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