Continuing my raw-food only diet, now on day #5. Not much happened today, since I was feeling really lazy today – had to show my newly-moved friend to the supermarket again too, but I did get some work done. It was boring at first, but I am getting more and more recipes to add to my raw-repertoire – today I decided to make a celery slaw with celery&date sauce. First slaw ever too, and it was pure deliciousness. In hindsight I need to get a high speed blender and probably make more sauce as well, but it was just amazing – reminded me a bit of apple pie – probably the cinnamon in the sauce. It was really amazing to get something like that with a perfect mix of sweet and salty too.

Enjoyed a lot of different things today – ate a lot of avocados that I had left over, I can never resist to eat avocados when I got some. I was lucky when I went shopping a little bit an hour ago too to find some fresh dates at the supermarket, I’ve only found the dried ones before (Which I don’t particularly like) and have never gotten around to going to that moroccan market – now I can have the best of two worlds – they were a lot cheaper than the dried ones too around 48 sek/kilo.

Also decided to try my hand on some flax seed crackers – you just can’t find proper crackers on even a gluten-free vegan diet in Sweden, let alone a raw vegan diet. Solution: make the damn crackers yourself. The so-called “dough” (looks more like a stir-fry mix if you ask me) is fermenting overnight and tomorrow it should supposedly be able to dry into crackers just by placing them on some baking paper. We’ll see how that goes.

The recipe for the slaw:

500 grams of celery (diced)

8 dates

dash of cinnammon

depending on blender maybe some water to get it going (mine needed it)

2/3 of the celery goes into a bowl, the rest goes together with dates and cinnamon into the blender. Pour and scrape sauce into bowl and mix around. Enjoy.

Today is my second day of raw-food cooking and I decided to make a salad. Daring, I know, since I’ve always kind of disliked salads due to them always having vinegar in them, and thus the word salad has had a certain negative feeling in my mind. Anyways, I found a really delish recipe in Chris’s book that I decided to make – a berry salad. Blending half a cup of mixed berries and 3 tangerines to a sauce and pouring on top of some chopped spinach, another tre tangeringes (diced) and another half cup of mixed berries. It was so delicious I couldn’t stop eating – overeating haven’t really been a topic for me since I went on raw food, but I got enlightened that oh yes it can still happen, just want to go make myself another bowl right now

Another amazing thing with going on raw food is that I’m loosing weight like crazy. If it keeps going on like this for a few more weeks I will have successively lost more weight on this diet in a month than all my efforts on cooked (and non-vegan) food for years

The recipe for the salad:

250-500 grams of spinach

1-2 cups of mixed berries

5-6 tangerines

1. Roughly chop the spinach and half of the tangerines. Add into big bowl with half of the mixed berries

2. Blend remaining tangerines and mixed berries to a sauce/dressing. Pour and scrape into the bowl and mix around.

3. Enjoy a taste of pure heaven

As some of you know there have been some changes in my diet lately. About a month ago I did a trial to stop eating meat. That trial went very well and I have after then thrown out chicken, fish and dairy from my diet. Lately I have been reading some nutrition books, among other things on food combination – a very intriguing subject. One thing especially that has intrigued me is what is called the raw-food diet. The raw food diet means that one abstains from any processing or cooking of the food over around 40 degrees. I have been trying this diet for 3 days now and I like it so far very much, I feel like I have a lot more energy and feel more rested in the morning. The previous two days I have not been doing that much cooking, pretty much only dense smoothies, but today I opted to try my first vegetarian main course – a melon soup called melon madness I found in a recipe book I got from Chris Kendall (thank you Chris) – what an amazing taste, I simply couldn’t believe my taste buds. Take one honeydew and one cantaloup melon. Dice half of each to make the “meat” of the soup and blend the rest for the “broth”, resulting in a taste not of this world. I could have just keep eating, eating, eating and eating of this dish. IF there had been any more melon in my fridge I would have been forced to roll to the get-together of old and new students of the literature&rhetorics institution earlier this evening

That get-togethert went amazing. This was also the first time I have gone out without drinking alcohol. It went very fine, questions of why I drank juice of course came, which I didn’t mind since I got to talk about the very interesting raw-food diet. I didn’t exactly convert anybody (not that I expected to), but they were respectful of my choice and the reasons for it. Even 3 people I had never met before today. So all in all I got respect for my new lifestyle and “practiced” my willpower (not really). A good evening – got an injection of being social which is important for the mental life and brainiac work of studying my masters.

