About Products Selected

This site is designed with brand new cooks in mind. Because of that you will see a lot of items linked here. For an experienced cook it is easy to recognize what the difference between a pot, a sauce pan, a casserole, etc. means. But if you are brand new to the cooking from scratch idea it can be confusing. All products linked are meant to give you a clear idea of what kinds of items I am referring to. These items linked also represent brands that I am familiar with, that I have found to be high quality and I find them to be fairly priced and long lasting for regular use.

For pots and pans I prefer the quality of Circulon brand above higher priced brands and their longevity above lower priced brands. For glass bowls and bake ware I prefer Pyrex. For low priced kitchen ware I prefer Norpro. For smaller quantities of dried goods I prefer Bob's Red Mill, which I can find at all of my local stores. For larger quantities I prefer ordering from Barry Farm. I often use the bulk section at my stores as well. While it is certainly less expensive to make stock at home, it is far more convenient to purchase it. I like Pacific Natural Foods and Imagine Foods low sodium broths. These suggestions are designed to make your food preparation easier and affordable. You'll also be able to accurately duplicate the recipes on this site and the meals seen on Frugal Feeds Videos. Look for all of these products and kitchen items at your local stores or click on the links and it will take you to where you can buy them online. (Although many of the items will cost more with shipping than they will if you can find them at your local store).

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 24

Raw Diet Day 24:




At 1:00 I had a juice of two braeburn apples, two large carrots, 1/2 an inch of ginger and about half of a cup of mint. You can find this recipe here.

The potted plants that I brought in yesterday turned out fine and the garden is warm and moist under the covers. It is snowing a little again today and feels pretty cold out there. It is supposed to get to the low 20s tonight and then warm up starting tomorrow to the 50s during the day and 30s at night for several days.

Around 3:30 I had the Macadamia Berry Smoothie, this time making the Macadamia milk first.

Blend 1 cup of Raw Macadamia nuts with 4 cups of water until the nuts are reduced to meal. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, using a spoon or rubber spatula to stir the meal until all of the milk is strained through. You will end up with nearly a cup of nut meal like so:


Store this nut meal covered in the refrigerator and use it to make recipes for crackers, tortillas and cookies. It can also substitute ricotta in pasta like dishes or crepes.

The strained milk makes a little over four cups of milk. Use this in smoothies, on granola or sweeten it and use it as milk. It looks exactly like cows milk.



For two smoothies use one cup macadamia milk, two bananas, 1/2 cup of frozen cranberries, 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and two Tablespoons Raw Honey. You can find the recipe for one here. This is a filling drink so it will keep you going all afternoon.



I will be going out to see my oldest daughter's play tonight so I won't be posting any pictures of dinner tonight. It will be a large mixed lettuce salad with red bell peppers, cucumber and zucchini and a few squeezes of lime with salt and pepper.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 23

Raw Diet Day 23:

For breakfast I had a juice of one green apple, one rose apple, two large carrots, 1/2 an inch of ginger and about half of a cup of mint. You can find this recipe here.

We had a surprise light snow last night which may have affected my sown seeds and the potted flowers and herbs I planted a week ago. The whole garden was covered in a light dusting. I had to go out and cover the garden today since the forecast has changed from rain for the week to snow. First laid down a long canvas cloth and then put on two fleece throws, neither alone were large enough to cover the length of the garden. I think the sown seeds will be okay so far because none of them should have begun sprouting so soon. The potted plants though might not be as well off, we'll just have to see. I brought those indoors but if they defrost too quickly they will die. I'll know by tomorrow if they will make it. The forecast calls for up to three inches of snow today and a bit more tomorrow with hail mixed in. Thunderstorms tomorrow.

For lunch I made a smoothie of 1 banana, 1/4 cup macadamia nuts, 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 cup cranberries, 1/4 cup blueberries and 1 Tablespoon of raw honey. I chose not to make a milk of the macadamias because I wanted a slightly heavier meal and I didn't want the extra step of straining the macadamia nut meal from the milk. It tastes very good but would likely be great if I had strained it as the little bits of macadamia get lodged between your teeth. The color of the smoothie is half as dark as the smoothie from yesterday and looks like it has cream in it. Maybe like a dark mauve color. I'll probably make this again tomorrow with just macadamia milk, and I will take a picture then. You can find the modified recipe here.

For dinner I had a large mixed salad with pecans and 1000 Island inspired dressing. You can find the recipe here. It was composed of mixed mesclun lettuces, alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts and pecans. The dressing was made from blended sun dried tomatoes and cucumber with sweet pickle relish mixed in.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 22

Raw Diet Day 22:

For breakfast I had a banana blueberry smoothie, just like the one I made yesterday.

For lunch I had an avocado with sea salt.

