Hurry up, summer! April 28, 2012

Hi!

Sorry if you received notification of me posting today without actually seeing a post or only seeing a pictures of a strainer. lol WordPress was behaving really weird for me- freezing and doing things I didn’t tell it to do. It seems fine now though.

I have a million things to tell you about and am planning an epic post at after finals- which will be soooon! Woo!

In honor of finals, and all other things that keep us busy, I want to share some tips with you on how to prepare homemade, whole foods meals that take hardly any time at all.

I have a few weapons in this fight of health vs. busy schedule:

1) A fine mesh strainer

I use this baby to rinse and drain beans and to easily wash veggies. If I’m chopping a lot of veggies, holding them under the water individually can be tedious. Instead, I chop a large batch at once and pile them in the strainer to rinse them. I have this same model and purchased it last summer at the local Fred Meyer’s.

2) A salad spinner

I have the large size, of course . My mom got it for me from Amazon this past fall, but just last week I noticed that they had them at Fred’s in the kitchen section. I spin everything I need for about 4 days at once. Then I dump the water out of the bottom and store the lettuce in the spinner. The pump at the top can lock down for easier storage. If you click the photo and check out the amazon pictures, they show lettuce being stored in it without the basket. I prefer to store my lettuce with the basket in and any extra moisture just drips off. If you don’t eat it as quickly as I do, you can store the lettuce this way for about a week.

3) A crockpot

It need not be fancy shmancy like this one, but when my current crockpot finally putters out, I know what I have my eye on! My current crockpot is almost 30 years old- I think my parents got it as a wedding present. I think… I’m sure my mom will let us know if I’m wrong! It only has a high and a low setting and no timer, but that’s really all you need! I just set it on low and leave it alone for a day (less or more depending upon what I’m cooking) and then I have fresh awesome protein. If I want soup, I add a bunch of veggies halfway through and forget about it for a while.

If you eat a lot of beans and lentils like I do, a crockpot is your best friend. I buy dried beans from the bulk section at the grocery store. If you’re here in Fairbanks, Alaska Feed Company has a number of food grade, organic dried legumes. I just had some of their lentils with my dinner and I swear to you that they are tastier than the regular old non-organic lentils you can find at Fred’s!

You rinse them (in your fine mesh strainer!) and then soak the beans in plain water for 8-12 hours. I let them soak overnight or while I’m at work. If you leave them for longer than a day, they’ll start to ferment and it tastes pretty gross. This is the voice of experience here! The soaking process makes them easier to digest. I have always drained them after soaking because, well it just seemed common sense to me to throw out the gross looking soak water. As it turns out, there is a bit of science behind it. Check out this article if you have access to the Wiley Online Library.

I then toss the beans in the crockpot with broth or water and sometimes some seasoning. Recently, I’ve started adding a strip of kombu to the pot when I make beans as I’ve heard that this helps with digestion. I’m not really sure if it helps or not as simply soaking them makes them digestible for me, but it does seem to enhance the flavor of the beans. Locally, kombu at be found at Sunshine Health Foods.

4) An electric steamer

This is the exact model that I have and I LOVE it. I got it on Amazon- click the pic for a link. I put some water in the bottom, and then veggies, protein, spices, and maybe some sort of sauce in the reservoirs, set the timer and ignore it until the timer dings. I love that the reservoirs have bottoms instead of just being steaming baskets so that I can add some coconut milk, shoyu, or any other liquid to give my veggies a different flavor. It has three tiers so I can make three different dishes at once or steam three different things with different cook times at once, with the items requiring the longest cook time on the bottom. For a super fast meal, I’ll toss in frozen veggies. It’s about the same amount of work as tossing a gas station burrito in the microwave, but WAY healthier.

5) Herbs and spices

When I’m really busy, I usually make batches of two different types of beans of lentils and eat them throughout the week, putting them on salads and in steamed dishes. I also go grocery shopping once a week. This means I have the same proteins and the same veggies for an entire week. This does NOT have to be boring! I use different combinations of veggies, protein, spices, sauces, and oils to keep all of my dishes tasty and satisfying. One of the ways I save time is by buying spice blends- cajun, curry, mexican, italian, spike, and then it’s one shake for a depth of flavors. Pantry goods that I like to have on hand for quick flavor additions to steamed meals include tomato paste or canned roasted tomatoes, coconut milk, and vegetable broth. For salads, in addition to having a ton of fresh veggies, beans, kelp noodles, flax seed crackers (‘croutons’ in my world), and other delicious salad components, I keep on hand flax seed oil, tahini, basalmic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and lemons (oranges also work well). Various combinations of these, along with added herbs and spices, make for a great arsenal of salad dressings.

Nutritional Yeast

6) Fast proteins!

