Sept 2012 - 30 day raw challenge! Join anytime of the month!!!

[robh]

ReneeH, I have been eeking out time for un-cooking. I love it. Those crepe shells are so awesome and so easy.

RedCedar, I wish you the best getting back to raw.

CM, I saw an old post of yours on the forum the other day. I hadn't yet learned of raw back then. It's great that you are back. Also, almond pulp for taco meat - interesting idea. thanks

MysticTree, I am sorry to hear about your struggle with raw. Those times are so frustrating.


At the risk of sounding like a stuck-up know-it-all, I wanted to share what worked for me to stay raw longer enough to break the cycle.

For the longest time, I would slip up and say "aww, well I can always get back on 100% raw tomorrow." I would use it as an excuse for the rest of the day "well, I already had cooked food today, what's a little more?" Worse than that, however, when tomorrow came, I put the incident behind me and didn't think about the root cause of the indicent. Once I started asking the questions "How did I slip off the raw wagon?" and "How can I prevent that in the future?" I started to stay 100% raw and stick to it.

It is kind of funny that this came up. Last night, one of our friends asked use out the chinese buffet. The last time I ate cooked food was 35 days ago. Can you guess the cause? The same friend asked the same question. This time, however, I was prepared. A month ago, I told myself that if it ever happened again, I would stay home. I told my wife that she and the kids would have to go without me. I ate raw food last night. To my surprise, the wife and kids stayed home and ate "better" cooked meal.

Again, sorry if I sound like a preachy know-it-all. I am only exicted because it worked for me.


I did a lot of raw stuff this weekend.

I made a raw, spongy bread (receipe I found online). It gave me a lot of ideas. I am zeroing in on a solution. :)

This is pretty cool. I found a group of raw fooders in my area. Saturday, I went for a "fruit-luck" and hike in a really cool park. It was nice to meet raw fooders in the flesh. Talking to people that share your challenges (much like this forum) is very nice.

This morning, I have a couple of bananas, a couple of apples (so good this time of year) and some plumbs. I *should* have brought some ground sesame seeds, but I have been lazy. As a result, meat has been appealing to me (need the iron, zinc, calcium and the other minerals from the sesame seeds). Insetad of sesame seeds, my fat source to keep me full this afternoon is almond butter. I'll put that on a banana (yum).

I'm not sure what I'll do tonight. I had wilted kale salads the past couple of days. I'm tired on them now. I'll probably do a romaine salad with raw ranch. I still have some of the raw, spongy garlic bread from the weekend. I'll probably have that and some of the sun-dried tomato rosemary cashew cheese I made for with it. That'll be enough fat to keep me full.

Take care all. Let's all be strong together!

[MysticTree]

Thanks rob. Still going ok so far. Feeling fairly blah though. Thinks I am heading for the menopause which is strangely depressing and very tiring!

[Conscious Midwife]

Robh: I here ya. Staying out of the restaurants this month will save us about $160-200. Which ahs me thinking that I might finally be able to get a stainless steel dehydrater before long.

Day going great. Preparation is key and I am so there!

The almond taco meat is even better today. Extra spicy and a great texture. So today I will wrap what's left in a collard leaf.

[MysticTree]

Just made myself an enormous salad. Very nice. Soon to bed.

[RedCedar]

Thanks renee and rob for the encouragement.

Doing better the last couple days. May try that taco recipe again I found--was satisfying. Think I'll make cashew sour cream to go with it this time.

[Conscious Midwife]

Mad eit through the day. No major craving or temptations just boredom and the desire to eat even when not hungry. Glad to be identifying this.

Need to eat my alfalfa sprouts asap. MAybe I will make a fancy spicy dressing or dip and wrap them in nori or something.

[Conscious Midwife]

Made it through the day. No major craving or temptations just boredom and the desire to eat even when not hungry. Glad to be identifying this.

Need to eat my alfalfa sprouts asap. Maybe I will make a fancy spicy dressing or dip and wrap them in nori or something.

Hope to get in a good midday walk tommorow. I need both the sunshine and exercise.

[imaquillen]

I have been continuing raw and doing good. Mmost of my family knows how I eat and don't have an issue with me eating my food. My kids call me a hippie! We're leaving Wednesday morning to go home where i'll start making lots of raw yumminess to take with me when I drive back the next week. It's so good to see that everyone is doing so good even through all the trials of life.

[robh]

MysticTree, feeling blah and tired may be a result of your return to 100% raw. I don't know if you recall, but this last time I felt just terrible the first week or so. You need some positive energy to get you through the worst of it. What's your favorite raw dish? You can get jazzed about it while collecting an preparing what you need. Maybe that will help distract you.

RedCedar, finding a variety of stuff you enjoy is very helpful to staying on this thing.

Conscious Midwife, alfalfa sprout sushi - that sounds great. I need a good sushi knife so I don't tear the nori. (I tried making sushi recently and ended up with sushi salad instead of sushi rolls -- grrrr)

Amber, congrats staying raw.


