Raw Apple Pie for Breakfast Mmmmmm

 It is almost Thanksgiving and I am thinking about raw recipes that I could make. I made raw apple pie with dried figs today for breakfast. It was SOOOOO GOOD!!!!! So I wanted to share with you what I did.

In a blender add some soaked dates with water about 1 Cup of Dates and about 1 Cup Water
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg and Mace (Both are ground)
Blend till smooth

Take about 7-10 apples and chop them into slices
10 Dried figs or use raisins I just didn't have any so I used figs.
mix your date in with your apples and figs

Topping
 2 Cups Raw old fashion oats
 In your blender add 1/8 Cup Coconut Sugar
about 3 TBSP water or coconut water
5 Dates
Add Cinnamon to your liking or leave it out. You choose.
Mix the Coconut sugar and oats and mix with your hands it should be like a crumble crust type of a mixture.

Plate up your apples and top with your crumble. If you are staying away from oats and other grains it is still really good without the crumble. :0)

This is a good recipe for the children to help in the kitchen. It is good for them to learn to use a knife and it will give them skills for harder things. My Beeps knows how to use a knife and she is 6 years old. I started teaching her when she was about 4. With supervision and learning that it is not a toy but a sharp and dangerous item and to be used with caution they can learn really fast to be ok using a knife. And if they get thick apples it wont ruin the pie. :0)

Also, if you are having an attack of I NEED SOMETHING sweet good and cooked try this it will feel like you sinned. LOL But then you don't have to tell yourself that you will start over tomorrow. You might feel like you need to say that but NO WAY you are GOOD TO GO!!!! Try it and let me know what you think. :0)
Spice said that it tasted like it should be really unhealthy. LOL It was really very good!!!


Hugs, Emily

Day 8 & 9 Feeling GREAT!!!!!! Also, cleaned out my food

                     I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday, I took the children rollerskating.

It's a little fuzzy but the blur in the black skirt is Spice. 

Today I want to talk about the energy that I feel. It is amazing!!! I was talking to a friend of mine after I left I noticed that I was talking a million miles an hour. Little confession here. I got hooked on the 5 hour energy shots. Which is part of the reason that I decided to go raw.

    To have the natural energy through the right kinds of food. I also don't want to become a slave to anything. Which is what happens when you are addicted to something. After I realized how much and how fast I was talking I realized how GOOD I felt. I can't really describe it, I felt like I had taken one of the shots. The difference was that I didn't have a crash. When I finally did get tired, it was a healthy tired. I did notice however, that I did start to get the munchies around 9:30ish. I figured out that it was because I was tired. I needed to rest but wasn't able to. I had to pick up my hubby from the airport at 11:30pm. But I slept well when I finally did crash. 

Here is my day

I was mostly raw yesterday. It was again a little tricky because we went to my sisters house. She does not do raw but I made it work. I did try some of her "Fire Dragon Chili" I really liked it. I had about 1/4 of a cup. I may have to get that recipe. 

Today, I feel a little tired but that is because I went to bed LATE and wonk up early. I couldn't  fall back to sleep so I went to the gym. I may have to take a nap a little later. Anyways, I wanted to show you what my fridge ect looked like before I cleaned it out and what it looks like now. 

I don't like to though away food so I gave it to my niece and her husband who just got into their new place.  I helped both of us, I got rid of a ton of stuff and they don't have to go and spend the money for it. 

These are not in order. But I will explain each section. 

This is the small drawer in my fridge before I cleaned it out. This is where I usually keep the cheese, sandwich makings ect. 

                                         This is the second drawer where we keep our dairy. 

                                                       
                                                     Bottom drawer is a fruit drawer.

                                                    Oh my, ya all of the sauces and milks.

                                           Freezer. this shelf is frozen veggies and grapes.

                                                       Frozen greens for shakes.

                                              Shelf where the nuts and grain type things go.

                                                 Top shelf in the fridge. Greens for salads.

 Eye level to Beeps and Bear this is what I usually have here as well as grapes or other fruit.

 Middle shelf  veggies and other things. These tomato's are going to be turned into salsa. :0) Then eggs. Hanging on the side is an onion.

