It's a Vegan World

Oh boy! I’m so behind with my posts. Soooo sorry! We had some animal dramas the last days we had to take care of.

One super cute (old and sick) pudel was supposed to be put down by the owner about 8 days ago. We managed to convince her to give the dog a few more days to see if we can do something to make her feel better. She (the dog) has arthritis and can’t move her rear legs. So we bought an orthopedic bed for her and voila, only two days later she seems much more alert, doesn’t sleep that much anymore, and actually moves her head when you come in the door. Wooohooo!! So proud of her! So we hope she will have a few more weeks or even months with less pain. And maybe we can even help her walk again! That would be awesome!

Isn’t she cute?!

Second drama of the week: One of our client’s cats didn’t want to eat for two days! For cats that can be very dangerous. We tried to give her treats, baby food, nothing helped. So we already made an appointment for the vet. Yesterday morning she finally ate again. Just a little bit but better than nothing, right?!

Yeah, so the last few days where pretty busy. But things are calming down again, so I am finally able to give you a little update regarding my challenge.

I can’t really recall what exactly I ate on which day, so I’ll just give you a little summary.

I tried a very tasty Berry Tomato Soup the other day. Although the combination of mixed berries (like strawberry, blueberry etc) with tomatoes seems a little odd it tastes really good. You should give it a try!

And – tatatataaaaaa – drum roll!! – I used my food processor for the first time! So cool!! This thing shreds absolutely everything (watch your fingers!). I made some super delicious raw vegan brownies with it. Cashews, almonds, dates, some sea salt, and cacao powder. Done!

I should have left them in the freezer just a liiiittle bit longer though. They kind of fell apart when I tried to cut them. I’ll know better next time!

I also couldn’t resist to get some raw chocolate from Whole Foods. I love the one with raspberry!!

Other than that I had tons and tons of salad, fruits, and smoothies in different colors and consistencies.

Now that I finally gave you an update I feel much better! The summary of days 13-18 will follow shortly. I promise!

On day 7 I basically ate leftovers from the previous two days. Nothing exciting. My plan to go to the Farmers Market after work on Sunday was destroyed by a monsoon-like rain shower in the late afternoon. So no fresh pineapple till next week.

Yesterday I tried Linda’s Kelp Noodle Recipe. Before Linda sent me her recipes I had no idea what kelp is. I’ve never heard of it before. Turns out it’s a sea vegetable that grows underwater. Kelp noodles look like the Chinese glass noodles, are fat- and gluten-free and very low in carbohydrates and calories. The ones I bought have 6 (in words: six!) calories per serving. I found them in the Asia section at Whole Foods.

It was sooooo delicious!! For the last few days I always had the feeling I want to have something hearty (is that the right word??). Not that I was hungry all the time but I wanted to feel full. And this dish was great for it! The sauce tastes like real Alfredo sauce, very creamy and the tomatoes give it a very rich and aromatic taste. Simply great!!

And since this recipe was so good I also had to try the banana ice cream….well, I waited a few hours because I was so full.

It doesn’t look as good as the one on Linda’s pic but it was very yummy!!

Oh, btw, my food processor finally arrived today. Woohooooo!!!

Hi everybody,

I already mentioned it a few times, my friend Linda from Veltenbummler wrote a guest post for me (she even made the effort and translated it to English! Thank you, Linda!!) with some great looking recipes. I already went to Whole Foods this morning to get Kelp noodles and I am super excited to finally try the recipe. But now without any further ado Linda’s post:

Jennie decided to go on a raw vegan diet for a whole month and I really think that’s great! I try some raw dishes every once in a while and it’s absolutely amazing what’s possible without cooking. Raw food isn’t all about carrots, even if it’s that, what most people might have in mind. I personally feel not ready yet for this challenge at the moment. But I want to support Jennie and tell her how awesome I find this project during the VeganMoFo. Therefore I want to share some raw recipes that I like a lot and hope these delicious dishes make it easier for her to achieve her goal and maybe I can inspire some more people to try some raw goodies.

Green Kale Smoothie
3-4 leaves of kale
1 orange
1 mango
1 banana
1-2 cups of water

Wash and cut the kale into peaces, peel the fruits and put it all together in a powerful blender until smooth. Who thinks this smoothie might be too sweet can leave out the banana. And who likes it even sweeter (guilty as charged!) can add some dried dates.

Kelp „Spaghetti“ Alfredo
I know that sounds a little awkward, but during my New York holiday (http://veltenbummler.blogspot.de/2012/08/i-love-new-york-der-groe-apfel.html) this summer I ate some really delicious kelp noodles at “Pure Food and Wine” (http://www.oneluckyduck.com/purefoodandwine/). Sea vegetables are also very nutritious, therefore you should give it a try!

