Sunday: Papaya, Green Juice, and Monopoly

Sunday was not am incredibly eventful day, but it was nice and sunny! For breakfast I had 2/3 of a lovely papaya. Now the way I eat papaya is unique. I take my portion of the papaya, peel it, and cut the "meat" into cubes. I take 2/3 of my portion of papaya, put it into my Vitamix (just got it and I love it so much! Makes everything so smooth and creamy.) along with juice from half a lime and a tsp. of vanilla, and blend for 25 seconds. It makes a lovely papaya pudding!! I eat this happily with a big spoon, and finish off my breakie with the last 1/3 of my papaya cubes.

Since the weather was so nice I spent a good portion of the ay taking walks around my neighborhood and listening to my iPod. My neighbors probably think I'm nuts when they watch me walk by their houses. Every  30 minutes or so they see an 18 year old girl in a pink and white sun dress and flip-flops with ear buds in her ears singing and dancing down the road with a goofy grin on her face. LOL! :D

I also spent a bit of time at Starbucks with my mom. We sat outside to soak up more sun while she had a soy chai tea latte and I had an Ethos water. I think we were there for about an hour or some just talking about anything that came to mind. That day the topic centered mostly on Darwinian Evolution, Intelligent Design, and America's educational system. My mom is reading a book about how these three topics are connected together and how they have and are reshaping America's morals and culture.

Later that evening my mom decided that we needed to do something together as a family. So my brother, mother, and I sat down at the kitchen table with our green juices and watermelon (an hour after the juices), and played monopoly! :) I don't know how he did it, but my brother somehow managed to win the game!!

2 apples, 1/4 a lemon, thumb size of ginger, 4 celery sticks, 2 leaves of dinosaur kale, 1 heaping tsp. spirulina blended with 6 ice cubes.

                                  

                                     

 

Afterwards my mom and I went out to pick up some dinner for my brother. He really wanted a Chili's Old Timer Bean Burger with fries so we got him one. When we got back I made myself a quarts worth of yummy mango, kiwi, pineapple, and banana smoothie and watched a Psych with my family. All in all not a bad Sunday.

 

Friday: Market Day

I absolutely ADORED the weather today! It was nice and warm with low humidity, a light breeze, and clear blue skies with a bunch of fluffy white clouds. Since today was Friday, it meant it was time for my mom and I to undertake our weekly grocery shopping excursion in Atlanta. So when I woke up this morning I made myself a lovely green smoothie to finish off the last of the fresh produce from last week. The smoothie turned out looking more purple/bluish than green but it tasted divine!

A lovely concoction: 2 C. frozen banana, 1 1/2 C. blueberries, 1/2 C. strawberries, 2 C. romaine lettuce, &  a tbs. of raw honey 

After breakfast I was feeling really energized so I decided to take my dog, Charlie, for a mile long walk before I was to leave for the day to go grocery shopping. Honestly I was feeling so good, that if I had more time, I would have walked quite a few more miles. I was just glad though that I got to enjoy the lovely sunshine and fresh air for a little while at least. :)

Now when my mother and I go shopping for food, we go to three markets: 1) Whole Foods, 2) Rainbow Natural Foods, and #) the Dekalb Farmers' Market. We go to whole foods because it has the organic versions of the food my brother eats (tofurky brats, organic potato chips, hummus, root beer, cereal, Udo's oil, canned pumpkin, etc.) They also have a great salad and juice bar that my mom and I love to have lunch at. Today I had a nice big bowl of spinach with pineapple, strawberries, and cucumber with a fresh juice of lemon, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

 

The next stop we make (Rainbow) is because it has a lot of the foods that my mother and brother eat (hempseed, raw organic nuts, whole grain pasta, sprouted corn tortillas, grits, soy milk, raw cacao powder, etc.). I usually get my raw honey, seaweed, bee pollen, aloe vera, and sometimes a raw kombucha as a treat, from Rainbow. Today, however, was a rare exception where we didn't need anything from Rainbow. 