The remainder of the day was interrupted by an emergency with my youngest daughter's pet guinea pig. He started screaming and then went into repeated seizures. We took him to the vet and found out that he was having a severe reaction to microscopic mites. They treated him but it took several hours for him to be relieved of the symptoms. He hadn't shown any signs of the mites prior to today except an occasional scratching. Generally when guinea pigs have such serious symptoms as seizures from the mites they have considerable mange, lots of scratching and lots of discomfort, but he didn't have any of that. They will treat him once a week for a month and then the problem should be gone. As of now he is no longer showing any signs of discomfort and hasn't had another seizure for over an hour. It seems that the difficult part is behind him. It was a very hard day for my girl because her last guinea pig had a single seizure and then died of a stroke within the day so she has been anxious all day.

Because of the unexpected events today I don't have much to add for today.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 21

Raw Diet Day 21:

For breakfast I had two Valencia oranges.

For morning snack I made a juice of 6 small apples, 1 cup of defrosted cranberries and 2 thumbs of ginger root. It was very sweet, spicy and tangy. Loved it. I found that the ginger did help clear up quite a bit of the congestion but still sneezing like crazy. The juice made a very pretty rose colored drink:


Too bad I drank most of it before I thought to take a picture :\

For lunch I had a small mixed Italian lettuce salad with mixed sea vegetables and a 1/4 cup of cashews. I also had half of a slice of manna bread with raw nut butter and raw honey. On the side I had 4 sugar snap peas and 4 baby carrots. I made another rosy juice to drink.

For snack I had a large blueberry and banana smoothie. Two medium bananas, 1 cup frozen  blueberries and 1 cup vanilla almond milk sweetened with raw honey. It came out like a dark concord grape color and very delicious. It made 2 1/2 cups.


I signed up for SparkPeople recipe database. I will put the recipes in as I go along. To start off I added the Raw Rosy Juice and the Raw Blueberry Banana Smoothie with Almond Milk.  Under the Nutritional Info label is a link to "View full nutritional breakdown", in that link a pop-up window will tell you about the vitamins and minerals in the recipe.

For dinner I had 1 1/2 cups kelp noodles covered in a raw alfredo sauce. You can find this recipe here. The noodles were warmed under running hot water. The alfredo sauce was made up of a cup of pureed cashews with water (enough to blend), a large pinch of sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon of raw garlic (you might want to cut that down, I am trying to clear congestion), a squeeze of fresh lemon (a Tablespoon?), fresh black pepper and parsley. Makes enough sauce for two servings.

Frugal Feeds | Straw Bale Intensive Gardening

Raw Diet Garden Start:

The predicted storm hasn't come in yet today so I was able to get the pictures I promised. Here I will tell you how you can have a trouble free intensive garden of your own.

One week before you are ready to start putting in seeds find a local farmer that sells straw bales. You don't want to get hay bales because they will have a bunch of hay seed in them, and they are more expensive. Straw bales are made up of the stalks without seed after harvesting is done processing them. Mine are four feet long, three feet high and 1 1/2 feet deep. Each one of mine was $7.00 because they are organic. You can find them for as little as $3.00 a piece. When you buy them make sure you have had a few days of warm sunny weather right before you buy them otherwise the rain soaked bales weight a lot! Wear gardening gloves when working with the straw because tiny shards of straw will give you unpleasant splinters otherwise.

You can just lay down one bale and cover it with fertilizer and manure for a small garden or you can do as I did for a much larger intensive garden.


I placed mine fairly far from the house because that area of the yard gets the most sun all day long. The location is also close to my compost pile and a work table.

I set up four bales with ends overlapping by half of a foot. Make sure you set them up so that the twine holding them together is parallel to the ground like so:


Place a fencing post against each bale to give it extra support. Straw alone will drink up a lot of water so the combination of straw and your large garden soil area work together. The straw helps keep the soil warm and in place while the soil helps keep the straw moist and provides nourishment for the plants that you grow on it.

To fill this amount of straw bales you will need one large sack of peat moss, three sacks of general compost, three sacks of mushroom compost, three sacks of top soil and one large sack of well rotted manure. Put in one sack of each compost, one sack of top soil and 1/3 of the peat moss and manure and mix well with a hula hoe. Repeat with each layer, mixing well each time, until all of it has been used. Break up any lumps that are as big as a potato, they crumble pretty easily by hand.

Using a garden hose thoroughly soak the straw bales and soil mixture. Now wait a week. While you are waiting the garden will warm up and breakdown some. During this week you can shop for seeds and start seedlings indoors for plants like tomatoes, squashes, sunflowers, peppers, watermelon, other melons, etc. You won't be planting any of those starts for a month though.

You can also plan your garden this week. Because you will be planting so many vegetables beside each other you will want to get acquainted with which plants grow well together and which don't. (See a compilation page here). A simple way to think about it is to grow root vegetables next to above ground vegetables, like carrots next to lettuces. The carrots do most of their growing underground while the lettuces do most of their growing above ground, allowing both to use the sun and soil to their best advantage. Because the soil is deep you will have long, luscious carrots, beets and Asian radishes.


