laurensina.blogspot.com

 Until I decide wordpress is better.

• My recipes will be searchable, which isn't something I could do with the previous blog
• I can update it from my phone, which I think is kinda cool
• Honestly, Squarespace's web app is kinda klunky for blogging
  
• Umm, cuz I wanna, and this is MY blog.

I am also very busy because I have started demoing full time.

I will give this blog more attention after the November 1rst, when we are all settled in.

 sprouts

avocado

sauerkraut

dulse

Combine the ingredient proportions until the right balance is attained.

Simple. Yum.

I got a bunch of collard greens last night at the Sunday Supper, and I whooped this dish up right quick as a replacement for greens sauteed with garlic to go with the meal.

I am pleasantly surprised! It is so tasty and easy to make. Next time I might add some fresh hot pepper to make it more like the version that is cooked in the crock pot for hours.

 Garlicky Collard Greens

4-5 large collard leaves, sliced roughly

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 lemon

1/4 cup coconut oil

salt

Put everything but the  collards into the food processor, and pulse until you get a garlicky butter consistency. Add the collards, and process until the greens are broken down but not liquefied or mushy (unless you want them that way).

Place in a bowl, and put in the dehydrator for several hours. 

 By the way, if you know of any raw pancake recipes, I'd like to try them.

My current favorite amazing salad is from Ani's recipe book: Wakame Power Hemp Slaw, or something like that. Seaweeds, dark leafy greens, and hemp seeds - all my favorite things chopped up in salad form. I have been making and eating different versions of this salad everyday for the past week (although none of them are exactly like the version she published in her book...).

 Part of what makes this salad so YUMMY is the dressing, which uses hemp oil. 1/4 cup of it, to be exact. The hemp oil gives it such a great flavor. It tastes kind of like a hempy ranch. It's VERY rich and creamy.
 
Since 1/4 cup is quite a lot of hemp seed oil, I made the dressing last night using hemp seeds instead. It worked great. I also added a lot  more water, because the dressing is quite thick if made according to the recipe (Ani suggests you "scoop" it out of the food processor). The water doesn't water the flavor down at all, since the dressing is full of it.

 Here's my version, which uses different seaweeds, and a salad of basil (mmm!), chard, kale, and romaine.

Dressing: 

 1/4 cup hemp seeds

3/4 cup brazil nuts

1 teaspoon salt

1 lime, juiced

3/4 cup water

2 small garlic cloves 

I also like adding some fresh herbs to this. I've used chives (and cut down on the garlic), rosemary, and basil. With the extra water added to the recipe, you can stretch the dressing out to two very large mixing bowls full of salad (which could equal three to four meals, depending on how much salad you eat in a sitting. I know I can eat A LOT.)

Salad:

hemp seeds

chard

basil

kale

romaine

hijiki, soaked until it's plump

torn dulse 

The hijiki and dressing go SO well together. I have really been into hijiki and whole dulse leaves. I had only used the dulse flakes, which are good as well, but the dulse leaves open up all kinds of new possibilities. 

Yesterday I ran five miles. This is very exciting for me because I have never been much of a runner, although I have always wanted to run. Although I am really active (riding about 16 miles a day) I get out of breath easily when I run. Well, that is until yesterday.

I went out on a hike yesterday afternoon in Forest Park to get my energy up. I didn't really intend to run because I was feeling pretty tired after my long and draining weekend working for LaraBar at the Bite of Oregon. Part of the way through the hike I decided to start running. It was so easy and effortless that I just kept going. I do not have a history of running, and I ran a five mile loop that, in the past, I have thought would take me forever to work up to!

I am really proud of this achievement. I have always had dreams where I try to run but can't. In the dream it is either as if  I am trying to run underwater, or I just can't seem to get the coordination right. The dreams are very tense and frustrating, and have made me think I should be confident with running, if only so I can get over these dreams.

