Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 06:02 AM
Hey everyone
Thank you for all the wonderful comments and glad to hear everyone loves themed weeks! Also we enjoyed reading your go to desserts : )
As promised, here are the two recipes from yesterday. They are great ways to enjoy fresh cranberries while in season.
Plus we are introducing a new ingredients we have recently come across and we are so excited to share it with you!!
We were searching for a soy free lecithin to use in our recipes and knew there had to be something. It took as awhile to find a soy free lecithin but we eventually made it to Raw Food World Online Store, There are a few reasons why we love this product:
- Soy Free
- Emulsifier (which helps digest fat)
- Choline (necessary for brain and liver function)
- Can be used to thick products (great for raw puddings and soups)
- Raw, Vegan, Gluten Free Non GMO
This was our first time using sunflower lecithin, and so far we are liking it. : ) The flavor is a not too made, a little getting used too…it is a neutral flavor.
Another cool thing about sunflower lecithin is that it is LIQUID. Most lecithin come in powder or granules.
Why is Choline important?
Choline Bitartrate is an essential nutrient needed by the nervous system to produce acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that facilitates the transmission of impulses between neurons. It helps with muscle function.
Choline is vital for removing fat from the liver because it helps in the production of lipotropic agents. Choline nutrition is very helpful in hormone production and in enhancing sexual function, as well as bladder, kidney, pancreatic, testicular, and liver function.
As an important component of cell membranes, lecithin is needed by every cell of the body. Without lecithin, liver metabolism is deranged, leading to "fatty liver" and eventually chronic liver failure.
Other sources of choline for raw, vegans that eat no soy:
bananas, apples, oranges, cauliflower, cucumber, and tomato, almonds, sesame seeds
Other sources for soy eaters and non vegans
egg yolks, wheat germ, soy foods, cod, salmon, beef liver, soy lecithin
First Recipe: Cranberry Pudding Serves 2 (possibly 3)
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 3/4 cup nut milk
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp cardamon (optional)
- 1 zest of an orange
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
- 1 tbsp maca
- 1 tbsp sunflower lecithin
- 1 –2 tbsp agave, maple, or yacon syrup (add more to sweeten to your liking)
Directions:
Place chia seeds, nut milk, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamon, cranberries, and orange into blender.
Then blend till combined.
Add maca, your sweetener of choice, and sunflower lecithin
Blend till combined.
Pour into a bowl (yes we used a measuring cup, we are high class over here ; ) ) and set in fridge to set, for at least 30 minutes.
When set, pour into a bowl and top with fresh cranberries
Enjoy!
We made our cranberry pudding a little more on the tart side, but feel free to add as much sweetener as your would like.
Recipe 2: Cranberry Tahini Dressing
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1/3 cup orange juice or water
- pinch of orange zest
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1-2 in fresh rosemary spring
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
- Optional -drizzle in some agave
Place all ingredients into blender and blend till smooth.
This dressing could be used over a salad (like we did), or drizzled over veggies, fruit, etc.
Enjoy!
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Un-baked
Tags: pudding, sunflower lecithin, tahini
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 07:33 PM
Hello everyone,
It is Lori here. I hope everyone had a great Friday. Mine was a day full of baking and making delicious gluten free vegan baked goods as well as some raw food items for the farmers market tomorrow that I sell my goodies at. Check out everything that I did here.
Boy, was I pooped after a long day in the kitchen. I was sure happy to get my workout done first thing in the morning.
Before I left though I drank my lemon water!
I ate my pre-workout bar and the other half of my chocolate wrap that was leftover from earlier this week. Great way to get going!
Today’s workout I decided to do an uphill climb followed by some legs exercises. Love the feeling of burning out my legs!
Treadmill climb workout:
- 3 minutes at 3.5 mph incline 3%
- 3 minutes at 3.6 mph incline 4%
- 4 minutes at 3.6 mph incline 5%
- 5 minutes at 3.7 mph incline 6%
- 20 minutes at 4.0 mph incline 11%
- 10 minutes at 4.0 mph incline 13%
- 2 minute cool down
Legs:
- standing one legged hamstring curl up – 2 sets 13 reps on each side
- seated down hamstring curl ( I did one leg at a time)- 2 sets 20 reps on each side
- leg extension – 1 sets 15 reps on each side
- backward lunges – 1 set – 25 reps on each side
Overall my workout I felt great. Legs were feeling the burn! 
