Day 89

Cauliflower popcorn and kale chips

Still slogging through the end of term.

Dinner last night was a lot of fun. We had raw "junk food." I'm going to post the recipes quick and then get back to the lab report I'm working on.

Cauliflower Popcorn
My own interpretation extrapolated from various sources around the web
Ingredients
1 large head of cauliflower
1 c cashews, soaked 2 hours
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 T nutritional yeast
water to blend
salt to taste

Break cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Put in big bowl and set aside. Blend remaining ingredients. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower (should be fairly thick) and toss to coat. Dehydrate 24 hours.

The kale chips came from We Like it Raw. I'm not even going to attempt to emulate the great tutorial they have, but I want to post the ingredients so I can readily find them next time I want to make them (and I do... as soon as I get more kale).

Kale Chips
2 bunches kale
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp salt
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 T agave

Dehydrate 6-8 hours.

Oh, also: when I was retrieving an errant cauliflower floret that fell on the floor, I found Ethel sitting like this:


I didn't catch her mid-stretch, she was actually just chilling like that. Weirdo cat.

Bonus points if you spot the cauliflower!

-Eloise

Day 80

Banana bread

I don't like to take medication frivolously, but this sinus thing had gotten to a point where it was almost intolerable. A friend suggested to me that I might be suffering from allergies, since hers had been acting up, but I'd never had them in the past, so I dismissed that.

After work on Saturday, I went to Whole Foods to get something holistic that would hopefully help. It seemed that everything I picked up that was clearly meant for sinus pain, though, was also blatantly not vegan with gelatin or lactose. I must have stood there for a while looking very confused because before I knew it, I had a sales girl on either side of me, one of whom was trying to convince me that it was only a little lactose and the other pushing herbs at me that I hadn't researched and had no clue if they would help. And everything was at least $20. I was overwhelmed and I left without buying anything.

On the way home, though, the pain was particularly bad, and I turned into CVS. I found the box of Tylenol labeled "Sinus pain and congestion" and I bought it without hesitating. It's not vegan. It's not natural. But it said that it would work for my symptoms, and it has. Plus it was like $5.

Before I went to bed that night, I went to take another dose and found two boxes in the medicine cabinet where I had previously placed the one. I thought maybe Madeline had picked up some, too, maybe because she was tired of hearing me gripe, so I called to her in the living room:

"Mad! Did you get more sinus meds?"

"No, I saw that you had bought some, and I remembered that you had some from last year when you went through the same thing."

Oh. So maybe it is allergies. At least I can be better prepared next time I need medication and hopefully stock up on something natural in advance.

I made banana bread yesterday that we ate last night. It was my favorite kind of recipe: quick and simple where everything is just thrown together and the hardest part is having to wait until it's dehydrated enough to eat it. I used this recipe ( 1 cup flax meal, 1 cup ground sesame, 5 bananas, 2 T agave, 2 tsp vanilla, cinnamon to taste, saved in the event that the link ceased to work) from the Raw Freedom Community. I added a handful of chopped walnuts, because banana nut bread is so much better. I spread it about 1/4 inch thick on parchment paper and dehydrated for 12 hours, flipping after about 6 and removing the paper.

It was very good when it came out, warm and soft in the middle. It was slightly flaxy, but tasted so similar to the baked breads I remember that I felt a bit bereft without a slather of Earth Balance margarine. Oh well. It was good, but I think I'm over bananas for the time being.

-Eloise

Day 78

It might not look like much (and the brown plate probably didn't help with presentation), but last night's dinner was. Really. Damn. Good. It's probably one of the most satisfying meals I've made, and my only complaint is that I should have made more.

The bread is another batch of onion bread, originally from here. I made a double batch, replaced the oil with an avocado, halved the Nama Shoyu and made up the difference with water. Dehydrated for 24 hours, flipped at 12. It was perfect, not too salty this time.

The burger is a marinated portobello cap. I de-stemmed and de-gilled them and marinated them for about 12 hours in the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 c olive olive oil, 1/2 t garlic powder and dashes of oregano, basil and sea salt (per cap). The only thing I would do differently would be to set the mushrooms to marinate the night before. They could take it, and it would have saved me time in the morning.

