Celebrating an all-natural lifestyle

Read this.

Hi all! Taking a quick midday break to draw your attention to three articles in the news of note. If you haven’t read these guys yet, you may want to fill up your lunch hour with them.

1) Elizabeth Kolbert reviews Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals.

2) Nicholas Kristof on the state of American health.

3) With apologies to my beloved readers for citing a news source of which I am not fond, Al Gore is asked why he’s still eating meat.

And a raw Wednesday recap!

Julia sent me the following photos:

“A blended salad (avo, zuke, spinach, and basil–so delicious.  That blended salad post changed my life) and then a romaine and spinach salad with sprouts, avo, and red pepper with lemon juice.”

“A young coconut smoothie that I made (young coconut blended with cinnamon)  and I almost drank all of it before I remembered a picture!”

Aletheia sent me three photos:

Rawvioli

Banana Collard Wrap

Triple C Threat: Cilantro, Carrot, Cauliflower salad

The lovely Katie sent me this drool-worthy shot:

“Here’s my 1st attempt at Raw Wednesday. In the picture is my own take on your tortilla soup featuring… whatever I had leftover in my fridge. Tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro, garlic, spices… and guacamole lettuce roll-ups! I wasn’t impressed w/ my first raw soup attempt – but that just means I need more practice!”

Another lovely Katie shared her raw lunch, which looks amazing:

Two weeks ago, Lauren said a few words about her juicing adventures:

“I just moved to San Francisco and when I arrived, my boyfriend had a bday present waiting for me – my first juicer!!! Attached is a picture of the green smoothie I made for Raw Wednesday (though I’ve been trying to have them more often). I started with some that were a little too green for a newbie, but this one is just romaine, celery, apple, cucumber, and ginger … and it was totally refreshing and deliciosa!

Hope this helps your post. I have really been enjoying your blog and am making a slow transition to eating more raw, and more vegan, largely as a result of your inspiration.”

And this week, she shared the following smoothie, which I humbly re-post:

Rejuvenating Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 handfuls spinach (bagged, pre-washed)
1/4 cucumber (peeled and cut into chunks)
1 banana
water

Instructions:

Blend all items together on the puree setting. Enjoy! I find I really only need half a banana at this point, but I prefer it to taste a little more veggie-like. Made with the full banana, it’s nice and sweet, with a cooling and replenishing taste from the cucumber. You won’t even taste the spinach but your body will sure feel the difference. Hope some of you give this a try!

I’ve tasted those macaroons, people, and they rock.

Thank you, readers, for your participation!!! I love seeing what you make, so please keep the tradition alive!

I also woke up this morning to an amusing comment on my last post from a reader who referred to him or herself as “meatosaurus,” informing me that I am “an idiot.” I would suggest that the rapacious Animal Eater try really, really hard not to sit around reading and commenting on my blog. Just sayin.

xo

Raw Wednesday Recap

Hey guys!

Thanks for such a great response to my New Orleans post. I’m glad that some of you expressed interest in hearing Chloe’s take on pescatarian life in the Big Easy; with any luck, we’ve just inspired her to write a Choosing Raw VIP post

Yesterday, as we all know, was Raw Wednesday. I had asked you all to send me photos of the meals you made, and a bunch of you obliged with mouth-watering images of raw lunches, dinners, and snacks. Here they are, in all their glory:

Raw Spiralized zucchini noodles with diced raw veggies and homemade raw vegan Thai-Inspired Peanut sauce, courtesy of Averie:

A fruit and avocado breakfast platter and a raw carrot “cupcake” from Bambi:

A beautiful, simple salad with raw sunflower seeds, walnuts, and dried cranberries from my friend Iris:

A cauliflower salad from blog reader Aletheia:

A mouth-watering photo of a modified Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl soup from Kathryn:

And some zucchini guacanara from my friend Laura, along with a bonus picture of the raw pizzettes she made recently for a party:

Yum!

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Kelly ate a honeycrisp apple (sure, Kelly, it counts!), and Whitney made an awesome collard burrito.

Did I miss you? Do you have some raw photos to share? Just send them to me for next Wednesday, or say a few words about your day in the comments section. I’ll be back tomorrow with a Question of the Week.

xo

Adventures in Raw Bread Making!

Happy Raw Wednesday!

How’d it go, guys? My day, though raw, was stressful and utterly unworthy of documentation. But in honor of the day, I do have a very special post to share with you. It is a chronicle of my journey into a brave new world of raw food. Yes, friends. Today, I share my first ever food dehydrating experience.

