Lazy day

I am FINALLY posting (how many of my posts start with those words?) about my trip to California and a life update...
First off, California was great. Not as much Sun as I could have hoped for, and not as much raw food as I needed, but great friends and a great break from routine.
I stayed with BFF Stacey who I have convinced to go on a 30 day raw challenge (so go give her some encouragement!). She and her sister have a nice apartment a mile (maybe less) from the beach in Santa Monica, centraly located near many shopping establishments and raw eateries ;)
The first day I was there I got in the car Stacey said she had a suprise at her house for me... it was my friend ANDY!
He had been around hanging out with a mutual friend (Ben) who was down visiting from Portland and heard I was coming so stayed up in SM to see me :) We all walked to the beach and stood on the pier for a bit dispite the fact that it was raining. Good thing Ben and I brought our RAIN COATS! (to california!!! how wrong!!!) After the pier we went to Juliano's raw because I had been DREAMING of the Raw Tortilla Soup and Mocha Smoothie (hold the Love Honey, ewww). They were out of the soup and that was pretty devistating. We had some other good stuff instead... Sushi bites, Pasta Premivera, Coconut spring roll things, and smoothies.
We did some window shopping and went back to the house for a bit to rest up before the show. The heavans aligned and I just happened to be there when my two favorite (SoCal Vegan Straightedge) bands were playing at a house in Pasadena so we were all excited to go and see Andy's band play. It was like a reunion party just for me... I felt so happy and loved because none of my Orange County friends expected to see me and it was like hug after hug. I even got to see a few people who I had no idea would be there. GREAT FEELING. The show was great, sang along til my voice was scratchy, and remembered again why I love (certain, haha) hardcore.

Ran with stacey along the beach the next morning and got my first actual view of the venice boardwalk. Went to breakfast and had a mostly non-raw vegan meal with some friends from the show. It was a great but not healthy feeling meal, how often can you get vegan eggs benedict, right? ...and so good to spend extra time with some amazing people. Later went to see an awful movie and had lunch at Real Food Daily. We saw the guy who played Bud from "married with children" (my only celeb sighting of the trip) and ate more cooked food. After the second heavy meal of the day Stacey and I were exhausted and ready to go home, rest, and not eat for the rest of the day. We dropped ben at the airport and went home to veg out. The next day we went to ths SM Sunday Market and had a coconut from the Juliano's booth and some snacks. We were on a mission to find a new vegan eco friendly store of some sort we had heard of in Venice but after walking HOURS found out they weren't open on Sundays. We ate at RawVolution on the way and had the highly reccomended Nachos (from Aimee and Chris), a pudding parfait, and choc-chip cookie dough ball. The Nachos were really good, especialy the chip things, they were so fluffy and crispy. Wow. Loved the texture. I did not read the ingredients for the nachos before ordering and found out after starting that they had walnuts aplenty. I freaked myself out and nearly had a panic attack that I was going into anaphalaxis but luckily Stacey talked me down and I was fine. Haha, I am rediculous. After that it was time to go meet up with Alex's sister and nephew and go up to Ventura/Oxnard for the last day of my trip. Ate a bunch of not raw food the last day and kinda gave up trying at that point... figuring I could get back on track once I got home. It was really great to see my boyfriends family. I love them all and they are so welcoming to me. It is really comfortable :)
Took the plane home and have been catching up on work and life since then.
Here are some more pictures from my trip:

Find more photos like this on Raw Fu


Since my trip:
-Got sick from eating too much cooked food, hopefully learned my lesson for a while
-Went to a pretty fun Raw Potluck on VDay with Alex, Aimee, and Chris, met and saw some rawfu friends
- Had a few good runs, feeling good about the fact that it is STARTING to get light earlier.
- Got a new BIG TV with alex for the living room. 32" it rules.
- Worked late last night with one of our Drivers and learned how to do the delivery route. I am supposed to be sleeping right now as I have only had 3 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours but I am taking the opportunity to post this.
- Hanging with Bdog today

Oh Happy Day...

So far, today is shaping up to be a great one.
- In four days I will be in Santa Monica (it WILL be sunny! Got that, weather report?!)
- I just found out that we may be going to see two of my favorite bands play the first night I am in Ca. I am so happy because they are also my good friends and I didn't think I would end up seeing much beyond my BFF Stacey.
- Had a great run this morning, it was clear and 43 degrees (relativly warm) warm enough that m eyes didn't tear and the breath did not catch in my throat...
- I am hanging out with my other BFF today, Carey (who has a very funny blog, click here) and our dogs... Who are also best friends, though mine is a bit abusive to the black man...

