RA Gone Wild and Yummy Flax Cookies

Hi everyone! Long time since I posted. Sorry but crazy times around here with the son graduating college, the other son in baseball playoffs, daughter in dance recitals, end of school year stuff – all this and a really bad RA flare – and I mean really bad – wild bad. Cannot get out of bed bad. I think I need a rope contraption on the ceiling so I can somehow be hoisted out of bed!

As some of you may know from my other blog RA is Wild, I have been eating way more cooked food lately. After 5.5 months on raw, and my RA getting so much worse I had to make changes.  I am still trying to be at least 50% raw throughout the day and seem pretty successful with that. All it takes is a huge salad at lunch, or maybe a hummus wrap with lots of veggies and a green smoothie at breakfast, and I find it easy to stay above the 50% raw mark. Last week I was feeling a little better but this week has been really, really (did I say really?) hard. Coping with extreme, chronic pain can be tough to deal with mentally too. I have the greatest husband in the world who is very supportive and helpful – Love you hubby!

So my RA has been really bad lately and my hands do not work at all. In fact when I wake up, they are numb and very painful (I know that sounds weird to be numb and have pain at the same time but that is how I describe it). My wrists hurt so bad that I am icing them in the morning. But when life gives you lemons, what do you do? Make cookies! lol  - Even if my hands are not working I can make these easy cookies. Nothing will stop me from making cookies! I will make them with my elbows if I have too!

The other day I made Averie's No-Bake Vegan Flax Seed Cookies and these are really good! What a great way to incorporate flax into your diet and they are sooo easy! I added a TBSP of Almond Butter just because. Now she makes a much prettier version of cookies than I do, but remember I have mangled, painful hands! haha

Head on over to Averie's site as she has some wonderful vegan recipes and advice. She is a really wonderful person and blogger and is very inspirational!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Weekend! God Bless you all!

Quickie Blackberry Nut Milk Ice Cream & other confessions

Happy Saturday night everyone! Hey, so my kids wanted Thrifty (now Rite-Aid) ice cream. So like a good mom I went and got them some and had to hold two pints of cookie dough and pralines and cream ice cream in each hand for the drive home..How agonizing was that? I do not care how healthy the raw diet is, I miss ice cream. So I decided to make a quickie raw version using some brazil nut milk I had in the frig and some fresh blackberries. It was like magic – well almost…it turned out pretty good and calmed my ice cream cravings down.

I have made some killer raw ice cream before using a recipe from Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Dessert Book (and I mean it was to die for!). This was a quickie version and it did the trick. I kept the agave to a minimum as I seem to feel it if I eat too much of that stuff (kind of the way I feel when I used to eat too much sugar).

 

Now onto the confession part – Forgive me for I have sinned. I am a very bad raw girl! It has been five months on the High Raw Diet – and yesterday I decided to treat myself to some crappy fast food at my fav place Del Taco. I ordered a small bean burrito no cheese. Its VEGAN. So why did I feel so guilty?

I am sure the guilt stems from that the fact that there is probably crappy ingredients in the tortilla and beans. I can make my own beans and buy my own tortillas and at least know every single ingredient that is in there. I do know that Del Taco has vegan beans and tortillas so at least that is good to know. But I have to confess that I LOVED EVERY BITE OF THAT BURRITO. I do feel deprived on the raw diet lately and I cannot help it. I am going thru a "If I eat another salad I am going to kill myself" phase!

~ Although this salad with Creamy Tahini dressing (recipe from

www.kristensraw.com) was really good ~

It is such a pain in the butt to make salads and eat healthy sometimes!

Ya know Dr. Fuhrman (the Eat to Live Doc) says if you can eat healthy 90% of the time you have mastered the art of healthy eating. So maybe I should treat myself every now and then to vegan cooked stuff. I am still high raw (like on average 80-90%) but I do enjoy the cooked vegan food ALOT when I have it!

Here is a list of cooked vegan food I have had throughout my duration of being High Raw (I have been 100% Vegan since I started and NEVER deviated from that – my kids were daring me to try a bite of real ice cream tonight!)

• Homemade Veggie burgers
• Quinoa Spaghetti and Organic Spaghetti sauce
• Stir Fry Veggies
• Roasted and baked potatoes
• Pinto beans
• A few French fries here and there
• Baked sweet potatoes
• Gluten Free and Vegan Scones (Homemade and killer)
• and ONE small Del Taco Bean Burrito NO cheese!

