Anna's First Post: A New Two-Week Experiment!

Raw Food Experiment: Round Two

So our neighbor Anna has officially agreed to try the raw food experiment for at least two weeks and blog about it on this site. We'll start the countdown over from day one, I'll be doing it along with her, this time we'll try to be more diligent about sticking to it and posting menus, etc.

In keeping with our Halloween theme, Alaskan MILF Anna with Dominatrix Cowgirl Kelly. Surprisingly, the two had a lot in common:

The following is Anna's take on the raw foods thing:

Why on Earth would you try something that makes vegans look like gluttons? Crazy raw foodists! I eat meat. I love dairy. I adore bread! I fully intend on having a crash and burn meter for this. No chocolate? I suppose the first week will have a lot of posts with praying for death as the gist.

Well, ok, Kelly and Nathan are only as crazy as the next couple, and they make yummy sushi. I might be able to handle this if they agree to make me dinner. And have you seen Nathan? He lost 16 pounds in a month. That’s what snagged my attention. You can get a girl to do anything as long as you tell her she’ll drop some weight doing it.

Plus, there’s this whole “feel more in the present” push that I’m trying to do. Sure, things are ok, but I treat my body pretty much like I treat my car; as long as there’s fuel in it, I don’t really worry about how it’s running until something goes wrong. I want to feel good in this body, and the bottom line is right now I don’t.

So the real question here is, why not?

-Anna

(Note: She obviously never got to try any of our Raw Chocolate Balls, or she wouldn't be so freaked about "giving up" chocolate. I will convert you Anna!)

We are famous!

Well, in our small time blogger world we are. Today I visited one of my old favorite food blogs, Cheap Healthy Good, it's been awhile since I read it because I've been preoccupied with looking for raw food info….and I was so delighted to see us listed in their Favorites of the Week! I'm so lucky I caught that post!

In other news….Nathan has been kind of obsessed with black beans since we officially ended the 30 day experiment. He wants to eat lots of protein to build up his muscles again, because they got "small" on only raw foods. (Not). I think he also just really likes burritos. =)

Anyway on Saturday night he made a fabulous black bean soup, not raw, but vegan, and a good example of how regular food can be incorporated into an almost-raw diet. He ate the soup on its own, but I put some raw spinach, celery, and zucchini in a bowl and just covered it with a few spoonfuls of the soup. So, all the yumminess of hot food, but most of the raw benefits too.

BLACK BEAN SOUP (modified from source)

Ingredients:
- 1 pound can of black beans
- 8 cups of water
- One cup of diced carrots
- One cup of diced yellow onion
- One cup of diced celery
- One tablespoon garlic cloves
- Some olive oil for cooking the vegetables
- 3/4 TBSP cumin powder
- 1 TSP oregano
- 1 TSP ground black pepper
- 1 TSP thyme

Nathan's modified instructions:

1) Heat up some olive oil in the bottom of a big pot and gradually cook the carrots, onion and celery until the onion carmelizes. I like to cook right in the pot I'll make the soup in because the "fond" that accumulates in the pot is very flavorful and adds to the soup. If too much dark matter builds up, add a little water and loosen it with a spoon.

2) Near the end of cooking the vegetables, add a little more olive oil, get it hot, and then cook the diced garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3) Add the black beans right from the can, the water, and all the herbs. Slowly simmer with the lid just barely open for about an hour, stirring occasionally. I notice now that I forgot to add the recommended 1/6 cup of sherry, which might have been a nice addition.

4) After an hour, take off the cover and let the soup cook down gradually to your desired consistency. Sea salt to taste.

-Kelly

Transitional Diet / The Otter

Here's what my diet looks like post-raw-food-experiment:

I work for a judge, and he scheduled a very early start to the final day of a jury trial yesterday morning. I went from bed to car in ten minutes, and remember very little of what happened in between. I know this much: I was wearing pants.

During the diet, this would have devastated me, but I allowed myself to grab some orange juice for breakfast rather than a smoothie.

For lunch and dinner, I made burritos out of whole wheat tortillas, organic black beans, chopped up raw brocolli and chopped up raw tomatoes. I seasoned the black beans with cumin, but a good friend recommended I try all-spice next time. For the dinner burritos, I found a good all-natural salsa to increase the heat and flavor.

While I was worrying about caloric intake, Kelly was faithfully responding to a blog comment:

THE OTTER

It's important to describe this classic Otter night, mostly because we dizzily handed out several links to our blog, in hopes that we'd attract a few stalkers.

