Cherry Cheesecake for my Honey's Birthday
Fig Season in Full Effect
Mango Coconut Yogurt (Recipe Below)
Gourmet Flaked Seaweed
Sprouting with New Hemp Sprout Bags
Wheatgrass and Sunflower Seed Sprouting Set Up
Day 4 Wheatgrass and Sunflower Sprouts
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Playing Catch Up
Hey sweethearts I've
let two months go by with out a new entry. In September I
started working with kids again and let the journal slide. In
October I had a pretty rough month by getting in a minor car
accident. I'm okay though, it was just a little reminder to be
even more grateful for all the blessings in my life and the best
blessing of all, being alive! After the accident, for some reason,
I was struck with grief for a few days about my friend Annyce. I
mentioned her briefly in the journal when she passed last Spring
but I never fully grieved her passing. The next few days while I
was recovering
from the accident I just cried and cried. I miss her so much! I
think the accident somehow was able to give me a little closure.
I don't like to write in my journal when I'm feeling down so I
just don't write at all. But luckily September and
October wasn't all gloomy!
September was special
because it was my honey's birthday. He told me his favorite
dessert as a child was a cherry delight dessert with cream
cheese so I made a cheesecake out of raw cashews and then made a
sauce out of cherries and dates. For his birthday he had a long
time friend come visit him from Indiana. They played 4 rounds of
golf in 4 days. I supported him by buying him a round of golf,
and a golf windbreaker. He had fun but he was definitely sore
for a few days. Before the car accident I was even trying to
learn a little golf. I took a few lessons and
thought is was so fun! My grandparents learned how to play golf
when they were both 70 and then they played together almost
every weekend until my grandpa was in his eighties. They were so
cute! I hope to be able to go back to it when my back isn't
so tender.
The following weekend I
went to the Veg Fest in San Francisco. I usually go every year and
this year it was very raw friendly. I would write about it but
my friend Laura went and wrote
an article about her experience at the Veg Fest, so go ahead and
check it out for a full report.
The following weekend I
drove to Concord and went to this
really cool
holistic healing fair with my
long time girlfriend. We had a blast, there were free classes
offered all day. We took a few classes on reading the lines on
your hands, manifesting, and chakra chanting (which incidentally
was so fun we were laughing hysterically.) We both got
tarot card readings from a really talented psychic named
Terry
Yoder that were both really positive, we asked about our
careers and we were really happy and motivated by the readings
that we received. The
holistic healing fair has locations all over and I'll
probably go to another one in the future.
The biggest news in my
life right now is that I'm dog sitting for my friend while she
is in Europe. I'm having so much fun having little
Penny Reh around. I've never had a pet because we always
rented as a kid and our landlord's would not allow pets. It's
been good for my soul to have her around and it's been good for
my back to walk her everyday. At first my boyfriend was like,
"She is not allowed in the bedroom!", but once we had her in our
place he let her into the bed and she's been sleeping with us
every night. We're both complete softies:) My friend left me
with food for her but I've been experimenting with giving her
avocado, young coconut meat, green smoothies, and veggies. My
friend also left me with enzymes, green powder, fish oil, and probiotics for her puppy. This doggy takes more supplements than
me!
My boyfriend just set up a cool
system for growing wheat grass and sunflower seed sprouts. I'm
now carrying hemp sprout bags on
my website as well as the
cotton. I've been testing them out
and I'm really happy with the results. I soaked the wheatgrass
and sunflower seed sprouts in the bags and let them hang for a
day. Then we transferred the sprouts to trays with good quality
organic soil and put them on a heated seedling mat and
under the Hydrofarm GTV4 4-Foot-Wide Green Thumb Grow Light System
. It's been about 5 days and we
are almost ready to harvest. Can't wait!
Besides the new
hemp sprout bags I also started carrying
gourmet flaked seaweed. I love
seaweed, but most people are intimidated by it and unfortunately
most raw seaweeds are difficult to digest. The gourmet flaked
seaweed is a blend of 6 different seaweeds that you can
sprinkle on your food just like salt, while adding valuable
nutrients to your food. I'm so excited I even wrote a sea
vegetable recipe booklet to help people incorporate this superfood into their diets.
Another project I was
up to is that I finally made young coconut yogurt.
