More sprouted and dehydrated almonds

So today I made more teriyaki almonds, cheesy almonds, and introducing: chocolate almonds!

Yay! I bet they will turn out fabulous! Of course I didn't have date syrup so I used agave nectar. Tomorrow I will write how they were!

Chocolate Almonds

2 cups raw almonds
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbsp. date syrup
1 Tbsp. raw chocolate powder (or nonalkalized unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp. Original Himalayan Crystal Salt

Soak your raw almonds in water overnight, then drain and allow them to air dry (an hour or two). Make sure coconut oil (warm it in hot water if necessary) is liquid, and mix all remaining ingredients well. Stir in nuts. Spread evenly on dehydrator tray and dry until no longer wet/sticky, about 14-18 hours, below 116 degrees. Enjoy!

7 steps to a delicious breakfast concoction

Today for breakfast I had three glasses of water. That felt good.

Then I had my 2nd breakfast an hour or two later.

It was a confliguration of two of my favorite things I've been doing for breakfast or a snack lately.

Living granola and banana smash pudding!

So here is what I did:
1. Smash two ripe bananas in a bowl.

(ripe bananas have black dots on them)

2. throw in a handful or two of living granola

3. Sprinkle on some organic coconut flakes (from gsg group buy) and organic raisins (Costco)

4. Sprinkle on the hemp seeds (mmm nutrition! .... bought at amazon)

5. Mix it all up

6. Enjoy!

7. Forget to take a picture of the amazing breakfast you had and apologize to your fan club for not doing this, realizing that people like to look at pictures.

So yeah I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture. But this breakfast was so good that I think I'll eat it tomorrow since I have two bananas left! Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture and then I'll put it on here.

I've decided that eating the granola like this is much more delicous than with the hemp milk. The hemp milk isn't bad but it is more of an acquired taste. So it takes some training of the tongue to like it. That's part of the motto for trying these raw recipes. The more I try out, the more my tastes change. And then the food that used to taste good to me simply has lost its savor.

Tips for success

I wanted to write about some of the things I try to do that encourage weight loss (if you are over weight). I figure they might help someone out even if they aren't doing "whole foods" or even a "raw food" diet. Here we go:

• Always have good clean water handy to drink- when you glass is empty, fill it up and keep it by you. (psst...I drink ionized alkaline water fyi) When you are out, take plenty of clean water. You will notice that when water is available you will begin to want it more and it will always be there when your body asks you for it. I personally only drink water on most occasions. (Meaning no refined juices, milk, soda, etc) I do think fresh juice is fine and also superfood drinks like the ones from radicalhealth.com. (chocolate bliss is so good, I've never felt so happy about drinking chocolate all day long!)
• Eat your last meal of the day a few hours before going to bed. If you go to bed at 10 pm then try not to eat anything after 7:30 or 8 pm. You can drink water though! You'll find that a lot of times you think you are hungry but you are really thirsty! If I really need something to eat later then I try to keep it small and very nutritious. (Ha ha I eat nutritiously all the time though, so its not very different from my normal diet!)
  
• Eat a fresh salad before eating anything cooked. (If you aren't already being raw, obviously!) This will give your body more enzymes so digestion will go smoother and the nutrients from your food will actually do some good for your body!
• Heating food up past 105-110 degrees F will destroy the nutrients and enzymes. Your food will be dead. Try doing this less and less all the time.
  
• Eat colorful food. The more vibrant the colors of your food, the more nutrients they contain. Example: spinach has more nutrients than iceberg lettuce. Plus, bright colors are just prettier!
• When your body has enough nutrients of each kind then the cravings you get will cease. If you want to learn more about this, then check out the audios on radicalhealth.com
• Listen to what your body is telling you. But also know that some cravings (for unhealthy food) are just the only way your body knows how to get what nutrient it is deprived of.
• Everyone has an ideal weight. When you are listening to your body and responding to its cues appropriately then you will achieve your ideal weight. Before thinking about weight loss, just realize that if you are eating right all the time that your body will naturally gravitate to a good weight.
• Colon health is important- no matter who you are or your goals. You should have more than one bowel movement a day ideally. Otherwise you are constipated. Up your fiber intake and try to clean yourself out! Then stop eating the junk you were eating before that caused you those problems.
• What your body doesn't like- it tries to get rid of. If it can't get rid of the substance then it stores it in a place that won't do harm to the important organs in your body. If you buy and eat organic food then there are less toxins for your body to deal with. (not only that but organic food has higher antioxidant levels naturally as a result of having to fend off predators itself- rather than being sprayed with a chemical that would do that job)
• Realize that even conventionally grown produce is better than eating conventional animal flesh (aka non-organic meat). The concentration of pesticides is much greater in an animal who is eating food sprayed with these chemicals. Also you will be getting all the drugs they pump into the animals to keep them well in the disgusting conditions they are forced to live in. (Not to mention the gross things that get into the animal's flesh during the packaging and processing of them.)

