Raw meal is not a raw deal!

I got hold of the book 'Ani's Raw Food Kitchen' by Ani Phyo, before I started my diet to help me understand what was available and how creative you can be with raw food. And have several favourite recipes from her book, which include:

My own version of Ani's Pecan Chai Pie on Cashew Crust (I don't follow recipes to the letter but instead like to use them as a guide).

Love-the-chicks Pate on a spinach salad

Zucchini Pasta in Sun-dried Tomato Marinara Sauce

Tomato and salad sandwich on Peanut and Sunflower Bread.

My vision of Ani's Black Sesame Sunflower Bread (as I don't have a dehydrator I just dried the bread in the hot water closet for about 15 hours or there abouts and was very pleased with the results)

Day 29

Okay, so the plan was to blog everyday or there abouts and I just haven't made the time to do so but have been keeping up with the plan regardless and with good and bad results. I have had one bad day which was the result of a leaving party for a neighbour, I had been partly catered for in that there were raw vegetables with dips and also some vegetable crisps (purchased just for me), I felt bad in having to point out that they had been fried. In the end I had some of the vegetable crisps (which I have always liked) and some other 'cooked' finger foods. But hey up until then I had been soooo good!!!
Weight wise I have lost weight - not to a massive degree but steadily and without getting hunger either. I will weigh myself again tomorrow to get my final result of the 30 day trial but as of today I have lost another pound and my BMI is also down by .2 to 26.2 which is not massive but it is all going in the right direction.
Getting use to the idea of not cooking and restocking for the food stuffs necessary to maintain a raw diet has been interesting. I have decided to continue into July with a mostly raw food diet but will maybe ever other week or so have a cooked meal (really have been missing eating chicken).
Other peoples reaction to my diet has been an eye opener too - some really have a problem with the whole concept and have gotten really aggressive in trying to dissuade me from such a diet. That is always interesting, how passionate some people can get about someone else's diet. It's not like I am staving myself - far from it in fact.
The Plan for July is going to be to reduce the amount of sweet dishes and chocolate bars I make (and their for consume), I have really enjoyed the creative side of learning to eat raw but I know I need to limit my intake to lost more weight. A desert every other night maybe and only one fruit bar a day for afternoon tea should do the trick.

Breakfast

Half a lemon with hot water and then a quarter of a Galia mellon and a quarter of a Cantaloupe mellon, followed by a banana if I was still hungry and of cause a cup of coffee. This is my usual breakfast each day the only thing I have dropped is the small bowl of porriage that I used to have as well.

Salad for lunch or supper (dressing is not raw). Well this would have been the standard raw meal that I had before the 1st June. I still like a nice salad so will be having lots of them in the future but the dressings will be changing as I learn more.

Cucumber paste in a Chinese stlye marinate (next time I wont add marinate until the last minute) with a corn and mixed bean sprout salad.

Strawberry and Banana cumble.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Starting from June 1st I am going on a 30 day raw food diet and am really quite excited about it too. I first heard of the whole raw food lifestyle years ago in an email from a US contact and it seemed very interesting - a restaurant in New York which served only raw food sounded really wonderful and different, something you would almost expect from the big apple.
It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago I started to really think about doing the raw food died myself. As I was working on losing weight (in mid March my weight was 11st 10lb by 1st June I was down too 11st 4lb) and was eating a lot of fruit and vegetables and very little carbohydrates anyway, so it seemed a natural progression. I have decided to go as close to a full raw diet as possible but will not be 100% as I will still be drinking coffee with milk, for me it is my one major sin. Really the coffee beans are the only thing 'cooked' as milk is pasteurised not cooked so it is still 'raw' isn't it!
Some of my ingredients are not all 'raw' but I hope to learn what to replace what I currently using to something that is raw. Part of the whole learning curve for this diet.
Before I go any further let me state quite clearly here I that I am not a vegan nor am I a vegetarian - "now your becoming a vegan?" you many ask me. Well the answer is no-sir-re!
So I will have to be creative and squeeze a little more protein into my diet but will be keeping it raw - really don't see a problem there when it comes to beef and fish but chicken will take a little more research.

To start me off I have purchased a new toy a Spriral-Cutter and it has been quite joy. I guess I will be slowly adding to my kitchen a few new items and lots of ingredients needed for the recipes (within reason of cause).

I have been also looking our for shops and supermarkets that stock raw food ingredients such as Cacao power and Nama Shoyu and also the possiblity of finding a raw food restaurant
or just a restaurant that served some raw food dishers.

So far this hasn't worked out that well for me - I have tried to shop for raw ingredients by visiting Windmill Organics Ltd in Kingston-upon-Thames but they are a wholesale outlet only and well I peddled over to Chiswick to sample some raw pizza at Wally's but again not a great success. I says raw but they cook it! I know - go figure huh!

However these little set backs have not put me off the search.This is now my day three so in my next post I will have to update my blog with what meals I have started with and what recipies I have been experimenting with, all complete with colour photos.