Posts tagged as:

olives

Oh, Deer!

by Jenn (j3nn.net) on August 14, 2010

We had visitors in our backyard yesterday:

We actually have deer in our yard every day, but we don’t see the babies very often. So cute, right?

After our friends departed, we sat down for lunch. I was in the mood for raw pea salad, which I really can’t get enough of. It’s just SO good! If you haven’t tried it yet, get on that!! I also had a killer turkey sandwich…

  • About a cup of defrosted frozen peas (raw) tossed with 1 teaspoon EVOO, red wine vinegar and chopped red onion
  • 3 slices Black Bear carving board turkey (50 cal, 220mg sodium) on an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with 1 slice Kraft ultra thin Swiss cheese (60 cal), romaine lettuce, 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) and no salt added bread & butter pickles

Totally delicious. I’m glad I ate a hearty lunch before we went grocery shopping; I’m sure there would have been a lot more impulse buys, but I kept them to a minimum–by my standards, anyway, lol. ;)

I had a glorious Greek salad for lunch today. Sodium bomb, yes, but worth it? Yep! :P

Look at this cluster of salty goodness <3

  • Bed of mixed spring greens + arugula tossed in EVOO and red wine vinegar, topped with: red onion, 1oz feta cheese, mixed lives from olive bar, and 2 Joseph’s 100% whole wheat mini pitas (160 cal) on the side.

I managed not to go completely crazy at the olive bar, just 3/4 of a pint. I already ate half of it since yesterday, though. :oops: I love olives! I’ve never seen them in raw form, but that would be delightful. I could make my own and control the salt content. I’ll still indulge in the little salt bombs, though. They’re too amazing to live without. :) Dustin doesn’t like olives at all, but maybe one day his taste buds will mature and he’ll see the light. :lol:

Question: What’s your favorite kind of bar? Salad bar? Hot food bar? Olive bar? Wine and spirits bar?

Tagged as: Black Bear turkey, feta cheese, Greek salad, Joseph's 100% whole wheat mini pita bread bread, Kraft Swiss cheese, olives, pea salad, sandwiches

{ 22 comments }

Raw Diet Day Five: Who Lives in A Cardboard Box Under The Sea?

by Jenn (j3nn.net) on July 16, 2010

SpongeBob SquarePants!!

…’cause I ate his house for dessert! :o

Sorry SpongeBob, it was delicious. :mrgreen:

The avocados I bought on Sunday are perfectly ripe all at the same time, so I’m eating them like it’s my job. I was thinking about making banana soft serve, but decided to kick it up a few notches after remembering how much I liked the avocado banana “mousse” I made a few months ago. So the blender got a little more crowded…

Along with a GoRaw banana nut bread raw food bar (120 cal) that really did taste like banana nut bread. The texture was like a crunchy Fruit Roll-Up or fruit leather, yet it almost tasted like it had grains in it even though it didn’t. I liked it a lot; one more yummy thing I’d buy even when I’m not doing a raw diet.

Strawberry Banana Avocado Pudding

  • 1 ripe avcado
  • 3 small frozen bananas
  • About a cup of fresh strawberries
  • 1 TBSP raw honey

Method: Add all the ingredients to your blender; blend until creamy and smooth, but do not over-blend or it will get too airy. I had to use the Vita-Mix plunger to move things around a couple times.

2 servings, serve immediately

I had about 1.5 servings in my bowl. It was sooooo yummy! And FILLING! I sprinkled some raw pumpkin seeds and raw cashews on top and enjoyed every last bite. <3

The day before, I started the process for making raw vegan meatballs. After I made the mixture, I took my food dehydrator out of the box for the first time ever and gave it a whirl. The end result? Huge success!

They even look like real meat :shock:

Raw Vegan Meatballs

  • 1/2 cup (40g) rolled oats
  • 2 oz raw Brazil nuts
  • 1 TBSP raisins* (Technically not considered raw if dehydrated above 118F degrees. Most commercials brands are dehydrated @ 200F degrees)
  • Dried Italian herbs: parsley, oregano, garlic powder, thyme to taste (I used about 2 TBSP combined)
  • 1 garlic clove
  • Garlic salt or salt to taste

Method: Soak the oats and Brazil nuts in water overnight; the next day drain them well in a strainer, use cheesecloth or a paper towel to remove as much of the water as possible. Add all the ingredients to your food processor and mix until a dough forms. Roll 4 or 5 balls, then put in your dehydrator for about 4-5 hours; no higher than 118F degrees.

