Raw Food Rehab 11 weeks of raw food

Just started another raw food cleanse it's supposed to last 11 weeks, it's called the raw food rehab. I know the last time I lasted a whole whopping 5 days of eating 100% raw. Mainly because once I know I can't have something I become obsessed with what I can't have.

Most people would be surprised to know that I eat rather healthy. I don't eat junk food, occasionally I will eat french fries from the Deschutes Brewery. For the most part I eat healthy. I drink a green smoothie for breakfast everyday, I normally eat a burrito(meatless) or veggie sandwich for lunch and then for dinner I'll have some roasted brussel sprouts or something vegetarian for dinner. I eat fish once a week. Lots of brown rice, broccoli..etc.. You get the idea..

What I've been doing that has brought me to this place is two things stress(from almost losing my house to foreclosure) and copious amounts of wine..

This is how things are going to go down now. I'm putting it out there.

1.) Wake up and make my green smoothie or green juice.

2.) Exercise at least 5 times a week for 1 hour. (I've been running and walking the river trail)

3.) Eat lots of raw food, and stick to this 11 week raw food rehab. (Which is at least 80% raw foods and 20% cooked foods)

4.)Continue my Holosync meditation cd.

In the words of my hero Yoda, " Do or Do Not, there is no Try!" (Ironic how my blog is called Trying to live the raw food life. Could there be a correlation to my many failed attempts)

Food Log for today October 16, 2009

Breakfast Green Smoothie consisting of blueberries, mango, cherries, papaya, lime, rainbow chard leaves, spinach, micro-green sprouts, water, chia seed gel, camu camu berry powder, merlin's magic, cilantro, and parsley. (All organic)

Lunch Raw Hummus made of raw soaked and sprouted almonds, raw tahini, lemon, garlic, himalayan salt, cumin, water, olive oil. With raw flax crackers which consisted of sprouted flax, pumpkin seeds, red bell pepper, onion, cilantro, carrot, sundried tomatoes, himalayan salt and cumin. A small salad consisting of romaine lettuce, spinach, red bell pepper, cucumber, carrot with my raspberry vinaigrette that is posted on this blog somewhere.

Dinner Will be Raw Tacos consisting of walnut taco meat, served with some hemp cheese dip, lots of veggies in a collard leaf.

Dessert if I feel like it, which I usually don't will be a little bit of some raw chocolate dipped into a banana.

August is almost over

The summer is almost over and the good news is my house is pending right now. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to sell my house in this horrible market. This has been an extremely stressful summer. Almost having my house foreclose, my best friends husband killed himself, and I was there while my friend told her 10 year old daughter that her dad was dead. This is probably one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. He killed himself on July 5, 2009, so sad. July was a horrible month! R.I.P. Brad Pruitt a memorial account has been set up at Bank of the Cascades for his daughter Lucy Pruitt the account is the Brad Pruitt memorial fund. If you knew him or his partner of 15 years Beth Seiler please give what you can. Beth is now a single mother in these tough financial times...

On a raw food note. I have barely eaten any raw food lately, just fruit and salads. I've been drinking way too much wine to drown my troubles and now I need to get serious and do a cleanse. I'm thinking next week I will start another raw food cleanse. Lots of green smoothies, fruits and vegetables and I will more than likely get a colonic. I really want to be hypnotized to eat more raw food and not always cave in to eating burritos and macaroni and cheese. If anyone out there can recommend a good hypnotherapist let me know. I was thinking Jane Meyers sounded good. Recipes to come shortly, I promise. I've got some new recipes in the works.

Take Care,

Jen

Raw Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream

My house is for sale right now and I have been really busy and not eating as raw as I should. I am still eating 1-2 raw meals every day, but I've been really stressed out and feeling kind of sad and slightly depressed. I'm really trying to snap at out of it as I know I have it so much better than most others. I am trying really hard to stay positive about my house selling! My financial picture is not where I want it to be. So when I am blue I try to channel it into something creative. So I've been experimenting with different ice creams and I'm pretty stoked on this strawberry one. Definitely better for you then dairy ice cream and better than nasty tasting soy ice cream..

Raw Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream

5 Cups organic frozen strawberries

4 Tbl. raw agave syrup

2 Tbl. raw unrefined coconut oil, melted

1/2 Cup raw cashews

2 Cups raw almond milk ( I will post the recipe below)

1/2 a vanilla bean, seeds from the inside scraped

a few pinches of himalayan salt

4 dates, pitted

1/4 Cup fresh organic strawberries, chopped fine

Place the first 8 ingredients into a high speed blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into and Ice Cream maker and let it run for 10 minutes, then throw in the remaining strawberries and let it run for another 5 to 10 minutes until it resembles ice cream.

I have a cheap ice cream maker the brand is Rival. I got it for a few bucks at goodwill. If you don't have an ice cream maker you can freeze the mixture and then run it through the food processor or blender again.

