Raw Food "Cooking" Class

A good friend here in Victoria called me earlier this week to tell me about a raw food cooking demonstration that was being held at the new Thrifty's store at Tuscany Village.

Elyse, Nuff, a healthy, lively, cook whose energy belies her age was -quite literally- the host, chief, cook and bottle washer. She's been involved with raw food for more than 20 years, and has a line of raw food products that can be purchased at places like Thrifty's Foods and Planet Organic.

She's also published a book, Alive 'n Raw... as Nature Intended, which along with the basics of about proper nutrition, includes some yummy, simple, recipes that are quick to put together.

She travels BC in a motor home that doubles as an office where she sees clients one-on-one for nutritional counseling or coaching on raw food preparation. She the real thing. Her website is LiveRawKitchen.com. Just give her a call if you're interested. (I've also added her link to the Blog Section on the right.)

After a brief introduction on the benefits of raw food, she showed us five super simple recipes to help us replace dairy and gluten products with raw ingredients that are much healthier for the body. I have to emphasize they really are simple. Even I came away from the evening thinking, "Hey. I can do this." 

Eating raw is not the easiest thing I've ever done. Just buying raw vegetables and wondering how to prepare them is not enough. Reading books on the subject, surfing the web for ideas, and taking raw food classes (like this one) are all ways of becoming educated and staying motivated.
"You have to do it yourself, but you don't have to do it alone." -Unknown

My Favourite Recipe (so far)

I've never been much of a cook. Truth be told, until recently my attitude toward cooking has been one of disinterest, a kind of necessary evil -best avoided if possible; tolerated when not. 

My raw food experience over the past few months has changed that. There are times when I actually get into the groove and find myself enjoying the process, the planning, the experimentation, the presentation, etc. 

It's when I get caught up in the other aspects of life, when I start feeling like there's too many things on my plate, that I fall back into my old attitude. That's when preparing a favourite recipe is called for. It's a motivator, beckoning me to get out of my rut and into a better frame of mind.  

Here's my favourite recipe (so far):

Cauliflower Salad Recipe
Preparation time: 25-30 minutes.
Serves 8-10.

Ingredients:
4 cups of raw sliced cauliflower.
1 cup of coarsely chopped black olives.
1/2 cup of chopped green pepper.
1/4 cup of chopped red pepper.
1/2 cup of chopped or sliced red onion.

Dressing:
1/4 cup of vegetable oil.
3 tablespoons lemon juice.
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
1 teaspoon of sea salt (or dulse).
1/4 cup of raw honey.

Instructions: 

• Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. 
• In another bowl, whip together the dressing ingredients.  
• Pout the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss to coat.  
• Refrigerate until serving time.  
• Correct seasoning before serving.

 In keeping with an earlier posting about serving half one day and half the next, I add a cup of peas to the second day's serving to add a bit of variety, color and texture.

Note: I've made a few changes to the ingredients of the original recipe to make it healthier. If you'd like to work from the original, and to give credit where credit is due, here's the original recipe.
Bon appetit.

A Two For One Special #15

I'm not really aware of how I got to into this routine. It was a learning process, more of a series of adjustments than an intentional, thought-out process.

What seems to be working for me these days is to make a double size salad and set half the ingredients and dressing aside for the following day (that way they don't go soggy). I eat the first portion that same day; the following day, the remainder just needs a bit of tossing and it's ready to go.

Eventually, I get ambitious and create a second salad (doubling up on this one as well).  Even though I've only made up the one salad that night, I get to eat two different salads as a result -today's and the already prepared one from the previous day. 

Ideally, one is a leafy green salad, and the other a cabbage, etc. This approach gives me a some variety in vegetables and textures and makes eating raw more interesting and fun.

There's another advantage to doubling up on the recipe. Say I've had a tough day and I come home and just don't feel like I have the energy to "cook". No problem. I just open the fridge, and the extra portion from yesterday is already there, waiting to be tossed.

Granted at some point I'm going to have to put in the extra effort to get ahead once again, but at least this way I got through the energy crunch and avoided the urge to eat processed food just because it's easy.

If you've got a raw food or handy kitchen tip you'd like to share, just drop me a line.

The stats for this past week:

                             02/07/10             02/14/10           Change

Weight              125.5 lbs.               123.6                   -1.9 lbs.
My weight gain of last week was short lived. I dropped another couple of pounds this week.

Body Fat           15.1 lbs.                 14.1                    -1.0 lbs.

Once again, half the loss is body fat, although I'm stumped as to where it's coming from!

BMI                     19.7                       19.4                     -0.3

A reflection of the weight.

Body Fat           12.0%                     11.4                     -0.6%       

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                64.3%                     64.7                     +0.4%

Heading in the right direction.

Bone Mass        6.3%                       6.3                        No Change.

A bit below normal, but acceptable in the short run.

This is What Confucius Would Say.

On the recommendation of the doctor I saw a few days ago, (refer to previous posting), I picked up, "Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition," 3rd. edition, by Paul Pitchford. It's huge, and from what I can see does a very good and thorough job of looking at the subject of nutrition. 

For now I'm going to stick with the raw food approach. Within this domain, however, I can also concentrate on foods this book recommends for people with dampness related issues:

• Carbohydrate-rich veggies like carrots, parsnips, turnip, garbanzo beans, black beans, sweet potato, peas, yams and pumpkin....   
• Pungent vegetables and spices like onion, leek, (dried) ginger, cinnamon, fennel, garlic and nutmeg.... cherries and dates....    
• According to TCM, other foods that dry dampness are: rye, amaranth, corn, aduki beans, celery, lettuce, alfalfa, kohlrabi, raw honey and all bitter herbs, like chaparral as well as chamomille.