I love my protein, but let’s face it, how many beans do I actually want to consume in a day? That’s why I love nutritional yeast and protein powders. Nutritional yeast, not to be confused with brewers yeast, has a sort of cheesy flavor, B vitamins, and 8 grams of protein per table spoon. This is great news as I put about two tablespoons on many of my salads just because I enjoy the taste. I also add it to some of my steamed foods as well for a savory flavor. I’ve been on a serious protein shake kick lately. In my cupboard I have hemp protein, vanilla, chocolate, and natural proteins. In addition I keep, almond extract, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, lucuma, and stevia on hand to make different flavor combinations. I think adding cherry, raspberry, caramel, and maple extracts to my collection would be awesome as well! To make a low-sugar, delicious smoothie, I use ice, hemp milk or water, a combination of protein powders, spirulina, maca, leafy greens, and any flavor add-ins. If I need extra calories, I’ll add flax or coconut oil or chia seeds. You can also add nuts and fruits. As a side note, I’m avoiding most nuts, all grains,  and all fruits rights now, as it turns out, my initial speculation that I was having a hard time digesting fats was wrong- food sensitivities are tricky buggers! Anyway, I’ll save that for a different post. I’ve been making a shake to drink in the morning and a second shake to take with me to make sure I’m getting enough protein in the afternoon. For me, the trick to having a drinkable smoothie that was blended hours prior is to make it thin and then it just tastes like I’m drinking flavored milk- yum!

The last thing I want to mention are no sugar, chocolate peanut butter cups… oh my- yum! They were devised by Lisa at Thrive Style and the recipe can be found here. These are a great source of calories and good fats and taste awesome! They take only a few minutes to make. I’ve been making mine with equal parts coconut oil and peanut butter and adding chia seeds, maca, and spirulina to the chocolate part. I brought some to work and they were a hit! The one caution I have is to  make sure you are using the mini sized cupcake liners for these. I used the large liners and it’s just too much richness at once!

I hope this helps you incorporate healthy eating into your busy lifestyle and for those of you who have finals like I do- good luck!

Omega-3′s and Recipes April 2, 2012

HOLY SUNSHINE! You are back and I am so excited!

The sun is bright, the days are long, it’s springtime in Fairbanks! Woot!

How have you been?

I am happy to report that for the past few weeks, I have been having no coffee cravings! I’ve been having decaf here and there, but haven’t had any longings for the real stuff. Persistance pays!

The last time I blogged, I was eating a low-fat diet as I was finding fats to be hard to digest.

Let me tell you something about a low-fat diet…

It is not fun!

I hated it!

Here’s what I’ve found.

1) I can eat chia seeds and flax seeds and oil without any digestive issues. Not only that, but I feel spectacular after I eat them! More on this in a bit.

2)  I’ve been trying to get my carbs by eating less fruit and more grains to help me get a leaner belly, but you know what? I don’t think I really like eating grains on a day-to-day basis. When I am eating a lot of grains, I tend to feel heavy and foggy. I feel more energetic and mentally capable when I am eating fruits and some yams and sweet potatoes instead of grains. While I do limit my fruit intake, I’ve decided to stop feeling guilty about eating fruit. I know a number of people who eat little to no fruit and, generally speaking, they look fantastic and say they feel fantastic as well. That’s great; however, I am in a different body than these people and fruit makes me feel good so for now, I’m going to roll with it.

3) My skin looks terrible when I’m not eating fats! It didn’t matter how much oil I put ON my skin, it stayed perpetually dry. Dry, scaly, and gross! I prefer vibrant, fresh looking skin, thank you very much!

4) I cannot get full on a low-fat diet! I was eating so much food! Eeek! I’m not sure if my body kept telling me to eat in the hopes that I was going to give it some fats or if it is just the calorie difference between carbs and fat or both.

5) I don’t like eating raw greens such as kale and collard greens without some sort of fat having been massaged into them. The are way too chewy and rubbery!

My first question was, why are fatty foods like nuts bothering my stomach, while a fatty food like flax seed oil is not?

It has to do with the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 essential fatty acids. As it turns out, an imbalance of these fatty acids in ones diet, too much omega-6 to omega-3,  can lead to autoimmune and inflammatory diorders (digestion and skin disorders are among these), particularly if one is genetically prone to these conditions to begin with (Simopoulos, 2001). While it is known that omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA, exert anti-inflammatory effects, how exactly they go about doing this is not well understood; however, for a bit of insight into this, if you have the technical knowledge or are feeling brave, you can check out this article by Oh et al.  The researchers aim to address part of how omega-3′s affect the body on a cellular level. I may have gone a little crazy whilst researching this, but if you have a bun in the oven, you might be interested in reading this study by Su et al. discussing the effects of omega-3 intake on depression during pregnancy.

Anyway, both chia and flax seeds have tons of omega-3′s with a low omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. The other fats I’ve been consuming, not so much.

click for source

So far now, I am loving chia pudding, flax seed crackers, and flax seed oil on my salads… and lots more including seaweeds and a dha supplement, which I have always taken at least a few times a week, but will now be taking regularly.

I have a few recipes to share with you today. One the I created when I was focusing on a low-fat diet and two that are high in omega-3′s. All of them contain a love of mine, raw cacao.

I used a lot of spirulina in this batch!

