Introducing...

my new friend...

As many of you know I have a passion for making raw ice cream... Well... and eating it.
I looked all summer for an ice cream maker on craigslist and they were overpriced and sold before I could even email the person. Well I got a hunch (no one else would want an ice cream maker in winter, right?!) and searched craigslist for an ice cream maker that was close enough to my house that I could easily get it. Found one a block from my work and picked it up today. It is going to make ice creams soo easy for me. YAY! I can't wait for the bowl to freeze so I can try it out.

busy bee

I cannot believe how hectic life has become. One minute I am thinking, "oh just one more week and things will be back to normal", next thing you know INSANITY. People quitting left and right at work and my trusty co manager got a parasite in Nicaragua so he has been SO sick. Poor guy.
I treated myself to a refurbished IPOD shuffle.
I had no idea it would be so cute and tiny. Keep in mind that my hand is the size of a 7 year olds so it is even smaller than it looks. Yesterday I had to drive all over to fedex and to meet a driver because apple got my shipping address wrong and fedex couldn't deliver. Also Apple has an intense theft prevention policy where fedex CAN NOT change the address. It has to get sent back to apple and they have to resend it. So to prevent that I had to intercept the driver with the tracking number and my ID. Luckily I got my little friend. Some of you, the cooler ones ;) will understand my exclamation of "What is THIS?! A pod for ants?!!" when I first saw it. (Zoolander anyone?!)
Today my "pod for ants" and I went for a run around the lake and I listened to harry potter book on ipod to keep my brain occupied.
It has been tough getting my runs in and eating enough food with work being so intense. I am down two pounds, not in a good way. I shouldn't complain... My poor parasite ridden coworker has lost 22 pounds! I took a whole bunch of days for him so he could stay home and rest up until the doctor confirms the stool sample and will treat him. So only one day off in my future.
In other news I am getting gears for my bike. I am converting it from a single to a four speed, well my good friend is helping me, as I really don't know shit about putting gears and a derailleur on a bike. I want to go faster. I also have been thinking about training for a brick or triathlon, with pressure from my superstar (new) athlete friend stacey
I have no good food stories this week as I have no food. I did get my spud order so I have fruit, but I won't get a chance to grocery shop for a bit.
Smoothie of the day:
1 banana, 1 orange (both peeled) and 1/2 c blueberries
plus 2 T hemp protein
Blueberry Juleus

Raw chocolate

So I got so many questions about the raw chocolate that I decided to do a little tutorial for you all.
And OF COURSE it is VEGAN!! Never doubt it! Raw too!


Ok, so you need about 1/2 cup solid cacao butter, 1/8 cup coconut butter, 1/2 cup raw cacao powder, 1/4 cup raw agave (or to taste), pinch of salt, 1 T vanilla. These are approximate measurements as I usually just wing it.
Make a double boiler using two different sized thick glassed bowls or dishes. Pyrex is perfect. Chop up the coconut butter so it melts faster. If you pour boiling water into the bottom bowl and stir frequently your butter will not get to hot. Keep an eye on it though.
Once your cacao butter is almost melted add coconut butter and wisk until smooth.
Add cacao powder, agave, vanilla, and salt... Wisk well
Once your chocolate is smooth and your desired sweetness you are ready to temper it. Pour it into a plastic wrap lined dish or chocolate molds and place it in the freezer.
There are limitless possibilities to layer or fill your chocolate. Tonight I used a peanut butter cup mold and put cashew butter in the center of a dozen chocolates. In this picture I am using raisins to fill some chocolates. I made a cashew cream last time and layered it between several thin layers of chocolate in a shallow dish, then cut into bars. Just freeze to solid between each layer.
YUM!

I'm BAAAAAAAAAHHHHHCK

Hi,
I know its been awhile. Today I am officially ONLINE. I have been absent quite sometime and it feels really overwhelming stepping back into things. I am not quite ready to RAWFU just yet, maybe tomorrow, today I am taking it slow.
Some of you may know that my boyfriend and I "borrow" wireless Internet from our neighbors. It has always been a bit "hit or miss" but for the last several weeks NOTHING! We finally took the plunge and are PAYING for Internet. What the F!? Internet should be free to all, right? Like food and housing.
I was also gone for a week with family in beautiful sand point idaho, where the commercial says "the idaho man: Father, husband, gun owner, fisherman..." haha, despite the fact that half the men in the grocery stores are wearing camo, idaho was still a fun and beautiful place. Plus I got to go on roller coasters at silverwood theme park.
Here are some photos of my food endeavors while I have been away:

Salad wraps

Strawberries and bavarian cream

CHOCOLATE and CASHEW BUTTER Candy bar!

