Day 9 and Feeling Better Every Day!

I want to start off by mentioning how much fun Nick and I are having with this raw food lifestyle. I have to admit that I was skeptical before we started because I thought it would be a monotonous and boring diet consisting of apples, oranges, bananas, and salads. I'm surprised those thoughts even went through my mind because I know there is a HUGE variety of fresh food out there, but still, stereotypes of raw food diets were somehow ingrained in my brain. As it turns out, there has been nothing monotonous or boring about this way of living and eating at all. Every day, I look forward to creating new meals and tasting new flavors. I am so excited to go into the kitchen and see what's for breakfast or lunch. I love opening the fridge and looking at all those fresh fruits and veggies. And the best part? I love not having to scrub dirty pots and pans!!

Breakfast: Super Green Chard Smoothie. I've wanted to see how chard blends up in a smoothie ever since I was interested in going raw. Chard is such a mild tasting green, slightly bland and a little salty, and it seemed like the perfect smoothie green. And so it was! I blended two bananas, two ripe pears, a handful of mint leaves fresh from our garden, about 7 or 8 large chard leaves, and half a cup of frozen strawberries. It blended smoothly into a lovely green color, and the taste was really, really fresh, crisp, and sweet (but not too sweet). The mint was a wonderful addition and added great flavor! This smoothie recipe is going to become a new staple. I think I'll add some hemp seeds next time, too. Yum. :)



Lunch: Raw Beet Love Salad. This was a really great lunch! Nick and I each had huge bowls of it. I grated the beets and jicama in my food processor, and it splattered all over the walls. Seriously, it looked like a crime scene in my kitchen! But I cleaned the splatters right away so the beet juice didn't stain. Anyway, the only modification I made to the recipe was adding fresh spinach, sprouts, and some finely sliced green onions (scallions). It made a LOT of salad, and we had a ton leftover (which we stored in the fridge and ate later in the evening). Will definitely make this again!



Dinner: Spinach Tomato Soup. Tonight's dinner had a lot of potential, but turned out to be a bit of a disappointment because it was far too onion-y. I may try the recipe again, but next time I will blend two garlic cloves, the onion powder, and no fresh onion in with the tomatoes, spinach, and avocado. Then I will top the soup with a little bit of fresh diced onion, as per the recipe. The blended onion was just too much. My eyes have been watering all night even though all the dinner dishes are washed. We didn't finish the soup, unfortunately, but we did snack on leftover salad from lunch. At least it was a pretty soup! :)



After dinner, Nick and I made cheez! Our lunch tomorrow is Brazil Nut Cheez with Grapes, and tonight we blended the ingredients for the cheez, covered it with cheesecloth, and put it in the fridge to thicken. Tomorrow morning, we will take it out, form it into circles, wrap it in cheesecloth, and press it. By lunch time, we will have delicious cheese! I tasted it out of the blender, and the flavor was indescribable. It was like the most amazing ricotta ever. I can't wait to eat it tomorrow!

We're also still eating those delicious Coconut Mint Brownies that I made yesterday. Those things are SO GOOD. :)