Unfortunately, I realized that mine doesn’t have an adjustable thermostat, nor does it say anywhere on the box or instruction manual what the default temperature setting is. So today, I looked it up online and found that it reaches different temperatures for each layer, but all of them were well above 118F degrees, the lowest tier being 190F degrees. :? Ooops! Although, the trays and balls didn’t feel hot when I touched them, not scolding anyway, just warm. They were definitely not thoroughly cooked, though. They tasted REALLY good! Especially because they were warmish when I ate them. :D They would have been even better if they had been cooked through, but alas, that’s not my plan this week. ;) The texture isn’t like meat, but they did rival a lot of vegetarian meatballs I have had. The flavor was nearly perfect, and they held together nicely. One day I’ll buy a food dehydrator with an adjustable thermostat and try these again below 118F. I’m actually excited that I took it out, I want to make salmon jerky next week! Doesn’t that sound good? It sounds amazing to me, lol.

I ended the meal with SpongeBob’s house, which I reluctantly shared with Dustin. Fresh pineapple is soooo goooooood! Love the texture! I could seriously eat the entire thing in one sitting.

Raw Diet Day 5 Menu

  • Piece of Jarlsberg Swiss cheese
  • Remaining olives from half-pint of olive bar
  • Bowl of banana strawberry avocado pudding with raw cashews + raw pumpkin seeds
  • 1 banana nut bread GoRaw live food bar
  • 2 pieces organic nectars raw 70% cacao bar
  • 1 “raw” vegan meatball
  • Leafy greens salad with fresh baby spinach, romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, Garlic Gold nuggets, pitted kalamata olives, black pepper, 2 slices Sargento provolone cheese, and 3 “raw” vegan meatballs
  • SpongeBob SquarePants’s house fresh pineapple
  • 1 anjou pear

My stomach is in knots today. I had some cottage cheese this morning, maybe that was the culprit? I don’t know. :( I’m not ready to eliminate dairy right at this moment, so I guess I’ll just suffer, lol. Honestly though, it seems like everything upsets it. There’s a specialist in NJ that I want to try to see, I’m going to try to make an appointment on Monday. Obviously there hasn’t been any improvements with diet alone, plus I’m on day 10 of Culturelle and that hasn’t helped yet, either. Ah well, I’ll get to the root one day soon. :)

I’m going to have a baked sweet potato with dinner tonight. SO looking forward to that!! :D I’m in the final stretch now… just over 24 hours to go, ok 28 hours, but who’s counting? ;) lol I might do another update later tonight so that I’m in sync with the end of the trial. We’ll see. All I can concentrate on right now is the smell of that sweet potato roasting… Mmmm! Heavenly. :)

Tagged as: 7 day raw diet, avocado, banana strawberry avocado pudding, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, Deni food dehydrator, food dehydrator, fresh pineapple, high raw diet, olives, organic nectars raw 70% cacao chocolate bar, raw, raw diet, raw vegan meatballs, salad, semi-raw diet, SpongeBob Squarepants's house

{ 7 comments }

Raw Diet Day Four: ¡Raw Fiesta!

by Jenn (j3nn.net) on July 15, 2010

I found myself grazing most of the day yesterday. A piece of fruit here, handful of nuts there, a piece of cheese, a raw no-bake cookie, and before you know it, I really only ended up with one complete meal. My lunch consisted of olives, a piece of Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, and a Diet Coke (Is diet Coke a cooked food? Do they boil those chemicals? lol)

These olives were amazing… not raw, but part of my 20% or so that wasn’t. ;)

Sadly, they’re all gone now. I finished off the whole half-pint in 2 days. :shock: So salty, so YUMMY! :mrgreen: I guess the olives qualify as my one and only cooked food for the day, besides the dairy products.

I came up with dinner while thinking about what to use baby bella mushrooms for. Then it hit me: Raw mushroom tacos!!

