Raw-Luck

I've been pretty busy again. Every time I post I think I will again shortly after but it isn't easy to find the time when I am in the middle of graduating and moving and my senior show! I may have been busy, but there is always time for beautiful and healthful food. 

This week I made a delicious soup without a recipe. I knew I was going to have dinner with my parents so I brought a quarter of an avocado, a tomato, some spinach, lime, ginger, onion, garlic, a date and perhaps more I cannot remember. I put it all in the food processor with fresh carrot juice and sage. It was so good! I added some cut up chunks of avo, onion, some baby lettuces and mushrooms as well.

 

Next I had a huge craving for carrot cake especially since someone brought carrot cake to birthday sunday at church. My chocolate spell is over and replaced with a carrot cake obsession! It was also amazing. The frosting was a bit too much on top so I ended up cutting a lot of it off. This recipe came from Freshtopia.net. I didn't watch the video on how to make the cake so I ended up making it without dehydrating it. It was extra super moist and really really good. It didn't matter. I tried out the dessert on my family. My brother who was in the food business in Chicago for years even loved it. He said that this raw thing is finally getting some validity. Ha! He said it was the best dessert he has had in a really long time. 

He also really liked the cheese I made. I made three types of fermented cheese from the recipe on The Sunny Raw Kitchen website. I agree that these two things are quite remarkable. Since I and most of my family are intolerant to gluten, dairy, and eggs these dishes are great. It's fun for me to see them get so happy about being able to eat something that tastes exactly like what they cannot have. I forgot to take a picture of the cute cheese-balls I made but I will soon. I have plenty left for my family members who are coming in town for my graduation and senior exhibition.

I went to my first raw food potluck in Memphis! A bit of a drive for me but it was worth it. I can't wait to go again. I haven't been around so many raw foodists at one time before. Tonya Zavasta led the group and discussed issues for raw foodist. It was great to hear her unique perspective. Definitely a lot to think about.  

Well, I need some sleep. The house must be completely clean tomorrow for a party after my Art opening. 

Ciao! xo,

Elizabeth

 

Chocolate

I love chocolate! Today was a good day for chocolate. After church we ate the Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake that I made. Yum. Being in a small town in the middle of nowhere, I think they were surprised that you could make a cheesecake out of something other than cheese. This was the Black Forrest cheesecake recipe that I found on the Sunny Raw Kitchen Blogspot. 

For dinner tonight I made a yummy soup. I went to the store with my mom and just picked things that sounded good to me. I knew that there was a juicer and a food processor at my parents home so soup was a good idea. I got dill, avocado, tomatoes, green onions and zucchini. I juiced some carrot and put the other ingredients in as well as some spinach, garlic, salt, a bit of tahini, cayenne and mushrooms. I topped it with torn nori, green onion, mushrooms, sprouts, a couple avo chunks and a cherry tomato. Yum! I think my dad even liked it. He asked me if this was good for him! Hehehe.

I had a great day with family and as I left their house there was a mist over the field. It had rained all day and become warmer throughout the day and right there at the end the sun came out. It was set as I left. 

xo,

Elizabeth

Day 46

Well, Juicing has been feeling like a drag lately. I haven't felt like exercising this whole week. I attribute that to either over doing it with exercise the week before and the harsh detox effects that it seems to have started or working on school projects and deadlines. Either way, I'm pooped. I have done the Tibetan Rites each morning except today. I really enjoy doing them and I almost feel that I need to do it before anything else, my body asks for it. Today was different because it was so cold that I didn't even want to take off my socks. The sudden freezing weather makes me want to stay in bed. 

