Everyday Raw...

So someone on goneraw was talking up this cookbook and I thought, hey that sounds great. The title really did it for me, since I know I can make fancy raw food, but what does one eat day to day??? I ordered it on amazon, it came the next day, I didn't even order 1 day, all good omens so far. So happily I read the book. All you other food nerds who get a cookbook and proceed to read it cover to cover the first day, you are in good company. This is what I thought:

• Pretty pictures (sounds funny but it helps)
• A few recipes that could be staples
• Many recipes that call for young Thai coconut
• Many nut heavy recipes
• Many recipes I will never make

Buuuut... let's be honest, most of the time I don't use recipes anyway. I just learn HOW to make stuff and through it together on my own. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I think overall $13 whatever that I paid for this book was worth it. If the corn chips rule it will be worth the money just for that. 

Today I made a recipe almost entirely from the book, minus parsley, which I didn't have and I think it's gonna be great. 

Quinoa Tabbouleh

1 C soaked and sprouted Quinoa

1 C Tomato (diced)

1 C Cucumber (diced)

1/4 C minced Red Onion

1/2 C Flat Leaf Parsley

1/4 cup Olive Oil

3 T Lemon Juice

1 t Salt

Drain Quinoa, transfer to a medium bowl and let marinate in olive oil, lemon juice and salt for 30 min- 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well incorporated.

I used way less dressing, I don't need that much Oil! I also just mixed it all together and let it marinate as one. It is marinating right now and I can wait to eat it! Oh and I threw some Avo on top. Guess I am getting that oil anyway ;)

So in the picture I think you can see all the cute little sprouts from my quinoa. Some people say they can't eat sprouted (uncooked) quinoa, this will be my first time eating a large quantity, we will see if it hurts my tummy.

If you cheat to win, you still won...

So over the past few days I have had some successes and failures in raw food land. I made a DELICIOUS Kale Avocado salad, courtesy of Nicole, my once and future boss. And I made DISGUSTING cauliflower mashed potatoes and mushroom almond gravy (no thanks to you GONERAW!!!). Well I still love gone raw but this should really teach me to make SMALL batches of new recipes instead of just diving in and wasting a WHOLE head of cauliflower and bag of scrumptious little mushrooms. I got a new raw food cookbook called Everyday Raw... I will write a review of it under a whole separate blog. Anyway, I have had a few lightly cooked dinners (come on guys, 4 in 20 days isn't so bad) but today I kinda blew it. I am not mad at myself I am just going to keep going which is great. I ate an ENTIRE BLUEBERRY DONUT at work today (don't worry! vegan of course). I was just going to have a little taste, since today was the first day of the seasonal donut, and it IS my favorite donut, well I started "tasting" and what do you know? I was half way through the donut. At that point I was like "fuck it" and finished it. It is funny because after I ate it I started having coffee cravings and I have not craved coffee once this whole time. I know it has to be because I used to always have coffee and a donut for breakfast in the mornings on the first break, and I am sure my body was saying, "hey a donut! better get ready for that coffee" and stared producing whatever it produces to break down coffee. Which made me crave it. It was my first wheat product and processed sugar in 20 days and I am a little bummed I did that to my body, but it's ok, part of my little raw food experiment is learning about my food addictions and bad little eating patterns and I feel like I can let this mistake go and not falter, which is kinda big for me. I think I may have followed the donut with another and a cup of coffee with soymilk in the past. So good for me.

A little nervous about california eating, but I think it will be alright. If I eat a little crappy food I will just recover and keep on going.

Kale Avocado Salad

1 Bunch of Kale (washed and torn)

1 Avocado (diced)

1 Lg Tomato (chopped)

2 T Olive oil

1 T Lemon Juice

1/2-1 t Sea Salt (depending on taste)

Put it all in a bowl together and smush it all up in your fingers, massage the salt, oil, and lemon juice into the kale. Eat right away or let it marinate a while. Such a good way to eat your kale!

food of valhalla

Seriously. Blanche thinks so too... She's been trying to lick the jar the entire time I was trying to take this picture so I let her have a staring role.

I just made a new pudding for desert, and while it is setting I just wanted to share how glorious this product Artisana "raw coconut butter" is. Go get some.

So the new pudding recipe, which I think would make a good "whip cream" as well is:

2 Dates

1/2 Banana

2 T Coconut Butter

1 T Raw Cashew Butter

1 t Vanilla 

And about 1/4 cup water to smooth it out.

I blended it all up and let it go awhile gradually increasing the speed and I watched it GROW, which guess what? means it was WHIPPING... you know what that means? WHIP FUCKING CREAM. I am going to save a Tablespoon or two to have on my raw oatmeal breakfast tomorrow morning. More on that tomorrow.

A failure?

I've been eating (almost- nutritional yeast, miso, and vinegar being my exceptions) entirely raw for about 2 weeks now and yesterday I decided to have some popcorn. I feel pretty guilty about it. I am trying not to feel like I failed as I haven't commited to anything or made any kind of resolution or anything concerning my rawness. I just said I would do it as long as I felt like it. I have a hard time not making everything so black or white. 

I didn't really WANT to eat it... I just started feeling depressed about all the things I wouldn't be able to eat again if I stayed on raw foods and I decided I didn't want to be 100% and I ate something cooked to finalize it. Then I had acid reflux. And I felt upset that I broke my good streak. I need to just take it day by day and not think about next winter and how I'm going to want hot soup. I got right back on my raw regime after I fucked up... I think I kinda need to do that to remind myself why I am eating this way. Next week when I go on vacation I am not yet sure what I will do. I guess I should plan on not staying raw so that I won't be so disappointed in myself if I end up eating cooked food, and just do my best... I can always go back if I get off track.