Please keep in mind we are not nutritionist or doctors. We recommend checking in with your doctor before making any changes to your diet and exercise routine. Most of our information is based upon our own experiences and research, although we do hope you keep an open mind.
We wanted to give you an update on the kraut we made with you all last week.
Check out this quick video:
Raw sauerkraut is easy to, just make sure to keep the liquid above the kraut. When done just transfer kraut to smaller containers and enjoy at your leisurely. Store in fridge.
Update on how we are doing:
Lori had another breakout last week, got a little depressed again, but things are turning up again. We are starting to keep a food journal, finally! We have been doing it for a week, so we will keep you updated on that as once we start to see patterns. Mainly we have been keeping track of our fat and fiber and our water intake. Also when we eat things and when we workout. You may be thinking, I did not think raw foodist cared about calories and stuff. Well this is true but for us to really understand what is going on with each of our own bodies, we want to see what works and what does not. Food journal is the best way to find results for us.
Although our schedule varies everyday so it is hard to keep a routine, but we are trying to find our routine that works for us. Hormones seem to be better for both of us, as least emotional wise, but Lori still has not gotten her period. Michelle will know if she gets her period again next week, so we will let you all know.
Hope everyone is doing good with your hormones and such.
We have to remind ourselves everyday that this is a journey and our body takes time to heal. Stay positive! ; )
But to end on a positive note as we mentioned yesterday we are running a St. Patty’s Day special starting today till Wednesday, so get your orders in!! Our online store has been updated with our specials (our green line is on sale plus some new items for a limited time) and new t-shirts are available, $5 off!!!! The shirts are very high quality, custom designed, some our organic cotton and some our made out of bamboo!!! One of a kind ; ) And you do not have to a raw foodie or vegan to wear these shirts. The shirts are made for anyone looking for a high quality shirts that do good for the planet!! Also the shirts can be translated into your own personal meaning, for instance the Raw t-shirt could mean you enjoy things in the raw, pure state, no bulls**t, so to speak. It does not necessarily only mean raw foods, but it can if that is what you want it to mean. So have fun shopping!!!
Note: the shirts are women sizes again, run a little big.
We have had a busy day…farmers market then had a meeting all afternoon.
Hope everyone has a great Saturday everyone!!
And good luck to our sister tomorrow in her race!! She is running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. She begged us to do it, but we just could not leave work! ; (
It makes us so happy that everyone is loving our t-shirts!!!!! We are so excited for them and think they will be great for everyone to wear and enjoy Hard to believe the Fitbloggin is only a few weeks away. Michelle and I got so much work to do from now till then.
on our blog a few times or two.. we like to call it our favorite cocktail Synergy is the brand, and you see it out in your stores and if you do not have the time to make kombucha yourself. But I promise making your own kombucha is not that hard! And makes it more affordable when you make it yourself!
There are just so many great health benefits about drinking this fabulous drink! I really think incorporating this drink into one’s lifestyle would not hurt because many people lack ‘healthy’ bacteria in their diets! A simple natural fermented aged culture, made with pure water, sugar and black or green tea. Kombucha is a probiotic. Pro = in favor of; biotic = life. Kombucha balances the pH naturally. Pro-biotic drinks are good for us, they aid digestive health and they give our digestive system balance. Probiotics – means “for life.” It is used to describe products which include microorganisms that are beneficial to health.
And once you drink kombucha a few times you will start craving the flavor and taste. It is sour and can be fizzy!
We find it a much better choice over regular sodas on the market because of the health benefits from drinking kombucha! So go give it a try if you have not already!
Now we are not experts but we have been making our homemade kombucha for a few months now and absolutely love it and know that if we can do it anyone can do it!
Here is the video of Michelle showing how we make our kombucha! Enjoy!
Now we purchased our Mother Scoby from Cultures of Health. They also sell kits that includes mason jars and strains!! But the Kefir lady sells them too. It comes with directions. And the mother comes in a packet on ice. Just place the mother in the fridge till you are ready to place it in tea. Only use pure black or green tea nothing with flavors.
As you will see in this video Michelle splits a baby from the mother, you do not do this with the one you buy. After your first batch you separate the two to make two batches, and the cycle continues with each scoby.
Like the music??? We are getting fancy over here, haha.
Have fun making your homemade Kombucha!!! You can flavor any way you like once it is done fermenting.
Recipe:
For One quart you will need
1 1⁄2 t. loose tea or 2 tea bags
1/4 c. sugar
3 1⁄4 c. (approx.) water
some starter tea from your previous batch (or first kombucha does come in tea)
For Half- gallon
1 T. loose tea or 4 tea bags
1⁄2 c. sugar
6 1⁄2 c. (approx.) water
1 c. starter tea, although we never do that much
Brew the tea with sugar to dissolve. Let it cool to room temperature before adding scoby. Put scoby in mason jar, with whiter side up, and cover with cheesecloth. Leave on counter at room temperature, out of direct sunlight for at least 5 days. We let ours ferment from 10 to 30 days. The longer it ferments the less sugar.
