Coconut Luvs You!

Young Thai Coconut Yogurt (vegan)
Important: for this recipe, make sure all the kitchenware you use is clean and sterile. Make sure hands are washed, we're going to be fermenting this so we don't want to be adding anything that might contaminate the culture.

• 1 young green thai coconut
• contents of 1 probiotic capsule

Crack open coconut with a large butcher knife. This takes some practice and be careful when you're hacking around. It takes quite a lot of force to get it open but once you feel the coconut water splash you can pry it open. Pour coconut water into a 1 quart jar.

Now it's inspection time, look at the inside of the coconut, look at the colour of the flesh. What we're looking for is WHITE, not purple, not pink, not even violet. If you get any aberrant colour its best to throw it away and try another, this is the risk you take buying coconuts.

Once you've got a good coconut scrape out the inside. This can be done with a large spoon or a plastic scraper like the one that comes with a vitamix. Put the meat in your blender and combine with enough coconut water to almost entire cover your meat. Add the contents of your probiotic and blend until smooth.

Place at room temperature for 16 hours to ferment. Smell yogurt to see if it smells like yogurt. If it smells off it's best to start over and try again, once again better safe than sorry when it comes to fermentation.

Refrigerated yogurt stays good for 4-5 days.

Cats Against Climate Change

Kimchi a l'expressionista

So spicy, so tangy, so tasty; it's kimchi! Sure you can buy it in the store but you either get pasturized crap or pay way too much for a little jar of "live" kimchi. The solution of course is to make your own or, saving that, feel free to make mine. It's packed with vitamins and a plethora of probiotics. Everything you need to get you through the sickness season plus hot peppers of course!

Kimchi a l'expressionista
Important: for this recipe, make sure all the kitchenware you use is clean and sterile. Make sure hands are washed, we're going to be fermenting this so we don't want to be adding anything that might contaminate the culture.

• 1 gallon jar for fermenting
• 2 med heads of napa cabbage
• 5 carrots with tops
• 5 sunchokes (jerusalem artichoke)
• 3 heads baby bok choy
• 1 finger of ginger, diced
• 5 green onions, chopped
  
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 10-15 dried aji peppers (feel free to substitute)
• 2 tsp sea salt
• black pepper to taste
  

The first step is to get into a fist fight with you cabbage. Upon peeling off the leaves, place them in a large metal container. Add salt. Now you're going to punch down into the bowl, hard enough to start to break down the cabbage, but hopefully not hard enough to hurt your fist. Toss in bok choy.

Set this aside and get out your food processor. Of course you can chop the veggies by hand but I'd suggest at least grating them to keep the chunks uniform. Grate the carrots and sunchokes. These will make up the bulk of the food for our culture. I used the carrots leafs after cleaning them and cutting them from the stalks. They make an excellent addition to the kimchi. Chop and toss in with the cabbage and bok choy, which should be softening because of the salt.

Time to spice it up! Stir in your ginger, green onions, paprika and peppers. Next stir in the contents of a probiotic capsule if you have one on hand. This will speed up the fermentation and reinforce the good bacteria. Top off with black pepper.

Next transfer mixture to your fermentation jar. Hopefully you come pretty close to filling up the gallon, the less room at the top the better. Push down on mixture with a ladel or large wooden spoon. It should be rather juicy by now. Insert a rolled up cabbage leaf into the top to keep the kimchi under the juice.

Set the kimchi somewhere it won't be disturbed for the next week. Room temp is ideal. In seven days time it should be ready. Taste it, you're looking for a tangy spicy taste. If it's not sour enough, let it sit for a few days longer.

Enjoy!

Tea Review: White Chai from Remedy Teas

I'm really picky about my chai. Being lucky enough to enjoy fresh brewed cup from scratch at a local cafe I suppose I'm a bit spoiled. When I make it for myself it usually involves pan-roasting the spices, adding fresh ginger and steeping the masala (spices) for at least an hour or so.