Here is my almond milk recipe that I that I taught in my raw food 101 class. It is so much better than any preservative ridden store bought version and you can control the sweetness:

Almond Milk

1 Cup almonds, soaked in water, overnight

3 Cups filtered water

1 Tbl. coconut oil

2-4 dates, pitted 

1/2 tsp. gmo free lecithin

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. himalayan salt

Rinse and drain the soaked almonds and place into blender with 3 cups of water. Blend for a few seconds until well blended. Pour mixture into a nut milk bag that is set into a bowl or large measuring cup. Squeeze out the milk(reserve the pulp, for another use).  Rinse out blender and pour the nut milk back into the blender. Add additional ingredients and blend until well blended. Serve chilled. Makes 3 cups lasts 3 days in fridge.

Trying again Tuesday!

I was going to start my raw food cleanse yesterday, but I'm not much of a Monday person. Maybe it's the time change thing, but I was really tired yesterday. So today I had green smoothie that had mango, pineapple, strawberry, beet greens, romaine lettuce, spinach, chia seed gel, coconut oil, merlin's magic and water to blend it up. Then I had some raw granola that I made. Here's the recipe for those interested. Note you need a dehydrator.

Raw Muesli

1 cup almonds, soaked for 12 hours
1 cup pecans, soaked 4 hours
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 4 hours
1 cup walnuts, soaked 4 hours
1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked for 2 hours, (rinse many times to remove the natural slime that occurs with buckwheat)

zest of 1 orange
1 Tbl. orange juice, fresh, not pasteurized
1/4 tsp. himalayan salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. coconut oil, has to be raw, and not refined

dried fruits of choice:
I used black currant and cherries,

In food processor place all the nuts (don't add the buckwheat at this time), and the zest of the orange, orange juice, himalayan salt, cinnamon, coconut oil. Pulse until it resembles muesli or granola. Place into a large bowl and add your rinsed buckwheat to the mix. Place on dehydrator sheet and dry for one hour at 145 degrees, then turn down to 104 degrees and dry for approximately 6 hours. Once completely dry add in the dried fruit. Serve in a bowl with almond milk or nut milk of choice with some fresh fruit for a healthy cereal.

On a cool note, I got a phone call yesterday from my friend Beth Seiler that some other friends of ours, that ended up moving to Corvallis; want me to come and give a raw food cooking demonstration for a bunch of docotors. So I am thrilled that I get the opportunity to do that.

Take Care,

Jen Reed

Monday, Monday!

I stayed up too late last night drinking $2.99 wine from the Grocery Outlet, watching a movie. Now I'm feeling the pain. I tried to make up for my sins by making some fresh juice. Here's what I put into it: beet, orange, celery, cucumber, ginger, chard, parsley, cilantro, carrot, and apples. Believe it our not, it was just what I needed. I'm going to meet my good friend Belinda Kachlein for lunch it will be fun to catch up. I am going to start running again, it's been a few months but I'm missing it. I've just been getting dvd's from the library. I like the pilate's dvd.

My friend Faith Butsch called me this morning and her dog Moe, that she's had for 13 years was put down. She's pretty broken up about it. I feel her pain losing a dog is seriously painful. I can't imagine life without my Tui girl. Well that's it for now. I'll post tomorrow, when I plunge into making some more raw food.

Take Care,

Jen

Friday!

I love Friday's! This morning I had my green smoothie I made it with frozen mango, pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, spinach, romaine lettuce, parsley, cilantro, collard greens, coconut oil, water and Merlin's herbal magic.

I found the site it's www.merlinsherbalmagic.com . The ingredients are maca, marshmallow root, slippery elm, triphala, ashwaganda, astralgus root, burdock root, dong quai, fo-ti root, kelp powder, licorice root, milk thistle seed, pau d'arco, sarsaparilla, saw palmetto berries, shizandra berries, suam, wild yam root, anise seed, cinnamon, ginger, bilberry leaf, catsclaw, cayenne, dandelion root, gingko leaf, gota kola, irish moss, olive leaf, passion flower herb, vanilla orchid bean. Every part of the body is covered with this stuff it's all wild crafted and organic. I put about a tablespoon in my smoothie everyday. It is a superfood, baby. A 170 gram bag is about $26 and lasts me about 2 months, way worth the money. So check out the website if you have a minute.

Going out to lunch with my good friend Beth Seiler of Trader Joe's. I can't wait to hang out with her we have such a great time together laughing about silly stuff. Our friends from Portland Alex and Coleen are coming in this weekend and they are going to stay at Mc Menamin's downtown, that should be fun. We just got a huge dump of snow up at Mt Bachelor so the guys are up at the mountain, shredding some powder. I wanted to go today, but I will have to save it for Sunday I think, hopefully there will be more powder. I'm spoiled, it's pow pow or nothing for me, since I don't have a pass.