Looking from the bottom of the picture to the top I planted two types of watermelons in the soil right up against the straw bale. The watermelon plants will love the extra warmth that this bale gets in the western facing direction. The plant will grow over the bale and the fruits can be set into slings tied to stakes in the front to keep them off of the ground and out of bugs easy reach. Behind the watermelon marjoram and sage plants are seeded. Behind those are tomatoes and basil. Behind those are carrots and chives. In the center is kale and collards. These enjoy the sun but not the heat so they are in the coolest part of the soil. They will also help shade more tender plants that are behind them, on the eastern facing side of the garden. Behind the kale and collards are basil, chervil, dill and sage. Behind the herbs are many different lettuces in two long rows. At the most eastern end of the soil are planted tomatillos which will enjoy the morning sun but be relieved from the late afternoon heat.



Looking at this picture, from the right to the left, it is oriented south to north. In the soil closest to the bale on the right are Walla Walla onions, followed by beets and then radishes. This is duplicated on the north facing side.


On the top of the bale on the left side you see soil mixed with straw. Here are planted nasturtiums, borage, johnny jump ups and marigold. All of these flowers are edible but they also help deter pests. The nasturtium will trail over the bale, the borage and marigold will create height while the johnny jump ups will create low cover. To plant into the bales you want to use a garden trowel to break through the packed straw and create 6 inch deep pockets. You will end up pulling out some chunks of straw as you go along, just set them aside to add to the top. Once you have carefully made several of these pockets fill them with your soil mixture or planting mix. Sow your seeds and cover lightly with more soil and a small amount of the loosened straw.

Behind my dog, against the ground, you see small pockets of straw with soil. This is where I have sown early spring snap peas. Above the peas you see a small mass of black netting tucked into the twine of the bale. Once you have your seeds in you will want to stretch netting over the garden. This is a bit of a hassle but well worth it. Set up four thick plastic stakes, 4 feet tall, at the corners of your bales. Stretch the unfolded netting over the stakes. It is best if you have someone to help you, but it can be done on your own, just takes much longer and is more tricky. Once you are sure that you have the netting evenly over the garden poke the stakes through a hole and slide the netting down the stake to about 1/2 of a foot above the garden. Tuck the excess netting into the lowest bale twine. Do this all the way around. In the gaps between each bale you will want to carefully, but tautly, tie the netting to the twine. You don't want to leave enough room for any critters to squeeze through the netting to your garden. Cats think it is a litter box, squirrels think it is a great place to hide their food. Raccoons think you grew the garden for them. And dogs think it is a great place to dig and otherwise create chaos. As your garden grows you will need to readjust the height of the netting, which means un-tucking and untying the netting, resetting it and then re-tucking and retying. It is a pain, but it only takes half an hour every few weeks. The netting will also keep birds from eating from the garden (as long as you keep it 1/2 a foot above the garden and taut) and if you have a sudden cold snap the netting helps keep the warming cover safely over the vegetables without crushing them. It also helps diffuse heavy rain drops to some extent.

Now all you need to do for the next month is make sure that your garden and your indoor seed starts remain moist, but not soaking and raise the netting as needed.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 20

Raw Diet Day 20:

Wasn't a bit hungry so I just had a coffee with almond milk for breakfast.
For lunch I had a banana and a cup of papaya.


Today was a very productive day but I didn't get the indoor seeds started because the yard had to be mowed and weed whacked before I could begin the big gardening project. The mowing and weeding took over two hours.

For the garden I was able to get everything sown that could go out this early. I planted five types of carrots, two types of radishes, two types of beets, a dozen different lettuces, collards, kale, seven tomatoes, seven herbs, four edible flowers, Walla Walla onions, chives and peas. The next planting won't be for four weeks but all of those plants will be started indoors tomorrow. After putting in all of the seeds with their labels I set four posts and tied down netting. The netting will help diffuse the heavy rain that will be coming in tomorrow and if the temperature drops too much this week I will be able to lay down cover over the netting which will keep the garden warm but will still give room for the crops to grow. Every few weeks the netting will be raised to accommodate the  height of the plants as they grow.

Along one of the side fences where I had planned to plant bamboo as a privacy screen I have instead decided to grow pumpkins. The pumpkins will climb the fence to provide partial privacy but will also give a lushness to the area when the miner's lettuce dies out in mid-summer.

Because I finished the gardening as it was starting to get dark I wasn't able to take pictures today but once the rain stops this week I will do a blog all about this type of intensive gardening and will include pictures with that post.

Overall today was a fairly good day.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 19

Raw Diet Day 19:

For breakfast I had one avocado and one banana.
For lunch I had almond milk and 1/2 a cup of cocoa coconut pudding.

For dinner I had a great salad which I would recommend you try.
I combined 2 cups of mixed lettuces, 1/2 of a cup of alfalfa sprouts, 1/2 of a cup of bean sprouts, some hemp oil and the boon was 1/2 of a cup of mixed seaweeds from Sea Tangle. Just rinse the mixed sea vegetable pieces in a sieve or colander for a minute or two, tossing it around every so often. Give it a taste to make sure you removed enough salt. If not, rinse until you have. It will remain slightly salty, which is good for the salad. This removes the extra salt they package it in. Mix it in with the lettuces, top with the sprouts and drizzle with hemp oil. The seaweed adds moisture, texture, salt and flavor. Very nice.

