Raw food menu for today

Thought I would post a menu of what I ate today because it seems like I have been receiving a lot of inquiries lately regarding what I eat on a daily basis. This morning I had a liter of green smoothie -- spinach, orange, banana, mango. Mid morning I had a bowl of mixed fruit. Today for lunch I had a delicious sprout salad from Whole Foods. It had sunflower, red lentil, white lentil, and some other kind of sprouts. If you have never had lentil sprouts, they are very tasty! They are a bit spicy and add great flavor. The kids and I ate some heirloom organic navel oranges for afternoon snack. YUMMY! For dinner I had a green leaf salad with dried cranberries and apple cider vinegar dressing and a banana. I feel so energized! I know it sounds weird, but eating this way makes me feel clean. My mouth feels clean, and I do not feel heavy or sluggish. I don't know how else to explain it. I remember when I ate a SAD diet I felt so full after eating meal and then I would be so tired, especially after lunch. Now, I feel revitalized every time I put something in my mouth.

Tomorrow I am going to go hear a raw food guru speak in downtown Dallas, Paul Nison. I am pretty excited about hearing what he has to say. You might be interested in checking out his website at www.rawlife.com. I know I promised a pic from the raw food meetup, but I can't get my pic to download properly. I will work on it and try and get it on here in the next couple of days. Here is a pic of me with my new (kinda funky) red hair.

3 days to go til Bahamas!

Sharing Dreams and Dreaming Visions

It has been a very good weekend. Friday night Wayne and I went to a vegan Indian restaurant in Dallas with some very good friends of ours. The food was great, and the company was wonderful! Have you ever had the type of friends with whom you just feel connected? These were those type of friends. It doesn't matter how long it has been since we have seen them, we are always just able to pick up where we left off. They accept you for who you are and there is nothing false or forced about being with them. We shared dreams and dreamed visions together so I have quite a list of things to do on my list for this week.

Saturday Emma had choir practice, Phillip had a soccer game, and Jake took an archery class. I got my hair done and became a red head. One of my high school friends told me "red in the head, better in bed." I'm not sure about the truth behind it, but it might be fun to experiment (ha! ha!). It is good to have a change. I like having a little spice in my life.

Speaking of spice, tonight Emma and I went to a raw food meetup. It was very nice and the food was outstanding -- I will post a pic tomorrow. I made raw pizza and raw "almost oatmeal" cookies from my Raw Revolution Diet recipe book. They were both a hit. Someone else made pina colada "cheesecake" (the cheese is actually made from cashews, not milk -- no animal products in it). YUM! My other favorite dish had zucchini and some kind of tomato sauce. We also had nettle soup (I had never had nettle before, so it was interesting and yummy), several different types of salads, and some organic blood oranges. It was fun to see everyone.

My Grocery Cart

I went to Whole Foods today -- just a quick trip through the grocery. Here's what was in my cart: kale, large bag of spinach, 2 large bunches of bananas, 12 heirloom navel oranges (yum! -- that was dessert), a dozen "Go Raw!" bars, potatoes (Jake and Emma love baked potatoes for lunch), and gluten free vegan cookies for Phillip's lunch box. Oh yes, and a few half gallons of Almond milk. The cashier said, "you sure do like almond milk, huh?" Then he asked, "Do you just use it like regular milk or only in smoothies?" I told him I use it just like milk -- on cereal, in smoothies, to make ice cream, making the kids macaroni and cheese, anything that calls for regular milk -- I just use almond milk. He asked, "Does it taste good?" I wanted to say, "No, it is really nasty," but I swallowed that thought and told him that it did taste good and that it took my children 2 weeks to even notice that they weren't drinking regular milk. He seemed impressed and said that I sold him on it, that he would definitely try it.

Speaking of trying new things I am getting the itch to change something. I made a hair appointment for Saturday so Wayne is worried that I will come home bald. It seems like every time I go to get a trim I have much less hair when I come home than when I left. I like change and I like to keep him guessing, so no telling what I will come home looking like. I like to see him sweat.

Tomorrow I see the urologist for a check up -- I am expecting great news!

Summer smoothies, swimming, and bikinis

Today it was warm again, but kinda rainy all day so we couldn't go to the park. Having a summer smoothie was the next best thing. We broke out some fruit we had frozen from the summer and made some wonderful freestone peach, blueberry, banana, spinach smoothies. They were very good and it was a nice treat to have some "summer" fruit.

Jake and Emma started swimming lessons today. They swim competitively in the summer and take lessons during the school year to keep up their skills, but last semester they took a break from swimming. When Emma went to put on her bathing suit it barely fit! I didn't realize how much she had grown in just a few months, but we got out the measuring stick and she has grown about three inches. Jake has passed me already, and Emma is close behind. Pretty soon I will officially be the shortest person in my family, which is saying a lot because I am not short. I am 5'9". It is strange to think of myself as being the shortest. They are growing up right before my eyes.

