Mostly Raw milkshakes

My dad is a huge ice cream fan, and he passed that love to me. Recently, when Dairy Queen was celebrating the 25^th Anniversary of the Blizzard, I recalled the first time I had one, just after they came out. At that time, the commercials showed the Blizzard being held upside down without spilling a drop. This - I suppose - was to demonstrate how thick and chock-full of yummy stuff it was, as opposed to those runny regular ice cream shakes. My dad and I went to the Dairy Queen drive-through, and when we got to the pick-up window, we asked the employee if they could really hold it upside down without anything falling out. The employee did so, and we were supremely impressed! The Blizzard was also very delicious, thick and chock-full of yummy stuff, much cooler than those runny regular ice cream shakes.

And, my love of milkshakes that are so thick with ice cream that I have to eat them with a spoon was born!

There is raw ice cream in the world. Check out Sweetly Raw for some tantalizing raw ice cream cakes. Since I am just at baby-steps with eating raw (less than a year now), I have not attempted to make raw ice cream. Luckily for me, I can have a mostly raw milkshake. It is easy and delicious, and has been a regular treat during this warm summer. Sometimes, it has even been dinner!
 

Banana shake - thick and creamy

The key is the frozen bananas. They absolutely make the consistency very much like ice cream. And, it is different than a smoothie, although more so in consistency than in ingredients. The ingredients are very simple: 1 frozen banana, 1 fresh banana, ¼ teaspoon vanilla, and about ¼ cup of milk. Blend it all up and you have a delicious treat. If the bananas are too ripe, the banana taste can be strong.

It is very helpful to break the banana into small pieces before freezing. At least, our blender can handle it better!
 

Adding ingredients

Strawberry-banana milkshakes are the same, just add about 3 frozen strawberries to the mix.

Keep in mind that although this is mostly raw, that does not mean it is mostly calorie-free. One medium sized banana is about 100 calories, and I use 2 in this recipe. But, you are getting about 2 to 3 servings of the recommended 3 to 4 fruit servings per day.



Pouring it to serve - how yummy!


Of course, I could add nut milk or fresh, unpasteurized dairy milk to make it 100% raw. I checked out Almond Milk sold in a carton at the grocery stores, and there were additives in them – all the brands – that I did not want. And, I am not close to a dairy farm where I reside, and don’t even know if it’s legal to sell unpasteurized milk here in AZ. My best bet is to make my own nut milk, which sounds rather simple. Right now, I do not have a nut milk bag to begin making my own nut milks. But, I would like to try it sometime.

Any suggestions on making my own nut milk without a proper nut milk bag?

Pugzie’s Restaurant

4700 N. 16th Street (Northwest corner of 16th Street and Highland)
Phoenix, AZ 85016
http://www.pugzies.com/index.html
602-277-6017

Open only for lunch (10-4 Monday through Friday), Pugzie’s makes sandwiches like I’d make at home, only better! Everything seems to be extra fresh. The bread is soft, the tomatoes tasty, and the lettuce leaves whole. The dill pickle, chips and cookie served alongside give me a feeling reminiscent of when my mom packed a lunch for me in elementary school. Pugzie’s is like that, like a Working Mom: supremely busy all the time, but they still try to make you feel like you’re at home. Two sisters own it, Lynn Pugliano and Lisa Pugliano-Wright, and, according to their website, their goal “was to provide fresh, healthy lunches with friendly, fast service.”

The restaurant is hard to miss, painted turquoise, with a yellow toucan up high. What the apparent loudness of the exterior hides is a quiet interior grassy courtyard. There are chairs and tables with umbrellas out on a concrete patio area to sit out and enjoy the weather (when it’s nice here in Phoenix, that is). If it’s too hot (or cold, I suppose), there are chairs inside that face the wall of windows which look out to the courtyard. It’s all very pleasant, and a nice change of pace from the bustle of the Camelback Corridor and the movers and shakers that do business there.

Other than being a nice little escape in the middle of a workday, Pugzie’s food is great, too. They offer classic sandwiches, like Oven-Roasted Turkey (my personal fave), Roast Beef, and Chicken Salad that they proclaim is a “Favorite on the menu!” They also offer the always wonderful combo of a half-sandwich with a choice of soup, chili, or a salad. The salads are varied, ranging from pasta salad to potato salad and even fruit salad. All are served in good portions that are surprisingly filling. And, the soup is really delicious, too, with offerings like Cheese Broccoli (my other personal fave), Tomato Basil and Clam Chowder.
Pugzie’s has vegetarian options and gluten-free menu items as well. And, the prices are very reasonable, given the quality of food and the location.

I would say the Pugliano sisters have succeeded in reaching their goal!

Eating out

I’ll just come right out and say it: We’ve been eating out a lot lately. A LOT. So, I have quite a few restaurants to write about.

