Day 45 Sweet Tahini Dressing

POMEGRANATES

I devoured this pomegranate today with Nina, yummy! Doesn't it amaze you that such a thing exists, look at how well designed and structured it is...I always find such things fascinating, always.

Someone asked me today if I was a dancer :-) you betcha' I took that as a compliment. Sure i was wearing a tiny tank top (Completely decent by the way) my dancer shoes and my spandex double folded around the waist. I sure looked like one, especially as--thanks to my circuit training--some little muscles or should I say lean muscles have started to pop up on my arms and gluts, lol, they still call me J.Lo but again isn't that a compliment too? I figured whatever someone says to me, I will find the positive and use it as a compliment. That is something we can all try to do. We are all beautiful in our own way and that is precious.

Anyway, I had this great salad I made with some baby spring mix, 1/2 red bell pepper, diced, and extra arugula(I like it) I also julienned one yellow squash for the color into the salad bowl. I wanted something different today for a dressing so I came up with this sweet tahini dressing:

4 Tbsp raw tahini paste (or less if you don't particularly like the taste of sesame paste)
1/4 cup agave
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 orange juice, freshly squeezed

You can always save the remainder of the dressing for another salad on another day. It reminds me of peanut butter. I like this and you can add to make your own version.

p/s I made my own coconut butter skin lotion today, do I ever smell and feel yummy, hope no one eats me by accident, lol.

~B~

DAY 44 Spanish Spinach Casserole

MY SPANISH SPINACH CASSEROLE

i CAME uP wITH tHIS rECIpE jUST ThIS eVENiNG (I like writing like this, it's fun isn't it?)
okay, I added the ingredients as I went and happy to say I've started developing the knack for smelling ingredients and figuring which ones would work with which. Well, everything that is Nina approved (she cleaned out her plate) means it has got to be delicious--I passed my taste test. Oh, Rick finished his as well. Watching both of them enjoy my food makes me full :-)

Isn't She Lovely?

This was yesterday's project and now it's all gone. This is what a 5 LBs bag of fresh organic carrot yeilds. We added just two apples to this and juiced them all together. One of my favorite juice. Tomorrow i plan to make some fennel/ginger/apple (and by the way Alexa, I did send and speak some positive things to my juicer, she forgives me :-))



Here are my fruity truffles and chocolate covered snow mountain munchies. WHAM! that's what you feel when you taste these amazing deliciousness. YUMMMMY, hmm, don't let me start. can you permit me to get romantically involved with my desert? okay, "I love you chocolate, so very much." lol

A few of my coconut boats, walnut boats and raisin boats.....ah

A perfect example of my coconut boat desert...if you look below you can see what her insides are made of...pure goodness!

PURE GOODNESS! (Aunty Cathy, you will love these)

Tata for now

~B~

DAY 43 Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

Basil-Arugula Pesto Wraps

What a delicious recipe this is! I used green chard leaves to wrap my filling. Just 1 of those wraps were enough to satisfy me, you know I had to keep some space for a little bit of what's down below...go ahead look below, did you see that? lol, okay back to our grand wraps. Here's the recipe:

Basil Arugula Pesto
(recipe of pesto from http://www.thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com I made a little variation and didn't add the 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast it called for and instead added the wraps and julienned veggies for a more of a meal)

1.5 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
1/2 cup arugula
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp mellow white miso
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs almond, ground
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbs pine nuts

Blend in food processor with 'S' blade to preferred consistency--I like mine not overly processed. You can wrap it as is in some green chard leaves or add some julienned squash and zucchini--like I did-- to fill it up more. ENJOY YOUR GREENS:-)

Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake
ONE ONE: RAWsome!

Day 38 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

PHOTO FROM: http://www.naturemoms.com

I think finding the book that will become your favorite raw uncooked book is like finding the person you will be with for the rest of your life. Yesterday my wonderful hubby bought me a great pre-Christmas gift; RAW FOOD REAL WORLD by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis and I must tell you I haven't been able to put this book down since yesterday.

