Cheese Dip

A friend from work forwarded several vegan recipes when she became aware of my culinary leanings. She included from the 7 Secrets Cookbook by Neva and Jim Brackett, a great recipe for nondairy cheese.  I made the whole recipe in less than five minutes and dipped an organic black bean chip into the hot liquid mixture. It was outstanding.  The warm soft cheese is better than the cold brick. The ingredient's flavors tend to separate in the cooler version. 

 I suggest replacing the pimentos with jalapeños or salsa to serve hot with chips. Or grate the cheese and use it on pizza hot.  Really good.

You will absolutely need the agar flakes or powder. It can be found cheaply at the local Asian market or a more pricey option is a health food store or Whole Foods. It’s also known as Chinese gelatin.

Today’s Menu:

Sliceable Cashew Cheese—7 Secrets Cookbook by Neva and Jim Brackett

This recipe doubles for two kinds of cheese-like slices – yellow or white.  They can even be shredded!

2 cups water

3 Tbsp agar flakes (or 3 tsp agar powder)

1 cup raw cashew nuts

2 Tbsp pimentos or ½ bell pepper or jalapeños or salsa

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp food yeast flakes

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp onion powder

¼ tsp garlic powder

1. Boil together the agar and water for 1-2 minutes.  Place in blender with all the remaining ingredients and blend for 1-2 minutes until very smooth.

2. Pour into containers and chill.  Slice when firm.

Hint:  This recipe makes a yellow cheese.  Leave out the pimentos for white cheese.  It may be frozen – shreds best when partially frozen.  Makes a great topping for pizza or lasagna because it melts when heated.  Keep white and yellow cheese (whole and shredded) on hand in the freezer – for quick, nice looking toasted cheese melts.

Makes 2 cups. About 165 calories/12% saturated fat per 1 ounce slice. (Real Cheddar cheese has 116 calories/30% saturated fat.)

New Passport

My passport arrived. I paid $60 extra bucks to have it expedited because I procrastinated thirteen months before renewing. After I opened the delivered passport, I was shocked to see a picture of an old lady on the photo page.  My last two IDs carried a sweet image of my wild thirty-something years. The guy at the post office agreed it was time to update that woman to a more representational rendering of my current self. He took a picture on the spot.

I think there is too much reality. However in twenty years or so, it will look good to me.

Once again, I am papered to fly away to corners of the globe not yet explored by me. Holding a passport gives me the same feeling of freedom as renewing my driver’s license and vehicle registration. Infinite possibilities occur when one is legal to leave the city, state, country, and continent. Oh how I love to travel. 

Up first is Ireland. The pretty green island is home to one-quarter of my ancestry and one-half of my late husband’s. There is a reason why chose Ireland as my maiden trip. I will save that for when I get closer to the trip date of October 6^th.  Instead, let me tell you the story Uncle John brought back from Ireland a decade ago.

The O’Neils (Neil-my ancestors) and the O’Dwyers (Dwyer-Paul’s ancestors) lived in the same county. A dispute had grown over a spit of land between the two clans. Rather than fight a bloody war the chiefs decided to have a foot race to determine who truly owned the hill. 

On the top of the knoll grew an ancient tree. The two men agreed to run to the top of the hill and the first one to touch the tree would be the winner.

Both clans came out for the event. Music, food and spirits were shared by all. With a drop of a scarf, the race started and the two chiefs ran hard up the hill. First O’Dwyer led then O’Neil then O’Dwyer. It was clear that O’Dwyer would win as he had taken a commanding lead. O’Neil pulled his sword and lopped off his own left hand. He threw it past O’Dwyer and smacked it against the tree thus winning the contest.

This is why the tartan for the O’Neils is a bloody fist on a field of green and the O’Dwyers is a field of black.

This is true because Uncle John heard it told in an Irish pub in Cork.

Today’s Menu:

Breakfast: ½ c Raisin Bran w/almond milk & strawberries.  Coffee with agave syrup and almond milk.

Snack: Strawberry & Rhubarb cake with decaf Earl Grey Tea at Panera Bread El Camino.

Lunch: Subway 6 inch wheat bun veggie sandwich with no dressings, oils or cheese. Jamica tea from Beto’s Tacos. I love Jamica tea. It’s made from Hibiscus flowers. So yummy.

Snack: 4 Marshmallow Cookies.  I was weak.

Dinner: One soy corn dog and salad 

Snack: Water. I ate the cookies and the cake earlier. Bad day for calories and sugar.

Today's Menu

Of course I’m on a diet. I’m an American woman. After a long spell of comfort food to offset the trauma of chemotherapy and to humor my collection of cancer specific medical providers, I am trying to get back to my raw vegan diet. This diet is also recommended by the post-cancer nutritionist. My cancer, though stress created, finds its roots in our SAD Standard America Diet—full of animal proteins—the link to breast cancer in the USA. 

