speedy (gonzalez) burritos

Yet another entirely 'off the top of my head' recipe that wowed both of us at dinnertime.

It was YummyHubby's turn to not-cook and I suggested something Mexican(ish). He made a pile of chopped fillings, I helped make the sauce and then we piled everything onto the 'tortilla' rather than mixing each thing with its own sauce/spice combo. Hence the speedy nature. It's easy peasy and lends itself to adaptation. Check the fridge and then decide what to use! We did this:

ingredients for 2 people

6 baby greens (collard) leaves

1 avocado, finely sliced

3 spring onions, sliced

3 carrots, grated

2 tomatoes, diced

half mango, diced

1 head of corn, hulled

for the sauce

1/2 avocado

juice of 1 lime

pinch each of cumin, chili, cinnamon

garlic salt or one crushed garlic clove

salt & pepper

Put the piles of ingredients on a plate or big cutting board as you chop. Blend all ingredients for the sauce and pour in a bowl. Lay the washed leaves on a plate and invite everyone to make their own. Lead by example and spread some sauce over the leaf, then pile all the ingredients onto the leaf and roll up. That's it!

I think some finely sliced red peppers and fresh herbs (cilantro would be the right herb, but I"m not a big fan, so I'd use parsley and chives, perhaps) would round this off, but the occasional burst of mango flavour is such a treat, that really works!

So, ¡ándale! Go make it!

moroccan stuffed peppers

Here's a yummy dinner I made tonight. I stole ideas from various places and put this together. You'll need a dehydrator and a food processor or a sharp knife and some quality time. Quantities serve two.

ingredients:

2 orange bell peppers 

1 parsnip

1/4 red onion

1/4 cup mushrooms

3 dried apricots

3 sundried tomatoes (in oil or rehydrated)

a few olives

tablespoon pine nuts

tablespoon fresh mixed herbs (I used chives, lemon thyme)

Moroccan spices/Harissa paste

Halve and deseed the peppers and dehydrate for up to 6 hours, until they start to soften but don't lose their shape.

Process the parsnip with the s-blade until it's evenly sized, you're looking to make a rice substitute. Put in a mixing bowl. Finely chop or process onion, mushrooms, apricots, tomatoes and olives and add to bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix well.

For the spices, I used a tablespoon of harissa paste and salt and pepper, but you could easily add cumin, cardamom, curry spices and so on.

Stuff peppers with the rice mixture and dehydrate for an hour or so until warmed through.

Serve with minted "yogurt" drizzled over the top (try a macadamia or cashew-based sour cream with plenty of chopped mint.)

Bon appetit!

tools

Despite cooked dinner on Thursday, as we were out straight from work (YummyHubby was in a race) I managed to get back onto my smoothie and raw salad lunch the next day with no problems. Hurray!

Though I had a fair bit of cooked or not-so-ideal food over the weekend, once again, today it's back to green smoothie and juice before noon and big salad for lunch. I find by about Thursday things destabilise. The foods I'd prepared, or started dehydrating, during the previous weekend have run out and I don't have that 'off the top of my head' idea. Suddenly eating out/take away sounds like a good idea. So I've taken to leaving a couple of raw recipe books around the place so I can find inspiration easily.

I'm also following the sage advice of many raw food coaches and Deb's comment a few posts back: choose raw for the next meal. If that fails then let it go and try again next time. This is such a simple but effective tool. It pushes guilt out of the equation and brings a practical approach in.

I also did Karen Knowler's questionnaire at the weekend, also featured in the latest edition of Get Fresh! magazine. It's so helpful. Go try it out: What do you need to believe?

So that's 3 things added to my toolbox:
1: keep inspiration at hand
2: make the best choice you can *this* time
3: understand your motivation

it's all good

xxx

PS: yes, I've made an effort to capitalise. Whatever next, no smileys? ;)

raw ninja madness

i've been watching the trials and tribulations of bunny berry for a couple of months now. she committed to 100 days of raw food, in search of better health and weight loss, and has been doing daily videos and blog posts. she's entertaining and it's a breath of fresh air to see a raw food newbie rather than hear the stories of now-established figures recounting the struggles of their past, so definitely worth watching out for her. she's decided once she finishes this challenge in about ten days from now she'll have a break and start again in august, and she's invited us - her viewers - to join in. so i have. she's set up a social network on ning, and as i'm already registered there for give it to me raw, the global juice feast and so on, i thought ah, go on then. it's currently a closed network, but hopefully bunny's going to open it up, so that when you click on the badge you will actually get to see my profile :)

