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Raw Diet Day Six: Crunchy Munchies and Oozing Yams

by Jenn (j3nn.net) on July 18, 2010

I’m in the home stretch now! Actually, I’m on my last day of the semi-raw diet, but the last post will have to wait until tomorrow. ;)

Raw Diet Day 6 Menu

  • 1/2 cup Cabot fat free cottage cheese
  • Handful of raw cashews
  • Anjou pear
  • Raw nachos “rawchos”: raw flax seed hemp crackers, nutritional yeast, bell pepper, celery, an entire avocado mashed into fresh guac with a squeeze of lime juice, grape tomatoes, Fage Total 0% plain Greek strained yogurt, and lots of hot sauce
  • Roasted sweet potato with raw almond butter (didn’t eat much of it)
  • Ginormous salad with romaine, fresh baby spinach, no salt added cheddar cheese, carrots, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas dressed with cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, raw honey, fig infused white balsamic vinegar, and black pepper
  • 2 pieces organic nectars raw 70% cacao bar
  • Licks of almond butter
  • 2 slices Sargento reduced fat Swiss cheese with Hellmann’s olive oil mayo
  • PURE organic raw fruit + nut bar

Rawchos (mostly raw nachos)

My “cheez and sour cream” components…

Nutritional yeast is so awesome, but not a raw food unfortunately. Smells like popcorn to me, tastes cheesy.

Tell me fresh guacamole isn’t one of life’s greatest gifts. :D

These were RAWsome!! After a few splashes of Tabasco and a big blob of Greek yogurt, it was a lot like eating regular nachos. LOVED them! Wasn’t too crazy about the raw hemp flax seed crackers due to the earthy taste which doesn’t belong in a plate of nachos, they got extra Tabasco. :twisted: Loved the bell peppers and celery as my chips, though. So. much. volume. I ended up leaving half of the guac and yogurt, but ate everything else. Super delicious!

Something went terribly wrong with the sweet potato I roasted for dinner. I thought I’d be rebellious and have a baked sweet potato with my dinner salad, so I asked my mom to pop one in the oven for me when she made whatever she was eating. She comes up to our office awhile later to inform me that something weird happened to the potato: half of it oozed out! :shock: What the hell????!!

I’ve never seen this happen before. The potato literally exploded and oozed out, but only half of it. It must have had a very high water content or something. So strange. My mom said it was perfectly normal before she put it in. So, I don’t know if I was a little freaked out by it knowing that it exploded in the oven, or if I’m just out of touch with warm, mushy foods, but I took 2 bites and threw the rest out. :? It tasted ok, I just wasn’t interested in it. *shrugs*

Such a shame. I liked the raw almond butter on it, but I just wasn’t feeling it. :(

My salad was phenomenal, though. I love salads, they’re definitely in my top 10 favorite meals, even when I’m off of the raw kick. hehe

By now I am officially done with my raw diet trial, but I still have today’s food to do in an update tomorrow. I’ll give my thoughts and scale results in my last update. I’ll tell you one thing, I have a major energy deficit this week; I’m exhausted! Can’t wait to hit the hay — or eat it!!! No, no, no. I can have cooked food starting tomorrow. SO EXCITED!!!! It feels like Christmas Eve. Can’t wait to sleep and wake up to warmth in my belly. :D

Tagged as: high raw diet, nutritional yeast, raw, raw almond butter, raw diet, raw food diet, raw nachos, rawchos, salad, sweet potato, vegan, vegan foods, vegetarian

{ 9 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 Three: The Joy Of Not Cooking

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

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 any changes yet. I’ve started to expand my raw diet menu beyond the typical salad. Yesterday morning, I made a batch of no-bake raw cookies:

No-Bake Raw Cookies

  • 1/2 cup raw rolled oats
  • 2 TBSP raw almond butter
  • 14g raw sweetened cacao nibs
  • 14g raw slivered almonds
  • 1 teaspoon raw honey
  • A few Tablespoons water

1. Mix all the ingredients by hand, in a blender (I put mine in the Vita-Mix for a few seconds), or food processor until dough forms
2. Roll little balls of the dough (it’s sticky!!) into as many balls as you like
3. Set on plate and let air dry with ventilated cover (I used a colander) for 6-7 hours. You could speed up the process by using a food dehydrator, but I was lazy, lol

So easy, so tasty!! I ate 2 of them. You can imagine my heartbreak this morning when I went to eat one and discovered that fruit flies had found them to be delicious, too. :cry: After they were dry enough, I covered the plate with plastic wrap, but the little buggers got underneath it anyway! :evil: I made a new (double) batch right away. :D This time I put them in the oven to dry, lol. Not turned on, of course! :shock: Surely my food dehydrator would work so much better, but alas, I’m not up to taking it out of the box yet. I’ve had it new in the box for over a year now. I hoard appliances, LOL. :oops:

