Raw Sunflower Sesame Bread – Gluten-free!

Okay, I never got photos of the Chocolate Chia Pudding but it looked like this:

The photo will click through to Get Well Grounded’s recipe. I didn’t use that one exactly but it looks perfect and I will next time.  Coco didn’t like my pudding- I think it was a texture thing. Stephane gobbled it up, though, and I loved non chocolate version.

So last night I decided to try my new dehydrator.  No, I didn’t get the Excalibur 9 tray “god of dehydrators.”  I wish.  I bought myself the $60 Nesco which had good reviews on Amazon but is definitely not sexy.  I mean, if a dehydrator could ever be sexy…

Anyway it was a good thing I got the cheapy because the next day my food processor died.  Now THAT was a disaster. I used the food processor a LOT. So yesterday I had the opportunity to play with both my new toys.  And I learned a lesson.  Tell you later.

The recipe for Sunflower Sesame Bread comes from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen which I bought on Amazon years ago, the first time I flirted with Raw Veganism.

Her recipe called for black sesames and both ground and whole flax seeds.  I only had ground flax so I substituted whole chia seeds.  I only had tan sesame seeds so I used those.  I still have no idea why I have two huge containers of sesame seeds…

The bread turned out fantastic.  It looks like this:

The photo links back to another blog with the full recipe.  I hate reinventing the wheel and Crystal did a fab job of describing how it all comes together. She’s got loads of yummy recipes so check her out.

I’m not hungry right now. I had a huge salad for lunch but for dinner I plan to make a sandwich EXACTLY like the photo above.  It’s so pretty and healthy looking, isn’t it?!!

Oh yeah, lessons… So for a lifestyle that eschews cooking, raw cuisine can be really time consuming. For anything not simply a salad, something has to be soaked and/or dehydrated.  Both take time. You see where this is going, right? I started making the bread after Coco went to bed and three hours later realized that I had two hours to go on the dehydrator and I was falling asleep on my feet. My cheapy machine doesn’t have a timer.

On the bright side, sitting out all night didn’t seem to bother it all.  I think the chia seeds needed more time than the flax anyway. I probably gave it three more hours in the dryer today and the bread tasted awesome.  I had a little with the sun dried tomato “cheese” I made a few days ago.  The cheese was really cashews and other yumminess. The cashews had to be soaked overnight, of course.  I suppose it’s a good thing. It’s hard to pig out when I have to anticipate my cravings 24 hours in advance…

Raw Chocolate Chia Pudding

I just made the most gorgeous tasting raw chia pudding with raw cocoa powder, cinnamon and a little stevia, using fresh cashew milk I made earlier today.

It’s not for me. I’m not that into chocolate. Coco is the chocoholic in the family. I’ve been making her “chocolate juice”  for breakfast for a few months now and I love knowing that even before she gets to school she’s had a full serving of spinach, carrots, hemp or flax seeds, blueberries, fresh coconut water and banana.  If a little raw cocoa helps all that go down with a smile, than I’ll take it!

I made myself some pudding, too.  Instead of chocolate I added a bit of vanilla extract (technically not raw), stevia and cinnamon.  I’m having a very hard time leaving it in the fridge until morning.  Thankfully I have some semi frozen banana pieces to munch on tonight.  I’m still kinda in pain from watching Stephane scarf down the gorgeous corn zucchini lime (vegetarian but not vegan) pizza I made him tonight.  Oh feta how I miss thee.

See how pretty the pizza is?  Feel my pain?  Click here to get the recipe. I’ll take photos of the pudding tomorrow.

Coco’s Tom Sawyer Summer

The city girl gets down and dirty all summer long.  I think she will remember this as her best summer ever… And it’s not over yet!

Highlights:

Downtown Mill Valley

Famous last words “I won’t get wet Mama!”

Stinson Beach, CA

Learning to surf with her Daddy

With her Nana & Yaya

Mill Valley Mountain Play presents The Music Man

With her Grandma & Grandpa in San Francisco

Celebrating Father’s Day at Fisherman’s Wharf

Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, CA

Who knew this place existed?