Salad Wrap Platter

birthday fun!

My birthday weekend has been great, I am sorry to see then end approaching :( I want to stay at home all day and just sit on the couch to try to stretch the time out as long as possible.
So my actual birthday was on sunday. I worked a few hours then came home and hung out with my friend carey and her pup bucky. Bucky is blanches best friend, although sometimes you would never know it the way blanche can bully him. Unfortunatly carey's car broke down when we were out running errands so our plans were shot. Its ok, a friend rescued us and buck and blanche came back to my house while carey went with her car and the tow truck to her parents house. Alex and I were planning on a date night and going to a movie but it was pouring down rain so we were flexable and opted to stay home and play board games together. <3
Monday I went with a group of old friends to wild waves and we did the speed version of the waterpark. Let's just say, it was wild. After that, I came home and was thrilled to find my new VITAMIX on my doorstep. YAY! I used it to make the whipcream portion of one of my birthday cakes. At 630 all my guests came over and we had a great time. It went really well. I always worry about mixing friend groups at parties as I am not a very good host and I have a hard time seeing to EVERYONES fun and needs, however everyone saw to their own fun and everyone was able to talk to others and feel comfortable so that was so comforting to me. All of the non raw foodies LOVED the desserts (or at least told me so) and overall all of my desserts were a success. Aimee and Chris brought a wonderful blackberry cheese cake and mint ice cream, and it was really fun to eat something I hadn't put together. Another friend looked up a raw recipe and brought a mango pudding which was very tasty also.

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This morning blanche and I went running and she was not feeling it. She kept stopping and trying to trip me. I felt something kind of roll or pop behind my knee, it felt like a ligament rolling over a tendon or something (I don't know if that is at all possible) . I iced it just incase, it feels a bit stiff, hopefully it won't be a lasting injury.

treat night

So in the past friday night has traditionally been the night that I would get home from work, get in pajamas, sit on the couch, put on a movie, and order in vegan pizza so that I didn't have to go anywhere. Friday night was pizza night. Kinda like a special little ritual I had. Maybe because it is my wednesday and I am half way through the work week, but probably just because when you are a kid friday nights are TGIF and staying up late and eating pop corn and rootbeer floats. It is a celebration day, a symbol of two more whole days before you have to go back to school. Two days with no obligations but homework (which I never did anyway)... Well I know I am about to turn 27 and I have been dragging out the celebration of friday nights long past their pull date, but you know what?! I like it. It is called emotional eating and I am just fine with that. It makes me feel GOOD. At least now I am eating healthy raw foods instead of dead vegetables, over processed soy foods, and worst of all WHEAT! If I can have my cake and eat it too why not?
Speaking of cake, my birthday feast is taking shape... mmmm it's gonna be good.

For dinner tonight I made zucchini pasta with pesto (fresh zucchini, tomatos, and basil from the farmers market), garlic cheese bread, and a green salad (greens also garden fresh). It was delicious. It felt like a treat. Maybe I will have ice cream next. Believe it or not I haven't had ice cream ALL WEEK! Contrary to popular belief Ice cream isn't the ONLY THING I eat and talk about. Just one that makes me really excited! I made a whole bunch monday, but that is for my birthday so I haven't touched it. I have a tiny bit of vanilla left from last week that I will probably finish off tonight.

vitamix

I did it. I took the plunge. Bought a refurbished vitamix for a birthday gift to myself today. It was a lot of money. I am feeling a little guilty about dipping so far into my savings, but I know I will use it every single day. Ugggh. Oh well, what's done is done.

