Saturday, February 28, 2009

Gorilla Food II



Gorilla Food: The Return


Starring:
CHOCOLATE PIE!... as Dessert
Michelle... as Enjoyable as Usual
Sonya... as Full As Last Time

Introducing:
Green Tacos (a romaine lettuce leaf taco wrap filled with a spicy chili walnut pate, fresh guacamole and salsa);

Fresh Thai Wraps (three collard leaf wraps filled with a sprouted sunflower seed and veggie pate, sesame seasoned coleslaw and served with a ginger raisin chutney [I didn't get a good photo of the chutney]);

and Zucchini Linguine (zucchini 'newdles' smothered in a rich white cashew cream. Served with a green leaf salad - the dressing was some sort of avocado-cilantro creaminess that tasted lightly of horseradish).

raw chocolate cake oh yes

The chocolate pie stole the show. Oops we forgot to try the halva! We'll have to go back.
I'll update you on my physical state. My body is becoming more toned by doing nothing! (Or perhaps I'm deluded and this observation is really just a daily hallucination I'm sharing with you. In which case, I applaud its consistency. I use that phrase a lot.) I haven't lost any weight (good) but my stomach is flatter and my muscles seem more toned even though this month I've done nothing but sit on my computer, walk a bit, dance in front of the mirror and bike over the Lionsgate Bridge a few times a week. Which isn't that much exercise, comparatively speaking. In previous months, I was doing the stairmaster all week and running door-to-door delivering important bills and flyers, doncha know.

I'm not starving myself either, in case you were worried. I eat a lot, but in a normal no-one-would-notice way. The more I eat the better I feel, to a point. I am learning the ways of moderation. I made a couple of olive oil salads yesterday with avocado and a pinch of sea salt and dill (decadence in the raw world). I really like the taste of well-combined salads -- salads are surprisingly satisfying and filling for me.

Sometimes I think about Thai food with prawns and hot soups... mmmmm. In a nice way, I think about Thai. Not in a yearning way, but in a desiring way. I appreciate its qualities.

Another thing I'm learning: that some flavours are best on their own -- for example, strawberries and bananas and cacao don't need other fruits crashing the party. Spinach is often a nice, easygoing wallflower that adds that extra je ne sais pas quoi to a smoothie by its mere presence. I just feel good knowing it's there. Kale needs some social training beforehand to make it presentable to the palate. Fruits are easy to digest when ripe; a few soaked nuts are interesting in small doses and sleep is king. (I still stayed up until 2:30am last night though.)

Having fun navigating the void between theory and application.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Best Salad Ever.

Sarah took the photo.. and made the salad.. thats why it looks and tastes way better than mine

Tonight I experienced the good kind of BSE (Best Salad Ever), made by my friend Sarah, a fellow raw keener. Looks good, doesn't it? (Sarah took the photo with her fancy iphone.) Now I know how to make a proper salad! I don't know what I was doing before, but it just wasn't right. I would go so far as to say it was wrong.

To make The Best Salad Ever

Sarah's salad consists of the following:

1:1 handfuls of baby spinach and herb greens salad
1 braeburn apple cubed
1 avocado cubed
1 orange bell pepper sliced
some olive oil
some dill
some sea salt
half a lemon, juice squeezed on top
All mixed together
I might be forgetting something.

This was one amazing salad. I want to make my own salads that taste this good. I want to share the BSE with the world.

Genes Can't Turn Themselves On. (Hmm, neither can I.)

Day 30 (technically day 1 was Jan. 25th after breakfast) of 100% raw (minus the cashews which might have been cooked to be removed from their shells; not sure about that).  I feel good, dododododododo, and I knew that I would now.

I like this stuff:

Bruce Lipton Interview - (Biology of Belief)  Changing our cells by thought .wmv

Bruce Lipton - The New Biology - Where Mind and Matter Meet (google video): "Cellular biologists now recognize that the environment -- the external universe and our internal physiology, and more importantly, our perception of the environment -- directly controls the activity of our genes."



Feeling the Love





Thanks, Mom, for sending this: "I just sent you a pic of what Liesl made for your chair -- when you come home to eat." Thanks, Liesl! I love it! I'm a girl and a dog....

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Kale & Spinach & Avocado Salad

delicious greens and avocadoooooFor breakfast: Strawberry-blueberry-banana-lemon-cayenne smoothie with leftover cucumber and avocado soup thrown in the blender. The taste was not that good.

Lunch: Kale and avocado salad again with baby spinach, cilantro, red onion and tomato. Good. (Except I think my body is sensitive via a histamine reaction to raw onion, not to the salt. Maybe I'll eat some kimchi or sauerkraut for probiotics. At some point.)

I went for a bike ride tonight and felt strong the whole way!  I was surprised.  I tricked myself into going out there at 11:47pm by thinking I'd just go as far as the Lost Lagoon and turn around.  But once I reached that point and let the clean, somewhat less chilly-than-usual night air fill my senses, I kept going up the bike path to North Van.  It's windy downtown but the scary trees in Stanley Park are lovingly sheltering.  Kind of like a caring mother you're afraid is going to turn on you for no reason.  Sort of like that. 

In addition to the usual smoothies and other things I eat, I consumed 200 grams of cashews last night and today in total, plus 100 grams of brazil nuts.  I don't know if that had a beneficial effect or if I'm just getting better.  Who'd have thought I could get any better?!  Like, I know.

I drank water when I got home, and that's it.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Indian Avocado Spinach Dip

(I'm a very busy lady as you can tell...)Thank-you goes to the resourceful Michelle for suggesting this raw dip of filling deliciousness. Easy Indian-Mexican fusion; I like it. It would have been even tastier but I was having too much fun with the black pepper grinder and so... peppery.

I've been eating lots of avocados lately. The fats and/or B6 in avocados are supposedly good for regulating the adrenal gland stress response. Which comes in handy during those times when you're trying to arrange the crudités just so. Darn! I should have placed the tomato seeds underneath the carrot lobster as roe. Next time...

