4th and last week of my Challenge

Hi Guys!


This is my last week on my $34.60 week challenge. This week I spent 25.12 which leaves me with $8.88 left over for the month. My grocery list included the following: collards, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, corn, black beans, lentils, bananas, strawberries and cashews. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to take any pictures this week because my camera is not working. I mainly stuck to collard wraps, dehydrated veggie wraps, smoothies. I was able to use my camera phone for some pics but I the color wasn’t that great. Check out some of my meals.

Blueberries Hemp Protein Smoothie

Chocolate Almond Butter Hemp Protein Smoothie

Basic Salad with any veggie I could find in an Avocado Ranch Dressing

 

Collard Wrap with cooked onions, black beans and raw corn, spinch and tomato

Eggplant Bacon, Tomato, Spinach and hummus wrapped in a Sun dried Tomato Flax wrap

Collard wrap with alfalfa sprouts, carrots, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and more.

Trying new Recipes

As much as I would like to purchase a ton of raw food books my budget will not allow me to. However, with the abundance of information on the internet I am able to learn a great deal about eating raw. In the past few months I’ve copied many recipes from authors like Alissa Cohen, Sarma Melngailis and James Russell. The last couple of recipes I tried were, Turnip Ravioli (Alissa) with macadamia nut cheese (from James Russell.)


Raw Ravioli
For the ravioli I used my own sundried marinara and added spices to the macadamia nut cheese. I also marinated the turnips in lemon juice and a dash of salt to soften them up quicker. Pictured below was the end result.

Next up, since there are times when I’m not at home for a good part of the day I wanted to make a sandwich that did not need to be assembled. In my previous post I made Ani Phyo’s Black Sesame bread but that did not hold up well when I traveled. So, I made collard wraps making sure all the veggies were as dry as possible.

 First attempt

Caesar Salad Wrap with oatmeal cranberry cookies

Cookies 

After making Carmella's (very easy) Oatmeal Cookies I attempted to make some others. My favorite treats as a child often included something with peanut butter like peanut butter cups, peanut butter cookies,  and (chocolate) peanut butter milkshakes. I will make almond butter cups when I find a simple recipe, until then I decided to try my hand at almond butter cookies. I didn't have any almond butter and I did not want to spend $10 on a half size jar. So.... I made some almond butter with my food processor. It was easier than I expected. All it took was 1 cup of almonds and 10-15 minutes of processing.

 

Oatmeal chocolate pecan, Lemon Coconut, Oatmeal Cranberry,

Almond Butter and Chewy Oatmeal (not pictured)

Lately, I've started my morning with some kind of drink like a green smoothie, fruit smoothie, or green juice. They are so quuick and easy. I've discovered smoothies will last a day in the fridge.

Pure Grapefruit Juice

 

Sour Apple- green apple, lemon, grapes, spinach, ginger, banana and hemp seeds

Sweet Beet Juice- Apple, celery, carrot, and beets

This next drink is one of my absolute favorites. I drink this sometimes twice a day. It's a mixture of carrot, ginger, brazil nut milk, and bananas. The original recipe comes from the book Raw Food Real World.