My haul

So yesterday I had the good fortune of visiting the RAW VEGAN SOURCE store in redmond. Holy shit.
That pretty much discribes it.
As you can see, I did some damage. I got so many super foods I should be able to fly by next week by my estimate. Probably have xray vision in a few weeks. Seriously though, out of control. So new things to try are mesquite powder, msm, cacao butter, raweos (which used to have honey but are now VEGAN!), purple corn, carob powder, hemp seeds... Also got a ton of raw nuts, some delicious greens fresh from the garden, gojis, olives, vanilla... mmm

It has been raining so hard today and a little cool... On my ride home from work the sky opened up and gave me a shower. The wettest ride I have had all year probably. It was kind of awesome and crappy all at once. Awesome to be out in it and be cleansed by the earth, not awesome to have wet pants rubbing against your skin every time you pedal.
I got home and made a cup of hot tea (not raw) and ate a raweo (tea and cookies, such comfort food) and alex fell asleep on the couch sitting up next to me.
Dont worry, that is a tattoo on his chest, not a massive clump of chest hair ;)

my kitchen

It has come to my attention that I am not the only one who likes to look at other peoples kitchen... here's mine

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you see my kitchen is shared with my adorable cooked vegan food eating boyfriend. He likes to eat my raw food too. Especially when I count out exactly how many olives I want in my salad... then he steals one off my plate! jerk!
I have a low power blender and have already burned out two so I started getting the same type so I could reuse the blending jar. If anyone wants to get me a vitamix for my birthday I will take it :) Our fridge is very mess right now but you can see the giant salad bin on bottom, where I store my greens... Also all the nuts and seeds are in jars on the top shelf. I posted these charts we got from bastyr on the cabinet that list good sources of calcium and iron... Also you see my dry good inventory I post for alex so that he stops buying more rice. We have SO MUCH RICE!
Tomorrow I am going to the raw vegan source store with chris, of "bitt's husband" fame. I am going to spend SO MUCH MONEY!

It's Hot

I know... I shouldn't complain since our warm weather is so rare, but as a seattle native I must say 90 degrees is just TOO HOT. Now if I am on the coast and their is a breeze 90 is still ok, but here in the city I prefer 70-75.
I came home from work and took a cold shower then took blanche out for a quick potty break. She thought it was too hot also. I didn't eat a whole lot today because I was super busy at work and, well, hot. So I have kind of been scavenging my kitchen to find something. I ate a date, put a little bit of cashew butter on it, I couldn't resist. Couldn't decide what else to eat. Drank a big glass of water thinking maybe I needed to hydrate before my body could properly register what it wanted. All I can think about is watermelon juice, but no watermelon around my house. I decided to make a juice. Which I never do because it takes so much food and I usually add something that makes it taste gross. I was thinking about this good juice they have at chaco which is apple cucumber and basil. Then I thought, I should add celery because it has lots of electrolytes. Then I did and it tasted gross. So I thought, maybe an orange will drown it out. No, still gross, just spicier. I pretty much downed it, didn't want to waste it. I know you are supposed to drink juice slow but I just couldn't do it. I had another date to wash it down. Now I feel pretty content.
Someone give me some good juicing tips??? It should be easy, I think where I go wrong is in my proportions, oh and adding that extra thing because it's healthy, even if it doesn't go with the other things.

Last night my dad didn't make it to my house until after 10. We were planning on going to get food but by then everything was closed. Instead we all just hung out and visited for about 40 minutes. They met my uncle billy in federal way (about 40 minutes from my house) and left the motorcycles at his house and drove up to seattle. On the right is my Uncle Billy (obviously not biologically related), then my Dad, his daughter (my half sister no one knew about, not even dad, until about 3 years ago. She's nice, you can see the family resemblance), and her husband. Alas, I am not in the picture as I had to take it, but you can picture me a good 6-8 inches shorter than anyone else standing in the front.
I think I will try and take a nap. Maybe when I wake up it won't be so hot!

friday night lights

Got these new shoes today which will make it totally safe to run in the evenings being that the neon colors will reflect car headlights and keep me from getting hit. At least thats my theory. Having a white dog probably does the same thing. I usually get all my shoes from the sneakery a local woman owned shoe shop by my house... with a cool name... and lots of vegan shoes... but I wore through my old pair of tigers and wanted more just like em. Except a new color. I got them online through zappos and since I was already SURE what size I needed I didn't worry like I would normally if I were ordering shoes or clothes online. They came the next day. Gotta love zappos overnight service with no extra charge. Now I just have to figure out in any of my clothes actually match these shoes. Maybe I will just go naked, they look great with my tattoos ;)
haha
My dad is gonna be blazing through town tonight with some other family members and we are gonna get some dinner. He is at the tail end of a 3 week motorcycle road trip and is stopping here on his way home to ellensburg. No, I am not from ellensburg, don't worry. We are going to a burrito place so my plan is to bring a giant "taco"esque salad and maybe if we eat on the patio they wont notice. Or maybe they wont say anything with my gigantic dad and 6 ft tall uncle there... I mean, bikers are supposed to be scary, right? I will get a family picture.

