Day 16

The beautiful sunrise this morning was the forerunner to what was to come later in the day.  Even though we have lots of wind, the freezing rain and rain were minimal.  But I fear that there is more to come tonight and tomorrow.

But the sunshine this morning was certainly conducive to getting the energy flowing.  I was anxious to get some new recipes under my belt, so I got some of my house chores done early so that I could spend time in the kitchen without feeling guilty.

One of the Facebook and web sites I like is "Raw on $10 a day (or less)" - www.rawon10.com .  For the most part their recipes are appealing to me.  Recipes are always for 2 people - perfect for me.  And they cost every ingredient out.  A really neat idea.

So today I decided to try their Stuffed Bell Peppers. They are really, really good.  Just take a little planning.

12 oz sliced Mushrooms

1 medium Onion, sliced

1 Carrot, grated

3 tablespoons Olive Oil

3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

3 tablespoons Agave

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

2 Red Bell Peppers

1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice (or 1 1/5 cup cauliflower "rice")

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 tablespoon Agave

pinch Cayenne

In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, and agave.  Add the mushrooms, onion, and carrot and toss to coat.  Spread out on a lined dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 2 hours, or until softened and a bit darker in colour.

Mix the dehydrated mushroom mix with cooked wild rice or raw cauliflower rice. (Make cauliflower rice by processing cauliflower in a food processor fitted with an 'S" blade...process until the cauliflower is chopped into tiny, rice sized pieces.)  Then, add the olive oil, agave, and a pinch of cayenne, and stir to combine.

Cut the tops off the bell peppers, and clean out the inside.  Spoon in the rice and mushroom mix.  Serve as is, or dehydrate further until the pepper softens.  This can be done in an oven set on low with the door left ajar.

**  I used the cauliflower rice for an all raw meal.  Also, I used mini peppers, so I cut them length-wise and used both red and yellow.  I think I would even try this as filling for tomatoes.  It is exceptionally good.

If you haven't watched the documentary "Forks over Knives", you really need to.  We have a copy, but Noel watched it on one of the movie channels yesterday while he was on the treadmill.  So you may be able to catch it on tv.

Today's salad is taken from their cookbook -" Forks Over Knives - The Plant-based Way to Health". (Available in paperback and ebook)  It's super easy and delicious.

Incredible Tomatoes and Cucumbers

Serves 5

3 large Tomatoes

2 medium Cucumbers

3 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

3 tablespoons Agave

3 tablespoons Mustard

Sea Salt to taste

Wash tomatoes and cukes.  Peel cukes if they are not organic.  Chop tomatoes and cucumbers into medium-small cubes.  Add the vinegar, agave, and mustard and toss.  Taste before salting in case you don't want salt.  Serve chilled.

**I add green onion or diced red onion and serve on a bed of lettuce.

Here's the complete meal as served.

It seems that I redeemed myself with Noel.  He really liked this and went back for seconds.  And he doesn't like peppers!  So both recipes are keepers.

I already have a recipe in mind for tomorrow....

Beverly Facey, Certified Health Coach

Day 15

Well, after yesterday's  - I was going to say "disaster" - experience, I knew that Noel would be a little gun shy today.  That called for going back to the familiar to get his confidence back.  So I made a couple of his favourites - Wilted Kale Salad (recipe in Day 2 post) and Walnut Pate (recipe in Day 9 post) with homemade flax crackers.  I can never go wrong with him with the Kale Salad, so I knew that he would be happy - and he was.  That means that I can try something new again tomorrow!

We are into our 3rd week of 100% raw already.  It is so hard to believe how fast the time is going.  I have so many recipes that I want to try, so stay tuned.

I'm really looking forward to the new growing season.  I subscribe to the SCA program at Wild Rose Farm in Gilbert's Cove.  This is an organic farm run by Gilberte Doelle - a real pioneer in this area.  Each week I receive a basket or bag of whatever fresh veggies or greens or herbs that she is harvesting that week.  It has forced me to try new foods and find new recipes.  The experience has been so wonderful that this will be my third year being involved in the program.  Come on spring!

And this year I will also have my own garden, and maybe greenhouse, growing.  So I'm looking forward to being able to do more totally raw days soon.  But, because we have so many four legged visitors, I am going to have to work on fencing very early on.  Here are 2 of the 4 visitors we had today.

I want to encourage them to stay - but not at the expense of my fresh veggies!

Stay tuned for new recipes tomorrow.  For now...

To your health,

Beverly Facey, Certified Health Coach

Day 2

Transitioning to a raw foods diet.

I inadvertently deleted this post - so will repost it soon.  Sorry!

Wilted Kale Salad

Remove the hard ribs from 1 large bunch of Kale.  Shred finely.  You can also just tear into pieces.
Add:
1 Red Pepper, finely chopped

Mix together:
2 tablespoons Tamari
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons Water
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 tablespoon Onion Powder

Add a generous amount of dressing.  Using your hands, massage salad for a minute or so or until it wilts down.  Service immediately.

If you want more of a creamy consistency, add 1 Avocado to the bowl with the Kale and work the avocado in as you massage the kale.  This is delicious!

Day 14

It's been a day of the good and not so good, of success and not so successful.

But before that, this is what I am watching outside of my office window right now.  This one and 3 others!

Sure makes it hard to work when there is such a wonderful scene unfolding within feet.  Guess I'll just have to suffer it out!

