For a spell...

Some things in life throw you for a curve. I'll definitely try the raw food thing another time. seems like planets need to align for it to fly.

Sushi and Wasabi Mayonnaise

my veggie roll...mmm. There is no recipe for this; only Nori and whatever fillings you want.  Some people use nut pate' but personally, they all seem too wet for me; I prefer firmer items, and you'll see in the picture here we have Tomaotes, microgreens, carrots, avocado and two colors of thinly sliced bell peppers.  A rolling mat helps tremendously; just put everything in at almost halfway, use the rolling mat to assist rolling FIRM  and seal the end with water like double sided tape!  Let the roll rest for a minute, seal side down, and get your other things together; Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce- tastes basically the same) and you can even make a raw mayonnaise and toss in some wasabi for a splash of color and creaminess on the top of them. Here's the raw Mayonnaise recipe;  you can cut it in half as it makes plenty, and keeps for 3 days in fridge;

Raw Mayonnaise per Juliano
Blend until creamy:

1/4 lemon juice
2 c cashews, soaked
3 stalks celery
1/2 c chopped bell (light color)
1/4 c white onion
2 T parsley, minced
2 T thyme, minced
1/4 c chopped tomato, skinless
1 t garlic, chopped

Trying to eat raw

Trying to eat raw in a house full of cooked foodies is like an alcoholic trying to quit drinking in a bar.... WHILE BARTENDING.

I've decided i need help

I decided i need help staying raw. I am thinking a raw co-op thing. sort of like a cookie exchange but with food or services. hmm.

Chocolate is on It's way.

Chocolate is on It's way. My raw FB friend Jimmie made me some but admitted that her friends ate it all. Kinda funny but dang it's good!

Why was i thinking I'd

Why was i thinking I'd have time for this? Well I've struggled here and there but it was expected. I'm not expecting perfection.

Saturday

Saturday... busier than heck.
I'm exhausted and just gonna mention what's necessary today;
Breakfast- the last of my raw cereal and some almond milk.
I brought some of the milk to Joebellas and what's cool about them is they'll make my coffee with it. OK so what, it's not raw anymore once they steam it but oh well. I'm making progress... Starbucks wouldn't DREAM of doing anything like that (I've asked them).

Before I realized it, I had made a fish taco wrap for myself for lunch. I was like "Oh...." well I guess I made it, and so I had to eat it. Interesting, as I had a burst of energy shortly thereafter, which typically (pre-raw) I would have felt I wanted to take a nap after fish tacos. Hmm.

Came home and cooked dinner for the fam, and I didn't eat anything raw for dinner- I think I just get too exhausted to want to make two meals, and anyone in my shoes couldn't blame me I'm sure.
I'm quite confident this next week will be better- just as good as last week- due to a calmer schedule and I also typically shop on Sunday afternoons (DRAT! Just realized I didn't hit Templeton Farmers Market this morning, grrrr). So I'll have things for the week, and maybe will try to go Wednesday to Farmers Market in Atascadero.

Handful of blueberries and I'm off to bed.
I need some inspirational, easy recipes... both cooked AND raw.
Time is so very precious...

डे फौर अक्टूबर १६

OK I don't know why the hell my title is printing in japanese or whatever it is. It says "Day Four, October 16th" . I'll fix it later.

I pretty much blew day four here... um, it started well with my new raw cereal and almond milk, the cereal which is almost gone and is stressing me out because I know tomorrow will be the end of the package. Gotta order more. but I'm too cheap to order fed ex so ... I guess it's apples or something for breakfast for a few days. no big.


So ya, honestly I'm somewhat intoxicated at the moment; 12:30am and eating Taco Bell. LOL I pretty much blew today.

Raw for breakfast;
Sushi day at Pier 46 so as I was making sushi, I of course had to sample my product for quality assurance, which included cooked nori sheets and duh, the rice is cooked, and the crab is cooked (like I'd ever eat Raw Crab.. not) and such. Went home to take the daughter home from school and made a smoothie- nutmilk, cacao chocolate, blueberries and spinach... out of bananas, thought I was hosed but actually it was just as good... go figure.

