Mom's birthday!

Had a wonderful evening last night celebrating my mama's birthday! I made a raw kohlrabi/beet salad and paired it with avocado. Not one of my finer dishes... Kohlrabi is so crispy and tasty on its own and the beets overwhelmed it. I will be more mindful to keep the kohlrabi's integrity next time!! Still pretty dish though :) I also sauteed the kohlrabi leaves in a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Not raw, but still healthy and delicious!

I also made a raw cheesecake!

Crust: Mixed ground dehydrated coconut meat, macadamia nuts, dates, and a dash of salt in a food processor.

Filling: Soaked cashews and mixed it with coconut oil, lime juice, agave, vanilla, and water in a food processor.

I also made a strawberry sauce using strawberries, honey, and coconut oil. I discovered that I didn't need the coconut oil because it made it a funny texture and the sauce really didn't need the flavor/consistency of coconut oil. I stuck the strawberries through my juicer because I wanted the texture of the pulp, but next time I'll opt for a smooth sauce and dice some strawberries separately. No worries though, the sauce didn't go to waste-- Read on :)

Before and after:

Isn't my mommy pretty?!

Mmmmmmmmm

Since I had leftover strawberry sauce, I decided to make strawberry ice cream! I froze the meat from a few coconuts awhile ago so I thawed it and stuck it in the blender with a bit of agave, vanilla, and BAM! Healthy ice cream!! I then blended the strawberry sauce for a smoother consistency, drizzled it into my faux ice cream, and swirled it around with a spoon. Look how pretty!! I swear I eat more "treats" as a raw foodie than I ever did before, and they are so healthy and delicious!

Check out the surprise in my container of strawberries-- A heart full of strawberry love :)

Rawk onnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!

Potluck party!

Yay for Sunday night potlucks!! Anybody interested in trying raw foods seriously needs to come to these. We love meeting new people, sharing wonderful energy, and indulging in healthy food! Just look at our spread tonight!! Everything was phenomenal :-D

Katie's broccoli quiches and zucchini/tomato alfredo:

Victoria's veggie burgers:

My veggie collard wraps:

Kim's alcohol-free ginger beer:

Kim, Michael, and RAWsita's balls :-P

RAWsita's avocado chocolate mousse pie:

 

Kim and I made avocado key lime pie:

Joseph's pecan pie:

More goodies

I ran out of chickpeas so I decided to make falafels in an untraditional fashion by using maitake mushrooms, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, and pepper. They make great little snackers!! I sandwiched them between spinach leaves and added avocado, a tomato slice, and kalamata olive :) Magnifique!

 


Remember that orange-vanilla sherbet? I mixed it with almond and flax meal and dehydrated it as cookies. I then made an orange glaze using orange zest, orange juice, and powdered sugar. They were amazing! I ate them all in about 2.5 minutes!! One messy comment is that this glaze never hardened, even when frozen, so I will try for a raw icing next time.

I saw mini ice cube trays at the store and thought to myself "These would be PERFECT in which to make little chocolates!" Yes, I use proper grammar when thinking to myself ;) So, I made a mixture of ground cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, coconut oil, honey, maple syrup, a little water, and a dash of cayenne pepper. The other tray has the same general base but I added raw almond butter and put dried coconut flakes at the bottom of the trays to attempt my own Chick-o-Stick / Butterfinger :)

WELL, you can only imagine my utter disappointment when I woke up this morning and took them out of the freezer only to twist and bang and BEG these little guys to release themselves from the trays! To no avail, I wielded a skewer to them and got these little crumbly bits...

While still tasty, this experiment was thoroughly disappointing :( *Sigh* Guess I'll try something else next time. Until then, little crumbly chocolates have won this battle... 

Random goodies

Hummus

Put soaked chickpeas, tahini, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne into the food processor.

Banana parfait

Recipe courtesy of inspiredbyeverything

I omitted the whipped cream due to time constraints and I didn't think it was necessary. If you put this in the fridge, it will turn brown (as bananas in any form will do). So stick any leftovers in the freezer for a yummy treat for later!