I am so excited that my Juicing is almost over. Only 15 days of juice left! I have been thinking

 about food lately. It doesn't help that last night I was at an art party after an artists lecture at school and I was standing near the food table and the garlic in the hummus was calling to my nose. It doesn't help that I went to the bookstore to pick something up for my brother and I stopped by the raw cookbook section and browsed through the books and recipes that I wanted. It also doesn't help that I get email updates of when blogs about raw food recipes like those from Sunny Raw Kitchen and they have the most beautiful and delicious looking foods in them! So I am ready for the switch. I am nervous that I might return to some bad eating habits, but hopefully with the help of Angela Stokes' book Raw Food for Weight-loss, I will be in good shape. I have actually been dealing with all of my emotional food issues. I'm talking about it all with my loved ones whom never knew what secret eating habits I had. I'm getting it all out in preparation. I've also been working on clearing out my closets which feels great in addition to clearing out the bad habits from my mind.

Another project I have been working on is growing wheatgrass. It's is coming along nicely except I am wondering why they are coming up so far apart from each other. I thought they should b

e all bunched together like you find it in the store. Last nights batch I put more in the space so hopefully that will solve the problem but perhaps it is the fact that I didn't put something in it to cause all the seeds to germinate. I'll figure it out soon enough. 

I am happy to say that one of my sculptures was accepted in the

 Student Art Show at my school. I hope to place but I will try not to get my hopes up too high. 

I was talking to my juicing partner and she has been chilling almost her whole fast. She seems to get a lot of detox symptoms and I am wondering if she is just that toxic or if I am doing something wrong because I don't get chilled often or have many detox symptoms. I am feeling the most detoxing this week than the whole thing. My symptoms are usually a sort of a uneasy

 or somewhat nauseating feeling in the bowel when releasing stool. Last Saturday was the worst of course. Since then, unfortunately, I have had Brittany Spears song "Toxic" stuck in my head. Boohoo.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Slightly warmer weather and it is Friday! I will be leaving to Chicago Saturday morning after a visit to a naturopath. I'm actually taking my dad who has some health issues at the moment and I am really excited that he is willing to take an alternative route. His doctor has been prescribing him pain killers for arthritis but we know that the issue runs deeper than just arthritis. My dad just hasn't been taking them. Is it just me or does it seem that most doctors know less about health these days? This is the same doctor who told me that it wasn't possible for me to have celiac's disease when he knew that my sister, nephew and aunt have it. He doesn't know that it is genetic. Why don't doctors know these things! This is a subject that I get heated over easily. 

I hope everyone that was able to see it enjoyed the Lunar eclipse last night! I was unfortunate to have a cloudy sky. 

Cheers for now!

xo

Elizabeth 

 

40 Days Juice

Day 40, I  can hardly believe it. Only three weeks to go. I can almost taste those prunes! 

I'm still really into oranges but I made myself cut down today. I made a nice carrot, orange, spinach with only one orange. It looked so beautiful in the bowl. 

Today was a test of my will power. I helped a friend make a raw meal for his girlfriend for a late Valentine's dinner. She became really excited about raw food after a night of discussing juicing and raw food and looking at my non-cooking books. 

Raw meat loaf, onion crackers and a chocolate cheesecake. The cheese cake smelled amazing and I know how good they taste, they are my specialty. 

I had three non-raw helpers in the kitchen and they loved the taste of everything- the raw meat-loaf before dehydrating and the bbq sauce to top it. They wanted to dip their crackers in the sauce. The recipe's for the Meat-loaf came from my raw cook book by Juliano. I believe it is just called RAW. The cheesecake recipe was a semi-altered Black Forest cheesecake recipe from The Sunny Raw Kitchen blog. We didn't add cherries and we used all coconut oil instead of adding cacao butter.

 

It was a fun night but I had to get out of the house after that. I am staying with my juicy friend tonight. Thank goodness because my uncookers where drinking and planning on a long night. I usually have to wear earplugs to bed when that happens. 

My juice buddy and I took mid-way photos and compared them to our starting out photos. It's incredible how much we've changed but I am ready for more. I actually fit into her size 6 corduroys. I am not getting too excited though. They seemed a bit stretchy especially to fit on me and my size 12 body. But it felt good anyway!

It's late again, I'm off to bed.

xo

Elizabeth