What is your favorite leg workout? Mine is backward lunges.
When I got back from the gym I was planning on having a Vega protein shake though I had some vegetables that needed to be eaten up so I made a juice and had my vega protein shake about 30 minutes later with some coconut water. (Sorry no pictures I was in a hurry to get my day going – lots of baking still to do)
Than I made myself a lovely cinnamon spiced green smoothie. I was feeling like cinnamon and added it in to my smoothie today and whoa what a difference. I really enjoyed that hint of cinnamon!
Cinnamon smoothie:
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 apples
- lemon juice and zest
- 1 packet stevia
- 1 swiss chard leaf
- large handful of cilantro
- 1 tbsp Vega EFA oil blend
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- heaping 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Blend in vita-mix and enjoy!
The rest of my day just flew by making these delicious raw food items for the market:
Fudgy Brownie Bites
And this new item which had been added to the menu. They have been a huge hit!!!!
Samoa ring cookies with chocolate drizzle! YUMMMMM
Finally I got around to making a little late afternoon snack…. I was craving pudding. Luckily I had an avocado on hand – the perfect ingredient to make excellent quick and easy puddings. I wanted mine to bit sweet but tart too. Therefore, I added some stevia and lime juice and zest. I also added in a few bonus ingredients (maca, sun is shining, and chia seed powder) to bump the nutritional value in my pudding. I must say it REALLY hit the spot for me! Now don’t judge my the picture. It was really good! I call it my green “mush” pudding.
I did this in my small food processor so it did not get as creamy as it usually does in the blender. Though it still tasted great!
I finally got to sit down on the sofa and really enjoyed this pudding. And got to be off my feet for a few minutes! Don’t you just love those few minutes of pure enjoyment of eating something totally amazing! It really makes you feel good!
My few minutes of heaven did not last long before I knew it I was back in the kitchen baking some cupcakes and a cake for a birthday.
Though I did spend I little bit of time making my dinner. It was actually overall a pretty easy dinner to create. I grabbed some of my veggies (carrots, bok choy, cucumber, bean sprouts) and used my leftover spread from my fennel tarts the other day as my filler.
Romaine Lettuce wraps:
First was slicing all the veggies to go inside the romaine leaves. I used my handy little tool from William Sonoma. It is a great kitchen tool to have for those quick shredding jobs!
All my veggies
Time to start to fill the romaine lettuce wraps with my creamy pumpkin seed dressing
Now the veggie layer
Now my romaine leaves were not that big to fully roll them. So I just kinda curled them up and ate it like that. Still delicious and good. I ended up having another plate full of wraps!
Now I am sure I will be having something small for dessert due to me getting up at 3:45 am for the farmers market. Yes I get up that early because I like to drink my lemon water and have breakfast way before I have to leave at 5:30am. That way it gives my stomach time to rest and hopefully relieve myself before leaving (sorry for the language, there is just no other way to say it) because I won’t see a bathroom again till 7 hours!!!!! Oh the joys of my job!
I hope you all have a pleasant weekend.
Till next time,
Lori
Pure2raw twin
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Un-baked
Tags: avocado, pudding, Vega
Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Hello everyone,
It is Lori here… I know many of you have been catching up with my twin sis, Michelle! I just wanted to write you all letting you know that I am surviving somehow and keeping our business afloat. Today I had our farmers market so let’s just say the past two days I haven’t got much sleep due to birthday cake orders and baking for the market (and being one man down – LOL sis… I guess you have a good excuse)
Yesterday, my day started with this yummy raspberry smoothie:
raspberries, cilantro, collard green, lime, lime zest, stevia and hemp oil, cayenne, turmeric
I think I might have put too much cayenne in because it sure did have some heat to it. It was nice though it really got me going for the day!
I did manage to squeeze in some yoga about 35 minutes (not as long as I would have liked but as least I got to do something right?) and did some leg exercises as a warm up.
Post-workout juice: carrots, celery, kale, lime, ginger
Sorry I thought I took a picture….
Later that afternoon I was getting hungry so I treated myself to a delicious avocado “green” pudding. It was loaded with a few of my essentials to keep me going.
avocado, carob, stevia, coconut oil, mint, little orange zest, spirulina, chia powder, maca
Now I typically like to eat an early dinner due to the fact that I get up at 3:45am to get ready for the market. I made myself a nice lovely kale salad with some leeks, nutritional yeast, and our Pure2raw “cheez” crackers! Dressing was lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil.