Berry pie

Kim made a yummy berry pie using the pulp from almond milk as the crust and fresh berries mixed with coconut meat for the filling. Super simple and even more delicious!

Bacon

Recipe courtesy of inspiredbyeverything

I came across this recipe and got all excited because I have a bottle of raw Coconut aminos, which is "organic coconut sap aged and blended with sun-dried, mineral-rich sea salt." This stuff is a soy-free seasoning sauce and was next to the Nama Shoyu and Braggs but cheaper so I decided to try it. I was really surprised by the flavor when I tried it, it's extremely smoky! Rather disappointed, I reluctantly finished the rest of my veggie sushi roll with it. So when I saw this recipe I thought it would be a perfect way to use this smoky sauce! I made it with squash instead of eggplant because Sevananda didn't have eggplant. Yellow squash seemed to work just fine. Disclaimer: Any veggies that have oil on them and go in the dehydrator will NOT get crispy! I learned this early on by attempting potato chips. So my bacon was chewy, but I like that texture so I enjoyed it. Tastes a bit different from bacon (duh) but was actually pretty good. I'd definitely make it again, especially to use up this funky coconut sap!

Orange-vanilla sherbet

Zested 2 clementine-type mini oranges. I peeled them and put the segments and zest into the blender. I added the water and meat of one young Thai coconut. Also opened a vanilla bean, scraped out the seeds, and added that to the blender. I then cut up the bark a little smaller and added it too. Added a little bit of agave nectar and voila! Poured it into a bowl and stuck it in the freezer. What a yummy way to have breakfast!! I also mixed some of this with almond and flax meal and made cookies. They are still dehydrating but I'll take a picture when they are done. Gonna make an orange glaze/icing for them too :)

Falafels

So, I ran out of chickpeas and wanted to do something with my maitake mushrooms anyway. So instead of veggie burgers, I decided to make little falafels. I put the maitake mushrooms, a carrot, a stalk of celery, some chopped onion, couple cloves of garlic, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, and pepper in the food processor and BAM!! Here they are before and after dehydrating. 

Can you tell I missed working with food??? :)

Easing off my juice fast

Ok, so I've been overeating... But gonna keep that in check today. It's been all healthy foods, but I haven't been hungry, just been eating. What can I say, I really missed food! And now my jaw hurts because it's not used to chewing hah. Gotta ease back into that... Here's a breakdown from Sunday:

Breakfast

Banana, spinach, and coconut water smoothie

Lunch

AMAZING meal from Victoria Moon:

Kale salad with sun dried tomatoes

Spinach, sunflower sprouts, and red cabbage salad

Raw veggie lasagna

Various dehydrated goodies from the past week!

Afternoon snack

Pita chips and hummus

Dinner

Raw tacos

Veggie salad medley

Raw blueberry pie

Raw chocolate

Chaga tea

Exercise

2 softball games and practice and walked for about 30 min

I have pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. I'll be more organized when I get my internet back up n running at the treehouse! More later :)

Juice fasting: Day 10

Sorry this is late! Internet is down at the treehouse. Breakdown:

Breakfast

Coconut water from one young Thai coconut

Lunch

Carrot and supergreen juice and a 2 oz wheatgrass shot from R Thomas!

Dinner

Juiced strawberries, kiwi, apple, lemon, and ginger

Aloe juice

Exercise

Biked a couple miles to my brother's step aerobics class and back.

Well, I did it!! 10 days of only drinking juice, no solid food!

