In preparation for this recipe, soak your sunflower seeds overnight or for 8 hours

Cashew Cheeze Pate
Equipment needed:

High power blender such as a Vitamix
Mandoline slicer

Ingredients:

• 1 Large Zucchini
• 1 stalk celery (rough chopped)
• 1 red pepper remove seeds (orange or yellow) save a little of the pepper (about 1/4 of it)
• 3 Tbspn. Add nutritional seeds
• ¾ cup sunflower seeds (soak overnight)
• ¼ cup cashews
• ½ tsp white pepper (not black …. see note below)
• 1 Tbspn chickpea miso or seasalt
• 1/16 cayenne powder
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 pitted date
• 2 tspns of tarragonTo prepare the zucchini … cut off both ends and slice lengthwise.  Use ½ of the zucchini and, using your mandolin (or a potato peeler) slice it into ribbons lengthwisePut above ingredients into Vita-Mix (or your powerful blender of choice) and blend all til creamy

Ideas and suggestions: Take a lettuce leaf or collard leaf .. garnish with red pepper, scallion, and the zucchini noodles.  This pate is a good alternate of choice to other pates because of its high vegetable content allowing you to be able to eat more of it.

Did you Know?
* Green peppers are not ripe and they are hard to digest.  Use red/yellow/or orange.

* Black pepper made from peppercorns that are green, not Ripe, they dry them and that’s how they turn black.  These “un-ripened” seeds are very hard on the digestive system.  But red & white pepper is made from ripe peppers.

* GARLIC BREATH! Removing the little green part in the center of the garlic will eliminate garlic breath.  WHY?  Well, our bodies can not properly digest it, and it therefore creates garlic breath.  Simply cut the clove in half and remove the green little seed looking part.  It only takes a second.  By the way I have noticed that not all cloves have this green little part, so don’t go crazy looking for it.

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For now my blog is mostly diet and food related (diet/recipes/exercise) , but my future plans are to add all things Domestically related.  Hence the title “Domestically Literate”.  So … hope you find lots of things that interest you “domestically” here.  We’ve only just begun.  Enjoy!
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As most raw foodies and or vegans know, it is a challenge (at least at the beginning) to find substitutes for all the junk we’ve been eating for all these years.  Sooooooooo . . . I’m collecting the best of what I’ve found here.  As I progress, I’ll also add my own.  But for now, I will give credit where credit is due and let you know where I’ve found all these goodies.

I have to give a shout out to the wonderful Bunny Berry.  She is inspirational (and hilarious) in learning how to add more raw and whole foods to ones life.  Thank you Bunny.  Visit Raw Fu

An Excerpt from Eat To Live by: Dr. Joel Fuhrman (page 117)

This morning I was in a little bit of a panic thinking, “oh no” I’m going to lose all the gains I’ve made if I eat all those fruits & beans”!

So . . . if you are following this blog, you may be thinking “how can she eat fruits/beans and NOT be eating too many carbohydrates.”  Please read this excerpt (left) from Dr. Fuhrman’s book Eat To Live.

All I can say is this: I feel great, I don’t have that gnawing hunger in my tummy anymore, and I’m finally moving my bowels in a healthy way again. I had two (count em) 2 healthy movements today.  As always, I will be monitoring this, and will report back.

Eat the Food God made !  I’ll Keep You Posted.

TODAY at 8:30 a.m., I FINALLY had the big one.  You may remember that I stopped Medifast two days ago.  I went back to eating Greens, and fruits.  Whole fruits (no juice) and my beloved black beans.  My system LIKES this!  I eliminated with absolutely no problem this a.m.  I felt like having a party.  I yelled out loud to my husband “The big one”.  He, of course, knew what I meant.   But when you’ve done nothing but little pebble poops for nearly 2 months, you really do feel like celebrating.

I want to quickly add here that I am grateful to Medifast for helping me quickstart my weight loss, and for teaching me and coaching me into getting into the habit of eating 6 times a day.  My body is trained for that now, and I can safely say that it is a habit, BUT …. for most of those two months I felt “full” of you know what.  The scale was going down but my intestines seemed to be filling up.  In any case …. it is what it is.  I’ll be monitoring my scale quite closely, but I am still consuming less than 1000 calories per day.  But those calories are comprised of fresh or frozen greens/fresh fruit/beans and alot of water.  I’ll stay on that trail for 6 weeks and see what developes.

“Eat the food God made”.  I’ll keep you posted !

At this writing I have lost 20 REAL pounds since I began my quest to lose weight.   When I say real, what I mean is that I am sure my body is not cannibalizing itself nor is the loss water weight.  I followed Medifast to the letter and I am certain from my nutritional data that my body was being fed what it needed for the last 2 months.  To credit Medifast, most of that weight came off with their plan, but I just can’t continue to eat this way.  There is not enough NATURAL fiber to move me.  I’m so constipated, I’m beginning to feel sick.

So … I’m back to Dr. Furhman’s way to eat, namely: Fruit/Veges … lots of greens/Beans and water.  The Dr. Fuhrman diet (for the 1st 6 weeks) is also strict.  For the 1st 6 weeks it is as I just mentioned Fruit (minimum of 4 per day), GREENS, lots of them, as much as you want.  Beans, at least 1 cup per day and more if you want.  No Simple Carbs allowed.   No dairy.  No oils.  1 oz. of nuts is allowed per day.  He recommends Flax seeds (max 1TBspn).

Look left at a page from his book.  It is always difficult for me to lose wieght, and I am one of those unfortunate people whose body just LOVES to hold on to fat.  Even if I eat one piece of bread, it turns to sugar.  So for me I always have to do the strictest of plans.  Happily, I love beans, especially the way I make them, and so I can live with this plan (I think).  Time will tell.