Food dehydrating. The final frontier. After six months of assuring you that you don’t need a dehydrator to be raw, and proving the claim myself, I have been gifted with a dehydrator. Which means a whole new world of breads, crackers, cookies, cakes, pizza crust, pie crust, and more.

Before I give you the detail of my first dehydrating adventure, I want to make something very clear. Having a dehydrator will in no way change the ethos of my blog. Sure, it’ll be fun to show you guys some of the fun things one can do with a dehydrator, and to make recipes that are a little more elaborate than the usual raw soups and salads. But I started this blog to prove that anyone—even someone equipped with nothing more than some kitchen knives and an imagination—can enjoy the raw lifestyle. The appliances help, but my kind of raw lifestyle (simple foods, simple combinations) doesn’t necessitate them. As I’ve stated before, I began my raw journey with nothing more than a food processor, a box grater, and some knives, and I managed nicely for a long, long while.

But every now and then, we welcome change into our lives. So get ready. A few times each month, I’ll try to make something really fun in the ‘ole Excalibur. I’ve already got some recipes bookmarked to try, and I hope you’ll love them. Rest assured, though, that Choosing Raw will remain a place where raw foodists come to relax, not show off; a place where prepping a meal takes fifteen minutes, not five days. And with the exception of today’s post, I’ll always try to give you a low-temp oven option on the recipe.

On that note, let me begin my first dehydrating adventure with a little tour of my kitchen. Welcome.

The first time I brought my ex-boyfriend (who was, shall we say, a meat and potatoes man) into this sacred room, he grinned and said, “So. This is where the magic happens.”

Yes. This is where the magic happens. This room is where it’s at. It’s where I come to unwind, to create, to shake off a bad day. Merely walking in here gives me a sense of calm. And well it should: by New York City renter’s standards, I have a pretty incredible kitchen (my old kitchen, which I shared with a roommate, was virtually so tiny that two people could not stand in it at the same time).

Here’s my countertop:

My appliances, all lined up like ducks in a row:

A still life from my Mom (she’s a painter):

Pantry items – healthy grains:

Coconut butter, nut butters, and raw honey:

And sea veggies/spices:

Here is my vegan cookbook collection (and this ain’t the half of it—just the VIPs!):

My tea kettle:

And no kitchen of mine is complete without some yams.

Hoping for a fridge tour? Not yet! I’m saving that one for a special organizational post. Soon.

Of course, having a dehydrator in an already full NYC kitchen brings up one crucial issue: space. Where to put? For now, I think a laborious tradeoff will have to happen each time the machine is in action. Other appliances get to sit on the floor:

While it gets the counter:

The rest of the time, you’ll find this guy here:

Whatever works.

In contemplating what to make for my first dehydrating jaunt, I thought (as I often do) of my clients’ food requests. Many of my clients ask me for raw bread recipes, and I’ve yet to provide them with one. I’ve also always hoped to put juice pulp to good use in a bread. So last weekend, I vowed that if I could find an easy, hassle free bread recipe, I’d christen the dehydrator with it.

Fortunately, I did. My friend Blaq Berry’s Carrocumber bread was the perfect template. And since I happened to have a ton of carrot pulp on hand, I figured it was time to take the plunge. I followed her recipe closely, making a few modifications (raisins in place of dates, celery/kale pulp in place of cucumber). And voila, Miss “I’ll never use my dehydrator” had herself some raw bread.

Here’s how:

Raw Carrot-Raisin Bread (Inspired by Hi-Rawkus; makes about five slices)

Ingredients:

1 cup carrot juice pulp
1/3 cup green pulp (celery or cucumber would be ideal)
½ cup ground flaxseed
½ tsp salt
1 tsp flax oil
¼ cup raisins, packed
1/3 cup water (if needed)

Begin by blending the first five ingredients in a food processor until well mixed. Add the raisins and pulse until they’re well incorporated.

Next, drizzle in water until the mix is clumping together – just as you would make any bread in a processor. Don’t use it all if you don’t need it – you don’t want an overly sticky consistency. (You could also do this by hand, it’ll just take some extra time.)

Roll the “dough” out onto a wooden board. You’ll probably need to oil the roller and board for this. Cut it into rectangles (mine yielded five sizeable ones).