Beginning weight: 119 lbs

Ending weight: 111.5 lbs

7.5 lbs in 10 days, pretty crazy. I don't expect to keep this weight off (it's just temporary water weight) and that's really not the reason I did it anyway. But I do plan on maintaining healthy habits, regular exercise, and a pleasant disposition :) I'm really glad I did this; it was a good way for me to reset myself, get my priorities straight, and cleanse myself physically and emotionally. Thanks for reading along on this journey of mine! I will continually add to this blog with my various food endeavors so I hope you come back every so often to see what I've been up to! Again, I greatly appreciate all the love and support. Thank you :)

Juice fasting: Day 9

Today has been a LONG day! Breakdown:

Breakfast

Coconut water

Lunch

Echinacea tea

Juiced pear and apple

Dinner

Cucumber, celery, sunflower sprout juice from Jobri :)

Here is the BEAUTIFUL dinner I was extremely sad to miss out on. My dear friend made this wonderful raw meal and even though I had plenty of fresh green juice, my mouth was definitely watering...Thankfully, I have a plate in my fridge that I absolutely cannot wait to eat on Sunday!! Great way to come off juice fasting.

Exercise

Walked a couple miles to work and back

So ready to go back to SOLID raw foods!!!!!! Tomorrow's my last day ahhhhh!!

Juice fasting: Day 8

What a beautiful day!! Breakdown:

Breakfast

Juiced blueberries and strawberries and added coconut water from one young Thai coconut, yum! Used the pulp for fruit leather :)

Also juiced a couple cloves of garlic and a lemon for my throat.

Lunch

Aloe juice

Dinner

Juiced some broccoli but hardly anything came out. So I took the pulp and made broccoli mash crackers! I added minced garlic, salt, pepper, little bit of almond and flax meal to the broccoli pulp, spread it out onto a dehydrator sheet, and scored them. Cool huh? I can't wait to try these :) Anyway, that itty bitty amount of juice didn't fly for dinner hah. So I juiced a virgin bloody mary (similar to the juice from Day 1, but more bloody maryish): tomato, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper.

Exercise

Biked a couple miles to my brother's step aerobics class and back.

Bed early FOR REAL tonight. Since I'm not eating solid food, not consuming alcohol, and I'm sick, St Patty's Day will be rather uneventful this year hah. But I'll be celebrating a bit tomorrow so I'm not miffed. May the luck o' the Irish help you all have a fun and SAFE night!!

Juice fasting: Day 7

Still sick, but gonna try to go to bed soon. Transferred my sauerkraut to fill up a container. Ain't it purty?? :)

Here's the daily breakdown:

Breakfast

Mint tea

Lunch

Juiced 2 pears and an apple. DIVINE!! Pears give a TON of juice and it's incredibly yummy :) Took the pulp, mixed it with dried coconut flakes, and formed cookies to dehydrate (like how I did the mango yesterday). Can't wait!

Dinner

Juiced bell pepper, spinach, apple, lime, cilantro. Bell pepper yields a TON of juice. Yummy in my tummy.

Late night

Tea from Day 4. Finally done with this hah.

Exercise

Walked a couple miles to work and back

Guess what??? Mom had a coffee grinder she wasn't using!! What does that mean? Means I get to playyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! I just discovered something AMAZING to put in it, but I'm not going to tell you what it is yet... I'm gonna experiment (once I can eat solid foods again) and I think I may just keep it to myself as my secret rawker weapon! :-D

Juice fasting: Day 6

I'm sad to report that I'm getting sick (I think due to the funky weather changes) so that made me a bit grumpy and slow-moving today. But I'm determined to finish this out! So here's the day's breakdown:

Breakfast

Quart of warm water with 2 teaspoons of salt to cleanse.

Lunch

Juiced a mango, 4 apples, and added coconut water from one young Thai coconut. Now THAT was one refreshing drink! Took the pulp from the mango and apple and mixed it with dried coconut shavings for more cookies :) They smell sooo good and I can't wait to try them!

