the raw food workshop last night was so inspiring that i just wanted to hug everyone there and thank them for the opportunity to spend the evening with people who understand the importance of and the big picture of how what we eat effects not only our own health but the health of our planet. 
i doubt if anyone can argue with the fact that raw foods are a thousand times healthier for all concerned. of course saying it and making the transition are two different things.
we learned to prepare a nice meal last night, sort of a tex-mex meal which was so good... i can honestly say it was just excellent food, the kind of food that makes you feel amazing and thankful that you've just eaten something so super nutritious that it almost blows your mind. seriously.
she had previously made the flax onion hemp bread in her food dehydrator at home. this bread is more like a thick cracker, you eat it just like regular bread if you want to but we loaded our freshly made toppings on top of it. it's a simple recipe made with sliced onions, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, nama shoyu (the best form of organic soy sauce), and coconut oil which you make into a batter and spread out on a cookie sheet to dry or dehydrate. i think i'm going to look around for a used food dehydrator. it makes a lot sense to dry foods especially on a boat. i want to learn more about preserving and drying foods. this bread was absolutely scrumptious, like something we ate at angelina's kitchen in nyc. very gourmet tasting. no doubt once you start eating this stuff regular bread will become as horrible to you as whole cow's milk or those horrible greasy jelly donuts. god, people just don't even know that they're missing when they spend their lives eating commercially prepared crap. 
we made a sort of meaty thing like taco meat which consisted of walnuts (organic, raw and ground up in the food processor), cumin, chili powder, coriander and nama shoyu and a little cayenne. this stuff once mixed looks like a pate and tastes amazing. there's something about mixing walnuts with nama shoyu that totally changes the flavor of each and combines the flavors on a different level, if that makes any sense.
we also made a cilantro pesto which was very cheesy. we used cilantro or basil or you can use 1/2 spinach and half some other greens, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, olive oil, fermented miso, lemon juice and garlic... all mashed up in the food processor. omg...
after that we made 2 kinds of salsas. a tomato salsa with mango and a corn avocado salsa.
we made these little cocoa balls with raw cocoa, coconut, vanilla, agave nectar, maple syrup and almond butter. they tasted like those expensive gourmet chocolate truffles except that they're actually good for you. to top them off we made a chocolate sauce that will blow your mind, just raw cocoa, agave nectar, vanilla and coconut oil. this stuff is decadent.
let me tell you something really really great about raw foods. YOU DON'T HAVE TO COOK IT!
how cool is that. just chopping and mixing.
all of the stuff we made was more than enough to last for a bunch of meals.
i learned about soaking foods, such as beans, seeds, nuts and grains and how water and the soaking process unlocks the nutrients and releases very valuable and necessary enzymes, making them more of a live food. cool. we learned how important enzymes are to our digestion and such.
marinating some foods such as kale and chard, softens and tenderizes them. you can finely chop them and marinate them in a little salt, olive, coconut or flax oil, and lemon juice. even better the next day.
the instructor was very big on hemp which is a complete protein with good omega's, coconut oil and the importance and nutrition value of spices such as cinnamon.
she was also very persistent about organic. simply put: conventionally grown foods are not grown in healthy soils and healthy soil is mandatory for a healthy nutrient dense plant. she talked about the time she met with a conventional farmer of strawberries and he spoke about all the chemicals and pesticides he used on his crops. he said that although he made a pretty decent living selling his strawberries he would not feed them to his family or allow his children to eat them... because he knew how dangerous the "fda approved" chemicals were.
she gave us a list of ideas for a weekly menu, a list of ingredients for a shopping list and a list of books to read such as conscience eating, rawvolution and raw food made easy for 1-2 people and some good websites.
the night went way too fast as i listened to this young woman who is just finishing up her master's degree in holistic nutrition. it was apparent that she had a tremendous passion for what she did and a great concern for our health and our environment and it made me feel very good about the 3 children she had and whom she talked about often. those are some lucky children. she said that her goal was to educate as many people as possible, anyone who'll listen... about the big picture of our way of living, consuming and eating and how it affects us all and every single thing around us and how we have to change because the way we are doing things now obviously isn't working.