Now I have stayed high raw even though I have incorporated some of these items into my diet now and then. I could really see myself going more cooked vegan and REALLY enjoying it! So I am going to start making that transition. Especially since I cannot stay raw and backpack in the high Sierra's for two weeks, I better get my bod used to digesting cooked food.

I have to be careful though as I could easily be an overweight vegan. I like to eat ALOT of food and I can do that on raw and not gain weight. I know I would gain weight eating alot of vegan spaghetti and scones!

So I hope everyone has a great weekend! Summer is almost here! I went for a four mile walk today with the hubby and daughter. Trying to get into shape for upcoming backpacking trips!

Psycho Killer and Vegan Martinis

I can’t seem to face up to the facts.
I’m tense and nervous and I... can’t relax.
I can’t sleep, cause my bed’s on fire.
Don’t touch me I’m a real live wire.

Psycho Killer
Qu'est-ce que c'est?

fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa better
Run run run run run run run away
OH OH OH

This song is how I feel today~ It is one of those days! Especially the run away part! My RA is killing me, I am tired and could sleep the entire day away.  I had a Chocolate Cherry Bomb Shake by www.Kristensraw.com and used Hemp protein powder that has E3Live and Maca in it. Hopefully that will energize these weary old crippled bones! 

Yeah I know, this was NOT my Chocolate Cherry Bomb Shake…but it looks pretty good!

 

This puppy had raw cacao nibs on top…yum!

Here is the good ole Raw menu plan for today (I reserve the right to change this!)

Breakfast: Green Juice (I drank a quart!) – hey I save my Kale stalks from my massaged Kale salad and juice them later!

Lunch: Chocolate Cherry Bomb Shake with E3Live, MACA and Hemp

Snack: Apple

Dinner: Spinach salad with raw veggies and tahini dressing, my own Raw Kale Hemp Bread that I made and it was to die for…recipe coming soon.

 

Here is what I have been craving lately…

as if Raw martinis existed…raw vodka?

 

Good news! Vodka is Vegan – according to the Vegan Society in the UK…so that is good enough for me! I have not had a cocktail in four months. Now I am not much of a drinker at all (*cough* college days don't count), but semi-occasionally it is nice to mix a yummy, fruity martini and chillax a little. I used to love to go to the Cheesecake Factory with the hubby and sip on a Red Rasberry martini (one of the best drinks in the universe by the way.)

Absolut, Stoli, and Grey Goose are all Vegan. Just in case all you vegans wanted (needed) to know!

A GROSS, disturbing fact: Some drinks such as Campari are coloured with E120, a red colouring agent made from the red body material of scale insects (Dactilopius coccus). This is also found in some soft drinks and red wines. YUK – EEEWWW – Sounds like something Man vs. Wild would eat. The red body material of an insect. GROSS.

So what is everyone up to today on this ho-hum Monday? My 17 year old has a baseball game and then I am cooking chicken quesadillas for the fam. We are trying to go thru everything we have til payday. Of course my kids always tell me we have nothing to eat.  Last night they fought over pizza or Subway. I said "what do I care, I am raw, I don't eat that crap" – Raw gets me out of alot of dinner disputes!

Sorry my blog post is all over the place today…Psycho Killer, Martinis, Raw Shakes, Menu Plan…I am all over the place today!

I better run run run run run run run awaaaaaaaaaay!

PS – Now that song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day! hee hee

Gluten-Free-Vegan Blueberry Scones – Yeah baby!

Life has been sooo hectic lately! I cannot believe I have not posted in over a week! So…will Blueberry Cinnamon Scones make it up to you? And hold on to your raw socks – These are VEGAN and GLUTEN-FREE! Yeah, baby, yeah!

These scones are rockin' my house! Cant keep the fam away from them! Good thing for me, as I do not need the calories (And here I thought vegan food would never contribute to weight gain?! These would definitely!)

