Compote and kompost

This is so simple and duh-worthy I wonder why I only accidentally discovered it through googling prunes. Compote is a mixture of fruit simmered in water and light sweetener. I had been wondering how to get my baby to eat more variety of fruit after discovering that bananas have a constipating effect. Additionally, he only takes a few bites out of my apples every day and this is a great way to soften it up. The pectin in apples will also serve as a thickening agent!

Kompost is a christmastime drink in Russian cultures, and is made by soaking and boiling fruits and then letting it cool. Babies are given apple juice which causes cavities and spoils their palate, so this is a good treat or alternative to water. In this case, boiling the fruit won't lose nutritional value because it's in the water... Right?

spaghetti squash is very interesting

preheat the oven to 350, cut the squash in half, place it in the oven for 30 or 40 minutes, face down with a bit of water in it to prevent it from drying out.

I threw in some carrots to soften them up for my 1 year old, too.

In a food processor, broccoli tops with some but not all of the hard bits, one zuchini, a bunch of sundried tomatoes... and then it it was too fresh... so I added some dehydrated 'falafel' balls i had made a long time ago that were wanting to be used... It brought the dish into an earthier element which was needed with all the water and sunlight that was going on in the food processor. The Beet-Balls also added good texture.

Aanyway, i wanted to make some cheezy alfredo sauce, so i took out the pre-made alfredo sauce out of the pantry and looked at the ingredients, and the thing you see in the back left is the cheezy alfredo sauce that i made...

If you can get over your fear of salmonella poisoning, you can make this. Personally, i've been eating raw eggs every day with fermented soybeans, so it was easy for me.

1 raw egg (i used two but it was too much egg)
a yolk's amount of Chia seeds (as thickening)
parmesan cheese (yea, not raw, but fuck you, neither is the squash)
nutritional yeast (nutty cheesy flava)
and some salt and pepper

I really, really liked it, but i was very hungry. I could tell my mother missed the fermented soybeans, so i made a separate dish (back right) with squash, fermented soybeans, and my 'alfredo sauce'

I ended up putting the alfredo sauce ontop of my pasta sauce and enjoying that for a few bites too.

Okay... so, this has been my second squash experience, and i have a few more months of squash season to get through. Please help me with any ideas you love.

Varieties of seaweed

There is a whole variety of seaweed out there in the vast ocean. Are you aware?

This dish has coliflor, Red pepper, sesame seeds and kombu mixed in a mixture of soy sauce and sweet sushi vinegar.

"Of the eight major groups, three are used for food. Red seaweed, or Rhodphyta, includes dulse, purple nori, ogo, agar and Irish moss. Brown seaweed, or Phaeophyta, includes kelp, kombu, wakame, arame, hijiki and rock weed. Sea lettuce belongs to the Chlorophyta, or green seaweed group." from a NY times article on seaweed

Seaweed can be expensive to buy if you see them in health food stores. If you live near an asian population, you can find a large variety of dried seaweeds in asian supermarkets. There you will also find incredibly cheap fruits and vegetables, though you may not know what a lot of them are. That can be a fun adventure

"Arame, Eisenia bicyclis, is rich in iron and calcium. It is usually tossed into stir-fried dishes or soups, but can be served marinated in soy sauce and vinegar or fried with tofu."

"Dulse, or Rhodymenia palmata, which sometimes goes by the poetic name ''Neptune's girdle,'' once was eaten as a snack like potato chips in Western Europe and New England. Dulse is found in the North Atlantic and the waters of the Pacific Northwest. Fast-cooking and purplish-red, it is delicious fried in butter, added to soups and salads and combined with grains like oatmeal and barley. Rehydrated, it can be used as a leafy green, or mixed with cream cheese to make a savory spread for bagels. Or coat it in batter and fry it." Most of that sounds like something I will not be doing with Dulse. I like my dulse raw.

"Hijiki, Hizikia fusiforme, is excellent for dieters because it is very filling, and adds a crunchy texture and nutty, meaty flavor to almost any stir-fry dish, soup, stew or salad. Brown when fresh, hijiki turns black and stringy when dried. It is especially good cooked with onions and tofu."

"Kelp, a Laminaria, is available powdered, for use as a salt substitute, and is also sliced for soups, stews, vegetable and noodle dishes. Tasty when toasted until crisp and fragrant or fried in a little oil, it is also delicious crumbled onto popcorn, nuts, seeds, soups and salads. Kombu, also a Laminaria, is packaged dried in flat sheets or strands and is best known as a flavoring - along with shaved bonito flakes - in dashi, the Japanese soup stock." You can also find delicious kelp noodles online or at rainbow grocery and they make an excellent substitute for wheat noodles.

