Back in the Saddle Again

I was a holy rollin' raw vegan for 10 days.  Then I tried some cooked food.  It tasted OK.  Each day for the next 4 days I had some cooked food.  Just some.  I was still eating mostly raw food and drinks.  By the fourth day I had a cooked dinner with salad.  It was too much.  It tasted good.  I enjoyed it.  But I missed the feeling of the lighter raw food, so I have returned to the high-raw (i.e., mostly raw and most days all raw) life.

I went to the store I will lovingly call Holy Foods.  It is a very expensive health food supermarket.  I wanted some interesting fresh greens, organic lemons, and ginger from Hawaii.  I strolled around the produce section where there is both organic and conventional produce.  I found the most perfectly ripe, large avocado.  It cost $3, but the little organic avo's I had been purchasing at the grocery store cost $2, and they were small.  I purchased the large $3 avo.  It was the tastiest avocado I have had in a long time.  Just divine.

I also found some large leaf rainbow chard.  I juice the chard, stem and all, with carrot, celery, cucumber, a little beet root, and a small piece of ginger root.  Basically, I juice what I have in the fridge.  Usually I add one or two stems of chard per pint of vegetable juice, so as not to have the green overpower the other vegetables.  In lieu of chard, I may use lettuce (romaine works well) or spinach.

The avocado, chard, one lemon, and a generous amount of ginger root cost me over $10.  It was a small amount of food, but I am enjoying the quality.  This organic food could become one expensive habit.  Maybe I will be so fortified by the organic produce that I will be able to eat less. 

I read a small book about raw food by Joe Alexander.  Joe is an artist and claims that his art changed after he became raw.  The colors became brighter and the style of the figures was more elegant and beautiful.  The name of the book is Blatant Raw Foodist Propaganda!  How could I resist that title?  It was hiding in a used book store.  Although the book is copyrighted 1990, Joe encourages quoting the book so that others may learn of these ideas.  I hope to do that in future blogs, but now I want to go to Holy Foods and see whether there are any more of the wonderful super avocados.

Back in the Saddle Again,
Southwest Desert Blogger  P.S. check out this excellent link for raw vegan info, FREE juice and smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and a super 7 Day Raw Food Challenge and 10 Day Juice Feast.  I have learned so much from this info.    http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344
C. (c)2011 

Got Greens?

Did you ever crave greens so badly that you had to make a special trip to the store just to get them?  I have had craving for ice cream, chocolate, cookies, a glass of wine, bread, pizza, pasta, some very ripe, sweet fruit, but today, for the first time, I had a craving for greens.  I did not care whether it was a dark green romaine lettuce, chard, spinach . . . it just had to be green.  The cucumbers in the fridge would not satisfy the craving.  I had to make a trip to the store.

I bought 2 bunches of organic celery, one huge dark green head of organic romaine lettuce, and organic beet greens.  I had to go to two different stores to get the quality I wanted.  Wilted romaine or beet greens would not do.  I went home and juiced up the beet greens with some beet root, carrot, apple, and cucumber (all organic save the cucumber which was washed and peeled).  Ahhhhh, the craving was satisfied.

Three hours later I wanted more greens.  It was afternoon and a hot 97 degrees with monsoon humidity.  I mixed up a batch of the banana blueberry smoothie* (FREE smoothie recipe e-Book link at the end of this post) and added as much romaine as I could fit into the blender.  The bananas were cut into 1/4 inch slices and previously frozen.  I had to add extra water to get the whole thing to mix.  See the recipe in previous blog.  I also blended in a few ice cubes; crushed ice would be even better.  The result was a thick, cold product that resembled the $7 smoothies at the smoothie shop.  The smoothie shop will top their smoothies with granola.  I topped mine with hemp seeds which give it a nice texture and taste.  I have also topped smoothies with chia seeds which give a bit more crunch.  Both these seeds are said to have good essential fatty acids such as Omega 3, and protein.  The smoothie works with mango instead of, or in addition to blueberries, but the mango I bought was not organic and had a chemical taste.  There are inorganic mangoes that are better than the ones I had, I just did not want to go to a third store. 

I am not going to accept any of that chemical tasting food.  I put the offending mango in a plastic bag and into the refrigerator.  I will return it to the store.  While I am at the store, I will look for more greens.

Still 100% raw vegan,
Southwest Desert Blogger
*P.S. get easy, delicious, FREE juice and smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and info on the life changing 7 Day Raw Food Challenge I completed, link here:  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344  Have a healthy, happy day. C.
C. (c)2011