That's why I was taken aback by the White Chai (#18) from Remedy Teas. It's a mix designed for quick steeping which made me expect the weak Oregon Chai-like brew with a bit of a nasty aftertaste. This was nothing like that. While not as robust as a slow-brewed cup of home made chai it's a perfect everyday tea and best of all has the effervescent taste for which Silver Needle known balanced with cardamon, ginger, and all the other classic chai masala spices. It warms you up without getting you wired.

No-Cook Broccoli

I found a sumptuous head of romanesco broccoli at this week's farmer's market. It's like a broccoli with psychedelic swirls on the top. How to prepare without cooking though? The following is a method what's called "cold cooking": a very simply, very useful method for raw vegans. Take:

• 1 head broccoli, minced
  
• 2 tsp celtic sea salt

Toss them together in a large metal or glass bowl. Work it for a good two minutes, or until the salt has fully dissolved. Next add:

• 1 tsp hemp/flax oil
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 spicy pepper
• 2 tbsp red onion, chopped
  
• 1 tsp ginger minced (optional)

Toss these and then apply weight to the dish. Setting some heavy plates on top of the broccoli for an hour. Put in the refrigerator and allow to marinate for 16-24 hours. Now your broccoli is soft, tender, well seasoned and ready to serve!

Hot Pink Spaghetti Alfredo

For this recipe you're going to need a spiral vegetable slicer. You can find them all over the net and at Bed Bath and Beyond type stores. If you've got enough patience and skill you can make noodles with a vegetable peeler, but spiral slicers aren't too expensive so they're worth looking into. the one on the left is available on the net.

Spiralize the following

• 2 beets, zucchini, squash, 1 turnip, or 1 garnet yam (i used chiogga beets)

Toss in a large mixing bowl along with a few pinches of

• celtic sea salt

After tossing for a few minutes cover with heavy plates to smoosh the beet noodles. This procedure can be used on most starchy vegetables with the same results: the noodles become softer and tastier.

Next blend

• 5 macadamias
• 5 brazil nuts
• 1/8 cup water
• 5+ leaves fresh basil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 dates
• 1 lemon, juiced
  
• pinch sea salt

Once sauce has become smooth and creamy drain water from beets and pour on the sauce! Top with

• 1/4 small onion, chopped
  
• 1/4 small red pepper, chopped
  
• handful of sprouts
• pomegranate seeds to garnish

Enjoy!

Meat Eaters to Vegans: Just Stop It Already!

The College I attended is among the most progressive in the nation, both in terms of the students and the policy, diversity was embraced and even cultivated. One of the most popular classes was a gender studies course. You get the idea, not exactly a backwoods place.

And yet one of the biggest issues of contention was the cafeteria. The college's vegan population had finally forced the corporate entity which ran food services on campus to offer vegan options. These people were cheap as hell, and so you can imagine what horrible food choices were offered. Well now cut those choices in half and add equally horrible vegan food. You've got a recipe for a foodfight.

And that's what we got, on campus, in the newspaper, everywhere meat eaters complaining bitterly and blaming the vegans for the deteriorating conditions of campus chow. The vegans didn't want to eat the swill served by Aramark (yeah I'll call 'em out) so they ditched the meal plan en masse and started holding potlucks. Aramark was not pleased and twisted the administration's arm to ban any non-company food on campus. The vegans went underground.

I can see this theatre of the absurd replaying itself at Loyola and it makes me so sad

Soup! The thought pops into your head, a faint glimmer of hope at first, but soon a fantastic plan for salvation. You stride over to get yourself a nice hot bowl of hearty minestrone but gack! You are presented a choice between vegan potato leek and vegan lentil.

Obviously this guy doesn't like lentils and feels he needs actual meat. Of course he blames the vegans and just can't see why they have to be so "extreme". In between neanderthal grunts of meat-withdrawal he makes the stupid, yet pervasive argument that the existence of cage free eggs and "naturally" produced milk, whatever that means, indemnify him from any responsibility and make vegans and their "extremism" obsolete:

So, extremists, why not switch over to a more omnivorous lifestyle? I know that many of you take a moral issue with factory farming, and I agree with you. Mistreating farm animals is a horrible practice that we need to eradicate soon. But the fact of the matter is, hens are going to plop out an egg a day whether you eat it or not. Mama cows would still give enough milk to share between their calves and us, even if we stopped stuffing them with hormones. And unless you’re a baby, milking cows is a lot less creepy than drinking human milk.

