Fertility Talk

Hubby and I have started the process of getting pregnant. I was six weeks late recently, so thought I might be pregnant. But, I was testing negative on the home pregnancy tests. My cycle has always been pretty regular, maybe one week off occasionally. So I thought, am I pregnant? Have I stopped ovulating?

I found a good doctor based on an internet list of "size friendly ob/gyn's", and he wasn't too far away, and my insurance seems to cover him. He did some tests. I am not pregnant, which is not a surprise, as the doctor thought I was not. I have an elevated thyroid, so I'm going back to see the doctor next week so that we can prescribe meds for that. My FSH was normal, so that means I'm not menopausal, I should still be making eggs. FSH is Follicle Stimulating Hormone, and an elevated level can mean that a woman is nearing menopause.

I also started Metformin last night, which is supposed to help reset my cycle. I am taking 250 mg twice a day, while my body gets used to it. It can wreak havoc on your stomach. On monday, if all is well, I will go up to 500 mg twice a day. Three days after my period starts, I begin Clomid and Prevara.

I started going to the gym with hubby last night to make myself stronger, so hopefully I am going down the right paths. I am also focusing on non-junky foods, good percentage of raw, lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains. Cutting down my caffeine, which is a big challenge for me.

I have a headache today and am congested, wonder if it's my body getting used to the Metformin.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Weekly Dinner Plans are Back!

Lots of things going on. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Raw Fu Whole Fu 100 Day Challenge, hooray!



I'm starting tomorrow using a McDougall meal plan (drmcdougall.com if you want to check him out), but focusing on 50% or more Raw Food! I made dinner plans for the week, which I'll post in a minute. We go shopping about two days at a time, since Trader Joes is on the way home from the train station. Here's a picture of today's shopping! (Milk is for my hubby.)



This week's dinners will be:
Monday: Spicy Tomato Couscous with kidney beans, big salad
Tuesday: Leftovers from Monday
Wednesday: Rainbow Skillet Medley
Thursday: Leftovers from Thursday
Friday: Bean and Corn Enchiladas http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2008nl/jan/favorites.htm
Saturday: Leftovers from Friday
Sunday: Polenta with Mushrooms

DIY Soda for Summer!

Did you ever wish that you had a cheaper, healthier alternative to coke and Diet Coke? Did you know that Coke is the drink of the Death Squad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HFZ3cH1UAI

Well you do have an alternative. Yes, of course you could drink water, but sometimes it does not hit the spot for me. So what's a thirsty person to do? Easy peasy.

1. Take a mason jar or other container, and put two tea bags in it. Use any tea of your choice. I like the Tazo Passion Tea for this. Fill it with water, place in the fridge and wait two hours or more.

2. Remove tea bags. Now you have a strong concoction that you can use as a sort of soda concentrate base. I use about 1/4 base to 3/4 seltzer water. Pour over ice. You can mix it with non fizzy water if you prefer. Garnish with a slice of citrus if you're feeling fancy.

3. Drink, repeat, be refreshed.

July Issue Rawks!

First, the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in San Francisco earned $3000 for animal groups last weekend. I am very happy to have donated some whole wheat chocololate chip cookie squares! Kudos to the awesome people who organized it so that people like me could drop off cookies and feel warm and fuzzy all week!

The July Issue of Rawk You Like a Hurricane is shaping up to be exciting! Articles about prenatal yoga with the awesome yogaformommies.com system, waste-free lunch, adding raw food side dishes to healthy vegan dinners, meal planning, Health at Every Size, my break up with the weight loss industry, reviews of delicious Zukay dressing and more! Will I be pregnant before the July issue is complete? Maybe not, but I'll keep you all posted!

Bake Sale Sunday!

I am excited! This weekend, I am baking some vegan chocolate chip cookie bars to take to a vegan bake sale to benefit animals. A year ago, I would have wanted very much to do this, but I would not wanted people to say, "Oh, of course the fat girl made cookies." Now I think "Yeah, the animal-loving girl (who happens to be fat) made cookies because she cares." That makes me very happy. And I'm confident in my cookie bars, because I'm using the chocolate chip cookie bar recipe from How it All Vegan. One year I made these and gave them out in little individual containers for Xmas, and people loved them. They always turn out well. Yay cookies! Yay animals! Yay changing perceptions and rejecting limitations!

I'm also going back to Belly Dance classes in less than a month. This is daunting, but I have always enjoyed it before. I am almost always the biggest girl in the class, but teachers have always been cool (with one notable exception who need not be named).