Low-fat, high-raw, ‘Chocolate Chip Ice Cream’

1 sliced, super-ripe, frozen banana

2 Tbsp oats

2 tsp cacao nibs

1/4 tsp lucuma

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 pinches spirulina

pinch maca (or more!)

This recipe is really easy to make, just pop everything in your food processor and process until it is ice cream-like in texture. Be careful not to over process the mix will become runny. If this happens, stick the ‘ice cream’ in the freezer for ten minutes or so to let it firm back up.

mmm! Warm and fresh plus glorious sunshine!

Nut-free, raw ‘Chocolate Chip Banana Bread’

5 super-ripe bananas

1 1/3 cup milled flax seed

3 Tbsp psyllium husks

4 Tbsp cacao nibs

Process bananas in food processor until they are mush. Add remaining ingredients and process until well mixed. Let mixture sit for 10 minutes. The mixture will thicken into a sticky dough. Place mixture on Paraflexx sheet and spread to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Dehydrate at 135F for 1 hour. reduce heat to 115F and dehydrate for 6 hours. Flip bread onto mesh sheet and dehydrate for another 5-6 hours. If do not dehydrate at 135F for the first hour, it is completely fine, it just may take a bit longer for your bread to dehydrate. You can score this bread after it is done ‘cooking’.

Perfect with a glass of hemp mylk!

Fudgy Chocolate Chews

1 cup raisins

1.5 Tbsp hemp seeds

1.5 Tbsp chia seeds (whole or milled)

1/4 tsp spirulina

2-4 tsp cacao nibs, depending upon how rich you want your final product, more cacao= richer chew

1 tsp flax seed oil

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. This may take up to ten minutes as you want the seeds and nibs to release their oils. It reminded me a bit of making nut butter! You know that the mix is done processing, when all the ingredients have aggregated in to a smooth, giant lump.

You can now shape the mixture however you want. I placed the ball between two sheets of parchment paper and flattened it out to make little rectangular chews. Once chilled, this are similar in texture to tootsie rolls so it may be fun to roll the out and make a raw ‘Tootsie Roll’. Once mixture is formed, place in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes and then enjoy!

I have one last recipe for you. It’s not well thought out like many of my other recipes, but more of an ‘I just got home from the gym and want protein fast and don’t feel like a smoothie’ situation. I took some pre-boiled lentils- you could also use canned, but buying them dry and boiling or crock-potting them yourself is so much cheaper! I put the cooked lentils in a pot with 1 diced tomato and added some maple syrup,  chili powder, and salt and let it simmer. While the lentils were cooking, I ‘rawteed’ some veggies. I don’t know if this word is commonly used in the raw food community or not, but I was reflecting upon how massaging a little bit of oil into raw veggies gives them the texture of being sauteed, so, rawteed! I got a pretty good giggle out of it! Anyway, I rawteed some brussel sprout leaves and kale with a bit of flax oil. I took the lentils off heat for a bit and then mixed them with the greens so that those were a bit warm as well. It was amazing! I highly recommend that you try it!

AND I have started culturing my own kombucha. It is wonderful! I hope to write a post on that later this week.

Until later, friends!

Nicki

ice diving, peanut butter binge, and the arc trainer March 21, 2012

Hello!

I hope you are all doing well.

I am told that it is getting nice and warm… somewhere… hehe. The snow is beginning to melt off the roads at least!

Guess what I go to try recently?

ICE DIVING! Awesome! Being submerged under four feet of ice gives one a serious reminder of how precious and fragile our lives are. It was certainly an intense experience.

The water was not nearly as clear as in this photo and the underwater hue was brown/ yellow as we were diving in a lake.

click for source

Sadly, this is not me. We were out on the lake diving to help film a television show and I am not allowed to post any photos of the filming or methods. Sorry! I can share this with you, however.

Me before ice diving. I’m in my car to warm up as I was surface support the majority of the day and it got chilly!

Me after ice diving. My hair is actually frozen in that style! It’s certainly not the most attractive photo of me, but all divers can empathize with the post-dive glamour!

Being outside on a frozen lake for an entire day was incredible.  Sometimes when it is cold out, we tend to hunker down inside and forget just how rejuvenating being outdoors can be. Even just going for a walk at -40F can really lighten your mood- that is if you’re dressed properly!

Thanks for all of the comments about my juice fast and new diet! It’s going really well.

While my digestion has been doing much better, my skin is super dry! Eating the proper fats does wonders for hydrating the skin and now my body is clearly not receiving enough of those. I’ve been putting almond oil on my skin once or twice a day to try and compensate for this and it is certainly helping, but is not near as effective as eating the fats. I’ve also started putting about a teaspoon of hemp seeds in my morning smoothies to give my body a teensy bit of good fat and I seem to be digesting it just fine. I’ve started adding a bit of oats to my smoothies as well. Low-fat smoothies just weren’t working to keep me full and I don’t always have something on hand to eat with the smoothie, so I needed another alternative. Adding a tablespoon or two of oats has done the trick, making for a tasting, filling smoothie with staying power.