1 package kelp noodles (340g)
1 cup cashews
1 lemon (juice of it)
1 teaspoon Shoyu
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
1 little clove of garlic
fresh ground pepper
a little bit agave syrup
1 cup water
1 hand full of sun-dried tomatoes
fresh basil

First rinse the kelp in water, then cut the noodles to desired length. Pour some lemon juice on them and put them in the refrigerator. In the meantime you can prepare the sauce by putting all the ingredients in the blender together with the remaining lemon juice. Blend till the sauce is creamy and smooth. Then chop the tomatoes and the basil and fold them under the sauce. It tastes best if served lukewarm (up to approx. 108 degrees it is still considered to be raw food). Some blenders can also warm up to a certain temperature.

Raw Ice Cream

2 frozen bananas

Just blend the bananas. That’s it! If you like it sweeter, then add some raw agave syrup. You can also make vanilla ice cream by adding grounded vanilla or chocolate ice cream by adding raw cocoa. You can even make it fruity by putting other frozen fruits into the blender together with the bananas like for example strawberries. Making ice cream has never been easier and it’s also very tasty!

I have to say so far I’m doing pretty good. Since I worked a lot the last two days and my food processor hasn’t arrived yet I kept my recipes simple. Not that it will get super fancy once I have the food processor but at least I’ll be able to try a few things here and there.

I usually have some fruit with nuts for breakfast, a salad at work, and then more fruit, a smoothie, or veggies in the evening.

The day before yesterday I ordered a great smoothie from Bal Harbour Juice, a little organic cafe in Bal Harbour. They serve all kinds of sandwiches, pitas, wraps, smoothies, soups, and some platters. Although it’s not a vegan place they do have some vegan options (sandwich with soy cheese instead of real cheese etc.) and their smoothies and juices are amazing! This one is with raspberries, bananas, peaches, and strawberries.

Also I fell in love with cranberries. They are super delicious and great for salads:

When I went to Whole Foods the other day I bought one of these raw nut bars, a raw blueberry nut bar to be exact. I thought it would be good to have something at work to munch on when I get hungry. Unfortunately it didn’t last till I got to work. I already ate it the night before. Oops! I just wanted to try how it tastes. Really!! But it was so good that I had to eat it all. Well, happens!

I didn’t get to try Linda’s recipes yet. But that’s on the list for tomorrow….or maybe even tonight. And if somebody else has a nice (and easy!! – remember, I’m lazy!) recipe, feel free to send it to me!! I want to try more raw vegan noms!

So, today was day 4 of my raw vegan challenge and I finally got to eat solid food again. Well, to be fair I have to say that I already had some nuts and fruit yesterday evening. And of course I ended up preparing my salad this morning instead of yesterday evening. Geez, what can I do?!

Anyways, I also had some fruit for breakfast and then a huuuge salad at my lunch break. I prepared two salads this morning and what you see in the pic is the small one, so you can image how big the “big” salad was.

Lots of spinach and kale, a mushroom, some cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, onions, sunflower seeds, and cashews. For the dressing I just used some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and some salt and pepper.

I will probably have another pineapple smoothie for dinner, some mixed nuts, and an apple. Yup, sounds good! And tomorrow I will have to go grocery shopping again. Believe it or not, almost all the veggies and fruits I bought on Sunday are already gone. This is going to be an expensive month!

Talking about money. After surfing the web for some nice raw vegan recipes I came to the conclusion that raw vegan living without a food processor is nearly impossible. So I ordered one at Amazon yesterday and I hope it will arrive on the weekend, so I don’t have to eat fruits and salads all month long. lol. Since I am not sure if I will continue with a raw vegan diet after this month I opted for a pretty affordable machine for around $35. Hope that wasn’t a mistake.

And tomorrow I will finally try one of Linda’s (Veltenbummler) recipes. It sounds pretty tasty, so I’m excited to try it!

Helloooo everybody!

I am super happy today because I get to “eat” some smoothies! While day 1 of the juice fast was super easy for me, day 2 wasn’t as much fun anymore. I was sooo hungry all day long but couldn’t drink more than three juices because I got kind of nauseous from all the fluid. I had to walk the dog in the afternoon and felt so weak and sleepy. It was horrible! I know I’m a sissy but hey, I stuck to the plan and now I get my rewards: Super delicious smoothies!!

For breakfast I had a banana smoothie. 1 banana, 1 date, a little bit of vanilla extract, and about 1/2 cup of water. I was so hungry I didn’t even take a picture. Sorry!

The second smoothie I had today was a pineapple smoothie. Juice from 1 orange with pulp, juice from 1 grapefruit with pulp, and about 1/3 of a pineapple. A little sour but also very good. Aaaaand I took a picture.

