I've moved!

Not physically, just blog-wise.

http://yearningforafreelife.blogspot.com/

Restarting!

Things are calmer around here and I have to admit to have been eating horribly the past couple of weeks, very little fruits and veggies much less raw food... Lots and lots of cooked wheat products. Which means my weight is up. :( Except, that it's a great reminder of why I need to be eating differently. :) It's keeping me feeling pumped to eat more raw this week! Well, I'll take it a day at a time.

So far today, I've had a satsuma and am working on a simple salad of grapes and banana slices. These three fruits are what I'll be focusing on eating throughout the morning. Oh, and watermelon! We do have peaches and plums, but they make my mouth itch, especially when my seasonal allergies are acting up (which they are today), so I won't be eating them. The peaches are going to go bad if nobody's going to eat them and it appears that my son is the only one in the house who will eat them, so I've found a vegan recipe to make so that I can cook them up and be able to eat them! Yes, I know, I'm talking about cooked peaches on a raw food blog, but at the moment, cooked is the only way I can eat them. I'm not going full raw this week (or maybe ever, admittedly), just making a point to eat as much raw as I can! I may, for example, after all my fruit really just want a piece of toast. I'm fine with that. The past couple of weeks, however, it's been two pieces of toast, and maybe some cereal at some point, and a muffin, and pasta, and rice... Way, way too many grains, even for a non-raw diet.

For lunch, I have romaine and another lettuce with which I can make a salad. I've got some broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, cucumber... I can make one nice salad with that! I prepared a salad dressing from this book:
. I messed up on substituting lemon juice for apple cider vinegar, so I'll add some extra lemon juice today to what's left over and hopefully it'll taste better! When I made it on Saturday, I ended up adding a dash of vinegar to my salad. Tasted not too bad. I have to learn to explore a bit with herbs and spices, I think.

Other than that, another motivating factor in restarting my raw focus was seeing this today: http://youngonrawfood.com/ She is 72 years old, says she feels like she's in her 20s, and certainly doesn't look like she's in her 70s! I'd love to have that kind of vitality!!! I don't think I look has vibrant now in my 30s as she does in her 70s! (Yes, I'm getting a little excited! lol) She even has a book you can order, from her site or from Amazon: I'm thinking I may just buy it!

So, here's to my first day of restarting raw. :)

Soon, soon

I have not been able to maintain my raw focus this past while. There are so many other things that come before it--it's just not high enough up on my priorities. However, some of those priorities will be disappearing for the summer and I am so looking forward to being able to get back on track with eating well and exercising!


I have tried a few things: Ani Phyo's coconut pancakes (or something like that--more on this in another post), made Sarma's coconut chocolate truffles (can't remember if they're from this book Living Raw Food: Get the Glow with More Recipes from Pure Food and Wine
or not--but I love them!!), and have made Maria's Student Salad more than once (see post below about that)--I really like that salad for lunch or as part of my lunch. It's so simple and has such a great taste.

I will be trying more soon--I simply need to have time in my day to actually be able to get the necessary ingredients and put the recipes together. Too many things making demands on me right now!

Jackpot of online raw chefs!

This is amazing! Enjoy! :)

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/chefs/

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.

This morning's green smoothie

I've been very inconsistent with my smoothies, so I made a point to have one this morning. Whilst trying to decide what to put in it, I remembered that we had some fresh cut pineapple that needed to be used up. So, this morning's smoothie consisted of orange juice (unfortunately, pasteurized), baby spinach, two ripe bananas, a few chunks of frozen banana and some pineapple pieces. Yum!

It's been a while!

I have to admit to having regressed a lot. I've let different things get in the way, although I do have to say that sometimes, it's just felt impossible to make any progress. When the produce available isn't yet ripe or is already overripe, or you simply can't make it to a store for days and your fresh produce is gone, what's to be done?

That said, I won't make excuses for myself. There has been plenty of produce that hasn't been eaten. My goal right now is to make a point of having fresh fruits and veggies daily, without worrying too much about how much. That habit needs to get back in--for me and my kids--and from there, we can look at adding more in. I need to do this step-by-step.

Raw Revolution Chocolate and Coconut Bar - Review

Okay, I know it's been a while since I last posted! I can't say I've made much progress in incorporating more raw into my diet, but I have been reading more and finding some recipes I'd like to try out.

One thing I purchased to eat was a Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bar, in the Chocolate and Coconut. Now, maybe it's one of those things that has to be eaten more than once because the first time, you don't know what to make of it, but I have to say that I was disappointed. It's been weeks since I ate it, so I can't remember the taste exactly, I just remember thinking, "It could taste better than this."

