More Mango Slaw

A quick treat on my way to a barbecue. This kept me on track, and was easy to prepare.

1/2 bag shredded cole slaw mix

1/4 small yellow onion

about 1 tbsp olive oil

1 mango chopped

1 jalapeño diced

Celtic sea salt

You can up the flavor with chopped cilantro, sliced red peppers, or added spices. What I love about this, is that it takes about 5 minutes to throw together and it travels rather well. It actually tastes better after a couple of hours. Both of my daughters love the sweet and spicy balance of the mango and jalapeño.

Okay, I know the plastic bowl wasn't the best. Let's pretend we didn't see that, shall we?

P.S. Sorry for the awkward formatting--Blogger!

Are You Ready?

If you haven't gotten over to Raw Fu to sign up for Bunny Berry's 100 Day Raw Food Challenge yet, then get your butt over there! Registration closes tonight.

You do NOT have to commit to 100% Raw. You set your own goals. It can be as simple as commiting to starting each day with a green smoothie, or having a salad for lunch every day. She has lots of fun mini-challenges, give-aways and contests. What better way to kick up your Raw food consumption than with the support of 100's of people who are doing the same?

I'm still waffling as to what my actual goals will be, but I'll know by tomorrow!

Horses for Sale

Though I rarely eat animal products, I am not 100% vegan. With that fact in evidence, I just finished watching a recent episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and found myself struggling with the segment on the slaughter of race-weary thoroughbred horses. Apparently owners will sell them to butchers for a few hundred bucks once they feel the horses have outlasted their money-earning utility. They showed footage from the killing process, and several times referred to the fact that the process was designed for cows, not horses. They highlighted individuals and organizations that work to rescue noble steeds from the cow-butchering machine.

Once again, I am not a vegan. Yet, is the hypocrisy here not obvious? What's good for the cow is too cruel for the horses.

Yes, change has to start somewhere, but are we still arguing that horses and cows are so different from each other? In other countries, where most of the horse meat is sold (7 days from stable to table), most people would scoff at us for being so sentimental about an animal that has served its purpose and can serve one more in death. We're not talking about people who have nothing else to eat. We're talking about cultural tastes.

Does a cow, or sheep, or goat, or chicken, or pig deserve a less noble fate than that of a horse that once ran a good race?

While I think Real Sports is one of the best news mags on television, I have had issues with the host over the years. Perhaps that bias is coloring my judgment. I don't think so though. Either its okay to brutally slaughter animals for dinner or its not. Let's not pretend our affection for one species, or the fact that it once had the potential to win buckets of money, somehow earns it better treatment.

Raw Food Tips

Haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately, though I've continued to enjoy reading Raw food, fitness and political blogs. In an effort to get back in the swing of things, I'll try posting some tips that I've picked up along the way. (Not that I always follow my own advice!) Many thanks to all the Raw foodies out there who've contributed to my knowledge.



Raw Food Tip: Keep it fresh. Dehydrated snacks are great but are best balanced with fresh food. A ration of 3:1 (fresh:dehydrated) or greater works well. Adding a green salad to almost any meal can make it easy to cover 3/4 of your plate in fresh living foods. This actually works great even if you're not going Raw. Imagine how much healthier a SAD plate becomes when most of its covered in living plant food.

Stay Raw, yall!

Salad - Getting Hot in Here

Lame post title, but it's the best I can do this early! In the cooler weather, I started to crave warm foods, not necessarily anything cooked, just something that felt comforting. While I enjoy soups, I can be quite lazy about pulling out the blender. Here's a great alternative- the dehydrated salad.

Toss ingredients in a bowl, in this case: tomatoes, corn, spinach, chopped mushrooms and onions. Pour a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic and ginger, sea salt, and a bit of agave over it all, and toss well. Spread on dehydrating racks and dehydrate for 3-4 hours. I like to stir occasionally to prevent bits of spinach from crisping up.

The whole family loves these salads. (I added avocado to this one after it finished warming up.) There's a lot of, "can I have a pinch?" and "when will it be ready?" all of which makes me happy. We get more greens in this way too, as they're easier to consume once they've wilted down a bit.

