A Sweet Start

My husband and I have different tastes when it comes to smoothies, juices and the raw food world!  So today's smoothie was made especially for him. A sweet start to the day with my sweetie! For me it was like starting the day with dessert!

So for those of you out there with a sweet tooth, give this one a try!

Sweet Saturday Start

2 cups nut milk
2 bananas (frozen chunks if possible)
1 Tbl. cacao
1 Tbl. carob
1-2 Tbl almond butter
1 Tbl. maca
1 Tbl. spirulina
2 tsp. vanilla
3-4 cups spinach
crushed ice

I put it all in my Blendtec, selected beverage, then the XL Smoothie setting, and the blender does it all!

This is a powerhouse of nutrition along with a sweet taste that will energize us all morning. Which is a really good thing because now it is time to get to work in the yard!

I hope your Saturday is as sweet as mine!

Love that chia!

In my last post you may have noticed Chocolate Chia Pudding, A.K.A. Chocolate Chia Tapioca, which is so yummy I could easily eat a whole bowl - a big bowl - all by myself. I have had my eye on another one of Matthew Kenney's recipes in his new book, Everyday Raw Express, for Banana Chia Pudding. With almost over ripe bananas in my fruit bowl, I just had to make this recipe!

I think I will eat this more like a cereal, rather than a pudding.  Maybe top it with some fruit and nuts, and a little almond milk. It would make a great mid morning snack, or it could be lunch, mid-afternoon snack . . . hmmmm, the possibilities.

Not that I have a multitude of followers on this blog, but I wonder if any of you remember my previous posts on chia?? It occurred to me that I have had an affection for chia seeds for a while now! I can credit them as part of the demeanor of Cheerios in our house. My Goodbye Cheerios recipe helped my husband eliminate Cheerios from his morning routine, and was merely a stepping stone to Green Smoothies, which he has every morning now.  Here's a link to that post. And then there was the post: The Chia is in the Pudding.

Even if you aren't on the same page as I am when it comes to the way I eat, you should really try chia seeds.  The benefits are a mile long.

OK, so what are you waiting for? 

Go buy some chia seeds . . . today!

Your body is waiting!

A lovely weekend!

What a great weekend this was.

Friday night we had dinner at Cafe Samana with Brian and Megan. I think Megan and I will be great foodie friends! Then Megan and I headed to Whole Foods for a raw food class with Denise of Raw Intentions. Great tasting do-able recipes and always a new tidbit to learn.

Saturday morning we headed to the Farmer's Market and to Natural Farms to pick up our co-op share.  I love pictures of fruit and vegetables. The colors are amazing. This is a picture of my "pharmacy!"

I picked up Mom and we headed out for a delightful afternoon. We went to lunch at Dilly Deli and Mom loved the activity of the area, checked out the Gadget Company, a stop at Mecca Coffee for gadgets, and then Stitches for buttons and a new pattern.

Then . . . yes! time to play in the kitchen!

I love my new Matthew Kenney book, Everyday Raw Express, and picked his Zucchini and Avocado Tartar to be my first creation.

This is a nice combination of ingredients and makes a nice presentation when put in a tube so it is plated like a round column. And it tastes great. Thanks MK for another great recipe!

This basil is just beautiful and makes my kitchen smell great. Pretty as a picture!

Next, Watermelon Mango Soup.  This is one of my weekend favorites.

Great summer raw soup. Anything with watermelon in it is good to me! I just love watermelon any way I can get it! So this soup is already on my favorite list. Thanks Denise!

A red cabbage in the refrigerator was jumping out of it's skin just asking to become a slaw.  So how could I not??

Simple easy slaw with red cabbage, carrots, and red peppers. Slaw goes with anything!! Which brings me to the next picture, my dinner!

What a great meal to end a great day!!!

Of course the weekend wouldn't be complete without at least one dessert. But two. . . whewhooo! Both are courtesy of  Raw Intention classes at Whole Foods.

First up, Chocolate Mint Ice Cream. OMG . . . need I say more?

This is my second time to make this.  Last time I just left the whole batch in a bowl in the freezer.  It was so rock hard that I actually broke a knife trying to dish it out! So this time after making it in the ice cream maker, I put the remaining ice cream in a muffin pan, froze it, then removed the individual servings onto a plate to store in the freezer. This is very rich and a small serving is more than enough. I loved it with a fresh strawberry. This is a dessert worthy for company.

And lastly, I made a Chocolate Chia Pudding. It is like a chocolate tapioca. Chia gels when added to liquid and has a wonderful consistency. Chia seeds are amazing. They are a nutritional powerhouse with a lengthy list of benefits: Omega 3, fiber, antioxidant and rich in essential fatty acids. Click this link for the real scoop on chia seeds.  I love them. I put them in smoothies, make a "cereal" out of them, crackers, and now chocolate pudding!

Man I love raw food . . .

And, RAWking in the kitchen!

Thank you goes to . . .

my husband for getting me a juicer for my birthday.

