Day 30!!! Thoughts

Today is day 30!  It's hard to believe. It went really fast. 

So what are my observations?

1. I've not really lost any weight - but that is probably my fault for getting my dehydrator so early on - the dehydrator makes it much easier for fats from nuts to sneak into my diet.  
2. I feel like I've lost weight regardless what the scale says - my pants are definitely a lot looser
3. I haven't gained any weight!
4. I feel better. I have so much more energy.  I cannot believe it's just around 2:00 on Sunday and I've already accomplished so much.   I have a lot more I want to accomplish and I don't feel like just sitting around ... I want to get up and get it done. 
5. I'm less achy.  Before I went on raw I could not believe I could be so ache-y already at 43 ... it was a reality check for me because I'm NOT old.  If I felt like that at this age, how will I feel when I'm 50 or 60 or 70 ...  That said, I'm less achy, but do still have some aches and looking forward to those disappearing in the future.
6. Being 100% raw was a lot easier than I expected it would be

It's sort of odd, initially, I thought I'd do this 30 days and then go ahead and allow myself some indulgences after the 30 days ... maybe just do 90% raw. 

I think I will still allow myself the chance to eat out and have some foods that are not raw, but I'm going to stay Vegan/Gluten-free and try to eat as much raw as I can.  I think that makes a huge difference too.  So going forward, 95% raw, but that 5% will be a rare occassion where I'm eating out or an emergency when I don't have any raw food with me.

So all in all, I think this experiment was a great success!

Kelp Mac 'n Cheese

I opened the Kelp Noodles today.

I opened the bag, rinsed them, and let them soak for 30 minutes in water, sea salt and the juice of one lemon.

I took a taste of one of the noodles before adding any sauce to them.  They were interesting.  The look a lot like plastic, but when you taste them they have no taste at all.  When you bite into them, they are crunchy.  Sort of like if you could make a noodle out of jicama how I'd expect it to crunch.

I decided to use some of my cashew cheese sauce to make Kelp Mac 'n Cheese.  The noodles really don't have any taste to them, and very few calories as well.  They are pretty filling.  In fact, I could not finish my whole dish:

The jury is still out on them.

The were "okay" ... I guess in a pinch if I really wanted to have noodles and didn't want to bother making them from zucchini, then I might buy them again, but I think I prefer the zucchini noodles.

That said, my bag was a 1kg bag ... so I'll put the left overs in the fridge (I had a lot of leftovers!), and I'll give them another try this weekend.  Maybe I'll try them in a pad thai sauce - I hear they are really good for pad thai.

Ice Cream (not the raw kind ...)

My coworker sent me an article with this video this morning - there's a little ad in the beginning but the video is short.  In case you don't have time to watch it, I'll give you the bottom line ... did you know that cheaper ice cream has an ingredient in it with a name you won't recognize and that ingredient actually comes from Beaver Anal Glands?

I think the moral of the story is that if you are going to eat ice cream make sure it's a high quality brand and read the ingredients.  If there's anything in it you don't recognize, then you might want to pass or consider making your own.   I've been buying a lot of appliances lately ... otherwise I'd be thinking of an ice cream machine to make raw cashew ice cream.  I've been seeing some amazing recipes lately and I'd love to try it.

I had cashew ice cream last summer at Pure Food and Wine in New York City.  OMG ... that was without a doubt the most amazing ice cream I have ever tasted and you would have never known it was vegan!!

On a related note, I really have to set my DVR to tape Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  I don't watch much TV on ABC, but I have no idea how I missed this last season.  Hopefully it really will make a difference - it is sad to hear that today's kids are expected to live 10 years less than their parents because of the obesity epidemic.  

The video below is about 20 minutes but it is really fascinating.  It is Jamie Oliver speaking to accept his TED Prize.   His talk has some really fascinating information about our society's relationship to food - how much sugar the average school kid gets from cafeteria food in elementary school, kid's inability to recognize common vegetables ... and a whole lot more.  If you have some time to watch it, I think you'll find it insightful (although probably not as shocking as the whole ice cream thing ...)

Cooked food

Well, one of my favorite coworkers is moving on to a new company so today we went out to lunch with her to her favorite vegetarian restaurant and I had a cooked lunch.  It is a Chinese restaurant called Veggie Heaven - they make traditional Chinese dishes but without meat.  They use mushrooms and other veggies to mimic the texture and flavor of their "meats" in the dishes.

It was actually one of my favorite places for a long time:
http://www.veggieheavennj.com/

I have to confess that this restaurant did have a carrot/beet/apple/kale/celery juice I could have had, but I told myself before that I'd have a cooked meal so I did.   I got eggplant with garlic sauce with brown rice.  (I nibbled at the rice but didn't eat it all).  It also had a little baby bok choy which was very nice.

Well, here's the interesting thing ... it tasted good but not amazing and that is really my favorite chinese dish.

I ate almost all the eggplant in my lunch sized portion and I felt so heavy and sluggish after lunch!   It occurred to me that I never feel that way after eating a raw meal.  NEVER.  Even if I eat a largish raw meal, I feel satisfied, and I know when I don't need to eat anymore, but I never feel full and sluggish like I did this afternoon.

I'm just going to have a simple light RAW dinner tonight and then plan to make an early night of it - my poor dog was crying out in pain at 3:30 am so I didn't sleep well and need to catch up on my sleep. 

It's interesting though - the cooked lunch after 24 days raw really reinforced for me how much better I feel eating raw. I even have a little headache this afternoon - not entirely sure if that is the lack of sleep or the cooked food, but I noticed it after the food.

