Still Raw!!

Well, it's been six weeks now and now being raw just seems normal. I don't have any cravings for things like bread or meat - which I really thought I would. The skin on my hands where I had the rash has grown back baby soft and beautiful. Mind you, now I have a small blemish on my right cheek that has been there for about two weeks, which now seems to be going away as I've been putting wheat grass juice on it for the last two days. That treatment was recommended by Miguel and Cafe Gratitude. My husband is almost totally raw now too and he's really getting into it! I'm so surprised as I really never thought he would be into it. One of the things that we both noticed is that..........your shit really doesn't stink anymore. So we don't just think it, it is a fact..........try it and you'll see.
Here is a recipe for my coconut shake. This is what we drink first thing in the morning after the lemon juice and cayenne pepper drink and it is by far my favorite shake ever!



Shobhan's Creamy Coconut Delight Shake

Recipe By : Chef Shobhan
Serving Size : 2 Preparation Time :0:05


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 young coconut
1/2 banana
1 tablespoon spirulina
1 tablespoon chlorella
2 tablespoons maca
2 tablespoons cacao nibs
2 tablespoons raw hemp protein powder

Cut the top off the coconut and drain the water into your blender. Then cut open the coconut with a meat cleaver or something equally strong and scoop out the meat of the coconut and put it in the blender.

Add all the rest of the ingredients plus at least eight ounces of pure water or almond milk and blend until very smooth.

If this is too thick add more water. Drink and enjoy!

"Delicious high protein morning shake"


NOTES : All of these ingredients are superfoods. Chlorella is very high in protein and cholorphyll, it also helps the body detoxify from heavy metals such as cadmium (which is found in cigarette paper and also receipts) and mercury.
Spirulina is high in amino acids and contains many vitamins and minerals essential for us everyday.
Maca is helpful in balancing both male and female hormones and is great for memory and energy.

30 Days Raw and decided to STAY RAW!!!

Yes, I like it so much that I'm staying raw!! And my man has decided that he wants to try it too! I must say I was very surprised and infact, I thought he was actually making fun of me when he first said it! I said "yeah right" and he said "no I'm serious, I want to try raw".
My rash went away.........thanks goodness, it was awful, but only lasted about a week. Now my hands are very dry and the skin is peeling off, but at least the rash is gone. In general I am feeling much better. One of the things that I have noticed is that the skin on my face feels very soft. Much softer than before raw. Usually I had to exfoliate once a week as my skin was often feeling kind of scaley. I haven't noticed any wrinkles going away yet - but I'm hoping they will get less defined.
My body aches have pretty much gone and in general I feel very positive and inspired!! I'm very excited about this new way of preparing food and am experimenting all the time. Today I am making the Cafe Gratitude Lemon Merengue Pie!! I know it's gonna be great. I really don't want to post other people's recipes on here, so please bear with me while I develop my own.

Twenty Days Into Raw Food

Well, the first 10 days were certainly the easiest, because the detox began after 10 days. As I mentioned before, the detox started with streaming eyes and nose, but the new symptoms are a burning rash on my hands and feet which has moved around to now encompass my wrists and right elbow. It is very unpleasant and wakes me up every night in the middle of the night. I have to get out of bed and either run a hot bath or just run my hands under the hot tap to calm the burning!! Yes it sounds horrible and it is! But it will be worth it. I am getting years of accumulated toxins out of my body. They have been hiding in my muscles and joints. I have to say that the rest of my body feels so much better. Not sure if I mentioned the motivation for the raw food diet, but if I didn't, it was because I was feeling 90 years old......my body was aching, all my muscles felt sore and I had tendonitis in my right achilles tendon and my left knee joint felt very painful. These aches and pains have almost totally disappeared. There is a little pain left in my achilles tendon, but aside from that and my horrible rash, I am feeling amazing and infact better than I have for a looong time. So the raw food is working. Its doing its job and cleaning out my body. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in pain or has health issues. So on that note here is a wonderful Cafe Gratitude inspired Marinated Kale Salad recipe.