Another way I am helping my skin is with a DHA supplement. I’ve always taken a DHA supplement since for as long as I can remember I have eaten little or no meat; however, I stopped taking my supplements when I began my juice fast and have yet to reintroduce them all. Before today I had resumed taking my multi, vitamin D (If you live in Fairbanks, you’ve gotta take a vitamin D supplement!), and magnesium/ calcium (to help with period cramps- I’ll let you know if it works!) supplements with no problems. I’ve been a little scared to resume my DHA supplement, but it’s gotta happen eventually. I took one a few hours ago and so far, so good! Woo!

I had a serious moment of weakness last night and ate about 4 tablespoons of peanut butter… ummm…

When I woke up this morning, I had a little cystic acne eruption on my nose and two cysts on my back and have been super gassy all day. Too much information?

I know, I know, I should have known better than to eat that, I normally don’t even eat peanut butter, but I still struggle with hormonal/ emotional eating and it was like National Geographic when they drop a bloody fish into shark infested waters.

In summation 4 tablespoons of peanut butter is NOT conducive to the health of my skin, digestion, or air quality. (Ha! Sorry… but not as sorry as my co-workers probably were! HAHAHA Okay, I’ll stop… ) I am surprised, though, that one incident affected my skin so dramatically. I’ll need to remember this the next time my HB’s peanut butter is staring me in the face.

Speaking of feeling hormonal, especially around certain times of the month… (Which explains the peanut butter feast…) I always get grumpy, crampy, and lethargic and have no desire to go to the gym, but you know what makes me feel better? Going to the gym!

I was just not feeling it today, but knowing that it would make me feel less bloated and grumpy, I dragged my butt there. As you know, I have recently became slightly obsessed with the stepmill; however, just thinking about it today made me want to curl up in my bed so I settled for something that I find considerably less intense, but still sweat inducing, the arc trainer.

click for source

This piece of equipment doesn’t make my muscles burn like the stepmill, running, or biking, but it manages to get my heart rate up without making me feel like I’m exerting a ton of energy. For me at least, it’s the perfect piece of cardio equipment for when I don’t feel like being at the gym, but still want to be in the habit of exercising.

Do you have a ‘lazy day’ exercise routine? How do you keep your skin nourished?

Until next time,

Nicki

Juice Fast Recap March 15, 2012

You’ve probably been wondering where I’ve been these past few days.

Let me begin where I left off…

When I last blogged Sunday afternoon, my second day of juice fasting, I had yet to feel any serious hunger or experience any sleep disruption aside from intensely vivid dreams. As Sunday afternoon expired into evening, I began to feel slightly hungry, but nothing major. As the night progressed, my hunger grew and insomnia followed. I ended up drinking a cup of grapefruit juice and falling asleep around 2:30 am. I was afraid I would wake up ravenous; however I felt great!

On the morning of day 3, Monday, I had tons of energy- not enough that I could go for a jog, but enough that I had intense mental clarity. I did notice two things. Firstly my skin was super dry! It gets dried out pretty easily living in the cold and dry climate that I do, but this was beyond normal. Secondly, I woke up on Monday with little pimples which is something I hardly ever get. I’m told this is a symptom of detoxification.

It was on this day that I realized how psychologically attached I am to eating. It wasn’t that I was hungry… I just missed the act of eating! I know this sounds really weird….I just wanted to put things in my mouth and chew!

What I realllly longed for though, was a great workout. I had taken a walk on both my first and second days of the fast, but simply could not muster the energy for anything more. My muscles were begging to burn!

Although I had started out the day feeling great, by the time I got home from work, I simply felt depleted and run-down. I had begun my fast on Friday night and decided to break it Monday evening. I feel like I could have fasted for much longer had I been able to rest during my fast instead of working for every day of it. I was expelling a lot of energy and, particularly on Monday as I couldn’t get to sleep Sunday night, not getting as much rest as I think I needed to continue the fast. I felt like I could not keep up with my busy daily schedule and did not have the luxury of taking time. When researching the fast, I found a number of doctors that recommend that patients with diseases such as Crohn’s and IBS do a 1-3 day juice fast. Admittedly, I did feel like a bit of a wuss for breaking my fast early, but with this information in mind, I sat down to eat.

I was expected that I might be tired during the fast; however, I did not take into consideration how I was going to feel when I began reintroducing solid food into my diet. I was exhausted! This digestion business really is hard work! I fell asleep shortly after breaking my fast on Monday and almost immediately when I finished work on Tuesday! I was simply exhausted. As I said, I was not anticipating that. I finally had enough energy last night, Wednesday, to get my booty back to the gym. Ahhh… it felt incredible! I did 25 minutes on the stepmill, followed by a nice ab workout- it had been a few weeks since my stomach felt good enough to do an ab workout!- and ended with stretching.

I’m glad that I did the fast. It was a great way to reset my system and figure out what foods are truly disrupting my digestion.

click for source

….*Drum Roll*….

