homeofthebudds

Seriously

Cutting into a truly ripe, perfect avocado is one of the most beautiful food experiences I know. I catch my breath every time.

(I'm a freak I know.)

this picture kinda freaks me out.

makes me wanna take a step back or something.

(that's my green smoothie looking you in the eye by the way.)

Avocolada - only the best smoothie ever.

Today I did some experimenting in the kitchen, trying some recipes I've put aside over the last coupla weeks. One of them - the Avocolada smoothie is the best thing ever. Seriously. Ever.

I got the recipe from Raw Food Real World. 

It does contain coconut water so I was assuming I would be the main one drinking it (you remember Ellen hates all things coconut.) Ellen, however, is always a trooper and will try a small bite of anything. Guess what - she LOVES it.

Things Ellen said while drinking the Avocolada:

This is better than getting a new house!

This is better than cake!

This is the best smoothie you've ever made!

I want this and cake for my birthday!

This is the best thing ever you've ever made!

I can't think of the word! This is gajillion bamillion trazillion the best smoothie ever!!

I want three whole entire bowls of this! And I want the whole smoothie!

Zaiah - once you try this you're going to forget everything about coconut!

I want you to ALWAYS make this - I love it SO much!!

So the raw thing

I jumped off my raw food band wagon for Isaiah's birthday. I figured it would be rude to say I wasn't having the cake he made or the dinner he planned. Okay honestly it was two days - the half day before and a half day afterward.

I've been trying to jump right back on, but I'm having the hardest time imaginable. I had no idea it would be this impossible. I think I would have considered being a little more rude if I knew it would be this difficult to get back on.

So what's the big deal? you ask. You ate some normal food. So what. Well let me just tell you that I've gained roughly three pounds in these couple days. That I'm much much more irritable, that I'm back to feeling like I want a nap in the afternoon, that i find myself eating that little afternoon snack over and over and over again. That I feel stiff and sore. And that my stomach has been trying to revolt. If only my taste buds would get back in line. 

I think part of the problem is that it was time to return the borrowed dehydrator. This would have been the perfect time for chocolate macaroons. I'm on the lookout for one now - I check craigslist a couple times a day. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to make the thrift store rounds and look there again. (If you go and see one for cheap,  grab it for me!)

That's the other bummer - this weekend is my big 1/2 marathon walk. I was finally feeling excited about it and knew what I was going to eat to prep for it and now I only have two days to get myself back to raw. Agggh. I'm stressing again. My friend Megan and I try to walk about three miles every week day morning. This morning was the second one we've done all week. And I felt like crap. I was out of breath, my joints were aching...not good. 

But today! Today I am gonna do it. I have to. I do not want to even think about walking on Sunday without a good two raw days ahead of it.

chocolate macaroons

I mentioned a bit ago how I can't find anything that feels indulgent to eat on this raw food diet. I was telling Jill how I was wanting something but couldn't put my finger on what. She is a genius and suggested two things - chocolate macaroons and a chocolate banana shake. (You use raw cocoa powder so it still counts as raw.)

As soon as we hung up the computer (we were google chatting) I mixed up a mini batch of the macaroons. All these raw food books have huge recipes in them using two cups of this and three cups of that and then you try it and more often than not it's gross and you've got this huge bowl of stuff to find something to do with. So I went micro. Plus I didn't have enough ingredients to make the full batch anyway.

Brennan woke up just after I finished stirring and I brought him out to help stir. I think stirring is his all time favorite activity. I got him set up and put the containers away and saw this:

"Tasty!" he told me.

So I tried them too and lo and behold the dough was downright good! So we popped them in the dehydrator cause they take 12-24 hours to reach perfection.

And then I ran to the store for more of those ingredients since I knew I'd want more. 

Good thing I did cause this little micro batch never made it those 12 hours. This morning when I looked in on them there were about 4 left.

And an hour later when I went to take them out, gone. Hmmmm, who else can reach the dehydrator beside me???? 

pizza pizza

We had Papa Murphy's for dinner tonight. My idea. It smelled awesome cooking up in the oven (that took forever to preheat by the way. I'm not used to waiting for things like that.) The first bite - good. Second bite - good. After that - downhill. I didn't even finish the crust. It just wasn't good.

