This will be my last post of the year, WOW! It's hard to believe this year is just about gone, but with the days flying by so fast it's to be expected I suppose. I hope you all have a grand year in 2010!!
In 2010 I shall strive to:
Take things less seriously. Sometimes. . . ok MOST of the time I have a hard time lightening up around my family when their goofing off, I need to just push back my life pondering and just enjoy the company of my loving family.
Take constructive criticism better. The perfectionist in me seems to always raise its ugly head whenever I feel threatened by what someone is saying to me. I am striving to stop down my overly defensive nature. I have to remember that when my family and friends are criticizing me about something, that they are doing it to help to get better at whatever it was that I made mistake about. So instead I am going to work on taking other people's criticism with a positive attitude.
Build muscle mass! Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy with my body. It took me most of me high school to get over my body image issues, so the reason I want to get some more lean muscle mass is for the health benefits. Face it, people, women in my case, benefit from having SOME muscle tone (not looking to be a body builder here). I just think that if I were stronger that I could do more amazing things like rock climbing and garden tilling! Also I want to see if by obtaining some more muscle over my patellas (knee caps) might help give them better support since they haven't been the same since I accidentally dislocated both of them during high school.
Move out of Georgia. I lived in Hawaii for the first year of my life and then California until I turned five. Despite that, most of my life memories involve Georgia. I have lived in the same place for the past thirteen years and I am ready to find a new place to put some roots, preferably in a place where for a majority of the year it's warm and sunny (what can I say, Hawaii and California spoiled me).
Blog and youtube more regularly. So many times i've come up with good ideas for a post or video, but half the time I don't bother to do make the video or write the post. I am being inconsistent and I don't like that, so in this new year I plan on writing and youtubing on a more consistent basis. Hopefully I can come up with some good stuff that you guys will find useful.
Today, as is you can see, I bought a lot of bananas! My family and I go through quite a few bananas throughout any given week, and I was just getting tired of running back and forth to the store JUST to buy bananas. So today I drove down to my local Kroger and bought every ripe or almost ripe banana bunches they had. I think I can now be confident that I can grab some bananas to devour without worrying that my mother or brother might want one because there is plenty for all!
I have had quite an eventful week. I created some new recipes, my special superfood order came in, my friend Terra moved back from Oklahoma, I've looking at potential property with my mom, I've been working on CSNN and college applications, and helping out my lovely mother any way I can. Lot's of stuff and I'm loving it all! I really enjoy keeping busy, especially these last couple of days as I have been feeling steadily euphoric. I don't know why but for the last couple of days I have been feeling so good both physically and mentally. I hope it lasts.
So let's start with my superfood order. Now, since my raw plant based diet is basically the exact same thing as the rv80/10/10 diet, I don't really do superfoods anymore. However, with the economy the way it is today, it doesn't hurt to stock up on nutritionally dense supplements that are as close to a whole food as possible. Bananas, I believe, will always be relatively cheap and available, but other fresh fruits and greens (especially organic) might become more difficult to afford and/or obtain. So, my mom and I decided to stock up on cacao powder (my brother loves this stuff), spirulina (because it contains B12), and a sample pack of some other superfoods to try to see what we like.
For the last couple of months my mom and I have been looking around online for plots of land for sale within our price range. We both would like to be able to have enough land to start a garden, have a goat and a horse, and start a bee farm, and living in suburbia puts a clincher in this dream. Last Friday we discovered a 10 acre plot with a barn and a small lake up for sale, and only 45 minutes from where we live. My mom and I went out to take a look at it and found it had potential. I don't think we will be making an offer on it anytime soon because we do want to see what else is out there, but it was nice to actually SEE something that could give us a better idea of what we're looking for.
The stairs lead to a living apartment. Basically if you lived here you would be living above the barn. :D
As for recipes, I have created the most AMAZING raw Cinnamon Apricot Jam. It's a big hit with my mom. She and I can polish a batch of this stuff of in about 4 days, so I have to have dried apricots on hand all the time. Seriously everyone, this stuff is now officially a staple in my household for the rest of this winter. My mom likes to spread it on her nine grain toast in the morning, and I like to have it as a dipping sauce for my crispy sweet apples.
Cinnamon Apricot Jam
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1 1/2 C. dried apricots, soaked in water for 6-12 hours
1 1/2 Clementines or Tangerines
1/8 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tbs. Raw Honey or 3 Medjool Dates
Blend until thick, smooth, and creamy!
This recipe is so good and SO easy to make, that I plan on making a recipe video on how to make this, just look for it sometime within the next week at - http://www.youtube.com/user/Rawaholic.
Today I tried two new recipes that I've been meaning to try but haven't ever got around to it because I never was able to have all the ingredients on hand at the same time. The first one was a recipe that I got from joannabanana (check out her blog at - http://acupofjoanna.blogspot.com/) on the goneraw.com forums. She has ranted and raved about this green smoothie and I just had to give it a try today for my lunch. OMG it was the BEST green smoothie I have ever tried. I put like a TON of spinach into this smoothie and I didn't taste any of the greens.
