I like oats. I like oatmeal cooked with mashed banana, cinnamon, ground flax seed, and once cooked into porridge, sprinkled with brown sugar and diced apple. I like oatmeal scones, specifically these oatmeal scones.

beautiful, wonderful, heart-healthy oats

I found the recipe many months ago on Care2.com and I’ve made it a few times since. I made the recipe as written the first time but found it pretty bland so, as I usually do, I tweaked the recipe the subsequent times. The recipe was posted by Cait Johnson and, as written, is as follows:

My tweaks this time around included using an equal amount of mashed very ripe banana instead of the sour cream (I didn’t have sour cream or even plain yogurt), added a generous handful of golden raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and before mixing the wet ingredients into the dry I added to the dry ingredients half a pear and half an apple, both diced, left over from earlier in the day. I omitted the nuts as I planned to put a piece in B’s lunch for school.

The batter seems to be like muffin batter so where the recipe says to shape it into a circle on the baking sheet, I use the back of a spoon as I find it too wet to shape with my hands. With each of the batches I’ve made I’ve found that I have to bake it for 20 minutes and it’s perfect at that. Fifteen minutes for me leaves the center still very wet. These bake up very light and moist.

I’m not sure that these are traditional scones but regardless of the name, they are very simple to make. I’ve made scones before that are a little denser and drier. These are a nice change.

I haven’t participated in Toni’s weekly Quotable Sunday meme since early in December so I think I’m due. And this week’s offering ties in nicely with what tomorrow will bring for me: the start of a major change in my budgeting practices. But first, the quotes, which I’ve found to be true.

A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.
                    — William Feather

Our necessities never equal our wants.
                    — Benjamin Franklin

You can get anywhere if you simply go one step at a time.
                    — Dave Ramsey

Tomorrow, being the first day of February, I plan to start an envelope-based cash budget system for groceries, clothing, clothing, entertainment, personal allowance (including hair cuts for both B and myself), gifts, school-related expenses, and eating out. These are categories that, though I budget for them (I use and love YNAB), I tend to consistently overspend in. I got rid of one credit card last fall leaving myself with only a MasterCard (which earns me points towards groceries) and I’ve managed to reduce my credit card use to only occasionally (a few online purchases that I can’t pay for via any other method) but I am an avid debit card user and I can plainly see that this is a problem. It is far too easy to swipe the card and not feel the pinch of going over budget in any given category, sometimes far over budget.

I may or may not include gasoline in the cash-only system as that is not something that easily overspend on. Other expenses including insurance, heating, hydro, water, and my mortgage I will continue to pay for through online banking. I will also continue to budget for things like car repairs and other infrequent expenses but not place that money in a physical envelope; it will also continue to reside in my bank account until such time as it is needed.

As with The Year of Feeling Awesome and the decision to begin including a much greater amount of raw foods in my diet, the cash envelope method is one that I feel I simply need to jump into. I can read and read and read on the subject yet never actually pinpoint a time as the moment when I’m ready so ready or not, tomorrow is the day. It will be Tuesday morning before I can get to the bank to withdraw the cash but that works out well as it gives me tomorrow night to sit down and figure out how much I will be putting into each envelope.

If you’re interested in reading up more on the cash envelope system, check out these great links:

• Dave Ramsey’s envelope system
• How to Implement an Envelope Budgeting System at Frugal Dad
• The Envelope System in a Cashless Society at Dollar Stretcher
• Cash Envelope Budgeting System at Moolanomy
• How to Create an Envelope Budget System at Debt Beater
• A Simplified Envelope Budgeting System That Works at Money Crashers

Twenty days into this raw journey and the day was marked with a letter from an OB-GYN regarding a colposcopy appointment and a referral to an oral surgeon for a consultation. Fun! A slight bit more on that in a minute (it’s not going to be very exciting though) but first these to balance it out (in my mind):

A blurry phone camera photo during a noon-hour skate. We both suck at skating.