Then, I read the label. And I was very disappointed.

Here is a food bar called "Raw Revolution" with the sub-title "Organic Live Food Bar." Under that, there are some words to further describe the bar, one of them being "uncooked." I looked on the back of the wrapper:

"82.2% Raw."

Say what? All this stuff on the front of the wrapper, touting it as being raw and "live food", and not only is it not raw, the "live food" (sprouted flax seed, I'm guessing) is the last ingredient in the bar. Yes, the amount of raw in it is better than most bars can tout, but the front of the wrapper seems very misleading. I suspect it's the agave syrup and also maybe the cocoa that are the non-raw ingredients, because it's almost impossible to get them raw, but still...

Now, if I liked it well enough to get again, I could overlook these little false advertisements, although I would still be a little annoyed. I can't see myself trying any others, because, let's face it, if Chocolate and Coconut aren't anything great, then what are the chances another flavour will be? ;) And knowing that it's not entirely raw despite its name just turns me away even more. That said, if I ever come across their Chocolate Chip & Cookie Dough bar, I think I'll have to buy it. ;D

New site to explore

http://www.lilyfresh.net/index.html

What are experienced raw fooders doing wrong?

It's hard not to notice that Victoria Boutenko's photos of the past, hm, 5 years or so show her to have a significant amount of extra weight on her. She doesn't even look happy. Alissa Cohen looks happy, but she, too, looks like she has put on weight in the picture on the cover of her new book.

Where are they going wrong? Are they working too much and not taking care of themselves?

Also, where did Igor Boutenko go? He's glaringly missing from The Raw Family site.

New site to check out

I discovered http://www.ifood.tv/rawradianthealth today. Lots of great stuff!

Doing better

That nasty smoothie affected me ALL day!!! I don't know if I put bad fruit in it, a bad combination of things or what, but my stomach got very acidic and painful, also caused a lot of burping... I tried just drinking water to flush it out, but my stomach would be even worse. I decided to listen to what my body wanted: carbs. I couldn't believe it. So I kept eating carbs as the desire arose through the day, mostly junk-type stuff (birthday cake, but not cookies; bread, but not crackers; the cravings were very specific!), which annoyed me, but if I thought of any other foods, the thought didn't sit well with me. I've learned to listen to my body when it's in distress like that because it always helps! I had KFC once, had too much of the gravy or something, and felt flu-like afterwards, having no clue it was the KFC until the next time we had KFC (months later) and the same thing happened. I found I was craving food, even after having eaten, so I went into the kitchen and saltines and graham crackers seemed to be the thing. So, I returned to bed, feeling achey and feverish and the whole bit (like I said, it was like a flu!), and I ate saltines until I wanted the graham crackers, then graham crackers until I wanted the saltines. This continued for a while until it was done, no more cravings. And I felt better.

I still have no desire for fruits and veggies today. My stomach still isn't quite settled. I'm floored that a smoothie could do that to me. I'll have to ask in some forums if there are some foods that are bad to combine, or if it's more likely that I had bad fruit in there.

Dirty Dishcloth Green Smoothie

Note to self: Stick with tried-and-true recipes for a while before experimenting on your own.

I didn't have the fruits in the house to make even a variation of what I have been having the past week, so I looked some things up online and a couple of places just said to mix some fruits, then add your greens. So, I decided to do just that with what little I had: some grapes (getting old), an orange (from a bag of oranges that have turned out to not be so great) and a banana. I was running out of my mixed greens and bought radish sprouts yesterday, so added some of that to what was left of the greens.

It was vile. At first, it was okay, almost melon tasting. But it was a little off, so I added another (too-ripe) half of a banana, that didn't really make a difference, so I added the last piece of banana in the house. (Well, no, the other bananas are all still green.) It was worse. And as seconds passed, it got worse and worse to the point I could not drink it anymore, it was causing bizarre--and bizarre-tasting--burps. I decided I couldn't drink it, dumped it in the sink and caught a whiff of what smelled like a dirty dishcloth. I replaced the dishcloth and added water and soap to the remaining small amount of smoothie in the blender. Let it soak, came back, and a STRONG smell of dirty dishcloth. Dang. It was the smoothie.

So, no smoothie for me this morning. Not even raw this morning. I don't have enough raw, ripe fruit that I can eat, and I have no desire to eat cucumber or celery or anything like that first thing. I've had a bagel with peanut butter, instead, hoping to drown out the stuff in my stomach. That and water. I'd really like to swallow some mints. Blech.

Day 9--I think? lol

So, I'm not good at updating this, am I?

