Monday, December 27, 2010

Cucumber & Blackberry Salad

To my disappointment, I was not able to make anything special for Christmas. I injured myself on my first attempt skiing in Tahoe with my husband's family on Christmas Day and I spent the next following days sleeping. This is the very next photo of food I took after the photos I took Christmas Eve, and it's on the 27th. It's a salad my husband made me while I was still in bed at the lodge in Tahoe.




Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve Salads

I made the following salads for my brother in law Justin, my parents in law, Victoria and Jim, and for myself and Jay, my husband. We scarfed these down before heading out to Sacramento on Christmas Eve.
















Diner I made my husband Christmas Eve


Dinner I made myself Christmas Eve

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Mushroom Salad




Salad I made for my husband on the 23rd of December, 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Dried Apple Slices





First shelf: Apple slices; making gifts for family and friends
Second shelf: Onion rings; making them for my husband
Third shelf: Banana-yum
Fourth shelf: More of the first shelf and third.


Lots of apple slices; it makes a time consuming gift to make, but oh-so-tasty


Salad for my husband & I


My salad, which I pick up and eat as a wrap - Breakfast




Dinner

Monday, December 20, 2010

Blackberry Banana Smoothie




Blackberry Banana Smoothie

Contains: 2 bananas, 10 blackberries, coconut shreds, one date, ground flax, a dram of coconut juice and a half cup of water (all of these are estimated.)


Raw green salted olives, organic blackberries, raw sour krout, spinach, a home made vegetable cracker


A similar blackberry smoothie I made my husband later the same day


Kumquat and parsley salad

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Kumquats & Blueberry Banana Treats




Parsley salad


My lunch on December 18th 2010


Blueberry banana treats I brought to Brian's potluck in Berkley


Kumquats, you can eat them with or without the skins



Onion Crackers & Blueberries




Salad & Green Drink from December 17th 2010


Cranberries, blueberries, raw green salted olives, home made onion crackers, kale, celery, spinach, lettuce and onion


Blueberries, carrot cracker, onion, raw seakrout, onions and spinach




Important Note:
Whenever consuming dehydrated foods it is very important to drink a lot of water. You have to not only make up for the water that was dehydrated out of it, but also drink the amount you usually need, and besides that, it takes even more water to reconstitute the dehydrated food within your body than the food originally had. If you usually have a glass of water with a meal, that's great. When you add dehydrated food to the meal, add two more additional glasses of water.

Home Dehydrating




Home made dehydrated (at 105 degrees) blueberry banana chocolate


Strawberry fruit leather (home dehydrated at 105 degrees) and dried apple slices


Chocolate bar, entirely raw, made for my mother, Ruth West, which I sent to her in Buffalo, New York


Apple and banana slices I made, using cinnamon, mint, and home-squeezed lemons



Top Shelf: Vegetable crackers, banana blueberry crust
Second Shelf: Coconut Date Cookies
Third Shelf: Coconut Cinnamon Apples
Fourth Shelf: Mint crisps, buckwheat cookie, and chocolate


Making Coconut Date Cookies


Coconut Date Cookies

Home Made Crackers




Meal from December 16th 2010


My Husband's Cranberry Salad


Our festive natural-decorated table




My own home-made vegetable crackers



The vegetable crackers are made from varying amounts of the following: Carrot tops, celery, carrots, sunflower seeds, sunflower sprouts, chia, flax seeds, kale, onion, basil, parsley, organic spices, spinach and fresh dill.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Cooked Servings: 99.5% Raw


A raw snack I made for myself a while back.


When people ask, "Are you 100% raw?" I am tempted to say "Yes! I am," but technically, it's more like 99.5% raw. This raises the question, "What is the other .5% consist of?" and "How do you really know it's only half of one percent?"

In the total fifteen weeks that have passed since I "went raw", this is all of the cooked food I've eaten:

[Each of the following was preceded by a raw vegetable smoothie or a large salad, or both. The reason for this is to make sure that I have enzymes in my digestive system from the raw foods to help in the digestion of the cooked food.]

3 Fried Plantains (One a month, fried in olive oil.)

1.5 Bags of Frozen Peas (Roughly a third of a bag at a time, cooked with garlic and with a little added cold-pressed organic olive oil and salt after they were finished. No more than a third of a bag in one week, and not in the same weeks as the plantains.)

1 Bag of Frozen Lima Beans (In two servings on two separate weeks, also not overlapping with the peas or plantains.)

Around ten spoonfuls of Lentil Soup from my husband's bowl when he ordered a soup at Cafe Gratitude. I ordered the raw pizza and greatly enjoyed it. It really did taste like pizza, except perhaps better. This also was during a week where I had nothing else cooked.