Here are things that I have been able to reintroduce into my diet without causing an angry belly:

wilted greens

green peas

apple (with the skin)

sweet potato (with the skin)

black beans

romaine

tuna

blueberries

steamed broccoli

roasted beets

cocoa

balsamic vinegar

decaf coffee

…something is telling me that fiber isn’t the problem here…

Here are things that I have not been able to eat without digestive disruption:

avocado

sunflower / pumpkin seed butter

tahini

coconut

pili nuts

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

FATS!

I think that I’m having a hard time digesting fats.

It’s no wonder that I couldn’t figure out what was disrupting my stomach! Between nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut, milks, butters, and oils, I was consuming fat every time that I ate!

Here’s the game plan. For the next few weeks, I am going to eat a very low fat diet and see how I feel. Depending upon how it goes, I might begin adding in small amounts of fats to see how my digestion handles it. I’m also curious to see how my stomach responds to the reintroduction of my DHA supplement. I’ll keep you posted!

I’m really excited to hear what you, my loyal readers, think about my experience!

Nicki

Juice Fast Day 2 March 11, 2012

Day two of my juice fast- woo hoo!

Needless to say, I am in a much better mood than yesterday. My headache is gone as is my fogginess o’ the brain.

I had super complex and vivid dreams last night. I’ve been reading a lot about juice fasting and this appears to be a common occurrence. Last nights dreams were particularly entertaining as I am reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. All night long it was woods, knights, battles, and countrysides. Now if only I had a few free days to finish off the book and read the whole series!

The second thing that I noticed upon waking was that I wasn’t hungry. I had anticipated my stomach to be screaming for breakfast, but it was completely calm.

You may not know this, but I have eruptive cystic acne. I have tried what I thought was everything (aside from going on birth control, but that is a topic for a different time). Anyway, shortly before or during my period, I get this little cysts that erupt into little sores. The sores take a long time to heal- like a month. By the time they’ve healed, I have my period and get them again. They stay consistently red and inflamed regardless of how much I clean them or what I apply to them. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I hate it! People comment on it a lot, always asking me what I’ve done assuming that I’ve gotten some sort of weird scrape or something so I try to keep it covered which isn’t too hard as the most common spots for the cysts are on my chest and arms. My upper arms also get these tiny little bumps on them that sometimes get red and blotchy. Anyway, since I had tried everything I could think of to get rid of them, I had gotten to the point of acceptance that it was just going to be something I had to deal with.

It is at this point I should mention that the community acupuncturist that I was seeing last year insisted that my skin condition was being caused by an unknown food that I was having a hard time digesting. In response to this, I gave up rice. Which helped some, but not completely. (If you’re interested in a great community acupuncture clinic in Fairbanks, check out AcuTribe Community Acupuncture on Facebook!).

Why, you may ask, am I suddenly ‘airing my dirty laundry’? Yesterday, the sores on my arms and chest looked red and angry as usual. This morning, those red, gross sores that usually take a month to heal, were not red at all and almost completely healed! I just sat there staring at my arms in awe! I wish I would have taken before and after photos as you have to see it to believe it. Since I have been so focused on healing my digestion, I had not even considered how this juice fast would affect my skin. It looks fabulous! I am thrilled. Thrilled! In theory, I knew that digestion affects the skin, but I hadn’t dreamed of such drastic results. Let’s hope that awesome healing is happening internally as well!

Today, day two of my juice fast, my skin is amazing, my mood is great, and my mental clarity is awesome! hehe and my kitchen is now clean. I don’t feel like I could go for a jog or lift weights, but I have the energy to do all of my other ‘normal’ activities. I was expecting to still feel miserable today, perhaps even worse than yesterday, but today I feel positively glowing.

As a side note, when I was researching juicing, I read that some people stop taking their medications while juicing. I take natural thyroid medication and did not stop taking it during my fast. And yes, for those of you that are wondering, I initially attempted to heal my thyroid with herbs, diet, and exercise and just kept getting sicker.

Anyway, so far so good on the juice fast front. I’ll keep you posted!

Nicki

First Day of my juice fast and awesome shoes! March 10, 2012

Hello everyone!

You’ve all been giving me a ton of love recently and I really appreciate it! Thanks for being so great!

Speaking of great people, have you checked out ShannonMarie of Rawdorable? She was the winner of my pecan pie baby contest and she featured my creations on her blog. Woo! Rawdorable is really fun and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it!

Today is the first day of my first ever juice fast. I’m trying to post snip-its of what I’m juicing on Facebook, so if you’re interested, Like ChenaRaw.

Where to begin… Firstly, I feel like I don’t have very much energy… ugh. This will probably be a very short post as I am forcing myself to write it. On Saturdays I usually plunge head-first into making my kitchen sparkling clean, creating new recipes, and most recently, blogging. Not today. I just can’t bring myself to do it. I also have a slight headache and a little ‘brain fog’. I curled this morning and went for a 45 minute walk this afternoon, so I was able to do some physical activity.