Simple, yet very satisfying. I still have a problem with inhaling my salads. I try so to hard to eat slow, but sometimes I am just to hungry!
Now you all might be wondering what I do for food while I am at the market for 6 hours…. well I start my very early morning with my typical lemon water and sit on the couch trying to wake up. Than about an hour before I head out the door I eat something. This morning it was raw-granola and hemp milk.
And as I was walking out the door I treated myself to our thin mints. So addicting! And plus I need the bit of caffeine to get me going.
we make them into circles for the business and than we get all the ugly scrapes... poor us!
Upon returning to the house I finally got my green smoothie. I loaded it up with coconut water to help hydrate me.
coconut water, bee pollen (for energy), lemon, collard green, 2 apples, and stevia
Now time to go and relax before cleaning begins….
Twin Question: What do you like to eat as a little pick me up before doing something? Do you like raw cacao? What is your go to snack for energy?
Till next time,
Lori
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: avocado, chocolate, crackers, dessert, farmers market, pudding, salad
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 05:55 PM
Hello Everyone
Today we experimented with a new pre-workout meal. We knew chia seeds were a great superfood but we did not look at them for power. We did a post about our favorite pre-workout meal, and then on twitter (follow us @Pure2Raw) we asked what were people’s favorite pre-workout meal? And Brandon from Brandon’s Marathon told us he likes chia seeds. Hummm
So today we tried chia seeds. We made a mush, if you would like, made up of coconut flakes, coconut oil, sea salt, maple syrup, almonds, dates, spriulina, and CHIA SEEDS! Warning: Please do not judge by appearance!
Yummy pre-workout snack
It was so good and really did give us a boost in our workout. Also, both of us were not as sore as we thought we would be from our calisthenics and jump training yesterday. This is great news because by us eating right we are supposed to recovery faster, therefore improve our performance. We are going to keep chia seeds as a pre-workout meal for our long workout days!
(We use the brand Salba, which can be found at most health food stores)
Most people know chia pets, but this is so much more than that…
CHIA
Chia is an ancient plant with tremendous nutritional value and medicinal characteristics. The little black and white seeds were once a staple of the Incan, Mayan and Aztec cultures, along with the Native Americans of the southwest. “Chia” is actually the Mayan word for strength. The seeds were used by these ancient cultures as high energy endurance food, especially for their running messengers, who would carry a small pouch of it with them. Chia has been called ‘Indian Running Food’ and gives an incredibly ‘sustaining’ surge of energy. The Indians of the southwest would eat just a teaspoon before heading on a 24 hour march.
Today chia seeds are mostly grown in the fertile soil of the Amazon basin in Peru. Chia is extremely nutrient dense and full of trace minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, and essential fatty acids. It is high in Omega’s 3, so it a great addition to anyone’s diet. Chia seeds are a great way to clean out. The seeds bulk up, then work like an incredible digestive broom, sweeping through your intestinal tract, helping to dislodge and eliminate old accumulated waste in the intestines.
When you let chia seeds sit in water for 10-20 mintues it will forms a gel like substance. This gel-forming reaction is due to the soluble fiber in the seeds. Researchers say this same gel-forming reaction happens in the stomach when food containing these gummy fibers (called mucilages) are consumed. Inside the stomach the gel creates a physical barrier between the digestive enzymes and carbohydrates that break them down, which slows the conversion of the carbs into sugar. This is clearly of great benefit to diabetics. In addition, by chia being high in fiber it helps keep you full and sustains your energy, which is great news for athletes or people who watching their food intake.
Benefits of Chia Seeds for athletes:
- do digest easily
- are absorbed very easily
- muscle and tissue builder
- an energizer of endurance
- have extensive hydration properties
- good source of protein, calcium, potassium and iron
- high in both soluble and insoluble fiber
Having the chia seeds be so easily digestible also makes them great for post-workout snack. Resulting in quick transportation to the tissues and being utilized by the cells. Iron, calcium, and potassium are lost during working out through sweat and muscle contraction, so chia seeds will replenish it while building muscle! Chia seeds help speed recovery due to its high amount of protein. Due to the exceptional water-absorption quality of chia, it can help you prolong hydration and retain electrolytes, especially during exertion.