Which actually was good. The last time we had it a couple weeks ago it was tasty, I ate a ton of it and didn't even feel sick. And it was soooo addictive. I wanted it again the next night, and the next. That stupid pizza was on my mind for days.

This time, I kinda doubt that will happen. My head is aching, my stomach isn't happy and I cannot quit burping. Sheesh. 

So why did I even eat it you ask? I thought you liked all this raw food, you say. Yeah I do, its true. But there's one thing missing with all the raw - emotion. There is no accompanying emotion with any of this raw goodness. It's purely sustenance. Granted some of the tastes are (significantly) better than others. Some of the tastes I've experienced in the last few weeks have produced a gag reflex - and therefore I suppose a negative emotion. But there's none of that "I want a treat" eating. At least I haven't discovered those raw treats yet. I keep reading about people feeling that way about dates - but its not happening for me. At least not yet. I totally overdosed on dates a couple months ago at our "African Feast" and I don't want to get anywhere near them again for a long while.

So. I ate pizza. And I'm regretting it. I think that was a successful dinner.

a look inside my head

So I've been getting antsy for kid #4 lately. 

I've been saying I'm done birthing babies ever since Brennan was born. This whole raw food thing has got me wondering if it would be substantially different with this sort of food. I'm curious. Dave doesn't think it would be a good idea to experiment. :) 

So now would be the perfect time to pursue our LIberian kiddo dream - except for the whole Liberia-has-closed-all-adoptions-for-awhile problem. *Sigh*. I'm not sure how long that will last - it's already been several months. I'm not really sure how many. But several for sure. I wonder if we could get the ball rolling with all the paperwork and classes that need to be done. I should call.

***

I've gotten bored with food lately. I have no interest in it. I think I need to start trying some of the recipes in my books. And making green juices again. I haven't done that in a while and I'm finding I'm sick of being a fruititarian. I've been having bites of the kids food - trying cheese (YUCK!) and bread (not my favorite) and eggs (eh) and chocolate chips (yummm). I made some vegetarian chili and that was good, but ate it with tortilla chips and got a MAJOR headache. It was weird to have a warm belly. I'm not sure I like that feeling.

BUT! I do love the fact that I've lost 12(ish) pounds and am wearing skirts and dresses and pants I haven't seen in a loooong time again.

I think I need to start up on the 'superfoods' cause I've go this cold that has stuck with me for long enough now. I'm sick of it. 

***

School has been fun lately - I've been writing stories for Ellen to read and then creating math worksheets and writing prompts from them. It's pretty fun. We've still been taking it kinda easy but I think its about time for a field trip. Maybe today.

Ellen started a blog. She loooooooves it and asks if we can check for comments almost constantly. I've added it onto her list of things to do for school so she's been updating it regularly.

Now she wants to learn to sew. On the sewing machine. I'm a little nervous for little fingers being sewn into the project, but I've told her we can try it today during Brennan's nap. I think as long as I take charge of the pedal we'll be all right.

*** 

Brennan seems to be growing up - he's playing more games, saying more words and just looking like a kid instead of a baby.  I think it has something to do with the jeans I keep putting him in - he just looks older. Dave thinks its his new Lightning McQueen shoes. The first day he got them he ran up and down the hall in them saying "Vroom! vaaarrooom! vroom!" 

Waffle window goodness.

Last night the kids had the wonderful idea that we should meet Dave at Waffle Window for dinner. Unfortunately for us, Waffle Window closes at 3pm. So after a quick run to the store for eggs, we opened our own Waffle Window.

Ellen took the orders and the money (Only a quarter each! What a steal!)

p>Dave and I worked the kitchen,

And the boys worked the food. Well okay everyone did.

Everyone but me that is. I stuck with the green smoothie. No more experimenting for me (at least for a while). This one is just spinach and mango and its actually not bad at all.

pizza experiment

So I made my pizza. I found a whole wheat recipe with no sugar I thought I could live with and went for it. The crust itself - well lets just say it left a lot to be desired. But there was melted cheese on top so it counts as pizza.

I did not get sick. Good news. I think.

