Archive for the ‘Living raw’ Category

We’ve seen the Iron Man drinking green drinks in his movies – I rememberd a Big Screen Green Drink Alert from the 1999 remake of the Thomas Crowne Affair starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Many times in the movie Rene Russo’s character, Catherine Banning, is seen drinking a thick green drink. Obviously the green smoothie is why she has that sexy trim body!

Another more recent Big Screen Green Drink Alert…

I just saw Queen Latifa in her role as Leslie Wright in Just Wright.  She is a  physical therapist working with an NBA All-Star Scott McKnight. During his recovery she hands him what looks just like a green smoothie. (I’ll post a green smoothie scene pic when I can – this photo is just clipped from the preview).

 Have you seen a green drink on the big screen?

Found the Holy Grail in raw food. The 80/10/10 low fat raw vegan information from Dr. Doug Graham.

Every page I read I wanted to bookmark.  Its informative and backed with tons of research. It’s all about the natural way we are meant to nourish our bodies… and you can find it all at your grocery produce department. You don’t have to order exotic supplements and powders and other fancy raw crap that is being peddled online — know I know why that peddled crap and the way it was marketed always bothered me. It’s because it’s just not natural. It’s not needed. (And OMG someone is actually selling “raw water” now).

When I read that the medical industry has published studies that say diabetics need to eat fruit and stay off the fat – it blew my mind. There are doctors out there telling people to not eat fruit because of the sugar content! When you eat fruit, the body sucks up that awesome juicy nutrition and uses the glucose for energy and the insulin receptors do their job and attach to the sugar and use it and move it out of the system. BUT when you have fat in your system taking forever to digest and get out of the system, the poor little receptors can’t do their job because the fat is blocking them. They are like little fat bouncers standing out front of a tough biker bar shaking their head no. So the sugar floats around wondering what to do. If diabetics stayed off fat, they could get off their meds.

The unusual title of the book refers to getting 80% of calories from carbs (fruit) 10% of our calories from protein (greens) and 10% of our calorie from fat (nuts, avo, seed). See NutritionData.com and NutriDiary.com to check the nutrients from your food. For example here is the nutrient data from my usual green papaya smoothie: 

Papaya Green Smoothie
200 grams papaya (a good full cup cubed)
100 grams banana (one medium about 7″ long)
100 grams romaine (5 or 6 leaves)
2 cups water

Nutrition Data:
Calories – 253
Fat – 1 g
Sodium – 15 mg
Carbs – 65 g
Fiber – 10 g
Sugars – 42 g
Protein – 4 g

Here is the nutrition data on the individual ingredients:

I think this is the way our bodies were biologically designed to eat. Perhaps it’s not for everyone – but if you are a raw foodist that is having difficulty sticking to raw because of cooked food cravings – try low fat raw vegan, read the book. You will see that just eating more fruit obliterates the cooked food craving. And if you are eating 811 and still craving – you aren’t eating enough fruit, get those calories in! When you’re used to always trying to eat low cal, 2000 plus calories a day is hard to wrap your head around.

With all the calories you need to increase your activity – but the cool thing is…you are so full of energy that you just get up and move! You’re body wants to move. And have a total blast when you are consuming so much fruit, people are going to notice. When they see that and say the typical “where do you get your protein?” You can be straight and say “from fruits and vegetables.” Or you can have fun with them and say “How much protein do we need?” They never know. Never once has someone who has asked me that ever has an answer. There is 4 grams of protein in that green smoothie  – and that’s just one meal or a snack. Well, the issue of protein is one for another post another time.

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of my Burger Museum. 2 years ago I bought a cheeseburger and fries at McDonalds…and put it in this jar.

If you compare to the first post of my Burger Museum  you’ll see the cheese now looks a little darker – otherwise, pretty much the same. I dusted this jar for the photo – the grime you see is on the inside. The burger fell about the jar when I took it down from its “show place” (okay, it’s on top of the frige) so I opened it to reposition it and took a whiff to see if it had any odor. It had a slight odd chemical scent.