I am in love with everything about this book, the colors, the photographs, the personal stories of the two very beautiful people (who happen to also be a couple) who wrote it and of course the recipes are to die for! For those of you who know me personally or at least know of me through my book Lemonade Street, you must know I am a die-hard romantic, so yes, I am stating (and forsaking all other books to come) that I have found my favorite raw uncooked book and I am only on page 37 out of 367. It is like an album of never ending warm and fuzzy feelings; a love story. And what a wonderful way to be connected with the one you love by sharing something you're both passionate about: that is one of the secrets to a happy and fulfilling marriage. Rick and I talked about this years ago, no wonder we're still together and still so in love with each other.

Anyway I just wanted to share this with you guys and hope you get a copy for you plus what I wouldn't give to get a gift card from her organic beauty site http://www.oneluckyduck.com/

This is a link to their restaurant in NewYork http://www.purefoodandwine.com/

I have to run now, will share some pictures of our dinner tomorrow. We've been invited to dinner by some good friends and I can't wait to see what's to eat. Come back tomorrow for more.

~B.

Day 36 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

My RAW-mazing COLESLAW

YOU MUST TRY THIS!

I think I outdid myself today with this recipe. I hope you all love it. I made a big batch so I have leftovers for tomorrow.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of green cabbage, thinly sliced

1 cup of purple cabbage, thinly sliced

6 medium sized organic carrots, 3 grated, 3 julienned (or all grated)

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

2 organic apples, chopped

Mix all in a bowl and set aside.

Dressing:

2 cups of almonds, soaked overnight

1/4 cup of agave or raw honey (I like and used agave with this one)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried mustard powder

1.5 cups of olive oil

1/4 cup coconut oil

juice of 1 lemon

juice of 1-2 oranges

Process in blender until smooth. Pour over veggies and toss.

warning:WILDLY DELICIOUS!

Day 30 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

Photo by Nina Lakota

DAY 30! Why do I feel sad then? why? I think I know why. With every other diet I've tried before--even though I'd enjoy the journey--I welcomed the last day just so I could go back to eating some of the things I used to crave or eat. With every other diet I have done before, there was a starting and an ending date and I liked the ending part more because I had some addictions to cater to but with the raw food, I don't want it to end. There is nothing better to go back to, no cravings to satisfy, nothing at all. I am fully and completely satisfied and alive. So I am telling you now that this is not the end for I have found something that works perfectly for me.

I Love Me (Ode to eating RAW)

I don't want to go back to the days of eating so much and yet feeling empty,
days of eating non-foods that weigh me down and make me lose my shine,
days of eating foods and feeling them like dead-weight in my belly; just sitting there and waiting too long and finally putrefying and giving me horrible gas and bloating.
I don't want to go back to days of feeling drugged after eating and all I wanted to do was sleep.
I don't want to eat red meat or pork or chicken or fish; I want to live and let live.
I do not need any dairy, hydrogenated foods or high fructose corn syrup;
the only high I'm getting is that which I get from being healthy and alive
I want to fight to keep the PH of my body more alkaline and avoid dis-ease.
I love eating RAW.
I love feeling light and airy; I love soaring and gliding.
I love the glow on my face and the peace in my hips.
The laughter in my bones and the quietness of my gut.
I like the shine in my hair and the swagger in my steps,
the light that makes people smile back at me,
the friendliness and thoughtfulness of my mind.
The better person I am,
the cheerful wife and mother and sister and daughter and friend.
I love me
I love me enough to eat and live more green
because contrary to what they say, the grass on my side is greener and perfectly so!
(I'm sure I'll perfect this more and more as time goes on)

Copyright© 2009 by Bernice Angoh

Today is a wonderful day and since starting this lifestyle I have lost 18 pounds but gained something much more;
I have gained wings to fly as high as I want,
I have gained peace with humanity,
I have gained understanding of body and soul
I have gained more love than I can hold
I have gained a chance to live a far better life than I was taught
a life of abundance promised by a man called Jeshua
I have found the child I once was...
what a wonderful day it is.