Animal by-products can readily be consumed in an ethical way. If we do it right, we can promote the proper treatment of animals while living more moderate and well-rounded lives ourselves. Not to mention the fact that non-extremist soup tastes a lot better.

Translation: I have ethical concerns about this horrible food system of ours too, but have adopted the existence of less horrible methods as an excuse to not do anything about it. Your lifestyle reminds me that I'm not living up to my own inner ideals, therefore change it so I can go back to feeling like a non-hypocrite.

It's everywhere folks: Lierre Keith, the response to Foer's Eating Animals, even in your local university dining hall. And the interesting thing is, just like homophobia, the most passionate opposition to even the *existence* of veganism comes from those who most agree with the concept of veganism deep down inside. These people *are* vegans already, they just don't know it yet. They're in the closet even to themselves.

It's up to us to convince them it's safe to come out.

Raw Vegan Sushi Rolls

One of my all time favorites! I just perfected the recipe so I thought I'd share:
Pulse the following ingredients until coarsely chopped

• 3 stalks celery
• 1/4 red pepper
• 3 cremini mushrooms
• 1 handful parsley
• 1 handful dulse
• 5 green onions
  

Set aside in a large mixing bowl. Next, blend the following until smooth:

• 1/8 cup sunflower seeds, soaked and sprouted
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper
• small thumb of ginger
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1 pinch kelp granules (skip this if you can't find it)

Pour over chopped veggies. Next take

• 5 sheets nori
• 1 cup sprouts of your choice (I use clover + radish)

Lay a nori sheet flat on a clean, dry cutting board. Spread a handful of sprouts across it in a horizontal line. Next pour mixture over the sprouts. Now roll it up, repeat, and enjoy!

Glenn Beck: Protecting Your Right to Heart Disease

Looks like Meatless Monday has got the right wing echo chamber up in arms. First they came for our guns, next they'll come for our hamburgers!



Glenn, please! Nobody's trying to take your Big Macs away, but maybe a meatless monday now and then wouldn't be such a bad idea unless you intend to lose your limbs to diabetes.

Pumpkin Cole Slaw

Just in time for Halloween!

Grate the following:

• 1/4 small Sugar Pie Pumpkin, peeled
  
• 1 cabbage
• 2 carrots

Set aside in a large bowl. Next blend:

• 5 macadamias
• 1/8 cup cashews
• 1 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tomato
• 1/4 bell pepper
• 3 stalks celery
• 3 colves garlic
• 1 handful fresh parsley
• 1 tsp thyme
• pinch sea salt
• 1 jalapeño
• 1/4 small onion
• enough water to blend smooth
  

Toss together with grated vegetables. Add

• diced wakame

for extra flare. Enjoy!

Raw Silver Needle Pu-erh

I had to share the lovely colour of this tea before I finished drinking it.  It's tea #93 at Remedy Teas. I had thought pu erh was a type of leaf but it turns out that it refers to the process rather than the tea itself, hence the Silver Needle (a white tea) that makes up this cup.

The secret is to rinse your leaves before drinking. Not sure what is washed off in this process but it tastes 1000x better afterwards.  It's a low caffeine tea with a high caffeine taste which is perfect if you're sensitive to caffeine as am i.  

Yummy Green Soup

• 1 English Cucumber
• 3 carrots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/8-1/4 cup sunflower seeds, soaked and sprouted
• 2 heads of green leafy vegetables (Chard, Kale, Spinach, etc)
• 1 hot pepper (serano, jalapeno, habenero depending on how much spice you want)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• dash cinamon

Blend on high until smooth and creamy. Next dice and add

• 1/8 large onion
• 1/4 red pepper
• 2 stalks celery

Enjoy!