So later back at work, course there's always the "OOPS I accidentally made a double order of fries" and so I have to grab like ten french fries (the sweet potato fries are the best) and after closing, the yummy cheese trays at 15c I pretty much MOWED through that entire tray... and just so ya know, the olives that look like green gumballs are ones that I ordered myself for Ali to carry... love those little suckers.

Hot tubbing at a friends house, wine (RAW but oh my I'm a cheap date now that I'm raw- wine affects you faster for sure) and now I'm eating Taco Bell at 12:34 in the morning.

Time to finish it and GO TO BED! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Side note: the private stuff that you really don't want to know and should avert your eyes from reading RIGHT NOW:
but probably will because you're crudely curious; I'm sorta like a cat that is switched from cheap brand cat food to high quality cat food; I'm not ...we'll say.. not using the litterbox NEAR as much as usual. :-)

nitey-nite.
J.

Day Three

busy day.

Ate more of the same cold cereal. It's like granola but tastes a thousand times better. Not so sugary sweet like most granolas are. Stayed crunchy the entire time. Called the company and YES they do wholesale!! Sweeeeet! Working on that. Hmm, have to do a $200 order for free shipping. I don't even know how many packages that will be, but I sorta hope to pull some raw foodies in Pier 46 with some product that isn't available anywhere else. I remember being frustrated at only being able to purchase stuff online... kind of a pain sometimes.

Lunchtime I grabbed raw fish- (yes I eat raw meat and I will drink raw goats milk if I can find it!) so I had some of our salmon and some new-to-me Gigha Halibut which is supposedly farmed specifically for Sushi. I had raw halibut before at a japanese place. I HATED it. EW. Nasty. I braved the new stuff today and you know what? It's my new fave. So I had some of that too, it was just enough to get me through my hair appointment.

Later at work I actually cut up a piece of red snapper and ate that with soy sauce (no raw soy at work, no biggie) and headed off to band practice. Started getting really hungry.

Came home and mashed three avocados together, too soft to use at Pier 46 so I took 'em home. Don't know what to do with them but I rolled some in a nori sheet. Kinda weird but I was hungry.

Present time. I'm blogging, and the same mashed avocados are staring at me.
I don't know what to do with them. Maybe I'll put some raw chocolate in there and make "pudding".

Ghads that sounds nasty. I need time to look up recipes. That's the hard part.

Ok well off I go, I have more almonds soaked from this morning and so maybe I should blend those up and make a quick batch of almond milk.


For those of you who wanna know how to make the milk, here's the recipe. The rest of you, thanks for listening, you're a little nuts if you've read all this so far. That's why I like you. ;-)

Almond Milk

1 cup almonds, soak 8 hours or overnight
Pitcherfull of water
A couple dates or three
Directions: Toss almonds in good quality blender. You probably don't have a good quality blender, I'll betcha ten bucks.
Put in a cup or two of water and get it all rolling. As it thickens, add more water. High speed is good here. High as you can go til blended well.
You can add the date here (pitted, please!) or after straining the almond pulp.

Strain the almond pulp. It's easiest with a fine mesh bag, over a large bowl, strain several times, squeezing the bag when necessary. Add your dates-or honey- and blend if you haven't already. Date pulp can be strained or not, your choice.

Taste the milk, adjust sweetness, and refrigerate.

I'm calling it a night here, catcha later.
Jo

Day 2 Tomato sauce with Zucchini Pasta

Day 2 Wednesday Oct 14

Woke up to have my new raw breakfast of almond milk and raw cereal. I was tickled pink. Decided to try the suggested serving of 1/2 cup and it was the perfect amount actually. I am gonna call the company and see if they sell wholesale ((score!!))

Lunch- shredded pasta like strands from two green zucchinis with a zester and had some pasta sauce (raw) from some I made the other day. It was still just as wonderful and yummy, the only difference being that I could taste a more pronounced garlic flavor. I think as garlic sits after being cut, it seems to get stronger. I didn't put much in the first place so it was fine.

Tomato Sauce with Zucchini Pasta Recipe
In blender:
2 c soft sundried tomatoes
8 large tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c White Onion, chopped
2 T Olive Oil
Parsley, Basil, Salt, Oregano
Blend well, adding the greens last as to not turn the mixture green!
Serve over very thin sliced zucchini (don't bother unless you have a mandolin!)

