Back at it.

As much as we would have liked to move back to Portland this summer, the opportunities just weren't there at this time. I began working remotely for a start-up web firm that is based in Portland but wanted to be sure it was a stable opportunity before I finished packing up the house and moving the family. It is a really good thing that I did because six weeks after starting, everyone was laid off. The company thinks that they will be back up and running in December.

We have decided to stay in Ashland at least through the Fall term and may move to Portland in December if we find a stable position. In the mean time I have signed on to consult for a local published author on her next series of health and nutrition books. She has a really great concept with these!Eventually we will put up some of the recipes here so you can get a taste of what her books are all about. I think you will love them!

Frugal Feeds | Blog Hiatus, sort of...

So, since I last blogged we have decided that we are going to move back to Portland very soon. I have been busy packing and planning for the move and haven't been blogging about food here. I will once again as soon as we are established up there. In the meantime you can keep up with my creative side and the move at http://auntieandie.blogspot.com/

I'll be back by Fall. Have a great summer!

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 40

For breakfast today I made a smoothie of banana's and a Thai coconut. You can find the recipe here. It makes four servings. It is mild and creamy and only slightly sweet.

I watched a very sweet documentary called To Be and To Have. It is a French film about a small school in rural France. The one room school house holds 13 students from age 3 to 10 with a truly remarkable teacher. He epitomizes the strength and good nature that constitutes a wonderful teacher. There isn't a traditional story line in it, just viewing segments of the teacher and students lives over the course of a year. I would highly recommend it if you can stand to watch a film with subtitles.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 39

Raw Diet Day 39:

For breakfast I made a tonic juice. The balance of potassium, calcium and diuretic properties of celery, cucumber and parsley, when combined into a drink help flush out retained water, relieve some pain and flush the liver and kidneys. I was out of apples so I used 1 cup concord grapes, 1 cucumber, 3 stalks celery, 1 handful of parsley and an inch of ginger. It was a mild drink but when made with an apple instead of grapes it is very tasty and less army green, more like a mint green. I picked up some apples afterward.

This would also be very good with mint instead of ginger.
For lunch I had another tonic juice, this time with a large braeburn apple instead of the grapes.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 38

Raw Diet Day 38:

For breakfast this morning I had a ruby juice of 1 green apple, 1 red apple, half of a large beet, 1 large carrot, a handful of parsley and 1 inch of ginger.

For lunch I had a smoothie of 1 cup macadamia milk, 1 large banana and 1/2 cup each of cranberries and blueberries. It made two servings.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 37

Raw Diet Day 37:

For breakfast I didn't have an appetite again so I just had an orange.

For snack I had three nutmeal cocoa cookies.
For lunch I needed something savory, warm and starchy but couldn't think of anything raw that meet that craving so I had 1/2 of a cup of fat free vegetarian refried beans.

For dinner tonight I was out of town so went to the Extreme Juice booth at the mall and got a salad and a pineapple mango smoothie. The salad was good but when I took a sip of the smoothie I was struck by a cloying sweetness that I figured must be corn syrup. Although the whole booth has banners and signs stating that they have fresh fruit smoothies there, after talking to the clerk I found out that only their orange juice and pineapple juice are fresh, the rest are sucrose, fructose and maltose sweetened sherbets. Totally bogus! So, yet another place I won't be buying from. It is astonishing to me how many companies pass off their smoothies as fresh but instead use sweetened puree or sherbet instead.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 36

Raw Diet Day 36:

Wasn't hungry this morning so just had a carrot.

I made a quart of macadamia nut milk. You can find the recipe here.

For lunch I made a smoothie of 1 extra large banana, 1 cup blueberries, 2 cups of macadamia milk. I had half for lunch and my daughter had the other half.

In the garden I found a problem that is going to take some work to resolve. The straw bales that I bought were supposed to be seed free, and soaking the bales and letting them bake for a week should have killed any remaining seeds, but unfortunately it didn't. Yesterday the straw bales were suddenly popping up tons of hay sprouts. I will have to pull out all that I can and cover the bales with plastic to knock down any further growth. I'll let you know if it works.

In the afternoon I made some large brownie type cookies to use up the nut meal I had left over from making nut milks.