The end of a long day...

Thanks for your kind words about the "incident" this morning. I was clearly more bothered by it than blanche as she promptly rolled over onto her back and fell asleep after our run. Dogs are amazing.
Work was long, and hot, and only my Tuesday. Tomorrow should seem like a slightly shorter day as I have (dun dun dun!) another coffee tasting. So donuts and coffee tasting (and spitting out) for me tomorrow. Even with swallowing very little of the stuff I felt like I was buzzing last time after we were done. It will go fine though. I was so worried last time and it really wasn't a big deal. Well the coffee tasting will take up a good portion of my morning and then I have a ton of stuff to do around the bakery. I think the only reason today seemed so long was because I had to stay til 5pm and I am normally of by 4pm these days so my routine was different.
I made a yummy dinner tonight to make me feel rewarded for my hard work. Lasagna and a salad. I didn't have any cheese, which was fine because frankly I have had way too many nuts lately... and a little bit more fat than my body can handle as well. For the next few days I am trying to lay off the denser fats (nuts, seed butters, coconut butter gasp!!!) I can feel that for me nuts are not my best friend. A little on occasion seem to be ok, but if I am eating them everyday I start feeling bloaty and my skin begins to get a little itchy (candida anyone?). Seeds seem to be a little better, especially if I am getting lots and lots of greens. I should probably pay a little more attention to food combining but I gotta say fruit+fat=love.

I think I shall retire to bed with the dog and a book. The mountain was looking especially beautiful last night so I took this photo for everyone to see how lucky I am to live where I do. Alex went with friends to western Washington to the hoh rainforest. I am anxious to see what he thought since he hasn't spent much time in the dense woods being a socal native. Click on the photo for a better look :)

good run, bad dog

not my dog, she was an angel...
We have been running more regularly and we pretty much follow the same route. I map quested it so I know how far we go. I have been adding a block on every other run or so, gradually increasing our millage. Today was kinda a bummer. Blanche was lagging behind a bit. I don't know if she was tired or just wanted a chance to sniff around a bit. Well we were having an otherwise good run and she had picked up the pace a bit and this dog came out of his house with his mom, off leash of course, and saw us and ran down the stairs to attack blanche. On leash OF COURSE. The mom was yelling after him but he wouldn't stop. I tried to yell no at him and pull her away for a second hoping the mom would come grab him before they engaged, but the dog was biting at blanche so I had to let her loose. I couldn't try to pull her away while another dog was biting her. What a betrayal that would be. I had to let her fight back. Luckily the mom came soon and pulled "washoe" away, I pulled blanche away. Neither seemed to be hurt. It would take a pretty furious lab (which he was I guess, but not mad enough) to put a mark on blanche. She has skin thicker than an otter.
It was a bit upsetting though. You know the feeling after a traumatic even where the adrenaline leaves you and you start to cry? I almost had that. Definitely a little shaky. It's not as if this is my first dog fight. Many of the dogs I had growing up were dog aggressive, we did dog rescue and fostering and we would have dogs in and out of the house and the slightly more than occasional fight. I also taught dog obedience for a few years and saw and had to break up the occasional fight then... but I guess it's different when you have a pitbull. You are so worried about your dog being a good representative of the breed and so worried that if your dog hurt another dog, wether they started it or not, that your dog will be blamed and taken away from you and put to sleep. If someone tried to put blanche asleep we would go on the run. Like fugitives! Also I got a little taste of how blanche must feel... I understand better why she is fear aggressive with other dogs while on leash. We couldn't get away. This other dog was attacking us and ran at us, and he was free and we were stuck. She must feel defenseless and cornered :(

I am pretty bummed because she is 3 and I have had her since 4 months old and NEVER EVER let her get in a fight. I know she didn't start it but I have been working a long time to slowly diminish her aggressive response to other dogs and this may have permanently set us back. I am mad at the lady. I am sure she didn't intend for her dog to get in a fight this morning either but I expect more from someone who knows their dog is dog aggressive. NEVER let your dog outside offleash. Well really, if you don't know 100%, 1000% really that your dog will respond EVERY TIME you call his name he shouldn't be offleash outside by a road aggressive or not. What if they had gotten into the street and a car hit them?!
Anyway, I expect someone to be as responsible with their dog aggressive dog as I am with mine. This psychologicay damaged my dog. Now every time she sees a black dog approach her she is going to react with fear and aggression.
Ugh. Sorry to be dramatic, and post this bummer blog. I have just been working so long and diligently to prevent her from EVER getting in a fight and this was out of my control.

