A Potent Drink

My husband's grandfather lived to a ripe old age and said every morning he would drink honey vinegar water. He was a big healthy man and said it was because of it.

I have been drinking it almost daily for over 1/2 a year now. I will admit I still make a pucker face and shudder while drinking it every once in a while. :-D But I have noticed it has been helping with my allergies. Probably because I've been using raw local honey.

 

Lately I've been adding a little cinnamon. I figure I can get a little bit of the nutritional benefits from it especially the magnesium. I crave cinnamon sometimes!

 

The ingredients are:

• 1-2 teaspoons Bragg's raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar "with the mother"
• a dash of cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon raw local honey
• about 1/4-1/2 cup warm water (I use very little so I don't have too many mouthfuls to swallow!)

Mix well and drink. It's important to drink water after to dilute it in your stomach to avoid getting a tummy ache. (And to rinse the taste out! :-D)

 

yummy breakfast

This was surprisingly a very good breakfast!

 It consisted of:

• 4 radishes
• 2 sprigs worth mint leaves
• 1 carrot
• small bowl kale chips (They're growing on me)
• and a mango, red and green apple, cranberry and strawberry smoothie

A very good start to my day I must say! It completely satisfied me and I don't feel even a little bit hungry!
Have a good day!

Breakfast

My breakfast consisted of a fruit smoothie (mango, apple, cranberries, strawberries, water): 1 for my husband.

 And a few kale chips:

It's my first time making kale chips. I made them with sunflower seeds, tamari sauce, 1 garlic clove, olive oil, and nutritional yeast. The recipe also called for cayenne pepper to be sprinkled over the top before dehydrating, but I forgot. It is a taste to get used to. I'm wondering if it's the tamari I don't like. I'll have to try it without or use less next time. My husband doesn't like them. I can see where they would be good, so I have the ambition to do what it takes to find a recipe I like.

I hope this starts my day off right!

My new Vitamix Blender

I have wanted one of these for many many years! I have seen the demonstrations in Costco, and have seen them used in countless videos for raw food on YouTube. It was a blender I had set my mind on to get. And I was so excited when my old blender died and gave out the last time I used it because my husband wouldn't buy me a new one because every time I asked, and told him how horrible the old one was at blending anything, he'd just say but we have a blender! Then all of a sudden, we had none at all! I was so hopelessly desperate. I used my blender all the time and I burned it out!

So can you imagine my joy when he finally bought me one for Christmas? And a Vitamix one?

It came with a huge cook book, a tamper, one of there newer model lids that clip on, and a full 7 year warranty.
I am so excited! I have a Vitamix blender!

Why I chose the Excalibur Dehydrator

I almost got another brand dehydrator but then realized after reading lots of reviews, that it wasn't a better choice. Excalibur has so few unhappy people about their product that it's almost nonexistent. I looked at the Cabela's commercial dehydrator, the Ronco, the generic round ones you can buy anywhere, the Sedona, the Cabela's brand counter top one, and after assessing all each had to offer,and reading so many negative reviews, I have chosen the EXCALIBUR.

They offer 10 year warranty, carry all the parts from their 30+ year old models, will walk you through a repair if something happens, have the greatest reviews all around, require no to very little rotating of the food's dehydrating for even drying, are dependable, and built to be used 24/7.

It came in this huge box very neatly packaged:

Video of me unpacking it:

 They let us pick if we wanted a free jerky seasoning bag, or a Teflon drying sheet and my husband picked the seasoning.

 A side view:

Everyone online recommends it, and mostly all YouTube videos on dehydrators are about praising the Excalibur.

An open front view of the 9 trays:

 My first attempt at fruit leather:

So I have chosen the Excalibur. I don't like the idea of the plastic trays, but they say it's a plastic that is food safe #5. Their choice of nonstick tray liners you can buy are silicone coated, which I'm comfortable with. Their other option is Teflon coated which I'm against. I'd rather pay the $95 or whatever it comes out to, to get the silicone ones. Call me odd if you want -I don't care.
I bought 5: (they are heavy duty and thick and work very well and clean easily)

 My dehydrator didn't come with a timer, but it has a very nice temperature guide right on the machine:

In all, I am very happy with my new dehydrator. It has so far worked exactly as I had imagined. I would recommend it to anyone.

Have fun eating raw!
Trisha

Raw Spaghetti

RAW SPAGHETTI

Well, almost raw. The canned sun dried tomatoes weren't.

Ingredients: raw tomatoes, raw bell pepper, raw garlic, dried-basil, oregano, black pepper, sea salt, and of course canned sun dried tomatoes. All served with homegrown squash "noodles". Recipe called for olive oil, but I left it out. the sun dried tomatoes had olive oil in them.

It actually tastes really wonderful! Better than I expected it to. It has that real taste. Very Delicious. Actually better than canned. And even weirder, I actually don't even miss the pasta! And I LOVE pasta!

I was skeptical that the bell peppers would taste good in there, but they do. And eating it cold, it's actually very refreshing.

Hope you give it a try!
Trisha

Day 22

I decided today was a day I would just eat and see what happened.

So Breakfast: Fruit. Way too much fruit. too acidic first thing in the morning. and  a little chocolate avocado pudding. there is celery in this picture, but I ate only 1 piece. That was enough. I guess I like salads better for breakfast!

Lunch: 2 cookies, some cheezits, baked potato, and rice pilaf.

Supper: chicken wild rice casserole. Some reason it didn't taste as good as I thought it would. I usually love it!

I feel too stuffed full today and am thinking I ate too much heavy foods. Maybe too much dairy. Either way, I feel really full.

I've decided that I am going to eat mostly raw as much as I can from now on, cause I havn't had a headache from it, my hormones seemed to have balanced out on their own, and I'm sleeping beter, and happier.

I will be taking a break from blogging for a few days. I have got to get my house in order so I can finally see it finished. I will start again maybe after the weekened, or sooner.