Raw for lent Day 20-24:

Monday Day 20:

Just another day.  Mom is here, we went for a walk to Fosters to get her some coffee, then I came home and made a banana/strawberry/kale/hemp/maca/cacao/epic protein shake.  I used that italian style kale which has a stronger flavor than the regular stuff, but it was still cool.

We hit up Classic Treasures and saw some really nice pieces but nothing that will be my record table.  Replaced my roommate's bananas that my mom mistakenly ate. :)

Practiced for March 16th night show with the Jos.  Need to learn the words to all these darn songs!

Late lunch, cut up a cauliflower and had it with broccoli, watched some downtown abbey (still can't get into it), then met LY for dinner at Sage.  I had a tropical salad (arugula, avocado, cabbage, hearts of palm) which was tasty, but not as big as I remembered.  Maybe I just got spoiled by that ridiculous Atlanta place.

Came home and watched The Queen of Versailles, and weirdly, just felt bad for the lady because her children saw it best: David Siegel does not love her, or his kids.  He loves success.  Forget that.

Tuesday Day 21:

CHARLOTTE!

Mom and I hopped in the car around 10.  I fixed us green smoothies for breakfast (Kale, Parsley, Celery, Tomato, Orange Pepper, Lemon Juice), then went to Ikea, which is nicer than I thought it was. I actually really liked the aesthetic and would totally use their stuff if redoing a room in my house in the future.  I got a nightstand, bookshelf and a new rug.

Following Ikea, we went to South Park Mall and looked at all the expensive clothes at Hermes and Neiman Marcus. I grabbed an unsweetened Lemon Sage Lavender tea at Teavana for a little pick me up.
For dinner, we drove to Old Charlotte and hit up Luna's Living Kitchen.  Luna's is small but cozy and our waiter was new and kind of feckless, but nice enough and we got (most of) our food eventually.  We had:
Sprout It Out Salad - delicious, dressing wins my heart.
Divine Bowl - I didn't realize entrees came with a huge side salad with that bangin tahini dressing, but even so, the bowl was great.  Mimicks a thai style curry.
Lemon Wildberry cheesecake - by far the highlight of the meal.  This was the best raw cheesecake I've ever eaten.  My mother clearly agreed, because I have never in my life had to fight her for my share of dessert.  It was light, airy and very tart, just a dream.

We stopped at Concord Mills on the way home so I could outlet shop for some shoes and a new skirt, then arrived home, where my mom also expressed her newfound love for Hail Merry Macaroons and asked if I wanted one for a bedtime treat.

Wednesday Day 22:

I dropped mom off at airport then had my take out Lunasagna for Bfast!  This was probably the best choice, and one I should've just made but man, raw lasagna is such a cliche.  Theirs was flavorful and the mushrooms added a nice "meaty" texture to it that I dug.

Later in the day, after building one piece of Ikea furniture, I had some of that not-so-great anymore raw cheesecake from whole foods and a hail merry chocolate almond tart.  Super sweet tooth, I know.

I had a grapefruit for dinner before Pub Quiz, where I totally HOUSED the classical music round but it didn't matter because everything in the last round was impossible.  We got 3 right and managed 2nd place.  The boys were a little flighty for various reasons so I left early.

When I got home, I did mango/cashews for evening snack and watched some West Wing.

Thursday Day 23:

For Breakfast, I pounded some lemon cookies from Lunas, then cleaned the room a little before heading to the barn.  I lunged Jazz before the lesson (Supposed to start at 3) and we didn't mount until about 3:30, because at the last second I switched bay horses.  I do not love riding the one I ended up on, but he's still a good dude and easy enough.

On the way home, stopped at Earth Fare and bought a bunch of stuff.  Snack was guac and flax crackers.  I went to work at 8pm, and nobody was there.  Nobody was out either, so I went home to continue cleaning up.  About an hour later, I got a text from CB about hanging out, so I had some snap peas and kombucha, finished what I was doing and went to meet him at the Fed.  We stayed out pretty late, which was crazy given that I am sober, but it was still fun.

Friday Day 24:

Woke up and ate some more sugar snap peas before driving out to Fuquay to hang out with CB again.  Got done there just in the nick of time to house a little Guac and flax cracker before work, then headed to help out at Blu.

It got pretty busy and I definitely earned my salad.  After work, I went out and drank water at Surf club with friends.  Late night I ended up having a mango as a snack then hitting the hay.

Raw for Lent: Days 14-17

Tuesday, Day 14:

Got up and went to last day of class.  Skipped breakfast, I know, shame on me.  It was an awful icky day.  Stopped to pick up some layering tanks at old navy, then came home and made some "sushi" -- lightly food processed cauliflower "rice" with nori, cukes and avocado as well as some unpasteurized nama shoyu (which is, btw, so much saltier for some reason...probably because it was like, fizzy when I opened it).

I also tore into some of this mayan chocolate stuff that tastes kind of like coffee, it's very bitter.  Not awful but not my fav.  I had about 3 pieces before giving up.

I realized I had run out of savory sundries and still can't bring myself to just drink my protein like a good girl, so I ran out and bought some kale chips, "cheesecake" celery, kale and lettuce to snack on.

So, I ate the kale chips and this RAWesome raw cheesecake that is so delicious that it gets to live with Hail Merry in the world of "things I would eat all the time anyway" then passed out from being old.

Wednesday Day 15:

Hit the gym, this is 1/3 of the way there y'all!  Foodstuffs for the day include: honeydew melon, cashews, mango, sauer kraut.

Thursday Day 16:
Another morning of gym time, then some chocolate macaroons.  Dinner became a protein drink with 1 T maca, 2 T cacao, 4 scoops epic, 1 T hemp seed, 1 banana and 1 C raspberries.

Friday, Day 17:
Morning made an exact replica of last night's protein drink dinner. and took my midterm which was way harder than anticipated.  Snack was Kale Chips.  Passed out at 8pm.

I also wish there were an easier way to get photos up in this blog.

