Recipes, Plans & Count Down to Cleanse Time!

First things first, here are two recipes for ya...

1. Hemp Pesto!

5 cups of basil
1 cup hemp oil
3 TBSP Hemp Seeds
1 TBSP garlic powered or one-two clove(s) of fresh pressed garlic (preferred)
1 TBSP Brewer's yeast (I used raw Parmesan from Eat in the Raw)
Celtic Salt to Taste

2. Easy Avo Dressing

1 avocado
2-3 TBSP lime juice
1 tomatillo
1 pressed garlic clove
Celtic salt to taste

Now onto some exciting things, I'm about to start Master Cleanse #2 on Sunday!!! I think I mentioned that in a recent post. One of my roommates is going to do it with me. The other one was but is a little worried because she already has a really stressful ahead of her and doesn't wanna add another thing. Anyways, I'm pretty excited to go on another cleanse. We'll see how my detox symptoms compare to last time, should be interesting. Right now I'm putting together a plan to use all of the fresh produce in my fridge without buying any more groceries in the next three days. Here's what I have in mind...

TOMORROW:

Breakie- Green Smoothie
Lunch- Shredded squash with tomatoes, sesame oil & spices
Dinner- Some Version of Garlicky Yummyliciousness . I'll try the REAL recipe when I have more of the ingredients in 2 weeks but for now it's gonna be more like eggplant with EVOO, salt, garlic & dried herbs. We'll see how it goes...

FRIDAY-

Breakie- Green Smoothie
Lunch- Gazpacho with avocado
Dinner- More Garlicky stuff??

SATURDAY-

Breakie- Another Green Smoothie :-))
Lunch-Squash noodles with some type of pesto that I can scrounge up, haha.
Dinner- Salad with whatever is left in my fridge, haha. Hopefully there's SOMETHIN' in there :-)

Okay, I'm officially tuckered out now. GOODNIGHT!!! :-)

Green Goal Day Two

Today's green smoothie was


6 cups of green tea
3 cups of parsley
1 cup of celery
1 cup of mango chunks
2 cups of banana slices
I had this for breakfast and dinner & it made me one happy camper, yum.

For lunch I had some pesto with squash pasta, tomatoes and pine nuts. The fresh herbs accounted for 25%+ greens part of my meal. It was deee-lish. Everyone in the break room was commenting on the amazing smell.

I guess I should mention a little something about the insanity that is my life as of late. Well, for the two weeks before school starts (one almost down and another to go) I'm working two jobs. I go to job #1 from 8 am- 4:30 pm Mon-Fri and then on the 5 or so days a week that I work job #2, I go straight from job #1 and work at 5:00...craziness. Then I get home, prep all of the food for the next day, check GI2MR, facebook, myspace, e-mail ect and crash out. I have been sleeping way less than the 8 hours a night that I soaked up almost every other night this summer. I always hear raw foodies saying that they only sleep 4 hours a night or something like that which sounds AMAZINNNG but I've never been able to pull it off. I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. I've gotten in a habit since starting college of pretty much always setting an alarm even if there's nothing especially pressing about getting up. So now I wonder if I should drop the alarm and see when my body wakes up naturally and that's how many hours of sleep I am suppose to be getting? How do you know what your body needs exactly? Sometimes you're tired and know your body needs rest but you can't fall sleep for one reason or another. I've been getting 6 hours for the past few nights (4 one night) and haven't had any major energy crashes or anything. My thoughts have been very clear (which they generally are NOT when I'm sleep deprived). I could attribute this to the ammount of greens I've had in the past few days and/or the fact that I've been working out at least a little each morning, I think that really helps my energy levels. I do get lulls in my energy during certain times of the day. When I get off work I always have all kinds of energy though so I'm thinking maybe it's not the lack of sleep but rather the lack of excitement in my life right now. haha. It's okay though, only a week left then my awesome roomies move back, school starts and I have a life again. Whooo-hooo!

Gimme Greens!

I read Victoria Boutenko's book Green For Life a while ago but like many lessons in life, it took some time for me to REALLY learn the importance of eating a diet that's rich in dark leafy greens. Boutenko points out that chimpanzees (our closest cousin in the animal kingdom) eat about 40% greens! Well, maybe I'm going bananas but I'm aiming to do the same. I'm doing a go green experiment in which I will eat 2 meals a day that are 50% greens and 1 meal that's at least 25% greens. Here's how day one went down ....

Breakfast & Lunch were each a quart of green smoothie made up of

1 banana
1 apple
1/2 a cup of mango
2 cups of green tea
2 1/2 cups of spinach
about a tsp of MSM

Dinner was a huuugggee taco salad which included

1/4 cup sunflower seed "taco meat" with taco seasonings (cumin, paprika, chili powder, onion powder & fresh pressed garlic) and 2 TBSP EVOO, 1 TBSP of flax seeds, tomatoes*, peppers*, cilantro, sprinkle of Lemon Juice & Celtic Salt.

