Sunday, May 22, 2011

Raw Spinach and Corn Salsa Salad and Fruit Parfait

Today was a good Sunday.  We had church at Old Union this morning and it was good to hear Dannie Loy preach and then to share potluck lunch at church.  I take mostly raw foods to these potlucks, although I take cooked foods sometimes .  Today I took a spinach/corn salad with salsa dressing, a fruit parfait, hummus, carrots, and watermelon.  And even though I don't eat it,  I took a German Chocolate Cake that we bought from an Amish family at the farmer's market. 

Here are two recipes from today....both are good.  The Spinach and Corn Salsa Salad came from Dan McDonald at LifeRegenerator.  I love, love, love it.  This is now my favorite salad dressing.

Raw Spinach and Corn Salsa Salad - Mix in food processor...2 cloves garlic, 1 jalepeno, 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, and a bunch of cilantro.  After mixing...then add an avocado to the food processor and mix it in good with the other ingredients.  Cut corn off the cob from 3 ears of corn...okay to do more corn if you have it.  Put spinach in your salad bowl or serving platter.  Put the raw corn on top.  Serve with the dressing.

The Raw Fruit Parfait came from Megan at EasytobeRaw.  This recipe serves two.  I doubled it for the potluck, but I shouldn't have.  I had too much leftover, and it has a short shelf life so it was wasted.  The recipe calls for frozen bananas.  I didn't have frozen bananas so I just used bananas that weren't frozen.  This is good.

Ingredients:  3 bananas, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1-1/2 cup strawberries, Crumble made from dates coconut and raisins.   Make the crumble in the food processor by pulsating until nice and crumbly.  1/4 cup coconut, 1/4 cup raisins, and 4 pitted dates.  Set aside.  Next put 3 frozen or chilled bananas in the food processor until creamy.  You can put these in parfait glasses or a single glass serving bowl.  Layer as follows:  Creamy bananas, layer of crumble, strawberry layer, blueberry layer, crumble layer, banana layer, strawberry layer, blueberry layer.

For supper, I made that awesome Green Drink again that I made yesterday, finished off the watermelon and had a few walnuts..  Since we are packing to leave for Philly tomorrow, I juiced all the celery, beets and carrots in the fridge to take with us in the car (Veggie Cocktails).

I'm excited about the trip to Philly and seeing my family there.  The race is on for the countdown to the trip to Australia on June 16. 

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Simple, Raw and Natural

I created this blog, Simple, Raw and Natural, to share with others in my journey towards a more simple, natural lifestyle.  I don't want to focus on illness so just a short history.  My raw food journey began about five years ago when I became ill.  My illness, like most illnesses, was never diagnosed, but I did receive many prescriptions for symptoms.  I only became sicker.  I made three trips to the emergency room.  The last time I stopped at the emergency room on my way home from work because I had a sensation of not being able to swallow.  It was very frightening.  I realized that the hospital personnel didn't know how to help me, so I got up and went home.  I began to look for an alternative in earnest.  I prayed for a solution, and the next morning I had a strong impression..."Get out your Fit for Life books".  So that is where I started.

At this time, I was too sick to go to work, so my dear husband, Travis, stopped at Walmart and got me the most expensive juicer they had.  I began to juice fruit in the mornings and vegetables in the evening.  The first night I fixed the carrot-beet-celery cocktail within twenty minutes I felt like I might could get well.  I was able to sit up on the couch for a few minutes before going back to bed.  That juicer only lasted a few weeks.  Then I upgraded to an Omega.  Now I use a Breville.

I began to look for Natural Hygiene practitioners to help me find a way to get better.  In the course of time, I found Dr. John Fielder who has a healing retreat near Cairns, Australia.  I flew to Houston and met John in 2007 when he was lecturing there.  In 2008, I began to study the Lifestyle Consultant's Course in Natural Living that he teaches.  Even though I was eating healthier than anyone else I knew, I again got very sick.  At this time, I began to consult with Dr. Fielder on a weekly basis.  His suggestions to me were the following:

Eat only raw foods.  Drink only water.  Be outside in the fresh air every day.  Walk everyday if possible.  Be in the sunshine everyday.  Avoid all stress.   Pray and/or meditate and expect to be healed.

For almost a full year, I followed this prescription as nearly as I could.  And, I began to get better.

So that's enough of talking about the sickness....Let's talk about the journey to simple, raw and natural.

I am having a terrible time with my knees.  I feel like bones in my legs are broken.  It all started because I want to get fit before I go to Australia in June to Dr. Fielder's farm.   So I started trying to do the Couch to 5K program.  About midway through the second week, my knees began to hurt.  At first, I tried to push through the pain, but finally realized this wasn't working for me.  Then I switched to the Pedometer program and walked 5k one day.  But right now I am totally out of commission.  Somehow I have injured my knees and ankle.  I'm serious about thinking the bones are broken.  Will bones split?  That's what it feels like.

My food for today was yummy.  For lunch I juiced oranges and mixed the orange juice and chopped pineapple in the Vita-Mix.  Orange-Pineapple Juice.  I also made a recipe that I got from Megan Elizabeth on her YouTube Channel.  She called it "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal", but it doesn't have any oatmeal in it.  It is 4 cups of chopped apples, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 2 pitted dates, and 1/4 cup raw almonds.  Pulse it a few time in the food processor until it is chopped up good.  Top it with a couple of bananas creamed in the the Vita-Mix.  You can use frozen bananas, but my bananas were not frozen.  This made enough for me and Travis both.  Thumbs up on this one.

For supper we had a Green Juice recipe I got from Dan McDonald.  From the garden I got parsley, cilantro, dill, and kale.  From the store I got lemon, lime, turmeric, hot pepper, cucumber, broccoli and asparagus.  I juiced it all in the Breville.  Spicy hot but really good.  Travis liked it, too.

I'm also trying to be more conscious of the plastics we throw away.  Now that I have learned about the huge Pacific Ocean garbage dump full of our plastic garbage I can hardly stand to get another plastic bag.  No longer can I buy water in plastic bottles. Even trying to avoid plastic, it's impossible to avoid it completely.  It is EVERYWHERE!   I am carrying my bags to the store now and looking for products that aren't packaged in plastic.  I ordered bar soap to wash dishes with once my Dawn is gone.  I received the paper wrapped bars in a cardboard box with PLASTIC bubble wrap inside the box.  Go figure.  I have also ordered shampoo that comes in a bar. I've gone back to buying dishwasher detergent in a cardboard box.  And Travis got me a pencil sharpener at a garage sale, so I can use wooden pencils.  I still have a bunch of plastic pencils and pens.  I'm thinking when we have lunch at church that I will have to stop eating on the Styrofoam plates and stop using the plastic ware.  It's crazy.