Raw for Lent: Days 9-11

Thurdsay Day 9

 Hit the gym first thing in the morning, then failed to pack my pear for class.

At home, spun up some shakes (collards, kale, celery, tomato, carrot, parsley, lemon juice, Epic) which I then barely drank...so into the fridge they went. Instead, I had a raw revolution bar on the way to my evening leadership event, then at said event had two bananas and a platefull of raw summer squash and zucchini...(Sidebar, to the caterer at the conference center: who puts out a cruditee plate consisting solely of summer squash and zucchini?  Ever heard of carrots and celery?  They're cheap!)

After the leadership event, headed to Lucha Tigre for a Pride club event, where I had a grapefruit juice (oh, mocktails), and then headed home to work on a paper.  On the way, picked up some guacamole and salsa from Cosmic Cantina and ate them with some romaine for dinner.  Oh, and a Hail Merry meyer lemon tart for a late night, finished-my-paper treat.

 

Friday Day 10

First got up and weighed in, and again went to the gym.  Am also gearing up for this DietBet spin off of my live challenge...weigh in today put me almost back to where I was before I started getting crazy with the carbohydrate.

Went directly from the gym to a meeting on campus, with one of the shakes from yesterday, drank about half, then stopped at Bean Trader's in homestead to pick up some Triangle Raw Foods food.  Expensive, and the kelp noodles spilled all over everything, but they were worth it.  The raw burrito, though?  Not so much.  It was meh, I prefer the walnut sundried tomato pate I can make at home, and felt like it was a very nut-heavy meal.

That night, I went to work where it was not terribly busy, and my shift meal was a lovely salad complete with spinach, tomato, golden apples and avocado, with a little balsamic on top for good measure.  I totally dug into it before taking a picture, so apologies for the less-than-beautiful presentation, Sami, Tu esta Mi Amor!

Went home, started to do some work and then got cross-eyed tired and went to bed instead.

Saturday, Day 11

Early morning meeting.  I snacked on some Chocolate Hail Merry Macaroons on the way to the meeting at a coffeeshop (and man, they are pretty good, even as someone who doesn't love chocolate), and then went directly to band practice with a new band, where I attempted to wring a math rock song out of them.

Got out of the practice at about 6, then came home and opened up a honeydew and ate it like its skin was a bowl, because it is!  Did a little homework, snacked on cashews and walnuts, then went out to see a friend at Surf Club, which now has two new rooms and is PACKED which doesn't make me like it anymore than I did before.

Probably got home around midnight, ate some kraut and cashews (I feel like I'm hard on the cashews this year!) and then passed out.

Raw for Lent: Days 13-14

Monday, Day 13:

Monday meant some more yoga, but I bailed. I ended up finishing the recording for the LAM! LAM! tour and getting my screens set up and considering paint color, then hit the gym. Food was...a banana. An apple. A noble attempt to eat more kale salad both before and after work, then a grapefruit and a handful of almonds for dinner/pre-bed snack.

Tuesday, Day 14:

Today was a barn day! Sadly, Shep, my trainer, doesn't think Jazz is ready to do lessons, so I rode Newman, my old love. Newman is still a totally awesome horse; just am totally amped on Jazz. Regardless of a little misbehavior (apparently, Newman has not been ridden again since I last rode him!) and silliness, he was a very good boy and listened well.

After riding, I decided to finally pull out my Sun Warrior and made a shake of almonds, water, chia gel and frozen strawberries, which I put in my bag for work and drank there. I forgot how congealed the Sun Warrior shakes tend to get. Or maybe it's the Chia doing it. Whatever, I choked it down but the shake wasn't as filling as I remembered said shakes being, so I ended up stopping at Whole Foods and picking up some new stuff. I got some more kale, zucchini, tomatoes, apples, a little guac and these "Brad's Raw" chips.

So reviewing the Brad's Raw Chips. I decided to go for the "cheddar" version because I wanted something to eat with guacamole and figured the nacho type chip would be the best for my needs. First thing, these chips are EXPENSIVE. Like, $8. Ouch. But, they are good. Some of them are better than others (like, in the same bag), because the slightly thicker ones, while sturdier, have that sort of chewy fruit leather texture as a opposed to the light crunch of the thinner ones. Overall, my impression was that they tasted like slightly spicy, healthy wheat thins. And ya know, that works for me. Hell, it's probably even worth the $8 splurge every so often, like tonight, when I just want something quick and easy and tasty. Or when I'm craving the bready crunch. Also, they supposedly give away free chips and prizes (HELLO I WOULD LIKE SOME FREE CHIPS THANKS!) if you join the mailing list or like them on facebook. So overall, I'd say the company is not totally evil and the product is good, but this is definitely a once-in-a-while indulgence because of the price, so stick to your sun warrior and apples and bananas if you are cheap like I am.

BUT that said, I did just totally splurge on a food dehydrator so I'm gonna make some kale chips and zucchini chips and maybe fruit leather yayyyy.

On another note, I don't often get into politics, but feel it is necessary to start to raise awareness for something that is a really important issue here in the state of North Carolina. The civil and human rights of people in same-sex partnerships in the state of North Carolina are currently under a huge threat. Amendment One proposes to make the same-sex marriage ban in North Carolina part of the state constitution.

Just to be clear, same sex marriage is ALREADY illegal in the state of North Carolina.

This bill would essentially lay the groundwork to invalidate existing same-sex arrangements like custody, estate settlements without wills, visitation rights at hospitals and prison and could even be used to overturn restraining orders or convictions based on "domestic violence."



If you would like to know more about the amendment from a fairly unbiased source, you can see the BallotPedia Page for Amendment One. If you would like to contribute or get involved, Protect All NC Families is an excellent organization doing fine work. The best thing you can do, though, is tell anyone you know in North Carolina about this upcoming issue.

