Olympic Lessons

We were watching the men's Olympic ice skating tonight when Jake chimed in, "They need to zambonify that ice." I love it! It has really been fun watching the Olympics with the kids. I am amazed at how dedicated these athletes are. I am convinced they are master manifestors! Yesterday we watched Linsey Vonn visualize her gold medal run before she skied it. The kids were laughing at how funny she looked sitting there mimicking her run, but then they said, "Wow, visualizing works!" when she won. I have so much to learn from these athletes who put their all into what they do.

Imagine if we put our all into the things we do on a daily basis. This is so hard to do, and takes preparation and dedication. I know that for me, my life would be so different. This year one of my goals has been to work on being fully present. I knew it would be hard when I made the goal, but I didn't realize it would be as hard as it has been. My blog focuses a lot on eating, and being fully present when I purchase and consume my food has changed my life! That being said, being fully present applies to so much more than food. It applies to being with family and strangers, feeling heartache and joy, as well as my faith, and the daily chores of cleaning/laundry/ and taxiing my family. This is a goal I will be working on for quite some time.

Almost Oatmeal Cookies Rock!

My almost oatmeal cookies have been a hit today. I really like them and will definitely be making them again. They do take a while to make, but it is just the dehydration that takes such a long time. Making the dough is actually pretty quick and easy, and once they are in the dehydrator you don't have do anything except flip them. I guess what I am saying is that they were worth the effort.

Today Emma sang in the Nutcracker so we were very busy running back and forth to the performance hall for dress rehearsal this morning and the actual performance this evening. Her choir sang beautifully and were appreciated by all who were there. I am very, very tired tonight and have a million and a half things to do tomorrow so I turning in for the night. Sweet dreams!

Grocery Escapades and Musings

Last night we went to the grocery store. My basket was filled with lots of greens -- kale, rainbow chard, Romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, dandelion greens, etc. I also had a couple bottles of G. T.'s Kombucha Tea because my mom is coming and I want her to taste it. Of course I also had lots of fresh fruit and some things like red peppers, cucumbers, jicima, cilantro, and dill. When we went to check out Phillip wanted to see the fish in the tank at the front of the grocery store (Yes, they have a huge saltwater fish tank inside the grocery store, this is Texas after all). I took Phillip over to see the fish and Wayne went through the checkout line.

I can see Wayne from where the fish tank is and the women who are running his lane are laughing and giving him a hard time about his grocery basket. One holds up the jicama and asks him what it is. He tells her and the other girl asks him how to "fix" that. Wayne is standing in the grocery aisle telling them how I cut it up like french fries and make my own ketchup (Thank you Boutenko's -- wonderful recipe), or how I make a corn salad with jicama, tomatoes, and cilantro and use it on raw tacos. The ladies are looking at him like, "Are you serious?" One of them finally asks, "How does your wife know how to use all of this stuff?" Then he explained that I was on a raw diet. They thought that was really cool, and they thought it was cool that Wayne really liked the food, too (all but the Kombucha, but I am still working on him).

The whole thing got me thinking, though, that before I decided to eat raw foods I had no idea what to do with this food either. I knew how to scramble eggs, make a pie or cake, grill a steak on the grill, and make a basic salad, but I had no clue how to really pick or prepare the things that are really good for me. I would pass by the greens section of the grocery store like most all of the other people I see at the grocery every time I go. Now, it is my favorite section to load up.

If you want to succeed on a raw diet it takes time to figure out what to eat, where to find it in the grocery store, and how to prepare it. It takes a little bit effort, because most of us are not taught the proper ways to eat (and there is a lot of temptation and pressure to eat things that are not so good for us). Once I started taking responsibility for what I was putting into my mouth, though, I found that I viewed food differently. I discovered tastes that had previously been foreign and learned to really enjoy my food because it tastes good and I know it is doing something good for my body. Now, it is not hard to shop at all. I know where everything I want is located and I don't even have to go into the interior aisles of the store. I do all of my shopping in the fruit and veggies and then skip over to the nuts and dried fruits, and finally to the almond milk and I am out the door -- much faster than the SAD shopping (Standard American Diet) I did before I changed my diet.

