Day 24 and 25

I am so sleepy! It's been an absolutely crazy week filled with studying and final exams...hence the reason I'm behind on blogging again! Today is actually day 26, but I won't be able to blog about today until tomorrow. Ha!

So, firstly, I'd like to present to you...my first case of bananas. A 40 pound case of bananas. For only five bucks.



Nick and I have many, many smoothies in our future. :)

The Day Before Yesterday's Breakfast



The Day Before Yesterday's Lunch: Cherry Banana Ice Cream.



The Day Before Yesterday's Dinner: Sushi again! Our favorite!!



Nick and I went out to eat the day before yesterday, for the first time since starting our raw food adventure. Our friends Helen and Tommy invited us to Boca Fiesta, an awesome little bar/restaurant here in Gainesville. We were a little apprehensive when they invited us, mainly because we didn't know what we could eat there...and we were worried that we'd really miss their mojitos! But we went out, ordered their "Build Your Own Guacamole" and two veggie salads, and then put the guac on the salads. It was great! And we had a really awesome time with Helen and Tommy. So glad we went. :)

Yesterday's Breakfast: Sapote Mango Blueberry Pudding. OMG, yum. So it was our first time trying mamey sapote and although it was perfectly ripe and the flavor was fantastic, it is kind of a dry fruit, so we decided to whip it up into a pudding. It was just delicious.





Yesterday's Dinner: Vegetable Noodle Stew. My avocado was not ripe, so I used four tablespoons of tahini instead. Oh, and I used no salt or pepper...the celery and tomatoes were salty enough. This stew turned out great. We LOVE zucchini noodles!!



Oh, btw...Nick and I bought those crazy toe shoes today and we love them!! :D

Day 17 -- Still a day behind!

Yesterday was day 17, but I was too exhausted to blog last night. And I didn't feel good. Wanna know why? Because I didn't listen to my body or my intuition.

So our local grocery store sells these shelled English Peas. And every time I see them, I'm like, "Wow! I bet those are crisp and sweet!" So I buy them. And then when I actually eat them, they are not crisp and sweet. They are hard and bitter. So I drown them in coconut vinegar (which you can get super cheap at your local Asian grocery store, btw), nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. And then, because I have a thing for vinegar, I eat a TON of them.

And so there I was...last night, bored, waiting for Nick to get home, hungry but not wanting to eat another banana because I knew Nick would want them when he got home and I was worried we'd run out before we could get more. So I went to the fridge and looked at the peas. Now, something inside me actually said, "Don't eat those. They are hard to digest. They don't actually taste very good. You're going to get a bellyache." And then what did I do? I rinsed the peas, put them in a mason jar, smothered them in the salt, vinegar, pepper, nutritional yeast, and then started eating them with a spoon right out of the jar. I gobbled down half the jar before I realized what I had done and immediately regretted it. I had heartburn from Hades and my stomach hurt.

No more English Peas for me.

Breakfast: Yesterday's breakfast was almost half of a golden, juicy, sweet pineapple and about two cups of purple grapes. It actually took Nick and I about an hour to get through all that delicious fruit, but I'll tell ya, it was AMAZING. I love pineapple. Ripe pineapple and mango are probably my two favorite fruits... after lychee, of course. We didn't get a photo because I was running a little late for school. I think I'm going to buy another pineapple today. Mmm! :)

Lunch: Strawberry Mango Salad. This was such a beautiful salad! And the jicama added amazing crisp flavor and some heartiness. The pumpkin seeds were a perfect touch. We didn't add the avocado because I wanted to save the only ripe one we had on hand for dinner. We will definitely make this salad again (maybe today because we still have half a jicama left!). Oh, I didn't use any agave in the dressing...Nick and I are finding agave to be too sweet for us lately.



Dinner: Mexi-Fiesta Soup. Sound familiar? That's because it was the first raw dinner we ever made! And it was so tasty that we decided to make it again. Only this time, we forgot the onions (which was fine because it was just as tasty without them) and used a bit more corn.



I am finding myself getting a little impatient with weight loss. I know I am steadily losing weight at a healthy rate (about 1.5 to 2 pounds per week), but I want to hurry and get to my body's healthy weight so I can stop worrying about weight loss and start getting my body to its optimal state of health. But see there? I'm making excuses. Why do I have to wait to lose more weight before I begin building strength in my body? I don't. If I want to build strength, I need to start now. It's so easy to say, "I'll start doing ______ when _______ happens." That is not the way to reach your goals. That is the way to drift further and further from them.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm going to go clean up the house, take a shower, go get the rest of the week's groceries, and then go walk my dog and get some exercise. I think I'll do some yoga and attempt push-ups today. That sounds like a good goal! :)

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. :)

Day 6

Since I've already made two other raw blog posts today, I'm going to keep this one simple. Raw food good. Yum.

Breakfast: Pineapple Chunks with Cashew Cream. Delicious. Satisfying. Very filling.



