What's with my challenge?

My month challenge turned out to be a week challenge and I loved that week.
After that unfortunately, I quit. I had 2 importanted dates with friends and then went to animal liberation congress where there were absolutely no raw food. It was all organic cooked food (and a lot of cake...). I also went to my hometown and enjoyed freshly made pasta, falafel, pita bread, rice and whatnot. I feel quite ashamed, but I don't want to give up.
This week again at hope there weren't 100 percent raw dishes on my plate either. I endulged myself with icecream, seitan and some chocolate, but the amount of raw foods increased (almost all my breakfasts). I experienced how bread and sweets got me eat more and more (for example the vegan white chocolate spread I had this week... was gone after about 3 days D:); I don't have this eating pattern when I eat raw.

So I want to start new and someday become about 80-90% raw, maybe. I still want to lose weight.
I am sprouting sunflower seeds and mung beans right now, they may be ready by tomorrow evening. Our fridge is flooding from vegetables, so I can't do other than eat all of them. Also, Rafael is producing green smoothies a lot and enjoys them daily.
We just watched "Simply Raw", where 5 people got their diabetes kicked off by 30 days. Very impressive and motivating.
Next tuesday I also want to start Zumba class and am very excited about that. Wanna get my booty shakin!

See you tomorrow with pictures of my raw food day!

Day 6 - Eating with friends

... I knew this day would come. Yep, I pretty much failed my challenge technically, but I will continue.

Let me begin with breakfast. I had a nice muesli with bananas, blueberries, raisins and buckwheat. I wasn't really hungry, but I wanted to eat something.

For lunch I still wasn't very hungry, but I craved for my mango and ate it with the remaining half avocado.

Hehe, you can see my pink slipper

Later I also snacked on potatoes and sweet potatoes that Rafael used for his broth.

I felt good, like all week long I did. For the carribean role-play I was attending that evening I prepared a choco-coco-mole that contained 2 bananas, 2 avocados, a lot of shredded coconut, lots of agave and 4 tblsp of cocoa. It looked yucky, but tasted actually really good. I also took some more coconut chips with me.
The role-play itself was great. Although I didn't have the opportunity to change my gender in-game I had a lot of fun.
We had a carribean beach buffet at the Rhine with fruits, fruit salad, coconut-"butter"-balls, island-plum-cake, coconut cookies, gluten steaks and a lot more. It was tasty, but of course I didn't stick with the fruits. I know you shouldn't forbid yourself to eat anything and most of it wasn't actually unhealthy, but with cake and cookies, I just can't stop myself eating. I had big bellyache on the way back (riding my bike) and I knew I had to change that again. I haven't felt that bad the whole week and don't want to in my future. Today is another meet-and-eat with friends and I'll be preparing raw cherry fudge cupcakes for that occasion and I hope this time I won't run riot on all that food. Cross fingers!

Day 5 - The big test

I had to get up early... My bf Rafael helped me to create a power supplying morning smoothie. It contained the rest of my spinach, 2 bananas, the rest of the blackberries and cashew mylk. I sprinkled it with hemp seed and inside of me it went.
My test was quite good, I hope it gets best grades. I forgot all my pens, but I got some borrowed from a friend.

I wasn't feeling very well until I arrived at university. I really can't stand cashews anymore, yuck!

Back at home I was relaxing and thinking about what to do the rest of the day. I ended up doing nothing but relaxing and get my belly feeling set right again. This carob cashew mylk and the remaining big slice of my cake weren't very helping.

So I to stop eating till I was very hungry. About 7.30 pm I enjoyed a big salad with my ready sprouted lentils, tomatoes, red oak leaf lettuce, cucumbers and a quarter avocado.

I tried to drink the rest of the cashew mylk with chai tea, but I was discusted with the taste and even if I hate to waste food, I had to get half of the drink down the sink. Good bye, cashew taste! The salad was really yummy.

I never really had avocados in my diet so far (I recall making and eating guacamole once), so I wanted to try another recipe and made a tiny cup of chocomole.

I didn't use a blender, only a fork, so you still can see a lot of avocado chunks in it. (1/4 avocado, some carob, some agave, vanilla and water). Nice dessert, but I think fruits will be better for me. So this really should be my last day with a huge amount of fats.
3 of my peaches were moldy today : ( Something inside my was dying when I saw them in the trash.
While watching a movie I found some cherry chili chocolate inside the cupboard. I was really tempted to eat piece, but Rafael convinced me to stay strong. And I did. No chocolate for my belly. Success!

