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My husband bought me a Cuisinart 7-cup professional food processor today. I don’t know how I got along without this thing. It does way more than I expected and I’m looking forward to being in the kitchen and working with my new appliance. I don’t think the fun is going to wear out on this thing for a good long while!
I get asked a lot about what recipes I’m using and what kinds of foods I’m eating. Youtube is a great resource for raw food recipes and from there you can learn about the different kinds of raw food cook books. What I’m finding is the simpler the better. I don’t have a dehydrator and right now I’m not planning on getting one. I like a few youtubers because they don’t use the dehydrator and make great recipes. I’m still learning myself and feel I have a long way to go. My husband and I are eating mostly salads and soups. I have 2 soup recipes that I make on a regular basis and I just change up the vegetables that I put in my salads. Another resource I found was my Everyday Food magazines. In the summer and light editions there were several raw food recipes that I did not even realize were raw foods. They are great vegetable side dishes that I turned into main courses. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting some of the recipes and sharing some of the cookbooks I’ve found helpful.
First up – Garden Vegetable Soup
Well, I can say that this entire experience has been positive. I was able to drastically change my diet with only a few hiccups along the way and I’m glad I did not talk myself out of doing the 21-Day Cleanse. I was not 100% raw but I would say I was about 85% to 90% raw, which was definitely new. There was only a very small sense of being deprived of something and I found good ways to work around and substitute. I learned some great new recipes and had some fun experimentation with food.
I think the overall experience has put food in perspective and I like the feeling of being more in control. I surprised that the 21 days was up on Monday and I’ve yet to fire up the coffee pot. I LOVE COFFEE! I figured as soon as this was over I would have to have a cup of joe, but I was cleaning the kitchen the other afternoon and realized it was Thursday and I still had not had coffee. Maybe I’ll relegate coffee to being an occasional splurge to go along with my sweets.
WEIGHT LOSS:
I lost about 15 pounds during this process and I think I could have lost more if I had not eaten so many nuts. I used nuts as a way to get me over the hungry feeling and for when I needed a snack and we did not have the fruit I wanted to eat in the house. I’m learning to control the urge to reach for a can of cashews or pistachios and I think going forward I can realize an even larger weight loss.
FOOD SUBSTITUTES
I found there were many ways to work around not cooking your food to still achieve a raw or vegan version of what you used to eat. I found so many recipes but some I did not have the proper kitchen equipment to make. My blending is very old and I’m looking into a replacement blender with a food processor attachment. I was considering buying a bread machine because I got rid of the one had years ago but decided to invest in a blender and food processor first. I can actually make healthy dinners with those two appliances as opposed to just making bread and deserts.
A couple of the food replacements that I made and loved were marinara and zucchini to replace spaghetti and chocolate avocado pudding to replace regular chocolate pudding. I also made garden vegetable and tomato soup in the blender which were completely raw and very delicious. I don’t have pictures for that, but I will get some up.
My next project is to make some almond milk because I have some oatmeal in the cabinet that I would like to make use of and I don’t want to drink cows milk. I’ll definitely record my experience with that adventure.
On Saturday a friend and I went to the farmer’s market. I was looking for some specific vegetables and herbs. There was a lot to choose from, though not in variety of vegetables. There was lots of lettuce and Swiss chard. I was happy to see the strawberries were looking good. NC has great strawberry farms and I like to go to the farms and pick strawberries. I did not find a lot of what I was looking for, but that is a casualty of shopping and eating local. You can only purchase what the farms produce! I was under a time crunch and realized I cannot shop at the farmer’s market with a clock ticking. I like to compare prices, walk around a little bit and then decide which stall I’m going to buy from. I got some really nice kale, Swiss chard, bok choy, strawberries, and spinach. I did not bring enough money with me to get the tomatoes that I wanted, but next time Insha’Allah.
Eat local!
Umm Ebraheem
Today is the last day of the 21-day cleanse. I have not updated the blog in 9 days, though it does not seem that long. I did not have any new observations and my days were pretty much the same. I did not talk about the weight loss I experienced or the recipes that I tried so what I will do this coming week is do recap posts of the experience and what I’m planning moving forward.
Umm Ebraheem
OBSERVATIONS
1. I’m feeling mentally lethargic.
2. Husband has informed me he does not intend to eat meat other than seafood after our 21-day cleanse is up.
3. I’m mentally starting to feel a little strain.
4. I’m happy to report no coffee cravings.
5. I’m happy to report no junk food cravings.
So, these last 2 days I really have been feeling mentally sluggish, though not put off the change of eating habits. I’m going to investigate what I need to do in order to reverse that. I’m thinking I can eat more fruit to get more carbohydrates. I was trying to watch my fruit intake in order to not over do the sugar. I had heard that there would possibly be this sort of up and down emotional rollercoaster from making this change in my diet and I guess I’m just experiencing it. Hopefully it will not last long and I can find ways to counteract it. I don’t think it helps that the weather has been cold and rainy for days either.