Regardless of how you or your family feels about same-sex marriage, remember, it is ALREADY ILLEGAL in the state. This bill is not about banning gay marriage in NC, but is about the LEGAL marginalization of a minority group. Replace "gay" with any other minority group and you'll know how to vote. We are beyond this as a culture.

Raw for Lent: Day 27

This morning I got up much later than I anticipated (I had hoped to get my car mirror fixed before I went to the gym) but instead just got up, made breakfast:

1 scoop sunwarrior

1/2 T spirulina

1 c chia gel

1/4 c almonds

1 c water

1 c strawberries

I'm finally getting the proportions down somewhat, so I could actually nearly drink it out of a pint glass.

I went to the gym and also brought my trainer a scoop of Sunwarrior so he could use it on the gym's "go vegan" week (since he is anti-soy). We will see, if he's used to protein powder he might like it. For me, it's not terrible, but the stevia flavor really drives me kind of nuts. I am not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners.

After I got home, I worked on some financial stuff and then had a raw bar because I had another appointment this afternoon; Pole Dancing class.

Yeah, that's right. I caved on a $15 deal on living social and bought a set of 6 classes at a studio here called Vertical Tease. So I wandered around looking for this joint for like 10 minutes, finally found it and joined into the class. We warmed up pretty easy, just a lot of bending and stretching and a little light strength stuff, then we got into it. We learned:

"sexy walk" - parading around the pole and dragging yr toes on the ground behind you (which gives you gummy toes)

"pirouette" - a slightly more complicated move where you pivot on one foot and end up with your back to the pole

"drop" - where you fall backward down the pole and land on your back (holy fuck, I got some bruises on my ass, thighs, shoulders, back and head from this bad boy)

"legs up" - which is basically propping yourself up in plow or neckstand in yoga, then bicycling your legs slowly. the teacher also did this thing that made her legs look like sea anemonies, which we all laughed at but she was like "dudes don't care what looks stupid, they are looking at what is between your legs."

"feet in" which requires you to do some kung fu, pick yourself up and get from your knees to your feet quick-like

"sexy up" which is basically standing up really slow from a touch your toes position

"fireman spin" where you grab the pole with your ankles and spin around to the ground (I have bruises on both of my feet as well as pole-burn,)

"leg wrap" where you spin around the pole, plant a foot then lift the other foot.

So what I learned is that pole dancing is way more painful and awful than I expected. The rolling around on a wood floor I always expected to be painful and bruising, but the amount of skin I left on that thing, especially off weird places like the tops of my feet and toes was truly unexpected. I have to be honest, the sort of sexy parading around and painfulness of it remind me altogether too much of what I would imagine a slave in a Dom/Sub relationship would be. So the place also offers Zumba and Kickboxing, so I'll pole dance maybe one more time in this "intro" class, but I think that it's back to kicking stuff for me. Horseriding provides me with enough stupid bruising and death defying stunts, thanks.

After class, I was basically in CH, so I went to Whole foods and got some more kale in order to make more of that awesome kale salad. It's marinating as we speak, although I may have used too much because it didn't have enough room to bruise when I shook it, but hey, I'm sure it'll still be tasty.

When I was driving, I noticed a gaggle of protestors lined up outside Planned Parenthood. I drive to Chapel Hill at least 2 days a week, usually 3-4 though. When I see a bunch of people there on Saturday Morning, it bothers me some, but I guess I'm just used to seeing the two women with no life protesting most of the time, at 4pm on a wednesday or 8 pm on weds. Seeing like 30 people outside of PP really irked me today. Women have a right to a yearly pap smear that they can afford. Women have a right to reasonably priced prenatal care. Everyone has a right to STD testing. Just imagine what it would be like if you were someone without health insurance, going to get cancerous cells burned off your cervix and a bunch of looney tunes yelled at you, spat at you, while you were going in to do what was probably the scariest thing in your life. Hell, imagine if you were getting an abortion (which, btw, I'm not even sure PP Chapel Hill provides in house. Every PP I've ever been to refers patients to private clinics for abortion services), it would still probably be scary and horrible. But for many women, so is the prospect of having a kid, especially when they are in circumstances where they need to go to planned parenthood (either because of insurance issues or age issues) to talk to someone about that kid. I swear, one day I'm gonna lose it, pull over and start a counter protest. /rant

Before prepping Kale, I went to pubquiz at the James Joyce, which is definitely not my fav pubquiz in the world, but it's better to get out of the house than watch primetime TV.

For dinner I rolled up some avo and cukes in nori, then ate some kimchi as well. Snack was some passionfruit juice.

I also ran across an amazing raw blog today...Raw on $10 a Day. Granted several recipes rely on a dehydrator (and I feel like the vitamix is a more realistic year round kitchen investment, which is why I bought it!) Some of these recipes look AMAZING though, like the pies. Holy balls, I want pecan pie.

For today's meme answer

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

This song will forever, in my mind, be linked to the S-Bahn, particularly overlooking the hotel Construction between Hackescher Markt and Alexanderplatz, overlooking huge construction projects in 2005. Whatever it was is probably finished by now. But goddamn, did I love this song.

Raw for Lent: Day 18-22

Saturday, Day 18

Today was the bear day at work; got up and headed to work. Snacked on a raw organic bar on the way over, then had several students in a row cancel, so I made a salad at the Whole Foods salad bar, tossed some guac on it and chomped away.

After teaching, I headed to the restaurant job. I brought a Pure blueberry bar and a pint of kumquats. Note; it is very hard to eat a whole pint of kumquats in one sitting. The sourness eventually started to irritate my stomach a little I think.

Tried Kevita, which is like an off brand kombucha. It is weird. I got the mango coconut flavor and it tasted sort of thick and slimy. I wouldn't recommend it, even though it is cheaper than kombucha.