In other kitchen news: I’m going through fresh produce at the speed of light! I went to Hannaford with my mom yesterday afternoon to replenish the dwindling supply. I ate an entire one pound tub of organic mixed spring greens in 2.5 days. :shock: Plus, a lot of the fruit that I bought at Shop Rite on Sunday isn’t ripe enough yet, including 6 avocados!! :( So, I went shopping once again. Don’t have to convince me to shop 2… 3… 10 times a week. I got another cart-full of assorted fruits + veggies, but before we left I had an amazing lunch to stave off hunger while in the store. So incredible that it’s something I would eat even when not following a semi-high raw diet!!

Raw pea salad, strawberries drizzled with raw almond butter and raw honey, and sprinkled with raw pumpkin seeds, anjou pear, and PURE raw food bar

Lovin’ these organic PURE raw fruit and nut bars! Veronica, you’re A-Ok. :)

A bowl of defrosted frozen peas with chopped red onion, tossed in cold pressd organic extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt + pepper

Pure, unadulterated raw decadence… fresh strawberries drizzled with raw almond butter, raw honey, and raw pumpkin seeds <3

This was my favorite meal, thus far! I LOVE peas with EVOO + vinegar, it’s so good. Typically, the peas are cooked every other time I’ve had it, but it tastes just as good raw. YUM!!!! And the strawberries… WOW! What a truly magnificent combo. LOVED them.

I did something I normally don’t do yesterday: I hit up the olive bar at Hannaford. *chorus of angels* I usually avoid them because they’re sooo salty, but I’ve kept my sodium ultra low this week, so I felt like I could indulge. And indulge I did. Holy scrum-da-dilly-umptious!!! I only got a half-pint, but I haven’t been able to stay out of it ever since I brought it home, lol.

Just like I said, my dinner included a boiled potato with a generous helping of Fage Total 0% plain Greek strained yogurt…

Assorted olives on my leafy greens <3

I felt kind of weird to eat something cooked and warm! :o My mom cooked it for me, and I think it was overdone because it was sort of mushy–unless I’m so far removed from warm cooked foods already, LOL. It still tasted VERY good to me. I ate it all, BUT I kept moving it to the side to eat my salad. I’m telling ya, I have an affinity for olives. They are SO YUMMY! Bitter, salty, fun texture. Mmm! Wish they weren’t so high in sodium, I’d seriously eat a pint of them a day! I’ve never come across a raw olive in my life, I’m hoping to find them one day. That would be a dream come true. :D

While we were in Hannaford yesterday, I remembered a raw vegan non-dairy frozen ice cream that I tried not-so-long ago: organic nectars gelato

Move over Ben & Jerry, there’s a new chocolate cherry frozen treat on the block!

I’ve had the chocolate hazelnut before, but the chocolate cherry is new to me. It was AMAZING! Dustin loved it, too. It’s so hard to believe that it’s dairy-free and made from cashew milk! It’s so creamy, and a little creepy — it doesn’t melt very fast! LOL It’s perfect. And so delicious. I had a little taste of each flavor for dessert…

Not only is organic nectars raw gelato made with 100% pure, raw, wholesome ingredients, but it’s also low in calories: 120 calories per serving, 5 servings per pint. I’d buy this even when I’m not on a raw diet. Yum!

I’ve been managing my bouts of hunger better by snacking when the tummy calls. After eating the boiled potato last night, I honestly felt fuller and more satisfied than I have since I started this trial on Sunday. I haven’t eaten anything cooked (besides cheese + yogurt, technically) today and probably won’t. I’ve been picking at cheese and olives all day. :oops: I have an awesome dinner planned, which I’m totally excited to make and eat. That will be on tomorrow’s update. ;) Only 3 more days to go! I’m looking forward to cooked food again, but I still have some raw recipes to try. I’m REALLY surprised that I’m not craving bread AT ALL! :shock: Weird, right? Probably because I know I’ll have lots of it in 72 hours, lol. I’m sure if I was trying to give them up permanently I’d be in the corner shivering with cold sweats, LOL.

:lol:

Alright, I’m going to start on my mystery dinner now. Yay!

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Tagged as: anjou pear, boiled potato, cheese, Fage Total 0% plain Greek strained yogurt, gluten-free, high raw diet, no-bake raw cookies, olive bar, olives, organic nectars raw dairy-free ice cream, organic nectars raw gelato, pumpkin seeds, PURE fruit and nut bars, raw, raw almond butter, raw diet, raw pea salad, raw recipes, strawberries

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