other non-raw ingredient. The only non-fruit in this was some cinnamon. WOW. It was SO GOOD. 

I started by making a crust of almond meal (blended almonds in the blender) and mixed it in with a date paste that I made. Ani says to just pulse the dates in I think, but I like to put dates in the blender with a tad bit of water to make more of a soft crust.

This is the date paste and almond meal before I mixed it together.

One problem with this strategy was that I put alllll the date paste in before mixing and ended up with a little too much water and moisture in the crust. That's ok with me, though, because it still tasted good!

Here is what the crust eventually looked like once I molded it into my pie pan.

Next, I diced up some apples into tiny, peel-less chunks and created the apple-pie sauce (get this--with ORANGES, CINNAMON, and DATES). I won't give you all the details because its not my recipe, so if you are interested in making this pie, check out Ani Phyo's RAW FOOD ESSENTIALS! (And no, she doesn't pay me to say that, I just LOVE her books...as do most raw food eating people)

I mixed the sauce and apples together and put the mixture inside the crust. Added a little apple decorations and wha-la! A pie! I put it in the fridge and served it with some ice cream at a Bible study we went to the next day.

People seemed to like it--and I thought it tasted great! YAY!

YUMMY SURPRISE in the Mail!

All right.

I admit. I've been MIA the past week. I know. It's SO SAD! Well, I will explain why probably sometime next week. Not yet--the news is too --private. I'm sure you understand.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about some amazing little presents I recieved in the mail after winning a contest from The Daily Raw Cafe. A beautifully wrapped package and handwritten note from Blackbird Naturals.

Look at the cute wrapped package!

Guess what was inside!

...

Are you guessing?

???

A box of 10 raw vegan Cacao Fudge Truffles!!!

Oh my word. I was SO excited to receive these truffles! And believe me, they were incredible! While the package told me to keep them refrigerated, I went ahead and ate one straight away. So, they ARE better refrigerated, but who has that kind of self control? Certainly not me. 

So anyway, we were so delighted with these. Andrew loved it. I loved it. The package was gone within days. Seriously. We meant to spread them out over time but ... I mean ... they're irresistible. 

BIG thanks to the Daily Raw Cafe for the anniversary giveaway contest that won me these truffles as well as a huge thanks to Blackbird Naturals for the sweet gift.

mmmmmmm!!!

Products for you to BUY! :)

Ok, so here's the scoop. I found these products and they look interesting. If you buy them, I will get a few dolla dolla bills y'all...but seriously, they look really good, or else I wouldn't put them up. If you do check them out, let me know and I will be really interested to find out what you think about them:

10 Kristen Suzannes Easy Raw Recipe EBooks - Vegan.

Click Here! I totally love reading Kristen's blog (and I know you do, too), so I'm sure her e-book is excellent!

RawReform-the Natural Way To Weight Loss.

Click Here!

Raw Food Diet Weight Loss Blueprint.

Click Here!

Getting Started With The Raw Foods Diet.

Click Here!

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss.

Click Here!

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!

Crunchy Salad with Almost Raw Peanut Sauce

So, salads are, in my opinion, the easiest and quickest raw dinners to make....and Andrew and I eat about 9-12 different salads each week. We almost always eat a big salad with a side of fruit and/or veggies for lunch. That might sound really boring to some people, but what I've discovered is that salads can actually be fun and fresh each day due to the random assortments of veggies available and the amazing amount of combinations of salads/veggies/dressings you can make.

This is a salad Andrew and I had a few nights ago for dinner. It's based with fresh romaine and other salad greens from our organic garden -- and SPINACH! From there, I topped it with red onions, red peppers, red cabbage, sun dried tomatoes, and some sesame seeds. This salad was so so so tummy and was full of crunch, which I really love in a salad.

The salad dressing is probably the most fun part about salads because there is just no end to the tastes you can create (good AND bad).

This is my ALMOST raw peanut sauce. The reason it is almost raw is because I used whole peanuts (unshelled, of course) for the sauce which aren't technically considered raw. It is made with lemon juice, red pepper flakes, honey, ginger, garlic, and water. I used this recipe for the basic idea.

MMM!

MSG in Your Food!

In this article from Natural News, writer Allison Bigger reports that MSG is indeed found in most processed foods, Chinese food, salty snacks, and other types of food. 

I could be wrong, but I thought this was outlawed? Nope, I WAS wrong. It's NOT banned. The Mayo Clinic's registered dietician Katherine Zeratsky says that symptoms of MSG in our systems are: 

•               Headache

•               Flushing

•               Sweating

•               Facial pressure or tightness

•               Numbness, tingling or burning in face, neck and other areas

•               Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)

•               Chest pain

•               Nausea

•               Weakness

Wow! It is no wonder people who eat highly processed foods (most of us in America) feel these types of physical effects after eating out at restaurants or eating canned vegetables and soups. Zeratsky claims that there is not much evidence that MSG is the direct cause of these symptoms (I would like to know who has funded those studies) but that researchers are now recognizing a short-term link between MSG and adverse affects. That wasn’t too much of a stretch for me.

Of course, this Natural News article seems particularly biased. The main references are Wikipedia and GoVeg.com. Hmm…

The Journal of Head and Face Pain printed an article titled “MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein Induced Headache: Review and Case Studies.” The abstract of this journal article may surprise you: “Monosodium glutamate (MSG), an established headache trigger, has become far more prevalent in canned, packaged and prepared foods over the past decade. The presence of MSG in food may be difficult to detect since the terms ‘natural flavor,’ ‘flavoring,’ or ‘hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP),’ all may appear on food labels to refer to MSG, according to current FDA food labeling code. HVP typically contains 10–30% MSG.”  

Maybe you aren’t surprised by that, but I certainly am. It makes me surer of my raw food (or at least whole, clean, vegan) diet than ever before. Now, don’t forget, I am coming from a strong Standard American Diet background—I still like to go out to eat and I still have serious cravings for less nutritional and whole foods, such as delivery pizza and Chinese food. But knowing what really is lurking within my forkfuls  (“natural flavor” anyone?) helps me keep those cravings at bay!

There are studies, such as one conducted by Ronald Walker and John Lupien at the University of Surrey that seems to dismiss any negative side affects associated with MSG: “Conventional toxicity studies using dietary administration of MSG in several species did not reveal any specific toxic or carcinogenic effects nor were there any adverse outcomes in reproduction and teratology studies…The conclusions of a subsequent review by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) did not discount the existence of a sensitive subpopulation but otherwise concurred with the safety evaluation of JECFA and the SCF.”

So who am I to totally dismiss studies such as these? Well, all I know is that it is a chemical. Whether safe or not, I say, “No thank you, Mr. MSG!”

Can I go visit my organic garden now?