Checking In

Things are going well here.  We're maintaining at about 2/3 raw overall and then have our all raw Mondays.  This seems to be working out well for our family.  We almost always have various things going in our dehydrator and the VitaMix and food processor are used and washed daily.  We had a neat experience last night.  For dinner, I fixed raw chili and then we still had our fixings from our raw tacos.  I served those things with mixed greens and oranges.  Well, before our children have been pretty picky with the mixed greens.  They especially have avoided the ones that taste more bitter.  They've been drinking green smoothies all month and between those and the rest of the raw food, their taste buds are changing.  Last night they couldn't get enough of those greens.  They were marveling over how fantastic they tasted and just kept eating more and more of them.  We ended up eating about 80% of one of those huge plastic boxes of mixed greens that Sam's sells plus the chili and leftover taco stuff PLUS 10lb of oranges.  :-)

Love, Dawn

Day 7 - New Plan

We have a new plan.  I could not handle the amount of time it was taking me in the kitchen to be 100% raw and still get done homeschooling and the running of our home.  Then there was the cost, too.  I hadn't realized that these would be such problems because when I've done raw before, it wasn't the whole family.  I've loved how I could fix food just a few days a week and have plenty of food for the whole week.  Now I have to triple or quadruple recipes just to have enough for one meal.  Benjamin wasn't doing well at all with my raw eating, either.  Here is the plan that Aaron and I came up with related to raw foods:

1.  This month Mondays will be all raw.  Next month, Mondays and Tuesdays, etc.  We'll continue with that until we're happy with our level of raw.

2.  I'll start soaking things Thursday/Friday and Sunday afternoons I will fix a bunch of raw foods for us to enjoy during the week, so that I don't need to make them then.

3.  Naomi Ruth (10) will be my kitchen assistant, helping me with all meals and snacks.  (Being in the kitchen working with me is just about her very favorite thing to do!)

4.  The non raw food I fix will be healthy natural food, not processed junk.

So what have I been eating?

Yesterday:

Green smoothie - mixed greens, mixed fruit

Apple muesli - oh wow was that delicious and so filling, too!

Leftover caesar salad with fresh zucchini, carrots, and papaya plus dates and mixed nuts

(The children had scrambled eggs instead of the caesar salad, but then all of the rest of the above.)

Milk

Tea

Cooked take-out pizza and Chinese food 

Today:

Green smoothie - mixed greens, mixed fruit

Banana cinnamon smoothie

Chocolate milkshake smoothie

Cooked hamburger soup with fresh hot whole wheat bread slathered in raw butter

Milk

Tea

Raw chips with fresh mango salsa (yummy!)

Cooked popcorn

So I've still been high raw, just not 100%.  Benjamin is doing sooooooooooo much better, too.  I think I was "toxing" him while I was detoxing.  Isn't that just awful?  He was having so much gas, though, and horrible tummy pains.  He wasn't sleeping well and was crying a lot.  Poor little guy!  Today he was back to being happy and napping great.  :-D

Love, Dawn

Day 5

Today was tougher than I had anticipated.  I was doing well this morning and early afternoon.  By mid-afternoon I was surprised to find myself thinking that I didn't want another BITE of raw food.  I was actually fighting the temptation to call Aaron and tell him to pick up pizza on the way home.  I decided to fix raw corn chowder for dinner.  I've done that before in just this situation and it has worked before.  I heated it just until barely warm on the stove and we had it with a big caesar salad for dinner.  Yummy!  I'm feeling much better again about the whole raw eating thing.

Green smoothie - mixed greens, mixed berries, bananas

Oat porridge with bananas, strawberries, milk, and butter

Leftover lunch - I went with pizza and also Asian veggie nut stuffer in Romaine leaves

Snacks - dates, mixed nuts

Corn chowder 

Caesar salad

Milk

Herbal tea - forgot to mention that one on the other days, I'm currently drinking Sleepy Time tea

Thank you for those of you who are reading and commenting.

Lynn - Thank you for all of your encouragement.  The farmer markets are all closed this time of year.  Raw is definitely easier in the summer because of the abundance of produce AND it is a lot easier to eat almost all cold foods when it's hot out!

Catherine - I'm glad that you enjoyed the recipes and that's great that you got a raw book.  I wish we could have gotten together, too.  We hadn't been there in 5 years and were able to see 19 relatives in just 5 days.  Our days were full, but wonderful.

Kristen - If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  :-)

Love, Dawn

Day 4

I just have a minute here so this will be quick:

Oat porridge with banana, blueberries, milk, and butter

Flax crackers with apple mango chutney - sooooooooooooooooooo good, but it is giving Benjamin (my nursing baby) problems :-(

Zucchini, cucumber, and carrots with almond hummus

Pizza 

Milk

Snacks - dates, cashews, almonds, cheese

The pizza was fun.  I put out the pizza that was crust, sauce, and shredded cheese.  Then I put bowls of goodies on the table - green pepper, orange pepper, olives, red onion, and pineapple.  We all had fun making our pizzas exactly like we wanted them.  That was a real hit!