Apples and honey

Alright,
Real Simple, Real quick.

I just wanted to share this treat with you. I was surprised at a restaurant with this when we sat down, ready, waiting for us. It was so delicious, and usually One of my selves says to my Other self "What, like an apple isn't sweet enough, they have to drizzle honey on top?" But its so delicious.

Try it!

Getting to be [more] Raw

Step One, Intend on incorporating more raw foods into your life.
(Why? Because its great, and its not really that extreme of a thing to do.)

Step Two, Be easy on yourself. Health is more than what you eat. Its every day choices, replacing old crappy habits with better habits and allowing yourself to fluctuate between the two, so you really know Why you're doing this in the first place: It feels better.

Cooked foods and how i feel

The way that i make any big, permanent changes in my life is Little By Little, going back and forth from my old ways and experimenting with the new ways. That way i can notice changes along the way and know they're legit.

So after a few days of feeling great eating just fruit, i switched to eating whatever was presented, which included bread with the most delicious olive oil butter, salt and nutritional yeast covered kale chips, walnuts, salty sesame sticks, chips, hummus, black beans mixed with prunes and bananas (what was i thinking...?)

sweet, fatty, salty.

A few days ago, when I had been eating primarily fruits and salads, with little infidelities like a nut here and there, i was fuggin radiating. A friend visited and took this picture,





and throughout those days i was noticing the effect that radiance was having on people i met throughout the day... Anyway, after i experimented the other way (the hodgepodge food combinations) i had breakouts, gas, and this constipated feeling. And now i look like THIS!










And sure, camera quality, attire, time of day, and facial expressions may account for some variables in this scientific comparison of the differences in food intake and radiance output, but the results are still very compelling.

Very.

let it at least be anecdotal evidence. Eating fruit and salad i felt energetic, well, and radiant. Eating other stuff i got congested with a runny nose, constipated feelings, and zitty.
So yeah, tomorrow i'll be sitting in a bus for 4 to 5 hours, and i'm only bringing fruit, water, and juice with me.

mami's raw japanese dish: traditio~on! tradition!

My mom made this last night with cucumbers, and i asked her to make it again so I could take a picture because it was so delicious. We didn't have any cucumbers anymore, so she used zuchini, squash, celery and tomatoes! Very colorful, and just as delicious as the cucumber dish.


How to recreate this:
Soak dried wakame seaweed to expand
Whatever vegetables you have, cucumbers/zuchini/squash/tomatoes. slice them thin and floppy for nice texture
sesame seeds

For the dressing/sauce/marinade, Sushi vinegar (which is sweeter than regular vinegar) rice vinegar, a little bit of soy sauce, and a little bit of stevia. If you have ponzu you can use that instead.

Super alkaline and definitely nutritious and delicious :)

Arthritis, Cancer, Migraines, oh my...

One of the hardest things for me is hearing of peoples health issues and not having anything to offer them. Chronic fatigue plagued my friend for a while, and i didn't know how to help him. It drove me nuts. My dad gets migraines often and is debilitated by them, locking himself in a dark, quiet room, for a couple hours. A lot of elders have arthritis but their love for a sport will still pull them out to the court to fight through pain just to hit a couple of stupid balls over a net.

I've been thinking a lot about heavy metal toxicity. In the last century our environment has become increasingly heavy metal laden, and cancer and autism has increased. There are a lot of factors that affect cancer, but if you're fighting a disease, its a good idea to rid yourself of toxins and let your immune system work without any squeaks.

A few days ago I learned about Adya Clarity, a black mica extract. Black mica, or biotite, is a mineral that purifies water of heavy metals, chlorine, fluoride, and a bunch of other things. When you drink it, it only stays in your system for about 8 hours, and then you pee or sweat it out. In the process of it going through your body, it picks up heavy metals and toxins, and... well, i don't understand chemistry much, but makes them unavailable to your body by encapsulating them in some way and then carries it out of your body through your sweat and urine.

Liquid zeolite, specifically clinoptilolite, does a similar thing, but the chemistry was explained to me better. It has a negative charge and a honeycomb structure, and it attracts positive charge heavy metals to it, and traps them in its honeycomb structure. (hows that for ease of understanding?) Excretion is the same.

Personally I don't have any acute symptoms of disease, so i wouldn't feel a huge benefit from doing this, but i'll probably clear out heavy metals anyway because its been 24+ years of exposure. But i will also give this resource to an arthritic friend and use him as a guinea pig.