Enjoy!

Walking the Tightrope

Last weekend Lovely Boyfriend and I spent four days in Los Angeles, celebrating our friend's fortieth . . . I mean twenty-first . . . birthday, and hustling Wonder Girl to her play performances. It was a lot of fun, but a very different schedule than I'm used to following. Part of me wishes I had packed in more events, and part of me is happy to have found some time for more relaxing, self-focused activities, like climbing the sand dune (6 times!). By Sunday night, I was exhausted and ready for some solitude.

This week, I've set major goals for my fiction work, but also have vowed to eat a more simple Raw diet. Wonder Girl's homeschool work still needs my attention, the finances have to be managed to accommodate unexpected expenses (like the $500 deductible on $6000 worth of car accident damage), Fierce Teenager needs to begin organizing for graduation, I must get my workouts in, we're making major decisions about moving to another city, and the household still needs to run.

I'm not complaining about all this. In fact, I'm excited about most of it. It's just that my personality isn't particularly suited to balancing all these things. I don't like living in a world of multi-tasking. Given my way, I could shut myself in a room for six hours each day until I burned out on a project. Unfortunately, life demands that I give each area it's due.

Here are some tools that have helped. I've added a countdown timer to my Google sidebar, forcing myself to quit working on a given project when its allotted time expires. In the kitchen, I just use the oven timer. I've also created a free page on backpackit.com, with lists of all my short-term goals and the immediate steps I need to achieve them. This is now my home page. I've used this system for a couple of weeks, but the weekend of partying threw me off a bit.

Today, I'm back to seeking balance, trying to keep one foot always on the tightrope.

*The photo is from Tees For Change, a socially responsible t-shirt and jewelry company.

Biggest Loser Finale

Our Biggest Loser week ended on Tuesday. I averaged 4 hours of workouts each day, and I brought intensity to them. On Wednesday, I only worked out 2 hours, and I felt as if something were missing. Alas, real life continues around me--work, writing, chores and errands, kids' activities, church, classes, and the like--so it will be difficult to get those long workouts in on a regular basis.

Some things I learned:

The recommendation to get 30 minutes of activity each day is fairly bogus for healthy people. In the days of hunting and foraging, our bodies would've moved much more, and we still have essentially the same physical design as our forefathers and foremothers. Even when I was obese, I enjoyed working out. It seems my body always knew it should be in motion.

It can be okay for a healthy person to take their workouts to what most people would considered an extreme level. Perhaps I would've run into injuries if I'd continued, but I believe that listening to my body would help me to avoid that.

Prolonged exercise creates feelings of ecstasy. In all likelihood, this had a lot to do with the fact that I stuck with activities that I loved. The positive mental attitude, along with the brain chemistry initiated by exercise, was a winning combination.

Sleep problems can be alleviated by giving the body the level of activity it craves. This may not be true for everyone, but I found that I fell asleep faster, and slept more deeply and consistently during my Biggest Loser week. I woke up refreshed and without the aid of the alarm clock.

There's enough energy to go around. I'm sure that eating a Raw diet, including green superfood smoothies, contributed to my quick recoveries and tolerable levels of soreness. I had plenty of energy left to accomplish other things. I took an occasional nap, but that's nothing new for me. Obviously my body was able to do the workouts and still complete my other tasks. I'm no Superwoman. Though I was a slim teenager, it wasn't because of any effort on my part. I didn't get into running until I was in my 20's, and started weight training after that. I'm not physically superior in anyway to the average woman. If I can do it, most anyone can, given time and planning.

I encourage everyone to push your body and see what it accomplishes. Don't be ridiculous and try to curl 20's when last week you were curling 8's, but do look for ways you can diversify, intensify, and even extend your exercise. Book a few sessions with a trainer, if you don't know how to do it safely.

Our modern culture is so incredibly sedentary. Even if I spend 5 hours working out, I'm spending at least 8 sitting down (driving, teaching, writing, surfing the internet). Going forward, I'll continue to workout about 2 hours each day, but I also plan to include at least one Biggest Loser day each week. Just for the sheer joy of it!