Showing off his Timbit at skating this week.
Also a crappy phone picture but see my snazzy new watermark?

Supper tonight is going to be a huge romaine/red cabbage/veggie salad and I have some cashews, macadamia nuts, and a few sunflower seeds soaking as I type. I’m just about ready to mix up some Ranch Dressing/Dip, the recipe for which was posted by Snowdrop over on Raw Freedom Community and later re-posted by Carmella of The Sunny Raw Kitchen. It looks good! I think I’ll change the salt to one teaspoon though because reviews and my own preferrences tell me that one tablespoon is surely too much.

On to the stuff mentioned at the beginning of the post, the wisdom tooth in question is the one on the right side of my lower jaw, also the only wisdom tooth I have ever had surface in my mouth. It comes and goes. Sometimes the gum closes over it completely and other times it rests just barely poking out of the gum. It has never bothered me in terms of being painful. It’s currently sitting halfway up, just enough to have the full top surface of the tooth through the gum, however it’s also sitting, in relation to horizontal positioning, half a tooth over towards my cheek and this is what is causing the problem. When I try to close my jaw completely, my cheek gets caught between my upper jaw and this wisdom tooth. It took me awhile to figure out this is why my cheek is often chewed up and, as a result, swollen, which in turn causes it to be even more easily caught between my jaws. That is what is hurting. So I have to phone and make an appointment with an oral surgeon for a consultation. I’m nervous. I hate pain and work myself up over the thought of it, real or imagined.

I also received in the mail today a letter from an OB-GYN my doctor referred me to. I had a pap test a little over a year ago and had to have a second one done six months later because of an abnormal result. The second one was to see if the result was the same. Apparently it was. I was just thinking the other day that everything must be fine because I hadn’t heard anything back (my pap was in November, I believe). Today the letter came saying that I have an appointment in May for a colposcopy. I’m not worried about the results. I’m working myself up over the procedure! The pamphlet they’ve including explaining what may take place doesn’t set me at ease. The words "biopsy", "curettage", "slight burning" (never mind the slight bit - burning!), "recovery", "soreness/bleeding"… Eek!

I think I’ll shut down the computer and go make that salad and dressing before taking a nap. It’s a good day for curling up with an afghan for a couple hours of Z’s.

I happened upon a blog post (from January 2009) on organic foods earlier this week over at Pure Jeevan, that really made me smile and chuckle a little to myself. I have bought organic produce before, however I think I’ve been trained from years of buying non-organic and I have a hard time buying a less-than-bright-red organic tomato when there are ruby red conventionally-grown tomatoes on the vine sitting next to them even though I know they’re better for me. Or buying, as in the case of the post at Pure Jeevan, oranges or grapefruit that are outwardly less than appealing. For me, the price is also prohibitive, but that’s another topic, one on which I have arguments for and against. How much are we willing to pay for our health? And is the fact that we might not notice any effects on our health from eating chemical-laden produce relevant?

Did you know there’s a Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen list of fruits and vegetables, listing the ones most heavily treated and sprayed and the ones that are relatively safe to buy non-organic? Check out foodnews.org for that and more information. How do you know if you’re buying organic? Sure, the grocery store has signs or labels or even a whole section devoted to organic produce but did you know you can tell just by looking at the PLU (price look-up) sticker that’s stuck to the item? Those numbers actually mean something the everyday consumer can decipher. In the United States, conventional produce has a 4-digit number, while on organic produce the number begins with a 9. This is true for Canada as well. Go Raw Have Fun also has a good article on how to buy produce. Organic Test Kitchen, a new-to-me site, has some interesting findings on taste. Traci Sellers also has an honest and in-depth blog post on her views of the pros and cons of eating and buying organic versus conventional. The following quote is in no way a summary of the whole article but jumped out at me as it rang so true to my own feelings on the cost and resulting (for me) need for rationing.