I was born with an atrial septal defect (giant hole in my heart between the two sides), and it wasn't discovered until I was twenty. Oxygenated blood was mixing with deoxygenated blood, and one side of my heart was swelling up. I would have died when I was 30 (in about four years from now), according to the doctor who found it. My heart would have burst.

So, it was a probably a good thing I wasn't terribly active when I was younger. Running was always a struggle, and I guess the hole was the reason why.

I think what is so interesting about my recent run is that it really was almost effortless, without any training. And not only was it effortless, I wanted to go out and run the next day although I was a little sore and worn out. I have run since the surgery, but it has always been a bit of a struggle.

What is the difference now? Is it raw food? Is it superfoods? A shift in my mental attitude? Has my body finally gotten over the effects of open heart surgery?

The year before the surgery I felt the best I ever had. I was living in Thailand at the time, and I had lost a bit of weight. I did a seven day water fast and then started eating a lot of raw food. I drank a lots of coconuts and made fresh juice in my apartment (although I should say here I was by no means extremely health conscious at this point). I had tons of energy - I would party late into the night and was able to wake up early feeling great, while friends doing the same thing were constantly sick.

When I returned to the states, not only was I more healthy and energetic, I was a bit skinnier. A family friend was alarmed at the weight loss and thought I must have parasites. The doctor I went to see lead me through all kinds of parasite tests and finally said "Well, you don't have any parasites, but you do have a large hole in your heart you should get checked out." The hole was so urgent that surgery was scheduled the next month.

When I left a week later, I could barely walk, keep my eyes open, or hold my head up.

This absolutely astounded me. I still thought hospitals made you healthy, and was shocked that I could go in so healthy and come out so far behind. The surgery began a gradual decline in my belief in the medical system.

To access my heart, they pulled my ribs apart on the right side, which has caused my right breast to be almost completely numb (another side effect they didn't tell me about, although feeling is slowly coming back). My was heart stopped completely, patched up, and revived.  The doctor thought it would take 6 months to recover from the surgery, but I think it has actually taken six years to recover from the heart surgery.

I have often wondered what would have happened if I had thought for myself more during this time period and had the beliefs regarding the medical system that I have now. Would I have really died? Or rather, did I truly need surgery?

I use smoothies as a way to get as manysuperfoods into me as possible, which consider part of my job description as the Portland Health Force Nutritionals Demo Princess.

While I enjoy a yummy tasting sweet smoothie with delicious fruits, I catch myself feeling like it's almost frivolous. I could be drinking some delicious fruits, and a generous boost of green super foods!

I usually put raw cacao powder, VitaMineral Greens, and Spirulina into my smoothies in the morning, along with a banana or two, and half a bunch of greens (cilantro is my current favorite).

I find when I put Greener Grasses in along with this mix, my energy and excitement is so much higher. I can work with focused excitement for long periods of time. Sometimes I over do it and get too much energy, which is something people don't understand when I say this during a Health Force demo (when you have no energy, I guess it is hard to imagine having too much).

I have recently found a combo that tastes like a peanut butter banana smoothie. I think the peanut butter flavor comes from the spirulina and hemp seed combo.

This smoothie actually does taste good, and is more of a chocolate brown than superfood sludge color.

Almost Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

two bananas
enough water to make a quart
one large scoop VMG
one large scoop Spirulina
one scoop Greener Grasses
two scoops raw cacao powder
one small scoop raw carob powder
1/4 cup hemp seeds
optional: agave nectar
optional: Artisana Coconut Butter (this is the whole coconut made into a butter, not just the oil)

I am usually using a tablespoon measure when I scoop the powders into my blender.

By the way, I would like to find a smoothie base that doesn't require so much fuel and slave labor to get to my blender. If you know of one, please let me know.

p.s. I took a picture of the above smoothie because I was actually proud that it turned out brown. I then tasted it and added a bunch more green stuff to it.  Hmm...