The Holes

Vegan Raw-ish Donut Holes

Made 'em (I said I would yesterday!). However, these aren't the pumpkin ones I promised yesterday.  This is an adaptation of several recipes from several sources based on what I had on hand.  I didn't measure anything but here's the rundown:

1. Soak a cup (or so?) of almonds and after a few hours, take the wrappers off (the brown skin).
2. Drain really well and dry a bit with a towel
3. Place in a food processor.
4. Into the processor, add chia seeds (oh, 1/4 cup?)
5. Add a drizzle of vanilla or bean
6. Add a dash or so of cinnamon
7. Add a drizzle of maple syrup, agave, or stevia (I cheated and used maple syrup, about 1/8 cup?, but they were a tad sweet for my sensitive pallet). To make them truly raw you could use soaked dates but I get sick of date flavored raw sweets.
8. Add the tiniest pinch of salt that you've ever seen.
9. Process, scrape, process, scrape, process, scrape
10. Scoop them with a cookie dough scoop or by hand. Freeze if desired.

Like any raw dessert, it is nothing close to the real thing and no these should probably not be called donut holes.  However, I think I would rather have these than donut holes! And that's coming from a donut addict!

The Gross Version

AND get this. I spent $8 (gads!) on "raw" "live" "blah blah blah" cookies from Whole Foods today and they are gross! I believe the ingredients are cashews, almonds, honey, and chai spice (sounds great, right?) and they were disgusting! I'm making my own darn sweets from now on.

I Do Like The Raw Desserts, But...

That said, I'm going to try not to get too into the dessert stuff because that is just a slippery slope for this addict.  I feel great on the Crazy Sexy Diet. Why change anything?  With the holidays around the corner, I really need to practice just steering clear.

Donut Holes and Inner Peace

Zucchini, carrot, bell pepper, micro greens, and spinach salad with Asian Dressing.

So I'm catching up on the blog reader, and I see some awesome looking donuts, which are my biggest temptation in life.  I've been known to eat three Whole Foods vegan donuts in one sitting.

Being on this new "diet" and all, sugar is out!  Having complete faith in the infinite powers of Google, I searched for "raw pumpkin pie donuts".  I think I'll try these.

Another thing I've noticed since doing yoga/eating mostly raw/eating huge amounts of veggies/juicing is that I am so much more psychologically and spiritually balanced.  I have a lot of little OCD triggers like washing my hands after I do anything (I live in a preschool--there are germs everywhere!).  I also have a lot of fears and anxieties about making decisions and things like that. Well, eating better and doing exercise has drastically mellowed those little disorders.  My overall stress level has gone down and I wonder if it's because of all of the great nutrients and chemically things in veggies that soothe the soul.

TMI (Toe Much Info)

Crazy Sexy Diet Announcement

1.  The toe fungus I've been fighting with my usual natural skin cure-all (neem) for months has nearly healed itself even with no neem or other medication. I've been fighting it for a long time. I thank the CSD.

2. At the risk of jinxing myself, we had a nasty croup-like virus pass through my preschool program. It touched every child and teacher and several parents. All I got was a sore throat.  Again, I thank the CSD.

What's true for me is, the CSD suggests things to do and eat that I already knew I should be doing, but I needed someone to tell me in the form of a book to do it.  I'm so glad I started this thing.

*Steph*

So Sushi

For lunch today, I made these I Am Loved Nori Rolls from Kris Carr's book and they are great. Very basic ingredients inside 'em (pea sprouts, carrots, avocado, rice and tahini), but something about the way the tahini and wasabi interact is phenomenal.  I'm making these again tomorrow!

Smoothie of the day: although I didn't exactly follow the fruits to veggies ratio for my 10am breakfast smoothie, it was so good that I had to share:

 The Use-your-imagination-because-I-have-no-photo Vegan Lowish Sugar Smoothie

6 kale leaves
a couple broccoli flowers
2 small dates
4 ripe figs
1 tablespoons cashew butter
1/4 (?) cup rolled oats
10ish frozen organic blueberries
Half water, half almond milk to process

Put it in an opaque bottle because the color which is purplish grey, thank you kale and blueberries. It tasted as good as a chocolate smoothie, but maybe because there was a lot of sugar from the dates and figs. But hey, something had ton sweeten the six kale leaves!

Today's juice: half a cucumber, two stalks celery, a beet, a handful of cilantro, a few broccoli florets, a few kale leaves, six or so romaine leaves.

Sexy Time!

Okay that might seem like a weird title if you don't remember the movie "Borat"!

Yesterday would be my 

Day 21

except...

we went camping over the weekend and I didn't really follow the CSD protocol.

