I Hit a Pothole!

Or should I say SINK HOLE!!!

Sometimes on the roads of life, we hit a pothole. Thanksgiving was a sink hole on my road to rawesome health ... and it took me four days to crawl out.

It started out with good intentions but ...

We had a delicious organic, free-range turkey, two versions of yummy dressing, creamy mashed potatoes, scrumptious sweet potato and orange casserole, fresh green bean casserole, cranberry sauce ... and it was all ohhhh so good.

Then there was dessert, but my demise came with this Ice Cream Casserole:


Our dear neighbor - bless his heart - brought this sinfully delicious dish over. It was layered with ice cream sandwiches, caramel, Butterfingers and Reese's Peanut Butter cups. For someone who has been 98% raw for almost two months, this was like injecting a shot of heroine. SO MUCH SUGAR!!! And the DAIRY!! UGH!!

Well, I started out this morning back on the healing path with this delectable green healing tonic which consists of:

Romaine - handful
Spinach - handful
Parsley - small bunch
Celery - two stalks
Cucumber - half
Mint - small bunch
Green apple - 1
Fuji apple - 1
Carrot stick - 1
Clove of garlic - 1 sm
Ginger - sliver

An example of how detrimental cooked food is for the body, after one day of eating cooked food, I woke up with a food hangover. After two days of eating cooked food I started sneezing, eyes started itching, I started to get congested and my energy level tanked. After four days of eating cooked, my lungs started aching, I began wheezing and coughing up mucus. My vision has deteriorated considerably. I couldn't even drag myself out of bed this morning to go to the gym.

My plan is to fast on green juice, organic lemonade and green smoothies this week to get myself back on track. And then Christmas gets here.

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

Where's the pumpkin?! There is no pumpkin stuff in these muffins! And they don't exactly look very much like a traditional muffin, but they sure are tasty!

These muffins actually contain butternut squash as the main ingredient. I had never done anything with a butternut squash before, and was pleasantly surprised by (1) how much it smelled like cantaloupe, (2) how much it tasted like cantaloupe, and (3) how hard it was. The "meat" of the squash was a beautiful vibrant orange color.

It was quite the challenge to peel one of these things. I tried peeling it with a potato peeler but quickly resorted to a paring knife. Below is a photo of the squash and all of the untensils I used to prepare it before I could run it through the juicer. I had to scoop out all the seeds, much like a cantaloupe!



I wish I would have taken a photo of the "muffins" before I dehydrated them, because they looked much more impressive beforehand.


I also made a Sweet Cashew Cream to top the "muffins" - and I use that term very loosely. I won't post what I call them in the privacy of my home.

These are some pretty darn good raw muffins!

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

I use little candy papers that look like mini pleated cup cake papers.

1 Butternut Squash, peeled
1 ½ cups Raw Walnuts
About 1/3 cup Raw Pecans
3-4 dates, pitted
3 tsp. Pumpkin Spice (or 3 tsp. Allspice and ½ tsp. Ginger)
1 cup Cranberries, chopped

Cut squash into quarters, Peel skin with paring knife, Run through juicer with blank plate on. (For a smallish squash should have about 3-1/2 cups.)

Put all ingredients into food processor with the s blade and blend until smooth. While the blender is on and mixing, add about 1/8 c water. More if needed to make it smooth.

When finished, scrape all ingredients into a bowl, add 1 cup of chopped cranberries and mix in.
Drop mixture by teaspoon to fill the little cups.

Dehydrate for 10-15 hours @ 110 degrees.

Sweet Cashew Cream

2 big handfuls of Cashews, soaked in water for about 1hr.
Juice from ½ Lemon
2-3 TBSP. Agave Nectar
Pure Water

Drain and put nuts in blender with lemon juice and agave.
Add just enough water to get the mixture moving.
*Only add water as needed.

Blend till completely smooth, keeping consistency thick like whip cream. Store in fridge.

Top Pumpkin muffins with cream when they are ready.

Stuffed Mushrooms & Brownies ... Yummm!

I'm so excited. I went to a ladies retreat this weekend with my church family, but since they did not serve "raw" food, I had to bring my own. I tried to keep it simple, so I made some simple stuffed mushrooms by pulsing red pepper, cauliflower and some onion in my Jr. Chopper. Then I scooped out the center of my mushroom and layered spinach on the bottom of the mushroom. I added a spoonful of the chopped veggies, placed a few alfalfa sprouts on top and then drizzled some Balsamic Vinegarette on top. YUMMMM!!! Everyone asked me what I was eating and said it looked delicious. It was!!


For dessert, I found a recipe for brownies and revised it to use almond pulp. My stepson's comment while eating them, "This is ridiculous! These taste like the real thing. Raw food shouldn't taste this good." HA ha! Yay! Success!!

Thinking GREEN

I started making a salad and realized everything at that point was all green, so I decided to go with the flow.  

My salad consists of: 

A bed of romaine 

Alfalfa sprouts

Broccoli florets

Cucumbers slices 

1/2 an avocado 

spring greens

grated zucchini 

a sprig of parsley 

Okay, so much for the salad. Now what about a green dressing? I did a Google search for a raw green salad dressing and at the top of the list of results was this video by the LifeRegenerator. I adapted his dressing and came up with the following: 

Pearly Green Dressing 

1 orange 

1 pear 

1/2 avocado 

1 tsp of fennel 

Blended it all in the VitaPrep and voila! 

Yummy Protein Smoothie

I made the following smoothie before going to the gym this morning with the intention of having it after my workout, but it was so good, I consumed it even before I got out the door. Just couldn't stop myself from drinking it.

Almond Butter Protein Smoothie

2 cups almond milk
2 bananas
2 Tbsp. almond butter
3 dates, pitted
1 heaping Tbsp. of Vanilla Hemp Protein Powder
ice

Blend. It is SOOOOOOO scrumptious!