I’m not having much luck sticking with the diet as I no longer have my husband as my reason, inspiration, or life coach. The chance of not getting cancer again by sticking with the diet, does not seem to motive me. It should but doesn't.  I am sporadic at best, trending toward fits of chocolate and French fries. Not really off the diet but not getting the weight off.

So here is today’s transgressions:

Breakfast: Coffee with Agave nectar and almond milk.

Church Social: Prunes, 3 Ritz crackers, Decaf with milk

Lunch: Jack-in-the-Box Southwest Chicken Salad—NO Croutons and the chicken went to Dex my dog.

Snack: Figs I picked up off the ground at Church, a tomato, a plum

Dinner: Homemade sprouted bean soup, soy bean crackers, an apple

            Actually that doesn't look so bad. I did eat 3 cups of bean soup when one would have done.  Notice the milk and coffee are still sneaking into the diet. Both have got to go. 

Oh I just remembered the French fries with ketchup.  Here I was feeling pretty proud of myself.

Heart Attack

I had a heart attack Wednesday morning, March 30th, hospitalized the same day, had CT Scan, Echo-cardiogram, and angiogram the next, and then released. I am alive.

With a blog about health, fitness, good eating, and “The Cure,” one would probably think discussion of this writer’s heart attack is counter intuitive. I had a stress related incident brought on by years of worry over the health of my husband and not enough cardio exercise. It is my diet that allowed me to leave the hospital in less than forty-eight hours after admission.

 

No burgers = No plaque

 

The doctor, a good physician, believed that my arteries would be clogged with plaque as heart attacks occur as a result of coronary heart disease (CHD). The odds were good that bad stuff filled my veins and after a confirmation from the scheduled angiogram a stint could be placed inside the artery to squish the gooey stuff to the walls allowing blood to flow again.

 

He assumed that I ate a Standard American Diet (SAD).

 

Having been a vegetarian off and on most of my adult life, I thought the stats would be on the side of stress event verses the CHD. The doctor listened to us—my husband and I—and did additional tests to look for any other possibilities.

 

The admitting nurse asked a series of personal questions—religion preference, diet, next of kin, and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) agreements. When I told her I ate a Raw Vegan diet, she needed more information. She had not heard the term. I explained. She assigned a dietitian to speak to me.

 

It was like checking the box for vegetarian on my airline ticket. The standard rubber-chicken meal got tossed and someone was forced to wash an apple, and throw it into a box just for me. Same here.

 

The hospital dietitian understood vegan, vegetarian, and raw terms. It was the execution of such a diet challenged the capabilities of the hospital’s food system. She knew that my meals needed to be made fresh each day. We compromised on several fronts and came up with the final menu.

 

• Breakfast: Hot Oatmeal, soy milk, grapes, melon, Hot herb tea.
• Lunch: Salad with lettuce, cucumber, mushroom, tomato, canned kidney & garbanzo bean, and Balsamic dressing, Mixed fresh fruit bowl, Apple Juice.
• Dinner: Salad with lettuce, cucumber, mushroom, tomato, canned kidney & garbanzo bean, and Raspberry dressing, Mixed fresh fruit bowl, Orange Juice.
• Late Night Snack: Apple sauce, graham crackers

 

Understand this is the menu for every day—a true motivation for healing and going home. If I had stayed any longer than two days, I would have been forced to have food smuggled in to my room.

Soup-Supper

I bought all the ingredients for traditional Irish corned beef and cabbage and planned to make Grandma Dwyer’s soda bread to go with it. The meal was meant for the soup-supper at church before Lent service. Making the dish in a crock pot required me to put in the meat first at dawn, five hours later, adding the hard veggies—carrots, onions, potatoes—then throwing in chunks of cabbage just before leaving for church. Great plan.

Three briskets of corned beef and two bags of vegetables sat in the refrigerator waiting my skilled hands—for days. Unfortunately, my car went to the shop but wasn’t ready on Tuesday. I had to pick it up Wednesday morning. Then my husband had two doctor appointments on opposite sides of town with three hour wait in between. Then time slipped through my fingers.

As we drove home, the reality hit me. We had one hour left before I was to arrive at church with my soup du jour. There was no way I could make it. I hadn't started anything. What to do? What to do?

When we arrived, I had twenty minutes to cook, dress, and leave. I thought of chicken soup but then why? Others would probably have that. Of course, with a pastor named Murphy I figured I wouldn’t be the only one planning corned beef on March 16th—the day before St. Patty’s Day.

With no time to eat myself, I decided on a simple Vegan dish that could be shared with the closeted-vegans within the congregation. An appropriate choice in retrospect. The dish proved popular though nestled in between the good Germanic based dishes—kielbasa sausage soup, sauerkraut soup, potato cheese soup—served to a Lutheran crowd.