Are you tired of me yet?lol I hope not. I hope this inspires you to incorporate more greens and raw foods into your lifestyle. Even if you have to start with dedicating 2-3 days of the week to eating raw/vegan, that will make a tremendous difference in your health. Whatever you do, add more greens, they are good for you. Green is the color of life. Don't you want life?

I am celebrating my Day 30 with an original recipe, a kale salad, I will put that up tomorrow for you to enjoy. Maybe later I will make some chocolate mousse desert, we'll see. Just know that the journey hasn't ended...I will put up more and more recipes as I learn more and more.
I have some very interesting things to share with you tomorrow about animal protein, ah, the things we don't know...I will leave you with something I wrote a few days ago.

The Story of the Seed

Out of the goodness of His hands
You were created from the Light
There in the warm soil you dwell
Bearing storms, weeds and bugs
Till you find a way to breathe and form
Sprouting forward, you shoot like a comet
Tenderly and lovingly I gaze at you “Hey there you! took you long enough.”
Like a parent, protective and nurturing, I become.
And then comes your first kiss and it’s nothing like mine
Kissed by the sun—golden!
Ripened with talents and fruits, you’ve finally come into your own
Swaying your green fringes in the wind
You are the lovely ballerina of the valley.
I am beautifully and fearfully made. You say to me
Eat of me and be merry. I come with abundance, I come to
Give you life.

And to this I reply:

“Out of the Light you’ve come to bring me comfort and joy. At this meal in which I partake with body, mind and soul, I take thee to heart and with all the gratitude I have in me, I give you thanks. You will bless my soul with the wholeness of you, ease my pain with the fullness of you, heal my body with the goodness of you and purify my spirit till I become the light—the Light of the world, a perfect reflection of my Creator. Amen.”

Copyright© 2009 by Bernice Angoh

Day 29 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS: MY MOCK CEVICHE. This was incredibly deeeelicious!

Good evening everyone. I am so happy so many of your responded here and even sent me private messages concerning my topic about milk being the worst food for you. There are too many things we put into our bodies without knowing and my friend Alexa brought up another culprit called 'sugar'. The very addictive and highly poisonous processed sweetener. I don't want to put her on the spot but it would be great if she can write about it here on the blog. Alexa, would you please? :-) Okay, we'll wait and see, lol (she will kill me for doing this...) I have a great topic for you all tomorrow, hope you come back for more healthy insights.

Today has been a great day. I started it off as usual with my delicious green smoothie.

Gorji-Lettuce Smoothie:

1 bunch of green lettuce

3 ripe bananas

1 ripe pear

2 Tbsp of Gorji Berries

2 cups of water

Blend it all together and feel your body soar.

Anyway, I made me favorite raw oatmeal and Nina ate almost all of it.

Whole Oatmeal Breakfast:

1.5 cups oat groats, soaked overnight

1 chopped apple

A handful of raisins, soaked and rinsed

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp organic grade B maple syrup or agave

pinch of salt

1/4 cup of water

1 banana

Except for the raisins and banana, blend ingredients until smooth. Add raisins and sliced bananas and enjoy. You may add some raw almond milk too if you choose. I like mine without the milk, it is thick and creamy.

~B.

Day 8 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS: Chocolate banana pie

Today I found another reason to love my husband more. Let me tell you a story. six years ago on my 24Th birthday, when I was 5 months pregnant with our daughter, Nina, Rick took me out to one of Atlanta's best, Kava restaurant, to celebrate. After the exquisite fine dinning and great service from the staff we were off to the house where I couldn't wait to open up my birthday gift. Well, I am embarrassed to tell you I was a tad disappointed--even though I didn't show it-- with my gift because it was an expensive Cuisinart food processor. I was hoping for something you know, more romantic and definitely less expensive. But then he told me "Well, this is for when the baby comes and you can make it all these great homemade food." I did use it for Nina's food. She ate only homemade pureed baby food and I was glad then that I had it.

