Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Raw Without Hunger

For the first time ever, I made it through an entire raw day without suffering from crazy hunger every three hours! I began my morning with a simple glass of Beautifying Pumpkin Mylk from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:

Just pumpkin seeds, vanilla bean, dates, and water! Ani says the mylk is great for your skin since pumpkin seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids. Lately, I've been sticking to simple liquid breakfasts on raw day. And I'm usually starving an hour after I get to work, so I bring plenty of snacks to eat at my desk. However, after drinking the mylk today, I was satisfied until around 11:30 a.m.

I nibbled on these Carrots and Raw Vegan Pesto as a pre-lunch snack, even though I could have made it to lunch without them:

For lunch (around 12:30 p.m.), I ate this gigantic Garden Salad with Raw Ranch and Sesame Sunflower Seed Bread Croutons:

The ranch is Shellyfish's recipe, which you can find here. I've tried several recipes for raw ranch, and I think Shellyfish's is the best so far. Even though I was full about mid-way through the salad, I ate almost every bite because the dressing was that good. The croutons were crumbled from leftover slices of the Sesame Sunflower Bread from Ani's Raw Kitchen that I'd made several months ago. They keep forever in the fridge!

On most raw days, a similarly-sized salad would fill me up for about two hours and then I'd be munching on more veggies, fruits, or a Larabar. But I really didn't get hungry again until after leaving the office. I did, however, make room for a few locally-grown grapes because I brought them to work, and dammit, I was gonna eat them.

Around 6 p.m., I had dinner — Zucchini Fettucine with Guacamole — though I wasn't famished as usual:

I know my guac looks a little funky. I cut out a lot of bad spots and ended up with less avocado than other ingredients, resulting in a more liquid-y guac. It was still very delicious. I got the idea of topping raw noodles with guac from Eat 'n Veg'n.

Of course, I ended my day with a big ole bowl of Raw Banana Soft Serve with Chopped Pecans and a little light reading from Emma Goldman:

In case you don't know the wonders of banana soft serve, hit up Gena's Choosing Raw for details. I'm convinced it's the best thing to happen to raw cuisine ... ever.

30 comments:

lizzie said...

yum yum! i am making it a goal this year to start eating a ton more raw. you make it look easy and delicious. on another note, i know you attend a lot of vegan potlucks, i'm going to my first and was wondering if there was anything you highly recommend i bring (that will be a hit!). thanks and love your blog!

Averie @ Averie Cooks said...

The Mylk....sounds really good. Simple but good. Pumpkin seeds are really high in Vit. E and I think that's supposed to be really good for your skin so she wasnt lyin' when she said it was beautifying mylk.

All your food looks sooo pretty. It's like just so perfect and raw and wonderful.

I need to figure out my camera settings and my lighting better; your gorg pics inspire me to do that!

Theresa said...

Ice cream and Emma - perfect combination!

Mihl said...

And there's iron in those seeds too! Oh, how I love pumpkin seeds, I must try this milk. I always enjoy your raw food post, the are very inspirational...now I am off to check out that soft serve recipe...

Anonymous said...

I have so many pumpkin seeds, I have no idea why I haven't made that milk! Yum!

Gina said...

Mmmm...I don't think there is anything better than banana ice cream. There is a place on the boardwalk at the beach we go to that sells it! They actually put the frozen bananas through a juicer, which somehow makes it that much better. Actually, we first had it while we were in Hawaii, but this is much easier to get, haha.

ZippyZu said...

I agree- that soft serve is amazing!

Happy Older Hippie Woman! said...

I like a lot of raw dishes...these look wonderful!

vegan.in.brighton said...

Nice work with the raw day. I need to try to eat more raw food, I like it but somehow it seems easier to cook - which doesn't make sense.

I love the skull glass too!

The Voracious Vegan said...

Beautiful food! That banana milk sounds very good.

And oooh that banana ice-cream is just too amazing, isn't it?

JohnP said...

Raw food! Emma Goldman! Yay!

Bianca said...

To Lizzie: For a vegan potluck dish suggestion, I find you can't lose with a tasty dessert...maybe the East Coast Coffee Cake from Vegan Brunch or the Smlove Pie from the Veganomicon. Or for savory ideas, a pasta salad with artichokes, olives, and tofu feta is simple and easy. Also dips and pates are great for potlucks...like maybe the Tempeh Pate with crackers from the Vegan Table. Good luck!

nora said...