To be truthful, at this point I would probably be asking myself if maybe I was making some sort of mistake doing this cleanse. As you can tell, I am a wee bit miserable. EXCEPT…

Oh my belly! I can’t remember the last time I had a happier belly. Today has been a day of no bloating, abdominal discomfort, or cramping. A whole entire day! AN ENTIRE DAY! Woo! In case you are just tuning in, for months I thought I had my irritable digestion fairly under control, but for the past two weeks, it doesn’t seem to matter what I do or don’t eat, food = angry belly. I have resorted to juice fasting as a means to allow my digestive track to get cleaned out and to heal. To heal from what, I’m not sure, but something isn’t quite right…

I was originally planning a juice fast for all of spring break; however, I will be participating in events later in the week that will not allow me to continue fasting. I could feasibly fast for 5 days, but have decided to re-evaluate at the end of day 3.

I have been supplementing my juice intake with kombucha and I am glad I did as it gives me noticeably more energy than juice alone.

Okay, now that I have probably depressed you with my lack o’ food woes, I feel obliged to share something fun with you. My sister just opened an Etsy store! She makes and sells blingtastic shoes.

They’re not all heels.

So far she has been making sales by word of mouth, but now she has opened her talents to the world! She makes custom orders too, so if you want something special, let her know.  And guess what? She just made me a pair! To check them out, go to her Etsy shop, ShoesByKatie, on the left hand side find shop info and click on sales.

Here’s the latest pair she posted. Can you imagine how awesome the fringe will look when the wearer is walking or dancing?!?! I might have to start wearing heels just so I can have a pair of these…

AND, since she just opened her store, she is having a Grand Opening Sale for the entire month of March. Woo hoo!

Thanks for listening to me gush about my sister’s shop- I’m just so proud of her! It was a great distraction from thoughts of the foods that I’m craving, which are: sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, and my raw english muffins with sunflower seed butter… mmmm!

Stay tuned for more updates on my fast!

P.S. Some people call it a juice feast. hahaha They’re silly!

Raw Vegan English Muffins March 4, 2012

Whew. This past week has been super busy and stressful, but it’s been a great weekend! I’ve gotten plenty of rest, went on a date with my honey, and I got to go curling twice!

We also went to the World Ice Championships. (Click the link to find awesome photos of the sculptures!)

First off, let me just say that there is decaf in the cup. Secondly, SCUBA Diver ice sculpture!!! Thirdly, if I look awkward and uncomfortable, it is only because I was fearing for my poor little toes! Shortly after this was taken I ran/ hobbled into the warming hut to massage my cold piggies! I have shoes and I have -40F boots. I have yet to get something for intermediate temperatures. The same can be said of my gloves. I have super intense gloves or no gloves at all, hence the large mitts that I’m rocking!

So far they only have the kids park and the single ice block competition completed so we might have to stop back later this month. It is absolutely incredible what these artists can do with a single block of ice. Equally impressive is the size of the ice blocks that they use. I have yet to see it done, but I’m told that they harvest the ice from local lakes and rivers- crazy!

I made a really fun recipe last weekend, well, three types of the same recipe. I’ve discovered that if my morning smoothies don’t have enough calories, I don’t stay full for very long, but if they have too many calories or are too large, I get too full or find them too rich. My solution to this has been to have a little something to eat along with a lower calorie smoothie. In the past I’ve made yummy raw vegan biscuits with almond pulp and fruit. These can turn out awesome, but if they are even just a bit over-dehydrated, I find them difficult to chew and do not enjoy eating them. My quest was to create something more bread-like- spongy and sliceable. Enter raw vegan english muffins! I made three types and they were all great. They make a beautiful breakfast and the perfect on-the-go snack. I enjoyed mine sliced with this sunflower seed butter sandwiched in between. I realized after I devoured them all (over the course of a week ) that I forgot to take a photo of the finished product. Luckily, they looked just about the same after I took them out of the dehydrator as before I put them in.

The instructions are the same for all three recipes. First I’ll give you all of the recipes and then I’ll follow up with the instructions.

Touch O’ Sweet Muffins

1 apple pureed

1/4 cup sunflower seed pulp, packed 

1/2 cup almond pulp, packed

2 Tbsp psyllium husks

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp water

Notes: These are a slightly sweet without an intense flavor. I intended these to be apple cinnamon in flavor; however there is not enough apple or cinnamon! In the future if I wanted to create an apple cinnamon ‘english muffin’, I would put considerably more cinnamon and chunks of dried apple.

These are perfect with a yummy jelly!

Banana Chocolate Muffins

1 banana

1/4 cup sunflower seed pulp, packed

1/2 cup almond pulp, packed

2 Tbsp psyllium husks

3 Tbsp cacao/ cocoa powder

(I prefer Navita’s Naturals cacao powder, but all I could scrounge up was Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder)

pinch of salt

1 Tbsp water

Notes: In future I will add more chocolate to create a super intense chocolate experience, but that’s just how I roll. Because of the banana, the batter for these muffins is particularly sticky. Don’t let that worry you, they’ll still turn out great!

 Cinnamon Muffins

1/4 cup sunflower seed pulp, packed

1/2 cup almond pulp, packed

2 Tbsp psyllium husks

2 dates, soaked (Save the soak water!)