- I think I successfully cultured cashew cheese for the first time the other day. Tasty!
- Looking forward to Aimee's blog post about all the food she got to eat this weekend in southern california... I think it will be a forcast of my weekend ;)

Raw Lasagna Demo

Please enjoy a little video I made featuring my dinner tonight :)

For Lasagna
1 Zucchini (sliced thin)
2 cups Marinara
1 cup Cashew Cheese
Filling (as recipe makes)

Cashew Cheese:
1.5 cups cashews (soaked 2 hours)
Juice of 1 juicey lemon
3 T nutritional yeast
1/2 clove garlic
salt to taste
water as needed
Blend in VitaMix until smooth

Marinara
1 cup sundried tomatoes soaked 2 hours
1 lg tomato
3 baby carrots
1/4 green bell pepper
1 T miso paste
1-2 t apple cider vinegar
1/2 clove garlic
2 T onion
2T olive oil
chilli powder to taste
salt to taste
Basil and Oregano to taste
Blend in VitaMix until smooth

Filling
1 c spinach
1 c bell pepper
1 c mushroom
12 basil leaves
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper

When it is clear here seattle is THE most beautiful place... unfortunately these moments are few and far between. I try to get out a few times during the day on the oh so rare sunny days. Luckily, in 11 days I will be in sunny Santa Monica California!!! (yes I know, you all know, I keep talking about it!!!) I am so over do for a vacation though. I am really hoping to get to explore all the raw food available to me in santa monica and surrounding areas. That and spend a large amount of time in the san and warm air. Wearing t-shirts! Last I checked mid day temps have a forecasted high of mid 70's. It was 27 when I woke up this morning. The upside is that I have had LOTS of opportunities to wear my new coat.
Blanche greeted the dawn today and promptly found a sun spot on the couch to catch some rays. She is ready for california too. We decided on a date to leave on our March West Coast Road Trip... March 1st. We had wanted to go a little later in the month but because of other co-workers RTO's we got stuck in the first two week pocket. I am just happy to be going. Well, and it is pretty awesome to go on a trip and have another one coming just 3 weeks later... Just me, chuck, blanche, joe, joe's friend eric, and the open road ;)
I had a few non raw meals over the last few days... Time to get back to my "things that keep me from being raw" list. This time it was Social Gathering and Not Being Prepared that did me in. Today I got back to my good raw behavior and had a pizza and salad for lunch, proceeded by an apple-banana-romaine smoothie. I also have some flax and purple corn chips in the dehydrator. They will be a great snack with lunches over the next week. I went grocery shopping and finally made the big decision to dye my hair. I was letting it grow in grey, which would be cool if it were ALL grey but it isn't, it's salt and peppery... I went back to black (as it were) and I am always happy when I do because it makes my skin look brighter and my eyes look more blue and I feel better overall.

hair cut, new coat, new woman

I am feeling much more put together this week than last part could be that I got this new coat, which I can wear with the collar up or down... Part could be that I have a great trip planned, work is settling down after the holidays, and raw food is getting routine. After getting my new coat I felt like I had to live up to it and today when I got home from work I went to get a hair cut. Of course I had to come home and fix my bangs, but overall I like it. I think I am planning on growing it out but I am not certain. In the meantime I can't handle the shaggy unkemptness I have been dealing with. So here is my new hair cut
I know I have gotten away from my "things that keep me from being raw" series... I haven't forgotten it. I just haven't had the time to invest in thinking about it lately.
Anyone have good suggestions for things for me to do while in santa monica???

Happy 100th Post to ME!!!

What an auspicious day to make my 100th blog post. I woke to see the most beautiful foggy morning. The best part? SUN!! That's right! 2 days IN A ROW! Insane right? It sure does a lot to boost the mood here in the great northwest when we have a few days of sun. I am spending my morning cleaning the house, watching a financial "president Obama and your money" show, and waiting for my new jacket (photo coming soon!) to come in the mail.
The other night I went out with friends Aimee and Chris to dinner at Thrive. Again a great meal, and a really good time catching up with friends I hadn't seen in a while. Aimee gave me a container of some raw nacho cheese she made and i had it for dinner the next day. I put it in the vita mix for a bit to warm it up and then dipped all these veggies and some crackers in it. The funny part was that it was basically a more elaborate version of the dinner I had the night before at thrive. It was just so good I had to have it twice!

The other day I made Mock Tuna from RAWvolution and put it into collard wraps with some greens. I made three wraps and froze the rest of the "tuna" for later. I am trying to work on the preparedness part of my raw goals so I am trying out freezing left overs to see how they keep. The wraps are pretty tasty and I have one left to take to work tomorrow. There is something really satisfying about eating food that is bigger than your head.
Let's go back to the above moment in history and remember last June (7 months ago, far too long) when I was in California and went to eat at juliano's RAW with my bff Stacey. What a good time. Things have been dark and gloomy here and I have been working hard so I decided to be spontaneous and use my earned frequent flyer miles to go to LA for a few days. I will be staying with Stacey, definitely eating LOTS of great raw food, definitely running and working out in the sun, and definitely recharging my Vitamin D. 18 days and counting! I am so excited to be taking a little vacation and spending time with a very fun person. Anyone know any scams to get free frequent flyer miles or how to hack into alaskan airlines and give me more? Flying for free is awesome.