The doctor also suggested I start by reading the section on the Earth Element which is related to the Late Summer season. (Rightly or wrongly, I take that to be the equivalent of our Indian Summer.)

• Recommended foods for people of this type are mildly sweet or yellow or gold in colour, such as: millet, corn, carrots, tofu, rice, sweet rice, chestnuts, filberts, apricots and cantaloupe.  

It is a time of transition and dishes should be simple and everything, preparation to presentation, needs to done in moderation.

That leaves me with a fair bit to work with -and think about.

Week Thirteen Summary

Week Thirteen and I feel like I'm back in the groove. I'm remembering to take my drops most of the time and I'm taking my carrot juice more often. I confess I did have a helping of sushi rolls this afternoon when I was feeling particularly tired and hungry. On the whole, however, I'm sticking pretty close to the 100% raw diet.

My weight has gone below 125 pounds for the first time in decades, probably not since Grade 9 or 10. I don't see how I can lose much more weight. If fact, I'm looking quite Gandhi like! I'm thin enough that I've put off doing a fast this month. I'd like to see my weight stabilize first. If it goes below 120 I will definitely be calling the naturopath to discuss the matter.

In the meantime, I continue work at bringing some variety to my meals. I came across a search engine, Food Blog Search, that searches over 3000 food blogs. I just type in "raw+ whatever vegetable I have in the fridge, or want to work with that day" and see what comes up. (Omit the raw and you'll find some great recipes, they just won't be raw.) Either way,  a site worthy of putting in your "Favorites" folder.

I still consider myself a newbie, and consequently gravitate to the recipes that are the simplest. Using this approach, I haven't had a tossed, green salad in weeks. I've recently prepared a spinach, a zuchinni, an asparagus,  a Greek salad (minus the feta cheese) and so on. I will post one of them in the coming weeks to give you an idea of what can be done to make eating raw more interesting.

I also dress up the meal with baby carrots, radishes and/or snap peas, in combination with avocado dip. This approach has made food preparation -and eating- much more interesting.

The stats for this past week:

                             01/24/09             01/31/09           Change

Weight              127.2 lbs.               124.9                   -2.3 lbs.
Another couple of pounds again this week. I continue to feel healthy and because I'm interested to see where this leads, I will continue.

Body Fat           16.3 lbs.                 14.7                    -1.6 lbs.

Once again a significant portion of the weight loss is body fat. Although I don't know where it's coming from as I'm not carrying any extra weight these days.

BMI                     20.0                       19.6                     -0.4

A reflection of the weight loss.

Body Fat           12.8%                     11.8                     -1.0%       

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                63.6%                     64.4                     +0.8%

The increasing water content continues to surprise me, particularly as I'm not making any particular effort to drink more water. I keep repeating this, but it's true.

Bone Mass        6.4%                       6.3                        -0.1

Another very slight drop in bone mass. I'm below normal, but not by much. I will continue to monitor the situation.

Raw Food Heaven

Yesterday, my sister and her husband treated me to supper at one of the 100% raw food restaurants here in Montreal -a celebration of my progress to date/Christmas present combo. A lovely gesture on their part. Thank you Susie and Michel.

Crudessence, Crudessence.com/en/services/restaurant, is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall establishment located on a side street near Mont Royal. A small, light green sign, easily missed, marks the entrance. A wide variety of raw food cookbooks line the wall on the right of the entrance, a small kitchen in the back, eight or nine small tables for two, a classical guitarist playing in the background, and a lovely, friendly, waitress busy with guests and take-out orders greeted us when we arrived about 7 p.m. 

 The restaurant has a minimal amount of decor; The real art work is the fabulous food, and gorgeous presentation.

It would have been nice to have had a few more dishes to try out. Unfortunately, they were out of the soups and the Japanese-themed dishes. I substituted an entree for the soup included in the daily special -a nachos style creation with side dishes of avocado and tomatoes diced and marinating in an olive oil dressing. There was also a tasty paste-like spread with sliced radishes and cherry tomatoes for garnish. 

The main dish was the Om Burger. A lovely creation and quite filling. Using various spices they did a fabulous job of recreating the taste one would expect of mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. The resemblance was uncanny, and yet, it tasted even better. 

The salad mostly consisted of tiny slices of cauliflower with a dusting of seaweed throughout. A bit of red cabbage done up in long strings and finely crated carrots for color. One of the dressings, was made with coconut water, agave syrup, and carrigan seed powder. It had a very unique taste. I quite liked it.

Dessert was a cocoa-banana crêpe. From what I gathered, Brazil nuts and bananas are mixed together into a purée, which is then poured very thinly onto Teflon sheets and dehydrated. The crêpe was filled with sliced, ripe bananas, with chopped hazel nuts sprinkled throughout. The outside was decorated with a cocoa sauce. 

The food was delicious, beautifully prepared and presented and a fitting celebration of my time here in Montreal. It is also an inspiration and challenge to me to stretch myself to find creative ways to make raw food more fun and tasty. (The one qualifier is that much of the food is quite rich. Ironically, eating like this every day would probably not be that healthy.) 

Anybody out there with a favourite recipe they´d like to share?