2 Tbsp soak water

2 Tbsp orange juice

3/4 tsp cinnamon

Notes: The combination of the dates and orange juice comes directly from my pecan pie babies recipe. Yum! Perhaps at some point I will substitute pecan meal for the sunflower seed pulp.

Instructions

Mix everything in a food processor until you have a well blended, fairly homogeneous mixture. Form the mixture into balls, pressing the mixture together as you shape it. Depending upon the size and thickness you want your muffins, you should have 2-4 balls of batter. My favorite thickness was when I divided the mixture into thirds, but this is a personal preference. Flatten the balls into the shape of an english muffin. I prefer mine about 4 inches in diameter. Place muffins on Paraflexx sheets and dehydrate at 135F for an hour. Reduce temperature to 115F and dehydrate for another 5 hours. Flip muffins onto a mesh sheet and dehydrate for another 6 or so hours.

One of the things I really like about these is that you do not have to be exact with your dehydration. I dehydrated them overnight and then flipped them and dehydrated them for 3 more hours. Again, this will depend upon the thickness of your muffins. These store well in the refrigerator. I actually enjoyed them more chilled than fresh out of the dehydrator. I imagine that these store well in the freezer, but I have yet to attempt it.

Let me know how yours turn out!

Spring break is rapidly approaching- yeehaw! (I’m from Iowa, I get to say these things. ) Despite my belly friendly diet, I’ve been having a bit of digestion trouble lately. My thought is that there is a bit of residual damage from the years of unintentional abuse that I subjected my gut to. I am considering doing a 9 day juice fast over spring break to give my belly a chance to heal.

Click for source

I also want to ‘reset’ my relationship with food. I’ve been feeling rather gluttonous lately and I think a juice fast would be a great way to remind myself that the purpose of food is to nourish my body and not to serve as some sort of emotional crutch, which, sadly, is sometimes what I slip up and use it for. Additionally, everyone I know that has done a juice fast claims to feel amazing afterwards. I like feeling amazing!

Do you have any experience with juice fasting? What do you think?

Pecan Pie Anyone? February 26, 2012

Man, oh man. Not to brag, but I did 40 minutes on the stepmill today! Are you impressed? I am! I did the fat loss program and started at level 7. (There are 20.) After 20 minutes, however, I had to go down to level 5. When there were seven minutes left to go, I had to envision myself nearly to the top of a beautiful hill. This worked for a few minutes, but by the time there were only three minutes left to go, I hauled myself up those steps solely so that I could brag about going for an even 40 minutes.

Tomorrow starts the first day of the UAF Chancellor’s Fittest Winner competition. This is a team-based competition based 80% on minutes of exercise per week and 20% on pounds lost per week. The competition lasts the entire semester with weight and exercise reporting every Monday. The best part is that there is no limit to the size of the team and just about everyone that I work with has agreed to be on my team. Woot! In honor of this, I am going to be sharing my daily exercise with you.

Check these babies out…

The grocery store finally got medjool dates in stock! They switched brands and holy cow, these are the best dates I have ever had, ever! They are smooth, moist, and have the most delicious caramel flavor. They are incredible! If you’re in Fairbanks, they are at Fred Meyer’s west in the organic produce section. They might be at Freddie’s east, but I have yet to verify this. Anyway,

dates = raw desserts = pecan pie babies!!!

Without further delay…

Pecan Pie Babies

(makes 4)

Crust

1 cup almonds

5 dates, chopped

1/8 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor. You want it to be roughly the texture of potting soil. Roll and press the ‘dough’ into four balls and press the balls into a muffin pan, forming crusts.

Filling

8 dates, soaked

3 Tbsp soak water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp orange juice

16-20 pecans

Blend everything except the pecans into a smooth paste. I used my food processor. Fill the crusts with the filling and smooth the tops. Crunch 4-5 pecans on top of each pie.

 Push pecans into filling.

Freeze or refrigerate babies until they are firm and use a butter knife to ease them out of tin. Enjoy!

Notes: I had a bit of filling left over. I was considering making a quarter batch of the crust recipe and making a fifth baby. While contemplating this, I dipped a pecan into the filling and popped it in my mouth… and that’s how all of the leftover filling got eaten!

I’ve been working on making a raw ‘english muffin’ recipe. Hopefully I’ll have something to share with you later this week.

Let me know what you think about the pecan babies!

Until later my friends,

Nicki

Chena Hot Springs and a stepmill February 21, 2012

Hello, hello.

What a great weekend! Friday we went to Chena Hot Springs.

As you can probably guess, this photo is not of me and my honey, but it is of me and the fam in the hot spring last year. hehehe It was nice and steamy so it’s a bit hard to see, but as you can tell, it is great fun.

Here is what the hot spring looks like during the fall. If you click on the photo, it will take you to the website of the resort that runs the hot springs.