A few years back, I tried to switch to all organics and found that I couldn’t get nearly the same volume I could in conventional. Then, at home, I was cringing whenever someone wanted a piece of fruit! I was rationing it out, so there would be enough to last until the next grocery day. I had tension and stress over my family eating too much produce. Whoa! I teach this! No way did I want them to not eat their produce! No way did I want tension around my live food! For me then, I would rather have my family partake freely and lovingly from a case load of conventionally raised oranges than a small basket of hoarded organic oranges.

Today is Day 16 of my raw journey and also Day 16 of The Year of Feeling Awesome. I have not been 100% raw but nor did I set out with that as my goal. I am feeding a 5-year-old boy as well as myself and, with a child who needs a lot of work in learning to like raw veggies, I did not and do not expect him to eat raw along with me. For that reason, I’ve left room in my diet for some cooked meals, these mainly being some of my suppers. The past two or three days, however, I have eaten more cooked that not and I can feel the effects of that. The first night, I made chicken noodle soup (Lipton’s) with homemade dumplings and had a bowl alongside B. Within 15 minutes of finishing I could feel my body hit a wall (and hit it hard!) and I was depleted of energy and alertness and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep; I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I’ve been having my huge green smoothies in the morning, which often carry my through to noon or a little later but last night was the first night in a few that I’ve also had a huge green and vegetable salad. The first week and a bit that’s almost all I ate apart from the smoothies and it surprised me, but I never got tired of them. I tried to vary the contents and the dressing a little from one salad to the next so maybe that helped. And I never had cravings for anything. I believe it’s true when they say that cooked food is like (or is) an addiction. When I had a bit of cooked food, I could almost feel myself just wanting to keep shoveling it in. Not because I was feeling incredibly hungry or because it tasted so amazing I had to have it, but just because. I think I’ve found that with the raw foods - in my case so far mostly salads - because the food needs to be chewed so much more than, for example, a noodle soup or grilled cheese sandwich, which are already rather soft, one is by default eating a lot more slowly and more consciously. While the soup did taste very good and reminded me of my mom making it for us growing up, the salads and smoothies taste so pure and real and clean and far better than good. The flavours and textures are so pronounced. There isn’t anything to weigh me down; I find I can eat a huge salad - for me that’s a romaine heart chopped with a handful of chopped red cabbage, some leaf lettuce, and tons of chopped veggies - and not feel full in that stuffed-belly sense yet be able to go through until the next meal and beyond without a gnawing hunger. There is a constant for the most part, a general feeling of not feeling starving and then stuffed and then hungry and then stuffed again, etc. I don’t miss that at all, the enjoyment of the food as it goes down but then the uncomfortable feeling of having eaten too much, too heavy, too rich (think Thanksgiving dinner).

I plan to get back on track. Since I don’t really have a track, this might mean starting each cooked supper with a mid-sized salad and having a half-sized portion of the supper that I’m sharing with B. Tomorrow will start with another green smoothie.

The kale chips came out of the dehydrator this morning and sweet potato chips have taken their place. The kale chips are surprisingly not bad, though based on reviews and comments around the internet and raw food forums, they shouldn’t be anything but good. I concocted a recipe using bits and pieces of about three recipes and adjusting the amounts down to suit my single bunch of kale. I used curly kale though some recipes use dinosaur kale.

I’m not sure what I think about these. They aren’t bad - they’re even good - but do I absolutely love them and want to inhale them until they’re all gone? No. I’m not a soya sauce fan and I can taste the tamari (I’m glad I only added a single tablespoon). With that said though, I can’t seem to stop eating them. I think it’s the crunch. The crunch is fabulous.

My version is as follows:

Small-batch Kale Chips

1 bunch curly kale, washed and torn (cut the stems out!)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/8 cup sesame seeds

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green onion, green and white parts, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (I used Bragg’s)
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste
1/8 cup nutritional yeast
scant 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp tamari

Note: I used my Vita-mix to make the dressing. And is Bragg’s ACV raw? What about nutritional yeast? I don’t think tamari is raw. I see all of these ingredients in raw recipes though so if they don’t bother you, use them (or their equivalent).