An online english test told me today that I'm on a good B1 level. Could be better, that's what this blog is here for. I need lots of grammar practice, no problem for a linguist like me.
Wishing everyone out there a nice day!

Who's my little superstar?

Day 4 - Cashew Frenzy

The 500 grams of cahew kernels I bought yesterday really dominated my meal plan today. What I did with the cashews:

• 1,1 litres of cashew mylk
• Tamarind Crust and Berry Cream for my cake (see yesterday)
• Italian Nut Cheese

I used every bit of them. So for breakfast I had Muesli with a big peach, blackberries, blueberries, buckwheat, some hemp seeds and cashew mylk.

Prettiest picture you'll see today on this blog

Big yum. Before that I was at the dentist to get my inlay changed. I drank a little cashew mylk that didn't fit into the bottle. On my way home I couldn't resist to buy organic grapes, organic blueberries, organic bananas and 2 avocados (not organic, from spain). Now I have a lot of fruit, plus tomorrow I'll get some more grapes and sour cherries from my organic vegetable and fruit sub. Since I have to bring some food on friday and saturday it won't be a problem to eat all that.

For lunch my bf made some vegetable broth with leftover veggies. I ate the steamed veggies, because I didn't want to waste them (although they weren't technically raw). They still are good for my health, so I don't see a problem with that. I ate the veggies with some cashew cheese, inspired by Gena's recipe:

Italian Cashew Cheese
Pulp from making the mylk (1 cup cashew kernels)
4 dried tomatoes
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp white miso
2 tsp nutritional yeast
juice of one lemon
2 tsp dried basil

I love it. I think I'll bake some whole wheat bread for saturday (I found a bread mix inside my cupboard) with this cheese.

I was invited to my friend K and I decided to eat a bit more before that, so I wouldn't have hard cravings. So I enjoyed some of my cake with cinnamon

This cake looks like mud

I took some cake with me, since I don't want to eat the whole one and other people always love my food, no matter if they are vegan or not. Just like me, they didn't really like the strong cashew taste, but ate it anyways, lol.
I shopped before I got to K's. That's what I got:
paper muffin mold (I wanted silicon ones... D: ), 1kg sultanas, some walnuts, big pack of hazelnuts and some almonds, also facial fluid (lavera), because it was 50% off. And I got my bf some juice. I endulged myself with some (probably highly raw) date balls with chocolate.

On my way back home I passed a ice cream parlour I used to like a lot, because they have freshly made icecream with many vegan options.

strawberry and orange

Honestly, I was disappointed. Today there were only 3 vegan flavors (third was pomegranade).  It is way cheaper to make some soft serve from bananas myself and a lot healthier. The liquid remains in that cup tasted just like sugar, so this won't do me any good. I'm done with it.

At home I ate the rest of the cake I was carrying with me and my cheese with 2 carrots.

neatly arranged food

That were my last carrots ;__;

Conclusion of this day:
I have to stick to my rules more. Those are merely guidelines and I think some steamed veggies once or twice a week is okay, but I had way to many nuts (good fats, but not more than 1 cup a day or so). Also ice cream I didn't create myself is off. Overall, there are too many processed sweets (even if highly raw).

Tomorrow I think I'll start my day with a big green smoothie and ace my Japanese test. Now I'm gonna study some till I fall asleep. Wish me plenty of luck!

Look at him!

Day 3 - Cashews and Blackberries

Today was a sad day... I had to say no to a cake!
But let me start with breakfast. I thought it was time for some protein. So I made a hemp smoothie, inspired by Raw on $10 a Day. I have no hemp protein powder, so I substituted it for 1 tablespoon of flax seed.

Crunchy and quite okay. I still have to get used to carob.
Later I continued searching for raw cake recipes and started to learn for my Japanese test. Eventually I needed a big salad.