Any thoughts on heavy metals? Am i just being paranoid about the unseen things entering my body? According to ChemicalBodyBurden.org, i'm not just being paranoid. Scientists agree.

Well, these two resources, liquid zeolite and black mica extract, emit a huge sigh of relief for me, because i was really worried about our water. Now i have some hope. Do you!?! i hope so.

Raw Food hypocrite's and middle paths.

Last night, after a day of eating greens and fruits, my mother called up to me from the kitchen and asked "Emmy, don't you want to eat something?" by which she meant, she wanted to prepare something and sit with us and eat a meal. I said, Yes! And i went downstairs and she prepared this. Delicious, healthy, pretty. Egg, bread, veggie patti, avocado, salad greens, fresh oversized deliciously sweet tomato.

I ate bread with olive oil butter on it, and it was yummy. I really appreciated it. Earlier in the evening I had guiltily been munching on nuts, thinking about its 70% fat content (first world problems lol) and how it wasn't going to give me energy. But then i read a blog by the "raw food hypocrite" which i greatly appreciate. Because proponents of raw food, especially the best known in the raw food world, say 80 to 100% raw food, and there is a sort of hierarchical better-than-thou attitude that can permeate the raw foodies.

But who am i kidding? I can't be dogmatic about what i eat! Not only is that ridiculous, its ungrateful, nearsighted, narrow minded, and a whole other attributes that i do not want to become. Even as a vegetarian, i was very well known to be flexible, culinarily adventurous, taking bites out of sausage and steaks to know what it felt like, to know what it tasted like, and to keep a social balance. Perhaps its reactionary against vegangelicals, but By Itself, i think moderate middle-paths are a worthy pursuit.

Carrots and Apples, and dr. gerson

Juicing is a great way to get a shitload of carrots and apples into your body. But beyond that, carrots and apples combine really nicely because the malic acid in the apples mixed with the ground carrots helps to release the minerals from the carrots. This is according to Dr. Gerson. If you haven't heard of him, I highly recommend watching this fascinating documentary called The Beautiful Truth. the beautiful truth is that by eating fresh and healthy food, we can reverse the damage of processed foods and environmental toxins.

More Fruit!!

I decided to Up my Fruit intake for the purposes of reducing my sugar cravings and being more full without eating nuts. Switching to raw means eating more to make up for the less dense caloric content. Getting to eat more delicious food? Yay :) So, Yesterday I went to the grocery store and didn't leave the produce aisle, which was a first. I usually at least browse the dairy, bakery, and frozen sections. I spent $22.22 on a load of fruit, and this is what I came home with.

Abundance!

I've never had the courage to buy so much fruit, because i hate seeing it rot. But this time I'm pretty sure i feel i'll have no problem eating it all. Yesterday I only ate fruit and salad. three bananas, a mango, an apple, an orange, a plum, some grape... Thats a lot of fruit. i was fully satisfied the entire day. Before going to sleep i ate some oats. I had enough energy to go for a run in the morning, trek to meridian hill park and back in the afternoon and evening, and be in good spirits.

One of the immense benefits of this way of eating is that I don't have to think about what i'm going to eat! And i don't have to prepare anything! And grocery shopping goes so quickly! I also don't have to read labels to make sure the vegetarian stuff i'd buy aren't just loaded with soy protein isolates or have intense preservatives in them.

A Question for future research: Is there a way to wash off pesticides from fruits? I know pesticides don't really absorb past tough skins and are just topical... I'm pretty sure of that. But does just washing it with water wash it off, or do you need soap and water, or do you need something more sophisticated than that? I don't always buy organic. Its not always possible. And i'm not even sure if pesticide residue is that detrimental to our health. I'd like to learn more about that... if you know, please fill me in :)

Controversy in the Raw World

I've been meeting people enthusiastic about raw food for two years now. Most of them look really healthy and have a glow. but some of them don't. Its not just about what you eat. The one's who don't have the glow tend to smoke and though they do yoga and acroyoga and other fun physical things, they most likely don't gravitate towards cardio like biking, running, or short bursts of springs and tree climbing.

But the difference goes beyond just that! They ate a nut-based raw food diet. As a new raw foodist, i also ate a lot of nuts, and based a lot of my dishes off of almond and cashews, soaked, dehydrated, blended, chopped. I love nuts!