Dinner

Juiced Japanese potatoes, carrots, kale, and beets. Didn't add any flax or chia seeds (because I ran out of flax seeds) but I tried just adding a bit of water to get it a better consistency and put it out on trays to dehydrate anyway. I was thinking the starch from the potato pulp might help to bind it together, but we'll see. I just checked it and it seems to be kinda crumbly instead of holding the shape of crackers, but it doesn't much matter to me, I'll still eat it eventually anyway hah. So check out the pics below to see how the juice layered on top of each other! The bottom white is the Japanese potatoes, then carrots, then kale, then beets. In the second picture the beets crept in between the carrot and kale layer. Anyway, I thought this looked pretty cool! I stirred it all together and discovered that if not drunk immediately, the Japanese potato juice would start to kinda harden at the bottom! But nothing a spoon couldn't stir out.

Late night

Tea from Day 4

Exercise

None... Oh wait, juicing all those hard veggies for dinner WAS a workout!! I'm getting some guns ;)

Aside from feeling a bit weak from this lame cold, today was good. I'm definitely starting to miss solid foods… It's funny though, I'm not craving chicken biscuits or pizza or steak or cheese. I'm craving bananas and mushrooms and avocados and broccoli mash. Don't get me wrong, I love all the foods I've been juicing, but I love MAKING stuff with raw foods instead of just squeezing the crap outta them!! Saturday's my last day and I'm already planning out my Sunday menu to ease off these past 10 days. Definitely looking forward to some super smoothies!

Juice fasting: Day 5

Breakdown:

Breakfast

Mint tea

Lunch

Coconut water from one young Thai coconut

Dinner

Wheatgrass "shot" haha. Remember that beautiful little tray of wheatgrass from Day 3's post? This is all I got out of it!! I knew it took a lot of wheatgrass to get hardly any juice, but I didn't realize they would bother selling a tray that would yield only THIS much juice! Ah well, another lesson learned :)

So after attempting wheatgrass, I juiced kale, carrot, apple, cilantro, and added aloe juice, which is NOT tasty at all hah, but supposedly very healthy and cleansing.

Late night

Tea from Day 4

Exercise

Not much today, just walked some to and from work.

Ok, so I ventured into making my own sauerkraut the other week and came to discover that it's super easy, super cheap, and SUPER DELICIOUS!! I'm kinda glad the cabbage didn't juice very well yesterday because I got to use it for more sauerkraut! Plus it's a great time to do it because I'm not eating for another 5 days so I'm forced to be patient and then I'll see what it's REALLY supposed to taste like hah. Last time I made it I could only wait like 3 days because it was just too good not to devour! Anyway, I recommend you try this at home because it's so simple, it tastes wonderful, and it's always rewarding to make your own goodies :) SO, as a mid-fast treat for my few dedicated readers, I will share my knowledge!

Instructions (with very technical terminology):

1) Cut cabbage.

2) Liberally salt cabbage and massage.

3) Smoosh cabbage into a large bowl or container.

4) Put weights over cabbage to minimize the air flow. Air will create "scum" on cabbage, and you don't want that! Salting and massaging the cabbage pulls water out of the cabbage and creates a brine. The goal is to keep the cabbage submerged in this brine so that the cabbage naturally ferments.

5) Cover and leave alone! No need to refrigerate, just stick it out of the way but not too far out of the way that you forget about it!

6) Every 12-24 hrs, uncover and massage the cabbage around to make sure that everything mixes evenly and gets covered in the brine. Smoosh the cabbage back down, apply weights, cover, and set aside.

7) Repeat step 6 for as many days as it takes for enough water to seep out and cover the cabbage. Once enough brine covers the cabbage, transfer everything to a smaller container. Be sure that the container is small enough so that it is filled completely with the sauerkraut with as little air in the container as possible.

8) Voilà, you are done! Feel free to open the container every now and again to mix up the sauerkraut, or you can just shake the container. You can eat this at any time but I think at least a week is recommended so it ferments enough. However, it's hard for me to wait very long because it's just so tasty!

***Remember to taste the cabbage each time you go to mess with it. Add water if it's too salty and add salt if it's not very flavorful, although keep in mind that the flavor will intensify and become more sour each day.

Here is a picture of my own personal sauerkraut apparatus:

I really, REALLY hope that you try this yourself, and please comment to let me know how it turns out! Happy fermenting :)