 

Since my mom and I had some extra time we decided to make a quick stop at the Lush store at the mall close by Whole Foods. I got a couple of freshly made face masks made with whole and natural ingredients. I got the Cupcake which has rhassoul mud, linseed, cacao butter, cacao powder. peppermint, spearmint, and sandalwood it it. It smells like chocolate! I've used this one before in Europe and it reduced my pours, cleared up come black heads, and made my skin glow! I also got the Cosmetic Warrior which has fresh garlic, tea tree essential oil, kaolin, grapes, honey, free range egg, and corn. I tried it for the first time tonight. The smell was a bit off putting, but the results more than made up for that! My skin was was so soft and clear, I don't know which one I like better, the Cupcake or the Cosmetic Warrior.

The last stop of the day, the Dekalb Farmer's Market, is my favorite stop of the three. Here I load up on yummy fresh leafy greens, veggies, and LOTS of luscious fruit! I have to share with my mom (and on occasion with my brother) the fresh produce purchased, but I don't mind much because I can always get more from our local grocers if I really need to, and the more raw plant based foods my family eats, the better. Today I bought:

• 4 organic mangos (will be getting more from Ingles when their organic shipment gets in on Monday)
• 1 big papaya
• 3 big bunches of organic banana
• a pint of organic strawberries
• a pkg. of organic blueberries
• 8 organic gala apples
• 7 organic lemons
• 1 HUGE watermelon
• 1 lb. red globe grapes
• 2 guavas (never had them before, wonder what they taste like)
• 2 mamey sapote ( I have been dying to try these! Heard they are quite tasty.)
• 1 stalk of organic celery
• 2 organic cucumber
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 bunch organic dinosaur kale
• 4 organic zucchini
• a jicama
• ginger
• a bunch of organic radishes
• mushrooms, potatoes, green beans, EVO, and whole wheat bagels (for my mom & brother)

When my mom and I got home, I set about washing everything, chopping, pre-prepping, and putting all the produce away. I also went into the backyard to collect what might be the last crop of tomatoes and bell pepper from our garden. This means that we will have to start buying them from the Farmers' Market again. While this is fine, I really loved having really REALLY fresh and flavorful tomatoes at my disposable when ever I wanted some. :(

For dinner I had a bunch of watermelon (so sweet!) which I will be finishing off completely tomorrow. And now that the day has come to an end I feel quite good. Time to get some rest. I plan on going to the park tomorrow to do some more walking and maybe lie in the sun afterwards to read.

Pure fruit beauty. A perfect meal. Such a succulent indulgence.

I always cut up some nice ripe bananas and freeze them for my brother. He loves it when I make him raw cacao hemp banana smoothies for breakfast or for his post-karate work out recovery drink! :D

Home again. . . want to go back to Oxford!

As the title of my post says, I am finally home. I am truly going to miss Oxford. I have never in my life felt as happy and healthy as I did in Oxford. You can walk everywhere there! That mens lots of exercise and lots of fresh air. They have wonderful restaurants with amazing raw salads and coleslaws, and delicious smoothie bars all over the place. 

When the ASA program was over and my mom came to pick me up I was able to go every morning to the covered market and pick up ORGANIC,  FRESH, and LOCAL fruits (that didn't cost a fortune) to have for breakfast. Since I only had to buy what I needed for my breakfast (because I could come back for lunch or dinner) the enzymes in the food were at their peak (I didn't have to store any food in the fridge).  I could go for walks in the park, take a ride on the bus to view the countryside, spend hours in bookshops, talk to the people, visit museums, and all sorts of other things. There were so many beautiful flowers and intricate architecture. *nostalgic sigh*

Now that I am home I feel so antsy. There is no where to walk, I have to drive everywhere, and the parks look so dull and sparse of nature. One thing is for sure, I am going to find a place in the U.S. where I can be surrounded by nature, can walk as much as I please. America is so massive that there must be a place similar to Oxford, right?

 

On the brighter side, I am meeting with some friends from my former home school co-op (PCLA) to plan a trip to Italy and Spain sometime next spring, and my brother, mother, and I are planning a trip to Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado during Winter break. Now that I have had a taste of travel, I don't want to stop! I just have two more years here in Georgia, then I can move out west!

