Raw Foodie Feast

My friend Tricia visited today. She's a raw food gypsy who travels the world, braiding hair and talking the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. I follow her journey digitally most of the year, but two months out of the year she is in Ohio and what a blessing she is during those two months...so much light, and love, and radiance.

Of course a day spent with a fellow raw foodie was priceless. We talked lifestyle changes, books and recipes ALL DAY...

But it's also a relief having someone I can have lunch with and not spend the entire meal explaining why I am eating all uncooked, unprocessed food. And it's not like either of us left the table feeling neglected...

Today we shared a raw food feast:
Mango Salsa
Spicy, Tropical Coleslaw
Mock-Waldorf Salad
Layered Caesar Salad with deconstructed Pico de Gallo and Spicy-Sweet Pecans
Onion Bread

So good...



I'm already planning our next lunch...

What I'm Reading

Reading Greens For Life by Victoria Boutenko...
You have to realize this is not a book I would have chosen for myself to read... I'm not a big fan of greens..
I know, and I'm trying to go raw .. you can roll your eyes now. It's okay, I roll my eyes at myself all the time.

Anyway, my dear, sweet friend Tricia (and fellow raw foodie) loaned me this book. Mostly because I've been moaning and groaning about fat and protein all week... and I'm reading it because I do like to read, but also because I'm a people-pleaser and I wanted to make Tricia happy...

Also, because she's such a smart, intuitive woman, she brought a raw kale salad to Ohio Renaissance Festival (where we're both working) today and shared some with me and I honestly said, "Don't be offended if I don't like it because I don't like kale." To be honest my only close to favorable experience with kale has been dehydrated kale chips that were vaguely nacho cheese flavored (think Doritos) .. so I tasted, ready to say, "I just don't like kale," but my brain said "Shut up, idiot, and take another bite." ...glad I took another bite, and another, and another .. until it was gone. I've thought about nothing but that kale salad all day long... I won't say I'm head over heels in love .. but I NEED IT and I'm in-tuned with my body enough to know that my brain response of thinking about this salad, which made my taste buds sit up and say "huh," is a direct result of my body craving something in this salad.

Boy, am I glad I got this book to read!
It answers the salad question fairly quickly:
KALE contains every essential amino acid.

What is protein? A molecular chain of amino acids...

Also, did you know that there is more nutrition in the green carrot tops rather than the orange carrot roots? Not that I want to eat a whole bowl of carrot tops but chopping some into every salad would add up over time... so would adding them to smoothies. Ditto for beets and beet leaves! And this is free food!! I'm been throwing this stuff away!!!

Well, no more...

I'm more excited than ever about my diet changes and yes, I'm still struggling with raw a little, but it's the baking I'm craving... biscuits, breads, cookies, cakes... crackers...

So, this week I am going to focus on one recipe a week and figure out a way to replace my love for baking stuff (3/4 of which I never eat) with a love for dehydrating foods I will want to eat! How's that for a goal?