First Day of Raw Food

Breakfast

This morning I wasn't planning on waking up till at least 8 but when I heard Kelsey down in the kitchen at 7:15, the thought of real food got me right out of bed! Kelsey had my back like the awesome bff that she is and has made all the pictures in this post possible by lending me her camera! Kels had already begun to set up and measure so we got right to work on our first raw breakfast! We decided to make Good Morning Muesli from Ani Phyo's cookbook: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. This included:

• 2 apples, chopped
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup flaxseeds
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• splash vanilla almond mylk
• (It called for sesame seeds but we didn't have any so we added more flaxseeds to our version)

I was on the task of making her Vanilla Mylk. I scrapped out all the vanilla beans and let me tell you, they like to stick to fingers!

Kelsey was busy at work chopping up two apples into bite-sized pieces.
Kelsey already had the cranberries, flaxseeds, and pumpkin seeds measured out. She knows me too well!

We soaked two cups of almonds overnight to make them soft for making almond mylk.
Kelsey expertly chopped those apples!
I got the almond mylk all ready to go in the blender. This included:

• 1/2 cup soaked almonds
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped out
• pinch sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. raw organic agave (it called for pitted dates but we didn't have any yet).

Blending action shot! I let it blend for quite a while so it would be as smooth as possible.
Voila!
It is supposed to keep for four days so we put it in this nifty, air tight container. Good for shaking too!
Next, our first ever attempt to make our own almond butter! We started with just a handful of raw, dry almonds.
After a minute or two it becomes a very fine meal but definitely not butter. This process took much longer than I expected it to. At least ten collective minutes of processing! I stopped every now and then to stir and scrape.
Finally it started to look familiar! This is our final product. We decided that next time we shall try the soaked almonds because they are significantly softer and will probably work better.
Breakfast is served!
We each added a splash of almond mylk and dug in.
Even though it's blurry, this is my first bite of solid food in five days!!! I really felt like this took a lot of chewing haha.
Our devious plans began to unfold after breakfast. I got ready and we headed downtown for the Farmer's Market! Accompanying us was Kelsey's BF Jak.
A mini pineapple!

We bought red leaf lettuce, and dino kale. To make an appearance soon!
This woman was really funny. When we told her we got a picture of her she said "100 dollars!" haha!
Action shots by Jak!

These berries looked like the fourtha july!
Action shot by Claire! Jak hand selected and smelled each container of berries like quite a professional.

Acorn and Kaboucha Squash! We weren't expecting to find these so we snatched up two of the red Kabouchas.
All of the flowers looked so beautiful!

Walnuts: check.
Tahmaytuhs!!
We almost gave up on the red cabbage and then we finally found these!
Excited about those dates!
I can't remember the name of the dates (and I just tried to search the web for the classification but failed!). We chose small, soft dates that are supposed to be good for smoothies and have good flavor and sweetness.
Jak shared his strawberries with us on the way home. This one was gigantic!

He also gave us each on of his dried white nectarines. Yuum!
Goof!
Later that afternoon Kels and I went to Best Buy and I bought my new camera!!! I am so excited about this and the new pictures will be appearing soon!
Lunch

We got back in just enough time to whip up lunch before I had to leave for opera rehearsal. Kels got started on the salad dressing while I made us a smoothie which included

• 1 cup carrot juice
• 1 heaping handful of spinach
• 1 small frozen banana
• 1 Tbsp. almond butter
• 1 dried date

chop chop chop
Orange and green don't make the most beautiful color but I have to agree with Kelsey, there's something about an ugly looking smoothie that makes it feel super healthy and intense!
For lunch we made "Confetti Salad in Orange-Cucumber Dressing". Kelsey prepared the dressing which was made up of:

• 1 small cucumber, diced
• 1 small orange, diced
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 Tbsp. grated ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sea salt

The salad itself was red leaf lettuce, dino kale, and red cabbage.
Tada! I had my smoothie in a jar in case I had to run to opera.
Savannah's 21st birthday dinner is coming up next and that is definitely reason to be excited!! Especially when all the pictures were taken on a brand new, snazzy camera :)

Recap on The Cleanse, Finally It's Over!

Lunch

For lunch I made the last soup of my cleanse! I went with the "Metro Mex Avocado Soup".

I ate half of it for lunch and saved the other half for dinner on the go.

Dinner

I had my soup out in the sun during the opera break. I watched a video on how to make nut butter in preparation for my return to food! More details on that in just a sec!
Magical Friday= out of opera early! We got out when the sun was still out can you imagine that!? It was just setting as I was riding back home so I busted out my camera while still on my bike and decided to snap a shot.
I whizzed by Freebirds with my camera out. I'm sure I looked pretty crazy! I decided it's time I give a little mini-tour of my town.
Here is my beloved Co-op! This is where I do basically all my shopping.
Look at me go!
This is the view down the intersection where my apartment is. Nothing special? Well if you look closely at the horizon, that's the ocean!!
I realized that I haven't made an appearance on my blog in a while and I wanted to show that I am cleansed! Do I look cleansed? haha I wasn't completely satisfied with this picture and I would've stayed outside and attempted to take more with my auto timer but then some weirdo boys pulled up in a car right outside so I retreated.
I came inside and tried again using a shelf and was successful until something awful happened...this is the last picture I took with my camera...before it fell to it's death! My camera committed suicide off the shelf and now I am camera-less and distraught!!
I am definitely going to try and get a new camera tomorrow but I will miss my old one. I had the baby for four years and it was a gift from my best friend Billy. Any suggestions on what kind of camera I should go for?

Dessert

I don't have a picture :( but I had my last coconut shake after I got home. It was great!

Feelings on The Cleanse

Overall, I am very glad that I decided to do this cleanse and that I actually stuck with it. I didn't cheat and I followed the rules! (except the wheatgrass shot..) It's really satisfying to see something through till the end and complete a goal.

The Cons: I was HUNGRY! This cleanse was no where near a substantial amount of calories to keep me feel throughout the day and dealing with the hunger pains was not easy. I had to really stretch out my 'meals' so that psychologically I wouldn't lose it. Also, there was a lot of preparation involved in each recipe and I had to account for that time each day.

The Pros: I did this cleanse because I was feeling totally out of control of my portions. I was just eating way too much! Going on this cleanse really put things into perspective for me in that I don't need so much to be full! It also exposed many moments when my hunger was completely related to appetite as opposed to actual physical hunger. Sometimes I just want to eat to eat and I am much more aware of those moments now. Not to mention I lost a few pounds! I also noticed that since doing the cleanse, the head aches I was having for days in a row are gone, and in the morning I have energy to get up and go. I hope that my system appreciated the discipline it took to pull through and is now a blank slate of cleanliness!

Coming Off The Cleanse

After doing a fairly intense cleanse as the one I did, it is recommended to start slowly and stick with raw fruits and veggies and some cooked veggies. After a few days you can decide if you want to start eating cooked protein again. In preparation for my return to food, Kelsey and I have decided to go raw for a week!! We have spent the last hour (at least) planning out each meal for the coming week. I am just excited to eat food for breakfast tomorrow! We have made sure to chose recipes that have common ingredients and scheduled prep time when we have the time to spare. We are so busy during the week that going raw is a pretty ambitious ordeal. (As if a cleanse wasn't!) It's also tough when you're dealing with produce that can get pricey and go bad if it goes unused. Having Kels for a raw partner is going to make this a breeze!

Get ready for some ridiculously tasty raw food coming your way!

I am putting myself to bed! The plan for tomorrow is an early departure for the Farmer's Market Downtown and I am so stoked!

See you in the AM!