Newish

• I received this strawberry lip balm in my Julep Maven March box. It's not vegan though so if anyone wants it, let me know! Just make me an offer.
• My cat loves to lay in the new (from a friend who moved) tomato plant. As long as he isn't using it as a litterbox, I don't mind!
• Bath time for my pup. He always look soo sad in the  bath. haha
• Tasty snack! The ginger flavour is quite strong but I like them.
• I'd had my eye on these at Target and then they were on clearance for $10! They fit a bit loose but will be great in hot weather.
• Makeup I wore to a potluck on the weekend. 

Vacation Food Round-Up

I was trying to get this post up yesterday but was having technical difficulties. So here we go! The rest of what I ate while on vacation.  I am definitely feeling the need to incorporate more raw and less processed foods in my diet now that I'm back home.  I might two a two week detox of no processed foods or added sugar just to kinda reboot and get back on track with the way I am comfortable eating. I think I'll pick up Kris Carr's book Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I have Crazy Sexy Diet and love it. As you may have seen in yesterday's post my only food related "resolution" is to eat cleaner (including more raw foods).

1.  On our way home we mostly just snacked. I had raw veggies with hummus at one point.
2. Stopped at The Best Little Sandwich Shop in Redding, CA where I knew they had an impressive vegan menu. So yum! The oven wasn't working so it wasn't toasted (which would have been tastier) but this still beat Subway by a landslide. The vegan roast beef was soo good.
3. Of course we had to stop at VooDoo Doughnuts! It has become a yearly tradition. Such delicious vegan donuts. This is the "vegan cock and balls" which has vanilla cream filled balls. haha Don't let the name or appearance scare you off. It's so good!
4. And this is the VooDoo doll which was filled with  jelly. Good but not as good as the vanilla one.
5. Stopped at AmeRAWcan in Tacoma, WA, an all raw restaurant. It was a very cool experience for my husband and I. We had the four course taster plus he ordered a full sized falafel. Oh and I got a green juice to go. Everything was delicious! Also, the menus were on iPads; fancy! This is the taster size raw nachos. They were really yummy.  So was the falafel although I didn't love the hummus.
6. Raw chocolate cheesecake with vanilla cream. Mmm. Not super sweet which was nice.
7. Raw avocado quinoa boat. This was so simple but soo good.
8. Snacked on chips with avocado and salsa on NYE. We bought wine but then I realized it wasn't vegan. Boo. I don't buy wine often so I hadn't thought to check in store.
9. Mexican food at a restaurant. This was a vegetarian fajita and it was HUGE. I ate it for three meals plus gave rice to my dog.
10. I tried this ravioli again but this time got the spinach one (spinach and something, I forget). It was SO good. Definitely recommend that one! My husband got a non vegan one. Found these at Fred Meyers.
11. Some lazy pizza I made. I found Archer Farms crusts that are vegan at Target but when I went back today they didn't have them.... weird.
12. Big breakfast. I think I just ate oatmeal, fruit and pancakes for  breakfast the entire vacation haha It was the easiest to make in my inlaws kitchen with what they/we had.
13. I bought some green curry paste and coconut milk to whip up some curry! Tasty.
14. Amazing vegan pizza at The Alibi in Pike Place (Seattle). Highly recommend! This was the mini happy hour one so it was only $5!! But it was 6 big slices.
15. Christmas leftovers. I cooked this for my husband and I. My inlaws made non veg stuff for everyone else.
16. Oatmeal with fruit.
17. Some frozen waffle with fruit and hashbrowns.
18. Vegan ice cream and pie on Christmas. Did you know Marie Calendars makes some vegan pies? Yep.
19. Eggnog pancakes for breakfast on Christmas. All I did was replace the milk in my simple go to recipe with soy eggnog. Yum!
20. Making burritos.
21. More oatmeal. Some days I made with raisins and peanut butter.
22. Maple bacon (tempeh) sandwiches.
23. Fruit with granola.
24. A frozen vegan pizza. Which is exactly what it tasted like haha But it was good, don't get me wrong. It just has that cheap taste. It was also pricey at $7.
25. Amy's lentil soup. I love this soup and I don't normally like canned soups. This is the only brand of soup I ever really buy.

