Claggy posted a comment the other day, which I have a great appreciation for because it sounds like he went through a lot of trouble to do so ;), and it led me to conduct a couple Google searches. He mentioned a "raw food diet" and I was intrigued. I've looked into veganism, vegetarianism, and other kinds of foodisms and although raw foodism is something I've heard of it isn't something I've really read too much about. So I did! The gist of it, or so I perceived from what I've read, is that raw foodists believe that cooking food kills nutrients and causes a loss in the "life force" of food. They claim cooking food over around 116 degrees F kills enzymes in the food that are essential to optimal digestion and absorption of food. Raw food diets focus on eating fresh foods, no processed foods (i.e. flour, dairy, refined sugar), as a means by which to receive the most vitamins, minerals, and enzymes from their diet. This means no meat or fish, no processed snack foods, and generally no eggs. It sounds like a lot of work, so why go to the trouble? Well, raw food diets have a number of benefits that include: increased energy, improved skin appearance, better digestion, weight loss, and reduced risk of heart disease. Rock on.
I whole-heartedly intend to try a few raw food diet recipes, but I was also interested to see that there are a number of raw food products you can buy online. One website that really caught my attention, and I think you'll know why ;), was www.ulimana.com. Raw chocolate. Truffles, spreads, cacao mixes, brownies, it all looks absolutely delicious. So delicious in fact, that I'm ordering some. Thank you Claggy! I'm not at all familiar with raw diets, but another product idea I would reccomend looking into is raw almond butter. IT'S SO GOOD. My favorite brand so far is MaraNartha, but it's kind of pricey so it's a rarity around here. It's a great way to kick up fruits and veggies though, which any raw foodie, I would assume, would eat fairly frequently.
I'm intrigued, and I've looked into a few recipes to try, but most of them require special ingredients/equiptment. I'm definitely going to attempt a few though, so watch for them to come!!!
In other news... I received a ridiculously awesome package in the mail today via Amazon!!!
That, my friends, is a 52-piece piping set, an "instruction" book, and 12 Wilton cake icing dyes. AWESOME :D. Basically, I'm going to try and learn to do all those fancy flower decorations and stuff like that, kick my occasion cakes up a notch. So look for those, too, my birthday cakes will hopefully now be exponentially more awesome!
I also have a cookie recipe I want to try in the next day or two, one inspired by my recent trip to Bloomington for orientation, so check back, should be fun stuff!
Molly, once again your posts have made me laugh a little when I read them. I'm really supposed to be getting ready for my party tomorrow. Which, I wholeheartedly expect you to be at. Anyways, I saw the link as your facebook status and I was like, "Oh shit, I haven't been reading Molly's blog at all. She is going to be soo dissapointed that she hasn't gotten to read my amazing comments recently." So, I decided that I should get on and comment so that you could enjoy them once again. This raw food diet sounds very intriguing. I'm not sure I would be able to do it though. I like beef and pork too much. I mean how could you live without bacon? So, anyways, good luck with these raw recipes, you'll have to let me know how they turn out. Oh, don't worry about the grammar and punctuation. Everyone's is going downhill these days. I blame txting personally....
ReplyDeleteWe do indeed have raw almond butter, and of course, it is delicious! And here is something you should definitely try out, it is tasty.
ReplyDeleteIngredients (brand we have):
-Sprouted 100% whole grain ezekiel bread (food for life)
-organic coconut oil (nutiva)
-raw honey (eisele's)
-raw almond butter (trader joe's)
-organic shelled hemp seed
-bee pollen
Easy to make:
Take a slice of ezekiel bread, spread some coconut oil on it. Then put it in the toaster (yes AFTER you put the coconut oil on the bread) for a short amount of time, so it doesn't get too crispy/cooked (thought if you would prefer it that way that is fine too...). Once out of the toaster, spread the raw honey on the bread, followed by spreading the almond butter on top of the honey. Then sprinkle a bunch of hemp seed on top, and you may put a couple to a few pinches of bee pollen with that if you please. So yeah, you should try it out. Best toast ever (and healthiest)! It provides a ton of protein (in the bread, the hemp seed, almond butter, and bee pollen), omega-3, and other good stuff. Hemp seed and bee pollen are both superfoods... and hemp seed can be put in and on basically anything and it will provide your food with a good amount more of protein. It doesn't taste like much and the hemp seeds are soft to chew.
We just got a dehydrator and a spiralizer in last week, so my mom is starting to experiment with more raw food recipes using those. The nut burgers she made with the dehydrator a couple of nights ago were surprisingly delicious.