Thought I would start a thread. Have a huge work to finish by august, pretty much stuck in front of the pc and this will be one of my small procrastinations.

I have been 100% raw (99% of the time) since about may, so very recently. I find it fairly easy though, maybe because I grew up eating raw salads with pretty much every intake of the meal (salads were always a garnish on our table). If anything I'm overexcited about discovering the taste of various raw foods and combinations which I haven't tried before, and almost every time I find myself genuinely surprised at how tasty they turn out to be.

My latest surprise is banana ice-cream, a frozen banana blended with 2 or 3 strawberries, and unbelievably it DOES taste like real ice-cream! I'm very very happy about this discovery. Ice-cream was probably my most favourite cooked food, but it was diary, fatty, and so not very healthy, but still yummy and so difficult to give up. But now I don't have to, million thanks to banana ice-cream!! Light, healthy, easy on the stomach, and with most heavenly taste! What else could be better. Because I like it so much it works as a solution to my current cravings. Invariably if I want something unhealthy, I just think about banana ice-cream and realise that I want it more than I want the unhealthy thing! So I go on and make it and eat it, and as a result I'm super happy and the craving is totally gone.

This explains my current signature

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Experimented with a green smoothie today - cup of homemade almond milk, small banana, small apple with skin, small kiwi with skin, and 100g of romaine - a new level of deliciousness!

Usually I put water in my smoothies but almond milk makes it really creamy, it was almost like a milkshake

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Sweet potato, a new discovery. Oh yes! With some raw hummus and a carrot all mashed together. It turned out so earthy, so filling and satisfying. A truly ideal food when you crave for something substantial. Good with a tomato/bell pepper/onion/cilantro salad. YUM!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Today's lunch: romaine rolls filled with almond, carrot, beetroot, and apple milk/juice pulp blended with avocado and mixed with chopped broccoli, tomato, bell pepper and onion. The filling had a subtle taste so I sprinkled the rolls with tamari sauce to add a little bit of kick. Yum yum



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Our mini green sprouting section! Im very happy with this sprouter, which also doubles as a steamer! Its made by a spanish company called Lekue, obviously they designed it as a sreamer but as usual I thought - hey, why not It is 100% silicone, hygienic natural and non-leaching, and holes are small enough to sprout most things but the smallest ones (such as quinoa, for this we spread a piece of muslin on top). The trays can be stacked up but I usually leave them separately, unless I need the space. Currently there is buckwheat inside:



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

I wonder if binging is generally wrong, or is it wrong when you binge on inappropriate foods?

It's true that overeating is bad even if it's overeating within the raw diet, but some foods just seem different in this respect, like watermelons. Recently whenever I buy a watermelon I can't help but eat the whole of it ok admittedly watermelons i buy are pretty small. Still though.

It seems different to me because watermelons largely consist of water, and they pass really quick through the stomach. So even if it feels like binging, it doesn't feel like overeating..

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

A peek into our overgrown garden. It's a nice day today!



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Had a great dinner today: almond pulp (from making the milk) blended with sun dried tomatoes, celery and cauliflower, and mixed with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions and lettuce. It was exceptional!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

I love your garden We just moved into our place, and everything is very plain in the garden. Well, at least there is plenty of space to play ball with the kids

Thanks, yes our garden is not best for kids at the moment, unless they want to play hide and seek If your garden is really open you can also attempt growing something in there food-wise, could be really exciting!

We cant grow much food in our jungle because of all the trees and bushes (though we have a spectacular blackberry bush which gives lots of fruit every august/september. Plus the lack of time of looking after the garden, as you can see from the picture. It is actually showing what is supposed to be the path through the garden!

Birds absolutely love it this state though. This spring we had lots of nests in the bushes and one in the tree, and now there are lots of babies around. Some of the trees have berries that birds like to eat, plus we feed the birds all the time so they truly feel like at home. Watching them tweet around makes me feel better about all the wilderness there

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2012 06:03AM by chat.

There are some foods which I now eat virtually every day (apart from fasting days). Currently it's:

at least a handful of sprouted broccoli seeds
at least one apple
one tbsp of flax seed
one small avocado
one brazil nut

The list will most likely extend as I go along. It might be that I'm allergic to hemp seed or it's hull, ate it twice in my life both with sorry results. Nhs are promising to test it at the end of this month. Don't know what to expect but real scared of hemp by now!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

A watermelon breakfast today: what could be better!



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2012 10:05AM by chat.

Sprouted lentils, avocado, sprouted broccoli, cucumber, tomato, onion, parsley romaine boats with a bit of tamari sprinkle. Ain't being raw grand



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

A great substitute for mushrooms in terms of texture and even taste - raw aubergine or eggplant. Below are the little pizzas I made for today's lunch (there were only two left before I realised I wanted to take a picture!)

Eggplant circles with a sprinkle of lemon; pinenuts, nutritional yeast, basil and olive oil pesto; and chopped avocado, tomato and bell pepper on top - they taste great! I didn't marinate eggplant or anything, and didn't notice that it was bitter at all.




Now I need to try putting eggplant in other mushroom recipes, those that mostly rely on texture rather than taste. Because it's still eggplant, though raw mushroom taste is often very subtle so personally there is not much difference!

Have decided to drop mushrooms altogether, as they contain toxin which it seems is probably not removed by even cooking. So eggplant it will have to be from now on!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2012 12:55PM by chat.

