From Smorgasbord to Cardboard....not quite!

On Saturday I went to a raw vegan cooking class. Okay, everyone who knows me is rolling on the floor laughing (about to wet their pants) because you can't believe I said I took a "cooking class". Okay, let's get this straight. I really use to cook. Nothing fancy or special but I was a descent cook. It was the marriage thing that turned be off to cooking. It was my "job" and his "right". So, yes, I had it put in the divorce decree that I would never cook again for any man! This however is for me so I think I can do this. I can do the cooking but let's talk about the eating part. I thought this would be easy because I love raw fruits and vegetables. Heck when I was a kid I loved raw turnips. My mom thought I was crazy. I absolutely hated them cooked. It was the same with spinach, peppers, onions, tomatoes (excluding sauces, of course) and lots of stuff we grew in the garden. On top of that I have always been a big salad eater. For years lunch was my first and biggest meal of the day and it consisted of a huge salad. I don't even know how to get this out of my mouth but I have eaten so many salads this past year that I think I have lost my love for a nice crispy, crunchy salad. That's something I never thought I would think, much less say, out loud.

So, back to the story at hand. Jeff Goodman, Body Talk Arizona brought in Raw Vegan Chef Sara Siso for cooking classes. Tonya told me about it and I thought it would be a good idea. With all the advice, reading and researching I have done I know this is the answer. Getting started just seemed so monumental I just didn't know where to begin. This past spring I bought all the "equipment" that it looked like I needed (well I guess now I need a good blender). I guess that was a beginning. Almost two thousand dollars later, there I was in Nebraska with all this equipment and unable to find the things I needed to even practice what Dr. Lilli had advised me to do. Not only could I not find organic, there wasn't a kale leaf or collard green in sight. Locally grown meant corn, onions, peppers, tomatoes and a little cabbage. There is a lovely place just outside of town that grows grapes and fruits organically. Cedar Hills Vineyard is run by two beautiful people who are very in tune to nature. Now here is the dilemma, fruit is loaded with natural sugar. Cancer cells feed on sugar. Not just refined sugar but natural sugar also. Adding insult to injury, my favorite fruit is tomatoes. This fruit is loaded with so many good things but now we have sugar and acid. A big no no. There have been days in my life where all I ate was tomatoes. Straight from the garden (and I mean standing in the garden) was my favorite way. This is like cutting off my left arm.

So I went to class and was getting very excited about the recipes and learning how to make all this stuff that is so healthy for you and now there's the promise of "delicious" raw food!

Apple-Kale Juice is the first recipe. I can handle this. The apples make the kale tolerable. Oh, but wait, if you have cancer you can't have the apples (sugar). I don't think you could get me to eat kale juice on my death bed. Kale is a very bitter green. So you can add cucumber, Well, I love cucumbers but even though I can taste them the kale is just too powerful.

Chia Seeds Cereal is the next recipe. We learned to make Hemp Milk to have with the cereal. I have been eating rice and almond milk for a long time (not made by me). Hemp milk wasn't bad, who would have thunk? Dr. Porman had me drinking a hemp powder drink but it was pretty fibrous. The difference must have been mixing by hand and mixing in a blender. I would take these milks anytime over skim milk. The chia seed cereal was pretty good. Okay, breakfast is covered. If I can eat this every day for breakfast I am on my way.

Coconut Milk is pretty good also.

The Energy Booster Smoothy (this is how it was spelled in the recipe) was such an insult to my mouth and that was with the fruit. If I have to take out the fruit there is no way I'll ever be able to gag that down. That reminds me, can I eat blueberries? I know bananas are a no no. Well, so much for delicious.

Granola made with oats and nuts. Now this was yummy. Okay, maybe we have lunch covered. Alright, I know it's unrealistic to think you can eat one thing for each meal for the rest of your life. I need some variety.

The Stronger Bones Smoothie was another drink that I don't think my dog would touch. That was again with the orange juice. What would it taste like when I have to take out the orange (acid)?

Sunshine Scramble was a dish to make you forget that eggs are an animal product. This was not bad either. It was a little dry but I would think there could be fix for that. The tomatoes that she decided to eliminate would have been the perfect fix...but once again....

The Chocolate Mousse was such a treat to the palate after all the veggie concoctions. Chef Sara was right you could almost taste tapioca pudding.

Chef Sara threw in a soup and cracker recipe that she made from the pulp of the things she used for the smoothie. The crackers were quite good. The soup was edible.

So, the next class is in two weeks and the menu is Vegsushi and Thai. That is sushi without fish or meat.

I was left with some questions for Chef Sara. She used many items from packages, powders and such. I thought you needed to grind the items fresh. she used agave which I have again read this is not good for cancer patients. Stevia I understand is okay because the cancer cells don't recognize it as sugar even though it is a natural sweetener.

I thought the cacao (chocolate) was not good at all. It was good in the Chocolate Mousse but the chocolate bars she made were so powdery the texture made them unacceptable to me.

It was nice to learn that even though all nuts need to be soaked and then dehydrated, Brazil nuts and hazel nuts are the exceptions and don't need to be soaked. Soak chia seed 2-4 hours (in distilled? water). Soak pumpkin seeds 4 hours and sunflower seeds 6 hours. There was no mention of flax seed. I understand it should also be soaked and dried before grinding. I'll have to double check that one. There was a lady in the class who said she always soaks her flax seed but Chef Sara seemed to think it wasn't necessary.

Chef Sara said she prefers distilled water as it is the purest water. I was confused by that. I thought I had read to not use distilled water, well, at least not store bought distilled water. If you use distilled water I thought you were suppose to process it yourself. Maybe she does.

I am anxious to go to the Scottsdale Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8:30 - 1:00. Chef Sara has a booth there and I'd like to check out the packaged items she has. If they are truly okay to use that would be so handy. The main reason I'd like to go is there is a guy in the booth next to her who sells flats of wheat grass. I'd like to check that out since I haven't seen them since I was in New Jersey last year. How convenient to have someone else grow it for you. Especially when my green thumb has turned into a purple thumb.

I think my biggest problem with raw food is all the chopping and "mushing". If I could eat all the stuff without it being a green drink I think I could handle it. The things that were dehydrated seemed okay with me. Unfortunately the most important part of the raw food diet is the detox and that requires drinking lots of green juices. Again, without the fruit in these drinks it would be like taste bud hell. I can even handle the 2 oz. of wheat grass with no problem. It's like a shot and is down before you have time to think about it and the taste isn't good but it really isn't so bad. Now, 12 or 16 oz. at a time might be a different story.

So, how many excuses can I come up with for not being on the raw food diet? Well, baby steps. But I keep remembering what Dr. Lilli told me. Don't wait until it's too late. I just need to commit and my life just seems in limbo. She said I needed to commit to be 100% raw. On top of that, I have been doing so well but I don't want to be leaning on a "false" sense of security. I just need to hop on that big green ball and start the balancing act. If I fall off I'll just have to get back up again. If raw vegan can cure cancer in 30 days, why am I not there? Of course the commitment part is the rest of your life part. When cured you can't go back to your old ways.