I'm in 'raw' heaven!

FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS: Bernice's Walnut Pâté

I'm sure everyone can sense my excitement. Doing this 30-day green smoothie challenge has become the most exciting thing I've undertaken in a while. It is as though my taste buds are 'waking' up from sleep. All the natural, tantalizing tastes of individual ingredients seem to send my senses into a beautiful frenzy. I appreciate the taste of food and the feeling it gives me. Experimenting with different recipes is so much fun. I didn't realize there are so many things one can do with so little ingredients. Ah, I am in Raw heaven for real, lol. I can't help the feeling...you wouldn't if you tried what I made this afternoon.

Bernice's Walnut Pâté
(Can be used on a garden salad or in a sandwich)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups soaked walnuts ( I soaked mine for 6 hours, but you can do a couple of hours or overnight)

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp Bragg's Aminos (you can use tamari if you have some)

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp thyme

2 garlic cloves

dash of salt

2 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley

2 Tbsp chopped onions

1/2 green pepper

Method:

Place nuts, lemon juice, olive oil, Bragg's Aminos(or tamari), garlic powder and salt in food processor and blend. Then add parsley, onions, garlic cloves and green pepper and blend. You can blend into a paste but I like to chew on some almonds so I blend for about 1 minute. A generous scoop of this on my garden salad was all I needed and I stored the rest in the refrigerator for later.

p/s I added some half an avocado in my salad and then dressed the salad with my Walnut Pâté. This is so filling you wouldn't even believe it and it's all raw and healthy, who would've thought it?

Let it be known: THIS IS THE BEST SALAD I'VE EVER HAD.

I couldn't wait till tomorrow to share this. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

~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 4 (30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge)

FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS: Bernice's Orange Gravy

I woke up feeling great this morning. Last night I was a little cranky, I think if I'd gone to bed early I wouldn't have felt that way, either way I had good night's rest. I went out for a 20 minute jog this morning and then was off to the kitchen to make my Spring Baby green smoothie.

Spring Baby Smoothie:

2 golden ripe pears
1 delicious apple
3 handfuls of baby spring mix (red lettuce, arugula and green lettuce)
2 tsp of flax seeds
2 cups of water

This has a delicious gritty feel in your mouth, so you can chew on it some or if you have a super blender, puree it to a smoother consistency. I usually blend, then puree. Yummy!

The picture above is a raw soup I made yesterday, surprisingly tasty. Rick had two bowls of it, he added some Bragg's aminos in his and ate it with almond butter sandwiches. Here is the recipe:

Bernice's Orange Gravy

1 celery stalk
2 medium carrots

5 ripe tomatoes
1 Tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1 tsp of sweet basil, thyme and oregano
1 tsp agave nectar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of water
salt to taste

Blend to desired consistency and enjoy. You can also add some cayenne pepper later on if you choose.

A short note before I say "Arrivederci":
Health is your birthright and there's no one out there who will help you preserve that right but you. Take your health into your hands like you take your bills seriously. If you don't pay your bills you get in trouble; maybe the lights will get turned off, the car repossessed or you get foreclosed. The same is true if you don't feed your body right, sickness and disease will prevail and organs start to shut down because you've not been 'paying' your 'bills' to your body.

Day 3 (30-Day Green smoothie challenge)

PICTURE OF Bernice's Kale-Panana. FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS.

Good morning, rise and shine! You can tell I feel great right? Well, I do. When I woke up this morning I didn't feel groggy, it was almost like switching on a light bulb and click my eyes snapped open. After my usual glass of water first thing in the morning, I went walking in the early morning sun. I did circuit training with Jillian Michael's for 20 minutes and then I invented one of the best tasting smoothies ever.

Before I give you that recipe I want to tell you about a few changes I've noticed since day one. Day one and two I woke up with a little stuffiness and on day two especially I noticed a lot of mucus being expelled(from my nose, catarrh). Today I woke up not stuffed at all. You will realize as you go along with this challenge that you will sneeze and have a runny nose at times, sometimes even slight chest pains and headaches. Rest assured that your body is doing what it needs to be doing, these are detox symptoms and they will go away so don't throw in the towel yet. Even hunger pangs or cravings are detox symptoms, you might just want to drink more water or another smoothie.

When you've had a habit of eating all the time, it is hard for your body to not be constantly fed so you have to remember this the next time you feel hungry (especially after you've just had a smoothie). The reason for constantly wanting food is due to the body not having the nutrients its need, so when you keep feeding it those empty calories guess what it will still 'need' more food so that it can get what it needs from somewhere.

When you do green smoothies, your body starts to sing, yes, you feel full and energized. I hate feeling tired in the middle of the day but when you're constantly feeding your body the right nutrients you will notice a surge of energy. Here's my AWESOME recipe:

Bernice's Kale-Panana (nice huh?)

2 bananas
2 golden ripe pears
6 kale leaves
1 Tbsp Flax seeds
2 cups of water

This is so delicious and filling. Kale is one of my favorite veggies to use because it if packed with nutrients. It is high in Vitamins A and C and it's a powerful antioxidant and has high cancer-fighting properties. The benefits of kale are numerous. Just know that a cup of kale a day keeps sickness away.

Day 2 (30-Day green smoothie challenge)

HOW DELICIOUS DOES THIS RAW FOOD LOOK?
(photo from www.rawpower.com)

This is day two and everything has been going great so far. I woke up bright and fresh, went for a 20 minute walk. The sun was warm and inviting. My green smoothie today was so tasty

Spinach Delight (Nina's favorite)

2 bananas
1 cup of red grapes
2 cups of spinach
1.5 cups of water

This is one of the best tasting smoothies, no child can resist this one. That's going to be my smoothie for the day. I've been drinking my water constantly and don't feel hungry. Well, I made a peanut butter sandwich for my hubby this morning and couldn't help enjoying the scent of that peanut butter but I am strong and dedicated to this, I didn't even have a lick!

Been reading a most fascinating book (tops my list of health books to read and believe me when I say I have a library of health related books.) I will leave you with a passage from the author:

"A fundamental error of all schools of so-called medicine has been the assumption that disease is something at war with life and that it must be met, subdued, counteracted, cast out, killed or cured with substances that are antagonistic to the body itself. They have never adequately recognized the antagonism that exists between living organism and the chemical substances with which they seek to cure the disease. This is the reason they continue to fill the bodies of the sick with poisons (foreign or non-usable chemicals) which the body must resist and expel. Not only have such causes of disease been mistaken as remedies for disease, but in some cases they have been mistaken for food."

He goes on to state how all drugs impair the body's function. You might want to pick up a copy for yourself, 'Self Healing Colitis & Crohn's' by David Klein, Ph.D. Here is his site:http://www.colitis-crohns.com/ I don't have colitis or crohn's but this book is for everyone who seeks optimum health, it is simply amazing and I'm not even half way through it. The testimonies and reviews alone sparked my curiosity.

Later on tonight (before 8pm, my kitchen closes at 8pm sharp) I will have some raw veggie medley with my dressing being freshly squeezed oranges and olive oil.

Come back for more tomorrow. We shall discuss blood PH and what you must know about how it affects your body. Ta ta!

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.