* from my GRUB box

Had I had it them on hand I would have added: avocado, romaine lettuce and bell peppers to use as taco shells instead of eating it out of a bowl but it was seriously still so good! The seasonings were perfect (see list mania blog for a link to the Mexican food site where I got the recipe. Note: I used one clove of fresh garlic instead of powder).

Lista Mania

Every so often (okay, quite frequently actually) I get a random idea in my head on how to make a raw variation of some type of SAD food. Then I start doing research and experimenting with different recipes. I call these my "projects". Here's what's in the works:

- The Hummus Project -

This one isn't really my own invention, I use the "Real Hummus" recipe from goneraw.com (the link is posted in one of my blog entries) and just do my own variations like add tomato & cayenne or Italian spices (You can see pictures of this further down in my blog). The main breakthrough with this recipe was adding a little bit less olive oil (1/2 - 3/4 cup instead of a whole cup) for the purpose of cutting down a little bit of the fat and thus being able to eat more of this amazing recipe and adding CUMIN!!! It makes such a difference. I'm guessing the author of the recipe omited herbs and spices becuase they might not be raw but the way I see it, they aren't hurting anything. They are low in calories and therefore, if you season your food with herbs and spices, the percentage of your daily calories coming from cooked foods is still pretty insignifigant. They add so much flavor and by using organic you're not consuming pesticides or anything so I say, why not. Okay, that was kind of a tangent...anyways, I'm going to keep slightly tweaking this recipe until I find it to be perfect. :-)

- The Pasta Project -

I've used a bunch of different sauces for my summer squash noodles but haven't found the PERFECT combination quite yet. I like there to be something crunchy in there to add a little texture along with some big juicy chunks to make the dish more interesting. The hemp pesto with tomatoes was pretty good but needed that crunch, I think I'll add a few TBSP of pine nuts next time around.

- The Taco Project -

This is the newest project of them all. I've only semi-attempted them once but I'm ready for a second try. The basic concept goes as follows:
Soaked sunflower nutmeats dried out and seasoned with taco seasonsings (found this recipe on a mex-recipes.com), salsa cruda, romaine lettuce and avocado inside a bell pepper taco shell. I know that green bell peppers are unripe but I wonder if they're bad for you... It just seems like the taco shell would be better if it wasn't sweet.

- The Stir Fry Project -

The idea for this one comes from marinating veggies in nama shoyu and sesame seed oil. I've never been a BIG fan of soy sauce so I think I need to find a way to incorporate more raw veggies and then mix in the marinated ones along with maybe some raw cashews.

- The Pie Project -

I'm working on developing the perfect crust. Bellow is a picture of one that I've tried. I make them in mini form since it's still very experimental (and I don't want to eat an entire pie by myself). I like how the coconut oil holds the crust together once refrigerated but I also feel like it might taste a little too waxy.

Strawberry Short Pie

Sliced strawberries mixed with Happy Day Raw Vegan Vanilla Mousse in a
wheat germ, shredded coconut, coconut oil and ground flax seed pie crust

In Other Lists...

Here's an update from my beauty blog. Turns out I might not be quite ready to abandon my beauty products after all....

FACE:

-Honey- 30 minute facial mask
I actually use to do this all of the time anyways but now I only do it about once a week. It makes my skin super smooth though. I'll definitely continue to do it more and more regularly when school starts and I start to get into a routine of some kind. I also sometimes put a dot of honey over a blemish before I go to bed with a band-aid over it and in the morning, wah-lah, it's vanished (or at least a lot better).

- Poppy Seeds- for exfoliating
Hm...I'm actually still doing this but I'm not sure how well it's working to be honest. I'll tell you what though, there's nothing like finding a poppy seed stuck to your neck later on during the day...

-Avocado slices- 30 minute under-eye treatment
This is another one where I can't really tell if it made a difference or not. I've only tried it once though. Too be honest, I'd rather eat an avocado than put it on my face. I don't really have dark circles anymore anyways...thank you sleeep!
-Shea Butter- moisturizer
I don't use moisturizer very often simply because my skin is pretty self-sufficient so to speak. I don't have to use much to keep it clean so it doesn't get dried out very often. I do keep this on hand and use it when my face needs an extra little bit of help.
-Aloe- After-sun treatment
I don't really put anything on my face after sun since my make-up has SPF in it and I put that on before I go out and there's no need to mess it all up.
-Coconut Oil- eye make-up remover
If I remove my make-up at all I use this...
-Baking Soda- toothpaste
mmm...I tried this for a few weeks but then I just couldn't hack it. I need to find a healthier alternative that more resembles what I'm use to sadly. After this tube of (probably toxic) toothpaste is done I'll definitely be trying something more natural.

