RAW After the surgery

Yesterday I had periodontal gum flap surgery on eight teeth in the roof of my mouth. What a blessing the vitamix has been! I'm able to stay raw, get in all my fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds, and only intake liquids.

I've discovered a great site that discusses the difference between alkaline and acid foods, and why the raw diet helps your body get into and stay alkaline. This is how the body gets healthy, slim and happy! The site is http://www.thebestofrawfood.com

This morning I've made the oatmeal recipe on their site:
http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/raw-food-breakfast-recipes.html

- Raw Food Breakfast -
Oat Meal

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 apples
1 banana
1 tablespoon golden flax seed
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Pure water

Directions

Put the flex seeds in the purified water and let sit overnight.

Peel the apples and cut them in smaller parts (for the blender). Peel the banana en break in parts. Rinse the flaxseeds.

Put all ingredients in a blender. This can be a hand blender or high speed blender such as vitamix. Add 1/4 cup water, just enough to let the mixture blend well. Blend all ingredients until smooth. You may want to add a little more water if it's too thick.

Tip

You make make this recipe even better by replacing the water with almond cream or fresh juice. You may also add a tablespoon of hemp seeds. My daughter likes to add (germinated) nuts and raisins. You can prepare this recipe the night before (but put the banana in there in the morning). Especially with nuts and dried fruits in it, it will only taste better!

This is my children's favorite breakfast. My 6 year old daughter has been eating this for more than years almost every morning. I like this breakfast because it has healthy ingredients that are easy to get: the fiber, good fats and protein of the flax seeds.

RAW Day 15

TWO WEEKS!!!!

I've lost five pounds and am very happy about that. I also feel amazing, and people keep telling me I look great. They look, they comment, I can tell they can't pinpoint what it is. Funny. If the weight loss keeps up at this rate, they'll know for sure soon! I feel like I'm just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of what raw can and will do for my body.

A quick rundown of my food today:
green smoothie (water, banana, spinach)
banana
grawnola w/ nut milk
nut balls
Lara bar
apple
whole, sliced avocado wrapped in a nori roll
Raw hummus (recipe at the end of this post)

A friend recently asked me what I have removed from my diet in order to go raw. Interesting question. For the past two weeks, I have not had any of these foods commonly found in my diet:
fish
eggs
brown rice
quinoa
buckwheat flour
soy sauce
rice milk
raw dairy
oatmeal
granola
vegetarian soups (miso, tomato, minestrone, coconut)
Coconut Bliss ice cream (pasteurized at 165 degrees)




RAW HUMMUS:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups dry garbanzo beans
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed or to taste
• 1 cup filtered or spring water
• 1 pinch paprika

DIRECTIONS

1. Soak the beans for 24 hours. Drain, and let sit for 2 to 3 days, until the bean's sprouts are about 1/2 inch long. Rinse the beans once or twice a day.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat, and let stand for 1 minute. Place the sprouted beans in the hot water, and let sit for 1 minute. Drain. If you do not do this step, the hummus will be awful.
3. Place the sprouted beans into the container of a large food processor. Add the tahini, sea salt, lemon juice, and garlic. Process until smooth, adding water if necessary. It will take 3 to 5 minutes to blend. Let sit in the food processor for 5 minutes to allow the beans to absorb as much of the water as possible. If too thick, add more water, and blend again. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Spoon into a serving dish, and garnish with paprika.

RAW Day 14

Today is Day 14, which means when I wake up tomorrow I will have been 100% RAW for two weeks. W@@T!

I was really worried about brunch this morning. We met up with some friends at Doyle Street Cafe, known more for it's pancakes, coffee and eggs bennie than it's health food. Not a good place for a diet, no less eating raw. I was getting ready to order the side order of fruit and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice when I saw they had a salad section on the breakfast menu. Lookie there - grilled shrimp and avocado salad! Perfect. I'll take one, please. Oh, and leave off the shrimp. And the parmesan cheese. And the russian dressing. Oil and vinegar on the side. And yes, I would still like the glass of oj. It was amazing to eat that while surrounded by all the other foods. One friend even asked, "What is that?" like he wasn't familiar with vegetables. "They're vegetables, Steve, it's called a salad," was my reply, tongue firmly in cheek. Hilarious!

I ate a couple of nut balls and had a bowl of grawnola with almond milk mid afternoon, went for my walk, and had a banana and a handful or two of raw cashews. Probably more of those than I should have had, I was scarfing them in front of the computer screen while researching a new cell phone. Not wise.

Dinner was simple but delicious. Here are the recipes:

Nori Rolls:

2 raw nori sheets
1 large avocado
2 fresh tomatoes
Red onion
Dandelion greens, arugula, spinach...

Roll everything into the nori. Wet the final edge of the nori with water to seal it. Let it sit for a minute or two to seal. Slice into bit sized pieces or just pick the whole yummy thing up and enjoy.

Strawberry Tibetan Goji Berry Smoothie

1 fresh young coconut 1 cup strawberries chopped into small pieces 2 tbs. Agave 1/4 cup soaked Tibetan Goji Berries How to: Carefully scrape the coconut flesh and pour the coconut water into a bowl and take out all the splinters and fibers then pour into a Blend-Tec Blender, then add all the rest of the ingredients and blend to desired consistency. If you do not have access to fresh young coconuts then you may also use almond milk instead. The Goji berries give this smoothie such a vibrant unique energetic flavor that will delight you while giving you amazing super vitality. I know that the more people discover and try Tibetan Goji Berries, the more blissed out they will become! -Bryan Au Author of the rawsome new book "Raw In Ten Minutes"

Mine always turn out more pink than the one above. Probably because if the amount of strawberries. Also, I leave the green leaves on the strawberries. And why not? Greens are healthy! Did you know the green leaves on broccoli, the ones we slice off and throw out, are the most nutritious part of the broccoli? True!

At the market this afternoon, the clerk asked me why I was buying young coconuts instead of the other ones. "Are those old?" he asked. I told him I bought the young ones because they were so much easier to work with. Here's what I do:

Opening a Young Coconut
Using a sharp knife, cut the triangular point off. Shave down to the hard shell. With the tip of the blade, poke a hole on the shell. Take a pair of kitchen shears and cut a circle out of the shell. Pour the coconut water into the blender. Take a spoon and scoop out the flesh inside the shell and add to the coconut water. Blend and you've got coconut milk. Yummy and healthy!