Marinated Kale Salad


Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:30


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 bunch kale -- destemmed shredded
1 cup shiitake mushroom -- sliced thin marinated in 2 tablespoons of nama shoyu and the juice of a lemon
1/4 cup arame -- soaked for 15 minutes
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup juilienned cucumber
1/4 cup olives -- halved and pitted
Marinade
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 1/2 tablespoons nama shoyu
2 1/2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 jalapeno -- cut into tiny pieces

Put the kale in a large bowl and add 1 teaspoon on high quality salt. Massage the salt into the kale for about 2 minutes or until the kale has wilted. Then add the juice of 1 lemon and massage that into the kale.

Take the shiitake mushrooms out of the marinade of lemon and shoyu and add to the kale, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix together.

Add the marinade to the kale mixture. Allow to sit for 30 minutes before serving.

Description:
"Delicious Kaleness"
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NOTES : Kale is a superfood. It contains more absorbable calcium than any dairy product. You can eat this salad as a meal by itself and feel totally nourished. You will be surprised at how satified you will be from just eating a cup of this!

Thirteen days so far

Well, the first 10 days were a breeze, but now I am starting to crave meat. I think it will pass. I have to say that I am feeling pretty good, but I think I'm detoxing as I have a slight cold, but it's not like a normal cold. It started with a soar throat for one day and then changed into something like a minor cold. So for the last 4 days I haven't been feeling 100%, but before that I was feeling really great. I can't imagine that I wouldn't have some detox symptoms, I think they were just delayed as they didn't happen right at the beginning. My eyes look really clear and my aches an pains are less noticable. I've also been taking a teaspoon of turmeric in 1/2 cup of water twice a day to clear up any inflammation in the body and I think this is really helping too.
One thing to note is that it's quite easy to eat too much sugar on a raw food diet. One day I found myself having my wake up shake (which I'm pretty sure is posted somewhere on this blog, if not I will post it soon) and then I made a cafe Gratitude "Raw Porridge" which consists of a whole coconut with the water and meat blended, then you put it in the food processor and add 1 apple unpeeled but chopped, a cup of pecans soaked overnight and 6 - 8 strawberries, which I must say is simply divine. Then I found myself eating a banana with macadamia nut butter the next time I got hungry and started to feel like all I'd eaten all day was fruit. So I have to be careful to plan my meals, and make sure I eat salads so that doesn't happen. Then I made some almond hummus and a tapenade all from the Cafe Gratitude recipe book, so that I have some extra things on hand to add to a salad.
Today I weighed myself for the first time since I started the diet and I've lost about seven pounds! I wasn't doing it to lose weight, but I felt I needed to lose about five pounds. So that's an added benefit of a raw food diet.
Anyway, I'll post some recipes soon, I just wanted to let you all know how I was doing on this experiment.
The others who were going to do it with me haven't all started yet, so when we have something on video I'll post it.
I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.
Remember, your health is your most important asset - if you don't have your health you really don't have anything.

RAW FOR 30 DAYS EXPERIMENT

I've decided it's time to go raw for 30 days.......or maybe more depending on how I feel. I have wanted to experiment with a raw food diet for a while now, and finally I feel ready. Mainly motivated by body pain - I want to see if I feel better. I know that a raw diet has been proven to cure diabetes and many other ailments, so as I've had pain in my body for quite sometime now it's finally bad enough for me to try my version of the raw diet.
I have found four others who want to do this experiment with me and we will be documenting it on video as well as on this blog.
I will be posting some raw recipes and generally letting you all know how we all feel and what is going on with us.
I did my first day of all raw food yesterday. I have to say that I feel really good today. The idea is to do at least 80% raw food every day and possibly 100%. Yesterday I was 98% raw - I had some steamed broccoli with my kale salad last night.
One thing I noticed yesterday was that I didn't get very hungry and this is because when you eat raw foods you don't need to eat as much because the food is so nutrient dense.
There are certain tools you need if you want to do a raw diet and not just eat raw veggies and nuts.

1. A food processor.
2. A high speed blender (preferably Vitamix, but others will do if a
Vitamix is out of your price range).
3. A food dehydrator.
4. A spiralizer (not necessary, but nice to have).

