The Cost of Raw

When I first looked into the raw diet, I came away feeling that it was an elitist way to eat and impractical for most people. I still feel that way to a degree, but I can see the benefits of incorporating more raw food into our diet. I am definitely feeling more energetic and younger. :-)

Yesterday I was going all day long preparing for a "Super Nutrition Cooking Class" (which actually showcased several raw recipes) but I never got tired. I was on my feet quite a bit and normally by 4pm I am so tired I have to sit down and rest in front of my TV! But not yesterday. Sometimes you don't realize that things have changed until you have a day like I did yesterday and then you realize that you are feeling much better.

I have not been eating 100% raw or even 80%. Probably more like 60%. Still, I've probably eaten more raw food in the last 3 or 4 weeks, as a percentage of my total calories, than ever before in my life.

OK, I've talked about the benefits of eating more raw food, but what about the costs? Has my grocery bill gone up? Yep! It has. All of this fresh food is expensive, especially when you try to get as much organic as you can. I am guesstimating that my food bill has gone up about 20% this past month. Of course, we have been buying out of season veggies for variety. I can see that when we get a garden going and start picking up our shares from our CSA farm, our costs will go down significantly.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure you can put a price tag on improved health and vitality, but I believe it's worth the extra cost. I've had to cut back in other areas of my budget, but so far we've been able to manage the extra grocery costs.

From the beginning my goal has been to help my husband improve his health so that he can attain a remission of his cancer and not have to endure more chemotherapy. This is a goal that is not under my control so I guess it is not a good goal in that sense. Maybe I need to call it a "hope" and let the goal be to maximize our nutrition to be best of my ability. I suppose my fall back position is that if he does require more chemo, his body will be all the stronger going into it for having eaten this way.

Marinated Vegetables and Pesto Pasta

Apparently marinating vegetables is a way to soften them without cooking, so I decided to give it a try since all of that chewing can get a bit tiresome! I tried the recipe from Raw Food Made Easy and I only wish I had made it a bit earlier to get some extra marinating time in. However, it was delicious and everyone took seconds.

This recipe is for one serving only, so please multiply according to your family size. Make sure you have enough of the marinade--I think we were a little lacking.

I served this with Zucchini Pasta and Pesto Sauce and a side of sliced tomatoes drizzled with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Very yummy!

Marinated Vegetables

1 cup small broccoli florets

6 cremini mushrooms, quartered

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrot

3 T. Lemon Herb Dressing (or any vinaigrette will do)

Place all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Toss well with your hands, working the dressing into the vegetables. Marinate for 4 to 12 hours in the refrigerator before serving. Will keep for 3 days stored in a sealed container in the frig. Bring to room temp before serving.

Lemon Herb Dressing (yield: 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 T. minced fresh herbs (parsley, basil, dill,mint, tarragon, or oregano)

1/2 tsp. crushed garlic

1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard (optional)

dash black pepper

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place the lemon juice, herbs, garlic, salt, mustard and pepper in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Add the olive oil and whisk again until well blended. Will keep for 5 days in frig.

Variations: replace lemon juice with lime juice and add cilantro, dash of cayenne and ground cumin

Spring Rolls and Peanut Sauce

This is another simple idea for a surprisingly filling meal from Raw Food Made Easy. I bought some Napa cabbage and washed and dried several leaves, cutting off the thickest part of the stem.

Then I prepared a number of filling ingredients including cucumber (use a veg peeler to make thin strips), carrot (I used my garnisher to make a pile of thin carrot strings), green onions, cilantro and sprouts (the recipe calls for mung bean sprouts but I had alfalfa sprouts). I also added avocado slices.

I placed some of each of the filling onto the base of the cabbage leaf (I "pre-rolled" the leaves to soften the thick part of the middle) and then added a spoonful of Mock Peanut Sauce. I rolled them up and placed them seam down on a plate.

I served these rolls with brown rice and miso soup. Here's the recipe for Mock Peanut Sauce, although I'll admit that I added a few spoonful's of peanut butter to mine at the end! Everyone loved it!

