Drink Me

I've been juicing, smoothie-ing and drinking lots of infused water lately. Here are a few of my concoctions from over the past couple weeks.

My favorite combo for water is lemons, cucumber and mint. Pretty simple. The picture has limes because I ran out of lemons and I found it really hard to drink this water. Yuck city!

I'm juicing again. It's a total pain in the ass, makes a huge mess and takes more time than it should but it's worth it. This carrot, golden beet, ginger, cucumber juice was so refreshing!

Not all juices need to be sweet to be delicious. This one had cucumber, kale, ginger, lemon, and some other stuff I can't remember. 

This tasty smoothie had frozen bananas and homemade "raw chocolate almond milk" made with almonds, water, a date and raw cacao nibs and was topped with hemp seeds.

Oh yeah, I had a few Coors as well ;)

What are your favorite summer beverages? Please share!

♥ anne

Around here...

We haven't been up to much lately. A walk to the beach here and a sunset walk there. We are slowly easing into summer and don't have many plans for the upcoming months. I imagine we will spend most of our summer here at home. While that isn't overly exciting I'm going to try and make it as fun as possible for the kids. I'd love to be going on a vacation but sometimes that isn't in the cards (or the bank account). Hopefully by the end of summer I will have acquired a fun list of things to do at home that are inexpensive. We'll see!

Here are some recent pictures-



I made a mango banana sorbet last week and added a nut/date topping. It was yummy! I made little mini sorbet bites for the kids.





We went down to Balboa with my mom to see the lobster crabs that had invaded the beach.




Shane was very interested in these guys.

Thankfully the June gloom seems to ending and the sun is back out in morning which is very nice! It helps keep me motivated. Well, I have a house to clean, dishes that need washing and laundry to fold so I'll be seeing ya later!

♥ anne

PS- don't forget about my big sale! 60% off with coupon code "SUMMERSUN"!!! Come see if there's something with your name on it! You can enter my shop HERE.

Picture Perfect vs Real Life

Last week when I was snapping a photo of the raw brownies I had made I got a good laugh at the photo vs real life. Often times we can make a moment seem much different than the reality and I thought this was a perfect example.

Real life can be messy, cluttered and as far from perfect as you can get and I'm excited to show that side a little more around here.

♥ anne

Inspiration Dress

I thrifted this pretty floral dress last year when I was pregnant with Margaret. Originally I was going to sell it because it looked like it would be too small for me but I decided to compare it to some of my other dresses with a similar cut. I was pleased to see that it should fit when I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

Ten months postpartum and I'm still very far away from my previous weight. Considering this is my 5th time loosing baby weight I'm well aware of the fact that it doesn't come off easily for me. I've learned to remain calm about it and accept where I am but I'm ready to shed the extra pounds. Currently I can't wear 80% of my wardrobe and I refuse to buy new clothes when I have all my favorites hanging in the closet. I decided to hang my dress in my room as extra motivation.

Lent has officially begun and since it's a penitential time of year I plan on getting serious about about my health. Change in diet and lifestyle is never easy but I'm ready for the challenge. I am going raw again until Easter (you can read about my history with raw food here) and am pretty excited about it. This way of eating (plus exercise) is the only way I've successfully lost and kept weight off plus I feel much more balanced mentally. Hopefully in couple months my inspiration dress and all my other clothes will fit again.

For some yummy raw recipes check out some old posts here.

♥ anne

Yummy

This last week I have been majorly focusing on eating well. I gained quite a bit of weight with Maggie and am now faced with attempting to loose it. As we all know, loosing weight is NOT easy. The only way I've successfully lost weight is with a mostly raw diet. Thankfully, I love the food and the more I eat this way the easier it gets. I'm having a much easier time than I did last year so that makes me happy.

I've made some marinated mushrooms, a nut pate, smoothies and lots of salads.

Above is a delicious Mango Lassi. The recipe is from Demetria's beautiful blog, Engrained. Make sure to check out her site and her beautiful photos. I've made it a several times because it's so good! I also added kale and spinach to get my dark greens in.


The other day I saw Broccoli Slaw at Trader Joe's and decided to try it out. I added avocado, onion, raisins, cucumber, sunflower seeds and tossed it with a creamy curry dressing. It was absolutely delicious and WAY tastier than I anticipated. I've now made it for three meals :)

It's fun trying out new recipes. I plan on making a raw cheesecake very soon. I've been wanting to make one for years and I'm finally going to do it. I want to have one for my birthday so I figured I better make a test one first so that my birthday cake looks good. I follow a couple people on Instagram that do really cool designs on top like this and this. I'll let you know how it turns out!

