Monday, May 20, 2013

Food Thoughts

More Planning

With the Conscious Cleanse starting in two weeks, I am trying to get more organized again when it comes to food. The premise of the cleanse is to eat unprocessed, real food. The cleanse food is simple, but I found last time that I do need to prepare or things get difficult.

Before I did the cleanse in January and confirmed (by eliminating and reintroducing) that I don’t do well with wheat, eggs, and yeast, a quick meal was often a slice of whole grain, dark bread with cheese and vegetables or seasoned rice with an over-easy egg. Obviously, these foods don’t work anymore.

These days, a quick meal is often cut up veggies with some smashed avocado (no tomatoes during the cleanse) or some nut “cheeze.”

Several years ago, I bought Ani's Raw Food Kitchen and enjoyed reading it, but I never really made anything from it (but the book inspired me to eat more raw foods, and I made quite a few zucchini noodles at the time...)


In January I started making several of the nut “cheezes” from the book and really enjoyed them. In the book, Ani has numerous suggested uses for the “cheezes,” but I just eat them with carrot sticks and cucumber and bell pepper slices. I look forward to trying more of the recipes in the book soon; they sound great and are really not difficult (just different.)

Yesterday I spent time in the kitchen and made some food for the week:
  • Carrot soup, based on the recipe from the Conscious Cleanse book
  • Mixed grains
  • Sautéed mushrooms
  • Sautéed bok choy
  • Cashew nut cheeze from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts
  • Carrot sticks and cucumber and bell pepper slices
  • Cucumber salad
Having the fridge filled with healthy, real food makes me feel good.

Eating Out and Parties

Eating out and going to parties has changed since I don’t eat wheat and eggs anymore. I have to say that I have had a bite of bread here and there and I have also had a sip of hubby’s beer once in a while. But the discomfort that follows these small bites and sips is really not worth it at all.

When I know that I won’t eat a meal at home, I try to plan ahead as much as I can. I always carry some nuts and/or trail mix in my purse, so if there is nothing else I can eat, there are always the nuts.

If we go to a party, I try to bring a dish that I can eat. Often that turns out to be a salad. Because I usually can’t eat quite a few of the dishes at parties, I actually am “forced” to socialize more, which is a good thing! Parties should really be about the people and not so much about the food…

We don’t eat out very often, and when we do, we usually go to a restaurant we are familiar with, and I know what I can and cannot eat there. In the rare instance that we go to a new restaurant, I try to check out the menu online before we go. I have also become much better about asking about ingredients, etc. I don’t want to be a pain to eat with, but I have found that it’s often no problem for the kitchen to slightly modify a dish. I even managed to eat out one meal while I did the Conscious Cleanse in January, and numerous of the other cleansers ate out for quite a few meals.

Questions: What’s on your menu this week? What are your eating out strategies? Have your ever experimented with raw food? If so, how did you like it? What's your favorite raw food recipe?
 
Be well,
Andrea