We have onion bread left over and some button mushrooms in the fridge. I think I might try marinating them and making mini-sandwiches for dinner tonight.

-Eloise

Day 76

It's been a very long week that was capped off with an audition and interview for the role student speaker at commencement. I'm very excited to have been nominated- there are 10 of us auditioning- but it was nerve wracking! I recited the first few minutes of Margaret Chase Smith's famous "Declaration of Conscience," which, by the way, is an amazing speech (you know, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing). I think it went fairly well, but we'll see. I also think it's a funny coincidence that my speech audition and the Day of Silence fell on the same day.

I've finally gotten my sun, but the kind-of-feeling-sick from earlier in the week has blossomed into full blown holy-crap-my-sinuses-are-going-to-explode. So I enjoyed it while I was on campus today, but opted to come home and curl up on the couch with some knitting instead of heading out to the park.

I needed some comfort food when I got home, so I made a banana shake. It was the perfect thing.

Urban Escape
2 pitted dates
1.5 c warm water
2 frozen bananas
splash of vanilla
dash of cinnamon

Soak the dates in the water for 20 minutes ( or as long as you can stand it). Add the dates and water to the blender along with the bananas, vanilla and cinnamon. Blend until creamy.

I was still kind of hungry when I finished it, though, so I made myself another, with the addition of 1.5 T cocoa powder for a chocolate version. Definitely what I needed this afternoon.

-Eloise

Day 75

I came across the above container placed inconspicuously on our bathroom shelf when I was getting ready for bed last night, and it made me burst into laughter. It's tiny, smaller than a quarter. I thought Madeline has been particularly happy because she was finding her new job very fulfilling, but apparently her secret is that she's found inner peace and has bottled it to boot. (Okay, it's actually a sample of hair product from when she'd gotten her hair cut earlier that day, but I prefer my alternative.)

I have recipes to share today. I was very, very happy with the way my cookies came out that I'm going to post the first prototype recipe and another update when I get around to making the date-sweetened alternative. The texture was fantastic, dense and cake-like.

Drama-free cookies*

Ingredients:

pulp from 6 carrots and 3 apples**

3 T flax meal

3 T agave

2 T maple syrup

Cinnamon to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. A dough should form that easily holds together (I did this by hand with a spatula, but a food processor would probably be just as effective, albeit more work to clean). Form into balls and slightly flatten. Dehydrate 12 hours. Make 7 small cookies.

*You know. Cause nothing's nuts. :)

**See yesterday's post for how I juiced with a blender. Also, I used granny smith apples with peel, hence the green flecks.

-

I also made a pudding/custard thing last night. I had soaked some cashews to make a chowder, but as it turned out, I really didn't want chowder for dinner. I wanted a spinach salad with parmesan, instead. I didn't want to let the soaked nuts to sit in the fridge for too long, so dessert it was. (Quick note on the parmesan... we love that stuff. I make huge batches that we keep in the fridge and in lieu of dressings, we frequently opt for giant mixing bowls of dry spinach with a tablespoon or two of parmesan. So good).

Banana custard with mango topping

Ingredients:

1/2 c cashews soaked for 2 hours

2 bananas

1 T agave

3 T water

cinnamon to taste (can you tell, I like cinnamon?)

1 large mango

Combine cashews, bananas, agave, water and cinnamon in a food processor or blender until creamy. Portion into two small bowls. Puree mango until creamy and layer on top of the banana custard. Sprinkle with cinnamon as desired. Chill and serve. Or don't chill. It's still good.

-Elosie

Day 67

Yesterday's flax crackers

I am suppressing my school anxiety into housework, or so Madeline tells me. I happen to disagree (she says while while vacuuming the living room with the hand attachment... it's more effective!). I do admit that I was prolific in the kitchen last night. We ate the crackers, as featured above, and they were delicious. I may have spread them a little thin, so they were more crisp-like, but that was perfectly fine by me. The best part is that the recipe made a huge batch of 6 trays, so we have plenty left over for the next couple days.