I probably could go on and on but then no one would want to read this post. So I'll stop now and if you have any questions about nutritional tips just ask and I'll do my best to answer.
Thanks ya'll!

Weight status sidebar

So I put up past and present pictures of myself with the "vital stats" associated with each one. I thought it would be fun to have something to look back on and see the progress I make. Hopefully some of you think it is pretty cool too.

Living Granola and pretty salad

Yesterday I made this granola. It is one of the 12 step recipes from Green Smoothie girl (link on the right). It involves soakingand sprouting almonds, walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds as well as flax and sesame seeds. Then you flavor them with coconut oil, honey, and vanilla. Lastly you dehydrate them for a day. We had it for breakfast today.

I made Kristen's creamy dreamy hemp milk to go with it.
It was kind of a new flavor for me to get used to. But it was nice and smooth and creamy.

I made a salad with the chard from the farmer's market and a topping to go on top of it which included: mango, cilantro, onion, tomato, avocado and then we added jicama and apple. Delish!

I also made these two ice cream confections- vanilla and mango.
One was made with Thai coconut and cashews and the other with almond and coconut milk.
The vanilla is probably better. That is why it is mostly gone. Mmm...

Now I need to figure out what to do with the coconut liquid. I always seem to have this problem...when I need the liquid to make something I don't have it. But when I have the liquid I am not sure what to do with it! Any ideas?

I made you a cookie...

So I've been kind of slacking off a bit on my "try all the recipes" challenge. I was trying out other recipes instead of the ones in the ebooks I bought. I really love making green chips. And then we eat all of them! Today I am going to make more. It is such a shame on me that I don't have a super big dehydrator. But maybe we'll be able to get one soon after the bonus comes! Hoping that is does come...Nick has to have a good review first.

But anyway I did make charts with names of all the recipes on them so I could cross off all the ones I've tried and color code them for which ones I'll make again and which ones I won't. Once I get that all printed and set up then perhaps I'll post a picture of them. That will give me a visual of my goal(s) and achievements.

Nick had scouts last night and was exhausted as always (any Tuesday night he is). He called to tell me he was on his way home and said that there better be more "green chips" left. I had to admit that there wasn't because I ate them all. One of our new funny insider jokes goes like this: (innocent puppy dog eyes please) "I made you a cookie but then I eated it." But this time I had to say, "I made you some healthy chips but then I eat them all." You have to speak in that baby tone of voice. It all came from this cartoon that Nick showed me once. Maybe if I can find it then I'll post it. Oh, here is the link to the kitty. Now it should make sense to you.

I also have some nuts and seeds soaking that I have to flavor them up and dehydrate so I have a snack for on the go. I'm thinking about using the same cheesey coating I used for the kale/collard chips on my almonds. Hmm...well I'll let ya'll know once I figure it out.

Farmer's Market and yummy chips

Good news everyone!
Today I found a weekly farmer's market. This was a great accomplishment for me. I know that probably makes me sound kind of lazy but I'm not very used to this kind of thing. These farmers were just ordinary people with a smile on their face and veggies on their tables. It was great to be able to see who was growing the food I am planning to eat all week.

I also met this lady who has a lavender farm and makes awesome smelling natural soaps so I bought some and a shampoo bar- also a new experience for me. I used the shampoo bar yesterday and it created quite a lather and made my hair really clean! Squeaky clean in fact. Next step: find a good all natural conditioner. I've heard avocados are great, but I don't know how often I should do that one. I still liked how my hair turned out. When you use all natural products on your hair, it is kind of a new sensation. I was learning more about this on the blog of morroccomethod.com. More on that later, perhaps. (If I ever get my package!)

Here is a visual of my findings for that day. Uh, yeah I bought the coconut and bananas at whole foods, I WISH they grew locally! That'd be awesome! And in January....super cool! But alas those aren't local. :(

Today I made some awesome raw chips with my dehydrator! Here is the recipe.
Blend in blender:

1/3 cup cashews, soaked 1-2 hours (optionally)

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

3 Tbsp. water

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. Original Himalayan Crystal Salt or sunfire salt :)

¼ cup nutritional (or Brewer’s) yeast

2 green onions (including the green part)

1 Tbsp Fiesta Mole (or if you aren't a superfoodist yet then do this: ½ tsp. chili powder 1/4 tsp. cayenne 1/4 tsp. turmeric)

1 clove garlic

pinch of ground black pepper

I made a nerdy video and put it on youtube. I realized after I was kind of talking in a baby voice. Sorry if that annoys you. But it'll give you an idea of how to make them if you want to.

P.S. Funny new words to use containing "raw": rawlicious, rawesomeness, rawkin', rawdy, rawsational.

Success

Wow so many things to blog about, where do I begin? I have seriously been living in my kitchen for the past several days/weeks it seems. When family calls to ask what is new all I have to say is that I'm in my kitchen learning how to do more raw food recipes. Good thing I love it there. Wish I had one of those cushy rugs to stand on though.

