Posts filed under ‘Raw’
Vita-Mix Dreaming
When we arrived at Matt’s aunt and uncle’s house today, I discovered that they have a Vita-Mix 5000! Of course, when I saw it my heart started racing, I started babbling something about “yummy” and “green” and…and…and I quickly took it out and started filling it with my favorite goodies for a smoothie!
- 2 apples, cored (add 3 if you like it sweeter…or a banana)
- 4-5 leaves of kale
- 1 meyer lemon, peeled (but left white pith on for nutrients)
- water
- ice
I fired it up and it was blended in about 2 seconds. Literally. Ooooh….it was like heaven. I will be starting a savings account for one tomorrow. I’m in love.
Raw on a Budget
The cost of “going raw” has always been important for us…being that we don’t have endless resources, we have to make adjustments and budget when we are buying more fresh fruits and veggies. It can be difficult, because personally, I prefer to buy organic whenever it is available. The pesticide levels are too high for my comfort on conventional foods, and the nutritional content of conventional produce is staggering low compared to organic produce. Up to half (or more!) of the minerals/vitamins are sacrificed by conventional farming methods/bad soil quality. With that said, I do not buy organic for everything…just where I find it the most necessary (see the Dirty Dozen) and when it’s available. In the summertime, I will opt for locally grown natural crops (and possibly not “certified organic”).
We spend approximately 25% of our income on our food budget (as opposed to the typical American family which is 5-10%). We make sacrifices in other areas so that we can spend more to keep our family healthy. We made a focused effort to pay off all credit card bills/car loans, etc. so that we wouldn’t be tied down in those areas. However, I know that it’s MUCH harder to eat raw when you are struggling with money, and trying to feed a large family. But, it can be done with some tweaking here and there. You also must consider the “cost” of continuing to buy packaged, processed foods you may currently be buying. Eventually, they will catch up with you and then the cost of your medical bills will be much more than any raw foods. I have found that the low fat raw vegan diet is by far the cheapest…because you’re not making tons of gourmet type raw dishes that require all kinds of fancy, expensive ingredients. It also pretty much eliminates the need for any type of “superfood” or nutritional supplements because you can get all of your vitamins and minerals in your fruits and especially your greens.
Here are some tips to save money when adding more raw foods to your budget:
- You don’t have to go 100% raw! Even 50% will greatly improve your health!
- Buy only the Dirty Dozen in organic to greatly reduce your pesticide exposure.
- Buy frozen fruit for smoothies. Stores like Costco and other warehouse stores have huge bags of quick frozen fruit for sale. They may not be organic, but like I said…that’s a personal choice.
- Find out when your grocery store marks down their produce. I’ve gotten huge amounts of bananas this way…they were completely edible and delicious, but they had brown marks all over them so they were discounted.
- Ask your grocer if they can order you a box of fruit wholesale.
- Freeze bananas that are about to go bad for smoothies.
- Eat mon0-meals and only buy the fruit that is on sale that week
- Rotate your greens and pick the sale greens.
- In the summer, hit the Farmer’s Market for big savings over grocery store produce.
- Go to a “pick your own” farm.
- Join a CSA farm…consider splitting a share with a friend.
- Grow as much of your own food as possible…even if you are in an apt. or a house without a garden…growing sprouts is one of the easiest things you can do! And it’s cheap. You can sprout so many different things…lentils, alfalfa, broccoli. Here is a “how to” for sprouting.
- Dehydrate fruits or veggies that are about to go bad.
- And lastly, if you are willing…Dumpster Dive!! You can find tons of fresh fruit and veggies if you are in the right area. Here is an interesting blog on it.
If you want to eat raw…or even just MORE raw, it can be done!
The Happy Foody Green Smoothie Challenge!
Yay! A Challenge! Aren’t you excited? I can just feel your excitement through the screen 🙂 Here it is:
For 30 days beginning on February 25, you will commit to this ONE THING:
- Drink a 16 oz. of green smoothie each day…preferably for breakfast. I HIGHLY recommend getting the book “Green For Life” by Victoria Boutenko. It’s a quick read and it has lots of yummy smoothie recipes in it. Check out her website too!
That’s it! You don’t even need to commit to changing anything else. Just ADD the smoothie. But, for an added bonus, you could add one or more of the following:
- Do some sort of activity every day. This could be an intense workout, or just dancing with your kids around the living room. It could be a 15 minute yoga session or a walk around the block.
- Add a green leafy salad to your lunch or supper.
- Stop drinking pop.
- Cut out all white sugar.
All you need is a blender. Add the ingredients, and add water to the thickness you want (usually about 2 cups)….and blend until REALLY smooth. I know you’ll be amazed at how yummy these are…but if you need it sweeter, just up the quantity of fruit.
