Reality and Recipes

So it's possible that things might finally be getting easier.  Not sure yet.  The first week home was a whirlwind, making up for being gone for 10 days.  Getting the house in order, getting supplies that I need to sustain my lifestyle, working through how I'm going to make this affordable...  What I have learned:

• Costco has a great supply of organic produce IF you have room in your fridge...
• Whole Foods has a weak supply of sprouts (at least here) so I will have to grow my own
• Whole Foods also has wheatgrass that can last 2 people 5 days for $10.  Growing my own...
• Whole Foods is too far from my house and Costco is further
• As always, a great dressing makes or breaks a salad and there are tons of raw, yummy options
• Almond milk may be cheaper from the store rather than making your own if you are willing to give up control.  Here's the how to make your own.  I add dates to the blender when blending the almonds instead of sweeten after.  You can buy a large bag of almonds at Costco and it might help make it cheaper to make your own.

The prep work is definitely time consuming and as with every new challenge I'm working on how to get everything done the most efficient way possible.  My tips so far:

Checklist at night:

1. What seeds need to be soaked for the next day?  Get that going. 
2. The energy soup (for me and Cliff) requires two runs of the blender so it's easiest to do that the night before.  
3. Put the Omega juicer together the night before so it's ready for wheatgrass the next morning.  It's the only juicer that can do wheat grass along with everything else.  Anyone want a used Jack LaLanne juicer?
4. Have the blender ready for the kids' smoothies.  It's the only chance I get to hide kale in their diet.  Lucky for me it works!
5. Fill up my water bottle with filtered water and lemon slices to drink first thing.  Here's 10 Reasons you can benefit too.

Checklist in the morning:

1. Drink my lemon water for all the reasons in #5 above.
2. Workout (currently Piyo videos - great combo of Pilates and Yoga only fast and intense)
3. Juice wheat grass into shots for me and Cliff.  Here's 50 reasons you can benefit too.
4. Down my E3 live (uck) quickly then onto the energy soup which after the E3 tastes amazing!

The first part of the week is the hardest, getting all the meals ready so my advice is to keep it simple.  Here's a few easy combos:

• Salad bowls.  Have these things on hand to be able to throw a salad together:  
• mixed greens, spinach, baby kale
• chopped veggies that keep in the fridge well (like carrots, celery, bell pepper in strips)
• avocado
• sprouted beans (see below for mung beans but the rest you can get at Whole Foods) check out the link for the benefits of sprouted beans - rich in iron, protein and other goodies
• A good, raw dressing or if ultra short on time just thin out your favorite hummus with water and use that as a creamy dressing.
• Veggie Kraut - here's more info on how to make this fermented food that is great for gut health.  I bought a kit similar to this one so I can make my own.  It lasts 6 months in the fridge.
• Zucchini noodle dishes.  I posted this recipe for an alfredo sauce that we used the last time we went raw.  We also made this amazing spicy spaghetti sauce which is very similar to this recipe only we added a cup of soaked cashews to make it creamier.  If you have the sauce done ahead of time then when you get home just spiralize a zucchini and add the sauce and dinner is done!
• Romaine leaves sandwiches - fill it with chopped veggies and hummus or nut cheeses.  My favorite nut cheese recipe comes from the cookbook This Cheese is Nuts by Julie Piatt.  Someone posted the recipe here and it works GREAT in a lettuce wrap with veggies and sprouts.  
• Recipes from the online ebook on this website are also very good.  You can purchase and download.  This was the raw restaurant we went to in Atlanta that was so amazing!
• Some of the days include 20% cooked vegan and we throw in some quinoa onto our salad or have a half of a japanese sweet potato for dessert.  After avoiding sugar for so long, I promise the sweet potato tastes like pound cake!

Sprouting and Growing

So far I have sprouted mung beans, wild rice and organic red hard wheat berries for wheat grass.  I'll have to take pictures and post in a separate blog for the how to.  I find that it's very hard to explain without pics.  The wild rice just needed to soak and split then it could be used on salads.  The mung beans just needed to sprout small tails and they were ready to eat.  The wheat berries have to be put on soil to grow the grass but I'm still researching the best method and will post when I know more.

For now, continue to follow the Journey to Incredible Health page for more pics and details and I'll be back with more info soon!  Thanks for checking in!

Wheat grass on top, left mung beans ready to eat, wild rice ready for salads

Wheat grass is growing!

Squeezing out the almond milk 

Zucchini noodles with spaghetti sauce topped with nutritional yeast - YUM

One of many colorful salads I get to eat these days.  That stuff on the carrots is the Almond cheddar cheese that is AMAZING!  Recipe above!