Made kelp lasagna with the sun dried tomato sauce and cashew cheese. Kelp noodles are disgusting. They have the texture of the crunchy bits in seaweed salad. Alternately, think severely undercooked spaghetti. They also have that weird "packaged in some kind of preservative juice" seaweed flavor (kind of like the shirataki noodles) that I really couldn't get past. I cut up half a cantaloupe instead and ate that. Waste of good sauce. :(

Sunday Day 19

First meal was cabbage and dip. I didn't have to work in the morning, so I busted open my chocolate flavored Sunwarrior protein. Sunwarrior is a raw vegan protein powder that had the best rating of all the ones I looked at, has a complete amino acid profile and packs 20g of protein into a shake, which is probably quadruples my protein intake for the day.

The shake I made was:
1 scoop protein

1 tsp spirulina

1/2 c blueberries

1 banana

1 c almond milk

It wasn't bad just a little too sweet. The visual aspect was very unappealing; kind of a greyish sludge with black speckles in it. I sucked it down over the course of a night's work, then had the other half of the cantaloupe and some kimchi.

Monday. Day 20

Cherry Pure bar for breakfast, then went to do the major shop; I'm sick of a bunch of food so I ran through Goneraw.com and my Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw for inspiration. Cukes are nowhere!!!! How the fuck can I make pickles?

Lunch was another protein shake:
1 scoop sunwarrior

1 c almond milk

1 c fresh blackberries

1 tsp spirulina

The shake was slightly better, and a slightly more purple hue.

While I spun the shake, I tossed together some guacamole and cut it down with peas. Sadly, I think I overused the peas, so it's a little too sweet. I ate it with crudite and Raw One flax crackers. They are pretty much exactly what I remember of raw crackers (crawkers!) which is to say satisfying, but sort of weirdly slimy from whatever they use to hold the cracker together. I also picked up a new type of Rhythm Chips; the bombay curry ones. Sadly, Whole Foods no longer had the other kinds. I missed the nachos :(

I also tossed together this green pea and almond dip recipe tonight. It was not really delicious. Maybe it would be better blended in vitamix, but here was just sort of minced and the consistency of quinoa or something. I quartered a red pepper and put the mixture into the quarters.

Tuesday, Day 21

Nearly halfway there!

This morning I got up, scarfed a banana and some coconut water then headed to the barn. I was able to jump Poncho, the little white pony on my own (outside of a lesson!) for the first time and even though the footing was lousy and I didn't know how much to do with him, we had a good time. Also took out Nissa, my old lady, who was also a good girl, although sort of lost it toward the end, which is fine. We were just hacking, so no real danger.

When I came home, I finally NAILED the protein shake!

1 scoop powder,

1/2 T spirulina,

1 mango

1 c chia gel

1 c almond milk

1 c blueberries

It actually tastes GOOD. Like jello pudding cups. Well, maybe not quite, but very similar. The Chia gives it a pudding quality I think. Tastes for real like chocolate pudding.

Wednesday, Day 22

For breakfast, had chia goodness with banana, a few blackberries and almond milk.

Made a shake:

1 scoop sunwarrior

1/2 T spirulina

1 c grapes

1 c almond milk

1 c chia

1 mango.

It was not bad. Filling enough and healthy feeling. We played a rock show with Turbo Fruits and Pujol (more information on that at the Pink Flag blog). Playing rock and roll without drinking is rough and stuff.

Had an apple, then came home and had a few cashews, then tried to eat a grapefruit and got tired halfway through so gave up and went to sleep.

Raw for Lent: Day 14-16

Tues, day 14:

I made raw granola, chia, banana and blueberry cereal for breakfast. I was gonna add almond milk, but it has separated and looks icky. The raw granola, btw, is tasty, especially after the chia gel softens it up.

Dinner at work was the leftover shake from day 12 and tomatoes.

Snack was cashews, pecan and grapes.

Weds, day 15:
I accidentally skipped breakfast, so ended up stealing blueberries from the kitchen for my breakfast. I definitely hadn't been eating enough because I kind of had that hunger headache feeling.

I hit up Whole Foods and picked up some guacamole and salsa to mix together (feeling so lazy) for snack. I peeled and chopped up some carrots and celery to eat with the guac, but also bought some kale chips (that were super expensive, but REALLY good) at whole foods by Rhythm Organic. I tried the "nacho" flavor because it had the most vitamin A but am excited to try the rest.

After teaching, I came home and spun together a new slightly tastier shake:1/2 cantaloupe
1 mango
1/2 c blueberries
1 c cabbage

12 oz coconut water
1 tsp spirulina powder

Drank half of it and had a pure apple cinnamon bar for dinner, went to quiz and lost it :(

It started pouring on the way home, so I sat in my car and listened to Room on tape until the rain let up, then I fixed myself the rest of the guac with some more carrots, celery, some cabbage and some cukes as well.

Day 16:
Got up this morning expecting my chia goodness to have arrived from amazon, but no dice yet. Instead, I tried my second "Pure" food bar: the "chocolate brownie" which actually tasted like a chocolate brownie; kind of like that Boston brand kind. It was trippy, but pretty tasty. I also chopped up a 1/4 cantaloupe, a banana, chia gel and raw granola for longevity.

I hit the post office and did some writing, then we had band practice, after which I whipped up a new batch of spinach dip and a new tub of cashew cheese (fermenting as we speak). After practice, I also noticed my Sun Warrior protein, chia goodness and kale noodles had arrived from amazon. I also went to drink some almond milk but it was all cheesy and curdled so I dumped it and set some almonds to soak for tomorrow's breakfast.

For dinner I made cabbage and cukes to eat with the spinach dip (which is really so much better after the onion has had a day to mellow out, but I'm hungry and sick of eating bar-food) and some passionfruit-grape juice and watching grey's anatomy because I totally without a doubt have a vagina.

In other news, I have now tried all of the Raw Revolution bars and actually kind of like their little bite sized awesomeness; theyre great for a little something sweet or a pick me up (and I feel like my supply is limitless). The best flavor by far is the chocolate coconut, which tastes kind of like a mounds bar. I still like the spirulina second best and all the rest are sort of whatever.