News:
St. Patty’s day is coming fast. And in honor of the great fun holiday we are going to be offering sales on our ‘green’ product line and offering some special extra treats for the holiday like mint chip macaroons and green cookie!
We will posting those new items up on our store here soon and we will let everyone know when the sale on our green crackers and flat breads will be going on for.
We were blown away by how many people requested our recipe for our chocolate chip cookie pie. We have to thank Jessica again for inspiring us to create it, man she has much more amazing goodies we have been dreaming about to make ; ) We are thinking about sharing it.As you all know we are a business, so some things are special to us (and took a lot of time and work), but we are working on a cookbook!!!
But as I mentioned we are considering sharing it…we will see ; )
Today’s video is our first attempt at making our first compost! Our friend Mike, who by the way has 4 great blogs that cover all great topics and tips, so go check them out. Mike did a post recently how to make compost, so we thought why not give it a try.
Lori and I are always looking for ways to be more “green”. Mike is always sharing great tips for helping out the planet. What do you do that is green?
Here are just a few things the Twins do:
enjoy a raw food vegan lifestyle
bring our own bags to the grocery store
shop locally
use glass over plastic, when possible
turn off lights when not in use
unplug electronics, etc
energy efficient light bulbs
use towels over paper towels
keep thermostat at lower during winter and high during summer (off most of the time)
have bamboo and cork flooring in our house
reuse, reduce, and recycle everything we can
Now we made our first compost:
- large bin
- organic soil
- coffee grounds
- juice pulp/food scraps
- shredded paper
Yay we have no idea what we are doing, but it was fun. The best way to learn something is to just do and learn as you go. We challenge all of you to make your own compost if you do not already do so. Let us know if you do!!!
We will see how this goes
Following the gardening trend Mike again inspires us with his homegrown vegetable garden out of pots…in NY…off his balcony. He is truly an amazing person!
So look what we did
Bought an aloe leaf plant from a local farmer! Instead of buying the leave from Whole Foods (which is the one on the right). We are going to try to grow our own plant. The farmers said they are easy to grow.
And
Bought cabbage from the farmer as well to start growing our own cabbage. Since we go through it so much from making our sauerkraut! We see how to do with our garden and compost! Only time will tell.
Do any of you grow your own food, or have you thought about growing your own food?
Till next time… got exciting news we will share later!
And our latest kraut meal is paired with another favorite
Kelp Kraut Noodles
All we did was take our sauerkraut blend in blender with some spices and tahini to make an easy and poured over some kelp noodles. And add in some arugula! Easy and delicious We just love pretty much anything with kelp noodles
Here is how we make sauerkraut (sorry for the blurry video – not sure why it is so blurry, ugh)
Now go buy some cabbage and make yourself a nice, easy and healthy homemade sauerkraut. Please let us know if you make and report back! We love to hear from you!
Take Care. Thanks for joining us again for another Pure2raw lesson!
Today’s video is on coconut kefir. We have made coconut kefir before using water kefir grains and it came out alright, but we realized we wanted to test out milk kefir grains. We liked it better, but it does still do fine with water kefir grains.
Ingredients:
2 cups of coconut milk (or any milk of choice)
2 measuring cups
wooden spoon
plastic strainer
milk kefir grains
We got our kefir grains from Marilyn the Kefir lady. She sends you the grains as I mentioned in a bag all ready to go. You just have to add your 2 cups of milk. Directions are provided along with some recipes. Marilyn also sells water kefir grains and Kombucha cultures.
Another source to get kefir grains, water kefir grains, and Kombucha cultures is Cultures for Health . This is where we got our water grains and mother Kombucha, which will be some of our next videos!! Cultures for health sell their milk kefir grains dehydrated, so when you receive them you have to rehydrate them before you start making your kefir. Again, directions are provided.
Here is a quick video of how we make our coconut kefir puddings that you see all over our blog.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments (and welcome to our new readers!!) in regards to late night eating and getting to bed. We did manage to have our dinner (smoothie) around 7pm last night, k it was more like 7:30, but we did pretty good. Each day we hope to do better. We both felt better getting up this morning, no major tummy aches and slept a little better. Got our new morning workout routine done ; ) So far a great Friday!!