Soylent Soy is Made of People!

Okay, not really but that doesn't mean it belongs on your plate or in your mouth. Much like Lierre Keith when I first went vegan protein was the problem and soy was the solution everyone gave me. The bit of research I did on my own seemed to yield a wide variety of potential sources of protein, from legumes to nuts to green leafy vegetables. When I tried to bring this up to other vegans they poo-poo'd it and handed me a tofurky sandwich. "So this is what vegans eat," I thought.

After a few years I had really developed a taste for all kinds of soy products. I used to go to Little Saigon to buy fried tofu in bulk. I just couldn't get enough of it and if I didn't get enough, I felt hungry. Something started to happen to my digestion, with which I'd never had a problem with. Acid reflux started to appear too.

Desperate for solutions I gave raw food a try. At first I just ate 80-20 and didn't really experience any noticeable results. I wasn't really detoxing, nor was I eating a proper diet. That's when I found out about juice feasting.

I'm sure you've noticed the link to the left to David Rainoshek's Juice Feasting site. This is where I got all the information I needed to start my own 92-day juice feast. I described the process in more detail in a previous post, but basically a juice feast is a modified juice fast, where you drink 3-4 + quarts of juice a day and use the right vegetables to fill your body's nutritional needs. You'll get some detox symptoms, but these will be easier to handle since you're not starving yourself. And the best part is you get cleaner on the inside (and I think you know what I mean by that) than with almost any other cleanse.

My 92 days of juice completely turned my health around. I lost 60 pounds, got rid of all the digestive problems and gained dramatic insights both into diet and into myself. Since then I've been back on raw food, only this time it's raw food done right. There are a lot of aspects to a healthy raw vegan diet, which I'll get to in future posts. The most important component of my diet, and the largest source of protein are green leafy vegetables.

So this is what it took to repair the damage soy did to my system. I'm glad I did it and I've benefited in a lot of other ways, but it's because of my vegan experience that I cannot recommend soy as a health food. Lierre uses this conclusion as a reason to "save" people from the vegan diet.

Although non-raw veganism has it's pitfalls, particularly in it's overemphasis on soy and stored grains, they are far fewer and less severe than those of meat consumption. Besides, are you really going to take health advice from someone who doesn't believe cholesterol contributes to heart disease? Get real Lierre, you bring up some good points about our agricultural system, but large scale free range farming is not the answer. Frankly we don't have 1/4 of the pasture land it would take to feed a planet full of Lierre Keiths.

The Vegetarian Myth - Lierra Keith

I'm really excited about Underground Wellness radio tonight. The guest is Lierre Keith, a former vegan whose critique of veganism The Vegetarian Myth relies on, among other things, an over-emphasis on grains particularly rice corn and wheat. So a good portion of what she's saying does not apply to raw veganism making it the perfect place to push back from. As much as I appreciate her point of view on grains the world needs vegge people more now than ever (a point I'm sure she'll dispute.)

You can check out Dr. Michael R. Eades review of the book on his blog. He comes at it from the other (meat eating climate change denier) side and obviously loves what she says about vegetarianism and its justifications.

For me veganism needs no justification. Your body can do a great job of communicating what it needs if you let it and my body has no need for diseased animal corpses or milk intended for a baby cow. Now honey on the other hand I do have need for...

Perpetually Your Earth

This world is yours, this world is you. You help make it what it is and without you it would be eternally incomplete. It helps make you what you are giving form to your free floating consciousness until you return to it's stony embrace. This world is you.

This is our rock, the only livable planet for parsecs, yet every day it's dying and we're dying with it. Corporations and governments walk around acting like they own the place. But this is a planet for real persons, not artificial ones. This is our rock.

Together we walk. Look at the paths taken and those left unexperienced. Survey the damaged done and plan for a different future. Only those who walk with a light foot can step into this future, only those who tread in compassion and grace will ever see this future. Together we walk.