View my page on Raw Fu

back on the wagon: day 3

wednesday 9 july

here are the recipes i promised you. 

cashew crackers aka crazy bread (requires dehydrator)

1 red pepper

1/3 cup cashews

2 teaspoons minced onion, chives and garlic

pinch salt

pinch paprika

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

blend everything together in the food processor until smooth. spread onto a teflex sheet to about 6" square. score with your spatula to make the shapes you want. dehydrate overnight then remove teflex sheet and flip over. they should be light and crispy in time for dinner!

this is a small quantity recipe, we ate the lot for dinner, they were so yummy fresh out of the dehydrator.  next time i'll make double the quantity. i made 6 crackers and piled pate on top for dinner, but you could score them into triangles to use as snacking 'tortilla chips' too.

find the original recipe over at carmella's raw freedom community.

karen knowler's carrot almond pate

2 large carrots

2 cups almonds

1/2 cup coarsely chopped red onion

1/4 cup lemon juice

pinch sea salt

water

my tweaks: i swapped a few almonds for some sunflower seeds and i added a few drops of bragg's liquid aminos. next time i'll soak the almonds first and possibly add a little oil to improve the texture.

as there was too much for just us two to use up without getting bored of pate, i rolled some spoonfuls into little balls and stuck them in the dehydrator overnight and took them to work to have as a side to my lunch. that worked very well!

today i was hungry again by the time i was leaving work. need to take something to snack on in the late afternoon, so that i don't get home and eat too much before dinner. but i'm doing well. i signed up for bunny berry's 100 day raw food challenge, too. that should be fun. what a crazy lady!

today i had:

water, tea

green smoothie

salad with sprouts, chopped veggies, lemon, honey, mustard dressing & carrot-almond balls

more tea

larabar

fresh pressed orange juice

coconut macaroon

edamame - not raw, steamed, salted beans

kale salad

carrot-almond pate balls (as in recipe above)

it's all good.

back on the wagon: day 2

tuesday 8 july - what a difference a day makes

feeling better already. wheat-belly subsiding, head clearer. 

today i had:

morning water and tea as usual

green smoothie

3 strawberries

salad with sprouts, grated carrot, tomatoes, seeds, homegrown lettuce, peppers, lemon dressing

2 chunks conscious chocolate with superfoods

more tea

handful candied almonds and teriyaki almonds fresh from the dehydrator

small kale-avo salad, carrot-almond pate and 'crazy bread'

glass red wine from same bottle as yesterday

i was very  hungry when i got home, hence the act of eating nuts straight from the dehydrator. but that's better than reaching for the cookie jar, right? 

the 'crazy bread' might have to be rechristened as the name is prompting lots of questions! i'll write up my version of the recipe, and the carrot-almond pate tomorrow. both were very nice and the 'crazy bread' once i've adjusted the recipe a little, will be a fabulous quick and easy standby.

two days in a row of 100% raw success. yeah, baby!

back on the wagon: day 1

monday 7 july

to make life easy in terms of prep time and yumminess factor, to help me stay focussed on the goal of getting to the weekend with only raw food inside me, i'm going for the smoothie and salad combo. fast, easy to clean up and i don't know about you, but green smoothies fill me up so i don't need treats or snacks. also to help me out, i'm fessing up to my daily intake right here. so, quick and tasty food is the carrot. publishing what i ate to the world is the stick.

today i had:

2 pints water

green tea

1 pint of green smoothie with banana, spinach, nectarines, plums and apricots, maca and cacao

1 salad of lentil sprouts, lettuce, pepper, spring onion, tomatoes, lemon-oil-mustard dressing

green tea

bliss bombs

handful nuts off the dehydrator tray

mixed salad with carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onion, seeds, lemon-sesame-honey dressing

kale-avocado salad

glass red wine

the smoothie kept me going until lunchtime, so no picking or temptation to go and buy non-food. i also didn't have time to go via any shops on the way to work, so temptation was kept at bay. i find if i'm picking up bits for lunch i'm tempted by other things. i might intend to buy raw ingredients for a salad but i can leave the shop with a couscous or pasta salad instead. or as well.

