Ending on a Fabulous note!!

Here is some pictures of the beautiful pound cake that I made for the family for dessert tonight. Doesn't it look so delicious?!!!

They said it was fabulous and they topped it with strawberries and cool whip. I would have liked to have had a piece but I was saving myself for something very special that you will soon see.

I trained at 4:30 and got done with my training session at 5:30. I ate this banana and then I hit the elliptical for 30 minutes. I had a great cardio session and left sweaty but good. I stopped at the store for supplies for my morning juice and some collard to make this delicious wrap.

I headed up the rest of the grilled veggies from last night and made these collard wraps from Gena blog, Choosing Raw. I had never had collard so I was excited about trying a new vegetable tonight. I whipped up some vegan Italian pizza cheese early today and I was excited about giving it a try.

It was fabulous! My daughter came home so I shared one of my wraps with her. She loved it some much she made herself another. It was so good and it truly did resemble ricotta cheese. I look forward to eating this again. The cheese was made up of cashews, salt, lemon juice, basil and sun dried tomatoes. Yummy!! Anyone considering incorporating some raw food into their diet has to try time one. Definitely a keeper.

Now for the Big surprise and something I have been dieing to try. When I stopped at the store for my collard greens I picked up dried pineapple for this delicious dessert. I decided the last minute to make them tonight and my daughter was kind enough to help, of course she got to taste and took some to share with her girlfriends.

These are called, "Dreaming about Donut Holes" this recipe is from a new book that I ordered and am excited about giving other recipes in the book try. The book is called Ani's raw food kitchen, by Ani Phyo. I sampled the dough and have to say they are quite delicious. I have them in the refrigerator and I think I will be having two of these for my snack tonight.

They made up of almonds, sea salt, vanilla bean, dried pineapple, pitted dates and coconut. Hubby even like this one and I am sure my son will enjoy them as well since they are very sweet. I have had a great day of eat and two successful new recipes to add to my every growing list of delicious food. Have I told you lately how much I am enjoying this journey? Well I am!!

Continuing with Raw Eating

I woke up this morning eager to start of my day with a delicious juice. I did wait until I felt like I need to eat and I make my juice out of these wonderful ingredients about 8:30.

I was delicious and made about a glass and half of delicious green goodness. I remember to take out the pulp of celery and apples before juicing the rest and eat it with a little cinnamon and agave nectar. Not bad!

I did some blog reading and a little house clean too. I start getting hungry again about 10:00 and had a nice bowl of blueberries. yummy!!

There is a little Asian grocery store down the road and I thought I would run over and see if I could find any good finds. I was very disappoint there was not much in there and I have to admit I came home feeling kind of defeated. I did buy some spring roll sheet and I look forward to filling them with fresh wonderful veggies.

I got home around 11:30 and was feeling a little hungry but wasn't quite ready for lunch so I snacked on a nice bowl of grapes. I have some strawberries that my in laws picked and I decided that I wanted to make some homemade pound cake for the boys. So I search out a recipe and made a beautiful loaf. (I will try to remember to take a picture of this) I need to cut up the strawberries and put in a little sugar before I head out to my training. My trainer called and asked if we could move the time so I won't train until 4:30 today. Looks like it will be a little later dinner tonight.

I began making my lunch around 1:00 today. Although I am eager to begin eating Raw, I want to make sure that none of the food in the house gets wasted. Today lunch was spinach, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, cucumber, broccoli, avocado (I mashed it and added: red onion, tomato and cumin) and the last "Chik" patty from the freezer. I nice big salad that hit the spot and tend to keep me full for awhile. Since I will be eating late today I will pack some raw nuts and dried fruit to hold me over.

Grilled Veggies!!

I have been thinking about these for awhile and i just had to cook some up tonight for dinner. Although it was raining it didn't stop me and it was SO worth the effort. I just loved these guys. Since I am in the beginning stages of eating Raw, dinners are the only meal that I will be having cooked foods.

I served the veggies over whole wheat pasta and 1/4 cup of cannelini beans this is an old picture and tonight I opted out of having nuts. The Detox diet encourages you not to mix certain food together and nuts is one that should not be eaten with pasta. Today was the first full day of this diet and it has gone well and I was surprised how much I have been going pee.. I haven't even been drinking that much water. I should not be surprised since fresh fruits and vegetables do contain quite a bit of water.

Since I had didn't have dinner until 6:40 I decided to finish of my food today with a nice piece of dark chocolate that I bought. I don't normally really enjoy dark chocolate but this really hit the spot I enjoyed every little piece.

I think I will do some reading over of the The Raw Food Detox diet tonight. I look forward to starting off tomorrow with a nice juice from the juicer. I will have to stop at the store and pick up some fruits and veggies to make these. I am excited about seeing how I feel with this different approach to eating and nutrition. I`encourage anyone who feel like they are in a rut to consider a different approach to eating there is no RIGHT way of eating. I have use this approach during the 120 pound weight loss. I did not use just one diet to reach my goal there were many diets along the way and it help each and every time not only to continue reducing my weight but also to experiment with a different approach to eating and weight loss. Are you up for a new challenge?

Recap!

I have been a little out of sorts from getting from Michigan but I am trying to get back in the swing of things and that includes my eating. I was far from perfect while on vacation and I could tell it, I felt crappy for a good two days after. I saw these at the store the other day and since I love a sale I picked them up to give them a try. They were pretty good.