 Flying Apron's Blueberry Cinnamon Scones

These turned out so yummy! I have to admit that I tasted the dough and it had a weird taste to it. They are made with Brown Rice flour and Garbanzo bean flour so I figured the weird taste might be from these flours. But once cooked, they taste fantastic! You could spread Vegan butter on them or even coconut butter. The recipe is from the Flying Apron's Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Book. I am not a celiac but I am trying to watch my gluten intake, so alternative recipes make my heart soar! Yes, they are not raw, but a girl needs a baked treat now and then, don't cha think? I only had a nibble! But if I can get the family to eat healthy, vegan treats instead of the crap food they normally eat, then I have accomplished something.

So what's up Raw peoples? My raw intake the last week has been at about 70-80%. I am finding it hard to be 100% raw lately, as I am loving the stir fry veggies in coconut oil over brown rice combo – warm food just sometimes kicks butt over raw! And warm food just makes me happy sometimes. So I am all over that!

This past week I have been working out on the treadmill with walk-run intervals in my new Asics running shoes. I was hoping that running might jiggle loose some of this fat I am carrying around! Does it work that way?

Have a great Saturday!

Go Raw Cafe Vegas Review and Mid Life Crisis

Hey raw vegan peoples! On our way back from Utah Anniversary camping we stopped into the Go Raw Cafe in Vegas.  What a cute, little granola, hippy spot! When we walked in, they were having a yoga/vegan class which was kind of cool.

What a good sport the hubby is as he wanted the meat and potatoes thang!

 

Kind of a cafe feel to it…that's fine as I'm not a fancy girl

 

Anyways, short and sweet post here…everything here was pretty darn good. We ordered a Bruschetta Nut Cheez buckwheat appetizer thingy and I forgot to take a pic until the last bite! It was really, really, really, did I say really? good.

 Bruchetta Toast - “Cheese”, tomato, basil, garlic, pine nuts, & herbs

This was rockin' good

 

Next was the Go Raw House Salad…one of the best salads eva!

Go Raw House Salad
A mix of any or all of the following organic ingredients:
Mixed greens, cucumbers, shredded carrots, bell peppers,
tomatoes, sprouts, avocado, onion, nuts & seeds.

 

Then…

Mexicali Pizza - Topped with Mexi “cheese”, “beans”, “rice”,
guacamole, salsa, sour dream, & hemp seeds

This was rock your raw-socks-off crunking awesome!

I so wish I could uncook stuff like this!

I felt like I was in Berkeley when we walked in the Go Raw Cafe. If you have ever been to Berkeley you know what I mean. My kid attends Cal, and Berkeley is a cool, hippy, vegan, granola town. Vegas..not so much, but this cafe had a little slice of that Berkeley feel. They also had raw food items you could purchase off the shelf. The only thing I did not care for here was their desserts. Amazing as I usually love raw desserts, but the ones here were so-so.

 

Utah Camping post to come soon! Got my hubby his 50th birthday present early. A Jeep Rubicon! He has always wanted a Jeep. Its kind of a man-mid-life crisis thing I guess. My son reminds me that 50 is NOT mid-life but age 40 actually is. I guess we are 10 years late on the mid-life crisis.

Moab here we come! Water fast may be in order for awhile so I can recover financially from the Rubi purchase!

The most amazing sunset and I'm out of here!

McClure Meadows at Sunset – Evolution Valley August 2009

in the High Sierra Backcountry

Hey my little vegans! Quickie post! I am off for anniversary camping this weekend with the hub-a-dub-dub. No kiddos on this trip (bittersweet – I always miss them). So anyways, if I get a chance I will finally snap a pic of the food I tote along on these camping trips. High Raw, lots of fresh produce and a little vegan cooked meals at night. I will tell you a secret (sssshhh!) I might sneak a little popcorn in at night while we watch Lost on the I-Touch. I soooo miss popcorn! We are almost finished with season 3 – and yes I like Sawyer…can't help myself.

Quickie list of food stuff I am bringing:

RAW ITEMS:

Nut milk, a tad bit of raw granola

Frozen green juice

Teeccino herbal tea

Apples, oranges, pineapple – all fresh and organic

Massaged kale salad with carrots and hemp seeds

Fresh guacamole and salsa with raw corn chips

Pure and Larabars (But I am trying to stay off these lately)

Gena's Chocomole

VEGAN ITEMS:

Mary Jane's outpost Vegan backcountry meals

Quinoa spaghetti with Amy's organic pasta sauce

Bell peppers and onion for fajita stir fry with a brown rice tortilla

Popcorn (ssshhh!)