All of that thinking of Emma needing a new suit made me start thinking about the Bahamas. Good thing, because I hadn't even thought about trying on my bathing suit. I dug the bathing suits from last year out of my drawer and tried them on and they were way too big! This is definitely a blessing, but the curse is that I have to find a bathing suit I can wear in the next nine days. Let the great bathing suit hunt begin! Maybe, just maybe, I will be brave enough to wear a bikini this year. Wish me luck!

Wonderful Day!

Today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in my "neck of the woods" (as Al Roker would say). It was 73 degrees and partly sunny with a nice breeze. After school today we headed to the park for some soccer and playground time, we even took the dogs. I don't know who liked it more the kids, the dogs, or me. It is hard to believe that two weeks ago it was 11 degrees. It made me hungry for spring to be here!

The day started out wonderful and stayed wonderful. I drank a liter of green smoothie this morning. It was kale, mango, banana, orange, and was it ever good! Later I had a Go Raw! bar. I also ate lots of fresh fruit and finished the day off with a large salad. I am considering making a batch of raw brownies this evening. It has been a while since I made some and they just sound so good!

At the end of next week my mom and dad are coming for a short visit and to stay with the kids while Wayne and I go to the Bahamas. We have had this planned for a while, but it just finally seemed real today. I am starting to get pretty excited! It is going to be a quick trip, only four days, but it will be a wonderful four days. Wayne and I are really making an effort to spend some adult time together as a couple. I think every marriage needs that. It gives us a chance to remember how much we like and love each other, a chance to remember why we fell in love with each other in the first place. Not that I have forgotten, but it will still be lots of fun to remember. :)

my core raw foods

I was on another raw food website today where someone had posted that every raw fooder should have 15 - 20 core items that they eat on a regular basis. I had so much fun reading everyones' responses. It gave me ideas about what new things I might consider adding to my diet. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy reading some of the things I usually always have on hand: 1. trail mix (I like mine with several different kinds of nuts and seeds, gogi berries, apple sweetened dried sour cherries or cranberries) 2. salads with LOTS of colorful veggies (red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, radish carrots, avocado, sprouts, and I even like nuts and dried fruit on them) 3. Green smoothies EVERY DAY -- LOTS! 4. Fruit salad 5. Nut butter with an apple 6. raw vegetable "sushi" 7. raw "spring rolls" 8. zucchini pasta with raw "tomato sauce" 9. Go Raw! bars 10. Hail Merry Chocolate tart 11. veggies with dip 12. raw date cookies 13. home made guacamole with yellow squash "chips" 14. raw taco lettuce wraps 15. young coconut mixed with almost any kind of fruit 16. almond milk 17. cucumbers, red onions, apple cider vinegar (with the mother), and fresh dill 18. green juice 19. kale (love it!)

Back in the Raw!

The holidays proved to be a pretty difficult time to stay high raw. Like many of you, I struggled to stay on my high raw diet. My body definitely felt the difference. While I still ate healthy and vegetarian, I was tempted by the cheese and the sweets. Needless to say, my percentage of raw foods dropped significantly. I felt it in my energy level, my skin blemishes, and bloating. There have been so many times in my past where I broke a diet thinking it would be just for a night or a week. If you are like me, it is easy to get stuck in a cycle of "eat bad, feel bad, rationalize that you have already blown the diet, eat more, feel even worse, rationalize..." I did not want to get stuck in the SAD rut. However a raw food diet is not the typical diet.

I found other diets were hard for me to maintain because I did not feel very good while I was doing them. I tried many ways to lose weight in my past, including The Zone, The South Beach Diet, Slimfast, and yes, even Atkins (I am ashamed to admit some of those, but it is the truth). Desperate people do desperate things. Anyway, all of theses diets made me cranky, hungry, and tired. My skin did not improve, either. However, a raw diet is completely different. Although I thought I wanted some of our traditional goodies, once I ate them I could immediately feel the difference in my body. I longed for my green smoothies! I was able to rationalize that if I did not like the way my food was making me feel, "the only way to get out is to change." And this time I knew exactly what would help me feel better! The last few weeks I have been revving up my raw diet again and kicking it into gear.

This morning I noticed my energy level has returned, my stomach is flat again, and my skin is clear. It is amazing to me how quickly and efficiently the body can work when we don't obstruct it. I am very glad to be back in the raw! The five pounds I gained are history and I learned that sweet and creamy didn't taste near as good as I thought it would.