All parts of the plant

Use leaf, stem and root,
Flower, seed, and fruit
Eat some of each at every meal
And

This morning's delightful juice:  mint and spinach leaves, celery (stem) & broccoli (stem and flowers), ginger root, apples including cores and seeds, and a wedge of lime.  It was very pulpy - I don't know whether the Champion juicer is failing, or I should use a different size screen, or whether it was something about the composition.  I had to twist the pulp in cheesecloth to get all the juice out of it.  Of course the pulp was delightful, so I've been eating it too later in the day; stuffed ripe avocado with it, and used it as a dip with raw pumpkin seed wafers.

Not all my juice inventions are so tasty.  I made one a few days ago with all good things in it -- the above, plus berries, carrot and leek -- but it looked like swamp water and didn't taste much better.  I think the leek was not such a good idea.  Also, berries are so good just to eat it's silly to throw them into the juicer.  A Natural Health Consultant told me that apples  are the only fruit that combines well with vegies in juicing....although carrot and pineapple is yummy.

This is a gradual transition to fresh 'n' raw eating, with one meal a day over the weekend that was cooked: kosher chicken and boiled potatoes one day, thick bean soup another, and salmon, capers and hollandaise with poached eggs on English muffins another day ("Eggs salmon benedict").  That was the only flour I've had all week, though.  Still, I'm experiencing some detox symptoms.

Give us this day our daily juice....

This morning's was a beautiful shade of celadon: broccoli, romaine, celery, apple, a little carrot, and of course a wedge of lime and knuckle of ginger.  Very refreshing! It occurred to me that the pulp left over from the juice could be used in the warm miso broth for a satisfying, filling soup that is still mostly raw, and this works great.  Our raw food inspiration, David, used to make a salad out of the pulp.  (Of course, as soon as it's practical we need a juicer that doesn't produce as much pulp as this Champion.) 

Spoke with someone this morning who reminded me of an essential principle concerning Comfort Food: changing eating habits isn't just about finding a "new" comfort food or finding comfort in a "different" food than before.  It can be about finding comfort in things other than food.  A hot bath, self-massage, a satisfying conversation with a friend, prayer, meditation in the Word -- after all, the Holy Spirit is THE COMFORTER.  Food isn't for comfort: it's for nourishment.

Juicing again!

I actually started fresh 'n' raw last April, but after my motivating symptoms - mainly a lump where nobody wants to find a lump -- subsided, I gradually started making more & more exceptions until I was back on the "SAD" and had gained back 10 of the 15 lbs that originally dropped off when I started.  In the interval, my kombucha has died -- and I suspect the cultured vegies have, too -- and stuff had piled up around the neglected juicer.  Had to tackle the kitchen chaos for a couple days just to have room to prepare food.

Now, with a path cleared to the juicer and sinks empty so I can wash up afterwards, I kicked off my new season of juicing with apple-carrot-celery-parsnip with mint leaves, lime wedge, and ginger knuckle. Lovely! Took it with me to work and sipped all morning yesterday, munched apple, grapes, almonds for lunch, big dinner salad of romaine & minny minny other vegies.  (There's a possibility here for a parody of the song "Cocaine" -- "When you wanna eat raw, with your carrots you'll gnaw....romaine")

Wakened this morning to the season's first snow.  Normally a source of elation, but when it's so cold out there - and chilly in here - I seriously want hot food in me.  How do other raw foodies deal with winter?  My old standby, miso soup -- spinach, grated carrot, diced bell pepper, little green onion, grated ginger added to miso dissolved in warm, not boiling, water. No hotter than body temperature, vegies still crunchy, a wee splash of nama shoyu... comfort food for sure!

Day 2 challenge

It started out with DH hankering for pancakes and eggs.  He usually likes to do this in the local diner, whose inspiring standard of excellence is emblazoned on their menu: "Food that doesn't suck."  I don't think it's so much the ambience (although it's always nice to walk in on a life-size cutout of James Dean when entering the ladies' restroom) or the culinary superiority so much as liking not to have to deal with cleanup (let's see...that's 1 mixing bowl & 1 skillet...pretty rough...) It's not like I mind awfully trying to coax salads out of restaurant staff at breakfast, but I can get fruits, vegies, and nuts for days for what one meal costs eating out.  And it's not such a peak experience munching iceberg lettuce while inhaling the vapors from his flapjacks foundering in syrup.

In any event, economy prevailed and we bought organic spinach, apples, grapes, bananas and almonds at the grocery, along with some "cage free" brown eggs for him.  He made egg sandwiches while I grazed on nuts, raisins, grapes & apple, along with a lara bar (I'm assuming they're not cooked, but actually don't know for certain.) Biggest temptation was boiling potato wedges for his b'fast homefries - the steam from them rose up into my face and I couldn't resist smashing one up with butter & salt.  I guess that's my 10% cooked for the day!

 For dinner, I made a "blended salad" of cucumber, onion, spinach, pesto, mint & bell pepper w/ Bragg's salad dsg - whizzed it briefly in the blender so it was mostly finely-chopped, partly pureed and partly intact leaves & cuke chunks, and ate it with a spoon like cold soup.  Very refreshing and filling enough.  I don't seem to get as hungry eating this way, and I also sleep more soundly.  Just being able to sleep for 4 hours instead of 1 1/2 is worth forgoing eggs & homefries.

Starting (over)

Do I need a blog? Does everybody need a blog?  I'm guessing that posting my journey to a consistently fresh-n-raw food intake will make me more accountable and give me more access to the raw foods community. (I can tell from the number of recipes posted on youtube there's a bunch of raw foodies out there!)  I'm hoping that if somebody with more experience reads my entries and sees somewhere I'm off base, they'll let me know and help me get back on track.  And as I learn successful approaches to this different way of eating, I hope I can share those with people at a similar place in the journey.

Reasons for switching to a diet regimen that's 90% fresh, raw fruits, vegies, nuts and sprouts: Long-term health benefits --> rout the cancer demon, alkalize body so it kicks the fat out, simplify life -- easier to assemble a salad than cook 4 courses -- normalize blood sugar, blood pressure, & weight, regain energy, obey scriptural injunction to Choose Life!

Reasons to keep eating meat loaf, enchiladas & refries, carrot cake, spaghetti, eggs, homefries and morningstar fake-bacon:  Short term gratification.  Comfort.

So, need to change my attitude about what is comfort, what is gratifying.  This morning's breakfast: a plate full of beautiful colors and textures.  Thin slices of ivory parsnip, slabs of bright yellow bell peppers, fragrant emerald mint leaves, pink and gold honeycrisp apple wedges, pale green celery stalks,  deep orange carrot sticks, plump ruby strawberries, piquant shreds of crunchy ginger, with a bowl of miso, honey & raw tahini to dip them into.  Is it proper to combine berries and earthy roots?  I don't know.  I just want to satisfy my mouth & tummy with living fuel.  If I can get through the meal without ogling my dh's glop of steaming oatmeal, I'm on my way.