Jica-what? Jicama... better than french fries.

Now that I've been educating myself about raw foods and eating that way for the most part for something close to 2 months now, I find myself preferring to eat this way. I still really enjoy going out to eat cooked food, but I find myself craving the rich flavors and energizing nutrients and enzymes in raw food.


It's funny how a month ago I was saying, "I can incorporate raw foods into my diet a few times a week". Now I say the same thing about cooked food. I understand why there are so many blogs and websites already dedicated to this way of eating. Unless you try it for yourself, even if it's only for 24 hours, you don't fully comprehend why people are enthusiastic about it. You just feel better. Everything about your life is better because you are healing your body and that sense of healthiness and sanity can only extend outwards to different parts of your life.


We listen to behavioral health experts all the time, telling us to get to the root of a problem in order to fix it. The root of anything in our lives is ourselves. We have a certain amount of control over that, including what we choose to put into our mouths. There is food... and then there is better food. There is no such thing as a "bad" food in my opinion. I like to choose better foods and incorporate a run, a bike ride, or some form of exercise into my life as often as I can... you should too! Make life a little bit easier and empower yourself :) .

"Fries" with raw ketchup... my ketchup is chunky because I didn't pre-soak my raisins.
Soak yours for a smoother consistency!

Before exploring raw foods, I had never tasted jicama. It's a root vegetable that is mild in flavor and slightly sweet. I had only noticed it's existence about 3 months ago when my boyfriend pointed the tuber looking prick out to me at the store. Needless to say, those pricks make delicious, crunchy "fries". They're better for you too; one cup of jicama provides you with 6.4 grams of fiber and 40% of your daily recommended value of vitamin C. If you eat raw or avoid bread, they make a great alternative for croutons or tortilla strips if you like crunchy textures.

The easiest, fastest, & my favorite way to prepare raw jicama is by making jicama fries with raw ketchup (adapted from The Complete Book of Raw Food by Lori Baird and Julie Rodwell). Dip them in whatever sounds good to you; I once ate them with an avocado based dressing and another time with raw "tuna" pate. 


For jicama fries (for 5 people), you'll need:
- 1 lb small jicama (the bigger ones are more woody tasting), peeled and julienned
- 1 tsp or TBSP olive oil, use more or less to your liking
- 1 tsp chili powder (I like Whole Food's 365 Valle del Sol Chili powder)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 pinch sea salt (or even better, himalayan salt or celtic salt)


Toss jicama in a bowl with olive oil and salt. Plate and sprinkle with chili powder, onion powder, and ground cumin.


For raw ketchup to go with your "fries", you'll need:
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (soaked for 2+ hours), reserve soaking water
-1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-1/4 cup raisins (soaked for 2+ hours)
-1 tsp sea salt (the recipe in The Complete Book of Raw Food calls for 1 TBSP. I found that to be way too salty)
-1/4 cup onion powder


Blend all ingredients together in food processor or magic bullet/whatever personal blender you may own until desired consistency. 


Yes it's that easy and no, you don't need a dehydrator! Share with friends or keep the crunchy goodness all to yourself.

Raw "IT AIN'T TUNA!" Pâté

When I was just a wee child in Mrs. Sommers's second grade class, the memories that flood my mind are her love of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, the color purple, and whales... which is probably why we focused so much on learning about sea life... and that just about sums up my second grade school year. I also vividly recall that the day our class got to paint a mural full of sea creatures, my mother included potato salad among my lunch box's contents. I remember the two boys Justin and Jason that I sat down to eat lunch with that day asking me (completely unable to hold back their giggles of course), "EWWWW! Is that tuna?! EW ERICA BROUGHT TUNA FISH FOR LUNCH!" and I yelled at them, "IT AIN'T TUNA!"... and more uncontrollable laughter ensued. I heard the catch phrase "It ain't tuna!" nonstop for a few months after that. English grammar wasn't my strong suit back then. Bringing something other than a lunchable or a good ol' PB&J to school was apparently.

I totally read this at least 100 times that school year. Just thought you should know about my amazing book choices, they were Oprah's Book Club worthy.

I do have to admit, I love tuna salad and occasionally get cravings for it. Luckily, my version does not contain squirmy sea critters and my father told me it's "the best thing I've prepared so far". He's pretty blunt and honest so I trust his sincerity. He also ate the rest of what I left in the fridge without telling me, tsk tsk. I can't be mad at him though; it was rather delightful if I do say so myself!

