Kitchen Scrap Gardening

Some of my best backyard gardening results have come from what I call Kitchen Scrap Gardening.

Where most people see spoiled or useless foods, I see opportunity
for GROWTH!

Carrot tops! Cut them and throw them in the compost bin right?
NO! Even if there isn't any sign of growth on the carrot tops you can skewer them and keep them partially submerged in water in a sunny window and they'll sprout! These tops are ready for planting. They have healthy roots well over two inches long and plenty of greenery.
Sometimes with Carrots, you'll find them shoved way to the back of the fridge where they've been long forgotten. When you pull them out they may have white or yellow sprouts.
Set those puppies in a glass of water, the whole carrot if you wish! And place in a sunny window... the sprouts will turn green within a day or two. What a great way to teach the kiddo's about photosynthesis!



Celery is another super easy scrap to grow. When you cut the bottom nub off your bunch, don't toss it! Place it in a little water (make sure to change the water regularly or it will rot) Within a few days you'll have new growth from the center of the nub and eventually roots! Once you see the roots it's ready for dirt! Some people like to just plant directly into soil without windowsill rooting everything. But I prefer to get a good healthy set of roots before hand.

 

Potatoes! Letting potatoes sprout on their own is called "chitting". There's no difficult science here, you can have seed potatoes with very little effort. When the eyes start to grow just let them have their way! Once you have some good sprouts on them you can cut them down so each potato piece has it's own healthy sprout. Soak them in water over night and then plant away! Any variety of potato, including sweet potato will work, however It's my understanding that it's easier when you use organics. I've never tried conventional potatoes myself though.

Some more easily grown kitchen scraps are:

• Garlic
• rosemary
• pineapple tops (one of my favorite!)
• avocado seeds)
• onions of all sorts

So next time you discover something sprouted in your fridge, don't be so quick to throw it out! We have viable food all around us and nature often times does the hard part for us! Happy planting and Happy Gardening!
 

Repurposed Cloth Napkins

Not food related, but an earth friendly addition to my Garden!

I bought a bunch of 25 cent cloth napkins from goodwill, cut them in half and sewed them to a sturdy twine.

I'd like to stamp them or write on them, they're much like prayer flags and really add a nice splash of color to the back yard <3

Living Foods

Add caption

Why eat more raw foods?
I'll chop this down to a raw word version that's easy to digest for anyone. When put into simple terms even the most difficult bio-chemical lesson can be easily absorbed by the brain.

ENZYMES are why. In a nutshell.

More specifically, digestive enzymes are the ones we really want to focus our attention on right now.

Our pancreas produces digestive enzymes to battle, fight, break down, and help the body absorb nutrients from our food sources. The more processed and cooked foods we eat the more enzymes our body has to put out in order to get any nutrients out of it.

Why? Cooking food destroys enzymes.... and pretty much all nutrient content. The more you cook it, the less nutritional value it has. When you pulverize and process food enough to shove it in a box or can and label it with an expiration date you've pretty much killed every bit of recognizable life that food has... or, had.

For more reading on enzymes, I recommend The World's Healthiest Foods page on enzymes. This is a great website, when you're done reading about enzymes you really should click over to their food list. This is a great tool to bookmark for those interested in what specific nutritional value certain raw foods have.

If a pregnant woman wants more folic acid (folate), yet despises orange juice... there's asparagus!
If you're feeling run down and depressed more than usual, you may need a vitamin B kick, why not have a banana?

The fresher your foods, the more nutrients you can get out of them Not only because they HAVE more nutrients than something that's been cooked to death, but because fresh foods also provide the enzymes your body needs to get those nutrients out and absorbed into your system. Fresh and raw food do a lot of the work for you so parts of you, like your pancreas and your colon, have less of a work load.

An overworked pancreas and colon are run down and tired and susceptible to illness... like cancer.

So be kind to your body, help it out a little... or a lot! Provide yourself with the simple tools your body needs to function! Even adding just one raw food to each meal will lighten the work load on your digestive system. Keeping raw and living foods available to grab and snack on makes it easy to do!