More updates will come so for now enjoy this pic of the oh so delicious soup (will try not to drool over they keyboard while uploading it)

När jag gick på feldenkraisinstitutet i New York så brukade Tamala, en av mina instruktörer säga en sak – “när man skapar en begränsning hos kroppen så kommer den att finna ett sätt att ta sig runt den begränsningen”. Jag märker något liknande själv när jag rör mig närmare till att vara vegetarian och försöka eliminera mitt intag av gluten i min kost. Jag brukade ha ett hemskt sötsug, som visserligen ibland kunde motstås, men oftast inte. Ett exempel är att motstå att köpa munkar i bagerisektionen på ica (det första man ser då man kliver in), min kropp har nu eliminerat detta och söker sig istället till andra källor – plommon, dadlar, mango, salladskål. Bäst av allt är dock att mitt totala sötsug (och hunger också faktiskt) minskats, vilket tillåter mig att njuta av vad jag vill njuta av (oftast), utan inkräktande inslag. Det bevisar min tanke om att människokroppen verkligen är otroligt smart, betydligt mer än människan som besitter den och ständigt frestas av allt som vår kultur har lärt oss att vi “vill” ha och behöver.

På tal om det så har jag lite plommon kvar i burken, den situationen måste lösas omedelbart

Cheerios.

If Hans and Gretel had used sesame seeds instead of a gingerbread-house they might have found just the kind of amazing dinner that me and the new dutch girl in the corridor have just enjoyed together. Some simple chicken fillet and cauliflower together with some condiments (sunflower oil, garlic, sesame oil, chili flakes, light soy sauce and fish sauce) made such an amazing meal (accompanied with some coconut water) as you might want to guess. It’s good that it is fast and tasty, but it also makes a relatively small amount which is good if you have to cook sometimes when you have to go away in a day or two and don’t want leftovers. As it was so delicious two people did not need much (or any) help in finishing the deliciousness up so unfortunately there are no pictures – will try to remedy this next time. In the spirit of the meal and ourselves we talked about such interesting topics as how far we could imagine going down the path of vegetarianism, our days and other interesting things.

Going to let the stomach do what it does best now while I enjoy some nice red cactus-orange tea, before I need to hit the books again – this time x-men and philosophy. A question – If I am studying things for my masters, but it’s about comics which I enjoy – am I really studying then or am I procratinating? 

Here is the recipe:

250 grams chicken fillet (cut into bite-sized pieces)

1 head cauliflower (cut into florets)

4 cloves of garlic (chopped, not finely)

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 cup of water

1/2 tbsp chili flakes

sesame seeds and cilantro (if available) for garnish

1. Heat the wok and add the oils and garlic. When golden add the chicken and stir-fry for about two minutes.

2. Add soy, fish sauce chili flakes, cauliflower and water and stir-fry for another two minutes. Add the garnish and serve as it is.

My memory is usually not, mildly said, that good in retaining much information…about certain things at least. Today, however I finally remembered to check out the website (and add on facebook – will see if he responds) of a very nice person I met at the youth hostel in NY. He was an actor called Les Brandt, this is the amazing thing with NY (maybe US in it’s entirety?) compared to Sweden you really meet people active in the creative sector in a wholly different and more informal way. He was really nice, we talked about a load of different things, don’t exactly remember what exactly, of yeah talked quite a lot about food and dietary habits, more specifically how the society really messes up our training in knowing what to cook and how, instead leaving us to find out on our own, with known consequences as a result. Instead we are taught to play soccer in school, something few of us ever do once we graduate high school. I really miss NY, not the place so much (but of course, I do miss the place with all it’s options), but the fact that people are so nice. You talk a lot with people you don’t know, even some small-talk with the cashiers at the shops. In sweden everybody seems to think that it is a crime to talk to someone you don’t know – because as we all know people love loneliness and isolation and hate being social… I can’t wait for the day, hopefully soon, where I will be in a position to move to NY, or some other place that more reflects my spirit. Like mark Joyner says in his simpleology program – in order for people to perform at peak level productivity they need to surround themselves with people that replenish their personal energy.