There are a lot of different restaurants here in the greater Phoenix Metropolitan area, and I always enjoy eating out and trying new dishes and foods. I am happy to say that there are only two chain restaurants out of the ten I will be writing about. (Told ya it was a lot!) I like to eat at non-chain restaurants because I feel like I’m helping a fellow small business owner out in their fight against the big guys, with all their advertising dollars behind them.

So, how can I keep my diet mostly raw if I’m eating out all the time? We try and eat at least two raw meals every day, leaving one cooked meal a day. And, to be honest, if I had a huge cooked lunch, for dinner I may just have some fruit, a few veggies thrown together in a salad or nothing at all. Every morning we have the “Best Breakfast Ever” and tea or coffee. Lunch and dinner are more free form, depending on our schedule for that day. If we were out and about at lunchtime, we have eaten out and made that our cooked meal for the day. If we were home at lunchtime, then we’d eat a raw lunch, like a salad or a veggie sandwich on Ezekiel bread. Dinner depends on what we feel like eating. If it’s been two raw meals that day, dinner could be raw veggies and a cooked portion, like pasta or potatoes, or black beans.

Basically, we do feel much better eating mostly raw. But, we still like cooked food. And, we give ourselves permission to eat what sounds good to us. Of course, I keep in mind things that I don’t want to eat, like soy and artificial sweeteners, and try to avoid that as much as possible.

I have never believed in deprivation as a good strategy for eating. Depriving myself of something I want just makes me feel resentful and angry. I do strongly believe in moderation however. My food vice is chips and dip. Now, I do not buy chips and dip and have them in my house. That’s just too much temptation. However, if I am at a party and there’s chips and dip, why should I torture myself and avoid having any? I should not and I do not. But, I do not sit at the table and finish the whole bag of chips! I grab a handful of chips and enjoy it – really enjoy it – with the dip. Then, I grab some fruit or veggies to enjoy. If I am done with the fruit or veggies and I still want chips, I grab another handful. And, I pay attention to when I feel full. When I am full, I stop eating. Then, I am happy because I have not deprived myself, and I have eaten in moderation.

Life is too short. Enjoy it, I say!

Mexican Bowl

We do enjoy Mexican food, and have enjoyed this dish on many nights. For lack of a better name, we called it "corn bowl". That is not fitting at all since there is so much more than corn in it! But, alas, I could not come up with anything better than "Mexican Bowl". It is kind of like the burrito bowls at Chipotle, but I think it could be the base or insides of tacos, tostadas, fajitas and burritos, too, if your heart so desired.

It's very simple, and a lot of it is raw.

1/2 cup corn (we used uncooked, fresh white corn cut from the cob)
3/4 cup black beans*
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 avocado, sliced
1/4 cup plain yogurt, optional
garlic salt, optional
onion salt, optional
hot sauce, optional
shredded cheese, optional

Put all veggies in the bowl, layering as you go. If using the optional ingredients, top with yogurt, then sprinkle the garlic and onion salt lightly over the yogurt, to taste. Add hot sauce to taste, and top with desired amount of shredded cheese.

*Note the black beans are canned although not heated. We have tried to eat black beans that we purchased dried and from the bulk section. We soaked them for a really long time, I think 24 hours, maybe 36 hours. Although they were still slightly hard, which made them slightly crunchy, we ate them and thought they were okay. Unfortunately, we both were sick to our stomachs the next day. Until I become more educated about beans, I am going to stick with canned for now. I noticed after that unpleasant experience that most of the raw food blogs I read do not use beans often. Maybe there's a reason, huh?

Using the veggie ingredients only would yield a 100% raw dish, although I'm not sure it would be very tasty. I have come to find that seasonings are quite important to eating mostly raw. They definitely help add flavor and interest to the dishes. So I strongly suggest adding your favorite seasonings. Also, the black beans provide good amounts of dietary fiber and protein. And, the yogurt has beneficial bacteria. All good stuff!

Enjoy!

Best Breakfast Ever!

Boxed cereals are convenient, quick and easy. Just open the box, pour some cereal in a bowl, add some milk, grab a spoon and you are ready to eat. They are also usually filled with preservatives and additives and other chemicals that I probably cannot pronounce. And, they are processed and cooked. I want none of those things for my first, most important meal of the day.

I want a morning cereal routine that is almost as quick and easy, and much more nutritious! And, with this breakfast, I have all that and more. It only takes a few minutes to prepare. It fills me up without making me feel heavy, and holds me over for hours – well into the lunchtime hour. So I have a very productive morning because I’m not stopping every two hours to have a snack or get more coffee or tea.

(Seriously, before I started eating more raw, I would have hot tea or coffee at 8am, stop to eat breakfast at 9 or 9:30, at 10:30 or 11am I was thinking about lunch and what to do, where to go. Then, at about 2:30 or 3pm, I would be hungry for a snack unless I ate a gi-normous amount at lunch, then I would be tired and wanting an afternoon nap. Either way, I would probably snack, then want dinner at 6pm. I was always hungry and always thinking about food.)