Plant a garden! If you can't plant a garden, plant a pot. Have a fresh herb pot in your windowsill or some sprouts in your fridge. If you can grow a food, make sure the produce section of your store becomes your FIRST and LAST stop when you go grocery shopping. Keep bananas around, Apples, carrots and incorporate them into every day routines. Have one raw side dish at every meal. Chop an apple or celery stalk or throw down a hand full of baby carrots.

Adding living foods to your life can and will add life to your living!

Raw Apple Crisp

4 ingredient Raw Apple Crisp

1 large Organic Gala Apple diced
2-3 tbsp Organic Raw Honey
1/2 cup Almond Pulp
Dash or two of ground Cinnamon

mix all of your ingredients together
You may want to heat your jar of raw honey just a bit by placing it into a cup of warm water, raw honey tends to be a little more on the solid side than conventional honey. Use 2 or 3 tbsp depending on how sweet your sweet tooth is.

Transfer your mixture into a small deep dish or cereal bowl

Mash it down hard using the back of a spoon. The harder you mash it the more the juices of the apple will be released! Mash it until the surface is smooth and even.

Turn the bowl over onto a serving dish, you may need to coax it out by running a thin knife around the edges.

That's it! Sweet, crispy and 100% raw apple crisp style treat packed with nutrients and quite satisfying!

Cucumber Avocado Lettuce Wraps

 I was combing the internet today seeking inspiration for a flavorful, raw afternoon meal, armed with a rock solid craving for cucumbers! I ran across a couple of different lettuce wrap recipes and mix and matched to make my very own creation! Cucumber and Avocado Lettuce Wraps! I'm in love! And it's simple. No need for any exotic ingredients, this is pretty straight forward.

Two things I purchased today to add a little oomph to a rather blandly flavored few days I've had are:

• Ground mustard seed (REALLY was hoping for whole seeds to grind myself but I settled)
• Celery seed 

Both of these ingredients can be used very sparingly and still add quite a savory and full flavor to dishes with a lot f juices... in this case, the cucumber has provided all the moister needed to bring out the flavors. In this recipe you'll be adding a  dash of each of these... one shake! Maybe tow.

What you'll need in addition to the spices (this recipe is for a single serving, since I'm on my own in this house with the whole raw adventure) Organically grown of course!

• 1/2 ripe avocado cubed
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• One small or half of one large cucumber, peeled and grated 
• Handful of halved grape tomatoes
• Fresh herbs, I insist that you use dill for this because cucumbers and dill go together like... well, cucumbers and dill! I also grabbed some basil and thyme from the garden.
• Romaine lettuce leaves
• Sweet red pepper to garnish

 Combine the avocado, lemon juice, cucumber, tomato, herbs and spices in a bowl mixing gently until all ingredients are happy together, but not so much that they're turning to mush.

Now! Let it sit. Go do something else, fold the laundry, walk the dog, whatever. Just let it sit and soak itself up for a little while. Don't bother putting it in the fridge or covering it, you wont be gone THAT long. Just give it about 15 minutes or so to let all the flavors of the herbs and spices really leech into the natural juices of the cucumber.

When you come back give it another gentle stir and spoon onto your individual romaine leaves, and garnish with some sweet red pepper slices
.
I did three for myself and then my mom popped in and I forced one on her... she said it was very good so YAY... I totally agree, it's a very yummy dish. After 3.5 days of blandsville this was a welcome burst of flavor. I have a small amount left over that I'm going to store away for an evening snack. By then it should be busting at the seams with flavor!

If you try this recipe, or have a similar variation, please let me know in the comments!
OR
Find me on Facebook! ~~ The Manic Organic

Captains log

Day three on operation Raw Cleanse and I honestly don't have much to say about it. I feel great! So great I almost feel like I'm doing something wrong, but I'm totally not!

I'm a little envious of all the wonderful recipes I'm seeing other cleansers come up with, but my only reason for not being able to partake in such luxuries is that I've cut out all added oils and salts as well. Plus I really need to go shopping! I'm already out of all the cool stuff, I ate it first.

So my diet is pretty bland aside from a ginger or garlic kick here and there but I'm really learning to appreciate food in it's natural flavor state. I'm also drinking a lot of fresh juices wich are always very flavorful.

