Green Power Juicer

I caught the stomach bug going through our family and am still recovering from it.  I went 40 hours without eating anything and decided to use that fast as an opportunity to get off of two addictive substances - caffeine and sugar. I knew I would have to get off of those before starting the January 100% raw plan.  I had intended to go with more of a weaning off approach, but this works, too.  We are continuing to get more excited about next month.  I ordered two small replacement parts for our juicer.  We have a Green Power juicer and there is a book called, "Living with Green Power" that is full of all kinds of recipes you can make using it - way more than just juice.  That was our first experience with raw foods.  I'm one of those people who marks up all of my recipe books with comments.  This one is a very well used recipe book.  Well, a lot of the recipes call for the blank screen to be used and somehow it got lost in the move to this house.  For the longest time, I kept thinking we'd find it.  Finally, I just kind of forgot about it and every once in a while would want to make something using it and then would just shrug my shoulders and move on.  So last week I finally realized how silly that was.  I was letting a piece that cost less than $10 stop me from making all kinds of delicious healthy raw foods that my family loves!  I went ahead and ordered it plus the rice cake attachment, too.  That's one that I had not had, but a few of the recipes called for it and I'd always thought about getting at some point.  Well now we're all set.  :-)

Love, Dawn

Thanksgiving went great.  I ended up cooking the green beans, but did make the other raw dishes that I mentioned in my last post.  They were yummy.  I have to admit that the cranberry pineapple relish was hardly touched by anyone until I added some sugar, though.  I decided that the sugar would be worth it to get them to eat the relish and get the wonderful health benefits of the raw fruit in there.  Tomorrow we're going to pick up some Romaine lettuce on the way home from church and then for lunch we'll all have  leftover raw stuffing with that cranberry sauce inside the Romaine leaves.  We did that before with the Mexican veggie nut stuffer and salsa and it was a huge hit.  The children thought it was SO fun to use lettuce leaves like little sandwiches.  :-)  I have found that eating 2 meals totally raw and then having the other meal plus snacks cooked seems to be an easy way to get in at least 50% of my food raw.  I'm excited that Aaron wants all of us at least 50% raw through December and THEN in January, we're going to try to have the whole family 100% raw the entire month.  I've read and heard so many awesome stories of the healing raw foods can do.  We want to see what it can do for our family in that time.  Wouldn't it be just awesome, for example, if it could shrink one of Susanna's tumors?  Or alleviate some of Thomas's Aspergers or Miriam's Autism?  Or subdue Miriam's ADHD or Rebekah's ADD?  Or improve Samuel's cognitive functioning?  Oh any of those things would be a blessing beyond words!  Certainly worth the try!

Love, Dawn

I am trying to go for 50% raw and that seems to be working much better for me.  :-)  I've been thinking how I can do a yummy Thanksgiving meal that's a mix of raw and cooked.  What I think I'm going to do is make the following cooked food: turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  I'll also make the following raw foods: salad, cranberry/pineapple relish, stuffing, green beans dish, and apple pie.  Sound good to you?  :-D

Love, Dawn

Starting again

Sadly, I have really fallen away from my goal of high raw.  I've allowed busyness to be an excuse to not eat as well as I know I should.  Yet, I know that my energy level is higher when I do eat raw and I can therefore accomplish more.  I'm starting yet again.  Here is to sticking with it this time!!!  I've got a big colander full of sprouted buckwheat on my counter that I'm going to make into raw granola and I'm coming up with a meal plan for myself for the next week.

Love, Dawn

Loving those green smoothies!

We're in November now, but it sure doesn't feel like it outside.  We've got gorgeous weather in the 70's for a bit.  I think that's great because we get to spend more time outside, which is so good for us - fresh air and sunshine!  :-)  

Lynn, you asked how I stayed with the raw while in Cincinnati.  First, I brought a gallon of green smoothie with us.  Naomi Ruth, Susanna, and I all enjoyed that.  I made sure I got my usual quart per day.  Then, at the cafeteria, on the first day I was able to eat a huge salad for lunch during her MRI.  The second day, we definitely didn't have time for that so I had to settle for a quick cheeseburger.  Oh well.  Still, I think between the green smoothies and the salad, I did well!

The green smoothies continue to be a staple here.  I love them because:

1) They're fantastic for me

2) I'd never get that many greens in otherwise

3) They help curb bad cravings

4) They cause me to crave good healthy foods

This morning I had some cooked muffins with raw milk for breakfast.  I'm planning to have a big salad for lunch and a green smoothie for dinner.  My salad will be a mix of greens with some other veggies, but will have some cooked toppings such as bacon bits, shredded cheese, and Ranch.