Natural Hygiene

From Raw School by Nora Lenz:
However, there is a great need for health-seekers to think critically and independently as they approach new ideas. Just because a book advocates raw food, doesn't mean everything the author has to say should be taken to heart. The raw food movement, like the rest of the world, is awash in confusion and misconception regarding health. When one decides to seek REAL health, there is as much to UN-learn as there is to learn. Deeply-held myths die hard, even among raw foodists. What has helped me the most in being able to discern truth from nonsense is learning the unchanging, nature-based principles of Natural Hygiene. Natural Hygiene is the idea that all living things are self-regenerating, self-repairing, self-sustaining, and are designed through millions of years of infinite wisdom that resides in their every cell to attain and maintain optimum health. All we need to do is avoid the habits that destroy health and provide the requisites that build it. Natural Hygiene also teaches us what's going on in our bodies when we might otherwise be confused and confounded by ongoing symptoms. It is a lot easier to be patient with your body if you understand what's happening inside it.


I like everything to make sense. I remember being in that place once as a child, when I didn't know anything. It was nice. Okay who am I kidding, I still visit that place frequently.

Today I read a lot about health and HIV and the AIDS hoax and polio and federal reserves and frankly, I'm really hoping it's all very simple. I'm letting my unconscious intellect process and filter and find patterns for me while I sleep. Good plan! There's something appealing about the natural hygiene philosophy, though; simple principles that remind me again of Bruce Lipton's cell biology research and neuroscientist Candace Pert's suggestions to get back to nature. Sure, the basic tenets make sense... but it's in the details of implementation that the biatch lies. Or maybe the implementations are individual so I needn't concern myself with knowing everything. I'll go with that.

This was also interesting reading: The psychology of idealistic diets.


Monday, February 23, 2009

Cucumber Avocado Soup

it looks pretty, tastes ugly. note to self: make what you want instead of what is easy. hmm. I sense a profound life lesson in there.
Look! I made something pretty.

Cucumber-avocado soup looks prettier than it tastes. (I don't like the taste of cucumber or celery -- and this soup is heavy in both.)

The recipe says it serves 4. Well, maybe 4 really hungry people -- I left out the last ingredient because my blender already had 2L of soup in it (almost overflowing) by the time I got to the "4 cups of purified water" part.

From Carol Alt's The Raw 50: "Put all the ingredients in the blender and whir them until creamy smooth. Pour into bowls and serve."

Easy, right?

Right. I think that's the only reason this recipe appealed to me.

Ingredients:

4 large cucumbers, cleaned and peeled [I had blended 2 cucumbers already before reading I was supposed to peel them.. so 2 were peeled..]
4 celery stalks
1 avocado (peeled and pitted)
1/4 cup chopped dill
1/4 fresh lemon juice
4 cups purified water [um, where do they find the room for all this liquid? I would need another blender for that.]

Verdict: It's an okay soup, but not something I'd make again. I have some other soup recipes in mind, featuring foods that taste good to me. Now there's an idea.


Also made:because you cannot eat too many avocados.
Guacamole and Lettuce Burritos!

I didn't even try to make these look good; the substance speaks for itself. (That's what I should have told my sister when she made fun of me for dressing wrong and tying my sweater at the top. I knew she'd be all over that. *Hi Amber!*)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Vitamin B12

From what I've read (and it could all be wrong, wrong, wrong! *cries*), eat unwashed organic fruits and vegetables and greens and you'll have all the B12 you need. Done. Next question?

Some elaboration by a credible person with letters behind his name, Alan Goldhamer, D.C. (director of the Center for Conservative Therapy in Penngrove, California):
"..in a more primitive setting, human beings almost certainly would have obtained an abundance of vitamin B12 from the bacterial 'contamination' of unwashed fresh fruits and vegetables, regardless of their intake of animal products... Although most people associate vitamin B12 deficiency with vegan diets, the majority of cases occur among people who regularly consume animal products."


Okay, so then how is it possible to eat lots of meat or uncooked nutrient-rich foods and still be malnourished?: absorption probs. I think that's why I used to eat so much: I was getting lots of nutrients but my body wasn't absorbing those nutrients.

(And uh, still isn't. Today so far: 3 big smoothies (two with spinach) + 2 big salads with avocado/tomato/red onion/ hemp seed nuts. And I've been doing work at the computer this whole time. Outside bike-in-the-rain time!)

And the award for Most Unappetizing-looking Smoothie goes to........... Strawberry Spinach Banana Cacao Water!

go raw because then you get to eat this every day!

Investing in Reality + Creating Value. Or is it the other way around...

Listened again to the 57 min. wlir interview with Tim VanOrden: making conscious choices.

Almost makes me want to go for a run through the forested trails. Almost.

Slept-in this morning. Another beautifully sunny day. Went for a walk to the store. Lucked out and got my friendly cashier who knows not to bag my stuff. I love when people are happy to see me: "Oh yes! It's you! I don't have to bag your stuff!"

12pm: Had kale and avocado salad that I'd prepared last night to see if it'd taste even better after sitting overnight in the fridge. It tasted the same (good).

1:33pm: Realize that I don't like telling people what to do. Must be the libertarian in me. So, how to reconcile this with my life's ambition which is mainly to show and tell people what's best for them... ha. Going for a walk now to get out of my head and into the world.

Time to create more and regurgitate less (look I made a pun on a food blog).


++++++

4pm: Blueberry-lemon-strawberry-banana-apple-cayenne-cacao smoothie.

6pm: A mixed greens salad with avocado, red onion, tomato, hemp seed nuts. Dulse.
overheard: be weird and selfish.  done and done.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Good Time All The Time

1000 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin k. hmmmm...
I like to pimp Michelle's blog at every opportunity. She's helping to dispel the myths about boring raw foods and showing that kale isn't actually totally disgusting in its raw state. Yay! Michelle likes kale and avocado salad. So Mom, read Michelle's blog.