                                                                        Juicing veggies

All in all not so bed right? Like I said before I was doing the "Clean Eating" 

I cleaned it up and cleared some of the stuff away so here are the pictures of the after. I also added pictures of my pantry and other placed that I put food. 

        This is now the second shelf up. Still eye level to the kids so they can pick healthy. :0)

 Bottom drawer. Ruby Red Grapefruit. (Pink doesnt work so well in my back ground), Plums. 

Dairy drawer, still kept the yogurt and butter but added more Grapefruit and Pomegranates

The door. I only kept a few of the sauces. Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Spicy Mustard. Some Ranch for my children.  I also kept my bee pollen

                           Cheese drawer, Eggs and the cheese and meat, tortillas under that.

Same as above.

      Eye level, Raspberries, Strawberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Beans, Had the Tomato's but I ate them all. Mmmmmm

In my cupboard Bananas, Red Pears. SOOOOO GOOD!!!!

                                             This is my pantry. Top shelf is where I keep things that I need to refill and can goods.

                                                        Grains and my sunflower head. Below are more refill and other grains ect.

 I decided to open the drawers to show you what is inside.  This one is Pop Corn.

 Roots, Sweet Potato, Onions Potatos. 

                                                         Sweeteners and Corn shells.

 Pastas, All Wheat or grain. No white here folks.

 Floor, In the buckets are my flours to make bread and then I have my Brown baking sugar.

                                          On the side of the drawers are my vinegar's and oils.

Later today we are going to take the kids to a 5K  and a kiddie run. It will be a good time. Will post those pictures tomorrow. 

                                                   
I also have decided to put on a feast!!! I have wanted to speak for a while now about health as well as sharing my journey. I think that it is time to just jump in and DO IT!!! Sooooo, the last part of February I am planing on setting a date. I am excited!!! I will be sharing my journey from where I was a child to now. How I am feeling and what it was like to do this. And I am also going to talk about the importance of eating raw.
    It's not an all or nothing here, You don't have to start jumping headfirst into the pool here. But it is always good to continue learning about health. Anyway,s look out for that with an official date, time, place. Also please feel free to let me know if you are interested. I will need to know how much food I will need, and also get a place large enough. :0) I will let you know a price as well.
   Hugs, Emily

Day 6 Life is GREAT!!!

   Today is day 6 and it feels like I have had a break through. I posted earlier about how I wanted sustained energy. I have to tell you it has been a little bit of a struggle in the way of feeling like I miss meat, CHEESE!!!!, eggs, ect. I have NOT been perfect in the last 5 days but I have been trying. It is amazing what happens when you just TRY.
  This morning I woke up at my usual 5:00am to start my day. I usually roll out of bed and convince myself that this is what I do and that  I LOVE (convincing myself again) mornings. Well, today was a little different. My alarm went off and I almost jumped out of bed. Ready to go!!!!! I was surprised by this. I didn't have any extra sleep or anything like that. I just felt refreshed and ready to go to the gym. It was very nice to feel this way. I hope that I can continue having this side effect!!!
   I was asked by a friend on myfitnesspal how to do a 30 day raw till 4. That is what I am going to talk about today. I will tell you my daily schedule and what I eat and when.
   5:00 Get out of bed dress and drink a HUGE glass of water. Big enough that my tummy hurts. I think my glasses hold around 20-24oz. Sometimes  I squeeze half a lemon into that.
  5:30 Hit the gym
      a) Warm up 5-10 minutes
      b) Weights
      c) HITT workout usually on the treadmill (If I have time) or run
      d) Cool down/stretch if I am not running late.

  6:45 Home to make my kids breakfast before most of them head to school.
 (I drink another big glass of water at this time and make myself a veggie juice.)
    8:10 Those who are in school are gone and I start my fruit portion of the day.
This can look like some of the other posts that I have posted. Bananas are usually involved at this time. I will eat a big bowl full of fruit. This morning I had 4 Bananas chopped up and in the blender I had Mangos, Strawberries, and Dates. Blended up and mixed into my bananas.
   9:00 I do school with my son whom I am homeschooling this year. I will set him up then maybe get some blogging in. :0)
   11:00 We walk to go and pick up "Beeps" who is in Kindergarten.

Isn't she cute. :0) This is our baby.