I have also been relying on the Raw Organic bars for snackeroos, which are okay but taste sort of like glue to me (I have the chocolate ones). Take what I say with a grain of salt; I don't really actually like chocolate. I only bought the chocolate ones because they were on sale and I'm cheap.

Raw for Lent: Day 13

Breakfast (after job interview) was carrot and celery with some homemade guac (guac is easy, I tend to avoid the japs in it, but love adding tomato) especially after talking about craving it super hardcore last night. Went to the gym after breakfast and then finished off the green shake.
Instead of lasagna, I tossed together a sort of unbaked ziti situation. Zucchini spaghetti, cashew ricotta and tomato sauce. I tweaked the tomato sauce recipe to make it a little more saucy:

4 sun dried tomatoes
1 c cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 tsp basil

Process the cherry tomatoes, garlic and basil. Toss the sun dried tomatoes. Let soak for a little bit, then process (if you process too early, the sun dried tomatoes will catch on the blades and make a mess, especially if you like to use a shitty little hand processor like I do).It was really good, but too much sauce/chz for the amount of zucchini. I thought I had two, but I only had one. I was sad to waste good sauce, but I already did my shop for the week.

Later that evening, my gay husband Sean and I went to dinner and a movie. I chose this place Shaba Shabu because they have a roll there that is wrapped in cucumber instead of seaweed and rice, but they changed their menu and took it off. I asked if they could still make it, and they tried (it was kind of a mess) so I just got a salad. Sean and I talked about the whole "what are we doing with our lives" crisis and he ran an interesting idea past me. He hasn't decided yet and so I won't share it here, except to say that it's unexpected, but a good fit for him. You have my support love! <3

So yeah, they don't have the naruto roll anymore, and we went to see Cedar Falls, which was a kind of bizarre buddy movie about insurance sales. It was really cute, kind of funny (very much informed by Anchorman and other early 2000s era Will Ferrell vehicles) and starred Anne Heche, Ed Helms and John C Reilly, our favorite (or at least top 2) of the PT Anderson alumni. Anne Heche looks even more like an alien than she used to (is that possible?!) but we enjoyed it.

For a treat, I came home and made myself a bowl of the Rocky Mountain Creamery Raw Cashew ice cream. It's darker than you'd expect vanilla to be and has that kind of grainy, raw texture. I ground up some cacao nibs and almonds to put on top, as well as a few strawberries. Thestrawberries really were the treat, though. At some point, I'll make strawberries and cashew cream.

Overall I've been eating pretty well and the weight is not falling off me the way it did last year, which is a blessing and a curse. I'm still staying pretty active and probably getting more calories in because of all the work I'm doing. Either way, I feel a whole lot better than I did last lent. Being prepared is nice.

Oh yeah, also interviewed for a personal cheffing job today and didn't get it. Oh well. At least I got to wear my new Calvin Klein dress.

Raw For Lent: Days 8 & 9

Today (day 8) I got up and went into work where it was slow. I pounded the ceviche salad and drank some coconut water for breakfast then came home and assembled raw lasagna, using the premade "sauce" and cashew cheese as well as peeled slices of zucchini. It was really fucking good, just sayin'!

Ran to teach lessons, and was peeved because I bought these "raw revolution" bars on amazon, only to realize when they came that they're like, an inch by an inch. Not much belly filling. So I brought two of them to have one every couple of hours. As of this blogging, I've tried 3 of the 5 flavors. The Chocolate/Cashew one is VERY chocolatey, the Cashew one is good, but so far my fav is the spirulina kind. It makes me feel healthy. And tastes kinda green.

When I came home, I fixed myself a juice for dinner:

1 mango (peeled, seeded)
1-2 c grapes (stem ok)
1/2 c chia gel
1/4 c almond milk
2 c spinach

It was tasty-ish, not the best, but felt healthy enough. When I came home, I had some romaine hearts with the spinach dip. I spent like, 3.50 on this fucking Organic Girl brand shit because it's supposed to be like, washed

and clean and shit, and can I tell you something? I found BUGS in it. Dead bugs, sure, but BUGS. I am going back to Foxy lettuce, tout de suite. Fuck this boxed lettuce shit.

Day 9:

Woke up, and went into the pantry to open my Chia Goodness. They don't sell it at Chapel Hill Whole Foods anymore, but I guess the one I have has sat too long, the chia seeds attached themselves to the currants and it was gross so I chucked it. Instead, I made a chia, almond milk, raspberry and banana mix, wolfed it down and headed to the barn. After a lovely ride, I headed back to town, rolled some avocado in nori and then headed to work for St. Paddys day, bringing along a few more raw rev bars. which, for those of you who work in bars, know is not a favorite. Now I'm snackin on some cauliflower.

Doing okay. Craving a burrito hardcore.

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 38-40

Man, the past couple of days have been KILLER.

On Friday, I was able to accomplish a *little,* although my Weds and Thurs shenanigans sure didn't help my energy level. First thing in the morning, my dad called asking me how to use the "juicer" and what recipes I could give him for "juicing." When he says "juicer," he means the vitamix. I keep telling him to just kind of experiment but he wants recipes (from books) so I'm just making stuff up to give him. Sometimes they're mediocre, sometimes better. Day 38 was a decent smoothie, but I wouldn't go out of the way to call it mind-blowing or anything. Good nutritional value, if nothing else!

So here's my Day 38 smoothie:
1/2 C almond milk
1/2 C water
1 banana
1/4 head cabbage
1 vine ripe tomato
1/2 c mixed berries
(you can add 1 tbsp maca powder)

I also polished off my cookies before heading to work. For a work snack, I packed a handful of almonds and a handful of cashews. When I arrived, I found a pleasant surprise: fresh fruit! Where I work, the security guy/backwait, Jim, often brings in candy for the waitstaff. Sometimes it is movie candy like whoppers, mike and ikes, dots, skittles and reeses pieces, sometimes it's fancy fare like chocolate dipped pretzels, truffles, jordan almonds etc. This week, he said he checked the schedule and saw I was working and brought in strawberries, blackberries and green grapes. Another server on shift mentioned that it would be great if we did it every week, so we were having healthy snacks instead of scarfing down 800 empty calories every night. Time will tell!

