simple + clean + raw soup

cold avo-cu soup

so, i'm eating raw again for 1 week.  i started on monday.  i will make 2 meal exceptions, tonight we got invited to this and on saturday i plan on indulging here.  i'm trying to be a bit more creative than i have in the past when eating raw.  last night i made this raw avocado + cucumber soup made with homemade almond milk (which is surprisingly SO easy to make) that turned out to be so good!

i n g r e d i e n t s 

1/2 cup of almonds soaked in water overnight

1 large cucumber peeled + chopped 

3 avocados chopped

5 stems of green onion chopped

handful of cilantro chopped

salt + pepper to taste

throw your soaked almonds in a food processor / blender and slowly add 2 cups filtered water as you are blending.  blend until smooth as possible.  strain your mixture into a bowl, this process will require you to press down on the almond mash left to really get all the liquid milk out.  

you will only be using the milk - so you can do whatever you like with the leftover almond mash, save it for baking?

put your chopped avocados, cucumbers, green onions and cilantro in the food processor or blender and add the almond milk and blend.  add salt and pepper as you are blending to taste.

so simple + clean + good

since i am raw i didn't add much else, but i feel like there's plenty of opportunity to add more fun stuff to this, like perhaps a spoon full of labne or greek yogurt?  garlic and mint be a nice touch as well.

raw. day 2

Today marks day 2 of eating 100% raw foods for 1 whole week.  So far so good! For the most part, my normal diet consists of a considerable amount of raw or rawish foods, so this transition has not been difficult so far.  The only non-raw food that I am consuming during these 7 days is coffee.  I thought about giving it up as well during this week, but the truth is, I am insanely busy at work and the idea of trying to get through my busy schedule without coffee seemed frightening and slightly impossible.  So, I'm keeping coffee!  Other than that, it's raw all the way until next Wednesday, with the long term goal to incorporate a high raw diet going forward as much as I can.  

My energy level was high all day yesterday and I did not feel overly hungry.  Hopefully it maintains this easy.  I went to the Coop yesterday and bought fresh fruits and veggies for the week.  I checked out their raw foods section.  Unfortunately buying the packaged raw foods is quite expensive, plus I think I really want to concentrate on eating fresh fresh fresh!  I did buy a couple bottles of Kombucha, which is a raw and natural energy drink.  Some find the taste intolerable, but I have really come to enjoy it. Especially the guava and mango flavors. 

Here's what I ate for lunch today: 

avocados

apples

fresh squeezed lemon

cracked pepper

mmmm. so good.

Last night was girls night, and we went to see 'Food, inc.' which was quite fitting considering my raw diet this week.  Oh man, go see it.  But be prepared, it is not an easy film to watch.  I actually cried during several different parts of the documentary.  Talk about harsh reality.  I think I will have to pick up the 'Omnivore's Dilemma' for the 4th attempt, and hope to get through chapter 1 this time. 

Here are some inspirational raw blogs I have been checking out:

http://www.choosingraw.com/

http://veggievibes.blogspot.com/

http://www.girlonraw.com/

These were recommended by an old classmate of mine from Dhahran, Natasha Burge, who has this awesome blog http://www.thevoraciousvegan.blogspot.com/ that I have been following for a few months now.