smooth

i had a refreshing smoothie the other day. I had frozen a banana (in a few pieces in a cup) i added about a cup of soy milk (not raw, but you could make almond milk), half a fresh papaya, and a 1/3 cup of frozen bluberries. i was surprised at the thickeness of it because i didnt add any ice, but the banana made it creamy. yum!

fake bread idea!

i tried using white button mushroom caps in place of bread. bland, puffy, bite-able. it worked pretty good to stuff the cap and eat them raw. much easier than making raw crackers (which i cant do without a dehydrator and food processor.)

goobers!

Bought raw peanuts today while out looking for a raw snack. i often see boiled peanuts for sale in hawaii, so i guess these are sold for the purpose of boiling them at home.




i just tried a few that i'd soaked for 2 hours and they have a crisp, bean flavor. which makes sense since it's all the legume family. can i sprout a peanut plant from a peanut?

in other news, i've been trying really hard at keeping raw for the past week and i've lost 4 pounds! i don't expect that the weight will keep coming off that fast, but i'm just happy to see the scale turning backwards. and i feel a little lighter and trimmer too. and i havent been uncomfortably full.

my man has been making himself pizzas, which is very tempting to me, but i'v avoided taking a little piece. i know if i have a little bread, i'll just eat more and more.

but so good, so far!

post-yoga dinner salad

did pretty good at eating raw all day for the first time in a long while.
this monster salad is 3 large romaine leaves , 2 green lettuce leaves, 1/3 of a zucchini, a carrot, some sprouts, half an avocado, some local pickled onions. and topped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

i also dug out the one raw cookbook i brought to hawaii.hopefully i'll make something out of it.

Yogi Bars
i got these because they were on sell for 12$ a case. so a dollar each bar and they are usually like 2.50 or something. they are alright, tastes mostly like banana bread
i think larabars and those other ones i used to get are tastier.

back in the raw

after a month of halloween candy and turkey and nanowrimo induced meals and mcdonalds... i've had a little cold for about two weeks and since doctor chaz told me that sugar lowers your immune ability when you are sick, i've been really vigilant about my diet the last few days. i've been eating raw as much as i can, but the most important part was chaning my lunch. instead of a smoothie every day i am now having about 12 ounces of raw juice. i've already lost 3 pounds in three days. (that may just be from cutting out the smoothies.) but i also feel like i have more energy, even thought i'm still sick. i find it much easy to get up in the morning. today i hit the snooze for 15 minutes instead of an hour. which is good because i am going to go to work early and stop to buy carrots on the way. i'm also hoping all the vitamin A in my carrot juice will help with my skin, which has been shamefullly bad lately (been sporting a beard of bee stings look)

i've mostly been having juice of carrot, celery and ginger. yesterday i included an old orange i had, that turned out to be a beautifully pink blood orange.




yesterday i stopped by the farmers market and got some beet greens and kale. althrough i dont think i'd get much of any juice out of the kale without a masticating juicers so i'd better just eat it or dry it into chips.

my man has already whined that me being on a diet means he has to eat the bad food that he makes for himself :/ the challenge for me will be keeping up the diet on the 2 weeks i spend on vacation. but i think my parents have a juicer, so that should help. maybe i'd even get them interested in juice again.

one of my favorite new supermarket discoveries.

These brands of sprouts are so convenient. my experience sprouting at home has been..okay, but it's tough to get the tiny ones like clover and alfalfa to work. I do better with the bug mung beans and lentils.

anyway, these sprouts are grown in hawaii and the bags of clover sprouts are only 1.49. of course this is more than paying for the seeds and sprouting them yourself, but a much better deal than other brands that sell a little plastic box of them for 5.49. I also like the peas in the mixed bean bag. that bag was a dollar more i think, but it lasted me about a week because i would just add the beans as a colorful and crunchy topping to other meals. adding interesting stuff to salads encourages me to go through the work of arranging them.

Ode to a watermelon.

We got a quart of a melon last month that was just tops. for some reason it was the best melon i've had in some time. and that's a little surprising for produce imported to the middle of the Pacific. Anyway, it was very sweet and full of flavor.

Stars!

well i've been a terrible blogger for quite some time, but i hope to remedy that.