Here are a few smoothie recipes to get you started:
Mango-parsley
2 large mangos
1 bunch parsley
Water
Peach-spinach
6 peaches
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
Water
Mango-weeds
2 mangos
1 handful of lambs quarters, stinging nettles, purslane, etc
Water
Strawberry-banana-romaine
1-cup strawberries
2 bananas
1/2 bunch romaine
Water
Apple-kale-lemon
4 apples
1/2 lemon juice
4-5 leaves of kale
Water
Kiwi-banana-celery
4 very ripe kiwis
1 ripe banana
3 stalks of celery
Water
Pear-kale-mint
4 ripe pears
4-5 leaves of kale
1/2 bunch of mint
Water
Finger banana-spinach
10 finger-bananas
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
Water
Bosc pear-raspberry-kale
3 bosc pears
1 handful of raspberries
4-5 leaves of kale
Water
I KNOW that if you stick with this challenge, you will see a difference in your eating habits and any other issues you might be having right now with your body.
If you are going to commit to this challenge…just leave a comment below. On March 25, I’ll post again and everyone can leave their follow up post as to how it went. Of course, feel free to tell everyone about it…blog about it…spread the green smoothie LOVE! On February 25, I will write a post to launch the Challenge and maybe have a cool prize drawing or something. 🙂
Raw Resources
There are so many resources on the web regarding a raw food diet, but here are some of my favorites lately. I will post more as I find them.
Raw FAQ
Low Fat Raw Vegan FAQ
Websites and Blogs:
Frederic Patenaude: I love this guy. He’s got it all figured out and his articles are awesome.
The Garden Diet: An entire family of raw foodies. Jingee has gone through several raw pregnancies…very interesting stuff. We Like It Raw
Give it to me Raw: Like MySpace for raw foodies
Azura Sky
Living the Fruity Life
Greenmama
Raw Model
Alissa Cohen: This is where I first learned about the raw food lifestyle.
Books:
Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko
The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Douglas Graham
Rawvolution by Matt Amsden (amazing gourmet raw stuff!)
Raw Food, Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis (love this one!)
Some of my favorite raw food videos on You Tube:
Raw For 30 Days
Daryl Hannah’s Raw Food Segment
Karen Knowler demonstrates how to make raw flax crackers:
Feelin’ The Raw Love
You might have noticed that I have been posting a lot about raw fruits and veggies these days. I’ve become rather excited about them 🙂 yum. When I made my resolution to exercise this year, an added benefit was that I didn’t feel like eating bad food anymore. So I decided to cut out all processed foods, including sugar and bread. I also decided to cut out cheese. That lasted about a week and then I decided that the raw food revolution was calling me once again 🙂
I have always been partial to a raw food lifestyle…ever since I tried it out for a couple of months in 2005. I felt incredible and I couldn’t deny the benefits a raw food diet provided. But that first time around, I focused a lot on creating more “gourmet” raw dishes that were heavy on the nuts and fats. I leaned heavily on “transitional” foods that are great to help you get started eating 100% raw, but then I just kept eating them. This just made it hard to continue it because it was expensive, time consuming, and not great on my digestive system.
This time around I have discovered a new way of “doing raw” and I couldn’t be happier. It’s about as simple as it gets and is so easy to maintain. The basic idea behind is that you eat sweet fruits all day long…to include smoothies if you like. And for supper, you have a huge green salad with lots of green stuff and veggies…but very little fat. When I would normally make a salad, I would put at least 1/2 avocado, 1/2 cup walnuts, hemp seeds, flax…you name it. Plus, the vinaigrette. VERY high in fat. Being that this time I’m looking to lower the fat content, I only put ONE of those things on my salad per day. 🙂 It’s actually helped me appreciate each one of those wonderful things even more. I have modified my original dressing recipes…cutting way back on the olive oil and adding more water. It tastes just as yummy!
The concept comes from a chiropractor, Dr. Douglas Graham…he calls it the 80/10/10 diet (also referred to as 811rv…the rv stands for raw vegan). He proposes that a diet of 80% carbs, 10% protein, and 10% fats is the optimal ratio for our bodies. He has a book and a website. But I do hate to call it a “diet” because that’s not what it is. It’s just new way of thinking about food. I didn’t want to have a list of rules. Just a simple way of eating natural, whole fruits and veggies. This idea was a radical change from what I had been doing on raw…my fat content was probably more in the range of 50-80%. And while this is ok for awhile, it’s not something that I feel should be maintained. The most interesting thing I have been reading is that the level of fat in your diet is responsible for yeast overgrowth (candida)…not necessarily the level of sugar you’re eating. I’ve always struggled with yeast, and even after just a few days…it was completely gone! And it was gone without cutting fruits and other yummy natural sweets. I was sold. 🙂
In addition to eating whole, raw fruits and veggies, I have added at least one green smoothie a day. I was turned onto this little secret by my friend, Deanna, who sent me the book “Green For Life” by Victoria Boutenko. I had read Victoria’s “Ode to Green Smoothies” awhile back, but never really got into it. I read this book in 2 days and immediately started making smoothies every day. I saw a radical difference in my energy and cravings. The smoothies also contain all the fibers in the fruits/veggies…so it’s a little different than juicing. I’ve been having my green lemonade in the mornings too.
