Blog / kelp noodles

I had 8 hours of sleep last night! Oh what a joy! It's been a while and it felt great! For breakfast, I had a fruit pudding consisting of 1 banana 1 mango pureed in a food processor. Very yummy. I also made a green juice and split it with the family: 1 pineapple 4 oranges heaps and heaps of baby spinach 2 stalks celery very yummy! I went into town to do some energy medicine with Lauren Walker and it was great. Things have been off for me for a while and it's helpful to have a good crew of support peeps around... She's one of them. I made her a lemon cheezecake, parsley pesto, pizza crackers and carob YUM balls for payment. She was delighted and I couldn't have been happier. I really do love making food for people. Particularly when they are so appreciative! :-) I stopped by the local coop to get some greens for tomorrow since I only have some celery and baby spinach left. Remember: it's good to mix up your greens! I also got some simple saline for my nose. It has been a DRY winter and my nose is not happy about it no matter how many humidifiers I've got going around the house. I made a green smoothie for lunch and split it with Matt: 2 large bananas 1 10 oz bag frozen blackberries 1/2 10 oz bag frozen raspberries 1 whole bunch lacinato kale 1 TBSP vitamineral green it was yummy and very berry tasting. the color was a deep dark red - it was gorgeous, like the color of dark cherries. FRESH. I forget how simple these smoothies taste - simple and delicious. I get caught up in adding protein powders and chia and while those things are great, it's nice to keep it simple. I was able to drink 64 oz water today and haven't been able to do that for a whole week. I guess fiber makes you more thirsty - makes sense. worked a full day - had a very nice day at the cafe. Got some orders out. Sold a couple Offhand Designs bags, too which always makes me happy. Got home and found that the closet in my room is pretty much done! YAY! Now I need to make some time to organize it and get my clothes in there. This will make it so I won't need a dresser. Dinner was cooked and raw - a whole lotta veggies. In a pan, I added water, broccoli, red onions, yellow onions and zucchini - cooked them up a bit and added lemon juice and wheat free tamari. Also added some kelp noodles. I tend to gravitate to these after a fast. They are so fun. I added some Rhapsody tempeh and brown rice and at the very end (after turning the heat off) I added chopped up chard. Served it over a big bed of baby spinach. I added a teaspoon of parsley pesto and kim chee. And let me tell you, I was a happy camper. I felt soooo grateful to eat this beautiful meal. I was afraid about feeling overly ful but aside from the big pile of spinach, I mostly had the kelp noodles. I felt very human again, grounded and grateful and hunger sated. It was great. After dinner, we watched some old episodes of creepy X-Files and then I decided to take a bath. It is cold in the house and the bath felt goooooooooood. Epsom salt, essential oils and bubble bath made for a great combination - that and a good book to read. I was sweating the bath was so hot and again, I felt grateful to sweat. So that was my day. Lovely for the first day out of a fast. all love, Linda

This is Day 1 of the next phase of our lil juice fasting experience. Yesterday, August 10th was day 10. We did (what turned out to be) the usual 16-20 ounce green juice in the morning, 24-32 ounce green juice at lunch time, a 16 ounce juice around 4:30 but what we did for dinner time was a small juice consisting of 1 big bunch of kale, 1 beet with greens, and 3 green apples. We drank a smaller 12 ounce juice each and all the while had kelp noodles soaking in lemon juice to soften them, I spiral sliced 1 zucchini to make zucchini pasta and I made a light local tomato marinara sauce. After we let the juice rest for a short while, we made a small plate of zucchini and kelp noodle pasta with a couple dollops of the marinara sauce. Matt served the portions and I asked him to. I was too hungry to serve myself a proper portion. (Sometimes my eyes can get the better of me.) He used dessert plates and served out our dinner. We all sat at the dinner table and ate. There were a couple times I had to take little breaks and breathe because it tasted so delicious and I felt so hungry for it, that I could picture myself devouring it. It was the perfect amount and it filled us up super well. I didn't think that was going to be possible. I thought I was going to want seconds and thirds. My stomach was very satisfied. It was nice to chew food, too! I had wondered what we were actually going to break the fast with. I was thinking fruit first or possibly a simple soup. But I was drawn to the kelp noodles. We talked how we were going to phase out of the fast and how we were going to continue on. All during the fast there was the desire to continue on. I like starting new life habits for a period of 21 days because it's said that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. So for these next 11 days, we're going to do green juices in the morning, a nice green smoothie in the afternoon and then a raw dinner. We'll adjust if we need to as we also want to start more exercising to this program. So this is Day 1 of the next phase of this endeavor. Wish us luck! I went to bed last night thinking it's kind of fun to plan your life in 10 day increments! I wanted to write on this blog the best yet savory green juice that Matt made up. Growing up in CA, he really has a knack for working with various hot peppers. This is what he and I came up with. I put the veggies that I wanted to juice and he worked out the proportions: Day 9 kickass savory juice = hella yummy: 1 head escarole, 1/2 bunch kale, 1 small cuke, 1 red bell pepper, 1/2 bunch parsley, 3 cloves garlic, 2 jalapeno peppers, 2 pints cherry tomatoes, 3 carrots. This is divine. Made 2 quarts of juice. I think he also added a scallion or two in there and he definitely added a shot of Vital Heat and a dash of coconut aminos. It was a magical drink and it instantly squashed any cravings. We were happily full afterwards. 10 day juice fast gratefuls:

• I'm grateful to have released 11-12 lbs during our juice fast
• I'm grateful to feel SO awesome in my body
• I'm grateful to have so much inflammation gone from my body
• I'm grateful for the clarity of mind and the increased energy to do other things
• I'm grateful for the decluttering and organizing that seeemed to just happen during these 10 days. Even yesterday, instead of getting on the computer in the morning, I tacked the 2 big piles on my desk and filed away some and recycled way much more. I even paid some bills that were there.
• I'm grateful for all the shifts going on in my life, in my heart and in my mind. That's the biggest part.
• I'm grateful for my body and for this experience.
• I'm grateful for my kids who did a great job to make themselves green smoothies and put together their meals so that I didn't have to do too much of that.
• I'm just plain grateful. :-) <3 <3 <3