Day Ten: A Hike, a Picnic, a Nap in the Sun and a Potluck

Sort of a hum-drum day.  NOT!  Jason and I went on a hike to the top of Chuckanut Mountain to Lookout Point.  It was amazing!  I had a really hard time getting up the darn thing, and had to rest a LOT — but it felt good to move my body and smell the fresh forest.  We packed a blanket, water and a picnic and went while Jahn was at school.

On the way up, I tripped, and my noise scared a poor owl who woke up and flew from the ground up into a tree.  We got some video of him/her, and although there’s no audio on the camera,  Jason made a noise or 2 that got the owl’s attention, and they looked straight into the camera!!  Very cool!  I’d never seen an owl in the wild before.  Seen them at zoos, and heard them at night, but never seen one for real before that.  We showed the footage to Jahn later after we got home, and he thought it was great!  I tried to post it here, but for some reason, I can’t get it to load.  Sorry.  

We ate a delicious meal of mango, avocado and banana, plus trail mix that had raw Spanish peanuts, pecans, goji berries, raisins and dried white mulberries in it.  The we fell asleep in the Sun (and in each other’s arms) while on the blanket.  It was SUCH a nice day that we hated for it to end.

Jason and I at Lookout Point

But we had to get back down the mountain (which is really more of a glorified hill with a great footpath) to pick up Jahn from school.  So we did, and spent the rest of the day getting ready for tomorrow’s yard sale and tonight’s potluck/party.  We’re hoping to make enough at the sale to get a new sofa (one that won’t show kiddo stains).

After the yard sale prep, it was a quick shower for us, and then I made my decadent fudge torte with German chocolate frosting for a potluck/party Jason and I were invited to.  I also made a cabbage dish with that wonderful tahini dip that Jason makes, just in case there wasn’t any other raw food there.  And it’s a good thing I did, too, because there were 2 salads there, and one had salmon on it, and the other onions.  I’m allergic to onions something fierce, so Jason and I had the cabbage/dip and cake for dessert.  The cake was a smashing success, even with cooked fooders, and I made contact with someone named Jaime who wants to promote my website when it launches.  SO COOL!

My two-layer German Chocolate Cake with Ganache

All in all, the best day I’ve had in a long, long time.  Got TWO dates with Jay (Jason), got Sun, got to spend time with friends, got to just have fun!

To recap:  breakfast was my usual pick-me-up chocolate shake, lunch is listed above, I had a bit of chocolate frosting as a snack, and dinner was red cabbage with tahini/nama-shoyu sauce and a piece of German chocolate cake.

We were up super late, so I hope I’ve got the gumption to do the yardsale tomorrow.

Day Five: Let the Cleansing Begin!

Good GRIEF!  I know that one always goes through detox when going raw, but this is ridiculous!  I woke up this morning, and my bowels were competeing with every other part of my body for the “Who can release the most” award.  I went 3 times in under 1/2 an hour!  And all afternoon, it was my bladder in the lead.  But I’m 8 pounds lighter in only my 1st 5 days, so I’m off to a freakin’ good start!    I say good riddance to the weight — as Nathalia Rose says, “waste = weight”.  Let’s get all the crud OUT!

Breakfast was a mango with chocolate, then to the gym for a workout, sauna and lots of stretching.  Let me tell you, while detoxing, there is NO substitute for moving your body and making yourself to sweat in a sauna (followed by a cool, refreshing shower!)  Moves those toxins RIGHT on through and you feel so refreshed and cool-headed afterward!

Went and looked for wild cattails before the workout, and met a nice lady at the gym named Peggy (who told me I should be writing a book about raw food with recipes) then stopped by Kent’s Garden & Nursery to look at Frost peach trees and blueberry bushes.  We’re gonna start growing some of our own food this year!  We’ve already got an apple tree on the property that came with the house.  All we have to do is fence off the remainder of the yard and we’ll be able to keep the deer and other animals out of the garden.  Plus, a little diatomaceous earth, and we’ll be able to keep the buggies off naturally.

So back to today (I do tend to get off on tangents, don’t I?)  I’m really starting to lose my appetite during the day.  All that chocolate is really keeping me full, plus the fat in the mangos is really helping.  I’ll be making frozen bananas tonight (on a stick) for dipping and rolling in chopped pecans tomorrow … who says you can’t have your favorite Disneyland food as an adult and have it raw?  Remember those frozen, chocolate-dipped bananas on a stick?  First place I tried that as a kid was Disneyland.  I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Jason and I had late-evening cravings – he for raw tahini and I for avocados – so we went to the grocery store and got avocados, more young thai coconuts, bananas, a large mango, celery and something else I can’t remember.  Then we went to Terra Organica and got his Tahini as well as something called Rawmesan by Gopal’s Health Foods — and it is AMAZING stuff!  It’s unbelievable how tasty raw walnuts, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast and celtic sea salt can taste in the right combination!

But this isn’t about chocolate, is it.  Alas, I am rambling, yet again!  I’m just so thrilled to be finding all these fun, new things to eat.  If I’d've known raw could be this much fun, I’d've done it years ago.  I didn’t really have lunch, as I’m not too hungry during the day very often.  I think I had maybe a banana or 2, of course dipped in chocolate sauce.  For dinner, I had about a quarter of an avocado with Herby on it (the Rawmesan wasn’t too good on it, in my opinion – not a great complementary taste), and a chocolate bar I made.  Then I had a bit of the most bizarre food I’ve ever eaten.  Jason mixed raw tahini with Nama Shoyu raw soy sauce, added some water, and dipped green cabbage in it.  Now, I hate cabbage.  No, no, you don’t understand.  I HATE cabbage!  Cooked, raw, dudn’t matter.  HATE the stuff.  And this tahini mixture is fairly repugnant on its own.  Bitter, slick and just all-around odd.  All that being so stated, when you dip the cabbage IN the tahini sauce he made, something frickin’ MAGICAL happens.  This bizarre, nutty, sweet, almost meaty and fruity flavor with several layers … it just blossoms in your mouth!  I can’t explain it.  I’ve never had anything like it in my life, but it’s farking fanTAStic!!!  In fact, I want some more right now!  But how to incorporate chocolate into it ….  Maybe sometimes you just can’t eat chocolate on everything.