Only one complaint echoed in the kitchen about the lack of Irish fare that came from our own Pastor Mike. He forgave me my transgression and tried my soup. I think his wife liked it better than he.

Vegan Lemongrass and Thai Chili Soup (17 minutes from start to finish)

1 qt Container Organic Vegetable Stock Low Sodium
1 8 oz Small Can Garbanzo Beans
1 24 oz Large Can Red Kidney Beans
½ cup Celery Heart Chopped
½ cup Bell Pepper Julienned—Red, Yellow or Orange
½ cup Carrots Sliced
3 Green Onions Chopped
6 Button Mushrooms sliced or canned mushrooms
4 leaves of Kale Chopped in Squares
4 leaves of Swiss Chard Chopped
2 rolls of Mung Bean Threads
1/3 cup Mizo Paste
¼ to ½ cup of Frozen Chopped Lemongrass and Thai Chili or chop the fresh ingredients
1/3 cup Soy Sauce

First dump the vegetable stock into a large pan and heat over medium burner. Add the hard vegetables—carrots, onions, celery—and the mung bean threads. Add drained and washed canned beans. Raise the heat. As the mixture starts to bubble add the rest of the vegetables. Stir. When the mung bean threads are soft, shut off the heat and add the lemongrass, Thai chili, Mizo paste and soy sauce. Mix well. Serves six to eight. Should be done in 17 minutes. That’s what it took me. Plus I transferred the whole thing into a crock pot and drove it to the church for Lent service.

Please Define Vegan

This weekend I attended a dinner party hosted by a raw-vegan family. The party consisted of a western theme complete with barbeque chicken and pork for the attending meat-eaters. I grazed happily on trays of veggies dipped in fake sour cream, bowls of vegan chili, and baskets of ruby-red strawberries. After my seventh strawberry, I proudly passed on the offered birthday cake. It was a lovely day.

At the end of the party, hostess Jacki offered several books from her personal library. We discussed being raw, vegan, and hungry during the winter months. Jacki admitted with some reserve that she cooked some vegetables. I confessed my passion for mung-bean-thread noodles in mizo soup. We agreed raw was harder in the frosty months.

The discourse made me realize that I had not addressed terms defining diets in my blog. Not because I couldn’t but it’s so varying from one periodical to another—dependent on the personal experience and age of the writer—that I did not want to spend a week or so writing definitions. So I pared down the list a bit and present the info for you.

Vegan: Someone who does not eat any animal products. No cheese, eggs, milk, fish, chicken, pork. Vegans I have met do not wear leather or animal based make-up. If it requires watering, has a root, and grows then probably it’s edible to a vegan. Adam and Eve—vegan. Cain—vegan. Abel—probably not.

Vegetarian: Someone who does not eat or believe in eating meat. This usually includes not eating fish, fowl, or any food derived from animals but not always. Some vegetarians eat eggs but not fish. Pollotarians eat poultry, but not red meat. Pescetarians eat fish or other seafood, but not red meat or earth-bound animals. The term Vegetarian is loosely used in today’s society.

Raw Foodies: are a group that eats only uncooked, unprocessed, and mostly organic foods. Raw foodies typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Raw foodies are into sprouting grains, fresh organic fruits, tons of vegetables. Mostly they are into vegan but it is not a requirement. Rawism can include consumption of eggs, raw fish, meats, non-pasteurized dairy like raw goat cheese or raw Greek yogurt.

Raw Vegans: exclude all food of animal origin, and all food cooked above 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit). A raw vegan’s kitchen includes a dehydrator instead of an oven and a high end blender—like the one at Jamba Juice—as a tool for everything else like a microwave. Subsets include: fruitarian, juicearian, and sproutarian.

Flexitarians: or Semi-vegetarians eat usually vegetarian and mostly raw diet. But at the dinner party when the vegan declines to eat any meat this person will try the chicken to be polite. Jane Goodall, a famous vegan, said that she does not completely stick to the vegan diet while traveling. Getting a balanced diet on the road is challenging but can be closely followed if well planned. I can see Jane nibbling a piece of cheese but not chowing-down a steak.

Standard American Diet (SAD): more politely called the Western pattern diet, or the Affluent diet, is the one chosen by most Americans and many people in developed countries. This is how we were raised. We treat every day as holiday. We eat meat usually three times a day, sugar in drinks and desserts, high-fat foods, like French fries and dairy, and processed grains. What the SAD diet lacks is water, natural fiber from fresh vegetables, and whole fruits. We love our morning coffee, processed juice, and pop tarts. Can I have a slice of bacon with that?

I started my life as SAD and have dabbled from time to time as flextarian. Given my improved health and weight loss, I am well on my way to being a raw foodie and very possibly a raw vegan.