Here is an overview of why we love chia and why you should try them:
- 2 times the protein of any other seed or grain,
- 5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is a trace mineral that helps transfer calcium into your bones,
- 2 times the amount of potassium as bananas,
- 3 times the reported antioxidant strength of blueberries
- 3 times more iron than spinach
- copious amounts of omega-3 and omega-6, which are essential fatty acids
- gluten free and vegan
Chia seeds are not only great for athletes but are also great for dieters. The reason being is when you add chia to other foods it bulks them up displacing calories and fat. For instance, someone can eat a typical serving while only consuming about half the calories they might have eaten, because the food has been bulked up with chia. Also you get a bellyful of nutrient-rich superfood goodness, which hydrates and sustains you!
So how do they taste?
The taste of chia has a pleasant mild, nutty flavor. The seeds are small and round, similar to poppy seeds. Chia seeds can be easily combined with other foods without changing the taste dramatically.
What do I do with chia seeds?
The basic pudding we do is 1 1/2 cups water with 1/2 cup chia seeds. Let it sit for about 20 minutes. Then we add all sorts of goodies to it like:
- goji berries, raisins, or any fruit
- vanilla, cinnamon, mint or your favorite spice
- agave, stevia, dates, or yacon to help sweeten it
- extra power boosters like maca, spirulina, camu camu
If you like to bake, like we do, they are great for egg replacements. 2 tbsp chia with 1/2 cup water makes about 1/4 cup gel to replace one egg. We also add it to our smoothies to help keep us full!
We love to make chia puddings! This one here is blended up with goji berries and topped with cinnamon.
Twins Question
What is your favorite chia recipe?
Till next time,
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Miscellaneous
Tags: chia seeds, pre-workout snack, pudding
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 07:47 PM
Hello again everyone,
I hope everyone is having a wonderful evening. Michelle and I have been baking away for our two farmers markets tomorrow. We did it! It is our last day of our mini liquid base detox cleanse, minus the few slices of raw onion kale bread : ) Since our bodies have enjoyed mostly liquid base meals that is probably what we are going to continue doing with occasional salad or something.
Even though we eat a majority raw plant based diet we like to keep things simple. Some raw foodies like to make complex meals like a raw pizza or raw tacos which is great, though Michelle and I tend to not really like those. These type of meals tend to be too much for our stomachs at the moment. We tend to just enjoy large salads for a treat!
We feel our bodies still need to get rid of some more old stored away toxins. And once our organs start to heal and begin doing what they are meant to be doing then maybe we will start enjoying more complex raw meals. But for now we like things simple, which is naturally part of eating live, plant based meals.
Here is the twins Friday food intake:
Breakfast: lemon water plus our morning smoothie
Perfect way to start the day!
Raspberry Parsley Smoothie:
- 1 bag of frozen organic raspberries
- handful of fresh parsley
- 1 lime juice and zest
- 4 tsp sun is shining
- 3 tsp bee pollen
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean powder or 1 vanilla bean
- 2 packets stevia
- 1 cup coconut water
- 2 cups purified water
Blend everything into a vita-mix and enjoy. * Now remember you can adjust our smoothies to your liking or what you have on hand.
This smoothie was good, we would make again.
Snack “pre-workout”- fresh figs, spirulina, stevia, coconut oil – blended to make a green pudding! Love these!
sooooooo gooood!
Lunch-post workout- now this smoothie was not the best, we ended up adding frozen blueberries to help. Michelle wanted to be lots of green so that is what I did. This is not one to make again or at least will need to be altered.
Smoothie was based out of water, vega protein, stevia, maca, camu camu, lemon juice and zest, carob powder, turmeric, and kale (about 4 stalks). And than added about 1 cup frozen blueberries, which helped a little bit with the “greeny” taste.
Snack was a slice of our Pure2Raw onion swiss chard hemp seed
The perfect snack!
We made this one a little thicker than normal, and it was so yummy. Another way we are trying to get people to eat more greens…green bread!
Now we planned on having two more meals: chia pudding and juice. Well our chia pudding ended up filling us up that we did not have the juice. Plus since we were in the kitchen frosting up cupcakes and all, we had to sample : ) (Yes that was not part of the cleanse, but as chef/baker you have to taste your products, right?)
