Spicy Caesar

Oh boy, this is shaping up to be a busy week. I spent a lot of time virus chasing today because someone decided to open an unsafe file containing an uber virus that not even our updated virus software could handle. Lots of fun! But it did make today fly by – and possibly the rest of this week!

The Sonoma State Star had an interesting perspective on raw foodies in this article.

“Raw foodists eat to live-they do not live to eat.”

Kind of a broad statement that I don’t necessarily agree with. While total health is a huge goal of the diet, to me it’s also finding new ways to enjoy food while respecting my health and feeling better.

“Statistics show that individuals who are on a plant-based diet are 200 times less likely to develop cancer,” said Dr. John Green, M.D. and firm believer in raw foodism. “Additionally, they are 20 times less likely to develop heart disease, obesity and diabetes, and those are just stats on a cooked plant-based diet. Just imagine what it would be on raw diet.”

Wow, right? But my favorite:

“Eating for life inspires positive living-it feels good to be healthy!”

That pretty much sums how I currently feel and what drives me to maintain a raw diet.

Another great article on diabetes and the raw diet:

“Basically what this tells us (as if we didn’t know, but sometimes we need good evidence) is that giving more drugs is not better, and may even be harmful.”

My nurse mother recently had an centurion patient who looked amazing for her age and seemed very alert and full of vitality. My mom loves talking to patients like her to find out how they’ve stayed in amazing shape and this lady’s only comment was, “I never take pills, I avoid them!” This included drugs, vitamins, etc. Very interesting.

Anyway, type 2 diabetes is something that really scares me, something that comes from having so many nurses in the family. But, it seems to strike people at the worst time – when they’re kids are grown and moved on, when they’re retiring, etc. Stages in life when they should be embracing having more freedom and doing stuff they enjoy, like traveling, taking on new hobbies, just having fun and enjoying what they’ve worked hard for all their life. But diabetes is very effective at crapping all over those plans and my heart aches every time I hear of a patient younger than my mom severely incapacitated with it.

Blah, on a cheerier note, I had another salad for lunch! An awesomely unique rice bowl salad thanks to leftover coconut jicama rice and a very punchy raw Caesar dressing I experimented with last night.

I found a basic raw Caesar dressing that I tweaked with hemp seeds and more garlic, it had a lot of kick and anyone sensitive to garlic may want to reduce the amount. :-)

Hemp Seed Caesar Dressing

• 2 tbsp. dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup hemp seeds
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup water or as needed
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 tsp. shoyu
• t tbsp. olive oil

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and enjoy.

I’ve never really liked Caesar salads, the ones served at restaurants typically aren’t salads. They have a little chopped romaine lettuce loaded with croutons, fatty dressing and cheese – how does this qualify as a serving of vegetables? It doesn’t, nor does it fit the bill when I’m craving crisp, fresh veggies. But I wanted to try the raw version of the dressing on a real salad – spinach, marinated portabellas, avocado, tomatoes, olives, red peppers and cilantro. For lunch today, I took the leftovers of that salad, mixed it with the coconut jicama rice and added pea sprouts to create a raw fusion rice bowl that was very good.

For dinner I tried Kristen Suzanne’s Worldly Spiced Rice recipe that included  processed butternut squash and carrots with raisins and plenty of seasoning.

It’s a lot like Ani’s Butternut Rice, but with more spice and no nuts. Very flavorful with a decent amount of kick, the raisins add a nice sweetness that I think would appeal to kids. And it was very filling and great way to charge myself for another trampoline aerobics class tonight!