1. Wash the kale. Cut or tear the stems out and tear the leaves into large pieces (they shrink up a lot in the dehydrator). Place the kale in a large bowl.
2. Process the sunflower and sesame seeds until finely ground.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until thoroughly blended.
4. Pour the dressing over the kale and mix well with your hands, ensuring that each leaf is coated on both sides.
5. Spread the kale on two Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 115 for 6 to 8 hours or until done according to your liking.
6. Eat!

I’m eleven days into my raw journey. I’m still finding new websites and recipes and still enjoying each day of eating raw.

Today’s lunch is the rest of the huge salad I made for supper at work last night. I chopped up a romaine heart, some red cabbage, green leaf lettuce, and baby spinach and then added broccoli sprouts and chopped veggies. Last night I sprinkled on some sunflower seeds and pine nuts; today I added hemp seeds instead.

While poking around blogland last night I came across a raw foodist’s blog. She had given herself the challenge of eating one new food a week. Of course I can’t find her blog today, when I’m actually looking for it. I think I’m going to attempt the same challenge even though I don’t think I can find that many new-to-me raw foods at my local grocery stores. I’ll post on Sundays as to what the food was and what I made with it or used it in. So far since beginning to eat raw I’ve eaten hemp seeds (yum!) and pine nuts. I have a celery root and daikon in the fridge. I could live on jicama. I want to try fennel, persimmons, kumquats, dinosaur kale, and goji berries.

And that’s it! I got a nap in today (mmmmm! naaaaaaap!) and completely forgot to make a few phone calls that need to be made. I worked a little in the cold/storage room downstairs and will finish that up tomorrow. My plans for the rest of the evening are to stay warm, make up a flyer to post in a few grocery stores looking to connect with other raw foodists in town (I don’t know of any), plan out a rough menu for the week so I can prepare, and possibly watch a movie before it goes back to Blockbuster on Wednesday.

Happy Monday night!

Hello to Day 6 of my raw journey. Here’s to health and happiness and self-discovery.

I’ve come across a couple more very informative sites on the raw food lifestyle. One that I am still reading through is Raw Food Life. When I am online, I find that the majority of my time is spent on raw food forums, reading blogs written by raw foodists, or otherwise learning more on the lifestyle. I’m craving the information right now and can’t seem to get enough.

In my internet travels yesterday evening I came across an interview with Mimi Kirk, an amazing raw foodist who recently, at age 71, won a nationwide (American) contest and claimed the title of Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50. She also, not too long ago, appeared on The Doctors in relation to that win and said that apart from using peroxide on her hair, the rest of her is natural. She looks amazing!

When Mimi adopted the raw food lifestyle over two years ago, she immediately saw and felt a positive difference. She essentially eradicated arthritis, reversed her high cholesterol without traditional drugs, lowered her blood pressure and grew years younger without Botox or surgery. She is a lover of good food and an excellent raw food chef. She creates delicious raw food meals and teaches her family and friends how to incorporate more raw foods into their diets.
     (Philip McCluskey in Real Stories: Mimi Kirk on Loving Raw)

Supper last night was indeed raw. I wasn’t sure if it would be or not but B opted for a peanut butter and honey roll-up (pb and honey spread on a whole wheat tortilla and rolled up, natch) and a Red Delicious apple cut up. He chased it all down with some diluted apple juice (50/50 - it makes the cans go further and he doesn’t mind). Later on, with a little bit of vanilla ice cream drizzled with maple syrup, he sat with me and we watched an episode of Dirty Jobs online. After he went to bed I dug into half a batch of Veggie Chili that I had made while getting his supper ready.

