Tag Archives: raw vegan

The Strawberry Tree

Yesterday, I videotaped part of my walk so you could see the strawberry tree. Then I ate the strawberry I picked up.

Y’all, those things are awesome! Really, really sweet. The outsde is pretty bumpy and I didn’t care for it so much but the insdie? Delicious! David wouldn’t even try it. His loss. I didn’t die so it’s all good. 😀

Here’s the video. 🙂

 

Mamey…An Interesting Fruit

What IS that? That’s what I wondered when I saw this football shaped, sort of sweet potato thing on the produce table at the Mexican grocery store. I couldn’t find a sign to tell me what it was so when I came home, I googled “football shaped fruit” and I came up with this photo:

Clicking on the photo told me it was a mamey.

As I was watching the people I follow on YouTube, two of the guys were talking about the mamey sapote and how absolutely delicious it was. Now I was really intrigued.

It’s kind of pricey so I wasn’t willing to try it before hearing that it was really good. Plus, I wasn’t sure how to know if it was ripe. But after watching Fruit and Strength and Whole Future enjoying a mamey in their videos, I was ready to give it a try. 

I bought a mamey and it was quite far from being ripe. I bought it before we went to Oklahoma so I figured by the time we got back it would be ripe and ready to eat. It was.

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I opened it up and took the big seed and stringy things out. Then I tried it. Hmmm. Well, it’s supposed to be the texture of a ripe avocado and it was. But the taste that had been described was not what I tasted. I couldn’t finish it.

I’m not sure if I got a bad one and, maybe if they go on sale one day, I might try it again. Until then, I’m glad I gave it a try and I’m now ready to try jack fruit. I saw one at the regular grocery store the other day but, again, it was pricey. I have no idea how to tell if I’m getting a good one or not so I will save that. 

I found, on Yelp, a fruit market here in San Jose where they will help you pick out a good fruit and they have more exotic varieties. That’s on my list of places to visit! 🙂

Zoodles with Avocado Pesto Sauce

Oh. My. Goodness. This is one of the best things I’ve eaten. And it was pretty darned easy to make, too. 

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First I chopped a head of romaine to use as a base. Then I chopped a large Roma Tomato to put around the lettuce. If I’d had cherry tomatoes, that part would’ve been easier. 😀 Then I made zoodles out of two large zucchini.

Then I made the sauce:

1/2 avocado

1 clove garlic

3 large basil leaves

Juice from 1/2 a large lemon

1/2 a zucchini and the two long center pieces that are left after you made zoodles. 

A little water

Blend all ingredients until smooth, then toss the zoodles with it. Place the zoodles on top of the bed of lettuce and add cracked pepper to taste. Yummmmmmm!

 

B is for Bananas

It was about a year ago that David and I went to Banana Island. Banana Island, you ask? Where is that? Well, Banana Island is essentially a cleanse where you eat only bananas. We did it for three weeks and we felt amazing. 

bananaa

I figured it was an easy way to get started on the high carb, low fat, raw vegan lifestyle and I was right. It’s the only thing I ever did where I didn’t have sugar withdrawal.  Now, bananas are a HUGE part of our lives and we go through a lot of them each week.

Because we eat so many bananas each day, we always have to have some ripening. Since we moved, we still haven’t gotten far enough ahead of the game to have some to freeze and make ice cream out of which is a deficiency I need to correct. Soon. Spooning banana ice cream (frozen bananas put through the juicer with a blank = soft serve) off of celery sticks is a taste treat like no other. I also saw a recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream yesterday that I’d like to try. Anyway, I digress.

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Bananas are super good for you. We wait to eat them until they have brown spots on them. This makes them easier to digest and gives you a whole range of health benefits. 

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The other day, I got the surprise of a lifetime when I opened a banana and found twins inside! Trust me, I’ve eaten a lot of bananas in my 54 years and I’ve never seen this before. I was so weirdly excited. 

twins

I have blogged about bananas before but in the event you missed why I eat so many, the reason is because they are calorically dense. I’m a pretty large (5’11’ on a large frame) and extremely active person. If I eat a pound of lettuce, which is a lot of food, it’s still only around 100 calories which isn’t good enough. The bananas help to keep my calorie levels up. 

