Music and Veganism

Raw day 5.

The presents I ordered via the interet have already started arriving– whoopee!  I got three separate packages today.  Now I get to wrap them and then twiddle my thumbs until next Saturday.  That is when I can drive to my hometown to distribute said presents to my family, since Phil and I are spending xmas with his family this year.

Okay, so today was day five, and I have to admit that this whole raw thing is growing on me.  I feel good.  I’m not having horrible cravings.  I’m enjoying my food and I’ve been branching out a little more.  After day one, I immediately changed my “20 day” goal to 7 days, but I think I’ll just ride this out as long as I can last up to 20 days.  The big setback is the cost of this diet.  So far I’ve kept it reasonably close to what we normally spend on groceries, and I think I can do better.  I know, I know– if you are a raw foodist, you are thinking, “Spend a little more on groceries and you’ll spend a lot less on medical bills”, which may or may not be true.  But that’s very hard to rationalize right now when I simply don’t have the money to spend.

Anywho, breakfast was juice and fruit as usual.  I splurged on some avocados before I left work to use for lunch I was fantasizing about.

Lunch was a makeshift guac with zucchini and carrot sticks, the marinated kale I mentioned yesterday and some of the sprouted quinoa.  In answer to my mom who asked what the benefits of eating sprouted quinoa are, supposedly quinoa sprouts reduce fat in the bloodstream, cleanse the arteries and are even higher in vitamins and minerals than cooked quinoa.  Sprouts are often billed as being the most nutrient-rich food there is, so I guess sprouted anything is good (well, I think some sprouts are inedible, but… whatever).  As for the kale, I had never thought of kale as being a green you would eat raw, but it was really good!  I used Denise’s Vinaigrette from From Sad To Raw.  Sorry for the not great pictures.

For dinner I used the rest of the kale (don’t worry, there was enough marinade left for another batch) to make a yummy salad bowl.  This included more quinoa sprouts, corn, red bell peppers, some pumpkin and sunflower seeds and portabello mushrooms.  Very delicious.

One significant thing I’ve noticed is that I eat much slower.  It took me so long to eat my dinner, and if it had been a sandwich or the veggie burger I made Phil (more on that in a sec) I would have scarfed it down in two or three minutes.  Instead I ate and digested over the course of about 30 minutes.  Another thing I noticed is how far that quinoa goes.  I sprouted about 3/4 cup dry, which when cooked, I could have eaten in one meal (but probably wouldn’t have, that’s a lot of quinoa).  Instead, even though it’s not all puffed up and it looks like less, it has lasted me through four meals and I still have enough left for tomorrow’s lunch.

Alright, alright, I’ll stop raving about this diet– I did complain a whole lot the first three days, after all.  I don’t want to seem like a hypocrit!

Oh, yeah, real quick: the veggie burger.  This summer I made a batch of Lindsay/Happy Herbivore’s Mushroom Burgers from her Backyard Vegan e-Cookbook, and I froze what we didn’t eat.  We’ve been eating them ever since and everytime I cook one I think, I have to post about these!  Because they’re sooo good.  Tonight I made the last one for Phil, and I have finally remembered to tell everyone just how good these are.  The texture came out the best tonight.  I baked it, frozen, for 15 minutes, then browned it in a non-stick skillet.  I can’t wait for Lindsay’s cookbook…

Okay, that’s it.  Whew!