My Raw Journey

They say everything happens for a reason. That each experience in our lives, whether good or bad, easy or difficult, happy or sad is meant to be... like it’s part of some master plan to guide you down your chosen path. Every now and then we have these moments of synchronicity that help us to realize the reason behind those experiences and help us see a little further down the path. Today was one of those moments for me.

As you know, Terra and I began a raw journey together 25 days ago, and many of you may be wondering how we are doing. That journey for me began as a cleanse. A desire to rid my body of some toxins that I knew had been plaguing it. However, after the initial juice fast my path took somewhat of a detour. Well not so much of a detour as a change in destination. My desire to continue the ‘cleanse’ became less about cleansing and more about a movement towards a raw lifestyle. While I didn’t exactly follow the cleanse protocols of juicing and blending everyday, I have maintained a 100% raw diet over the last 25 days, with the exception of two nights out with friends. We have 3 days left of the initial 28 day goal, but I don’t intend to end my journey there. I have been enjoying eating raw and learning how to “cook” raw and pulling myself out of my comfort zone. While, I don’t know exactly how far I will take this journey, for now my goal is to maintain a mostly raw diet and see how it goes.

I have been a vegan for about 6 or 7 years now and not once had I attempted to ‘go raw’. In fact, I probably have been heard to say on more than one occasion “I could never be a raw vegan”. So why now? Why was I all of a sudden enlightened to the fact that a raw diet isn’t as scary and intimidating as previously thought? Why do I now feel compelled and empowered to at least attempt a mostly raw lifestyle? I personally think it was the above mentioned synchronicity. It needed to happen simultaneously with other events in my life to help lead me down my path. I won’t get into it now, cause I tend to be a little superstitious, but I am hoping that those events are going to unfold in the coming weeks and if they do, this could be huge for me. Life-altering huge. So everyone send out all kinds of positive energy for me and I will keep you posted on my progress.

So all that being said, I will continue to post my raw preparation experiments and hopefully successes. Since my success with raw brazil nut milk I have somewhat successfully attempted raw ‘pasta’ marinara, raw pesto (which was amazing and because it was the most successful I am including the super duper, easy recipe in this post), raw cheesecake and raw hemp milk. And of course a myriad of yummy salads.
I will work on perfecting these and others and will continue to share them with you.

The following pesto recipe can be used with the pasta marinara, on top of salads, as spreads on both raw and non-raw sandwiches, on slices of raw tomatoes or any other ideas you come up with. And I hope if you come up with any you will share them with us!

Raw Pesto:

4 cups of fresh basil
1/4 cup cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup of pine nuts or walnuts (I used both)
2-4 cloves of garlic (I used 4, but you can use less if you aren’t big on garlic)
3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 Teaspoon of unrefined sea salt
Black pepper to taste.




Combine all ingredients in a food processor until desired consistency. (A few pulses should do the trick). This should keep in the fridge in a sealed glass container for a few days, or you can freeze individual portions in ice trays, and then pop out and thaw when needed.

That’s it! So easy, and trust me, so delicious!

Keep it Fresh and Raw!
-Jill

Day 7: Raw Enlightenment

Day seven and the end of phase one has FINALLY come and passed (well almost). Its been a long week of juice and broth but I feel really good. I feel like I still have a good amount of detoxing to do, but its been off to a good start. The most amazing difference I had the pleasure of noticing this morning. Not to get too personal on you but I usually have excruciating cramps, ahem, oh about once a month if you know what I mean. So bad that it is the one time that I do not even hesitate to take an OTC pain killer. But today... absolutely nothing! No pain at all for the first time since I can remember! Sorry, I was so amazed that I had to share that with you.

Due to the “unforeseen circumstances” related to the above I was very lightheaded today and I couldn’t wait a few more hours to start phase two. (Phase 2 is supposed to be 3 days of raw smoothies, blended raw soups and blended salads only). So late this afternoon I started off with a yummy smoothie made from chia seeds, banana, berries, raw cacao, spirulina and some coconut water. I felt so full afterwards. But now I have a confession to make. This evening I cheated. I broke down and needed to chew! I had sliced cucumber and tomato, followed by a bunch of raw nuts and a few dates. It sounds so silly to think of that as bingeing or cheating.. but that’s totally what it feels like. First thing tomorrow I will be back on track.. smoothies only for me for the next three days.

That was a very long winded intro into the point of this blog. I have been enlightened by rawness (rawdom?). I have always been very intimidated by the work that it takes to really be raw. All the soaking, sprouting, dehydrating is more work than actually cooking food. So aside from raw veggies and fruits, I have only ever dined out or store bought raw foods, which is expensive! But tonight I decided to prep for the upcoming days by making raw brazil nut milk to add creaminess to my smoothies. I CAN NOT believe how easy it was. Why have I not done this before??

I gave up on buying soy milk a year or so ago because so much soy these days is genetically modified. I switched to almond milk, but the cartons you buy are often non-organic, definitely not raw, and usually have added sugar and other ‘shelf-life’ ingredients. So, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to discover how easy it is to make my own “milk”! I will never buy packaged milk again, I will be doing this from now on!