Everyday I am just trying to add in more raw food, instead of giving stuff up I've chosen to add more good stuff. Last night I made my family some pork, with boxed mashed potatoes, which I don't even normally buy as I know better, but I just grabbed what they had at the store. I don't eat meat so I didn't eat any of the pork, but I took like 3 bites of the mashed potatoes and my throat was starting to swell up on the inside. When that happens I know that there has to be MSG somewhere in the food. Well I grabbed the box, and put alternative names for MSG in the google search engine. I discovered that one of the ingredients in the potatoes was in fact MSG in one of it's many disguises. Well one thing led to another, as so often does when using the google search engine. I learned a lot about how the food manufacturerer's have learned how to hide the MSG so that they can get away with putting it into our food supply. That in turn led me to the "cheeseburger act" which I guess in 2005 our good buddy (facetious, of course) GW Loser, passed a bill saying that big food corporations cannot be sued. It's called the personal responsibility act or something to that effect. I am all for personal responsibility but I think that these corporations are poisoning us with there freak foods, and they should be held up to more ethical standards and held accountable. This kind of stuff really makes me mad at our government's lack of ethics! Well I guess that's enough ranting for today.

If you leave with one thing from all this, please remember that you need to be your own advocate for health, don't count on the fact that your government has your best interest at heart, because they simply don't.

Take Care,

Jen

Raw food class in Sister's is full with a waiting list!

Hello,

My class in Sisters is full with a waiting list. I can't believe it. Thank you Kim Luckini licensed massage therapist, (who I hear, gives an amazing massage),for all your help in organizing this class for me. I am doing my kids vegetarian class not this weekend but the following weekend. I was just looking at this site called www.rawfoodtalk.com they have this before and after section that is just so inspiring, if you get a chance check it out.

So far today I have had raw granola which was made out of sprouted dehydrated buckwheat, sprouted dehydrated sunflower seeds, walnuts, pecans, orange zest, raw honey, dried blueberries, with some almond milk I made. Followed by my green smoothie made from pineapple, mango, strawberry, spinach, coconut oil, and some merlin's magic.(google it)

My husbands' friend Joe Curren and his lovely wife Teasha were in town, they went up to the mountain to go snowboarding. He is a surfer and amazing photographer, here's the link to his website: www.joecurrenphotography.com I made some wild salmon tacos, man were they ever good. We drank wine watched some cheesy television. How could I give up wild salmon? I'm definetely not there yet!

I have to make food today. I think I will make the raw alfredo dish, with zucchini pasta.

Take Care,

Jen

Cha Cha Cha Changes!

Well it's been a while since I've written in my blog. I've been so busy with where my life has taken me. A lot of personal family stuff going on in the last few months, which I won't go into as I don't want to share such personal stuff with a bunch of strangers. I will reveal some stuff though. We are going to have to sell our house. Which is sad and exciting at the same time. My youngest son has lived his whole life in this house and that makes it hard, thinking of all the sweet memories of him crawling, climbing, etc. The good thing is I am rarely attached to material things, so I can separate myself from feeling a sense of loss. I know that something wonderful will come my way, it always does. This is where I feel that I am very lucky. So many people identify self worth with material things. The thing I will miss the most is the location, we are right downtown, and I love that! Being able to walk places and just the energy of downtown.

My rawfood business has changed to adapt to the economy. I still make food for a couple of people. I decided to start teaching raw food classes and vegetarian cooking classes. My first two classes did very well. It was so fun, to show people how they can add more raw foods into their repertoire. That has opened up some great doors for me. I am doing a big raw food class in Sisters, OR, which is about 20 minutes away. The class will be in April. I am back to working the ranch as well. A girls got to do what a girls got to do. The cool thing is it's outside and it's serene and I feel that I learn a lot from all the animals. They really are amazing creatures. I haven't been eating as raw as I should. I always have my green drink and try to make sure I get enough raw food in my day. I know I need to eat more, but sometimes it just doesn't sound as good as a burrito from Super B.

Last night I went to this silent auction for the new skateboarding park they are going to build. All these different artists designed skateboarding decks, and people bid on them. We didn't win the won we wanted but it was a fun night none the less. Well I will try to be a little better about writing, as it's very therapeutic. I've also been doing the Holosync meditations, which have been changing my life. I am saving up to buy it, I've been borrowing a friends.


I created this recipe with the leftover pulp after making Brazil nut milk, which is one of my favorite milks.

Cacao Bites

1/2 cup brazil nut milk pulp (This was from making brazil nut milk with 1 cup of brazil nuts)
1/2 cup walnuts
7 small dates, pitted
1/4 tsp. of salt
1 Tbl. coconut oil
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbl. agave syrup
1/2 cup coconut flakes, fine shred
a few dashes of cinnamon

Place all ingredients into a food processor until well combined. Roll into balls and roll into some coconut. Keep in the fridge and eat within a few days. Makes about a dozen balls.

Take Care,

Jen