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!

LFRV Mango-Strawberry Pie!

Yumm! You can use less nuts for lower fat...still delicious. Also, try adding some romaine lettuce in with the filling; makes it more savory, and still super duper yummy. (Though the color's a little less savory like this. Haha)

On My Mind//10

So you think you're tasting the rainbow in a package of processed, artificial pellets? I dare you to try real fruit!

Did You Know...

Did you know that humans cannot taste fat or protien? Our taste buds pick up 5 flavors: sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty.

When you eat meat or something fatty, you're actually just tasting the sugars, minerals(salts), acids (sour), ect. Isn't that fascinating?!

Moreover, these are the flavors found predominantly in raw fruits and vegetables! So excite your tastebuds.... Naturally! Eat your fruits and veggies! (Especially fruit )

Vegetables?

I had the most delicious peach this afternoon. It was delicate, sweet, juicy, flavorful... Just another little reminder that fruit is so perfect for us.

If it smells good, feels good, looks good, and tastes good in its natural, raw state - then it is probably the ideal food for us. Simple concept, right? That's why I love it. ☺

Fruit fulfills all of this criteria.

Certainly, meats, dairy, eggs, legumes, and grains do not.

Neither do vegetables, in my experience.

SHOULD we be eating greens? Its still a question that I toy with in my head, and I have been very back-and-forth on the topic for the past few months.

For now, I have come to a conclusion: eat only fruit until I find myself attracted to or wanting to eat these greens in their raw, natural state. Until this happens...I cannot believe that we should be eating them.

Peace, sunshine (actually if you're in the US, I s'pose we'd be better off wishing for rain...) and loads of fruit to all.

❧