Rawkin' Unplugged

Here I am with my dog Gracie

Today's a bit of a detox day... pretty mild, really, as they go.

In the past, (and I'm sure, in the future too) I've had rashes, headaches, colds, sore throats, etc, but today, it's just kinda like I've been unplugged, and I have had sinus-y vertigo most of the day, even shoulder checked the bureau when I got out of bed, hello. But the lightheadedness is fading now, getting better.

My energy may be low, but my appetite hasn't gone anywhere ;) so in the dehydrator are Stuffed Portebello Mushroom Caps and Avocado Fries. This is the closest raw food gets to junk food (ie. no greens/salad)...my fridge is low on pretty much everything until *pay day* so I'm using up what we've got.

Had a full and wonderful weekend of friends and connections and singing, and stayed raw through it all. Oh, wait, I ordered a club soda with lime at one point.

I went to an afternoon jam and hung out with new and old friends, but it wasn't until the evening that I surprised some friends at a gig and was invited on stage for a few songs. That was a lot of fun! Best part was hearing from these folks how well I looked! They last saw me New Years' and since then I've gone back to raw, so that was a lovely thing to hear.

But today...I've been laying about, taking it easy.

Not a bad thing to do on a surprise snow day. No one is more surprised than the crocuses (crocii?) that carpeted the local lawns.

But like this detox, this too shall pass.

Rawkin' Unplugged

Here I am with my dog Gracie

Today's a bit of a detox day... pretty mild, really, as they go.

In the past, (and I'm sure, in the future too) I've had rashes, headaches, colds, sore throats, etc, but today, it's just kinda like I've been unplugged, and I have had sinus-y vertigo most of the day, even shoulder checked the bureau when I got out of bed, hello. But the lightheadedness is fading now, getting better.

My energy may be low, but my appetite hasn't gone anywhere ;) so in the dehydrator are Stuffed Portebello Mushroom Caps and Avocado Fries. This is the closest raw food gets to junk food (ie. no greens/salad)...my fridge is low on pretty much everything until *pay day* so I'm using up what we've got.

Had a full and wonderful weekend of friends and connections and singing, and stayed raw through it all. Oh, wait, I ordered a club soda with lime at one point.

I went to an afternoon jam and hung out with new and old friends, but it wasn't until the evening that I surprised some friends at a gig and was invited on stage for a few songs. That was a lot of fun! Best part was hearing from these folks how well I looked! They last saw me New Years' and since then I've gone back to raw, so that was a lovely thing to hear.

But today...I've been laying about, taking it easy.

Not a bad thing to do on a surprise snow day. No one is more surprised than the crocuses (crocii?) that carpeted the local lawns.

But like this detox, this too shall pass.

Hemp Sunburgers & Avocado Fries

This picture does no justice to these wonderful burgers (shown with eggless egg salad schmeared on top) and avocado fries!

Yesterday was Saturday, the day I somehow think the imaginary maid is coming to whip us up some dinner. The routine that's in place the rest of the week kinda flies out the window, and it's not until I am hungry that I start to figure out she's not comin'.

On top of this delusion, this particular Saturday started out kinda wonky.

I woke up all pwa-faced after having one mother of a detox dream. We recently chatted about these on the message board, and we tend to agree that being newly raw detoxes more than our physical bodies, it detoxes our emotional selves as well.

This dream was from hell. Well, my personal hell; it really poked me where it hurt. It stayed with me a little while after I woke up, and because I've been just springing out of bed lately, happy to start the day, my boyfriend had first questions, then hugs. (He's awesome that way.)

Feeling a little better, I decided to make my green smoothie. But I walked to the counter and stared in dismay at my dirty blender. The kind of dirty that can only come from leaving it unwashed from the morning before's green smoothie. Aw man, that would take a scrubbie brush, some elbow grease, and the maid! And she's not comin'!! ;)

So... I ate 2 bananas instead, and stuck the blender in the dishwasher along with all the other dishes that had a late night, and set it on whirrrrr.

Then I said, "I need to give my head a shake!" So we decided to go rip roarin' around town on the Harley. That, my dears, did the trick. Aaaahhhhhh.

We bombed around all morning into afternoon, stopping in at thrift stores as we're wont to do. Bought a cute 2 dollar hoodie, yay.

It wasn't until 2 pm that I realized that I was still running on the fuel of 2 bananas. And I was only mildly hungry.

But I was going out for the evening, and needed to get all my ducks in a row and get our supper figured out.

Hey yeah! My blender was clean now! So I did what any rawbie would do and I whipped up my belated green smoothie then sat flipping through my recipes that didn't require long dehydration time. The ones I saw, we had already enjoyed this past week .