When i saw bags of starfruit at the farmers market, i went for it. who can resist that awesome shape that looks so tropical.



i dont think i had ever had them before. I think i expected them to be somewhat tart, like a kiwi.
the real taste was blander than i expected. the thin skin is edible and the flesh has the texture and juiciness of a firm grape, but a taste like.. apples?



a few sliced stars of this was all i cared to eat. so i had an idea for the extra. I dont have a dehydrator anymore but i do have an oven. i put the stars on a baking sheet with tin foil on it. i turned the oven on low for a while, then turned it off, repeating this for a few days. i left it off at night and when nobody was home , of course. so there is low heat and a dry area. not really much air circulation, but at least if it is closed up the ants that patrol this house can't walk away with my fruit.

i do prefer the starfruit dried. it makes it sweeter, but it is still pretty mild and it's now mostly skin. i think there are much better things to dry, but at least i gave it a try.

Banana Brothers

Bananas don't only come in singles. You usually don't see these in a store (if you do it was an accident that they got there) but bananas can grow together as twin or triplets or maybe even more!

Chinatown

we went to Chinatown in Honolulu a few weeks ago, so it's about time i talked about it. the raw highlight was eating a freshly opened coconut! I'd had coconut water in a can before (the sweetened kind sold in Asian grocery stores sometimes) and it was barely natural and too sugary. a lot of people are now into coconut, unsweetened, in cans or aseptic containers. some with flavors or fruit bits included. It it said to be more re-hydrating that water, a good balance of electrolytes, thus making it good during or after exercise. And in WWII coconut water had been used as alternative blood plasma because it is sterile.


the kind you buy off a shelf must be pasteurized and thus not raw, but i do see it included in raw cook books for people that have the availability of coconuts and the muscle to open them.

we'd been walking around in the hot weather and i'd only had that breadfruit for breakfast. my energy was flagging. we went into one shop and saw a cardboard tray on the floor with some coconut husks and a cleaver. we inquired and found that they could open a coconut for us.

we watched as an aging man hacked of the husk of our green coconut.




when he made a hole in the top we were given straws to drink out the liquid inside. the water was barely sweet, but really was refreshing.


after we'd drunk it all, we handed the coconut back to be split completely in two so we could eat the meat out of it. I'd heard that young coconuts, they kind used in raw restaurants for the water and sold in healthfood stores AND is de-husked to the point where it looks like a huge tan pencil tip.... visual please

these have the most water and their meat is supposedly jelly-like in softness. over time, more of te meat hardens, and the there is less water in the coconut. so the ones you can buy at the store that looks like hairy brown bowling balls are older and had hard flesh inside and almost no water. what we had in chinatown was somewhere in between.

the meat was softer and a thinner layer than in a fully mature nut. it was actually scrape-able with a plastic spoon, as opposed to having to pry/cut it out.it was a little rubbery and looked a lot like boiled egg white. a smooth even texture, not like how older coconut has the all the small fibers in the same direction. if that makes any sense. the husk around the inner shell was very wet and fresh.


it wasn't as sweet as the more mature, harder meat. but i still finished the nut.
it sure was a special treat and really hit the spot.



there were other produce to speak of, a few of which i had never seen before, at the many stores in Chinatown. here are some logan a.k.a. dragon eye fruit.




i've seen these at the kailus market too.



then Tamarind and ..something orange.



and i actually did buy one of these becauze i loved the name. i saw it called "egg fruit" and chicken yolk fruit" one cost about 75cents.



mangosteen, which i dont think i've ever had, and that's not a bad price for avocados. better than supermarket price



what? what? and what?



i thought you couldn't get rambutan's fresh outside of their homeland. Philippines maybe?




a beautiful rainboz of fish.





giagundo avocado. i think these aren't Haas. they are more round with a thicker skin, perhaps Sharwill?



The best price for Apple Bananas, well, other than free.





well, next i'll show you the dissection of an egg fruit.

Freshly Baked Breadfruit

during my third third trip to the farmers market i decided that i should try something new each time i go there (or at least once in a while) so this time i went for Breadfruit, which sounds delicious.

Breadfruit originally came from the Philippines and grows in many tropical locales.
the Hawaiian name for it is Ulu. i think it is related to durian and jackfruit and it has that same spiky rugby ball look.

this is the Hawaiian legend about its origins (taken from wikipedia):
According to an etiological Hawaiian myth, the breadfruit originated from the sacrifice of the war god Kū. After deciding to live secretly among mortals as a farmer, Kū married and had children. He and his family lived happily until a famine seized their island. When he could no longer bear to watch his children suffer, Kū told his wife that he could deliver them from starvation, but to do so he would have to leave them. Reluctantly she agreed, and at her word, Kū descended into the ground right where he had stood until only the top of his head was visible. His family waited around the spot he had last been day and night, watering it with their tears until suddenly a small green shoot appeared where Kū had stood. Quickly, the shoot grew into a tall and leafy tree that was laden with heavy breadfruits that Kū's family and neighbors gratefully ate, joyfully saved from starvation

the breadfruit of Tahiti also played a role in the famous Mutiny on the Bounty.