Acai Chia Pudding
The other day we made goji berry chia pudding, today we did acai based pudding with cinnamon on top. It was good and filling. We love our chia seeds!
YUM
Workout
We never know on Fridays if we will have time to workout. Today we did manage to get in a good 30 minutes of yoga. It always feels great to stretch our body, which becomes stiff from standing in the kitchen.
Back to the kitchen to make some raw mock chicken salad and raw tostadas to sell at tomorrows market!
Till next time,
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Un-baked
Tags: chia seeds, pre-workout snack, pudding
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 05:24 PM
Hello everyone,
Today has been a crazy day. First, off both Michelle and I did not get any sleep. It was a weird night because both of could not get comfortable due to our backs hurting. Now we are not sure why all of a sudden both our backs hurt and we still had small headaches throughout the day. Michelle ended up coming to wake me up around 3:30am to ask if I had any Advil or anything for pain. We both have not taken any pain medication since our marathon in January. And we really do not like taking medication unless we have no other choice. Therefore, we decided at 3:30am in the morning that we needed sleep so we have to take some Advil. Luckily I had some at my place! We took our pain medication and went back to sleep, to only to wake back up at 6am to get our day started.
The Advil did its job and we both managed to get a few hours of sleep in us before our day started. Our Thursdays are always a crazy day now since we started doing two farmers markets back-to-back. Not sure what we were thinking when we decided to do this. Must have been when we were drinking wine. LOL. Anyways, we had a delicious coconut spirulina base smoothie this morning made out of fresh coconut water and meat. It really hit the spot since it was already a humid and hot day outside and it was only going to get worse.
The coconut smoothie really helped us feel a little bit better and gave us the energy we needed to get through the rest of the morning. Before I left for the first market we had some fresh kiwi as a quick snack.
Michelle made our lunch – it was avocado base Key Lime Pudding! This certainly has become one of our favorites!!! YUM! She also brought some fresh figs to go along with our pudding. We get our figs from a very close friend and customer of ours who has her own fig tree! She brought a whole bunch to us this morning! Thanks Joi, we love them!!! If you have never had a fresh fig you should!!! They are a great healthy snack full of fiber so keeps you full!
Here is our lunch on the go:
After both of our markets we are usually exhausted from standing all day in the heat. To make us feel better we tend to have a large green juice to hydrate us and give us energy to clean the place. Tonight’s juice will be a mixed of vegetables and apples!
As many of you know this is our 4th day of our liquid base detox cleanse. Since we were so busy today we never really got a chance to really sit down and focus on how we are feeling today. But beside the no sleep and small headache we are doing good. Once the Advil stopped working both our backs slowly started to ache again! UGH! Anyways we hope to do some light yoga and stretching to see if that helps our backs. Maybe a little Wii!!
Till next time, cheers from our glass to yours!
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Miscellaneous
Tags: avocado, cleanse, juice, pudding
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 03:59 PM
Hello everyone,
Today was our 3rd day of our little detox cleanse. And today sure was tough for the both of us. Though we did manage to get through it. We both got headaches again today that stayed with us both… still with us as we end our day. UGH! We have two more days of our detox cleanse of majority liquid base foods. By having us “eat” majority liquid base foods has certainly helped us with perfecting some of our smoothie, juice, and pudding recipes. That’s a huge plus!!
Re-cap of our food for the remaining of the day:
Mid morning snack – our green coffee
Yes we love to make green coffee. This one here is made out of:
- 3 cups water
- 2 tbsp carob powder
- 4 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes
- 4 dates
- 1 1/2 tsp chlorella
- 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
Blend and enjoy. This one even got a little frothy like a latte : ) Nice!
Lori enjoying her green coffee
Michelle and I both were quite hungry this morning not sure why, we just were. Therefore we made ourselves a late snack/early lunch meal, which turned out to be a green pudding! It was delicious. Base of the pudding was figs, we had some fresh figs that we had frozen and decided to use them. I was craving figs! I just love fig season! I should grow my own tree though I do not have the room for one where I live. BOO!
Green Fig Pudding was made out of frozen figs, coconut butter, stevia, vanilla, spirulina, and fresh mint. I must say this hit the spot for me! Delicious. Sorry I forgot to write down exactly what I did. I will do better next time. It was one of those spur of the moment idea and just went with it.
Perfection!