At least my hubby never mentioned any garlic breath..... ha.


I had some of the new raw chocolate candy bar - a few bites, as it is rich- and snacked on goji berries while watching the news. They are sorta like raisins but red and not so ... filling. I dunno, maybe I'm weird, but I can get full on raisins. Blech....

OK so here's the deal; I've been "sort of" raw-ish for maybe a week or two prior to this blog, I guess just "gearing up" for this whole thing. In the process, I've been generally feeling better, especially recently.

How do I feel:
Happier upon waking. Not so bitchy. That happened before when I was raw.
Maybe right now it's hormones but time will tell.
My teeth feel cleaner... no plaque build-up, which I experienced in the past as well.
Urine is more clear. (sorry. TMI).


Um, on that note... I might put TMI stuff in this blog here and there, but I'll try to refrain and keep the info til the last part of the daily entry. Raw foodies don't bat an eye at it; but newbies, well, you might wonder why on EARTH would I mention... that stuff.

Tomorrow, day three.

Day One

They say don't blog while intoxicated.

I'm off to a good start. Ha!

It hit me right between the eyes tonite that “this is the day”- I received a package at my doorstep of raw food items from Sunfood.com that I ordered several days back- and it simply struck me as “the” moment... to officially begin my 30 days raw. Why 30 days? I have NO idea.

I excitedly went through my package of packing peanuts, revealing my goods;

Raw nori sheets (

you know, seaweed sheets for sus

hi rolls; typically they're toasted),

Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce),

raw chocolate Cacao powder- reportedly sky high in antioxidants;

Unpasteurized honey,

a raw chocolate bar (5 bucks, ouch!)

and some body lotion.

OH! And cereal- I about did a happy dance in my kitchen when I sampled from the bag- I'm STOKED that they are making it a thousand times better than in the past, it's SO good and I'm happy to have this stuff. Breakfast is my biggest concern, because the boys at Pier 46 sometimes make a big 'ol breakfast for everyone.. so now I don't have to worry.

So, I put my stuff away and realized I gotta eat a raw dinner. Luckilly I'm not too picky, so I made a familiar smoothie of:

Almond milk (I recently have begun making this myself almost daily)

Cacao Powder

Handful of spinach leaves from Farmers Market

One banana.

Please feel free to completely overlook the ingredients when I blog; I want to include what I make for several reasons, but I know some of you couldn't give a rat's ass what I actually eat; but I would imagine there's some people who might be watching for all sorts of reasons; to see if I'll fail (maybe, so what? You probably would too) or curiosity of how raw foods makes someone feel – good? Crappy? Bad health? Better health?

I went raw for a year quite some time ago. Here, I'll bore you with my health history; pass this paragraph by if you don't wanna hear it.

I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus oh, about... ten years ago. I felt awful in my joints- I went through emotional turmoil but it's not worth discussing here. After getting my head on straight, I was on meds which made me feel 80% better, but that nagging last 20% was really irritating me. My joints still hurt, I needed help opening jars (can you say “I've fallen and I can't get up!”) and I was just.. not myself. I knew I could find something more than just meds to make me feel better. Something just told me so... and so, I went looking for something more natural, a “fixing” rather than a band-aid like drugs... Eating healthy and primarily raw seemed to make perfect sense to me.

Past the health history part now, I happened to be looking for a part time job, as my kids were in school til the afternoon and I was bored with making sure my pictures were hanging straight. I found a want-ad for a woman needing help in the kitchen, right up my alley, and long story short- she was a raw foodie and I ended up being her raw food chef for a year. I learned a ton and my health improved. Then we moved, sold our company shares, moved again, and that's no fun for someone in my shoes. Now I'm in the early second year of Pier 46 seafood and it's long hours, stress, lots of fun tho, and I love it- but I have no time for myself and the stress is starting to wear on my body and I can feel the old familiar feelings coming back.

I'm on meds and am instructed to do so for the rest of my life.

I want to see if raw foods can reduce my ANA levels and make me feel better.. if I can even pull this 30days thing off, with life as it is for me... HECTIC!

Hey, wine is raw.

Thank GOD.

J.