Love, Dawn

Day 3

The headache is gone and I'm feeling great today!  I've got more energy too.  :-)  I was able to get out to the dairy today so have resupplied our home with raw milk and butter.  Yummy!  Just 3 days into this, I'm starting to rethink the plan of doing this for a whole month.  We are going through an amazing amount of food between the 11 of us!  I don't know that we can afford a month of this.  I talked with Aaron and we decided that we will shoot for 2+ weeks.  We'll see how much longer we can keep going at that point.  If we can do a whole month, then awesome.  I've dropped 4lb in 2 days.  I think that was the yummy Texas food coming off of me.  :-D  We just got back from a wonderful time visiting family in Texas.  Today we had:

Green smoothie - mixed greens, mixed berries, bananas

Oat porridge with bananas & blueberries and Buckwheat porridge with bananas & blueberries

Almond butter and banana sandwiches in sprouted wraps

Strawberry yogurt - pine nuts, almonds, honey, psyllum, strawberries

Fresh carrot apple juice

Dinner of romaine lettuce leaves with 2 veggie nut stuffers - an Asian one and a spicy pumpkin seed one

Our Liberian children LOVED the spicy pumpkin seed one.  It had a strong onion and garlic taste to it, right up their alley.  I currently have lentils and buckwheat sprouting on my counter and flax seeds soaking.  I'm about to put together most of those flax seeds with other ingredients to make 3 pizza crusts I'll "cook" in the dehydrator for tomorrow's dinner.  I'll use the other part of the flax seeds to make crackers we'll enjoy at lunch tomorrow with almond hummus.  The lentils have sprouted nicely.  Tomorrow I'll combine them with other ingredients to make "chicken nuggets" for Monday.

Here are a few of the recipes that have been requested:

Chili (from The Raw 50 by Carol Alt)

1 C pine nuts

1 C pumpkin seeds

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

Juice of 2 limes

6 medium garlic cloves, 2 of them minced

1/4 C cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil

3 scallions (white and green parts), chopped

1 tsp ground allspice (I left this out as I don't have it)

4 C chopped ripe tomatoes

2 tomatillos, quartered

1 small fresh mango, chopped

1 tsp salt

4 tsp chili powder

1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I substituted with 1 tsp cinnamon)

1.5 tsp ground cumin

Put the pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, bell pepper, jalapeno, lime juice, minced garlic cloves, extra-virgin olive oil, scallions, and allspice in a bowl.  Stir together and marinate for at least 1 hour at room temperature.  While that's marinating, pulse the tomatoes, tomatillos, mango, salt, chili powder,  pumpkin pie spice, the remaining 4 garlic cloves, and the cumin together in a food processor or blender.  Transfer this mixture to another bowl and let it marinate for at least 1 hour.  Combine the two mixtures together and serve.

Chili Lime Uncorn Chips (from Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison)

5 C buckwheat sprouts

3 C veggies (zucchini or tomato or a mixture of both, I used mixture)

2 C pine nuts or sunflower seeds, measured and then soaked

1 C golden flax meal ground in coffee grinder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

2 Tbsp cumin seed

2 Tbsp raw honey

Juice of 2 limes

2 big pinches cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp garlic powder

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 C whole raw pumpkin seeds

2 Tbsp black sesame seeds (optional)

Blend buckwheat, veggies, and pine nuts in food processor in batches.  Mix with the rest of the ingredients.  Spread thinly on greased teflex sheets and score into corn chip triangles.  Dehydrate for 24 hours until completely crispy and corn-chipy.  Remember to turn them over onto the mesh screen after the first few hours.

Mexican Veggie Nut Stuffer (from Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison)

4 large carrots

1/2 Vidalia or mild red onion (I use 1/4 of a sweet onion)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oli

1.5 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I leave this out)

3 level tsp cumin (I use 1.5tsp)

1 big lemon, squeezed

A few sprigs of fresh oregano or tarragon or 1 tsp if dried (I use oregano)

2 C soaked nuts or seeds (I prefer all almonds)  This is about 1.5 C before soaking.

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

Enjoy!

Love, Dawn

Day 2

I had the children out shopping at Sam's today and you should have heard them BEGGING for McDonalds on the way home.  :-S  We're doing well on the raw, but everyone is really missing cooked food.  Aaron, my dh, is struggling with really wanting chips.  Based on our toilet experiences, I'd say our bodies are cleansing big time right now.  No further details on that one.  ;-)  Today we had:

Green smoothie - mixed greens, strawberry, banana

Oat porridge - 1 batch with blueberries and bananas and 1 batch with strawberries and bananas

Leftovers - chili, porridge

Snacks - dates, almonds, cheese, carrots, apples, tangerines, pickles

Cucumber Avocado soup - That one was GROSS!!!  I won't be making that again!

Chips with salsa

Chocolate Shake - bananas, cashews, avocado, cacoa powder, honey - This was AWESOME, even better than yesterday's!

I also drank some coconut water mixed with liquid chlorophyll and it got rid of my headache.  :-)

In my kitchen right now I've got buckwheat soaking and lentils sprouting.  It's funny because I've got a tiny kitchen and couldn't figure out where to put my soaking/sprouting stuff and then I had a lightbulb moment.  I can keep them on my stove.  :-D  I've got sprouted buckwheat in my fridge that I'm going to turn into pizza crusts tomorrow.  I also made a batch of carrot apple juice tonight that we'll have with breakfast tomorrow.

Love, Dawn

Day 1

Today is Day 1 for our whole family being raw for the month.  I'm really excited about this.  I wonder what changes will occur.  So far the only change is that Aaron and I both have headaches from caffeine withdrawl.  lol  I'm hoping we have better changes ahead!  The children are still feeling very leery about this, but we all enjoyed today's food.  We had:

Green smoothies - mixed greens, bananas, strawberries

Buckwheat porridge - buckwheat, bananas, cinnamon, honey, vanilla

Chili - fabulous recipe, actually won a prize in a Texas Chili Cook-off!

Tacos - romaine lettuce shells stuffed with Mexican veggie nut stuffer, salsa, and cheese

Apple pie with whipped cream

Chocolate banana milkshake

Not bad, huh?  :-D

Love, Dawn