Parsley - It Aint Just for Fresh Breath

For the last few weeks, my CSA basket has arrived bearing a bunch of Italian parsley (the kind with flat, pointy leaves). I've used a sprig here and there, but in the end, most of it ended in a dessicated mass, tossed during fridge cleanup.

This morning, I pulled out yet another bunch of those clean leaves, and I was determined not to let them go to waste. My first thought was to dehydrate the stuff, crush it into a powder and use it as a seasoning. But these were fresh greens, picked the very same day, and I desired to use them at the height of their nutritional potency.

It's just the plant we use to take up white space on a plate. What's the big deal about parsley?

• 3 times as much Vitamin C as oranges
  
• 2 times as much Iron as spinach
  
• Contains Vitamin A, Potassium, and Calcium
  
• Diuretic that stimulates kidneys to release waste
  
• Contains 4 known cancer-fighting chemicals
  
• Tastes like summer!
  
• Green leaves = Chlorophyll

A quick perusal of the Internet resulted in a salad idea. Here's my version:

Summer Parsley Salad

One bunch flat Italian parsley (chopped, with stems removed)

1 handful cherry tomatoes (quartered)

1 handful sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons really raw olive oil (try Bariani, as some cold-pressed oils are overheated)

a few drops sesame oil (to taste, and this stuff is strong)

2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

sea salt to taste

1 tablespoon raw agave or raw honey

Combine parsley, mushrooms, tomatoes, and sesame seeds in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients. Pour dressing over salad and toss. This salad is super-yummy if you allow the flavors to blend for 30 minutes or so.

This really was like eating a bowl of summer. I would've loved to add onions and cucumbers, if I had them. Yummy goodness!

Enjoy!

All in Your Head

Do the foods that make you feel amazing, work because you expect them, too? Does it matter?

Yesterday, I had the same superfood smoothie as in the last post, with bananas instead of coconut flesh, and a couple of tablespoons of ground hemp seeds. Not only did it satisfy my hunger for a really long time, I was flying high. Of course, a raw diet makes us more sensitive to what we eat, and I had more than enough energy to burn through a few items on my project list and to workout. A productive day!

Yesterday's workout: 1 hour on treadmill. Trained chest, back and abs.

Today, Lovely Boyfriend, Wonder Girl and I are hitting the Laguna Beach stairs. I love this workout!

Amazing Superfood Smoothie!

What's a good name for this?

(Measurements are approximate)

Flesh of 2 young Thai coconuts (can sub with a banana or 2)
Water from 1 young Thai coconut (can sub with pure water)
Blend until creamy.

Add:
2 and 1/2 tablespoons raw cacao
1 and 1/2 teaspoons green powder (Use your fave; mine included msm*.)
4-5 dashes cinnamon
1 teaspoon maca*
agave, or other sweetener to taste (I used about 1 tablespoon.)
1 and 1/2 cups ice

Blend again. Enjoy!

*I've noticed in forums that a small minority of people seem to have bad reactions to these ingredients. If you choose to try them, be aware and consider starting with tiny amounts.

Raw Chicken Tenders

Wonder Girl and I cheated on this recipe for Raw BBQ Chicken Fingers, which of course contain no meat products (cuz raw chicken flesh is just nasty). It's the first Alissa Cohen recipe I've tried, and I'm so glad I did. We all loved these!

The original recipe calls for sprouted lentils, but they take a few days to sprout, so we used soaked sunflower seeds instead. I still want to try the lentils. I'm curious to see if they'll give an even meatier texture. Next time I'll try making a Raw BBQ sauce for dipping. The sweet and sour sauce we had was delicious, but not what I wanted with these.

We love our dehydrated treats, but like to make sure our meals are still primarily whole, fresh foods, thus the salads.

Raw Food & Fitness

Amazing weekend! Yesterday's, LB and I went to Sand Dune Park and hiked to the top 6 times. We kept the day Raw with a trip to Terra Bella, where we had 2 great salads (one with delectable ranch-dill dressing), and a raw taco. We finished the meal with a donut hole and a brownie bite. Have one cooked donut hole and see how satisfied you feel. Raw food is so much more satiating.