I like my "tuna" served with celery and on romaine leaves with chopped up tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocados.

Raw "It Ain't Tuna!" Pate:

2 cups raw Sunflower Seeds (soaked for 2+ hours)

2 Tbsp Dulse Seaweed Flakes (found mine @Whole Foods, soak the seaweed in a little bit of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice before throwing it into your food processor)

1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

2 Tbsp pickle juice

Juice of ½ lemon

½ tsp sea salt (or less if you're like me and are satisfied with less saltiness than most)

¼ tsp black pepper

-Combine all of the pate ingredients in your food processor. It does get kind of think and chunky so you might have to stop and use a spatula

-Mix the following ingredients in:

¼ cup red onion (medium diced)

1 kosher dill pickle (Brunoise cut/just chop it up into itty bitty pieces)

I have fresh chives available to me all summer long at my convenience, compliments of my backyard, so I added a small sliced up bunch of these. 

Seriously the best pickles ever. Try them once and you'll end up craving them like you're preggers, even if you lack ovaries.

Something Sweet!

Today I had the pleasure of waking up to coconut macaroons I left on my dehydrator overnight thanks to Rawmazing's Raw Macaroons Three Ways Recipe. I made the strawberry & cinnamon macadamia variety, but since I didn't have raw macadamia nuts on hand, I used raw walnuts instead. Delicious! You could probably substitute the macadamias with a variety of different nuts and they'd still taste amazing. For the 4th of July I think I'm going to make Stawberry, Vanilla, and Blueberry ones (I wonder how these will taste?).

I also made Heather from Sweetly Raw's Choccie Cupcakes, but I used this Cashew Vanilla Frosting recipe from goneraw.com and added a little beet juice to make it slightly pink. These are super rich, but super good! I can't decide if the cupcake or frosting is my favorite part.

I added chopped walnuts to my cupcake "batter" as well.

Pink frosting! My frosting came out slightly chunky since my food processor is kind of dinky. The vanilla flavor made it feel like white chocolate chips in my mouth though.

For dinner, I went through my fridge to see what I could throw together and I came up with zucchini pasta topped with baby spinach, tomatoes, a sun dried tomato sauce I made with random leftovers that tasted a lot like vodka sauce from my SAD (Standard American Diet) days, and fresh basil. I wrote down the ingredients while I was devouring my pasta because it was SO GOOD! I'll post it tomorrow... because I know I'll probably make this again for lunch or dinner.

I would have never thought preparing raw food would be this entertaining.

On a Basil & Garlic kick this week.

Yesterday was a roll out of bed and be semi-lazy about making myself anything to eat. Luckily, I like to keep some sort of breakfast bar (in a cookie shape... because I like circles better :) on hand for the sake of healthy and delicious convenience. This week's are Pumpkin-Apple-Carrot Breakfast Cookies, which I very loosely based off of Me Amoeba's raw carrot cake recipe. Made that about a week ago for dessert for my family and boyfriend. Pretty good! All of us concurred that it would be an awesome treat for breakfast since it was so filling and we could barely eat more than a bite. Mmm fiber.  

For breakfast yesterday: Pumpkin-Apple-Carrot Cookies and a Guava-Strawberry-Banana Flax Smoothie sweetened with raw honey.

I also made Rosemary Almond Crackers. I used Nouveau Raw's Recipe, but used raw wheat germ instead of oat flour since I was out. These are terrific alone or with toppings.

I also made Matt Amsden's famous onion bread, which I found on The Rawtarian's site. I topped it with fresh basil leaves from my backyard, sliced tomatoes, pea shoots I found at Trader Joe's, and my own Sundried Tomato-Spinach-Basil Cashew Cheese:

 

1 cup cashews, soaked for two hours or more
Juice of one lemon

1 Tbsp cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
¼ tsp salt

Handful of spinach leaves (I used baby spinach)

5 sun dried tomatoes

¼ cup basil

1 sprig fresh rosemary (optional)

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Process the cashews in a food processor until they become pretty well ground. Add the remaining ingredients. Since my food processor is tiny and the mixture is very think, I chopped up my spinach into small pieces separately and mixed it all together in the container I stored my cashew cheese in.