Broccoli

We spent three hours of the afternoon with the homecare nurse. She changed Paul's foot wound dressings and coached me while I administered his first round of Vancomyicin at the house. I am proud to say I made it through without killing my husband or fainting. A small accomplishment for a Monday.

I made a run to the pharmacy for my hubby then stopped at my favorite local health food store which carried Ultimate Flora Critical Care probiotics—recommended by my friend Pam Medeiros to counteract some of the side effects Paul’s home injections of Vancomyicin. Moose still recovering from two surgeries requested chicken soup for dinner. Born in 1964, my husband is a product of television marketing, preferring Snapple to sun tea, Jiffy peanut butter or organic ground, and Campbell’s Chicken and Stars to about any other chicken soup other than my homemade. So not run to two grocery stores, I also picked up organic graham crackers and saltines at the health food store. Too pooped to go on one more stop, I purchased the…gasp…healthy soup.

After walking the dog, watching All My Children on SoapNet, bouncing on my trampoline, and cleaning the bathrooms, I set about dinner. I decided if Paul wanted chicken soup and crackers, I would go for steamed turnips and broccoli. Understand I don’t like either turnips or broccoli or at least I didn’t. Farm Fresh to You has been delivering organic fruits and vegetables every other week to our home for three months now. And WOW. Organics taste different than the food offered in the grocery stores. Organic broccoli does not taste like broccoli. The flavor is milder and fresh. It’s the difference between the flavor and texture of roasted corn on the cob and canned corn. Not the same food.

I plopped two pans on the stove starting the soup in one and flipping the steamer in the other. Poindexter got fed cheeseburger flavored canned dog food. I chopped the turnips and broccoli and tossed them into the pan. Of course I hummed Dana Carvey’s classic song, “Chopping Broccoli” while doing so. Paul and I talked about the Croatian episode of House Hunters International he watched while I cooked.

Something was burning. I looked at the soup then the veggies—steamed poured from both. I poured his soup out into a bowl and set it on the table. The metallic-burning smell filled the kitchen and the dog started sneezing. Pulling the lid off of the veggies, I found the edges of the broccoli black. I had “steamed” the veggies for seven minutes with no water—burning the pan and the contents. Amazed that I did not set fire to the kitchen, I poured water over the grate and shut off the burner.

Paul took one taste of his organic soup and crushed eight saltines into it before taking another bite. I had one bite of blackened broccoli and threw it away. I had an orange instead. Not our best dinner.

I lost five pounds this month.

Fresh Pickle Recipe (No Salt)

Looking to reduce salt in your diet? Here's a great pickle recipe with crunchy freshness. This pickle recipe takes ten minutes to prepare and one day to cold cure are a delicious alternative to the current briny store offerings. Start with a clean kosher pickle jar. You can buy new or clean a used jar by washing it in the long-hot cycle of your dishwasher.

1 cup Light-colored Vinegar – your favorite rice, wine, or apple. I use raw apple cider vinegar.
16 oz Persian Cucumbers or English Cucumbers—cut length wise, enough to fill jar
2 Tbsp Pickling Spices
1 Tsp Peppercorn Whole (optional)
2-3 Tbsp Agave Syrup or Honey—pickles move from dill to sweet as you increase syrup
1 Sprig Fresh Dill

Optional Flavors use 1-3 Tsp to taste:
Red Pepper Flakes
Fresh Garlic sliced thin
Fresh Jalapeño sliced thin
Fresh Bell Peppers
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Sliced Celery if you really miss the salt

Mix syrup, vinegar, and spices in a bowl and set aside. Cut up your vegetables. Pack your jar with the cut cucumbers, dill and optional flavorings. Stir the bowl of liquids and pour into the jar to fill. Scrape in any leftover spices. If the jar is not completely filled, add water. Close the jar with a lid. Rock the jar back and forth to insure the ingredients blend. IMPORTANT—Use a marker and put the date you made the pickles on the jar. Move immediately to the refrigerator. It takes twenty-four hours for the cucumbers to turn into pickles.

Don’t get discourage if the pickles are not perfect the first time. It takes a few tries to the flavor exactly the way you like them.

Pickles will last about three weeks in the refrigerator. In our house the pickles are usually eaten in a week. Make sure you throw away uneaten at the end of three weeks.

Figs…

I purchased a dehydrator. I didn’t plan to purchase a dehydrator. It started with a trip to Lodi to pick figs off of Pam and Bob, my friends’ tree—a huge twenty foot farmhouse fig tree. Filling two bags, while stuffing my face with sun-warmed gooey fruit, I hadn’t a clue what I was going to do with all the figs. On the drive home, I thought of sharing my bounty with family and neighbors. Which I did. Also I planned perhaps to find on the internet a few exotic recipes. Did that too. Still I had more figs than I could eat.