Potential stalkers:



When we entered, we immediately took pictures with a very charming man who may have been Elvis in hiding. This was not abnormal, and I note that nobody every looks for Elvis in Minnesota. Interesting.

It was my sister's birthday, and I somehow neglected to take her picture. Well Happy Birthday to you!

We bumped into a surprising number of friends, caroused with random has-been enemies, danced trancelike to karaoke, and took occasional sensory breaks in the outer stairwell. Here's a picture of one of those breaks, with Otter-regulars Stoner and Midget:



I belted out a crowd-stunning rendition of Neil Diamond's Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. It may not have been pleasing to the ear, but I'm comforted by the fact that at least 20% of the listeners now know that they have two good hands. One for reaching out to the man up there, and one for reaching to their brother who is in trouble. Public service announcement over.

Kelly with another performer:

Finally, Kelly met a great guy from Hutchinson, MN, who bought us a couple drinks and introduced us to his wife and friends. Interestingly, I was named after an ancestor of historical note from Hutch, a man named Nathan Lamson. Nathan killed Little Crow, the leader of the Sioux Rebellion. I wasn't there, so I can't comment on the whole "he said, he said" situation over shots fired, but I've been to the historic site a couple times. I admit, I looked over my shoulder for possible retributive gunfire from the spiritual plane.

Kelly, borrowing the poor guy's glasses. At the moment, I'm sure he has no idea who I am or what I'm doing:

-Nathan

Day 33 - Yay Weekend!

My weekend started early last night with our book club meeting at Café Barbette. Two glasses of great wine, some pommes frites, and deep intellectual discussion about The Fall by Albert Camus. Ha, not. We did eat and drink and select that book (rather, Nathan selected the book), but I think only 3 of our 7 members really read it. This is the kind of book that people write papers on the symbolism, etc. etc….also the kind of book that made me glad I was an engineering major so I never had to write those bullsh*t papers. Sorry if I offend any comparative literature majors out there.

We got home by 9 and I proceeded to stay up too late having girl talk, another drink, and late night eats of (whole wheat) pasta and (all natural) spaghetti sauce with my neighbor Anna who might give the 30 day raw experiment a try. I told her I'd do it again with her and Anna, that wasn't just the liquor talking, I'm still in!

So I wasn't very hungry today and just had a banana and tea for breakfast and a salad for lunch. It's a quarter to 4 here and I can't wait to get home and nap before we go celebrate Nathan's sister's b-day at the best bar ever, otherwise known as the U Otter Stop Inn. Happy Birthday Katie!!

Days gone by at the Otter:

And happy weekend everyone, hopefully I'll get around to making some new raw stuff this weekend so I can actually post something informative besides book recommendations on this blog…..next we are reading my pick, one of my favorites since I first read it in 8th grade, Ender's Game. Read it!

Cheers,

Kelly

Day 32 - Recipe Updates and a Thank You

I want to publicly say thank you to my wonderful husband Nathan for doing this raw foods experiment with me. When I suggested it, I did so casually, expecting a scoffing "no way". This is not his type of thing. But he knew I was having a hard winter and wanted to support me and help cheer me up, so he went along and not even reluctantly, he threw himself into it and was very dedicated to the experiment.

The seriousness of his post yesterday really surprised me, I never thought any real change would come of this, I was just curious about all the reported health benefits and wanted to get back to my pre-winter weight (and didn't want tempting food in the house if he wasn't doing it with me!)

So it just goes to show 30 days can make a lasting difference, even for the skeptical, please share this with anyone you know who could benefit, and support those who are trying to make a positive change in their lives.

********

Recipe Updates:

I made another batch of the Banana Bread using a little more banana and dates, and dehydrating at 110 degrees for about 7 hours. It turned out better, less spicy and softer, but I'd try for even softer & still more banana flavor next time. Also I used 2 frozen and 1 large unfrozen banana.

I also made another batch of Zucchini Hummus, this is turning into one of my favorites. This time I used about 2 1/2 cups of zucchini, 2 T of tahini, and 2 T of olive oil to lighten it up. I even left the skin on one zucchini. Result: Still good. Less rich and with a slight green color from the skin, but good. It's been keeping me really full as a dip for celery and carrot sticks. I'll have to post a revised "light" recipe in the recipes section soon.

-Kelly

After the Diet - Nathan

Thirty days is a long time, really. Long enough to develop some habits, anyway. Today, I'm doing something similar to what I think I'll be doing for a while:

Breakfast: I had an orange and banana smoothie.

