Flavorful Fat-free Parsley-Tomato Pasta!

Yumm. I've got a super simple, intensely flavored, awesome low fat raw vegan pasta recipe, and I'm gonna share it with you!

This salt free, fat free, raw recipe is soo good, you've gotta try it!

Introducing, cucumber noodlies with tomato-parsley sauce!

Ingredients:

• Noodlies: (I just love that word. Say it: "Noodlies." Hehehehehehe.)
• 3 Cucumbers
• You could probably use zucchini as well if you like it; I don't. I do think the cucumber noodles give a lovely freshness to the dish.
• Dressing:


• ⅓ c sun-dried tomatoes
• ½ c parsely
• ½ c water
• ⅛ onion (or, preferably, use chives or scallions for a fresher tasting, less mucous-forming option!)
• 1Tbsp lemon juice


• Optional, but yummy:
• avocado chunks
• dried apricot slices

Spiralize, julienne, or use a veggie peeler to make noodles out of cucumber.

Blend parsley & water until smooth. Add rest of ingredients and blend until smooth.

Pour sauce over cucumber s'gettis and enjoy!

Fruitarian Kitchen!

This makes me so happy :')

This is what a successful raw vegan's house looks like!

Low Fat Raw Gourmet: Crêpes

Merry Christmas, all; hope you had a great time opening gifts and hanging out with your wonderful family!

My family is full of cooks and food connoisseurs, so we like to do different cuisines for holiday meals. This year, the theme is French food.

Not eager to be left out, I decided I would take part in this French cuisine theme myself! I plan upon having a creamy, nut free, salt free, raw red pepper bisque (it's delicious); I'll definitely post that recipe in the near future!

For dessert, I shall be enjoying crêpes...yum!

This has got to be the easiest crêpe recipe ever. Its also super duper yummy & 100% fruit! It does use a dehydrator, but its still a great once-in-a-while treat, methinks.

Ingredients:
—3 bananas
—¾ avocado
—8 - 12 halawy dates (or 4 - 6 soft medjools)
—¾c water
—½c berries, +a few more for the filling

There is three parts to the recipe: the crêpe, the creamy filling, and a berry coulis to drizzle on top.

For the crêpe:
Blend bananas together in blender. Spread into two circles on a dehydrator sheet (you may want to spread a teeny bit of coconut oil down first, so they dont stick). Dehydrate until pliable, but not sticky (I just dehydrated mine overnight).

For the cream filling:
Blend dates (pitted), avocado, and water (don't add it all right away) in blender until smooth and creamy.

For the coulis:
Blend berries of your choice into a sauce (I used strawberries).

Assembly: (wait until your ready to eat or almost ready! If you assemble agead of time, the banana crêpe may absorb water from filling and turn back to mush.)
Spread half the cream on one side of each crêpe. Sprinkle some whole berries on top (I used raspberries). Roll up the crêpes, and drizzle the coulis on top. Now you're done, enjoy!

Low Fat Raw Gourmet: Chili

It's Christmas Eve! Happy day-before-the-overly-commercialized-stolen-from-the-pagans-everybody's favorite holiday. Ok, no more cynical.

Today, Daddy spent hours crafting a very complicated cooked vegan chili out of beans, mushrooms, and lots of spices.

I'm generally opposed to beans and salt and cooked things, so I decided instead, I would make a healthier version of their dinner that I could eat at the same time. I searched the internet, looking at traditional cooked recipes, overly complicated raw recipes, and the simplest of the simplest lowfat fare, and I think I've come up with something somewhere in between!

Like the sushi recipe I posted yesterday, this is a more complicated, more gourmet low-fat raw recipe - though it's still not nearly as long or painstaking as many high-fat gourmet raw recipes! If you're a chili fan, this is a good way to eat ligit chili yumminess and keep it low fat, raw, and salt free.

So without further ado,

(I know, my phone camera sucks. My apologies. Haha)

Recipe will feed 2 'cooked' people or 1 LFRV.

Ingredients:

• 3 tomatoes
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes (more for a richer, deeper tomato flavor; less for a lighter, fresher flavor)
• .5oz dehydrated mushrooms (I used shiitake)
• 1 zucchini
• .5 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 or 2 red bell peppers
• 1 or 2 poblano peppers
• 1 - 2tsp cumin
• 1Tbsp chili powder
• dash oregano

1. Blend sun-dried tomates with a little water in a blender to form a paste
2. Put tomatoes (quartered), mushrooms, garlic (minced), sun-dried tomato paste, onions (chopped up), cumin, chili powder, & oregano in food processor; blend until chunky
3. Grate, julienne, or cut zucchini into small cubes (I grated)
4. Slice or julienne peppers into small, thin strips
5. Mix together, and let sit 2 - 12hrs (the longer it sits, the more the flavors will blend).
• You could put it in the dehydrator to warm it/make the flavors blend faster
6. Serve & enjoy!

