Detox, No Drugs and Yummy Raw Pad Thai

DETOX:
Achy.. lethargic.. sinus still slammed with congestion.   I have a pretty constant sinus yuck and I even feel a tiny bit of heat like a little fever in my head.  I KNOW this is one of the ways my body has always detoxed.  I want to take a BC powder so bad... This has been my ache and pain drug of choice for years!  I'm a Southern girl and everyone in the South of my generation knows about BC powders. I would never go anywhere without BC in my purse.  All my friends and family would know I had one to the rescue for them at all times..  it's very hard for me to NOT use one when I know it will kick my sinus headache but I have educated myself and know that if I take it my body just has one more toxin I have to deal with... so I wont.

I also have the beginnings of itching all over.  Our skin is our largest organ and a high percentage of our detox happens through our skin.  I always start to itch when I'm not dry brushing enough... so that's on the agenda before my shower today.

One thing of GOOD note is my food yesterday.   Totally a raw day.  I had fruit and nuts all day till dinner.. so far I don't worry about food combining because I have a strong digestion.   I know as I detox and become more clean it will help with the continued deeper detox and weightloss, to combine my foods correctly and to do mono fruit meals.

My dinner last night was one of my all time favorite raw meals.. Pad Thai.  This is a gorgeous salad and sure to impress anyone you are trying to win over to Raw.

RAW PAD THAI (for 2 huge bowls):

3 Whole Carrots (not baby)
2 Summer Squash
1 Red Bell Pepper
2 Zuchinni
4 Green Onions
1 1/2 C Shredded  Napa Cabbage
1 Large Handful Bean Sprouts
1 C Fresh Cilantro
1 Half Lime sliced in wedges
1/2 C Jungle Peanuts
Pinch Red Pepper Flakes Sprinkled over each salad

Use a spiralizer or I just use a veggie peeler and make ribbons with the carrots and zuchinni.   I cut the rest of the veggies in as thin match stick pieces as I can (it makes for a beautiful  salad).

I shred the Napa cabbage as fine as I can too.

To assemble the salad try to layer each ingredient on top of the other so you can see a bit of the ingredient underneath..  see mine:

The dressing I made this time was different.  I made an almond butter, miso and ginger dressing that was INCREDIBLE! !

NUT BUTTER DRESSING (makes enough dressing for 3 salads..) Next time I am going to try to make less by a third.. somehow, because we ended up pouring it ALL on our salads.. totally drenching them because the dressing was so damn good.. but honestly I didn't need the extra calories LOL!

INGREDIENTS :
3/4 C Nut Butter of Choice (I used raw almond butter)
2 Oranges Juiced
2 T Chopped Fresh Ginger
1 Heaping Tablespoon Dark Miso Paste (IMO this is not an optional ingredient)
1 Heaping Tablespoon Raw Honey (or sweetener of choice if Vegan)
2 T Nama Shoyu  or Organic Tamari if going gluten free
Good Pinch of Salt
Good Pinch Red Pepper Flakes
2-4 T water as needed to thin.

Whirl it all in your blender or Bullet.  This stuff is amazing and I'm going to use this as my dipping sauce for Summer roll veggie wraps next week!

♡You're Welcome! !

Ta Ta for Now~

Staying Off The Scale, More Detox and Green Goddess Dressing

I'm one of those weird morning people and to top it off, I love Mondays!
I love the feeling of a brand new start however it might come.

I am going to do several 100% Raw days this week.

Yesterday was 100%

PLANNING:
I have the next 3 or 4 days planned and figured out ahead of time, menus written, the grocery shopping in and I am good to go!  I have found out that for me I have to stay two days ahead of myself.  Mostly for soaking nuts and seeds and for the occasional dehydrated cracker/bread.. etc.

Day before yesterday I sort of pigged out on Organic peanut butter. And chocolate! The hubs did too.

I got organic peanut butter to make dressing for my Raw Pad Thai that I am making this week and it is so tempting to have PB in the house!


DETOX:
I'm still having sinus yuck and headaches (although more mild) late day and this AM I woke up with totally yucked up sinus.  Thank goodness for a Neti Pot!

All this week I am off coffee.  I lately have only been having coffee on the weekends with the hubs.  I enjoy our time together in the mornings because we really don't get it during the week.

This past weekend I made cashew cream for us to have in our coffee.

Night before last I made vegan stuffed bell peppers with this package of vegan hamburger:

 It actually was really good! I will try my best to stay away from processed psudofood just because it's Vegan but I had to try this... it's also soy free.

I would love to one day never need to use anything processed but it's good for transitioning and IMO I did great an ate a vegan dinner and I really enjoyed it.

This is high raw with the occasional cooked vegan food.



FOOD YESTERDAY
Fruit bowl for breakfast
About 2PM I made a great salad for lunch:

I mixed some fresh mango and campari tomatoes (the only decent tomato that I can find here without a trip to Whole Foods) and *dried tart cherries, poured balsamic on it...  had some of my RAW Pesto Pinenut Parmesan on top. (recipe here: http://highrawweightloss.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-4-in-vault.html ).  I love that stuff! Have to make some more.  

Re; *Dried Tart Cherries.. I have been ordering Montmorency Tart Cherries for their amazing anti-inflammatory properties.

 I get them here:
http://www.brownwoodacres.com/unsweetened-dried-tart-cherries/


I also ate lots of dried rambutan with my salad..  I got it from RawFoodWorld.com but they seem to be out lately.  I feel like I eat too much dried fruit but I am not going to worry about that just yet.