My weight has stayed the same the last couple of weeks.  I'm glad I have not gained back any that I lost, but I would like to lose more.  I think that once I am able to do so, as in when I've recovered enough from the c-section, I would like to add in some exercise, too.  I'll have to figure out how to fit it into my very full schedule, though!

Love, Dawn

quick check-in

I'm just stopping in to say that I'm still doing well with my raw eating.  Life has just been extremely busy this last week.  We just got back last night from 2 days in Cincinnati for medical stuff for my daughter, Susanna.  To see more about that, please go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/susannahall.  We'd love your prayers.  Anyway, I'm back home now and trying to get things back to normal.

Love, Dawn

Starting the day raw

This morning I made enough green smoothie for all of the children and myself.  It takes a lot of food to feed this many people, no matter what I make!  I made 3 full VitaMix blenderfulls to feed us a breakfast of green smoothies.  Whew!  In them, I used romaine, spinach, mixed baby greens, and mixed Italian greens for the greens and bananas, strawberries, and blueberries for the fruit.  I have some oat groats soaking overnight and plan on serving raw oat porridge for breakfast tomorrow.  I think I'll start the raw transition for the family by trying to keep most breakfasts totally raw for all of us.

Breakfast: Green smoothie

Lunch: Tortellini soup topped with mozarella cheese plus raw goodies: carrots, grapes, sweet potato chips and raw milk

Dinner: (all cooked) Chicken, scalloped potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, cake

Snack: 2 Cinnamon Girls

I don't think I mentioned the other day that I got in our co-op order.  For raw food use, I got lentils, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, alfalfa seeds, hemp seeds, and chia seeds.  I'd also ordered buckwheat groats and garbanzo beans (also known as chick peas), but neither of those came in this month.  I'll try again next month.

Love, Dawn

Recipes

I want to share some recipes today that I've made recently and talked about here.

Cinnamon Girls - Rawvolution by Matt Amsden

2 C raw almonds, finely ground in a food processor

1/3 C cinnamon

1/3 tsp sea salt

1 C raisins (I used dates)

3/4 C agave nectar (I used raw honey)

2 Tbsp olive oil

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the almonds, cinnamon, salt, and raisins/dates, and stir until the dry ingredients are mixed well.  Add the agave nectar/honey and olive oil to the bowl, and mix until a doughlike consistency is reached.  Using your hands, roll the mixture into ping-pong--sized balls.  Serve as is, or cover, and freeze before serving until thoroughly chilled for a more solid consistency.  (I like them frozen.)

Garden Fresh Salsa - Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison

4 big vine ripe tomatoes

1 red bell pepper

2 tomatillos

1/2 a red onion

1 bunch cilantro

3 cloves garlic (I use 4)

2tsp sea salt

few cracks of black pepper

1-2 jalapenos (I use 1)

3-4 freshly squeezed limes or lemons (I use limes or 1/2 C lime juice if I don't have limes)

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Pulse roughly in food processor.

Mexican Veggie Nut Stuffer - Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison

4 large carrots

1/2 Vidalia or mild red onion (I use red)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I skip this)

3 tsp cumin (I use 1 1/2 tsp)

1 big lemon, squeezed

Few sprigs of fresh oregano or tarragon or 1 tsp dried (I use oregano)

2 C nuts or seeds (I usually use almonds) - Soak 1/2 C nuts or seeds to get your 2 C for this recipe.

Place carrots and onions in food processor and whiz.  Add rest of ingredients and whiz until smooth.

Okay, so today I had:

Breakfast: Raw granola with raw milk

Snack: 1 tortilla chip, 1 slice cheese, handful of those yummy sweet potato chips that I made overnight in the dehydrator

Lunch: Green smoothie (same as yesterday)

Snack: Chocolate, Leftover Ramen (definitely not healthy choices, was having stressful day and went for some old comfort foods)

Dinner: (all cooked) Potatoes, carrots, roast, cake

I'm continuing to really enjoy listening to Rawkathon.  You can check it out at www.rawkathon.com.  Aaron and I are talking about trying to get the whole family to at least 50% raw.  I'm excited!  He's the one who initiated the idea.  :-)

Love, Dawn

Rawkathon

I'm listening to the Rawkathon as I type this.  It's a really neat 7 day free event all on raw foods.  I'm only able to listen to little bits of it, but am enjoying what I am able to hear.

This whole week, people from our church are bringing us meals.  That's a super blessing as I am recovering from my c-section.  I'm just going to plan on dinners all being cooked this week so I can enjoy their blessing.