Ice Cream Party!

Tonight we had an ice cream party... not that I haven't been eating ice cream all day...
Chocolate and vanilla banana splits with sliced strawberries and strawberry and fudge sauce.
Chuck's filling me in on all the olympic scandals while I type this

sunday

well for ME it's sunday... The last day of my weekend... boo hoo.
It's always so sad. I feel like I got a lot done these last two days so at least there is the sense of accomplishment alongside the grief at the brevity of a two day weekend. I cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen and picked up a bit in general. Although it could be a LOT cleaner. Chuck (my boyfriend, that's his nickname) and I went grocery shopping together last night and got enough for the week. So I probably wont get a spud order this week. I got to read a bunch yesterday which was nice and relaxing. I made ice cream. Lately I just want Chocolate and Vanilla. Nothing complicated. I got LOTS of salad greens. And for some reason i decided to shave my head. Well this is how it happened. I was like "ugh, my hair feels so dry from ironing it all the time, and I am sick of my mullet." So I thought, oh, I can just go get it cut all pretty short and let it me curly and hopefully it will be cute and really low maintanence. Then I was feeling very impulsive and I was like "I don't want to pay 30-50 dollars for some hair cut that I don't even know if I will like!!!" and then I got this idea that our clippers at home had a comb on them that would be about 3 inches long. HA. So not true. So I set them on the longest setting and started shaving my head. And now I have no hair. It's ok, I have had a shaved head before so no big deal. My hair grows really fast. It is super nice and easy though. Last night I just rinsed it out and put coconut oil on it and I was done. And this morning when I went running I didnt have to figure out how to put it back out of my face, which was a pain with my mul-hawk.
So you should all tell me I still look like a girl and I am cute so that I can feel ok about the fact that I have the same haircut as chuck.
half joking. half.
PS you should all take a glance to the right and note that the next hp movie comes out in 100 days! So like right as I am finishing up with the challenge. Maybe that will be my reward!

green sandwich

I realized that with my week being so busy I have not gotten salad greens. I actually haven't eaten a green salad in days. Weird! So I had a green sandwich to make me feel better about the lack of green in my diet. I am going to have a green salad for dinner too. Dessert is going to be the same as breakfast though... chocomole pie. We are watching olympics right now. Sychronized diving is CRAZY!

chacamole pie!

I made a pie for dinner... I am feeling hormonal ;)

Chacamole Pie
Crust:
2 c cashews (dry) ground to powder
1/2 c raisins
3 T coconut butter
1/2 t salt
1 T vanilla
Filling:
2 large AVOS
3 T coconut butter
1/2 c cacao powder
3/4 c agave
1/4 t balsamic vinegar (optional)

optional: 1/2 cup coconut shavings

Get a spring form pan and grease the sides with coconut oil... I used a 9 inch
To make crust combine all ingredients in a processor until it balls up. I probably would have used dates over raisins but the store was out. Press dough into the bottom of a spring form pan.
Dump coconut shavings on top of the crust and spread evenly over the crust.
Put in freezer for a bit while making filling so the coconut oil coating becomes solid.
Process all filling ingredients until smooth. Pour into spring form pan on top of crust sticking to the center of the pan. Once all the filling is in the pan rotate the pan while gently smoothing the filling towards the sides. This will evenly distribute the filling without mixing in the coconut shavings. Once complete refrigerate for at least an hour. To remove from sides run hot water carefully over the outside of the pan rotating as you go. Careful not to get water INSIDE the pan (like I did as you can see by the light colored streaks on the top of my pie!!!). This is a very brief process, the coconut oil will melt quickly. Release the clip on the pan and it should come off perfectly. Refridgerate again for 10 more minutes to resolidify your pie. EAT!

raw fu friends!