Aside from figs. Home-grown tomatoes arrived on my doorstep with alarming regularity. News of my raw diet has spread throughout the community causing an outpouring of free red-ripe and yellow-heirloom fruit offerings. Yes tomatoes are technically fruit. With my gleeful acceptance, the refrigerator now overflowed with tomatoes and the aforementioned figs.

What to do with all that fruit?
I tried drying figs in my brand new gas oven. Unfortunately the settings did not drop to the required 110 degrees so I burnt my first stab at dehydrating. I found myself that day at Fry’s Electronics and, to my surprise, a brand-new dehydrator sat on the shelf between coffee makers and vacuums. Marked down from $59 to $39, it seemed like a deal.

The three trays of skinned-sliced tomatoes and two trays of halved figs took most of two days to dry in the circular heating unit. After cooling the dried fruit, I packed them in plastic-freezer bags and popped them into the freezer where they will keep bug free for up to two years.

Now what do I do with dehydrated tomatoes and figs?
First the tomatoes—Sundried Tomato Pesto. My recipe.
6 ounces sun-dried tomatoes Soaked in water until soft. Set aside water.
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons red wine (optional)
¼ to ½ cup olive oil
Sea-salt to taste
Combine all the ingredients except the oil. Let rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Mix thoroughly. Add soaking water if needed. Mix in oil to taste. I like Cayenne Pepper for a little kick. Use on raw veggies. I like to pour over sprouted mung bean and grind hard raw goat cheese over the top. Tastes Italian to me!

Finally the Figs—A Christmas Figgy Pudding

Fig-raisin Pudding
2 cups 2-day sprouted wheat and rye
1-1 1/2 cups black mission figs soaked overnight
1-1 1/2 cups raisins soaked in fig water for 1 hour
Put all ingredients in a blender, and puree until smooth
- by San Francisco's Living Foods Enthusiasts

I lost one pound this week.

And the winner is…

Last week, I met a woman named Marie. She lost one hundred and ten pounds during the period January through July 2010 – that’s about four pounds a week. Modifying Weight Watchers diet, she cut carbs and fats then ate sensibly a diet full of raw vegetables, limited fruits, and barbecue lean meats. Marie is doing tons more exercise than I am.

My friend Cindy B. is raw-canning cauliflower, beans, and cucumber with jalapeño peppers and garlic. Hot but oh so good. A new acquaintance discussed the value of sprouting seeds. Another friend, Jacki, sent me a link to a raw restaurant here in Sacramento http://www.thegreenboheme.com/ and one to a raw support group. The cover of the gardening section in Friday’s newspaper presented the trend toward more home organic gardens. It seems I am far from alone in this diet revolution.

Today, I met my transplant weight goal of two hundred and twenty five pounds. I could not have completed this goal without going raw. Over and over I have failed attaining more modest goals on the most popular diets ranging from Atkins to Grapefruit to South Beach to Weight Watchers and so many more. All diets talk about life style changes but until you stop baking, microwaving, boiling, fast-fooding, and frying that change cannot happen. Now a dietary cheat for me is a pasteurized all fruit smoothie instead of a homemade fresh one. French fries, candies, cookies, and baked goods are not tempting – an extra fig before bedtime is. That is a real change in my tastes.

Yesterday, I plowed through my closets and drawers trying on every piece of clothing I own. There is massive satisfaction in throwing garment after garment in to a pile intended for the Goodwill. The stack of over-sized rejects grew to my height approximately five-foot ten-inches high – a lovely sight that promptly fell over and covered the floor. It made me giggle.

Shopping at Eco-Thrift, a local used clothing outlet, I am purchasing smaller and smaller pants for ninety-nine cents apiece. This will do until I settle on a permanent size sometime after the holidays and the kidney transplant. My new goal for November 6th is to lose thirty-five more pounds and hit my healthy weight of one hundred and ninety pounds.

So, now I call University of California, San Francisco’s transplant nurse to let her know I have achieved the required weight. We will try to set our double surgeries for sometime in January 2011. Soon, Paul and I will have a healthy new life together. The winners are us!

Fasting Wednesday

It’s the first of September and I’m starting my fasting Wednesdays. The fast is not as easy as I remembered it. The mind plays cruel tricks sometimes. I did okay until eleven o’clock, when I tried to convince myself that a banana smoothie somehow fit a fasting Wednesday. Keeping occupied has helped move my thoughts away from food.

I now know how my skinny co-workers had so many new clothes. They spent money on themselves and not on food. Image if you didn’t eat once a week what that could do for your budget. What if your husband or housemate didn’t eat one day either? Could you afford a new blouse this month? Kids and pets don’t fast so drop that fantasy.

The cost of food for this diet has been for items I never had in the house – powdered wheatgrass, brewer’s yeast, seeds for sprouting, and containers for sprouting. The almond milk, kale, and coconut just replace other less nutritious items in the weekly shopping. What I normal spend on food for myself has dropped by at least half. In the long term, decreasing costs will probably continue.