Today I started with a kale, carrot, apple, celery, lemon juice for breakfast after my coffee and I followed it with a big glass of water later in the morning.

I had some buckwheat hummus I made yesterday for lunch.
~~ Really simple! I just food processed some buckwheat I soaked over night  with half an avocado, a clove of garlic, some sweet red peppers, lemon juice and celery... zapped it all in the processor and I've been grazing on it since yesterday. A bit bland for the lack of oil and salt but satisfying for sure!~~

I've also sprouted some buckwheat , which took ONE DAY to sprout! I love that I can have a living food like that so quickly! Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but I'm happy to have it! Even if I just eat it alone it's a nutrient packed living food! Can't go wrong there!

I've been snacking on nuts and seeds all day which is probably what keeps me from being hungry... I pretty much never feel hungry. I eat more-so out of boredom it seems.

I went to the gym and I've cut my normal 30 mins of cardio and 30 mins of circuit training down to a total of 45 minutes and backed off my normal intensity a bit. I'm concerned that my lack of significant protein intake may make a harder workout more difficult for my body to recover from.

Yesterday in addition to 30 minutes of cardio I got to play with a whole bunch of kids at a Children's Drum Circle that I organized to celebrate the first day of spring... the dancing and festivities were so energizing! For sure a great day for physical activities!

This picture sums up yesterday quite well!

Today is lame, almost as lame as this blog post! I'm going to bed now and it's 11:00 so I should get some good sleep... I just had another big glass of fruit and veggie juice and my dog ran past me with a diaper in his mouth so seems like as good of a time as any to end this incredibly boring blog post

Raw Almond not Tuna Salad

I've been playing around with what to do with all of this almond pulp I have left over from making Almond Milk and I came up with a great, light and fresh tuna salad style dish!

I used:
 1 cup fresh almond pulp (milked this morning)
1/2 small hass avocado
juice of one lemon
2-3 tbsp almond milk
1/4 cup chopped celery
handful halved grape tomatoes

First you have to make the avocado mayo!
I found a recipe online for this, but I'm choosing not to use any additional oils in my foods for now and this recipe calls for cold pressed olive oil, which I'm sure, after a nice whirrr in the blender makes for a very smooth and creamy "mayo". I'm using almond milk instead and it's come out quite nice!

Take your peeled half avocado , lemon juice and almond milk and mix until smooth.
No real need to use the blender unless you're using the oil instead of the almond milk.

combine the almond pulp and veggies in a separate bowl and fold in your avocado mixture.

if your finished product is too dry for your liking, add a bit more almond milks. Not a lot!

 Again, bad photo, camera will e back up and running soon!

I served mine on a bed of mixed greens. It's a nice, fresh and filling lunch or snack! Double the recipe to make more but go easy on the lemon juice or you'll end up with a very tart dish!

Twas the night before ...

Tomorrow is the day!

My camera has dead batteries so for now my photos will be phone pics, sorry for the downgrade, but it works

I've chopped, rinsed, stored away and prepared all of my gobs of food. I'm still trying to decide what to do with 25 pounds of carrots though, I have NO room left in my fridge. The top shelf contains food for my daughter, her cream cheese and pasta sauces *sigh* . She's prepared to do most of her own cooking, but at the same time I really don't mind making her food separately. I need to be OK with this sort of thing. I need to not pick and snack at my kids foods anymore anyway!

(thats a trash bag full of lemons and granny smiths on the bottom next to a mountain of celery, under gobs of lactinato kale, beets and cucumbers. In my fruit basket I have a ton of bananas, oranges, more apples and avocados plus sweet red peppers and tomatoes)

I've stored and packed raw seeds and nuts and I have some almonds soaking for the morning.
I've made a beautiful tray of cut up, bite sized fruits and veggies and I sliced a whole mess of lemons to be readily available. Having easy access to snack-ons and lemon for my water will make it more likely to happen!

I really hope to come out of this with a new habit of prepping all of my produce the minute I bring it home. I have a terrible history of things getting shoved to the back of my fridge, never to be seen again in their normal form. Black slurry's of half rotted goo and unrecognizable dried bits are re-discovered some time later. No more!

