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Strawberries and Cream Cereal
In an attempt to make cereal this morning, I stumbled upon one of my favourite pasttimes – strawberry milkshakes!
The endeavor started with some soaked wheatberries, which I had soaked in water for approx. 48 hours to soften them enough for eating raw. Then I threw in some strawberries and went about making Coconut Cashew Milk to complete my morning masterpiece.
Wheatberries are the whole wheat grain: endosperm, germ, and bran with the hull removed. It’s what I would consider whole wheat, and not that crap you buy in the grocery stores that you call bread or cereal made with whole wheat!
Creamy Coconut Cashew Nut Milk
2 cups filtered water
1 cup cashews (soaked in water for at least an hour if you don’t have a high-powered blender like the vita-mix)
2 tbsp coconut butter
4 dates (also soaked if you find yourself vita-mix-less!)
dash of pure vanilla extract (or 1/4 of a vanilla bean, seeds only, if you happen to be so lucky)
Place all ingredients in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.
I HIGHLY recommend investing in a vita-mix if you’re serious about going raw. Or even if you’re not! It’s so powerful that it can turn an ipod into dust. I’m not kidding – check out their website! I use my vita-mix at least 4 times a day. You can make nut milks without having to use a strainer, and make the smoothest raw cheesecake you’ve ever tasted.
After eating the cereal, I still had some nut milk left over, so I threw in some strawberries – and voila! Instant strawberry milkshake… Wait, since there’s no milk in it, or in my house whatsoever for that matter, I think “milk” needs to be voided from the title. How about: Silky Strawberry Smoothie.
Silky Strawberry Smoothie
Silky Strawberry Smoothie
1 batch Creamy Coconut Cashew Nut Milk (see above text)
1 cup fresh strawberries
Blend all ingredients in a high powered blender until smooth.
The funny thing about strawberries is that when you pick them yourself, their size range from that of a raspberry to…a slightly larger raspberry! They taste so sweet and just downright incredible. When you buy them imported from who knows where, they’re the size of peaches and they taste sour and just gross! If you missed them this time around, don’t miss out on picking your own (or buying, although picking you own can be fun) local berries next season!
I am literally smiling all the time. My skin looks better every day. Tell me again why I went off raw?
Yesterday I spent about 4 hours cleaning the kitchen. Now it’s so bright and inviting! Today I cleaned out the pantry and I threw out so much crap – including some white flour we haven’t used in more than 2 years!!! Gross. I also managed to spill the flour all over the floor, and the dog didn’t even move, and if the dog won’t eat it – you know it can’t be categorized as food!
I just got in from a run and whipped up some nori wraps, but this time I made a raw almond dipping sauce that was out of this world!!! I was so eager to eat that I didn’t take any pictures of it. The dipping sauce kicks my lame almond paste’s butt!
Raw Almond Dipping Sauce
4 tbsp raw almond butter
2 tbsp water
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 tbsp tamari or Braggs
1 tbsp lime juice
I also picked up some E3Live at the health food store since we’re in-between wheat grass harvesting “seasons” (which last 10 days). E3Live is a highly concentrated shot of greens. It’s even darker than wheatgrass juice – and more bitter. When you take greens as green and as bitter as E3Live (or spirulina, kale, collards, etc.) it means your liver is getting detoxified hard-core. This also explains why I have had a pretty intense breakout of eczema on my right middle finger. It’s so swollen that I can barely bend it! I really hope the swelling goes down through the night because it is so uncomfortable.
If you’re going raw for the first time or starting to take concentrated greens like this, keep in mind that you could go into a healing crisis and feel a lot worse before you feel better. This is because the liver has the tools it needs to release toxins into the bloodstream for elimination…and this can be extremely intense if you are higly toxic. I have done my fair share of cleanses, and usually the nausea/sickness goes away 4-5 days after starting/modifying a cleansing program -for me, but all experiences are unique. So hang in there if you find yourself in a healing crisis!
The question I get asked most often when I tell people that I eat raw, vegan food is: Where do you get your protein? The simplest answer: spirulina. “Spir-what?” They ask. So rather than explain myself over and over again, I thought I’d just write about it and refer people to this website.Spirulina is an amazing superfood.
