Donesville

I’m done with raw foods.  Now that school has started, I can’t handle being on the raw food diet AND working full time at a stressful job.  It was fine (even fun) over the summer when I had nothing better to do.  But I spent this past weekend (when I wasn’t shopping for work clothes and doing work I brought home) making raw things so I wouldn’t have to prepare anything during the work week.  I’m completely sick of washing my blender several times a day and spending all my free time in the kitchen!  So tomorrow I’m going grocery shopping – at a REAL grocery store!  No more traveling to three different alternative grocery stores to get what I need.  No more buying expensive raw condiments, like bland raw almond butter.  No more $70 grocery bills.  I’ve never been so excited to make a grocery list before, especially since I get to purchase REAL hummus (as opposed to the ingredients for weird raw hummus made from sprouted chickpeas that ends up tasting grainy and flavorless) and REAL crackers (not expensive dehydrated flax seed crackers that cost three times as much for a third of the crackers).

But it’s not all sad news.  There are things I’ll still make, like raw fudge and chia pudding.  Plus, I’ve learned some tricks, like if you buy a lime and cut it into adorable wedges, featured here:

and squeeze a wedge into every glass of water you drink, you’ll end up drinking twice as much water as you did before.  As Martha Stewart would say, “It’s a good thing!”

The perfect tomato!

And to think, I grew it on my balcony!  Since I don’t particularly like to eat tomatoes straight up, I ended up giving it – along with another smaller perfect tomato – to my grandmother who loves tomatoes.  I have yet to hear if they tasted as perfect as they looked.

Unfortunately, all my other tomatoes don’t look quite as picture perfect.  They all have scars or are starting to split, but should do just fine blended into a raw pasta sauce.

Food Sadness

I don’t know about this raw food business.  I didn’t like most vegetables when I ate cooked food, so I’m having a hard time eating them raw.  Although I have found that a lettuce wrap filled with my favorite veggies (avocado, mushrooms, and sprouts), dipped in a Thai-style almond sauce is rather delicious!

However, that leaves me with one thing for breakfast (smoothie), one thing for lunch (salad), one thing for dinner (lettuce wrap), and some snacks (raw crackers with raw hummus, fresh or dried fruit, raw desserts).  How boring is that?

Then I started thinking back to what I used to eat for breakfast (Frosted Mini-Wheats), lunch (Lean Pocket, piece of fruit, fat-free pudding cup), dinner (pasta), and snacks (crackers with hummus, Le Petit Ecolier cookies).  Back then I ate the same thing every day, too!

So I’m going to keep trying, even though I can’t say if it’s starting to help with my allergies, since friends and family frequently invite me out to lunch or dinner.  I think my raw options will expand once I take the plunge and purchase a dehydrator.  Then I can try some recipes from Everyday Raw such as granola, BBQ crisps, and mac and cheese (made with seed cheese and squash).

A Raw Update

My Independence Day contribution to the family cookout was a raw dessert from Raw Food/Real World: Dark Chocolate Ganache Tart (pictured above) with Vanilla Cream (not pictured).  It was freaking amazing, and was a big hit with everyone.  I really love this recipe book.  It makes raw food look slick, hip, and NYC chic.  However, in order to accomplish this, most recipes take forever to prepare and call for ingredients that are either hella expensive, impossible to find, or aren’t truly raw.  (For example, the tart calls for cocoa powder and maple syrup – not raw!)  But I’ll let it slide because it’s all so delicious.  I’ve also made the Chewy Chocolate Freezer Fudge which was 50 times yummier than the Frozen Fudge from The Raw Truth.

I’m still trying to find a raw main course (other than a salad) that is appetizing to me.  All the “pasta” dishes call for strips of raw zucchini to stand in for noodles.  I’ve quickly learned that I don’t like to eat zucchini raw, so I’m currently auditioning other vegetables to play the part of my noodles.  Maybe mung sprouts – they are inexpensive, sturdy, neutral in taste, and don’t require any prep work such as peeling and julienne-ing.

Rainbow Raw Slaw

A friend recently told me I’d probably like the book Sound Bites by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.  I didn’t just like it – I loved it and highly recommend it!  In one essay, he talked about staying with a friend who is either vegan or vegetarian (I forget which).  He explained that she used to only eat raw foods, and when she did, her allergies completely disappeared.  I was curious, so I did some reading.  Apparently, a raw diet can cure what ails some people.

I’ve been coughing my whole life, and I haven’t ever been able to figure out what my problem is.  Is it allergies?  Is it asthma?  Is it allergic asthma, as I suspected in a previous post?  No doctor has been able to say for sure.  Chest x-rays and blood work always come back clean, and drugs only work sporadically.  So a few years ago I just gave up – love me, love my constant coughing.  But now I’ve decided to try eating raw foods for one week.

Only of course, like everything else in my life, I’ve been procrastinating that week.  Finally, I decided it might be best to ease my way into it.  (Hey, why buy raw soy sauce when I already have brewed soy sauce in my fridge?  I’ll buy raw when I run out.)  This evening I tried my first raw meal from The Raw Truth by Jeremy A. Safron.  (I don’t agree with everything he says in his book.  For instance, I have no plans to holistically charge my water by letting a quartz crystal soak in a glass of it while sitting in the sun all day.)  I decided on the Cabbage Rolls – everyone loves a wrap, right?  I ended up tweaking the recipe so much, I kinda came up with my own slaw recipe, as the wrap thing didn’t work out (too runny) and the dressing wasn’t to my liking (too sour).  Here’s my version:

Rainbow Raw Slaw

1 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup mung sprouts
2 tablespoons raw white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons raw black sesame seeds
1/2 cup nama shoyu
2 tablespoons raw almond butter
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix cabbages, carrots, sprouts, and sesame seeds in a bowl.  Set aside.  In a blender, combine remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture over bowl of shredded veggies and toss to coat.  Refrigerate 2 hours, tossing every 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

My Goodness!

PBR (my indie rock show staple) has 153 calories.  Guinness (my faithful standby) has 126 calories.  Goodbye PBR?  I guess I’ll let my wallet decide.

My New Favorite Beer

I went to Trader Joe’s today to try their edamame hummus (delish, as it turns out).  I thought I would pick up some beer, and fell in love with the name of this one.  I was sold when I found out it was dark and chocolatey.  If Newcastle and Guinness conceived a child in Germany, it would be Optimator!

I just ate mold.

I decided to have a piece of bread as a snack, and about halfway through, I noticed that there were small, black, moldy patches on it.  I felt completely scummy and gross, and I prayed I wouldn’t get sick.  But then I found this article that told me everything might be okay.  Heck, I might even live forever!  Perhaps I should purchase one of these to commemorate the day I became invincible.