Little did I know that six years later I would find the other dual compartment of that food processor hidden beneath the kitchen shelf and yes, it had the 'S' blade my raw desert asked for. It had been hidden away all that time! It was a great birthday present after all and it took me six years to really appreciate it fully because today, Nina and I made our very first raw desert and boy is it TO-DIE-FOR Delicious, rich and very filling or as Nina said "Mama, this is delicious and nutritious". I love you, Rick and thank you for the best birthday gift ever. It was a great investment after all.

Today is day 8 and as you can tell, I am on top of the world. I wish I had tried this raw food lifestyle many years ago. What a way to live, what great abundance there is in living foods and how blessed I am to have the opportunity to eat all these wonders of nature.

Today's smoothie was my awesome Kale-Panana smoothie. Scroll down to Day 3 to get the recipe.

Here's our Chocolate banana pie recipe:

Ingredients for crust:

1 cup walnuts, soaked for 2 hours, rinsed and dried

1 cup almond, soaked overnight, then rinsed and dried

1/2 raisins or pitted dates (I used raisins, I LOVE raisins)

1/2 cup agave nectar or raw honey

sprinkle of salt

Chop nuts in a food processor with an 'S' blade. Then add remaining ingredients and process to thick and sticky dough. Press dough into 9-10" pie pan. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

Ingredients for Filling:

4 ripe bananas

3 ripe Haas avocados (seeded)

3 Tbsp carob powder

5 Tbsp 100% pure cacao powder

sprinkle of salt

1/2 cup agave nectar or raw honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cut banana into thin, round slices and layer on top of crust (cover crust completely with banana slices.)

Add the rest of the ingredients into a food processor with 'S' blade and process till smooth. Then pour filling over banana layer and partially freeze or refrigerate. You now have yourself a guilt-free, delicious and nutritious desert!

~B

Day 5 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS: My Honeydew Heaven

FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS: Bernice's Creamy coconut butter with tempeh

I am constantly amazing myself, yes I am. Last night I created this wonderful recipe for Rick and Nina. I am not doing cooked food but I do cook for them. In Rick's own words "This is by far one of the best tasting foods I've ever eaten." and my husband is a phenomenal cook. So I am going to start by sharing my beautiful recipe with you.

p/s I did save some in a container for the freezer, that way I can try some when my 30-day challenge is over :-)

Bernice's Creamy Coconut butter with Tempeh

Ingredients:

1 can 13.5 oz organic coconut milk
2 Tbsp almond butter
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp sweet basil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1 pack 8oz organice garden tempeh
1/4 green pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup of water
1 cup of quinoa

Method:

In saucepan on medium heat, add olive oil and coconut milk. Stir in almond butter, sweet basil and black pepper. Add garlic powder and curry. Then add 1/2 cup of water and then add peanut butter and mix evenly. Add agave nectar, cover pan with a lid and cook for 5 minutes. Add tempeh and the rest of the water and let cook for another 15 minutes. Add thinly sliced green pepper towards the end for a more crunchy taste. This make s a very think and creamy sauce. Add on a bed on cooked quinoa and serve, listen for the "umph" and "ah". DELICIOUS!

I started my day with 46 minutes of Taebo; cardio and strength training(resistant bands). After that I made this delicious smoothie:

Honeydew Heaven:

2 bananas

1/2 bunch of parley (or if any greens of your choice)

1 celery stalk

1/4 frozen honeydew melon

2 cups of water

I love parsley because it does wonders for my skin and it 'wakes' me up. You can substitute it with lettuce, spinach or kale. Yummy!

I am having a blast with this raw challenge, I swear I never thought I would. I have joined a meetup here in Atlanta and can hardly wait for their next potluck and ofcourse i will contribute--been studying my raw cook books. There are so many raw deserts I can make to satisfy my sweet tooth. This is just too good.

Arrivederci!

Day 1 (30-day green smoothie challenge)

PICTURE OF RAW DESERT FROM COURANT.COM

...Of course today was a breeze, it's only day one! I did do my 20 minutes of brisk walking and basking in the beautiful sunlight. This is my green smoothie for the day. Somdays I make more than one kind of green smoothie, this usually depends on how many servings I get out of a batch. Rick and Nina also do the green smoothies with me everyday (they still eat their regular vegan diet with cooked food included). We all have at least 3 glasses of green smoothie everyday.