I placed a big order with Sprout House last week which I received just the other day. I immediately started soaking a blend of barley, oat groats and buckwheat. It's a really easy combination to work with. They only need to soak for an hour and sprout for 24-36 hours with rinses every 4-8 hours and they're done (well, when you put it that way... honestly it's easy). I used them when they had little tails, because the wheat that I had sprouted last week had gotten increasingly bitter the longer it sprouted. This was just right. They require a little extra rinsing because of all the starchiness they release, but there's no hulling at the end. I have determined that I really like sprouting, I don't mind the rinsing, but I abhor the hulling. There has to be a better way than submersing the sprouts in water and flicking out the hulls with a spoon. If you know if one, please let me know!

So once they were ready, I of course had to make granola. I perused dozens of recipes, most too nut heavy for my taste, and finally put together this batch based around this recipe on Gone Raw. Here were my modifications:

Raw Cinnamon Raisin Granola

Dry Ingredients

3 cups sprouts (I used equal parts barley, oat groats and buckwheat)

1 cup brazil nuts, chopped

1 cup dried coconut

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup raisins

Wet Ingredients

8 dates

3 T raisins

2T agave nectar

1/2 T cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

Set dates and raisins to soak in a small bowl with lukewarm water just covering them. Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl. Measure wet ingredients, including the soak water, into a food processor or blender and mix until fully combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix by hand. Spread on dehydrator trays with parchment paper (or those non-stick sheets) and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 12-14 hours until desired texture. I like my granola a little chewy, so I took it out just before 12 hours.

I had a really hard time not eating this before it dehydrated. In fact, Mad and I ate some for dessert last night (I finished hers... I have a relentless sweet tooth). It reminded me so much of the instant packets of Quaker cinnamon raisin oatmeal that I used to eat as a kid. So good. I was afraid that I had added too much cinnamon because the wet ingredients were overpowerfully cinnamony, but when it's all mixed together, it's pretty mellow. I would even venture to add some more next time. I did not soak my seeds or nuts this time around, but I will for next. I'm also going to try mixing in more sprouts (quinoa, I'm thinking of you) and chia seeds and hemp nuts.

There's other kitchen goodness going on around here, but even I admit that I'm procrastinating now. More to come!

-Eloise

Day 65

It's been a whirlwind around here lately with weeks until the end of the semester and Madeline getting used to her new job. She's home tonight, though, so just a quick update so we can spend time together. I made a rocking dinner two nights ago that Mad requested again tonight and I don't want to forget what I did. It's an adaptation from this Pesto Stuffed Mushroom recipe, a healthier, cheaper version. ;)

Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms
60 white button mushrooms
2 cups basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 cloves garlic
salt to taste
1/4 cup soaked walnuts

Wash and de-stem the mushrooms (just use your fingers, they snap right out) and set aside. Put everything except mushrooms and walnuts in the food processor and process until well combined. Add the walnuts and pulse until chopped. Using a 1/4 tsp, spoon a heaping spoonful into each cap. Dehydrate 4-6 hours until soft.

They taste like breaded mushrooms. So good.

-Eloise

Day 60

The following (one sided) dialogue is what occurred when I walked into the kitchen, camera in hand...

"Mad! I'm going to take your picture! Okay, smile!"

"Wait the flash was on, let me try again...Don't make a face at me, smile!"

"That's better."

Heh. She's been so busy at work lately that this is pretty much the most I've seen her in the past couple days.

Two months raw! It's definitely getting easier, and I'm definitely getting better at putting together meals. Preparing food has become kind of a mediation for me, which is good, because I do spend a ton of time in the kitchen. Right before going raw, I was talking to a co-worker at my weekend job about how great raw was going to be, and a customer who overheard me chimed in. He said that he had been raw for a while, but he hated having to think about what he was going to eat days in advance. I politely nodded and we went on to talk about the best places to get raw food in the city, but inside I was thinking, How long could it possibly take to make a salad?

How naive I was. We do eat plenty of salads, but I do my fair share of soaking, sprouting, slicing, processing, dehydrating... I spend a good couple hours in the kitchen everyday, and it's important to me to keep things interesting. It would be too difficult for me to stay committed to being raw if I wasn't willing to put in that time.

