Raw Food-God's Food!

Okay if you have read the article on how diets do not work, then I will not go into how I have changed my life with Raw Foods, well okay I will, briefly. I had amassed some extra sixty pounds over the last decade. I could not stand myself the way I was. Drastic measures were necessary. But I am not one to go to a gym or work out, so I took a good look at myself and decided it was my lifestyle that was the problem. The intake of unnecessary things I had always referred to as food. It was that crap that was causing this issue so the resolve was to cut it out. I stopped eating anything processed, anything man made, pretty much anything cooked for the first ten hours of every day. Raw Food! My intake consists only of fruits and vegetables and pure water for the first ten hours of everyday. So basically I consume bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, watermelon, peaches, uncooked almonds and cashews. Then I come home and eat whatever meal my wife has prepared for the family. My wife has a few raw food recipes that the kids will eat but mostly she cooks traditional fare. Though we only have meat every other day. And that is how I have gotten rid of over sixty pounds and keep it off.

When my wife and kids are out of town or when I am on my own for dinner I have a few Raw Food recipes that I prepare and I will share them with you in this article.

But first where to get the best fruit and vegetables. If all else fails the local grocery will do but try to get organic if possible. In this day and age at least the organic food sold in most major grocery chains is certified organic and to be certified the growers have to adhere to certain standards of not using pesticides or non organic fertilizers. But the best place to get your fruits and vegetables are at local farmers markets. Buy local, eat local! Do not just go to any farmers market though, go to one close by and get to know the farmers there. Talk to them, they love to talk. Find out who grows what, they will tell you. Try to base your diet on foods grown locally. You cannot always get everything you want at these markets but you can get enough to base your diet on. Watch these markets though, especially in big cities like Dallas, many of these markets are just people buying wholesale and reselling on their own. Check the produce. Ask them how they grew it, be specific, you can always catch a liar. In fact I have a document for free download on our download pages to teach you when someone is lying to you. Also if you are like me, I like to pick my own, there are websites that list local farms that offer pick your own, find some near where you live.

Of course if you live in a place with seasons like we do now. You have to plan for winter and stock up during harvest season, or be prepared to use the major grocers during the Winter. Strictly Raw Food in Winter is hard to do. Or if you are really adventurous, grow your own. We grow strawberries hydroponically in our basement. Tried tomatoes but they were very small. Strawberries though turned out great. So my suggestions to keep a year round diet of Raw Foods is to obtain your fruits and vegetables at a combination of different sources. Organic is best but not necessary, just be sure to wash your food well. Or as my Mom always does, soak them in water with sea salt. She claims it kills all bugs.

So my favorite recipes!

First things first, there are some tools needed to eat a variety of raw food recipes. I know you are thinking "what a paring knife and a fork". No I am talking blender, food processors, grinders, hand held grater, mixers and most important a food dehydrator. Have to have them, no way around it. Also there are many people out there who are hard core Raw Food enthusiasts, and that is awesome, but I cannot do it and I do not expect anyone else to do so either. We are omnivores by the way. I still eat eggs and cheese and milk. Of course for the past year and a half we have made our own cheese from goat's milk. We also skim the fat off for butter and chill the remaining milk for cereal and drinking. So maybe I should change this blog to Natural food instead of Raw Food! I make great sweet cheese. Anyhow below are some recipes I created when I was bored and hungry.

Eggplant nachos- Yes, use cheese. Real cheese though, read the labels. Ingredients: One nice sized eggplant sliced in 1/2 inch thick rounds, they should end up being about three inches across depending on size of eggplant, Mozzarella cheese about 8 ounces shredded but sliced will do, one tomato sliced in rounds then quartered, 2 or 3 fresh jalapeños sliced, onion if you like, diced. Heat oven to 100 degrees , place eggplant rounds on a cookie sheet, on top of those place the cheese, on top of the cheese place the tomato, jalapeños and onions, salt to taste. Heat like this at 100 degrees until cheese melts. Usually about ten or fifteen minutes. You just want the cheese to be warm and gooey. Eat with a fork.

Zucchini sliders- same deal with the cheese, I like white American on these, sliced zucchini in 1/2 inch thick rounds, cheese on top, Cavender's Greek Seasoning warm in oven at 1ntes you want these very gooey.

Raw Salsa with cucumber chips- Okay you don't have to use cucumber you could also use potato or zucchini, or sweet potato, take which ever one you choose and slice very thin, put them in a dehydrator for 8-10 hours until crisp. The reason I mention using something other than cucumber is because dehydrated cucumber tends to shrivel. I like them but no one else does. The salsa- 1 white onion, 4 ounces of cilantro, 3 peeled tomatoes, chili or jalapeños , Cavender's Greek Seasoning- dice everything very fine, mix together and season with Cavender's or add dried cayenne pepper to give it some more heat.

Stuffed avocados- take three ripe but not brown avocadoes, slice in half, remove seed. Take one whole tomato and skin it. Either dice the tomatoes in to small squares or throw it in the food processor and shred it, dice one half of a onion, add in cilantro chopped up fine, add in basil chopped up fine, mix tomatoes, and herbs together with onion and put in avocado halves, season with salt and pepper and enjoy.

And of course I like to mix blueberries, goji berries, strawberries, cantaloupe, almonds and pistachios together and call it a fruit mix.

That is all for this round! Keep up with our blogs!! Until next week!

Spiritual Stew