If you've ever had kale raw and then tried the tenderized raw kale version, you'll appreciate the difference. C'est vrai, if you eat kale completely raw on its own, it's not the most enticing thing in the world. I'd be turned off. But gently massage it down with some salty oil, and lemon, and avocado, and, wow.

i could eat smoothies all day.  and i do.I had the kale and avocado salad for breakfast this morning and ate my partly unblended banana-lemon-cayenne-apple-strawberry-blueberry smoothie for lunch just to mix it up a bit. Doing things differently today. I'm a new person. Being the change I want to see in the world. I like to see people doing it differently. I don't know what I'm saying.

More on the benefits of kale:

"The phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables initiate an intricate dance inside our cells in which gene response elements direct and balance the steps among dozens of detoxification enzyme partners, each performing its own protective role in perfect balance with the other dancers. The natural synergy that results optimizes our cells' ability to disarm and clear free radicals and toxins, including potential carcinogens, which may be why cruciferous vegetables appear to significantly lower our risk of cancer."


Oh man, they had me until the word synergy.

So in total today: 3 or 4 smoothies, 2 salads. And a lot of these songs.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Arugula Salad


A basic spicy arugula salad with cucumber, carrot and avocado. Plus sunshine!

Also, a new-agey food wastefulness Q & A session with Abraham-Hicks that makes me laugh for so many wrong reasons:







Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What the Bleep (is in my Smoothie)?

i wanted to drink it but i could not bring myself to do it.

Time for mystery hour! Gather 'round.

I made a smoothie tonight with the following: banana, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, lime, cacao, water. Notice that at no point did I mention adding a finger. And yet in my tastiest-ever smoothie there are what appear to be half-blended sort of translucent little plastic strips strewn throughout -- I can bite through them and they tear just like pieces of skin (don't ask). So they're pieces of some sort of cellulose-based material, I'm guessing. Hoping. I'd noticed something was odd after my third mouthful. I'm really hoping it's just the lime, since this is the first smoothie I've had with a whole peeled lime... Hmmmmm... I've dumped the smoothie down the sink and these pieces are all over the place. Grossaroo. (I'm borrowing that word just for this post.)

Good Morning Starshine

The birds woke me up early today. I listened to their greetings for a few minutes until I was conscious enough to convince myself that I'd feel great if I got up and went for a walk to the beach to catch the sunrise (yes I know I'd be facing the opposite direction, but.. yeah). So I walked to the beach through the back alleys, breathing in the crisp morning air, freezing my ass off. It was nice. Refreshing. There's something uplifting about walking to the beach for no reason but with great purpose while most people are standing at the busstop looking peed or walking to work with no smile on their face. Granted, I wasn't smiling either, but still, uplifted.

So I arrived at the park bench near Pacific Blvd. and stood beside it for a few seconds, taking some time to admire how softly the early morning sunlight reflected off the West End buildings. Ah, the sun. I sat and looked out over the water. I pictured myself playing volleyball on the beach with my friends. [But not wearing those bathingsuit volleyball shorts the girls wear. That's the reason (the only one, haaa..) that I didn't pursue volleyball at the pro level -- they have to wear those distracting little bathingsuit shorts. WTF? Bathingsuit bottoms are simply not functional beach volleyball attire, seriously. If I had to wear those I'd always be making adjustments when I should be focused on where the ball is going. Aaand moving along...] As I sat on the park bench, a couple of crows dropped tree moss on the grass in front of me. Fun was had. Now I'm doing some reading and reminding myself to focus on one task at a time (multi-tasking isn't effective, say the experts). Clearly.

I'm waiting to eat when my body signals that I'm hungry... it's a new thing for me. So this writing is part of the plan to focus on something other than on filling the emotional void with good eats. I'm half-kidding.

Reminder: I feel best when I start the day early with a morning walk, think of all the big picture things that are going well for me (hmm everything goes well because my life is just so awesome. Awesome and groovy. Thank you to everyone in my life for being part of this comedy-drama-musical-spokenword-interpretive dance collaborative process), intend what I want to do for the day and then do it.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009



I had temporarily forgotten about the kale and avocado salad until last night... and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. I made it again today but this time I tore the kale leaves by hand into tinier pieces and added some more tastacular elements: finely diced red onion, cucumber, tomato; more loving thoughts of abundance.. hah.. I could eat this all day -- essentially guacamole mixed with tenderized kale. I smell like an onion but it's worth it.

The raw food books I've been reading are contradicting themselves and confusing the heck out of me. I hate having to think for myself -- can't somebody just tell me what to do?! I'm kidding -- I like knowing how to think for myself; it's just something I'm not used to doing every day.

After reading a list of tips and guidelines 2 pages long, the final parting advice: "Life is not a set of rules. Once you have discovered how to eat the natural diet in a way that brings you balance, health and energy, give it less attention and live your life!" Okay.

My plan for tomorrow: "Eating one food at a time is ideal for digestion. Experiment with mono-meals." [From Raw Secrets book] Awesome! I already know how to make carrots.

It is 8:45pm and I am going to sleep now to let my body say good-bye to this slight headache (my first headache in... many months.) I ate too much kale-avocado salad... I rarely have salt on anything so I'm fairly certain that's the culprit. Salt + raw onions = gag(me with a spoon). Spooning is good though. "Studies have shown that the benefits of spooning can make your life just peachy."

Monday, February 16, 2009

Raw Secrets Exposed

So today's food-related passage aimed at balancing the extremist in me, is from The Raw Secrets by Frédéric Patenaude:
For many people, raw-foodism has become a sort of religion where cooked food is evil and raw food is salvation. Many books have exaggerated the benefits offered by the raw diet and neglected practical application. Some raw foodists think that anything raw is better than anything cooked. They think that all they need to do is to eat raw foods and avoid cooked foods at all costs...

Many raw foodists, including myself, have promoted the concept that Dr. Doug Graham calls the Raw / Not Raw Philosophy. It is an oversimplification of all health principles into one criterion: "Is this raw?" Rather than wondering, "Is this healthy for me?" or, "What do I experience in my body after eating this," some raw-foodists only want to know, "Is this raw?" For vegans, the question is: "Is it vegan?"


