Awesomest Chili

Cindy made this great chili--this ranks right up there with my faves. Rawk on!

Raw Picnic

Had a wonderful knawraw lunch and dinner with my cousins yesterday. Although it has been many years since we shared a house it seems like just yesterday. The raw food was perfect -- Bern could have no milk, Maggie could have no wheat, Melissa was vegan and the rest of us are just always hungry. A perfectly warm sunny day to enjoy raw food outside -- everything was delicious and I was not slaving over a hot stove. My trick of the day was to use small plastic backets, lined with wax paper -- meaning just about no dishes!

Flower Power

I'm recovering from a little spring cleaning -- NO, not in the house, although that project is right around the corner, but rather a sore throat and aches as my body adjusts to many months of almost all raw now and the change of seasons to boot. The Rawtogether gal pals came last week to weed my yard AND go home with some juice and salad fare with their wild bounty! This week the flowers on the wild edibles have been popping out all over! Spring has sprung!

So, what's a girl to do but make a fun, sunny smoothie packed with large, lush, lemon-colored flowers! I continued filling my new Blend-tec up with wild greens, mango, banana and then topped it off with fresh, young coconut water. .
Blendy went at it with a ravenous gusto and wha-la! a wild flower smoothie ~ YUM! Raw AND wild are a naturally harmonious pair. ;D

Raw on the Go

This weekend we are headed southbound for a two week multi-destination trip. We are visiting friends in two cities, going to the beach, camping, and hiking. As much as I enjoy travelling, eating healthy can be a challenge, especially during those long road trips where food choices are limited so this week I will be busy preparing our own convenience foods to keep us going.

What am I making? Let's see... last night I made cauliflower pickles (our family is in love with those!).

The dehydrator will be going 24/7 until we hit the road. I started with a big batch of soaked almonds last night. This morning I just spread out some raw apple bars. The apple bars can also be eaten fresh as a cake, which is what I made for Liam's first birthday last year. We love it so much around here I thought I'd try it as a dried energy bar. Throughout the week I will be dehydrating summer squash, kale chips, brussel sprouts, sesame flax crackers, and apricot almond cookies. We are also taking Pat's excellent Grawnola. So we are set for munchies.

Of course you can't have all these crunchy dried snacks without spreads! I will be making sun dried tomato tapenade, spinach dip, and almond butter (with those soaked and dried almonds).

The night before we leave I will prepare fresh fruit and veggie juices, make almond milk, and mix up a batch of water kefir with lemon, ginger, honey, wheatgrass, spirulina, and chlorella.

The rest will be fresh fruits and veggies which I am thinking should be pretty easy to find in Florida. One of my friends lives right down the street from an orange grove so hopefully we will get to pick a few right off the tree!

Raw Gratitude

Barbara and I met up at lunch time for a bike ride/picnic today. It was so nice to just pack our bikes with some containers from the our raw swap and a few pieces of fruit and go ride. We didn't have to make anything special, it was already DONE thanks to our swap. We enjoyed a very nice mid-ride picnic of wholesome nutrient dense food. Seeing her young son enjoying the food made me smile and gave me a feeling of hope. I felt this thing we are doing to be more profound. The joy and connection we have with this amazing food is bigger than us the participants. It spreads to our families and those we interact with. I realized today it's not just about the great and convenient health sustaining food we lovingly make and share but connection and friendship. I was really filled with gratitude today. Just wanted to share that thought. Thanks!

I Love Mondays

Great exchange tonight! I love coming home from our swaps and stocking my fridge with all the goodies that are lovingly prepared by friends who are as excited as me about food and preserving its natural goodness. A little work and cooperation goes a long way. You can't buy this kind of nurturing from a drive in window.

Thanks to each of you for sharing and being supportive in this raw adventure.

That's Amore!

I'm in love with a Pizza! Yvonne made the most beautiful Greek Portobello Pizzas tonight. Wow! These babies are so loaded with favor and so satisfyingly filling. This is the kind of dish that makes the raw lifestyle appealing to me.

Water Kefir Happiness

I love the water kefir. It tastes like lightly carbonated lemonade. Thank you Cindy, for sharing the kefir grains. In answer to our question about sugar, here's a good posting by Todd. He uses sucanat. There's also another natural sugar that the kefir grains like to eat. http://www.meetup.com/WholeNutrition/messages/boards/thread/2498486?thread=2498486
I've gotta get "un-cooking" See you gals on Monday.
Yvonne

Blueberry muffins

I think we should add Sheila's blueberry muffins to the faves cookbook. Also, Cindy: I love how your getting us into all this tech stuff. Yvonne

This is Rawesome

Another week of wonderful food. We all agree it is so nice to open the fridge and have several things to choose from instead of eating one thing all week. Instead, we just make a little more of just 3 - 4 things and swap it. All is good in the land of Raw Together, the Northern Virginia Raw Food Cooperative. And, our recipes will be on Recipe Zaar from now on. Gals, I am lovin' this (and the blueberry muffin I just finished!)

I'm on fire with the outstanding dishes we experienced tonight! It looked like raw Thanksgiving as we all tried many dishes from each one's cooler. It's a gift to know that I have so many choices of fabulous tasting dishes to choose from all week!! I'm sooooo glad we're doing this! ;-)))

The Beginning of the NoVa Raw Cooperative

This is the start of our cooperative experiment in raw food meal sharing. We will use this site to critique recipes we try (taste, prep time, etc) as well as manage the logistics of sharing (time, expenses). If you live in Northern Virginia and would like to join in, let us know. We can be Raw Together.

Files for our group (for members only):

• menus - helps us track who is making what, ensure we have good variety things for the week, plus make sure we are sharing prep time equitably
• expenses - helps us track our expenses
• cost calculator - helps us be fair in sharing the cost of participating