Rawtalian

(Have I mentioned that I really want to be one of those clever individuals who thinks of cutesy names for raw food?)

My eats today felt un piccolo Italiano.  I was in the big city visiting a friend, so I made my customary stop at Freddie's to hit the olive bar.  

I also had pasta with zuke noodles and sauce from Delightfully Raw. 

Yesterday my girlfriend and I were at Natural Pantry in Anchorage.  When I go there I let myself choose one raw snack food item to sample, as they are so pricey and I think I make pretty darn good snack foods myself.  This time I bought granola bars made by Two Moms in the Raw.  We were really hungry and quickly tore into this bag.

My non-raw friend thought they were lovely, and my verdict is the same. The bars somehow tasted hearty and light at the same time.  The sweet/salty ratio was also enjoyable.  Nice job Raw Moms! 

Up until last week I'd been on a hiatus from P90X.  I was able to run and do yoga daily while in Mexico, and then I enjoyed a week of skiing/yoga when we returned.  My X comeback has been hard!  Today during legs and back I had to go to my happy place to get through iso toe lunges.  

Question:  What's your favorite way to exercise?  How do you get through hard workouts?  

Ta-ta, I'm off to my to my happy place!  

Moose Moment

I feel so lucky to have had so much time at home in the daylight this week!  I start to miss our mountains when I'm only home in the dark.

Just when I thought the day couldn't get any more beautiful, I spied some visitors out the window.

This little lady and I were sharing a special moment of unbreakable eye contact when Big Daddy interrupted, encouraging everyone to scamper down the hill.   

You are so cute, in a weird way.  

the bossy bull 

I'm actually glad the bull showed up because I might still be involved in a stare off and I wouldn't have whipped up the persimmon mousse portion of Persimmon and Coconut Cream Parfait.  This is so easy and delicious- try it!!

Vivian before 

Vivian after

I plan to make more of these later.  

Now I need to eat my post P90X snack and gear up for a brisk walk with my wonderful neighbor.  

more cabbage and mock tuna 

Question:  Any other P90Xers out there?  I just finished week four (the lovely low key week with all my fave workouts) and took pictures today (as directed by my BFF Tony Horton).  I'm pretty pleased.  Any one else have an opinion on the program?  

Today was a crisp, lovely day.  

Isn't this immature cabbage head pretty?  I was too lazy to clean it out of my planter when the snow came and it's now frozen solid.  

Speaking of frozen, we took a stroll on a series of lakes near our house to judge the ice for skiing potential.  Not quite ready yet, but soon.  Yippee!  I have new skate skis to break in.  

Our friends from Wasilla are on their way over.  They own a fantabulous wine bar in Wasilla (The Grape Tap) and I'm excited because they always bring yummy wine for us to sample.  

I made a crockpot Thai red curry and also some appies to go with wine:

served with raw onion crackers and veggies 

Nacho Cheeze from Kristen's Raw (highly addictive)

Avocado and Zucchini Dip (gorgeously chartreuse) from Gone Raw

Sun-dried Tomato Dip:

• large handful sun-dried tomatoes
• large handful cashews (soaked are better) 
• hearty dash olive oil 
• 1 tsp + oregano
• 1 tsp + basil
• onion and garlic powder to taste
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 red pepper
• blend on low 

veggie kabobs

kale chips, of course

Chocolate caramel tarts (see yesterday's post) for dessert.  My review:  the bottom brownie layer and the 

ganache on top are phenomenal.  I'm not sold on middle caramel layer yet, as I'm not a huge fan of mesquite in desserts. However, it may grow on me, as Kombucha and P90X have. 

Stretch day for P90X- heck yeah!!  I think I'm addicted.  I'm already worried about how I'm going to get my fix when our families are in town next week.  

Question:  does anyone else need armpit diapers during Yoga X?  

Lazy Day

 

  

I just realized I'm in my jammies.  It's 2:00 p.m.  That's okay, 'cause I've been a busy girl.   

I made a salt and vinegar kale chip recipe, suggested to me by my friend Andrea, with the warning not to inhale quickly as kale bits burn the lungs.  I am punished for my inability to heed the warning every time I make these. 

Ingredients:

1.  De-stem the kale and cut into chip sized pieces.

2.  Put kale in a ziploc (I usually save these bags in the fridge     for future use).

3. Dump kale in bag and pour in a healthy dose of Evo and ACV.

4. Spread on dehydrator tray and sprinkle with sea salt.  

6.  Dehydrate at 105 for 6 or 7 hours, or until crunchily inhalable.  

For lunch I whipped up a batch of sunflower spread from Sunny Raw Kitchen's new e-recipe book.  It is so easy to make and delicious.  To resemble tuna salad I added dulse flakes and a bunch of chopped Bubbie's pickles.  

The salad was rolled into romaine leaves with carrots and zucchini.  It was marvelous. 

Next, I had these little gems to play with:  

I searched far and wide for a raw persimmon recipe (having never really experimented with them before) and decided to make Persimmon and Coconut Cream Parfait from Sunny Raw Kitchen.  How could I not?  Finished product:  

This is incredibly good.  I encourage you to buy some of those in season persimmons and try this recipe!  

I have to say, I've purchased all the e-books from Sunny Raw Kitchen and everything I've made has been delish.  I've found that some raw recipe books produce an end result that is consistently too salty, too sweet, too nut heavy, or just too weird.  I think I have the same taste buds as Carmella.  

Question:  Do you ever notice a particular taste theme in different recipe books? 

I'm off to complete P90X stretch- yippee!  Actually, last week I looked forward to all the workouts.  But I don't have to change out of my jammies for stretch. 

P90X Thoughts

Today I started my second week of P90X.  I'm doing the "Lean" program, mostly because I don't have a pull-up bar, and the Lean is less pull-up heavy.  Here's what I like:

• Core- good stuff; I even work up a little sweat pumping out all those push-ups.
• Yoga- delicious, long, hard poses.  So good.
• Kenpo- doesn't seem that cardio rich, but I could feel my core working in a different way when I  concentrated.  Plus, you get to yell like a real martial arts pro. 
• Legs and Back- my booty was sore for days afterward.  
• Stretch- hour long stretch?  Yes, please!   Booty stretching heaven. 
• Tony Horton- his upbeat super-dweebiness is entertaining.
• Drea's abs- are you kidding me???

What I'm not in love with, YET: 

• Cardio- not hard at all!  I think I will substitute the Plyo (which I like, but not as much as Jillian's Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism).
• Shoulders and Arms- maybe I need heavier weights, maybe I need to forget the idea that I need to sweat during every work out. 

Overall, I think I love it and kind of look forward to working out each day.  It's fun to try something new. 

Some of today's eats: 

 Vivian full of kale, pears, apples, grapes.  All that green stuff is kale!

green smoothie loveliness

Gorgeous Full Circle Farm sweet potatoes, tossed with EVO, garlic, cayenne, sea salt and sent to the oven for TH's fries.

Salmon (courtesy of fisherman TH) marinated in nama shoyu, garlic and maple syrup.  This was so rich, moist, insanely good that I felt no need for dessert.  

My serving bowl salad with banana dressing.  I might be a fan of the banana/cumin combo after all.