I do feel, however, that if I could live the Medifast way for 8 weeks, I should be able to continue my weight loss with the
Eat To Live Diet.  I’ll keep you posted.

I do not intend to totally abandon my Medifast foods.  I love the Vanilla Shake and the Oatmeal Raisin Crunch Bars and intend (once I hit my goal weight, or see that I am losing my 1.5 to – 2 pounds a week) to continue consuming them for a snack.  My body just can no longer handle a steady diet of Medifast.

Prior to my medifast journey, when I was eating lots of greens and fresh foods, my bowels were extraordinarily healthy.  Enough is enough.   I will continue to exercise 6 days a week.  My exercise of choice is the Elliptical.  Plus, I live in a tri-level townhouse so I get lots of up and down stairs.   I’ll keep you posted.

This is a calorie deprivation diet, and as such your body will be hungry for food.  It is taking every ounce of self discipline I have to maintain it, and I believe the ONLY reason I am keeping on with the program is that I am consistently losing (depending on how much water and self discipline I have) 1 to 2 pounds per week.  Most weeks I lose 1.5. .I just came back
from spending a couple of weeks with one of my sisters.  That was tough.  Even then I was so determined, that I did not cheat.  Unless you call having about 1/4 cup of beer and 1/4 cup of wine cheating.  That was all I allowed myself.  When everyone around you is eating normally, it is very very challenging to stick with this thing. . I have set these 3-4 months apart
as a “season” of my life to live this way.  But I must say it is a difficult way
to live, and I’ve only done this because I wanted to lose weight fast.   At this juncture, I’m seriously considering Dr. Fuhrman’s Strict Six week diet to
lose the remaining 10 pounds and then back to my modified RawFu diet for lifelong maintenance. 

Regardless of the claims all these diet promoter’s make, I am usually hungry, and because I’m so hungry most of the time, right now I feel a little like Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.  I feel like shouting from the highest hill that “I will lose this weight and I will forever exercise and I will NEVER NEVER be 40-50 pounds overweight and I will never be this hungry again.   This is a promise I am making to myself. 

“Eat the food God made”.  I’ll keep you posted !

Vegetables

Asparagus, fresh 1 pound = 16 to 20 spears = 2 cups cooked

Beans, green, fresh, cut 1 pound = 3 cups = 2-½ cups cooked

Beans, dry 1 pound = 2-½ cups (1 cup dry = 2-¼ cups cooked)

Beans, green, frozen 9-ounce pkg. = 1-2/3 cups

Beans, green, canned 15-½-ounce can = 1-2/3 cups

Broccoli, fresh, cut 2-inch lengths 1 pound = 6 cups (including 4 cups florets)

Broccoli, fresh, chopped 1 pound = 4½ cups

Cabbage, fresh, shredded 1 pound = 4 cup; medium head is 2 pounds

Carrots, sliced 1 pound = 8 to 9 large = 4 cups sliced (2 large carrots = 1 cup)

Cauliflower, fresh 1 pound = 1-½ cups

Cauliflower, frozen 10 ounces = 2 cups

Celery, chopped 1 rib = ¾ cup

Garlic, minced 1 med. clove = ½ teaspoon

Ginger root, peeled, chopped 2 ounces (.13 pound) = 5 tablespoons

Mushrooms 8 ounces = 3 cups sliced = 1 cup sliced sauteed

Onions, green, cut in 1-inch lengths 4 onions (½ bunch) = 1 cup

Onions, coarsely chopped 1 pound = 3 large = 2-½ cups (1 cup = 1-¼ large)

Parsley, chopped 1 bunch = 1-1/3 to 1-½ cups chopped (¼ cup = 6 or 7 stems)

Peas, fresh, in pod 1 pound = 1¼ cups shelled.

Peas, frozen 10 ounces = 2 cups

Pepper, green, diced 1 medium = 1 cup

Potatoes 1 pound = 3 medium = 2-¼ cup cooked, 1-¾ cups mashed

Pumpkin, canned 16-ounce can = 2 cup

Shallots, chopped 1 medium = 3 to 3-½ teaspoon

Spinach, fresh 12-ounce bag, stems removed = 5 cups = ½ cup chopped and cooked.

Spinach, frozen, chopped 10-ounce pkg. = 1-1/8 cups

Tomatoes, canned whole, chopped 28-ounce can = 1-1/3 cups tomatoes, lots of liquid.

Tomatoes, fresh, chopped 1 pound = 3 medium = 3 cups

Water chestnuts, canned, sliced 8-ounce can = 1 cup

Zucchini, sliced 4 (bratwurst size) = 4 cupsx

(“Thanks” to Spike & Jamie for this wonderful info)

During the Winter months  it’s nice to have some soup ideas handy.  All the soup recipes on RawPeople.com are Raw.  What does that really mean?  It we are preserving the enzymes and good nutrients by not heating the soup over  110 degrees.  You’ll reap many more benefits from your foods by eating them at room temp or slightly heated.

Creamy Cucumber Soup!

1 cucumber, peeled and cubed
1 medium ripe avocado
1/2 lemon, juiced (or just squeeze, but be careful to omit the seeds)
1/2 cup Life Ionized Water
2 tablespoons of fresh Dill / can use dry but use less
sea salt to taste

Blend all ingredients and slightly heat if you want or enjoy at room temperature

Top with any or all of the following:  sprouted sunflower seeds, diced celery, diced red bell pepper, diced tomatoes

Enjoy!

Katy Joy Freeman
Raw Food Chef