2 cups Nut Meal, a mix of almond meal and macadamia meal
3 Tablespoons Flax Meal, soaked in 1/4 cup warm water for 3 minutes
1/2 cup Coconut flour
1/2 cup Dates, chopped
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Two pinches of Sea salt
1/4 cup Raw honey, approximately
1/2 cup Cacao powder

1 Tablespoon per cookie of chocolate ganache or sprinkles

Mix all ingredients except chocolate ganache or sprinkles. Using a large disher scoop out 14 cookies onto a dehydrator sheet. Flatten each cookie slightly. If using sprinkles add them to the top of the cookies now. Using the bottom of a glass tumbler press top of each cookie until it spreads to about 1/3 inch thick and the sprinkles stick to the surface of the cookie. If using ganache, dip tumbler into cocoa powder and then press the tops of the cookies. Do this for each cookie. Spread 1 Tablespoon of ganache on each cookie. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 6 hours or until slightly crisp and no longer sticky in the middle. The edges are a little dry but they are chewy, chocolaty and sweet.

Goes great with a cup of macadamia milk!

Dinner tonight was a salad of mixed lettuces, jicama, red bell pepper, alfalfa sprouts, peas and hemp nuts.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 35

Raw Diet Day 35:

For breakfast today I had ruby zing juice, which is one large apple, 1 handful of parsley, 2 carrots, 1/2 of a large beet and 1 inch of ginger root. The color matches my car :)

Other than removing the frost blanket and watering the potted plants there wasn't anything to do in the garden today. The garden is full of little sprouted plants and a few of the peat pots indoors are starting to show the beginnings of sprouts as well.

For lunch I had a smoothie made of one large banana, 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup cherries and 1/4 cup chocolate chips.

We stopped at a store to look for heirloom parsley seeds, which we found, and also found stevia plants. I had been looking for stevia for the last month but didn't see any until today. I will keep the stevia plants indoors until the weather warms up quite a bit. I will soak the parsley seeds tomorrow and sow them on Tuesday. Parsley is difficult to get growing, but once it does it is pretty easy to keep going. I have traditional curly parsley and heirloom triple curled parsley.

For dinner I had a large salad with peas, lettuce, sunflower seeds, tomato, guacamole and beets.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 34

Raw Diet Day 34:

A heavy frost developed overnight so I was eager to check on the the little seedlings. The fleece blankets are working very well and the seedlings are doing just fine. Several more sprouts came up over night as well.
This morning was the first morning in a few days that I didn't hear the turkey gobbling at the crack of dawn. I suspect he has moved on to a new neighborhood. Too bad really, it would have been neat to have a family of wild turkeys around.

For breakfast I had a juice of 1 braeburn apple, 2 carrots, a handful of parsley and an inch of ginger.

For lunch I had the berry and banana smoothie with blackberries, raspberries and cranberries and almond milk, almond butter and almond meal. It is very tasty and satisfying.

Dinner tonight will be a mixed sprout salad with red bell pepper and jicama, and the cup of peas, Tablespoon of hempseed and 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 33

I have decided to make certain foods and recipes my staples and strive to have those each day. For breakfast I'll often have ruby zing juice with parsley added. For lunch I"ll have smoothies made up of one banana, 1 cup berries, 1 cup nut milk, 1 Tablespoon nut meal and 1 Tablespoon raw honey.

For dinner I will have 1 cup of peas, 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, 1 Tablespoon hemp nuts, 1 red bell pepper, 1/2 cup of alfalfa sprouts, 1/2 cup of lentil or other bean sprouts.

Snacks and desserts will be made of raw crackers, cookies or coconut puddings.

I can vary these things to include in season produce to keep them interesting and nutritionally diverse. This composition of meals gives me 100% or more of every nutrient except Riboflavin (63%), niacin (75%), B12 (0%), calcium (33%), iron (76%), zinc (52%) and selenium (60%) (From NutritionData, does not include hemp seed values). With a simple multi-vitamin I will have those covered as well.

For breakfast I made a juice of 1 large braeburn apple, a handful of parsley, 2 carrots, 1/2 of a beet and 1 inch of ginger.

For lunch I made a smoothie of one banana, 1 Tablespoon or raw honey, 1 Tablespoon of raw almond butter, 1 cup of almond milk, 1/4 cup of raspberries, 1/4 cup of blackberries, 1/2 cup of cranberries and 1 Tablespoon of almond meal. 