It was a rough night at the bar. A popular local fellow got married and the bar filled to the brim with people who had already had quite a few drinks. This resulted in two bar fights, several spilled and dropped drinks and a lot of running around and headache. It was sort of exhausting.

When I came home I ate my snack as well as some chia, knowing I'd have a rough day Saturday, and oh, how Saturday delivered.

Day 39:
9:15 am I arrive at the studio to wait on my lessons. I taught from 9:45 until 11, then had a break in which I scooted to buy some sheet music for my 12:30 student, as well as pick up a snack at Trader Joe's of a Cherry Pie Larabar and some pineapple slices. I spied a new "healthy" fast food place called Evos that I may or may not try. Their menu looks kind of meh.

Of course, my 12:30 didn't show up, so I waited around until 1:30 for my next lessons, then finally got out at 3:15, headed back to Durham and quickly assembled some pickles (ready on Monday) and chopped up half a cabbage, a tomato, an avocado, a cucumber and poured vinaigrette over it. Unfortunately, by the time I finished chopping, I had to be at work, so into the tupperware it went.

I scarfed it down in fits through the night, which was also ridiculously busy, then finally got to go home and immediately spooned some chia goodness into a bowl with almond milk and a banana. By 2:15 am I was losing consciousness. That's what 14 hours of work will do though!

Day 40:
Well, when I started this, I thought today was Easter and I'd be enjoying some delicious bagels and rye bread and maybe a veggie burger or some hummus. Oh, so I was wrong.

Taught this morning...but was late. I was totally knackered from last night. I had to drive to Raleigh, so I stopped in at Earth Fare on my way back. Earth fare, my beloved. I picked up some Raw Crackers from the Raw Bakery. They are exactly what I remember raw crackers being like...sort of the analogue of Road's End Mac and Chreese. They have most of the attributes I miss in crackers...crunchiness, saltiness...but then weird things I don't want or need (like a sort of fatty oily flavor, a crumbliness from being made of seeds). I am still grateful for their existence and will eat them with guac as soon as I can get to it. I also put away another one of those Raw Organic bars for some energy while I prepped myself a raw sushi salad...I'm working out a dressing recipe which I'll share as soon as it's good enough *to* share. It was tasty but a little salty and definitely too thick to be a dressing.

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 36

So...it was an interesting day. As you all probably know, Wednesday is sort of my personal "hell day," in that I work 11 til about 3 at the Fed, then go directly to my first of seven lessons at the studio, then drive direct from Chapel Hill back to the dirty D for some pubquiz, my respite and joy for the day.

Restaurant job was good (and I made some decent scratch) but failed to pack any food besides a banana and was worried that I was going to have to wait until 8 to sneak into whole foods and grab something or worse, order a salad for dinner...but I had a cancellation and was saved. At whole foods, I picked up some kombucha, fruit salad, kimchi and a Raw Organic Food bar...the fiber one. Apparently, the chocolatey ones are only 80% raw (then why do you call yourself raw, food bar?), and the only one that is seemingly totally raw is this "generic" fiber food bar. It tastes like every power bar I've ever eaten in my entire life and that is to say: edible, but sort of disgusting. Kind of what I imagine soylent green would taste like. After I opened up the kimchi, someone made a comment that it "smelled like cabbage" in the studio, at which I giggled since I'm totally becoming creepy smelly food person as a raw foodie, more so than I ever was as a regular vegan...and as a regular vegan I was creeped out by most smelly foods that did not involve garlic (yes, that includes peanut butter, yes, peanut butter kind of creeps me out).

I ran home, packed some of my homebrew kimchi up for my friend Mississippi Steve and skeedaddled over to pubquiz. He and my buddy Rusty both enjoyed it, so again, kudos, Yummy Vegan Dinners, for posting an idiot proof recipe. While Steve and Rust ate the kimchi, our team totally ate it at pubquiz. We headed over to Whiskey for our friend Jay from Red Collar's birthday. One bar turned into another when we popped back to the fed for a very late dinner and lo and behold, there was John Edwards. Yes, the senator who cheated on his cancer ridden wife with like, everyone PLUS a documentary film maker. He was chatting up two age-inappropriate girls who left in a hurry and about 40 seconds later, he was out the door. Beth commented that it was weird that nobody had bothered him and we all decided that it was likely because nobody who drinks at the fed actually gives a shit about John Edwards. Although I will say that he looked rather thin and pretty dapper. Sort of like one of those aging 80s icons (there's one in particular in my mind but I can't think of him, so I'm just going to give you Don Johnson, who is a fine approximation).

And suddenly we were on our way to Teasers.

For those of you unfamiliar with Durham, Teasers is the "nice" stripclub in Durham. We've also got the slightly less-nice Diamond Girls, then the out and out sketchy Quality Bathhouse and Cabaret Royale. Don't mistake these for the whorehouses (Tomcats and whatever the hell that place is on Rigsbee). For those of you unfamiliar with me, check my goodreads. Sex work (and stripping in particular) is a pet passion of mine as a regretfully not-women's studies major in college. I think my life might've been different if I spent about 60 hours a week in college talking about gender instead of just the 20 I spent working at the Women's Center. Man, I worked at a women's center in college, I *am* a cliche.

It was a pretty hilarious evening, given that Rust was our strip club ambassador, helping us see how to tip correctly, what you can buy with a dollar etc. A lot of funny things were said and done. A few highlights:

Goth-y dancer: Come on man you're gonna get me in trouble.
Jay: How do you know I'm not a high roller?
Rust: The HIGH ROLLER in a denim jacket!
(everyone laughs)
Rust: He likes to play it down.

Jay (re John Edwards): Motherfucking white wine.
(ed note: Jay took serious issue with John Edwards' decision to drink white wine as opposed to beer, liquor or red wine. This was said about 16 times over the course of the night.)