Lunch: Sunflower Sprout Salad. No recipe for this one...I enjoy creating tasty, colorful salads. I simply combined baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, corn, red bell peppers, sunflower seeds, sunflower sprouts, nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil in a big bowl, mixed it well, and served it up. I love a good salad, and this one was really tasty. Nick loved the dressing!



Dinner: Spicy Gazpacho. Well, the original recipe actually wasn't spicy, but I wanted spice, so I added half a medium jalapeno pepper and some chili powder. I also used about five sundried tomato halves in place of one of the raw tomatoes. Our avocado had gone bad, but we did top the soup with some fresh parsley from our garden. I drizzled a little olive oil on Nick's soup, too. It was zesty and savory. Really yummy. I do prefer my gazpacho not entirely blended, though, so next time I will only blend half the ingredients, and then chop the rest and mix it into the soup.



Dessert: Banana Soft Serve Ice Cream with Raw Chocolate Sauce. Umm...I don't really have the words to describe this. FOLKS, THIS STUFF MADE ICE CREAM. Use a food processor, not a blender, and make yourself some DELICIOUS, CREAMY, DAIRY-FREE, SOY-FREE, PRESERVATIVE-FREE ICE CREAM. I'm still a little in shock about this one. Nick's response was, "Really? I mean...really??" Because, seriously, this is what the ice cream industry does NOT want you to know. This dessert was incredible.



And now, off to bed with a full and happy tummy. :)

Day 1!!

What a fantastic first day going raw!  I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but today was delicious and awesome.  And for some reason, I was scared that preparation was going to be way more involved...but it most definitely wasn't.  I feel like food preparation takes just as much time when getting prepared to cook food, and then it takes time to actually cook it.  Then, there's dirty dishes from food prep, cooking, and eating.  With raw foods, there's dirty dishes from food prep, and then you either blend and eat, or simply eat!  Way easier, way less dishes, way less messy...way less time spent in the kitchen!  I'm loving it so far!!

So today's breakfast was called Blueberry Fool.  (Here is the recipe)  This dish was a success!  It was Nick's favorite food of the day, and I absolutely loved it, too.  It was extremely rich and creamy, with just enough sweetness.  We decided that when we make this again, we will only blend about a quarter of the nut yogurt with blueberries (instead of half the yogurt), just enough to make a sauce.  I didn't know raw cashews could make such a delectable breakfast!



Lunch was Kick-Ass Kale and Curried Almonds.  There is no recipe for the kale--I got the idea from one of my teachers at midwifery school (Thanks, Kaitlin!).  It's a staple around here, even before we went raw.  Basically, you take one bunch of washed kale, tear it up into pieces, put it in a mixing bowl and add olive oil, the juice of half a large lemon, a dash of sea salt, a dash of garlic powder, and a dash of cayenne pepper to taste.  Mix it really well with your hands, and actually squeeze and squish the kale to really break down the cell wall.  That's it.  It's sour and salty and delicious.

For the almonds, we followed the recipe from the Raw Foods Witch's snack ebook.  Soak some almonds for at least two hours, rinse and drain well, then add sea salt, cumin, curry, and cayenne to taste.  Let them dry, and eat up!



Dinner was Mexi-Fiesta Soup, a recipe from RAW FOOD NATION.  It was hearty and really, really filling.  I think I could have used an extra jalapeno pepper for more kick, but other than that, it was great.  I will say that eating a cold soup is a different experience!  I am a soup snob, absolutely love soups and have been making them for many years, so this soup was...well...different!  The taste was spicy and savory, with just enough saltiness.  It was really yummy!  But, it's probably gonna take me a little while to get used to eating soups that are not piping hot.  Oh, and Nick really liked this soup, too.



I tweaked the dessert brownie recipe.  The original recipe, found here, called for carob powder.  Now, I looked at every health food store in town and could not find raw carob powder.  It was all toasted.  So instead of 1/2 cup raw cacao powder and 1/2 cup carob powder, I used 3/4 cup raw cacao powder and 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.  The entire recipe was satisfying and good, but next time I will add a little bit more agave (or maybe a banana).  Oh, and my goodness, this was very difficult to make in the blender (and we have a pretty awesome blender!)...I suppose this may be incentive to purchase a food processor.  Thick foods that need to be chopped and mixed do not do so well in the blender.  So yeah, we might be buying a food processor this week...we'll see.  Anyway, Nick suggested that next time we could chop the cherries, mix them with a bit of agave, and then spread it between two layers of the brownie mixture.  I like his idea. :)



Overall, it was a great first day!  I was surprised at how full I felt after each meal.  I'm so used to eating really  heavy, gooey, sticky cooked foods that sink into the bottom of your stomach like a heavy brick.  After eating these meals, I felt satisfied, but not so stuffed that I wanted to take a nap.  This makes me happy!  I did get a bit of a headache later in the day, but I'm not sure if that's due to not drinking enough water or withdrawal from sugar (Hi, my name is Missy and I'm a sugar addict.)...so we'll see if it comes back tomorrow.  Looking forward to another great day full of fresh, raw foods!