This morning I got up a few minutes earlier to make one of our favourite breakfast dishes.  I hope you enjoy it too because it is choke full of goodness.

Cranberry Orange Delight

This dish is so easy to make.

1 package of fresh Cranberries

1/2 cup Walnuts

4 Oranges, peeled

2 tablespoons Honey or to taste

Put all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process until well chopped and combined.

I serve this over sliced bananas.

This was the success today.  The not quite so successful was our lunch meal.  I decided to try a new dish called "Unbaked Beans" using sprouted organic soy beans, that I sprouted myself over the last 2 days.  Neither Noel nor I liked it.  We won't be eating the leftovers as is.  Think I'll just rinse the sauce off the beans and freeze them to add to a soup sometime in the future.

It's not very often that I make something that neither of us likes, but I guess it is always good to experiment a little.  I won't give you the recipe for this - say "thank you".

Until tomorrow...To you health!

Beverly Facey, Certified Health Coach

Day 13

On the road again!  That seems to be a recurring theme in my life.  Last evening we had to be just outside of Berwick in the Annapolis Valley, getting back home around 10 pm.  Then we left for the same area this morning at 8 am.  The drive time is about 1 1/2 hours each way.

So I've become the master of making "box lunches".  Not really box - more like "cooler bag" lunches.  When I make our morning smoothies, I just make double the amount and put the extra in 2 16 ounce thermos bottles that I keep in the freezer.  Then I pack the cooler bag with the thermoses, 2 small ice packs, lots of fruit, nuts, and raw cookies.  A lunch fit for a king and queen!

Three summers ago we traveled to Vancouver Island and back - 52 days - on our motorcycle.  I made our breakfast in the motel room every morning and also our lunch to eat on the road.  It made for great healthy meals and we saved loads of money on meals.    We even had green smoothies twice a day.  I had made cookies, fruit and nut bars, and other goodies to take along and these lasted us all the way out and back.  We felt great for eating such healthy meals and didn't gain a pound!

I try not to have the same supper meal 2 days in a row, but Noel really likes those BLT's like we had yesterday.  So I treated him with the same tonight.  And we had those Kale Chips fresh out of the dehydrator.  They are soooo good!

I'm going to try a new recipe for supper tomorrow.  You'll get the report, and recipe if it's good.  And I'll be making something different for breakfast - so stay tuned.

Beverly Facey, Certified Health Coach

Day 12

Ah, Sunday...a day of rest.  I so appreciate the fact that God knew we would need one day out of 7 to recharge our batteries.

I always try to have simple meals on Sunday.  So today I made a huge Wilted Kale Salad - so there would be plenty left over for the dehydrator - and BLT Sandwiches.  As it turned out, Noel ate way more of the salad than I had planned on, so very little made it into the dehydrator to make our favourite Kale Chips.  Now, before you get too excited, the "B" does stand for bacon, but it is Eggplant Bacon.  It really does give the flavor and sense of having real bacon.  Here's the recipe for you.

Eggplant Bacon

Adapted from How We All Went Raw

by Charles Nungesser & Stephen Malachi

ISBN 0-9740378-5-0

1 large Eggplant, thinly sliced lengthwise

3/4 cup extra virgin Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Honey

4 tablespoons fresh Lemon Juice

Marinate eggplant slices for 2 hours.  Place on parchment paper and dehydrate at 105 F for 9 hours.  Turn over and dehydrate for another 9 hours.  Lightly salt the bacon before removing from dehydrator.

Use in sandwiches with lettuce, tomato and guacamole.

**I use a mandolin slicer to make very thin slices.  After it is finished I place in a glass container with close fitting top and place in the fridge.  It will keep almost indefinitely.

Enjoy!

Beverly Facey, Certified Health Coach

Day 11

It was such a gorgeous day today that we felt it would be a shame to stay at home.  Also, we had some errands to run including a visit to our "local" health food store.  I put quotations around "local" because it is about an hour's drive from us, but the closest one.  Supernutrition is located in Church Point on Nova Scotia's French Shore very close to Universite Sainte-Anne, Nova Scotia's only French university.  The drive along St. Mary's Bay was really beautiful with all of the lobster boats out checking traps on the calm water.  We haven't had a lot of calm days this month.

We arrived back home about mid-afternoon.  I really didn't feel like spending time in the kitchen today - which is very unusual for me.  So, I turned to a cook book that calls its recipes "simple and machine free".  The book is Raw Foods for Busy People by Jordan Maerin.  ISBN-13:  978-0-9774858-6-4 

 I haven't spent a lot of time with this book but I did remember a recipe using lentil sprouts.  I had some 2 day sprouts ready in the sprouter, so this seemed like the time to use them.

Sprouted Lentil Salad

1 1/2 cups sprouted Lentils

1 1/2 cups chopped ripe Tomatoes

1/2 cup each chopped Onion and Bell Pepper

2 tablespoons fresh Lemon Juice or Cider Vinegar

4 tablespoons Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Honey or Maple Syrup

Sea Salt to taste

Toss sprouted lentils with the rest of the ingredients and all to marinate at least one hour.

I served this over the left over Tossed Salad from yesterday noon.  We also had mashed Avocado on Ryveta Crackers (not raw).  To finish it off, we sampled the Raw Chocolate Cookies that came out of the dehydrator this morning.  A meal fit for royalty!

Beverly Facey, Certified Health Coach