I hate wheatgrass

I don't like the word hate, so let's just say I have a strong dislike for wheatgrass that sends me running from the room screaming.

It's funny how people don't like certain foods, and others do, or is that just me who finds it funny? I guess it's normal. I know someone who doesn't like chocolate, a lot of people who don't like avocados, another who hates milk, and someone else who detests anything with cumin added.

I have my own personal likes and dislikes, and to me this poses the question "Can I be raw if I dislike certain raw foods?" But before I answer this question, I'm going to give an example of 10 year old Felicity's dislikes and likes, and the present Felicity's dislikes and likes.

10 year old Felicity hated:

Asparagus, mushrooms, brown bread, salad, vegetable soup, porridge, tomatoes.

10 year old Felicity loved:
Candy (and lots of it), white bread, crackers, cookies, fried food, coke, waffles, potatoes, sausages, pasta.

As you can see, my former self wasn't exactly healthy... I sure liked my starchy, fatty, sugary food. I don't blame myself, fatty and sugary food appeals to primal urges -- yes. We are programmed to be attracted to that kind of food, because when we were all cave men those were the rarest foods in nature while also being the foods that provided the most sustenance. In brief, we are programmed to go for the biggest slice of cake. Most of my friends ate similarly to me, but it seemed that I was the only one who it reflected on; I was overweight, and my skin was bad from an unusually young age.

16 year old Felicity hates:

Any fast food, white bread, artificially colored food, asparagus (some things never change), coke, coffee, wheatgrass, spicy food, sprouts, blueberries.

16 year old Felicity loves:
raw chocolate ice cream, mushrooms, raw chocolate cake, raw pasta, essene bread, raw sushi, juice, kale, salad, avocados, pineapple, young thai coconuts, walnuts, miso soup, oranges, pears, apples, kiwi, raspberries, strawberries, chia, goji berries.

You'll probably see I dislike wheatgrass and sprouts, what sort of a vegan am I?! This is where the question comes into, well, question. When I first went raw my mum was so convinced I was going to die without all this protein that she made me a lentil sprout smoothie, but didn't blend it very well. I sat at the table crying for an hour like a 2 year old forced to finish my dinner, but in the end I managed to eat and keep down this smoothie. Of course, I don't hold it against my mum, she has my best interests at heart, but I specifically remember her saying, "You can't eat like this if you don't like sprouts." I happen to hate sprouts, they make my mouth taste... like a sprout, which to me tastes like fresh green colored air. Same goes for wheatgrass. I tried some, and my mouth smelt like a lawn for what felt like an eternity afterwards.

Another thing about my list is that I noticed that my 10 year old 'like' list is completely different from my 16 year old 'like' list, which is a lot more balanced and varied. I noticed that when I went raw I was trying more foods that I'd never bothered to try before, and realized that all the time whilst eating a typical diet that I'd never ventured to eat anything other than meals I'd been eating my whole life which usually were comprised of meat, something starchy, and some dead looking vegetables. In other words, I realized that pre-raw I ate the most boring and bland looking diet on the planet.

Another point is that some people don't like certain foods because they were served the food 'wrong'. For example, my best friend hates ALL salad with a passion because she has never actually had a salad that didn't taste like it had already been eaten. Sometimes we hate foods because we were served it up in a disgusting way. The sad thing is that a lot of healthy foods are made wrong! Raw food is so versatile and tasty, but when you see 'healthy' salads and fruit salads at a restaurant they usually look and taste like cardboard. I think better education on how to prepare good healthy food really is required!

But all in all, I think that even if you don't like sprouts (this is referring to me, haha) you CAN still eat a raw vegan diet, there are still millions of other delicious things to make up for a lack of one thing.

Peace,

Felic x
P.S. What foods do you hate?

Organic in Wellington

So far I have to say that I LOVE living in Wellington. And since yesterday, I have been feeling more that way than ever!

Yes, yesterday I discovered paradise. Commonly known as Commonsense Organics. A huge organic food store, with everything I'd ever dreamed of.

The person holding the trolley is my mum HAHAH ;D

They had so much fruit and vegetables, not even joking! They had everything I'd ever dreamed of. And it was all organic too -- SCORE.

And then we stumbled on THIS.

Nearly everything on this shelf was Raw. Raw chocolates in every flavor imaginable, Grawnolas, Macaroons, Crackers, not to mention all those super cool ingredients that I have been wanting to find forever so I can try some recipes. AND CACAO NIBS.

This was all the stuff we decided to get in the end.

We enjoyed our feast sitting beside the water front (sort of) and looking at Mt Victoria.

Stay tuned for more of Felic's Wellington Adventures!

Peace and Raw Food,

Felic

Breakfast

Cacao Crepes. My mum decided to meet up with an old school friend, and suggested we have breakfast at a vegetarian/vegan/raw cafe.

I had the cacao crepes. They were delicious.

Since I had the camera on me I decided to take a picture of one of the coolest streets in Christchurch, which thankfully wasn't destroyed in the earthquake.

Ok, on a more serious note, I was at the chemist's the other day (or as peepz in America would say, the 'drug store'), no that is not the serious note. We were looking for some natural and vegan medicines/remedies for depression, that I have recently been suffering from. I spoke with a counsellor who happens to think it's earthquake related, but anyway...

The person who was working at the counter was suggesting that I get a blood type test done, and suggested I read a book called Eat Right for Your Type .