Honeydew Melon Dream:

1/2 medium honeydew melon
1 small banana
1/2 cup of red seedless grapes
3 hand fulls of baby spinach or arugula (I used spinach today)
2 cups of water. For more thickness use just one cup of water. You can also add a few pieces of ice or just use slightly cold water. Blend all together and enjoy! I will drink this throughout the day and eat a banana or two for snacks and later a big green salad for dinner.

As I mentioned the last time there are some great benefits to doing a raw detox. Here are a few:

1) Energy: since your body has less to digest and a very small amount of energy is used for digestion of these simple sugars and enzymes, your energy bank is not depleted.

2)Digestion: Since your food already contains living enzymes it takes less time for you food to digest and so it passes through the body quickly and doesn't stay for days in your intestines where they can rot and putrefy.

3)Detox: It is easier for your body to detox on raw uncooked food. The raw food has tons of fiber which acts like a sponge and carries away mucus, toxins and waste materials from your body thereby helping you to lose weight faster.

4)Weight loss: It's very normal to lose weight on a raw food diet because your body is not accumulating junk and empty calories.

5)Nutritional Content: Raw, organic food retains all its nutritional value whereas cooked food loses most of its nutritional value. Enzymes and amino acids are denatured under high temperatures of more than 118 degrees Fahrenheit.

6)Anti-aging foods: If you want to turn back the hands of time and prevent premature aging, raw foods (you can still eat some cooked but let most of your foods be raw food) is rich in anti-oxidants and live enzymes which keep cells looking young and healthy by eliminating damages done free radicals in your body.

30-Days Green Smoothie Challenge

YES, THIS IS A RAW VEGAN PIE PICTURED ABOVE, THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN


I know I said I would start my 30 days of green smoothie challenge on October 1st but I decided why not add a few extra days for and extra umph? right?. I am a little nervous. I have been vegan but never gone completely raw for this long. I figure if I want something to chew on I have my salads and celery sticks. I need a detox and I'm willing to give my body the respect it deserves. I can do this, I just need to decide to and I have :-). Basically all I will be doing is green smoothies, salad, fruits and nuts (walnuts). The whole idea about the raw-vegan is not to eat anything that can't be eaten in its raw state, for example, we can't eat potato raw or plantains or rice. I am looking forward to seeing the changes in my body, mind and spirit. I have decided to go for a twenty minute jog first thing in the morning. The main component of healing the body is sleep, so I will sleep more and let my body heal itself. I remember back home Mom would make us take naps during the day or 'Siestas' as we called them.
I have two raw food cook books and I am looking to delving into them. My three basic rules are:
Lots of sleep,
sleep,
sleep. lol

I understand that the first few days will be cranky, nothing new to me, I've detoxed before. I know about the headaches, gloominess and mood swings. These are all good signs as my body will be depositing toxic wastes into my blood stream for excretion. Bananas will be my best friend because they are very filling and sweet. Okay, enough for now, I think I've pumped myself up enough. Tomorrow is the first day of the challenge, come back for my daily report. See you on Health road where Self-doubt street meets Decision ave.
And oh, I will be listening to alot of the Raw Vegan radio :http://www.rawveganradio.com/wordpress/ and visiting my raw food restaurant for more ideas.

Tomorrow I'll go into some benefits of raw foodism.

The Over-drugged America

When you hear a nurse say "There's no difference between inorganic and organic food, they all do thesame thing in the body." makes me wonder what people are learning nowadays. There is a vast difference between organic and inorganic. Organic means certain standards have been used to produce a certain food. In organic the use of on organic pesticides, insecticides and herbicides are strictly prohibited. Most non-organic foods have been grown with the above plus dyes, homornes and additives have been added to them to make them palatable.