I spent the day planning the plantings of seeds for the garden and for the starter pots. I didn't see any starters that were unique so I am starting everything from seed. I still haven't found any stevia starts but the nurseries around here say they will be available within the next few weeks.

In the straw raised bed I will be growing:

Nasturtium
Watermelon (two kinds)
Marjoram
Sage
Carrots (several varieties)
Chives
Tomatoes (several varieties)
Collards
Beets (yellow and cylidra)

Radishes (daikon and icicle)
Basil
Collards
Chervil
Dill
Cilantro
Walla Walla Onions
Peppers (several sweet, several hot)
Lovage
Lettuces (lots of different types)
Borage
Tomatillo's


Along the fence:
Okra
Corn
Cucumbers (three types)
Sunflowers
Snap Peas
Summer Squashes
Melons (several kinds, cantaloupe, muskmelon, etc...)

In an old sink:
Cranberries

In Pots:
Blueberries
Fig
Several Dwarf Fruit trees

Along a different fence:
Grapes

Growing Wild:
A huge bed of Miner's Lettuce

In the front yard:
Oregano
Lemon Balm
Thyme
Rosemary
Lavender
Strawberries
Mint

So, tomorrow is going to be a busy day! Some of these are plants from previous years plantings and quite a few need to be started in peat pots indoors. The ones I'll start in peat pots will be:

Basil
Muskmelon
Kale
Sweet Banana Pepper
Chili Peppers
Red Bell Peppers
Cantaloupe
Muskmelon, Jumbo
Honeydew
Tomatillo's
Cantaloupe Heart of Gold
Tomatoes
Hungarian Peppers

In my sprouter:
Broccoli Sprouts
Bean Sprouts
Alfalfa Sprouts
Radish Sprouts


So, if you don't hear from me until late at night, you'll know why :)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 18

Raw Diet Day 18:

Last night we went to a movie and had a small mango smoothie and raisins with chocolate.

For breakfast I had a juice of three small apples, one small beet, a thumb of ginger, a 1/4 cup of fresh mint, two large carrots and two leaves of romaine. Later I had a quarter cup of pecans, a few tablespoons each of raw chocolate, raisins, currants and coconut.
For snack I made a guacamole of two avocado's, one roma tomato, a small handful of cilantro, a small piece of raw garlic, 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, the white part of a green onion and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

For lunch my energy level was still super low so I had a banana cocoa and cashew shake but never got the energy boost I needed to keep getting stuff done so around 4:00 I had an espresso.

For dinner I had 1/2 a cup of seaweed salad, a half cup of pecans, raisins and dates, and for dessert a 1/4 cup of coconut cocoa pudding.

I found a few great gardening books from DK and one about companion planting. Tomorrow I will be buying seeds and starts for the garden that I will put into the straw bale garden. The straw bales need to be thoroughly watered three to five days before you begin planting, so Wednesday's rain, and today's, will allow me to start planting on Saturday or Sunday, depending on how the weather turns.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 17

Raw Diet Day 17:

I was able to set up my raised bed of straw bales and quite a lot of top soil, compost and peat moss. It is three feet deep by four feet wide. I will be able to put in 15 spring peas, 4 tomato plants, 4 squash plants, 4 pepper plants and 3 melon plants into the bales as well as all of the herbs I want, dozens of carrots, several rows of lettuces, several rows of stevia plants a few broccoli plants and several beets. I will also start sprouting this week. Once it is a little warmer I will also run a row of corn mixed with beans and peas and a few dozen sunflowers. It will be a great garden in just a few weeks from now.

For breakfast I had a cereal of chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans, coconut, dried currants, raisins, and cinnamon with almond milk.

For lunch I had a large mixed salad with mixed raw fish from the sushi restaurant here in town.

For dinner I wasn't hungry so had an avocado with sea salt and nutritional yeast.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 16

Raw Diet Day 16:

This morning I wasn't much hungry so just had a half cup of raisins and a glass of water.
For snack I had half of an avocado.

For lunch I had a large salad with peas, corn, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes on mixed lettuces with a few squeezes of lemon and some olive oil.

For snack I had half of a papaya with pineapple, lychees, mandarin oranges and coconut.

For dinner I had a little more than a cup and a half of coarsely chopped mixed nuts including pecan, walnut, sunflower seeds, coconut, macadamia nut and almonds mixed with dried currants, dates and raisin. I mixed some cinnamon, vanilla and nut milk and poured it over the nut mixture for a granola type cereal.

Late last night my younger daughter had a sleep-over and ordered a pizza from of the local pizza places that I had previously thought had a fairly decent pizza. I had some of it but found it to taste totally different than I remember. The crust was cloyingly sweet, the sauce salty, the cheese greasy and tasteless and the pepperoni stale and completely unappealing. Those few bites sat in my stomach all night. If I choose to have a non-raw pizza in the future I will either make it myself or find a high quality pizza place to try it again. It was astonishingly sub-par to me although everyone else thought it tasted the same as always. Guess my taste buds have really changed in this short time on the raw diet.