Here is a recipe for flax crackers. You can be as creative as you want once you've made them once just add in different veggies or spices - however you want. Just make sure you have a food dehydrator before you attempt to make them!


Flax Crackers

Recipe By : Chef Shobhan
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :26 hours
Categories : Raw foods

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup golden flax seeds -- soaked overnight
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds -- shelled and soaked overnight
1 small onion -- chopped
1 jalapeno pepper
1 cup cilantro
1 tablespoon nama shoyu
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Place all the ingredients in a food processor with the s blade attached and blend. Until they a well blended.

Divide the mixture into four and pour onto a teflex sheet ontop of the first shelf in your food dehydrator. Spread with a spatula. This mixture doesn't have to be thin as it will get much thinner once it's dehydrated, just try to make it even.

Repeat until you have used up each shelf in a four shelf dehydrator. If you have a larger dehydrator double the recipe.

Set the dehydrator to 115 degrees and dehydrate for 24 hours. Then turn the flax crackers over and dehydrate for another hour or two.

Once they are done they should come off the teflex sheets easily. Break into small pieces and serve with avocado slices or a tapenade, or whatever you feel like.

Description:
"crispy crunchy"

NOTES : Flax seeds are a great source of omega 3's and also wonderful fiber. They scrub your intestines clean.

Yummy Potato Pancakes with Poblano Pepper Sour Cream

So sorry to have been slow on the recipe front this summer, but there has been a lot going on and I have been away in the intense heat of New York for a while.


Potato Pancakes with Poblano Chile Sour Cream

Recipe By : Chef Shobhan
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:45


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------


2 poblano chillies -- washed, roasted, skinned and seeded
1 cup sour cream

4 large red skinned potatoes -- shredded
1 medium onion -- shredded
3 medium eggs -- beaten
2 tablespoons coconut oil
salt and pepper to taste




Before cooking the pancakes fire roast the poblano peppers by placing them on the stovetop burner on a medium heat until the skins are blackened. Leave to cool enough to touch and then scrape the skins off with a spoon or blunt knife. Open up the chillies and remove the seeds and stalk. Once they are completely cooled down place them in a food processor and add the sour cream. Blend until smooth and add some salt and pepper to taste. Set aside in the fridge.

While the peppers are cooling down combine the shredded potato and onion with the beaten eggs.

Heat a large cast iron skillet and melt the coconut oil once its heated up.

Take a handful of the mixture and place it in the pan and flatten out with a spatula. You can probably cook 2 or 3 at a time. This mixture will make about eight medium sized pancakes. Fry for about 5 - 7 minutes on a low/medium heat or until each side is crispy and cooked through.

Once cooked through place on a heatproof plate in the oven while the others are cooking.

Place a tablespoonful of the sour cream ontop of each pancake before serving.

Serve with a green vegetable of your choice.

Description:
"Yummy for breakfast"
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NOTES : Make sure that you buy a high quality organic sour cream or a raw sour cream. Then it will have the health benefits of being probiotic. Poblano peppers are very high in vitamin C, they are anti-inflammatory and bost the immune system.

Summertime Salad

I know I haven't posted for a while and it is the summer......so here is a nice summertime salad recipe. I love having a baked potato and salad for a light dinner in the summer.


Mixed Green Salad with Fresh Fruits and Apple Cider Vinegar Grapefruit Dressing

Recipe By : Shobhan
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:10


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup (packed tight) arugula -- washed and chopped
1 cup(packed tight) spinach -- washed and chopped
1 cup (packed tight) mixed greens -- washed and chopped
1 medium plum -- sliced and cut into small pieces
5 medium strawberries -- sliced
3 tablespoons walnuts -- chopped
goat cheese (optional) -- sprinkled ontop
DRESSING
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 smalll grapefruit -- cut in half juiced
1/3 cup hemp seed oil (or flax or olive)

Mix all the salad ingredients together in a large salad bowl.

Using 4 tablespoons of grapefruit juice, blend together all the ingredients for the dressing.

Serve with the salad.

Description:
"Refreshing on a summer day"
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