Amen brutha. How does my body feel after eating this? I like that emotional responses are acknowledged as the best, most reliable measures of Right. I'm a girl, it's how I roll.

As an experiment I'll tone down the fats consumption and increase the fruit smoothies. I suspect I've been eating too many nuts and avocados according to Patenaude, but whatever -- I feel all right. I feel so good! (That's what people tell me when they hug me.) And tonight I rubbed my eye with a cayenne-powdered finger and my mouth is black from blueberry smoothies... but other than that, I look normal.

Here's a raw shot of an undressed salad caught with its veggie-nut pieces consorting with hemp seed nuts. The avocados only look innocent. Maybe somebody else should be the posterchild for this lifestyle.
tonights salad featuring raw catfood

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Romantic Veggie-Nut Burgers

Veggie-nut burgers Round Two, this time with 1 cup of soaked almonds instead of 2 cups as called for in the original. I halved the recipe by eye....

mmm, playdoh.  all the taste, half the fat; double the gravel and hair.

And the result: the patties taste more onion-y this time. I like it. The main difference though is in their texture/appearance. The vita-mix was too efficient with the smaller amount of materials. Obliteration! These patties remind me of playdoh balls that have gathered character by rolling around on the floor... though I suppose that as a child I would willingly eat those playdoh patties, so this shan't be a put-off. Plus these veggie patties won't taste as salty nor have a hundred hair strands distributed throughout. Hah gross.

And here's a salad I had for lunch. Prior to the salad I had my morning greens + fruit smoothie. Today for some reason I threw in a whole lemon, which handily overpowered the usual suspects. For future reference: half a lemon is sufficient.
another day, another  salad

Saturday, February 14, 2009

A Hug a Day

Today was a repeat of yesterday (in menu terms) plus I scored a few hugs (my favourite). There were some people giving free hugs in front of the art gallery mere moments before tons of protestors for something-such marched over chanting something-such. Hugs are more important. Even the bus driver wanted one.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Strawberry Smoothie & Cats

sugar rush
Today I had some smoothies and a few salads with the veggie-nut burgers. My favourite smoothie of the day was this strawberry-banana-apple-kale-cacao-cayenne-water concoction, pictured on the right with one of the 12 or so bags of frozen fruits I have shoved in my fridge freezer.

From Raw Foods Bible by Craig B. Sommers:
Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., M.D., along with Alvin Ford, conducted a 10-year "landmark" study starting in 1932. The study was done under the strictest scientific standards. They took approximately nine hundred cats and split them into groups.

Six hundred of the cats had complete medical histories. Medical observations were recorded on all of the cats. All the cats were kept outdoors in large pens. The groups had the same conditions except that one group was fed raw milk, raw meat and cod liver oil, while the other group had the same meat, but cooked, pasteurized milk, and the same cod liver oil.

The cats fed with raw food (hereafter referred to as ‘raw food cats ’) remained healthy throughout the generations. The cats fed with cooked food (hereafter referred to as ‘cooked food cats ’) were unable to reproduce after the third generation. Therefore, there were no fourth generation cats fed on cooked food to continue the study.

The raw food cats:
· Were resistant to infections, fleas and parasites.
· Had no changes in skeletal tissue or fur.
· Manifested friendly and predictable mental states.
· Had no trouble birthing or nursing.

The cooked food cats:
· Were not resistant to infections, fleas and parasites.
· Had unfavorable changes in skeletal tissue and fur.
· Suffered from heart problems, nearsightedness, farsightedness, underactivity or inflammation of the thyroid and bladder, arthritis and inflammation of the joints, inflammation of the nervous system with paralysis and meningitis, and infections of the kidney, bones, liver, testes and ovaries.
· Showed much more irritability than the raw food cats, were unpredictable, bit and scratched. The males had a drop in sexual interest and same-sex sexual activities were observed. (These sexual behaviors were not observed in the raw food cats.)

The symptoms of the cats fed on 100 percent cooked foods sounds very much like those that our society is experiencing today, do they not? Fertility drugs and doctors specializing in fertility are a growing and very profitable business. I believe infertility is mostly related to improper diet and lifestyle choices. More details on this study can be found in the book, Pottenger’s Cats by Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., M.D.


[Note: "At the time of Pottenger's Study the amino acid taurine had been discovered but had not yet been identified as an essential amino acid for cats. Today many cats thrive on a cooked meat diet where taurine has been added after cooking. The deficient diets lacked sufficient taurine to allow the cats to properly form protein structures and resulted in the health effects observed. Pottenger himself concluded that there was likely an 'as yet unknown' protein factor that may have been heat sensitive."]
no hidden agenda here
Interesting conclusion. ["These sexual behaviors were not observed in the raw food cats." Well, obviously the raw food cats were discreet about it....]

I'll keep you posted if I notice any changes.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Raw Veggie-Nut Burgers


From page 18 in Raw Food for Busy People by Jordan Maerin (I read just 2 chapters):


This book is meant to help you incorporate raw foods most conveniently and comfortably into your everyday life. It is not meant to take the place of occasional forays into raw gourmet food preparation, though for some of you true slackers, it may actually do that.


Hmm. This guy has me pegged.

Moving along to today's routine:

frozen mango spinach pudding. notice the effort i made to contrast the bright green with the red background colour.Up at 6:30ish this morning, had a mixed green salad with avocado for breakfast. Walked halfway around Stanley Park's seawall. Got some groceries from Choices; my credit card was charged only $1.97. I ran home and didn't look back.

10am-3pm Soaked my raw almonds to neutralize the enzyme inhibitors or whatever. Changed the water 2x.

10:30am made a mango-apple-spinach frozen pudding: 1 cup frozen mango, 1 ambrosia apple, 3 big handfuls of spinach.