That being said, though, tonight's dinner was pretty quick. I made a variation of Kristen's Candy Kale Salad with kale (massaged with lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt), chopped dates, raisins (both soaked to plump), brazil nuts and strawberry slices. It was so incredibly good. The strawberry was a particularly inspired addition, if I say so myself, although that's makes it a poorly combined meal for those who follow those rules. I'm lax about them, but I can't help but note when my foods are "mis-combined".

I've lost weight this month, too, about 5 lbs. I can't say that's entirely because of going raw, though, but more of a lifestyle change. I've been watching calories, limiting nuts and oils and getting out to hike a couple times a week. I'm just a lot more conscious about the way I take care of myself, and I'm a lot more balanced for it.

-Eloise

Day 54: 'Peanut' Sauce

I'm having a very lovely morning. I checked my email this morning, which is unusual, as I don't typically have time, and found out that my first class was canceled. So instead of running out the door, I'm curled up on the couch in the living room with a giant green smoothie. I'll still have to head out in about an hour (and it's my late day), but it's a nice reprieve.

Two nights ago, I made the "peanut" sauce from The Raw Food Detox Diet. It was absolutely delicious. We tossed it with shredded carrots and then rolled spoonfuls up in spinach, mini burrito style.

In the back of my mind, though, was a slight nagging guilt. The sauce was heavy on expensive ingredients, namely almond butter and maple syrup. In fact, I'd halved the recipe from the start, as the full batch calls for a full cup on almond butter. That would have been our whole jar, and on our limited incomes, we need to save where we can. As it was, the half cup made a huge dent.

We were also concerned about the high caloric content of the almond butter, since both Madeline and I are trying to get into shape. Now I know that a hundred different raw sources will refute me in a hundred different ways. Every raw book I've read tells me that extra weight will magically melt off on a raw diet, no matter how many nuts and avocados you eat. I can see how that may be true if you're coming from the typical standard American diet and cutting out fast food, meat and dairy all at once and have a significant amount of weight to lose. But Mad and I were already vegans (albeit not the healthiest), and we're only looking to drop about 10 pounds apiece. When we went raw, not much happened for the first month. It was only once I started paying attention to the good old fashioned calories-in-vs-calories-out and curbing the nuts that I begun to notice changes to my body.

So long story short, I wanted to make a healthier recipe. Last night I experimented with using zucchini as the base, and if I say so myself, it was pretty damn good. It's a bit thinner, but all of the flavor is there. Instead of heavy nuts, it's chock full of water-rich zucchini. I'm pretty proud of this recipe.

Guilt-free 'Peanut' Sauce
1.5 c peeled and chopped zucchini
3 T raw almond butter
1.5 T fresh minced ginger
Juice from 1 lemon
2 T agave
1 T maple syrup
3 T Nama Shoyu
3 cloves garlic
1 dried red chili pepper, including seeds

Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor fitted with an S blade. Save the chili pepper for last and crumble it on top. Process until a smooth, creamy consistency.


We ate it as a veggie dip last night with cucumbers, bell peppers and celery, but it would work equally as well tossed with noodles or as a salad dressing. As for how it adds up, by my calculations (using the CRON-O-Meter), a half cup serving of the original recipe is about 494 calories and 40 grams of fat. My version is 128 calories and 7.5 grams of fat. I'm bringing leftovers today for lunch!

-Eloise

Day 49

Ethel is not a morning cat.

I, however, am unexpectedly becoming a morning girl. I'm not sure if it's the result of becoming raw or simply learning to listen to my body, but if I've had a full night's sleep, I'm finding it easier to get up the morning. On my days off, I used to sleep well into the afternoon and feel tired and sluggish the rest of the day. If I set the alarm for 8 hours after going to bed, though, I feel much more alive and awake, not to mention the fact that I have extra hours in my day. Now if only 8am classes after 6 hours of sleep were any easier...

Yesterday was a great day. Madeline and I had tickets (since November!) to see a Wanda Sykes show, and we've been looking forward to a night out for so long. Mad had to be at work during the day, but I was productive at home. I took a hike, stopped by the produce market, cleaned the kitchen and prepared a raw meal for us to take. I'm really going to miss all this extra time when my spring break ends on Tuesday.

