Necessities
We all have them. Those food items that you would run to the store in the middle of the night to buy. The favorites that you just can’t live without. Here are a few of mine:
Avocado
We ALWAYS have avocados on hand. Could there be anything more delightful? They are the ultimate power food…and we all love them. We eat them on salads, salted on sprouted bread, plain, on curries…you name it. Avocado was both Bella and Lucy’s first food. Yum yum.
Raw Goat Milk Cheese
This is not the soft goat cheese that you might be thinking of…we get the raw cheddar cheese and we eat A LOT of it. It’s more spendy ($6.99 for a small block)…but it’s so worth it because we don’t do cow’s milk cheese around here most of the time. If you’ve never had it, you’ll be surprised at how wonderful it is! Even when we’re eating mostly raw, we keep this cheese in to satisfy cravings.
Justin’s Nut Butters
Oh.My.Goodness. Love it. Maple is our favorite. We top our brown rice cakes with it. We put it in our oatmeal. We like to scoop it right out with a spoon. No, it’s not raw…but it’s darn good. They also make them in little travel packets. So handy dandy. They are based out of Boulder…I might have to go take a photo of their headquarters while we’re here. I love them that much.
Green smoothies
These are a staple around here. We are still making them almost morning…we can’t go too long without one or we feel it! And yes, I am planning another Green Smoothie Challenge. Don’t ask me dates…but I’m hoping to do it soon! So get ready 🙂
Watermelon
Crave it. The smell. The sweetness. Love it. We eat LARGE bowls of it in the summertime, sometimes having entire meals of just watermelon.
Citron Oolong
This is easily my favorite tea. I have it nearly every morning. Just the smell will amaze you. Excellent hot or iced.
Steel Cut Oats
This is a recent addition to our favorites. The texture is similar to brown rice. Chewy, nutty, and delicious. Iwe like to top it with bananas, almond butter, walnuts or hemp seeds, maple syrup, and almond milk.
Iced Tea
We’ve been drinking OOODLES of iced tea around here. I’m loving the Celestial Seasonings tropical “cool brew” as well as their blueberry green tea. I love to mix and match my flavors…it’s like making a cocktail! 🙂
So there you have it. A short list of the foods and drinks that we’re loving right now. What’s on YOUR list?
**Disclaimer: Some of the links above are linked to our affiliate account at Amazon.
If you order using our link, we will get a tiny bit of that sale.
Mostly, I’m just trying to be helpful 🙂
YumUniverse
I love when I stumble across a new fabulous foody website! Check out this great vegetarian/vegan/raw site…YumUniverse. One of the contributors, Heather, is a fellow hooper and blogger. Love it.
I will definitely be trying these bad boys and this will be going in a nori roll SOON! Oooh la la.
The Joy of Discovery
My friend Denise is just in the wonderful beginning stages of the vegan diet and she made the sweetest video about her discoveries. I love how excited she is about the greens! I wanted to share it with you…
Do check out the cookbook she is referring to, The Kind Diet. I’ve thumbed through it and it’s great! Definitely on my list of must have cookbooks.
Our Favorite Restaurants
I was inspired today by Kevin and Annmarie’s list of their top 9 favorite restaurants and I thought it was time for me to bring you a  list of OUR favorite restaurants!
We really love food. And we really love for other people to cook for us…especially after a long day of driving! When we’re coming into a new area and we don’t know where to go, we almost always rely on the Yelp! iPhone app. The reviews are usually quite accurate…love it.
Here is our list of top 10 restaurants around the country  (in no particular order) that we have enjoyed eating at. Most of them are vegetarian, vegan, and/or raw. I have put a * by the restaurants that are not vegetarian. I won’t go into specific details for each one, but each of them use super fresh/local ingredients and are very creative with their dishes.
Kalachandjis – Dallas, TX
Daily Juice – Austin, TX
Govinda’s – Eugene, OR
Red Avocado – Iowa City, IA
Cafe Gratitude – San Francisco, CA
The Grass Root – Tampa, FL
Brasserie Ten Ten* – Boulder, CO
Emerson Grill* – Bozeman, MT
Whole Foods Market Salad Bar – Everywhere USA
The Sprout – Mount Pleasant, SC
And now for our top 10 favorite Thai restaurants! We are Thai food fanatics…I would guess that we’ve been to over 100 Thai restaurants around the country in the past 3 years. These are the places that stand out for us as being amazing at that point in time. 🙂
Titaya’s Thai – Austin, TX
Thai Flavors – Des Moines, IA
Khow Thai – Boulder, CO
Tum Rup Thai -Minneapolis, MN
Joy’s Pattaya Thai – Richfield, MN
Marnee’s Thai – San Francisco, CA
Lotus of Siam – Las Vegas, NV
Malee’s on Main – Scottsdale, AZ
Thai Spice – Omaha, NE
Basil Thai Restaurant – Charleston, SC
What is the name of your favorite restaurant right now (and why)?
Have you been to any of the places we listed?
Oat Cakes: A Pancake Alternative
One of my great loves in life…pancakes! Unfortunately, when I eat “traditional” type pancakes made with flour, they don’t sit too well with me. I feel so bloated and full, even just after a few. So I wanted to find a gluten-free pancake alternative. I had tried making them with different gluten free flours + xanthan gum…but I didn’t like the texture at all.
Lucky for me, I have awesome friends. I was lamenting about my pancakes woes to Tara, and she clued me in to the recipe that she uses. We made it this morning for our pancake feed at the NuRVers Rally and they were AMAZING. These aren’t just “oh well, they will have to do”. They are “oh wow!”. They taste like a bowl of yummy oatmeal, but in a pancake. I love to top mine with more yumminess. Today I enjoyed maple almond butter (I love these little squeeze pouches for when I go to restaurants or out on the town for the day), bananas, and pure maple syrup. That combination is like heaven to me.
