How I Stuck To a (Mostly) All Raw Food Diet While Visiting Family

mango delight (vitamix) (Photo credit: vigilant20)

Actually, it was easy. Mostly.

The last week or so has been a particularly difficult time for me and my family. We’ve been going through some tough stuff. I decided Hannah and I needed to get out of Dodge for a little while, so we drove to Las Vegas and stayed with relatives for a few days.

Before we left, I threw some sprouted nuts, some raw almonds, green tea, raw cacao, a few bananas and a big green smoothie in a bag.

While on the road, I chowed down on the sprouted nuts and drank the smoothie.

Upon arriving I noticed our hosts owned a VitaMix! This was very good news. I figured they would have a blender and that I could “make due” with any old blender, but it was nice to see the VitaMix.

I drank a lot of banana and Cacao shakes. I am battling melancholia, so I have had a hankering for chocolate. The shakes are super satisfying and the perfect comfort food. And they’re easy. Just throw the following in a blender:

• One heaping tablespoon of Raw Cacao Powder
• One banana (or mango)
• A little sea salt
• 8 ounces of water
• A handful of nuts
• A tablespoon of agave
• Some ice

I also made fruit smoothies with fresh fruit and frozen fruit.

I ate a lot of Flackers. Flackers and an avocado make a quick and easy meal. I bought some raw organic almond butter and ate a spoonful of that on a few occasions. Travis and Lynette also took me out to an awesome raw food restaurant in Vegas on Monday and the leftovers provided dinner the next day as well.

I did slip up, though. We all went bowling one night and I hadn’t eaten enough that day. I was suddenly ravenous. I ate a bunch of corn chips and jalapenos. I also helped myself to some of my daughter’s cheesy nachos. I don’t feel too bad about it, though. I’ve been saying that I am committed to a “90% all raw food diet” for just such an occasion. I’ve been pretty religiously sticking to all raw food, aside from that incident and a cup of vegan stew a couple of weeks back. I’d say, so far, I’m holding at 98% all raw food.

Which segues perfectly into…

I know these videos are getting old, but seriously, I’ve said almost every single thing in them. You will watch them now:

• Shit Raw Vegans Say
• Shit Vegans Say
• Shit Yogis Say
• Shit New Age Girls Say

Awesome Raw Alfredo Sauce and Cacao/Pecan Brownies

I tried a couple new recipes tonight. They were amazing! The first one was a raw pasta alfredo dish for dinner. I got the recipe from The Rawtarian. It is so simple. You just put 2 cups of unsoaked cashews in the blender with 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3 cloves of garrlic, 1 1/2 cups water and a teaspoon each of sea salt and thyme.

I bought some truffle salt the other day at Liberty Heights Fresh that I’ve been dying to add to something, so instead of the thyme and salt, I added about two teaspoons of the truffle salt.

I don’t have a spiralizer yet, so I just used a potato peeler to make zucchini “noodles.” I know that that doesn’t sound very good to 99% of you, but I swear, zucchini noodles are surprisingly good. They have totally cured my pasta cravings.

I tossed the zucchini into the sauce and it was awesome! The recipe makes a LOT of sauce. I think I’ll freeze the leftovers.

After spending a couple of hours pricing a bunch of stuff for the Greatest Yard Sale of Time and All Eternity, I went back to the blender to make brownies.

This time I turned to a new favorite source, Betty Rocker. I tried out her recipe for Raw Almond-Cacao Energy Bars. I forgot to  do things in order, though, so it was pretty rough on the blender. You are supposed to grind a cup of almonds ALONE first, then add 1/2 cup of raw cacao powder and 1 1/2 cups of pitted medjool dates. I forgot to add salt and instead of cacao nibs, I covered the top of the chocolatey goodness with pecans.

Because I didn’t follow the instructions, I had to use extra water to get the almonds ground up. I have put the pan in the oven on “warm” to encourage some dehydration.

I ate plenty of the “batter,” though, and it was delicious.

That’s a lot of nut-based food today for me. I didn’t have a green smoothie this morning, either. But I did nosh all day on broccoli, cauliflower, celery and carrots. I also had three cups of green tea. And a spoonful of almond butter. I’ll make a point of drinking a giant green smoothie in the morning to balance things out.