A typical day for me looks like this:
Breakfast:
Green Lemonade (apples, kale, lemon, romaine) or Green Smoothie
3-4 Bananas
TeaSnack:
4 Bananas
1-2 apples with 10 dates
TeaLunch:
16 oz. Green Smoothie (some favorites have been blueberry/banana/kale and pear/mint/kale)Snack:
3-4 oranges
Handful of raw sunflower seedsSupper:
Huge green salad with mixed greens, spinach, romaine, carrot, tomato, broccoli, cucumbers, sprouts, with a small serving of one of the following: avocado/hemp seeds/sunflower seeds/walnutsEvening: Herbal Tea
Totals: Carbs 80% Fats 12% Proteins 8% (even at 8% I am at 38g of protein and my ideal is between 27-50 g)
Calories: 2314
Considering I am nursing a toddler, my caloric need to maintain my current weight is between 2,000 – 2,500 calories a day depending on my work out for that day. I usually try to average it out over the week…it can vary per day. I’ve been tracking on FitDay just to get an idea of how much I’m taking in, and I’ve been fine. I wouldn’t recommend tracking every single day (you’ll drive yourself crazy)…use this just to get an idea of what you’re truly eating and where your calories come from.
Some of the benefits I have seen in the last 3 weeks on raw:
- My skin is smooth and glowing.
- Excess water/bloating has disappeared. I feel light and fit.
- I wake up alert and energized. I need less sleep to feel rested.
- My senses are all heightened, especially my sense of smell.
- I have no cravings (I credit this to the green drinks/greens).
- Ok, I take it back. I do have cravings…for fruit! I can’t get enough of it. It’s so fun to sit and eat all the fruit I want (combined correctly) until I’m full. Yum.
- I have started to lose my taste for cooked foods…they just seem so dry and dead! So different than an apple or banana or crunchy greens.
- Yeast problems disappeared.
- My sweat doesn’t smell as much and my breath is sweeter and less rancid in the mornings.
- I don’t have gas or other digestive problems. I used to just think that gas/bloating was part of being a vegetarian, but now I know that it doesn’t have to be that way.
- By completely cleaning up the food I eat, my body has reacted very quickly to the exercise I’ve been doing for the last 4 weeks and I’m noticing amazing changes.
Another wonderful benefit is the fact that when you are eating so “clean”, you are much more in tune with your body. When you take away everything that is causing you ailments…it’s easy to pinpoint exactly what your problems are. I’ve figured out which foods trigger certain reactions, and know how to avoid them.
I am also working on not eating after 7:00 p.m. At first it was difficult, because I am such a night snacker. I love to snack, snack, snack…up until bedtime. But because I’ve been consuming so many greens, I don’t have those cravings anymore. My stomach works on getting everything from supper digested before I even go to sleep…and then when I am sleeping, it can work on healing and replenishing at the cellular level.
Going raw has acted as a natural detox for my system too. After all the processed foods we were eating while on the road, my body was craving a clean slate. You can tell a lot about your body by your poop. I can now poop 2-3 times a day…which means that my colon and the rest of digestive system is working wonderfully. If you want to figure out what is up with your body, examine your poop! 🙂 Here is a great post on Rawkin’ about poop.
Eating raw foods also has the ability to HEAL many, many diseases including diabetes and cancer. Here is a great video on how it can cure diabetes. Be sure to check out Alissa’s site for many stories of healing.
I know the first question you probably have in your mind is “what about protein!?”. The short answer is that it’s completely possible to get all the protein you need from greens, fruits, veggies, and nuts. If you don’t believe me, you may want to check out what the mighty apes eat (fruits, greens, nuts) and how muscular they on a plant based diet. Our protein needs are no where near as high as the dairy and meat industries want you to believe. Plus, plant based protein is processed much differently than when you eat an animal based protein. Here is a bit longer answer on this topic.
Overall, I am so excited to have started this again. I feel SO great…and that’s what matters. If I feel like having cooked food, I will make that choice. But it’s a choice. I’m much more conscious of all my food choices and how they affect my mood and my body. Will I eat pizza again? Yes. Will I drink a Soy Caramel Machiato again? Yes. But the majority of my eating will be raw. Will I stop posting yummy vegan recipes on Happy Foody? No. 🙂 Is it hard being around cooked food and yummy smells and all the deliciousness hard? Sometimes. But I honestly crave fresh foods now more than cooked, so it’s really not bad. Plus, considering how fabulous I feel, it would be hard to go back to a 100% cooked diet.