I have been eating a smallish handfull of these every day in one way or another.  They are tart but not too sour.  I love them in my fruit salads in the AM or in a veggie salad... lately I have been putting some fruit in my salads at lunch too.

DINNER:

Was another Salad!  and it was really good.

I made homemade Raw Green Goddess Dressing.




RECIPE:



1/2 cup raw tahini, soaked raw cashews, soaked raw macadamia or combo (I had soaked cashews and mac nuts)
Juice from one large lemon
6 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
6 Tablespoons chives, chopped  
Whole package fresh dill    (1 C approx)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
Garlic powder to taste (I know raw garlic would be better but for now it's just too strong for me)
2 Tablespoons Nama Shoyu orTamari
2 Tablespoons raw Apple Cider Vinegar
10 green olives

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth and creamy.



 RE: this dressing..
It's very herbal obviously.  and salty.  I was craving this and it hit the spot.  Don't give it a try until you are ready for something REALLY GREEN!

My Dinner Salad:  (a before and after dressing addition to see all the colorful veggies!

 Salad had organic mixed baby greens, fresh orange, celery, red bell pepper, shredded carrot, Vidalia onion, avocado, cucumber, campari tomato, my raw Green Goddess dressing, hemp seed and pumpkin seeds.

Lastly:  STAYING OFF THE SCALE:




I have actually stayed off the scale!...  and I'm not going to get on it for another week. I think that will make it like three weeks without weighing.

It's not that I'm NOT worried about losing weight, obviously I am, but working on a Raw food lifestyle to me is about so much more.  Like loving myself enough to just doing something GOOD for myself and for my health, freeing the real spirit inside me and working on my health, my beauty and my LIFE. That's a lot more than just the fat on my body.  I know THAT will be released. I'm absolutely 100% sure that this lifestyle works.

Loving myself enough to take the time to prep and do menus and READ!  I have studied so much over the years and I have not even scratched the surface of what this lifestyle can offer.



More to come~

Guacamole Stuffed Baked Potato with Kale & Sundried Tomato

I'm working on eating as much Raw as I can and yesterday I had a green smoothie with banana, pineapple, mango, baby kale and spinach for breakfast.

For lunch I had a salad with mixed organic greens, mango, pineapple, purple onion, sunflower seeds and grape tomato with balsamic vinegar for my dressing.  (Was so good!  fruit and greens are an amazing combo).

I'm working on a few days a week 100% Raw and a few days a week a cooked vegan dinner.  I HAVE to share my dinner last night!!!

I was missing good loaded baked potatoes and had recently seen guacamole with tomatoes and kale at While Food and put that combo to memory as I was going to make some homemade kale gauc soon.  Last night I decided to make gauc and use it to replace the butter and sour cream you would use normally in the standard American diet.

I had kale and sundried tomato and garlic in the fridge so I sauteed it and topped the potatoes and gauc.  Holy OMG it was awesome.

GUACAMOLE & KALE STUFFED BAKED POTATOES FOR TWO:

2 huge or 3 medium russet or yellow baking potatoes.. wrapped in foil and roasted at 350 - 1 to 1 1/2 hours till knife pokes thru potato easily).

2 Hass or 1 FL avocado
2 T lemon or lime juice or to taste (I normally like LOTS of lime juice and jalapeno in my gauc but didn't have a jalapeno this time)
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Mix gauc with a fork.  Stick a seed in the gauc till served to keep it from browning.

Kale or swiss chard, 2 cloves garlic minced, sundried tomato (soaked if they are dried very hard) chopped.

Sautee greens of choice in coconut oil with sundried tomato and garlic.

Open potatoes..  top with guacamole and then greens..

DELISH I tell you!!

Catching Up... and DETOX~

I am having sinus detox..  it's always the first way I detox.  I have read our mucus membranes are one way our body detoxes.  

I got a headache and sinus issues about 5pm yesterday and finally it got so bad I went to bed a little early.

This AM the sinus yuck and headache were still there... this means for me it's pretty deep detox.  I've been doing high raw for over a week now.  

In the past when I wanted to slow down the detox, when it got so bad I couldn't deal.. I would eat heavier food (nuts and seeds.. muesli, etc.) and a cooked Vegan dinner or two.

This is what I am going to do for the next couple of days.  I am working hard on a major house cleanup because I have not been able to do much in a couple of weeks.  Because of the last 2 weeks of back, hip and leg pain I've really been down and the house is a horrid mess, so major cleaning.. 

Anyway because of needing to FEEL good and have energy (thank GOD!) I am slowing down the detox a bit for a couple of days.  I have too much work to do in the next couple of days to feel like shit.

I had muesli for lunch with coconut milk (processed, boxed) lots of grapes and I am having leftover cabbage, black sesame salad tonight.  My previous post was the Black Sesame Cabbage salad.. it was really awesome.
 
I am continuing 100% raw days with combo days for a while until I get caught up and can actually take a week and actually rest my way through some serious detoxing.  Eating raw till 5 PM anyway, STILL is amazing. 

I am getting my energy back a little bit and my back has is getting better... less pain and stiffness.   I still have this really sharp stabbing pain down my leg often. I can only work on cleaning for maybe 20 minutes and then I have to get down a half hour or so.

I am 99% sure this is a nerve problem from my back from just carrying so much weight. I have made it to 52 years old without having a whole lot of pain from my obesity but it is for catching up with me...

I know I need to lose weight so more raw food it is and soon I'm going to start green juices and maybe a short juice fast. The longest I've made so far I think was 10 days and I'm not ready to undertake another long juice fast yet, if I get too militant about it too soon it backfires. So I'm going to try my best to eat less eat lots of raw and keep babying myself and my body and hopefully start some good healing.