Protein

Hello all,

Happy Friday! I am going to work a little early today to get some blood work done. I decided with my recently evolved eating habits it would be a good idea for me to get a blood work up done on my iron, protein, and vitamins. I shall let you all know how that goes!

Speaking of protein, I have been researching good vegan raw protein options. Kristen's Raw has a really great review on the protein powders she has tried. I think for now I have narrowed it down to two:
Sun Warrior's Brown Rice Protein Powder

and Sprout Living's EPIC Protein Powder

Both are dervied from brown rice, and I am excited to try both. I am thinking I want to try the vanilla and chocolate flavors. I checked out Sprout Living, and they have $2 samples which is great (I bought a very expensive Vega protein in the past only to find that I did not like it at all and couldn't force myself to chug it down, even with my nose plugged) In fact, I contacted Sprout Living to ask what stores they sell it in, and I think they are going to send me a free sample if I ask my health store at home to carry it! That is super exciting. I shall let you know how I like them both!

I hope you all have fun weekend plans. I know my plans are to relax, go for a nice run, and try my new yoga dvd! I will post more on this dvd after I have tried it so stay tuned!

My biggest food challenge

Hello all,

Hopefully you have all been having a great week...tomorrow's Friday! I haven't been doing much food preparing this past week. I have been making juices, and have whipped up a batch of almond milk, but other then that I have pretty much been eating foods straight as they grow in nature. This means handfuls of raw nuts, avocados (I just scoop them out with a spoon right into my mouth), and whole fruit. Throw in some sprouted bagel and a few eggs and thats pretty much what my diet has consisted of. Oh, and I have been eating what remains of my raw desserts...yum!

I have to admit that I am getting a big bored with my food selection. Not that I don't love a good orange, but I am yearning for a something a little more jazzed up! I am not exactly sure how I am going to remedy this situation yet, but I am certainly brainstorming.

 I have two dilemmas: time and well, time. Ok, I know that sounded odd. Let me describe the first time. I am extremely busy during the week. My unpaid internship officially became a paid job this past week (yay!), but is definitely going to continue keeping me busy. So I now work three days a week, on top of classes and any homework and studying I may have. This past week I had two tests (including a killer history exam). What this all boils down to is I just don't have a lot of time to do food prep during the week. I know, excuses excuses. But when I don't get home until 8:30 at night it can be hard to have the energy to create a work of art! The second time is referring to the amount of time it takes for me to go to the store. There is no good organic health food store in the Bronx, much to my dismay. So I have to drive to the Whole Food in New Jersey or White Plains. I drove to NJ last Thursday and it took me two and half hours! On my day off the last thing I want to do is sit in traffic for two hours. Not to mention to really have fresh produce (this is most important for greens) you really have to make two trips to the store a week. So I just don't know what I am going to do. Perhaps I will have to think of some way to enjoy my time more in the car, so I don't dread the drives so much.

Anyways, any ideas for me? I need to figure out ways to incorporate more variety into my diet.

Cleansing is not for me

I got through one day of cleansing and have decided that I definitely do not want to do two more days. I did not have horrible cleansing symptoms. The only possible symptom may have been that I felt as if heat was oozing out of my skin all day. But what I really had trouble with was the fact that I was hungry all day long. The only time that I wasn't hungry was after the Cinnamon Cashew Milk (which I actually couldn't finish in one sitting it was so filling). I would be full immediately after drinking a juice, but then 20 minutes later I would be starving again! The morning went pretty well, and I was able to manage the hunger. But by the third drink I was feeling fed up. 

The verdict: Perhaps one day I will try a juice cleanse again. I am a bit disappointed because I feel that cleanses are really great for eliminating toxins from the body, and even though I don't eat a ton a toxic foods, I am definitely in an environment where I am breathing in toxins every day. The one thing I can say I took out of this cleanse was a love for juices. I was surprised to find that I really loved both of the greens juices that I had yesterday. I also loved the beet, carrot, and apple juice. Juices will certainly be something that I incorporate in a daily basis into my diet. I am actually going to try the habit of drinking a green juice as my first nutrients in the morning, to ease my body into the arduous process of digestion. 

So for now, no more cleansing! But don't worry, all of those fruits and veggies will not go to waste. I am going to use the veggies up within the next couple days, then will move to the fruits (which are a lot of apples, oranges, and pretty hardy fruits)

Have a great Saturday night!

Pre-Cleanse

Hello all,

I went on a verryy long shopping trip today (the GW bridge was crazy both ways ugh!) but also a very successful one. Preparing for my cleanse, I made two stops. Trader Joes and Whole Foods. I just discovered that their is a Trader Joe's right down the road from the Whole Foods I shop at. Hearing about how other bloggers love TJ's I decided to give it a try, hoping to get some cheaper produce. I got what organic produce I could at TJ's and then headed to WF to finish up. All in all I spent $80.29 on the produce for my cleanse. Not too bad considering I would have paid $195.00 for the Blue Print Cleanse, more if I decided to have it shipped rather then trek down to pick it up. Plus, I bought all organic produce :)

I spent an hour and a half washing every single piece of produce I will be using. I even prepared the green juices by assembling the ingredients in containers. Although it took a decent amount of time preparing for the cleanse, I am hoping the this makes the whole process go smoother, as the only work I will have during the cleanse is cleaning the juicer and drinking the juice :)

Tomorrow starts day 1!

Have a great night...and if you have any advice for me on juice cleansing I'd love to hear it!

3-Day Cleanse

Hello everyone,

Since the summer I have been contemplating the idea of doing a cleanse. At one point in the summer, I decided I would embark on the Master Cleanse. Yes, the cleanse in which the only calories you consume are in the liquid concoction of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. I went into the cleanse planning to stay on it for ten days. Two drinks later, I quit. The drink tasted revolting, and although I wasn't hungry, I simply could not stomach it.

