The weather has been awful today with sideways rain all day and that fun is supposed to last all week. It didn’t help that I managed to get St. Ives Apricot Scrub in my eye last night that I was unable to get out until this afternoon after swabbing the innards of my eye with a Q-tip for the 80th time! So I spent the morning walking around the office with a red, puffy eye spurring some fun rumors I’m sure. Despite the cold, nasty weather and a painful eye, I managed to stay raw for every meal except dinner, which was only partially raw :-) But, this Tuesday felt like a Monday on steroids … why is that after 3 day weekends?
Dr. J has an interesting post on keeping diets simple for better success. Many people, including my mom, view a primarily raw vegan diet as being too complicated and limiting, which I can agree with to a point in a society full of processed foods and limited options for eating out. But for me, it’s actually simple – avoid processed foods, eat mostly fresh produce and nuts and never worry about calorie counting and weight. When I was eating more of a range of foods, including pasta and rice, I was typically more stressed about my calorie intake and weight management – managing empty calorie intake is much more complicated to me rather than just avoiding them.
Anyway, one of my main reasons for getting an Excalibur Dehydrator was to be able to use nut and juice pulp and plan to make my own nut milk instead of buying to reduce costs and waste. That starts today since I used the last bit of purchased nut milk and thankfully remembered to start soaking nuts and dates before dashing out the door for work this morning to prepare tonight. This will also me my first time using a nut milk bag, so I was a bit nervous about the likely mess to clean up afterward. But, it was surprisingly successful and my newly mopped kitchen floor was not covered in white splatters. Working all the liquid from the nut milk bag is a workout though, I ended up squeezing the last bit out into the Vita-Mix container and pouring into the smaller-mouthed glass pitcher to reduce the mess and it worked well. I got about a cup of clay-like almond pulp which I put in the freezer to use on a raw cinnamon roll recipe later.
I agree with you about the simplicity of a raw, vegan diet. I am not 100% raw at all, but day to day I tend to eat high raw at least and I love it. I’ve never felt better.
I totally agree with you about the simplicity of a vegan diet. Sure, it CAN be complicated…but if you do it in a healthy way, and focus on mainly whole foods, I think it’s one of the simplest ways of eating out there!
Agreed – I find it far more liberating when I’m eating as cleanly as possible–I stop fretting about portions and calories and whatnot. When you eat well, you just eat until you’re satisfied and there’s not much else to it!
Homemade nut milk is the best, and I love coming up with uses for the nut pulp, even though I don’t have a dehydrator. I’ve found that it’s a great (and quick/easy) base for nut pates–no pre-soaking or grinding necessary. :)