I've been just busy with every day life, kids, creating tons of raw food recipes (which take time!) and taking care of the dogs too. Our raw food diet went very well. Ken and I stuck with it, pretty much 100% for the 6 weeks (except for maybe adding some maple syrup, a dab of peanut butter and some cocoa to some of the raw ice cream recipes). Other than that...we were pure raw foodists for 40+ days.
Honestly, we felt great! I lost about 13 lbs. Ken lost 18 lbs! He did not need to lose anything, since he is super skinny anyways, so I don't know how he did that. Now, I would like to lose even more. So, I am going to try and stay about 80% raw...not only for the weight reasons, but because I just felt so great on this diet. I do believe this is the best way to eat. However, I did miss some cooked foods, such as rice, soup and pasta, so I would not like to do it 100% all the time, but I think I can handle 80% overall. I think it will be even easier to go more raw in the summer with all the salads, fruits and summer harvests. It did feel good to eat some cooked vegan foods at Easter though. I've gotten into the habit of eating salads at least twice a day, so that is a good habit I'd like to continue.
Here are some photos of the raw food recipes we came up with during Lent. Maybe they will inspire you to make some of these recipes and get healthy too!!
Date Balls- very easy to make. Just blend raw nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews) with dates and raisins. It will ball up into a stiff dough. Roll into balls and dip into shredded coconut. Deeeelicious!!
Apple/Strawberry Pie- The crust is made out of dates and nuts...and press into pie pan. The filling is basically raw applesauce, mixed with a few dates, and topped with strawberries.
Sweet Potato Cookies- You need a dehydrator for this one. Mix sweet potatoes (I used frozen ones, which are softer) with raisins, cinnamon and honey. Drop spoonfuls on to the dehydrator at 105 degrees (which does not constitute cooking if less than 107 degrees) and let it go for about 12-15 hours. They have the consistency of thick, chewy cookies. Ken loved these.
Cabbage Rolls- One of my favorites! Very simple...just make a chunky salad (peppers, squash, zucchini, onions, corn, cabbage, spinach....), pour olive oil and Braggs Liquid Aminos (combined) over the salad. Let it soak for an hour or so. Then, put the salad into the cabbage leaves. If the cabbage leaves are just way too hard, let them soak in some warm water for an hour. I added some more salad on the side with avocados...mmmm!
One of our many salads, topped with some of the dried Carrot Burgers I made with the dehydrator. They are just dried carrots, onions, celery- dried to look like a veggie burger. We topped our salads with them...kind of like croutons.
Oliver loves to help out in the kitchen. Here we are drying some delicious fruit with the dehydrator. Honestly, I think I love the fruit better fresh, but if you are going to go on a trip or just want dried fruit...this is how you do it.
Yes, we made RAW ice cream!! One of my best inventions with this diet. Here we have banana/maple syrup ice cream. It is sooooo good! You need an ice cream maker for this. I used raw cashews, combined with water to make cashew milk. Then I added the bananas and a little maple syrup. Then, put it all in the ice cream maker and wait about 20 minutes for this creamy dessert!
Here is another of our delicious salads. I'd make these about twice a day...lunch and dinner. I tried to mix things up with different veggies and different raw dressings to make sure I did not get tired of salads. There are many ways to make salads, so there are enough choices out there. Just seeing these salads now, makes my mouth water.
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