My first month on raw food was wonderful. I ate a lot of Elf Mud Balls which was:

Cashew Butter
Raw cacao
Flax Oil
Maca
Lucuma
Vanilla
Cinammon
Cardamom
Clove
Chichuhuasi

All of these ingredients in powder form, mixed together in a giant crystal bowl while singing to it and thinking good thoughts. Then make little balls like the ones i pictured, and roll them in some coconut shavings. Or some raw cacao powder mixed with some form of granulated sugar and cinammon? I've never tried that, but it might be delicious. ;) Although less nutritious.

I was riding So. High. I was in such an amazing mood, and i was on the highest, broadest frequency ever. But its no surprise, with all that luxurious goodness. I don't think anyone can really afford to eat that well. The only reason i could was because i was being enchanted by a wealthy raw chef! I was flying up the hills of san francisco, and nothing could stop me.

But recently, on my own now, I have been eating a lot of nuts to fill my calories throughout the day, and lo-and-behold I have very little energy. No Maca, No Lucuma, No Superfood powder blends. Just the base of the Elf Mud Balls, which is Cashews. Apparantly, according to BrianOnHealth and Frederic Patenaude, Nuts have about 70% fat in them. That really bogs the body down. So thanks to a few sources, i learned to up my fruit intake. So i just had two bananas blended with water for my breakfast and i feel energized and fully satisfied.

I'm going to go on this kick for a while. Last night I had two peaches after my raw spaghetti. A tip i picked up from frederic patenaude was to eat fruit before dinner, followed by a vegetable soup, and if i'm still hungry then, to eat whatever i feel like.

Living with, and cooking with my mom, will make this a little bit of a social difficulty. She always says "don't be so extreme." But that is something we will figure out. She wants to also be healthy, but she misses the hamburgers she used to make. If she made them, i would have to eat them. Not out of guilt, but because they're delicious, and curse me if i'm too extreme!!! But hopefully she doesn't make them anytime soon.

So in conclusion, I am upping my fruit intake. I had been feeling sugar depleted anyway, and had occasionally taken a scoop of ice cream impulsively, so I'm certainly not afraid of all the sugar. Which, by the way, is a myth (that it will raise your blood sugar level.)

Well, thats it for now. I'm going to go follow my banana milk with some peaches! I don't miss the nuts yet, at all.

Transitioning and Replacing

When it comes to replacing our old comfort foods with new ones, there are a few factors that come into play. If you're craving something, its best to find out if you miss the Process of making a food like lasagna, if you miss the nutritional benefit of eating a carb loaded dish like spaghetti, or if you're missing oils that cheese seems to provide, or if you want to crunch on something like a potato chip.

I enjoy making raw spaghetti, because Sauce + Noodles = Awesome.

In a spiralizer or a peeler with ridges, cut up some zucchini or dig out some spaghetti squash.

To make the sauce, in a food processor, pulse some:
Olives,
Sundried Tomatoes,
Red Bell Peppers,
1 garlic clove
1 small tomato or a few grape tomatoes for liquid taste

and add black pepper and salt to taste

I sauteed some mushrooms and onions to put on top in this picture, because i like the taste of sauteed onions in spaghetti sauce and haven't figured a good way to replace the caramelized onion flavor.

Why Go Raw-er?

Because it feels great.

Granted, emotional issues may come up when you can't suppress them with comfort foods, but dealing with that residual emotional energy is ALSO good for you, despite being difficult. Joseph campbell says, in The Power of Myth, that we can live a hero's journey, battling dragons, even when sometimes those dragons are our Selves.

The fact that there exists for our bodies an optimal diet is very aspiring. Truth: Some foods are good for us, some foods are detrimental to our health. My mission is to weed out the bad foods, and replace them with good foods. The challenge is comfort, convenience, knowledge/education, and transforming daily habits and rituals.

Part of my recent daily ritual that replaced (most days) eating granola, yogurt, raisins, and nuts has been making juice. The preparation takes about the same time, but the nutritional value is much higher.

In a magic bullet i put
1 Banana
3 strawberries
3 dates
bunch of raisins
kale and/or carrot greens
A little bit of whatever liquid you have on hand. Today i juiced some oranges. Yesterday i put some Almond Milk in. The day before that i put in some Coconut water. A fact that surprised me: Cucumbers have enough liquid to become a living water source in your blended drinks.

You can add yogurt for some probiotic addition as well :) But i enjoy eating yogurt as a snack so i don't do that.


It can be chewy, but i'm not opposed to chewing my juice as long as it tastes good. If your pregnant, a Date and Tahini shake is high in iron and unconventionally delicious as well.