We had been planning to eat at a raw restaurant the was located near the theater, but the website was deceptive. Despite looking fully functional, they closed in 2007! We were really looking forward to eating out, but we are lucky enough to have a vegan restaurant with a raw night in walking distance that we'll try one of these days. And most importantly, at least we figured it out before getting there. Instead, I packed us a car picnic. I was really happy with the meal. I'm going to post the recipes so I don't lose them in cyberspace.

Indian Coleslaw from Raw and Living Foods
3 cups green cabbage, finely chopped
3 cups tomatoes, chopped
1 cup fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup peanuts, ground (make sure they're raw, not roasted)
1 large date, soaked, pitted and mashed
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. peanut oil (Flora Oils) or use olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground brown mustard seed
1/2 tsp. ground cumin seed
1/4 tsp. turmeric
pinch asafoetida (see Glossary)
1 tbsp. minced Jalapeño, or to taste (optional)
Nama Shoyu and/or Celtic sea salt, to taste

1) Mix first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.
2) In a small bowl, mash the soaked date, add in the balance of the ingredients, and blend to a smooth dressing.
3) Pour the dressing into the cabbage and tomato mixture and mix well.

Serves 4. This salad keeps well for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

My adaptations: I doubled the dressing, since the cabbage seemed too dry and used a red chili pepper in place of the jalapeño. I left out the asafoetida because I didn't realize we had it in the house. Madeline said that it tasted south Indian and recommended adding some tamarind, so we'll try that next time.

Dessert was experimental on my part, and I was very, very happy with the way it turned out.

Mango Pie
Crust and topping:
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Dash of salt
4 dates
1/4 cup raisins

Filling:
3 peels, pitted and cubed champagne mangoes

Put the pecans, coconut, cinnamon and salt in the food processor with an S blade and process until a fine meal. Add dates and raisins and process until mixture begins to clump together. Divide into 4 equal portions. Press one portion each into the bottom of two dessert cups. Puree the mangoes in the food processor until smooth. Pour into dessert cups and top with remaining nut mixture. Refrigerate to set (or put it in the freezer to speed up the process).

We have a ton of mangoes in the house at the moment. They were on sale, and there was nothing more that I wanted in the world at the time, so we bought two cases: 36 mangoes! We've been eating mango salads and mango puddings, but mostly just straight up mangoes. I had five for lunch the other day. Fresh fruit used to be such a luxury for us. It was too expensive and too often went bad before we ate it. I love that we're eating as much as we want, whenever we want. Produce no longer gets the chance to go bad anymore.

-Eloise

P.S. Blogger is driving me nuts! Despite my best efforts, the computer is choosing font sizes all willy nilly- though mostly extra small. Will work on resolving that soon.... though not tomorrow morning. My parents are coming for a visit, which is my personal equivalent of hearing The British are coming! I will be vacuuming the carpets, couches, walls and possibly the cats in preparation.

Day 41

Observe... the hippie in her natural environment

You know those weeks that you have so much to get done, you just know that you're either going to die or completely fall apart in the middle, but somehow you make it through to the other side and you feel like you can do anything? Yeah, it was one of those weeks for me. I had midterms, and in addition to exams, I had a 30 page lab report, a 5 page paper and a 20 minute solo PowerPoint presentation (with an automatic failure for the use of notes). Somehow I got through it with everything on time and complete and my sanity relatively intact (as I have every midterm and finals week for the past four years. Just don't try telling me that in the midst of everything... ask Madeline how she knows).

So I finished early today, and it's spring break for me with no course work to attend to. I'll be working more hours, but at least work does not give me homework, and we're going to try to take some time to take at least a day trip. Madeline was at work studying for a certification exam today, which has been delayed since she was sick so long, so I went to the produce market to pick up some veggies and suited up to go on a hike. What you can't see in the picture is my exciting outfit. It was crisp and cool, rather than cold, today, so I broke out my shorts and wore them with wool knee socks and my hiking boots. It was the perfect amount of clothes for the weather, other than the fact that I have some lovely thigh chafing going on now (do thighs develop calluses? Cause I swear this only happens the first couple times I wear shorts in the beginning of the season). Also, I ran into my neighbor on the stairs, and she told me that I looked like a Swiss hiker. I'm going to take that as a compliment. My hike was really great. There were very few people on the trails and I completed the route that usually takes me an hour and a half in an hour flat.

