May 2012 - 30 Day Challenge - Join at any time of the month!

[TheRawPilgrim]

Started the day with a whole quart of green juice; lemon, apple, cucumber, celery, carrots and romaine lettuce. Yummy

[Shel]

Hey Good People!

Another start to a grrreeeeeat day thus far. Glad to read your posts. I have a green smoothie too of romaine, banana, baby bok choy, spinach, pineapple, Brazil nut milk and water. It's delish and oh so smoooooth! I have pretty much similar eats that I had yesterday. I'm looking forward to creating something new, especially a few raw sweet treats like cheesecake and brownies. Yummo! Today I have a salad and mock tuna with my buckwheat "bread." That's really hitting the spot! Have an awesome day everybody. :)

[LexieW]

I'm so happy I joined this forum - just having virtual support helps me think better thoughts and be more positive. And I definitely need it - i'm starting minor detox right about now, as I've been 100% for a few days. Just a headache and a little tiredness, and chocolate cravings. I've had far worse detox symptoms in the past, so this isn't too bad.

Yesterday, I had a banana smoothie for breakfast (banana, almond mylk), a salad of mixed greens, orange bell pepper and raw honey-mustard dressing, a large pear for a snack, another large salad (this time with mixed greens, tomatoes, celery and carrots), and raw brownies for dessert.

I brought some of the brownies to work, too :)

Hope everyone's having a good week!

[RawOlympia]

robh, try doing raw while having to make cooked dinners for your spouse and kidlets, that's pure torture some days lol. I don't have a dehydrater yet but here is the recipe I worked up for corn chowder last night. It was better than the original, but still not something I'd be clamoring to have again..

Corn Chowder
2 cups corn off the cob
1 clove garlic
1/2 t adobo seasoning
1 t olive oil
1 t braggs aminos (could have left it out and used more sea salt)
1 1/2 c water (may need more, my blendtec kept shutting down in the soup setting)
3/4 c walnuts
1/2 t sea salt
ground pepper

Topping:
1 1/4 c corn off cob
chopped cilantro
Makes 2 normal sized soup bowls

Blend soup ingredients, pour in bowl and top with corn and cilantro. I could have easily left out the braggs aminos and upped the sea salt to 1 teaspoon. the flavor was still a bit wishy washy so maybe more adobo seasoning is in order. I wanted this a bit warm but I don't think I added enough water wish may be what was causing my Blendtech to say "overload" and shut down before it heated it on soup setting. MUCH better than the recipe I got out of an Ani Phyo book which has WAY too much olive oil to the point that it was all I could taste. Her chocolate pudding recipe was what I based mine off of, but I find that I like it better with 2 bananas, 2 avacados, 1/3 cup raw cacao and 1/3 cup agave.

I've been watching freelee's video blogs for a few weeks now and am trying out a more high fruit diet for the past few days to see how I like that. I suspect that I will take to it really well because as a kid I ate a ton of fruit, a ridiculous amount by normal standards, to the point where my mom still jokes that the guy at the produce mart thought she had a crush on him because she was there every other day. Breakfast was a whole cantalope. It was really good. Some kind called "Mag" by Dole that they had on sale at Jewel which is supposed to be super sweet and it was a lot sweeter than the cantalopes I've had in the past and I'm going to get a few more. I was expecting it to be difficult, but it wasn't at all. So gobs of fruit throughout the day and a big salad for dinner seems to be the plan for the next few days. :)

[Shel]

Lexie, how did you make your raw honey mustard dressing? I need a new dressing soon. :) Good luck with the detox symptoms. Enjoy those brownies! :) All that fruit sounds delish RawO!

[robh]

RawOlympia, thanks for the recipe. That sounds good. I've got some braggs aminos. I have a cheap-o blender that doesn't warm anything. I use warm water for soups (104 degrees). Also, I frequently cook for the family. It is torture. I've actually been trying not to cook. I'll ask my wife to take a turn or maybe I'll cook up like 2-3 days worth of meals at a time. I don't crave the food, I crave the idea.

A friend pointed me to freelee's site (that's where I got the idea to try cut back the fat). They want you to do 3000 calories a day (for a guy). I can't do that. Most fruit is about 100 calories per piece - that's a lot of fruit! I still kinda thinking about doing it, but I guess I should pipe down. (We can't discuss that stuff on this forum per the rules).

Shel, in alissa's book, there are several great dressings.

[LexieW]

Lexie, how did you make your raw honey mustard dressing? I need a new dressing soon. :) Good luck with the detox symptoms. Enjoy those brownies! :) All that fruit sounds delish RawO!

Hi Shel, I love this dressing - I rarely get tired of it.

Bragg's Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (with the 'mother')
mustard seeds
raw honey

2 Tbs ACV
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp ground up mustard seeds (soaked for 6 hours, then rushed with the back of a spoon)

Mix it all up, and voila!