here is the recipe we made last night for a most amazing breakfast shake. better than i've ever had before and very filling:
all these ingredients are raw and organic.
put in blender in this order:
3 dates (soaked for a while or overnight)
1/2 c. filtered water
blend these until smooth and pasty
then add:
2 T nut butter (almond, peanut, etc.) 3-4 T raw almonds (soaked in filtered water overnight)
1 frozen banana (you can peel bananas, cut them up and freeze them so they don't go bad)
1/2 c. ice
dash of cinnamon.
yum. you can also add whatever else suits your mood...flax seeds, hemp seeds, some ginger, cocoa powder, or even some greens and mangos. some raw grated ginger is great for digestion and good at calming down upset stomachs.
it's all good.
one of the most important aspects of this type of food preparation and eating is the quality of the final product... it is far far superior to the average american meal. it is super dense nutrition and therefore you don't have to eat as much since there is no crappy unhealthy fillers and such... just simple... there is no waste. less is more when you eat this way and the costs are on the average less than all the crap we normally spend our money on. not to mention the fact that good food and good health keeps us out of the hospital and the pharmacy.
finally we had an interesting discussion as to why people in our society keep on and on eating things that are harming them. it is clear that when we keep consuming these unnatural foods, foods that our bodies do not recognize, foods that have little or no value to us, not only do we suffer physically and mentally but we deteriorate at an earlier age and our quality of life begins to turn ugly.
i see this in just about everyone i know who is around my age and older and even in people 10-20 years younger. it's actually quite frightening.
i used to think of raw foods as something sort of out there, you know, too much trouble or whatever... but it's really just a transition, another step forward into a way of life that is better in so many ways, really...
i guess most people will never get out of the conventional, the standard american way, the way of life and consuming that is totally all wrong but then there are those who are willing and maybe intelligent or thoughful enough to want to do things better. i don't think we're all here to keep on making the same mistakes our parents made or keep on making the same old stupid choices... i think we have to keep looking for a better way to do things. transition in a society is what makes us who we are.
as consumers we have been horribly and, in my opinion, criminally influenced by big food, mega corporations with no conscience, big pharma, and all the others whose only goal is the almighty dollar through constant mind numbing advertising and ridiculous commercials promising convienence for busy mothers, happy happy meals and a pill for everything that goes wrong with you.
the good news is that there is a definite food revolution going on whether you know it or not and the times are gonna change. i believe that.
i look forward to the day when the mothers of this country finally stand up for themselves and their families and are willing to fight back against the crap that has been pushed on us for far far too long. fight back, learn how to prepare foods once again, learn how to be responsible consumers and take the time to do what's really important.... important in the aspect of teaching them to be healthy conscience consumers not mindless idiots wandering around the mall for the lastest outfits all the while existing on chicken fingers and mac&cheese. woman have an immense power to change things. we are the keeper of the keys. we are the nurturers and the ones who bring the new life into this world. we have powerful responsibility to educate ourselves and become strong leaders in the fight against the profiteers of the corporate world.
we have to question everything and especially our disturbing reliance on the corporate food system.
we have to question the fact that of the nearly 40,000 food items found in the average supermarket 50% of them are produced by ten companies?
sadly, we as consumers have allowed this to happen. we have become complacent and dependent on this industrial food system. we must remember that the vast majority of contaminated food has come directly out of the industrial food system, not local markets.
we can seek out local alternatives and safer alternatives. while the cost for local or organic food may be slightly higher, we need to remember the highest cost food items are the most highly processed foods, foods that are the least nutritious and those that account for the highest use of chemicals, preservatives and artificial ingredients.
they are the big cash cows of the corporate food industry.
the 
the lost correspondent.
