My Conclusion

I meant to do this a while ago. I will probably not post much more about raw food, and that which I do will be so insignificant that it will be okay to use my normal blog to do so. The thing that I found I really liked about raw food was just eating whole fruits and vegetables. I like eating raw a lot better when I would grab a handful of nuts, a pepper, an avocado, a banana, and just eat it. It was a very different way of thinking about food, and I really like it. We are moving soon, so I have been trying to get rid of all the food that we have in the freezers and fridges, so not much raw eating going on, but I do look forward to broadening my horizons on whole raw foods, but that will be another experiment for another day, and probably not much to write and share about. So for now, I bid you all adieu.

Raw Curry

I got curry crackers when I went to Ginger's cafe (in the assorted pack), and I thought I should try some sort of raw curry.

I didn't even really look up a recipe online to see if there was one, so I just sort of wung it. (I think wung sounds cooler than winged).

I started out with a tomato. I put that in my chopper with some cauliflower. Then I poured some curry powder in, added some salt, and a little water so it all got pretty fine. Then I took it out of the chopper, cut off some corn, mixed it in and enjoyed with the curry crackers.

Raw Gazpacho Soup

Ok, so maybe the place I am taking the pictures is not the best place in the world, because even with my regular camera, these pictures aren't turning out super awesome.

Anyway, today I made this Raw gazpacho soup. I got the recipe here: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/rawfoodsrecipes/r/rawpeppersoup.htm.
The recipe says:


INGREDIENTS:
5 ripe tomatoes
1/2 cucumber, chopped
1 red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup water
dash cayenne pepper
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 avocado, diced (optional)

PREPARATION:
Blend together all ingredients except parsley and avocado until smooth. Gently stir in avocado and parsley.
If possible, chill for at least two hours to let the flavors mingle. Serve chilled or room temperature.

I followed this pretty close, except I only had one tomato, so I just did one tomato. Also no fresh parsley, so I used dried. Oh...I did not even notice it said cayenne pepper, so I didn't put that in either. I also added two green onions, and juice from one lemon. I only used 2 tbs of water, because I figured it would be less soup, because of having less tomatoes. Oh, and I had soaked some lentils for breakfast, but hadn't eaten them all, so I probably had about 1/3 cup of soaked lentils that had been soaked for 2-3 hours.

Overall the soup was pretty tasty, and I really liked having the avocados there to add some texture.

Raw Taco Salad

So today I made raw taco salad. This picture really does not do it justice. I did basically the same thing as before with raw tacos, just broke up the lettuce, and I added cucumbers on Janardan's and put red peppers on mine. I put a ton more cashews in too, hoping that would make it more filling. However, the bag of one pound cashews that I used about half of for this meal was over $6, so I am beginning to worry about this raw thing being too pricey without having any homegrown veggies. Well, in the winter especially. I imagine it would be a lot more affordable during the summer.

I am still in the middle of eating it, but it already feels more filling, so that is good. And it is so tasty. The colors are so vibrant.

Edit: I finished the taco salad, and it was definitely more filling having more cashews in it. GO CASHEWS. Also, I think it may be time to start experimenting with sprouts again. But then again, maybe another few days.

Lasagna and Pizza

Last night I tried out a raw lasagna. I was going to try and do a pesto sauce, but I couldn't find any basil at the store, so I got a pesto packet, so it was not officially raw, but it was pretty close. I used zucchini as the base. I cut them up pretty thick. I think next time I would just slice them thin like I do with the raw spaghetti, but maybe wider and just a bit thicker. Then I had a marinara sauce, which I just dumped in italian seasoning, a few pieces of green pepper, some sun-dried tomatoes, and tomatoes. (I would definitely go with the other marinara sauce though, which I will describe below). Then I took the pesto packet I had, blended it up with some sunflower seeds, for the third layer. It turned out pretty tasty. For mine, I added thinly sliced green peppers as a fourth layer. I really liked that, but figured I didn't want to overload Janardan too many vegetables. I am glad to report that he did not report getting very ill, so that is good news. I was worried I might have to take him to urgent care if he started breaking out in hives.

Today for lunch I made raw pizza. I stopped by Ginger's Cafe in Springville last night and got some raw crackers so I could make this meal. I got the assorted pack, and there are three varieties that I really like, and then one that I do not so much, but it is good to know for future reference. One kind was a curried corn cracker, and got my brain spewing ideas for Indian raw food. I'll have to try making something up later this week.

For the raw pizza, I used the raw cracker as the crust. Then the marinara, which I put in soaked sun-dried tomatoes, tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic salt, minced onions, a bay leaf, two slices of green pepper and I forgot to put in olive oil, but I would definitely recommend about a teaspoon of olive oil. I ended up with a little leftover, which I am saving for tomorrow's luch for spaghetti.

I spread that on top of the cracker, and then put slices of avocado on, to kind of act as the creaminess of the cheese. Then on Janardan's I topped with cucumbers, and mine I topped with red peppers. It was so yummy. I really enjoyed the pizza. Getting the marinara sauce right makes it so much yummier.

I am however beginning to notice that I do not get very filled from these raw meals. I think I will need to make more of them to be more filled. I imagine it will just be an adjustment. I wonder also if sprouted grains would be more filling. I put the avocado on today hoping it would make it more filling, and I thought the cracker would too, but I suppose it may take a bit more.

I tried sprouting barley before I left for vacation, but I didn't have enough time. I saw broccoli sprouts in the store yesterday, and they looked yummy. I will have to start out another experiment with sprouts.

Also as an aside, sorry about the crappy quality of the pictures. I need to find the charger for my real camera. I found it at some point this week while unpacking, but have since lost track of it, so sometime this week, hopefully I will find it, and be able to present you with better pictures.

Reflections on the Soup

I really liked the taste of the soup. As I ate it, though, the consistency was kind of weird. As in if I took too big of bites (like an actual spoonful), it kind of made me want to gag. It also really made me want to eat it with crackers. I didn't have any raw crackers, so I ate it with green peppers, but I had too much soup. I also felt like I needed to be more filled. I wonder also if the soup would have been better had I left the tomatoes and avocados chunky, so the consistency wasn't as pureed. I will have to try something again.

Soup

Last night after eating my yummy raw pasta for lunch, oily enchiladas made me feel yucky. So today I started out with a smoothie, and I had read about adding carrots and lettuce, so I tried it out. The lettuce left a weird taste in it, which I imagine is because I did not buy organic, and I did not rinse the lettuce. So rinse your lettuce! Otherwise, it was pretty tasty. I think I really liked the carrot in there. (Hard to tell with other stuff in there as well, but it added a nice taste.

For lunch, I made a raw soup. I used a recipe I found, but changed it a little. It called for more basil and for lemon juice, but I put very little basil in, and then I put balsamic vinegar in instead. It is highly unattractive, as it is orange-ish brown, but it is sooo yummy.

I just put everything in the blender and tried to blend it up. I would recommend chopping the carrots into fairly small pieces beforehand, as it took me a while to get it all blended up.

Also ironically, for the least attractive so far, I finally figured a way to get pictures til I find my camera--my cameraphone! So here's the picture:

So I put in 2 carrots, 1 tomato, 1 avocado, 1 green onion, dash of basil, 1/2 tsp. of cumin, and maybe 3-5 tbs. of the vinegar. Quite tasty!