Showing posts with label Ezekiel bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezekiel bread. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Day 1 without a camera

This is what I may need come Christmas-time if mine doesn't get fixed: I think I left off my talking about my yummy raw, vegan soup from lunch! I had the entire batch of soup, which was about three small bowls-worth, over the course of a couple hours while I did stuff around the house - and read blogs, of course :)

Then I wanted something sweet, so I tried my first Larabar. I tried the "Pecan Pie" flavor. I knew these were "raw-friendly" so I grabbed a couple the last time I was at the store, but, contrary to what I always do, for some reason I didn't look at the ingredients while in the store. Suprisingly, the only ingredients were pecans, dates, and almonds! Wow, talk about a simple snack. It was really good :) even though I probably could have made a similar bar myself for cheaper......... but I guess it's the type of thing that is nice to have around since they travel well.

I had a couple pieces of Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread later that afternoon with a few smears of Earth Balance. What a great combo!! For those of you who haven't tried Ezekiel bread, is is made mostly from sprouted wheat and barley, and contains NO flour. It is considered to be raw, and thus can be combined with other "starch" foods. I loved it with the buttery Earth Balance on top! Two squares of Lindt dark chocolates followed up this treat - what a perfect mid-afternoon snack :)

Dinner was comprised of a super light and refreshing salad - grape tomatoes, lots of cilantro, some fresh oregano from Yaya's garden, carrots, and a dressing made from lemon juice, PureVia, and a bit of salt. It was very good, but not filling enough, so I decided to make My First Nut Cheese!!!

Today I was in the neighborhood of Trader Joe's, so I bought multiple bags of raw nuts since that is the cheapest place to get them. I threw about 1/2 cup of cashews into my mini FP, some water, lemon juice, and salt, and lo and behond, "nut cheese" was the result!!

This stuff is GOOD. It is so good that I specifically remember thinking to myself that "if I could eat this good all the time, eating raw would be soooo enjoyable!" I used this as a dip for some carrot sticks.

I snacked on many, many dates, some of them dipped in some raw almond butter (just purchsed from TJ). I have to say, I am really proud of myself for eating "high-raw" today - and interestingly enough, despite having a full, satisfying amount of food all day, I have had no stomach pains, which is part of the reason I'm doing this. That's a great sign, right :) However, I hate to say it, but being slightly perfectionistic and neurotic, I'm worried that eating an abundance of rich, caloric foods like guac, nut butters, and dates will mean that I may pack on the pounds. Supposedly, if you follow a raw diet you never have to weigh food or count calories, which is very appealing to me.

I would love to hear from those of you who have tried this with success (or not)! Was/is this a concern of yours? Any advice for me and other readers about this?

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Ketchup from Friday

Ok, tell me if I am the only one like this... when I was in elementary school, often teachers would talk about "playing ketchup" when we were behind in a subject and they wanted us to get caught up. Well, silly, hungry me, I was always disappointed when I found out they weren't talking about food! I guess I have been a foodie since Day 1 :)

So here is the "ketchup" from Friday:

Naturally I started off the morning right with a Green Monster. I used the Amazing Meal Wheatgrass, which was great, despite the fact that I am out of protein powder until my next shipment arrives :(

Then, I attended an all-day workshop at Erika's Lighthouse. There I got trained in the Red Flags program, which is a depression awareness program that is geared toward middle school students. Erika's Lighthouse was started a few years ago by the parents of a 14-year old girl who committed suicide. It's an awesome program, and I encourage you to learn more about it by going to their website at http://www.erikaslighthouse.org/

At the training, we were generously given a full spread from Panera - thanks Peggy! :) I enjoyed a 1/2 Mediterranean sandwich, a kosher dill spear (my fave), and a bit of salad with Italian dressing. The Mediterranean sandwich was full of veggies and some cheese, and was so good that I am ashamed to say that I didn't even notice what kind of cheese it was since I gobbled it down so quickly! Unfortunately, though it only took me 40 minutes to get there during my morning commute, the ride home took almost 3 hours (stinkin Taste of Chicago traffic!!) Out of boredom, I snacked on this:
And then went to the mecca that we like to call WHOLE FOODS. I stocked up..... on delicious items such as dark choc PB, hummus, agave nectar, and more!


Here's what I used to marinate my salmon for Friday's dinner - sorry the pic is dark, it's Soyaki sauce from TJ:

We decided to slice up some sweet potatoes, threw them into a ziploc with some EVOO, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and oregano - shake em up and voila!
A view of the Grillmaster's grill (those are his burgers on the bottom right)
My plate.... I only ate one of these tuna steaks though, I was so full! The rest will make a tasty tuna salad later next week (I froze it)

Me showing off Mike's handiworkMike and his BEEF = a happy man!!!
What are your favorite things to grill? We are new at this and welcome your suggestions and recipes! :)
For dessert I was itching to try my new dark choc PB - although really I wasn't even hungry - but it looked so good!! I had some on Ezekiel cinnamon/raisin bread. It was indeed as good as it looked, in fact so much so that I may have gone back for a couple tablespoons straight out of the jar...
Alritey well I was all set to do Saturday morning's post but I have to head to Indiana for a wedding tonight. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!! :-)