I know of three or four places that breadfruit grows in my town, including on tree on the street where i live.



this is my breadfruit from the farmers market. i think it cost $2.50

the fuit exudes a white stick sap when it is raw.



exetreme close-up!


the whole thing is made of many parts, i believe they're termed bracts, that have fused together.


the inner wooden-like core must be removed.


I tried it raw and the texture was a bit like creamy avocado but with inner fibers. it tastes a little like banana with a grassy aftertaste, but it is very unique.



know i know this is a raw food blog, but breadfruit is usually cooked. in fact i'm not sure if it is safe to eat a lot of it raw. some things, like taro, should be eaten raw. in the case of taro, it has calcium oxalate crystals inside that are like fiberglass that are neutralized when cooked. with the strange sap of breadfruit, i didn't want to chance it and cooked it. it seemed to ripen the day after i got it, from hard to almost squishy. like plantains it is eaten both unripe and starchy and sweet/ripe. in fact is is cooked in similar ways. it can also be made into chips like potatoes.

I followed the easiest recipe that said to microwave it in a bowl with a little water for 3 minutes or so then add butter to melt on the top. it was very yummy! and it really does have a texture like breaddough. it was less sweet after being cooked and the salt from the butter was a nice addition.


i dropped the raw goo from the other half onto a hot frying pan to amke fritters of sorts. i fried it on both sides like i do to plantains. it tasted a lot like sweet potato fries. :)



to up the savoriness we melted a little cheese on top. shh! ;D


overall i'd recommend that people try this, especially if you are a sweet potato fan. it was very surprising!

learn some more!



check out this helpful page. i didn't know there was a Breadfruit Institute:
http://www.ntbg.org/breadfruit/uses/food1.php


a more technical page with breakdowns of the varieties and the specific nutrient contents:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/breadfruit.html#Food%20Uses

new taste

an experimental meal. let's call it "spaghetti nihon garlique".

it was simply shredded zucchini (from the farmer's market), tamari marniated garlic and seaweed salad. (both from tamura's deli) i added a little splash of soysauce and rice wine vinegar. the last ingredient may not have been an improvement. it was a little too sweet because the rice wine is "seasoned" which in this case means added sugar. so the zucchini ended up with a sweet/sour tast a little like apples. the garlic was strong and added some interest.

but i don't think i'll try this again.



This however, was a much tastier salad made from market ingredients

Blending for Dollars.

It's about time i told you about my new job! I work at a smoothie shop called Jewel or Juice. we make smoothies (duh) and Acai bowls. we have about 35 different smoothies, some healthier than others. Some flavors and a lot of unprocessed fruit in them, but others are mainly frozen yogurt and various flavorings.

The Acai bowls however are pretty darn special. I had never heard of an "acai bowl" before coming to Hawaii. i'd heard of acai because of it's new popularity as a "superfood" and the store i worked at sold it in frozen packs. it is a berry from the Amazon, it is small and dark bluish purple like a blueberry, but with a large seed inside.
our company website explains this: http://www.jewelorjuice.com/

and it is touted as having a ton of antioxidants and vitamins and amino acids and all that good stuff. in brazil the fruit of the acai is blended with apple juice and served with toppings. our basic blend has acai, banana, apple juice, and strawberry. (everything but the juice it prefrozen) it all blends in to a purple, creamy mixture that we top with banana, granola, fresh strawberries, blueberry , honey... it's pretty yummy!


other than the granola you are basically eating a bowl of condensed fruit and it is very filling. (our local competator adds ice to thin their mixture and then changes more for it. boo!)

many customers like to eat a bowl for lunch. some claim to feel more energized. :) i liken the taste of the blend to blackberries with less tartness. so when you add the sweet honey and crunchy granola, i suppose it's a bit like a frozen berry pie!

we have a few variations on the acai blend, including acerola, which is a whole different thing i could just explain in another post.

anway i am enjoying my job and the time goes by faster when we have more customers, so come in and have a treat!

message from the rock!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to write this first post from my new home. The time just flies by and it's been almost 3 weeks here already. i actually didn't have a computer for about a week or so.

but anyway!i havent been too good about the diet yet. i have been eating pineapple and bananas and apples and grapes. sometimes i have steel cut oats for breakfast. no cooking, no blending, not even milk! i just soak them over night, drain off the water and add in a little peanut butter, agave, and dried date pieces. (or banana and some coconut butter!)




