So now that I’ve eaten it, please tell me what was in it.

 

This is the kind of requests I got from my husband and older daughter over the weekend. I’ve decided to go ahead and hide veggies in more than smoothies. I’m even hiding veggies in their cooked food. I’ve been thinking about it in theory for awhile, but I haven’t been doing much of the cooking for everyone else as just keeping up with my food has been enough most days. Over the weekend I was inspired to finally try some of the recipes from the cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, that I received for my birthday. Well, I’m impressed. I think I’ll follow a few more of the actual recipes before trying the general theory much on my own.

 

I want to be clear that I want my family to learn to love their fruits and veggies, especially raw fruits and veggies in their full raw glory. But I also realize that this is a transition, and I also have to be realistic. So, I was pretty happy when Nessa (3) dived into her chocolate fondue with fruit with full abandon, and I smiled even more when Megan (11) was shocked to hear me tell our guest that the fondue contained carrot and avocado as well as chocolate and sugar. Now I just have to get them to love it without so much sugar! The yummy muffins and puffy eggs also had veggies in them too. The eggs were the ones that surprised me the most. I’ve hid some things in sweet baked goods before, but never in other types of dishes so I’m looking forward to exploring that aspect of getting kids to eat their veggies. The eggs were wonderful even though I removed the cheese (did add some nutritional yeast and other flavoring) and used gluten free flour in them as well as adding the squash puree.

 

I always, almost always try to include lots of fresh veggies and fruit with the meal as well (we all have not so great days!) And everyone is encouraged to take a “no thank you” bite as I try to be patient to see if introducing them to something more than ten times will have any (positive?) affect at all. In the meantime it is kind of fun to hear them go on and on about how yummy something is while knowing it’s at least a little bit good for them. And it’s especially fun knowing that it contains something that they would *never* eat otherwise. Everyone except the 3-year-old realize I’m doing it so I don’t feel that deceptive, nor do I want to be. The interesting thing is that I don’t think Nessa would even mind if she saw me put orange and green things in her food as long as the final product fit her expectations. With green smoothies she loves putting the greens in, but she won’t ever put unblended greens much past her lips. I don’t know if it’s truly texture or more than that, but there are some things she is convinced that she doesn’t like. And we all know that that argument is useless with a 3-year-old.

Two smoothies AND two salads today…

So, today we managed to get back to basics.

Breakfast was a quart of green smoothie: pinapple, banana, chia seeds, carrot greens (small handful), a celery stick, and just a few spinach leaves.

Snack was a Lara Bar and some kale chips (dehydrated kale with spices).

Lunch was a yummy avacado and tomato salad — I just sliced a ripe avacado and a juicy sweet orange tomato, drizzeled some olive oil on it, and added a bit of ground pepper and salt. Yum!

Snack was a (raw) chocolate, banana, and chia seed smoothie (shake?) that my daughter made for me after school. It was really yummy and even better since I didn’t have to make it.

Supper was a gigantic salad with an entire super-sized cucumber, two tomatoes, an avacado, a green pepper, and mixed greens with olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper as simple dressing.

Late night snack (because that salad wasn’t big enough ?!?) was a few fudge balls from a recipe from Alyssa Cohen’s cookbook. I can’t remember everything that is in them because I made them quite awhile ago and froze them. When I get a craving now I can grab them quick from the freezer. I think it’s dates, raw chocolate and cocoa nibs, nuts (?), and coconut oil.

This morning I had to rinse my blender out in the bathtub because we were without a kitchen faucet. Thankfully I was able to sit at the kitchen table and work and catch up on things while the plumber fixed it today! Last night I kind of freaked out when it wouldn’t shut off. The good news is that the now it is up to code as well. We must be thankful for these little things like finding out that it wasn’t up to code only when it is now fixed.

This morning I was thrilled to find out that the pumpkin patch we’ll be going to in a few weeks knows all about celiac and it will be easy to eat lunch and snacks and all kinds of bad-for-you treats there with Nessa. I’ll be sure to post about it afterward.

Besides the ups and downs of life at the moment (sick kids, stressful work, and more), I feel good. In addition to the good food, I was able to go to yoga today AND go for a bike ride with Megan. I am very blessed.

Back to basics… smoothies, salads, and soups … and dealing with hunger

It has been a busy week complete with LOTS of challenges (thought I might be getting addicted to raw cacoa). After a nice weekend away where I managed to stay, mostly, but not all, on a raw vegan diet (had some dairy), I came back and decided it was time to get back to basics. Besides dehydrating in order to save vegetables for winter, I’m going to stick to eating fresh and simple as much as possible. I’m also going to be enjoying the standbys of my early adaption of this healing diet.

Today’s Breakfast was over a quart of green smoothie: bananas (frozen), raspberries (frozen), and lots of kale.

Today’s lunch was salads — two of them since I originally planned to go home, but then decided to order the “free lunch” with co-workers. I enjoyed my summer squash salad (zucchini, summer squash, greens, olives, and some cheeses), but it wasn’t very large and I was still hungry. I went out and got a hummus “salad” (I begged them to turn a wrap into a salad at a place that usually doesn’t do salads).

I was still STARVING by late afternoon. This is very unusual as I’ve rarely been hungry since going on a raw food diet. It makes me wonder if I accidentally got some gluten as doing so seems to mess up my (and, as observed, my daughter’s) appetite control/feelings. I don’t know when/how though, but that is the way it is with a small exposure. My other thought is that it could just be a reaction to something else (the dairy? withdrawal from the chocolate?) I also had a couple of cups of coffee and a cup of hot chocolate within the last few days. This is very unusual for me. I didn’t seem to notice any immediate symptoms after having the coffee which I used to in the past, so I thought maybe now I could handle an occasional cup of coffee. However, it’s still not a healthy choice really for me.

Supper was soup (or hot blended salad?) — I’ve decided to add greens to one of my new favorite soups, and it’s just as good. My favorite includes a beet as well as carrots and tomatoes, but I’m out of beets right now, so it was just carrots, tomatoes, garlic, a little parsley, some basil, and a handful of spinach, and some black pepper along with Agar agar, flax seeds, and chia seeds to add Omega 3s and thicken the soup. the soup was VERY thick this time and yummy too. The color wasn’t quite as nice as previous soups, I’ve made, but it was still warming and yummy. Then I did eat some gluten free/dairy free french bread that my daughter didn’t finish. It was really good with the soup. I’m trying to decide if I need to stop eating anything like that at all for awhile or not. If I’m feeling generally well and energetic then I start to think it’s OK, but really I haven’t managed to stay feeling that way for more than a couple of days (although still generally WAY less tired than before the dietary changes), and I wonder if it’s part of why my energy levels keep fluctuating. I’m going to have to simply experiment with it I guess. I am really looking forward to the Body Enlightenment program by the Raw Divas to help with this, and plan to do the 7 day detox soon as well. I also need to spend some time in the online forums to ask others these questions and get more feedback.

Tonight I feel starved again wile my tummy at the same time feels bloated (screams gluten to me … which just now makes me wonder if one of the salads I ate for lunch was contaminated?). I think the first thing I’ll do is decide to only eat food from home for the next week so I know I have total control over it (Gluten, etc.). And as I said, I’ll try to stick to basics as much as I can …