I'm a tomato fiend. I also topped 2 almond crackers with "cheese", tomatoes, and basil.

I made Me Amoeba's Sprouted Lentil and Quinoa Tabbouleh as a side for dinner.

I also made myself a... taco...?... out of onion bread, sprouted garbanzo & veggie hummus, artichoke hearts, and baby spinach. Sliced tomato would have been good in here.

Veggie and Sprouted Garbanzo Hummus:

1 cup sprouted garbanzos (chickpeas)

1 cup chopped broccoli 

1 cup zucchini 

3-4 cloves garlic (more or less according to your taste)

Juice of one lemon

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup tahini

1 tsp cumin

¼ cup fresh basil (optional... I threw this in last minute and I loved it)

Throw the garbanzos, broccoli, and zucchini in the food processer and mix until smooth. Add and process the rest of the ingredients. Enjoy with vegetable crudités (I love carrots with hummus) or whatever else you may fancy.

 I stopped by my boyfriend's house yesterday to water his lawn since he left town for work and put down grass seed right before he left. I love being outside. I act like a 5 year old and like to make rainbows with water.

I ate a good few handfuls of mulberries while I was outside watering. Mmm!

As is expected from a 5 year old, I like to play with my food too apparently. 

 Nothing wrong with that... unless you're in company that requires proper etiquette of course :)

Love all. Serve all. Create no sorrow... even towards yourself.

Since I'm incredibly random and have the most wonderful A.D.D. at Whole Foods, I've been transitioning to a raw food diet for a week now. I'm incredibly enthusiastic about it and think I'm in love with raw foodism. Gah <3. Today I ate 100% raw (woot!) and now at almost 1 am, I find myself with too much energy. I'll post pictures and recipes of the yummy food I made today and in the past week sometime tomorrow.

Must Sleep.

Soon.

Why raw? Why not? For some reason, as I was walking up and down aisles at different grocery stores, raw food made sense. Foods that heal your body and taste delicious? Sign me up. Only a week of eating mostly raw (about 70-75% of my food was raw) and my skin has almost completely cleared up. The only make-up I've felt the need to wear is eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and strawberry flavored lip balm. I would layer on the foundation and powder to cover up blemishes and any discoloration underneath my eyes. I hate feeling the need to hide any part of myself behind anything. I'm not too keen on restrictions we place on ourselves because we're on some sort of auto-pilot that tells us hiding is normal.

My skin isn't the only part of me to begin healing since I began to eat raw. I have (not so secretly) struggled with an eating disorder on and off for 9 years now. Wow. Almost a decade of harming my body. I haven't really thought about how many years it's been until now. No wonder I get so bloated so often, my digestive system must go through terrible periods of inflammation or I may just have some symptoms of IBS; it doesn't take a doctor to figure out what bulimia does to your body. Fortunately, I've been in recovery for 6 of those 9 long years. I go through periods where I can quiet the ED demon successfully and don't have urges to binge and purge or restrict, but there are occasions where I start to lose myself, my confidence, and become depressed. Moments like these worry me and should never happen because I'm wasting precious time and energy on something so negative. It's only been in the past few years that I've discovered and believe in the enormous potential I have to do something great with myself despite the adversity (with more than just my disordered eating) in the past. When I think of myself objectively, I see I wonderful human being that needs to stop being so afraid of having other people see that. I wouldn't attract other amazing people into my life (whom I unfortunately tend to push away during my "low" periods) that recognize the same amazing qualities in myself if those qualities weren't, too, a part of me.

My mind and spirit seem to be healing too. I don't feel the need to binge... it's difficult to when you feel full from fiber and healthy fats. I'm much happier and have gone back to meditating. I smile just because. I'm loving every part of my life and everything that comes my way, whether it's good or bad, and I thank God or whatever energy that connects everything for it. I'm transforming myself from the inside out... because I need to physically and emotionally save my life.

I was initially concerned about an "extreme" way of eating and restricting what I eat, but luckily I have very little anxiety over what I eat nowadays. If I want to indulge in something not raw here and there I won't stop myself :)

The world is more beautiful than we can imagine... when I stay positive, I tend to run into more positive people and places.

As one of my favorite songs by Incubus states:

"I suggest we learn to love
ourselves before it's made illegal."

...because everything is funny and/or beautiful.

...to me anyways :)