Ingredients

1 whole lime (peeled)  High in Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron and Copper
4 leaves dino kale (Laciniato)
3 cups spinach
12 strawberries
1 banana
1/2 cup walnuts (soaked overnight) - High in Omega 3 fatty acids
3/4 cup chopped pineapple
1 avocado

Go green after a weekend of party time !!!
The lime in this shake will refresh the parts other fruits cannot reach!

Do 80% of your food shopping in the produce department and you will feel the difference in no time at all.

Bon appetite!

Truly the list would be more than three but I’m trying to be reasonable here!

1. The easy weight loss (if needed) and then weight maintenance.
2. Feeling absolutely amazing!
3. Getting to eat a lot of yummy food and lots of delish desserts!

The easy weight loss (if needed) and then weight maintenance.

When we first went raw vegan, we were in a dark place. Having gained quite a bit of weight (for us) and feeling pretty depressed. We jumped in with both feet and went 100% raw right off the bat. It was about one month later that we noticed the huge changes. The weight melted off both of us in spite of not changing our exercise regimen. Some of my friends expressed concern that I was getting too skinny! What they didn’t know was that I was going back to the weight I had been my whole life up until 2 years prior to being raw. Indeed, that is where I have stayed and so has Bam. No dieting! I eat like a MANIAC! In fact, I’m always eating. I’m one of those people who carries snacks with me. To the movies, to the mall, to go visit friends… anywhere. I always have something to snack on … ‘in case I get hungry’.

While not everyone experiences the weight loss that we did, most people do find their weight evens out over a period of time. If you do not lose weight like you want to, then you can watch how many nuts and fatty foods like avocados you consume on a daily basis. Most importantly, love yourself as you are! Accept your whole being! Love yourself, love the food you are preparing, love your life and share that love in a gentle way and you will find your path is a wonderful one.

Feeling absolutely amazing!

I always thought getting older was a terrifying prospect. Arthritis, failing memory, all sorts of aches and pains, weight gain (we covered that!), insomnia… and on and on and on. This what I have heard my whole life and it was what I accepted as ‘truth’. But that acceptance was so incorrect and ridiculous! Today I feel better and more vibrant than I did in my 20′s! That is saying something. The arthritis and insomnia are also gone. Years of  playing bass and piano had taken a toll on my wrists and again, I thought this was just ‘what happened to people’. But it didn’t have to be that way as once we went raw, POOF… achy wrists were gone! The insomnia I had suffered from disappeared as well! Energy? Yeah, you betcha. Oh and allergies all went away too. Yeah, it’s good to feel great everyday and it is something I didn’t know I was missing until I had it!

Getting to eat a lot of yummy food and lots of delish desserts!

I know I should be following an ‘eat to live’ train of thought and yet… I really do enjoy food. I mean I love great tasting gourmet dishes! Most definitely as raw foodies, we strive to eat foods that help us live better. Yet within that paradigm, I find myself looking very forward to certain things like …. chocolate candy! However it is not something I have everyday and when I do eat raw desserts, I find I can stop myself from gorging due to the high nutritional density.

We all have many reasons why it’s awesome to eat raw vegan. At the absolute most important center of the whole concept is that you find your own path to optimum health. Ours is always evolving as our bodies change from day to day and week to week.  Now, I gotta jump off of here and go make some more chocolate yumminess. Ha ha!

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.
~ John Lennon

As we’ve progressed into our super connected era with cell phones that are online and so many people are making a living from computer based technology, the need for quality living has never been greater! We receive a lot of emails asking how to incorporate raw foods into busy lifestyles. Our answer is simple. Just incorporate what you can. If you can achieve 50% living foods into your daily life, that’s great! What a change you will feel. Some days maybe you can eat more living foods. Some days might be less. Forget stressing about it! Just live! The important thing is to love the life we live. Love the foods we eat. That means realizing what impact they have on our bodies and minds. Do you really ‘love’ that chocolate cake or that donut? Does it actually make you feel great and full of energy? If you are in tune with your body, you will hear its response to what you eat. Make conscious choices!

We’ve all done the guilty thing and munched on comfort foods with a broken heart or a disappointed turn of events. We’ve also turned to ice cream and getting wasted to celebrate. Celebrate WHAT?????? I am here to testify that it is much better to celebrate life’s events with living foods and:
a. Remember the celebration!
b. Feel fantastic the next day!
c. Enjoy the moment and feel the full benefit of rewarding ourselves with something that tastes good and is nourishing at the same time.

Yet I know we’ve been told so many confusing things about food. I used to think that milk was good for me! Outrageous! I know better now. I used to think eating chicken was good for me, too. And whole wheat bread. And … on and on and on. Oh, that boxed cereal? Gimme a break! It’s like consuming ‘matter’.