Lunch: I picked up some organic black beans and made burritos with tomatoes, onions, and some suprisingly good sprouted wheat tortillas that Kelly picked up at the co-op.

A deputy observed me cutting up my tomatoes and said, "That looks like way too much work." But it feels natural now to actually sit down and put in the work of making a healthy lunch . And yeah, the beans aren't raw, but they're good for me, and I've got this inclination now that I shouldn't ruin a good thing.

Dinner: Who knows. I'll probably just make some more burrittos.

Reflecting on Everything:

As I said above, I've got a sense now that my body's a good place to be, and it feels unnatural to dump garbage into it. Right now, a plate of gooey brownies looks to me like a director of low-budget pornography looks to a puritanical virgin. I know, because I walked by some today (brownies, not characters out of an adult time-travel fantasy film).

Overall, I see the raw food diet as a good transition, but not a lifestyle I want to embrace 100%. I'll continue to have the raw breakfast, and stick as much as I can to elements of a raw lunch. Dinner's probably always going to involve fire, but I'll be burning mushrooms and broccoli instead of cheese-filled sausages and pizzas. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat the nachos and pizzas when I'm out with friends now and then. I'd hate to be rude, obviously.

I haven't performed a final weigh-in, but I've lost in the ballpark of sixteen pounds. I feel lighter on my feet, better about myself aesthetically, and I've got a hunch that it's probably good that I've purged myself of a lot of the synthetic junk I was spraying on my organs for years.

My grandfather lived to be 96 years old, and he ate a lot of bacon. But he was around when food was simpler, less processed, and when whole foods were not just a healthy thing to eat, but an economical thing to eat - back when you grew things and weren't swallowed up in the modern rush of commuting and living. I've taken comfort in his love for bacon and longevity probably too much, telling Kelly that diet doesn't really matter, and that life is a roll of diet-neutral dice in the long run.

I'll concede this to her now: We live in a different world, and I like the idea of separating myself from some of the modern chemicals we've been unfortunate to discover and apply. I have such little confidence that modern, mass food production is made with my body's best interests in mind that I'd rather depend on it as little as possible.

We will continue to experiment with raw food, but I look forward to the next stage, as I integrate healthy and organic cooked foods into raw recipes in order to create meals that are better tailored to my needs and tastes. I've remained wary of not getting enough protein intake over the last month, so I'll feel more comfortable participating in strenuous workouts now that I can supplement my diet with other protein sources.

That's all for now. The next curiosity is whether a transitional diet can maintain the health benefits I've enjoyed, in the long run. I'll let you know.

-Nathan

Day 30 - Banana Bread

I made this on Thursday night for us to take on the trip, but I must've dehydrated it too long because it was more like banana crackers. Not a complete failure though, because Nathan actually liked them, even though they had too much cinnamon and not enough banana flavor. I'm giving it another try tonight….

BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:
-1 cup sprouted and dehydrated (until crispy: 3-5 hours) buckwheat groats
-3 ripe bananas, frozen overnight
-3 dates, pitted (if dates are dried, soak for 1 hour)
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 tbsp flax meal
-2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-1/2 tsp cloves

Directions:

1) Let bananas defrost completely in bowl, takes about 1 hour. (Apparently freezing them and then thawing makes it taste different?)

2) Grind buckwheat in a coffee grinder or blender until it becomes a flour consistency

3) Mix buckwheat flour and rest of dry ingredients in a bowl.

4) Puree bananas, dates, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Pour into dry ingredients and mix well.

5) Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 8 hours.

My Notes:

-The original recipe on a message board called for spelt or kamut berries, but someone said buckwheat worked better. I am suspicious that maybe I wasn't supposed to dehydrate the buckwheat before mixing it with everything else and that's why it turned out so dry….I'll have to experiment with this . . .

-I used a few more dates, because mine are dried and very small.

This recipe has great potential, it's cheap and easy to make, buckwheat is quick to sprout too.

Also, odd coincidence - on the way back from Duluth I was reading one of their free community newspapers and there was an ad from the Duluth Grill prominently announcing that they serve Banana Buckwheat Bread, "Raw & Gluten Free". Now, I've never heard of raw banana bread before like two weeks ago, and someplace called the "Duluth Grill" would be the last place I expected….ok I actually just googled this place and turns out it is an Embers restaurant. Strange. But good, I guess!

-Kelly

Day 30 - Last Day?