When I got home, I made myself another green smoothie. I have been ravenous for green smoothies lately. I've been drinking about 40 ounces per day- a giant one for breakfast and another in the evening. I'm pretty consistent with my formula: blenderful of greens, 1 banana, 1/2 cup fruit and 2 cups water. I've learned a few things, though, that make life easier. If you add the juice of a lemon, it takes away the bitter taste of greens. This is a magic trick when it comes to kale. I don't even taste it! Obviously it's not necessary for greens like spinach, though. Also, frozen fruit is a huge money saver and you can stock up your freezer so you'll always have enough fruit without worrying if it's going to go bad. My freezer currently contains blueberries, cherries, strawberries and pineapple chunks.

While drinking my smoothie, I got busy in the kitchen. I made raw parmesan, based on this recipe. Here's my variations:

Raw Parmesan

• 3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
  
• 3 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
• 3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Process sunflower seeds and sesame seeds into a fine meal, then add yeast, salt and garlic powder and process until well combined.

It was so good, I wanted to eat it with a spoon. But I didn't because it's for tonight's dinner: zucchini "pasta" with puttanesca sauce from RFMEF1o2P. The sauce is made and I'm just waiting for Mad to come home to process the zucchini. I don't have a spiralizer, but I find that if I run the squash through the food processor with the shredding disk, it comes out a good size. I have walnuts soaking to make a pate tonight for topping salads to take to work this weekend, and I even washed all the dishes, so the kitchen is spotless. It's been a good day.

-Eloise

Day 37

Happy, happy raw vegan ice cream... stay tuned!

My new blender is a thing of beauty. It's sleek and sexy with an entirely stainless steel base. It's quiet, yet powerful and has a smoothie button that whips greens into smithereens. In short, I love it (I have briefly paused to consider whether it is natural for a 23 year old to adore a blender so completely when it isn't making margaritas, but I suppose I was never one for convention anyway).

It sits on the counter next to the food processor now, occupying the space where the toaster and waffle maker used to reside. It arrived on Saturday, so after work, I unpacked it and immediately put it to use. So far I've made 4 green smoothies, Kristen's Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce (subbing the hemp with 1/2 c flax meal and adding more nutritional yeast), carrot, apple, ginger juice (pulp included), and butternut squash soup. Later, I'm going to make the ranch dressing from RFMEF1o2P.There probably would have been more blender usage, except Mad's been incredibly sick and really just starting eating a bit today, so I've mostly been cooking for myself.

She has been feeling better, though (and it was definitely a stomach virus), and tonight I orchestrated a delicious collaboration between my blender and food processor: chocolate, strawberry, cherry banana ice cream. Heh. At the end of last week, we had a bunch and a half of perfectly ripe bananas, so I froze them for later use. I also recently discovered Green and Crunchy, the blog of an amazing raw vegan mama of five (5!) raw vegan kids. Taking inspiration from her all fruit ice cream and having just stocked up on frozen fruit for smoothies, I made my own:

Cherry Berry Chocolate Ice Cream
4 frozen bananas
6 frozen strawberries
8 frozen cherries
4 TBS cocoa powder
Toppings (optional)

Pulse in blender until combined. Transfer to food processor and processes until smooth.

It was amazing. Madeline ate hers au naturale and I topped mine with dried coconut (and then I finished Mad's when she couldn't.... thanks, stomach bug!). This raw transition hasn't always been easy, but moments like this, the synergy between gastronomy and nutrition, are pure bliss.

-Eloise

Day 33

Our blender shipped out and it's supposed to arrive on Saturday. I'm so excited! And it's good, because I have been craving green smoothies lately. I've made one each morning for the past couple days, and despite the lime rind debacle the other day, even the bits-o-green that that require chewing haven't deterred me from enjoying them.

Heh, I just found my blender online on Amazon. It's a Toastmaster with a 350 watt motor and the first review says:

This is not a real blender. You have to blend in parts because it doesn't have power. Avoid my mistake to buy this garbage.