So I looked through my other stack of tried and true recipes and luckily, right near the top, was Ani Phyo's recipe for Hemp Sunburgers. Well now! That was doable...it only called for 104 degrees for 3-4 hours dehydration time (known around here as *'hamper time'.)

*hamper time is what I call the time food spends in the dehydrator. When I tell people who aren't accustomed to raw foods that after you prep certain raw food recipes, they spends anywhere from 1 - 18 hours in the dehydrator, it's usually met with wide eyes and balking, as they say, "Oh my GOD, that's SO much WORK!"

But I tell them it's like, a few minutes of prep, then the rest of the time it's no different than when you throw your clothes in the hamper before you decide to do laundry. The time spent in the hamper is no skin off your back; you can leave it in there and get on with your day, your life, until you do laundry.

Or, for a more appetizing analogy, it's like a crock pot, where you prep your food in the morning, stick it in the crock pot and have it ready for dinner when you come home. It's just a trick of timing, no more than that.

The recipes that require long hamper time are the ones I make when I'm on a roll and feel like un-cooking, or when we have a particular hankerin' for gourmet raw, like rawvioli or lasagna...mmmmm.... totally mouth watering and worth every second! But you can keep raw as simple as eating an apple or prepping a salad.

Back to dinner, I already had most of the ingredients, but we walked the dog to the store and got a red pepper and some hemp seeds, which I'd run out of the day before, and some avocado because we decided to make avocado fries on the side.

We had a wonderful meal, and again, with its nutrient density, I was sated the whole evening, even though I only ate one of the burgers, and even though I didn't get home until midnight. I stood there and checked in with myself before going to bed, asking, 'Really? I'm not hungry?!' and I was easily and comfortably able to go to bed with nary another bite.

Without further ado, the recipes...

Hemp Sunburgers

Hemp burgers going into the dehydrator

"This recipe is vegan, vegetarian, organic, gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, healthy, delicious and raw!" - Ani Phyo

Ingredients:

2 stalks celery, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1⁄2 c yellow onion, chopped
1 c red bell peppers, chopped
1 t sea salt
2 t oregano, fresh or dried
1 c sunflower seeds, ground
1⁄2 c flax seeds, ground
1⁄4 c hemp seeds
1⁄2 c filtered water


Directions:

Place all ingredients in bowl, adding the water last. Mix well.Form 4 balls, flatten into patties.
Dehydrate 3-4 hours at 104 degrees, and serve warm with Flax Flat Bread (or on your favorite whole grain bun).

Garnish with tomato, lettuce, catsup, mustard as you would any burger.


*****************************************

Avocado Fries

These are so great!! Filling and fabulous, simple and satisfying, these are*just* the thing when the fried food craving hits ya! This recipe is by Peggy and Curtis at Raw Inspiration. (I bow down to you guys; this one is a staple at our house!)

Directions:

Slice up some avocados into 1/4- 1/2 inch strips

(Tip: After slicing the avocado in half, score the flesh while it's still in the rind and invert the rind to pop out your slices.)


Rawkin' note: I do these shake n' bake style, putting the avocado slices and the breading into a clear little produce bag saved from apples and shake shake shake until everything's well-coated.


Breading:

1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1-2 tsp garlic, minced or powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
After breading the avocado slices you can dehydrate them for about an hour. This warms them up as well as allows some of the oils of the avocado to soak into the breading. The original recipe doesn't mention the temperature, but ya can't go wrong putting the temp at 115. You could just eat them right away too! They're THAT good!!

Enjoy your dinner, Rawkers!

Hemp Sunburgers & Avocado Fries

This picture does no justice to these wonderful burgers (shown with eggless egg salad schmeared on top) and avocado fries!

Yesterday was Saturday, the day I somehow think the imaginary maid is coming to whip us up some dinner. The routine that's in place the rest of the week kinda flies out the window, and it's not until I am hungry that I start to figure out she's not comin'.

On top of this delusion, this particular Saturday started out kinda wonky.

I woke up all pwa-faced after having one mother of a detox dream. We recently chatted about these on the message board, and we tend to agree that being newly raw detoxes more than our physical bodies, it detoxes our emotional selves as well.

This dream was from hell. Well, my personal hell; it really poked me where it hurt. It stayed with me a little while after I woke up, and because I've been just springing out of bed lately, happy to start the day, my boyfriend had first questions, then hugs. (He's awesome that way.)