Wild Waves Amusement Park, WA

Sophie and Coco at the biggest water park I’ve ever seen

Coco and the girls in the wave pool

Coco and her cousin Benjamin

Maple Valley

Grandmama teaching Coco to pedal

Lake Sawyer

Stephane and Soleil take out the kayak

Coco: Look, Mama! No Life Vest!
Me: Aaaaaack!!!!

July 4 Party in the hot tub!

Sparklers were involved, of course

Captain Swanson takes us out for the show

Amazing fireworks and a full moon!

Speed tubing!

Confidence!

Time is FLYING!

It’s already May 15 today.  We are moving out of our home in less than a month!

I’d like to say I’m busy packing, packing, packing but while I’ve done a little, there’s an entire household left to do.  I have been busy though.

Stephane and I finally identified a project I could do (apparently well) for our business. So I’ve been editing the hell out of a portion of his book.  It really helped him out with his deadline and it was fun to be working so closely together.  I guess it’s a preview of this fall when Coco is in school fulltime and I will take on more responsibilities as Director of Social Media for our biz. I have only a vague idea of what that will entail but I love projects so I know I will dive right in. I’m really looking forward to it.

We also had a few weeks of insanity around here while we were showing our condo to prospective tenants.  We had to keep the place immaculate for showings which is no easy feat when you have a four year old child, a dog and a cat (not to mention a husband) who all like to make a mess when they play. Then my housekeeper decided those two weeks were a great time to visit her mother in Guatemala.  IEEE!

But we did it! We found what looks to be an awesome tenant who we hope will stick around for a few years so we don’t have to go through this again anytime soon.

Seriously, apart from about two hours once a week after the housekeeper leaves, Chez Fitch is NEVER neat.  It might be clean (maybe) but it’s always a mess.  Want to see the pretty pictures from Craigslist?

It’s nice to have pretty photos of the home we’ve living in for almost five years.  It’s the only home Coco has ever known and we have made so many wonderful friends here.  Only time will tell who stays in contact but fortunately for us, I’ve taken a LOT of photos over the years so at least we’ll have lovely memories.

Broccoli Pear Juice

Hello again.  Hi.  How are you?  Long time not see.  Umm, sorry I haven’t called.  I’ve been busy living and stuff. But I’m back.  I think.  I’m pretty sure. I’ve missed you.

Soooo, I keep trying to figure out how to reintroduce myself to my blog. It’s been so long since I’ve posted and so much has happened that I feel like I need to recap the entire last year. But let’s face it, no one who doesn’t know me really cares and all my friends and family already know.  Plus, the thought of thinking about the last year, let alone writing about it, is so overwhelming that I keep not doing it and then more times goes by, and more happens and I get further behind.  Ugh.

I’ve decided to jump right in.  Here goes.

Steph and I have completed a seven day juice fast today.  We weren’t 100% strict. Saturday night was date night and we splurged on a few cocktails (Captains and Diet Coke for me, Oberon beer for him) before seeing the Hunger Games (oh the irony.) Afterwards we went big and had a hummus plate with vegetables at the Daily Grill in Lincoln Square.  No pita, just cukes, celery, carrots and delicious, freshly made hummus.

I’ve lost about 6 lbs and I feel great, although I admit my temper has been short. I think I’ve been making our juices with too much fruit and I’m doing a lot of crashing throughout the day.  To fix that, we’re decided to do more veggie only drinks, or just with apple for sweetener.

Except that we should be done today, right? So who cares?

Well, no.  You see, a few nights ago we watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix. It’s about how juice fasting helped save the lives of a few people who really needed to lose weight and get healthy. We were already on day five of our own juice fast so I can’t say the film was life changing for us. But it was inspiring and we’re taking a good look at the foods we consume in this family.  Also, it inspired us to juice for a few days longer.  I need to lose four more pounds and inevitably I’ll put a few back on so we’re going to keep going until Friday.

All that build up just to tell you about a fabulous new juice I made tonight!

Your Daily Juice:  Broccoli & Pear

One big head of broccoli
Two pears
One apple
Four stalks of celery
One quarter avocado

Juice everything but the avocado, add that in the blender with ice.  Serves two.  Tell me what you think!!

I’m Writing My Novel!

November is National Novel Writing Month: More than 250,000 people around the world will try to write 50,000 words in just 30 days.

See you on the other side!

Favorite Moment From Our Vacation

Coco & Soleil at Lake Sawyer, Washington