Mock Peanut Sauce (yields 1 cup, 4 servings)

1/2 cup raw almond butter

1/4 cup water

1 T. fresh lemon juice

2 tsp. pure maple syrup or agave nectar

2 tsp. tamari

1/2 tsp crushed garlic

1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger

dash cayenne pepper

dash salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator--will keep for 5 days, but I doubt it will last that long.

Apple Crumble Cake

I'm too lazy to type in the entire recipe, which has THREE parts, but you can find it in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy. This recipe includes a "crust" which forms the base and the outside of the cake and an apple "filling" which of course goes in the middle. The "orange cream" goes on top. I'll just say that it was a BIG HIT at our home and very rich! Lots of nuts, dates, apples, a bit of honey and cinnamon and the orange cream was made with orange juice and cashews.

Spontaneous Combinations!

This morning I cooked up some rice and after we came home from church, I started combining things in the kitchen. I mixed the rice with a few dashes of seasoning and a tablespoon of EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil), then added some lentil sprouts, defrosted peas and a chopped tomato. Delicious!

I also made a carrot salad with loads of shredded carrots, a few handfuls of raisins, some raw pumpkin seeds and a dressing made with raw apple cider vinegar and raw honey (1:1) and a dash of cayenne pepper. Yummy!

We also had some lightly steamed broccoli.

A colorful, healthful feast that took just minutes to pull together. Now I just need to figure out what kind of raw dessert to make...:-)

Costa Rican Cabbage

This recipe is called Latin American Cabbage in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy, but she says that it is an "authentic Costa Rican dish" which tastes delicious with guacamole. It was a really nice variation on the cole slaw theme and so tasty I had the leftovers for breakfast this morning!

I served this with guacamole-stuffed Portobello mushrooms and baked sweet potato fries.

Latin American Cabbage

Makes 2 cups, 1 serving

1 cup shredded cabbage

1/2 ripe tomato, seeded and diced

1/4 cucumber peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced (I used an English cuc and didn't peel it)

1/2 celery stalk, diced or thinly sliced

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced

2 T. minced fresh cilantro (I used basil--my husband doesn't like cilantro)

1 T fresh lime juice

2 tsp. minced onion

1 1/2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Mix all ingredients in bowl and let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature before serving. Will keep for two days store in sealed container in frig.

Note: I used a mandoline to thinly slice the cucumber and the celery.

The Power of the Scales!

Years ago when I was on the Weight Watcher's diet, I bought myself a nice electronic scale. Now I am using it everyday!

Our goal is to feed my husband 1 pound of leafy greens and 2 pounds of non-starchy veggies each day. Sometimes in the morning, as I am cutting up and peeling vegetables, weighing them and tossing them in the Rubbermaid "salad trough" that my husband takes to work, I feel like a zookeeper preparing food for the primates. :-)

But here's the point--unless we were using the scales, he would never be eating this much salad. The goal really helps to drive up his consumption of healthy greens and vegetables. Thankfully, he has gotten used to it and is able to eat more than he did during the first few days of our mostly raw experiment. I had to originally scale back to a lunch of 8 oz of salad greens and only 1 lb of veggies. Now he chews his way through 12 oz of greens (he gets the other 4 oz in his breakfast smoothie) and a full 2 lbs of veggies! When he brings home the empty tub, I do a little cheer for him! :-)

If you are trying to get more greens and veggies into your diet, I would challenge you to make a daily goal of how many ounces/pounds you want to consume and then start to use a set of scales. Eating fresh raw food is not what most of us are used to and having a goal is very helpful in changing both our preferences and our habits.

We Cheated for Valentine's Day!

Carol Alt, noted raw foodist and supermodel (and author of Eating in the Raw), says that often people will not change their diets because they just couldn't live without one particular food. She advises people to allow themselves one "cheat." I think mine would be Thai food!