Is very easy so no excuse not to give it a try ; )
Now you might see other ways of making fermented veggies, but this is how we do it. We love how simple it is and does not require any fancy equipment (okay besides a food processor for the shredding)
Ingredients:
A mix of your favorite veggies
We did a about 5 pounds of leeks, carrots, beets, radish, butternut squash, chinese cabbage, and green onions.
2-3 tbsp sea salt
Directions:
Shredded the veggies into thin strips, we used a food processor, but you can hand chop, use a mandoline, or cheese grater of course.Then place veggies in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and start massaging till water steeps out and veggies get smaller and softer. Then place in glass jars, lightly cover (needs air to ferment), leave out at room temperature for 3 days. Then place ready jars into fridge and enjoy!
Why should you eat fermented veggies??
easy to digest, so great for all of us who have weak digestive systems
taste yummy (well some fermented foods did take us awhile to get use too)
great way to jazz up any salad
easy to travel with, just take your jar (and maybe some tahini stirred in) and go
been eaten for years to help with many health problems
adds friendly bacteria into your diet
helps with candida
full of enzymes to enhance a healthy life
full of fiber and helps with constipation (great thing for us)
low in calories while full of nutrition
Did you know over in Europe, China, and many other countries they have some form of fermented foods at EVERY meal!! What don’t we do that here?? Well like our friend Kristen we hope to change that ; )
We hope you give fermented veggies a try. We think you will love them as much as we do and we know this amazing lady enjoys her fermented foods. Check out her post on Crazy Sexy Life to learn even more about the benefits of eating fermented foods.
Lori and I are so happy to hear that everyone has been enjoying our last two post on hormones. If you missed them, please check them out and let us know your thoughts.
Today we are showing you all a video of what products we currently use to wash and take care of our face. I say currently, well because we are always trying new things, plus as we grow are skin changes too, so are products might change.
As you all know Lori and I have troubled skin, and lately Lori has been dealing with acne due to going off birth control. As for me, I have dealt with it for many many years, and remember we are not experts, this is just what we do and it works for us from our personal trial and error : )
Extra Virgin Coconut oil – we love it to wash our faces at night. Does a great job on getting makeup and eye makeup off! And it taste good too : ) Add we add MSM powder and sometimes B-5 powder.
Live Live Bee Yummy Skin Food – is raw and organic. I apologize for my mistake in the video (i was a little nervous), but I was trying to say it is not vegan because it contains honey, but we still love it. It contains honey, honey cappings, bee pollen, propolis, st john’s wort oil, royal jelly, pure water balsam fir needles.
Raw gaia – raw chocolate face pack – we love it because it contains turmeric, plus cocoa powder, sun-dried red clay, and amia fruit.
The Solution – great face lotion and serum all in one. It contains DMAE, Vit A and E, ALA, plus more great ingredients that are wonderful for the face.
Avocate Skincare – love it because it contains just sea salt, avocado, and honey (again not vegan, but a great natural product). We heard about this product through the lovely and beautiful Jenna.
I rather have my skin care product be non-vegan than contain chemicals I cannot pronounce! I like to know that it is safe, natural, and if some happens to run into my mouth it is okay : )
Now we know there are other natural skin care products, but these are what we use and love.
What do you use? What is your must have natural skin care product?
We just wanted to check in real quick. We are in the process of packing/changing hotels and hopefully going for a walk. We had a full blown post of our crazy day yesterday from our delicious EATS to going to the Disney Marathon Expo but having some issues. So that post will be up later today! Sorry!
Don’t you just love technology sometimes
Here is a quick snap-shot of where we stayed last night
ANY GUESSES?!?!
Here is a quick video of Michelle showing our fridge – enjoy Pure2Raw first video!
Now I know many of you are probably thinking this is may not be your typical marathon preparation food?!?! But for us it is! We have all these green smoothies and fermented veggies plus some other dehydrated snacks to enjoy. Plus a lot of coconut oil!
All these foods combined gives us the perfect amount of energy without slowing us down because it all is easy on our bodies to digest! Our bodies are not wasting energy digesting our food but giving us the fuel we need to perform! We feel are best when eating high raw before big events!
Promise we will get you all updated real soon on our eats from yesterday! Thanks for being patient!
High raw gluten-free foodie enthusiasts. Passionate about fitness, nutrition, health, cooking/baking, running, yoga, wine and much much more. We are fraternal twins who are raw gluten free vegan chefs/bakers. Living our life long dream running our own bakery - Twin Cakes and raw uncooked bakery Pure2raw. We hope to inspire others to appreciate food as nourishment to the body. Embark on a healthier lifestyle where you enjoy food and exercise, and have fun living your best life to the fullest...pure&simple.
Hard to believe the 
Synergy is the brand, and you see it out in your stores and if you do not have the time to make kombucha yourself. But I promise making your own kombucha is not that hard! 
Till next time,