For snack I had 4 raw coconut cookies made of coconut, raw honey and cocoa. Later I had 3 small slices manna banana bread with almond butter and one with a Tablespoon of Nancy's cream cheese.

For dinner I made a salad of  1 cup peas, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 2 Tablespoon hemp seed, 1/2 cup of sprouted lentils and mung beans, 1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts, 1 Tablespoon of hemp oil and sea salt with black pepper.

For  dessert I had  3/4 cup banana chips.

I planned on having seaweed with my salad tonight but the mixed seaweed I bought today was spoiled.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 32, Month Two, First Months Recap

Today's entry will be long because it recaps the first month of transition to a raw foods diet and explores what the next month will entail. If you just want to know the gist of today's diet and progress please scroll down to the bottom of the page.

On March 8th I began my transition to a raw foods diet. Today marks the beginning of the second month. In the first month I saw some truly remarkable changes that convinced me that this way of eating is a match for my goals of better health, high energy, low pain and weight loss.

Losing weight?
I did lose weight on the diet, five pounds as of today, something I have seriously struggled with despite a very healthy diet for the last eleven years and never permanently losing any weight in the past. My caloric intake on the raw diet is consistent with what my caloric intake has been daily for the last four years. On average I gained three pounds a year starting in 1998. At that time I was vegetarian, several years later I went vegan for two years because the vegetarian diet wasn't solving my weight problems. I returned to a vegetarian diet when the vegan diet made no positive difference either. I went the complete opposite way for three months and tried the Atkins diet because my doctor told me I had to cut out carbs from my diet. I did lose some weight for a while on that but felt terrible so I stopped. I then went to eating based on the food pyramid and stayed there until starting this raw diet. None of these other plans worked to help me lose weight and feel good. Only the raw diet has done that.

Managing nutrition:
On the raw diet my fat intake is significantly higher and my protein intake is significantly lower. I am missing vitamin B12 through the entire month so beginning this month I will be taking a multivitamin to fill in any gaps. For the protein I will start bumping up the sprouts, add a cup of raw peas to every salad, add hemp nuts regularly and start adding greens to all of my smoothies. I am going to strive to have a full serving of sea vegetables every week also.

Does this diet work?
I feel absolutely amazing, literally better than I have felt in over 20 years. The energy is abundant and the strength lasts all day long.

What now:
Now at the end of the first month I can look back and see that I am leaps and bounds ahead of where I have been.

Where I have failed to meet my goals:
Foremost is that I did not constantly eat a 100% raw diet. Particularly during the week that I was sick it was too difficult for me to make the raw foods that keep the diet diverse (not boring) and with a queasy stomach I could not find raw foods that were starchy, palatable and easy to digest. I learned that I need to have some raw foods made ahead of time and stored, like raw crackers, to be ready for those times. I also need to make a habit of making nut milk twice a week at least so that I always have it on hand. I need to make a day of putting together dehydrated snacks, not just dehydrated fruits but also cookies, bars, sweets, etc. Things that I need to have on hand when a sweet craving or crunchy craving hits and I am too busy or too impatient to wait 12 hours to satisfy a craving. I also need to make sure that I keep several cups of several nuts, several bananas, nut butters, raw honey, apples, carrots, ginger, prepared lettuces, avocados, jicama, bell peppers, sprouts, sea weed, frozen berries and frozen peas in the house all of the time so that I can throw something together anytime. Days that were busy or days when I was too sick to go to the store meant that I would end up eating things that were either not satisfying or didn't meet my nutritional goals for the day. I need to think of all of these things as pantry staples from now on.

Having my family join me on this transition. It is hard enough to commit yourself to making raw meals every day but add on three other people that you are preparing meals for and it becomes overwhelming. While it is a little bit of a hassle to make a quart of nut milk twice a week, it is quite a big deal to make a gallon or more twice a week. In making a quart the recipe fits nicely into the blender, is easy to strain and fills a canning jar perfectly. In making a gallon you have to make the batch four times, straining each batch individually and then storing four quarts. Plus the kids drink a lot more milk than we do, so it goes much faster. It is easy to buy processed nut milks for the kids in aseptic containers that store in the cupboard until ready to be used. I found these kinds of complications to almost derail my own efforts so again I realized that one life change at a time is enough. Once I totally get the hang of this diet I can help my family do the same. If it is so overwhelming that I end up not doing it I end up not helping anyone.
How do I feel about the diet and what is next?
Outside of these areas I feel that I met my goals and am very happy with the results overall.