But anyway, first item of business... I finally had success with dehydrator crackers! I was started to get discouraged because I spent the time mixing, chopping, processing, and then waiting for the dehydrator for a couple days every time I'd try crackers but this time it finally worked out. It turned out to be pretty easy actually. All I did was take the recipe for the cheesy spinach dip posted just a little bit ago and added soaked flax and chia seeds as well as some flax meal. I couldn't seem to figure out which was better with the flax, so I used both. That way I have my bases covered. The ratios were as follows: 1 part chia, 1 part flax, 1/2 part cheesy dip, 1/2 part ground flax. Mix it and spread it. If you don't have paraflexx sheets then you can use parchment paper like me. Maybe one day I'll be all high tech- but that is what I do for now.

Mmmm these are delicious and filling! Oh and btw I added a little extra sunfire salt and fiesta mole to the mix before dehydrating. They are full of superfoods and very satisfying!

Next item of business- I decided to make charts for each of the raw food books in Kristen's collection and then mark off the ones I have tried. I'll make a special note of the ones that are do overs on my chart. I'm about half way done making those charts. I like to be able to see my progress and where I'm going next visually so this will help!

Next thing is that I found this website that will help me (and you) find your local farmer's markets. This way I can be assured that my food will have the highest nutritional quality. Then I won't hardly ever have to go to the grocery store! Psst...I found someone in Arizona with bulk food items who is sending me a shipment at a great price! Unfortunately I do have to pay for shipping, but I think it will be worth stocking up my raw food kitchen.

I'm coming to discover that learning raw food preparation is actually also good for food storage and emergency preparedness. What if at some point I have no power and therefore cannot use an oven, blender, microwave, food processor, etc? This way I at least know what tastes good together and can chop it up and throw it in a bowl. And I can stay healthy while doing it. Yippee!

Well that is all I have to say for now. See ya next time!

Time for Super Foods

I haven't been able to post as often as I would like to. But I really should be thankful because I have so many great things to do in my life right now. The meetup in San Marcos was great. Those were really nice people and there were some really great recipes there! I bought some superfoods and now I'm going to town! I asked David about how to regrow cartilage because my knees aren't doing too well and he said the thing that worked for him (after years of trying) was a combination of blue green algae and bee pollen. So that is what I'm doing everyday now.

Yesterday was my first day. I'm not sure if what happened later in the day related to the intake of blue green algae or not but I got up in the morning, went to the gym, came home and showered, then took a 4 hour nap. My body just required this nap. It kept telling me: go to bed please, please, soon...now. So I gave in and went to bed at 1 pm. Then at 5 pm my body promptly told me it was okay to get up. I was still a bit tired but I was hoping to save that for bed time. Today I decided to wait until after church before I take the blue green algae so now I've just taken it with some "chocolate bliss" and if I get tired again today then maybe I'll start taking it shortly before bedtime.

I've been doing pretty good with raw. The more raw food I eat, the more hydrated I am, the more I feel like eating more raw food. Then if I ever get lazy and do cooked food, my body repents of it for the next 48 hours approximately. So I'm trying to find raw food concoctions to satisfy my body's requirements. I love love love the spinach dip with the almonds. So much so that I grabbed all the rest of my almonds that I have on hand and soaked them overnight. They are still sitting in the water, awaiting me to make more of it. But now I've just realized that I'm out of lemons. I have plenty of limes though. I wonder if that will work out okay. I guess we'll see.

Or maybe I'll determine if there is another recipe I can make them into. I prefer to vary the things I eat everyday. I think I'll make some of them into a cream and some into milk. Then I can add lemons when I have them and make cheese.

So here is a list of the superfoods I bought from radicalhealth.com:
Sunfire Salt
Vanilla Agave
Fiesta Mole
Chocolate Bliss
Tocos (short for a bigger word I can't spell)
Blue green algae
Bee pollen
Primal digest

The dreaded mushroom night

....WAS A SUCCESS!! Hallelujah!

But unfortunately I didn't take pictures.

Nick liked the mushroom dish.

I liked the flavor but didn't like mushroom scent in my mouth after.

Nick said we must do this one again!

Maybe I'll substitute the mushroom in mine for tofu or something.

I munch on my spinach dip everyday since I made it and now I'm trying to figure out the best place to get more raw almonds. It seemed like raw organic almonds were the cheapest at....

the grocery store! Seriously? Not even amazon? Weird. Maybe I should check prices on my other nuts I've been ordering on there too.

So I made corn chips in the dehydrator to eat my dips with but they just have this funky aftertaste to them and I don't like it at all!

It is so disappointing when this happens.

I pretty much expect every recipe to be amazing in Kristen's book

but some of them just don't work out right for me.

So sad.

I'm going to another raw food meetup in San Marcos tomorrow. It's David's fault.

He convinced me, somehow. He called me up today to tell me about it

and then I decided that I should go. It can be my new adventure that I was so hoping for.

Hopefully I will discover more raw food recipes that I can put to good use!

I'm taking paper and pen this time for sure so I can write down all of

the fabulous things I learn!