This breakfast is simple: about 10 germinated* almonds, a handful of raisins, another handful or so of whole oats, and about 4 tablespoons yogurt and/or milk. Each morning, I add a different fruit, one half each for Hubby and me. Sometimes, we go with an apple or banana (always a good standard), but lately, the nectarines and mangoes have been excellent at our grocery store. Part of the reason we have not become tired of having the same thing every morning is because of the different fruit we add to it. The other part is because we feel great after eating it!

All stirred up with nectarine

Adding Mango on another morning

Obviously with the addition of the yogurt and milk, this is not a 100% raw breakfast (or afternoon snack, or lunch – we’ve had it as both). But, my blog is not a 100% raw blog. If you were to purchase unpasteurized milk or yogurt made from unpasteurized milk, this may be 100% raw. I have to research whole oats. I have eaten oats labeled as “raw” before, and I don’t notice any difference between those and the whole oats I use. But, Carol Alt says in her books, “If it doesn’t say raw, it’s not raw.” The oats I buy do not say raw so I’m not sure if they are or not. But, whole oats do provide fiber and complex carbohydrates, which are both great for our systems.

*A note about germinating: It is very easy! Germinating nuts and seeds releases the nutrients inside those awesome nuts and seeds so they are more biologically available to us. Each specific nut and seed has a different germinating time, so I would direct you to Carol Alt’s books for more info on that. This is what I do for almonds:

(Two cups of almonds lasts me for this breakfast for about two weeks, for the two of us.) Rinse the 2 cups of almonds twice or so

Pour them into a glass bowl or other glass container

Pour purified water over them enough to cover all the almonds and have about a ½ inch of water above them

(Note I use filtered water, but others use distilled water – do what works for you)

Let the almonds soak for 8 to 12 hours on the counter, just at room temperature

(Note that I have set them to soak before work in the morning – then when I’m done with my workday, they are ready to put away – and also before going to bed at night – then when I wake up the next morning, they are ready to use)

Pour the water out and rinse them a few times again

The almonds are germinated and ready to use! I store mine in a container in the fridge and they last for the whole 2 weeks. They may last longer, but I usually run out by then.

You’ll find the almonds are sweeter and more flavorful after germinating, and of course, a little softer. Hubby says they taste reminiscent of coconut.

So, that’s how we do breakfast. We’ve given up the boxed cereals and cooked oatmeal and feel so much better for it!

Enjoy!

Raw Red Pepper Soup

Cold soups are nothing new, really. I mean, there's gazpacho, right? I can't think of any other cold soups but that does not mean they're not out there.

This dish was made in the spirit of "Let's try it and see". My hubby had been reminiscing about a roasted red pepper soup that we had at Haus Murphy's. It was so delicious. Rich and creamy and so flavorful. Well, roasted red peppers are not raw. So, we decided to try and find a raw soup recipe that might come close. I came across a recipe from Heather Pace of the Sweetly Raw blog (which is awesome for people with enormous sweet tooths - or teeth? - anyway, it's great), and thought, "Let's try it and see." We completely changed her recipe, mostly because we don't have all the ingredients (such as nutritional yeast and miso), and we never include onions if we can help it.

I'd say it was 3.5 out of 5. Maybe nutritional yeast and miso and onions are really key to obtaining that roasted red pepper flavor? As you can see from the picture, we topped it with some avocado slices. It was good, but it didn't meet our expectations. However, our expectations were of a cooked dish, so I don't know how close we really could have come.

One thing I am loving about eating mostly raw is the fact that we don't heat up the house by turning on the stove or oven. This is probably particular to where I live: Phoenix. It is hot here in the summer (and spring and early fall - who am I kidding!) and to not turn the stove or oven on is a blessing! And who wants a hot steaming bowl of soup when it's 110 outside?

Red Pepper Soup (based off "Southern Belles in London Soup" by Philip McCluskey through Heather Pace's blog)

4 red peppers, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil (cold-pressed if you have it)
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Heather states if you want warm soup, use hot water.

Enjoy!

Sorry I've been away . . .

It's been several months since I've shared anything on this blog! I just haven't had the energy or desire to write about the lovely food I've been eating. But, that's about to change! I have a plan, and have some wonderful meals to share, including an all-raw Fake Fettucine Alfredo

and an all-raw dessert with an almond-date crust, vanilla creme filling and topped with strawberries!

Oops - thought I had a picture of that one. Darn, I guess I'll have to make it again and be sure to take a picture of it before I gobble it up!

So, again, my apologies for being away. My blog is somewhat revamped to have a more raw diet/raw meal focus, which reflects my life currently. It's being revamped. How cool is that?