Raw Diet Day 32:
And finally, here is today's snippet about what I had:

For breakfast I had one banana and a handful of raw sunflower seeds.

For snack I had half of an avocado and 1 ounce of raw goats milk mozzarella cheese.

At lunch I made a quart of almond milk using 1 cup of almonds, 4 cups of water and 2 Tablespoons raw honey. I drank one cup of the raw almond milk mixed with a shot of espresso and was not hungry for anything else. (Espresso is not raw).

In the garden there are many sprouts so it looks like the little seeds weathered the sudden snow and cold snap just fine. I am still needing to put on the frost blankets each night and often each day though. Today we had periods of rain, sleet, snow, hail, high gusts of wind and bright, warm sunny weather. An expected pattern of weather for this part of the country in April. The last frost day is usually around April 15th so this crazy back and forth weather pattern shouldn't last too much longer. (Although I remember a few years ago when we suddenly had over a foot of snow in May, so no guarantees).

If you are trying your first garden make sure to check the weather regularly or risk having to start all over in June. The potted tomato plant I put out several weeks ago is an example of this. Although I bring it in when there is a cold snap it isn't tolerating the changes in temperature and light and has started to develop leaf curl. This begins in the lower branches initially and at first the leaves curl upward but as the problem worsens the leaves curl and roll downward/inward. If the weather stabilizes then the plant may come through just fine within a few weeks but it may not.

This is a typical problem with certain varieties of tomatoes but not with others. Another reason why you will always want to sow more seeds than the number of plants you want. By the time they are strongly established you can remove the plants that didn't grow well. Also it is why you want to sow a few varieties of each crop. Some varieties will not do well in the same soil and weather that others will. When I post the full list of seeds sown you will see that I have at least two varieties sown of every vegetable and with the cantaloupes I have six. I have had the most difficult time getting cantaloupes to grow here in southern Oregon while I couldn't get them to stop growing and producing in Portland. This year I decided to try multiple varieties so that I could determine which grow best in the environment I am providing.

For dinner tonight I will be having four cups of green leaf lettuce mixed with an avocado, tomato, red bell pepper, zucchini, 1 cup defrosted frozen peas and about 1/2 of a cup of raw sunflower seeds. I really enjoy the taste, texture and mouth feel of combining the acid of the tomato, the creaminess of the avocado, the sweet and crunch of the bell peppers and the creamy nubby texture of the nuts or seeds. It is a composition I frequently duplicate because it is so completely satisfying.

Raw seaweed is shown to create a new enzyme in human digestion

In a report published in the New Scientist today it was revealed that raw seaweed helped create the living enzymes in people that allows for the breakdown of carbohydrates in seaweed. People studied in North America did not have the enzyme while people in Japan, who average over 14 grams of seaweed consumption per day, did. Read more here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18745-japanese-gut-bacteria-gain-special-powers-from-sushi.html

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 31

Raw Diet Day 31:

I slept well until 5:30 when the wild turkey in the neighborhood started gobbling and my dog responded vociferously each time. :) Got back to sleep around 6 and slept until 7. I went out to the garden and removed the frost blankets and saw that the radishes and herbs were beginning to come up.

The rain was gone and in its place was a warm, sunny day. I used the energy to finally get all of the seeds started in peat pellets and peat pots. I filled half of each pot with planting soil and the top half with seed starting soil. Thirty-eight pots of seeds and 8 peat pellets. I now have all of peppers, tomatoes, melons, squash and corn started. They will be ready to plant outside on May 8th.

For breakfast I had one green apple and 2 Tablespoons of almond butter.

For lunch I had a smoothie composed of 1 banana, 1/2 cup of coconut milk and 1 cup of apple juice.