Sometimes if I don't have the seeds, I just omit them and dilute the mixture with a little water to lessen the bite of the vinegar.

Have fun!

[RawOlympia]

Ok, I ate a ridiculous amount of fruit today but I feel fine. My allergies dragged me down all day with a mild headache but once I figured out that was what it was and took a Claritin, I feel much better. So far I had a whole cantalope (went back and bought 3 more they were that good and I'm not a cantalope person normally), 2 pears, a banana and a pound of strawberries. I did have some raw granola this afternoon (I love that stuff!), about 10 almonds and another 10 pecans on my romaine salad. I'm still working on eating the salad. I find that I'm just not that hungry by the end of the day but I do want to get my greens in.

robh, sorry, I don't want to cause trouble lol I'll try to stick to raw challenge talk only from here on out.

[Kcoishmeh]

Kcoishmeh, can you give me a link to the cheezy flax cracker recipe?

I'd be more than happy to!

1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup flax seeds ( Soak them for 2 hours)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds ( I soaked them for the same amount of time as the flax)
2 cloves garlic
About 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt (opt)

And a smallhand full of fresh cherry tomatoes for the heck of it!

Throw it all in the blender until the flax seeds are broken up to your liking and then dehydrate until crisp.
Note* You can try and drain the flaxseeds but I found it difficult and gave up. I blended with the water and I think it helped process everything better than it would have otherwise. Haven't tried it- but I'm pretty sure draining the water would speed up the drying time. (:


ALSO


KALE CHIPS! These things are my pride and joy. Some folks don't like them ( Mostly men, I'm not sure why.) but most every female I've met adores these things.

Sauce- All of this is pretty flexible I usually never measure and just eye it.
About 1/4-1/3 a zucchini
1/2 a very large carrot
1/2 a red bell pepper
3/4 Cup raw soaked Cashews*
1 tsp. Lemon juice
1 large clove of garlic
2 tsp. Apple cider vinegar
1/2 Cup nutritional yeast
1/3 an onion
1/4 a Jalapeno pepper
Pinch of salt and pepper (opt)


And one big bunch of kale.

Throw all of the sauce ingredients into the blender and blend until creamy. Wash and tear kale into bite sized pieces. Coat the sauce with kale and leave it in the Dehydrator overnight.

* If your wary of Cashews, I've also tried with a combo of soaked Almonds and Sun flower seeds. It worked quite well.


I've also been experimenting with different sauces for this. Today I tried a chili/lime thing. I was pretty good but I'm gonna tweak it before sharing- I want to try and come up with a recipe that doesn't include nutritional yeast!

[robh]

Kcoishmeh, thank you. I seem to go for the salty snacks more than the sweet ones. I will give these a try.

RawOlympia, sounds like you're trying to cut some fat out too. :) I had an avocado last night (300 calories) and some raw ranch on my salad so I probably had %20 of my calories from fat. I love avocados and I use the fact they go bad quickly as an excuse to not put half in the fridge. I've got another ripe avocado (that'll go bad if I don't do something with it) so maybe I'll see if I can put half away tonight. :) Sadly, I was in such a rush this morning, I didn't get on the scale. I think part of me was worried that 4 pounds was going to come back. Heh. I need to jump on there, though, and see if this is helping any. Alissa’s whole concept is to not worry about counting calories and fat content. I get it. But, when I do that, my weight loss seems to plateau and I’ve got a lot of weight to lose.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent. I ate like 1300 calories in fruit yesterday and a salad for dinner. I made a stuffed red pepper with guacamole and sprouts. Total for the day was 1600-1700 calories with about 350 of them being from fats. Today will be similar, but less fat.

I also started a batch of onion bread in the dehydrator. I see people posting about it, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

I need to get busy making portable food because we are going camping at the end of the month. I’m gonna try things like onion bread, egg plant jerky, Kcoishmeh’s recipes and I’ll make more granola. Also, I’m gonna buy extra fruit and dehydrate it (dehydrated bananas are like candy – so freaking good). The idea is to bring a lot of snack foods, as well as a lot of fresh fruit. I figure I can put my salad stuff in the cooler and it should be ok for the two days we’re going. I need to be prepared. Everyone is going to be eating all sort of junk I can’t list here and I need to be armed with yummy raw food.

Good luck everyone!

[LexieW]

Good morning, folks!

It seems that starting this challenge has coincided with crazy days at work - its really putting me to the test mentally and physically, haha.

Yesterday I ate:

Breakfast: chia seed oatmeal (raw chia seeds, almond mylk, banana and cinnamon)

lunch: large salad of mixed greens, celery, tomato and my honey mustard dressing.

snack: raw brownies (soaked nuts, dates, cacao powder)

snack 2: anjou pear

dinner: I needed a treat, so I went to a local raw restaurant (I know..lucky me! Its good to be raw in southern California) and had raw nachos.

