Pizza Bagel!

So after I made the bagels and the raviolis in the previous posts, the logical thing seemed to be to make a pizza bagel! It was very pizza like, and didn't really feel like raw food, and while it was definitely fun, and seemed like a great treat, I don't think I'll be making them often. Eating bread just feels... wrong. Who knows, maybe I've been gluten intolerant all this time and I didn't even know.

Many people have great benefits from cutting gluten and casien from their diets (that basically means wheat and dairy.) I think this is much of the reason why Asian cultures live so much longer than Western cultures. Autism can be virtually reversed by following this simple protocol.

But I really do like the bagels. Next time I make them, I may try to make them gluten free. Kamut is lower in gluten than wheat, and sprouting reduces the gluten content. However, it did also have ground raw oats, so that adds more gluten. I think more the time being, a low consumption of sprouted grains will be fine. I have grawnola, bagels and sweet bread, and these three items should be enough to last us almost a month I would think, so I won't need to be sprouting again any time soon.

We had some really nice green juice this morning, with kale, apple, celery, carrot and mint. Mint makes any juice better!

I'm getting hungry, so I guess I'll wrap it up. I can't believe how quickly and easily this month has gone by! I'm definitely not going straight back to my old lifestyle (although I'll be in Santa Cruz next week, and I may need to eat some of my dad's soup.) This has been very fun so far, and I plan to keep it up!

Making Bread

I made bagels! They're very good, and weirdly authentic, yet somehow, they're not really what I want. When I first started this trial of rawness, all I wanted was bread, pasta, rice, etc. Now all I want is sweet fruits, macadamia nuts and green juice. Maybe I'm getting over my bread addiction? That would be something.
I sprouted 2 cups of kamut, which made 5 cups of sprouts, so I used half in the bagel recipe (which I changed by taking out the yeast and sunflower seed butter, swapping kamut for the millet, and dehydrating much longer at a lower temp) and the other half in Juliano's mango essene bread. Basically a sweet raw bread with mango. I'm not that into any of it right now, but Jesse probably will be. He needs filling foods, and these breads fit the bill.

I'm quite sleepy now, and I have no excuse for it... I got a haircut, did a bit of food prep & dishes (the good husband also did some dishes... it seems the terrible dish strike of 08 has ended) but I spent most of the day reading David Wolfe's Eating for Beauty and other stuff online. Oh, also, it seems I have lost 10 pounds. Can it be?

Ridiculously Early...

I seem to be waking up around 5:30, not interested in going back to sleep. The raw foodists are always talking about needing less sleep... and I'm not sure if I like it. I think I could still use more sleep, but for whatever reason, my body is refusing to do it. I think they call that insomnia. I should just accept it as a gift and move on.

So let's talk about something much more fun, like this beautiful ravioli from last night! This was my favorite thing from my original attempt at going raw (that one only lasted 2 or 3 days.) The "pasta" is thinly sliced turnips, marinated in oil and salt to soften and remove bitter juices. I know this may sound unappetizing to non-raw readers, but trust me, it's amazing! The husband was floored. The filling is a spinach and macadamia "ricotta" and the sauce is a simple sundried and cherry tomato marinara. Magnifique! The salad radishes and fennel, again marinated in oil and salt to soften and remove bitter juices, over a bed of spicy greens, including watercress. This was also very delicious, and felt Italian, although I have no idea if it actually is or not. Again, I will post the recipes on gone raw soon The sesame balls recipe is up, and I'm still perfecting the sushi rice.

Speaking of the sushi rice, I'm making a picnic for an afternoon bike ride today, and I decided to bring the sushi. We're also going to pick up some Three Thieves wine in Tetra Packs (the most economical/eco-friendly packaging available!) and have sesame balls for dessert. I imagine I'll also throw in some fruit (we have lots of apples, oranges and grapefruits right now.)

One thing I had forgotten about getting up this early... the sunrise from my porch is amazing! I mean, you can't actually see the sun, but the pink morning clouds, singing birds and cool, calm morning air are truly lovely. I am a deeply blessed individual.

Open Sesame

On Wednesday I bought black and brown sesame seeds at Rainbow Grocery. The first thing I created was the above sesame truffles, which were intended as a raw version of sesame balls, the deep fried things filled with red bean paste and frequently served around Chinese New Year. Naturally, they tasted slightly different, but were completely awesome nonetheless. Jess thought they would be ideal to give to non raw people who are freaked out by the whole raw concept. By the way, the reason there are only two in the photo is because we ate most of them before I could take one!

I'm not going to post the recipe in recipe form tonight (I'll probably do it next week on Gone Raw, but the basic recipe included: shredded coconut, processed to a paste, tahini, honey and salt. That stuff blended up, then rolled in sesame seeds.

Next I decided to tackle Nori Rolls. Once again, I used Renee Loux's Living Cuisine for inspiration, although (once again) i made a few changes. The first spread (the one with black and white sesame seeds) is a tahini/miso/honey mixture with sesame seeds and ginger. This was tasty, although I used a bit too much honey, these rolls were a bit candy like (kind of like that wrapped Chinese sesame candy.) The second spread, pictured with only white sesame seeds, was made with cashew and hemp seeds, and was very rice-like. I am beginning to fall in love with hemp seeds. They have practically perfect nutritional ratios, both of protein to carbs and fat, as well as the type of fat they contain. But the main reason was because oh my goodness was that ever rice like! However, this spread is much more filling than rice, so if you make it, don't expect to eat as much as you might at a sushi bar!