Anyway, I was horrified to discover that I was type O, which is supposed to thrive on meat products.

Luckily for me, I had already read in The Food Revolution that the diet had absolutely no credibility, so I decided to ignore it totally.

I don't think I could handle eating another creature's heart (stupidly recommended by the book), and that thought snapped me out of any depression.

Haha

Could me and my best friend be any more alike?

Exciting Updates!

Recently, I sort of lost my love of creating raw food at home. I still loved trying other people's raw food though. Just me, personally, had lost the excitement. There will always be good and bad people in the world, and I just have to try to not let them influence me. I shall explain further.

When I first started being raw I would eat cake and ice cream at every meal. I hadn't eaten that sort of thing in a long time, due to not eating sugar for 5 years. It may have been slightly unhealthy, but at the time I was new to raw, and the food tasted so good and was so good for me! I was feeling alive, happy, well, health issues went, and loving the fact that I could eat cake and not worry, because in fact I was losing weight!

Then I logged onto the internet (as you do). Big mistake. I felt like I was being shouted at by a million different raw food 'gurus', being told that what was feeling so good to me was completely wrong, and that I was going to die a slow and painful death (or words to that effect).

Of course, there were nice people online too, telling me that whatever I was eating was good because it was raw, and that everyone was different, and what may work for others was not specifically for me. But I couldn't shake other people's negativity.

But recently something great has happened! I'm back to my old self! I don't even know what it was, but suddenly I have that feeling in my stomach, a fluttering, that just makes me feel like that good things are going to happen! I've got that love of creating food back, and I have major plans!

So with this new positive mind, I logged onto Flikr, and created an account. Here is the link. I also spent my morning looking through the millions of raw recipes that I have, and decided on a few which I would like to create.

Today is also my best friend Josh's birthday, and I have decided on a great present, which I think he might possibly like. For those who don't know, Josh has been an amazing support during my raw journey, and is surprisingly open minded to raw foods. I'm lucky to have him as a friend, as a bonus he is hilarious. Happy birthday, Josh. :)

And even more exciting news, I tracked down the website for my favorite (ever) chocolate bar, ordered some bars, and I am going to review them when they arrive. If you want to order one or two feel free to email me at felic.pear@gmail.com. More information on that later though.

I would actually just like to do a review of one of my favorite blogs at the moment, Really Raw by Raederle. Her blog has so many features, a recipe section, articles, polls, q & a, etc! I really like it because I think a lot of her opinions she voices very fairly, but still comes to a healthy conclusion which supports raw living. You should definitely check it out!

I have found so many beautiful recipes that I would love to create within the next few weeks. So what if some of them are nut-based? You only live once, you may as well enjoy it.

24 hours away from Water Kefir happiness...

We started fermenting our Kefir Grains a day (or two) ago.

For anyone that doesn't know, Kefir is a grain that you ferment, and it is filled with healthy bacteria and goodness.

We found great tutorials and articles about growing and fermenting Kefir. I'm so grateful for the internet, it makes being raw so much easier. And everything else, as well.

...I'm sorry, I was just distracted by the full moon just outside my window.

Anyway... What was I saying again? 

Kefir! Right, I found a great tutorial and post from GreenMomZoe's blog, but the Water Kefir post and Video are specifically here.

We're currently up to a 'stage two' fermentation. We added 1/4c orange juice to make an Orange Lemonade (kind of like Fanta, hopefully), and are letting it ferment for a further 24 hours. I tasted it, and it was sort of like Lemon Ice Tea, very nice :D 

I hope to post the 'Slice of Happiness' Energy bar recipe soon. I'm still developing it. I brought samples to school for my friend Josh to try, and I think he liked them, but they still need improvement. I have managed to develop a Chocolate flavour and a Vanilla flavour! I really like both, but I need to add more sweetener I think. I'm not used to my food being very sweet.

So far we're 2 days into the new block at school. There are two blocks in a term, every 5 weeks. Every block we choose new classes to take. Anyway, I'm not really a bunker at school but I don't take many classes (we have quite a lot of freedom, I already attend University part time, and do some subjects that aren't offered by correspondence), but this block I picked a ton of classes, and so far my attendance has been perfect! Granted, it's only been 2 days. But I plan for it to continue! But with taking a lot of classes comes the most ridiculous amount of homework. I tell you, what a waste of time. For maths I have to find out all these name origins of measurements, for history I have to read 10 pages about WW2, for Health I have to keep a food journal (more on that!), for French I have to write about what I want to do when I 'grow up' AGAIN (I've already written it about 50 times), and for music I have to listen to a massive CD, and read complicated excerpts. I don't think I've ever had this much homework in my life.

So anyway, this block I'm taking a class on Nutrition! I know! As a Raw Vegan, I get to take a class on Nutrition, I felt like it was Christmas.

The first question the teacher asked the class was, "What is nutrition?"

Some skinny guy (drinking an energy drink): "It's, uh, getting, like, 5 vegetables a day and meat and..."

The next question: "Do you care about nutrition?"

The same guy: "Uh no."

Teacher: "Why not?"

Guy: "We've got fast metabolisms."

Everyone applauds.

That's actually quite common at my school. There aren't many fat people, and everyone eats badly, because clearly the crap is not going 'straight to the thighs'.

So I get to keep a food diary for the next few weeks, and the good news is that I'm sure I'm getting my 5+ vegetables per day.