I tried to make the banana soft serve a week or two ago, but I think I blended it too much, if that's possible? It seemed to be fluffy at one point, but I kept blending, and then it just got gooey and liquidy. :( Yours looks great though!

Anonymous said...

That looks awesome... You are inspiring me to eat more raw again, on a consistent basis (I've been slacking and suffering lately). Thank you thank you thank you for sharing this every week!

Vic Robinson said...

Looks great! I want to try that mylk. Very cool.

Heather said...

Everything looks great! It's inspiring to hear about your raw food adventures. I'm trying to incorporate more raw food into my family's diet, but it's soooo hard, because I love ooey gooey comfort foods and raw foods, though delicious, don't exactly qualify as "comfort foods". We actually have a raw food restaurant here in Jacksonville close by that I should go to more often: http://www.shaktilifekitchen.com/index.html

Jen said...

nice prop under that nanner soft-serve! you're not fooling me bianca. i know you really read the weekly world news and not some anarchist 'zine. guffaw.

seriously, love the raw eats. it's been high raw salsa season at our house. been rockin' the smoothies too.

Gena said...

Thanks for the shout, Mama! And what a cool raw day! I've wondered about the pumpkin milk and would love to try it now. xoxo

Vaala ◪ said...

Oooo, that looks like a super awesome day of eats!

We've been making banana soft serve since I was a little kid (man, Mum was clearly ahead of the times!)...it totally rocks!

Unknown said...

yum! all this raw food looks delicious!! i'm glad you were able to make it without feeling ridiculously hungry! :)
that pesto with carrot sticks really sounds tasty!

jessy said...

hooray for a truly satisfying raw day, Bianca! i love that you do a raw day once a month – i really need to do something like that.

the pumpkin mylk looks so good! i love your glass! i have ani’s book & i need to try that mylk out. pumpkin is so perfect for the fall season! raw vegan pesto is something dan & i love. we think the raw walnuts taste better than the regular ones. you make one glorious look’n salad – and the croutons are too yummy looking! i saw Shelly’s recipe & i keep meaning to make it. thanks for the tasty reminder! zoodles with guacamole (it looks yummers to me) & raw banana soft serve?!?! so, soooooooo delicious! mmmmmmmmmm!

aTxVegn said...

Well now I MUST try Shelly's raw ranch and pumpkin mylk! And the croutons on the salad are a great addition. Guac on just about anything is pretty darn great - glad you tried it on the noodles.

Your raw days are so inspirational.

Anonymous said...

the menu looks like the shiz-nat. hurray for emma goldman and raw soft serve-what a dynamic duo.

Wendy French Barrett said...

Oh my, I will be trying that banana soft-serve very very soon.

P.S. I'm the awkward gal who ran into you at Whole Foods this past Saturday. I didn't even introduce myself, which is a bad habit I have. I'm Wendy. I have a sometimes meaty blog. I love your raw days the best.

Katrina Burnside (Adams) said...

Bianca, should the bananas be frozen solid for it to create the right consistancy? The kids and I are going to try this! Is there a certain amount of time that the bananas should stay in the freezer?

Katrina Burnside (Adams) said...

Ok so I went ahead and made it. I had 3 bananas, broken up and put in a freezer bag, in the freezer for 4 hours. Whirled them in the food processor and to mine and my children's amazement, the bananas became like ice cream! I scooped it into bowls and sprinkled a little cinnamon over each, and we had the perfect before bed snack!! The kids said they can't wait to have that again! Thanks!

Bianca said...

Yea Katrina! I'm so glad that worked for you! It's like magic how those little nanners turn into creamy ice cream!

Bianca said...

And hey Wendy! I just checked out your blog and added it to my blog roll. It was really cool meeting you at Whole Foods....those sorts of random encounters are neat!

Erin said...

Looks like a very tasty day! I was gonna make Shelly's dressing this weekend but forgot to soak the almonds, so sad.

Nachos said...

OMG you are so right about Gena's banana soft serve. Best thing ever!! I started getting all fancy pants with it and adding berries, choc-agave topping, chopped nuts etc. Freakin' awesome.