My juicer, blender, cutting board and hand juicer are set and ready to go! Pictured here with my soaking almonds, a bit of fresh aloe I plan on using in my morning smoothie, and my farewell glass of wine... last bit of alcohol for TEN DAYS! Ay dios mio...

To me, this cleanse not only represents my desire to re-boot my body and give it a much deserved clean slate, but also a re-boot of how I approach the food in my home. I want to respect it more and really take time to care for it properly. I will remind myself every day, before every bite, that I'm rich. I'm completely wealthy in food!

I will appreciate what I HAVE instead of complain about what I DON'T have.

I'm not a complainer to begin with when it comes to not having "stuff", but I have a desire to put forth significant effort to be TRULY grateful for what I have day to day especially pertaining to family and food... the two most important things in my life.

... this cleanse is for ME, I'm doing this for MYSELF ... and I deserve this!

There are two more blogs going on for this very same cleanse! Totally worth a read, there's a LOT to be learned from all of the different takes and different approaches to a venture like this!

Check them out!
RAWdiculous 
and
In search of balance (I totally covet her awesome jar set up)

Word of the Day

What is "ORGANIC"?

What does this word mean to you?
(this moment provided for pondering)

This is a multidimensional word that, I feel, is under used in all of it's potential forms and functions.
Allow me to explain... lets take down the definition! :