Last night we went to dinner at a local, inexpensive Thai restaurant. We ordered salad rolls with peanut dipping sauce for an appetizer and Thai fried rice and some kind of mung bean noodles for the entrees. It was all very delicious, but we only ate HALF of what we would normally chow down, and left with two containers of leftovers for our daughter to enjoy.

We definitely felt "heavier" after this cooked and fairly rich meal, even though we had only eaten half of our entrees. In some ways, that was really important for me to discover. I think as you eat a more raw diet, you become increasingly sensitive to your body's signals.

Raw Food Gadgets and Tools

If you want to prepare raw recipes, the right tools can make the whole adventure a lot easier and more fun!

Cutting Boards
I've been using 3 small cutting boards with one dedicated to onions and garlic. But Jennifer Cornbleet recommended getting one large cutting board and dedicating the side with the grooves around the edges to fruit (to catch the juices) and using the other side for all sorts of veggies, including garlic and onion. I found one at Wal-Mart yesterday and I can't believe how much easier it was to prepare dinner last night!

Just a note on cutting boards. I go with wood! A study reported in the UC Berkeley Wellness letter addressed the plastic versus wood cutting board debate. Both types were used to cut meat on and then washed with hot soapy water and left to dry overnight. In the morning, the plastic one still had bacteria from the meat, but the wood one did not. They hypothesized that maybe the cellulose in the wood had antibacterial properties. Besides, don't plastic surfaces dull knives a lot faster?

Knives/Peeler
After you get a nice large cutting board, the next most important tool is a set of really good knives. I have several Wusthof brand knives--a chef's knife, a small serrated knife, and a paring knife. I also own a Chinese cleaver which comes in handy with winter squashes. HI YAH CHOP!

A good vegetable peeler also comes in handy. I recommend the OXO brand.

Food Processor
One of the main appliances you'll use is a food processor. I am currently using an old Cuisinart that I picked up at a garage sale for $5.00. I will probably upgrade sometime, but for now it works. I priced a few at Wal-Mart yesterday and you can get these for between $35 to $50. I use mine for grinding nuts, making marinara sauce, guacamole, cole slaw and a lot more! If you don't own one, this would be the first appliance I would buy.

Blender
A blender would come second. I happen to have a Vita-Mix, which is expensive, but does a wonderful job. I use mine at least daily for smoothies. However, any blender that is fairly powerful will do the trick.

Spiralizer
Another gadget I'd get is a spiralizer for making "pasta" from vegetables. We had zucchini pasta again last night and again I was surprised at how much I liked it! The thought of zucchini pasta is such a strange concept that I still haven't gotten my mind around it! :-) You can get one that comes with it's own container--this link has a good photo, although I've never ordered from them-- http://www.rawgourmet.com/saladacco.html . Or you can buy the Japanese garnishing gadget --the Benriner Cook Help--like I did (it's green--a photo of it is in my Feb. 6, 2008 post). The chefs that I've watched on DVD's use the first one and seem to get good results, although when I went searching I saw some poor reviews. Still, I have a friend who has one and doesn't have any complaints.

When you consider the health benefits of incorporating more living foods into your diet and the amount of time you spend preparing it, using the right tools can help make the job a lot easier.

Not Tuna Sushi Rolls

These sushi rolls were fun and easy to make. I could see kids really enjoying making these as long as the parent in charge wasn't too picky about how they turned out!

Finding raw nori is very difficult (the only source I found was a business in Hawaii) so I used the toasted ones and they certainly have a lovely smell. I wanted to wait until I bought one of the those bamboo stick mats that the sushi chefs use to roll up their sushi, but Alissa Cohen didn't use one so it gave me courage to try it myself.

Here's my "recipe":

Lay down a Nori sheet and leaving about 1/2" of a margin, spread some light Miso across one end of the paper. Then spoon a few tablespoons of not tuna pate over the Miso. Pile on some sprouts and some grated carrot or whatever else you want (you can get very imaginitive!) and carefully and as tightly as you can roll up the Nori paper. Dip your fingers in water and wet the 1/2" end of the paper and then finish rolling. I let it sit seam down for a few minutes to let the seam bond. Then I cut it into four pieces with a serrated knife.

