RAW Living and Learning

Here is a pic of most of my food for the big 3-day juice fast/feast!! I am so excited it is queer. Missing from the pic is my broccoli, some more kale, collards and tomatoes from my square foot garden, parsley from my herb garden, some radish sprouts and three large cucumbers from my sweet neighbor across the canal. For my records I am going to bore you with my food list and the cost. I want to keep track and compare to future juice fasts. 3 (5lb) bags of organic carrots $11.97 1  organic honeydew $4.99 1  bunch organic spinach $2.99 2 bunches of greens $5.98 (organic dandelion greens and organic dino kale) 3.08 lbs organic tangerines $5.21 3.31 lbs organic valencia oranges $5.59 5 organic lemons $4.45 2.89 lbs organic green cabbage $2.57 1.78 lbs  organic green pears $3.54 2 (3 lb) bags of organic red and green apples $9.98 1 box  organic Detox Tea $4.69 1 bottle of Mountain Valley Sparkling water $1.89 (for melon and lemon spritzers) 1 ...

First I want to mention that I harvested my first batch of Swiss Chard from my square foot garden!!! I used it for my dinner the other night, making my, all time favorite, chard salad. I posted my recipe here . Today's fabulous lunch idea was inspired by Lisa's post . She made a very simple stuffed cucumber recipe and I decided to jazz it up a bit. I started with a bed of sprouts (sea of sprouts) that consisted of broccoli sprouts, red clover sprouts and sprouted French lentils. Next I hollowed out a very fat and stubby cucumber .  For the filling I used one avocado and some grated white onion as did Lisa but then I added in some lovely Grape Tomatoes, cumin, coriander, turmeric and Himalayan pink salt.  To finish it off I drizzled on the slightest bit of Bragg's apple cider vinegar. The result was spectacular! What an amazing and easy raw lunch recipe. On a sad note, a great deal of suffering has been going on this last week. My one and only sister, has been fig...

(Written on 8/30/2010) Ugly Tomato and Sprouts I found the most awesome deal on Ugly Ripe Tomatoes the other day. It was a 4-pack for a very good price!! I snatched it right up. I've said before that these are my favorite variety of Florida tomato!! And boy was I pleased with this batch. They are so juicy and flavorful. Well I decided to make a salad with my Ugly Tomato as the focal point. I needed some greens and sprouts with it, of course, so I served it on a bed of organic red leaf lettuce, topped it with three types of sprouts and drizzled on a simple dressing. My 4 year old and 2 year old were happy eating thick slices with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. My 6 year old had some bean sprouts with his favorite, simple honey mustard dressing that Mommy makes. Gotta love kids loving veggies!! Here is the easy recipe: Ugly Ripe Tomato Plate 1 large Ugly ripe tomato, cut into thick rounds 4 leaves of organic red leaf lettuce, chopped 1 handful of bean sp...

Tuesdays lunch was one of those meals that actually made me smile. I just feel so good when I eat sprouts and raw kale. I would have to say they are my top raw foods. Knowing how incredibly good they are for my health makes me smile inside and out. I put together a "Sprouty Sprout Medley" and a very simple kale salad I have named, "Eric Jr.'s Favorite Raw Kale Salad". I only got one helping, he ate the rest over the past two days. The longest  that a raw kale salad lasts in this house is two days. Gotta love it!! Here are some pics of my red clover sprouts, sunflower sprouts and even some pea sprouts. This is the first time that I have sprouted pea sprouts on soil; usually I just sprout them in my sprout bag. I am going to harvest them young and just eat them as is. If you want to juice them, just let them sprout a little longer. Red clover Sprouts Sunflower Sprouts   My Yummy Chlorophyll Pea Sprouts Ready to Eat My sprouty salad was a medley of five dif...

         Elizabeth's Raw Pad Thai Having lunch the other day with my friend left me with the desire to concoct a Raw Pad Thai recipe. Yesterdays post mentioned the raw entree I ordered at Food and Thought, it was raw Pad Thai of course.  I really liked their recipe, I wish I had it!!  I needed somewhere to start, so I turned to my new copy of "Ani's Raw Food Essentials". Her recipe is very easy and I made some additions and changes and came up with a totally different recipe. Now I have to go back and make hers to see how I like it. Her recipe calls for the following: Noodles: sliced fresh basil thinly sliced cabbage kelp noodles "Peanut" Sauce: almond butter coconut oil Liquid aminos lemon juice jalapeno coriander water I decided to use the kelp noodles and basil but omitted the cabbage. Instead I added zucchini, carrots and yellow squash to the kelp noodles and basil. In place of ...

This past Saturday we went to the Mango Festival. Man was it HOT!!!! Too hot to even enjoy ourselves to the fullest. It made the youngest two very cranky.They would just stop walking and cry. We all were dripping with sweat. But we stuck it out for a while and I got some good pictures. They had several vendors, activities for the kids, food, tasting tables, gardening supplies, fruit and vegetable trees and plants and even butterfly gardening information. Mote Aquarium had a set up there with many specimens on display as well as a touch tank and a beautiful fish tank. Our children loved the touch tank. They were able to hold a water hermit crab, sea urchin, star fish, and a horse shoe crab.  Later we found a bounce house and our three youngest spent about 20 minutes in it. Then we decided to call it a day and go get something really cold to drink. I still am glad that we went, even though it was so stinkin hot. One of the reasons I am glad we w...

Carob Breakfast Pudding Sprouty Citrus Salad Marinated Mushrooms and Spinach I thought I would share a days worth of meals again. I always like to see people's daily menus; it inspires me to be creative with my own menu. This day I started out with my favorite carob pudding. I can eat this any time of day, I really like it. I decided to top it with fresh banana and my buckwheat krispies. Wonderful! It kept me so satisfied. This is a great filling breakfast for those days when you know lunch might be later than usual. For lunch I had a refreshing sprouty citrus salad. I love finding all kinds of ways to incorporate my sprouts into recipes. For dinner I adapted a recipe from $10 a Day and served it on top of some raw organic spinach. It went so well together that I will always prepare it this way. I really love this recipe. Here are all three recipes. Hope you can try them soon. Carob Breakfast Pudding 2 ripe organic bananas (use them separately) 1 ripe organic avocado 1/...

Elizabeth's Sea Vegetable Salad Lunch yesterday was a fabulous salad made with loads of fresh vegetables and  sea vegetables. I used the Creamy Thai Dressing from yesterday's salad dressing post. I decided to use the red pepper flakes instead of the Thai bird chilies. I like things slightly spicy, not overly spicy. The red pepper flakes gave it just the right amount of heat. I enjoyed this salad so much, I was tempted to lick my plate when it was all gone! If you are trying sea vegetables for the first time you may want to use less than I did in my recipe. I really adore them so my recipe has quite a bit. Alter it to your tastes and I'm sure it will be fantastic. Below the recipe I have pasted an excellent article outlining the wonderful health benefits of sea vegetables. It also points out the one sea vegetable you should steer clear of. Please read it and educate yourself. You will be truly amazed at how healthful these plants are. Here is ...