Things that stop me from eating raw... Pt. 2

An explanation first...
I seem to have maybe come off as a bit of a negative nancy. My yardsnacking friend seemed a little concerned about the tone of my last post and asked if my cup was half empty; only if its a cup of coffee buddy! Which I haven't had in weeks!
No, seriously... When I am struggling with a problem the way I am able to turn it around and figure it out is to identify ALL the barriers stopping me from reaching my destination, solve each problem (or decide if the problem really IS a problem) and take down the things stopping me so I can move forward.
That last post was my first step in identifying the barriers to me going back to 100% (or darn close) raw food. The process will be to go through each group of barriers, one item at a time if they are particularly hard to deal with, and see how to problem solve. Seems logical right?
Keep in mind that at this point I am hovering right around 75% overall... I did eat a cooked meal with friends the other day at an unnamed local vegan thai restaurant that has a buffet from 11-4 monday-saturday. It was good but I felt like crap afterwards... I am putting off the first group "social barriers" until I can think on it a little more.
The first group of "barriers" is...

Other Barriers ahh others
1. Not Being Prepared (and Other Excuses)
- Not having food on me when I am hungry
easy enough right?! ALWAYS CARRY FOOD! ALWAYS! I know lara bars aren't REALLY 100% but they are better than a lot of crap I could resort to when I get low blood sugar so if nothing else I will always have a larabar on me. Until I learn to make my own fruit/nut bars.
- Not wanting to eat what IS available that is raw
this is a little tougher... luckily I will pretty much always eat a larabar. Things I tend to turn my nose up at: uncut apples, uncut fruit in general... moral of that story: eat a banana! Or start carrying a knife. That would make me look tougher too.
- Wanting comfort food
luckily this one isn't as hard as it sounds because I am willing to spend the time preparing foods that fill this niche for me... zucchini noodles with red sauce and nutritional yeast (dream come true!) Raw pizzas with marinated mushrooms and olives (OMG!) Pie after delicious raw fatty pie!!! I just have to have it ready when I need it. Luckily I am strategizing how to get and stay ahead on my food prep and make certain things routine so I will always have them. In the past I have shied away from freezing a little bit, I think I am going to be a bit less reluctant to do so this time around so I can make MORE at once and have it keep for those days I just don't feel like being in the kitchen.
- Craving something that isn't raw
This really only happens when I am hungry. I am only hungry when I am not prepared and didn't eat. (See beginning if this list) Also if I really want to try something cooked I will taste it. In the past round this was a great way for me to assuage my cooked curiosity without overdoing it. Usually I taste it and think "no, that's not really what I wanted"
- Having no groceries
I can see this being a problem whenever work gets hectic and stressful. If I only get one day off on a week it is really hard for me to make myself go do all the shopping. I have to rent a zipcar, drive all around town getting the best deals, come put the grocerys in the house and drop the car back off before walking the 3/4 mile home. Not really so bad, and I feel fortunate that at this point in my life I can afford a car share service... but a good three hours of my day, not to mention food prep for the week. I guess I am hoping for this one that my freezing and stock pileing will see me through any weeks like this in my future and if I have several weeks like this on end maybe my boss will let me borrow a van after work one day so I can do my shopping straight from work. Cross that bridge when I get there.
- Wanting something fast and Convenient
Again, being prepared... thinking ahead of time. Always having some kind of fast and convenient option available to me. So after a long day of work if I don't feel like it I can throw something together without much thought.
- "Treating myself" to junk
Treat myself to RAW junk instead... like the coconut cream pie I made tonight!!!
(for recipe see penni's blog)
And really is "junk" really a treat? No, but it does feel like a reward, making an allowance because you deserve it or had a rough day. I just need to substitute the word raw in front of reward and I am A O K.
- Wanting something WARM
This one is a little tough because it has to do with something a little outside my control, weather. This last week hasn't been bad because it has been a bit warmer outside but especially when it was VERY cold before christmas all I wanted was HOT food. I know I can use my dehydrator to warm my foods, and I know I can drink hot tea, or use warming spices in my foods, but sometimes it doesn't feel like enough. I need more good raw soup recipes that I can let the vitamix bring up to 115 for me, and I will eat them in the bath. No really, I will. Mostly, I just need to live somewhere warm, like here where I used to live...

Not to make any of the above issues less than what they are for me, the real problem is a lack of forsight and planning. I do SO love to plan, and make schedules and systems, so if I look at it that way: as a project to try to successfully plan my raw menu, it should be fun and I will do well.

Next time...
Financial excuses!