Smoothie number three was a green smoothie. It turned out my beloved blender has a little problem with leafy greens and maybe the cucumber chunks where too big for it. I ended up using a spoon to actually eat instead of drink it. Although I added a mango to give it a sweeter flavor it tasted more like a veggie soup anyway. I still have half of it in the refrigerator and might eat it later.

I also already had about a handful of mixed nuts to prepare my body for “real” food that I will have again tomorrow.

Since I will also have to go back to work tomorrow (could somebody please feel pity for me?!) I am going to prepare my food for tomorrow this evening. There is no way I will get up half an hour early to make a salad! Nope, sorry!!

Talk soon!!

Yesterday I started my Raw Vegan Experiment with my first day of juice fasting. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I did juice fasts before and usually I get very moody if I don’t get any food. This time everything was fine. Maybe because I didn’t have to go to work and slept a lot yesterday.

I had four juices, lots of water, and two cups of Chamomile tea.

I really liked the first two juices with lots of greens (kale, spinach, cucumber, lettuce), a lemon or lime, celery, and ginger. Sooo good!!

Isn’t that a great color?!

I am not a big fan of carrot juices though. But because I bought a lot of carrots (for what reason ever) and they go bad so fast I added some carrots and tomatoes to the last two juices.

Today will be the same routine and tomorrow I finally get to have some smoothies! Yeay!!

Did anybody else start a new diet yesterday? Let me know!!

October 1st is World Vegetarian Day. The goal of this initiative is to encourage people all over the world to go meat free for a month. Since I am already vegan I decided to challenge myself and switch to a raw vegan diet for a month. Taking on new responsibilities at work by accepting a management position and also starting to take on new clients for my own business about two months ago led to a lifestyle change I am not really happy with. By now I am what I would call a “Junk Food Vegan”. Lots of unhealthy food choices (pizza, cookies, tons of frozen prepared meals etc.) and lack of workouts turned me into a person I no longer want to be. So what can you do when you’re not happy with the way you look and feel? Right, you can complain, moan, whine, and start eating more cookies than you already do OR you can change something! After executing option number one for about two weeks I decided this probably won’t get me where I want to be in life. So I’ll try option number two and want to find out what effects a raw vegan diet has on my body and mind.

In preparation of my challenge I already made kind of an action plan. Ideas and motivation are great when you want to change something in your life but without a plan you most likely going to fail after a week or two and slide back into old habits. So my action plan for the coming month looks as follows:

I’ll start off with 2 days of juice fasting followed by a smoothie day. This basically serves two purposes. 1) It detoxifies the body and helps it to get rid of all the “bad stuff” I fed it during the last weeks and 2) Mentally it turns a switch in the brain and serves as a great kick start to establish new and healthier habits.

To fully concentrate on my challenge and to guarantee a good start I took off the first four days in October. Furthermore I know from experience that juice fasting makes me kind of moody. Working in a field that involves lots of customer service I assumed it wouldn’t be a good idea handling guest complaints without having any solid food in my stomach. So taking off was definitely a good idea anyway!

Besides changing my diet I am also planning on shifting the focus back to myself and my body. For the last months I tried to prove myself as a good manager, good supervisor, good trainer and didn’t realize that by doing all the things I’ve done I slowly lost connection to myself. Good ways to reconnect with oneself are regular workouts, yoga, and meditation. The important thing when starting a new workout routine, doing yoga, or starting meditation is to not overwhelm yourself. All of these activities should be something you should look forward to as a way to help you to relax and energize your body and mind. Therefore I won’t follow a strict workout or meditation routine a la three times a week 30 minutes full body workout (Some people need a strict routine to help them make changes but everybody is different and I know for myself it is always better to have some kind of flexibility instead of a strict regime). The plan is to clear my schedule so it gives me 30 minutes a day to focus on myself. These 30 minutes I will spend however I want. Maybe I will go to the beach to meditate or workout, maybe I will go on a bike ride with my hubby, do some yoga, go running, or even do some arts and crafts. Whatever it is that will make me feel happy and “centered”.

Since I also signed up for the VeganMoFo (you can check them out here and find a lot of great vegan blogs!!) I will try to keep you posted on my activities, progress, and of course post lots of pics about what I will eat all month long!

If anybody wants to join me please feel free to shoot me an email (jennifer@itsaveganworld.com) or leave a comment below. You don’t have to go raw vegan! Maybe you are an omnivore and want to go meat free for a month, or you already stopped eating meat but would like to try a vegan lifestyle, or you simply want to change your diet to a more healthy one. Whatever it is you want to work on or you want to change I am happy to support you….in return a pat on my shoulder and a little “Goooood jooob!” once in a while to keep me focused would be nice too.

Oh, and BTW if you want to encourage others to go meat free in October take a look at www.worldvegetarianday.org. You will find lots of free stuff like posters and flyers you can hand out to people or place in restaurants and shops.