Otty: Jay, we've never shared music, but we shared many nipples tonight.

Justine, the very nice stripper: Never bite a nipple in motion.

Creepy Strip Club Regular waiting outside after the club is closed: Y'all take your demented selves out of here. My dick is hard, now move on.

After all that, I came home, fixed myself some chia goodness with raspberries and attempted to make guac using a storebought salsa called fresh cuts, which was VILE and caused me to waste an avocado, I fell asleep. Thanks for joining the adventures.

Oh and I decided to go to 9pm Holy Saturday. :) So it'll be 46 days of Raw from now on.

40 Days of Raw: Day 29-30

Man, so I realized I screwed up my lent count...apparently 40 days goes to Palm Sunday, not Easter Sunday. Me being an idiot, I've been doing the 47 day count for, well, my whole life. It's either me or my mom for teaching me that it goes through to Easter. Anyway, commenters, your choice. 47 days? Or just 40?

Day 29: A day of discovery.

Ch-ch-ch-chia! Oh man, so I bought this "Chia Goodness" and finally, a sect of vegan food whose product names match their actual contents (Raw Crunch, Chia Goodness...as opposed to Leahey Valley's Vegan and Delicious which should really be questionable and vile). I fixed myself a bowl of this delicious treat with some fresh strawberries, almond milk and agave nectar. I've illustrated several different preparations. I tend to like the 2 TB chia breakfast to 4TB almond milk and 2 TB water, sitting for about 30 minutes to get super gelatinous. It really does taste like cream of wheat!

I also marinated some cabbage and broccoli in balsamic vinaigrette overnight. It made a great salad, but it was a little lousy for snacking in a service job, where I was constantly worried I had broccoli in my teeth :).

Day 30: Boring but delicious
Breakfast of Chia and strawberries
Lunch of an arugula, strawberries, walnuts and vinaigrette. Really pretty and quite tasty too!
Snack of a raw crunch bar.
Dinner of Red pepper and chia with banana, as well as some kombucha.

I have two insanely busy days ahead of me, so it'll probably be another dull combo post, but please readers, weigh in and let me know how to approach this! I've really actually enjoyed being raw now that I've gotten into the swing of things (although I am still fiending for bread!) and am considering doing one 100% raw day per week when I can really focus on the technique and then incorporating at least 1 raw meal per day into my regular diet. Maybe more!

40 Days of Raw: Day 7 & 8, going out to eat, falling off the wagon.

So, after all my hard work on Tuesday, I went into work and asked a couple of my coworkers about how to make kimchi. No dice. So I've got a napa cabbage sitting in my fridge. In the meantime, I portioned out some cashews and dried figs for the workday. Of course, had pickles before I left, then worked, grabbed some kimchi and drifted to sleep.

Wednesday, still my most challenging day, I grabbed a new type of raw bar, called Go Raw. This was the flax seed kind and it tasted EXACTLY like an apricot fruit leather with some flax seeds in it. Either way, it tided me over until I got to my destination, Butternut Squash, to meet a friend for dinner. I went to BNS a few weeks before I decided to go raw, noted that they had a raw entree on their menu and bookmarked it in my mind to go back.

When I first walked in, I thought, wow, much nicer than I expected. I don't know why, but I was just expecting a sort of retro cafeteria feel, so I was surprised by the soft jazz, carpets, linen napkins and overall "classy" feel of the joint. I sat down the first time with a book and ordered the tomato basil soup and the thai seitan skewers, both pictured. The soup was complex and tangy with hints of sweetness, roasted garlic, basil and chunks of tomato. The skewers, less so. I found them to be a little tough, the sauce reminiscent of tahini, the rice underseasoned with just a hint of coconut flavor. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. So I went back.

This time, being raw, I ordered the mixed salad (which, to my dismay but not enough to totally stop me, contained corn and edamame beans). If I were NOT raw right now, I would eat the shit out of that salad, all the time. My dining companion ordered the tomato basil soup on my recc, but they ran out, and instead ate the butternut squash soup which she insisted was delicious. I am not a fan of squash, so I'll pass. For entrees, we ordered the BNS salad for her, and the raw plate for me. The BNS salad was reportedly quite tasty and looked beautiful. The raw plate was a decent showing but I took issue with a couple of points-- 1, do not claim to be serving a raw plate with a live dipping sauce if you're going to put it out with a trio made up of sour cream (!), hummus and an avocado dip. Avo dip, yay. Other two, kinda nay. That said, I may have dipped a cuke into some hummus. I can't help it, I haven't gotten around to sprouting my chickpeas yet!
2- If you're serving raw dipping stuff, don't shred the carrot. You can't dip shredded carrot. 3- Don't charge $12 for cruditee and sour cream. I won't even honor it with a picture. The search for a great raw meal out in the triangle continues.

After dinner, I moseyed to the Nightlight club in Chapel Hill with the intention of seeing Kevin Blechdom's new operetta with Neill Prewitt and Leslie Moon, entitled Exponential Death, USA. For the uninitiated, Kevin Blechdom is a performance artist whose primary mediums include electronic music, banjo playing, extended vocal technique and video accompaniment. This particular piece was made up of a story about a demented birdfaced psycho-killer's victims. These victims included the crocodile from Peter Pan, A retarded man bringing home turkey for his wife (that they would dip every morsel in gravy), a Swedish nun and a priest on vacation in America, a drug addict, a SLUT (this was probably the highlight of the evening, with Neill Prewitt prancing around in a leopard print dress holding a torso-sized cardboard vagina just below the hem), and a slew of horses. There were so many clever references to pornography, pop culture and so much laugh out loud goodness that I'm considering going to see it again, in Raleigh, on 3/3. If you read this blog and live in the Triangle, GO SEE THIS SHOW. I may need to skip because my friends Pretty and Nice are coming into town again and I wanna support their goodness (at the Local 506, 3/3).