How did that work for me?

I feel horrible and gross and heavy and tired today! We had soup for dinner because we both feel sick.

I'm throwing away those extra marshmallows that are asking to be roasted in the oven and thrown on a graham cracker.  Those will compromise my immune system enough to get me sick immediately, I can feel it.

That's me, today. I don't have any better pictures on hand. 
Skinny enough, right?

A note about weight loss

Last Friday, someone noticed I had lost weight.

And I have, almost 10 pounds actually.

And that's despite the fact that I had almost an entire jar (the big ones!) of peanut butter in the first week of the cleanse.  I have since switched to almond and cashew butters.

I'm going to continue the cleanse but I'm adding in a breakfast/snack at 10am-ish. It will probably be oatmeal or a kale smoothie. 

Why continue?

I have never felt better in my entire life, 

not even when I was a vegetarian yogi.

I feel like this diet was made just for me,

like a special gift from the cosmos

(which I am totally connected with today,

because I actually remembered to meditate!)

One of my weird embarrassing stories

Last night I ate two marshmallows on graham cracker sandwiches before bed (total CSD faux pas!) I woke up this morning dreaming I had made these little clear gelatin pellets in muffin molds and I was taking them out of the refrigerator. It was strange and random and gross.  After I awoke I had to wonder if my body was surprised at the presence of the gelatin-laden marshmallows and couldn't figure out what to do with it, and my brain picked up on the weird signals of digestion and processed it in a dream.

On that note, I must share a related quote from the Crazy Sexy Diet book:

"SHIT FOR BRAINS--Ever heard of the brain-gut connection? Dr. Michael Gershon, a researcher at Columbia university, calls the gut the "second brain". The gut has its very own nervous system, the small intestine alone has as many neurons as your spinal cord. Neurotransmitters are natural chemicals that transmit signals from one part of your brain to another. Guess what? They're also found in your intestines. In fact, a whopping 95 percent of all serotonin, one of the most important neurotransmitters, is made by nerve cells in your gut. And get this--the gut has at least seven different kinds of serotonin receptors. An imbalance in serotonin levels can be an underlying cause of depression. If one brain is out of balance, it stands to reason that the other one (the one you're using to read this) might be out of balance, too.  Many people with depression and anxiety also have bowel trouble. Maybe we need to pop less Prozac and pump out more poop." (Chapter 5).

Once upon a time, there were two salads

This is too easy!

It's SO easy being vegan.

It's SO easy eating a diet of 60% raw food.

(I'll be ready for the 80% goal very soon!)

This much stuff made two salads. One for dinner, one for lunch tomorrow.

1 small cucumber

1 avocado

3 rainbow chard leaves

5 romaine leaves

1 small ear of corn (cooked)

1/2 sweet potato (baked)

4 figs

tofu, raw or cooked

simple dressing:

hazelnut oil

balsamic vinegar

stone ground mustard

pinch of salt

cracked black pepper

top view:

bottom view:

make sure you take bites of sweet potato with bites of avocado.  

those two are a match made in heaven!

AND

don't forget to chew twenty times per bite!

*Stephanie*

  

Crazy Sexy Diet Day Seven

Hey y'all!

I haven't been blogging because I just have any pictures, but I wanted do a check-in post on this cleanse-thing.

• Stil going strong!
• Things I'm good at doing/remembering:
• exercise
• all the food stuff
• green juice for breakfast
• nasal rinsing
• being caffeine and sugar free
• Things I'm good at forgetting/ignoring:
• dry brushing
• meditating
• not eating too much nut butter
• that I should be doing homework instead of blogging
• I had wedding cake last night. It was good and worth it. It was covered in marzipan. And I didn't feel bad afterward but I bet my sugar cravings set in today so I'll have to have some of my black bean power bar dough.  What's that, you ask? My pulp from juicing+black beans+peanut butter+raw cacao+dates+vanilla blended in the food processor.  If I owned a dehydrator I would use it to turn this dough into a power bar because that's exactly what it tastes like (but less sweet of course).
• If you want to do this cleanse, do yourself a favor.  Buy twice as much produce (same variety, double the quantity) as you normally would.
• My juicer hates cucumbers and pears.  As soon as I start juicing those, it gets off balance and starts dancing about.
• Kale chips are my nemesis. They taunt me with statements like "We're green and healthy!" and "We have nutritional yeast so you'll get some vitamin B12!".  I know it's still a CSD-friendly junk food, but I'm so easily convinced that they are good for me!

When all else fails, insert pictures of dogs. 

:Mitch and his old friend Bodhi:

 Peace out!