or·gan·ic (ôr-gnk)
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or derived from living organisms: organic matter. (So, right off the bat we learn that everything that lives, breathes, and grows is itself Organic... you're organic, I'm organic, the ficus is organic, ect. We don't have to be free of chemicals to be organic! We don't have to be made from whole grains to be Organic! We don't have to be free of hormones or donuts to be Organic! We ARE ALL ... Organic at the start!)
2. Of, relating to, or affecting a bodily organ: an organic disease. (even our insides and the things that affect our bodies are organic! That cold bug, that virus, that pimple... all Organic!)
3. a. Of, marked by, or involving the use of fertilizers or pesticides that are strictly of animal or vegetable origin: organic vegetables; an organic farm.
b. Raised or conducted without the use of drugs, hormones, or synthetic chemicals: organic chicken; organic cattle farming.
c. Serving organic food: an organic restaurant.
d. Simple, healthful, and close to nature: an organic lifestyle.
Here we have the main stream idea of what it means to be Organic. This is where the word changes a little from a multi-0definition all inclusive explanation of all things living, to the specific use of separating the things we eat into groups of those that are grown with assistance in the form of chemicals (that are often NON-Organic) also knows commonly as "conventional" and the things we eat that are grown without the assistance of chemicals, known lovingly as "Organic".
4.a. Having properties associated with living organisms. Oh hey! This means You and I are Organic! We already touched on this point, but it's nice to re-visit it... especially since THIS is the basis of my post.. THIS is the point, if you will...
b. Resembling a living organism in organization or development; interconnected: society as an organic whole. Oh, getting deep... feel like an ant hill yet? Maybe you should!

~~~~

OK so dictionary.com also offered number 5 though 8 in this definition which all relate to chemistry and politics. But my purpose behind this post has been realized in the first 4 sections already!

We often over (or under) use the word ORGANIC and isolate it to the #3 definition of and relating to what we eat and how what we eat is produced.


Before adopting a more healthful lifestyle I think it's vital for a person to take a step back and recognize themselves as being an ORGANIC ORGANISM! 


We're all part of this planet and just as our planet itself is an organic organism, so are we! Both individually and as a whole...


We are not defined by the medications we take or the jobs we have or the cars we drive. Being surrounded by non-organic organisms does not take away from the fact that we are still organic through and through 24 hours a day.


Consider this a bit, especially if you feel your lifestyle doesn't offer up a space for organic living... you're already doing it! You just need to decide how supportive you want to be of what you already are

it puts the veggies in the basket

My veggie haul for the 10 day cleanse. This isn't all of it. There's a 25 pound bag of carrots too.

I also got some raw cacao cubes with sunflower seeds in them... yum!...I'm really thinking they wont even last through the weekend though... possibly not even the next hour.

one more day!

I've been eating a lot of STUFF! Like I'm squireling away calories!

I've decided I'm going to put my scale away for the whole ten days and relieve my stress about numbers for a while...
I'm sick of measuring myself that way.

For these ten days I'm going to measure my success on how good I feel instead!

How To Milk An Almond

Almond milk!
One of my favorite cow's milk alternatives. Ok that's not even entirely true, it's one of my favorite liquids.
Something that bugs me is how, often times, we find ourselves trying to make one food as similar as possible to another food that we want to replace.

Meatless burgers for instance. If you want something that tastes as much like a burger as possible, but isn't a burger, what exactly are you trying to accomplish? To me, it defeats the purpose of cutting certain foods out of your diet. It's a dietary denial! Let go of the burger and you shall be free!

yes, let it go, clear your mind of milk as you know it ... now breathe... Lets embrace the true identity of Almond milk!

Ok, so I take all of that back .. a little. The desire for milk alternatives isn't always out of pure choice. Dairy allergies or lactose intolerance are big players in the cow's-milk-stand-in industry.
However, it's not a good idea to drink almond milk if you suffer from a tree-nut allergy.

However! If you're looking to cut dairy our of your diet by choice, try to put cow's milk out of your mind as a comparison to all things labeled milk... no more comparing! From here on out, anything with milk in the name that does not come from a cow will be appreciated for it's individuality and no comparisons shall be made! Especially when such comparisons are made just to try and help you like it more. That's silly, stop it...

Nutritionally speaking almond milk is a good source of Vitamin D and Calcium! Just like cow... er... just like almonds are! Because it's made of almonds of course.
 (ok on a side note, cow's milk only has vitamin D in it because people put it there)

Almond milk also has protein and good fats and a bunch of vitamin E.

Almond milk is great in baking, goes well over cereal, tastes nice in coffee, is refreshing on it's own and is fairly inexpensive! Especially when you make it yourself.

My personal recipe is a bit dilute compared to how thick and rich you can potentially make your own almond milk.
I start the night before. The ratio I prefer is 1/2 cup raw (preferably organic) almonds in my measuring cup.
Then I fill the cup up to the 2 cup mark with fresh, clean water.
I let this soak over night

And it looks like this in the morning!
This is not scientific, if I sleep more or less than you, there's not going to be a huge difference if our almonds. Sure, I could leave this for the rest of the day and probably have almonds that are soggier tonight, which would probably make a richer milk. Especially since my almond to water ratio is that of a budget conscious almond hoarder. 

Next step is to throw this into the blender and whirrrrr the ever-lovin' daylights out of it! I'm talkin' full on blend-o-rama. Especially when dealing with a smaller amount of almonds you're going to want to get as much bang for your buck as possible so blend for as long as you can stand the sound.
