Recipe of the Week - Raspberry Coconut Smoothie

My 13yo dd and I tried the Raspberry Coconut Smoothie from Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day. The recipe calls for frozen raspberries, a banana, apple juice, fresh mint leaves and coconut flakes. I can't (yet) eat raw apple products, so we used some regular, not-from-concentrate apple juice, upped the amount of raspberries (it was very apple juice flavoured), my coconut was old and very crunchy (lol) and we didn't have mint leaves. *sigh* Dd liked it well enough, but she has found that she reacts to bananas a bit and this left her tongue feeling kind of funny. I liked it and would definitely make it again!

Rating for this recipe:

*Ease of preparation/time: 5 out of 5
*Ease of acquiring the ingredients: 4 out of 5
*Taste: 4 out of 5


As a follow-up to my previous recipe rating for the carrot-raisin salad, I think I now give it a 5 out of 5 for taste. I LOVE that salad!!!! I've had it a few times since I first tried it and could honestly eat it more often, except that I figure I need to focus on variety. lol.

Today's breakfast

Grapes, strawberries and banana fruit salad. :)

Yum!

I have not been feeling like having green smoothies the past few days. In trying to figure out what would please my body, it just craved fruit yesterday morning; same today. So, two mornings in a row of the same breakfast, but oh well!

Recipe of the Week - March 21st, 2011

I thought to get myself moving more with raw foods, even if I never get to 100% (I'm not convinced I want to), I ought to set myself some goals and make a plan. I decided to try one new recipe a week, at a minimum, and then I can share my comments on the recipe here.

Today's recipe is Maria's Student Salad from page 73 of

(Canadian residents: Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day)

It's a very simple recipe, made up of grated carrots, raisins, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of herb salt. Took me but a couple of minutes to prepare--grating the carrot took the longest. (I decided to make a smaller version my first time out; usually takes 3 carrots.) It's actually pretty tasty. I wasn't sure my first couple of bites if this is something I would make for myself again, but I'm now down to the bottom of the bowl and yes, I would definitely make this again.

Here's my rating for this recipe, on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best:

*Ease of preparation/time: 5
*Ease of finding ingredients: 5
*Taste: 4

Other comments:
I think if I had made the full size salad (3 times the amount I made for myself), it would have been way too much. Although, I'm not super hungry today, so that could be why. The mix of the sweet raisins, the crunchy sunflower seeds and the touch of sour from the lemon juice is really nice, then there's a hint of the herbs (I used regular Mrs. Dash) here and there. Quite nice.

It's been a while, omg

Well, it's been quite a while. I come back here, head down.

Yes, I'm somewhat ashamed by my lack of progress. Everything I've read and think about tells me that a mostly raw, if not entirely raw, diet is the way for me to go. Yet, I can't somehow get really moving on it. Why the lack of commitment? Am I just stuck in my comfort zone? (Probably.) Am I trying to do too much in my life? (Um, yes.) Where does this fall on my scale of priorities?

That's a really good question, actually. My health has not been a top priority for sometime. I'm working on it. I joined the X-Weighted Challenge this year, not for weight loss, but to focus on my own personal health. My knees have been a problem for years and sticking with this challenge has seen definite results--and improved fitness. I finally made a great change last week: brought down the number of grains servings I was eating per day. I had no idea that a grains serving was supposed to be so small. It was a great boost to eat more raw. And I lost 3 lbs in one week. (Let me say, I'm not very heavy to begin with.)

The past couple of days, I've been sick with a cold and raw food is not on my mind, I hate to say. Actually, I did have a simple green smoothie this morning for breakfast (spinach, orange juice, water and bananas). It was just what I needed.

I think I just need to get my day-to-day life better organized, better planned, so that I can start making this transition happen faster.