When we get there I play a math game with Buddy. It goes like this "I am thinking of two numbers that when times together equal __________" If he gets it right I have to do 5 burpees. If he gets it wrong he has to do them. It is fun and I get a little more cardio in and he gets more math. :0)
   12:15 We are home and time for lunch :0) Today I want to the store and purchased some of the big plums I will eat as many of those as I want to. I am guessing around 5 of them.
   1:15 More school for Buddy and studying for me as well.
   2:45 Pick up "Spice" from school.

This is "Spice" Not real name. She is our second oldest.

3:00 If I walk back to pick up "Bear" it is time for me to leave again.

"Bear" is our second to the youngest.

 

 If I am hungry I will grab something Banana, Strawberries, Pineapple, Apple, Grapes, what ever I have in the fridge. That is easy. I can walk and eat or if I am running late I can drive and eat. :0) I will usually leave at the same time. If I want some extra reading time I take along a book and read while I wait.

4:00 Home and homework time with snack in I want it. Same kind of food as above.

5:30 Make dinner: Tonight I am going to have a salad. As will the children but I am going to make Home made mac and cheese for them as well. With Wheat Noodles.

If I am still hungry I have a bakes spaghetti squash that I will eat with salt and pepper. Mmmmm

6:30 Free time

7:30 Finish homework and clean house.

8:30 Story time and scriptures

9:30 Kids get ready for bed Family Prayer and bed

10:00 Time with my hubby. He is not home right now he is at training so this wont happen till Friday.

10:30 TRY to get to bed

11:30 Usually get to bed.

 

Now that you know my schedule and what I am going to eat today back to the question.

What is raw till 4 diet and how do you do it?

Raw till 4 simply means that everything I eat is raw and vegan until 4:00 pm. After that I am still vegan but I can have cooked foods if I feel like it. Or I can choose to stay raw for the rest of the day. It really depends on what I feel like doing but after you eat cooked you should not eat raw again for 3-5 hours after you eat cooked. Different foods digest at different speeds. :0) Like a race car. Vroom Vroom. Some things like cooked food takes longer to digest then raw food does. Especially fruit!!! You also should not mix veggies with fruit. I usually add only a LITTLE to my morning juices. Usually half an apple. 

I am still studying food combinations I will post more about that in another blog after I fully  understand it.

 I hope that this helps. :0) You should just jump in and do it if this seems like something that feels right. You don't have to be perfect you again just have to TRY!!!!

 Hugs, Emily

This is my oldest "Sugar" This was last winter at a piano recital.

Then there is "Buddy" our one and only living son. Right smack in the middle of the girls.

 

Buddy and my Hubby. Love my family!!!!

Day 2 Old habits Or Tastes are Sometimes a Hard Thing to Kick. But its OK!!!

This post I figured that I would add some pictures!!! If you are anything like I am I LOVE looking at pictures!!! This is my morning juice which had Mint, Cucumber, Romaine Lettuce, Beet, Half an Apple. This is what it looks like before I mix it all up. Mmmmm Right!?!

                                            This is what it looks like after I mix it up. Better!!!

LOL I had to add this picture of my son. After all it is the Halloween season right? He is pretty scary in this picture.

Let me tell you a little bit about my son. He is the sweetest boy you will ever meet. He opens the door for people. Whenever we go anywhere he will almost always open my car door for me then wait and make sure that I am in then close it for me as well. He was walking past our dear neighbors house and saw that she was on a ladder and went up there and held onto it for her. He just loves people and is an all around good kid.

He always wakes up early in the morning. He came down just after I had finished making my morning juice so I asked him if he would like to spend some time with me and have some of my juice. He said yes so I put some in my fancy glasses and put a cucumber on the rim and we had a good morning chat and had a healthy juice together. He is so funny He loved these pictures that I took of him being crazy.

This is my morning breakfast. And below as you can see the kids REALLY loved it as well. It doesn't look very good but it was WONDERFUL!!! The sauce was 5 Dates, Strawberries, Banana, Coconut Water, Chocolate Powder, Blend till SMOOTH. Then I chopped up more Bananas.

I know that the kids were acting a little silly but they really loved it and started to dip strawberries into the sauce.

Here is Sugar dipping her strawberry in the sauce. She is a little crazy about berries.

For snack I had 1.5 Plums. They are the huge ones.