Click here for the full recipe with
step by step instructions. It turned out amazing especially
when I blended it with fresh mango and topped it with fresh
figs. Figs are still in season in California. I've been lucky to
find a few fig trees in my area and have been really enjoying
them. I also discovered a few tree strawberry trees and have
been enjoying them as well. They are a funny raspberry colored
spiky fruit with a mealy apricot colored inside that tastes like
a loquat. I also have discovered some new greens that I've been
really excited about. Below is a picture of some purple amaranth
leaves that made a purple instead of a green smoothie! I also
came across some Malabar spinach and chickweed at my
local
organic farm. The Malabar spinach was slightly gelatinous
and I preferred it in smoothies, but the chickweed was
absolutely delicious in salads. I think chickweed is one of my
new favorite greens!
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Amaranth Leaves
Amaranth Smoothie
Chickweed and Malabar Spinach
Tree Strawberry
Penny Reh Gearing up for a
Walk in the Rain |
The green smoothie challenge came to an end and It was a
really great experience. I drank 2 green smoothies a day for two
months! I didn't loose any weight but my boyfriend who
substituted a green smoothie for breakfast instead of an egg
sandwich in the mornings did loose some weight.
He lost some inches around his waste and people have commented
to me how good he looks. After the challenge I
noticed improved digestion and a skin tab I was born with shrunk
considerably, I barely notice it anymore. The green smoothie
challenge definitely has made me appreciate the natural flavors
of simple raw foods and I've decreased my consumption of salt. I
will probably start it again in the future. I was so excited
that I got about 80 people to participate. That's 80 more people that
were introduced to the power of green smoothies! I was also
thrilled that my last raw food potluck
had about 60 people! Everyday it seems like the raw food
community is growing locally and nationally! I've been wanting
to go on a rampage of appreciation to all the leaders of the raw
food movement that have really made a difference in my life. I
hear so many people put down raw food teachers because they
disagree with their style of raw food they are teaching or they find out they are
not perfect . . (etc.) I think people get angry when they give
up their power and replace their judgment for someone else's and
then realize that they should've listened to their own wisdom in
the first place! Overall though I'm amazed at the kindness of
people involved and interested in raw foods. There are a few
raw food teachers that really deserve my appreciation.
I first learned about raw foods through
http://www.living-foods.com. The guy
behind the website is now my good friend, John Kohler. He
started the website 10 years ago and it was one of the first raw
food websites. Behind the scenes he has helped start many raw
food entrepreneur's websites and has been attending and
speaking at raw food festivals as well as putting on his own
events and the longest running
potluck in Sonoma County (ten years). Personally not only did
his website help me learn about raw foods when I was suffering
from chronic fatigue, but he has personally taught me how to
prepare and eat simple raw food recipes which has worked really
well for me. To this day he is a friend and business advisor and
if you ever get a chance to hear him speak it's a treat.
The next person I want to acknowledge is Shazzie. I've never
personally met her, but have been inspired by
her website.
When I first went raw I used to read her journal entries and I
wanted to feel and look like her. Her raw transformation
pictures were amazing and I dreampt that I could be the
butterfly she had become. Now days I'm really impressed with her
articles and outspokenness about raising healthy vegan children.
She seems to be unapologetic for being who she is and it is
really inspiring. She continues to get the raw food message out
in the U.K. and abroad and I applaud her work.
The next person I want to thank is Victoria Boutenko. Her
book
Green for Life has encouraged me to add a green smoothie to
my diet every day. This simple addition to my diet has really
made a difference in how I feel, and I've noticed that most
people are receptive to green smoothies whether or not they are
into raw foods or not. I'm really thankful that she introduced
green smoothies to my partner and I. We have fun making them
every morning and the clean up is so much easier than juicing!
I was lucky that Victoria came and spoke at our local potluck
group. As I mentioned in my last journal entry, Victoria is so
warm, gracious, and giving of her time and information. I have
many more raw food teachers, leaders, and visionaries to thank and I encourage you
to thank the ones that have made an impact in your life. Don't
be shy to let them know. I know that when I get an e-mail of
appreciation it just makes my whole day. Write them an e-mail,
show up to an event, donate to their cause, eat at their
restaurants or buy a product from them. Spread the love!
I leave you with another poem and a
recipe!- hugs C
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What to Remember When
Waking
In that first hardly noticed moment in which you
wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest
world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans
enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.
To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to
others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.
You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.
Now, looking through the slanting light of the
morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that
can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?
Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the waiting
desk?
by
David Whyte © 1999 Many Rivers Press
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Mango
Coconut Yogurt
1 mango peeled and chopped
1 cup coconut yogurt
2 pinches white stevia powder
1 vanilla bean scraped
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
Garnish with fresh mango and figs. Mmmmmmm!
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