Have a great weekend everyone. It's Pride Weekend here in San Francisco, and I am proud to be part of the diverse Bay Area. Cuz hey, there are people that think fat people shouldn't have families too. Everyone should have fair treatment.

Dinner Plans for Week of 061509 to 062109

Monday Night - Veggie Fried Quinoa with Baked Veggie Egg Rolls
Tuesday Night - Burnin' Butt Burritos from Garden of Vegan with Corn
Wednesday Night - Veggie Pizza Salad
Thursday Night - Tabbouleh, Hummus and Pita
Friday - Hongshao Dofu with Broccoli and Rice from Please Don't Feed The Bears
Saturday - Black Bean Soup from Moosewood Restaurant
Sunday - Chef's Choice

Mushroom Couscous Success

Woo hoo! I was trying to recreate a mushroom couscous dish that I previously made from a boxed mix. Through the magic of the internet, someone else had already done it! I used way more mushrooms, and Mr. Monster said to post that he RAVED about it. Hooray! http://vegfrugalhousewife.com/2008/05/11/curried-mushroom-couscous/
Thanks vegetarian frugal housewife!!

I also made Sunny Shiitake Carrot Salad from Frank Giglio's Raw For All book. It was delicious. I recommend this book, and will be reviewing it in the next zine. You can check out Frank Giglio here: http://rawfoodfrank.wordpress.com/purchase/

Yoga and Dinner Plans for Week

I picked up a book today called Mega Yoga by Megan Garcia. It's yoga for larger people, with modifications. I did the 30 minute sequence today, and it was good. Challenging, but my muscles feel good. My quadriceps feel like they worked hard. Her website is here if you want to check her out: http://www.megayoga.com/index.php

Dinner Plan for Week of 06/08/09 - 06/14/09

Monday, which is now Mexican Monday! Mexican Pizza, Corn and salad. Mexican Pizza is an old recipe I have in my recipe box. You just cook 3 oz of soy taco crumbles for a minute, add 1/4 c salsa and cook five more minutes. Spread a 6" corn tortilla with 1/2 cup refried beans, top with soy mixture and 2 TBSP cheese (optional, or soy cheese for me). Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Serve topped with 1/2 cup lettuce, 1/2 cup chopped tomato.

Tuesday is Israeli Couscous with mushrooms and broccoli, cooked in veggie broth.

Wednesday is Microwave Lentils and Rice, from Garden of Vegan.

Thursday is Leftovers.

Friday is Big Bowl of Miso Noodle Soup from Garden of Vegan.

Saturday is the WTF "Chik'n" Wings from the PETA book that I didn't get around to making this week.

Sunday is open for chef's choice!

Cooking Up a Storm Saturday

What a lovely Saturday. Woke up late, did yoga with the hubby. Went to farmer's market at BART station, it was only so-so. Made Puttanesca Scramble and toast for breakfast (with Iced coffee of course). Recipe here: http://theppk.com/blog/puttanesca-scramble. We gave it two thumbs up. Didn't take a photo of anything today, just ate it.

Went to dog park, always a good time. There was a very sweet little girl there who was totally in love with all the dogs. She kept calling Gomez and he would jump on her lap and she would squeal and say, "He's a cuddler!" every time.

Came home, chilled out. Made Polenta Croutons (YUM!) and caesar salad with Living Caesar Dressing (both from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan, linked in earlier post). I loved the dressing, hubby not so much. I think I'll definitely make it again to take to work. Also made mixed berry cobbler. Used the recipe from Vegan With a Vengance (altered the peach cobbler recipe). It turned out very well. Lots of cooking and homemade eating today. The link to Vegan with a Vengance is here: http://www.theppk.com/veganwithavengeance.html. I've made several recipes from it, and they were all good. Can't wait to see Isa's new Brunch book.

Then we watched Murder My Sweet on dvd. Excellent.

Movement

Didn't think about calories today. I did think about movement. When I got home, hubby and I did the evening segment of the Plus Size Pilates dvd. Then I rode my recumbent stationary bike for a while. I'm aiming for consistency, for moving more days during the week than not.

No Longer Feeling It ("It" being Weight Watchers)

I'm just not feeling it. The weight watchers leader at my center is one of the nices people I've ever met, but I've been doing weight watchers off and on for about twenty years. I'm just going to stop doing it. I know what to eat, I know that exercising makes me healthy and makes me feel good. I can't keep paying $40 to the weight loss industry. I just don't want to. It's a little scary to "say" this out loud.