Lunch I had another concoction that I made at my sisters house. It was half thawed Mangos, Raspberries, Truvia, 3 packets, Blended it with water until smooth. Then added more Mangos, Fresh Raspberries, Strawberries (Half Thawed) Then for a late snack I had cooked Spaghetti Squash with Pink Salt, & Smoked Paprika,

Sounds like I had a pretty good day right. Well, for dinner we were supposed to have spaghetti with home made Sauce. Fresh from the garden, blanched, peeled, and cooked down. Well, that kind of happened. But when you visit other people who live out of town you have to be flexible right? They had white noodles and french bread. I think my biggest down fall is french bread. I LOVE the stuff!!!!

I am embarrassed to say how much I had. But, if I am going to be truthful (Which I am) I have to spill the beans. I had 3 or 4 thick slices!!!! Probably half a loaf. Ugh!!! But like I said in my heading "and its OK". This is life and I am going to have weak moments. This is where I apply "Try 'Till you Win" the only way to fail is to give up all together. I wont give up AND I did stay vegan. Except what might have been in the noodles and the bread. I have no idea what might be in the bread but noodles do have egg. I didn't think about that until now. Hmmm. I guess the same applies. Tomorrow is another day and I will do better.

 This morning I went to the gym and did weights on my shoulders. It feels wonderful to be going in the mornings again. More on that later. For now, good night.

Bread

  Growing up my mother taught us the importance of being able to make bread. It is the staff  of like if and when tragedy hits or if you are just short on your payday and you need to make your money stretch.  But for me, I love the way it makes my home smell. I love the way it brings the kids into the kitchen so we can talk. I love the smiles I get when I share it with neighbors and friends. Fresh baked bread makes people happy. And that is one of my favorite things to do is to make people happy.
   So here is my basic bread recipe
   Heat your oven to 300
Basic Bread
6 Cups Warm Water
1 Cup Honey or Sugar (Use Honey for Wheat Bread. Use Sugar for White Bread)
3 Tbsp Salt (I use Sea Salt but any table salt will do)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
2/3 Cups Oil (I use Olive or Canola but again any will do)
2 Tbsp Yeast

Mix this together for a few seconds and let it sit for 5 Minutes.
Turn off your oven!

If you want to add any seeds or grain this is the time. We like Millet, Steal Cut Oats, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Sprouted Wheat, Quinoa, Anything. I have only done this with my wheat bread however. But it might taste good with your white bread. I do know that if you want to make potato bread now is the time to add your instant mashed potato or left over home made mash potato.

Mix in 9 Cups of Flour. When it gets to thick to mix with a spoon it is the fun part. Make sure your hands are washed and place 3 more Cups of Flour into your dough. Start to knead it. Do this for about 3 minutes adding flour if needed. You will know that you have enough flour when you push on it and it bounces back. It will still be a LITTLE sticky. Wash your hands spray them with cooking spray and go back to kneading it for about 3-5 more minutes. This last part of kneading is best done on a clean, dry surface with a little flour on it. I like to use my table it is low enough that I can really do some folding and pushing. We need to kneed the dough to build up the gluten in it. This is what makes it not fall apart after it is cooked. So don't be afraid to work it!

 Let me try and explain how to knead your bread.
Pull your bread from the opposite side of you and pull it toward you. Then with the heal of your hand push it away from you. Turn your dough and do it again and repeat.
  I remember I had a room mate once who wanted to learn to make bread and I was coming back from my job or school or something and she was trying to make bread. She had her dough but when it came to kneading it she was just poking it. That picture came to mind when I was thinking about kneading it. I had to tell her that she couldn't hurt the dough and that is why people like to make bread when they are mad because they can beat it up and it still turns out great. LOL
So DONT BE AFRAID to BEAT up your dough.
 