Raw is amazing!
Disclaimer: I am in no way saying that all of you who eat healthy, low fat vegan diets are going to die tomorrow 🙂 I don’t want anyone to feel bad about how they are eating now…I merely want to shed light. When you have more sources of knowledge, you are able to make better choices. This is based on my own personal findings of how I feel on cooked vs. raw foods. Even when I was eating very healthy cooked food, I still had some problems that disappear with a raw food diet. I would urge all of you who fall in that category to consider ADDING more fruits and greens into your diet and see how you feel. Peace and love 🙂
Raw Kale Avocado Salad
Kale is an amazing food. You should eat lots and lots and lots of it. We’ve been eating it daily here…in the form of juice, smoothies, and salads. You can check out its awesome benefits and nutritional content here. Anytime you can avoid cooking something…it’s better. However, kale tends to be rather tough and stringy when raw. One of the most common raw recipes you’ll see out there is the raw kale and avocado salad. The mixture of salt and lemon juice essentially “cooks” the leaves and breaks them down enough to make it a delicious salad.
I first saw this recipe in Alissa Cohen’s cookbook, Living on Live Food…but you can find so many different versions of this salad across the web. I’ve adjusted the ingredients to my taste, but as always…tweak it to YOURS!
- 1 head kale, shredded (I prefer the taste of curly kale for this one)
- 1 cup tomato, chopped (fresh salsa is also delicious!)
- 1/2 avocado
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil or hemp seed oil (go for less if you can)
- Juice from 1/2 lemon
- Celtic or Himalayan sea salt, to taste (1/4 – 1/2 t)
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
- For extra yummy…add 1-2 sheets untoasted nori (snip up with scissors into little bits)
- Optional toppings: raisins, pine nuts, hemp seed nuts, sesame seeds
Preparation
In mixing bowl, toss all ingredients together. Mush everything together (with hands) to created marinated/wilted effect on kale. This makes it much tastier and easier to digest.
Here is a great video by the raw food coach, Karen Knowler…demonstrating how to make this salad:
Apples + Dates
We have been experimenting with different snacks and “treats” around here. Being that we cut out all the processed snacky food, so there is no more grabbing a box of something. We have to get creative and our latest favorite is apples and dates. Did you know that apples + dates = caramel apples! Yes…it’s true!
Get some medjool dates…or any other creamy type of date. Now, take one bite of apple, and one bite of date…and enjoy 🙂 It’s like heaven. It does taste just like a carameled apple. If you want to get fancy, you can soak 8-10 dates in water, and then blend them to make a caramel sauce to dip in. Bella likes them cut into little “rings”. I think dates might be my new favorite thing!! They are addicting though, so I have to limit myself to a few, lest I overdo it!
Creamy Cucumber Soup
This is a refreshing, raw soup with a savory flavor. I served it up with sprouted bread topped with hummus. This recipe makes quite a bit…3-4 cups (full blender)…so if it’s just you, you might want to cut it in half. I found this on Gone Raw…here is another version of cucumber soup to try as well.
- 2 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced
- 1 cup of freshly juiced celery juice
- 1 avocado
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil (since there was already an avocado in it, I just used a splash)
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 tablespoon Nama Shoyu (or soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon agave nectar or yacon syrup
- 1 tablespoon mesquite powder, optional
- Celtic sea salt, to taste
- chives, chopped for topping
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Top with with scallions, cilantro, tomatoes, sprouts, and/or more avocado….yum yum!
Mango Hedgehogs
Bella LOVES it when we have “mango hedgehogs”. These cute little fruity animals are made by slicing off the 2 sides of the mango opposing the core, scoring them almost to the skin in a grid-like fashion, and “flipping” them inside out. Sprinkle a little lime on top for some kick…and dig in. Literally. Mangoes are meant to be a messy food…pick them up with your hands and eat the soft flesh right off the skin with your mouth. Yes, you will get messy and drippy, but that is part of the fun.
You can also freeze mango chunks for a delicious mango/pineapple/banana/almond milk tropical smoothie. Unfortunately, I have recently discovered that I am allergic to mangoes….even though I used to eat them. Booo hoo! So, I will live vicariously through my daughter. Eat away, little one. Yum!
Food by Design
My lovely friend, Liz, pointed me to this really cool listing of how whole foods align with our body. It’s been passed all around the web, but I’m sure that you will love it. Isn’t God completely amazing?
“You are what you eat, so eat well. A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today’s investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called “The Doctrine of Signatures” (an ancient European philosophy that held that plants bearing parts that resembled human body parts, animals, or other objects, had useful relevancy to those parts, animals or objects) was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater.”
A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female – they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? …. It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcom e male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.
Grapefruit s, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.
Happy Foody 