Green Grape Smoothie
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2 C. red Grapes
1 C. frozen Bananas
4 1/2 C. Spinach
I will be making more of this tomorrow only with even MORE spinach now that I know the taste won't be coming through anytime soon. Grapes and bananas do wonders in dominating the flavor of this luscious concoction.
Then for dinner I made a lovely raw fruit cereal out of 2 large bananas, 1 1/4 C. blueberries, and 1 C. raspberries with fresh coconut milk (just the water and meat of 1 Thai coconut blended with a splash of vanilla). I haven't really had any overt fats in the last week (i.e. oil, avocado, nuts, & seeds) so this was a real treat for me, and man did I love it! So good. . .
Am I making you all green with envy yet? Hehehe! :D
I think that's about it this time, it's getting late and I get up at 5:50 a.m. every morning to I need to get some sleep. Posted below me are a video that I found on youtube that I think are worth sharing with you. Feel free to make comments on anything that you read or watch on this post or my blog in general, and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
Ok, ever since last Friday the weather has been feeling WAY more like winter, and as a result, I have been feeling so COLD! I tried eating warming foods (ginger, hot peppers, greens ect.),drinking tea, and wearing warming clothing, but I couldn't lose the chill.
Today though was when I found a remedy. Since it has been much chillier outside I have avoided exercising outside, but today I gave myself a kick in the butt and told myself get out there and MOVE! So I bundled up, grabbed my iPod, hooked it up onto my brother's bike (he's so nice to let me borrow it whenever I want), and hit the road!
For 20 minutes I peddled as hard as I could before it started to rain and I had to go inside. But do you know what? Half way through my ride I actually wanted to take my jacket off because I was becoming quite warm. For the rest of today I haven't felt cold, at all!
I think the reason that going outside to exercise (even though it was cold) actually warmed my body up was because 1) exercising increases blood flow in the body which makes your body warmer and 2) going outside in the cold allows you body to start adapting to the colder environment after experiencing 4 months of warmer weather. I think I'm going to be exercising outside for the rest of this winter!
In other news, I think I may have turned my brother Benjamin onto kombocha! He tried his first glass at our Thanksgiving dinner and he loved it. In fact tonight he came to my door and asked me if he could have the rest of my grape flavored kombocha. Of course I told him yes. Kombocha is loaded with antioxidants, probiotics, B vitamins (B12 included), and essential amino acids. I'm hoping that it will help him fight off his cold. I love my brother to death and just makes me so happy that we can both enjoy something that's healthy! :D
I think that's all for today, except for a couple of pictures of what I had for lunch today. It was just so beautifully simple, bright, colorful, and delicious that I just wanted to share it with you all. My lunch just reminded me how refreshing and satisfying a raw plant based lifestyle can be.
Hello everybody! Like the title says, it has been a looooong day! I had to get up at about 5:30 this morning to drive into Atlanta to retake my SATs. I figured that since I was taking a gap year to study nutrition, it wouldn't hurt to try and up my score a hundred points or so. All went smoothly and I'm feeling pretty good about the test! So this morning before the drive up to Atlanta, my mother and I started out our day with a lovely smoothie (which do to my tight time schedule I was unable to photograph.) It consisted of 2 cups pomegranate juice (juiced the night before), 3 bananas, two cups frozen wild blueberries, and a heaping tsp. of raw honey. Mom and I wanted to give our minds and bodies powerful fuel (I was going to need it!). The test seemed to last FOREVER, but I managed to get through it by refueling with a snack of organic dried mulberries (yummy!). These delicious berries are high in fiber, protein, iron, and calcium so eat up! Eventually the test was over and I was out of there, at 1:20 PM. : p Afterwards I went with my mom to Rainbow Natural Groceries (where I got myself a nummy salda) and The Farmer's Market to restock on food. When we got home I got to croon over my beautiful booty of grapes, apple, pineapple, tangerines, dried apricots, coconut water, celery, cauliflower, kale, tomatoes, banana, frozen berries, 3 bottles of kombacha (they were on sale!) and an entire BOX of of Hachiya Persimmons!!
ALL MINE!! :D:D:D
Spent the rest of the day doing house work until it was time for dinner. First I made my brother a nutrient and enzyme packed smoothie to have before he made his stir-fry because he's been saying he feel like he's been coming down with something. When my mom found out she asked me to make enough for her as well as she wanted to make sure her immune system was in top form. Here's what I came up with:
The Immune Allies Smoothie
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1 C. chopped pineapple
2 tangerines, peeled & deseeded
1 C. fresh or frozen bananas
9 frozen strawberries (or handful of fresh)
1/2 Tbs. Raw Honey
1/4 C. Water
Blend until smooth.
Later, for myself, I made a nice big, thick, and creamy delight!
Dreaming of Paradise Smoothie
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1 mango
1 1/2 C. chopped pineapple
1 1/2 ripe bananas
1/2 Tbs. raw honey
1/2 C. fresh thai coconut water
Blend until smooth.
At the moment I am snacking on some globe grapes while surfing the internet. I am just so relieved that this day is finally done. I can stop worrying about the SAT and focus on my CSNN studies again. I hope everyone has a beautiful day, and that your life will be much blessed.
