Veg Veg Veggies

Snack

After class I planned to stay on campus and practice so I had this banana bread lärabar. I thought it was a good flavor for a rainy day. By the time I got out of class it was letting up though and it didn't rain for the rest of the day.

Lunch

A few hours later, after some running around, I came home for a late lunch. I decided to make one serving of the "Tomato Basil Bisque"

• 1 tomato
• 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
• t/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup water

My little avocado was looking very squishy so I decided to put chunks from half of it into my Cabbage Kale Slaw.
The soup came out fantastic!
The only problem I had with this lunch was that 1/4 cup olive oil in the soup. I just couldn't get over how many calories that was and that I ate it all in one sitting. I think the next time I make this soup I'm going to alter that part.

Dinner

For dinner I was in a bit of a rush to get to opera and the Cabbage Kale Slaw was all that we had pre-made. In an effort not to be boring and have the same thing for lunch and dinner I added some exciting toppings:

• 1 tsp. sunflower seeds
• 3/4 one large carrot, shredded
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper. chopped small
• 1/4 cup sprouts

Between acts I snacked on these veggies. I even shared some with some of the chorus members! yay veggies!

When I finally got home I had two dates for a little something sweet.

I decided to prepare some "Sun Burgers" for tomorrow since it's going to be a busy one.

• 1 cup sunflower seeds, ground
• 1/2 cup flaxseeds, ground
• 1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped,
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 1/2 cup water

I processed the seeds first, then the veggies.

I added the water last and mixed well.

I formed four patties ready to go!

I portioned everything out exactly using my nifty food scale. I love this thing!

Workout

This morning I was going to go on a run but it is awfully grey out and I didn't want to get my shoes all messed up. (I know, not a good excuse!) I didn't feel like going to the gym either so I did a 30min pilates podcast on my laptop. It was good strength training!

Breakfast

For breakfast I attempted to have the last of the Spanish Scramble which is mostly almonds and sunflower seeds. I also had some aqua, two Cleanse tablets, and a Women's One a Day. This happened the last time I had this dish for breakfast but I didn't mention it...for some reason, after I got half way through it, I literally thought I was going to throw up. It's as if it hit my stomach so hard in the morning or something and I just can't handle it. Why does this happen!? :( I scooped the rest of it back into the container and took a breather.

I recovered and decided to go or something lighter. I made a smoothie with

• 3/4 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 small banana
• 1 pitted date
• 1/2 Tbsp. chia seeds
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• about 1/3 cup water, till it blended smooth

I feel fine now and the smoothie is going down well. That's just so weird! The strange thing is that the exact thing also happened to Kelsey. Sadly, I think this intensely nutty recipe is going to have to be resigned from breakfast duty. It's just too much for the morning I guess.

I have a voice lesson this morning at 10:30 so I better start getting ready! Today is a super bust day but at least I will get to come home for a quick lunch. Cross your fingers I don't get rained on today!!

Busy Sunday

This is Ani's Raw Food Kitchen cookbook that Kelsey and I are making all our meals out of just for your information!

You know you're going raw when...

Brunch

On the menu for breakfast this morning was the "Spanish Scramble" This included:

• 2 cups almonds, dry
• 1 cup sunflower seeds, dry
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 2 tsp. turmeric
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1 cup tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup scallions

My food processor isn't that big so I mixed the sunflower seeds and almonds together to process them in batches.

Then I transfered everything to the blender and added the water, the salt, and the turmeric.
My blender was having a hard time with this intensely thick concoction!
Served on a bed of spinach with salt and pepper.
It's supposed to make four servings but I think these servings are huge! I woke up late so this was sort of my brunch. It sat pretty heavy in my stomach though and I don't think I will be eating this much at one time again :/
Chelsey wanted to taste the homemade almond mylk so I tasted some with her :) Then I rushed off to work!
I rushed home from work only to pack up and leave again for opera rehearsal, ugh! I made the tastiest smoothie though. It was more like a dessert smoothie! I used

• 1 small banana
• 2 small pitted dates
• 1/2 tsp. carob powder
• 1/2 tsp. cacao nibs
• 1 tsp. almond butter
• about 1/4 cup frozen strawberries

I packed a portion of the Confetti Salad with Cucumber Orange Dressing, two peeled carrots, and a cherry pie lärabar.
When we first arrived there was some downtime so I tried not to be obnoxious while eating this carrot!
By the way, this is my new camera case. Isn't it cute!?

Dinner

When we were released for an hour I parked myself down in the dressing room and had dinner. I gave this salad an intense shake to mix everything around. You can't really tell in this photo but there were a whole bunch of walnuts and dried cranberries at the bottom. Yum!
Blogging, what what??
I love this water bottle. (Don't mind me goofing in the back...) I read somewhere that using a straw can help increase the amount you drink. This is the most convenient water bottle I've ever own. I totally recommend it!
Later, I attempted to do some of my theory homework while sipping on my dessert smoothie. Bendy straws make it even better haha.
During a break in the dressing room I chowed down on my other carrot. My costume is perfect for carrot eating! By the way, that is definitely stage-ish make up. I never wear that much blush otherwise, come on!
I did also eat my cherry pie lärabar but I guess I forgot to upload the photo! It's really annoying when that happens because if I were to add it now it would appear at the top of the post and I would have to drag it down through all the text...sigh. I need a better way to blog here people. Suggestions???

We finally finished at 11 PM :/ Best believe I came home, washed all that crap off my face and went straight to bed! It was a good Sunday :)

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 :)