Sunday, January 26, 2014

Example of today's food and other examples of things I make on the Raw Food Diet

Here is an example of my raw food diet for today and other things I make, too.

Morning: Smoothie of: Frozen banana slices, Orange cut up, Fuji apple grated, some greens of romaine lettuce, (but you could use whatever greens you like, sometimes I used baby spinach and baby kale mix.) I add about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water to this. This one turned out tasting really nice. I make lots of different combinations.

(Sometimes I add sprouted lentils to my smoothies for protein, too. You can make almond milk by soaking about a cup of raw almonds overnight. In the morning, rinse and drain them. Then add a cup of almonds to the blender and about 4 cups of water. You will have your own almond milk that can be added to a smoothie instead of water as it will give you extra protein. There will be little ground up nuts in your smoothie if you don't mind it, otherwise you can always drain your almond milk with a net bag, but I don't do that and just deal with the gritty stuff as I do know it is good for me. The almond milk keeps a couple days okay in the fridge, just stir it good before having it or adding it to a smoothie. You can put some carob powder in the almond milk with a little agave nectar for a treat, too.)

Lunch: Zucchini, Tomato Salad with sunflower seeds.

(I peeled a whole Zucchini to make it like these thin like noodle strips and then cut up some tomatoes. I put some olive oil with some sea salt on it. Then I sprinkled some Nutritional Yeast over it. It was nice tasting. (I also make spiralized zucchini noodles with a special "Spiralizer" machine I have and serve that with some raw marina of sundried tomatoes blended with roma tomatoes in a food processor with some basil and italian spices and a little olive oil.)

Dinner: Big salad - I usually have a big salad for dinner with greens, tomatoes, grated carrot, sunflower seeds and whatever other veggies I want in it. I have a big salad bowl for this.

Snacks if hungry in between: I will usually have a banana or a fuji apple. Sometimes I just have some sunflower seeds. Sometimes I make some homemade freezer candy of ground up raw almonds (soaked overnight and rinsed and drained) with coconut oil, agave and cacoa raw powder. I just mix that up in the food processor and then drop them on a sheet in the freezer. They are a nice treat to have.

Another snack: Freeze banana slices for smoothies and vegan  ice cream. You then put some slices in for your smoothies or some in a food processor and that blends the bananas into a banana ice cream that you can flavor with cacoa powder or carob powder with a little agave. Or you can add fruit like blueberries or raspberries, etc. to the frozen banana slices.

Other things I have had since I started: I grate a fuji apple and a carrot together. It tastes really good just like that, but you could add some raisins to it if you want. I buy dates sometimes for something sweet. I make coleslaws that don't use vegan mayo. I grate some cabbage, peel and grate a beet and then add a little tahini and some oil and some apple cider vinegar with a little agave. It tastes a little strange at first, but I wound up really liking that.

Sometimes I grind up almonds and just toss the ground almonds over some grated zucchini with some olive oil.

I make kale salad by chopping kale very small (you take a couple de-stemmed kale leaves and then roll them up and chop them - it shows online how to make kale salads) and then sprinkle sea salt over it and then massage some olive oil in it. Then I put a little lemon over it too. If I don't add lemon, I will sprinkle some nutritional yeast over it and it is very good.

Hope some of these ideas helped. I don't have a totally hard diet. I could make tons of gourmet foods, but I kind of keep it simple. The smoothie at breakfast, maybe a zucchini salad at lunch and a big salad at dinner. The bananas in between help to not be hungry, too. I keep lots of bananas on hand and in the freezer. The bananas that are going darker and are on sale at the supermarkets are great to slice up and freeze and use in smoothies.

I use avocados on salads or sometimes just have one with some lemon, too.

So far so good on this way of eating since Dec. 3rd. The happy part is I went from 172 to 160.4 pounds since Dec. 3rd. The other happy part is I have way better concentration and can focus lots more for reading and learning new things. My mood seems a bit better, too.

I will try to go a little lighter on nuts and oils. I think that could be a downfall of this, so I am monitoring myself with that. During the holiday times, I did try lots of different recipes out that were mostly higher in oils/fats and nuts, but I think because I no longer eat bread, pasta, potatoes or rice, that is why I lost some weight even with those heavier foods like the oils/nuts.

A person who has extra money, could eat a whole different variety of fruits and veggies, but on a lower income, which I am on, I kind of just stick to simple items that are easy to keep on hand like bananas, oranges, romaine lettuces, etc. In summer there will be so much more to choose from and I am excited about that. Take care all. :-) PS I tried some "Zumba Gold" today. It is a fun dance exercise for those of us in these middle age years. I really liked it! :-)

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