The Accidental Smoothie

I made the most delicious smoothie this morning.. ON ACCIDENT!

I had every intent on following the recipe found on the gRAWnola website. All weekend I got my taste buds ready for my Monday morning smoothie. Unfortunately, I didn't get my shopping list ready! The recipe calls for 1.5 cups of blueberries. Needless to say, the blueberries were M.I.A. this morning! In an attempt to think on my feet I found a bag of frozen raspberries in the freezer. It would seem that I have had this particular bag of raspberries through the last 3 moves. It was a giant block of raspberry ice.

Growing slightly panicked at not having a plan and now not having breakfast I starting throwing stuff into the Magic Bullet. Here is what it made:

Yes, that's a Starbucks cup that I put my smoothie. The point of this story is that in a panic I happened to make a delicious smoothie. If you want to recreate it at your potentially panic stricken home here is what I used:

Accidental Smoothie:

1/2 Frozen banana ( by the way.. if you are going to freeze a banana its best not to stick it in the freezer with the peel on... oops! )
1/2 a peach
1/2  a green apple
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup spinach
some Grawnola bites
Almond Milk ( recipe posted yesterday )


For a mid morning snack I had some Banana Love Bites which were pretty good although personally I prefer the Pecan ones!

Lunch today consisted of a spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, cracked pepper, sea salt, and a small drizzle of olive oil. YUM! and some almonds, walnuts, and cinnamon mixed with honey.

Dinner, for now, is not raw. I am enjoying my last few days of half raw/half processed before my cut off date of September 7th!

If you do nothing else, try the smoothie!!

Adios!

"groatmeal"?

Today was a 'yummy' raw day. I started this morning with some raspberry groatmeal. I made the almond milk last night so that I could have it in my groatmeal this morning. ( recipes below ). I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. After I got over the texture of the soaked groats it was all good from there!

Here are the recipes that I used to make my groatmeal:

Almond Milk:

2 cups of water
3 Tablespoons of raw almond butter ( by the way, I found it for $4.99 at Trader Joe's! )
1 Tablespoon raw honey
A little bit of Vanilla Extract

All ingredients went into the Magic Bullet Blender until mixed up and then place in the fridge to get nice and cold. Make sure that you shake it before you drink it or use it in anything.

Raspberry Groatmeal:

1 cup of groats, soaked for 10 hours ( I found these in the bulk bins at Whole Foods )
1 cup of frozen organic raspberries
2 teaspoons of raw honey
Almond Milk

After the groats are drained and rinsed I put half of each ingredient into one of the magic bullet mixers ( they are pretty small ) except for the Almond Milk. Blend it up, put it in a bowl and pour some almond milk over top. VERY good!

For a snack today I had a Raw Crunch Bar ( chocolate flavor ). It was VERY sesame seed loaded and for the first few bites I felt like I should be standing at a bird feeder hanging out and eating some seeds. After I got over the seediness of it all it was pretty good. Even though it was chocolate flavored it wasn't an overpowering chocolate flavor. Check it out! I found it at Whole Foods. They are a bit on the expensive side but if you go to their website you can get 12 bars for $38.00 ( this includes the shipping charges ). That makes them about  $3.16 each bar.

So far this isn't so bad. Tomorrow the raw experience continues!

Guac and Flax and Bugs, OH MY!!

I'm meandering in raw snacks.

This morning for breakfast I made some guacamole and ate it with Go Raw Spicy Flax Crackers . It was really good but I have to say that I was slightly put off by the label on the back. Something about a warning of mold and bugs possibly being in the bag just didn't do it for me. As luck would have it, my bag is mold and tag-a-long free ( so far ).

I also tried a new raw snack bar today. It's called gRAWnola and it came in bars and bites. I got both! The bar was not bad but it has orange oil in it and the orange made it taste a little off to me. The bites are the same just in bites, but if you go to the gRAWnola website they have a recipe for a smoothie that has the bites in it. I may be trying that next!

My "raw-ness" is done for the day. Tomorrow will be time for another tasty raw trial.

Going Raw-Let the adventure begin!

I have decided to transition to a Raw Lifestyle.

After watching one of my employees lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks by living off what nature intended for us to live on ( fruit, vegetables, nuts ) I have committed to 21 days pure raw. This goes into effect on September 7th, 2010.

Why then and not today? I AM SCARED! Not scared of eating fruits and vegetables, but scared of missing out on all of the yummy goodness of processed foods! No more delicious pepperoni pizza with extra cheese! No more Cheesecake Factory! No more chinese food! I'm going through withdrawals just thinking about what I wont be eating.

(SIGH) Ok, my pity party is over. I'm doing this for a reason... to be healthy and not a walking cancer time bomb.

This blog is going to be an adventure. In each post I will share some of my research and some of my findings and my honest and true experience of transitioning into a raw lifestyle.

Enjoy :)