Update

Expressionista here,
I am alive and well.  So much has happened since I last posted.  I actually rediscovered this blog while working on a blog post for a gym I'm interning at.  I'm 4 weeks away from having my Nutrition and Exercise Science Degree completed and entering into Naturopathic Med School at Bastyr or Osteopathic Med School in California.

A lot has changed.  I still adhere to a plant based whole foods diet but I've stopped eating raw exclusively, incorporating cooked starches and veggies into my diet.  Part of this was out of financial necessity but part of it was having lost weight too fast for my doctors comfort and had some weird electrolyte balance problems which may or may not have been related to my diet.  I've survived a bout of bizarre autoimmune problems and gotten into exercise in a big way as a certified personal trainer.  I'm also a Licensed Massage Therapist.

Wellness has really become the focus of my life, and although the rigors of the ND or DO program I'll be starting soon will test my self-care skills I haven't forgotten what started me off on this journey.

Jerk Salad

This little spur of the moment creation was too yummy not to share. The key is to chiffon or ribbon the collards and then massage it with salt, lemon/tomato, and finally avocado in that order. If you get the collard greens nice and relaxed you'll have a perfect salad. The spices make it perfect. Raw mesquite is a wonderful addition as it adds both a sweetness and a smokey luscious flavour.

Serves 1
1 bunch collards
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 med tomato
1/3 avocado
1 1/2 tsp Jerk Spice
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp raw mesquite powder

1. Chiffon collard greens into little ribbons
2. add salt
3. massage greens for 5 minutes
4. add lemon oil, tomato, massage for 3 minutes
5. add avocado, massage for 1 minute
6. add jerk, chili and mesquite

7. ENJOY THOUROUGHLY!

Chia Upma Breakfast (Raw-Vegan)

You won't see a recipe for Raw Chia Upma anywhere else on the net, believe me I googled ;) So what is upma and why is it my new favorite breakfast? The name 'upma' is a combination of the word for salt and the word for wheat Tamil. If you wiki it you'll find that it's usually made of a substance called suji or rava both of which are often made with refined grain. While it would be easy cook your own version with a healthy grain like millet or quinoa substituting, I knew there had to be a way to do it raw!

The key selling point of upma is that it's a quick, easy, and oh so filling breakfast treat you can make and enjoy at the last minute. So I'm not going to get to detailed in the recipe but if you feel so inspired go ahead and add more chopped veggies and spices, maybe even garnish with some soaked walnuts

What You'll Need:
1 cup hemp milk (would not reccommend almond milk for this recipe)
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp curry powder
1 pinch hing (Asafoetida)
1 pinch onion powder
2 tsp coconut oil

1 small bell pepper, chopped
2 medium stalks celery, chopped
1 handful cilantro (coriander leaf), chopped
1 handful dulse
1 tsp salt or kelp granules

To prepare, first pour hemp milk and chia seeds into blender. Add spices, coconut oil, let sit. Meanwhile chop your veggies and soak your dulse to make sure there's no little seashells stuck to it. Blend hemp milk, chia seeds, etc into a rough porridge, no need to pulverise it just mix things up a little. Next add your vegetables and salt and pulse a few times. If you wanna get fancy garnish with cilantro, coconut shavings etc, otherwise wait about 5 minutes (if you can!) for the flavours to mix and enjoy!

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 ;)