Raw Chili

the Raw Chili was a hit! So freaking good!

In bowl I added:

2 c shredded carrots

1/2 large red onion

1c chopped almonds

in a food processor I chopped

2 red bell peppers

2 Portabella mushrooms

4 stalks celery

In the Blendtech:

3 large tomatoes

5t chili powder

4t cumin

4 cloves garlic

1T Oregano

2T Onion powder

2T apple cider Vinegar

nutritional yeast to taste

NOTE: this is very liquidy... but it will be ok!

I let this sit overnight in the fridge. I then added the nut meat posted yesterday and onions on top! YUM!

In the Raw

I bought a 14 cup food processor this weekend and last night it made it's way out of the box. I think it was pretty excited to join the crowded counter top to create some raw nut "meat" and chili. YUM!

1 C Raw Almonds

1 C Raw Walnuts

3 large tomatoes that I dehydrated earlier that day

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne

4 tbsp cold pressed olive oil

This tasted great right out of the food processor. I have it in the refrigerator now and plan to top the chili with this mixture. If it all turns out I'll share the chili recipe tomorrow!

half way?

I committed to 30 days raw. Yesterday was day 15.... wooo half way! I am always surrounded by cookies and have found it hard to resist, but I have. I even froze some cookie dough so I can have some when I complete the challenge. haha.

I started juicing this week. It's a nice addition to my morning routine. I may have to get up earlier to get it all done but that's ok! The juice is perfect because whatever doesn't fit in my "to go" cup for work I put in the blender to make my morning smoothie. I think this makes my smoothie way better!

I ordered the Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator today so maybe this raw thing will last longer than 30 days....

Slackerville

Not coming into the office due to snow made me not want to sit at my computer... hence not any blogging happened in the past couple of days. I have been good about taking pictures with my phone for the time that I came back to the blog.

What have I discovered on my raw journey thus far (2 weeks).

I am the smoothie queen!

I will now eat raw broccoli if I can dip it in raw cashew butter

I have bought 3 raw cookbooks, and have yet to open them

I'll dehydrate, blend, juice just about anything because I think it's an interesting experiment

Raw food diet is not causing weight loss... I find this peculiar

And for the gem in my pantry:

Favorite Creation...

That's right... I finally figured something out! I was addicted to my Blend Tech. I have been blending the heck out of everything. I wasn't always getting the result I wanted but I was forging ahead anyway. Then I thought, "I should grab my food processor" And then I made magic happen.

My phone camera does not do this justice

-two tomatoes

-package of mushrooms

-two cloves of garlic

I spread this on some Love Force raw crackers and in some celery! Holla!

I also had more dehydrated fun. I juiced yesterday morning and thought I shouldn't waste what I'm not drinking. So I added some raw agave, mixed it up and dehydrated. So now I have carrot, broccoli, apple, agave chip things... ha!

Keep on Keepin' On

I've passed the one week point, SUCCESS! Yay.

Yesterday I just played around with some stuff. I put mushrooms, tahini, garlic, mixed greens, braggs and tomatoes in the blender (I later learned the food processor would have been a better choice) and went to town.

Below is yesterday's Lunch = Portabella Mushroom stuffed with the stuff I blended, sprouts and sauerkraut on the side. Not to bad!

Then a light snack before bed and all favorite gone raw = Celery and Almond butter.

one week

I thought magically when I put my jeans on this morning they would be too big for me. I'm not doing the raw diet to lose weight, but I thought it would be a great benefit. I'm reporting, my jeans fit just as they always have. I don't have a scale meaning I have no clue if I've lost pounds.

I had a great weekend, during my prenatal yoga teacher training a special raw dish was made for me by the amazing Mark Stroud both days. It was so good that all I did this weekend was smoothies in the morning, great lunch that I didn't have to prepare, and then some butternut squash chips at dinner time.

I lucked out last night at the grocery store finding reduced fresh cut fruit and some almost out of date mushrooms that I'm going to get creative with today! I think my favorite two things are my blender and dehydrator!

Rawk On!

not much to report, but didn't want to leave you hanging

Happy Saturday! I have yoga training all weekend so I don't have a ton of time to report out on the raw diet. My first go at dehydrating turned out well. The result is almost chip like. It's a happy medium of sweet and salty. I was thinking of cutting really thin potatoes, soaking them in sea salt water and then dehydrating. I wonder what will happen if i did this. Then I thought, "wow you really will find junk food in any diet you have" haha.

Anyway, the daily smoothie has been a big win for me. I love it, and I'm adding a daily dose of flax to my diet which is supposedly good :)

Today it will be my standard, strawberry, banana, greens, flax, cashew milk.

Good Morning Dehydrator

This morning my beautiful friend offered to do my bakery deliveries this morning leaving me a bit more time to get my rawness together. What a Goddess she is!