What’s my point? The point is when you have the time to make something truly wonderful and alive and full of nutritional density like true raw vegan food, then do it! When you don’t, make as wise of a choice as you can. Eating 50% raw and then going to McDonald’s ain’t gonna cut it. In fact, it would probably totally stress your body out with a yo-yo effect. Remember that raw foods will detox your system so you want everything else you’re eating to be CLEAN.

Enjoy life. Choose to stop emotional eating habits! Eliminate candy, gum, ice cream, milk, cheese, animal flesh and if you can limit your intake of bread and pasta you will feel better. Change one habit per week and after one year, you’ll have a whole bunch of new habits. That’s all eating is. It’s daily habits. So break it down. Figure out what works for you and find substitutes.

In the meantime, call your friends, smile from your liver, feel worthy of healthful foods and remember … you are loved, loving and lovable.

PS. The pics here are from a lunch we had with our dear, non-raw friend Lisi Grinstein. Bam made raw spinach quiche and raw vegan blueberry cake. It was …. to say the least… amazing! She loved every single bite and we had a wonderful afternoon. Oh, and Bam also juiced apples and ginger for a delicious drink!

Want more info? Feel free to email us: info AT rawpirategourmet.com

The choice to go raw and take control of your health is a big one! We get asked a lot what we keep on hand to make it a little bit easier. Now bear in mind, many raw foods recipes are frightening at first but you will get used to them. Also, grasping the concept of ‘not’ cooking our foods as simple as it sounds, is kinda weird at first, too!

To answer the question we get asked more than anything else on Twitter, what do you keep in the kitchen as ‘staples’ for a raw food diet? This is an ever-changing list and we’d love to hear other people’s lists as everyone is different:

Avocados – We jokingly call this the ‘raw foodists egg’ and use it alone, in salads, also used for chocolate pudding and chocolate shakes to make them extra creamy and nutritional! Yum! Usually but not always organic.

Apples – These are easy. Great for snacking and juicing. We always buy organic apples so we can eat and juice the skins.

Arugula (known as Rocket in the UK) – A salad favorite!

Greens – Kale, Chard, Collard Greens, Parsley, Cilantro – used mainly for juicing and sometimes salads. Always organic.

Carrots – We get a 5 pound bag of these every time we shop. We juice them and use the pulp to make cookies! Always organic.

Ginger – This is a wonderful flavor for dressings and a nice touch in juices. Usually organic if we can find it.

Berries – Used for shakes and desserts and just general munching. Always organic but sometimes the fresh ones are not available in which case we settle for organic frozen.

Cacao Nibs or Powder – I have to have raw chocolate on hand for shakes and making ‘raw chocolate candy’. It is extremely high in anti-oxidants and magnesium. Superfood!

Raw Organic Almond Butter – This is a must have in our kitchen for whipping up a fast almond milk.

Raw Organic Tahini – This is another necessity for creating a speedy asian flavored dressing.

Big Bags of Organic Salad – If you’re gonna be raw, you gotta love salad. Of course, it’s nice to get inventive and add all sorts of crazy additions to your salads! (think raisins, soaked and dehydrated nuts and/or seeds, cabbage, fresh herbs…. )

Hot Peppers – Hot foods rule in our kitchen! We love spicy foods so we always have jalapenos, serranos and thai chiles on hand to chop up for salads or throw in the blender for spicy dressings.

Young Thai Coconuts – Once we discovered these we knew we were hooked. We just cut them open and stick a straw in there and voila. Then chop it in half and scoop out the meat for noodles. Marinate them in Nama Shoyu.

Sun Dried Tomatoes – These are great for making a fast italian style sauce. (after they’re soaked.)

Various raw nuts for soaking and dehydrating – Almonds, Hazelnuts, Braziles, Walnuts etc.

Seeds – Sunflower seeds and Pumpkin seeds are the best for soaking and sprouting. These make terrific nut cheese, toppings for salads, nut burgers etc. You can dehydrate them for extra yumminess.

Sea Salt – Pink Himalayan is our fave.

Lemons and Limes – These are great for dressings, adding a quick snap to salads and juicing, too.

*Nutritional Yeast – This is used with the soaked nuts or seeds to make nut cheese.

*Nama Shoyu – A fermented soy sauce that has pro-biotics in it. Used sparingly, this is a nice addition and makes a transition to raw foods easier.

*Optional and not really on our ‘must have’ list. Nevertheless, these items make raw foods a bit more exciting and easy at times.

The other crucial item for us is a Blendtec blender. Alternatively a Vitamix is terrific, too. However, we did manage just fine with a regular Osterizer blender with ‘ice blades’ that’s like a Timex watch. It’s still ticking after 16 years. The key aspect of the high powered blenders is that they really crush the foods so you end up with truly homogenized shakes and smoothies.

This is a bigger list than I anticipated! But the truth is surprising like that. I hope it helps some of you find your way into raw foods and on your path to health.