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!

Light is Fun

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....

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.

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.

Today is the Day

So. I'm a devoted fan of Michelle's food blog and I am proud to admit that I enjoy peering through that virtual window into her kitchen to enjoy her dinner with her on a daily basis.  So to give others that same creepy thrill, I'm copying Michelle's idea, but I'm doing it raw in a vain attempt to be an original individual.
This is a record of the living foods in their raw vegan deliciousness, that I have for dinner.  Or throughout the day.  I'll work out the exact logging as I go.  Essentially, this is a method to help me focus on transitioning to the best nourishment for my body, and sticking with it by the time 90+ days have passed.  And if this is fun, I may continue it... so this blog may take awhile to complete.  But I will persist, one day at a time, to fulfill my duty; and, before I know it, I will be the gayest living foods vegan ever who likes to stick commas all over the place.
And there's no better time to begin than today on the 13th!  Beginning on this day gives me further confidence in the auspicious outcome of my undertaking.
Counter-intuitively, a word my elementary school teacher used to describe how I arrived at solutions to math problems, I was vegan before moving to BC.  But, since everybody here is all about yoga and eating only organic vegetables, my contrarian nature compelled me to revert back to processed crap.  I mean carp.  I eat fish again.  Will I be eating fish for much longer?  If ever again?  Does anyone really care?  Stay tuned.  I like to feel good about what I put in my body.
Pay attention, boys.