Don't Know Beans? Now You DO!

I was able to coax the pictures out of my digital camera, even though its batteries are protesting. Here is my bean photo-essay.

Do I always use dried beans for recipes? Heck no! But if I'm cooking on the weekend, I try to use dried beans. They taste better and you can feel the love. Does it matter where you buy your beans? Yes and no. I'm super in to Rancho Gordo beans right now, which I can buy at the farmer's market down the street from my office. (You can also order them online at their website, which I will link to in just a moment.)

Rancho Gordo heirloom beans are more expensive than grocery store beans. And still less expensive than meat. And they are freshly dried beans. They have not been sitting around on the shelf for a year at the store, after having been warehoused for several years already. And Rancho Gordo does some good things in this world of ours. And I have now used several packages of their beans, and I never find stones or bad beans. But I still check. You can still use grocery store beans with good results, especially if you buy them out of the bulk bin of a busy store. And yes, you can still open a can!

I used the White Tepary Beans, and made White Bean Soup with Rosemary from Dreena Burton's "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" cookbook.

Thanks to the good people at Rancho Gordo, I now have a great bean-cooking method. I used to just boil them in a pot of water, which technically works. They cook, but they have no sass. Check out their method here. http://ranchogordo.com/html/rg_cook_beans_primer.htm. Buy something while you're there, why don't you? Their pictures are much better than mine, but here are some pictures anyway.

Here is one pound of White Tepary Beans, still in their lovely package. Note how small they are. They will double in size, at least.

This is my version of mirepoix. I don't like onions, so I use leeks instead. Here my veggies are, with garlic, being sauteed in a very small amount of olive oil.

Here is the pot of veggies, with the water added. The beans are now in the bottom of the pot. Watch the magic. (Did you know that you should never add salt until your beans are done cooking? Otherwise, they will not get done!)

The water is not yet at a full boil, but the beautiful beans are swollen with excitement and have rushed to the surface of the water. They are already a lot bigger, and they are not weird and wrinkly like some beans. I think that this is because they are not old.

This is not a great photo, because it was so steamy. Now the beans are done and delightful. The yield from one pound was exactly six cups of beans. Now just drain them and get on with whatever your recipe is!

Dinner Plans for 06/01/09 - 06/07/09

So, this last week threw me a bit of a curveball, mostly because I caught a cold, and I had two audits at work, so I was stressed. I cooked some of my planned meals, but definitely not all.

I did make the Veggie Fried Quinoa, which we both liked a lot. I also made the White Bean Soup with Rosemary, which was very rich and delicious. I modified it a bit, made it slightly lower fat. I used Rancho Gordo White Tepary beans, which I will have a separate post about tomorrow, when I have batteries for the digital camera. I definitely recommend "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" by Dreena Burton, the book that this soup recipe came from. I ordered it after hearing about it on the Vegan Freak podcast, she had me at "whole chapter on hummuses!" Here's a link if you want to check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Drink-Be-Vegan-Celebrations/dp/1551522241/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243807827&sr=8-4

The meal plans this week: (As always I have posted links to recipes that appear online already, because I wouldn't ever infringe on a hardworking author's rights.

Monday: Tofu Tacos, from the Dr. McDougall dvd "McDougall made Simple". Recipe here: http://drmcdougall.com/mcdougall_made_easy.htm. For a side dish: roasted corn, tomato and broccoli raw salad with cumin lime dressing. http://veganagogo.com/show/corn-and-radish-salad/

Tuesday: Leftover Tacos and salad

Wednesday: Raunchy Red Lentil Soup from "La Dolce Vegan" by Sarah Kramer. Cucumber and romaine salad as a side dish. This is a great recipe and a fairly regular dish at our house. Easy enough to make on a weeknight without making me swear, tasty, healthy and cheap! Check out her cookbook here: http://www.amazon.com/Dolce-Vegan-Livin-Made-Easy/dp/1551521873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243808307&sr=1-1

Thursday: Leftover Raunchy Red Lentil Soup and salad

Friday: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Pizza from "Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan"

Saturday: Caesar salad with Living Caesar Dressing and Polenta Croutons (both from "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan"). Baked Potatoes with fixings.

Sunday: WTF? Wings from the PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, you can check out the book here: https://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BK226 I'll serve these with cucumber spears and Raw Ranch Dressing. (Check out that recipe here http://raw100.ning.com/. This is my favorite place to be on the whole internet.)

