Day 2 of my Raw Food Month
Yesterday, September 2nd, 2010, was my second full day of eating High Raw for a month and it started off great. For breakfast and lunch I had a green smoothie of two apples, a banana, blueberries, and a whole head of romaine, it was delicious.
I discovered when I ate raw for a week is that it is very important to have some raw snacks available, you know for snacking. You could cut up things like carrots, celery, cucumbers, peppers, etc. for easy snacking. Fruit is of course super easy, grapes and strawberries are portable and delicious. Raw nuts and seeds are of course an excellent option that have loads of protein and nutrients. But, if you have a local health food store or whole foods there are other options for snacks as well. One that I have discovered is Kale Chips. I have seen several different brands on store shelves, but I found one at my local health food store, Good Health, that I really enjoyed.
Essentially it’s deliciously seasoned kale that has been dehydrated, the kale ends up crispy and satisfying. This particular brand has three flavors, Cheezy, Salt & Vinegar, and Barbecue. I tried the salt and vinegar flavor and the flavor was great, just like their potato chip cousin. Occasionally there are some stems in the bag that are perfectly good to eat they just end up a little crispier than the leafy part of the kale. So, kale chips are one pre-made raw snack that I have been enjoying. They are rather expensive (I bought them on sale) but if you have some cash to spare they are so satisfying.
For dinner last night we had raw pasta made from some organic green zucchini that I spiralized. We have been keeping our veggies in the fridge in order to keep them fresh in the warmth of summer. In order to have warm pasta (nobody likes cold pasta raw or cooked) I mixed some extra virgin olive oil with the noodles and put them in the oven which was set at the lowest temperature. This way they would get warmed up without being cooked.
Next I made a raw tomato sauce. Remember yesterday when I said that I had the tendency to improvise recipes and sometimes they don’t turn out so well. Unfortunately, this has happened several times when I am using raw tomatoes to make a soup or a sauce. It just never came out right, something about the raw tomatoes. Well, I finally discovered what I was doing wrong and my sauce last night turned out amazing. Turns out when you cook tomatoes they become a little sweet. In order to sweeten my sauce I added some medjool dates to the blender and then some raw agave nectar. Here is the recipe I came up with:
Ingredients
- 3 Medium Tomatoes
- Juice of half a Lemon
- 2 Medjool Dates
- 1 tablespoon of RAW Agave Nectar
- 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
- Onion Powder to taste (I used about a teaspoon)
- Garlic Powder to taste (I used about a teaspoon)
- Kelp Powder to taste (Again, I used about a teaspoon)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Several Leaves of fresh Oregano (from our garden)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Dried Basil to taste
- Dried Basil to taste
I think that’s about it, just blend everything up in a blender until smooth.
If you let the blender run for a minute or so on high the sauce will actually warm up a bit because of the friction. I like my tomato sauce smooth, if you like it chunky you can stir in some diced tomatoes. The noodles had been in the warm oven for the whole time I was coming up with the sauce so by the time I was done they were ready. I mixed the sauce with the noodles and topped it with some salt, pepper, and crushed red peppers.
I had some diced tomatoes ready to put on top, but I completely forgot about them. So, I ate them later. Day two was a big success, my raw pasta dish even got Michelle’s seal of approval!