I guess you could say that spirulina is my preferred source of protein, although that isn’t my main objective in eating it. To be honest, I am a firm believer that all foods in nature have the perfect amout of fats, carbohydrates, and protein, so I never strive to get any single macronutrient. I just eat a wide variety of foods and listen to my body. Society, on the other hand, seems to be obsessed with the protein question, and if you’re one who is protein obsessed, this may be your reason to include spirulina in your diet!
Spirulina is a complete protein, which means that is contains all of the essential amino acids. It’s also rich in EFAs: GLA, ALA, LA, EPA, DHA, and AA. If you don’t understand what those mean, don’t sweat it. Just think Omega 3s!
Spirulina is also loaded with vitamins and minerals – just look at its colour. Anything THAT green is golden for the body. Everyone could use more greens in their diet, that’s for sure. What I can say for certain is that spirulina gives me loads of energy every time I eat it. And at the moment, my favourite way to eat spirulina is in a smoothie loaded with local, fresh berries! This is what I’ve been having for breakfast lately: Berrytastic Smoothie”
Berrytastic Smoothie
Berrytastic Smoothie
strawberries
raspberries
blueberries
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp spirulina powder
and some water to get things moving in the blender!
This smoothie is so full of antioxidants, you’ll have to go running after to make good use of them! I have it for breakfast and it tides me over for a couple of hours.
Today we were at the Rogers Cup, and although we brought some raw chocolate and some cashews, we were starving for something different. Amongst all the crap that other people were eating, I found a yummy fruit salad, but I needed to buy about 10 of them to be fully satisfied! Which would have cost about $50… Just a reminder that if you’re out of the house all day, you had better be prepared!
It’s amazing the effect that eating raw has on my desire to exercise. Last night I took the dog for a 5 k run. Today after work I went to a hot yoga class, and after I biked home I went for another run with a friend. It’s really nice to have a running partner because you have that little bit of added motivation. When you have someone calling you and asking if you want to go running, it’s like an alarm going off and motivation calling you! If you get several running partners, there’s a guarantee you’ll be running a few times a week!
I haven’t had much to eat today, which is kinda weird considering the amount of exercise I’ve had, but I don’t feel much like eating anything right now. When you eat raw, natural, good quality foods, you are more in touch with your nutritional needs, wheras when I eat cooked foods, I think I need food all the time! I’d eat late at night all the time when I was on cooked food.
When I eat raw, I only go into the kitchen when I am truly hungry…or if I can’t wait to try a new raw recipe! Also, on cooked I always cleaned my plate, but on a raw food diet, I just stop eating when I’ve had enough. I eat raw dessert for breakfast if I feel the desire! And when I have dishes that are rich in nuts or other heavy raw ingredients, my body steers me clear of them for a few days. Never, ever on a cooked diet did my body tell me anything! I remember years ago when I didn’t have any idea the effects that food had on my mood or energy level. Now, I know the second I have eaten something that doesn’t agree with me. I can just feel it.
And since you only eat when you’re hungry on raw, there is no breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule…you eat on your own hunger schedule…that being said, I think my hunger level just rose…so apparently “dinner” tonight is going to be around 11pm!
Marinara Salad
Dinner: Marinara Salad
Time To Make: About 3 minutes
Would I Make It Again: Yes!
Ingredients: 1 cup leftover Marinara Sauce, (recipe in Eating for Energy) an avocado, 6 stalks asparagus, 1 yellow pepper, 3 green onions, and 1/2 a cucumber. Variations: Whatever you have in the fridge!
It’s a lazy afternoon in Toronto. It’s been raining all day, which makes it a perfect day to play in the kitchen! I made our favourite pasta for lunch, Zuchinni Pasta with Marinara Sauce. I know that the second you taste this pasta it will become your favourite pasta too! I have dreams about eating this pasta – I love it that much! A week doesn’t go by when we don’t eat it at some point.
It’s one of the recipes in Eating for Energy, a book in which I had the good fortune to give my two cents, since the author is my boyfriend, Yuri Elkaim. I have to be honest, when I first read the completed version of Eating for Energy, I was shocked at what a great book it was – and is!