Ok, enough about me. Let’s get to the recipe!
Oat Cakes
4 cups traditional (not quick) oatmeal — ground to a flour-like consistency in food processor
4 cups almond/soy/rice milk
4 T melted organic butter
4 large farm fresh eggs
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder-Soak oats for 12-24 hours in the milk (store in fridge overnight).
-Mix everything else into that.
-Make pancakes and be happy.
Tara also said that her friend uses them as “sandwich bread” for PB & J and such. They are yummy and hearty and would perfect for that. I thought that was a great idea!
And now I have a question for you: What are your favorite pancake toppings?
Carry Chia!
We stayed at a hotel with my parents recently…and I knew the only thing I would want to eat at their restaurant would be fruit. So I kicked it up a notch and brought a little baggie of chia with me. I asked the waiter for a glass of water without ice, dumped in the chia seeds
Don’t get discouraged when you’re traveling…CARRY CHIA!
*That little baggie behind my chia is my baggie of tea…a girl has GOT to have good tea on the road! Yum.
Amazon
This link
We Like It Raw: My Way & More
We Like It Raw is a wonderful community of raw food enthusiasts…and I have talked about them before on my blog. I wanted to highlight one of their newer features, “My Way“. If you’re like me, you love to peek into other people’s lives and eating habits. My Way gives you a chance to do just that.
There are other sections of WLIW that I LOVE:
- Masala: The Finest Mix of Holistic Living Blogs Online : Tons of great resources in one place!
- We Like It Raw Podcasts: I really enjoy these interviews.
Crazy For Costco
We LOVE Costco. We are very sad when there is no Costco nearby…because we do the bulk of our shopping there. If you eat a diet that is high in fruits and veggies, Costco should be a very close friend. No, not everything is organic…but several things are, and they are adding more all the time. I wish we could eat a 100% organic diet…our budget would be through the roof! I do try to focus on the items I know to be very high in pesticides that we eat on a daily basis, like spinach and apples. Items like avocados and broccoli are not heavily sprayed crops, so I’m not as concerned. For more info on the “dirty dozen”, click here.
Here are a few of the items we buy there:
- Organic spinach (1 lb): This is the number one “best buy” for us at Costco. It ranges in price from $2.99 – $3.99….which is a far cry from $6.99-$7.99 at Whole Foods.
- Romaine lettuce: Who can beat that deal? 6 pack for $2.99. They are the BEST. Perfect for salads and juicing.
- Avocados: Costco has the best. Hands down. The biggest, creamiest, yummiest…at a good price.
- Watermelon: Oooooh, just typing that word makes me happy. We LIVE on these in the summer…and Costco has consistently provided me with yummy, red, and juicy specimens. It’s pretty rare that I get a bad one, but if I do, they have a 100% guarantee on everything they sell. I’m thinking of calling up the local produce manager and finding out when they are going to be stocking these so I can be camped outside their door in my tent that morning.
- Broccoli/Brussels/Asparagus: Yum.
- Medjool dates: Again, best quality I’ve found…but WAY cheaper than other places.
- Apples: Not all Costcos have organic apples, but when we find them, we stock up. Their organic red delicious variety is 89 cents per pound right now at the Austin, TX location.
- Blueberries/Strawberries/Raspberries: We buy blueberries on a regular basis and the others once in a while.
- Oranges: We buy the 25 lbs.box for $8.99.
- Grape tomatoes – “Cherubs”: These are pesticide-free and delicious.
- Bananas: $1.29 per bunch.
- Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pecans, and pine nuts. These are priced VERY competitively. This is the only place I will buy nuts.
- Pineapples: Not too much cheaper, but they are always big and ripe.
- Frozen fruit: Their Spectrum Blend is my favorite smoothie mix….you get double the amount that you can get anywhere else for the same price.
- Pure maple syrup: Great price/large container.
- Organic corn chips: Big cheap bag.
- Bread: Organic and/or whole wheat. 2 loaves for $5.99 or so. They also have bakery loaves of crusty bread for soup, etc.
- Silk soy milk: If you drink soy milk, it’s a great buy. You can get a 3 pack of 1/2 gallons for $5.99.
- Organic bean/cheese frozen burritos: Matt and Bella love these. Much cheaper than buying individually.
- Other items we occasionally buy: Organic quiche, frozen OJ, Starbucks coffee…I know I’m forgetting other stuff.
What are your Costco favorites?
Green Wrap
I’ve been eating a lot of this lately. I’ve talked about it before…but it’s worth repeating. It’s so easy to make…and it’s filling and raw! The raw diet does not have to be fancy or gourmet. It needs to be easy and something you will do willingly and joyfully. This makes me happy every time I eat it.
It’s also something that is very easy to take with you if you have a busy schedule (take the components of it in separate containers and assemble at work or in the car). If you are traveling and you need a healthy option for a meal, you could just run into a grocery store and grab some romaine, an avocado, and sprouts, and you’d be good to go. I would suggest carrying a little container of sea salt or dulse flakes in your bag so that you’re prepared at all times!
My favorite (more complex) combo is:
Romaine leaf or butter lettuce leaf
Untoasted nori
Cucumber strips
Green onions (the green part)
Mashed avocado + lime + sea salt
Sprouts
Cilantro or basil
Homemade salsa (if I have it on hand)
Enjoy!
Sushi How-To
Have you ever wondered how to make sushi? Click on over to Sasa’s blog, “Too Good To Be True” and check it out. Sasa is Bluebirdbaby’s sweetie. Love them both!
Photo used with permission.
Happy Foody 