For example, I ran out of lettuce a few days back. Rather than drive to the store, I used some sprouted sunflower seeds as a base and made my salad. The next day I used the sprouted lentils with a different mix of vegetables. I sprouted mung beans overnight for a wonderful new luncheon faire. I love the change in flavors and textures. The sprouted seeds cost pennies where the organic lettuce cost dollars.

Oh, I made my own pickles. Yes. Using a mandolin slicer, I trimmed up some cucumber, stuffed them into a clean used pickle jar – appropriate – added garlic cloves, pickling spices, and organic vinegar. Left it in the refrigerator for three days. Now I have raw organic pickles. Yum!

How did I get on food? So eight more hours till bedtime then sleep then breakfast. I think I’ll have that banana smoothie.

Wheatgrass

  One Pound Off This Week! August melted eleven pounds for a total of thirty-two lost since I started the diet.
  This week I added wheatgrass powder to strawberry-banana smoothies. If I have not covered wheatgrass, let me do that now. Wheatgrass supplies the body calcium, chlorine, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, sulfur, cobalt, zinc, dripping in chlorophyll that can reduce symptoms in people with obesity, hypertension, pancreatitis, and may inhibit cancer cells. Every raw-diet book, without exception, extols the virtues of wheatgrass. It is the Holy Grail of the plant kingdom.
  Simple to grow, wheat berries – wheatgrass seeds – can be soaked overnight in a jar then drained to sprout within six hours. Cover the sprouts with dirt in a pot six inches or more deep and presto! You have wheatgrass. It takes about three days to have seven inches of harvestable wheatgrass.
  Now here’s the part I didn’t like. Cut and wash the grass then grind it in a device similar to a meat grinder to squeeze out one ounce of wheatgrass juice. OR Go to Jamba Juice and have them do it for you at $1.95 per shot. OR Head down to your local health food store for powdered wheatgrass at $1.50 per ounce. The wheatgrass juice powder only loses ten percent of its potency in powdered form. I did the last two options.
  Oh, I also grew the wheatgrass for my dog, Poindexter. He wanders outside, passes the planter and snips off a few blades munching down the healthy goodness. Dex does not need a meat grinder. He has excellent canines. Cats like it too.

FIVE POUNDS TO TRANSPLANT WEIGHT GOAL!

Four pounds lost this week. Yea! I upped my exercise a tad with the help of an overactive puppy and ate close to the outlined diet. What I’ve been eating of late: a homemade version of V-8 juice, steamed veggies like kale, carrots, green beans, spinach, and mushrooms, soft-boiled eggs, seared tuna salad with balsamic dressing, tacos made of lettuce, raw-milk goat cheese, homemade salsa verde and seared beef, many salads, fresh fruit, fruit, and more fruit gleaned from our awesome overproducing backyard trees.

My latest experiment attempted Japanese cuisine. I picked up seaweed wraps at the local grocery store, grabbed fresh crab meat, raw ahi tuna, avocado, and veg for California rolls. Following the easy instructions for sushi on the seaweed package, I made two California rolls and two tuna rolls for Mom and Paul. Each roll breaks down to eight pieces of cut sushi. Then I ground up sprouted sunflower seeds and lentils into a paste to replace the rice portion of the recipe and made the same type rolls for myself. I served up salads with ginger dressing, edamame, and hot sake. This was a necessary break from the rut I created with the raw diet. The Asian recipes far exceed most European and American faire in variety of flavor and fresh ingredients.

I am still only two weeks from my last three-day fast so I will start my one-day fast next Wednesday, September 1st. For those who think fasting destroys the muscle, I talked with a health professional who says you must fast forty days before destroying muscle tissue. One day ain’t going to hurt and I know my digestive track can use the break – not to mention what it is doing for the food budget.

July 2010

August 2010

Down the Rabbit Hole

When I started this diet I had no idea what new worlds I would find. Did you know that fruitarians exist? They eat only fruit. This is new information to me but part of an amazing labyrinth of raw-vegetarians juicing wheatgrass, dehydrating sprouted seeds to make raw breads, composting, and organically growing – refugees from the communes I read about in the Sixties that became successful all-natural entrepreneurs. Since this quest started, I have found organic wheatgrass farms in New Zealand and a Californian raw “baker” that ships overnight just about any healthy food craving you may have. “Curiouser and curiouser!”

The really bizarre stuff is found in the last half of each book. Just check the chapters on cleansing. You will find page after page detailing the joys of a clean and healthy bowel. How do you obtain such a thing? Glad you asked. The answer is by fasting, enemas, and high colonics. The detailed pages usually include sketches of someone on a slant board inserting a bulb into the underside of well you know. After flushing out the offending items from your system, you are to insert wheatgrass juice to hold for twenty minutes or so then expel. Apparently, this is the key to curing disease.