I watched a PBS show some nights ago and it broke my heart to see this mother hearing these words from her child's pediatrician "That's the only way to go, we have to get him on these meds quickly. This is what he needs." and he pushed a tray of five prescription drugs infrot of her. Her son must have been no more than five or six years old. The mother had asked the doctor if there were other therapies her newly diagnosed child could try. The tears in her eyes broke my heart as I am a mother too and we always want the best for our children. I wanted to reach through the TV and say "Let me tell you a therapy you can try. Try a vegan diet on your child for sometime and see the difference it makes it his life." Her son had been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and I'm thinking, he's just five, he should be hyperactive, he's a child, he's not yet a zombie like the rest of us.


'Tis not enough that kids and adults are on drugs even the animals and the fruits are on drugs too...what an abomination!

We have become a society that is so quick to medicate because we lack patience and are so preoccupied with making money that we would sell the life of a child for extra bonuses from the pharmaceutical industry. Everyday there is a new medication being advertised on Tv, actually, most commercials alternate between the gross food commercials and the extremely-disadvantageous medications. It's almost as if we have been brainwashed to believe any of them is good for us. On one hand they are making you sick with unhealthy food and then when you get sick they give you these "death sentence" or what they call them today, "Pills" to get you even sicker.

I am not saying discard all drugs, but most of them are really unecessary if we only ate right and ate the whole foods our bodies need. My mother, who is 50 years old has NEVER had a cavity! She lives in a world where everything is grown organically. I remember my grandmother making a little garden in the back of our house in Cameroon. She would enrich the soil with manure (peels of bananas, shells of eggs, peels of fruits etc) our trash was our wealth, we reinvested into our garden which later flourished with veggies and fruits that we used to cook.

The trash here is mostly cardboard, plastics and bottles, I don't think those can make for good manure. I want to leave a great world for the next generation so that my children's children can still see trees and animals and enjoy the sun without fear of cancer. It is the voices of reason that keep getting quietted but those who just want to make a profit at the expense of a human life, thrive. Our crime: greed. You can make a difference. Start with you. Love yourself a little differently.

FYR's Raw Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

1/4 cup pitted dates

1/4 cup carob powder or unsweetened cocoa (for a caffeine-free recipe use carob powder)

1/4 cup organic maple syrup (I use organic grade-B maple syrup) or agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 marshed avocados

1/4 water

1/2 cup freshly made almond milk (optional)

Directions:

Blend maple syrup (or gave nectar), dates and vanilla in a food processor. Then add the avocados and carob powder (or unsweetened cocoa). Add water. Add almond milk (optional) and blend for about a minute. YUMMY DELICIOUSNESS for your taste buds!!!!! Enjoy. Refrigerate and serve chilled or eat as is...It also makes a great chocolate spread for your bread.

Spinach-Cantaloupe Delight

1/2 a cantaloupe (or 1 small cantaloupe for more sweetness)

2 cups of spinach (3 cups for 1 whole cantaloupe)

3/4 water

7 cubes of ice

Blend and enjoy! You may use other greens too for this recipe (lettuce, endive, parsley etc)

Rick's Eggless Egg Salad

Ingredients:

1 container extra firm tofu

1/2 onion (white)

2-3 tablespoons Veganaise (one made with grapeseed oil)

Garlic powder

Turmeric

Seasalt

Black Pepper

Method:

In a large bowl crumple tofu with fingers. Add Veganaise, enough to cover the tofu. Add onions.

Sprinkle garlic powder and black pepper to taste. A pinch of sea salt and then add turmeric to add some color. Serve with whole wheat muffin, bread or use as salad dressing.

Refreshing Monday

How about you start your week with this refreshing smoothness?

3 Celery stalks

3 Bananas

handfull of grapes

...and while you're at it, have everyone

around you try some, that is, if you really want to share this. Because you just might not, it is that good!

A LITTLE TASTE OF HEAVEN

My husband's creative deliciousness that left me speechless. Steamed veggies on a bed of quinoa and topped with a peanut/coconut milk sauce made with tempeh....

Want More Energy?

Do you feel tired all the time? Feel like taking a nap in the middle of the day? Do you feel tired everyday and can't seem to roll off the bed easily in the morning? There is a reason why we feel tired. Think about this, will a car drive good on an empty tank? well, the answer is no. Just like cars our bodies need fuel. But it has to be the right kind of fuel.