Spent the day looking at options for building raised garden beds to start a vegetable garden. I can't tell yet which type I will make, some are expensive but look attractive and long lasting, while others aren't so expensive but may end up needing to be replaced every year or so, or they are just plain ugly. I'd rather not roto-till the yard because there are so many weeds, but that would likely be the most affordable. I'm going to keep looking at the options.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Proof that high fructose corn syrup is not the same as sugar

In a report published from Princeton University rats were given equal calories of corn syrup or sugar. Those that consumed the corn syrup gained substantially more weight and fat than those that consumed sugar. See the whole story here.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 15

Raw Diet Day 15:

For breakfast I made a juice of 2 pink lady apples, 1 small beet, 4 medium carrots with their tops, 1 small handful of mint and 1 cup of cranberries. It was tangy and sweet and very delicious. If you make this juice be sure to brush your teeth right after as the beet juice turns your teeth a rosy red color :)

For lunch I made burritos using a nut filling that combined the left-over sunflower seed taco filling from Raw Food/Real World and a cup and a half sized recipe of the walnut taco filling I made earlier this week. I didn't dehydrate it though, just mixed it with the left-over sunflower seed taco filling. I used medium sized collard green leaves with their long stem cut off for the wrapper. I scooped two or three tablespoons of filling onto each collard green. I topped that with red bell pepper, cilantro, green onions and avocado. Then topped it all with a few tablespoons of left-over mole sauce from when we had tamales. Folded it up like a burrito. Made 4 burritos. I had two. Very yummy and satisfying.

Tonight we'll be having a large salad with crackers. I'll be making the crackers using the same recipe as before but using the left over pecan meal from when I made pecan milk the other day and only making half of the recipe.

Spicy Crackers

1 cup of pecan meal
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
1 jalepeno
1 cup flax seed meal
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 Tablespoon cumin powder
1/2 Tablespoon chili powder
1/2 Tablespoon Sea Salt (plus a sprinkling on top halfway through dehydrating)
1/4 cup cilantro and basil

Process all above. Spread on solid dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate at 105 for 6 hours. Remove from tray, score or cut into shapes, sprinkle with sea salt. Return to dehydrator on perforated tray and continue to dehydrate until crispy, between 4-6 hours.

The most pesticide laden crops

In choosing a raw diet you are also choosing to eat a lot of produce. Mother Jones published a story today showing the Environmental Working Group's list of the most contaminated crops based on their recent research. You can see the article here. You can see the EWG complete list here. The ones with a score 50 or more are pasted below. Those are the ones that I would recommend you buy organically, if available and if your budget allows.


RANK FRUIT OR VEGGIE SCORE
1 (worst)Peach100 (highest pesticide load)
2Apple93
3Sweet Bell Pepper83
4Celery82
5Nectarine81
6Strawberries80
7Cherries73
8Kale69
9Lettuce67
10Grapes - Imported66
11Carrot63
12Pear63
13Collard Greens60
14Spinach58
15Potato56
16Green Beans53
17Summer Squash53
18Pepper51
19Cucumber50

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Week 2, Day 14

Raw Diet Day 14:

For breakfast today I had a non-raw espresso shot with raw pecan milk. I chose to have the coffee because it helps clear up congestion. I also had a pina colada fruit roll-up and a tangerine. A little later I had 1/2 cup of dried mango.
For lunch I had kelp noodles with a sauce made up of one red bell pepper, one clove of garlic, a pinch of sea salt, 2 heaping Tablespoons nutritional yeast, a teaspoon of Braggs Amino's, about 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes and a Tablespoon of olive oil.

For snack I had one valencia orange.

For dinner I had one banana and 1/2 cup of cashews.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 13

Raw Diet Day 13:

Since this week is the first sunny and warm weather we've had this year all of the flowers everywhere are blooming. It is beautiful!

Even though I haven't made it to the thirty days mark, when I said I would make my decision as to whether I would continue this, I can tell you now I am a total convert. I haven't felt this great since I was a kid. A lot of people who write about going raw say that until they started this diet they felt like they were getting older every day, on raw they feel like they are getting younger--now I know what they mean! All I can really say is WOW.

I spent the morning planting flowers and some herbs.

For breakfast today I had a glassful of the pina colada and a tangerine.  Since I still had two more glassfuls left I poured them into two trays and dehydrated them for the day so we could have the pina colada fruit roll-ups for dessert tonight.


I made a blender full of pecan milk using a cup of pecans, 2 Tablespoons of raw honey, a Tablespoon of vanilla and a Tablespoon of lecithin. We'll have that for breakfast tomorrow.

For lunch I had a juice made of 2 apples, 1 medium sized beet, 4 leaves of kale a thumb sized piece of ginger.

For snack I had a banana and cocoa milkshake.