You can dip these in Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari or Soy sauce.

We served these with purple cole slaw made with shredded cabbage and carrots, raisins, honey, apple cider vinegar and some salt and pepper to taste. In addition, I baked some sweet potato "fries" using a small amount of olive oil and a few shakes of the Ranch dressing powder. Yum!

What the Dietician Said

Yesterday we visited a dietician named Kelly Morrow, a practicioner and teacher at Bastyr--a well-known naturopathic college. We drove our mini-van into the Wallingford district of North Seattle and as we parked in the underground parking lot, a young woman driving some sort of SUV was pulling out. Her bumper sticker read, "MINI-VANS ARE TANGIBLE EVIDENCE OF EVIL." I did a double take! Had we entered some sort of zone where mini-vans and all they represented were despised? I looked around and we had the only mini-van there! I know this has nothing to do with nutrition, but it was so bizarre, I just had to share. I guess I've been sheltered in the burbs so long where mini-vans are ubiquitous that I never realized the animosity bubbling just under the surface for this very practical family car. :-) Seattlites...what can I say? They've gotta have a bumper sticker decrying something or another!

So enough about that, here's what we learned that might be of general interest. First of all, Kelly complimented us on our diet and said it looked very healthy, but that she'd like to do an analysis if we'd send her a 3 to 5 day food journal.

As we talked about doing a raw diet, she said that she always liked to base her dietary views on the wisdom of the ages, so to speak. What had ancient cultures eaten? She commented that no human culture had ever eaten a purely raw vegan diet. Apes eat a raw vegan diet, but they spend 6 to 8 hours eating everyday. Eating "Daniel's Diet" definitely takes more time to eat! I sent my husband off this morning with a trough of salad which he can feed from all day long! Today's salad included romaine and mixed baby greens, mini carrots, sugar snap pea pods, yellow and orange bell peppers, avocado slices, fresh asparagus spears, alfalfa sprouts and cooked black beans.

She also encouraged us to consider eating some vegetable and bean soups on cold days which she felt could also be part of a healing diet. She also encouraged John replace some of the fruit with more nuts, legumes and grains like quinoa and millet.

I eat a lot of fruit and I think all of that sugar is probably not the best for me since I am probably a little insulin resistant. So I will also be taking Kelly's advice.

One of the books she recommended is Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert. I'll add that to my list!

At times I feel torn...I've read of people curing themselves of chronic diseases and cancer via a 100% raw diet and I've also heard of people doing the same with a vegan diet which included some cooked foods. I think Kelly's concern was that we enjoy our food as well. I agreed with her that it would be easier to "go raw" in So. Cal. but that up here during a cold, rainy winter a raw diet was a bit counter intuitive. So many of these recipes I think would be very appropriate for a hot summer evening (not that we get that many of those in the Puget Sound!). I've started to make sure that the food gets set out so it comes to room temperture before we eat--this really helps.

Mock Tuna Salad

Last night I tried the raw foodist's answer to the ever popular staple of tuna salad. I used Jennifer Cornbleet's recipe but then added alfalfa sprouts, as shown in Alissa Cohen's DVD. Stuffed in a large tomato, it was a delicious part of our dinner last night. We also served more kale salad, using organic Dinosaur kale this time, which I bought at Whole Paycheck Foods. I rarely go there, but where else are you going to find Dinosaur kale?

Not Tuna Pate
(makes 2 servings)
1/2 cup soaked raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup soaked raw almonds
2 T. water
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 T. minced celery
1 T. minced onion
1 T. minced fresh parsley

Jennifer advises to process the nuts (which can be soaked together, btw), water, salt and lemon juice first and then add the other ingredients, but I just threw them all into the food processor and let 'er rip!