I have been fighting with the internet for two days now... hopefully today it will work and post my blog!
(this was last night)
Got together with some lovelye Raw FU'ers and partners last night and it was awesome. I was very happy to meet people who I had gotten to know so well in digital, and find that I liked them even more in REAL LIFE. We had a great meal at chaco and talked for hours afterwards. Half the time there were up to three conversations happening simultaneously across the table.
It was also really nice to talk to other raw foodies and not feel like the odd one out because all I want to talk about is raw cacao!
Here's all my happy, beautiful, new raw friends... You can find all of their blogs listed to the right of this post. Yardsnacker, HiHoRosie's Place, Bitt's Blog, and Lola Bloom! "This is WAY more fun than the internet!" -Yardy
I am capping off my evening with some chococado pudding. I tried to convince myself it was ice cream by putting toppings on it... some of you may remember I am out of ice cream because I ATE IT ALL the other morning.
ChacoCado Puddin:
1 Avocado
Cacao powder and agave to taste (approximately 1/8c each, but more depending on the size of the avo!)... mix it all up=yum
It is best when you blend it because it will be smoooth and more chocolate puddingy. I just mashed it with a fork cause I was feeling lazy!
I also added a spoonful of coconut butter... you know me.

Yesterday I also got to meet my moms new puppy, shelby. She is an adorable 4 month old Bouvier.

Very sweet and fuzzy!

prepare for battle

so, the reason work has been a bit stressful lately is that my co-manager, or evening counterpart, is going out of the country for 6 weeks starting today. Today, and the next few days, are going to be espescially busy and hectic. I at least have two awesome highlights tomorrow which will get me through today.
1. my mom is going to be in town for a few hours and she is bringing her ADORABLE NEW PUPPY to come see me at work. Oh, you better believe I will take pictures.
2. I get to finally meet some of my local raw internet friends! yay!
So in preparation for today mostly, but the next couple of days as well I made myself food to last awhile. I made raw thai salad from Aimee's post here. I made it almost exactly the same but I didn't have all the ingredients so my slaw was cabbage, cucumber, mushroom, and carrot. I used braggs like aimee did instead of nama shoyu but I also added the juice of an orange. It is SUPER good! Good call on the mint and basil too... Just like eating the inside of a fresh roll. Next time I may sprout some mung beans to throw in too! I have been eating it just as a salad or wrapped in a cabbage leaf like a taco.
I also made the DELICIOUS chili I love so much but this time added a lot more veggies like corn and carrots. I think it is getting perilously close to tasting like a spicy veggie soup instead of chili now, but it is still good. Today I work at 1030 and I start the night bake. We have a HUGE order today, like the biggest ever and we are starting the bake 1.5 hours early. It will most likely be a long day. I will for sure be bringing a BIG dragon egg nog smoothie along as well.
3 bananas
2 cups of spinach
1-2 T tahini butter
.5t cinnamon
.25 t nutmeg
yummm
Although today it will probably have vitamineral green and spirulina instead of spinach cause I am out!

hot dawg! (blanche!)

So I must say thanks to Bitt's Blog, miss stacey s, and this little climbing monkey for inspiring me to go get some exercise this morning. B. lanche and I went for a 1.5 mile run this morning, which may not seem like much, but for her was a lot. I am only in slightly better shape than she is. When she was a puppy I used to HAVE to walk her 3 miles everyday or she would be UP THE WALL with energy. When she got a little older and stopped needing as many walks, and alex moved in with us and taught her the fine art of napping, I took a much wanted walking vacation. I mean, we still walk, but usually just a mile or two, and long walks like once a week. Well this pup dog is pretty out of shape and not so great with the heat. She isn't fat but she has a lot of muscle mass and I would imagine you have to be in pretty good cardiovascular shape to move that bulk quickly. We are going to be running more often as long as my ouch will let me. Maybe I will get into the injury at some point, but I prefer to ignore it as much as possible.
Alex even said he would run with us. WHAT?!!! Crazy!
Anyway she is crashed on the floor right now but as soon as we both cool down I am going to make a delish green smoothie to share with her, she earned it...

Oh and aimee, I don't know if I ever answered the question about how she does running with me. When she was a pup she wouldn't keep a steady cadence, it was run, sprint, walk, stop, sprint, stop, run... Now she does much better, mostly because she gets tired quick I think! although hopefully she will be so used to it by the time she is in great shape that she won't revert back to sprinting. I make her wear her gentle leader and only a couple times a run does she try to stop or pull me across the street. I think she mostly is just excited to move forward and see where we are going.

