The Speer Family Goes Raw Day 5

Yesterday I was not feeling well.  I'm pretty sure it was due to eating too many nuts.  Shawn is fine, fortunately.  

Today I've only eaten a very small amount of nuts and am feeling much better!

These were our nutty Neapolitans from yesterday.  Avacado icing on the bottom, strawberry cashew "yogurt" in the middle, vanilla cashew cream on top and a sprinkle of muesli.  It was tasty 

 I had vanilla cashew cream in my coffee then strained it out.  I like dairy much better!  I think I'll hold off on coffee until the week is over.
I was also very stressed out yesterday trying to get everything made.  This raw diet is a lot of work!  Plus, I always make way more than is needed.  I can't stop myself, even if it's making me crazy.

Today I planned to cut way back on the nuts.  I had plain naan for breakfast and my blueberry smoothie for a snack.  We had a picnic lunch with Dina and kids at Toys to Try, so I made myself these little gems.  They were sandwiches with walnut pate (my only nuts for the day) on the bottom and raw marinara sauce.  They were fantastic!!!  I'd definitely eat them any time, raw diet or not.  I also had some mixed fruit and Dina brought some carrots.

For dinner, we had taco salad with lettuce, corn, tomatoes and guacamole.  It was good, especially with more naan.  I had a couple scoops of avocado icing for dessert.

Recipe of the Day:  Chocolate Avocado Icing (My favorite raw recipe!)
1/4 cup pitted dates, soaked in water for 10 minutes and drained
1/3 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 avocados, mashed
6 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

Put the dates, maple syrup and vanilla in food processor and process until smooth.  I processed for quite a while, almost 5 minutes.  I didn't want any chunks of dates.  Add the avocados and cocoa powder and process until creamy, scraping down the bowl as necessary.  The original recipe only called for 1/4 cup sweetener, but I like it really sweet!
This recipe is adapted from Raw Food Made Easy (http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Food-Made-Easy-People-ebook/dp/B00BUV1DZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394568233&sr=8-1&keywords=raw+food+made+easy)  by Jennifer Cornbleet.  Her website is http://learnrawfood.com/

E2 Toys to Try

We went with Dina, Olivia and J.J. to E2 Toys to Try today.  We discovered yesterday they moved to Bridgeville.  Their new location is even closer, so that's nice.  The kids had a whole lot of fun playing!

Yellow Flowers

We were so excited a last week when our little yellow flowers started blooming!!  They bloomed as soon as all the snow finally melted.

The Speer Family Goes Raw Day 4

I am sick of nuts.  That is all.

The Speer Family Goes Raw Day 3

For breakfast this morning, I had naan with a combination of the strawberry cashew yogurt and the avocado chocolate icing.  It was out of this world good!  I had a green smoothie for my morning snack.  

I took lunch to my grandmas today.  I made salads for her and me.  They had romaine, spinach, carrots, raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts and pecans.  I used the apple salad dressing from the Raw Food Made Easy book.  The salads were very good, my grandma enjoyed them too.  The salad dressing was awesome, it was also really great to dip bread in. 

I finished out the guacamole with pita for an afternoon snack.

For dinner, we had these veggies tossed with cashew ranch in pitas.  It was fine, but it was a little too veggie-y for me.  Not my favorite of all the things we've had.

After dinner we made cashew ice cream.  It had a great flavor, although the grainy texture is a little strange.  The kids enjoyed it with Nutella and Shawn and I liked it with our homemade pecan butter.

Tonight I worked on making some things for the days ahead.  Above is walnut pate.  I was extremely surprised how flavorful it was.  It was very meaty.  I think I'll have to make the marinara sauce from the book and make little meatball subs with it.

This is almond "peanut" sauce.  I like it and it will make a great dip for raw vegetables.  

This evening, while I was making the peanut sauce, walnut pate and some other things, Paul and Joy were winding down watching tv. I let Paul eat entire 2 packages of bright orange, artificial this and that sandwich crackers.  I am upset with myself about this.  I have a refrigerator full of fresh fruit I could have served him, but I let him eat junk while I made stuff for Shawn and I.  I intend to not let that happen again this week!