I also added a few sprinkles of ranch dressing mix powder as a bit of a cheat!

If you store this in a sealed container in the frig, it will keep for 5 days. You can use this for various recipes.

What's for Dinner???

Yesterday our home teacher's* wife invited us over for dinner after church. She had been meaning to have us over, she said, but knowing our dietary choices she could just never think of anything to fix. But when she found that she had a bunch of salad leftover from an event on Saturday, she knew we would enjoy that for dinner.

So we had a lovely salad bar for dinner and it was great. I brought some lentil sprouts and was able to give a two minute lesson on sprouting. I also brought a plate of avocado slices to share.

I always appreciate when our friends are supportive of what we are trying to do with our crazy raw food diet. :-) And it was a very nice break from the kitchen for me!

But if we're going to survive on raw food for an extended period of healing, we have to eat more than salads for dinner. Over the weekend, as I sat waiting for my daughter's choir group to compete, I started writing down some ideas for raw dinner menus using Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy. Here are some of them:

Italian Dinner
Not Meatballs
Fresh Marinara Sauce
Zucchini Pasta
Mediterranean Kale Salad OR Marinated Vegetables

Asian Dinner
California Rolls made with raw nori paper OR Spring Rolls made with napa cabbage
Mock Peanut Sauce
Zucchini Noodles
Asian Cole Slaw

Middle Eastern Dinner
Tabouli-filled Tomatoes
Indian Greens
Hummus and Flax crackers
Carrots with Moroccan Spices

Healthy American Dinner
Garden Vegetable Soup
Tomato Stacks made with Not Tuna Pate
Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts and Raisins

I have been struck with the realization that food is culturally learned. If we had grown up in some kind of place, maybe right outside the Garden of Eden ;-), where raw food was the norm, we would not think it was strange at all. As my husband says, "It's all just food." I'm really happy that he is so willing to give this a try.

*For those who are not Mormon or a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "home teachers" are pairs of men assigned to visit families in our "ward" or congregation each month. Most LDS men serve as home teachers and most families have a set of home teachers assigned to them. They help the family in time of need and bring an inspirational message to share each month. Over the years, our home teachers have helped with child care, meals, graduations, illnesses, yard work and lots of etc! Home teachers are all about practicing Christlike service.

Alissa Cohen's Living on Live Food

I just finished watching Alissa Cohen's DVD "Living on Live Food" which I really enjoyed, although it was a bit long (2 DVD, 3 1/2 hours). I tried one of her recipes today and LOVED it! I don't know what she calls it in her recipe book, but you take portobello mushrooms and remove the stems. Then you fill the caps with guacamole and add a few toppings such as tamari sauce or Braggs Aminos, capers, salsa etc. It was delicious and filling! I also served a green salad with sliced sunchokes--a new veggie that I saw at Trader Joe's this morning. Then I took Belgian Endive leaves, filled them with hummus and topped each with some alfalfa sprouts. For dessert I made "Fudge Balls" (recipe following). The entire meal was very yummy and filling, but I didn't feel tired afterwards.

Kristen’s Instant Fudge Balls

1 cup nuts (almonds, pecans, pine nuts), finely ground in food processor.

Add 8 Medjool dates, pitted. Process.

Add ¼ cup cocoa powder, ¼ cup honey and process until it makes a sticky dough. By teaspoonfuls, roll into balls and roll in ground nuts or flaked coconut.

Can You Gain Weight on a Raw Food Diet?

Raw food authors promote the idea that you can "eat what you want, when you want" as long as it's raw, and all of your unwanted pounds will melt away. At first glance, most of us would agree. Eating fresh fruit, salads and a few nuts and seeds seems like a nutritious way trim down! Then why has my husband been steadily gaining since Monday? Of course, this could be due to all sorts of things, but certainly the number on the scale is not going in the intended direction. (Most chemo patients get really sick and lose lots of weight during treatment, but although my husband initially lost about 15 lbs., one of his medications actually caused him gain it back and then add another 15 lbs. His doctor was not overjoyed and encouraged him to work on taking it off now that he's done with chemo.)