That about sums it up. The rest of the reviews are equally glowing. I'm very glad that I didn't pay money for it. The Breville blender we ordered actually has a smoothie button that goes through a program that blends and pulses to mix everything up. I watched a video online. It was very cool. I think that might make me very uncool. :) Don't care.

So the smoothie I made this morning rocked. I'm really wishing I had more, even though I had 24oz. I have these smoothie cups that I bought a year ago when I thought I'd get an Oster blender ( they attach directly to the blender to make single servings). Even without the blender, they're still really convenient for bringing smoothies to go. My only complaint is that they're kind of heavy, since they're meant to double as a blender container. So my routine is to make a smoothie in the morning, fill the to-go cup and drink the leftovers as I'm getting my lunch ready.

Here's today's recipe. Deceptively simple, but so good.

Blue and Green
About 3 cups spinach (not heavily packed)
1 cup blueberries
1 small banana
Water to desired consistency (I used about 1.5c)

Blend and enjoy!

I made myself a "milkshake" last night with frozen bananas, water, soaked cashews, vanilla, cocoa powder and agave, since I thought it was the meals-through-a-straw thing that I've been craving, but no. It's definitely the greens. The fruit and chocolate was nowhere near as satisfying.

In other news, Madeline is sick. She seems to have some sort of stomach bug and the fun details that implies, as well as being very dizzy and easily winded with a slightly elevated temp. She's just not feeling well at all. I'm not convinced that it's not some sort of hardcore detox, but it could also be the Noro virus, which has been taking out people left and right in our area. It's crappy timing, because she has an important certification exam she has to take for work, but there's not really much to be done beyond waiting it out. She home resting and taking in fluids today. *Feel better, lady.*

-Eloise

Day 30: snow day!

There is nothing more disappointing than a snow day on your only day off. Oh well. It's still a good excuse to spend the day sleeping in and then lounging in pajamas on the couch, catching up with the DVR. It was definitely a day that called for comfort food, so for breakfast I went looking for a raw food pancake substitute. We don't have a dehydrator yet, which eliminated most of the recipes, but I wound up making an adaptation of Coconut Breakfast Cakes. My version is pretty different from the original, so I'm going to post what I did:

Coconut Breakfast Cakes
2 1/4 cup milled flax
3/4 cup shredded coconut
2 T almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup water

Mix in food processor until well combined and form into cakes. Top with fresh fruit if desired and enjoy!

They kind of tasted like bran muffins. I had mine with some sliced banana and Madeline topped hers with a little more maple syrup. Perfect comfort food.

-Eloise

Day 25

Lest you think it's all doom and gloom around here (or that my attempts to prepare food end in nothing but disaster), I made a soup tonight that Madeline raved about. It was a variation on the basic chowder from 12 Steps to Raw Foods. Here's what I my interpretation:

Tomato and Red Pepper Chowder
1 cup cashews
1 cup water

Blend until creamy

Add:
1 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup zucchini
6 white mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno with seeds
2 pitted medjool dates
Salt to taste

Blend again until creamy and pour into bowls

4 Roma tomatoes
1 bell pepper

Dice and add to chowder base.

And that's it! I thoroughly appreciate a successful night in the kitchen.

-Eloise

Day Two

Avocados are the answer.

Maddie succinctly summed up yesterday: "It went from YEAH to oh, to crap." 

Today started out slow, but got much, much better. We slept in this morning, dawdling in bed. It set everything else back for the day, but really, the time we spend together doing nothing is very much worth it. The UPS guy came while we were still in PJs to deliver the To-go Ware Active Packs I'd ordered as a surprise last week, green for me, black for Mad. I had a coupon for 40% off and had placed an order while Maddie was out of town for training. I even managed to keep the secret until they arrived a week later, and if you knew me, you'd know that I suck at keeping secrets to myself, especially surprises. I get too excited and share the anticipation. That's the best part! I meant to take a picture for some visual interest, but we were rush heading out this morning and the lighting in the apartment is not great. It's much darker than I would prefer, and it's difficult to take decent pictures without natural sunlight. I'll take some in action in the near future.

