Switch

Last week I started reading Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath who also wrote another favorite of mine, Made to Stick. I originally got Switch to help me out with some major changes at work, but as soon as I started reading it, I realized I needed this book to help me make the necessary changes to my diet. the basic premise of the book is that we are all of two minds: the first, the rational/ thinking mind is like the guy driving an elephant from the top. The second, our irrational/ emotional mind is like the elephant. While the driver may know where he wants to go and may even make the elephant go that way for a while, that elephant is so big, it'll go where ever the heck it pleases. I can totally relate to that! Making the switch to raw food has been a limited success because my emotional mind keeps getting in the way. I don't WANT to have diabetes, I don't WANT to have to only eat raw food, and I don't WANT to not be able to eat candy, cakes, and other carbs! So in the next few weeks, I'll be reading and experimenting with my emotional mind to see if I can change the path of this elephant :-)

In the meantime, here's a great recipe, my daughter Kara sent me from her Vegetarian Times a few months ago. I made it tonight for tomorrow's lunch and OMG, I WANT it now!!! LOL!

---

Vegetarian Times - Live Hot and Sour Soup

1/2 c. mung bean sprouts
3 Tbsp. nama shoyu or soy sauce

Mix these two together in a small bowl and set aside while you make the rest of the soup.

5 dried apricots, soaked in water until plump and drained
1-1/2 c. chopped tomatoes
1/4 c. sliced green onion ( I used a regular sweet onion)
2 Tbsp. organic raw apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger
2 Tbsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. raw agave nectar
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, to taste
pinch of sea salt

1/2 c. diced zucchini or cucumber
1 jalapeno chili, seeded and minced (I skipped this and just added more cayenne)
2 Tbsp.. chopped cilantro

Put everything except the last three ingredients into the food processor and blend until smooth. (Oops! I just noticed I was supposed to put 3 cups of water with that! Maybe that's why mine tastes sooooo good. Skip the water if you like).

Transfer to a serving bowl and add the zucchini/ cucumber, cilantro and jalapeno. Top with the sprout mixture.

---

Raw breakfast ideas

I'm finding that breakfast is the hardest part of my raw food day. After years of eating eggs & cheese, butter beans & cheese, grilled cheese, macaroni & cheese...well, you get the picture, it was really hard to kick cheese out of my morning. I never realized how much cheese I ate in the morning. I mean, I knew I ate a lot of cheese, but at breakfast?

So now I'm kind of floundering around for something to eat. I've always been hungry right away in the morning, so starting out with a smoothie keeps me going for about half an hour before I'm hungry again. Late in the summer, I hit upon the idea of "nutmeal" which is a combination of nuts & seeds (almonds, sunflower, walnuts), fruits (think an apple or pear), some spice (cinnamon and/or ginger), and a little water ground up in the food processor until it has an oatmeal-like consistency. The more you whirl it, the more like cooked oatmeal it becomes. This is great stuff!It's lighter and fresher tasting than oatmeal and, even if my diabetes were cured tomorrow, I don't think I could go back to that thick heavy oatmeal taste again.

While the nutmeal is great, it does take time in the morning to prepare, especially when I started to want it warm. Plus, with the cold mornings, I find I just want to stay in bed longer. I was finding myself heading out the door with a baggie of nuts and dried fruit everyday. It took me forever to eat them, plus I missed my nutmeal, so I tried dehydrating it into "crackers." Last week, I made apple, almond, flax seed and cinnamon crackers. They tasted really yummy - light, fresh and really filling without having to chew and chew and chew.

Today I got more inventive with the recipes and created Carribean breakfast crackers. Here's what I used (note: it's not much of a recipe due to the variant nature of the liquid inside the young coconuts. You'll have to add more or less coconut water to get the right consistancy for spreading):

Carribean breakfast crackers
meat from 2 young coconuts
1 ripe banana
1 c. raw almoonds
2 t. ground or fresh ginger
juice of 1 key lime

Process in the food processor until it's very finely ground and mushy. Add a little coconut water if the mixture is too think to process properly.

Pour into a bowl and add enough ground flax seed meal to make it thick enough to spread (oatmeal consistency). Then add 1 c of goji berries (soaked) or raisins (soaked). Spread the mixture onto trays and make marks for 12-15 squares. Dehydrate at 145 degrees for 2-3 hours and then turn them over and turn the temp. down to 115 degrees until crisp.

I haven't tasted these yet, but they smell soooo good!

I used the rest of the coconut water to made the Chai Spice wafers from the Rainbow Green cookbook I got a while back. They've got almonds, sesame seeds, Chai spice, and vanilla in them as well. I'm thinking I can make a little walnut butter to spread on them this week. can wait for breakfast!