Raw Experiment II

75% of what we've eaten the last 10 days has been raw! Can you believe it? It's been so much easier and tastier than we thought it would be. We're going to continue eating about the same way because we feel really good -- more alert and energetic.

So why not 100%? Well, we like the potatoes and squash from our garden, as well as the applesauce and tomatoes that we've canned. We like our grains and legumes cooked as well. We also don't want to raise the bar so high that we set ourselves up for failure! So 75% is what seems will work for our family.

Before we started on this experiment, I thought that a raw diet was a couple pieces of fruit for breakfast, raw carrots for lunch and salad without dressing for supper. Sure, you CAN do it that way, but I don't want to! Yes, our intake of salads has gone up, but we've been inspired by recipes I've read to add different things than we normally would--who knew we'd like fennel?! 

Here are a couple examples of our meals.

Breakfast: Nut granola with blueberries and almond milk, orange slices.

To make the granola, soak 1 cup each of walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds (all raw, not roasted) in water over night. Rinse and drain, then pulse them in the food processor with 10 whole dates and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

It was so yummy! Our 18-month-old loved it. That recipe is enough for the four of us to eat for two breakfasts! I haven't started making my own almond milk yet, but I will as soon as I can find a place to buy raw almonds at a decent price.

Another breakfast we like is simply to take oatmeal and instead of cooking it, let it soak up the almond milk for a few minutes. Top it with raisins, dates, shredded apple, cinnamon, blueberries, whatever you want. It's delicious!

Via Recipes For Joy Blog

Lunch: Zucchini & carrot pasta with pesto, tomatoes and olives.

My favorite recipe so far is one similar to the above picture--I was so busy enjoying it both times I made it that I forgot to take a picture! The recipe I have (a combination of two, really) calls for zucchini and carrots as the pasta. I used a potato peeler to get large strips, more like a fettucini  noodle. The pesto is made with equal parts walnuts and olive oil with a bunch of basil, a little lemon and salt. I also added kalamata olives, fennel and tomatoes. So amazing!

Supper: Wild rice on spinach with tomatoes & avocado, sushi rolls.

I soaked the wild rice for 3 days, like the directions said, but still found it very crunchy. I think we'll stick to cooking rice, but I liked the avocado and tomato. I found a 'better than tuna' recipe that is basically sunflower seeds and walnuts and whatever veggies you have around all mixed in the food processor. It has a light dressing of lemon and soy sauce and we dipped it in tamari after rolling it in nori (seaweed). It was salty and good!

So there you have it! Now you can say you learned something today!