BODY:

-Coconut Oil- as shaving cream, soap & moisturizer
Always!
- Aloe- after sun
I will still continue to do this. I try to every time I lay out but sometimes forget.
-Shea Butter- moisturizer for dryer skin (elbows & bottoms of feet)
Neither of those places seem to be super dry since I just slather myself with coconut oil in the bathtub while I'm greasing up my legs for shaving. It works very nicely an doesn't leave you with that oily feeling that it would if you were to use it as a lotion after showing.
-Lemon Juice- deodorant
I never actually went through with this. I was using coconut oil for a while but it felt weird so I changed to an all natural deodorant which I'm beginning to have my doubts about... the search continues.

HAIR:

-Apple Cider Vinegar- cleansing wash
- Apple Sauce- conditioner
I'll just lump these two into one and say that I tried the "no-poo" method for 3 weeks and my hair was SOOOOO oily and disgusting that I reverted back to my old ways. Again, I'm ready for an all-natural alternative that looks and feels like shampoo and doesn't make my hair transform into a greasy, knotted mess. I'll be refering to Kristin's blog when my old bottles are done and I'm ready for a healthy upgrade.

-Lemon Juice- to lighten it.
The jury's still out on this one. I've been using it but can't tell if my hair is getting any lighter. I'm giving it 20 days until school starts then I'm going back to highlights...
-Mashed Avocado and Honey- deep conditioner
I'll get back to you on this one as I haven't actually tried it yet...I plan too though. Like I said, it's just so hard not to EAT the avos, hee hee.

Twisted Monkey Smoothie
2 cups pineapple green tea - 2 cups banana slices - 2 cups spinach
& a twist of lemon
So simple a monkey could do it.

More Strawberries...
This one is just simple layers of sliced strawberries, wheat germ and Happy Day Raw Vegan Vanilla Mouse.

Salsa Mountain
I was randomly inspired to chop up a bunch of salsa at about 2 am this morning which I then ate today...
No, I'm not weird, not at all.

Sunny-side Gazpacho

OK, I'll admit, I had never actually eaten gazpcho or looked at a recipe, only seen the stuff. So this is my interpretation. It's actually more like a soupy salsa which I then added sunflower seeds and cayene pepper too...still, it was amazing.

Sprouted Tabouleh
I took the recipe from George Mateljan's book and replaced the bulgar with sprouted quinoa.
Next time I'm adding garbanzo beans.

Okay, now just ONE more list, I promise....

.: RAW Blogs I'm currently reading

1. RawFaith

2. Go Green Go : April's Uncooked

3. Kristen's Raw


All 3 are amazzzing and I'm always looking for more so if you know of something I don't, please clue me in. That's all for now.



NnnnIIIIiiiiGGGGGgggHHHHHhhhhTTTtttT!!!!

Groceries & Smoothies

Here is a picture of all the wonderful things I got at Chico Natural Foods yesterday. The bad news is, they're not hiring :( but it's always fun to shop there so I still left happy. So far today I've already made two amazing smoothies. The first is a simple blend of spinach and bananas which is a recipe from Green For Life. The second was a mix of 9 little apriums, 1 banana, a tsp of MSM and some agave. Both were super refreshing and satisfying.


Cheers to Ten Fingers!
I didn't use finger bananas this time but that's where this recipe got it's name.



Te presento Aprium-nanna Smoothie



Not Pictured: 2 bananas, 11 oz of coconut water & a heaping, lovin' spoonful of cacao

(To be eaten for dinner)

In other news, I'm planning to start a master cleanse on June 25th which I'm very excited about. There is another member of Give It To Me Raw who wants to start the cleanse on the same day so it will be good to have someone to share the experience with. I believe it's her first time too.

I've been looking at a lot of raw recipes and I want to try so many new things including hummus, chocolate mousse, ice-cream and a sandwich with Love Force bread (which I've yet to try), some type of nut butter, bananas and honey. That would be a take on one of my favorite cooked foods...yum.

After reading Raw Faith's Blog I've been thinking about the idea of "heavy raw foods". When I first started exploring raw foodism just over 6 months ago, my raw diet was very heavy in nuts and seeds. Now I feel like that just weighs me down. I also have a tendency to binge on these dense foods. I'd prefer to fill my diet with light, refreshing, satisfying foods and pretty much cut out nuts and seeds for the most part. I will still throw them in a recipe ocasionally but don't want to make them a focus. I still need my fats and proteins but oils are a good source of fats and I will look into more protein sources. Of course dark leafy greens are great but I need something more concentrated...maybe spirulina.