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend and see you in March! Oh and we have to see the tax man on Monday – boo!

Feeling Raw-Blah and yummy granola bars

It's official! I have been raw (well high raw) for three months now. It is also my 18th Wedding anniversary this weekend! Well, the date is really February 29th but that only comes every four years. I am sure you are wondering why anyone would pick Feb. 29th for their wedding day, but that is another post! In honor of these two momentous occasions I decided to make some yummy treat to take with us this weekend as we are going camping (of course). My hubby and I are turning into hippies as we get older, and camping just seemed the right way to celebrate 18 years of bliss! (haha – mostly bliss).

So hop on over to Miss Averie's site and check out her recipe for High Raw Vegan Chocolate-Coconut-Chia-Oat Dessert/Energy Bars.  These were so fantastic during the creation process that I could not stop licking the spoon! I did omit the banana as I still detest them. I also added some pre-soaked pumpkin seeds and pecans.

I should have taken a pic with the spoon in the batter but I was to busy applying it to the inside of my mouth!

 

This is just delicious goodness! High Raw yumminess!

Now I popped this into the freezer and later I will cut them into bars and package them up for our camping trip. I am still trying to lose a little weight (can I get a grrrr!) on the raw diet and having trouble with it even though I eat nothing but green juice and kale all day long.  I will make sure to only eat one small bar a day while camping…maybe a snack.  And just so you know, I did not have enough peanut butter, so I added some sunflower seed nut butter and they still turned out fab.

So my thoughts on this RAW diet thang– has it helped my Rheumatoid Arthritis?

I went through some NASTY detox symptoms (at least I think they were detox symptoms). Within one week of the raw diet (and I was 100% raw from the get-go) my knees were super stiff and hurt all day long. My RA got much worse everywhere. Basically I started a major flare and I think it was detox symptoms. Maybe us RA people detox in a weird, joint-associated way. I took more prednisone during this time period than the last 13 years of my RA disease.

Still injecting Enbrel into my thighs 2x/week. In fact, it does not work as good as it used to since I went raw – go figure!

Has my RA improved overall in the last three months?

Well, let me see – in a word – NO.  How sucky is that? I am still worse than when I started. I think it might take longer to detox for people with auto-immune disorders. But I am no expert. I can only tell you what I have experienced.

Have I seen any health symptoms improve?

YES and can I get a YES. I know this a tabu subject but can we talk constipation? I am the queen of it. No the King of it. No the Galactic Ruler of it! I have struggled for my entire life with the number 2 thing. I lived on Senekot. I am sure I kept that company in business. I have tried it all, Benefiber, Metamucil, you name it I have tried it. Now I have always consumed massive quantities of water so that was never an issue. Before I went raw, I ate a ton of steamed green beans which seemed to help but then I would digress to my old sluggish ways. RAW has seemed to cure me of this awful problem. So was it meat, dairy, crap processed food? Do I lack enzymes that help me digest stuff? I have no idea, all I know is that the RAW diet has CURED my constipation.

How about weight loss on the RAW diet?

Yeah whatever (She says with arms folded and back turned!) – Seriously, damn it. I lost seven pounds when I first began this diet, but since then I have lost NOTHING. ZIP. NADA. In fact, I have put on two pounds. Now, to be fair, when I started RAW I had just had a hysterectomy so I basically laid around for three months due to a horrid recovery. So I am sure I lost some muscle mass. In the last month I have really stepped it up and I am lifting weights again and walking alot with the hubby. Yes, it does hurt to lift light weights and exercise when you have RA. At times I find myself cursing my own body parts (damn these wrists, damn you to hell!) but we RA people have got to keep moving no matter what. So maybe the two pound weight gain is muscle? At least I can tell myself that! But after three months of being RAW (two months 100% raw, and this last month high-raw), I expected to be down at least 10 pounds! What the heck is going on? I will have to cut off an arm to lose that last five pounds.

What about your hair and skin?

Is my hair fuller and thicker? NO. But keep in mind I have RA, and the meds make you go bald (seriously, I used to have 100 times more hair). Has my skin improved? Do I have that glow everyone talks about? NO! In fact I still have adult acne at times. I always battle clear skin. I was hoping going RAW might really help that but so far I have not seen any difference in my skin.