Whether we're raw, vegan, vegetarian, or just trying to cut down on the impact our lifestyle has on the planet, we share a common path and we hope for a common future.

This world is yours.

End of Juice Feast Update

Finally finished my 92 day juice feast. I took 6 days to transition back to solid food, starting with soft fruit and moving back up to veggies and finally nuts and seeds.

When I was in my first or second week I was salivating over Cyber Dogs. I thought as soon as I got finished I'd hop on a bus and eat my fill of soy dogs. The funny thing now is after all that "deprivation" I no longer have any desire to eat delicious soy dogs, or anything cooked for that matter.

David Rainoshek and Gabriel Cousens talk about "resetting your cellular" memory. It sounds a bit flaky, but here I am experiencing it, and it's great. I was a slave to my cravings, my very cells were screaming out for me to eat more vegan junk food, and now through some twist of fate I'm free. It's time to spread the message.

Total Weight Lost: 60 lbs

Week 11 Update

total after 10 weeks 46.2 lbs
new weight lost 6.4(!!!) lbs
total after 11 weeks 52.6

Apparently angry phone calls to the offices of your Senators burn a lot more calories than one might expect. I'd say it's highly recommended, especially if they start watering down the upcoming Health Care bill ;)

Week 10 Update

total after 9 weeks 42.4 lbs
new weight loss 3.8 lbs
total after 10 weeks 46.2 lbs

Week 9 Update

total after 8 weeks 38.6 lbs
new weight lost 3.8 lbs
total after 9 weeks 42.4 lbs

Week 8 Update

word

total after 7 weeks 31.2 lbs
new weight lost 6.4 lbs
total after 8 weeks 38.6

Week 7 Update

total after 6 weeks 28.0 lbs
new weight lost: 3.2 lbs
total after 7 weeks 31.2 lbs

Week 6 update

total after 5 weeks: 23.6 lbs
new weight lost: 4.4 lbs
total after 6 weeks 28.0 lbs

Week 5 update

I missed a week but it looks like the weight loss is slowing a bit

total after 3 weeks: 17.6 lbs
new weight lost: 6.0 lbs.
total after 5 weeks: 23.6 lbs

On Cravings

So during the course of my juice feast I've really begun to learn some things about how we relate to food. What triggered this was an almond commercial announcing a new "portion control" strip on the side that lets you see how much you're eating. This is what I hate about dieting; eating should not involve math goddamn it!

That's my natural feeling on it and up until recently I was thinking that was what was getting me in trouble. I'd get something REALLY good like coconut curry from take-out and mow through it instead of saving half for lunch the next day like I rationally should. This is why the prospect of dieting always seemed kind of grim. You count all your calories and then when you've reached 1500 you just stop eating? That's crazy talk!

In doing the Juice Feast, I have to say, portion control has not been an issue. 4 quarts of juice is a lot to drink in a day, in the first few days I was lucky if i got 2.5. Sure there were cravings, but I was full %100 of the time, not just full, stuffed.

So what changed? I think it was getting all my vitamins and minerals for once. Honestly, it's like all those cravings were my body going into a feeding frenzy searching for magnesium, potassium phosphorus, whatever. And just like a shark I didn't care if I was biting my own tail, I just wanted to OM NOM NOM something.

Now that I think of it, it's quite possible that this is the first time in my life I'm actually getting all my macronutrients, vitamins and minerals. The shark doesn't go on feeding frenzies any more, and I think withdrawal from certain foods (grains, soy etc) has made the shark sort of chill. Like a shark with sunglasses and a martini!

