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 22 and 23

Nick and I have been busy studying for finals, which are tomorrow, so although we're eating lots of raw yumminess, I haven't really been able to keep up with this blog as much as I'd like to. Hopefully once finals are over, I can document a lot of raw stuff that's been on my mind lately. I want to make some kind of post for those interested in going raw--kind of like an intro post. I am still totally a beginner, but I'm one of the lucky ones who learned after only two weeks of eating 100% raw that a high-fat raw food diet is not healthy...unfortunately, most of the raw information that's freely available on the intrawebz is all about high-fat raw foods (aka "gourmet" raw) because that's what those new to the raw lifestyle tend to gravitate towards (including myself until I did some more research and picked up "The 80-10-10 Diet" by Dr. Douglas Graham).

For those interested who cannot yet pick up a copy of the aforementioned book, an awesome website to check out is Raw Food Health. Great info there.

Anyway, gotta make this short because I need to do some more studying. Wish me luck on my finals! :)

Yesterday's Dinner: Raw Vegan Chili. I kinda combined two recipes for this; here and here. I added frozen corn (defrosted first), cayenne powder, cumin, two dates for sweetness, and blended a few chard leaves into the sauce. This chili turned out GREAT with a nice crunch, but next time, I will make it a bit less spicy...although Nick thought the amount of spice was just right.

Before adding the sauce:



All mixed up with some nutritional yeast sprinkled on top:



Yum. :)

Today's Breakfast: Deliciously fresh papaya, bananas, and local blueberries! Oh this was probably the best papaya I've ever had! We bought it early last week while it was still green and patiently (yeah right!) waited until TODAY to finally eat it. And it was so worth the wait!! So buttery and sweet, juicy and amazing. Truly, a fantastic papaya. The bananas and blueberries complemented it quite nicely.





Today's Dinner: Kickass Salad with Creamy Tomato Celery Dressing. I got the idea for the dressing out of the 80-10-10 book. I put two tomatoes, four large celery sticks, the juice of one lemon, a handful of fresh basil, one clove of garlic, and about four tablespoons of tahini in the blender and blended it all up into a delicious dressing that tasted great and salty, without adding any salt at all! Then I poured it over some romaine lettuce, sunflower sprouts, jicama, tomato, onions, bell pepper, and chopped celery. It was such a heart and filling salad. I'm excited to experiment with fresh, raw dressings that don't include salt or oil. Nick really liked it, too!



And now, back to the books!! Good night!

Week 4 Meal Plan and Grocery List

I can't believe this is the last week of our One-Month Raw Vegan Adventure! Nick and I have had a lot of fun discovering new recipes and eating so healthy. Our skin has cleared up exceptionally, our energy levels have really gone up, and we have lost a lot of weight. So far, in three weeks, Nick has released 12 pounds and I have released 10. IN ONLY THREE WEEKS...and that's been solely by stuffing our faces with fresh raw food. Nothing else has changed, not our lifestyles or exercise routine!! This is amazing, amazing stuff. I am very happy. :)

Here is Week 4's Meal Plan:



Lots and lots of fruit again this week! In fact, I'm hoping for almost an 80carb/10protein/10fat percentage ratio. It's not quite perfect yet, though, but it's getting there. Mmm...I am really full of mangos and bananas right now.

And here's the grocery lists for the week. I like how they're getting smaller as the quantity of fruit gets bigger. :)

Today's Grocery Shopping List:

2 or 3 Bunches of Bananas
2 bunches of grapes
3 large red bell peppers
2 zucchinis
4 large tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro
romaine lettuce
baby spinach
4 little cucumbers
one bunch chard
2 ripe pears
Portobello mushroom caps
sprouts
sugar snap peas
green onions
one little parsnip
fruit to snack on (oranges, peaches, pluots, etc.)
2 packages dried dates
2 lemons
Oh, and dish soap. ;)


Wednesday's Grocery Shopping List:

Possibly more bananas
One case champagne mangos
One large watermelon
strawberries
jicama
5 zucchinis
5 tomatoes
celery if needed
one pack fresh basil
4 lemons
one bunch chard
one large bunch grapes
kiwis if needed
nori
sprouts if needed
2 red bell pepper
Portobello mushroom caps
fresh Thai coconut OR coconut manna
one small papaya
one bunch kale

Yay for raw food goodness!! ♥

Day 20 and 21 - Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day today, no matter what holiday (or no) you celebrate! ♥

I'm going to combine days 20 and 21 for simplicity's sake, mostly because I'm behind on blogging again. Also, Nick had to work today, and I went to my mom's house for Easter, so I didn't get to make any intricate recipes. But I do have a few photos to share.

Hmm...and I also want to mention that while I am trying my best to document breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I am not documenting any snacks at all. Nick and I eat lots of fruit between meals, and Nick snacks on trailmix at work almost every night. Because we're eating so much fruit lately, and fruit kinda speaks for itself, I'm really only documenting and taking photos of the meals that took some time to put together and make.

As for caloric intake, I am consuming about 1600 calories per day at this point, while Nick is consuming 2000-2200. Some days, depending on if we eat a meal high in nuts/seeds, avocado, olive oil, or coconut, we might get a LOT more calories...but it's averaging out to be the numbers above. How are we getting this many calories by just eating fruit and veggies? We've been gradually increasing our portion sizes. When we have fruit, we don't just have an apple or an orange. For example, I ate three mangos and an orange for breakfast this morning while Nick ate a smoothie that contained three bananas, a cup of frozen strawberries, a cup of frozen blueberries, and two cups of chard leaves. It ended up being a full quart of smoothie! And when we eat salads, we don't just have a dinky little salad on a salad plate. We eat a MIXING BOWL full of salad EACH. Yum. :)

This is a prickly pear:



Nick and I bought it from our local grocery store a couple days ago, and tried to eat it for breakfast yesterday. Only, it tasted very bland, and I'm pretty sure I got an itty bitty cactus thorn stuck in the tip of my tongue. Also, it was full of very hard seeds, albeit edible. We didn't like the prickly pear, and so it went in the compost heap. We ate tons of mango for breakfast instead.



