Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Raw Food Week


I enjoy experimenting with raw food. I've eaten completely raw a few times over the past few years, sometimes for a couple months, usually not that long. I always feel pulled in that direction, especially when Spring rolls around. I also turn to raw food when I'm concerned for my health. I know how great I feel when I'm consuming huge amounts of raw food.

For a week now I've been enjoying the raw food way of eating. This time around I'm determined to keep track of the foods that I really love. I'm always trying new recipes but am awful about keeping track of them! I figure if I post them here, I'll have a record. Plus, maybe someone else will see a recipe or idea that they would want to try. I realize this if quite different than main stream food thinking, but that's o.k.! I certainly wouldn't want to be "normal", whatever that is! :)
I've used recipes from and enjoyed perusing the following sites:
Ani's Raw Food Kitchen I happened upon this blog right after preparing a recipe of Ani's that I found in the Tribest catalog. Kiersten and I made Strawberry Parfaits and they were awesome!
I wasn't able to follow the recipe (again) and so I'll just post what I did below:

Strawberry syrup:
1 cup strawberries
1/4 cup raw honey (We have great local honey! ~ Ani called for Agave Nectar.)

Cream sauce:
1 cup soaked walnuts (Ani calls for cashews which I do think would probably work better but not a must!)
1/4 cup coconut oil, liquid
1/4 cup filtered water, as needed (I used more than this and my cream was still quite thick.)
(1 Tbsp. vanilla extract ~ the recipe calls for this but I didn't have any.)

Topping
1/2 cup sliced strawberries or more

1. Buzz the syrup in your blender.

2. Buzz the cream in your blender.

3. Assemble. Cream on bottom. Syrup on top with strawberries topping it all off. Ami garnished her parfaits with mint. Not sure why I didn't. I have tons of it growing right out my back door. Next time.....

Navita's Naturals I've never ordered from this company but they appear to have a lot to offer.

Raw Royalty Just a new-to-me raw food blog.

Today, I had the most wonderfully refreshing lunch!~~~Vegi Wraps
The wrap itself was a romaine lettuce leaf. I spread this with some Raw Cheddar Cheese Spread I'd made earlier in the week. Next I put a hand full of shredded carrot and zucchini down the middle of the wrap and then topped it off with homemade fresh salsa. My salsa was ultra simple. I chopped up lots of cilantro (from my garden) sweet onion, and a Roma tomato. Oh, yum!

I've enjoyed raw fruit shakes of all kinds, many wonderful salads with incredibly tasty home made salad dressings, and I've enjoyed nuts, raisins and dark chocolate for my snacks. It's been a great week!

I almost forgot! For Easter lunch I made a Raw Strawberry Pie. I've enjoyed every last bite!

3 comments:

BessieJoy said...

Hi, Clarice! What book are you referring to? I'm thinking maybe one of Ami's cookbooks. I don't have any of her cookbooks but would love to. Do you have one?

Unfortunately, right now my health is driving me to eat only raw. Thankfully, I enjoy eating raw but do still miss other foods. I wish I could just do this in moderation but for now I'm trying to bring healing and feel this is the best way to go about that. I am seeing positive results which spurs me on!

Clarice, thanks for all of your sweet comments!

Gumbo Lily said...

I love raw foods, but I also love baked and fried and grilled......and on and on. I admire you for eating this way for your health.

Jody

BessieJoy said...

Jody, I like baked, fried, and grilled foods, too! In fact, there aren't a whole lots of foods that I don't like! :) Eating lots of raw foods is helping me, though! My blood pressure is excellent while eating this way!
Thanks for all of your nice comments on my blog!
Renee