Check out Les Brandts website if you like: http://lesbrandt.blogspot.com/

Idag var det dags att pröva mina kockfärdigheter i kinesiskt igen och se om det fortfarande smakar hyfsat efter det underbara besök jag gjorde på Buddakan i NY (åh, vilken mat – den glömmer man inte i första taget). Det hade tänkts att bli något som kallas “hot chilli chicken”, men som med all matlagning (särskilt när det gäller mig tror jag) så går det inte alltid som tilltänkt. När jag tittade på bilden och såg att buljongen skulle puttra i en halvtimme så tyckte jag bestämt att 1,5 dl. var på tok för lite – måste vara en typo så att det ska vara 1,5 liter istället. Ja, det var ju fel, det blir ingen rik sås till rätten på sådana mångder buljong. Ska man dock kalla det ett misstag? Jag föredrar att kalla det halvfullt och säga att detta är den ljuvligaste kycklingsoppa jag någonsin smakat – något som jag för övrigt saknat recept på och letat som besatt efter.

350 g. kyckling

1 liten chili (utan frön, finhackad)

2 salladslökar (fint skurna eller strimlade)

50-75 g. råa cashews

1 msk fisksås

2 msk socker (jag föredrar rörsocker)

saften av en halv citron

olja

mynta (till garnering) – torkad går fint, ger en fantastisk frisk smak till soppan.

5 cm citrongräs (strimlat)

1-3 finhackade vitlöksklyftor

2.5 cm finhackad ingefära

1,5 L. kycklingbuljong

1. Värm oljan i en gjutgärnsgryta. I med kyckling, chili, citrongräs, vitlök och ingefära i 3-4 minuter.

2. I med fisksås, socker och buljong. Sänk värmen, på med locket och puttra i en halvtimme.

3. Av med locket och tillsätt cashews, låt puttra i några minuter innan det garneras med salladslök och mynta.

4. Njuuuuut!!!

Just made a cup of the great manhattan blend coffee I bought at wholefoods before I left NY. This is the last blend, already “wasted” the other ones – so sad, have to go back to cheap and sub-standard zoegas coffee (compared to this at least). Often when I drink coffee I wonder if I really drink it because it is good or if it’s just out of habit and addiction, but whenever I get my hands on some of “the good stuff” all my questions are answered and I drift off into the land of bliss. Maybe I can buy some smaller quantities at Bönan to enjoy from time to time. Gonna enjoy this to the fullest now while getting some good reading done…

Till en viss gräns, men inte längre tror jag det är man brukar säga och precis så känner jag över att nu definitivt se till att sluta växa åt fel håll så nu blir det hårdkörning tills man återfått sin s.k. “naturliga” vikt – inte för att jag riktigt förstår vad som är så naturligt med den vikten om man behöver anstränga sig för att bibehålla den.

Nåväl igår så var jag iväg på life och köpte mig lite ordentligt soyaprotein – 150 spänn för ett kilo, som ska räcka till mellan 25-50 portioner – antar att det beror om man tar ett eller två glas om dagen. Nåväl, 150 spänn i månaden är överkomligt både för att gå ned i, bibehålla vikt och öka andelen protein samtidigt som man minskar mängden kolhydrater. Ska väl börja återvända till gymet snart också för att öka effekten, men min filosofi är att viktnedgång i huvudsak ska ske i köket, även om det tar längre tid än gym så ser det istället till att, så länge man inte ändra kosten, att vikten någorlunda bibehålls även om man inte kan träna lika hårt under perioder. Träning bör istället göras av andra anledningar, d.v.s. att hålla kroppens muskulatur i form. I digress, dags att hugga in på dagens första måltid – kalla det frukost eller lunch.

Nam, nam – vilken mästerkock ordnade med det här – kan jag få receptet, tack…

Seriously, så var det inte så tokigt – jag har ätit värre tillagade saker, särskilt med lite äppeljuice vid sidan att skölja ner det med. Man blir lite less på att inte ha något att tugga på dock, men det löser vi snabbt med denna herre.

Alright, time to hit the showers.