Let me assure you, there are LOTS of resources out there to help you along the way. When I started I googled raw food diet, raw food recipes, easy raw recipes and came up with tons of stuff! One of the websites that was extremely helpful to me as a complete beginner raw person was www.purejeevan.com. Check it out. It is very user friendly! This week, I will try and put one website up per night that I have personally found helpful. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Smoothie recipes

We were riding in the car today, in between the library and swimming lessons, when Jake announced that he had an idea for a new invention. I asked him what it was and this is what he said, "I want to invent a shelf in the shower that is protected by waterproof glass. Inside it is a bookstand and you can prop your book up on the stand and then shut the glass. There is a button or a remote control in the shower so you can push a button and turn the page whenever you want. The pages never get wet! You can read in the shower." Pretty clever. I had to smile to myself as I thought about how much I like that he loves to read.

On a completely separate note, I made a couple of excellent green smoothies today. The first I drank all by myself, but the second one everyone enjoyed. The first had half of a bunch of spinach, a mango, a frozen banana and the juice from 3 oranges. The second had the water of a young coconut. Half of a head of romaine lettuce, a mango, and two frozen bananas. Even Phillip drank it! We called it our super-green smoothie complete with flying around the den.

October Recital

I love October! The leaves change, it gets a little cooler, and I turn a year older. My mom says this is the time of year when the trees quit practicing and put on their recital. I have been finding myself thinking back to a year ago. I felt so far from being "recital-worthy." I am AMAZED what a year can do!

This time last year I was discovering my first (of many) kidney stones. I was tired all of the time, felt like I wasn't able to concentrate, couldn't understand how I could exercise all of the time and not lose weight, and quite frankly, I was suffering from depression. It was beginning to feel like I was in a medical spiral downward and I couldn't see how to get out of it. Little did I know that about six months later I would hear about the benefits of a raw food diet on the evening news from a woman who had been suffering from cancer. That news segment would stick in my head. It would grow from being some extra tidbit of information filed somewhere in the back of my head, to a curiosity, to something interesting, to a research obsession, and finally to a lifestyle.

This time last year I was dreading my birthday -- the previous two years my body felt like it had aged 10 years in 365 days. I could not see how I could ever get back to "normal." That was one thing I was right about; there was no way for me to get back to the way I was, but there was a way for me to feel better than "normal." When I began my raw food diet the energy was the first thing I noticed, then my skin seemed to clear up and improve right before my eyes, and my mood seemed to shift and suddenly life was exciting and full of promise again. That was all in the first two weeks. However, I was still not convinced -- any fad diet can make you feel better, at least for a little while. The proof is in the pudding.

Funny how things work, isn't it? In this short year I feel like the clock has turned backwards for me. My medical difficulties have resolved. Fear and depression no longer have power over me, and I believe in myself. My food no longer makes me sick. I have lost 35 pounds. My skin has stayed clear and I continue to have an abundance of energy. I am excited about my birthday this year! Look out trees -- I might just show you up!

Music to my ears!

I went to the grocery this morning. The kids helped me unload the care because we planned to eat lunch and watch Beowulf together. They just finished reading Beowulf and I promised them that when we finished studying it they could watch the movie. Anyway, they were helping me unload the groceries and Emma said, "Mom, all you bought was fruit and vegetables." She said it in a half whine. I just commented happily, "That's right, they all just looked so good!" She started reaching in the bags to see what all was there and I hear her say, "Yeah! Broccoli! Yeah! Apples! Oh good, look Jake, mom bought pears! Thanks mom for buying my favorite kind of salad." Jake was in the kitchen by this time going through the bags as well. He said, "Mom, thank you, thank you, thank you -- I love dried cranberries! Did you get me any papaya spears?" I had to smile to myself listening to their comments. I did my "happy dance" while I sang, "Go Mommy! Go Mommy! Go Mommy!" Can you hear the bass?

It is good that we had a nice lunch because Beowulf was very disappointing to all of us. Jake and Emma couldn't wait to see it (partly because it is PG-13) and they kept saying over and over again, "that's not what happened in the book! How can they change the story that much mom?" They were right, it really wasn't much like the book at all. When it was over Jake said that if he ever became a movie producer he would like to make a movie that was like the book because the book was so much better! Emma enthusiastically agreed adding all of the things the movie left out. I just sat back and listened -more music to my ears!