♥ anne

almost RAW

my journey with raw foods started back in early 2009. i had been reading Dr. Mercola's newsletters for a year or two and had noticed how he frequently spoke about how important it was to incorporate raw foods into your diet. at the time i understood that as eating more fruit and salads and that's about it. one day while browsing through the local health food store's book section i came across a small book called The Raw Family by Victoria, Igor, Sergei and Valya Boutanko. i'm not sure what made me pick it up but i did and i started reading the introduction and was intrigued enough to buy it. i read it that day and got super excited about it all. i honestly was ready to go 100% raw right then and there! a few days later i was back at the market and picked up another book by Victoria titled Green For Life. again, i read it in a day and immediately started making daily green smoothies the next day. at time i was eating all raw except for dinner. i felt SO good and lost 15lbs. that i had been trying to loose for almost 10 years. 
months later i started to relax and in crept more cooked food, fast food and increased portions. we were also in the process of moving and finding a new place to live which caused a lot of stress and therefore more eating. i gained back about 10 lbs. and then got pregnant with marianne. i tried to eat really good while i was pregnant but it was still a very hard and stressful time for us. i was making smoothies and started juicing but i still gained more weight than i wanted to. after i had her i gave myself a year to loose the weight. i figured that was very realistic and more than enough time. a year came and went and my weight wasn't budging (and i'm talking about ounces! at one point i thought something was wrong with the scale. i'm serious!). i also can't fail to mention that i had been suffering from bouts of depression for about the last 6 months of 2012. during december i had had enough! i knew the reasons for some of it but that lingering sadness that hung around me like fog was unexplainable. intuitively i knew that a change in my diet would alleviate it, plus i had read so many testimonials where people had switched to a raw diet and their depression was gone. i wanted that! i knew getting the mental and physical results i was looking for was going to take a more drastic step as my body had gotten use to any of the positive changes i had made in my diet. going all raw was the solution and one that i had been wanting try for a long time. i decided to wait for the holidays to be over and begin on january 1st. 

thankfully over the years i had tried a lot of recipes so it wasn't completely new to me. the first week was REALLY HARD! especially dinner! i felt like i was starving and was in a pretty negative mood. i made several new recipes and ate a lot of salads, nori rolls and a variety of nut/date balls but had a hard timing feeling full like i was use to. once my stomach shrunk it took less and less to fill me up. i started to feel lighter, not my weight but more an internal feeling. 

i have noticed many changes within myself. i think the thing that struck me the quickest was just how much i was eating before, way more than necessary. i was also indulging in junk food and fast food a lot more than i realized. i have also noticed how much of an emotional eater i am. when i'm bored, frustrated or angry i go for a handful of chips (my absolute favorite snack). it's hard to be conscience of these habits until you can't have your "fix" to temporarily alleviate them. and since i can't have my beloved chips i am left to face my feelings and try to either deal with them or do something else with my time until they pass.

some other changes i have noticed are a huge increase in vivid dreams, my face has cleared up, i have a much easier time getting up in the morning (no more groggy, half dead mornings), i feel more positive about things in general and i have lost about 15 lbs.


the next step for me might be giving up coffee. i have done it several times and know i feel better without it but boy do i love it! coffee and beer are not raw therefore i can't say i've gone 100% raw. and we all know the bad side effects of caffeine and alcohol but the thought of never drinking either of these was too much for me at this time. after the last two months i've decided to try and cut back big time on both. i know my results would have been even more dramatic if i had cut those out completely but i am only human and figured the food part was a good enough and hard enough place to start. we'll see how i do...


here are a few of my favorite recipes i have found online-

Chrissy's Goddess Chips- i've talked about these before, all i can say is that they are incredible! it's hard to not eat all of them the day they are done. also, the left over dressing tastes so much like blue cheese dressing when you put it on a salad. i made one with romaine, onion, yellow bell pepper, red cabbage and pine nuts with the dressing...it ruled!

Collard Green Wrap- yum! 

The Raw Brownie- SO good! just trust me and make them right now! 

Raw "Tapioca" Pudding- this recipe uses chia seeds and is delicious! i use raw honey instead of agave nectar.