Breakfast: Zucchini bread, fresh strawberries, raw milk

Lunch: Green smoothie (parsley and baby greens with bananas and strawberries)

Snack: Cinnamon girl (see yesterday)

Dinner: (All cooked)  Rice with chicken and vegetable curry, Banana nut bread

Snack: Cinnamon girl

Last week we pulled up all of our sweet potatoes from our garden.  This evening, Naomi Ruth (9yr old daughter) and I sliced up a bunch of sweet potatoes and then made a marinade of olive oil, raw honey, and cinnamon.  We swished the sweet potatoes around in there and after they sat for a bit, we arranged them in the dehydrator.  That will make a YUMMY snack tomorrow.  We tried some tonight and they were delicious but still very chewy.  We're going for a crunchy texture.  :-)

Love, Dawn

Wow, can these really be healthy???

Last night in my dehydrator I had two different foods going: banana pancakes and pizza bread.  This morning I took the banana pancakes and put them on plates.  Then I whipped up a chocolate sauce (avocado, honey, cacoa, and pine nuts) in the VitaMix and spread it on the pancakes.  (The pancakes, by the way, were just bananas blended and then poured on the teflex sheet in the dehydrator, so fruit leather basically.)  Then, I chopped up strawberries and put them on the chocolate sauce.  I rolled them up so they looked like crepes and had the most DELICIOUS breakfast imaginable.  I felt like I was eating in some kind of gourmet restaurant and I kept pausing and thinking, "Can these really be healthy?"  Wow, those were good!  My children all enjoyed bites and they LOVED them, too!  This new recipe (found it online at a raw food forum) is definitely a keeper!!!!!  I just took a nibble of my pizza bread.  I'll use it as part of a meal tomorrow.  It's yummy too, though.

Breakfast: Banana pancakes with chocolate sauce and strawberries, Raw milk

Lunch: Raw tacos (same as yesterday) plus another cup of raw milk - We went through another head of Romaine as the children all wanted some, too.  :-)

Snack: Cinnamon Girl (yummy cinnamon treat from book "Rawvolution")

Dinner:  (all cooked) Mashed potatoes with gravy, chicken, green beans, noodles plus a big salad

Snack: another Cinnamon Girl plus 1 quart of Green Smoothie (same as yesterday)

I don't have time to share recipes right now, but will do so in the next day or two.  I'd be happy to share any that you ask for.  Lisa, I'll be sure and share the taco ingredients.  :-)  They're from Serene's book, "Rejuvenate Your Life."

Love, Dawn

Fresh Start

This is my second raw food blog.  I needed to update, though, as I now have 10 children.  Praise God for every one of my sweet blessings!  Benjamin, our youngest, was born on Sep. 30th, just 2.5 weeks ago.  I developed Gestational Diabetes and by working with the Hospital Dietician had to switch my diet quite a bit.  The great news is that I kept the sugars under control with diet alone and Benjamin and I are both doing great now.  As soon as he was born, I started increasing my raw foods again.  Raw foods make me feel SO good!  I'm currently on Day 12 of having a quart of green smoothie every day.  Almost all of those days, I've had it as a replacement for one of my meals.  I'm not all raw, but am getting higher and higher raw.  I haven't decided if my goal is high raw or 100% raw.  I don't think it's important that I figure that out right now.  Today I had:

Breakfast: Strawberry Banana Mixed Baby Greens green smoothie (1 quart)

Lunch: Raw Tacos (Romaine lettuce leaves filled with Mexican veggie nut stuffer and salsa, topped with a bit of cooked cheese)

Snack: Sprouted Tortilla spread with peanut butter and wrapped around a banana

Dinner: Lasagna (cooked) with Apple Pie (cooked)

I've already lost 24lb compared to the day before giving birth.  I am totally thrilled about that!  He was a beautiful 7lb30z of that.  :-D  I know that my odds of developing Adult Onset Diabetes are higher due to having Gestational Diabetes and I'll tell you what - I do NOT want that!  I am feeling very motivated to get down to a healthy weight.  I'm also finding that the more I eat raw foods, the easier the weight loss is.  I am nursing exclusively, so I'm being careful not to detox too quickly.  

Lunch was funny because the rest of the family was eating sloppy joe sandwiches and I was eating my raw tacos.  I haven't been making a big deal at all about my change of eating or pushing anyone to join me.  Well, they tasted SO good that I was down at my end of the table just making all of these happy little sounds.  You know what happened right?  Pretty soon I was getting all of these request - Can I have a raw taco, too?  :-D  We ended up putting away a lot of sloppy joe leftovers.  lol

Love, Dawn