Day 13!!

You may be wondering why I post the day's entry at around one in the morning (which is technically the day after). Well, the reason is that Nick works a late shift and usually doesn't get home until around 11:30pm or midnight. Then we have dinner, then we clean up the kitchen, and only then do I have time to blog. I would post the next morning instead of so late at night, but I'm too afraid that I'll forget what I want to say. So until Nick no longer works late, this is how it works for us. :)

Nick's mom Lynn and her friend Whitney came over for brunch today! It was very nice to see them, and we had a lovely late morning/early afternoon meal of Raw Zucchini Spaghetti and Walnut Meatballs. You may remember that we also had this meal last week and it was such a success that we decided to make it again. And lo and behold, it was a success once again! Both Lynn and Whitney raved about how yummy and filling it was, and asked lots of questions about raw foods. Unfortunately, in the hustle and bustle of food preparation and hostessing, I forgot to take photos of the lovely meal! So you'll just have to trust me when I say it was pleasing to both the eye and the palate. ;)

Lunch: Fruit and Cream. Mmmm...something about this meal seriously reminded me of some sinful comfort food. It was soft, sweet, luscious. Ripe banana, ripe honey mango, ripe blueberries from the farmer's market, and topped with fresh cashew milk that we made yesterday. I find it so strange that this girl who used to commonly say, "I just don't like fruit. I prefer veggies." is now CHOWING DOWN on delicious ripe fruits and wanting more and more. I could seriously eat this stuff all day.



Snack: Trail Mix Part 2. I make this trail mix mainly for Nick, who takes a little baggie of it to work every night. This batch has almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, golden raisins, goji berries, chopped dates, chia seeds, and sea salt. This batch was really cool because the chia seeds all stuck to the sticky raisins, making it easier to eat them!



Dinner: Waldorf Salad. This was a delicious and unique salad! I've never had Waldorf Salad before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but this was really tasty. We used a lot of grapes and left the agave nectar out of the dressing. Also, I ran out of walnuts, so those weren't included, and also ran out of celery but used a small, crisp cucumber instead. We would definitely make this salad again!



Nick and I are going to be doing a little side experiment of raw living next week, so stay tuned for the menu and grocery list. I am exhausted tonight and didn't have time to do it, so it will be the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. Then we're going for a bike ride! And then we'll be doing homework for the rest of the day. Oh joy. :P

P.S. I forgot to mention! My quinoa and green lentils have SPROUTED!!! Still waiting on the sesame seeds. I will take a picture tomorrow when the sprouts are a little bigger and easier to see. Good night!

Day 7 -- One Whole Week Raw!!

Today was our 7th day eating raw vegan! What an adventure it has been so far! I am still really enjoying it, and definitely loving experimenting with all these different recipes. Also, for those interested, Nick and I weighed ourselves at our local Publix scale last Sunday...just out of curiosity (we always weigh ourselves there). Now, I want to be clear that I did not choose to go raw to lose any weight. However, both of us weighed ourselves today, after one full week of eating raw vegan, and were surprised at the results! Nick has lost five pounds, and I lost three! It's very strange...we are not trying to lose weight. We are eating a TON of food!! We haven't changed our exercise routine (we walk our dog for about 30-45 minutes around 4-5 times per week), either. I'm quite sure this is initial water weight loss, but am interested in stepping on the scale next Sunday, too.

Breakfast: Raw "Tapioca" Pudding. I actually made this recipe with almond milk instead of cashew milk and refrigerated it overnight. When I woke up this morning, the chia seeds had expanded and formed a gelatinous overcoat...very similar to tapioca pearls! I loved this pudding, and would make it again, but Nick did not like it at all. I had forgotten that he doesn't like real tapioca either, and the texture was simply too much like "frog eggs" (his term, not mine). He ate about half the jar and then gave up and ate orange slices. I will say this, though. The chia tapioca pudding held me off until DINNER. We didn't have lunch today, and I had no cravings or hunger pains all day. Crazy.



Dinner: RAW VEGAN SUSHI!! (There is a great video included in that link, too.)

So...I've never made sushi before. Neither has Nick. This morning, I googled a few videos and found out that it didn't look all that difficult. We already had the food ingredients, including the nori, but bought the bamboo sushi rolling mat this morning while we were out and about. I was nervous because I didn't want to mess mine up, so I went really slow...and it turned out great!! Nick did his first, and his was great, too!

First, we made our parsnip "rice" and sliced up the veggies to go inside the sushi. We marinated the portobello mushroom slices in sesame oil, tamari, ginger powder, and garlic powder for about one hour.



Then, we spread the parsnip "rice" on the nori sheet, and layered the veggies.



Like this, see?



Then we rolled it up really slowly and carefully. You need to watch the video in the recipe link above to get a good idea of how to do it. It really wasn't difficult at all, and when we were done rolling, we had RAW VEGAN SUSHI NOM NOM NOM!



We are definitely going to make this again, however, we are going to experiment with different sushi "rices". We're thinking of trying jicama and pine nut "rice" to see how it tastes. The parsnip rice was fine, but it definitely tasted like parsnips, and we're looking for something a bit more mild. It was delicious nonetheless, and with some Braggs Liquid Aminos and wasabi paste, I felt like I had gone to a 5-star sushi restaurant! :)