Prophetic Words

"I will live to see the end of Monsanto."
-Vandana Shiva

Day 24 of the Juice Feast

I did a nutritional analysis on everything i ate today at nutritiondata.com. Interesting results, I'm getting everything I need and about 1400 calories

Calories: 1401
Protein: 38.9 g
+2.0 g Chlorella
+2.0 g Greens Powder
+1.0 g Vitamin Code Perfect Weight
+0.5 g Kelp powder
44.4 g Total protein

Fat: 47.7 g
should have been more like 32 g
Carbs 239 g


Vitamins Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV
Vitamin A 85534 IU 1711%
Vitamin C 728 mg 1213%
Vitamin D ~0.0 IU ~0%
Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) ~19.9 mg ~100%
Vitamin K ~4240 mcg ~5300%
Thiamin 1.7 mg 114%
Riboflavin 1.8 mg 107%
Niacin 16.2 mg 81%
Vitamin B6 ~3.8 mg ~188%
Folate ~617 mcg
Vitamin B12 ~0.0 mcg ~0%
Pantothenic Acid ~7.2 mg ~72%
Choline ~259 mg
Betaine ~3.9 mg

Minerals Amounts Per Selected Serving %DV
Calcium 986 mg 99%
Iron 20.4 mg 113%
Magnesium ~757 mg ~189%
Phosphorus ~984 mg ~98%
Potassium ~8750 mg ~250%
Sodium 1748 mg 73%
Zinc ~6.5 mg ~43%
Copper ~3.1 mg ~157%
Manganese ~5.3 mg ~266%
Selenium ~15.1 mcg ~22%
Fluoride ~41.0 mcg

The vitamin D, Selenium, Pantothenic Acid, and Zinc I'm missing are made up for in my mulitvitamin. The B12; I'm getting in my bee pollen. Also the supplement info isn't included.

Speaking of which, how did i get so much fat? I might have put that info in wrong when I made a custom entry. The site doesn't have Hemp Oil listed, although it's got pages and pages of info on Arby's, Mcdonald's, Taco Del, etc. At least it's nice to know i'm good on calcium iron and everything. Holy crap i got a lot of vitamin A.

UPDATE: I was right about the fat grams. I was adding them up wrong so it's more like 23.8 grams which brings the calories down to around 1250.

X-Posted from GlobalJuiceFeast.com

After 3 Weeks of Juice Feasting

this week weight lost: 6.6 lbs
total after 3 weeks: 17.6 lbs

Juice Feasting Week 2 Weight loss

week one: 5.1
week two: 5.9
total : 11 pounds

yay!

Global Juice Feast 2009

What the heck is a Juice Feast? Well it's not a diet, although you tend to lose most of your excess weight. It's not a juice fast because you'll be getting your recommended 1500-2000 calories. It's not a lifestyle although many feel so good that they continue it for 92 days or even more. It's not a cleanse although you will be purging your body of the same kinds of toxins that cleansing formulas deal with. In addition you'll be alkalizing, re hydrating and building up your mineral reserves.

I started mine March 7th, the beginning of this year's Global Juice Feast in which people from all over the world are taking control of their bodies and their health by consuming mass quantities of fresh organic juice in lieu of their normal diets (junk food, standard american, vegetarian/vegan, or raw). Without the solid food the organs are able to focus their full attention on removing all of the toxic sludge we accumulate over years of eating at the corporate trough. I'm not sure what his source is, but noted raw food proponent Juliano claims that the average american ingests the equivalent of 17 cell phones in plastics and metals over the course of an average lifespan.

For me this is a great chance to correct some of the damage soy has done to my digestive system.

i can has foodz?

So what kind things am I eating during this 92 days of liquid lunches? The bare bones of it are

• 2 lbs (about 1 kg) of green leafy vegetables (kale, spinach, chard, collards, turnip etc.)
• 1 lbs (.5 kg) celery
• 1 cucumber with skin
• 1 quart of fruit juice (grapefruit, pomelo, berries, pears, apples)

Now of course if I juice a pound of kale and try to drink it I'll probably blow chunks... err... green juice all over my kitchen. The secret is how you mix it. Cucumber and celery are a big help in watering it down. Next I throw in some carrots, fennel, zucchini, and/or beets to make it slightly sweet. In addition peppers, garlic, ginger, parsley and such can give it a little flavor so I'm not drinking the same glass of juice over and over again. A little variety, I've found is the key to staying on this diet.

Supplements? Why yes, please!