For dinner I had a salad of three cups of mixed lettuces, 1 medium tomato, 1 avocado, two kalamata olives, 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds, 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Very yummy.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 30

Raw Diet Day 30:

Last night I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep so didn't fall asleep until after 1:30. Around 4:30 in the morning there was a tremendous commotion that woke me up. My dog was barking his head off and I could hear my husband in the living room speaking to someone. Turns out that a homeless man had been found sleeping in our old Jeep Grand Wagoneer by the local police. Several months ago I had a feeling that someone was sleeping in it. Not because anything was ever moved or stolen from it but because one of the passenger doors was regularly left ajar, as if someone had tried to close the door quietly. I moved the Jeep from further down the street, where it was normally parked, to right in front of our house. The doors remained unlocked because it is an old thing and the locks don't always work. After I moved it I did not see the door ajar again. Periodically I would check the contents but only notice that the sweatshirt that lays on top of the front seats arm rest was disturbed. If the person detained last night is the same person who has been sleeping there all along he is an honest person down on his luck. The reason I say this is because in the console is at least $5 in coins that have never been touched, not even a nickle. Also, because the vehicle is old I keep a large amount of tools and equipment in there, in case of a breakdown, and those too have never been touched. We didn't press charges but he was arrested because he had been found "camping" inside the city limits and had been found sleeping previously in a university vehicle. I guess I can only say that I hope life turns around for him soon.

For breakfast I had two Wasa rye crispbreads spread with several Tablespoons of raw almond butter, 1/2 Tablespoon of raw honey, 1 banana and 1/2 of a cup of golden raisins. For morning snack I had the same.
For lunch my husband brought home sushi and pot stickers. I had 10 small salmon and tuna sushi pieces and 5 baked vegetarian pot stickers.

In the afternoon I had quite a thrilling surprise. I was doing some light yard work in the backyard getting the garden uncovered from the frost protection when I heard a very loud flapping sound just over my head. I looked up to see the belly and spread wings of a wild turkey not even three feet above my head!!! What a beautiful creature! He landed between my straw bale garden and the compost pile. I didn't even know that we had turkeys around here. It is the first time I have ever seen one in person and I have lived in Southern Oregon for 9 years now. I didn't have my camera on me so I took my dog in the house (he really wanted to check out this huge bird that is quite nearly as big as him!) and got the camera but when I went back out he was nowhere to be seen. While looking for him I noticed that the wild apple tree in the field behind our yard was in bloom and thought it would be nice to get some pictures of that. While taking the pictures of the apple blossoms, lo and behold, I heard the tell-tale sound of frantic flapping again behind me. I swung around just in time to get a few pictures of the poor turkey running for his life away from me! I hope you enjoy these :)

And away he goes!!....Sure got my adrenalin pumping!

We took our guinea pig in for his second shot in the series. He is doing remarkably better but as the mites die his fur is coming off with the healing skin so he is looking like he is much worse but acting like he feels amazingly better. One more shot next week and then a few weeks of medicine and he'll be right as rain.

Tonight we are having large mixed lettuce salads with tomato, red bell pepper, avocado and green onions tossed with lime juice. Also we'll be having a juice of 5 carrots an apple and ginger.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 29, Week Four, Day One

Raw Diet Day 29, Week Four, Day One:

Happy Easter. Didn't add a blog for Easter so here it is, with today's...

I spent some time looking for unusual fruit and vegetable seeds online. The ones I found most interesting ones were the Tigger Melon, Purple Haze Carrot,  Purple Dragon Carrot, Poona Kheera Cucumber, Hmong Red Cucumber (huge, looks yellow/orange though), Pepino Melon, Strawberry Spinach and White Caroline Strawberries with red seeds. Check out Dave's Garden for lots of information on the plants you are growing or considering growing. Many are reviewed by growers and the review is listed by location. A good place to find reputable sources for fruit seeds is Cornell University's page and their vegetable pages are a wealth of information.

While I kept my calories within the daily range of 1500-1900 (1650 for the day) I did not focus on the raw diet. I ate 4 cups of fresh fruit salad with melons, apples, pineapple and grapes for breakfast. For lunch I had one half of a large avocado with sea salt and two Tablespoons of almonds. We all snacked through the day on chocolate, peeps and cookies. For dinner we had roasted chicken and potatoes. Not a particularly healthy day but not a feast of over-consumption that it has often been in the past.