Raw Energy Balls- boy do i love hemp seeds! too bad they are super expensive otherwise these would be in my freezer at all times ready for me to eat up! 

and here is a recipe for the best dessert i have made so far-

Raw Blueberry Cobbler 

for crust-
3 cups dry pecans 
3/4 t sea salt
1 T vanilla
1 t cinnamon
3/4 cup pitted dates

for syrup-
3/4 cups pitted dates
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 T  vanilla
1/3 cup water (or less)

filling-
1 1/2 cups blueberries

process nuts into a fine powder with food processor. add the other ingredients and pulse until mixed.  empty at least half the crust into a brownie/cake pan and press flat to form crust. save the remainder to use as topping.

using the food processor, toss in ingredients for syrup and pulse until combined. in a separate bowl add 1 1/2 cup blueberries and syrup and gently mix to coat blueberries. pour mixture onto the crust and top with reserved crust and gently press down. refrigerate and enjoy! 

**i have substituted half the pecans for almonds and it was delicious. i also used a frozen berry blend last time i made it and that was good as well. not as fantastic as it is with fresh fruit but if frozen is all that's available it's still worth making.

this next recipe was sent to me by the lovely julie (cinnamon girl) and it is SO DARN GOOD!!!

Raw Kale Salad

4 inches of fresh ginger (about 1/4 cup firmly packed), peeled and thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, paper removed
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey + 2 teaspoons
2 1/2 cups cashews
1 bunch lacinato kale, stems removed and thinly sliced
1 bunch curly kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
1 heaping cup green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 heaping cup red cabbage, thinly sliced
3 carrots, peeled and grated

Puree ginger in a food processor or blender. Add garlic, lemon juice, soy sauce, and all of the honey. Process until thoroughly combined. Add 2 cups of cashews. Process until a thick dressing is formed but small chunks of cashew remain.

In a large bowl combine remaining cashews, kale, cabbage, and carrots. Mix thoroughly. Add dressing and toss. Enjoy!

This recipe results in a heavily dressed salad, which I quite enjoy. If you prefer your salads lightly dressed, add half of the dressing and adjust as your preference dictates. 

i also have a couple books that have some great tips and recipes in them- Ani's Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo and Living On Live Food by Alissa Cohen. 

well, there you have it! overall the pluses outweigh any negatives and i am quite happy with the way things are going thus far. if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment :D 

♥anne

and they're off

i finally finished up my playlist for the mixtape swap and am shipping them out today! i had a lot fun putting it together and can't wait to receive mine from my partners. after much turmoil i finally settled on a sun design for the cover. i'm very pleased with how it turned out but more importantly hope you ladies enjoy what is on the inside. i think for my next one i will have a theme so get ready because in a couple of months it will "summer" mixtape swap time!

myself and the kids have each taken turns being sick :( it was bad. i pretty much laid in bed or on the couch for a solid week. thankfully we're all feeling better and ready to get on with our lives and get the heck outside! i tried to make the most of all my indoor time though and cleaned out my closet and all the kid's closets. i took some stuff the goodwill, gave a big bag to my neighbors and saved some for a clothes swap that i want to organize. has anyone participated in a clothes swap before? did you like it? what made it successful? i thought it would be fun to have wine/beer and hors d'oeuvres and of course all the clothes and chat it up with some gals. we'll see if i can pull it together and even find enough people interested in coming.

what else can i tell ya? i've had major success with eating raw! i decided to go longer than just january and have extended my raw journey through the sacrificial season of Lent. i've learned quite a bit about myself and my eating habits and such but i think i will have to save all that for a post of it's own if anyone is interested :D 

i hope you all are staying well!
♥anne

in the kitchen

today we are once again in the kitchen! i've been trying out all sorts of new things. the most exciting to me is sprouting, which is something i've been wanting to do for several years. it is truly facsinating to watch dormant nuts, seeds, legumes... transform into a living food! did you know that-

...sprouting greatly increases the enzyme content of these foods and makes them far more digestable because their protein is broken down into amino acids, their starches are changed into simple sugars, and their fats are converted into soluble fatty acids.

sprouting increases the enzyme content of these foods. even though they are raw, their enzymes are lying dormant. sprouting activates them. if you do not sprout them, your body has to use it's own enzymes to break up these foods.

-Living On Live Food by Alissa Cohen

first i sprouted organic red lentils which i used to make a yummy salad. it's so interesting how different their flavor is compared to a cooked lentil. they have a bit of a crunch and a slightly spicy flavor. alfalfa seeds are next. they just started sprouting this morning, so i'll be eating them up in a day or two!

i got a huge box of tomatoes when i visited my sister last weekend so the other night i made roasted tomato basil soup for the family and this raw tomato soup for myself. i also had a huge success on the raw cracker front! i tell ya i'm getting there! the goal is for them to be as delicious as these crackers. 
those incredible portabella mushrooms ended up in the trash :( i had used them for a nut meat which looked like canned cat food and tasted like i don't know what! big time bummer.

what exciting things have been going on in your kitchen? any new fun recipes to share?

♥anne