My other next on the raw "to try" list is black sesame ice-cream and almond milk yougurt. Thinking whether I should buy an ice-cream maker. So far I've been making do with frozen bananas and they taste great but some recipes speak of coconut milk and almond milk which must surely be yum.

If I buy one I will most definitely use it though, so that's one good thing. I wasn't sure of that when I was buying the food processor, but luckily (it was a bit expensive) it turned out great and I use it every day. Blender too, then juicer, then hand-blender. Raw food arsenal woo-hoo!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

It's not figs, not even mulberries, still they are juicy and tasty when ready.....and they're gonna be ready soon

Took this picture in the afternoon in our garden



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Had the little eggplant pizzas again today, this time with macadamia/bell pepper/celery/lemon/nutr.yeast cheese topped with chopped garlic tomatoes, bell pepper and avocado. I made them for dinner so my partner tried them as well. The verdict was "it tasted healthy but nothing like pizza" haha. He'll come around

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

The zinc supplement has arrived, this is the one I went for: [www.solgar.com]

My daily intake of zinc is a little low, between 40 and 80% of RDA, and considering copper is always above 200% i though I should supplement. Not going to overdo it really, in fact I'm planning to take 1 tablet every 2 or 3 days. I was somewhat surprised at the dose of the supplement being quite high: twice the recommended dose.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Tried broccoli and eggplant last night (eggplant to substitute mushrooms), with bell peppers, tomatoes, onion, a bit of tahini and soy sauce. It turned out good! I sliced the rest of the eggplant in thin circles and froze them. They are going to be my "bread" substitute for times when I want something chewy and spongy. Pop a slice out, spread some avocado on top, a piece of bell pepper and voila, a perfect snack! I just hope they remain chewy and spongy after being frozen.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Came across fantastic dotty bananas today, they were on sale and they were organic. So I bought loads and froze most of them, for future ice-creams

I've decided to try and freeze them in skins: someone said that skins will be very easy to come off, all it needs is to splash warm water on the bananas and the skins are supposed to slip off. Will see. I just figured bananas will preserve better with skins on, basically less oxidation.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Made two pizzas using the frozen eggplant last night, as a snack. I put on some almond butter, then chopped asparagus and tomato slices. The eggplant was still spongy and chewy, but it lost it's firmness - so it acted more like a soft taco shell rather than pizza base



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2012 06:06AM by chat.

A new food to add to my "virtually daily" food list: onions. They are so so good for you, I don't eat much usually 1 onion a day, but I love the taste and freshness that they give to the salads.

The updated list:

handful of sprouted broccoli
an apple
2 tsp flax seed
a small avocado
one brazil nut
a small onion

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Its strange but I'm starting to like green smoothies less in less. In the beginning of my raw journey i simply loved them, they were always simple - two fruits and one green - and always seem delicious.

But recently it just doesn't feel like smoothie. I still want the banana, lettuce and kiwi, and so today I made the salad out of these ingredients and it was delicious. It is their taste blended together that I am starting to dislike for some reason.

Go figure

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Hi chat Love your sprouted lentil/romaine boats. The eggplant looks good too. I'm going to make the eggplant dish. Like the idea of using eggplant as a bread sustitute. I like your info. and I'll check back to see what you've written. Your recipie idea for the eggplant is helpful to me. Thanks!!

You very welcome raw artist I'm happy you found it useful!! The eggplant pizzas are indeed good, just don't forget to lemon them and then put on top whatever you wish.

The raw food journey is so exciting! And this forum is great too, recently I've been looking at the recipes section and found the best soup ever - just as the OP has described it. Cream of broccoli. I cannot think of anyone who wouldnt like it, even the saddest of sad eaters, its so unbelievably good. Check it out: [www.rawfoodsupport.com]



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Due to a looming deadline I haven't been experimenting with food and recipes recently, instead munching on a few staples such as broccoli soup, sweet potato, cauliflower taboulleh, hummus and similar.

But one thing I noticed recently is how happy it feels, compared to the way it felt the previous deadline when I was eating ordinary food. This time I'm not stressed at all, whereas usually I would be, but now I want to smile, laugh, and enjoy the work even at times when it doesn't go well. Not sure if it's the diet as such, or the fact that following this diet involves a little routine which helps to balance other things in life too, or realisation that I eat very healthy now which means I am doing something good and this brings satisfaction. Whatever is the reason though, I very much like the feeling and I'm impressed!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2012 07:36AM by chat.

I wish there were like buttons on here so I can "like" your recent post. I think it's great that you're feeling so much better. If I had to guess, I would say that your ability to handle the deadline is in part due to the raw foods and in part due to being in a routine.

I know that I've found that when I'm raw I'm able to handle stresses better.

*hugs and blessings*
Jayelle

Thanks jayelle!


First blackberries from the garden:




And here they are in a red lettuce, kiwi, blackberry and honey salad:



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

My very first cooked from scratch raw gourmet experience! (ok my partner helped ) Raw apple pie!





>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

I have to say the pie above was very tasty, especially with strawberry banana ice-cream. However, i didnt feel it created it's own taste.

What I mean is it felt like eating an energy bar and an apple; whereas for example a broccoli soup does not feel like eating a broccoli and a courgette. It is tasty but it acquires it's own taste after the ingredients have been combined. And apple pie lacked this combined taste.

Maybe the problem was in ingredients. I used a simple recipe for the filling: apples, dates, lemon juice and spices. The crust was also simple nuts and dates. I need to experiment more....

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<