Now if one book mentioned it in passing… Ha! Sorry. If one book mentioned these procedures, I could have ignored it but all the books including The Cure talks about clearing the intestines. I visualized Steve Martin and Sarah Jessica Parker leaving the colonic spa in LA Story, Parker jumping up and down, reenergized and Martin walking funny, violated.

I am trying to be enthusiastic about juicing and have successfully sprouted lentils and sunflower seeds. But try as I might the idea of someone else or me, for that matter, inserting a green-water-filled bulb in my fanny is repulsive at best. Don’t let this scare you away from some really good health tips and information. The Hippocrates Diet states that specific cleanses are needed for those who are ill. Perhaps if I had colon cancer, colitis, or ulcers, maybe my desire – scratch that – my need could overcome the repulsion. I’m only seeking a lighter weight body through good nutrition...

 "and it really was a diet, after all."

Great Recipe

I found this recipe in Sunset Magazine, August 2010 edition, page 91. Served cold, it is refreshing tasty and low calorie. Enjoy!

Mexican Tomatillo Avocado Soup
Serves 6, 45 minute prep
1 1/4 lbs. tomatilos, husked and rinsed
1 white onion, finely chopped [I only used 1/2 onion and I used a food processor for the dish]
2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth [I changed the chicken broth to vegetable broth]
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 English cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped [I used the cucumber I had in the refrigerator]
2 tblsp lime juice [freshly squeezed]
2 tsp green hot sauce [I increased from tsp to tblsp]
1 1/2 tsp of minced fresh oregano leaves [didn't have this so left it out]
1 avocado chopped [Yum!]
3 tblsp chopped cilantro
1. Chop tomatillos coarsely, Puree half each of the tomatillos, onion, and broth in a blender with garlic. Rub through a fine strainer into a stainless steel bowl; discard contents of strainer. Finely chop remaining tomatillos. Add remaining tomatillos, onion and broth; cucumber, lime juice, hot sauce, and oregano.
to bowl and stir.
2. Nest bowl in ice water; stir often until cold, 15 minutes. Add avocado and cilantro.
Per 1-cup serving 111 calories. 52% (58 cal.) from fat, 3.8 grams protein, 6.5 grams of fat, 12 grams carbo (4.2 grams fiber)58 grams sodium, 10mg cholesterol.

I did it!

One whole day of fasting! I did it. Around 4:00 yesterday, I wasn't sure that I would make it. Drinking lemon water becomes a task rather than a treat after ten hours. I switched to plain water and made it through the day. This morning little hunger and a lot of thrist hit me. I waited an hour before cutting into that beautiful cold watermelon. First juicy bite tasted bitter. I'm not sure if it was bitter or my taste buds are in shock. In a couple hours I will know when I feast again on the melon. Two days of watermelon fasting awaits...

Attempting the Fast

This past month ranks as a practice run for the true diet. Today, I attempt the near-impossible… the fast. My goal is to fast with lemon flavored water today, followed by two days of watermelon to cleanse. The three days of cleansing will, supposedly, jump start my immune system, clean out my urinary tract, and give my half-century old digestive system a much needed holiday. The question is – can I do it?

I prepped. First I visited one of Mom’s friends, Annette, the local sage on raw diets. She graciously invited me into her beautiful home full of handmade crafts so lovely I felt blessed to be there. Her creations included delicately carved emu eggs, woven baskets the size of a robin’s nest, and surprisingly comical beaded pebbles.

She gave me hands-on lessons in sprouting and juicing – two areas in which I am clueless. Annette had stacks of book for me to thumb through and borrow. I picked, The Raw Food Revolution Diet by Cherie Soria, Secrets of Power Juicing, Jack LaLanne, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw by Mark Reinfeld. Annette's patient instruction in sprouting far surpassed the choppy information found in the Idiot’s Guide. I munched on sprouted sunflower seeds as Annette expounded the virtues of mung bean and hemp seed (legal not the other hemp).

I think sprouting helps your system by increasing helpful enzymes and nutrient intake. Annette says the starch normally found in these seeds change to proteins in the sprouting process -- more digestable and better for you. If it adds a bit of variation in the diet, I will be thrilled. I tire of the same flavors my current faire holds and look forward to some change. Thankfully, the recipes in all three books I read were inspirational. According to these guides you can make most cooked foods in a raw version if you have time, patience, an expensive dehydrator, a good food processor, and money. Okay, I don’t have five of the five but I can see where I can enhance what I am doing with some juices and a few sprouted seeds.

In a way, I feel I have dropped down the rabbit hole. Juicing, fasting, sprouting, dehydrating, raw; all so retro-hippie and not-so-much me but I feel great. I have lost 1.6 pounds this week alone. My stomach muscles are tightening on their own. Honestly, I have never had such daily positive affirmation of a diet change as I do with this one. I find myself dancing for no reason, singing to the dog, and thanking God each time I pick a ripe apple off the backyard tree. I must be doing something right.