Today's recipe:
Cashew Ice Cream:
1 cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours in a mason jar full of water and drained
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Dash salt

Blend in blender until smooth.  Pour into ice cream maker and process according to the machine's directions.

This was actually really simple since I already had soaked cashews in the fridge.  It was way easier than cooking a creme anglaise sauce and then waiting for it to chill to make regular ice cream.

This recipe is adapted from Raw Food Made Easy (http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Food-Made-Easy-People-ebook/dp/B00BUV1DZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394568233&sr=8-1&keywords=raw+food+made+easy)  by Jennifer Cornbleet.  Her website is http://learnrawfood.com/

The Speer Family Goes Raw Day 2

First of all, I have had a request to share some recipes, so here is the link to the recipe for the veggie burgers:  http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/raw-veggie-burgers.html

The recipe made 18 burgers.  I thought that sounded like a lot, so I cut it by a third, and still made 7 burgers.  The next time I do a week of raw food, I'll make the whole recipe.  They really are good, and I bet that they'd easily keep for a whole week.  They are the strangest things, but they really are good with tomato, lettuce and tahini mayo.  

I've been doing research regarding whether it is a copyright infringement to publish someone else's recipes.  I have sent a message to the author of the raw foods book we are using (http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Food-Made-Easy-People-ebook/dp/B00BUV1DZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394568233&sr=8-1&keywords=raw+food+made+easy)  and if I get the go ahead I'll publish more recipes.  

Today I had naan with raspberry jam again for breakfast.  I made the naan with olive oil this morning and I thought it was great. I had a green smoothie for a snack.  I had some running around to do before I took Joy to gymnastics today and I knew I'd be starving before we got home.  For a snack in the car I took raisins and raw walnuts.  I was hungry and ate them all.

I had a veggie burger sandwich for lunch, along with bread with my raw dipping sauce.  

For dinner, I made creamy tomato soup with ranch dressing.  I did not think I would like a raw tomato soup, but I really did.  It is thickened with avocado.  In the summer when I have fresh tomatoes and it is too hot too cook, I think we will be eating a lot of this soup!

I had some of our chocolate cake (and several spoonfulls of extra avocado icing!) for dessert.
Since my bulk order of cashews arrived today, I made strawberry cashew yogurt for a bedtime snack.  I really liked it with the raw muesli.  Joy liked it with chocolate chips!

The Speer Family Goes Raw Day 1

I started our day with some frying and tons of baking.  Maybe not the way most people start a raw food diet, but we're doing raw plus homemade bread!  I had naan with "raw" raspberry jam for breakfast.  I decided next time I'll fry my naan in olive oil.  I wasn't thinking about ghee being an animal product, but it is.  I had a berry spinach smoothie after I went running.  

I had to get started on our veggie burgers early in the day, as they had to go in the dehydrator for 5 hours.  This is the first time I used our dehydrator since before Paul was born, I think.

We made almond milk last night.  It wasn't too difficult, although we decided that cheese cloth is the way to go.  It took forever trying to strain it though a strainer.  I made raw muesli.  It can keep for 3 months.  It was a surprisingly good snack with the almond milk.  I didn't think I'd like raw cereal, but it tastes fine.  Here is my favorite snack, wouldn't you know - garlic and herb dipping sauce for bread.  I could probably just eat sauce and bread all week, but that would really defeat the purpose of the raw diet!

For lunch, we had our not-tuna salad (made with soaked nuts, veggies and herbs) sandwiches with lettuce and tahini mayonnaise.   They were also good.  I made pitas to go with guacamole for another snack.

Dehydrated veggie burgers.  Strange, strange things.  

But, on a bun with lettuce, tomato and more tahini mayo, they were actually really great!  I made them the same size as the buns, but I didn't take into account that they'd shrink after dehydrating, so they were a good bit smaller than the buns.  

And for dessert, flourless chocolate cake with chocolate avocado cream.  I think I over mixed the cake, it had a good flavor but was gummy.  But the icing is so great.  I could just eat it like pudding.  

Day one is going just fine.  It's a lot of work, but I'm not hungry at all.  We've eaten a lot of delicious food.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow!