Pretty Plates from Days Seven, Eight, Nine

Cashew Kimchi inside Cilantro Coconut Wrappers with Sesame Foam. Emulating wonton dumplings. If these weren't so labor intensive, I'd make them everyday. Insane.

Cashew Ice Cream. My ice cream looks like mashed potatoes to me. Tasted great though.

Tostadas with cacao mole, pico de gallo, cabbage slaw, gaucamole, and sour cream. The single best entree I made was this. Again, if it weren't so many pieces to this puzzle, I'd eat it every day. When the tostadas were gone, I ate the rest of plate with store-bought nacho chips. Yum-to-the-ee!

Flatbread Pizza topped with avocado, tomato sauce, cilantro and capers. Very rich, crunchy, and crispy. Super good. I want to make more flatbreads once I'm finished with school. They do not have to be complicated. Maybe I'll do a book only on flatbreads :-) They add that taste of bread that people need when they eat raw.

Coconut Parfait with buckwheat, raspberries, and blackberries. I don't love yogurt. so I gave this to Raymond and one of my roommates. They loved it. I was happy my yogurt was smooth, and came out pretty.

Butter Lettuce, avocado, radish with Honey Mustard Dressing. I would take a bath in the dressing. I didn't know how much I liked the crunchiness of butter lettuce (also known as Boston Lettuce or Bibb Lettuce).

love,
A. ◦

Pretty Plates from Days Seven, Eight, Nine

Warm Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

From Raw Food Real World.
Holy Goodness...this is darn fantastic food. Two thumbs WAY up!

Warm Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

    3 ears fresh corn, husked
    3 pints small cherry, teardrop, or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
    4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    1 tablespoon lemon juice
    2 small or 1 large head butter lettuce, or other soft greens
    3 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
    1 cup crumbled Fluffy Macadamia Feta (page 288)
    Coarse sea salt
    Freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut the kernels from the corn cobs and place in a medium bowl with the tomatoes. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and toss to coat. Spread the corn and tomatoes on a Teflex-lined dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 1 hour.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the lettuce leaves and toss to coat. Add the corn, tomatoes, marjoram, feta, and salt and pepper.

Fluffy Macadamia Feta

    4 cups raw macadamia nuts, soaked 1 hour or more
    1/4 cup lemon juice
    2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    1 green onion, white and 1 inch green, minced
    2 teaspoons sea salt

  In a food processor, thoroughly grind all the ingredients, but leave it a bit
  chunky. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls onto Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and
  dehydrate at 115°F for 4 to 6 hours, or until dry on the outside and still
  tender on the inside.

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Warm Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

I LOVE Kale!

How many times have a shared a kale salad with you all? I've lost count....so here's another one :-).

From the Oh She Glows Blog:

Weekend Glow Kale Salad

• 1/2 large head of kale (about 4-6 cups)
• 1 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2-3/4 cup chopped carrot (2 small carrots)
• 1 English cucumber (2 cups chopped halves)
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 1 & 1/4 cup chopped grape tomatoes (or other variety)
• 1/2 cup mixed raisins and Goji berries
• 1/4 cup hemp seed
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• Dressing: 1 batch of Lightened Up tahini-Lemon Dressing
• Your desired fresh or dried herbs

Directions:

1. Chop vegetables and mix in a large mixing bowl. Reserve hemp seed and walnuts for sprinkling on top.

2. Make your Lightened Up tahini-Lemon Dressing in a food processor and process until smooth.

3. Tear the leaves off of the kale and rip into bite-sized pieces. Wash and dry kale leaves.

4. Mix the vegetables, kale leaves, and full batch of dressing (3/4-1 cup) in large bowl until thoroughly combined.

5. Place in fridge to ‘marinate’ for 10-15 minutes. Serves 4. Keeps in fridge in a sealed container for 1 day.

Lightened Up Tahini-Lemon Dressing

Ingredients:

·    1/4 cup Tahini

·    3 garlic cloves

·    1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

·    1/4 cup Nutritional yeast

·    2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

·    1 tsp kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

• 3 tbsp water, or as needed

I only used raisins, tomatoes, avocados, raisins, and red onion in mine. I could easily eat this everyday.

And to cap it off, I made a green juice: a handful of kale leaves, 2 cucumbers, 1 apple, and a dash of Queen Afua's Green Formula.

And speaking of Queen Afua, a friend of mine is transcribing the interview. (Finally!) I intend to have it live, in different parts, in early July!

Love,

Althea

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I LOVE Kale!

Tahini-Mustard Dressing

I made a Tahini-Mustard dressing from 30-Minute Vegan. I didn't like it at all. In fairness, this was made with raw tahini, which is nothing but ground sesame seeds. I don't even like homemade sesame seed milk without adding a sweetner. Since I'd made so much dressing, I couldn't let it go. I had to doctor it up a bit.

I thought to make it like Annie's Goddess Dressing. For the life of me, I could not remember the ingredients, but I knew the taste. It didn't occur to me to look up the ingredients (like I did just now!).

Here's the original Tahini-Mustard recipe:
1/2 cup tahini
1 tablespoon ground mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce (I used wheat-free tamari)
1/2 cup water or more depending on consistency of tahini
Blend

To that I added:
honey (1-2 tablespoons, sorry I didn't measure)
more apple cider vinegar
about a teaspoon of salt
Blended again. It could have used more honey, but it definitely reminded me of this:

INGREDIENTS: *EXPELLER PRESSED VEGETABLE OIL (*CANOLA, *SOY, AND/OR *SUNFLOWER), WATER, *TAHINI, *APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, *SOY SAUCE (WATER, *SOYBEAN, SALT, *WHEAT, *ALCOHOL), *LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, SEA SALT, *GARLIC, *TOASTED SESAME SEEDS, *PARSLEY, *CHIVES, XANTHAN GUM.*ORGANIC INGREDIENTS.


Mine is oil-free and gluten-free which works for me. Try it and play around with the seasonings and let me know how turns out!

And here's the dressing on romaine lettuce.

One thing I have noticed with raw is that you must eat enough food. The more you eat raw, the less you naturally want to eat. I believe it's because raw food is so nutrient dense. This was my breakfast this morning.

The other two items are carrot tuna and Asian Spinach Salad.
Carrot tuna is just carrot pulp, leftover from juicing. I added sweet relish and Veganaise.

The salad recipe is from The Joy of Living Live by Zahkah:
1 bunch spinach
1/4 cup cold pressed sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons maple syrup, agave, or honey
2 tablespoons liquid aminos, or tamari
wash the spinach, remove stems, and chop. Mix ingredients and serve.

Enjoy!
Love,
Althea ◦

Tahini-Mustard Dressing

My Culinary Point-of-View

For those of you who watch "The Next Food Network Star" you know that Susie Fogelson, Bob Tuschman, and Bobby Flay hammer the finalists on their "culinary point-of-view." As Bobby bluntly challenged one finalist, "What are you going to teach me?" "Me" being the viewer at home. Why should she watch my show?

When I did my Oprah Winfrey Network audition, my goal was to show that gluten-free vegan and raw vegan food could be tasty. If OWN had chosen me as a finalist, or if I had auditioned for Food Network's YouTube Star Challenge, my point-of-view would not have been clear. Which means I wasn't ready.

My culinary point-of-view is this:  I am The Vegan Mocha Angel. I take African-American Soul Food and turn it into raw vegan or gluten-free vegan delights. It's Soul Food with a Twist!

My food raises vibrations and heals the body. I weave in stories of my family's food memories, and I include my Mocha Angel messages into the mix.

Ya'll, I was in tears last night thinking about the food my family cooked. Was it good for me physically? No. Hence why I cook differently now! But did I feel loved and protected? Yes. And that is what made me cry.

I honor my ancestors who created an internationally known cuisine out of nothing. They started with scraps, literally. But it's the 21st century. Most people know about the health issues of African-Americans. It's time to ditch the meat, cheese, and salt. I lighten the food but keep the spirit of the food.

For instance, greens.

My mom, grandmothers, and aunts cooked their greens - collard, mustard, turnip - in a huge pot. They added lots of salt and either fatback or turkey to give the greens flavor. Those greens cooked for HOURS. The whole house would smell like greens.

The problem is all the nutrients wound up in the water, aka the "pot licker."

Raw greens are awesome. My favorite is kale salad. You get all the nutrients, and most importantly, it tastes great!

Kale Salad -- Adapted from The Joy of Living Live by Zakhah

The winner of winners. Your salad will disappear at every potluck.

1 bunch of kale greens

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tablespoons liquid aminos or 4 tablespoons soy sauce (not raw)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

Use a tupperware bowl that has a top. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast on the bottom of your bowl first. Wash the greens, then add the to the bowl. Add the garlic cloves, aminos or soy sauce, lemon juice squeezed straight from the lemon (watch those seeds), and olive oil. Put the top on your tupperware bowl. Shake like crazy. The success of this dish comes in all of the kale being coated evenly. Sometimes the yeast gets gloopy. So shake, do not stir or mix. Shake. Adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Raw Collard Greens

And here's another oldie but goodie from The Raw Mocha Angel archives. I demonstrate how to roll, chop, and make this sweet and savory collard greens delight.

http://therawmochaangel.blogspot.com/2009/04/live-collard-greens.html

I am so excited about this. I've been eating a LOT of greens since my CTL +ALT + DLT post. And in September or October, I'm going start a YouTube Channel. That Oprah Winfrey Network audition lit a fire under me. I still want my own network television show, and I know I'm going to have it. I can't wait to start! 

Thanks for reading!

And thanks for voting for The Raw Mocha Angel in the Black Weblog Awards!

https://3eighteenmedia.wufoo.com/forms/2010-black-weblog-awards-finalist-form/

Love,

Althea

(positive comments always welcomed!) 

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My Culinary Point-of-View

Light Eating for Survival Blog Project

"Light Eating for Survival" Blog Project a la the movie Julie & Julia.
1 Year. 481 Recipes. 1 ambitious mama.
Days 18-37

Out of 481 recipes, I have officially made 61! That leaves 420 to go! This photo is a cashew salad with Apple Dream Dressing.

Here's a closer look.



This lentil soup. Reallllyy good.

1 cup sprouted lentils
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup parsley
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 tsp. basil
2 cups water
kelp to taste.
Blend!
I added salt to mine because I didn't have kelp. This is a tasty light soup.

I'm not sure which drink this is, but when I saw the beet juice float to the bottom and the apple and celery float to the top I had to take a picture :-).

I've made almost all of the vegetable juices. I haven't done the tomato juices yet, because I'm chicken. I never liked "V8" juice, and I'm scared I won't like the tomato juice, but I did like Green Blood. But I like tomato soup so...hmmm. I've made two-thirds of the fruit juices. Here's the juices I have made so far:

Green Leaf: celery greens, beet greens, turnip greens, watercress

Beet Treat: orange, beet, papaya

Cranberry Punch: cranberries, apple, orange

Cranapple: apple, cranberry, celery

Garden Cleanser: carrot, cucumber, beet

Constipation Blue: carrot, spinach

Potassium Juice: spinach, parsley, celery, carrot

Simple Punch: carrot, apple, beet

Alkalizing: cabbage, celery

Comforting: carrot, apple, comfrey

I've also made a fruit salad with cashew cream that was a hit. I have to make it again, because we ate it too fast! That will be next time!

Love,

Althea

◦

Light Eating for Survival Blog Project

Kale Salad with Chipotle Dressing

Wilted Kale Salad with a Creamy Chipotle Dressing

From brownies to a salad :-). I know, right?

This salad comes courtesy of Russell James. If you sign up for his newsletter, you will get five free recipes. This is one of them.

Kale
2 heads kale
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups baby tomatoes
1 cup hulled hemp seeds

Dressing
2 avocados
1 chipotle pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons agave
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Remove the stems and then wash and cut the kale into small pieces. Place into a bowl, add the salt and massage it into the kale until it wilts and takes on a cooked texture.

Add the tomatoes and hemp seeds. Mix by hand.

Blend the dressing ingredients in a blender. Pour into bowl, and mix by hand.

Okay, I didn't have hemp seeds. I avoid them since the last time I had them, they gave me horrible stomach cramps. I added a little bit of nutritional yeast and more salt to this recipe, once I had mixed everything in. I enjoyed it, and so did my husband, and I would make it again. Russell also has a bread recipe I am aching to try. But I need to get some buckwheat and sprout it. Look for the bread sometime next week!

Up next: A plethora of juices!

Love,
Althea ◦

Kale Salad with Chipotle Dressing

Light Eating for Survival Blog Project

Light Eating for Survival" Blog Project a la the movie Julie & Julia.
1 Year. 481 Recipes. 1 ambitious mama.
Day 15

Vegetable Nut Loaf turned Veggie Burger topped with Creamy Port Cheese

I didn't have enough nuts to hold the nut loaf together, so I improvised. The original recipe is
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup tomatoes
1 cup grated celery
1/2 chopped parsley
1/2 cup grated green bell pepper
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
enough ground nuts to hold it together
Mold into oiled serving dish and garnish

I had 1/2 cup of ground almonds on hand, and that was not enough. I had some cashews, which I was saving to make "cheese" with, which I wound up using in this dish. I threw the cashews into the food processor and it did help. I learned to process the veggies until it was nearly a pate. That's how it held together.

The cheese is from Recipes Made with Love by Jodi Allen. I cut the recipe in half. Below is the original recipe.
3 1/2 cups soaked (for at least 6 hrs) cashews
1 cup diced onions
almond milk (enough to moisten)
splash of apple cider vinegar
sea salt to taste
Blend in food processor until creamy

Where else can you get 14 tomatoes for $5.00? At your local farm or farmer's market. I'm a huge fan of seconds (overripe produce). When you catch tomatoes at the perfect time, they are fantastic. And local produce tastes much better than anything you get at the grocery store. So of course I made a tomato salad :-).

Tomato Salad

3 large ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 clove pressed garlic

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon kelp

I only had dulse on hand, instead of kelp. This is a very simple, lightly seasoned salad. The ripe, flavorful tomatoes make this a wonderful dish.

Love,

Althea

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Light Eating for Survival Blog Project

Light Eating for Survival Blog Project

"Light Eating for Survival" Blog Project a la the movie Julie & Julia.
1 Year. 481 Recipes. 1 ambitious mama.
Days 8, 9, 10, and 11.

I kept my focus on the simplest recipes in the book this time. They are luscious and delicious.

Banana and Grapes

...enough said!

Garlic Dressing

3 cups olive oil

5 sliced garlic cloves

1 tablespoon kelp

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Blend, and enjoy!

Fruit Muesli

3 cups fresh, cut up, juicy fruit (bananas, apples, strawberries, peaches, etc.)

1 cup rolled oats

optional

1/2 cup currants or raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts

This should be juicy. If not add 1 tablespoon water or fruit juice. Allow everything to marinate for at least 20 minutes.

This is fantastic. I'm going to add the raisins next time. It's just so fruity, juicy, and filling. Kid-friendly too!

Hot n' Spicy

6 oz. apple juice or cider

pinch of cinnamon

slice of orange

Heat everything in a small pot until hot to the touch. Enjoy. Warm apple juice and cinnamon on a cold day.... This is like a warm blanket. Very comforting and soothing.

Russian Dressing

1 cup tomatoes

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 lemon juice

1 chopped green onion

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoon tamari (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos)

1 tsp. paprika

1 chopped garlic clove

1 tsp. horseradish (opt.)

Blend.

This kind of taste like French Dressing, with a kick. It's quite good. Try it and let me know what you think.

Coming up next: A review of The Vegan Soul Food Guide to the Galaxy!

Love,

Althea

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Light Eating for Survival Blog Project

Extreme Greens for Healing

Thank you to everyone for your good wishes and positive energies. Everything is all good now, and I'm focused, again, on my healing. My immune system has taken a beating, so I've been consuming mostly greens. Anything green is healing for the body/mind. My friend Wanda Jones was kind enough to bring me lots of salads and food from The Glut and Quest for Fresh here in Maryland.

The salads are a mix of greens like kale, collard, Swiss chard, romaine, seaweed, red lettuce, and sprouted quinoa. I had never thought to put all of those greens together in the same salad. Guess I need to live a little!

The juices are:

carrot/apple

2 plums/1 apple/collard

2 apples/collard/lemon

2 peaches/1 banana/collard/kale/romaine
and they all taste great!

I am so happy and grateful for all of you who read it on a regular basis. I have some wonderful book reviews, guest bloggers, and some exciting things coming to my blog. You all won't want to miss what's coming!

Love,

Althea

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Extreme Greens for Healing

(Mostly) Raw on The Cheap

Kale Salad

All is well
Everything is working out for my highest good
Out of this situation only good can come
I am safe
--Louise Hay

Sometimes you have to get knocked on your behind in order to be awakened. I think that's what happened when my sister-in-law got physical with me. I don't like to call it a fight because I never hit her; I defended myself. But I don't want to downplay its significance either. So I'll stick with "physical" or "altercation." That incident showed me how off-track I have been.

Life is supposed to be abundant in all areas: relationships, money, and health. I hadn't been raw because of financial reasons, and that frustrated me. It bites to know what can help me but not being able to afford it. So I came up with this idea of (Mostly) Raw On The Cheap. I can know a person can be (mostly) raw without breaking the bank. I say "mostly" because sometimes things will come out of a can. Not always. But sometimes canned can substitute for fresh. I promise the raw food police will not come after you :-).

I am on a mission. I own a lot of books. But what I did was go through the mounds of recipes I printed from the Internet. I put them in two categories: simple and not simple. Simple can be as easy as one ingredient to seven. But my definition of simplicity is the ease of ingredients and how long the dish takes to prepare.

The revelation came right after the first 84-days of my cleanse based on Queen Afua's Heal Thyself. This first phase did not go the way I expected, but a cleanse of sorts has happened.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, some of this stuff might be repeats. But as I share the recipes, I'll be linking to them on the right side of my blog, so they will always be around.

Kale Salad -- Adapted from The Joy of Living Live by Zakhah
The winner of winners. Your salad will disappear at every potluck.
1 bunch of kale greens
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons liquid aminos or 4 tablespoons soy sauce (not raw)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Wash the greens. Put them in a tupperware bowl that has a top. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast on top the kale first. Add the garlic cloves, aminos or soy sauce, lemon juice squeezed straight from the lemon (watch those seeds), and olive oil. Put the top on your tupperware bowl. Shake like crazy. The success of this dish comes in all of the kale being coated evenly. Sometimes the yeast gets gloopy. So shake, do not stir or mix. Shake. Adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Mexicavo Salad

Mexicavo Salad -- Adapted from Incredibly Delicious by Gentle World Publications

Dressing:
1/4 cup raw (or not) apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
sea salt or liquid aminos to taste
1 clove garlic
dash of black pepper
1 teaspoon Spike seasoning
Blend all ingredients in a blender

Salad:
4 ears of corn or 1 can of corn
4 diced tomatoes
1/2 cup sweet onion
Romaine lettuce
Cubed avocados
1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Pour the dressing over the first four ingredients. Add the avocados and cilantro afterward becuase they get soggy otherwise. Awesome, awesome salad. The dressing is thebomb.com!!!

My new vision board

I did a vision board in 2006. This is the newest one. I took a picture of it while it sat on my kitchen table. It wasn't 100% finished, but here's the gist of it: me and my family, our friends, yoga, Michael Baisden (I want to be on his radio show), Cathy Hughes, owner of Radio One, Inc, bestelling, legendary books, a 2009 Saturn, the house we want to purchase, and salads and gardens. All of these things represent my values and intentions. I wrote my values first, then an intention list, then did the board. Your values and intentions should line up. The board is a visual representation of those two things. Email me your vision boards when you finish them!

Love,

Althea

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(Mostly) Raw on The Cheap

Energy Soup and My First 21 Days

Raw Family’s All New:Stupendously Magnificent, Outstandingly Exceptional,Green Spinach Soup

When I was going through my slog of raw food material a few weeks ago, I found some stuff I printed out from Creative Health Institute in 2005. It was about Energy Soup. I decided to start making some soups for myself. Energy Soup was made famous by Dr. Ann Wigmore.

Energy Soup recipes usually consist of:

-Rejuvelac, or lemon and water, and sea vegetables

-un-sweet fruit (tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet pepper or squash)

-sweet fruit-celery for salt and potassium

-greens

-avocado (or banana, sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds) to thicken-shredded fruit, veggies, or dehydrated soup chunks (to chew)

(from 2005 issue of Creative Health Institute Newsletter)

Life is weird because over at The Daily Raw Cafe, Terilynn is doing the same thing. I had a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Moment. I was like, "Woah, dude. That is weird." But we are both busy moms, so it's no surprise we both gravitated toward Energy Soup. I've said many times that I'd been good at avoiding green juices, smoothies, and soups. My first soup was from the February 2005 Raw Family newsletter. I had printed it out on 11/7/06, so that means I'd always known this is what I needed. Here is the recipe:

Raw Family’s All New:Stupendously Magnificent, Outstandingly Exceptional,Green Spinach Soup

3 Small avocados (or one extra large)

2 Red bell peppers

½ Bunch cilantro

½ Bunch Organic Spinach

2 Small lemons (without seeds)

3 Cups pure water

1 Small jalapeno pepper

½ Teaspoon celtic sea salt (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a Vita-Mix blender and blend well using the tamper.Once the ingredients are well blended, pour the soup into a large bowl.Add thinly sliced napa cabbage or red cabbage and dulse leaves or flakes. Serves 6

I cut the recipe in half and used my $20 Osterizer blender from Target. It worked just fine. And how did the soup taste? GREAT! I was shocked. This isn't haute cuisine, but it was tastier than it looked. And I sprinkled dulse flakes on top. Dulse is a seaweed that tastes salty. So would I make it again? Yes. Probably today :-) I will be making other versions of Energy Soup and will keep you all posted.

