Day 35, Warm dishes and rebellion

It is 10:14.

I feel a bit guilty because I did not report on my menu yesterday, and I haven't done it today either.

I'm trying to decide if I feel badly enough to actually do it... wow what a boring post!

Today's menu was a mix of boring and convoluted (read: due to lack of planning due to a slight rebelliousness towards having to eat raw, you know, it makes perfect sense right? I wish I could just grab something ready made and pop it in my mouth (you pipe in "like an apple?" and I growl back "shut up!"), but since I can't have cereal or granola bars or tortilla chips *sigh*, I protest by just not eating at all, until I am really hungry so I reach for the dried fruit and/or nuts (you pipe in "you mean the stuff that is just as ready made and ready to be popped into your mouth as an apple?" I shout "I AM GOING TO POP *YOU* IN THE MOUTH!"), and then I realize that I have successfully skipped a meal.

So today I skipped breakfast, or rather, I had about four bites of Loren's sprouted buckwheat with yogurt, honey and blueberries, which he had mixed ahead of time, which made it a lot easier on the jaw, and WARMED UP, which made it comforting. Oh! this was hours after having had another small lukewarm Pepsi (see Day 16) so that I could drive without putting our lives in danger, I was super sleepy so the effects were not as dramatic as the first time.


--Before I forget, I should give you yesterday's menu: Smoothie, Wendy's Baja salad without chili or tortilla chips, with extra guacamole and pico de gallo, a few random nuts and dried fruits as I worked at the computer in the evening (not hungry enough to make it an actual dinner). Notable moment of the day: warm cocoa! Loren has been making a few warm dishes lately and it inspired me to try a warm drink. It was a very cool afternoon after a rainy morning, so I wanted the luxury of a warm drink. I added 2 teaspoons of pure baking cocoa (I am not completely sure but I think it is acceptable) to a mug of almond milk and warmed it up in the microwave oven, just enough to take the chill off. YUM! If you try it I would recommend making it half a mug at a time because it cools off very quickly, so I ended up drinking it faster that I normally would have.


Back to today:
Through the day I nibbled at some homemade trail mix (raw hazelnuts, walnuts and raisins), for lunch I had lettuce wraps with raw hummus, red pepper, cucumber AND guacamole (yum), and around 5pm had an OJ and a small side salad (worse iceberg lettuce EVER) at a local fast food place. After taking L2 to soccer practice (she's slowly getting in shape) I had some spinach leaves with raw hummus warmed in the micro just long enough (10 seconds for a small plate) to say I did and make it "special"...

Funny what deprivation will do to you, lukewarm hummus becomes special and a lukewarm drink is a luxury.

Thank you God for allowing us to create lack in our lives, so that we can learn to truly appreciate the blessings when we allow them back in!

With that I am going to bed, BEFORE ELEVEN, be impressed!

I wish you the best :)

Good Night.

PS. I will be sharing Loren's warm recipes soon, one is a raw curry (using yogurt, so not 100% vegan raw), and the other is a mix of chopped almonds, chili powder and chopped tomatoes, sounds weird but he said it was awesome (I have not tried it yet).

Day 33 Sunday and Taxes

Yes, I know, taxes are due this Friday. I am more behind this year than ever, ugh.

I partly blame this diet, I have had no motivation even when my energy level feels fine, which is closely related to the crabbiness of the last week or so. BUT, I got some insight into this and I am very excited into what will be coming....

I had a classmate back in graduate school, a no nonsense, pragmatic, serious sort of mezzo-soprano, who greatly surprised us when she returned from summer vacation 30+ pounds lighter and talking about becoming a massage therapist. To make a long story short she is now an "Intuitive Consultant" and "Spiritual Teacher" and had a very interesting explanation for the crabbiness (FYI, the summer I mentioned she went to a meditation retreat where she was also introduced to raw foodism, thus the weight loss).

This is what she said: "the crabbiness is definitely the diet! :-) "

To which I responded: "THANK YOU for assuring me that the crabbiness is from the diet! I was beginning to think I had found my inner bitch!"

