Spaghetti squash and a recipe rant!

Spaghetti Squash with a fresh veggie sauce:
1 Spaghetti squash cut in half lengthwise

drizzle coconut oil all over the face of the squash

dice 2 cloves of garlic sprinkle it over the spaghetti sqush add spices and

put in oven at 350 for 45 minutes (face up)

leave in a cool place for 20 minutes (not fridge)

use fork to get out the "spaghetti"

Veggie Sauce stove top:
Coconut oil

1 Onion

2 Garlic cloves 

1-2 cups of Tomatoes (I used the cherry tomatos cut in halves- because I do not want the sauce to be watery... a thick sauce is key to this recipe)

1 bunch of Parsley

Dried basil

Dried parsley

Black pepper

Sautéed onions and garlic in coconut oil when browned add tomatoes and parsley and spices... let it sit for about 5 minutes on low heat. Then add it to the spaghetti squash and serve! 

Now most of my meals are raw, but if I am going to blog about healthy food I will not be posting my salad everyday because frankly it is the same salad with similar vegetables most of the time. I possibly will do a post on salad though in the future and talk about colors and get a bit of nutrition facts in there, possibly some dressing recipes. But for now I think that I will be writing about healthier alternative meals whether is be cooked or raw (I hope that does not turn anyone off.) I just look at the recipes called "healthy" online and I am astonished at what people consider healthy. Mostly I need to just take a "healthy" recipe and revamp it to make it actually healthy. It is pretty difficult to find a gluten free, soy free, dairy free, egg free meal that is not laced with processed shitty margine alternatives, flour alternatives and soy alternatives, always I will find recipes that are "healthy" and they cook with olive oil- ugh toxic! All I want is simple whole foods recipes and since that is a mission to find- I am here to provide some.

Keep it healthy :)

-REL

Easy to make Stuffed Mushrooms! (Gluten Free, Soy free, Vegan)

Stuffed Mushrooms:

1. Mushrooms- any kind

Take out the stem of the mushroom and chop it small

Mix chopped stems with:

2. Really diced onion

3. Bits of kale

4. Dried parsley

5. A lil bit of coconut oil

6. Spices (I just use whatever!)

7. And daiya cheese 

Top with daiya cheese

(Alternatives to Daiya cheese would be to cover it with a piece of kale dipped in coconut oil and spices)

Brush mushroom caps with coconut oil. Put the mixture into the mushroom caps.

Cook in oven at 375 for 15 minutes: Or can be eaten Raw we like them both ways!

I bought too many mushrooms and had no idea what to do with them so I came up with this recipe... RVH loves them so I have made them three times this week as an appetizer with dinner... gotta love an easy delicious recipe! Feel free to play around with the stuffing and let me know how it turns out :)

Stay Healthy

-REL

The lost college grad and a Raw Vegan Meetup...

College ended for me in October when I ditched my study abroad semester in Italy to follow my lost soul into the real world- we still haven't made it quite there yet.

Instead we (my soul and I) have been traveling trying to find our place in the world. And for some strange reason I can no longer remember we have created a base in Toronto, Canada. I know no one in this country but I convinced my raw vegan hottie (RVH) to move across the world (from Israel to Canada) to join me on this journey.

We decided that since we do not know anyone in Toronto we would try Meetup.com to meet some like minded individuals. We joined a Raw Vegan Potluck on Meetup.com and after much worry about the perfect dish to bring I made my "I can't believe it's not couscous". RVH and I travelled across Downtown Toronto excited to meet some more RV's (we never met RV's other than each other before this event.).

Okay now I guess I never put much thought into how nutty one would need to be to become an RV which was probably where I went wrong in the first place. But let me warn you now- Raw Vegans are not an exciting bunch of people! They are strange- like run for your life and cover strange! One guy we met eats like 10 pounds of honey a week (he was just Raw not vegan obvs) but we were standing talking with him as he gossiped about how much of a whack the lady wearing radiation-proof clothing was (she asked everyone to turn off their cellphones and brought out a radiation detector- tips: a radiation detector is never a good thing to bring to a group gathering it is always a bummer). 

Everyone at the meetup tried to sell something- three different people tried to sell water filters (including crazy radiation lady) and people were just selling the weirdest things like classes on how to make sauerkraut (um I'm pretty sure that's what the internet is for...) but oddly enough people were buying the merchandise! 

Only three of the people in attendance were actually 100% raw but one of the gossiping grannies did confirm that one of them eats baked potatoes (Ah the travesty!) apparently this was a big deal, gosh the gossip! Did you know that some people even used non-organic ingredients and lied about it?!  

So what have I learned from this event?

1. RVs that attend meet ups are usually above 45 years old and single.

2. None of the RVs we met look healthy and they all look older than they really were.

3. To go RV (even if you're not 100%) you gotta be a bit nutty! 

Now where do I stand on raw veganism?

