ITALIAN SALAD

I should have posted this first - because it is my favorite Italian Salad ever. Just cut up tons of vegetables and mix them up.

Italian Salad
Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Green onion
Mushrooms
a whole stalk of Celery (not just a rib)
Basil
Sun dried tomatoes in oil.
(sea salt if you are not avoiding salt and maybe a little garlic)

You can mix up and eat it just the way it is....or put on an Ezekiel tortilla if you want to have a veggie pizza. It is outstanding either way.
Enjoy!

Meal for hypertension?

A very close girl friend called me yesterday and told me that her husband went to the doctor and he was told that he has hypertension. Darn. But he has been a heavy meat eater all his life so it was not so surprising. I told her that I would start posting some great raw salads that she can make for him. Raw is perfect - steamed veggies would be a slower transition for him of course and would be better than none at all. This salad recipe I got from Rachel. It's all raw. Her family loves it and my family loves it when there is way more pineapple than anything else! I put the Dulse flakes on top of mine but my family didn't really care for that!

Ingredients:
Red bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapple, avocado and cilantro.
Here I only cut up half the pineapple - but ended up using the whole thing.
Here is how it looks ready to serve.
The pineapple is what makes it taste so so good!

The Best Tea Party Ever!

So the kids came home from school and we got all ready to have our 2:00 Tea Party! Matt and I had gone to the store earlier and bought all kinds of fun fruit. Will was so excited to be incharge of cutting up the kiwi and the canteloupe. You can tell he helps Jana in the kitchen a lot. He could use a sharp knife with no problem and he's only in kindergarten!

Matt is still loving this part of the tea party and kept saying, "This is the best Tea Party I've ever had!" Rachel and Will kept saying it too - so I believed them. They made my day!

Rachel is so good with the camera (she's 10 now) and snapped this shot. Will reminded me that we should have put up our little fingers! Sorry it was too late! (What a guy!)

We were able to prop the camera in the sky and take this shot of the "Best Tea Party Ever".

You can see how much fun we had in setting it all up and we enjoyed it so much that we "partied" for about 2 hours! I didn't want to stop either.

Here's a closer shot of the food. It was mainly all fruit. Persimmons, grapes, canteloupe, kiwi, oranges, apples, pears, pomegrantes, celery and carrots.

When we were finished with our party - Will got his way! He had been dying to do this the whole time but it just didn't seem appropriate during the fun - now that we were about finished....I let him do anything he wanted! Go for it boy!

I would definitely say - my goal was accomplished! Great memories were made and cemented in all of our brains - especially mine! Oh Happy Day! I'm still smiling.

Tea Party for Breakfast

I have discovered that whenever I go visit my grandkids - that it's important to make a fun memory with them. On this trip - I took a fun tea party set to make some great memories. Matt and Will are so excited to help set it up. It's time for breakfast, you know.

Will is cutting pears.

Rachel is washing grapes.

It's time to eat our breakfast of fruit - and head off to school.

Now that Rachel and Will are gone to school - Matt is playing "tea party" with water while they are gone.

You can see that this boy totally enjoyed the fun!


I promised Rachel and Will that when they came home from school - we would have another BIG TEA PARTY! Oh.....it was hard to wait!

Small pumpkins or juicy persimmons?

Since I am eating so simple these days - I thought I'd show Gina my new "fruit stand". See - this is what I got at Cosco. The top fruit on the top left are the persimmons I bought while in California. I am still waiting for them to ripen. They are so juicy and delicious. I never had them before this trip to California. Jenny and I went to a great, organic Farmer's Market while I was there. Actually I got the watermelons, the avocados, the oranges AND the pomegranates there too - not to mention the Asian pears, White peaches and the Nectarines that I have in the refrigerator (what was I thinking!) Well - there ya go. :) If you need any fruit - I suppose you would have some pretty good luck finding what you want at my house! Hope you have a "fruity" kind of day!

MONO - Eating

Okay - I have to admit that Ryan is so cute that I decided to use him in my photo shoot while I was still in California. He is helping me cut up honey-dew for breakfast. He loves to help in the kitchen.

Look at how careful he is to cut the tiny piece in the bowl!


It made it right into his mouth!


This was a delicous melon. It was our entire breakfast.
Now...that is called "mono-eating"!

Breakfast in California

At 6:30 am every morning - Derek gets up and gets ready for work. Ryan has a built in sensor in the mornings and always manages to get up without anyone waking him - to eat with his dad. Since I am doing the cooking around here - you guessed it - watermelon for breakfast! Ryan didn't know how to eat it off the rind. Derek is showing him how to do it.

I think I had more fun taking pictures of Derek this time!

I know thatRyan is having a good time.
And he actually loves watermelon and it sure is filling for all of us.

What a cute guy!

Even Katie enjoyed what Ryan gave her! She is scraping the
juice with her 2 bottom teeth!

My "IN and OUT" madness!

I haven't been blogging lately. It isn't because I have stopped eating raw - it's because I am so wild and crazy busy. I use to spend at least 2 hrs. in the kitchen preparing all those fun recipes but now I am "in and out" within minutes with my new "madness". When I started making all those raw recipes – I found that I would keep making our favorite ones over and over – so what’s to blog! I love that I have started doing something a lot more simple in my kitchen! (AND WAY HEALTHY) I just buy fruit and veggies and eat them plain. Sounds crazy doesn't it! Bananas, dates, apples, oranges, watermelons, romaine, celery, cucumbers......Mmmmm good. Please don't ask me "where's your protein?" Start reading and you'll soon see that all fruits and vegetables have protein and WAY better quality than anything else. Have you read The China Study yet??

If you want to see what I mean - well - this is my breakfast. Yep - the whole breakfast. Nothing else...or I eat watermelon by itself too. I eat about 5-6 cups of it cut up. It's filling and super. I didn't need a dehydrator or anything fancy. Just a knife and a bowl.
For dinner - I usually have a fun salad that only has about 4/5 or 6 things. I squeeze a little lemon juice on top - no salt - no condiments - no dressing - nothing extra. Just plain ol'good food. I do not use any salt or condiments because I found that has numbed my tongue and I read that they are actually poison to your system . You should try that - maybe it affects you like this and you don't even realize it . Only after a week - I can taste everything and boy - this is good! Even celery! That sounds so different - doesn't it!

So this is what my meal looks like. Romaine, bok choy, celery, grapes, bell peppers, red cabbage and lemon on top. If I am really hungry - then I will eat 2 or 3 bowls. Notice all the dishes I don't have to clean. This is truly "In and Out Madness".

I am making note of what the "no salt or condiments" are doing to my skin and face. I see improvements happening already. Plus - I have so much MORE energy. Sheesh - did I really need more energy! Hahahaha