Post-workout smoothie- with hemp oil
- 2 tbsp carob powder
- 1 pint fresh blueberries
- 2 tbsp hemp oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 packets stevia
- 1 tbsp maca
- small handful of fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
Tasted pretty good! Might be a keeper!
Now after our delicious post workout hemp oil smoothie we felt a little hungry a few hours later. There wasn’t much left in the house so we had to turn to our freezer where we had some of our famous kale onion bread stored. This was a treat because this was not on our originial schedule for this weeks eating (due to our cleanse) but we went with it anyway. And it was well worth it! Sorry no picture we ate it too fast! It is that good and addicting.
Dinner was another version of chia pudding. This time we added goji berries. We are hooked on our chia puddings. When you eat it you can just feel those chia seeds going right to work. They are great too because they really help make you feel full.
Goji berry pudding was made up of chia seeds (Salba is the brand we like), hemp milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and gogi berries. We put everything into a bowl and let it sit for abou 30 minutes or so then it was good to go.
Workout re-cap:
Still struggling with a headache…hard to focus on work let alone a workout. During this cleanse we were planning on taking it easy with our workouts. Yesterday it was 2 very short workouts, so today we tried sitting in the sauna.
Why sauna? Why not, there are so many benefits of saunas.
Now if you are in good health, saunas are great, but if you suffer from high blood pressure or have heart disease they may not be good for you, so be cautious. And as always check in with your doctor. When you sit in a sauna, your blood will increase and you will SWEAT! This is a great way to get rid of unwanted “junk” and improves general circulation. Just make sure you do not stay in the sauna too long and drink lots of water!!
The benefits of sweating have been noted all the way back since the Stone Age. People have always known its proven effectiveness in flushing out toxins and maintain optimal physical and mental health! Other cultures have their own variation of saunas ranging from sweat baths to sweat lodges. It all makes since because skin is the largest organ and pores play a major role in detoxification. Sweat takes toxins out of the body and flushes them out of the pores.
Some benefits of sauna:
- feeling of psychological peace
- clears complexion
- relieves minor illness
- revives muscles
- sharpened senses
- improved circulation
- weight loss
- mind and body relaxation
Sweating is the body’s safe and natural way to heal. So try the sauna next time you are looking for a way to relax and get rid of toxins!! If you have never done the sauna before start with about 10 minutes (or as long as you can handle) and work your way up to 30 minutes. Do not forgot to bring a towel and change of clothes…you will want to shower after your sauna session.
We managed to sit in the sauna today for 35 minutes (we have done the sauna before many times). Both of us wanted to stay longer because it was relaxing but knew we better get on with our day. We both felt relaxed, renewed, and as if all this weight had been remove from our shoulders. We love the sauna!
Twins Question: Have you sat in a sauna before? What was your experience like?
Till next time, cheers!
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Un-baked
Tags: carob, chia seeds, pudding, sauna
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 04:26 PM
Hello everyone,
Well it is the end of our 2nd day of our detox cleanse. Here is a recap of how we are doing so far.
Both of us still have a hard time getting up in the morning, but once we finally get up we are ready for the day. Today Michelle was experiencing a headache and both of us do not feel we are eliminating as much as we should be? We did not do the best on our water yesterday, but most of our meals yesterday were liquid base. Today we worked on getting more water in addition to our liquid base cleanse meals. Also we did take 2 oz of aloe vera juice, which we try to take everyday anyways. Although we do not always remember to take our aloe vera : )
The powerful Aloe plant, designed to be self-sufficient and thrive in the desert, feeds us in unique ways with its 250+ naturally occurring constituents, including: enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, glycoproteins, sterols, growth factors and all sizes of uniquely complex Aloe ploysaccharides and mannans. Aloe vera is truly a superfood with so many great vitamins and minerals to offer our bodies. We will post more on aloe vera at a later date.
Afternoon re-cap:
After our work leg workout and some light yoga (we had to cut things short due to some Twin Cake Bakery orders) we enjoyed our Vega smoothie filled with goodies.
Vega Smoothie:
- 3 scoops vega protein
- handful of cilantro
- 1 tbsp maca
- 3 tbsp yacon syrup
- 1 tsp bee pollen
- 1/2 tsp camu camu
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 3 cups water
Blend in blender and enjoy.