Smoothies are my first love, but there is nothing like a smooth, refreshing juice over ice, to get "my juices" flowing. Sometimes I make juice to add to my smoothies, but no matter what, there is green liquid in my diet EVERYDAY.

I love how all this turns into

this!

So what is the difference between juice and a smoothie?

The fiber.

Penni Shelton, of Raw Food Rehab, explains it well in her booklet, Living on Liquids:

Although there is no real nourishment in the fiber of fresh fruits and vegetables, fiber serves a very useful and much needed purpose. Soluble and insoluble fiber both act as an intestinal broom. Without fiber, the colon, and the body as a whole, cannot maintain a healthy condition. So, throughout our lives it is imperative that we eat a balanced diet of raw fruits and vegetables, preferably organic whenever possible.

However, when it comes to creating a space of cleansing, healing, hydrating, alkalizing and rebuilding---juicing has a very important role.  Solid food requires many hours of digestion before its nutrients become available to the cells and tissues of the body.  The removal of the fiber in juice extraction enables this liquid elixir to be very quickly digested and assimilated, sometimes in a matter of minutes, with minimum effort or exertion on the digestive system. The body is optimally supported and strengthened to do the deeper work of cleansing and repairing.  Juices extracted from fresh raw vegetables and fruits are the means by which we can furnish all the cells and tissues of the body with the essential nutrients and living enzymes they need in a manner that is most accessible. 

Thanks Penni for making that sound so simple!

Watermelon, lime, pineapple, ginger, celery, cucumber, spinach, kale and mixed salad greens made an amazing juice for today.  I was very thankful for this juice because it gave me the energy to

go school shopping with a six year old, who really didn't care much about what he got, but had a great time having fun from strangling the Old Navy boy to climbing poles! Riley is an experience!

Thank you too, to Denise of Raw Intentions for the fabulous recipes she shared recently, that we enjoyed this weekend.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

Banana Nut Bread Ice Cream,

and of course both of these are made from raw, plant based natural foods, with no sugar or cream!

I will end this post with a thank you to my RAWking friends,

and you know who you are,

who endlessly inspire, motivate, encourage and amaze me regularly.

I am forever grateful to know you!

Things do happen in threes!

I have been researching exercise options.  I know myself pretty well after all these years. I am a fair weather walker, I don't do club memberships, and home equipment ultimately collects clothes instead of bodies! So, without a huge investment, and for lots of reasons, I decided on a Rebounder.  They are gaining popularity in many parts of the country and Europe. It came on Friday.

I set it up to check it out Friday night and watched the video that came with it. I was all set to jump all over it come Saturday morning!

1:00 am Saturday morning I got up to go the bathroom and walked right into it in the dark! I knew I should have moved it upstairs! I broke my toe. So I won't be jumping for a while.

Could this be a sign?

Maybe I am not meant to exercise?????

OK, so that's one.

Out with the old ...

in with the new!

Thursday we had a new dishwasher and refrigerator delivered. Very exciting, especially when it is a great deal.  The old refrigerator was on it's way to a new home before the new one was even installed. Yes, we were ready!

A few snags: they forgot the mounting brackets for the dishwasher, the water line was damaged to the refrigerator, they could not get the refrigerator to begin cooling, (ultimately they did) and the pantry draw control didn't work.

Hmmmmm . . . an omen?  On Friday my husband went back to the store after we decided we didn't want to keep this "lemon" (even though the fix was promised) and ordered a new one - an upgrade model, but at the same price. The repair man came out and mounted the dishwasher, fixed the water line to the refrigerator, so we would at least have water and ice until Tuesday when the new one would be delivered.

The new dishwasher is amazing - so quiet we had to open it to make sure it was working.  We love it.

Now comes number two of the three: On Saturday morning with toe and foot throbbing I went to the new refrigerator - that the repairman had fixed the night before - for ice. No ice. No water.  The door unit was not functioning at all. But there were plenty of cold frozen items to put on my foot because everything, yes, everything, was frozen! Not just in the freezer, but the refrigerator too! Lettuce, spinach, red peppers, fruit, coconut juice, leftovers . . . everything! Needless to say I was not a happy camper!

As I write this on Sunday, everything is still frozen! But after a visit back to the appliance store yesterday to discuss this issue, I feel much better. A double upgrade to what we purchased, at the scratch and dent price, and it will be delivered on Monday instead of Tuesday. They were great. The new refrigerator will be great too!

Number three on Saturday was very upsetting and disturbing for me. Fr. Jack, my pastor and boss, called to say we had been vandalized on Friday night. He forwarded pictures of the graffiti that had been sprayed all over the brick of our church. It was just sickening. I will never understand the minds of those who can do such a thing. The guys at TRC were able to erase it all, and our security will now patrol even more to keep an eye out for the hoodlums.

Saturday was a bit overwhelming, but all's well that ends well, and it did.

Will I exercise? You bet I will.  I can't wait to bounce away on my rebounder.

Will my food defrost? Definitely. And I know I will love my new refrigerator!