Rawkin'

Bless me Father, for I have sinned...oh wait, flashback! Shake it off...


Every Friday night, my boyfriend and I host an open mic at a fish 'n' chips joint. Delicious but S.A.D. to the nth. Our big mistake last night was arriving hungry, after rushing around until the last minute to get there.


I was pretty pissed at ruining 3 days of 100% raw, but I was *starving* and I had a long night of music ahead of me. So I ate it. And to say it wasn't delicious would be a blatant lie. But ya know, this morning, I woke up feeling deep-fried, and almost back to square one.


Of course, I'm not, but well you know. I don't want to undo all my good work and scrap my regained health. I almost typed hellth.


I did some EFT about it, because I don't want to carry bad feelings, I want to move on. (EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique, and is a sort of needle-less acupuncture, where you tap the meridians instead. It works like a hot damn! I use it all over my life.)


So I moved on... determined to make an extra effort on Fridays to arrive fully-sated with raw food, therefore not tempted at all. It all comes down to preparation. That is so key, and I keep re-learning it. One of these days it's gonna stick. This might be the day.


Early this morning, I didn't waste any time figuring out dinner for this evening. I flipped through 'Living on Live Foods' (Alissa Cohen) and landed on a recipe called 'Better than Beef'. I've made it before, and it's wonderful. It's originally from Matt Samuelson, Chef and Instructor at Living Light Culinary Arts Institute.


To make it, I needed 4 cups of carrot pulp, and I didn't have enough carrots to do that, so off I went down the block to the organic grocery. I bought a 5 kg bag of carrots and dragged it back home. I thumbed through my 'Juicing for Life' (Cherie Calbom, Maureen Keane) book and found a recipe that treated inflammation, and used carrots, apple, and ginger. Simple stuff. I chose a recipe for inflammation because that's what bad food does to you, inside and out.


The original recipe calls for 5 carrots, 1/2 an apple, and 1/4" peeled ginger. That wouldn't be enough carrots for 4 cups of pulp, so I just juiced a whack of carrots (about 10-14... I lost count, I just went carrot-mad) and got the amount of pulp I needed, then tweaked the recipe ratios accordingly with a squinty eye and some guesswork. I used 2 apples and 2 'thumbs' of ginger. The juice came out just delicious!

Here it is:

Ok so now I had my pulp (and a bonus breakfast drink to boot!) So, on with making Better Than Beef, which is now done, and sitting in the fridge until dinner, all the flavors melding together. Closer to dinner time, I will take it out and put it in the dehydrator for a while so that it warms up a bit, (BUT YOU DON'T NEED A DEHYDRATOR FOR THIS! YAY!) and I will put it into sprouted grain tortillas along with pea shoots, and red peppers, and make a fabulous wrap. YUM! Take THAT, fish n' chips!!

Better Than Beef:

4 cups carrot pulp, left over from juicing

1 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked an hour, then pureed in the fp or blender

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil

1/3 - 1/2 red onion, finely minced with the S blade of your fp

3 tsps onion powder

2 tsps garlic powder

3 tsps chili powder (I use Mexican chili powder)

2 tsps cumin powder

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 tsp celtic sea salt

1 Tbsp unpasteurized dark miso paste

Using your hands, mix all ingredients together well in a large bowl. Let sit for an hour or more for flavors to meld. Best served after warming in the dehydrator at 105 degrees.

Here it is as it sits in the fridge, before gettin' all pimped for dinner:

I will photograph the whole dinner, and I plan to make a Kale Salad to go with this. Mmm Mmm good.

Love forgiving myself and moving on with a vengeance!

Dinner Update:

Well, true to form, I had a fork in my mouth when I suddenly realized I forgot to take a photo of the 'Better than Beef' wraps I made! There's lots left over so I'll be sure to take one in the next day or so.

But I did get this photo of the DIVINE 'Kale Salad' I made. This is dead simple to make, nothing to soak, nothing to wait for. In fact, because it has avocado in it, it's best to eat it immediately. No problem, Baby. Between the two of us, we ate a head of kale tonight. Lovin' the kale lately.

Here's the recipe for this gorgeous and delicious salad, taken from Living on Live, originally by Chad Sarno. As it says in the book, even if you never liked kale, try this... it's simple to prepare and tastes so good!

1 head kale, (any variety is great) shredded

1 cup tomato, diced

1 cup avocado, chopped

2 1/2 Tbs olive oil

1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice

1 tsp celtic sea salt

1/2 tsp cayenne

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In a mixing bowl, toss all ingredients together, squeezing as you mix to 'wilt' the kale and creaming the avocado. Serve immediately.

Enjoy, Rawkers!