This smoothie always hits the spot for us. Delicious! We always try to add different ingredients to the base of vega protein to add additional benefits. Though, Vega protein is pretty decent on its own, though you can always add more stevia to it if you need it to be sweeter. Brendan did a great job with creating the vegan protein mix! Our second oldest sister is now drinking it along with hemp protein and has told us that her body really likes them!!! Yeah, so happy to hear that our meat-eater sister likes these more vegan protein source! LOL sis!
Mid-afternon snack:
Key Lime Pudding made with avocados. Yes, we love our avocados. We try to get one in a day sometime it is every other day! We always seem to forget to write recipes down when we make them! What happens than is that we just start throwing things together till it taste great. It is just who we are when we get in the kitchen. It is how we have fun! Some people new to raw or new to “cooking” in general can find it intimating but not us we love to get in the kitchen and start playing around with different ingredients. This is how our key lime pudding came about and many others.
It is so easy and taste great! Most people use a nut or coconut meat for making puddings, which is fine we do it too sometimes. Though, we wanted to create a pudding that didn’t require any of that and avocado came to mind. Another ingredient that works well is irish moss, we are still trying to figure that one out!
Snack: handful of raspberries
Dinner was a big red beauty juice: beets, cucumber, zucchini, pears, collard greens
Michelle loves her red beauty juice
Michelle still has her headache, hoping it goes away tomorrow. Lori’s stomach started giving her problems in the evening, so we plan on doing another round of castor oil pack detox tonight.
Till next time, cheers from our juice to yours,
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Un-baked, ingredients
Tags: avocado, juice, pudding, Vega
Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 06:40 PM
Well, sorry we have been out of touch today and yesterday. We wanted to do a post this morning on how the rest of our day was after our long run and how we are doing today. Though, we got busy with our company because we started a new farmers market today in addition to the current one we do on Thursdays! Yes, we know we are crazy. Though you have to do what you have to do to grow your company : ) Haven’t we all had to put things that are on our to do list on the back burner so we can get other things done first? It happens. It’s a part of life and being a business owner!
Therefore we did not have time this morning to write a aftermath post. Here is a quick over view: after our delicious post workout shake we made ourselves a large smoothie packed with blueberries, maca, bee pollen, camu camu, stevia, vanilla, lemon, kale.
It was alright, not the best tasting smoothie we have made but it helped fuel our bodies for the rest of the day. We were busy with work, running last minute errands, and prepping for our two farmers markets today. We enjoyed a nice huge salad for our early dinner. And since on our run days our metabolism is already high we tend to have a bit more to eat compared to non-run days. So we enjoyed a delicious avocado chocolate pudding with some fresh mint and lavender to calm us down for the evening. So good! This pudding is so easy to make and one of the first raw recipes we made when going raw last year! Highly recommend it.
As we mentioned before we are reading the Thrive book by Brendan Brazier. Well we are not reading this book has fast as we would like due to our extremely busy schedules. Though, we read it whenever we get a chance. And must say it is a GREAT read!! Highly recommend it to any athlete or someone who is looking for a new outlook on food and fitness. Brendan is such an inspiration to us because we too want to show others that eating raw can be achieved by anyone and that athletes can be successful in their sports too! We hope that our experiences and struggles will inspire you to re-think your current fitness routine and food plan. We don’t say diet because we do not like that word, it has been abused too much in this industry. You have to look at it as a lifestyle change, a change that is not only going to improve your health but also your overall well-being. Who doesn’t what that? LOL. Anyways, the Thrive Diet book is awesome! We will post more on our favorite topics from the book soon.
Quick re-cap of food today to keep us going on a very busy day.
Well today we have two farmers markets to bake for and work at which means not much water in-take today nor workout nor well-planned out meals (because we decide to do this other market last minute and didn’t have time to prep our meals for today) It happens! So you just do want you can do and be happy with it. That is exactly what we did which we are so proud. Because typically in our past we always we have our meals prepped and ready to go, and would get very upset if we got off schedule. That was a big no no for us in the old days.
Now, we are really trying to just go with the flow of life and eat and drink when our bodies tells us. And to do what you can when you can, and don’t beat yourself up if you get off track. This creates more stress, and we all know that we do not need any more stress in our lives. LOL
Early Breakfast was: lemon water
Mid morning: large detox smoothie ( water, figs, apples, pears, parsley, lemon, turmeric, and ginger)
Lunch (courtesy of Michelle, thanks sis- you are a great chef- lunch was AWESOME!!!!): collard green wrap filled with our “mock” chicken salad and side of fig blueberry balls.