Yes! A real big one. One small head of lettuce, blueberries, kohlrabi, hazel nuts, almonds, onions, sprinkled with white balsamic vinegar and spicy blossoms.
Then I had enough energy to go to some asian markets. I found young coconuts! But they seemed moldy. That african food store had an incredible assortment of lentils and beans. Very tempting, have to go there once more. In an asian market I found tamarind, cashews and garam massala. That was okay, too. Before I got to my friend S, I grabbed 2 avocadoes from an oriental market (they weren't organic, but from Israel, which I think is better than to get them all the way from Peru).
At S's place I found him baking a Blackberry cake and cook jam from those sweet buddies he gathered from the forest nearby. I was lucky, I got a lots of Blackberries, because there were still serveral kilos left. I could resist the cake and was a little proud. But I tasted the blackberries with a hint of oatmilk. Wasn't very good, so I stuck with 2 cups of only berries.
On my way home I snacked 3 or 4 cashews and realized that I didn't like them that much o.o I don't know what's wrong with me.

Right now I have my first raw cake un-baking inside the freezer.

Crust:
1 cup cashew kernels
1 cup tamarind
some water
Filling:
2 cups cashew kernels
1 pitted date
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup water

The filling could be a little sweeter (extra dates or some maple sirup), but you'll get the final examination once I tried it completely chilled. I think you should chill it for at least 1 hour inside the fridge, but right now I put it into the freezer, because I can't wait that long, when I'm experimenting.

I'm looking forward to try recipes with the avocadoes. But those cakes and raw gourmet recipes are a little too expensive and fatty for my taste.

Tomorrow morning I will be going to the dentist to get my inlays changed. In the evening I have to go to friends from university to talk about orientation weeks, I hope K doesn't have cracker and hummus around, because that's a thing I used to eat in large amounts when I was at her place.

Day 2 - I had hungry guests

Day 2 was succesful, yet lacked calories again.
For breakfast I had apples, cantaloupe and buckwheat, with lots of cinnamon.

My bf had his first day of fasting. You can check out his blog.

After my breakfast we went to the organic food store to pick up some fruits and cat food. I bought 1 kg of blueberries *heaven*. Of course I put about half of them into the freezer. And I was hungry again, so I enjoyed a blue/green smoothie.

1 apple, 2 hands blueberries, 2 hands spinach

I also bought hemp seeds. Very nutty, me likey. And also some mung beans for sprouting. Plus organic peaches, tomatoes, dates and a lot of juice for my bf to drink during the fast. Oh, and I tried organic chewing gum. The flavor didn't last long, unfortunately.
At about 4 pm I had friends over for learning Japanese. We have a test on Thursday. Of course we soon were bored by learning and started playing on the wii. And eventually everyone was hungry. I was stressed out, because I didn't have tofu or anything there. I had rice, but it would have taken too long to make. So I came up with some rice porridge, made from rice flakes, water and agave syrup. Sprinkled with granola and apples. I didn't even taste what I made, but everyone was happy. Phew! Btw, I stored my granola, rice, noodles and all the bad stuff in the oven, so I won't be tempted every time I take something from the pantry.
While everyone was enjoying the porridge I made myself a quick fresh pseudo-lasagna.

Ingredients: 3 tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, 1 big zucchini, sprinkled with white balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast and spicy blossoms.
I was starving until I had this v.v Right now I'm so looking forward to breakfast (ok, I'm doing this every evening, I must confess).

On Saturday I will meet with friends at the Rhine and I need some nice (raw) recipe to bring. It shouldn't contain avocado, cause right now I only find Peruvian ones. And I have no dehydrator. If I can't find something nice, I will bake a cake, that I can't eat v__v
Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow I'll also visit friends and next week I'm also not at home. Big challenge for me to keep eating raw, but I think I can do this!

Day 1

On my first day being raw I felt ok, but I absolutely didn't move one bit. I watched 2 movies on the couch, then spent my afternoon in front of the computer. Yay. Now look at my lovely baby lentil sprouts:

Breakfast:

Green Smoothie (1/3 Cantaloupe + 2 hands full spinach)

leftover sour cherries + white grapes

I took a sip of my bf's bread drink. quite gross, but healthy. That's how we like it.

Lunch:

Carrot-tomato-soup I made it without any oil and with extra tomato sauce.

1 apple (without cat)

Dinner:

Fat-free hummus with carrots, radish and white radish

Korean cucumber salad

I hope I got enough calories today. I think it's okay for the first day (and remember: no exercise today).

And here another cute kitty shot

"mommy, your face looks like a well-garnished pizza"