So we have to reevaluate. Up to this point, our "plan" has been a combination of three authors: James Simmons who wrote Original Fast Foods; Dr. Lorraine Day, M.D., the doctor who cured herself of breast cancer using a vegan diet and lots of carrot juice with some barley green powder thrown in; and Kris Carr who did a documentary on her fight with cancer and was able to stabilize it with a daily shot of wheatgrass juice, a mostly raw food diet and some other interesting practices.

Everyday has seemed like a race to get the wheatgrass juiced, the one pound of greens and two pounds of solid veggies ingested and the six glasses of carrot juice swallowed. My husband has done a great job keeping up with all of this drinking and eating and munching of very healthy food. But I am starting to wonder if it is just too much!

So I went to the USDA's nutrition site where you can get nutrition stats on almost any food. This is a very helpful tool.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=7783

I found out that 6 cups of carrot juice have 566 calories and 55 grams of sugar!

Besides the carrot juice, I usually make him a large green smoothie with orange juice, banana and blueberries or cherries and fresh spinach. That probably has another 300 calories at least and plenty more sugar. During the morning, he may also snack on two or three other pieces of fresh fruit. So, I think he may be topping out on the sugar. People who are overweight often develop insulin resistance which adds to the problem of losing weight and added sugar in the diet only makes this worse.

So, our next tactic is to switch from carrot juice to "green drinks" which will include leafy greens, celery, cucumber, zucchini, parsley and maybe some lemon and ginger. Jennifer Cornbleet shows how to make this green drink in her DVD. I am even thinking of investing in a better juicer for this purpose--a GreenStar Juicer. I am also cutting out the OJ in the green smoothie.

Anyway, we are trying to take this all in stride. My husband laughed (dare I say giggled?) in surprise when he got on the scale this morning. This past week he's ramped up his exercise and been consuming mass quantities of salad and he didn't expect to gain weight! At least that should calm anyone's fears that you might dwindle down to nothing on a raw diet! :-)

A Colorful Dinner Plate

Although my husband and I eat all raw foods for breakfast and lunch, "Daniel's Diet" does allow some cooked foods. As I get more proficient at preparing raw foods, I expect to reduce the amount of cooked foods we eat. But tonight was cold and blustery and so our dinner included Sweet Potato "Fries", Quinoa with Peas and Sage, and Mediterranean Kale Salad (see the Feb. 5th post for the recipe). Although I am not a professional food photographer, I think the combination makes for a very colorful plate!

We tried Zucchini Angel Hair Pasta!

When I first heard raw foodists gush over zucchini "pasta" (zucchini sliced into long thin strips resembling pasta), I have to admit it left me cold. Yuk! But after watching Jennifer Cornbleet's DVD, I just knew I had to give it a try.
Jennifer shows two ways to make zucchini pasta--one using a vegetable peeler and the other using a "spiral slicer"--a gizmo that you can buy online. I tried the vegetable peeler method and didn't feel that I was getting a very good result. So I grabbed the Benriner "Cook's Help"--a Japanese tool for making all sorts of garnishes, pulled it out of its box and without even reading the directions, got started. I took a long straight zucchini, peeled it and cut it into halves. Then I inserted the zucchini onto the small skewer and started turning the handle, giving it even pressure. Underneath I found a mound of what looked like angel hair pasta! I processed 3 medium-large zucchinis and had a nice bowlful.
I had already made Jennifer's raw tomato sauce which she swears tastes just like cooked. I added a little sweetener, honey, and warmed it up slightly in a pan on my stove top. Then I mixed it in with the "pasta" just before we all sat down to eat. As I mixed the sauce into the noodles, the noodles softened a bit. But here is the surprising thing...EVERYONE LIKED IT!
In the future, I think I will tweak her sauce recipe a bit, but one thing I have to admit...the whole operation took me about 20 minutes to make, sauce AND pasta. I can see myself making this at least once or maybe twice a week. I'm also excited to make other types of sauces, such as a mock "Thai Peanut Sauce" made with almond butter.