I was ready to make fun of this book, because I'm kind of jerky that way, and it had a whole section on RAMEN, and I have mixed feelings about PETA. But I cannot make fun of it now that I've made the Dorm Room Shrooms. I cut down the earth balance a little, but they still tasted awesome. And I like to make something slightly junkier on Sundays, because I have my weigh-in Sunday mornings. Speaking of which, I lost one pound this week. Not bad for slacking so much on the dinners.

Next Sunday, I expect better numbers. I am staring my Walk Away the Pounds dvds again tomorrow morning.

Weekly Dinner Plans

Here are my dinner plans for the week. Trying to make things "McDougall Style" wherever possible.

Monday - Whole Wheat Pasta, Marinara, Trader Joe's veggie balls, romaine salad with cucumbers and homemade lowfat ranch dressing.

Tuesday - Vegetable Fried Quinoa from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/02/vegetable-fried-quinoa.html

Wednesday - Leftover Quinoa. Going to dentist for a crown, may not feel like eating.

Thursday - Pizza on whole wheat crust with marinara, portabello mushrooms and olives (no cheese).

Friday - White Bean Soup from "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" by Dreena Burton

Saturday - Veggie Burgers (probably these: http://happyherbivore.com/2009/01/balsamic-portobellos/) with corn and a cooked veggie.

Sunday - Leftover White Bean Soup

We went to a lowfat vegan brunch this Sunday, and had a good time. We didn't know anybody, which always makes me shy and nervous, but everyone was nice and the food was good.

General Personal Junk

I recently had to do some re-evaluating and honest thinking with myself. I had joined the Raw Fu challenge that started in April. This is the second 100 day challenge that I joined, full of intentions of being 100% raw. And failing, over and over, and feeling awful. And eating things that really emotionally hurt me in many personal ways.So I had to decide that instead of trying to be 100%, freaking out, feeling like a failure, and BINGEING over this, I will be 25 - 50% raw, which I can really sustain. I'm at a solid 25% right now. The remainder is vegan low-fat goodness. There are lots of reasons, such as money, my level of obesity, poor teeth, etc. But really, I just wasn't making any headway. So here I am. And I lost some weight this month and I feel good.

Also, speaking of Raw Fu! goodness, the first issue of the amazing Raw Fu magazine recently came out, and it's gorgeous. Check it out!

May Already?

I bought a new cookbook and checked a cookbook out from the library this weekend, so I'm cooking up a storm this weekend. I bought Peta's Vegan College Cookbook, even though I'm not exactly college-aged. It had some good, fast recipes.

Last night I made "Stuffed Dorm Room 'Shrooms".

Here is the recipe, adapted. (I'm hoping PETA wont' mind me sharing, since I'm saying it's a nice cookbook!)

1/2 lb medium-sized mushrooms, washed, with stems removed and saved
2 TBSP vegan margarine (recipe called for FOUR TBSP)
1/4 c. chopped chives
3 TBSP breadcrumbs

Arrange mushroom caps, hollow side up, in a single layer in a baking dish. Set aside. Chop up mushroom stems and combine with margarine and chives in another dish. Nuke, uncovered, 3 - 4 minutes, stirring twice. Add breadcrumbs, stir, set aside. Cover mushroom cpas and nuke 2 - 3 minutes, until nearly cooked, rotating dish 1/2 turn after first minute. Stuff each cap with some of breadcrumb mixture. Cover and nuke 2 minutes, til hot. (Serves four, but I had it as an entree, so we each had half.) It was fast and easy too! I recommend it.

Tonight I have a veggie curry in the crockpot from "Fast From the Vegetarian Slowcooker" by Robin Robertson, and it smells great!

Snowflakes of the Vegetable World

What's for Dinner?

I've had a couple of great raw dinners lately. I had Rawdawg Rory's Cucumber Noodles Aioli on Saturday and Monday. You can see him make it here http://raw100.ning.com/forum/topics/andres-revenge-rawdawg-rory

The "cucumber bread sticks" are great too. I made them with the weirdly tasty raw parmesan chipotle stuff (it's made of almonds not parmesan).

Tonight I made the Creme a la Mushroom Soup from "Alive in 5 - Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes" by Angela Elliott. It makes three servings, so I figured I'd eat half and see if the rest would keep for tomorrow's lunch. Oops, maybe I'll snarf the whole recipe up, making yummy noises. It tastes a lot like the crap in the red and white can I've always loved. And while I think it was a LOT of fat to eat at one time, it made me happy. Her book is here: http://www.therawdivas.com/angela/

What did youhave for dinner?