They are also a good workout. When I buy a case of bananas, 15 bunches, it’s somewhere around 40 pounds. I have to squat those babies eight times to get them from the car to the apartment. 🙂 

So, anyway, that’s the story of bananas in my life. I love them, they fill me up, they’re delicious. 🙂

I Am That Monkey

Yesterday, I ran over to Costco to get more frozen strawberries. Since I was there, I went ahead and grabbed six more bunches of bananas.  I’d just bought a case on Monday but since I always have to have them ripening I figured it would be a good idea.

monkey

The line was pretty long and the man behind me got a good chance to look at the contents of my basket. 

Him: Do you have a monkey at home?

Me: I AM that monkey. Some days I eat as many as 21 bananas.

Him: Well, you know they have a LOT of sugar.

Me: I assure you, I’m probably one of the healthiest people you’ve ever met. 

He looks like he’s considering this for a little bit. Then…

Him: You only eat bananas?

Me: No, I eat all kinds of fruits and veggies. 

Him: Well, then, you’d better write a book!

I had to laugh. It was just such a funny conclusion for him to come to. I’m sure he noticed that my diet made me a friendly person and I’m sure he’ll be looking for my book. 😉

Mango!

Since I started eating the high carb, low fat, raw vegan diet, I’ve listened to other raw foodies on YouTube extolling the virtues and deliciosity of mangoes. I didn’t think I’d ever eaten one and, honetlly, I wasn’t sure how.

mango

I saw the red kind of mango at Aldi several months ago and the glambaby and I were going to try it. I’m so glad I tried it first or she would’ve probably thought I was trying to poison her. It wasn’t good. I’m not sure if it was unripe or what. I sincerely had no knowledge about mangoes.

On our first trip to Costco here, I saw the mangoes and mentioned to David that I rally wanted to try one but didn’t have any idea of how to know if they were ripe or not. A lady who was selecting some for herself turned around and gave me a mini mango class. It was so sweet of her but I wasn’t ready to buy a warehouse store quantity of something I wasn’t sure about so I didn’t get any mangoes that day.

cut_mango

 A few days later we were at a grocery store where I got one yellow mango to try using the instructions the lady at Costco gave me. And guess what? It was good! I liked it. 

I need to figure out how to get into them better.  I didn’t know what kind of a seed situation was inside. The first half was a mess and I basically sucked the flesh off the skin. But the second half I was able to cut into chunks that came off easily when I ate them. 

So, yum! I’ll definitely get some more mangoes. 🙂

Raw Sweet Potato, Carrot & Spinach Soup

I’ve been having a heck of a time getting warm today even though it’s supposed to be a record breaking warm day. I decided to have soup for lunch and boy was it GOOD! 🙂

raw_sweet_potato_carrot_spinach_soup

I bought some sweet potatoes the other day and wanted to use them but, like a lot of days, I sometimes feel sweeted out from all of the fruit I eat and most of the recipes season with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I wanted something spicy!

I chopped up a large carrot and blended it with a cup of water. I then cut up two sweet potatoes and chunked them and tossed them in. The mixture was pretty thick so I added another cup of water. Then I found some little orange peppers that I forgot I had and tossed in a couple of those and some onion. I then added some of the home made taco seasoning that is always in the cupboard and cilantro. Oh how I love cilantro! 

I blended it all in the Vitamix until it was warm. Then I poured about 2/3 of the soup into my bowl and added a big handful of spinach to the remaining soup in the blender and blended it. I tried to swirl the two colors of soup but I think I had too much green to make it pretty but, oh well, it was delicious and that’s better than pretty, right? 

Raw Sweet Potato, Carrot & Spinach Soup
Serves 1
Delicious, spicy raw soup!
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Prep Time
10 min
Total Time
10 min
Prep Time
10 min
Total Time
10 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 large carrot
  2. 2 cups water
  3. 2 sweet potatoes
  4. 2 mini orange peppers
  5. 1 cup spinach
  6. chopped onion to taste
  7. 2 tsp home made taco seasoning*
  8. cilantro to taste
Instructions
  1. Place 2 cups of water in Vitamix and add carrot. Blend.
  2. Add chopped sweet potato and peppers. Blend until smooth.
  3. Add onion, taco seasoning and cilantro. Blend until warm.
  4. Pour 2/3 of soup into bowl. Add spinach to the remaining soup and blend until smooth. Pour in the middle of first soup and swirl. Garnish with more cilantro and cracked black pepper. Yum!
Adapted from Raw Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup with Spinach
Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/
 *I use the taco seasoning recipe found here.