But I did pretty quickly feel back to my old self - I noticed little random things. Like that I was sorta pre-occupied. (with digestion?? really???) There were little things that used to bug me that I forgot about - getting just a little bit breathless carrying Brennan around and putting him in his bed. Feeling full - in a bad way. Not sick - just not good.

Very very interesting.

The week in review. Sorta. Not really.

*siiiiigh* 

It has been a long week. A super long week. Dave was sick last weekend and the kids have been sick all week. (I never did catch it!) Ellen's feeling pretty well, but the boys are not happy campers. Poor Isaiah - when he gets sick the world seems to come crashing down. I canceled all our plans for the week and we've been holed up at home. Today I decided we've been home long enough and we ventured out for a few hours to the World Forestry Center. I forgot my camera though. Oops. 

It was super fun. The kids were excited to do something other than watch movies and draw and a change of scenery is always nice. We took a white water rapids ride, flew a parachute to a target to help fight forest fire, planted some seedlings...it was a productive morning.

On the food front, I'm feeling cooked food cravings HARD. When you go raw you leave all dairy behind. Which actually doesn't bug me as much as I thought it would. I don't mind no milk on cereal or yogurt or grilled cheese (unless I'm making one for the kids and then its rather tempting). But the other day I'd given the kids a bagel and cream cheese and they didn't finish it. I put it away for later and it sat there looking at me allllll day. By the end of the day, which may I just say was the worst day of the week for all of us, I decided shoot. I'm eating that. And I did. A partial bagel with maybe a teaspoon (and a half?) of cream cheese. It tasted good I gotta tell you. And then I got sick. My stomach felt horrible, I had heartburn (I don't get heartburn. -well except for from red peppers. but otherwise that is a completely new experience to me) and I was just not feeling well at all. Pretty interesting that five or so days off dairy and you get that effect.  I called Dave and told him to bring me pizza cause this would be a good night to have it since I was sure I'd get sicker and then never want it. He told me I was crazy.

But! Tonight I'm making some. I don't know if any of the rest of you are like this, but sometimes when I really really want something, its better to have it and either feel how much my body does not enjoy that or that I don't really enjoy the taste anymore. So hopefully I don't like it tonight. :)

As I read more and more books and magazines about all this, I am more and more convinced to take this a little slower. Many of the people who are writing the books and are the raw food guru's took a loooong time to go totally raw. Like years. At this point, I'm thinking its a goal I'm working toward and I'm incorporating a few cooked foods back in. They all say, though, this doesn't mean eat whatever. They still say the cooked meals you eat should be vegan. Which I'm obviously not doing tonight with the pizza. Other than tonight the only thing I'm adding back in is freshly made wheat bread. Kinda funny cause I don't really even crave bread so much (I totally thought that would be the hard thing). What I really want is something warm. And non mushy or crunchy or fruit and vegetably I guess. We'll see how it goes.

Overall I gotta say I totally dig this way of eating (I hate calling it a diet). There are times when I really truly want something cooked - but I'm pretty sure that's going to happen a lot since I still cook things for the kids and Dave periodically. I think the people that go 100% instantly (so far I've only read about one) have no kids. I've been pretty tired today - but I'm thinking that has more to do with getting off my morning walking schedule this week and staying up late watching all the shows off the DVR. (Dude. I'm addicted to that Duggar family show. 18 kids!!?? And the Cosby show of course. Not so much cooking shows anymore. :)

That idea that having cooked foods makes you want raw more totally worked for me too. After I recovered from the bagel debacle I was totally ready for the next day. I even made my first green juice. Well second really but when I took a sip I immediately started coughing and grimacing and I knew that particular recipe was not going to work. This was the first I actually drank. I read on several blogs about people making their green juice in the morning and then working on it throughout the day. I thought that was sort of odd - why not just drink it up? I'll tell you - they're not tasty. At all. I hear its an acquired taste. I believe it - my juice was pretty tame (full head of dark romaine lettuce, one cucumber and one apple) and it wasn't exactly good. But I kept thinking about it during the day and taking more sips. I didn't quite finish it - but I did drink a good 90% of it. Why do that too yourself you say? Why drink something gross? Well, because that's where all the good stuff is - dark leafy greens. And a body can drink a whole lot more of it than you can eat. They say green juices are the backbone of the raw diet. So there you go.