I did manage to bring coconut butter in my luggage. on the first day here we toured the town and i went to the natural foods stores. i bought some mung beans to sprout. here they are in a cup from my flight on delta airlines :)



one problem is i dont live very close to the health food stores. at safeway they have pineapple and papaya for pretty cheap but other wise there isn't a lot of local produce :(
i was really hoping for avocados, but they are 2 bucks each and from mexico. hopefully if i find a farmers market i will have better choices.

i miss not having the dehydrator to make some things.

it's hard not to just eat the things that my boyfriend eats, namely wheat and beans and variations on that theme.

what i like best about being here is the warm, beautiful water, the amazing plants, and the birds and lizards everywhere. actually i have the front door open and a dove just poked its head in to look at me.

i'm still looking for work. i have interviewed at a smoothie bar. and they have something here in hawaii that i've never seen before, and acai bowl. like they pound the acai berries and add yougurt and other fruit. i haven't had one yet but it sounds very good for you. my friend sue tried one while she was in honolulu and said she could eat one every day.

more coming soon i promise. for now a beach picture:

Invaders, from the frozen depths of Space.

for a long while i've wanted to recreate the Happy Day Foods raw popsicles. i didn't have a good icetray to use as the freezing mold. but i now have a silicon mold in the shape of Space Invaders. :D

they will still be small and i can't put a stick in them or anything (well maybe i could with toothpicks), but i want to try.

now, i am aware that the coconut milk i have is most likely not raw, since it has been canned.



to get real raw milk, i wold need to open a coconut, and shred and press the meat myself. every time i buy a coconut, i always leave it for too long and it is rotten inside. i just don't seem to have the willpower to do it right away for some reason.

since i'll be making some red curry for my sweetheart tonight, i will use some of the can of coconut milk for his dish, and some for freezing into delicious treats.

so the ingredients of the original bars are:
raw coconut milk,coconut oil, coconut sugar, lucuma powder, vanilla bean.


but here's what i did.
i have some finely shredded coconut( third of a cup? half?), so i put that in a bowl, poured in almost all of the agave syrup i had left (1/4 cup).

then a few spoons of coconut butter, and just a bit of coconut oil after that (not pictured).




plus, a few drops of vanilla extract. then i mixed those together to break up the stiff coconut butter. at that point it looked like that delicious topping on german chocolate cake. mmmm...



by the way, i went with
so then i poured in half a can of coconut milk. so i ended up with four different sources of coconut in there!


i figured i would pour the liquid from the mixing bowl, but i think i made a good choice with just using a spoon to fill the mold.


i have it on a small plate to stabilize the floppy silicon mold, and i can just put the whole thing right into the little icetray area in my freezer.


i had about a third of it left after filling the mold. it would have been great to fill up a small yogurt cup and freeze it with a stick in it.


the whole thing took less than ten minutes to add ingredients, mix, and pour. then the only thing to do is wait, while it freezes... "quiesently"
and then Voila,


they never really hardened up like ice cubes, and melt really quickly after they leave the freezer. i think adding at least some water would make them more icey and likable. the taste is good, but could be a little sweeter. i once had a homemade chai popsicle and this would be good to try in this recipe, adding cinnamon, cardamom, and chopped almonds :)





i think one of the great things about raw cooking (or "uncooking") is the experimentation. you can get a bunch of ingredients that are yummy, throw them together, and result is usually yummy as well!like, throwing a bunch of different fruits in a blender. or making a raw cracker with seeds and nuts and vegetables and spices. the exact proportions, amounts, or exact food species are usually critical. not like in say, a souffle, or some other baked item where the chemistry and timing have to be correct to produce the desired result. anyway, i think you all know what i mean, don't be afraid to play with your food! and if it all goes terribly wrong, just feed it to the worms and we won't mention it to anyone. ;D more later on the box of worms that lives in my kitchen..


P.s. the Chaokoh brand of coconut milk is manufactured by THEPPADUNGPORN Coconut co. ltd. *snark*