Here’s how you can make your own too:

1) Start with 1 cup of raw brazil nuts. I scored a pound for $5 at Trader Joe’s. Soak them in water in a covered glass bowl for two (or more) hours. (Okay, so there IS soaking involved, but two hours I can handle!) Then drain and rinse them.

2) Put nuts in a blender with 3 cups of purified water and a tablespoon of raw honey, agave or sweetener of your choice and blend thoroughly.

3) Pour the contents of the blender through a cheese cloth or fine strainer. It looks purely liquified before you strain it, but there will be a great deal of ‘pulp’ left after straining. I haven’t figured out how I can use the pulp yet, but I’m working on it. You can be inventive or just discard it.

That’s it!! Store it in a glass container in your refrigerator. This made about a quart of milk, bu because it’s raw and free from added ingredients it won’t keep as long as the packaged alternatives. So if you don’t intend to use that much within a few days simply cut the recipe in half.

Next up: Cashew cream. So stay tuned!

Keep it Fresh and RAW!
-Jill

Detox Day Five: Juiced Out

Today is day 5 of cleansing for me, Terra and our friend Nancy. I feel great. I’m not fatigued and I am no longer physically hungry. Mentally, I still think about eating, or not eating constantly though. I have really come to realize how much I take for granted the fact that I have the luxury to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. There are starving people all over the world and it makes me feel so spoiled that I am able to get up and go to the refrigerator, pantry or store whenever I am hungry.

However, no disrespect to the author of our raw cleanse, but after 5 days of juicing I feel that it is physically impossible to drink so much juice for 7-10 days straight. I have barely been able to drink half of what I am supposed to and am sooo sick of juice. Today I am sticking mostly to water because I just can’t stomach anymore juice.

Thankfully, although not raw, we are also allowed to have some broth here and there. So, last night I busted out the stock pot and put everything but the kitchen sink into it. Carrots, potatoes, onions, broccoli, celery, herbs, seaweed, garlic... I threw it all in the pot with water and let it simmer. I have to admit, cutting up and preparing all the ingredients made me want to eat them, but I refrained. After an hour I strained out the veggies and had a yummy mineral and nutrient-dense vegetable broth left. Making your own broth is a great way to avoid the sodium and other unwanted ingredients like MSG that are found in most store-bought broths. Keeping your broth in an air tight glass container, such as a mason jar, will keep it fresh for a week or so, and you can use it for sauteing in place of oil, or as a base for soups and stews.

Sipping on the broth was such a nice change from juice! And, rather than discarding the veggies, I threw them all in the food processor and pureed them, making an additional soup that I froze for rainy, post-cleanse day.

Speaking of post-cleanse, I can’t wait for those days to come. Not that I’m struggling with the cleanse, but I am just excited to see the results of detoxing and see how much better I feel as each cleansing day goes by. Keep posted as we share our journey along the way!

Keep it Fresh!

- Jill

I'm RAWSOME!

Guess what? I am back! I have been missing you guys so much. Life got crazy and I neglected you. :( Thankfully the fabulous Lauren has been picking up my slack! it wont happen again dear readers, I promise!

Did I tell you guys I was in O Magazine? Yup! One of the Healthy Chicks made O! it's the March issue. Page 120. Check it out! Or you can read it on line too :)

Can you guys believe it's March already??? Hello, February? Where the heck did you go? For the past 3 years I have taken the month of February off from meat, animal products and dairy. My vegan Februarys have always been about getting out of my winter funk, dropping the winter weight and getting ready for a fresh spring.

Now it’s March 1st and I just realized that I have been noshing on things like salmon, pizza and fish tacos for the past month! (Ok, 28 days if you want to get technical). Either way, I completely forgot about my vegan challenge! Oopsie.

To make up for it, I’m going to Raw Food Rehab. Penni Shelton wrote a fabulous book Raw Food Cleanse that takes you through 3, 7, 14 and 28 day juicing and raw food cleanses. It’s packed with awesome raw and juice recipes. And to make up for completely blanking on my Vegan Challenge this year, I’m totally taking my ass to Raw Food Rehab and I’m starting on Wednesday.

I’ve dabbled with the vegan lifestyle and I’ve eaten raw foods, gone to Pure Food & Wine in the city. But never have I actually gone raw. A raw foods diet is one based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods including fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed. It’s said that heating food above 116 degrees F destroys enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Cooking is thought to diminish the nutritional value and “life force” or prana of food.

Side effects of going raw? Copious amounts of energy, weight loss and better skin. Three thing that every bride wants, right? There’s one little glitch though. Stephen and I have a cake tasting appointment on Sunday. While I love raw desserts, our wedding cake will not be raw. I’m going to have to cave, taste 42 different combinations of cakes and then get back on the raw wagon. Luckily, I wont’ be doing this alone. It’s always better with support and Jill is going join me! It’s a 28 day raw foods cleanse and detox. We’re going to be RAWSOME! And the added bonus besides the healthy digestion, clear skin and energy – it will be a hell of a kickstart to all of my bridal health goals!

Keep it Fresh!

~Terra