Feeling a little better, I decided to make my green smoothie. But I walked to the counter and stared in dismay at my dirty blender. The kind of dirty that can only come from leaving it unwashed from the morning before's green smoothie. Aw man, that would take a scrubbie brush, some elbow grease, and the maid! And she's not comin'!! ;)

So... I ate 2 bananas instead, and stuck the blender in the dishwasher along with all the other dishes that had a late night, and set it on whirrrrr.

Then I said, "I need to give my head a shake!" So we decided to go rip roarin' around town on the Harley. That, my dears, did the trick. Aaaahhhhhh.

We bombed around all morning into afternoon, stopping in at thrift stores as we're wont to do. Bought a cute 2 dollar hoodie, yay.

It wasn't until 2 pm that I realized that I was still running on the fuel of 2 bananas. And I was only mildly hungry.

But I was going out for the evening, and needed to get all my ducks in a row and get our supper figured out.

Hey yeah! My blender was clean now! So I did what any rawbie would do and I whipped up my belated green smoothie then sat flipping through my recipes that didn't require long dehydration time. The ones I saw, we had already enjoyed this past week .

So I looked through my other stack of tried and true recipes and luckily, right near the top, was Ani Phyo's recipe for Hemp Sunburgers. Well now! That was doable...it only called for 104 degrees for 3-4 hours dehydration time (known around here as *'hamper time'.)

*hamper time is what I call the time food spends in the dehydrator. When I tell people who aren't accustomed to raw foods that after you prep certain raw food recipes, they spends anywhere from 1 - 18 hours in the dehydrator, it's usually met with wide eyes and balking, as they say, "Oh my GOD, that's SO much WORK!"

But I tell them it's like, a few minutes of prep, then the rest of the time it's no different than when you throw your clothes in the hamper before you decide to do laundry. The time spent in the hamper is no skin off your back; you can leave it in there and get on with your day, your life, until you do laundry.

Or, for a more appetizing analogy, it's like a crock pot, where you prep your food in the morning, stick it in the crock pot and have it ready for dinner when you come home. It's just a trick of timing, no more than that.

The recipes that require long hamper time are the ones I make when I'm on a roll and feel like un-cooking, or when we have a particular hankerin' for gourmet raw, like rawvioli or lasagna...mmmmm.... totally mouth watering and worth every second! But you can keep raw as simple as eating an apple or prepping a salad.

Back to dinner, I already had most of the ingredients, but we walked the dog to the store and got a red pepper and some hemp seeds, which I'd run out of the day before, and some avocado because we decided to make avocado fries on the side.

We had a wonderful meal, and again, with its nutrient density, I was sated the whole evening, even though I only ate one of the burgers, and even though I didn't get home until midnight. I stood there and checked in with myself before going to bed, asking, 'Really? I'm not hungry?!' and I was easily and comfortably able to go to bed with nary another bite.

Without further ado, the recipes...

Hemp Sunburgers

Hemp burgers going into the dehydrator

"This recipe is vegan, vegetarian, organic, gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, healthy, delicious and raw!" - Ani Phyo

Ingredients:

2 stalks celery, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1⁄2 c yellow onion, chopped
1 c red bell peppers, chopped
1 t sea salt
2 t oregano, fresh or dried
1 c sunflower seeds, ground
1⁄2 c flax seeds, ground
1⁄4 c hemp seeds
1⁄2 c filtered water


Directions:

Place all ingredients in bowl, adding the water last. Mix well.Form 4 balls, flatten into patties.
Dehydrate 3-4 hours at 104 degrees, and serve warm with Flax Flat Bread (or on your favorite whole grain bun).

Garnish with tomato, lettuce, catsup, mustard as you would any burger.


*****************************************

Avocado Fries

These are so great!! Filling and fabulous, simple and satisfying, these are*just* the thing when the fried food craving hits ya! This recipe is by Peggy and Curtis at Raw Inspiration. (I bow down to you guys; this one is a staple at our house!)

Directions:

Slice up some avocados into 1/4- 1/2 inch strips

(Tip: After slicing the avocado in half, score the flesh while it's still in the rind and invert the rind to pop out your slices.)


Rawkin' note: I do these shake n' bake style, putting the avocado slices and the breading into a clear little produce bag saved from apples and shake shake shake until everything's well-coated.


Breading:

1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1-2 tsp garlic, minced or powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
After breading the avocado slices you can dehydrate them for about an hour. This warms them up as well as allows some of the oils of the avocado to soak into the breading. The original recipe doesn't mention the temperature, but ya can't go wrong putting the temp at 115. You could just eat them right away too! They're THAT good!!

Enjoy your dinner, Rawkers!