I can't believe it's been 30 days. We haven't eaten 100% raw every day (or probably even the majority of days), but we sure ate a lot more raw than we did before the experiment. For me, it's been great. There was rarely a time when I felt too hungry or deprived….probably because when I wanted fries and whiskey I just….didn't deprive myself. But we've learned a lot of great recipes, picked up some good habits, and had fun blogging for the first time.

This is not the last day for me. I plan keep eating similar to what I have been the last month, trying new recipes, and writing on the blog, so I hope you all keep reading.

With that, here's the weekend recap:

North Shore & Duluth

-Stopped in Duluth on Fri. eve on the way to the cabin at Hell's Kitchen, known for their excellent breakfast food. They had fantastic happy hour, $3 any tap from 8-10 p.m. So we did a comparison of our two favorites, Bell's Two Hearted Ale and Surly Furious. Surly is much darker, sharper, bitter, while Bell's is lighter and fruiter. But both hoppy and delicious! Food was great (Veggie Fritta, chips & salsa), but it felt like we were sitting in a Hot Topic store.

-Scary drives in a pitch black country road snowstorm and the next day on 20 miles of unplowed, unpaved country road with deer hopping around everywhere (we saw at least 50, and they ran in front of our car several times) reminded me why I am a city gal.

-Best small town dive discovery ever: Silver Bay Bowl! 6 lanes, manual scoring, and a 12 year old as the sole employee serving us beer. $3.50 per person for bowling & shoes.

-Sunday night at the Edge Waterpark in Duluth: Hotel itself and waterpark were sort of cr*p, but 6 friends, plenty of liquor, and a hot tub in the hotel room = a great party.

The foggy drive home:

Cheers!

Kelly

Day 26 - Raw Road Trip!

Tonight after work we're driving 4+ hours up to Nathan's parents' (very lovely clean modern) cabin in Silver Bay, on the north shore of Lake Superior. Normally I'm not at all a winter cabin type person, but we're in need of a cheap spring break, it's not supposed to be too cold, and our good friends Marc & Robyn are coming.

Saturday we're going to Sawbill Canoe Outfitters, which our friend Adam's dad owns, where we might snowshoe or might just hang out in the lodge. And on the way back - bar hopping in random small towns we've never been to! I ♥ small town dive bars.



Finally, the whole reason for going up north in the first place, we're staying at the Edgewater Waterpark & Resort in Duluth on Sunday night. I get a discount through my company, but excluding Fri. & Sat. nights, so we figured we'd do the cabin thing first. Taking full advantage of the discount, we got the most posh suite in the place - whirlpool, minibar, balcony view of Lake Superior. Maybe they'll even have a sauna….I like anywhere I can be warm in the winter in a bathing suit.

So this will be our first time trying to do the raw thing out of town. In preparation, last night I did grocery shopping & food prepping, so here's our list of foods for the road:

-Banana Bread (not quite a success, recipe to come)
-Zucchini Hummus
-Carrot Sticks
-Salsa
-Nuts & Dried fruit
-Apples & Bananas
-Sprouted Bread
-Avocado

It's not much, but there's a grocery store by the cabin so we can get supplies for salads, etc., and there's a nice looking whole foods co-op in Duluth. We'll probably miss the blender the most because we've gotten very used to the smoothies….actually maybe there's one at the cabin or I guess we could bring ours, we haven't discussed.

Anyway, happy weekend, we'll be back Tuesday!

-Kelly

Intermezzo - The Johnsons

Nathan: OK, this is an odd interruption, but a comment by Lisa yesterday reminded us that the best way to get to know us is probably through our Halloween photos. Every Christmas, we turn those photos into Christmas cards. I have terrorized my poor mother each year with these photos. Her tolerance is saintlike. Sorry, mom.

Our first photo came courtesy of our visionary friend Adam. We posed as Marla and Cornelius from the movie Fight Club. In 2006, we turned it into our first Christmas card:

That year, Halloween fell on a weekend. To avoid monotony, we changed things up on day two. "Dominatrix Housewife and Submissive Corporate Drone Attorney Husband":

For Halloween 2007, we went zombie. We were married a week earlier, so Kelly made good use of her crinoline:

Scenes from our 2007 Christmas photo shoot. We wanted to get a cheesy studio portrait, but the studios were full. We hung up a sheet in the living room. Viola. Cropped for the Christmas card, no one could tell the difference:

In 2008, Kelly and I participated in an annual Zombie Pub Crawl. Hundreds of people stumbled around moaning "brains" for an evening in the Seven Corners area of Minneapolis. We knew this would make a perfect Christmas card. The caption read: "May your holiday memories live forever.":

Finally, we returned to our assless roots for another dominatrixy theme this year. Notice the pre-raw-food spare horse (cowboy version of a spare tire) on the front of Nathan. Scary:

-Nathan and Kelly

Day 25 - Cauliflower Rice

This recipe is a great way for anyone to get more veggies in, without having to eat them plain in a salad or with a fatty dip. I ate mine over some Massaged Kale, Nathan used some as sandwich filling between sprouted bread.