Low Fat Raw Gourmet: Sushi

Ahhh, winter break! As of last Thursday, I went from having little to no free time, to having all the free time in the world! I've been investing this time doing lots of yoga, playing outside, cleaning, reading, and making art in the kitchen!

Today I came up with a nut & oil free, low fat, raw, vegan sushi recipe that is just incredible!

It's not traditional simple low-fat fare; there are quite a few ingredients - but it's definitely a dish worth treating yourself to - without splurging on the fat, salt, and/or cooked foods!

There are 3 basic parts (rice, veggies, dipping sauces), plus the nori.

Rice
—1 head cauliflower
—¼ onion

Veggies
—2 carrots

—1 cucumber

Dips
—1in ginger, peeled & sliced
—½c water
—½ lime, juiced
—5 - 6 small dates (or 3 large), pitted

—1c arugula
—¾c water
—½ lime, juiced
—½ celery stalk
—1 garlic clove
—½ avocado

For the rice:
Chop cauliflower into pieces:

Put about a handful or two in your blender at a time, and pulse once or twice (until consistancy of rice):

Finally, mince onion and mix them in. Mix in a few tablespoons of ginger-date sauce.

For ginger-date sauce:
Put ¾c water, 1in ginger, and 6 dates in blender; blend until smooth. Mix some into 'rice' and set the rest aside.

For the pineapple-avocado sauce:
Blend arugula with water until smooth. Add celery, lime, and pineapple. Blend until smooth. Add ½ avocado.

For veggies:
Julienne or spiralize cucumbers. Shred, shave, or spiralize carrots (I used a veg peeler).

Assembly:
Lay out a nori roll, smooth side down. On one side, put a generous helping of cauliflower 'rice'. On top of the rice, put some carrot & cucumber, then drizzle some ginger-date & avocado-pinapple sauce, roll up tightly, and eat! (Or cut them into little noris, if you're sharing with other people. 

Yum! 

Makeup

Oh my goodness! One of my friends wrote an amazing poem for our American Lit class! Its not my work, but I love it! And she said I could share it with you, world :3

You
You are beautiful.
Beautiful with your makeup.
Makeup hides your imperfections.
Imperfections that need correction.
Correction makes you better.
Better than before.
Before you put makeup on.
On top of your imperfect face.
Face the facts, it's true.
True that you shouldn't return.
Return to the real face in the mirror.
Mirror your society.
Society is good, and you know that you should,
Should hid your true self to be someone else.
Else you should learn to be yourself.
Yourself is not anything good.
Good thing you've kept your makeup on.
On top of your naturally grotesque appearance.
Appearance is everything.
Everything repugnant about you should be hidden.
Hidden away so no ine can see.
See the ugliness that is you.

-Melissa Smit

On My Mind//12

New ploy to get my family to eat healthier........wake up early every morning and ask if they want me to make them a smoothie. Nobody can say no to a delicious, fresh, sweet fruit smoothie for breakfast! :D

On My Mind//11

Fruitarianism: The art of feeling, looking, and being the healthiest you ever have, by eating sweets for every meal!

Before & After II

Hey! I just realized, yesterday was my one-year blogiversary! Exciting day. Haha

In honor of a year passing since my first blogpost... I figure perhaps another before and after is in order. ヅ

I honestly haven't changed in weight that much, but I have been getting stronger, losing retained water weight, etc. - also, I think I look significantly healthier now than I did a year ago...or two years ago...or three!

What do you guys think? ☺

This is me! Today! (Actually, that's a lie. It's me, last night, before I went to bed. Haha)

I've been raw vegan for 2 years, and vegan for 3 - and honestly I can't remember feeling better than I do right now! So glad I discovered LFRV.

Oh my goodness! Don't laugh, guys! Haha. This is me almost exactly a year ago! I honestly didn't realize there was such a change!

Well there it is, folks. This is before I removed nuts and oils from my life - and you can see the difference!

And here I am 2 years ago! Haha.

It's almost exactly a week after I went raw, I believe!

Don't be fooled by the relative healthy-looking-ness.

I was pretty much starving myself at this point,, and I had loads of makeup on.

..That's all I've got for ya today! Peace! ☮

Banana-nog!