Juicing and Veggie Burgers

I had some juice and a veggie burger for dinner tonight.

The juice was carrot, beet, apple, parsley and kale.   The juice itself was really good, but one thing I learned is the Omega VRT 330 HD doesn't do a great job with all kinds of pulp.  I thought it was okay with carrot/apple juice yesterday, but my juice today had so much fiber, I couldn't finish it.  I had to strain it through a nut milk bag.  That worked like a charm though!! It seemed to be the green fibers (probably the Kale?) that got back into the juice, so I guess I will just have to know that in the future when I juice greens I'm going to have to strain the juice.   This nutmilk bag worked some magic today ...

After I strained it the juice was just delicious!!!  Who'd have thought?  I sort of have this childhood dislike of beets.  You know how as a child you have a dislike of certain vegetables for absolutely no reason whatsover?   I actually don't know if I really ever had a beet before today - just never wanted to, but I know they are supposed to be really good for you ... 

Boy is it red though - just one little beet and lots and lots of greens and carrots and this still looks like red wine!

And it was seriously tasty.  I have this left-overs in the fridge to have tomorrow. Since I got a masticating juicer the juice will be good for 24 hours.

I tossed today's pulp ... I'm not sure all the stringy pulp from the greens would be very tasty in any recipes.  But I did make veggie burgers last night using this recipe posted by rawnhealthy on RawFoodTalk.com:

Veggie Burgers

• 4 cups veg pulp (celery, tomato, beet, carrot)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp each of curry, cumin and coriander powder
• 1/2 cup ground golden flax seed
• 1/4 cup diced mushrooms
• diced onion and cilantro to taste

Dehydrate until the outside of the burgers are firm.  I think I set my dehydrator to about 6 hours and they turned out great. 

The pulp I used for the burgers actually had a little apple in it (one apple to 3 pounds of carrots), but I decided to give it a try anyway.  I have to say, my expectations were pretty much nil, but I decided to keep an open mind.  I had this veggie cheese burger salad for lunch today - with the carrot burger and the "cheese" from the Cheesy Kale recipe (that stuff works for anything ... !).    This was just delicious!

Can you see the carrot burger under that cashew cheese?   :-)

Tomorrow I have a planned "cheat" for my 30 days raw.  Tomorrow will actually be day 25, but I'm taking my co-worker Vicky out to lunch at her favorite veggie restaurant.  It's sort of a going-away do.  It's not her last day yet, but it'll be a really fun lunch with a great group of people.  I'll probably keep it simple though - definitely stay vegan - so I don't vary too much from the raw diet.   I'm really proud of my progress so far, so this one planned exception isn't going to throw me off track.

Chocolate Mousse Martini with Strawberries

My sister saw Sheryl Crow on the news yesterday where she was talking about this raw vegan recipe from her new cookbook …”If it Makes you Healthy”.

Scroll down this page for the recipe:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/09/earlyshow/saturday/main20052397.shtml

*note the vanilla and almond extacts I used were not technically raw, but they were delish!

I had this for dinner ... well, I might make something else, but right now, eating just half of this martini glass I am STUFFED.  It was sooo rich and delicious.

I also tried out my new juicer this morning - I made carrot apple juice and it was amazing. I am a big fan of the Omega VRT 330HD.  I love that it takes very little counter space and was super easy to clean.  I might make some more juice tonight to drink in place of any additional dinner and put the remainder in the fridge for tomorrow

My only complaint really is that carrots make SOOO much pulp.  I was shocked.  I have a little of it to the dogs with their breakfast.  I am thinking of dehydrating some to add with their food to help them feel more full.  They love apples and carrots.   With the rest of the pulp, I plan to make some veggie burgers. I'm going to start on those soon and put them in the dehydrator for a few hours.    I figure I can put my cashew cheese on top.  Maybe make a bun with romaine lettuce leaves and put a tomato slice in there too ... YUM!!

I bought a LOT of produce between yesterday morning and today, so I'm going to have to make some juice in the evenings after work this week - don't want it to go bad.  :-)

Taco Salad and Kale Chips

I still haven't figured out what to do with those Kelp noodles ... I guess I will bring them to work and have a salad with them maybe ... and perhaps make a creme sauce with them, but I really was hoping to stay away from nuts for a while - nuts are in so many raw dishes!

Last night I made some Kale chips.  Just simple ones with olive olive oil, garlic powder, salt and cayenne.  They turned out great!!  I might have to walk to the local produce market tomorrow and make some more - I'm thinking these may not last all that long:

For dinner tonight I mad a taco salad.  Nothing too fancy - just used some of the corn chips I made from the tortilla recipe, some of the cheese, guacamole and salsa.   It was delicious!!   My favorite part was dipping the corn chips in the cashew cheese - so good!!!

And - my juicer came this morning!!!  I went to the market to get produce this morning. I got three pounds of carrots, some celery, beets, apples, some ginger.  I forgot to get greens but I have to start somewhere right?   Tomorrow I am thinking I might just start with carrot juice -maybe add some apple as well.  I got beets - I think I *should* want to juice them.    I can't even tell you I don't like beets - they are one of those veggies that I never really gave a proper chance.  I had carrot beet apple juice once before - about 10 years ago - and I remember it tasting like dirt. I've always blamed that on the beet.  But I want to give them another try.  I think maybe I'll just add half a beet to get used to them.

Well, you'll be hearing about my juicing adventures soon ... !