Seeing Oxford has made me want to spend my time left here in the south in as productive a way as possible. I plan on renewing my membership to Johnson Park so I can start swimming laps again, try to sell some of my photography, get started on my fall garden, and maybe get involved in some nature groups.

I made so many friends while at the ASA program. They all excepted me for who I was, and my lifestyle choice they commended. They admired my quest to stay healthy and never made an issue out of it. For once I could just hang out with a bunch of people my age without feeling self-concious. I was even confident enough to sing solo on karaoke night and put all my heart and soul into reading a the part of Queen Margaret when my history class did a reading of Shakespeare's Richard III! I plan on never letting go of this new found confidence. I am 18 now and it's time for me to stop being afraid of what other people, my friends, and my family think. If I believe something I should not be afraid to express it. Bring on life!! :D

The Covered Market of Oxford

 

         Laying in the sun at the Botanic Garden

My favorite salad while in Oxford at The Gourmet Burger, yummy!

Ingredients: Romaine lettuce, arugula, red onion, cherry tomato, and mashed up avocado w/black pepper.

Sunny Sunflower (Botanic Garden) :D

Garlic and onion set to dry in one of the Botanic Garden's greenhouses.

I wish I owned Oxford's Botanic Garden!

  Such lovely flowers, veggies, and fruit!

Me! :D

My Mom!

Produce stand in Bath, they had the BEST peaches and Victorian plums (which wound up being my lunch) LOL

     Stonehenge

Tower of London (I was such a tourist for taking this photo)

Salad with friends at the Eagle & Child Pub in Oxford (C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both wrote their books here!)

Ingredients: Butterhead lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato, red onion, sunflower seeds, dried cherries, dried raisins, and a balsmic vinaigrette dressing.


My hand flowing through the warming and healing hot spring waters in Bath.

     The Roman Baths in Bath!

Produce at the Camden Market in London. They had the most sweet and JUICY italian green grapes and english raspberries!!

Living, Learning, and Raw in the UK!

Hellloooo people! :)

Sorry for such a large gap between posts. This summer program at Oxford is just filling my schedule to the brim! I have a wonderful British history teacher and a fantastic teacher for my "Money, Medicine, and the Environment in the Developing World" (she's from Italy!). We are having so many wonderful debates about slave labour in China, Organics, Fair Trade, and buying locally for local economical enrichment. All of the girls can't seem to get over how much fruit and greens I eat everyday, and the guys all are having a hard time believing that I'm not going to drop dead any second from lack of protein since I don't eat meat! LOL.

Eating and staying on a raw plant based diet has been SO much easier than I though it would be. There is a wide variety of fruit to eat in the morning (melons, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, tangerines, plums, peaches, kiwi, lemons, bananas, apples, and pears), they serve all 

of those fruits (with the exception of the melons and pineapple) at dinner too, as well as some nice greens, tomatoes, and cucumber. In town there is a lovely covered market that sells a variety of fruit as well.

The first thing I had to get over when I cam here was how much flavor all the fruit had. I am not kidding here! The fruit tastes amazing!!! The only thing that tastes better at home

 is the tomatoes I grow at hom ein my backyard.

Besides my studies I have had the opportunity to visit Christ's Church in Oxford, Blenhim Palace in Oxfordshire, and the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery,and another covered market in London.

England is just so beautiful and I have taken so many photos that I plan on keeping FOREVER!

I'm going to the covered market in Oxford tomorrow with my RA and the other girls on our floor (I can't wait to see their fruit selection as well as their freshly juiced juices *grin*) after our classes for lunch, and then we plan on going to tour Murton College, which was the very first college of Oxford University.

New Fruits That I Have Had in the UK That I have Never Tried Before:

- Spanish Melon (this is now my favorite type of melon next to watermelon)

- Pomegranate

Tomorrow if I can I will be posting some photos. It's too late at night here at the moment. I am so tired! It's been a long day. . . Bon Nuit (Good Night)! :D