SO IS RAW WORTH IT?

Besides the obvious benefits of helping stave off animal cruelty and environmental impact issues, the jury is still out for me as far as my health is concerned. I really had high hopes for going RAW. I really thought I might be able to get off all my meds one day. So far, this seems to be unattainable for me. RA drugs have really nasty side effects, but the disease is so debilitating that most choose to take the meds (including me) or I will cease to function. Now I realize my inside health has probably improved since I am not eating animal fat. I do realize all the benefits, but my main goal was to overcome this dang, crappy RA thing.

My Ultimate Goal

I want to transition to a high raw diet/vegan. I miss cooked food. I miss stir fry and soups. I miss going out to dinner with my hubby. I can see myself doing Raw for breakfast and lunch and eating a cooked vegan meal for dinner. I already find myself assimilating some cooked food into my diet and so far my digestive issues have not returned. I tell you one thing, being a vegetarian would be a piece of cake for me now! I think being dairy free is harder than not eating meat. Not that I ate that much dairy. In fact, I love nut milks and all the dairy alternatives, but eating at a restaurant and being dairy free is almost impossible. My favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, offers basically zilch for vegan options. Even their pasta is made with eggs, and veggies are cooked in butter, and milk products are added to sauces. Yes, I could order a plate of veggies cooked in olive oil but why bother spending the money. I can cook or uncook veggies my way at home.

Lately I am finding it hard to be on the Raw diet. The excitement is not there and I am getting bored of my food choices. Maybe I will feel different tomorrow!

Is it just me, or does everyone hit a RAW plateau? Do you ever get bored of the Raw diet? Maybe I am going through Raw Mid Life Crisis! lol

Raw Cookie Dough Cleanse – Day 1

Haha – gotcha! I am sure in heaven there is a cookie dough cleanse, but not here on Planet Earth baby! Even if they are made from all raw, vegan ingredients!  These little beauties are courtesy of the lovely Averie at www.loveveggiesyoga.com – and I have to tell you she is a cookie dough genius! This raw version is so much better than the real, non-vegan version. You have to try these and they are super easy to make.

mmmmm….cookie dough (as Homer Simpson would say)

Have you ever seen such a beautiful sight?

Averie's Raw Cookie Dough and My Brazil Nut Milk

To be honest, desserts on the raw diet ROCK – it is the main dishes I miss. I mean I grew up on In-N-Out double double…and I still miss them when the carnivore family orders them -

In-N-Out is an institution here in California. In high school, I would order a double double, a single, fries and a chocolate shake. Holy cr@p! I would gain 10 pounds in one day if I ate that now. And yes, I have watched Food, Inc. and know all the bad and nasty stuff about our meat supply – but -

I STILL WANT A DOUBLE DOUBLE!

Now this would be excessive. But someone ate this 16x16 burger. I wish my desire for some of my old eats would just go away! But I am sorry, my kale salad sometimes just does not compare to the In-N-Out double double. You Cali people know what I am talking 'bout!

What do you all miss on the Raw diet? Do you have any desire for the old foods you used to consume?

I can has veggie burger? lol

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I find myself feeling blah – and I do not know why. So I am trying to remind myself all the things I have to be thankful for and the list is long. God, husband, kids, family, friends, my life, etc. I need to express my gratitude everyday to all the good and wonderful things in my life. This seems to help the blahs!

So what's going on this Wednesday with you? This year is already flying by if you ask me. Of course ever since I turned 40 last year (ahem, cough, cough - lol) I feel like time travels at the speed of light!

So, I am starting to introduce a little more cooked, vegan food into my diet. Not everyday, but maybe twice a week. Got to get ready for a big backpacking trip in July (Sawtooth's? Justin you going?) where I will be eating cooked food every night. So I thought I would take a shot at some veggie burgers…..tada!

My first veggie burger thingys evah! Thanks to Angela at Oh She Glows for the Jiffy Spelt Burger Recipe (I used Oat flour instead of Spelt cuz I am trying to be gluten free these days). Heck I never even heard of Spelt until I went to Angela's site! How is that for ignorance! I do not think I have a gluten intolerance, but who knows what effects RA these days. So I am trying to cut out all that stuff. Its tough being raw and gluten free isn't it? Especially when your family is made up of voracious carnivores!