For dinner I shaped some veggie-nut mixture into burgers based on a recipe from a book I'd downloaded from a torrent site. *Hi Mom.*

Raw Veggie-Nut Burgers (Originally by Karen Knowler in her How to Get Started With Raw Foods)

les ingrédients pour ma création fantastiqueHer lovely version:

2 cups soaked almonds (you can use walnuts or pecans etc.)
2­-3 large carrots
1/2 large onion or more to taste [I used a red onion]
1 large handful of fresh parsley
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. Celtic sea salt (or Himalayan Crystal Salt)

my blendereth runneth overMy version:

All of the above except the salt. I'm not a big salt fan.
Plus

1/2 of one chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 of a chopped beet just because I had one and
some sprouted sunflowers in the form of the remaining 1/4 cup of mock tuna salad I had as leftovers in the fridge.

Directions:

Let the almonds soak for a few hours. Put all ingredients into a food processor [or do what I did which was cut all the ingredients into smallish pieces for the vita-mix to finely chop using variable speed control. I added all the ingredients at once, which I do not recommend, as this practice is hard on the blender and will render a final mixture consistency that isn't as.. consistent. See? Wow lame.].

Karen says, "Taste test – if you think it needs more spice, add some fresh or dried herbs or seasonings. Curry powder can work well!" [I meant to add cayenne and maybe turmeric just because I have them but I'm probably glad I forgot.]
impressively bloody-looking veggie patties for all my vegan friends
Shape into burger shapes. [Mine look like real hamburger patties! Not sure if that's a selling point though.]

Okay... these are friggin' fantastic patties. I let them sit to dry out (all eleven patties -- I ate the 12th one) for a bit before having one with a mixed green salad topped with the usual avocado, tomatoes, red bell pepper slices, hemp seed nuts and dulse. I like these patties. The remaining patties are going in the freezer.

Bloody valentine patties, that's all.  Nothing gross to see here.  move along.Two good recipes in a row! I'm unstoppable....

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Kale and Avocado Salad


Things always go well for me in my life, and yet I'm curiously caught off-guard when something I've intended to do turns out the way it's supposed to. Which is why even the success of making this simple salad compels uncontrollable, inappropriate laughter. I'm experiencing a lot of emotions right now.

Reminds me of the time my Mom once started laughing hysterically and had to pass the phone to my sister when I'd called her in 2004 from a payphone in Princeton BC after hitchhiking from Calgary enroute to Vancouver to say, "Hi Mom, I'm in Princeton; I spent the night in a trucker's cab." I totally get it now.

Kale and Avocado Salad (Karen Knowler makes this on youtube)

Serves 1

· 4-6 large handfuls of kale sliced very thinly
· 1 avocado
· 3 tbsp. olive oil
· 1 tsp. Himalayan Crystal Salt [I don't have Michelle's fancy pink salt, so I used normal sea salt]
· 2-5 cocktail tomatoes
· 10 sun-dried tomatoes [oops I forgot to get these]
· ½ lemon juice
· Large pinch cayenne pepper OR ½ - 1 jalapeno pepper finely sliced [I chose cayenne]

Her Directions:

1. Chop kale into small pieces (this makes the fibrous cells break down and therefore more palatable, so the smaller you chop the better the taste)
2. Add oil and salt and massage into the kale until kale becomes wilted and soft
3. Add avocado and massage again so each leaf is coated
4. Chop tomatoes into quarters, add to kale
5. Chop sun-dried tomatoes in small pieces and add to kale [...]
6. Squeeze lemon over entire dish [very important]
7. Add pinch of cayenne or your chopped chili and mix up well
8. Serve and enjoy!

I followed the recipe but for the sun-dried tomatoes (which she didn't mention in her video, so I'll say they're optional [edited: okay, yes she does mention them as optional]). A proud moment.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

a salad, what a surprise!  okay maybe i will splurge on those recipe books.
Today I had my morning smoothie with the usual ingredients and 1 cup or so of Europe's Best mixed berries (assorted varieties currently on sale at Supervalu for $3.99 instead of the usual $7-8, so I stocked up).

And more salads: two mixed green salads with avocado, tomato and hemp seed nuts... the second salad also had the mock tuna (which I'd left sitting in the fridge for just the right number of days for it to actually taste like tuna).

Should I buy $97 worth of raw recipe books? I almost did today.

I went for my bike ride earlier than usual - 9pm. And during the ride I was tired way earlier than usual too, but by the midway point I experienced a second wind that I somehow maintained until the bitter I mean wonderful end. The usual routine unfolds like this: I have so much energy so I choose to bike, or I have no energy so I talk myself into biking. Then I get out there and I get the oxygenated blood flowing to my brain and everywhere (in my body) and I feel good. Then I go up some hills, and that's fine, but I encounter the biggest hills on my way home, which I'm always too optimistic about beforehand. By the time I'm biking up the 5th mile-long hill I'm thinking Holy Fudge, at which point my rational mind insists that by doing a little vigorous physical exercise each day, I'm investing in Better Quality Everything while developing my skill.

Yeah, so in a few months I'll be a fit pro curser; right now I'm happily living just a precursor of what's to come. As I bike I think about all the things I love -- I think about all the things I appreciate in my life and what I am excited about experiencing. And I think about blueberries sometimes when I'm biking through Stanley Park to prevent my mind from going to that hellish place where zombies hunt me down. This is my meditation: I imagine walking outside by my intelligently built and sustainably designed home, breathing the pure clean air while picking blueberries for pies and smoothies with loved ones and that zombies don't exist.

Sometimes this works, and sometimes I just bike faster which reminds me that I'm afraid, so I bike faster, etc. I feel like I'm really bonding with you right now.



Bedtime!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Better Cacao Smoothie + Lecture

Today's Menu: I like to think I accomplished more today than usual, thus I neglected my food-making and opted for vita-mix smoothaliciousness instead. My Mother (hi Mom, love you) says my smoothies probably taste disgusting, judging by the ingredients. Oh yeah?! Well, they don't.