I blended this for about 3-4 minutes on high which resulted in...

This!
 Ok now here's where thing get complicated and scientific... the next step is tricky and requires special tools only found in your most high-end kitchen stores stores and the price is a little outrageous...

Just kidding!
Grab yourself a cup, a dish for spillage if you choose and a nylon stocking. I chose a knee high, in white. Put the stocking in the cup and pour your slurry into the stocking.

This is the part where you get to actually milk something! For effect you can replace the cup with a metal bucket, get yourself a short stool and sit low to the ground while you Squeeze that stocking!
Squeeze it until you've gotten every last drop of goodness out of it.

And that is IT! You're done.
now don't toss out your almond pulp!! That's good stuff right there! Save it, put it in a sealed container and store it in the fridge for future recipes. It will last a couple of days so don't stress about it, waste not!

As for the Almond milk, you can use it as is or add a couple drops of vanilla extract to it for a flavor boost. You can throw it back in the blender and add a banana for a quick and very nutritious smoothie ( which is my plan for this batch) or you can store it in a glass jar in the fridge to use later.

How easy is that? This is a super valuable raw food choice. You get two raw foods out of one, both are great for recipes and the nutritional content and flavor are awesome!

The ten day cleanse

t-minus 3 days

I've had several people asking me what exactly I mean when I say I'm going to be eating nothing but raw foods for ten days.

What's a raw food?
A raw food is a food in it's original state. A food that's had zero processing beyond harvest.

-RawVegetables
-RawFruits
-Raw Honey
-Raw Nuts
-Raw oats
- And thank the Gods for the inclusion of Raw fish! Sashimi! (No sushi though, Rice isn't raw)
This isn't something I'll be having every day though, but I'll be sure to treat myself at least once... twice, we'll say twice.

That's pretty much it! The beauty of this is there's so much that can be done with what's listed here. It may seem like a short list but the possibilities are endless thanks to a couple of key components...

Nuts, Oats and Honey, to me, are the three options that bring this adventure to a tolerable level.

With nuts, oats and honey you get milks and smoothies and cereal bars and granola and most importantly sweet tooth satiation!

I happen to have a terribly bossy sweet tooth myself. It's genetic.

Just tonight  my dad stopped by with a bag of take out sushi and a Dove dark chocolate bar, I think his diet senses were tingling and he felt compelled to provide me with two of my very favorite foods. He IS the provider of all things tasty after all. I warned him of my impending cleanse before he left and I can almost count on him being the provider of my extra special sashimi treats. He's just good like that.

So over the next couple of days , as I prepare for this ten days of nutrient utopia, I'll be posting recipes and ideas and sharing the blogs of the other ladies who are involved! I'm quite excited!

Food is just THAT important to me that I'm actually excited about this cleanse as both a well being boost and a learning experience.

The birth of a Raw Blog

This blog represents my journey into a more raw and whole diet.
A group of  Facebook friend have organized to support each other through a ten day raw food cleanse and I jumped on board with very little thought as to exactly how committed I can be to this sort of thing!

So I ask myself:

"Self, can you go ten days without ANY processed foods"
and I answered: 

~"hell yeah."
"Can you go ten days eating only raw foods? Fruits and veggies juicing and blending and chopping your proverbial brains out?"
~"hell YEAH!"
"Can you go ten days without a glass of wine?"
~"hell... shit... yeah ok"
"Can you go ten days without coffee?"
~"hell.... wait, what?"

Ok so the no coffee part has me freaked out. After all, I'm a recovering addict! I spent most of my life polluting my body with cigarettes. Yes, I'm ashamed of the past me. It's been 2 solid years since I've had a smoke though so ... yay to that but, as many people know, quitting one very addictive substance is often made possible by replacing it with another very addictive substance! My replacement addiction is...dark, rich, fresh, aromatic and heavenly coffee... *snifffff* Ahhhhhhh.

So, I've yet to decide exactly how dedicated I'll be to this ten day raw cleanse BUT, this is the only hill I've run aground on AND, the ten days hasn't even started yet.

So I'm still feeling pretty good about how successful I can be. I know for a fact that going off coffee will put me into a deep dark place that I just can't go right now! I have too many responsibilities that need me caffeinated.

I'm considering replacing my Silk brand soy creamer with some fresh, plain almond milk for the duration, that way it's only ONE non raw food going into my body instead of two... I think it's a good plan that has taken careful consideration of my deep rooted dependency on coffee... not just caffeine mind you... coffee.

Yes I realize that I'm pawning my coffee addiction off on my amazing feet of quitting cigarettes and YES I realize the two probably have very little to do with each other and YESSS I realize I'm throwing my success in quitting in my own face just to get what I want , which is kind of twisted because it means I'm rationalizing and making excuses to only myself... no one's actually told me I can't have coffee. In fact this is a pretty laid back group effort here... no rules, just support.

I simply read that someone else will be cutting coffee out of her diet for the cleanse, and it sent a wave of panic through my body that I can only compare to what it must have felt like to be on the Titanic as neither woman nor child. No life raft for you there Mr. Guy who's spent the end of his life helping everyone else on to the too-few life rafts! So much for being a good Samaritan! Bon Voyage buddy!

Ugh, ok there I go again with the dramatics... so I'll say it right out and get it over with:

I, Cheri, am participating in a ten day raw food cleanse to boost my health; body, mind and soul. I choose this to help project me into a future of better choices and more options. I herein wish to learn from this and enjoy each day while appreciating the fact that I have the ability to choose what I want to eat and how I want to eat it.... Including coffee!

So, here it goes... on to preparations