Raw Food Insanity

After my five day juice cleanse, I decided to stick to eating mostly raw for the next 5 or so days. I did this for a few reasons.  1. It's a good way to come off of a juice cleanse because it is easier on your digestive system 2. I'm trying to cut back on wheat products so this was a great way to find alternatives 3. I didn't have ANY processed sugar for 10 or so days which was a great thing to rid my system of. Not that I will never again bake with (vegan) sugar but I will definitely mix it up more. Raw desserts are so delicious. 4. I am not someone who can stick to eating the same few foods. I like a LOT of variety. Eating raw forced me to try new recipes...and I loved them!! I will remake many of them.

Let's take a look at some of what I ate!

I made these awesome orange coconut "Larabars" that What I Eat posted. I've made similar bars before but never this flavour. LOVE it! It's so delicious. I included some pics of the process. I like to use (sprayed) foil to shape my date bars as well as store them.

I made green guacamole which is green pulp from the juicer (broccoli, leafy greens etc try to stick to green veggies), lemon and guacamole. It's really really tasty! The hummus isn't homemade although if I hadn't already bought it I would have made a raw hummus like this. The store bought hummus said the chickpeas were lightly steamed, everything else was raw, so that's not bad.  I had it with raw salsa crackers by Kathy's Krackers and baby carrots. Yum! I'm a sucker for dips so I was happy to find a healthy version.

Breakfast one morning was this chia oatmeal with pumpkin!

I made these dolmas but instead of grape leaves I used collards to wrap them! They were super tasty. You had leftovers of the mixture I used to stuff them so I ate that on its own. I LOVE the cauliflower rice and will for sure make that more often!  The little treat is a raw almond pulp cookie. I don't have a dehydrator so I did the toaster oven method.

A not so pretty picture of zucchini alfredo. This is all raw so it's definitely more salad-like than pasta but I loved it! The flavours were wonderful. I used this recipe.

Leftover quinoa (made with water) that I added some homemade almond milk, berries, hemp seeds and walnuts to. Mmmm.

Leftovers one night when I got home late and was soo hungry. Zucchini alfredo, dolmas and hummus. Yeah, I ate a lot of the hummus this week.

These raw brownies and some homemade almond milk. OMG these brownies are so good. If you love dark chocolate, you'll love these. Super rich tasting.

This was an interesting meal that I really liked. It's raw "cereal". I used this recipe. It's just almonds, apples/pear, dates, carrots and broccoli pulsed in a food processor, served with milk. SO healthy and very very filling.

I wasn't sure I liked red cabbage but after making this super simple recipe from Raw Clarity, my mind was made up. I love this salad! I actually made it again another night. It's just red cabbage, raisins, grapefruit and some EVOO and sea salt if you want. The raisins and grapefruit balance each other out so wonderfully.  I made this homemade pesto and had it on top of a portabello mushroom with tomato and avocado. Yum!

Fruit and walnuts for breakfast one morning. 

Last night I made these yummy lettuce wraps and a mojito! Not all raw. I added some vegan chicken nugget pieces to the lettuce wraps. Very delicious. And yes, I was feeling this one drink...I'd only had nuts/produce for the past 10 days! haha

I needed to use up some pumpkin before it went bad so last night I made this raw vegan pie. Ughhhhhhh. So good. haha The texture is different but the flavours (minus the crust) are quite similar to traditional pumpkin pie. We ate it all but one slice last night which I put into my husband's lunch today...   haha Oops! Raw desserts are still generally high in calories, natural sugar etc so it IS still a dessert and should be treated as so. That said, I don't feel guilty for eating so much hehe

So what do you think? Raw food isn't so boring, right? I'm so glad I did this. It's easier to incorporate more of these meals into my daily menu now. I'm having a big salad for lunch today and then tacos (going to turn some soft shells into hard ones hopefully) with this as filling for dinner. So it's not 100% raw but it's pretty natural and healthy.

Oh and I got the Insanity workouts yesterday! I'm waiting until after my 10K on June 3rd to start it but I'm excited. I have P90X but I don't love all the workouts. I liked the plyometrics one the best. Insanity is all plyometrics which I love so I think I'll enjoy it more. I want to gain muscle tone and my gym membership ends at the end of this month, so it should work out well. :)   And no, I'm not doing the "diet".