Morning smoothie: Banana, some cacao, pinch of cayenne, spinach, lemon half, orange, ambrosia apple, hemp seed nuts, water.

Lunch & Snacks: Lettuce and avocado salad. An orange. Some dates and a few cashews.

Dinner: A better cacao smoothie. Seriously, this one is really good. Stronger flavours than the other one. (I'm not addicted to the cacao; I'm appreciative of the feeling of satisfaction I get by being productive, that's all.... [insert angelic smile emoticon here].) Of course I didn't measure the ingredients -- But! I took a photo before dumping them (carefully) into the vita-mix:

1 banana
1 orange
1 ambrosia apple
a little spinach
some hemp nut seeds
more raspberries than last time
a couple pinches of ground cayenne
a pile of powder cacao (as pictured)
some water (not pictured; about 1 cup)



I've already switched to eating 100% raw foods (mostly greens + fruits + avocado + cashew overdosing, in my case) so the rest of the 90+ days will be filled with actual recipes (perhaps) and ongoing reports of how I feel and how much better I feel when I add a variety of foods to my currently limited menu of cashews and lettuce. Earl Nightingale or someone of his ilk (I've never used that word before) once foretold, 'the moment you make the decision to be successful, you are successful.' That resonates; I like shortcuts.

I did a quick search and found the actual words from his 1956 classic The Strangest Secret:
The moment you decide on a goal to work toward, you're immediately a successful person — you are then in that rare group of people who know where they're going. Out of every hundred people, you belong to the top five. Don't concern yourself too much with how you are going to achieve your goal — leave that completely to a power greater than yourself. All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord, and at the right time.

Start today.


*sigh* I love feeling better than most people... *sigh* And I'm not kidding, either. I'm saying I love letting myself feel good, is all. Note to self: ambiguity is rarely a good thing.

So the above blockquote sounds corny as an excerpt, but taken in context of his full 30-minute recording, the message is a timely reminder to take personal responsibility for a life well-lived by beginning with the end in mind, and aligning every action to that vision. So he's really talking about the law of attraction, which is all the rage today. Hmmm, for the rest of the 90+ days I suppose all that's left for me to do is to enjoy living my life as though I'm that person I imagine myself to be, or something like that. Fun. I enjoy playing that game.

Remember in school when Ms. Teacher would spend a full class lecturing on the importance of knowing the requirements expected of you, by reading all the instructions before beginning any test or assignment? And then the next class, she'd hand out a test, and say to raise your hand when you were finished? And remember how most of the class would predictably skip over reading the instructions and instead dive into doing the 5 pages of arithmetic while the few kids who'd connected the dots from previous day would invest the 10 seconds (thought to be a waste of time by the others) in reading through the paragraph of instructions that suggested something like: "Simply turn to the last page, write your initials, then flip the page over and sit quietly at your desk to get an A. Do not answer any other questions unless you want to fail."? Aaand remember that you wanted the A, so you'd play the game as required for the A, then you'd sit and wonder why everyone else was working hard for the fail?

Yeah? Well that's not at all what Earl Nightingale was talking about.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Light is Fun

mango smoothie. yep. maybe i should make it look nicer. Last night I was wide awake with energy to burn, feeling "up" and productive until 4:30am. The productive part is new. I could have continued onto another project but I looked at the clock and figured I should sleep -- which I did, easily. This surprised me considering my mind was active until moments before bed... but when I hit the pillow, all was silent and relaxed. I have newfound powers of un/controlled focus that work to my benefit. Anyway, when I awoke at 10am the productively excited feeling returned, too. Something weird is going on. "The Story of My Life." (That's a shout-out to Sumit, who doesn't know this blog exists.)

Brunch smoothie not neon green as usual:

1 banana
1 mango
1/2 peeled lemon
swiss chard leaf
2 cups spinach
20 raspberries
1 tbsp. hemp seeds nuts
water!

After my smoothie, my cashews, an ambrosia apple, some dates, and 2 of my usual avocado-heirloom lettuce salads, I was eager to get outside and stretch my body. I particularly enjoy Sunday night bike rides because most people go to bed early and so there're fewer cars to run me over. I'm wondering if it's best to wake up at 5am and ride first thing in the morning... I'll experiment. So anyway. I fell asleep at 10pm and now I'm awake at 1am; going for my bike ride now.

Back from bike ride in the rain/hail. This is a collage of photos taken near 6th & Cypress and @ Burrard Bridge. I played with some lines of light I didn't know were there. They made themselves into a mustache. Oh, those jokers!


I've had this post open since this morning and a mere day later it's live on the net. Productive, I tell you....

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Gorilla Food

Tasty & full-feeling collaborative research

Today I ate too much, and liked it. My trusted accomplice in Operation Lettuce-Eat-As-Much-As-We-Can, Michelle-Meals, came with me to indulge in my gluttonous pastime. I mean, to nourish the body and soul with some living foods vegan dishes!

We went to Gorilla Food, the raw food place I'd checked out for the first time last weekend. No rain this time -- the sun visited with us on the seawall walk home. Lots of people were outside either holding hands, eating candyapples, skateboarding on public artworks, walking on the bike-designated lane, taking photos, taking off in seaplanes or walking tiny dogs.

For Lunch:

Ital. Veggie and Maui Waui pizza
Guacamole with housemade dehydrated Sunny Ginger Nori crackers
Water Wisdom Salad
(Gorilla Food menu with descriptions viewable online)

Dessert:

Chocolate Mint Mousse Pie or something but it's not listed on the official menu, darnit. And I forgot to take a photo of it. But it was good! And topped with raw cacao nibs.

For Dinner:

moderation?  wha?I was still "filled" but had my icecream (um all of it) from this morning's smoothie, some cashews and an orange.

I feel a bit buzzed, likely thanks to the theobromine in cacao.

Raw Cacao Smoothie


I couldn't chug this if I tried: slightly too much cayenne, but other than that, really good. Not sweet and not bitter.

