Traveling Juice

Day 52. Lately I have been having to stop and think about what day I am on because I have been counting down. It's easier to think, only nine days left of juice! 

For the past four days I have been in Chicago. It was a long drive for a juicer but I made the best of it. I was able to bring my juicer along so that was good but in the car I had to make a plan. On the way there I figured I would try ultimate cleanse. It was easy to make a gallon of the mixture the night before and not have to worry about juicing in the morning. I left early, stopping off at my parents house to pick up my mother. I made a quick juice at their house since their juicer is a champion and easier to clean up after than mine. We were on our way. After a few hours I started to feel a little funny. Not bad, just a little light in my head. After eight hours of it, I was ready for juice. I drank almost the whole gallon of the lemonade mixture. 

That night I made pistachio pesto rawviolis and raw spaghetti 

for my friends. Since none of them were actually raw foodists, the pistachio's and the spaghetti sauce were not raw. It was a start at least and they all loved it. One said it was the best meal he has ever had. Lastly I gave them a coconut/blueberry cheesecake that I made with my left over young coconut meat. I can never bear to throw the stuff out after taking the water so I make little cakes for my friends. I am a very strange juicer. One that loves to make raw foods and torture myself by not eating it. Only, I don't find it that bad. I just feel happy to make others happy to eat. 

I also brought along some crepes that I made from the same coconut mix I used for the cheesecakes. I just spread the stuff out in my dehydrator. In the morning I made crepes for breakfast. I made a quick orange cashew creme in a mini cuisinart processor and cut it in half and made the second half orange chocolate. I decorated it and served with fresh orange carrot juice. They loved it. It was too much to have two so they saved the second one for later. One said that it tasted like cannoli. 

That will definitely be something I will like to try when I am back on solids. But not for a while. I think the complex combinations will be hard on my digestion. I find that even with juice my digestion can be disrupted if I drink one juice and then soon after drink another.

 

That was all the prepping I was going to do for food. I was just so ready to make food. I feel obsessed at the moment with thinking about the food of my past. A bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald's sounds good to me. Yuck! I would never eat that. The food of my

 childhood coming back to haunt me. By the 'going back in time 120 days for every one day of juicing' I am technically 9 years old. I was definitely into McDonald's at this time in my life. It wasn't until I was 14 that I became a vegetarian and started to think about my health in regard to food. I wasn't into my health as far as other things yet because I was just starting to smoke. That lasted 6 years when I finally realized that maybe it was all connected. 

 It was really great to be in the city again. I am a city girl with a need for nature and a garden. It's a strange combo. I hope I can work that out some day. In the meantime I am stuck making gardens in my kitchen! I went out one day in the windy city with no juice. I just figured everything would work out. So from breakfast to 3:30 I had no juice. I felt fine and not hungry the whole time but I don't think this was a good idea. When we made it to The Chicago Diner I was able to have two delicious juices. I was having a hard time while my company ate one of my gluten/dairy/soy/meat free favorites- Nachos. The Diner makes them like a healthy version of the Nachos Bel Grande from Taco Hell. The vegan nacho cheese is made from nutritional yeast and is safe for someone like me. It's not a raw dish but it's good! At the Diner they also always have one raw meal on their menu and a few different raw cheesecakes in their dessert case. Last time I had their chocolate cake. I can't even talk about it, delicious! I highly recommend their three layered fruit cheesecake.

I love going to Chicago because they have everything at hand. There are three restaurants that serve raw food that I know about and another I just found out about in the suburbs. I went to Karyn's one day for a juice while my mother who is also celiac got a raw slice of Chicago pizza. 

I love that they make that. It is very rich but still worth getting. It is just hard to finish all the crust.  Karyn's is great and is stocked up on all your raw food needs. There is a nice restaurant connected to the shop/to go side. Another raw place that I found out about in January is Cousin's Incredible Vitality. The owners are really nice and friendly and eager to share information with their guests. They do a lot of raw food boxes that you can pay for by the month and pick up two boxes per week. A great investment. Their buffet is also wonderful and very cheap for all you can eat raw food at about $12. I bought my first Juice Feast informational book there. Their carrot cake was exceptionally fabulous that day.

It snowed a lot the night before we left making it hard to get the car out of it's spot in the morning. It was probably the last snow I will see for the season so I was happy for it. I miss the snow where I live now. It only snows once a year and usually doesn't stick. The people here aren't used to it so everything closes down. 

When I arrived home I was pleased to see that my wheatgrass was huge. Thanks to my roommate for watering! They are about five inches tall and I think they are supposed to be ready around 7 or 8. I couldn't help but use some this morning in my juice. I got used to using some wheatgrass each morning because I could buy it at Whole Foods in Chicago. I used to work at a Whole Foods in the bakery section when I lived in Michigan. I sampled out breads and cookies and cakes each day and of corse sampled the goodies myself. It was terrible for an unknowing celiac. 

Well, I am off to get ready for the Student Art Show. I hope I place!

Ciao!

Elizabeth