Yesterday's Lunch: Just Your Average Salad. Romaine, baby spinach, avocado, tomato, scallions, purple cabbage, sugar snap peas, lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper, nutritional yeast. Yum.



Yesterday's Dinner: Green Goddess Smoothie! We blended up four bananas, a cup of frozen strawberries, a few handfuls of baby spinach, and a little bit of cinnamon. We didn't get a photo, but it was tasty. :)

****************************************

So today was Easter Sunday, and Nick had to work. I was very bummed that we couldn't spend the day together (probably not as bummed as Nick, though, since he's the one who had to work!), but I did have a wonderful time visiting my mom, her husband, my brother and his girlfriend, and my little nephew.



Before Nick went to work and I left for Mom's, though, we had breakfast. Nick's was that kickass smoothie I mentioned earlier in the post, and mine was the amazing three champagne mangos. Sooooo good!! Then, because Nick would be at work all day and wouldn't get a lunch break, I packed him lots of fruit to eat throughout the day: two peeled and segmented oranges, two sliced kiwis, two apples, two pluots (cross between plum and apricot), and a little baggie of trailmix. He later reported that the fruit was yummy and held him over til he got out of work!

Lunch: Kickass Kale and Chard Salad. I brought my own "Easter Dinner" to Mom's house because they were having a traditional dinner of meat and potatoes, and I knew I'd get hungry eventually. This is key, folks! Bring your own food to things like this and you won't have to worry about whether or not there will be food for you to eat! Anyway, the salad was kale, chard, one garlic clove pressed through the garlic press, the juice of a large lemon, and a little sea salt--all of it squished and mixed with my hands to help the lemon juice break down the cell wall of the greens. This salad was very yummy, and my mom loved it, too!! I also brought two oranges with me, and then Mom gave me an Easter basket filled with fresh fruit. I stayed full until dinner!

Dinner: Zucchini Pasta Pesto. Not much to say about this one other than the fact that it was AMAZING. The only thing Nick and I will do differently next time is make more of it!!



And off to plan the week's meals! Hope everyone had a great day! :)

Day 19 and Still Loving It!

I can't believe tomorrow is already Saturday AGAIN and it will be time to make the week's meal plan and grocery lists AGAIN. Wow! Time is flying by!

Oh, and I was quite happy today when I saw a package in my mailbox! The book I ordered last week, "The 80-10-10 Diet" by Dr. Douglas Graham was finally here! I read it most of the evening and just keep finding myself nodding my head in agreement. His writing style is great, and I especially enjoyed chapter one. I will definitely keep everyone updated as I continue to read through the book. :)

Breakfast: Half of an approximately 10 lb watermelon. Yep, you read that right. I didn't weigh the watermelon, but it was pretty heavy, and Nick and I each ate half for breakfast this morning. It took me about an hour and a half to finish mine, but I did it! OMG, and it was the best watermelon I've had in so long! So sweet and juicy and dense. I wish I had bought two of them! Maybe I will go to the Asian grocery store tomorrow and pick up another one. That's how good this thing was.

(This photo makes them look flat. They weren't.)



Lunch: Zucchini Hummus and Veggies. Alright, so here's the deal. The consistency and texture of this zucchini hummus was GREAT! If I would have known you could make kickass hummus with zucchini instead of chickpeas, I would have done it long ago. Anyway, the recipe itself, in my opinion, needs a bit of tweaking. I normally love curry, but the flavor combo of this hummus was a little weird. Next time, I think I will make a more Mediterranean-flavored hummus by leaving out the curry and using some basil, oregano, and sundried tomatoes or something. I'll experiment with it a bit and see how it turns out next time.



Dinner: Spicy Ginger Springrolls. Hey, these were really good and they looked neat, too!! We used chard instead of collards because our local grocery store didn't have any good looking collards, and they came out great with the chard! Inside our springrolls were marinated shiitaki mushrooms, bell pepper, sugar snap peas, purple cabbage, avocado, and scallions/green onions. Fresh wasabi and tamari to dip them in and YUMMY!! Delicious.



I really hope our gazillion bananas are ripe tomorrow! I want bananas! And now it is after 3am and I'm going to bed. Night!

Day 18

Breakfast: Half a honeydew and a banana (two bananas for Nick). This was delicious but not enough food! However, we ran out of bananas! So there was nothing we could do. Poor hungry bellies. I think I may have eaten a couple Medjool dates to take the edge off, lol.



Later, I found an AWESOME website explaining how to make sure we never run out of ripe bananas again! Here it is: The Art of Fruit Ripening.

Lunch: Whatever Veggies Are in the Fridge Salad. This was a tasty salad!! Romaine lettuce, baby spinach, my own sprouted lentils, jicama, tomato, yellow bell pepper, soaked sunflower seeds, zucchini, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast, and a little bit of tamari. So good!!



Afternoon Activity: Saying good-bye to my kombucha. I made a couple great batches of kombucha, but haven't drank it in a long time. So my most recent attempt, a kava kava kombucha experiment, kinda just sat on the kitchen table for the past few months. The scoby did WONDERFUL and just grew and grew. But, because I don't anticipate drinking kombucha again, it was time to say good-bye, and so I gave my scoby to the earth in the backyard.

That thing was at least 2.5 inches thick.



Dinner: Whatever Fruit Is Left in the Fridge Salad. Yum! Strawberries, orange slices, kiwi, and grapes.

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! :)