So many of you commented on the pics I took last week of my dinner that I included one today. I made raw tacos tonight. SO GOOD! First I made a salad: 2 heirloom tomatoes (I used 1 red one and 1 yellow one because I like to mix the flavors and I think it is pretty), 1 red bell pepper, half a small purple onion, 2 avocados, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp chili powder, a garlic clove (crushed), Himalayan salt to taste, and cayenne pepper to taste. I chopped all the veggies and put them in a bowl and then added the spices and herbs. The "meat" was 1 and half cups soaked raw sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup soaked raw almonds, 1 package of sun-dried tomatoes soaked for 15 minutes, 1/2 TBSP of cumin, 1/2 TBSP chili powder, 1/2 TBSP onion powder, 1 clove of garlic, cayenne to taste. I pulsed it in the food processor until it was mixed well and has the texture of ground taco meat. We don't use taco shells, instead we use romaine lettuce leaves and layer the meat and salad on the leaf. I hope you like it! The most time consuming part is chopping the veggies for the salad --- unless you use your Vitamix on low speed like I did. I hope you enjoy this recipe -- it is one of my favorites!!!! I love to top it with fresh cilantro, too!

New pics

Right now Wayne is making some yummy ice cream! He is treating me while I write my blog. Oh my God, he did good!

Recipe:Frozen strawberries and 1 -2 cups of almond milk blended in the Vitamix. Add a little raw agave or honey if you like it sweeter. Now we are topping the ice cream with raw chocolate syrup -- 1 cup pure organic maple syrup and 2 tbsp raw cocoa blended together (I usually blend this is my magic bullet and we often have some in our fridge, like tonight.) It is so good and so easy!

On another note, we started school today. Emma did great! She was very excited about school and eager to see how home schooling was going to work. Today we spent a couple hours at the library doing some work and showing her how to independently access sources. Jake had a harder time getting readjusted to school. He is trying to figure out how he can "share" mom. I think he liked being home schooled alone.

Phillip started Kindergarten today, too. He is going to a private Spanish immersion school this year so I can get the other two situated at home and into a nice routine. Phillip had so much fun! He was so excited about going to his "learning school." I don't think he ate any lunch at lunch time because he the the whole thing in the car on the way home. He said he was too busy learning. Gotta love that! He was exhausted this afternoon though, and slept all the way to his sister's ballet lessons. Too funny!

My mom pointed out that I had not put a new pic of myself up in while. I have now lost 27 pounds since I started -- I guess about 3 months. So here are a couple new pics.

YUM!

Yesterday we went to Bliss, a new raw food restaurant and elixir bar in Dallas.  It was so good!   Miranda made some suggestions about what we should try.   Our friend Matt ordered the rawsagna and a superfoods caesar salad.  His plate was absolutely beautiful!  The tomatoes, which were the outside layers of his rawsagna were huge and succulent.  The other layers were mushroom, zucchini, and different sauces (red, green, and orange).  Matt has never eaten raw cuisine, so I could tell he was taken back a little bit.  I think he expected it to look more like cooked lasagna.  He was surprised to find that, "it actually tastes like lasagna."  Of course we all sampled it and I thought it was delicious!  Matt thought it was a lot of food and was not able to eat it all.  He also had a Minty Hemp elixir and a gogi berry sheezecake.  Matt said he would go back again.

Wayne had the Thai Noodle Bowl.  Of course I am fairly new to raw foods so I was wondering how in the world they got noodles that were obviously not squash.  Turns out they were made of kelp and they were excellent!  Miranda explained that they come in a package and are dry, but once you add the sauces they obtain their noodle-like quality.  Wayne really liked his dish. All of the herbs and spices mingled together made it look and taste wonderful.  I think that my children would like what he had.  He drank a goji berry lemonade elixir, which was a beautiful color, and had a banana chocolate sheezecake for dessert (more on that in a minute because I had the same thing).

I had the Rawko-Tacos Plate.  The plate was absolutely gorgeous!  The taco shell was red and it had ground sunflower "meat", a beautiful salad, salsa, and even sour cream on top.  YUMMY!  My plate was the hit of the table.   Wayne and Matt both loved it.  Eating it was a very messy experience, but well worth the effort!  I also had an elixir called chocolate bliss -- my children would LOVE this drink!  For dessert I had a chocolate banana sheezecake.  It was so very yummy!  The good thing was that my sweet tooth was more than satisfied and I did not feel like a heavy blob after I ate it.  My mouth felt clean and not filmy.  The texture of the cake was perfect, and Wayne said he would definitely be having that again.  

Overall, our experience was wonderful!  There is only outdoor seating and we were lucky to be there on an evening when the wind was blowing and the humidity was low.  I highly recommend going if you get a chance!  Miranda told us they were adding a children's menu and I would take Jake, Emma, and Phillip.  I can't wait to take my friends and family back to my new favorite restaurant!