Here is the really interesting part:
"Nope, it's just that as you eat raw, your physical body's vibration shifts. And then anything at the emotional level that's misaligned to that "upgraded" vibration has the opportunity to show up (lucky you). It helps to take baths with a tablespoon of sea salt and a little lavender. Think of all this as emotional body clearing ... unfortunately, you have to feel it to clear it"

Food for thought to say the least.

So, first of all I took a bath. I did not have sea salt, but I had Epsom salt, which I know will at least help clear physical toxins. I had been having this hunch that I should take a bath to help detox but had not listened to it. This added reminder was all I needed.

I was pretty crabby when I took it though, so it was not life changing by any means, but I did feel better afterward (and the whole house smelled like lavender).

Next I asked her (Andrea Hess) if she would be willing to guest blog by answering some more questions about this, and she agreed!

I am very excited about this. I feel like I have been neglecting the spiritual side of this discipline and when I don't I usually neglect to mention it here! So this will be a nice way to inject some of the less tangible, but just as important aspects of this lifestyle.

OK, as far as what I ate today...
Smoothie for breakfast (basic recipe plus a scoop of protein powder)
Gorgeous wraps (courtesy of Loren) for lunch!

Red Romaine, Raw Hummus, cucumber and red pepper slices.

And for dinner, since I was just doing the taxes, I slowly ate my second wrap from lunch and nibbled on some almonds with Wasabi and soy sauce (see Wasabi Soy Walnuts  int the recipe page), dried apples and fresh grapes (not all together!!).
I also had a couple of glasses of white wine (it was the TAXES! c'mon!)

Have a great night and a wonderful week! and if you want to start learning about Andrea's work, here is a plug:

Learn how to use YOUR intuition to create financial abundance in this FREE Video Training with Andrea Hess

Day 19, Forced Presence, continued (with yummy photos!)

When I got home today I lied down for a few minutes (don't tell the kids I was crying).

Loren was as sweet as ever, he put the covers over me and gave me a clean handkerchief, then went into the kitchen and made me these:

Lettuce wrap with Guacamole, Savory Brazil Nuts
(and Pepitas) and Pico de Gallo
Chef: Loren Powell, Photographer: Me

Which include these:

Savory Brazil Nuts (and Pepitas)

All the recipes are in my recipes page!!

For snack I had dried apple rings with raw almond butter and white wine mixed with orange juice (that's why you buy the cheap wine).


On a somewhat unrelated note... there are A LOT of sites on the internet that offer recipes for raw food. I am very appreciative of the fact that people have taken the time to create things like the raw substitute for mashed potatoes and gravy, but, to be perfectly honest, those recipes just don't work for me.

I don't cook.
(Thank you for feigning shock)

In fact, I have been known to say I cook one meal a year (Costa Rican Christmas Eve dinner, featuring my dad's leg of pork, rice with heart of palm, cabbage and cilantro salad, mashed black beans, tortillas, chips with salsa and/or anchovy dip, and a couple of not so Costa Rican favorites: prunes wrapped in bacon, and maple syrup and balsamic vinegar Brussels sprouts), the rest of the year (and ONLY because Loren has been working nights for a few years so he is not here to cook) I make: chili, spaghetti, pasta primavera, eggs and Gallo Pinto (also Costa Rican, basically spiced rice and beans --out of a can), Picadillo (details in this post, I'm not adding it to the recipes page because it has meat and, well, it is cooked) and -my favorite- frozen Taquitos with mashed black beans out of a can, cheese and salad (no bad ingredients, I read all the labels!!), and, of course, you will always find an "emergency Pizza" in our freezer.

So, for a person that doesn't cook these recipes seem a little over the top. I do not want to spend hours in the kitchen, slaving over a lukewarm dish that wants to be something else. I would rather stay away from things that are going to remind me of stuff I can't have and just enjoy fresh, yummy things that take very little preparation and are not going to make me wish I were eating something cooked!

So, if you're like me, I hope to be of assistance. You CAN eat healthy without cooking, and by that I mean even if you are eating cooked food, you can find the healthy alternatives at the grocery store so you don't have to frustrate yourself in the kitchen.

And, most importantly, I *support* you in your inability or unwillingness to cook.
Non-Cooks of the World UNITE! and be ashamed no longer!

PS. Loren also made himself a very interesting and tasty wrap with raw Tahini, olives, tomato and alfalfa sprouts, awesome combination of flavors!