Issue #1 of New Zine

Hi Friends! Issue #1 of Rawk You Like a Hurricane - The Years of Living Changerously is here! If you were someone or something I wrote about, a copy is on the way to you via snail mail. If you would like to receive a copy, send me $1 in cash or postage, or something in trade, a recipe, a picture of your dog, your zine, a VitaMix blender, anything! My address is: Jenni Smith, 101A Hickey Blvd. Suite 464, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Eventually I will load a pdf to a free zine library if you just want to see one.





Here is my cover, in glorious black and white! Thanks to everyone who has been interested and/or supportive, I appreciate it. I can't wait to make the April issue.

What a Difference a Dog Makes

This weekend, hubby and I went to the Anarchist Book Fair in Golden Gate Park. It's an event we enjoy a lot every year. Lots of interesting folks doing interesting things. One challenge that we have is shyness, we often see people we would talk to, but are not brave enough to start a coversations.

Well, this year, we brought Gomez to the book fair, as it is a very dog-friendly event. He had a great time meeting other dogs and people, and a lot of people chatted with us because he is such a cute and friendly little guy. And he is not shy at all! He even jumped in to the guy's lap at the ALF table with no provocation at all.

I love to pick up people's zines, and the favorite that I came across this year was "Rad Dad". I've heard of this before, but haven't seen it. It is very beautiful and well written.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, and the first issue of Rawk You Like a Hurricane will launch. I'm excited for this personal project. I had it all written up and illustrated last weekend but did not get it copies. Also, once I figure it out, I will upload it to http://zinelibrary.info.

Ronco Dehydrator in Action!!

Those are just stray flax seeds on the counter, not a dirty kitchen.

Turning 40 is Confusing

Yes, that is correct. I turned 40 this Friday. I didn't expect to be freaked out by it, but I was. I lost my younger sister about four years ago, and sometimes that makes otherwise happy events very difficult for me.

But I made the best of it. Got a new haircut. (I cannot think with so much hair, and there is an awesomely good Supercuts a block from my work.) Went out for dinner with my mom and hubby.

Lots of things in the works this year, and I'm excited about that. Nutrition and health are biggies so that we can conceive this year. For the past couple of weeks I really lost sight of eating healthfully. I'm back on track as of Wednesday. Eating veggie, working on incoporating more raw. Using Angela Stokes' RevitaLive videos, which are very helpful with some of the emotional stuff.

My awesome mom and my husband's awesome mom gave me some birthday love in my cards, so I am finally the proud owner of a Ronco food dehydrator, yay! I have my first batch of carrot crackers dehydrating as we speak. I am excited about having these to take to work with raw soups or salads. My energy is better all day at work when I have a good lunch. I'm having some difficulty with coworkers not coming in to my office to ask me to take calls or appointments while I'm eating, so I think I'm going to try to hide in an empty office this week to have lunch.

Here is a nonsense poem I wrote the day before the big 4-0.

Para Mi, Para Ti, Party

The year of living changerously
The year of living strangerously

Feeling amorously
Loving clamorously

Cake shaking
Baby making
Thirst slaking

Mid life mysis
Rolling big dices
Sipping Lemon Berry Isis

Rosemary, you were only half right. This is a dream, and it is really happening.

Freaky Dream Du Jour

I had this dream last night: My hubby and I lived and worked in the Capitol building in Sacramento. One night I was hanging out with my cat in the ballroom, which was across the hall from our bedroom. This cute baby in old-fashioned clothes was crawling around and playing with the cat. She was quiet but a very smiley and friendly baby. Not weird at all. Then I went in to the bedroom and told my hubby to look at the cute baby. He said "What would a baby be doing here at night, unattended?" I turned to look at the baby, and it was totally inverted, standing on its head, smiling at me. Uh oh. What we have here is a ghost baby.

I kept trying to tell my boss, Bob Newhart, about the ghost baby, but he wouldn't listen. The next day, I walked pass the formal dining room, where several old ladies were having breakfast. They were all dressed up like it was high tea. As I passed the room, I heard one woman put her hand to her ear like she was listening and turned her ear towards the ceiling. "Aren't they little DARLINGS?" she cooed. I went in and said I was sorry to interrupt them, but had they seen any babies? The woman smiled and said, "In a way dear. Listen." and looked at the ceiling. I heard a strange sound upstairs. She explained that the capitol was full of ghost babies, and they were all running around upstairs. There you go. THE CAPITOL IS FULL OF GHOST BABIES. Clearly not a dream about fertility fears, right?