Other than this past weekend, I've been good at having smoothies in the morning. Yesterday was a morning I think I only had green smoothie; I don't think I ate anything else. Although this is only about a week-and-a-half into starting my days with smoothies, I found myself yesterday at lunch wondering what to eat. I really didn't want any of the usual things I eat: eggs and toast, a sandwich, (white) pasta... I ended up eating Tasty Taters. lol. I think I need to find myself some raw lunch recipes. That's really what my body seems to want.  Can't remember what I ate later on, but we had my in-laws over for supper and we ate a lasagna I had previously made and frozen. Yes, a normal lasagna with cheese, meat, white pasta, etc. This morning, I had to blow my nose profusely. I don't think it's a coincidence! I noticed this Saturday morning, too, after having had pizza the night before. Dairy and I don't get along. At least not unraw dairy.

Today's addition to my pages on the right: http://www.greensmoothiequeen.com/ The blog also has many recipes.

Day 6?

It's hard to keep track of the days when I don't blog each day!

Yesterday was a write-off in terms of raw. I had some raisins first thing in the morning, while waiting to have people up so I could run the blender for a smoothie. (Sound travels horribly in our house.) I got too hungry and had a small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with some Rice Dream. After that, I wasn't really hungry. Then dd and I went out and I ate a Tim Horton's blueberry muffin. For lunch, had an Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza (dairy-free and sooooooo good); this helped satisfy my fruit/veggie craving a bit. I don't think I ate again until supper, which dh made and consisted of Shake N Bake chicken breasts with mozza on top, with spaghetti and a tomato sauce he made using Italian sauce and adding various herbs.

Today, I really wanted my smoothie. I can't remember what I ate first thing--or maybe I didn't eat--but I did get to make my smoothie! Yay! Unfortunately, the bananas really should have been used yesterday. I ended up adding in some (pasteurized) orange juice just to help take the edge off the too-ripe taste. (Yes, I'm picky!) I'm not sure about the specifics of other food, but let's just say I did go to the movies this afternoon. ; /

I guess this is Day 4!

I'm not sure my goal of only raw in the morning matters to me much. : / I haven't managed to do it any of the days this week! However, I am happy with the fact that I have been having the green smoothies and fruit. It wasn't that long ago that I could honestly have gone days without eating any fruit.

Do I feel any different? No, but it's only been 4 days and only part of the morning. I do have to say this, though: It is affecting what I want to eat. Although this evening I'm tired and have been making it worse by eating various junk items, when we were out earlier, the kids were allowed to pick a treat and I was going to pick myself a chocolate bar of some sort. But I picked up something I normally like, thought about what it would taste like, and put it back. The sweetness and whatnot just aren't as fulfilling as some wonderful fruit, veggies or seeds! Or some nice cashews. Mmm.

I'm reading Sarma Melngailis's Living Raw Food at the moment. I had gone through the previous one, Raw Food, Real World, but had to give it back to the library before trying any of the recipes, and now I'm on the waiting list again. In any case, I'm reading all of the nutritional and food info parts more than the recipes at the moment. Now that I've finally tried the green smoothie, I'm reading about different greens I ought to try. Like cilantro.

Speaking of green smoothies, I had a horrible failure today. I made a small one with blueberries, banana and baby spinach (yes, always baby spinach at the moment because I have a container of organic baby spinach I need to use up!), but I put too many blueberries in it, I think. If I'd had some agave syrup to add in, I might have been able to make it pretty good. I ended up eating toast after that, then decided to try to re-create yesterday's amazing smoothie. FAIL. The bananas weren't ripe enough and it totally affected the taste. Dang. I'll have to make a point to buy some bananas for the sheer purpose of allowing them to get to the right ripeness, then freezing them.

I guess we'll see about tomorrow's fruit or smoothies tomorrow morning! Not sure the bananas will be ready. Other than the bananas, I have some grapes, oranges and mangoes, but I don't like the smell of mangoes while cutting them, nor do I like the taste. I wonder if I could handle a small amount in a smoothie. Regardless, unless I find a recipe that has one or more of those ingredients and no bananas, I may just eat some grapes and an orange for breakfast. It's surprising that it's such a habit after a couple of weeks that I can't even imagine starting my day with something that's not fruit!

I have to write down my recipes!

I made up a green smoothie yesterday that was so good, it was like having a lightly banana-flavoured milkshake. I don't know how much of everything I put in! It was soooo good though! Bananas, strawberries, ice and baby spinach.

Today's smoothie was a flop. Banana, water, blueberries and baby spinach. I couldn't get the right ratio of bananas and blueberries. Maybe blueberries are just difficult to deal with?