I’m not a food blogger.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with a raw entrée like this but it got glowing comments on the Gone Raw site so I jumped in. My previous suppers so far this year have been salads. I’ve been seeing so many raw soups and the like and haven’t been able to imagine what it would be like to eat unheated soup so I was apprehensive about a meal that my memory and taste buds associate with warmth. I’m not sure what I think of this recipe. I don’t dislike it at all, I’m just still forming my opinion on it. It smelled like chili and tasted pretty similar to chili too but I think I could have added a bit more chopped veggies to thicken it up and possibly even some minced celery as I found it almost pudding-like. Pudding with chunks of avocado, pepper, tomato, and bits of green onion. I think I may have made "pretty smooth" a little too smooth, though I hadn’t thought so at the time. I have the other half of the recipe in the fridge for another day, possibly lunch on my Thursday night shift.

I’m drinking a green smoothie right now - kiwi, Granny Smith apple, frozen strawberries, an orange, kale, and a bit of water - and heading out to grab a movie and my boyfriend and bring them both back over here for a bit of couple time before I pick B up from the bus this afternoon.

Happy Wednesday! Make it the best day of the week so far.

Today marks Day 5 of eating 90% raw and Day 5 of my Year of Feeling Awesome. Eating raw is just one of the changes I hope to incorporate to make this year the one that sees me feeling the best I’ve ever felt in my life - emotionally, mentally, physically. I want to be one of those perpetually happy people who don’t seem to know how to not laugh and smile. I want be in love with life.

I’m not sure if 90% is an accurate percentage or not for the way I’ve been eating the past four days and into today. I’m not sure how to calculate such a figure. Maybe I should be calling it "Raw Until Dinner (and Possibly Even Then Too)". I ate a grilled cheese sandwich and pickles with B on Friday night but since then all my suppers, as well as my breakfasts and lunches have been raw. I expect that some of my suppers, predominately the ones at home (as opposed to work), will not be completely (or even partially) raw and that I will ingest the odd non-raw food here and there throughout the day as well. Though I would like to limit my non-raw consumption to dinner time, I am not going to give the whole thing up and despair if I happen to eat something cooked or processed at any other point in the day. I am on this journey to learn about myself, nourishing my body as best I can, and accepting both my strengths (first learning to believe that I am strong) and my limitations.

What have I noticed after four and a half days of eating mainly raw foods? I haven’t noticed any drastic changes, just a couple of small ones.

I’ve noticed that even with the reduced caloric intake (a hearty greens and vegetable salad has less calories than a sub sandwich or even your regular healthy pita sandwich) I haven’t been hungry except when it’s been normal that I would be. Yesterday, for example, I had a large green smoothie mid-morning consisting of a mango, frozen raspberries, a bit of water, and a large handful of baby spinach. At around 5 p.m., I ate a stalk of celery and three quarters of a large carrot cut into sticks with about 1/3-cup of Not Tuna paté to dip them in. I had two small clementines about two hours later. At roughly 10 p.m., I began eating a large salad made up of one head of chopped romaine, a large handful of chopped red cabbage, celery, yellow pepper, grape tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, and a sprinkling of pine nuts dressed with a creamy cucumber dill dressing to which I’d added half a small, seeded tomato. The salad took me about an hour to eat at work - 15 minutes on my break and then the other 45 minutes taking bites in between typing. I did find myself hungry this morning around 8 a.m. or so but that is to be expected. I made another large green smoothie this morning of kiwi, peach, frozen strawberries, and spinach and stretched it out over about an hour as well. I’ll probably have a small snack of vegetable crudités and dip or mock tuna mid-afternoon and then work on thinking about supper.

I’ve noticed that my bladder has been filling quite quickly and frequently the past two days and into today. I can only assume it’s a combination of the higher water content in what I’ve been eating and the shedding of accumulated water weight. I stepped on the scale on January 1 as a starting reference and when I stepped on it again yesterday out of curiousity, it told me that I’m done about two pounds.

