Week 3 Raw...Blend Away

As promised, I tried a few new recipes this week. Pictured to the left is Ani Phyo's Black Sesame Sunflower Bread! This is the first raw bread I've tried and truly enjoyed. I think the recipe says to cut it into 9 squares but I cut mine into 12. I made some small changes like using less whole flaxseeds and grinding more of the sunflower seeds.

I made a couple of hummus and veggie sandwiches with this bread. They were delish! Because of the bread's neutral taste you can put anything on it as long as you cut down on the garlic. The recipe can be altered for sweet bread too!

I've been having a blast blending my little heart out!  To your right is a light Chocolate Coconut Shake.

The ingredients included:

vanilla

1 small banana

1 Medjool Date

1/2 cup Almond milk

1 tsp or so of maca and 

1 tsp or so of cacao powder

Vanilla Hemp Shake

Hemp Seeds

Banana

Almond Milk

Vanilla 

Dates

Strawberry Hemp Shake

Strawberries, Banana, Almond Milk, Hemp Seeds and Bee Pollen

Blueberry Shake

Blueberries, Banana, Hemp Seed

Cherry Smoothie

Cherries, Peaches, Banana, vanilla, Bee Pollen

Coconut Shake

Coconut, Banana, Dates, Almond Milk, Vanilla, Sprinkle of Cinnamon

Wild Blueberry Hemp Shake

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Shake

Cherry Hemp Shake

Cherries, Banana, Hemp protein powder, Hemp Seeds

Cherry Raspberry Shake 

Chocolate Shake

Cacao powder, Banana, Almond milk, Maca, Mesquite, Agave, Vanilla 

Week 2

This week, I prepared more liquid foods such as smoothies, juices and soups. They're the easiest to prepare while eating mostly raw. They're very enjoyable whether you're eating raw or not. Fulfilling, flavorful, packed with nutrients and protein, how can you not like them? My new experiences this week were Kelp Noodles and someone's Just Like Ritz Crackers crackers found on the RCF. And yes! They are close as you can get to Ritz crackers. I'm finding walnuts are so versatile. Last Christmas I made the raw version of the Mexican wedding cookies. My family enjoyed plenty of them!

I bought a package of Kelp noodles from Whole Foods and my original thought was "this might be about two servings....for 4 dollars!?" (I am on a tight budget.) To my surprise, when I let them soak in water for about 20 minutes or so they plumped up and my new thought was "Wow...This is too much!"Kelp noodles have an interesting texture. When you bite into it there's a slight crunchiness. I paired them with my ratatouille. Sooo good!

I should have taken a picture of the ratatouille before it reduced in the Dehydrator. Inspired by the movie Ratatouille, I sliced all the veggies with a mandolin.

Ratatouille Recipe: 1 peeled eggplant, 1 red and green bell pepper 
1 or 2 zucchini and sliced yellow onion. 
 Marinara Sauce: 
2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper to taste, 2 roma tomato (that's all I had) 2 tbsp olive oil, a dash of cayenne pepper, onion powder and enough sun-dried tomatoes to thicken.

From Art of living raw, green smoothie.

spinach,  hemp seeds,  mango, splash of nut milk 

maca powder.

Topped with hemp seeds.

I came up with the recipes below.

Beautiful Sunrise- peaches, mango, bee pollen, honey

Purple Perfection - grapes, blueberries, chard, bee pollen

 Pretty N Pink- Hemp seeds, raspberries, peaches, dates

Whole Pink Grapefruit Juice

Juices: from left to right

Grapefruit juice, 

blueberry grape and chard, 

pineapple, 

carrot ginger, 

green juice:

celery parsley ginger lemon spinach; 

adapted from Art of Living raw living food- Beet, apple, carrot and ginger; 

and Ani Phyo Corn chowder

 Ani Phyo Corn chowder w/ alterations

Sarma's Cilantro Shake

Just a Salad! 

1 Week Raw...Almost

So, I've been on a 80-90% raw food eating plan for the past couple of weeks....even when I not feeling well. Last night I went to a potluck Bible study and did not eat any of the processed cake, cookies, muffins etc....!! Instead, I ate before I arrived. I was not tempted with anything. Well...I guess I shouldn't say that. You know, when my family and friend get together we eat. So, I was tempted to eat because I was around company..not because I was hungry.

Moving on, I made a goal to try a new recipe daily, whether it's a smoothie combination or just a different fruit on veggie. My new food experiences are pictured below. I also noticed that once I (un)cooked Sunday and Monday I did not need to cook anything else. I started each morning with a 16 oz whole food juice or smoothie that took a few minutes to make and put in a cup to go. My lunches consisted of large salads and fruit or a falafel type wrap. My dinners were the same: Kale salad, smoothie, falafel wrap, zucchetti with raw marinara or lemon basil pesto! I'm enjoying my raw journey. The recipes are fun and mostly easy. Who says eating raw has to be hard?
 
One reason I felt I could not do the "raw thing" before was because I was overwhelmed with many of the complex recipes. But now I'm learning that the simple recipes are great and fun to prepare.
 
Below are photos of my meals last weeks.
 

blueberries, spinach, banana, hemp protein

Cinnamon Banana Shake

Blueberries, grapes, spinach 1/2 banana

Whole grapefruit juice made with the Vita-mix

Basic Salad

Spaghetti Squash with marinara

Falafel like balls with a zucchini flax wrap with marinated kale salad and grapes

Lemon pesto and zucchetti

Tomato Basil soup

Strawberry Mango Coconut freeze

Took a time out!

Ok, so a lot has happened in the past few weeks. I actually got sick twice which Is why I haven't posted in a while. But I'm back!! For Christmas I made granola and candied walnuts, pecans and cashews. My enjoyed the walnuts (which she can't stand normally) and the pecans. Here are some photos!

Maple Walnuts and Maple Cinnamon Pecans

Middle Jar- Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat Granola

bowl- granola, blueberries, dried cranberries and bananas

Almond Butter granola, almond milk and died cranberries

I was happy with everything expect the Almond butter granola. My mom told me to add more sweetness when I asked her to taste it during prep. She was right! Otherwise it was good. I added more sweetness to the almond milk to offset the lack of sweetness in the granola.

On another note, I finally got the Vita-Mix!!!! 

Of course, the first thing I did after speaking with my grandmother was make a smoothie!

spinach, frozen peaches, banana

Delish result!

Spicey Tomato Soup

and finally....today

Yogi juice! includes---oranges, strawberries, maca, bee pollen, agave, and lemon