I am finally beginning to really love what I am doing. I look forward to loosening the rules just slightly, but I definitely believe there is long term potential here, which I didn't really at the start of the trial. It helps to figure out the appropriate level of complexity to expect from a meal (like maybe only using one piece of equipment, or maybe it takes no more than 10 minutes to make, but not just a piece of fruit or a few nuts every single time I feel hungry.) Plus, I started losing weight again, so that always helps. Here's to our health!

Restaurants, Donuts and Random Pictures...

Yesterday I went out with a friend all day, and was confronted with the reality of being a raw foodist at a non-raw restaurant. We went to Golden City, a vegetarian Chinese place in the tenderloin. Since it's a vegetarian restaurant, I didn't think it would be too difficult to get a simple salad or some fruit. The menu had some lovely options, including a Thai cucumber salad and a selection of smoothies. I chose mango. I also saw they had fresh juices, so I didn't think it would be a problem to just have the smoothie with juice instead of milk or soy milk.

The problem with this is that it is entirely dependent on the server's attitude. I asked her what else went in the smoothie. She seemed baffled by this question. So i didn't much both asking about the Thai cucumber salad, and just asked for it without peanuts or soy jerky, and finally managed to get her to agree to a smoothie with juice instead of milk or soy milk.

So I'm fairly sure the meal was at least 90% raw. I believe and hope that the smoothie was only frozen mango and fresh squeezed OJ, and the salad dressing clearly had some sugar (it was very sweet) and the sesame seeds were toasted. Not a big deal, and I certainly don't consider it a setback. I managed to eat at a relatively normal restaurant and stay virtually raw. It was also a lovely meal. However an hour or so later, my face got all blotchy and red, the way it does when I drink too much or eat MSG. But this place doesn't have MSG. Weird.


I just finished making Rawdorable Shannon-Marie's infamous donuts, but I probably made way too many. I'll really only want one or two, and jess will maybe eat five or six, and there will still be like ten left. I made the chocolate ones, but I used much more oat groats, soaked them as well as the nuts, and added a banana (although it was a much bigger batch than she lists, so more like half a banana by those portions.) I'll frost them with the cacao-coconut oil-honey mixture I used on the cookies, and possibly a cashew/vanilla type thing as well. Yum.

I have a few extraneous pics of raw food that haven't made it into the blog that i'm sort of inclined to post now. Here's a green smoothie, before blending:

The tasty but not very satisfying zucchini pasta:

And yesterday's lunch of Raw Makery bread with almond butter, honey and raspberries:

Hope you enjoy them!

Green Smoothie

So I've been kind of grossed out by the idea of green smoothies, but I love green juice. So I decided to bite the bullet today and make a green smoothie this morning. I've been known to add a bit of spirulina to a smoothie before, thereby making a fruity smoothie slightly green, so I figured adding a little broccoli rabe wouldn't be all that different. And it wasn't. Actually, I think it was a little better. This smoothie had one banana, broccoli rabe, a blood orange and almond milk. It was a little bland compared to my usual smoothie, but overall not bad at all. Totally edible.

Could NOT get to sleep last night. I have no idea why, maybe I haven't been getting enough exercise, maybe... I don't know. So I look a little tired today. No matter. I put on cure clothes, a little eye makeup and a hat, and I'm good to go. I'm going to see my friend's puppies and have lunch at Cafe Gratitude. I am grateful to have friends who are willing to go to a restaurant where you have to be grateful in order to get your meal. I have to get going, but I may get a chance to add more later today.

dinner party

I would say the dinner party was a huge success! I made mushroom/walnut patties, wrapped them in collard leaves with avocado and cherry tomatoes, and topped them with a little tangy mayo. I made Jicama "fries" and a grapefruit pecan salad. People seemed to like it!



Then, I served those cookies! Pretty much all the recipes came from Living Cuisine by Renee Loux, with some minor changes. I forgot to break out the camera till midmeal, so unfortunately there's no photo of the spread on the table. Here's the recipe for the patties (the way I made them.)

4 cups chopped portobellas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon bragg's amino acids
1 cup soaked walnuts
1 cup soaked sunflower seeds
1 chopped onion
2 cups chopped zucchini
i cup chopped celery
1 cup fresh basil
1 cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
sea salt, to taste

Marinate portobellas in oil, lemon and braggs for at least 30 minutes. Combine other ingredients in food processor (it didn't all fit in mine, I had to do it in batches!) Blend well. Add mushrooms and pulse, leaving some chunks. Mold mixture into 8-10 patties. Dehydrate at 110 for 8-12 hours, flipping an hour or so before you will eat them. Then eat them!

I drank too much wine last night (like two glasses! goodness gracious!) so I feel a little off today. We went to the farmer's market and bought lots of oranges, greens and olives. I made a tapenade/pesto and put it on some zucchini for dinner. Jess had some steamed artichokes, and I tried to make a mayo for them, but it didn't thicken, and he doesn't like it, and I can't eat it and it will go bad before I can. Oh dear. Now I have a blender full of caesar dressing like mixture that I can't even taste for seasoning to see why it doesn't taste good. One of the frustrations of being raw with a non raw partner, I guess. The mayo is actually raw, but it includes a raw egg, which I said I wouldn't be eating, so I don't want to eat it.

Oh, the chocolate I put on the cookies came out amazing! I'll post that recipe tomorrow. Like a thick ganache/frosting. The husband devoured the leftovers for breakfast.