Ahhh! So relaxing. I always feel invigorated after a nice soak. I’ve heard that due to various mineral content in hot springs, that soaking in them can actually be detoxifying. I was really excited to research this and show you, but sadly, I could find no research articles describing any such thing. However, hot springs and sweat lodges have been used by native people’s of Alaska for the relief of joint pain, sinus infections, skin conditions; and for mental health. This short paper about cross-cultural medicine gives a brief insight into some of these practices. Either way, is you ever get the chance, I suggest you hop in some hot springs even if it’s just to have fun! Usually I can stay in the spring for a decent amount of time, but this time, my belly kept getting overheated! Weird, right? If I went into shallow water, my arms got cold… I ended up beaching myself on a rock with my belly poking out into the air and arms and legs dangling in the water. I’m sure looked as sexy as I felt!

Speaking of looking sexy, have you ever seen one of these…

Stepmill

I had seen these before and I would be lying if I said that I was not terrified simply looking at them. My glutes burn just seeing one of these babies. My current gym has two of these and every time I see someone on them, they are absolutely dripping sweat. Clearly this machine is not for the faint of heart or those new exercise. Work up to it if you have to. In my quest toward a leaner, more bootylicious bod, I decided to face my fear and hop on one of these bad boys. The first thing I noticed is that unlike most cardio equipment, which I can hop on and proceed to zone out to the Food Network, I actually have to pay attention while on the stepmill or else I step up too high and kick the machine or risk descending to low and falling off. Maybe this is just because I’m new to the stepmill… perhaps with time this will not be a problem. I hope I don’t sound too pathetic when I say this, but I was pretty darn sweaty after only ten minutes on this thing! I stayed on for a total of 20 minutes and it was awesome! Not only did I get a great cardiovascular workout but I could ‘feel the burn’ in my legs. Gotta love multi-tasking!

Birthday treats aside, I’ve been doing decent with my goals… not awesome, but I only have so many hours in a day! I wanted to exercise 6 days a week, but I’ve only been getting 4 days in, which isn’t bad. I’ve been doing pretty well cutting back on sugars, and decent on cutting back on fats. Here’s a snack I’ve been having sometimes during the afternoon: 2-3 celery sticks, 1-2 carrots, half an apple, a few leaves of green leaf or romaine lettuce. Chop it all up, drizzle with almond butter and mix! Yum! Update: Or instead of half an apple, use half a banana and mash it up with the almond butter to get a sweet dressing!

If you haven’t noticed yet, I put a Blogs I Follow tab at the top of my page. Check ‘em out!
I’ve also added boxes along the right hand side of my page so you can follow me via e-mail and Facebook.

Until later my friends,
Nicki

Birthday Lasagna! February 19, 2012

Whew! If Lasagna and alfredo had a vegan baby, it would be the creation I whipped up today in honor of my honey’s b-day.

Lasagna is one of those delicious creations that, at least for me, is a serious time sink, but for my babe, bring it on!

I wanted more veggies than this, green peppers and zucchini for sure, but alas, produce in Fairbanks in winter…

Alfredo Lasagna

5 cloves garlic

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow onion

4 white mushrooms

3.5 oz. basil (the clamshell in the photo is 4 oz.)

a few handfuls spinach

1 package gluten free lasagna noodles

1 jar italian herb tomato sauce

1 package sprouted tofu

1 package Daiya mozzarella flavored shreds

2 cups cashew cheese (see below for easy cashew cheese recipe)

3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

1 tsp salt

I crumbled the tofu and sautéed it with diced onion, garlic, mushrooms, and pepper and set it aside. I then blended the cashew cheese, basil, nutritional yeast, and salt together to make a super yummy basil cheese. I cooked the noodles as directed and layered them with the tofu blend, basil cheese, Daiya, spinach, marinara sauce and topped it off with more marinara and a generous sprinkling of Daiya. I cooked it at 400F until the sauce was bubbly.

mmmm...Creamy!

The cashew cheese in this dish is amazing! It blends together with the marinara for a delicious alfredo effect. It’s incredibly rich and makes for a great treat, but due to the high fat and calorie content i do not recommend eating it on a daily basis.

I have seen a number of recipes for cashew cheese, but here’s what works for me.

I soak cashews for 6-8 hours. I then drain and rinse them and blend them in a food processor adding 1 tablespoon of unpasteurized miso for each cup of cashews that I have. I will add a little bit of water if I’m having trouble blending it all, but the less water you add, the more of a cheese-like texture you will end up with. You want to ferment the cheese on a surface that allows drainage, but does not allow the cheese to fall through. I take a nut milk bag and rubber band it over a bowl and pile the cheese on top of that. You then let your cheese sit for 14 or so hours. Because my counters are a bit to cool for cheese making, I put the cheese in my dehydrator and cycle the heat between off and the lowest setting. When you put the cheese in a dehydrator, it forms a rind on the outside. Don’t be alarmed, this is normal and can add depth to the cheese. If you cycle your dehydrator, the rind will be thin enough that the cheese will still blend well. After you have allowed the cheese to ferment, store it in the fridge. I’m not sure how long it will last in the fridge as I never can keep it around long enough to test it!

There was a gorgeous aurora last night. I hope my fellow Fairbanksians got to see it!

I would love to stay and chat, but homework calls.
Do you make any special birthday treats?
Until later my friends,
Nicki