For dinner tonight we are having taco's made from the recipes in Raw Food/Real World and the pina colada fruit roll-up.

I am making a batch of kale chips for tomorrow's snack. And later tonight I will start a granola mix that will be ready at breakfast time.

The biggest change I have had to make in feeding my family these raw meals is to think one day ahead because many of the heartier dishes take a day or all night in the dehydrator. We haven't gotten it down pat yet, but it is getting close. My kids love that they can have cocoa milkshakes everyday btw. My youngest also loves the banana and nut milk shakes, while my oldest prefers less banana and some mocha and cocoa in her shake.

It is also notable that my husband is really enjoying feeling so much better after just a few days on this diet. He has much more energy and aches much less.

We ordered three more books that I have read through and found to be really useful. I haven't tried all of their recipes but as I do I will let you know how they turn out. The authors of Raw Food/ Real World both have put out other recipe books. One is called Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney and the other is called Living Raw Food by Sarma Melngailis. The other book I ordered is called Everything Raw Food from the Everything Series by Mike Snyder. He has been raw for nine years so has just about everything you could look for in it. I also like that every recipe has nutritional information.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 12

Raw Diet Day 12:

I was able to put in another five hours of heavy yard work and got the backyard ship shape. Tomorrow I will be planting flowers and starting vegetables.
For breakfast I had a cocoa banana shake.

For lunch I had a pina colada shake. Then had another one at snack time after I had finished the yard work.

For dinner I had 1/2 of a cup of cashews, 1/2 cup of grape tomatoes, 1 cup of watermelon chunks, and 1 cup of large olives.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 11

Raw Diet Day 11:

I spent the day, a full five hours, doing yard work and got a tremendous amount of work accomplished.

For breakfast I had a banana shake.

For lunch I had a cocoa, cashew butter and banana shake and two of the tamales from yesterday.

For dinner I had a banana, a large avocado with sea salt and 4 tangerines.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 10, Evening Update

Raw Diet Day 10:

For lunch I wanted another banana shake. Since I was out of almond milk I made a quick milk of 2 Tablespoons Cashew Butter to 2 cups of water. I then added 1 banana, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 Tablespoon raw honey and 1 Tablespoon lecithin. It made 4 cups.

For the tamales I processed 5 cups defrosted corn kernels with 1/2 cup pinenuts, 1 1/2 cups cashews, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, 1 teaspoon sea salt and 1 handful of cilantro. I mixed that with the dehydrated mushrooms I had started earlier in the day and the oil from the mushroom dehydrating tray and one more cup of defrosted corn kernels. I filled each corn husk with up to 1/2 of a cup of the tamale mixture, folded the bottom of the corn husk and folded over the sides and then tied it with a doubled 1/4 inch by 4 inch strip of  corn husk and set it to dehydrate at 105 for two hours. I had to put an empty tray above the tamales because some were a little fatter than fit properly in the tray. It made 8 tamales.

Next time I think I will make it into patties or something like that so that I don't have to go to the trouble of wrapping them in the corn husks. It was a nice presentation but in the end it didn't make it any better and did make it harder to eat because it doesn't form a solid dough like tamales normally do. The flavor was outstanding though, so I will make this again, and fairly often.

About 5 hours into dehydrating the spicy crackers I turned them over and scored the still damp side into rectangles of about 1 inch by 1 1/4 inch. I tasted one piece that seemed close to thoroughly dried and while it tasted good it seemed like it needed more salt so I lightly sprinkled salt over all of them before returning them to dehydrate for another two hours. I then broke them apart into crackers and placed them on the trays that are perforated and let them dehydrate another two hours. Spicy and delicious, crisp all the way through.

At the same time that I scored the crackers I set the corn husks into a casserole pan, filled it half way up with hot tap water and set a light weight on them to keep them submerged. I also tasted the mushrooms to see how they were coming along--yummy is how.

For the mole sauce I used the Raw Food/ Real World recipe on page 198. I made several modifications in order to use ingredients I had on hand. (my daughter thinks it needs more chocolate, if you thinks so also you could add extra tablespoons of cocoa)

I soaked 3 dried chiles, one of which was ancho, the other two were chiles from my garden last year that I had dried, although I don't know what kind they are, 3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds, 3/4 cup raisins and 1/2 teaspoon cumin in enough water to cover for two hours. I then processed all of it, including the water until it was a fine slurry. To that I added 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder, 1/8 cup pecan butter and 1/8 cup cashew butter, 2 Tablespoons hemp seed oil and 1 teaspoon sea salt. I had to process it on high for about five minutes. I don't know how your food processor will fare but mine splattered the mole sauce out the sides until I covered the lid with a towel and held that in place. This mole sauce was another winner from the Raw Food/ Real World cookbook, creamy and delicious!

I served the tamales with jicama, red bell pepper and celery sticks.