Spicy BBQ Kale Chips

1 head organic kale, torn
2 chipotle chilis, soaked
1/2 cup soaking water from chipotle chilis
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons nama shoyu/tamari (or braggs liquid aminos)
2 tabelspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch cayenne
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup soft dates

- Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.
- Thoroughly combine the kale a sauce in a bowl until all the kale is coated.
- Evenly scatter the kale on a non-stick dehydrator sheet in a way that will allow the air to circulate around it.
- Dehydrate at 105 degrees F for around 10 hours. Remove from the non-stick sheet, transferring to a mesh sheet and continue dehydrating until the kale is completely dried out.

I made these last night, they are so addicting! I ate like half of them when I was flipping them over this morning. Russell James is to thank for this one.

Dinner last night was romaine and raw ranch, raw garlic bread and sun-dried tomato cashew cheese. That kept me full. I couldn't help but snack on some dates while making the above recipe, though. Afterward, I made a small kale salad with the extra sauce.

Today, in my lunch bag, I have Bananas, apples, plums and almond butter.

Tonight, I know kale chips will be too hard to resist. They do not have enough fat content to keep me full, though. I have an avocado there, but guacamole is out because I am out of tomatoes. Maybe I'll make a "romaine boats" with sun-dried tomato cashew cheese, sliced avocado, drizzled olive oil and salt and pepper. Maybe I'll toss some garlic powder, onion powder and dried Italian seasoning on top give it a sort of Italian flare. So it'll be Italian romaine boats with kale chips on the side for dinner.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good day. Keep positive and stay strong!

[MysticTree]

I don't think so. I don't "detox" in that way on the whole.

Still raw today. Looking forward to Friday when larger caravan is arriving :)

[MysticTree]

Mostly raw again. There is a short vid on my FB page if you want to see the "actual" caravan Rob! Thought I'd take a video before the new van arrives.

[Conscious Midwife]

robh: I simply use a serrated bread knife and slice nori raw after is has softened up a bit

Yesterday went very well and I've release 8.2 since reRawing on 9/15, though I need to not make the scale my abrometer for success

Also got in a good to mile walk on my lunch break so today i will try a little more walk/joggin and try to increase the distance and time a bit while still leaving time for a shower and snack.

HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY ALL!

[robh]

Conscious Midwife, congrats on ridding yourself of the weight.

MysticTree,

Living in your current caravan must be a challenge. It was in your video briefly, but it's pretty small.

Have you guys considered using solar power to charge a set of batteries? That way, when the sun goes down, you could run a light. With winter coming and the days getting shorter, having more light after the sun goes down will become more important. You could even charge your mobiles with it. Other options are plugging a converter into your car's cigarette lighter or even running a generator, but those options are not very environmentally friendly.


Anyway, back to raw food. I ate about what I said I was going to yesterday. I did snack on dates while making some raw chocolate cookies that I promised my wife.

My grocery store sells raw sprouted flour (living intention's super-flour). It has a recipe for chocolate goji cookies on the back. My wife is addicted to them. Last night, I blended cashews, some water, some honey and vanilla extract into a white filling. I pressed the chocolate cookies into rounds and put the filling between then to make raw oreos:


Here they are in the freezer to firm up the filling.

I'm working from home today so I'll probably have some fruit when I get hungry (banana, apples and plums currently). I cannot imagine that I won't grab some date and some nuts at some point when I'm in the kitchen. Also, I have yet to try an oreo so I'm sure I will eat one of those today.

I'm not sure what dinner is going to be. I am low on salad fixings. I could do the spaghetti again. The kale chips are gone (I miss them already). I am also out of avocados (OH NO!). I really need to get to the store. Maybe I'll have a better dinner plan after that. I'll let you all know.

Good luck today, everyone.

[MysticTree]

which is smaller - the caravan or the video? ;)
Those cookies look amazing and I know what you mean about the kale chips being gone. I think about kale chips every time I walk past my kale bed and curse the lack of electricity! Solar soon I hope, soon.

[robh]

I suppose sun-dried kale isn't the same.


Last night, I ended up dipping carrots in raw ranch and cashew cheese. I did go to the store and get some fruits and veggies. Most of the evening was burned up going from store to store. It was late when we returned, but I wouldn't stand for the kids eating fast food. The rest of the evening was spent cooking for the family. After all that was done, carrots and dip sounded like an easy thing to do. I don't taste my cooking so so I was 100% raw all day.

The seasons are changing and already the fresh fruits and veggies are fading away. My diet is already really high in fat. Without the fruit, that problem is going to get much much worse. To solve this problem, I have a couple of ideas. First, I need to eat less. Second, when I do I eat, I need to find calories that are not fruit and not fats. I think through the winter, I'm going to do a lot of fasting. Also, I can get a lot of what I need from grass juices (that will cut down on the volume of what I have to eat). I can get calories from sprouted legumes and the occasion sprouted grains. When I do eat fat, it's going to have to be ground sesame seeds because of the high mineral content. I'll also eat sprouted sesame seeds. I really need to sit down with chronometer and see what combinations of sprouts and grass juices will provide a well-balanced diet (obviously for the times that I'm not fasting). Anyway, the idea for the fall is to start transitioning to this new way of eating so that when the fresh food runs out, I won't miss it.

Good luck everyone!