Place your dough into a BIG bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray and knead it about three more times. This just puts some of the spray onto the top of your dough. Cover it with a big dish rag and place it in your oven. Let it sit there for about an hour. Check it and see it if has doubled in size. If it has, push it down and take it out of the oven.
 Get your loaf pans ready by spraying them well with your cooking spray. Grab a nice sized ball and fold it so that it is smooth on the top. You will want to turn it and fold it again. For beginners don't worry about trying to make them the size of the pan. I like to take a chunk of dough about the size of a soft ball and work with that. You will fit 2 of these in one pan. Do this until all of your dough is used.
 Place your pans into the oven for about 10 Minutes. Turn on the oven at its LOWEST setting mine is about 170 and let it bake for 15 minutes. It should be doubled in size again. Turn up the heat to 350 and let it bake for about 30-35 Minutes. If it is Wheat it will be a nice brown. If White then it will be a golden brown.
  Take out of the our oven and top with butter. If you are watching your calories you can do a quick spray with your cooking spray (Olive Oil) or you can even get a clean spray bottle and add some water to it. Put it on a fine mist and spray the top.
  Dump them out and enjoy!!!

MATH!!!! Did I just scare you? Just take a look!!!!!

 I have not gone into what I do in my home school in this blog. That will actually have to be another blog post. Because what I want to talk about in this post is the sometimes 4 letter M word. Yes! MATH!!!
  Oh how we have struggled in this area. My children, I am not happy to say, are behind in this area because it was a constant struggle to get them to do ANY kind of math. All with the exception of my little Bear. She LOVES to learn everything and is excited to "play" with numbers.
  About a month ago I went to a home school seminar where a lady was talking about math being fun. That caught my attention because of our struggle in this area. It also read in her bio that ANYONE can learn to like math. HELLO this class is just up my alley. She was telling us her story about how she went to college, and wanted to make a change in the school system. Her plan was to help the children realize that they can all do math and be successful in this area. Long story short. The school that she worked for didn't like her methods, but the children LOVED it and started to "own" their math.
 She has a program and I just knew that my family needed this. I had no idea how I was going to pay for it but I knew that we needed it. So I brain stormed and found a way! I am so excited to start.  So why am I telling you about this? Because they have a free starter kit that has already worked some miracles in the way my kids view math. Even my oldest "Sugar" who has learning difficulties is starting to not fight so much. It takes an open mind. But if you are like me you have tried EVERYTHING else and so what is there to loose?
 Here is the link.
 Math inspirations starter kit
    Because of this kit I also have purchased more games from a company called Simply Fun. My children are having a great time with all of their math games that we have purchased from them as well. It has opened up my eyes that math can be fun! But also is a struggle but in a good way. The way that she teaches parents and teachers/mentors to help their children and students makes it so that they "own" what they learn. This, to me, is the most important part of learning. I don't want to be a teacher, I want to be a mentor. I want my children and students to "own" their education. To work hard at it, and for it to be something that they can be proud of. To be self confident, independent thinkers. To actually learn HOW to think and not WHAT to think. This is my goal in educating my children.
 

Recipe for Caramel Candy

This is a great candy recipe it is not hard to make but it does take some time. I hope that you will try this recipe. Once you try it you will do it again and again. It is great over popcorn or by itself.

Start with buttering a pie pan or a 8x8 or 9x9 pan then in a large pan and a small or medium pan.
 In your large pan combine
  1 Cup Sugar
  1 Cup Corn Syrup
  1 Pinch of Salt

In the other pan combine
  1 Cube of Butter ( I use salted but unsalted would work)
  1 Can of Condensed Milk

Place both of your pots on the stove and turn them on. The sugar one place on a Medium heat and the milk a Medium High heat. Stir the Milk mixture so it doesn't burn!!!

 When the butter is melted and the mixture is warm and slightly hot combine with the sugar which should be creating little bubbles in its pan.

 The mixture will boil up a LOT so don't worry about that. Turn the heat up to HIGH. Let it boil down to about half of what it started and turn the heat down to Medium. Start to stir the mixture without stopping so it will not burn on the bottom. When it condenses down again to about half again and starts to darken in color it is time to get a bowl of cold water. When it kind of starts to boil away from the sides of the pan place a small amount of candy in the water. When you drop it into the water if it forms into a ball it is time to put in about a tsp. of Vanilla and turn off the heat. You can pour it into your pan at this point or you can leave it a little longer. The longer you leave it the harder it will get. If you like hard Caramel Candies then just keep cooking it until it is hard when dropped into the water.
 Note: Get new water after every test. You want the water to be cold.
 Hope that you will try this and please let me know how it went!!! Hugs The Bryars