My lower-belly is already showing better tone - that's where I always lose or gain fat first.

[robh]

Good morning everyone.

LexieW, I've noticed I'm losing around my belly, as well. It's a long time coming though. I've 40 lbs total and most of that seemed to be in my legs and arms. Just recently noticed my stomach is finally shrinking. You're lucky to loose it there first. I am also jealous of your raw restaurants. We have none here.

How is everyone hanging in? I've lost a pound in two days. More water, less fat seems to be assisting my weight loss.

I made onion bread. When my son tried it he said, "It tastes like a hamburger." It did! The thickness (1/4in), the color, the texture, the smell, and the taste all fit. I think the onions and the braggs give it the color, taste and smell while the flax, sunflower seeds and olive oil give it the texture. Pretty cool. I just need to cut out circles. :) The link: http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/entry.php...us-Onion-bread (I used bragg's liquid aminos instead of Nama Shoyu)

I bought too many bananas (gasp, how is it possible?) and they are super ripe and I'm afraid they might start going bad. I'm gonna try banana bread. I can't find any raw recipes, which is weird or I don't know how to search for it, maybe. I'm tempted to use the oinon bread recipe and just trade the onions and the braggs for banana, vanilla, pinch of salt and some chopped walnuts/pecans. I am just afraid it will come out "flaxy" (a taste I am getting tired of). I'm afraid the onions are covering the flaxy taste in the bread. Maybe I'll grind some rolled oats and use that instead of flax.

Anyway, sorry. I'm still here and I'm still 100% raw. I think I'm actually going to finish this month!

edit: if you didn't already guess, I'm eating all fruit this morning and this afternoon. This evening I will be having a salad with half an avacado and Alissa's dressing. I'm also going to try to squeeze a spinach smoothie in there. I've been avoiding the smoothies because fruit and greens in the same meal give me gas (not oranges, though? - weird). So it may have to be a spinach-orange smoothie which may not be yummy.

[LexieW]

All right, time to get real - I feel off the wagon yesterday. It started when I was in a meeting at work, and the client brought in samples of a new product - a fluffy, southern style biscuit. You should have seen the things - I could feel the grease through the wrapper. But it was the client, and I'm pretty junior on that account, so I had to try it. I had half of it.

And oh man, did that have me craving more junk for the rest of the day. I had my salad for lunch, and snacked on a pear and strawberries in the afternoon, but it was bad. I ended up eating a bit of chocolate that evening. Of course as I went to bed, I could feel my sinuses getting stuffed, and this morning my eyes are dull.

It's a day at a time, but I've decided that I can't let work interfere with my health. Not in terms of working too many hours, and not in terms of eating fast food samples that our clients bring in for us.

So while I'm not thrilled about falling off the wagon yesterday, it did pave the way for some serious thought and recommittment to my goals.

I'm back to raw today - breakfast was a green smoothie (banana, orange juice, greens and wheatgrass juice).

Hope you're all doing better than I am!


Robh, why not take those over-ripe bananas and freeze them? they make great frozen snacks when they're over-ripe - perfect for raw ice cream!

[TheRawPilgrim]

It's been a bit of a struggle for me the past couple of days too, doing better today. Sipping on a quart of ginger cinnamon "zapple juice". Filled my vitamix with chopped apples and a piece of ginger and blended it. Strained it and put the juice back into the (rinsed) blender. Threw in a zucchini and a pinch of cinnamon and blended up, yummmmm.

To me there's no such thing as too many bananas! I hardly ever eat them fresh anymore, I buy several bunches and when they are nice and ripe I freeze them for ice creams and sorbets. I have about 10 bunches worth in my freezer right now and they wont last more that 2 weeks!

[Shel]

Hey Good People!

Whew! I'm still raw. YES! I buy extra 'nanas and freeze them too. When I'm really raw, I eat 'em like candy but mostly in smoothies and stuff. I don't add other sweeteners. I love 'nanas! I feel pretty good, but am gettin bored with my food pickings, so this weekend I'll have to take time to create some new dishes and snacks.

I really need to work some OT tomorrow (8 hrs), which would to me, take away from new raw food creations, so I'm on the fence about going in. I like to be in the kitchen off and on for a day to gel with raw and re-up my passion with it. When Sunday comes it's a bummer to not have dehydrated some kale chips and have something such as crackers going in there along with a few other recipes completed, at least, lol.

Anyway, all that matters is I'm raw and I feel greeeat! Hmmm, maybe I'll make a "cheesecake." Anybody made one with those small pie dishes? A big pie dish would be too much for me.

Have a wonderuful weekend everybody and thanks for that honey mustard recipe!