I got the idea of making my own Burger Museum from watching Morgan Spurlocks movie “Super Size Me.” A thought provoking and a bit scary movie. Watch it and don’t miss the bonus material. Start you’re own burger museum. Check out others by searching on Google for “burger museum” and join the club!

I suggest wearing a disguise to go to your local fast food joint (you know, so your raw food friends won’t see you and point and call the raw food police).

The whole point is to illustrate that this IS NOT FOOD!

Please remember this the next time you’re having some fast food cravings. Drink some water, eat lots of fruit and run, RUN, RUN AWAY – it’s only the drug of junk food wanting it’s fix – don’t feed that fix.

Live raw, live well, eat fresh fruit and dance full of vibrant health.

love,

Julie

Sometimes, when I’m paying attention, I am mesmerized when I slice open some beautiful raw fruits or vegetables. It is all so amazing. I wanted to write about how beautiful it was but the word beautiful just wasn’t enough. I found the word “resplendent” in my Thesauraus: shining brightly; full of splendor; dazzling; splendid. It’s a good word.

There is no question in my mind that fruits, vegetables and greens were created to be resplendent so that we would be attracted to it and and want to eat our fill. It couldn’t be any simpler! Resplendent colors – (open a papaya!); incredible designs -(check out a cauliflower up close); amazing aroma (the list is too long!)

What about nuts and seeds? Look at the regal sunflower with its bright yellow petals. Almond shells hanging on a tree are covered by a thin layer of bright green meat that tastes like a Granny Smith apple. Look at dark green beautifully curly kale, so rich. Now think about that which we shouldn’t be eating… (I started to write some examples, but they weren’t resplendent and I didn’t feel resplendent writing the words.)

Mother Nature gave us a big clue what to eat: it will be resplendent! It can be so simple.

A really cool thing about preparing raw food is that you can keep working with the finished product. I really don’t know what to call it – for example if you cooked a lasagna – you probably couldn’t puree it and re-cook it to create a new meal.

But raw food, for example raw soups you can dehydrate, or add more raw ingredients and dehydrate into a raw cracker. Raw food never needs to go to waste.

I made a few special recipes to take to Thanksgiving with my family, (they were eating cooked). I made a green salad to share that turned out really good.
Chopped romain with pecans, diced tomatoes, diced yellow bell pepper, soaked goji berries, strawberries, cucumbers. With a light balsamic vinegar/olive oil/honey/cinnamon cranberry dressing.

My side dish was Bartlet Pears with Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce and Spiced Ginger Cream. Found the recipe on Gliving.com – this sauce had an amazing flavor!

 I also had a slice of carnival squash topped with raw dressing. Just a few bites of that and I was stuffed! Guess all those nuts fill you up. I soaked the squash in salt water, drained it, dehydrated it for a couple hours which softened it a bit. Then I rubbed it with cumin. The dressing was a handful each of pecans, walnuts, almonds. Processed with a little squash, celery, sage, onion, parsley, salt, pepper. Pretty tasty!

For dessert I had a Mango Cream Tart (also from GLiving.com)

What to do with the leftovers? The squash and stuffing I turned into a savory raw bread! I ran the squash and nut stuffing through my Omega auger juicer to turn it into a paste, adding some left over red and yellow bell pepper. Then I stirred in fresh ground flax seed, the leftover cinnamon cranberry sauce, dulse, kelp, chopped raw olives, sunflower seeds and a little coconut oil. Spread out on 2 teflex sheets and dried at 110 for a few hours.

 I cut it into little squares that remind me of those little “coctail rye” bread loaves. Probably high in calories with all the nuts. So I’ll make them last! Should be good with lettuce and tomato!

The mango tart was only a 6″ tart, but was so filling I only had a sliver. And everyone else was chowing down on 3 different kinds of cooked pies and didn’t try mine…so I had lots left over.

I put the entire tart in a food processor with 2 bananas, a little fresh ground flax seed, vanilla and cinnamon. Spread it on one teflex sheet about 1/2 in thick or less. Dried it at 110 for a few hours. When it was dried enough to handle, I cut it in small squares – spreading honey on some and adding coconut just for fun, (then dried some more).

These turned out good. Probably could have added something to sweeten it more – but I think they will be good as a side to a green salad with pears I think!