Day 5... long time no post

I know it has been a bit since my last post. Work has been a little stressful and has left me feeling drained when I get home, unable to make anything more elaborate than a salad, or eating ice cream from the container. We are now on day 5 of the raw food challenge, I hope everyone is getting into it. I have been away from the rawfu a little bit too. I feel like it has grown so much and I don't have the energy to dig around the entire thing. Today I may be able to invest a little time as I skipped yoga this morning to stay up super late watching season three of Veronica Mars (which seriously leaves you hanging by the way) and eating this Banana Split
It is probably my favorite Ice Cream dish I have ever made. Simple, Rich, a hint of Mischief. (mischief because I stayed up and skipped yoga!) Whole Foods had a poor selection of young coconuts this week, I only found three I liked and one of the STILL turned out to be unusable. I am keeping my receipt this time! So I felt like I had to beef up the base a little to make more volume. I added 1/4 cup of cashew butter. I have done this before as well, it really does add something as far as richness. It isn't cheap, and it isn't necessary, but sometimes it is nice for a touch of something extra. I also invested in some cacao powder in addition to my normal nibs and I must say... BIG DIFFERENCE. There is no way I can grind the nibs so fine in the coffee grinder, although I am going to try harder now for sure, and it assimilates so much better. For the fudge sauce I mixed equal parts agave and coconut butter and whisked in cocoa powder until it tasted the way I wanted. For Carmel Sauce leave the cocoa powder out. YUM
Grocery Shopping "Score of the Week" was 10lbs of heirloom tomatos for 25$. I got them at the closest PCC and told the produce guy I wanted a box (case). He started going through and tossing the ones with the scab on the bottom and I was like "OH!!! I'll take them! Don't throw them out!!! I don't care if they aren't perfect as long as they aren't all bruised and rotting." So he gave me a little discount in addition to their case discount for taking the flawed tomatos. Most of them were perfectly fine, just one or two needed parts cut out. I didn't care, I was just going to dehydrate them anyway!
I left a few for salads but the rest went in the hot box.
I just had some chocolate ice cream for breakfast, I feel a little gluttonous but since I am convinced my period is going to start today I am justifying it.

Day 1 of the Challenge

First order of business: Dear whoever makes the weather, I am glad that like the guy who works at pcc you read my blog. Thanks for the nice weather today and I would appreciate it in the future if all rain could happen between the hours of 10pm and 1am.

Ok, next order of business, the 100 Day Raw Food Challenge officially started today. Of course, my real day is closer to day 75, but we are going to say 1. I tried to be mindful of my personal challenge goals today. I definitely noticed points where i was shoveling it in without paying attention but I brought myself back to awareness and slowed down.
The nice weather greatly improved my mood, I was very productive at work, and I ALMOST forgot my coffee tasting anxiety until it was time to go.
It worked out ok... I spit almost all of the donuts and coffee out. They tasted great, but not any better than a lot of the delicious raw foods I get to eat. I did feel a little buzzy after the tasting so I know a little of the caffeine and sugar got in, but not much.
After work a friend and I went to the phinney farmers market and I got peaches, berries, cool round zucchinis and some multi colored bell peppers. Well they weren't multiple colors, I got multiple different colors. I made myself a nice, pretty, satisfying dinner in honor of day one. Now I am going to bed :)
Italian inspired Green Salad with Dill Cheese
Raw Chili from goneraw.com
Berries held in Purple Cabbage Leaves with Banana Cream

oh what a beautiful morning

what a great day to start our 100 day RAW FU challenge. Today totally makes up for the suck that was yesterday. Hopefully it stays nice. Farmers market this afternoon, yum

cookies

Here they are... delicious! I am debating pulling them all out of the d'drator now or leaving them in until chewy. Now they are soft on the inside but chewy on the outside from the nuts and coconut.
Recipe something like this...
Process some nuts for the outside of the cookies, throw them into a shallow bowl with some shredded coconut and cacao nibs or whatever you have that would be yummy.
For the cookie process about 10 dates with cacao and coconut butter and 2 T flax seed, ground up and 2 T Sunflower seeds, ground up, and a splash of vanilla. It should be sticky and kinda soft but able to ball. Make tablespoon sized balls and roll them in the nuts and coconut. Squish em down a bit and set them on your dehydrator screen. My batch made about 24 cookies. I d'drated them for 2 hours before I decided I wanted to start eating some. You could wait longer. They will probably keep getting better.