CAULIFLOWER RICE

Ingredients:
-About 3/4 of a large Cauliflower bunch
-1 small mango
-Handful of dates
-1 T curry powder

Instructions:

Process everything in a food processor until you get a rice-like consistency.

My notes:

-1 T curry powder was a lot for me, even though we use a not too spicy "sweet" curry powder blend. So maybe use a little less than 1 T, depending on how much flavor you like. Garam Masala might also work well in this recipe.

-If you add some raisins, slivered almonds, shredded carrots, maybe splash of olive oil... this could be a great filling side dish or light meal on its own.

Last night, we also finally experimented with Jicama, which neither of us had tried before. We used it to make Rosemary Garlic Mashed Potatoes, recipe & pics to come!

-Kelly

Day 23 - Happy St. Patty's!

And an extra reason to celebrate today - it's warm enough to walk to the bar. We'll be at Keegan's tonight if anyone wants to go!

My menu from yesterday:

Workday
-Smoothie: Banana, apple, blueberries, spinach
-Carrots and Zucchini Hummus
-Big Salad: Spinach, radish, sprouts, tomato

Snacks after work
-Leftover raw chocolate balls
-Ginger Almond Pate on Buckwheat Bread
-Prunes
-Salsa

Around 7, I went for a long walk around the neighborhood, ending at Surdyk's to buy our Jameson for today. It is SO NICE to be able to walk places again. It's like I've won my life back from the cold weather. So we were planning to try a new drink for St. Patty's, and of course since I bought the Jameson last night….we had to sample it:

BIG GINGER

Ingredients:
-Jameson
-Ginger Ale
-Splash of lemon and lime juices

And with my drink I had some more Buckwheat Bread & Zucchini Hummus, plus a piece of sprouted bread with peanut butter. Yum.

As long as I'm on the topic, a couple other great Irish beverages:

-Johnny Jump Up: Hard cider with a shot of whiskey.

-Finnegan's Irish Amber: Drink for a good cause! Profits go to charity, and it tastes good too. Sorry, only available in MN.

Cheers,

Kelly

Day 23 - McNathan

As you can imagine, raw foodists take St. Patty's Day very seriously. Why? There is green literally everywhere. Basically, the rule as I understand it is this: If it's green, you can eat it. Of course, this rule isn't usually applied to things like Leprechauns.

This evening, I'll be testing my theory that beer becomes raw when you dye it green. I'll also follow up on a hunch that Jameson is a naturally-occurring vegetable product.

In honor of the holiday, I'm eating a delightful salad today:

NATHAN'S SHAMROCK SALAD

Ingredients:

- Four handfulls of freshly picked clover, preferably from a field, whilst the wind is blowing softly at your back.

Important note:

Take care to discard any of the four-leaf variety. Interestingly, the Irish used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. Four leaf clovers are likely to confuse people. If a spiritual crisis sounds appetizing, carry on. But four-leafed abominations have no place in my salad.

Instructions:

- Put the clover in a bowl or pot (preferably a gold one)

- Go to the Over the Rainbow bar in St. Paul

- If you intersect with a parade route on the way, participate

- When you arrive at the bar, expect to be mistaken for a wealthy and potentially eligible leprechaun. It's likely that someone will try to catch you. Just go with it.

But seriously:

I'm not eating clover. I've even tried researching whether clover is edible, but e-quarterback answers to posts like "My girlfriend told me you could eat the little white 'flowers' that grow in a clover patch" aren't inspiring my confidence. Consider this informed response: "Well, you ate two and you're still alive. I guess it's safe. Moron."

I'm not even wearing green today (making it very likely that I'll be pinched soon).

Last night, Kelly made this very intriguing curry dish using, in part, dates and cauliflower. I'll be eating that for lunch. Breakfast was an orange and banana smoothie.

Energy:

I will say this: A noticible benefit of this diet is my mornings alertness. I play lots of poker, and I was up doing it till 2 a.m. last night because I'd napped earlier and couldn't sleep. Even on a handful of sleeping hours, I'm surprised at how good I feel, sans caffeine. I've been caffeine-free for a few weeks now and I'm stunned at how much MORE alert I feel now.