YUM! So it turns out even raw vegans can sip eggnog by the fireside this holiday season! (And anybody else can have a nutritious, guilt-free version of this favorite holiday drink!) Just made this for breakfast this morning, it really does taste pretty eggnog-y. (And yummy!)

It's super easy to make:
—2 bananas, chunked
—2 frozen bananas, chunked
—1c coconut milk (or, if you're staying overt-free, coconut water would probably be good as well)
—½ tsp cinnamon (or more, to taste)
—dash nutmeg (to taste)

Throw everything in the blender and blend away until it's smooth and creamy...then pour into your favorite mason jar and enjoy!

Curry-Ginger-Lime Soup

Tonight, I got to make dinner for the fam - and of course I wanted to give the people I love something yummy that would also nourish them, like all food should.

Well. Dad didn't want to be adventurous and Joe wasn't hungry - so I actually just made dinner for Mom and I... but she loved it! (And so did I.)

Tonight, we dined upon a delicious Curry-Ginger-Lime Soup!

If you're craving a savory, flavorful, creamy, warm raw soup yourself, give this one a try!

The ingredients are as follows:

• 1 endive
• 2 c lettuce (I used romaine)
• 1 c warm water
• 2 Tbs fresh ginger
• 2 Tbs lime juice
• 1 tsp curry
• ½ avocado

• ½ cucumber
• 10 small dates (or 5 large)

I know, it's kind of a lot of ingredients. But it sure is good!

It's very easy to make, too - no worries! 

1. Chop dates and cucumber into small-ish chunks.
2. Blend romaine & endive with warm water until smooth.
3. Add ginger, lime, and curry. Blend again, just until mixed.
4. Add avocado. Blend one last time.
5. Pour into a bowl, mix in dates and cucumber, and enjoy!

Yum!

The Cooked Experiment

"You know what I want more than anything for Christmas, Daddy?" I asked, following a list of objects I would like to receive under the Christmas tree. "The gift of life! You could be vegan with me...vegan December. Peace on earth."

To my surprise, Dad didn't look at me as if I was being ridiculous. In fact, his response was, "I would be willing to be vegetarian - if you would start eating some cooked vegan foods again."

And that was how it started. My family is eating vegetarian meals, which I will share with them - in true family dinner fashion (which was done away with a while ago in my family, when I started taking interest in my health and the ingredients that would make up my sacred temple of a body, while my mother, father, and brother lacked this enthusiasm), throughout the month of December (maybe longer, if cravings for their meaty addictions don't get the best of them), as an experiment for themselves (and maybe a ploy to get me eating 'normal' food again, and to experience family dinners again).

I still won't eat wheat. I still won't eat salt. I still plan upon keeping it low fat high carb. My breakfast, lunch, and snacks will still be fruit. I don't think I'll eat legumes. I don't want to eat refined foods like flour and sugar. And as soon as January comes, I already can't wait to metaphorically throw myself back into fruit's perfect embrace and start repairing the damage that I know I'm furthering with each bite I take.

Both parties will obviously have to compromise this month to make this work. I know the idea that I would give up my fruit for a month sounds ludicrous to a lot of my friends who understand just what I'm giving up, and the damage that I will be putting myself through.

But for this month, because I love my family and because I know it will make them happy, I temporarily walk away from the beautiful, colorful, flavorful world that is low fat raw veganism, for the less enchanting reality of cooked veganism.

Anyhow, this month, I plan upon posting about things I'm experiencing differently from fruit, tribulations and triumphs, etcetera.

So, tonight was December 1st. I had my first cooked family meal, "Brown Rice & Lentil Soup". It was fat free, basically tomatoes, rice, lentils, corn, and some other vegetables, all mixed together into a soup. I noticed just a few things.

• The soup (though there was a lot of water in it from the tomato juice, I assume) felt quite dehydrating.
• I normally don't feel the need to drink much water throughout the day (and my pee is most always clear), but I've been drinking non-stop since dinner.
• I felt really super full.
• I was kind of hungry, and the soup was pretty good...but after about half a bowl, I felt so full I just couldn't eat anymore.
• It would seem it is way easier to eat lots of energy from fruit. I can't imagine I had more than 200cal over dinner...
• I felt emotionally off after dinner last nigh.
• I don't know whether it was real or in my mind, but I felt distracted, heavy, tired, and just not...lacking that emotional glow I feel from fruit, I guess. Interesting.

That's all I've got for today. But stay tuned, I guess. I plan on posting every few days, listing new experiences and noticings.

Peace!