I’ve also noticed that, unless I eat too many nuts, I don’t tend to get a bloated or tight feeling in my stomach. I don’t feel full but I know I’m satisfied. I’m packing more nutrient-rich foods into my body while ingesting less food. My body is able to use all of what I give it and, as it isn’t cooked, the enzymes that aid in digestion are not destroyed and the body is better able to do it’s job and do it efficiently. I don’t miss that feeling that used to come with almost every supper (and many lunches) of having eaten too much or of having the canned fruit dessert stuck behind the chicken and potatoes main course in the digestion process. I’ve read that since fruit (for example) digests much quicker than meats (again, for example), the fruit gets hung up behind the meat and is essentially rotting rather than digesting because the body is busy working on the meat. As the fruit rots it creates gasses which then cause that uncomfortable bloated, gassy feeling.

I’m learning as I go. I don’t claim to know much about the raw food lifestyle but I’m confident that my health is not being compromised while I learn more about it. I’m finding incredible resources in forums like Raw Freedom Community, You Tube videos, and blogs like The Sunny Raw Kitchen, Barefoot and Frolicking, Radical Radiance, The Happy Raw Kitchen, Nicole Raw and Awake (and her video blog, The Raw Box), Rawmazing, Raw Food Passion, Rawdorable, and so many other sites. I think Choosing Raw will remain my favourite forever though. Gena can be credited with sparking my interest and inspiring me in the first place.

Today I’ve been listing to Jim Carey (that’s Carey with one "r") talking about dispelling the raw food diet myths. I am a newbie in this journey and with each step I want to become more and more informed so that I can answer questions on why I eat raw, what raw is all about, and "What is so wrong with cooked foods?" My answers right now would be incredibly limited. I don’t think cooked food is wrong per se, but I am quickly starting to believe that raw foods are much better for my physical, mental, and emotional health and I want to be able to effectively and clearly articulate why that is. I’ve found this article written by Marc Lacasse to be concise and very informative.

I am very much looking forward to this journey. This is only Day 5, but I’m excited for tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Every day I see more and more just how much variety there is in the raw foods lifestyle, that it isn’t just carrot sticks, green smoothies, and salads, and I’m amazed. I want to be a part of this. I want to make the best choices I can for my health and I think this journey is a huge step onto that road for me. No more waiting at the crossroads.

Today marks the first day of the rest of my life. And the first day of a new year. It is also going to be

I had planned to start a raw foods way of eating today and I think I stuck to that plan not too badly although there were a few slips. I only plan to aim for 80% (or every meal but sometimes supper) raw for the first little while until I figure things out and get into the swing of it. Today at work I munched on turnip, a couple clementines, a small handful of chocolate-covered almonds and a Christmas goodie (those were the slips), and a huge romaine salad with spiralized carrots, some cucumber, orange pepper, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds. The salad dressing was Ani Phyo’s Orange Cucumber Dressing from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen and it was amazing! Due to the ginger, orange, and a bit of garlic I found it had a Oriental flavour to it and could totally see it being used as a scant sauce for zucchini pasta and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. The dressing includes an orange, ginger, garlic, oil, and cashews. So yum! Supper tonight was grilled cheese with pickles. I had meant to get to the grocery store yesterday afternoon after getting off work and before heading to supper at my mom’s but I locked my keys in the house on my way out after changing out of my work clothes and had to wait for my boyfriend to bring me a house key. The stores were closed by the time I was done supper and seeing as today is a statutory holiday, I won’t be able to get there until tomorrow. I have precious few things in the house to incorporate into a raw diet right now as the fresh fruit and vegetables are nearly depleted.

I’m excited but very apprehensive. I don’t want to fail. I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself because that’s a sure way to trip and maybe fall out of it altogether, but I need enough pressure to stick with it when things get tough. I expect to struggle but I also expect that I’ll get a ton of support on the Raw Food Talk forum and via my favourite raw foodist blogs.

What do you have planned for the coming year? Any big goals or small ones?