For your listening/viewing pleasure, a little Kevin Blechdom:





and my favorite Blechdom Song...

40 Days of Raw: Day 3

Day 3 meant sleeping until 4 pm to catch my sleep up to my energy level. When I woke up, I ran to the grocery store to pick up supplies (pre-packaged kimchi, korean chile pepper, raw granola bar type stuff) and set to work.

Yesterday's lunch was more cauliflower and a little kale salad. Snack turned out to be grapefruit. Dinner was pre-packaged kimchi and unsweetened almond milk with raspberries.

The project for yesterday? Pickling!

I started by making home kimchi. I used the recipe (or guidelines) found at Bella Online, combined with my pickling guru recipe from Tommy J's Kitchen to make my half sour pickles and radishes. Yes, I'm attempting to pickle radishes.

I copped on the kimchi a little...used a fresh habanero in addition to the korean chili powder, so ended up with more of a mud, then blended some garlic and ginger into it. In hindsight, I would've probably used 3-4 cloves of garlic instead of the one. The kimchi, overall, looks a little bit light. I let it sit out overnight to cold process ferment before putting it in the fridge. I'll probably sneak a taste on Sunday night. The cuke pickles will be ready on Monday.

Oh and the raw granola bar things? Tasty and surprisingly satisfying, but they are a little steep at $4 a pop. Basically, they taste like a saltier, healthier version of those nature valley granola bars, with superfoods in them (goji berries, blueberries, cranberries and chocolate are the flavors). They're also a little salty, which helps me to treat them like a real meal and not some lame candy bar.

Since it's also a slow afternoon, I'll tell you about my last Falafel Party (pictured at left). I'll admit, our first (pictured at right) was slightly more successful, falafel-wise, but our israeli salad and hummus were spot on this time around. We used the recipe from VWAV to a T in may, and this time were a little more liberal and winged it (which resulted in some tough first falafels that essentially crumbled in the pan). The one thing that's weird about the VWAV recipe for falafels is the amount of baking powder-- it makes them puff up and created a weird air pocket in the middle that you don't get at your fav middle eastern pita joint. Either way, I'll continue making falafel because it's awesome. But not until April 4.

As far as the israeli salad goes, this time I used fresh lemon juice, sea salt, english seedless (or what my parents call "israeli") cukes, grape tomatoes, fresh cracked pepper and a TON of parsley. It didn't keep well, but there wasn't much to keep! A great way to dress a salad like this is to cut the veggies over the container you intend to keep it in/serve it in. Then put the top on, shake it up and enjoy :)

My pointers for making hummus are more vague-- mainly because hummus is so subjective. I prefer a lighter, lemony hummus to the garlic-tastic that pleases dork. The best I've done (and it has taken weeks of mediocre chickpea dips) are as follows:

Roasted Garlic -- appx (all measurements are!) 8 cloves (roasted) to 2 cups chickpeas, 1 tsp tahini, 1/2 lemon's juice, pinch of cumin, 1/2 tsp salt and a few grinds of the old pepper mill. Olive oil until it flows freely-ish.

Red pepper (not roasted!) -- 2 c chickpeas, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp tahini, pinch cumin, 1/2 lemon's juice, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 red pepper (fresh!), ~1/3 c olive oil, then water until free flowing.

That's all I've got for now, dear bloggers. At some point soon, I'm going to attempt soaking legumes. Til then!

Daiya - A love story

Oh Daiya, what is there to say? We met, we danced and now our romance has ended.

It all started out when I ordered Daiya from vegan essentials. Half a pound of cheddar, half a pound of mozzarella. Just some modest tastings. Oh my, I didn't know.

I will tell you that Daiya, without a doubt, is the best cheese substitute I've ever tried. Seriously. It makes Teese look like Veganrella. Cheddar Daiya makes the best mac and cheese I've had that didn't involve dairy. No exaggeration. Spinach fusilli, broccoli, silk and some daiya cheese, melted together in a pot creates some seriously good mac and cheese.

I made nachos for the first time ever and discovered that I think nachos are okay. But hey, at least now I've had them! See picture. They look pretty good, though, right?

The mozzarella Daiya is just as good. Want melty, stretchy cheese pizza? I know it looks a little splotchy in the picture, but I threw the stuff on the pie directly out of the freezer so it was kinda clumpy and melted well enough to create soft squishy cheese.

Then, I went raw. Daiya became a memory, like that German boy I dated for 3 months, knowing full well I wouldn't see again until I got over to Europe 2 years later. A great thing. About a week before I got off the raw diet, I went by Chapel Hill Whole Foods to request that they carry it. Time went by and nothing, so I waited, patiently.

One day, while shopping with Dork and advising her on which vegan products to buy (gimme lean sausage for tofu scramble, yves breakfast links for regular sausage needs) I noticed a new package in the dairy case. DAIYA. Literally screamed. The cereal stock guy looked at me like I was nuts. But Chapel Hill Whole-y heard my prayers. Obviously, we each bought some.

I made pizza with broccoli, spinach and smart deli pepperoni on a corn-based gluten free crust (pictured). I made mac n cheese to feed me for days, packed it up and ate it for days. Then went and bought more. I simply couldn't get enough Daiya. I considered asking the store to start carrying Rossini pizza (made with Daiya) since the Amy's gluten free soy pizza (made with Daiya and rice crust) is kind of horrible. Well, not the pizza, but reheating rice crust is not friendly.

Then, around my birthday, something changed. I had a batch of mac and cheese after a night of somewhat unfortunate drinking choices and the next day...I CRAVED DAIYA NO MORE. (Yes, just like that Burger King only TMNT Release). The spark was gone. The taste of it did nothing for me. I could walk past pizza parlors and watch my friends eat blue box with no jealousy.

Of course, that hatred passed. Tonight, Dork told me she was making daiya pizza (mixed mozzarella and cheddar) with fresh peppers, tomatoes and Smart Deli pepperoni (really, is there any other kind?). And when she offered me some? "Oh hell yeah."