i was hungry when i got home, hence the nut snacking. i'll write up the recipes tomorrow for my yummy concoctions. i try to use seeds more than nuts, for the good stuff they contain and to avoid too much fat. almonds are my top nut for nutritional reasons. and them and cashews are the only ones i can get which are guaranteed raw. as much as i adore pecans, they're most likely heated when they're shelled, so i recognise that they count as a healthy snack compared to, say, non-raw, non-vegan chocolate cake, but they contain cooked fat, and are therefore not optimal nutritionally. the wine, well, it's red, vegan, fairtrade and organic, so you're not going to get me giult-tripping on that one. i know some people don't think alcohol should be part of a raw diet, and i can see their reasoning for it and respect their decision. but i'm happy with a glass of red wine now and again, and if i fancy one, i have it. i do find i'm not attracted to it when i stick to a high-raw diet for long periods of time, so one day i might stop. but through a natural desire, not because i forced myself.

after dinner i made some 'crazy bread' as part of tomorrow's dinner. i'm not entirely sure where i got the energy from, but i think determination to succeed in my mini-challenge might have played a part. i'll let you know how the bread turns out. it was super quick and easy to make, so if it's tasty then it will be a winner!

the 'bliss bombs' are from the health food shop and you can find out about them here: pulsin.co.uk

day one has gone by without hiccups, hurray!

that darn wagon and me

i hadn't intended to come back here to post, as this blog was purely for the juicefeast experience, but what i have to say is relevant. so here goes.

there are days when i feel like a fraud. i don't feel i can call myself a raw foodie when i just ate cooked food for the third time this week. so i feel the need to publicly state that i'm struggling to stay raw. again.

the battle with cooked food

i worked out part way through the juicefeast that drinking juice for 92 days wasn't going to stop my cooked food cravings. the juicefeast would give me time to explore my relationship with food and work out some of the pyschological hangups, but it wasn't going to be a miracle cure. but, you know, i was dealing with it. so far so good.

then i completed my juicefeast, calling it quits after just over two months, when i saw that my heart just wasn't in it and i was starting to pick at food. i eased myself back into eating, with lots of fresh fruit, salads, smoothies and a firm commitment to eating raw for health reasons. and let's not forget that amazing energy you have on a high raw diet.

falling off the wagon

but then we had house guests. and then there was a family get together. and then whatever other social occasion. and each time i thought "i'll just have a little cooked food today, to keep thing's easy" and fully, genuinely, intended to keep going that way. then somehow, it all fell apart. and now, two months later, i'm eating way too much cooked food. i eat mostly raw most days, but i also binge out on rubbish. in the past two months i've eaten ice-cream and crisps, of all things, and lots of not-that-great cooked food. it's crazy! but i'm not going to get myself in a mess over this. 

the all or nothing option

i read steve pavlina's update on eating raw and felt consoled. a slight aside here, i didn't know he'd continued to eat raw. i thought he'd done an experiment and then gone back to his usual diet. so i was quite impressed to wander back over to his blog and discover he's now pushing himself to stay 100% raw. anyway, the point is, that it's often easier to stick at 100% raw than to dither at 80% or do the"'i'll just eat this cooked food tonight because i'm eating out with friends but i'll be back to 100% raw tomorrow" thing. i guess that differs from person to person. i compare it to the casual smoker, or the innapropriately named 'social smoker'. some people can smoke like a chimney for the duration of a party night out then not touch a cigarette for months. yet the majority of people would be buying a packet of ciggies the next day because the nicotine had already got a stranglehold. cooked food is just as insidious. once the wheat starts to leave your body you get that sickness which you either ride out as detox or you cave in and have some more to appease the beast.

yo-yo side effects

i still eat plenty of fruit. i have green smoothies a couple of times a week and eat a big raw salad for lunch and dinner most days. but because of the inconsistency i don't feel as well as i should. i get lots of detox headaches after a cooked food 'binge' - especially wheat, i've found - and i'm putting on weight again. so it's time to rein in. i get so frustrated with the yo-yo-ing. i've read a few things recently which talk about falling off the wagon and they all come to the same conclusion. and it's something i know, inside, to be true. recognise you've fallen off. dust yourself down. get back on again. no guilt. no recriminations and no "if only"s. just get yourself a juice or a green smoothie and start planning a few days' worth of raw food.

so that's what's happening in the loulou household. we've got a week of juices, smoothies and salads coming up. i'm making some teriyaki almonds and we have a cupboard full of conscious chocolate, so i have treats available for those tricky moments.

wish me luck.