I didn't have any appetite today so didn't have breakfast or morning snack but for lunch I had one tomato.
For dinner I had a salad made of four cups mesclun lettuces, 1 cup alfalfa sprouts, 1 tomato, 3 Tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 cup kalamata olives, 2 Tablespoons capers, 1 cup baby carrots and 1/2 cup of sugar snap peas.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 27

Raw Diet Day 27:

I wasn't hungry in the least for breakfast so I just made myself eat half of an orange.
For lunch I made a juice of 1 gala apple, 1/2 an inch of ginger and about 1/4 cup of mint. Apple. mint and ginger are good for sour stomachs. It made one cup of juice. Ginger also helps relieve cold and flu symptoms. I did not strain the juice this time so accurate nomenclature would be that I made a soft "cider" of the apple, ginger and mint.

A few hours later I made a cereal of 1/2 cup of Ezekiel 4:9 Golden Flax sprouted whole grain cereal, 1/2 cup of mixed raisins, 1/2 cup of soy milk (I was out of nut milks and not up for making a new batch) and 2 Tablespoons of molasses. Not really a raw meal but a nutrient dense meal that was easy on my stomach.

Later I had the other half of the orange from this morning and a banana.

At dinner I made a soup of five juiced carrots, 1/2 cup of coconut and a half teaspoon of red curry paste. Unfortunately my food processor attachment on my Oster quit working so I changed everything to my Black and Decker but halfway through processing that one suddenly poured the soup out of the bottom of it all over my counter and cabinets. It had evidently developed a crack that broke through. So that whole dish was wasted. My spouse kindly went to the store and got me comfort food of seltzer water, some potatoes and some roasted chicken. Again, not a raw meal.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 26

Raw Diet Day 26:

The storm that came in was blowing pretty hard this morning but the garden is still covered since I put some basins from my potted plants on top of the covers to anchor them yesterday.

For breakfast I had the second serving of the papaya apricot smoothie I made for dessert last night.

For lunch I had the remaining two servings of the nut stuffed zucchini. It didn't taste nearly as good as yesterday. It is a dish enhanced by the fresh flavors.

I read Mother Earth News blogs about forgotten herbs and vegetables in between naps until the night, interesting reading.

For snack I had one valencia orange, two small pieces of chocolate and two Tablespoons almonds.

For dinner I had 2 cups of salad with 1/4 of an avocado and 2 slices of tomato with three tablespoons of stewed chicken and one ounce of dried beef.

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 25

Raw Diet Day 25:

For breakfast I made a juice of 2 apples, 2 carrots, 1 medium beet and 1 inch of ginger. 

For Lunch I made a smoothie of 1 cup of macadamia nut milk, 1 cup of frozen raspberries, 2 Tablespoons honey and 2 cups of skinned, seeded papaya. It made two servings, one for lunch and one for snack. You can find the recipes here.

For dinner I made Stuffed Zucchini although they weren't really stuffed because they were small zucchini. I used three small zucchini sliced lengthwise. For the stuffing I mixed together 1/2 a cup of chopped walnuts, 1 Tablespoon of raw almond butter, 1 Tablespoon Braggs Liquid Amino's, 1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms (stems removed, use them for a different recipe), a few grindings of black pepper, 1 Tablespoon olive oil a pinch of sage, pinch of rosemary, pinch of marjoram, pinch of oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic. Mix the nut mixture well. I set the zucchini two on each side and one on top and bottom, lengthwise, making a rough rectangle inside a small rectangular casserole dish. Sprinkle the zucchini lightly with sea salt. In the center of the rectangle I spread out the nut mixture. I placed this in the oven on the warm setting with the door open. My oven thermometer reads a little bit over 100 degrees when I do this. I let it dehydrate for 2 1/2 hours. It makes three servings. You can find the recipe here.

For dessert I made a smoothie of 1 cup frozen apricots, 1 cup macadamia milk, 1 Tablespoon raw honey, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract and 2 cups papaya. Made two servings, one for dessert, the other will keep for breakfast.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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.

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)	Peach	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apple	93
3	Sweet Bell Pepper	83
4	Celery	82
5	Nectarine	81
6	Strawberries	80
7	Cherries	73
8	Kale	69
9	Lettuce	67
10	Grapes - Imported	66
11	Carrot	63
12	Pear	63
13	Collard Greens	60
14	Spinach	58
15	Potato	56
16	Green Beans	53
17	Summer Squash	53
18	Pepper	51
19	Cucumber	50

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.

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.