I put them in a delicious salad so I couldn't really taste them but the texture was similar to chicken and I guess that's all that mattered in a salad. I have been doing some reading of other people blogs and have been doing a little experimenting with Raw Eating. As you can see my lunch was pretty raw except the "fake" meat. I have had some interest in doing some "juicing" as well.

Here is my first attempt. I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond and had a 20% off coupon. I just couldn't help myself and bought a juicer everyone has been talking about online, Breville. Of course I am a little kid in a toy store and got home and couldn't wait to use it. So I wait until this afternoon snack to make my "first" juice. I ran to the store for Fuji apples and a lemon. First juice had celery, Kale, Fuji apple, ginger and lemon. It was really good and you got a lot of juice. I am excited about experimenting with juicing.

The thought of just throwing the pulp away didn't sit well with me. So I put some in a bowl with a little agave nectar and cinnamon. It was OK. I think next time I will remember to take the pulp out of just the celery and the apple. I saw that Sarah over at Lovinmytummy did it and she said it was pretty good. Now I just have to remember.

The book I have been reading is called "The Raw Food Detox Diet". I just love experimenting with new ideas and see how my body reacts to it. This also helps me from getting bored and stuck in the same old thing. I am not saying that I plan on doing a Raw Diet forever but right now it interests me so I am going to go with it.

Ready, Set.......

It has been a busy morning! I started of the day with a delicious sandwich. This is one of my all time favorites. It hits the spot every time. I have been busy all morning preparing for the big trip tomorrow. I have almost all my meals prepared and a check off list so I don't forget anything. The breakfast held me over pretty good and I started getting hungry around 11:00.

I decided to have another delicious salad since it really hit the spot yesterday. All the same fixings it makes such a big salad and I ate every single bit. I am really loving fresh veggies these days.

I also ate one of these. I am looking forwarded to working with the recipe and making it even better. Of course I was thinking about it after I went to bed and wanted to get up and try something new. I think I am going to use my pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer and see if I can get the dough really thin. Maybe I will work on that when I return from Michigan.

I finished of lunch with a nice bowl of blueberries a great lunch. I train at 2:30. The only thing left to make for the trip is some salad dressing and then to make sure everything gets pack tomorrow. Thats why I need to have the check off list.

Hubby will be doing dinner tonight so I don't have to worry about that. I never got around to having my mousse yesterday so I hope I can have it today.

Weight is doing well and I am thrilled. I have grow so much the past few months. I went from tracking every calorie that went into my mouth to just eating healthy. Don't get me wrong I am still watching it but have let go of the obsession aspect which is peaceful in itself.

Flax Seed Crackers

I was sitting here this evening looking threw one of my library cookbooks and came across this recipe. I had everything in the house and I just decided to make it right then. I tend to do that a lot and husband think I crazy cooking at 9:00 at night. Here is the dough.

You refrigerate the dough for 10-20 minutes and then roll out thin a two sheets of wax paper.

Cut and put on a greased cook sheet and cook for 15 minutes, flip and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Here is the finished product. Of course I had to test a couple. Not bad for the first attempt. I think next time I would like to roll them out even thinner. The recipe called for 24 crackers but rolling out according to that they are a little thick for my liking. But quite tasty will go good with some hummus or maybe I will crumble them up and put it on my salad tomorrow.

Well I am off to bed now that its 10:30.

Continuing to Grow!!

This morning I decided to have a bowl of oatmeal with a half a banana mushed in while cooking. I had a little difficulty with using the banana because I could have used it for some more ice cream!! But this was a creamy and delicious bowl of oats topped with some walnuts. Yummy!!

I had one last bean burger in the refrigerator so I made up a quick and easy lunch before heading out to get my hair done. Homemade bean burger with broccoli slaw that was mixed with some vinaigrette and topped with a little organic barbecue sauce. Quite delicious and it kept me full until about 2:30. I got done with my hair and then began my shopping. First of to Costco (love this store) pick up some delicious grapes, blueberries and sugar snap peas and stuff for the others members of the family. I opened the sugar snap peas in the car and munched on those while I finished the shopping.

I came home unloaded and put away the groceries. I cut up the cauliflower, began soaking some sunflower seed for my delicious hummus, washed the grapes and took them off the vines for easy eating. Ate a couple of those and then began making the chocolate chip cookies for my mother in law. I did lick the spoon and bowl but that was it. Not really that much of a cookie girl and I must admit the batter seemed a little too sweet for me. So I have the cookies and homemade pasta ready for her. I proceeded to make the boys there dinner. I cooked them up a pork tenderloin in an Asian type sauce. At this point it was almost 6:15 and I had no ideas what I was going to have. I have been reading Sarah blog Lovinmytummy and decided to make up a Huge Jass salad. Does it look good?

I can tell I am still continuing to grow with how I feel about food. This salad was good but I did have a little trouble telling myself it was OK to eat a whole avocado. But you know what? I did and I enjoyed every last bit of it.

Salad:

spinach, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, broccoli, cucumber, whole avocado mashed, little organic barbecue sauce and a mock chicken patty cut up. It was this huge bowl and I enjoyed every last drop of it.

I am thinking of making up some tofu mousse later for my late night snack. Right now I am pretty content so I might just hold off until tomorrow. Will play that one by ear.

Tomorrow I plan on straightening up the house, since the neighbor will be coming over to let the dog out, don't want her to see how we "really" live. :) I will prepare all my meals that I plan on taking with me. Last night I wrote them all out and made sure I had everything I needed.

Hope the sun comes out and the weather is nice for our trip back home. I always look forward to going home although it tends to be a little stressful since both my parents and my husband parents live there.

All in all I had a great day!