Corn Salad

This salad is one of those things made when you go, "I have nothing to eat and I'm hungry." I threw it together. Shuck the corn, toss it with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and salad dressing of your choice. Eat well :-).

Meatballs

This was NOT a success story. I won't even tell you all which book this came from. My husband tasted one and said, "I have to be honest. That wasn't good." I think I didn't add enough sun dried tomatoes and I also had the dehydrator up too high. Mine is a round one, and the temperatures are set every ten degrees. I think I had it on 125 degrees, which is too high for raw food.

But even before any pate is dehydrated, my experience is if it doesn't taste good before it's dehydrated, it's not going to taste good after. And that is what happened here. Edible, but I would not make them again.

A FAR superior nutmeat is by Jeremy Safron in The Complete Book of Raw Food.
-2 cups of dry walnuts (not soaked)
-1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked
-1 clove garlic
-1/4 cup olive oil
-2 tablespoons Braggs Liquid Aminos or nama shoyu
In a food processor, grind the walnuts in to a powder. Blend the other ingredients separately.
Stir the wet mixture into the dry nuts. Use as a filling for raw burritos, tacos, lasagna, or stuffed porcini mushrooms. This is very rich. It's not something you eat everyday. But if you want to impress someone, try this recipe.

About the first 21 days of my 336 days of wellness: It showed me how important it is for me to be raw. I was not 100% raw the entire time. More like 75%. Even that pulled down my energy. I had a lot of rice, which apparently zaps the life out of me. Now I am cramping even though I'm not on my cycle yet. It should be rolling around tomorrow or the next day. But cramps BEFORE my period remind me of my meat-eating days. So this 21-day cycle, I'm committing to 100% raw, to prepare for the cleanse in September, and to compare how I feel versus last month.

I'm also sprouting lentils and taking pictures to show you all how to sprout. That's coming in a few days.
Love,
Althea

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Energy Soup and My First 21 Days

Healing

Leftover Salad

I was going to talk about my love for Paula Deen today, but I'll wait until next time. :-)

Something interesting happened today. In my last post, I wrote about healing my relationship with my in-laws. Well, on yesterday's Tavis Smiley Show, Louise Hay was his guest. She talked a lot about forgiveness. I was on the same page with her. I know I need to forgive some people in my life, past and present, my in-laws being two of them.

This morning, I asked my angels and guides to help us purchase our dream house and property, which is another story in itself. (I have a lot of stories to tell, don't I?) I mean I was jumping around with joy (that's how you manifest something into reality faster - feel it as if you have it.) But I really asked, sincerely, for help.

So today, Tavis's guest was Andrew Bridge, author of Hope's Boy, who shares the emotional story of his mother's battle with schizophrenia and his experience in foster care. One of my in-laws, I'll call her Mattie, has schizophrenia. I was captivated.

Then, on Charlie Rose, which follows Tavis, his guest was Barbara Walters. She talked about how her relationship with her developmentally disabled older sister had a profound impact on her life.

The other in-law, I'll call her Sally, is developmentally disabled.

The irony of all this was obvious. First, I walked into my house at noon, when Tavis comes on here. Second, this stay-at-home mom rarely gets to watch TV during the day. Today, however, I sat myself down on my couch for an hour and a half, with my kids treating me as their private jungle gym, and I watched both of those shows.

I was like, "Wow, this is incredible." I felt like the Universe was helping me heal these relationships. I was getting an answer to my prayers from this morning, but not in a plain, "here's your house" sort of way. Forgiveness is part of the journey to the house. Louise Hay says that forgiveness helps you change your life because you become "unstuck" from the pain you are holding on to. It frees you. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you condone the person's actions. It simply means that you've let go.

Things have been calmer at my house, because I've been calmer, and nicer. I'm learning that if you want peace, be peaceful.

And when I'm peaceful, I'm less of an emotional eater. The above photo is "leftover salad." I've been throwing together dishes lately. No recipes. That's leftover cashew pate, with avocados and lettuce. I used a house dressing over it.

These are cherry tomatoes and vine-ripe tomatoes from my yoga student Robin's garden. She brought them to me on Thursday. The vine tomatoes were the best ever. Melt in your mouth good. It had FLAVOR. Nothing like the kind you buy in the store. That's why I need to learn how to garden!

Thanks Universe!

Love,

Althea

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Healing