Chef Michelle would like to discuss the recipe:
I was in rush so I quickly went through the fridge to see what we had to make this. Luckily we had already soaked sunflower seeds ready to go, so I threw in about 1 cup sunflower seeds. Then roughly chopped up 4 stalks of celery, 2 scallions, 1/3 of a large black radish (which I roughly peeled), 4 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp tahini (the secret ingredient), 1 tsp dulse flakes, small handful of fresh parsley. And pulsed it in food processor till in small chunks, or till desired texture. That easy!!! Just placed the mock chicken salad into collard greens. YUM!!!
Snack: 3 slices of our Pure 2 Raw swiss chard black sesame seed onion flatbread
Late Dinner: Juice
Cucumber, celery, beet, ginger, romaine, and turmeric
Lori- your shirt matches your juice!
When we got back from the market and we had some leftover slices of our carrot cake and double layer chocolate cake… so we treated ourselves to a few bites of each! Yum! Ummm, still being a little hungry we each had one of our raw carob cookie and one raw lemon cupcake! YUMMMM
Today we both felt great after our long run yesterday and a day full of baking and standing on our feet all day both in the kitchen then at farmers markets. We definitely have noticed that since we have went more raw that our bodies do recover faster from workouts, less sore, and still have energy the next day to keep moving! No more laying around here!
If you are considering going raw and/or wanting to incorporate more raw foods into your diet that is great! Please let us know if you ever have any questions or concerns. We still have our ups and downs with the raw lifestyle transition but both of us are extremely happy of where we in our lives and are excited of where we will be in the future. We know you will be too!
Till next time. Remember to love yourself and be happy of who you are!
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Reviews, Un-baked
Tags: avocado, flatbread, juice, post workout, pudding, salad, stevia
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 08:17 PM
Good evening everyone,
Well today was a typical Monday for us. We were moving a little slow this morning. It was a little hard to get up today after having a nice relaxing weekend. We had our lemon water and did not feel like our juice then so we had some apples. Later on as we got moving around and made some raw items that are being dehydrated, we finally wanted our juice, which was celery, apple, cucumber, ginger, turmeric, swiss chard, and apples.
Green Juice
Now we were fueled and ready to get some more work done before we headed for the gym.
We did a previous post on coconuts and today we had ourselves a young coconut we got from Whole Foods the other day. We turned it into a pudding for a pre-workout meal.
Step one: creating the hole to get the water out
Yes it can be a messy job, and sometimes frustrating, but so worth it!
We used the flesh for the pudding and reserved the water for post-workout shake.
The coconut afterward
The pudding was a perfect blend of fuel for our workout, which we need the boost after our slow moving morning.
Green coconut pudding
Our workout today was an intense 35 minute uphill walk, a little jump roping, and ended with some calisthenics. The workout helped us feel better and more awake, which is main benefit if working out. Getting your heart rate going is a great way to naturally energize and get you feeling better : )
Post work-out shake was a full of antioxidants, essential fatty acids, protein, fiber, iron and vitamin C (which helps absorb iron).
The ingredients
Plus fresh coconut water
It had an interesting flavor, almost reminded us of chocolate malt flavor…it was smooth tasting.
Lori enjoying her shake
Our afternoon was full of running errands in the rain, making more raw goodies, and prepping for the week ahead. Also finally got caught up on emails…whew!!
Our next meal was a mix of lunch and dinner, which in our family we call it “Luner”. It was a simple kale arugula salad with some of raw spinach millet chips (a new recipe that still needs some work) and avocado
Oh and topped with nutritional yeast of course
We managed to do some more work, even though both were feeling a bit tired. We had a long to-do-lists, which just by thinking about all we have to do makes us tired sometimes. Does that ever happen to you? Just feel a little overwhelmed?
We both realized we did not mediate this morning so we did it now. It helped us refocus and finish our day on a good note despite the fact we were not going to finish everything on our list.
Our last meal for the day was supposed to be a simple juice, but we realized all we had was romaine to juice, so instead we settled on tea and apples.
And for dessert….a raw cacao cherry cupcake with coconut lemon frosting. We are starting to realize we love lemons and coconut!! Obsessed maybe : )
Have a good night
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: juice, post workout, pre-workout snack, pudding, salad