Just as a car will not run on water or veggetable juice, the body cannot run well on gasoline or soil. It has to be the right kind of food. Have you noticed that when you combine a starch and protein you get bloating, indigestion and you always feel lethargic? Food was meant to provide us with energy and not make us feel tired and weary. When you load the body with food that it does not need and cannot use, you are wasting the body's energy source. The energy that was meant for you is now diverted to trying really hard-- and most of the times without success--to break down the 8oz of steak you just ingested.

By the way, did you know that it takes about three days for a meat to be broken down in your system. By that time, you've obviously eaten other things and your dead meat is putrifying in your stomach and bad bacteria is growing around it. I don't mean to gross you out but the truth sometimes is a bitter pill to swallow. For the body to have more energy, we have to feed it with live fooods that require little or no energy for the body to break them down. By incorporating more fruits and vegetables and properly combining our foods, we help the body conserve more energy it may need for things such as repairs and maintenance.

The easiest way to make sure you get the right servings of fruits and veggies everyday is to add green smoothies to your diet. Don't be suprise if you stop craving those sweets and actually start eating less. When your body has the nutrients it needs, you start to crave more of the good stuff and less of the bad. Green smoothies are complete foods, very easy to digest and they leave you feeling very energized. Here is a thought: Make a mental list of all the animals who live on greens alone and then ask yourself this, these animals hardly get sick living in the wild on roots, fruits and veggies why then don't we humans--who are 99.4% genetically identical to them--eat like that?

Here are a few recipes:

1 cup of spinach, 2 pears and 1 cup of water (how easy is that? you can be creative.)

1 cup of spinach, 10 finger bananas, 2 cups of water (Nina's Favorite. Kids love this)

2 mangos, 1 bunch of parsely, 2 cups of water

4 apples, 1/2 lemon, 5 leaves of kale, 2 cups of water

Have fun!!!

Train Your Body to Talk Back to You

Learning how to listen to your body is wonderful. Your body can talk back to you when and if you treat it with respect, it's no different than human relationships. If you treat someone wrong long enough there is enough resentment for that person to start ignoring you. The thing about the body is that it is much more forgiving than humans in their relationships. How do you listen to your body? You first have to mend the broken relationship of years aof abuse and the best way to do that is to do a detox. Go to archives in the month of July and you will find the 21-day FYR program.

L'Thai Restaurant

If you are like most people dinning out is an experience, at least for me it is. I make it a habit to choose where I eat and a couple of days ago my husband stumbled upon one of the fine dinning spots in Tucker; L'Thai. It is the first organic Thai restaurant outside of Thailand. So we decided yeaterday to go have an experience. From the outside you would never guess how beautiful it looked inside. I was taken aback by the classy decor. It had a very relaxing atmosphere with a little waterfall at the back of the restuarant. White plates stacked together adorned the maple tables and long stemmed glasses stood tall like candles. The moment I sat down I knew I was in for a treat. The pretty waitress came by in her lavender outfit (my favorite color by the way) her smile was infectious but much more the menu was great and the prices very resonable.

I got some tofu for appetizers and a ginger/garlic sauce (I'm addicted) veggie medly and some brown rice for my entree. Mind you, all this is organic, meaning no additives, preservatives or hormones. And if you want to add chicken you can rest assured knowing it is really chicken on your plate and not an alien. The prices are a little more expensive for dinner but for lunch they rancge from $4.95 for appetizers to $20.95 for specials. Lunch for entrees is a resonable $7.95 per plate. Now you can specify your how spicy you want it to be and sure enough they will do it just right. For those who like a little buzz, they have a great wine list and for the sweet toothers some desserts as well. If I were to grade this whole experience I would give it a solid 8 points and I am usually not that generous.

Adress: 4880 Lawrenceville Hwy, 14-16
Tucker, GA 30084

Phone: 770-491-9948 they do take out as well and have two more locations in Smyrna and Alpharetta.