Raw Marinara Sauce
Yield 1 cup (I doubled it for 4 people)
1 ripe tomato, seeded and chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked or oil-packed
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. minced fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried (I vastly prefer fresh)
1 tsp. dried oregano (I think I will cut down on this one next time and make sure I crush it between my palms before adding it)
1/2 tsp. crushed garlic (1 small clove)
salt and pepper to taste
dash cayenne

Place all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process until smooth. (Actually I processed the veggies and then added the oil in last.) Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Stored in a sealed container in the frig, this sauce will keep for three days.

How to Eat One Pound of Greens per Day

We are attempting to adopt the maximum healing/cleansing version of the "Daniel's Diet" described in James and Colleen Simmon's book Original Fast Foods. The plan calls for consuming 1 lb of leafy greens, either raw or blended, per day. That's a lot of greens!
On Friday, I measured 1 lb of salad greens out and when my husband came home for lunch, there was this huge bowl of salad that would normally feed about 12 people! He made a small dent in it and then took it back to work with him to munch on like a rabbit. Even then, he only ate about half of it.
Obviously, we needed a different plan.
So now, every morning I measure out 4 oz of greens (using my scale at first until I can eyeball it), and blend those into a breakfast smoothie. Then I give him 8 oz of greens in his lunch salad (which he still can't eat at one setting, but gets through almost all of it during the course of an afternoon at work). Then the plan is to juice the other 4 oz at night with some carrot juice. That makes up one whole pound of baby spinach, mixed spring greens and romain lettuce. What a feat! Pretty soon I'll be adding kale and chard to the mix.

Another part of the plan is to eat a combination of 2 lbs of solid green veggies and non-green, non-starchy veggies. I measure these out as well, but put only 1 lb in his salad and hope to get the other lb in at dinner. In the last few days I've used tomatoes, avocado, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, cucumbers, radishes and red, orange or yellow bell peppers. I also add sprouted lentils and cooked legumes, like kidney beans. He adds a drizzle of Udo's Choice oil blend with a shake of Ranch Dressing Season Mix (a bit of a cheat, but sure helps the salad go down!). And then it's munch, munch, munch! David Wolfe (raw food guru) says that chewing promotes seratonin production in the brain, which is definitely a plus during a Seattle winter!

Raw Food Made Easy Experiment

I received my Raw Food Made Easy DVD yesterday and sat down to watch Jennifer Cornbleet teach me how to prepare tasty raw food dishes. I absolutely loved the DVD! If you go to www.learnrawfood.com you can preview her DVD and her book as well.
I got very courageous and tried her Mediterranean Kale salad, only I substituted red chard which I already had. It was delicious and I had leftovers for lunch today. I think I could eat this salad several times a week no problem. There are two tricks to making kale and other "tough" greens into a delightful salad greens. First, you need to take off the stems and roll the leaves up lengthwise as tightly as you can, like a cigar (although I have no experience at rolling cigars!). Then you chop the kale or chard into thin strips called chiffonade by the French.
Second, after you have a bowlful of greens, you add the lemon juice, olive oil and salt and with your hands, massage the dressing into the greens. They will go from stiff to tender in just a minute or so. Add in the other salad components and you're ready to serve. This is a yummy way to eat more super nutritious green leafies!

2 small bunches kale, stems removed
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup raw pine nuts
1/4 cup black olives, sliced (I omitted these)
Dash of black pepper (I also tossed in some Greek Seasoning)

Store in seal container in the frig and it will keep for 3 days.

Variation: Omit the red bell pepper and olives. Add 1/4 cup golden raisins instead.

Green Smoothies...Yum!