Baking cookies

As many of my fellow seattlites are aware today is a serous bummer. The weather outside looks like january, much warmer of course, but much colder than it has been. It makes me want hot soup.
Not to mention I feel kinda funky today, not like in a good way. All day I have felt tired and my eyes are dry and I feel sore and unable to deal with any kind of effort or frustration. This led me to cutting out of work a little early today and coming home, putting on pajamas, and sitting on the couch. It's kinda funny because I realize thats how I spent a lot of my time home from work before raw. And I think winter may bring it back a bit, but eating raw food has totally changed my energy level.
Maybe I have some detox going on today or something???
Well I decided to work out my mood the same way I would have back on SAD VEGAN. Chocolate. Fat. and Sugar.
I am making cookies.
Hopefully raw cookies wont make me feel MORE tired and moody (but in an odd way better) than I was to start with, the way SAD VEGAN cookies do.
I will post pics and recipe later, if I don't feel so lazy and cranky. Plus they are still in the dehydrator.
Oh! and another bummer:
Tomorrow, Day 1 of the "100 Day Raw Food Challenge" I have to go to a coffee tasting and donut paring. Which means I will have to taste coffee with donuts. I haven't eaten ANY cane or processed sugar or cooked/refined grain in over 2 months. I am debating spitting like with wine, but am worried I may look like a freak. My other thought is really small tastes and LOTS OF WATER! Ugggh, what a way to kick things off.
:( I need cookies

quick update

One more day until the 100 Day Raw Food Challenge starts and let me just say, I AM SO PSYCHED!
Especially because my local lady friends Aimee and Rosie and I are gonna do some hanging out! Also I am excited because one of my coworkers and another one of my coworkers girlfriend (well she's my friend too I just don't know her as well) are both joining me in the challenge! How amazing!! Raw FU for everyone!
Ok, ate really simple today, just slapped some guac onto a bunch of collard leaves and used what was left of my beet/carrot slaw as stuffing. Super crisp and refreshing.
Someone asked if I would post the FAMOUS onion bread recipe... here ya go
by the way, I can in no way take credit for this gem other than the addition of the apple and the reduction of salt ;)

Ingredients
3 large yellow onions (I use 2)
1/2 a large apple
¾ cup flax seed, ground in coffee grinder
¾ cup raw sunflower seed, (I soak and sprout first) ground in food processor
1/4 cup Braggs Liquid Aminos

Preparation (this is my method, not the original)
Peel the onions. Set 1/2 of one onion aside, using your food processor or superb knife skills slice it into very thin slices... Place the remaining 1.5 onions and the apple in the food processor and chop until thoroughly processed. Add the ground sunflower seeds and combine. Pour into a bowl with the flax meal and mix until smooth. Add the finely sliced half onion and mix again.
Spread the mixture evenly on 2 dehydrator trays lined with Teflex sheets. Dehydrate at 104’f for 4 hours. Flip the trays over onto mesh dehydrator sheets, and gently peel the Teflex sheets off the bread. Return to dehydrator for another 8-12 hours. Once dehydrated, cut into 9 equal pieces (makes 9 cuts horizontally and 2 cuts vertically) per sheet.

Vanilla with Nectarines

Real quick I had to post this because it's like my favorite so far

ice cream, beets, kitchen tools!

I jumped the gun a bit on my ice cream processing, put it through the juicer before it was frozen solid, so it is a little hard from the refreeze. Its okay, I just cut it with a knife... at least this way you get to see the cross section of my vanilla-blueberry swirl raw ice cream. I also made vanilla with nectarine chunks which I will take a picture of later today probably, and orange mango coconut Popsicles. Oh! and yesterday I got a brand new ICE CREAM BOWL. Just a cute little pink bowl to eat my ice cream out of so I will like it that much more! I am sure you will see it eventually.
I cut open my beets yesterday, only to find that they were secretly BEAUTIFUL heirloom marbled beets and I didn't even know. I used them to make a salad that was based on this recipe posted by Jessica on her Raw Blog. I used avo and orange for my dressing as I didn't have any prunes, added a shredded apple and skipped the pine nuts. It turned into a delicious crunchy slaw, which I have been eating TONS of.
Making this salad forced me to finally break out the different tools that came with my Cuisinart. I CAN NOT believe that I have never gone through that box before. I only ever use the s blade. Well guess what? I have a shredding disc and all these other cool cutting tools. Including a disc that will slice my zucchini paper thin. Wow I really could have used this when making lasagna the other day. Maybe I will make it again today just so I can use it!
Another kitchen tool I love is my cherry pitter. It is so awesome if you plan on using cherries in a recipe and don't want to have to spit out pits while you are eating OR if you are using your cherries for decoration on desserts.
It's SO cool!