You can get a surprising amount of protein out of your greens and even some from other veggies. But if you really want to make sure you're losing fat and not muscle adding some protein into the diet isn't a bad idea. I use the tag team of spirulina and kelp in my green juices. In addition and mostly at the suggestion of juicefeasting.com I'm taking

• MSM - aka the "beauty mineral". repairs scar tissue in the body and makes your hair, nails, skin etc infinitely more healthy.
• Chlorella - itsy bitsy little single cell algae. great source of protein and more!
• Fo-ti/He Shou Wu - Mr Wu was an old man in China a long time ago. he starting eating this stuff and his hair turned black again and suddenly he was the stud of the village. he shou wu translates into "the black haired Mr. Wu". Also known as Fo-ti.
• Digestive Enzymes - many different products exist usually with names like "Ultra-zyme". Look for ones with bromelien and papayein and herbs like marshmallow root.
• Cell Salts - your cells like salt too! dissolves under the tongue
  
• Turmeric - i take it in capsule form. has antiseptic/antibiotic qualities, great for the digestion.
• Triphala - for keeping things regular!
• Psylium Seed Husk - fiber!
  

The Juices

Although juicefeasting.com has some different suggestions, I basically drink 2 green juices a day. Each is about a quart and they look something like

my beet, chard, green pepper, zucchini, and parsley juice from this morning.


I mix in a little hemp or coconut oil to give me some good-for-you fat and to make them a little more filling.


My fruit juices are generally smaller, often mixed with water and some cayenne pepper to give it a spicy kick.

pretty pretty cantaloupe-
grapefruit juice.

Results

More info will be forthcoming, but at the end of week one i was down 5.1 pounds. My skin is softer, my eyes are brighter. I'm not hungry much but I do crave weird things. Even seafood/meat which i haven't had in at least 12 years! Supposedly cravings come from toxins so we'll see how long this lasts. Realistically what I'm craving most right now is Cyber Dogs. :3

Damn you soy!!!

Sprouted Raw Hummous

omfg is that a flaxseed cracker? yup and what's it doing by that big bowl of freshly made sprouted raw hummous? it's going in, hawt. this is the best hummous i've made srsly, recipee down below.







Sasha's Sprouted Hummous

2 cups sprouted garbanzo beans (if you don't know about sprouting google it. i might cover it in a later post.)
1/4 cup raw tahini
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice. you could get lazy and use bottled but it will be so much better if you squeeze it yourself
3 cloves garlic: crushed
1/2 cup parsley chopped
1 - 1 1/2 cup rejuvelac (a delicious fermented wheat berry beverage. if you don't know what this is you can just use water or coconut water here. more on rejuvelac soon.)
1 tbsp minced jalepeno or pepper of your choice
1 tsp black cumin
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp coriander seed
a few grinds of black pepper
1 tsp zest from lemmon
1 1/2 tbsp celtic sea salt
lots and lots of olive oil
paprika to garnish

Ok so you've got your sprouted garbanzos, remember, they need to be sprouted, just raw will taste weird and be hard to digest, you throw these in the blender and add a generous splash of olive oil, the lemon juice, garlic, tahini and rejuvelac. Go ahead and blend this down to a paste, then add your parsley, jalepeno, lemon zest, and salt. Put on blend while you grind the cumin, black cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes down to a powder. Add through top of blender and continue to blend. How long you blend is dependant on how awesome your blender is and how creamy you want this. Your rejuvelac, lemon, and olive oil will actually help break things down in the fridge, but i find it's best to blend until there are no more little chunks. If you have trouble with this you can add more olive oil and continue to blend.

now when it's ready pour it in it's serving dish (a big flat dish with a top would be ideal) and garnish with olive oil, black pepper and paprika. if you wanna be snobby you can throw a little parsley on top.

all that's needed at this point is a cracker, tortilla, toast, baguette or just about anything you can imagine. as you can see i've dehydrated some flaxseed and veggies into crackers. so as to have a completely raw meal but i leave it to your discression to chose the medium for your hummous. try raw veggies dipped in it too!