One Day Caloric Count = 851

Before my seventy-year-old mom reads this and goes all Ninja on me, let me explain that I have eggs, banana, fish or seared meat about every other day. Today felt like a veggie day so the calorie count came in low. Tomorrow will probably be closer to 1,500 calories. Take a look at the times and you will see I don’t stop eating all day. I am a grazer but now I’m a low calorie grazer. Moo!
Here’s a typical day of my current modified diet plan for Tuesday July 27th.

• Time  + Calories + Food + Nutrition
• 7AM 60, Nectarine A, C, Calcium, Iron, Sugar, Fiber
• 8AM 15, 1 cup Half-Caff Coffee with ¼ c Almond Milk Calcium, A, D, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Manganese
• 9AM 80, 1 slice, Trader Joe’s Sprouted Cinnamon Raisin Bread Protein, Sugar, Fiber, Fat, Iron
• 9AM 10, 1 ½ tsp Vegan Soy Butter Fat, Sodium
• 9AM 40, 2 tsp Organic Honey Carbs/Sugar
• 9:30AM 35, 1 Apricot A, C, Calcium, Iron, Protein
• 11:30AM 63, Juice: Tomato, Lemon, Carrot, Celery, Bell Pepper,Turmeric, Cayenne Pepper, Sea Salt A, C, Calcium, Iron, Protein, Sugar, Sodium
• 1PM 23, ½ cup Jicama A, C, Calcium, Iron, Sugar, Fiber
• 1PM 20, ½ cup Tomato Salsa w/Onions, Spices, Bell Pepper A, C, Calcium, Iron, Protein, Sugar, Sodium
• 4:15PM 35, 1 Apricot A, C, Calcium, Iron, Protein
• 6PM 40, 2 Raw Almonds Fat, Fiber, Protein, Calcium, Iron, Sugar
• 6:30PM 80, ½ sm Grilled Yam with Soy Butter Protein, Fiber, Carb
• 6:30PM 22, ½ cup Green Beans A, C, Calcium, Iron, Fiber, Protein, Sugar, Sodium
• 6:30PM 4, ½ cup Spinach A, C, Calcium, Iron, Sodium, Fiber, Sugar
• 6:30PM 170, 1.5 oz Whole Milk Hard Cheese Fat, Protein, Sugar, A, Calcium, Iron
• 7PM 74, 9 Cherries Sugar, Fiber, Protein, Fat, A, C, Calcium, Iron
• 10PM 80, 1 tbs Organic Peanut Butter Protein, Fat, Calcium, Iron

Lost 20 pounds in 27 days

     Four pounds down this week. I have been on many diets, my friend, and this is just unbelievable. My energy is up, emotions fairly stable, and old body is shrinking. Yesterday, I took a long walk with my friend Lois and Poindexter, my dog. We pulled the garage sale signs that I posted on Friday plus old signs leftover by those who apparently cannot clean-up after themselves. Poindexter encountered a large wild turkey and a couple cats. I received an excellent aerobic workout keeping a forty pound puppy from flying after the critters. When we finished the sign eradication, I felt up to a second trip around the area. Poor Dex dragged his chunky paws for the last couple of blocks. It was nice to wear out a ten-month old pup.
    Today, I am going to count calories for those asking what my caloric intake is because I haven’t a clue. I am sticking with the modified diet outlined in Dr. Brantley’s “The Cure.” I eat salads, soft boiled eggs, fruit, occasional raw fish or seared meat, and a teaspoon of peanut butter for protein cravings. Nothing beats cold watermelon for hunger-pang emergencies. Steamed dark green veggies and sliced banana every other day is needed to keep up potassium and iron levels. Plus I am still drinking eight-ounces of tepid water every half hour.
    The juicing required for the complete detoxification diet or “level A” is not something I have enjoyed so far. To cleanse requires lots of juice. I do like the combination of carrot and orange juice but have not found any combination of green juices that I like so far. I love V-8 but that is on the no-no list of processed foods.  
Does anyone have juicing ideas for me to try?

I Cheated & I Have Headache…

I cheated on my diet last night. My family celebrated Paul’s forty-sixth birthday at the local Japanese restaurant. I thought my food choices fit the plan with edamame, salad, and a tuna roll. The breakdown:

Good: Vegetables in the salad, raw tuna, avocado, fish roe, seaweed in the roll.
Bad: Processed salad dressing, soy sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger, the rice in the roll, sauce on the roll, cooked edamame, and ice water with dinner. The ice water caused my internal working to play the “1912 Overture” throughout dinner. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Mom hadn’t hummed along.

More than likely the meal contained some MSG in the mix.
This morning, I awoke with my head pounding and my sinus swollen – first time since I started this diet. As this is all a learning process, I know I could have done better ordering.