Day 7: Raw Food ( Pulling out all the stops today!)

It's the last day of my RAW FOOD Adventure!! 

I'm not sure what is more amazing- that I only ate 100% raw food for a week- or that I did a daily blog post!

I had a lot of recipes to prepare today. I watched the sun rise, then started mashing some bananas for my breakfast bars.

Sliced up zucchini, leeks, and parsley to get this salad marinating.

Made a new friend while I was at it.

( Had "Castaway" moment and realized I really need a job!)

I wanted to try a soup all week. Finally did this carrot and avocado soup with a pine nut creme.

And, I got to dig in to the cheesecake I made last night. I found this recipe on Rawmazing. It was easy to make and tastes wonderful! I substituted the dates with figs because that's what I had available... It worked perfect.

Doesn't this look beautiful! Really fun to photograph too. ( You should see the picture of it on Rawmazing  - she did two layers- you can see why I wanted to try this one!)

It has been a fun challenge this week. I learned a ton of new recipes.

 I am hosting the art journaling meetup group here in a couple weeks. I think I may just have to serve some raw desserts and salads. 

Thanks for all the great comments and following along this week. 

Now, back to the art.

...and stir fry.

Day 5: Raw Food (Meanwhile, my husband roasted a whole chicken)

Eating in the raw continues.

A fruit smoothie this morning. The oats I made the other day for brunch. Healthy snacks of celery with tahini and golden raisins. Fresh fruit.

( and, yes, I resisted the chicken.)

Pomegranate- always worth the work.

Tonight, I did a salad from the book. Peas, corn, pine nuts, pomegranate, and carrots, with a parsley dressing. The dressing is wonderful. 

I realized today that right after my week of raw food challenge is over, Indianapolis' "Devour Downtown" starts! Lots of restaurants running specials- perfect for exploring the city and new places to grab a bite! I already have my eye on a tapas place and a Turkish restaurant. 

Day 4: Raw Food ( Beets: Also a great art supply)

Time to play with the food before preparing it! 

I got out various kinds of paper I have- some watercolor, some handmade (not by me). I used the ends of the beets to pretty much stamp on the paper, used the edge of the beet to make little marks, and the "tail" of the beet to pretty much draw like a crayon. Here's the paper now...

I may use it to make some envelopes for mail art. So, some of you may see this in your mailbox. I apologize in advance if it stains your hands or other mail!

After playing around, I made a medley of purple. Grated and sliced beets marinated three ways and a little radicchio for some variation. 

Dessert was awesome tonight! 

These are from Raw Food Kitchen too. I really like Dunja Gulin's book. These may have been one of the things that made me buy it!

They are called "apricot cheesecake cupcakes". Like everything raw I have made, they are nothing like cheesecake or cupcakes, but they are DELICIOUS!

The flavor reminds me of some Christmas cookie doughs. 

The book says to use a cupcake tin and line the bottom with cling wrap, but I used our ravioli maker instead. It has the perfect shape and size for these, and the cups are shallow so it was easy to pop them right off.

I even got out the cake decorating stuff and piped on the "cheesecake"! I don't think I've used those in five years. See, there is a reason I keep all this stuff!

I did eat some other stuff today, but not really photo worthy! And I never think pictures of kale smoothies look very appetizing...better just to drink it and get on with the day!

Day 3: Raw Food ( Temptation knocks at my door...literally)

No, really, it did!

 It was the Schwan's ice cream truck (sure,they sell food too, but we all know them for their treats)! I resisted...but I did get their catalog for when they're back in two weeks. I'll be ready for fudge ripple and that grasshopper pie. Despite the ice cream craving, I really am enjoying this Raw challenge.

I'm not sure if it's the raw food, or just the fun of this project, but I am full of energy today! I've been up since 5am and haven't stopped getting things done- some "need to" and some "want to"s. 

I started out my day with a bowl of oats in almond milk with grated apple, dried cranberries, and a dash of nutmeg. It was delicious....and much healthier than my skipping of breakfast all together. ( Normally, I am asleep during those hours)

Next, I put the oven on low and made some kale chips for snacking. These are great! I'm sure I'll make these again after my raw adventure, but with the oven turned up higher for faster cooking. At only 110 degrees it took about 2 hours to get them crispy. Well worth the wait though.

Dinner was a simple salad with red onions and mushrooms marinated in tamari soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and sesame oil. 

For dessert I tried a berry "ice cream" from the book. I tried half of it just refrigerated and the other half frozen---both were good. Served it with kiwis and bananas. The recipe has it served over bananas with a chocolate sauce, but I didn't buy any raw cocoa for the challenge, so went without this time. 

I am curious to see how only eating raw this week will effect me and my body, if at all. A week isn't very long, I know.  So, is today's great mood and energy from my diet or just a random good day? 

Either way, it's all good. 

Wishing you all wonderful days!!

Day 2: Raw Food ( Let's soak some stuff)

It's only Day 2 of my Raw food challenge, and I must admit, I was tempted to give it up by breakfast ( I love my bagels!). But, I didn't. Instead, after another kale and orange smoothie, I got to work on a dinner and dessert.

I swear I could have made an entire Thanksgiving dinner in the time these two things took! I wish I was joking! Raw food has a lot of "soaking" in the instructions! Soak almonds. Soak quinoa (that has actually been soaking since yesterday!). Soak celery and leeks. I had a million bowls lying around half the day, just soaking. In between soaking, I was chopping and blending, warming up my coconut oil, cutting up the mango, marinating mushrooms, measuring out ingredients,  and trying to keep up with all the dishes I seemed to produce.

After much preparation, I have made a "stuffing" to plop into veggies. And, I even got to warm it up in the oven for a little bit.

And here is the mango and mixed berry "parfait" w/ "Chantilly creme" ( a delicious blend of almonds, almond milk, and a bit of agave). It  didn't hold up like in the book's picture, but it was really good. I'll try it again.

In between all the chopping and blending I did find time to do a spread in my art journal.

Tomorrow? I may have to do something besides a smoothie for breakfast! 

Day 1: raw Food (Okay, Let's not even pretend this is pizza)

DAY ONE

I have decided to do a Raw foods challenge! 

I've been talking about it for a long time, but never took the plunge. Today, after a trip to the grocery store, I am ready to --- uh, NOT cook. 

I grabbed my new book, Raw Food Kitchen by Dunja Gulin, and gathered up my produce and grains. I decided to ease into it with a kale an orange smoothie. I do love smoothies. 

Then I moved on to what the book called "pizza". I wouldn't call it that, but it turned out good. The crust is a mix of oats, ground sunflowers, and flaxseed. The toppings are marinated mushrooms, tomatoes, and something not even close to cheese---it's cashews, lemon juice, and chopped onions ground in the food processor.  Here it is!

My goal is to do all raw foods for at least a week, then I may add in some other things. It really is just for fun so I'm not too worried about it. Last summer a friend and I did a challenge where everything we ate had to be from the farmer's market. I liked how it made me find new recipes and get more creative and healthy. I am going to have to get pretty creative with the raw foods. I'll keep you posted on how it's going!