It’s hard for me to put into words how much I love this book, so you’re just going to have to go to the book’s webpage and see what other people are saying about it! If you get the book, please email yuri or comment on my blog to leave your feedback! It is so much fun to hear from people all over the world how drastically their health has changed for the better since they began EATING for ENERGY! Enjoy!
Now I’m off to the kitchen to make some raw chocolate!!!! Yeah baby!
I had a little bit of a challenge tonight. I opened up the pantry door and a jar of Nutella called me on…but I won the mental battle. I just thought about what Nutella had done for me lately. It gave me a stomach ache the last time we had crepes, and it gave me a killer sugar buzz that left me in a coma. No thank you Nutella. I don’t like you anymore!
I started thinking about how addicted we are to the foods we eat. Heavily processed foods with loads of sugar and salt and chemicals we can’t even pronounce! I remember when I thought milk did the body good – now milk isn’t allowed in the house. I remember when I used to drink 4 diet cokes a day….or more! I haven’t had a diet coke in 2 years. Once you learn that aspartame causes brain tumors, you don’t feel like quenching your thirst with a can of nail-dissolving formaldehyde!
I got into a conversation with a guy a few months ago who stated proudly that he would continue to drink aspartame until they found evidence it harms humans…I was absolutely speachless. There are hundreds of studies, and thousands of people that have nerve damage, migranes, vision problems, and 89 other side effects caused by aspartame! I just left him there floating in his fantasy bubble. I am continually amazed at the ignorance in our society! I used to think the government wouldn’t pass a drug that would hurt us, but that was when I was a little naive girl from Rodney, Ontario, before I realized that obscene amounts of money can blind anyone to anything.
IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS. IGNORANCE CAN KILL YOU. The take-home message in my little rant is that it’s important to know what’s in your food! One of my friends recently said to me “ignorance is bliss” while she was eating a sandwich stuffed with bacon and cheese. I got an uneasy feeling right away and thought “ignorance is NOT bliss! It’s going to make you fat!” Worse yet, it’s going to make you sick and diseased over time.
Ok, lets not talk about disease – let’s talk about “Cheese”cake!
Raw White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
I know what it looks like, that I’m dissing some bad food and promoting other bad food – but that’s the beauty of raw food. It’s vegan and fresh. Whole, unadulterated, and exploding with nutrients – even dessert is heathy!
It was so fun to make a raw dessert again. No oven required, thankfully, because it’s so damn hot in here already!
I’ve made something similar to this before, using coconut butter instead of cacao butter, but it is definitely worth the time, effort, and money to get raw cacao butter! So very worth it! The ingredients in this dessert are so decadent and the fresh raspberries taste unbelievable. Every single bite kind of pops in your mouth. You can find the video about how to make it on the G Living Network website. I used cashews instead of almonds for the crust just because we love cashews so much in our house. This could quite possibly be breakfast tomorrow morning!
Go raw!
Today has been a long day, but a GREAT day! It all started with a green smoothie – yum!
Green Supersmoothie
1 tbsp spirulina
1 mango
1 tbsp bee polin
1 cup strawberries
few cubes ice
1 tbsp chia seeds
2 dates
1 tbsp sesame seeds
water to desired consistency
Then it was off to pick berries at Whittamores Farm on Steeles Ave. So many delicious berries! I think we picked for a couple of hours, and I got sunburnt 
but it was worth it.
We went for lunch at Fresh, a delicious vegan resto in Toronto. I had a bit of an urge to order my favourite Fresh dish, a basmati rice bowl with lots of yummy grilled vegetables, but my desire to stay raw pulled me in the salad direction. I had a thai salad made from raw daikon, carrot, and beet “noodles,” and I had a smoothie with wheatgrass juice, banana, peppermint, mango, and agave. It was ok, but the pepermint extract was way too overpowering and it kinda tasted like drinking 100 Christmas mints at once - yuck!
Then it was off to the Dufferin Farmers Market. It was so good that I forgot to take pictures! We had some raw chocolate from Toronto Sprouts and bought some raw chocolate powder and raw cacao butter for the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake I’m going to make! We also got lots of yummy veggies! The fridge is packed with goodness. There’s nothing that makes you want to be raw more than spending a day with lots of local fresh produce! Wow, I am such a geek!
