Greens, Anyone?

Even if you're not following a High Raw diet, green smoothies offer the opportunity to add a wider range of nutrients to your diet in one easily blended drink. Wonder Girl arose from her nap today requesting a green smoothie for lunch. The lovely concoction consisted of kale, spinach, kohl rabi leaves, ground flax seed, hemp oil, and a mix of frozen strawberries, mango and papaya. We don't usually have quite so many ingredients, but we wanted to kick it up a notch.

When I'm feeling less than 100% greens usually help. I had the above smoothie, as well as a juice of apples, lemon, ginger and wheatgrass (that magical green). And I'm feeling super-duper!


Check out the green smoothie video added to the left side bar.

Is Raw Too Expensive?

Our grocery bill has almost doubled since we switched over to Raw Foods, and it wasn't low to begin with. Part of the reason for the increase was that I stocked up on a lot of staples--agave nectar, Raw honey, coconut oil, Raw cacao, raw nuts--and these items can be expensive, especially if you don't know where to shop. Of course, you don't actually need most of them to go Raw, but I took the approach of making our meals very indulgent. It eased our transition.

Now we're bringing the grocery bill down. We receive a basket of organic produce from South Coast Farms each week, for the very reasonable price of about $35 per 30-pound basket. We shop at the local farmer's market. We buy prepared Raw dishes, then figure out how to recreate them at home for a fraction of the price. We eat simpler meals.

Does living off plant parts seem cost prohibitive? Check out this link I found through the Daily Raw Inspiration. LocalHarvest helps you find organic grocers, farmers' markets, CSA programs, and farms in your area. I found a couple of nearby resources that I hadn't known existed.

Yes, it costs somewhat more to eat Real food. I could feed my family a lot more cheaply if we ate from boxes at every meal. But you can make it work--even on a budget--if you learn to work your resources. This month's grocery bill will be more reasonable.

The Best Day Ever!!!

According to Wonder Girl, the best day ever is today, her ninth birthday! A full day of celebrating has left her worn out. We went to the mall for an outfit (a rare treat, as I detest clothes shopping), played CashFlow for Kids a few times (great game for teaching financial principles to kids) and had her best friend, Erica, along with Fierce-as-in-Fabulous Teenager's friend, Kelsey, for dinner, dessert and present-opening.

Sous Chef D, Happy 8th birthday!!!