It is my humble opinion that starting your day with a green smoothie would help anyone feel better and greatly improve their health. (Here's a photo of my 80 year old mother enjoying her first smoothie!) Most Americans are starved for green leafy veggies in their diet and yet these are the very ultimate in nutritional powerhouses. Calorie for calorie, you cannot find a more nutritious food than kale, spinach, and other greens. So adding them to your breakfast will only start to fill up the nutritional deficiencies that plague most of us.

Just to add a little factoid, American mothers are so low in Vitamin K, one of the many vitamins abundantly found in greens, that babies born in the US are given a shot of vitamin K following birth. And why? Because babies born with low vitamin K levels have a much higher incidence of brain hemorrhage soon after childbirth (Disease-Proof Your Child, Joel Fuhrman, M.D.).

Green smoothies could also help to prevent other childhood diseases. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer and low consumption of vegetables and fruits right before and during pregnancy has been implicated in its causation (Fuhrman, p.4).
Is it any wonder that the Lord advises us in the Word of Wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants Section 89) to eat "all wholesome herbs" which were "ordained for the constitution, nature and use of man" as well as "every fruit in the season thereof"?

Kristen's Green Smoothie Recipe
1 cup of fresh orange juice*
1 to 4 oz of baby spinach greens or other greens
1/2 large banana, frozen
1 cup other fresh or frozen fruit--your choice**

Add the juice to your blender and then add the greens. Blend until you get all of the greens liquified. Add the other fruit and blend until smooth. Some people like to add protein powder or tofu. You can add these, but you may need to add some more water or juice.

*You can use water and frozen OJ concentrate too, but fresh is best!
** Strawberries and/or cherries will taste delicious but the resulting color will be funny. Adding blueberries will mask the green for the most part and is a good choice for a beginner who finds the bright green color a little too strange. :-) I also like to use peaches, pineapple, and mango. Citrus (as in the juice) helps to cover the taste of the spinach.

Feb. 3, 2008: So far, so good!

Our first day on Friday went well, and so did Saturday. Basically, we eat raw for the first two meals and eat some cooked food with our dinner. So far, baked potatoes have been easy!

I also made a dish with some frozen peas and chopped fresh tomatoes thrown into warm rice. I also added a drizzle of olive oil and fresh basil. That was a nice dinner dish.

This afternoon, I sliced tomatoes and avocado and laid them out on a platter. On top I sprinkled olive oil and pear vinegar with some fresh pepper--that was delicious!

For dessert I am making a fresh coconut-banana-cherry "ice cream" that I think will be yummy. I will probably make a base of blenderized cashew nuts and filtered water and then blend all of the ingredients in the VitaMix before freezing it in my countertop Simac Gelataio (ice cream maker).

I've also discovered several videos on raw food on the Youtube site, so I have started to watch those. Today I have been watching one done at Google in New York with Matt Amsden and David Wolfe and it has been very interesting. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP1cbreDw7U

Happy Eating!
Kristen

Day 1: Our Living Foods Adventure Begins!

I think I'm ready! Yesterday I came home from Costco and PCC (a natural foods market) loaded with baby spinach, mixed salad greens, romaine lettuce, avocados, carrots (for juicing), cucumbers, tomatoes and tons of fruit, including apples, oranges, bananas, and nectarines.



In the last few weeks, I have read and tried new "raw" recipes and penned a basic daily plan. Breakfast will include green smoothies made with greens and fruit and some flax seed. I'm also planning to include a special oil blend called Udo's 3-6-9 Blend of omega fatty acids. In addition, we'll enjoy some nutty germinated buckwheat drizzled with raw honey.



Lunch will be a lovely salad based on sprouted legumes and leafy greens. I plan to include avocado on most days, when they're in season as well as an assortment of other raw veggies.



Dinner will feature a baked potato of some sort or a grain dish made with rice, millet or quinoa. Sides will include lightly steamed broccoli or carrots and some other sort of "living salad".



Fruit will provide desserts and snacks.



This initial phase of our "diet intervention" is more limited, but eventually we will add in a greater variety of foods. Right now we are focused on maximum healing for my husband John who is living with cancer.