1 cup of cashews
3 cups of water
1 tbsp. cacao powder (raw chocolate, not cocoa)
3 pitted dates
2 cups frozen raspberries
1 tsp.-ish of cayenne
1 tbsp. hemp seed nuts
1 banana

Thinking I'll put the rest in the freezer and eat it as icecream.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Raw Hummus

my prides and joys, 4 days young
I've grown fond of my living chickpea babies. I was hesitant to blend them up into tasty hummus, but I figure this is a higher purpose than sitting and getting stinky in a plastic container. Of what value is a life unlived?! Let's not examine it. Anyway, these are the first chickpeas that didn't stink -- they are of organic garbanzo lineage, currently under Choices Market patronage, in the bulk section; so, maybe that's the difference. Plus I sent them love, in the form of remembering to change their water and putting them in the fridge overnight.

it looks like cement, but it doesn't taste like cement.This is How I Concocted Basic Hummus!
Therefore the following is of no use to anyone.

In the blender:
2 cups of organic chickpeas (soaked in water for .. 4 days.. except I put them in the fridge with less water for the last 2 days, and sometimes no water at all depending upon how well they were behaving.)
3 cloves of inferior garlic from China
1 whole lemon

1 cup olive oil
some parsley
1 peeled lime

I set the blender to the variable speed 3 dial and pushed the beanie babies into the shredder. So heartless. Now my blender smells like garlic, so I'm thinking that I might as well add the cup of olive oil. Originally I had intended to add the oil to the finished mix in another bowl so I wouldn't have to wash the blender with soap, but, I'm washing it with soap regardless. Or irregardless if you're from my hometown.

Added parsley and lime to make the rancid olive oil taste go away. I think the olive oil was kinda bad. But other than that, the hummus tastes all right.


And another smoothie:
1 banana
1 peach
1 orange, peeled
2 cups of spinach and 1/2 cup swiss chard
some water

This smoothie was almost too sweet for me. And not the sweet if you're (stuck in the 90s or) living in (getting stinky in the container that is) my hometown.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Oranges in Smoothies are Just Okay

Last night I walked to the store to pick up 10 lbs of oranges for my morning smoothie(s). I felt a little high on my walk; everything was loud and startling and people were speaking in all these different languages. It was wild. (I'd been accustomed to sitting all day in my room, which is essentially a sensory deprivation lab.)

Anyway, upon my return to the apartment building, noticed that some hilarious person had removed the circular lockpad from the front door. So.. I tried to stick my key in, because, why not, it might work. That didn't work. Luckily I remembered that I have a brain and so I used that instead. I walked to the rear of the building and let myself in before hilarious person was doubly hilarious.

Morning smoothie:

You know the drill.
1 banana
1 tbsp. hemp seed nuts.. or maybe it's hemp nut seeds
1 peeled orange
lots of spinach
water
half a peeled lemon

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Reckless Abandon Salad

my daddy-longlegs salad

Feeling adventurous after reading Michelle's post on the distinguishing feature of a superior salad, I peeled carrots onto my lettuce mix with reckless abandon.

Progress, slowly but probably.

For dinner, I had the mock tuna I'd forgotten about, on a salad with dulse and another whole avocado.

Appetites and Aversions

Nine days of eating raw foods. I feel most excellent. No little green men or righteous 80s dudes have visited me yet, but I remain naively optimistic that there are many, many vibrational frequencies more easily accessible to me in this raw food-induced state of wellbeing that are yet to be explored. Raw Foods for President! Vote for Change (of mental state)! Well, raw foods are inspiring but they wouldn't run a country. They'd be all over the food security issues, though.

This morning's green smoothie:

1 banana that I forgot to add until I was about to drink the smoothie
1 whole peeled grapefruit
1 tbsp. hemp seed nuts
2 cups spinach
a leaf of swiss chard
some water



This was last evening's view of English Bay that I drank with my eyes as I sat on one of the many birdpoop-saturated benches while talking on the phone to my Grandma. [Yes, the words birdpoop and drank should never be in the same sentence.]

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Green smoothie similar to yesterday's hemp concoction and some of yesterday's dinner for lunch. The tuna tastes better today! Even without the dry mustard et al.

On last night's bike ride, the starry sky was open for full viewing and the moon reflected eerily shimmeringly attractively beckoningly on the water below the Lionsgate Bridge. I stopped to enjoy the scene (and to catch my breath) a couple of times. Still, made the roundtrip ride in 50 minutes, which is my norm. On my flat tires. That's why it's my training bike. Anything else I ride is easy in comparison. Plus, I like the challenge and the social aspect of riding half-inflated tubes; cyclists who used to pass me used to tell me, "Hey, you know you have a flat tire..?" And I would nod yes and thank them. I call those cyclists the Guardians.

Last year when I biked in the 5am morning darkness all summer/fall, there was a Guardian cyclist I'd meet almost every day at the same place on the bike path just after crossing 4th Ave. I had a front headlight for my bike, sitting in my closet, but I'd neglected to put it on my bike for some reason or maybe no reason at all. Anyway, one morning Guardian cyclist yelled to me as he flew down the hill, "Nice headlights!!" So I yelled back an appreciative, "Thanks!" Then I realized he wasn't talking about the boobs. From then on, each morning when I'd dress and put on my bra, but in the proper order, I'd recall that exchange and be reminded to mount my headlight. And we all lived happily ever after. True story. Except that I did know that he was referring to my bike lights. The headlight-boob association just helped me to remember better.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Mock Tuna Salad is Easy

Mock Tuna Salad
Serves 4

This recipe and variations of it are posted all over the internet.

Blend/mix these ingredients for the salad:
3 cups soaked raw sunflower seeds (2-4 hours soaked in water) [I soaked for 3]
3 to 4 stalks celery, diced
1/2 bunch scallions, diced [I used 1/2 cup of alfalfa and onion sprouts]
2 tbps. dulse flakes
1/4 cup dill [I used parsley]

This is the dressing you're supposed to make:
1 1/2 cups Thai coconut water
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. sea salt
2 1/2 cups raw macadamia nuts, or cashews, or pine nuts
1/2 cup stone ground mustard

I didn't make the dressing for two reasons:

1. didn't have coconut water / ground mustard / sea salt
2. a million nuts in one meal?!