Today, I hosted the fiction writers' workshop that I'm a part of. I served all Raw food, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I picked up prepared raw dolmas and brought home some of the ranch-dill dressing. Dessert: raw peach cobbler (made with frozen peaches). It felt great to have a function where non-raw (but health-minded) people could enjoy what was served, and I could eat it all without a sense of regret.

Hope everyone's weekend was at least as wonderful!

Easily Raw

Mushroom Crepe Filling

Last week was one of the most pleasant I've had with Raw food, and it didn't require a lot of store bought dishes. Credits and thanks go to Chef Jenny, of 118 Degrees. I attended her Raw Basics 101 class last Sunday. It was a 7-hour day of fun, food and inspiration.

Chef Jenny & Tino

Entering class, we were excited to see a young Thai coconut at each of our seats. Great way to start, no? The first thing Jenny and her assistant Tino did was to have each of us come up and open our coconuts, using the method she demonstrated. This was worth the price of admission for me. I used to buy my coconuts at $2.5o each, just because that particular store would open them for me. After class, I went to an Asian market and picked up a basketful of coconuts for 89 cents each! Huge difference!


Some people in class had been Raw for a long time--like April who has 3 years of Raw living behind her, and made us a fabulous chocolate pudding--and others were just sampling the lifestyle, but everyone had something interesting to share.


Jenny provided a booklet for each of us, with information about living foods, juicing, green smoothies and sprouting. The best part: she included lost of recipes, including some of my favorite dishes at her restaurant. How do these sound?

• Pesto-Stuffed Mushrooms
• Coconut Yogurt
• Kale Tacos
• Chocolate Ganache
• Thai Spring Rolls
• Mushroom Crepes

There were many more, several of which she or we prepared and devoured.


Jenny also invited Rebecca of Home Grown Love, who set up her altar, tuned her crystal singing bowl and proceed to lead us in a Raw Chocolate-making activity. This section of the day did get a bit giddy for some of us.



I didn't really need a Raw Food Basics class. I've got tons of recipes and Raw books, and after watching enough YouTube videos I'd have eventually figured out how to crack that coconut. Still it was worth every penny to spend the day eating great food and hanging out with cool people who are diving into Raw.

Raw, but not 100%

So, I've had 2 clear deviations from my goal of 100% Raw this week. I used a small amount of Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized, but not Raw) and a not-so-small amount of balsamic vinegar. I didn't feel any negative effects after consuming these cooked ingredients, but in retrospect, I would've preferred to find alternatives. That's not to say that I plan to eliminate those things forever. I rarely use Nama Shoyu any more, but I still like a splash of balsamic a little more frequently.

Anyway, I'm back on target for 100% Raw through next Sunday.

That Green Powder Stuff

So yardsnacker asked me to elaborate on the benefits of green powders. Here's my best shot at it.

Based on what I've read and experienced, I believe that greens are some of the most nutritious foods we can consume. However, it can be difficult to eat enough fresh greens or to get a truly wide variety of them through salads, green smoothies and green juices. That's where low-temp dried greens come in. The green powder I use includes grasses, herbs and green vegetables that I wouldn't otherwise get to enjoy the benefits of, like bilberry leaf, white willow bark, aloe leaf and strawberry leaf. These are all mixed together in a concentrated form.

Some people, like Raw Model, Anthony, make their own blends, by ordering various herbs and even dehydrating their own greens. I'm always threatening to do this, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Once I use up my couple of jars of pre-made green powder, I may just give it a shot. Kristen happened to post today about the green powder she likes. See #6 on her list.

I still make and love green juices and smoothies, and huge salads, but this is a way to easily up my intake of green nutrition, while also getting in some herbs and superfoods. When I would up my percentage of Raw and neglect green powder blends, I'd usually find I had more transition symptoms: breakouts, canker sores, tiredness, or cravings. Sometimes I just mix the powder with water--not the best taste, but not bad. (I'm past the point of consuming things I don't enjoy, unless they're for medicinal purposes.) I like it better in smoothies though.