So far every recipe I have made from Raw Food/Real World has turned out excellently. The dishes are very, very tasty and well balanced even with the modifications. I will continue to use this book for awhile.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 10

Raw Diet Day 10:

Late last night I was craving some milk so I made almond milk. I blended 1 cup raw almonds with 4 cups water until all of the almond was in tiny little bits. I added 2 Tablespoons raw honey and a scant teaspoon vanilla extract. I then strained it three times. It was quite tasty and curbed my craving. It made 4 cups and I drank 2. It also left me with several cups of almond meal that I dehydrated for a few hours at 105. The resulting meal measured 2 cups. I used those two cups of meal to make Spicy Flax and Herb Crackers from Raw Food/Real World, on pg. 300. Because I didn't have the same ingredients on hand I used:

2 cups almond meal
1 Tablespoon Muir Glen Organic Tomato Paste
1 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 Yellow Bell Pepper
1/2 Orange Bell Pepper
1/2 Serrano Chili
2 cups Brown Flaxseed, ground
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1 Tablespoon Cumin powder
1 scant teaspoon ground Red Pepper
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt (plus half a teaspoon upon tasting)
1 handful of fresh Basil

I mixed the almond meal, flax, dried herbs and salt in a large mixing bowl. I processed the rest of the ingredients in the food processor until broken down into tiny bits. I then mixed them together. I lightly oiled a fruit roll sheet with Eden Olive Oil and spread the mixture to about 1/4 inch thick on two sheets. They are dehydrating at 105. After 6 hours I will flip them out onto a board, break or cut them into cracker sized pieces and then dry them another 6 hours or so. The most challenging part of the recipe was evenly spreading the dough onto the sheet because it took awhile to get it done. Probably if I used teflex sheets in a square shaped dehydrator it would be easier. I'll let you know how they come out.

I also made the mushroom filling for the tamales we'll be having tonight. This recipe is also found in the Raw Food/Real World book, page 197. The filling was super simple, but again I didn't have the same ingredients. I used the following:

2 cups White Mushrooms, stems removed, cut into small sticks
1/2 cup Hempseed Oil
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
2 1/2 Tablespoons dried whole Oregano
1 teaspoon Sea Salt

Mixed it all together and am dehydrating it for 12 hours. The initial taste was great so I imagine after it is all done it will be excellent.

I am not particularly hungry today but for breakfast I had a Banana Milk Shake.
Using the almond milk for last night I blended 2 cups almond milk and1 banana until frothy. Very yummy!

I will post again tonight to let you know how the tamales and chips turn out.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Frugal Feeds | First Stab at Taco's

The taco's were quite tasty despite the lousy tortilla's. Here's what I did:

Taco Filling

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (not raw)

1 Tablespoon Golden Miso

2 teaspoons Ground Cumin

2 teaspoons Crushed Dried Chipolte

2 teaspoons Ground Coriander

1 teaspoon Red Pepper

2 Tablespoons Hemp Oil

2 Tablespoons Bragg's Aminos

Mixed all together until evenly incorporated. Dehydrated at 105 for 4 hours.

Taco's were filled with the nut mixture, 1/4 sliced avocado, thinly sliced sweet onion, thinly sliced sweet red bell pepper, squeeze of lime, shredded lettuce and cilantro leaves. Serves 4, two taco's each.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 9

Raw Diet Day 9:


For breakfast I wasn't very hungry so just had an orange.

For lunch I was pretty hungry so had a smoothie made up of a cup of blueberries, a cup of pineapple, 1/2 of a bosc pear and a half inch of ginger. Along with that I was craving Indonesia-style noodles so I mixed together 2 Tablespoons raw pecan butter, about a 1/4 teaspoon fresh green chili, juice from 1/16th of a lime, 1/4 cup shredded coconut and Braggs Amino Acids, to taste, maybe 1/2 a teaspoon? I rinsed kelp noodles under hot water, drained them and then tossed with the pecan sauce. Pretty good. Met my craving for the Indo-sauce even without peanuts. I really enjoyed the kelp noodles. They had the right mouth feel and they had a crispness to them that was refreshing. I will use those again. At my local store it was just over $2 for the 2.5 ounce serving, so alot higher than regular ramen noodles but they were filling, healthy, raw and thoroughly enjoyable and they didn't leave a heavy feeling in my stomach afterward.

Tonight we are going to have tacos. I have seen many recipes that call for raw corn and ground flaxseed in a 10 part corn, 1 part flax ratio for making raw corn tortillas. I used one of those recipes, pureed the corn with the flax and placed it on teflex trays at 105 for 6 hours and then flipped them for another two hours. Lousy! They are probably going to work for tonights dinner but the taste and texture are poor at best and they stick terribly to your teeth! Think of lumpy fruit roll ups--extra dried out-- and you'd have an idea of the texture. Fruit roll ups would make better tortillas than these. Anyway, I'll be trying a different recipe next time. So far I haven't had much luck with other people's recipes. When I wing it the food generally turns out pretty good, but when I use recipes from the many books I have checked out on this diet they are either very complicated with hard to find exotic ingredients or they just don't work very well, with just a few exceptions.

