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