Raw Mushroom Taco “Meat”

  • About 8 small baby bella mushrooms (or any mushrooms), chopped up in small taco-filling sized pieces
  • Chili powder to taste
  • Cumin to taste
  • Garlic powder and garlic salt to taste
  • Black pepper to taste
  • A few splashes of Cholula hot sauce (or any hot sauce that you prefer)
  • 1 cap-ful distilled white vinegar
  • Generous drizzle of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

Toss all ingredients together, cover, and let sit at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours until you are ready to eat it. Makes enough filling for 3 romaine lettuce leaves.

Raw Mushroom Vegetarian Tacos

  • 3 romaine lettuce leaves spread with Fage Total 0% plain Greek strained yogurt as the “sour cream”; raw mushroom taco filling, fresh Haas avocado, grape tomatoes, and the rest of my raw milk cheddar cheese, about 1.5oz

These were SO GOOD! JUST like a taco! :shock: They were a little watery from the mushroom filling, but it tasted just like eating a taco salad. I wasn’t crazy about the creamy avocado texture with the soft mushrooms and lettuce shell — it was a little too much for my preferences, but other than that, these were a very successful raw recipe! Ways to improve it: Drain the mushroom mixture so that it’s not so watery; use crisper lettuce, like iceberg; or, use a food dehydrator to help with the mushroom filling. If you remove the dairy components, you have an honest to goodness raw, vegan dish. :)

Raw Diet Day 4 Menu:

  • A few pieces of Jarlsberg Swiss cheese
  • Olives from olive bar
  • Diet Coke
  • Handful of raw cashews
  • 1 medium banana
  • 1 Anjou pear
  • Raw mushroom tacos: romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, mushroom taco filling, Fage Total 0% plain Greek strained yogurt, raw milk cheddar cheese, Cholula hot sauce
  • 2 scoops organic nectars cherry chocolate raw non-dairy frozen treat
  • Raw cacao nibs
  • 1 raw no-bake cookie
  • A few licks of raw almond butter from butter knife

I’ve arrived at day 5 of my high raw food trial without any noticeable improvements in my stomach situation. All I have noticed so far is that certain raw foods and possibly dairy make it even worse. I’m still much hungrier than I usually am with cooked food, but like I said yesterday, I’ve been managing that much better. Shockingly, I don’t miss bread that much, I just miss warm food in general. :( All of my food fantasies have revolved around grilled salmon and cooked vegetables. Weird, for me anyway. I’ve gotten to this point where I’m eating less because cold, raw foods just don’t sound appealing, so I’d rather go without than munch on something I’m not interested in. I can see this type of diet leading to an unhealthy relationship with eating in general because it can be so unattractive and exhausting. It takes a lot of work to chew a raw carrot and 10+ other raw fruits and veggies a day. Then it goes into your stomach cold and there’s not much comfort in a heavy, cold fibrous meal. Not to mention, all of the nutrients that you’re NOT absorbing from the raw foods. So in essence, upwards of 25-50% of the raw foods that you eat are taxing your metabolism, but not providing nourishment. Good for satiety and creating a deficit, but not good for optimal health.

Soooo… after today, just 2 more days to go!!! I’m so excited, but a little nervous, lol. I really do feel like I’ve been on a vacation outside of my body. It’s crazy. I still have some raw recipes up my sleeve, in fact, I’m going to finish one right now! Be back later. :)

Tagged as: anjou pear, banana, Diet Coke, Fage Total 0% plain Greek yogurt, Haas avocado, Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, mushroom tacos, olives, organic nectars raw vegan non-dairy gelato, raw cacao nibs, raw diet, raw menu, raw milk cheddar cheese, raw mushroom tacos, raw tacos

{ 13 comments }

Raw Diet Day Three: The Joy Of Not Cooking

July 14, 2010 Jenneral Posts

I’m trying to find the joy in this raw diet, which isn’t always easy, lol. There haven’t been any noticeable changes in the tummy situation, though I haven’t eaten much today and I also have a lot of questionable contributing factors, such as dairy. I took some Gas-X a few hours ago, but haven’t noticed [...]

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Taking a Breather

March 31, 2010 Jenneral Posts

OMG, this week has been insane! We’re leaving for Ohio in about 12 or 13 hours, IF we’re on schedule, and I still have a thousand things to do AND cook. I’m bringing food for about 12-15 people, so this is going to be interesting. I still have to pack and do all of this [...]

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