I do like the book I got today though, Raw Food real world by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngallis. It seems to have the best recipes I have seen yet. Unfortunately for tonights tacos I didn't get this until today so I can't use their tortilla recipe this time around. I will be using their taco filling recipe except that I will use walnuts instead of sunflower seeds. And I am going to try their Tart Sour Cream made up of macadamia nuts and cashews (pg. 303), so we'll see how it all turns out. If I find their recipes to my liking I see that they have a few more cookbooks that came after this one that I can try too.

I still haven't figured out what is up with my camera so I will probably not be taking pictures today. I may try using my cell phone in the interim. The picture quality won't be great but it won't be blurry.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 8

Raw Diet Day 8:

Although not very hungry this morning I had 2 Banana Nut Bread Inspired Cups and a glass of water for breakfast. They turned out to taste very much like traditional Banana Nut Bread with some texture difference, particularly in the center. The outsides tasted exactly like the traditional version. I think that if I had flattened out the scoops to make them into disks they would be a match for traditional Banana Nut Bread, so I will try doing that next time. As they are the centers are a bit doughy.

For lunch I blended together tomatoes, celery, spinach, garlic, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and then warmed it to 100 degrees. It tasted similar to V-8 juice so I added an avocado for creaminess. Pretty yummy!

For dinner we will be having the nut loaf with ketchup and a side salad.

Today makes the beginning of the second week on the raw diet. So far it feels really good and I have lost two pounds.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 7

Raw Diet Day 7:

For dinner last night I wasn't much hungry and I wanted something salty so I soaked some seaweed for an hour, drained it and tossed it with some Bragg's Amino Acids, making about a cup of simple seaweed salad. The seaweed I used was supposed to be kombu, which I often use, but I don't think it could have been. The brand I normally buy was sold out at the store so I picked it up in the bulk bin at the Co-op. I think they had mislabeled it though. I have had kombu salad dozens of times and it has never been slimy at all, but this was revoltingly slimy. I ended up re-rinsing it 4 times just so that it was edible, but it wasn't tasty at all. I'll stick to the brand name sea weed from here on out.

Aside from that I also had two of the throw together cookies two hours apart so that I could see how they were progressing in their dehydrating. They ended up tasting tangy like tart green apples so with the cinnamon and coconut they are reminiscent of baked apples yet slightly chewy like macaroons. Not bad. I think next time I will try figs or dates though. It is good, just not great.

Today marks the first day of my spouse joining me on the raw diet. He is committed to two weeks of the trial. His first day he wants to do a water fast.
For breakfast I had 5 throw together cookies, 1 small banana and 1/2 cup of banana chips with a glass of water.

For lunch I had 1/2 cup of raw almonds and 5 throw together cookies.

I made Banana Bread Inspired Breakfast Cups since I know my spouse likes banana bread. They take awhile to dehydrate so we'll have them for breakfast tomorrow.

(again...sorry about the image quality, still can't figure out what is wrong w/ the camera)

Banana Bread Inspired Breakfast Cups


3 ripe Bananas
1/4 c. Water
1/2 c. Raw Cashew Butter
1/4 c. Raw Honey
1/2 teaspoon ground Cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Allspice
1 cup Coconut Flour
1 cup Pecans, chopped
Coconut Oil

Process the bananas, cashew butter, honey and spices until a smooth batter is formed. Mix in the coconut flour. Fold in the pecans. Lightly grease 10 cups of a muffin pan with the coconut oil. Using a 1/3 cup scoop (disher) place one scoop of banana batter in each cup. Dehydrate overnight. Serves 10.


I also made a Meatloaf Inspired Nut Loaf:



1/2 of a Bell Pepper
1 large stalk Celery
1/2 of a Sweet Onion
 1 clove Garlic
About 1 Tablespoon Rosemary
6 Basil leaves
1/2 cup Parsley
About 2 cups White Mushrooms
1/4 cup Bragg's Amino Acids
Scant 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
Several grindings of Black Pepper

1 heaping cup Raw Walnuts, soaked for 2 hours
1 heaping cup Raw Almonds, soaked for 2 hours
1 heaping cup Raw Sunflower Seeds, soaked for 2 hours

Puree vegetables, herbs and spices. Set aside. Process the nuts starting with the walnuts, until coarsely chopped, then add the almonds and process until coarsely chopped, then add the sunflower seeds and process until the nut mixture has become a coarse paste. Add to the pureed vegetables and mix until fully incorporated. It will be a thick mix but not stiff. I put mine into a parchment paper lined pyrex casserole, with the parchment draping up the sides, and spread the mixture out to the sides. Dehydrate at 100 degrees for 16 hours. Every 4 hours or so place a new piece of parchment paper on top and carefully flip the nutloaf over and place back in the casserole dish. Remove the old parchment paper by peeling off carefully. Top with Raw Barbeque Sauce or Ketchup. Serves 8.

I tasted the banana bread mixture and nut loaf mixture frequently and probably had 1/3 cup of the banana bread mixture and about 1/3 cup of the nut loaf mixture. I'll be having a light salad for dinner tonight and a serving of the Raw Cacao Mousse.