Discoveries

I am sort of getting addicted to trying something new or trying something I knew different. It's like a whole new world, this raw food stuff. It's not enough to make delcioius flax crackers but I get to play at "what if I do this???" and then it turns out different. I have never had so much fun cooking in my life. For example, instead of putting the flax seed stuff in the food processor, I put it in my Vita-Mix which almost killed the poor blenderbut it made a completely different texture to the cracker which made it really yummy. We did the same with toaster tarts-which the blender was much more agreeable to, and they turned out SO smooth and really like bread. I think with those, I need to turn up the temp on the dehydrator in order to get the crust to be crisper. It's all experimentation.

We found that blue berries in fruit leather, while still good, are not as good as kiwi fruit or peaches. Something about the tart makes them yummy. We found that putting peaches in the muffins is not as good as putting bananas. The kids report the peaches to make them too sweet. Imagine that?! I've tried several different pesto recipes and figured out the less zesty one hits our preference. We tried mashed potatoes-not a good thing. FYI, cauliflower did not make it as a potato substitute for me. I tried chicken fingers but they tasted more like bad corn flakes. I am hoping to achieve a good pecan burger later in the week. It is so much fun to experiment. There are SO many recipes out there and variations. Once you get started playing, the possibilities are endless. Trying one recipe gives me an idea for another recipe or tweaking something I've already tried. This is RAWKIN fun! So many discoveries!

Busy evening with work so we just did salad again for dinner but the kids topped their day off with peach pie. Soaking almonds to make almond milk and maybe some almond raisin cookies tomorrow. Bought some alfalfa sprout to try out the Nori rolls. Also have wonderful looking tortillas to make enchiladas tomorrow. I am SO excited about those. I will post pictures of that for sure! My daughter is reporting that she may never go off raw food-and she was the one most pensive about trying raw. She has also reported her taste buds are getting more sensitive and the dressing was too much for her tonight so it is time to start letting up on the saltier stuff and let the true taste of food come through more. How cool is it to hear a 9 year old become so aware! I'll let you know what we discover tomorrow! :) RAWK on!

Need to Go Hard Core

Due to the family getting so shakey yesterday on cravings, I decided to read up on Rawkin diets. The one thing that hit me hard in my reading was that going "mostly" raw makes it SO much harder then going 100% raw. Something about the philosophy that eating SOME cooked foods, even a little, keeps you connected to them and cutting them out makes a clean break for your body and mind. Supposedly the cravings go away and stay away after a few days to a week of 100% raw. I can see how that would make sense.

My daughter especially was so pensive about RAWKIN that I agreed to not go hard core on the family. I allowed the steel cut oatmeal and brown rice. I even allowed croutons in salad and organic tortilla chips on occassion. I had leftover saltine crackers-a mother's staple food for stomach virus problems that float in and out of a house, and I caught my daughter eating a few of those one day. She is especially staying connected to "the other side". This might be why days like yesterday were so much more dramatic for her.

I also was worried that going hard core on kids would shock them into absolute disapproval. Going slow, although more painful in the craving department perhaps, was easier in the mental and emotional department. Pre-teens especially need to "buy-in" to the journey because one wrong turn and they will assert their little unfiltered, arrogantly ignorant, hormonal based wills and may not try it again until they are 37. By conceding to their having some control on this process with oatmeal and brown rice, I gave them the power to make this journey with me. As the weeks have gone on, my daughter has announced that foods she didn't like weeks ago she now really loves. The flax seed crackers were "disgusting" to her when we began this journey together and today she ate 6 of them at lunch and a few with almond butter and honey for a snack. (This whole time, I have been insisting that she eat one a day) She has actually requested more! (of course I have to remember what in the world I put in that last batch...oh well...it's an adventure) She even ate sliced tomato today and has NEVER done that. So, I think the time has come to take the final step...go hard core.

We talked about it tonight and have agreed that as the non-raw things run out, they will not be replaced. It is for the good and sanity of the whole family to see what it is like to be 100% RAWKIN. No cheating. We also talked about how good we are all feeling, in general. My daughter is reporting that her tremors, while still there, seem to be less. My son is reporting better energy. I don't know that I have more energy but I really do feel better in my body. How good we feel is really motivating us to keep going. It really is great to have the kids support and for them to feel my support of them. I am finding that really talking with my kids and getting them in on the reasoning, the science behind food, raw nutrition and health is really making us closer. They seem to trust me more and are opening up to my hopes for us as a family and individually.

They are beginning to ask questions about why food is so processed and why people don't change more when it is proven to be more detrimental to the health of the body. They are asking why people stay sick. My ex-husbands mother is fighting cancer and I have talked to her about going raw and different methods of bettering her nutrition and she has refused. I figure that she doesn't want to LIVE a different way and that's her choice but I think kids don't understand as easily. To them, it is more simple and black and white, "if this MIGHT help, why wouldn't she try it?" So much research and science out there on all sides and what I am telling the kids is that everybody is making the best choices for themselves with what they want or can handle. There are many who would disagree with me on my choices as much as I would disagree with the guy at the McDonald's drive thru right now but it is HIS choice and mine is MY choice. I am so proud to have an opportunity to teach my kids this level of difference and acceptance.

This morning we made juice with apple and carrots but it was too sweet for me so I added broccoli, cucumber, ginger and celery to balance it out. The kids and I worked out together which was a lot of fun and a weekend treat. They made a yummy banana strawberry pudding for breakfast with dehydrated sprouted buckwheat. Lunch for them was the last of the veggie falx crackers and raw almond butter. I later made up some more guacamole which was delicious! Dinner went awry as I had left the mushrooms in the fridge too long-bad planning-so we had a delicious salad with sunflower seeds and hemp heart. My son went off to a play date where they were having spaghetti for dinner so I whipped out a pizza crust and threw on some toppings and he was happy as can be. I have almonds and dates soaking, wheatberries srpouting, buckwheat sprouting, walnuts soaking and flax seeds soaking for tomorrows mass food prep. We are runnning out of basics and I need to dig in and build our stock piles back up. I am finding that we are eating less and less and the concept of the S.A.D. and 3 meals a day is beginning to fade. I am glad we have begun this journey before school starts so we can figure out our own rhythym with Rawkin. We RAWK on!