This morning I had green juice that was about the best green juice I have made as of late. I am trying to cut down my fruit in my green juice so I was a proud mama, only including one apple in this recipe. I LOVE celery in juice, do you? It gives such a salty kick to juice.

Today is ENBREL day. For those of you that do not know what this is, it is a Biological RA med that you inject 1 or 2 times per week depending on the type of ENBREL you are prescribed. RA is an autoimmune disease. So the short answer is, if you have RA, your immune system is attacking itself. Can I get a big BOO to that? ENBREL helps stop some of that bad-action-immune-system-attacking from occurring. So I got to inject this stuff and lately my thighs look like I am junkie. My bruises from the injections linger forever! Could I have a vitamin deficiency? We shall see as I am getting a full blood panel next week.

I hate taking this stuff. Yes, it makes my RA alot better, but the side effects suck – like Cancer, TB, infections, oh and even death. How's that for a cure for RA? Haha –

I won't get into the logistics of how ENBREL works to stop the immune system from attacking itself. But know this, ENBREL is EXPENSIVE. If you do not have insurance it is around $1500 for a one month supply. And it probably will not go generic since it is a biologic drug made in special facilities. It is very sad to think there are people with RA who cannot afford to take the latest breakthrough drugs to ease their symptoms. And if you are on Medicare fughettaboutit! With Medicare's tier pricing, you are in the donut hole in less than two months. Can you see why we need healthcare reform in this country?

*SIGH*

I started a RAW diet to see if I could get off this stuff. ENBREL helps me ALOT, but the side effects suck. Some of the side effects I have experienced recently are nerve issues in both hips and ENBREL warns about nerve damage among other things. But, if I do not take ENBREL, I will never get out of bed – Yes, RA sucks that much!

Let me list the positive things that the RAW diet has helped me with:

The good things RAW has done

• Constipation (I know a yukky subject, but it has cured me of this chronic ailment – a miracle!)
• Weight Loss – I was not heavy to begin with but I have lost about 6 pounds and I do not count calories – yeah!
• Food Addiction – I pretty much eat to live now instead of live to eat (does this make sense? – food does not have as much control over me as it used to)

What I am still waiting for RAW to do

• Acne – I do NOT have that glow or good skin yet? What is up!!!! Everyone on the raw diet says their skin clears up…well not mine! And I want it now! lol
• Energy – I feel NO difference in energy levels – boo. Maybe its my RA, no duh, I am sure its my RA
• More weight loss – having RA, I would like to be slightly underweight to put less pressure on my joints, but my body does NOT want to cooperate! I want to get to 115 lbs, but I think I will have to cut off an arm or something.
• Cure RA – well one can hope right?! At least ease my symptoms
• World Peace

Okay, so there you have my long-winded post! I hope everyone has a terrific night. My hubby and I are watching LOST on Hulu (my son, Cody, got us addicted, and we are on the final episode of season 1.

Love to all! – More backpacking pics for your enjoyment!

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Say Hey! RA go away! My Raw Food Journey

Welcome everyone - well where to begin...lets start at the beginning...At first the earth cooled and the dinosaurs came...oh wait, that is a different story. I started on a High Raw diet about two weeks ago. For the past 13 years I have battled that yukky disease called Rheumatoid Arthritis in which I will use the abbreviation of RASUCKS - just kidding - how 'bout plain old RA okay? Due to things beyond my control (like nerve pain and skin burning) I have to stop Enbrel - a great medication for helping RA but with super nasty side effects. So here I am - deciding to take control of what I can take control of - my diet. Thus, I started a journey to discover the Raw Food world. There are alot of awesome sites out there that will help you discover Raw food. I absolutely love Kristen's Raw - an awesome site filled with expert information on Raw Food and her books are the bomb! Okay I am rambling - off to make a banana-coconut-hemp smoothie (and you have no idea how much I hate bananas - strange I know).

Sidenote: After 13 days on a High Raw diet (for me at least 90% Raw) I still feel yukky! My RA is flaring bad! Knees are very stiff and I know I would feel much better if I could chop off my wrists and hands! (well I have thought about it from time to time as these joints cause horrid pain).