More beets please!

This week was awesome! So many raw-some recipes (haha so funny). It was definitely the week of breads and flax crackers. They don't look very esthetically appealing when they come out of the dehydrator, so sorry, no pics. They taste delicious though. I made some raisin zucchini bread, banana bread, tomatoe flax crackers, mango-cashew bread, along with a protein bread made out of my latest batch up mung sprouts and assorted veggies, and rye bread. (You can make rye bread with sprouted rye berries and dates OR celery, cocoa powder, water, carraway seed and a pinch of salt. Who knew you could make rye without the rye eh?) I also made a delicious peach pie which I shared at a reunion get-together with my old roommates from two years ago. Yes, we ate the whole thing in one sitting :)

I saw this easy recipe for a sunflower pate in one of my books and thought I'd tackle it. One thing about raw food is that, in order to make it appeal to the everyday eater, you need to try a little harder to make it look like something "normal" that they would want to eat. A little bit of garnishing can go a long way. This salty pate had a savory-ness to it that made it taste almost tuna fishy. I enjoyed the leftover batter for the next few days sandwiched between some of my breads. Yum!

At the raw food potluck that we went to last month, there was a dish of grated beets that I tried that was to die for! I asked the lady who brought it what she put in it...just beets! That's all folks! No sugar, no dressing, no nothing. Just. Beets. Yes: beets, also known as the despicable vegetable that every child has nightmares about. I asked Michael if we wanted to try some then, but he vehemently refused. Ever since that night I have been plotting how to sneak beets into a raw dish and trick him into eating (and loving) them! It took a few weeks for me to even get the courage to buy them. I don't know why, but whenever I hear about a new awesome power-house vegetable or fruit, it takes me weeks to actually spend the money, find a recipe, take it home, and try it. Once I do, it always becomes a staple in my diet and a wonder how I ever lived without it. Another perfect example of this would be kale. I had heard all about kale's nutritional value, kale chips, kale salad, and kale smoothies, but I could not get myself off of the usual spinach and boring romaine. I remember buying kale for the first time, and not looking back. Same  thing with collards, arugula, radishes, pomegranates and mangos, to name a few. Upon buying my first beet, the check-out guy couldn't remember the number for it and said, "hey, this one's on the house." It was a sign! haha. The lonely beet found its home on the refrigerator shelf for a few days before I reluctantly retrieved it. I began peeling it and immediately notices how my hands, tools, and cutting board looked as if I had just killed something! Bright purplish-red color was unveiled under the ugly root's brown shell and I was delighted and horrified at the mess I was making! I had found a recipe for Raw Ravioli and kicked Michael out of the kitchen so that he wouldn't see me make it, but not before making him promise me he would try whatever it was I was making. He agreed. After I got the beet peeled and sliced I got onto making the "cheese." It was actually more of a pesto sauce, made with macadamia nuts, 1/2 avacado, parsley, salt, lemon juice, and garlic. The avacado made it super creamy, but not all the nuts got ground up in the blender, leaving it a little chunky. I  squished the sauce between two thin slices of beets and...that's it! Raw Ravioli. I nervously brought one in for Michael. "Those are beets!" He exclaimed. "Very observant...now you said you'd try it. Pleeeeease try it! I promise you can tell me if you hate it, but just try it." He grinned and put on his best face before taking a bite. A few seconds went by. I started to smile. "It's not bad." he said. "It's not good?" I replied. "No, no. I like it. I do." SUCCESS. I ate the leftover beet plain, sooo goood! It has the perfect blend of sweetness to crunchyness. I don't know why anyone would attempt to adulterate this beautiful vegetable by cooking it. I could eat plain raw beets all day long. We looked it up and beets are a good source of vitamin C, magnesium, and iron, as well as a great anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Ladies, get your iron...eat your beets!

Yesterday was the Utah Valley Marathon. Michael and I woke up early as I was running in the 5K starting at 9am. I am not much of a runner, but a 5K is a good challenge for me every now and then, plus it was for a good cause. I really had no goals going in, besides to have a good time. I am running another 5K in July, so I was planning on basing my results from this race as a jumping off point for the next race.  I ended up doing a lot better than I expected, finishing in just over 24 minutes (7.5 min/mile). I came in 27th out of 363 runners! Woohoo! Not as hardcore as the half or full marathoners, but still, I was pretty dang proud of myself. Especially for not having trained specifically for it. Michael was beaming.

After the race, we checked out the Provo Farmer's Market located at a nearby park. We didn't go in planning on buying anything, just wanted to check it out. There were tons of vendors, some local scout groups selling Mexican food, local jewelry and crafts makers, one lady that turned used items into decoration pieces, etc. We did stop at this one stand where a guy was selling plants that he had already started growing. I had just been talking to Michael about starting a garden of our own, and this seemed to be the perfect start. Of course, we don't have any sort of land-property where we live, just a porch off of our living room. Obviously, we are seriously limited as to how much we can grow, but I still wanted to try. Michael's grandparents are an inspiration to me in this: they have and have maintained a nice plot of land that they grow, harvest, and rotate all sorts of crops year-round. They live in California and have managed to get their soil fertile and the temperatures are mild. I was most recently contemplating with Michael over starting out with a tomatoe plant. Growing up in Massachusetts, we always had a garden and tomatoes seemed to always grow successfully. To this Michael laughed and said, "good luck, tomatoes were the one thing in our garden growing up that we could never get to grow." Sounds like a challenge to me! We bought a budding plant at the market for $2, brought it home and transplanted it.

They guy said that we should have some sort of tomatoes growing by the end of July. I'll keep you updated on our progress! 

One thing that I truly love about whole foods is the color. Having been raw for just over a month now (post-honeymoon) it has forced me to try new foods, new recipes, new ways of eating. I have spent many hours preparing dehydrator sheets, cutting, chopping, dicing, blending, growing, and preparing dozens of foods. Whenever I look at what I eat or go grocery shopping, I am amazed by the symmetry and beautiful coloring of all the plants. An apple cut side-ways resemebles a star shape. An avacado sliced open exposes a beautiful yellow to green fade. A beet when peeled creates a beautiful purple ring. Rainbow chard has enormous veiny leaves that are interconnected with it's gorgeous red and pink stem. Mangos are delightfully yellow. Cantelopes are perfectly orange, honeydews a happy light green. Peaches are dramatically orange, then red, then yellow, as you bite in. By eating my colors, I have found beauty in things that I used to take for granted. I also search for the best, the most colorful, most ripe fruits and vegetables. The miracle of photosynthesis never ceases to amaze me as I see the power of the sun before my eyes and indulge in it daily.