Turn on your dehydrator, and set it to 115 degrees. Put the bread onto a Paraflexx-lined dehydrator tray, and place the bread in the machine. Dehydrate for about one hour, and flip the bread. Dehydrate for another hour and a half. Then, flip the bread again, and dehydrate for thirty-forty minutes, or until the bread has reached a consistency you like. I was aiming for a soft, yet sturdy texture, and it’s exactly what I got!

Remove the bread from the dehydrator. If you’re not eating it right away, but it in an airtight container and store in the fridge (should keep a few days). Or, go ahead and whip up a raw sandwich!

Since I had this baby on hand:

I decided to make a hearty MLT sandwich: mushroom, heirloom tomato, and lettuce. I spread some of my raw almondaise on the bread:

Stacked Portobello mushroom and thick tomato slices on it, topped with some lettuce, and voila:

A comforting, diner-worthy lunch.

Alongside a big salad, this hit the spot.

I was especially impressed with the bread’s texture: it was soft and pliable, unlike most raw bread, which usually resembles a giant, crumbly cracker.

It was new territory, but I found the whole dehydrating process ridiculously easy. It’s true, what they say about dehydrators: all you have to do is walk away and come back a few hours later. Unlike ovens or boiling pots, they require no vigilance. And the results are, well, pretty cool.

I hope you all had an awesome raw Wednesday! And I want to hear about it! Please chime into the comments section and let me know how you fared. And keep sending photos; I got a few (you guys know who you are, and thanks!) but I’d love to be able to post a whole bunch next week.

On that note, I leave you to five days sans Gena. I’m off to Crescent City to visit Chloe, my best friend, who lives there. I look forward to some hot weather, some girl time, some strolling by beautiful old homes, and some pleasure reading (fingers crossed!). In the meantime, I have three awesome guest posts lined up for you guys. Expect the first tomorrow evening!

xo

The Raw Wednesday Veterans’ Giveaway

Hi all!

Thank you for the impassioned response to yesterday’s post about fats! I am thrilled that this topic struck a chord. It sounds as though many of you have been avoiding or carefully portioning out your healthy fats, and I hope I made a small contribution in helping you to feel more comfortable eating them.

So are you all bummed out that the Raw Wednesday challenge is over? I am: I was really enjoying hearing about your brave adventures with raw meals. So here’s what I’m thinking: let’s not stand on ceremony. I welcome you all to keep the Raw Wednesday tradition going, and I will continue to delight in your experiments. And to those of you who are really getting into the raw meals, I encourage you to keep eating them as often as you like!

I hope that you’ve walked away from the challenge with some food for thought. A bunch of you have emailed me to say how surprising it was to consider how processed some components of your meals really were: it’s kind of incredible, isn’t it, to realize that so many perfectly commendable and healthy foods (whole grain wraps, hummus, coconut milk, oatmeal) are nevertheless at least a step away from nature? (See Michelle’s interesting thoughts on this.) I always like to explain to people that my definition of “raw” foods isn’t so much literal—whether or not heat is employed in preparation—but rather metaphoric—how absolutely unprocessed is your food? Is the food on your plate in its raw state? The “raw” label can mean “natural” just as much as it means “uncooked.”

Whether or not you’re continuing Raw Wednesday, I want to thank everyone who participated with another giveaway! This one is truly special: a gaggle of goodies from my very favorite dining establishment, Pure Food and Wine.

My friends Sarma and Amelia have been kind enough to offer one lucky Raw Wednesday veteran a One Lucky Duck totebag full of incredible goodies: a copy of Raw Food, Real World, which is without a doubt my go-to book for raw entertaining; two sets of the infamous Quackers, Rosemary and Cheesy; raw macaroons; raw chocolate chip and gingerbread cookies; and, finally, the brand new honey bunches grawnola bar. I can attest to the incredible tastiness of these treats: I’ve had the Quackers many a time, and adore them. I sampled the grawnola bar right after it came out, and loved it (this from a girl who doesn’t like most raw granola). And since Sarma was generous enough to offer me some of the chocolate chip cookies, too, I can tell you that they’re beyond delicious: it’s like eating a cross between shortbread and chocolate chip cookie dough.

These treats are the ideal way for any newcomer (or expert!) to experience to true potential of gourmet, creative raw un-cooking. So I encourage you all to enter the giveaway! All you have to do is respond to this post with a comment saying one new thing you learned about raw food, the raw lifestyle, or raw health over the course of the Raw Wednesday challenge. I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday. Good luck!

On that note, friends, it’s back to the grind. Have a good one!

xo

P.S. Speaking of giveaways, don’t forget to enter ZestyCook’s blog makeover giveaway!

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