So after chopping up all my soaked sunflower seeds and other salad ingredients in the overflowing vita-mix on variable speed and making a mess, I emptied that mixture into a plastic container. Next, I poured a cup of lemon juice into the empty blender, turned it on high for a few seconds to clean out the sunflower pate that was stuck inside, and poured that foamy liquid onto my mock tuna. I mixed the whole thing with a fork until the alchemy was done and all that was left in the container was *gasp* a big pile of tuna(-looking sunflower mush).

I put that in the fridge for a couple of hours to let sit and become tasty while I pretended to do work.

it sort of tastes like gross tuna... I'll do it properly eventually. I think this short-cut-ethic is reflected in my life with similar results.  how enlightening.Dinnertime! I plopped some mock tuna salad on my lettuce mix salad and chopped up some tomatoes, avocado and carrots to distract and detract somewhat successfully from the sunflower taste. Avocado makes everything taste good. I know, I really should follow the recipe until I'm a pro.

Thinking of adding some dry mustard, scallions and something magical (I don't know what) to the rest of the huge batch of this that is sitting in the fridge....

In other news: All afternoon I've been hearing unfamiliar popping noises (as opposed to the usual ones) coming from the other corner of my desk. There isn't anything over there that should be moving around... so I went to investigate... and... the sounds are coming from my growing chickpeas as they push against each other while sprouting tails in a glass jar. Neat.
noisy little buggers, they is.
This morning's smoothie:

1 banana
1 gala apple
1/2 lemon
some pineapple
some lettuce
some water
...

I should have written down the ingredients as I went, but I was busy thinking of my to-do lists and snacking on too many cashews.

My second smoothie:

1 banana
other half of lemon
some pineapple chunks
1 cup water
1 tsp. dulse flakes for novelty
1 tbsp. hemp seed nuts for kicks
2 cups or so of swiss chard leaves and spinach shoved in to complete the ensemble.





Finally, a green smoothie that is green. This smoothie smells sweet and has an ocean twinge to it. I don't think twinge is the best word -- the salty taste is more like a twang that comes and goes in your mouth but the aftertaste is lemon. I like it.









And here's a fuzzy photo of the ad libbed beet pudding I made last night. The photo is mostly of my hand though. Check out those tasty metacarpals.

Almost done soaking some sunflower seeds for the recipe I'm following for tonight's dinner. I will try to stick to the recipe. Really.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Thai Fresh Wraps & Pesto Pizza

from Gorilla Food raw restaurant
Oh yes, I could get used to this. I want to make it all! All the raw dishes (that taste good)! It looks simple enough.

Thai Fresh Wraps: "Three collard leaf wraps filled with a sprouted sunflower seed and veggie pate, sesame seasoned coleslaw and served with a ginger raisin chutney."

Pesto Pizza: "A sun-dried tomato and fresh tomato herb sauce topped with a hempseed walnut basil pesto, a crumbly walnut “cheez” and fresh tomato slices."

I walked right by Chapters on the way to the raw food place and made a mental note to pick up some raw food recipe books next time.

When I picked up my food, the guy said, "Argh, I just wanna like, wipe you down." I am the only person in Vancouver who doesn't like to use an umbrella. So I look drenched most of the time, and this somehow makes me more approachable. Story-with-moral time!

On my way home, standing at the corner of Georgia and Richards with my headphones on and my eyes closed, waiting for the light to change, a middle-aged (I don't know what he was wearing, I rarely notice that stuff) guy says a perky, "Hi." He says it twice, but the first time I'm really hoping he's talking to somebody behind me because the way he says it is like he knows the person or he's talking to a celebrity or something. Plus I was clearly not giving off "talk to me" vibes (unless repeating in my mind "don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me" yields the opposite effect, which it does...). Otherwise, I may have perceived the interaction in a more open light.

I say, "Hi, how are you?" [I think that was my first mistake. Don't encourage!]

"Good, thanks. I'm Tom." And he holds out his hand to shake hello.

I stand there with my hands in my pockets and am suspicious. He doesn't look homeless or that he wants something from me but I don't feel like touching his hand when he's so gung-ho about it. I consider explaining to him why I don't want to shake his hand ('um, as a rule that I've just decided upon now I don't shake hands with people I don't know who initiate contact with an oblivious me on street corners') but at the same time I don't feel like explaining myself. Also, I don't know why the hell he's talking to me when I'm standing there with my headphones on and eyes closed. So then he reads my mind and tells me.

"I'm just going to London Drugs, right over there."

I smile instead of saying what I'm thinking. At that moment the advance green signals the oncoming traffic to turn left in front of us. The guy asks with a bit of attitude, "Why do cars get priority?"

I think, 'Because life has a hell of a sense of humour and wants us to stand here uncomfortably for as long as possible' but instead I make up an answer and say, "Because there are a lot of cars and the traffic congestion would be worse if fewer cars were able to turn left." I like to answer rhetorical questions.

And then I walk down the street without saying goodbye.

I LIKE the friendly/open people in this world and yet I felt like I was a bit of a jerk to him. A pleasant jerk, but not me. Or maybe that is part of me. Maybe I'll just accept it. Now embracing the mega biatch in me insofar that it is a beneficial expression on occasion for the highest good of all. Hah.
February 1st! Today's breakfast smoothie looked like all the others (the blueberries take over).

I made the smoothie with:

1 banana not quite ripe (I just bought more this morning and couldn't wait)
1 whole peeled grapefruit
1/2 cup of blueberries
lettuce mix
1 cup of water
Um I forget... I think that's everything... oh and some love.

I called Gorilla Food just now and ordered take-out (on a really bad phone connection so stay tuned to see how this plays out. I'm excited to see what I ordered).... I'll enjoy my walk in the rain/snow and will be back in a flash or two.