-Nathan

Day 22 - Happy Spring & New Recipes!

I think spring does not officially begin until Friday, but in Minnesota, the first day you can walk to the bus in the morning without a winter coat definitely counts! It felt like a miracle to not be cold this morning, to not be cowering under my hood, to not race in misery from the bus to the warmth of my office building. Yay for 41 degrees.



This weekend I also tweaked two recipes that turned out fabulous. First, a variation on the Raw Chocolate Cake:

Raw Chocolate Balls with Strawberry Sauce

Chocolate Balls Ingredients:
-1+1/2 cups raw walnuts, unsoaked
- Dash salt
-18 pitted medjool dates, unsoaked
- scant 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa or carob powder
-1/2 t vanilla extract
- 2 T water
-1 T agave

Strawberry Ingredients:
-2 cups strawberries
-1/2 cup agave
-1/4 cup maple syrup
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoons nutmeg

Instructions:
1) Blend walnuts and salt in a food processor until finely ground.
2) Add dates, cocoa powder and vanilla, and process until the mixture begins to stick together.
3) Add the water and process briefly.
4) Blend all strawberry sauce ingredients together.
5) Roll chocolate mixture into small balls and arrange on plate.
6) Drizzle with strawberry sauce and garnish with mint leaves.

My Notes:
-The number of dates vary on which type you use. I used awful small tasteless dry dates from Fleet Farm. The other day at the co-op I had some large, delicious gooey dates, so probably would've needed less of those.
-Really go easy on the cocoa powder. You can always add more.
-Agave is a natural vegan sweetener from a cactus plant that doesn't cause your blood sugar to spike like sugar. You can get it at Trader Joe's for about $3 a bottle if I remember correctly.
-I somehow forgot maple syrup for the strawberry sauce, but it tasted great anyway.
-The Strawberry Sauce recipe is from The Raw Chef.


We brought these to my sister's birthday dinner on Saturday and everyone who tried them loved them. The name of the dessert is also increasingly hilarious with each glass of wine consumed. My very non-raw family also sampled the sushi rolls with ginger almond pate and buckwheat bread with zucchini hummus, all which went over really well, and my family isn't the type to just be nice!

The zucchini hummus was the second new recipe of the weekend. I had seen variations of this recipe around a lot on raw food boards, but was reluctant to try it, being a huge fan of chickpea hummus. It tastes surprisingly similar to regular hummus though, and really easy to make.

Zucchini Hummus

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups peeled zucchini, chopped (make sure to peel!)
- 4 Tbs. olive oil
- 1 1/2 T lemon juice
- 1/2 cup ground sesame seeds (tahini)
- 3/4 tsp. sea salt
- 2 garlic cloves
-1 tsp. paprika
-1 tsp. ground cumin
- Cayenne to taste

Instructions:

Blend everything in food processor or blender. Next time I will probably ease up on the olive oil and tahini, because tahini is very high in fat and calories and the hummus has more than enough tahini flavor.

Hope everyone had a great weekend,

-Kelly

Day 20 - Nathan

Noteworthy beverages:

This morning, I threw an orange, a banana, and a glacier-load of ice into the Vita-Mix, and ended up with a slushi. How can it be so right, when it feels so wrong?



There is absolutely no way my German heritage will allow my defiant body to cut off its supplyline of good beer. I'm not throwing it down every day by the gallon load, but I'm having it here and there. As a compromise, I've been experimenting with organic beers, and this one stands out as a good, hoppy brew:



Radish Sprouts:

Today, I harvested our jar full of radish sprouts, and I plan on throwing them into some sushi this afternoon. Kelly's grandma is a radish enthusiast, so I'm hoping she's impressed. They taste identical to full-blown radishes.

Here's what they looked like in the jar:



After pulling them out, I went through the process of de-hulling them, getting rid of the brown outer coats that have fallen away. A good instructional is available here.



This is the final product:



The final sushi product. Spicy!:

Please tell your children to leave the blog now:

At the risk of being a weightloss exhibitionist, I want to archive the fact that I've lost some weight since my diet change. The pictures below were taken on the cruise we took about a week before starting the raw diet. The last photo was taken today.

Bulbous Common North American Sea Monster:

A shot of Cozumellian tequila getting in my belly:

15 pounds lighter. I apologize that what has been seen cannot be unseen:

-Nathan