Raw July: Week One

This "let's do a raw food detox in July" was Dan's idea.  I reminded him of that a few nights ago when he mourned over the sight of the chocolate cream pie that I'd made for our friends and our kids.

We've just finished our first whole week of raw food.  I've never eaten fully raw for this long before, but Dan did so for an entire month back in February 2012, with encouraging results for his health.  I've made many raw food recipes over the last two years, so it wasn't difficult to find inspiration for our month-long detox menu.  

This is a wonderful time of year for raw food.  Organic berries are in season, and everything tastes so fresh and delicious. With the warmer weather, I don't really miss hot food or drinks, either! Even coffee. Yes, I am completely coffee free for the month of July!  It's been difficult sometimes because coffee is my comfort blankie, but our heat wave is helping, as is the fact that I feel so full of good food that I don't mind as much.  Of course I'll go back to it in August, but it never hurts to break a little addiction now and then, does it?

This menu may appear rather sparse but we are eating large quantities, as well as at least one or two snacks a day in addition to the meals --snacks are listed below the menu.

For our basic breakfast smoothie recipe, see here.

Monday, 1 July

Breakfast: smoothies with mango

Lunch: salad of spinach, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, avocado, alfalfa and radish sprouts, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice

Tea: carrot, coriander, and sprouted mung bean salad; green salad

Tuesday, 2 July

Breakfast: smoothies with fresh pineapple

Lunch: fresh green juice [pineapple, spinach, carrots, apples, lemon]

Tea: raw vegetable chilli with mung bean sprouts and green salad

Wednesday, 3 July

Breakfast: smoothies 

Lunch: leftover raw vegetable chilli; avocado

Tea: rocket salad with kalamata olives, cashews, tomatoes, fresh basil, dressed with olive oil and freshly ground black pepper; sliced apples with cinnamon and raw banana watermelon ice cream

Thursday, 4 July

Breakfast: smoothies with strawberries

Lunch: avocado with lemon juice and black pepper; handful of cashews and dates

Tea:  sprouted lentil salad with beetroot , green salad

Friday, 5 July

Breakfast: smoothies

Lunch: green salad with avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, and ground black pepper

Tea: mango salsa with mung beans, green salad

Saturday, 6 July

Breakfast: smoothies with fresh mango

Lunch: leftover mango salsa with extra tomatoes and the addition of an avocado; carrot sticks; fresh pineapple

Tea: tomato, carrot, fresh corn, fresh coriander salad dressed with avocado oil and red wine vinegar; green salad; lots and lots of cold watermelon

Sunday, 7 July

Breakfast: smoothies

Lunch: Raw Summer Market Pasta from Fragrant Vanilla Cake --minus the mushrooms and the hempseeds; I didn't have any.  This recipe was delicious and very easy to make.

Tea: Fruit salad --mango, pomegranate seeds, strawberries, raspberries

Monday, 8 July

Breakfast: smoothies with strawberries

Lunch: Pea shoot and beetroot leaf salad with avocado, pumpkin seeds, tomato, dressed with olive oil, lime juice, and a sprinkle of chilli flakes

Tea: Raw vegetable chilli with green salad

Snacks: 

cashews, raisins, walnuts, dates, carrot sticks, fresh berries, watermelon, dried mango

If this sounds too difficult, let me tell you: it's not!  We are not full-time "raw foodies", and do not own a dehydrator, fancy blender, or any of the other accoutrements that normally assist a typical raw food kitchen.  I use a hand [stick] blender for all our smoothies and salad dressings.  On the rare occasion that I want to make anything more extravagant, I borrow my mother-in-law's incredibly effective food processor.

Neither are we 100% accurate with our raw foodism.  We are eating olives once or twice a week [are they fully raw --who knows?], small amounts of dried herbs, chilli flakes and fruit [not necessarily dried at temperatures low enough to be considered raw], and drinking herbal tea made with hot --though not boiled-- water.

If the skies are grey and pouring rain on us next week instead of beaming with sunshine as they have been, I may be less chirpy about our raw food detox.  But right now, in spite of the extra thought I've had to put into our menu, I'm loving it!