By default we (RVH and I) eat over 75% of our food raw (Rbreakfast, Rsnacks and Rlunch with a half Rdinner)- so technically we are raw vegans. But we are not going to go all nutty over it and we are not defining ourselves by our food. I have spent to many years of my life fighting against my food (recap: I was a 200lbs teenager) to let it define me as a person.

So I ultimately learned from the Raw Vegan Potluck meetup that what I eat doesn't define who I am- and I am no longer going to look for RV friends because the food I eat doesn't define who I am. Those RV's and I are anything but like-minded.

So if I have a good recipe even if it is not RV I will share it with you. Because a whole food is a good food cooked or raw.

Stay healthy,

REL

Kick-Start fitness & a smoothie

I am not a fan of the gym. Last August I signed a contract with the country club (yea it costed a fortune) to force myself to go to gym and take part in their classes. What a fail. I went maybe ten times in those six months it is embarrassing really. But truthfully I am not that person- I hate being inside, I hate the machines, I hate how boring it is and I hate how not natural it is.
Fast forward to April. I decided I needed to make a change. I don't want to be a lazy couch potato I want to move- mostly I want to want to move. So I hired a personal trainer and started working out with her at the park near my house. BEST THING I EVER DID FOR MYSELF!
Three times a week I meet Tali at the park and she pushes me more than I would have ever pushed myself.
Finally I began enjoying working out (it's possible!)
After a month of working out with Tali I realized I love movement and took it to the next step...
I joined a hula hoop dance class.
Before the class I was so nervous because I was always the fat kid who couldn't do sport so I never successfully hula hooped before. Tali told me that when I go to the class not to look at anyone else and just to have fun with it. Best advice ever. Within the first five minutes I was able to figure out the movement and keep the hoop at my waist! If only Mrs Robinson (my gym teacher) could see me now! By the end of the one hour class I was able to even do a trick! I can spin the hoop from my waist to above my head and continue spinning it over my head... I am spending the week practicing this trick but it is so cool- I am really excited about it.
This month I lost 8 pounds.

With my new fitness hobbies life got busier... So my morning smoothie is my energy kick-starter!
I am a student with a seriously small freezer so instead of storing ice cubes in my freezer I store ripe fruit so I can quickly just pop in the fruit to the blender and get a yummy smoothie!

My favorite smoothie

Blend:

1 banana

6 pecans

1 or 2 dates

a bit of water

A lot of stores give nice discounts for really ripe fruit... buy in bulk then store it in the freezer for your morning smoothies!!!! (I got a 35% discount on like 20 organic bananas and ended up paying like $3... And three packs of organic strawberries for $5)

Keep it healthy
- REL

I'm Back!

What better reason to stop blogging about raw veganhood than a year of falling in deep moving in with my raw vegan hottie!
Right now he is squeezing us some fresh organic grapefruit juices, yum!

What a year- it has been my last year of college and possibly my last in Israel (next year I am studying in Italy! After that who knows where I will be...)

The Struggle:
Vegan for me is easy because I have been vegan forever but raw vegan is one tough cookie. As people we tend to get stuck doing what comes easy so most of my meals this year have been the plain old faithful salad or a plate of fruit. The struggle with staying raw bit me in the ass this year. Feeding a raw vegan guy got way expensive. He seriously eats a lot! So I did a [stupid] shortcut and started cooking him grains to fill him up so he wouldn't eat all the food in the fridge. So instead of having to go food shopping daily we went 2-3 times a week. Let's just say Eve fed Adam the apple and she was punished by gaining weight (it is hard to refuse my own cooking).

I read some pretty good advice last week- it said if there is something you want to do and need motivation tell a bunch of people you will do it so you will be forced to complete it out of sheer embarrassment of not completing it. So now here I am ready to re-health my meals. And blog my way to health.

Some resolutions I have:
1. Fix my thinning hair
2. Lose thirty pounds
3. Eat healthy and wisely
4. Exercise more
5. Live for me


Keep it healthy!
-REL

Snack on this...

Today I was craving some serious junk food. So I invented a raw type of cookie dough....

1 organic banana

15 pecans

1/4 cup of oats

dash of vanilla

YUM!!!!

Guilt Free Chummus- oh it's possible!

Okay have you seen the movie Don't Mess With The Zohan? Remember is chummus toothpaste? That obsession with chummus describes me perfectly. But it is so fattening ugh! Which is why I searched for a guilt free alternative... raw zucchini!

For this recipe you will need a food processor.

2 cups of zucchini

1 clove of garlic

4 tablespoons of tahina

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

2 tablespoons of olive oil

parsley and paprika to garnish!

Add everything to the food processor and get it nice and smooth! Then garnish and eat!

Store this in your fridge for a healthy snack. 

HEALTH TIP: When you are procrastinating from homework, instead of sitting on facebook waiting for a notification, go wash and cut up tons of vegetables and keep them in containers in the fridge. Then when you get hungry you will go straight for the healthy food because it is already prepared! Snack while cutting and you will have to brain-food to continue your homework!

Welcome back from spring break!

xoxo

REL