So once we finally got out of the bed and out of the house, we made the rounds to return some cooked items and to purchase provisions for the week, mostly a metric ton of produce. It was kind of scary how much we managed to spend today, particularly considering that we were only trying to buy food for the week. We were able to get away with spending so little in recent months on crap: beans, bread, flour, etc. We weren't eating well, but we were certainly eating cheaply. I have a feeling, though, that we've bought more than we'll be able to consume in a week, but it's better than running short. 

The day was difficult, as there was little for us to eat in the apartment. We had bananas for breakfast and brought apples to munch on, but we were starving again by the time we got home. We did have plenty of time to talk while running errands, though, and one topic was what we wanted out of being raw. Ultimately for us, it's not about the title or the classification of being 100% raw. At this time, things like raw spices are not of the utmost importance when they are such a nominal part of our diet. Rather, we're striving to eat as raw as possible, but don't want to feel like we're starving ourselves, either. It's not healthy, nor is it sustainable.

With that in mind, we picked up some vegan dark chocolate and a bottle of wine for dessert, which definitely helped to end the night on a better note. For dinner, I made a guacamole that I definitely see becoming a staple:

Guacamole

4 avocados, peeled and pitted

1 small red onion, chopped

handful cilantro, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

juice of 1/2 lemon

Mash together until well combined, but slightly chunky.

It was very, very good. We ate it rolled up in Swiss chard, which was satisfying, and I actually feel full tonight. 

While we were out, we also picked up a bathroom scale at Target. We tried them out in store, and I think we were both shocked at how much we currently weigh. I know that the number is not the end all, be all, and I have to say that I felt pretty damn sexy rolling around in bed this morning, but we're both pretty far from where we started a year and a half ago. I think it will be good motivation to stick to our raw foods, even when the cravings get strong.

No real detox symptoms today. We're still fatigued, but that probably has more to do with not eating enough again for most of the day and then splitting a bottle of wine after dinner.

-Eloise

Day One

Okay. This has not been an easy day.

I think for the most part, it's a result of a lack of preparation. Really, I read so much about what we should be eating, in terms of nutritional value, but didn't think about what would sustain us and make the transition easier. Plus, tomorrow is my only day off, so we're going to go downtown to the market, Whole Foods and a couple health food stores to buy a week's worth of groceries. In the meantime, we went to a local grocery store last night to pick up basic provisions for the day.

We started out strong: I had a cantaloupe and Maddie had strawberries for breakfast. I packed a decent amount of fruits and veggies to take to work. But we hadn't made a dip or dressing and I was tired of eating plain raw veggies before I was anywhere near full at lunch today. On the way home, I made an emergency stop at Whole Foods to pick up some cold pressed olive oil for dressing and made this:

Italian Dressing

1 large tomato

1 clove garlic

1/4 c water

1/4 c olive oil

2tbl lemon juice

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

In blender, process all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

I would credit the recipe, but I saved a bunch of them in a text document and lack a source. It was good. I added extra lemon, which made it better. It definitely made "dinner" easier, but I can't really say we ate a meal, and I know we're both feeling pretty unsatiated tonight. All I can think about are starchy, cooked, carb foods. We spent a lot of time looking through recipe books and Gone Raw in preparation of our shopping trip, so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. It may have been better to wait until we could shop properly, but we were very determined to start right on the first, as planned. I think it's good, though. We had the opportunity to see what really doesn't work so that we can plan a better week for ourselves.

As for detox, for me it's hard to say. I started with a bit of a cold or something. I've just been feeling pretty run down and waking up  the past few mornings with a sore throat, so I can't tell what's a result of that and what's caused by eating raw. It's probably too soon to tell, really. I had a low grade headache by the end of the work day, but that's not really unusual. I get headaches all the time, mostly from stress, and the minimal amount of food I ate certainly didn't help. One odd symptom that Mad and I are both experiencing, though, has to do with our eyes. I'd describe it as having difficulty focusing. When we were watching the Superbowl tonight, Maddie said that she wasn't physically tired, but her eyes felt so heavy. Again, though, it might just be because we haven't eaten enough. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

-Eloise