Hope this brings some clarity.

100% Raw Challenge (Wednesday)

Oh Trader Joe's ... you almost had me with that sample! Wonder Girl said it was delicious, but I resisted! If it hadn't been for this Challenge, I would've been right there with the tiny white cup in my hand.

What the heck did I eat yesterday?:

chia pudding with strawberries
1 pear, 3 apples, 1 banana
huge salad of tatsoi, dehydrator-roasted radishes, carrots and onions

I'm going back to the store for a couple more raw treats today.

Yesterday's workout:
back & chest
1125 stairs (Honestly we should be doing more stairs, but my friend, who is in much better shape than I am, claims that she wants to build up slowly.)

Have a great day, yall!

100% Raw Challenge

This week, I've joined some people at gone raw in a 100% Raw Challenge. I'm committed to Monday-Friday, all the way Raw and Living. Yesterday I ate:

chia seed pudding with strawberries
raw tacos with mango salsa
a very large fuji apple
slaw of red and green cabbage, mango, and cilantro with olive oil (yes, my evoo is raw) and lemon juice

Yesterday's workout: trained biceps, triceps & shoulders, 1 hour on the treadmill (That may seem like a lot, but my trusty ol' treadmill can only go up to about 3.5 mph. I jack it up to top incline and power walk.)

If you don't have a lot of time to devote to exercise today, take 10 minutes and put yourself through the old P.E. class warm-up routine. You remember: jumping jacks, sit-ups (we do crunches now) touch your toes, and all that old school stuff. Move your body, boys and girls. Don't tell me you don't have 10 minutes! LB, are you reading this, coffee in hand, from Starbucks?!?!

The Coffee Habit--I'm Over It

Well, I was never quite as bad as the guy in the picture, but I had my fiending moments. When I first went returned to Raw and Living foods, I struggled to give up my daily coffee. I really didn't want to let go of the rich, warm start to my day, and as the weather turned cool, giving up my heat source seemed impossible.

I don't know how detrimental coffee is or isn't to my health--studies conflict, as usual. I do know that I'd get bad headaches if I missed it for a day or two. So instead of heroically going cold turkey, I painlessly weaned myself off of the stuff.

LB was kind enough to make the morning pot with half decaf for a couple of weeks. After that, I went to straight decaf, and then to teas that have no caffeine, or only a fraction of the amount found in coffee. It was as simple as that.

LB still drinks coffee, and it's been incredibly helpful that he hasn't been making much at home lately. I'll likely still have some once in a while, but it no longer has the hold on me that it once did. It's a relief not to be physically dependent on a substance--not a cool feeling to need it like that.

Last Week's Workouts

Eeek! The days have really gotten away from me. I did workout though!

Wednesday: 1000 steps & a stretch workout show
Thursday: 30 minutes on the treadmill & 45 minutes on the stationary bike
Friday: 1 hour on the stationary bike
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Yoga this morning, and in a few minutes I'm heading back to the beach stairs



I pretty much sucked at getting in strength training this week. I don't know how that happened, but at least I managed to do yoga this morning. I'm really enjoying that.

My cable package has a channel called FitTv. I've finally started recording some of the many workout programs that are aired on that station. I've meant to do it for some time, but never actually taken the initiative until now. The pluses: variety, doing the workouts at my convenience, and fast forwarding through commercials (though there aren't many during the shows). So far I've enjoyed a cardio stretch show and a yoga show. I've yet to try Shimmy (belly dancing), but I shall.

Move your bodies, boys and girls!

Roll with the Punches

So I had my day all planned out, and it was supposed to start out with 1000 steps at 7 a.m. In Laguna Beach there's a set of 230 stairs, and we do them at least 4 times--down and back up. It's a nice change from my regular workouts and I can't wait to get LB and my daughters out there to give it a shot.

I was ready on time, but my friend and some-time workout partner never showed. We talked later and realized we'd had a miscommunication. We'll do the stairs tomorrow.

That could've blown my plan for physical activity for the day. No such thing! I jumped on my pitiful ol' treadmill instead and put in my time there. Let nothing stand in the way of the Bikini Challenge!