Nori Wraps For Dinner
To make these wraps, simply cut up your favourite veggies, like the ones to the left, and get some Nori (seaweed) sheets to wrap them in. I also made an easy almond butter paste to spread on the sheets before I filled them. The paste gives the wrap a nice salty kick!
Almond Butter Paste
2 tbsp raw almond butter (or other nut butter)
2 tsp tamari, braggs, or soy sauce (add to taste)
I ate three of these wraps and I am so full! I was going to make the raw cheesecake tonight but I am so tired that I’m afraid it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow.
I started this morning off with a much needed hot yoga class. 1 1/2 hours in a 38 degrees celcius room with 51% humidity! I felt like I was going to pass out and/or thow up most of the time, which resulted in me laying in Savasana (corpse pose) for most of the class. My heart was going haywire even in that calming position! When class ended, I hit the shower. Sometimes a cold shower feels so good!
I had an apple after yoga, and then actually went out to eat for my first raw meal. Eating raw on the run can be a little stressful, so it’s important to plan ahead! We went to Herbivore, a tiny little vegan resto in Kensington market. I had a fresh salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, sprouted lentils, alfalfa sprouts, carrots, and cucumber, and a green juice.
- Salad and Green Juice!
I love Kensington Market. There are so many interesting people and so much going on! I picked up a case of mangoes, and ate one right when I got home. It was so juicy and ripe – better than candy! Then I made another salad, this time with avocado, tomato, chia seeds, mango, cucumber, and mixed greens. I didn’t bother putting any dressing on it either. The combination of mango, tomato, and avocado makes a yummy dressing in itself when you mix it up well. But I did add a little sea salt and cayenne! Mmm.
I just found an amazing recipe on the G living network website that I’m going to try tomorrow. White chocolate raspberry cheesecake anyone? I love raw food!
The Night Before Raw
It’s been a while since I posted, and there’s only one reason why: I fell off raw. Every time I fall off raw, I can never understand why. How can I give up flawless skin, endless energy, painless periods, or the creative genius I am when I’m raw? Not to mention how in the world can I accept the 10 pounds that jumps back on my hips the second I eat cooked food!?
I owe it to myself to be the true me, and that me is definitely raw.
This is why I am challenging myself to live the raw life once again – out in the open, free to be the healthiest me I can be. Oh how I have secretly longed for the days to return when I walk down the street eating an avocado!
I am looking forward to waking up with the sun and going for morning runs once again - a desire that vanishes when I eat cooked food. The morning hangovers encompass my being and render waking impossible. My alarm rings, and by the time I finish dressing to run, the sludgy processed gunk we call “food” running through my body has effectively talked me out of it. “Sleep,” it says, “you need sleep now, not running, s-l-e-e-p!” And sleep I do. I change back out of my running gear, and adorn myself with comfy sheets once again. After an hour or so passes, I wake even groggier than before.
Why Now? Why today?
Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my return from Panama, and the completion of a 31-day water fast. I had every good intention of staying raw when I returned home, but the second the real world presented itself, a love affair with Toronto patios ensued. Looking back, I realize what an unbelievable chance I let simply pass me bye. My body was so clean! It has endured so much abuse over the past year!
My Purpose:
I am writing this blog to prove to both you and myself that it is never too late for a girl to be healthy and fit, strong and lean. I want to lead you on your own journey to a healthier you. I want to inspire you to make your own healthy choices, not just because you may want to lose weight; but because you have developed deep respect and love for yourself. All of us were born deserving superior health during our lifetimes. All you have to do is believe in yourself to acheive it. Many of mankind’s problems stem from a diet void of nutrients. So, what happens when only eat nutritious food? We will see! This journey is not going to be one of deprivation, but rather a journey of introspection and awakening, driven by values and self-love.
Let the tRAWnsformation begin!
I invite you to join me on my (3rd?) journey into raw foods. There will be pictures along the way, and daily updates to entertain both you, the reader – and myself, naturally!
The Night Before RAW - Front
The Night Before RAW - Side