A couple of bites of cooked potato from my husband's plate while we were at a restaurant on an outing that was of necessity more than pleasure. Also in a week where I had nothing else cooked.

Pasteurized pistachios. I've had a total of around two cups of them since September 3rd 2010. Each occasion where I had some was a matter of them being offered to me and being hungry and unwilling to refuse my favorite nut. It wasn't as though they had sugar or other poisons added, right? I'm afraid these may have been eaten during weeks where I had something else cooked.

Hot apple cider. I've had a total of two glasses, I believe. I've had three to five small samples of it at Whole Foods, mostly because walking out of the store with something hot in my hands is very pleasant, but also because I love hot apple cider. Of course, it could be made raw and warm if I had something to warm things to 105 or 110 degrees besides my dehydrator. I've also had one full glass at an event, which make my stomach a little upset after, so I won't repeat that. These may have been during the same week as something else cooked, but I'm not really sure.

I've had trace amounts of other cooked things, like a tiny nibble of some humus (which contained cooked chickpeas, but was otherwise organic and poison-free), but the above is the only significant stuff. If I'm missing anything, we're talking about something on the scale of one lone bite in an entire week of raw foods.


Raederle Phoenix, self-photographed with my camera's timer.


I eat four to seven times in a day. During one meal I eat two to eight "servings" of food. Averaging fifteen servings of food in a day, maybe as much as twenty if I'm feeling feastive. Fifteen a day means 105 servings in a week. So one serving, or half of a serving being cooked really does mean roughly 99.5% raw.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Total Consumption Habits

My current total consumption habits...

This reflects the past month most strongly, and is close to the two months previous, and the following couple of months can be expected to resemble this as well. I'll posted an updated version after any significant changes in my diet occur.




  • Leaf Vegetables:

Fresh Kale: Three leaves a week, in green smoothies.

Lettuce: One to four heads a week.

Spinach: Four to eight cups a day.

Vegetable Smoothie: One to four times in two days.

Kale Chips: Four cups a week.

Herbs: One or two bunches a week. (Commonly: Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, or Mint.)







  • Other Vegetables:

Onion: In at least one dish daily. Two onions a week.

Garlic: One to ten cloves a week.

Carrots: One to three bunches a month. (I eat one or two fresh and blend the others into green drinks and use the rest for vegetable crackers.)

Celery: Half a stalk a week. (I consume the ribs filled with raw almond butter, and often use celery as a part of the vegetable crackers I make, and within vegetable smoothies.)






  • Fruit:

Cucumber: One a week, mostly in green smoothies, sometimes on salad.

Lemon: Two to ten a month. (Used as a preservative in my salsa, guacamole, etc.)

Sweet Peppers: One to six a month.

Hot peppers: One to six a month.

An apple: One to three a week. Usually fresh and plain.
Oranges / Mandarins: One to ten a week.
Banana: Two to ten a week. (Generally mixed into a smoothie, ice cream, pudding, or something.)

Blackberries: One little package a month.

Blueberries: Two little packages a month.

Watermelon or Muskmelon: Once a month.

Coconut juice: About twelve cups a week (About half of it in smoothies.)

Orange juice: One cup a week.

Dried Fruit: One cup a week.







  • Nuts & Seeds & Other:

Flax seeds: One cup a week.

Sesame seeds: One cup a month.

Chia seeds: Quarter cup a month.

Almonds: Two cups a week.

Raw Almond Butter: One jar a month. (Half a jar every two weeks. I'm sharing with my husband, of course.)

Soaked Buckwheat: Half a cup a week. (I started out using this to make raw granola frequently, but now I usually blend it with bananas and chocolate to make pudding.)

Pecans: One cup a week.

Other nuts/seeds: Half cup a week.

Raw Cocoa Nibs: Half a cup a week.

Raw Cocoa Powder: Five spoonfuls a week.

Green Tea: One to ten cups a week.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Vegetable Crackers




This was taken at the raw potluck on December 5th 2010. Those are delicious vegetable and fruit smoothies on the platter.


This is my friend who I visited, and one of the meals I regaled my husband and her with. December 11th 2010


This is a home-made cracker loaded up with a diverse and filling guacamole atop of red butterleaf lettuce leaf. December 15th 2010

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Blueberry Banana Chocolate Goodness

Blueberries mashed into chocolate and bananas and dried partially into a cracker, but still eaten while warm and soft... Amazingly good.






& Dried Apple Slices




Home-made crackers, guacamole, olives, spinach... Satisfying and enjoyable.


I love having grapefruits in the morning. So easy to prepare, and so full of wake-up juice.