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