Thinking back on this cleanse now I am not sure it would have been the best idea to go through with it. I feel that the nutrients this cleanse provides are simply not adequate. Although I love maple syrup and am known to put it on a whole array of foods, it is not exactly overflowing with nutrients (it does contain high amounts of zinc and magnesium). 

This past summer when I first started to learn about raw foods, I came across juice cleanses. I was new to raw food at the time, so I put the idea on the back burner. Then, a couple of months ago I bought my Breville Juicer and started experimenting with fresh juices. Fresh juices are nothing like store bought! Feeling that I was comfortable with juicing having eased into it, a couple of weeks ago I started looking into doing a cleanse. I had heard of the blueprint cleanse, but the price was a little steep. Then I discovered that the founders have a book on recreating the cleanse at home! So I ordered it, and now I am ready for a cleanse! I feel much more comfortable with a juice cleanse, and feel that the nutrients I am going to get from it are going to be fantastic (I may head over to whole foods and get a wheat grass shot for an extra boost).

After planning my menu for 3 days I have decided on this:

Day 1:

1. Greens with Apple

2. Carrot-Apple Ginger

3. Apple-Pear-Beet-Ginger

4. Pineapple Mint

5. Spinach-Carrot-Pineapple-Cilantro

6. Cinnamon Cashew Milk

Day 2:

1. Greens with Apple

2. Carrot-Apple-Parsley-Beet-Orange

3. Grape-Cucumber-Pear

4. Pineapple Pear Lemongrass

5. Spinach-Carrot-Pineapple-Cilantro

6. Cinnamon Cashew Milk

Day 3:

1. Greens with Apple

2. Watermelon-Lime

3. Pineapple-Beet-Ginger-Pear

4. Pineapple Mint

5. Spinach-Carrot-Pineapple-Cilantro

6. Cinnamon Cashew Milk

I am beginning the cleanse on Friday and ending on Sunday. My plan is to post each day on how it is going...

In the meantime, I made a delicious juice this morning:

Apple-Beet-Carrot Juice (2 granny smith apples, 1 medium beet, and 3 medium carrots)

Supurb!

Stay tuned for cleansing details!

Steph

Citrus and Avocado Salad

Hello everyone, I hope your weeks are off to good starts...tomorrow is the end of my three-day crazy busy streak, so tomorrow my week will get a whole lot better. Just a quick post tonight on Daily Garnish's scrumptious looking salad that I whipped up tonight. You can find the recipe here. The salad is very simple, only requiring...5 ingredients plus salt and pepper.

I will leave the instructions to Emily but urge you to make this quick and yummy salad!

On a bad note...I am sorry to say that I am officially all out of my homemade maple crispies cereal. Sniff sniff. I am now left to no other option but to eat packaged cereals until I am able to make a trip home to restock. 

Thank you all for reading, have a great night!

Philly + Pure Food and Wine

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! 

It has been another crazy week that left no time for posting. The week left zero time for anything besides school and internship (and working out of course) and the weekend wasn't too much different (although their was a very fun segment to the weekend which is coming).

First, a recap on last weekend:

I visited my best friend from home in Philadelphia and had a wonderful time. We both new that if we didn't make plans to get together early on in the semester we would never end up doing it as our schedules got busier, so we made plans for the first weekend back at school. Good idea! For a late lunch we went to a hot spot that specializes in froyo and salads. Sweetgreen (a really cute name I think...sweet from the froyo and green from the salad) uses local and organic produce from farmers they know and leave a small footprint behind. Gotta love it! Both Maura and her friend got froyo and I was famished and got a loaded salad. Mesclun greens with avocado, fava beans, hard boiled egg, grapes, and asian vinaigrette. Everyone was very pleased with their choices.

Now for this weekend!

I went to Pure Food and Wine! I made last minute plans with my sister and a friend to see Mamma Mia on broadway, and we decided to start the evening off right. We started with two appetizers: Hazelnut Crostinis with Crimini Mushrooms and Caper Bearnaise (little crostinis piled high with pureed mushrooms and capers) and Niwa Maki of Avocado, Enoki Mushrooms, Pickled Heirloom Baby Carrots (like sushi, delicious!) The pictures on the appetizers didn't come out great because of the lighting.

Quick side note: J is currently distracting me by throwing popcorn in the air for me to catch with my mouth. He says I should be blogging about snacking on popcorn because it is Pop Secret homestyle after all.

For the main course I had Zucchini, Local Roma and Heirloom Tomato Lasagna with basil pistachio pesto, sun-dried tomato marinara, macadamia pumpkin seed ricotta. It surprised me that it was served cold (I thought maybe it would have been warmed in the dehydrator) but I found that I really enjoyed the cool refreshing mouthfuls.

My sister had the weet Corn and Cashew Tamales with Chili Spiced Portabella salsa verde, cashew coconut sour cream, avocado, raw cacao mole. Another hit (we all passed around the meals).

My sister's friend had the Spanikopita with Spinach, Almond Feta, Cucumber Yogurt, local cauliflower and white grapes. Delicious too!

The over-21 crew also had a pitcher of sangria...which passed their high standards for sangria. This will be one of the first places I go to try all of the creative cocktails when I turn 21.

We headed to show after a wonderfully satisfying dinner and had a fantastic time. Mamma Mia may be my favorite broadway show (even over Wicked). Great humor, amazing voices, and a wonderful story line (I am happy I hadn't seen the movie yet). Perhaps the highlight of the show was when the elderly male usher began dancing and singing very enthusiastically during the encore. 

A great night that made my otherwise homework-filled weekend an enjoyable one!