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Lots of good things brewing. Starting to use my "Yoga for Indie Rockers" DVD again tomorrow. I've had it for several months, but only used it sporadically. It hurts, but it will help. It will be part of the fitness section of the new zine. I'm really excited about the zine, it will keep me focused, and will give me something positive to do during lunch time at work (aside from trying to figure out how much iced soy latte I can drink without barfing).

Making falafel for me and my sweetie for dinner tonight, and then we will watch Bordello of Blood and eat brownies.

Bounding towards Fitness!
Jenni

Now Coming to You in E-zine Form

I am turning my journey in to a zine. For many reasons. But it will be fun reading

My new zine is about one funky fat girl's journey to health and eco-friendly life. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, I will explore vegan lifestyle and raw food lifestyle experiences, both at home and away. My first issue will come out in early March, where I will distribute them at the Anarchist Book Fair in San Francisco.

My mailing address is: Jenni Morrison-Smith101A Hickey Blvd, Suite 464South San Francisco, CA 94080 If you know anyone who would be interested in having me review products of a green nature, or who would like to give an interview, I'm all ears. Peace and punk rock,Jennirawkyoulikeahurricane.blogspot.com (still in the early stages)

I want to look at many different facets of a healthy and fun life. I will definitely be reviewing the lucious adult video Voluptuous Life (pictured above), which I was delighted to receive as a review copy. It is a super sexy empowering good time!

I'm excited!!!

5 Year Musings

Five years ago, I didn't have anyone to love romantically in my life. At 34 years old, I wasn't looking for a life-partner. I'd dated for many years, and never enjoyed it the way some people did.

Five years ago, I went on a first date with a charming teacher/writer/poet that I met online. We met in front of the Women's Building in San Francisco's Mission District. "Maybe Logic" the Robert Anton Wilson film, was showing as part of a film festival. Afterwards we had burritos at a taqueria and talked for hours. We have not been apart much since. Within weeks, I knew he was not the usual person that I met.

Two years ago, we got married on Halloween in Las Vegas, and that is a special anniversary of course.

But tonight is our date-a-versary, and I feel very lucky every day to have found the love of my life.

Good Food Day

Today I ate really healthy foods, and I am very happy about that. I often pack good foods, and I get really stressed out at work because coworkers fight with me, and I go out to lunch. Today I didn't cave. I'm using the Angela Stokes "RevitaLive" plan (mostly) so I won't post recipes.

At home, I had a green juice. It had no fruit, and it was pretty assertive tasting, but it made me feel good to start the day with. The plan also called for chia water, but I didn't have chia seeds. (Until I got home tonight and my seeds had arrived from TheRawFoodWorld.com! Yay!)

For lunch I had an awesome salad. I have a little bamboo cutting board and ceramic knife that I keep in my desk, so I can cut my veggies right before I make the salad. The ceramic knife is a little scary. I'm used to using a pretty dull knife at home, so when I sliced the avocado it went right through the pit. Yikes!

For dinner I had a raw soup and red bell pepper flax chips (the HuuRaw brand). I couldn't believe that it filled me up, I couldn't even finish the bowl.

The Good, The Bad, and the Sleepy

Hi Everyone. I've still been plugging away at incorporating raw foods. On Sunday, I am starting a 7 day detox that I found on the Raw Diva website. I printed out the optional meal planner, and I'm about to go spend an uncomfortable amount on organic produce at Whole Foods. But I am very excited about this new step.

I pick up raw packaged products very infrequently, mostly because they're so expensive, and I'm not usually anywhere that has them.

Here are two I tried in the last month:

HuuRaw Chips - Bell Pepper Flavor from Thrivin' Edibles. These are very tasty, savory chips. I like them a lot. Just a couple of them really satisfy my "salt tooth". I'm attaching photos at the end.

Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bar - Spirulina & Cashew. I love the raw foods community, so I am reluctant to dis anyone's product, but I really couldn't eat this. It was a crazy blackish green color from the spirulina, which is actually a plus for me. But it was so very oily to the touch that I couldn't dig it. Didn't taste good either. Sorry Raw Revolution people!

And finally, here is a sleepy cat picture.