Anyway, I broke out the dehydrator. I have owned this dehydrator for a few years. It was purchased to help prep someone for the Appalachian Trail. I wasn't really in charge of the dehydrator, I made food and she did the technical work of whatever else was needed. Alas, this morning I got out the step stool and brought it down.

Here you see Butternut Squash, Yellow Squash, Garlic, Sea Salt chips in the beginning phase. The dehydrator will hopefully work it's magic and these will be AMAZING!

Side note - a lot of people are asking me about this raw diet and such. I truly am making it up as I go. I am usually a heavy researcher... this time I'm just doing. I do have cookbooks coming in the mail though!

A day in the Raw

I think my hunger has finally curved. The first couple of days all I wanted to do was eat, eat, eat. I was concerned if i would ever feel full. I'd eat a raw bar which would hold me a little longer than say an orange, but I was still hungry. My body must have been figuring out what to do with its new fuel.
"Hey body, we are running on whole foods now".
I have been thinking about digging out my dehydrator. I have only used it to prep a someone for backpacking and then again with a camp backpacking group. So the idea to create raw foods excites me. I was thinking of making some chips and making a salsa. The best part of raw so far is that I'm making it up, no cookbooks. (Although I have three coming in the mail).
What am I eating?
Today's Breakfast - well blended leafy greens, two oranges and a banana
I have a massive salad packed for my lunch
I'll be at my favorite little store Park + Vine and most likely devour some raw goodness there and then home to bake and make myself some chips... that's the plan.
Oh yeah, I'm going to invest in sprouting jars tonight....... I am becoming the hippie I never thought I'd be ;)

The body adjusts

I know my body, probably like most people's body, always has an adjustment period when make a diet change. Last night I was doing yoga at home and when I got to my belly for some poses I suddenly did not feel very well. Hmmm, what is this, i thought. did I eat too many raw nuts covered in the cocoa syrup? What is happening here?

I'm not sure what it was but it was unpleasant. My body is probably adjusting to the lack of gluten, sugar, caffeine, which is completely foreign.

Anyway, I have been sticking with morning smoothies. This is working out well for me. I start by adding whatever my nut might be. I've tried cashews, almonds and today sunflowers. I read the labels this morning and realized that sunflowers have the most protein! When mixed with berries, bananas, flax and greens I don't think the "milk" base matters.

I also tried a "soup" yesterday. Yellow Squash, Butternut Squash, Tomato, ginger and salt. It turned out well.

Day 2

I have made it through 24 hours of raw... here is what I know
-I have lived on a diet of sugar for way too long
-It is hard to break up with caffeine
-Old habits really are hard to break
-I miss sugar

Yesterday was full of nuts, raw bars, salad, fruit etc. Then I discovered that I had some raw chocolate syrup... raw cocoa with raw agave... this was a piece of heaven to me.

My funniest moment was while making cinnamon rolls. I'm doing my thing as is my habit. When I was ready to let the dough rise I started to clean up a bit and out of habit put some dough in my mouth. I instantly realized what I did (oh creature of habit) and spit it out. I thought "this is not raw". I laughed at myself and moved on.

I made my first dressing... just made it up:
2 small zucchini
1 avocado
1 clove garlic
cashews
water

I later added lemon to it when I realized the avocado was making the dressing turn brown. I'm not sure it helped. I also added some sea salt for taste. Over all it was pretty good.

I am experiencing some symptoms of withdrawal from the sugar, carbs and caffeine, but I'm pushing through.

I'll start taking pictures of my food to make this a bit more interesting.

Here we go, day 1

While browsing facebook, as I often do, I saw that a friend of mine was planning on going raw for 90 days. She wanted to know if anyone wanted to join her. I have dabbled in raw here and there but my sugar addiction always has brought me back. The truth is I'm vegan for the animals and not my health, this means coffee, diet coke, twizzlers, sour patch kids, any baked good that my bakery makes, etc.

Knowing that today was my first day raw I ate everything in sight this weekend, tons of vegan pizza, eggless salad sandwiches galore, brownies... and so on.

Last night I took a fellow yogi with me to Trader Joes as he is very knowledgeable about raw foods. $130 later and my trunk full of more veggies and healthy foods than I think I've ever purchased in my life I was ready to start the challenge.

I woke up this morning planning out my day. I did not eat the chocolate I melted for some baked goods, that was my first challenge. So here we are:

Breakfast was 1 Grape Fruit and a strawberry, banana, flax seed and cashew milk smoothie (I had never made cashew milk before!)

Lunch is some nuts, fruit, and a raw bar.

I don't know what will come of this diet, I'm hoping for a nice cleanse! I'm looking forward to learning the way of raw foods.