Fried Onion Rings No More!

Raw Onion Rings

Years ago, I used to love deep-fried onion rings, and would order them whenever we went to get a burger and fries. However, as we were more aware of the problems with deep-fried food, I didn’t have them anymore. That is, until now! But THESE onion rings are NOT deep-fried, they are dehydrated!

You might wrinkle your nose at that, but I had leftover sauce for the kale chips we make, and we’d made a lasagna a few nights before with lots of leftover raw onions, zucchini, and yellow squash. I got the idea to coat them all with the kale batter and see how they would taste after being dehydrated. I didn’t tell Steve as I wanted it to be a surprise. They were very tasty, and he liked the idea – deciding we should just do onion rings.

Kale Chips & Raw Onion Rings

We made a large batch of them and dehydrated them for about 7 hours. I took them out before they were totally dried, and they were good, but put them back for another 8 hours and WOWIE ZOWIE!!! These are a winner, and naturally we are going to make more.

Now I’m thinking what else we can dehydrate with that sauce, like artichoke hearts and apple slices. There are endless possibilities – the world is our oyster….er, ‘scuse me…I mean, Cauliflower!!

Yum!!! (KJ)

Raw and Rumi

Panaramic View from Deck

What a fabulous meetup we had last night at Table for Life in San Carlos.   We were treated to an inspired evening of poetry and music with Eric Rumi Schneider and cellist, Elaine Kreston.

Eric & Elaine in Concert doing Rumi

Our hosts, Michael and Anna Coulter, have a gorgeous home in the hills that has a panoramic view of the Bay Area, and the food shared by all attending was truly delicious. Again it reminds us of how good we feel when we eat a raw diet, and reaffirms our commitment to doing more. Beyond that, how grateful we are for the opportunity to meet with like minded individuals who are also on a journey within the raw food lifestyle.

Even though we’re not all 100% raw, we are each making our way and finding the benefits and challenges through the process. The super thing about meetup groups is that there are people who can answer questions and who can share their own journey, as well as wonderful recipes that are healthy and delicious. These monthly gatherings affirm the journey and often lead to friendships and learning about other things of interest.

Most incredibly, you note the aliveness of everyone participating. There is something about raw food that creates a glow that emanates from within and shines on the faces of those who have found this way of eating. I think it is the cells within the body all playing in symphonic delight, grateful for being given food that is alive and vibrant so that renewal can take place in the healthiest of ways. Steve has taken pictures of the food, and even won second prize for his delicious onion/mushroom crackers with cashew “cheese” spread.

Mushroom Onion Crackers with MocKotta Cheese

If you would like to join or start a group in your own area, check out http://www.meetup.com for information. Just enter raw food groups in their search dialogue box, and see what’s available. If the groups in your area are anything like the ones in ours, they are well worth attending! (KJ)

Gluten & Wheat-Free Vegetarian Zucchini Lasagna Recipe

Gluten & Wheat-Free Vegi Lasagna

by Steve Freier

This is my own creation based upon both raw and cooked versions.  It uses thinly sliced zucchini and yellow squash to produce amazingly realistic noodles with the texture you would associate with pasta noodles made from wheat! The benefit of course is that this dish is ideal for those who cannot tolerate wheat or gluten in any form.  I like to use zucchini; spinach and yellow squash for this vegetable lasagna. Feel free to experiment with different vegetables. Serve with a nice salad.

(See Assembly Photos Below)

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:
·    1 Red Bell Pepper.
·    2 -3 medium Zucchini, Sliced
·    2-3 medium Yellow Squash, Sliced
·    Red Onions Slices
·    2 C mushrooms, sliced
·    2 C Spinach
·    Himalayan Pink Salt
·    Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
·    1-1/2 Logs Trader Joes Goat Cheese
·    2 large eggs
·    3 cloves garlic, minced
·    1 C Parsley
·    1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
·    1 26 oz. jars Raw Tomato sauce

Preparation:
·    Slice the Mushrooms and soak in a mixture of Olive Oil & Soy Sauce for an hour or more.
·    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
·    Using a Cuisinart, blend the Cheese with the garlic, eggs, parsley and Italian seasoning till smooth
·    Using a Mandolin, thinly slice Zucchini, Yellow Squash & Red Bell Peppers.
·    Spread a layer of the Tomato Sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
·    Layer the Zucchini & Squash in an even layer.
·    Layer Onions and bell pepper Slices
·    Layer Spinach & Mushrooms
·    Spread Cheese Mixture
·    Spread tomato Sauce
·    Repeat process ending with a layer of Tomato Sauce and then a sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese on top.

Zucchini & Yellow Squash Slices

The Journey Goes Way Beyond Food

As we embarked on this journey into the lifestyle of raw food – and make no mistake – it is a lifestyle, there were other things that emerged as well. Watching my body change and feeling the difference the unadulterated food made to my system, I wanted more at a deeper level.

Years ago, I wrote a book called Vision of the Grail, ( www.grailvision.com ) and it had come about because I was honoring a daily practice of meditation and gratitude. I flowed with life and with my inner guidance, doing the things that brought harmony into the space that was my world. When Steve and I got together, my routine changed, and I stopped meditating daily. I found all kinds of other things to grab my attention, and the spark that was so alive and vivid within me slowly dwindled to an ember.

As synchronicity would have it, whenever I ask from my heart for answers, they come. And this year, along with the raw food exploration, I’ve had the good fortune to have several meaningful promptings to return to my spiritual underpinnings. First was the book, Chants of A Lifetime, by Krishna Das, whose chants I find both compelling and soothing to my soul. Secondly was The Tapping Solution (mentioned in a previous post), that brought a way of moving beyond the blocks I couldn’t see or touch at surface level, but through tapping, was able to release major issues from childhood.  And finally and best of all, a DVD:  Eckhart Tolle’s Findhorn Retreat, Stillness Amidst the World.

When Steve and I had our radio show, The Millennium Cafe, in the San Francisco Bay Area back in 2000, we interviewed many people who were on the cutting edge of consciousness. Byron Katie was one. When she came to our home studio and we looked into one another’s eyes, there was only Presence. She had awakened, and has gone on to be a major source of inspiration to many. Eckhart Tolle is another who has woken up, and he offers a way to us that is simple and filled with grace. I had one other person who was awake enter my life many years ago, and his work prompted my writing and many other remarkable insights. But, just as we need food and water to sustain the body, we need our spiritual nourishment to sustain our Being. In the Western tradition, we state in prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That refers to food for the soul, and it is that for which we all long, whether we know it consciously or not.

Taking time daily to watch small portions of the Findhorn DVD, do the tapping exercises, read Krishna Das’s book and chant, has brought me back to my spiritual home. The interior life is such a rewarding reality, and as we clear out the demons of our mind, we find a place that is unruffled by the latest political scandal or disaster. We have a space that is beyond all the momentary flare-ups where we can come into a place of peace and repose. The amazing thing about the inner world is that it is always available and it is free if we but open the door. That of course is the trick. Interestingly, salvation is hidden in plain sight, merely a breath away…a shift of attention and focus. In the twinkling of an eye, we are there. And that, my friends, is what this whole journey is about. (KJ)

Elegant Simplicity

Spiralized Raw Zucchini "Spaghetti"

We bought a spiralizer not long ago and have played around with it, appreciating how it can make one zucchini make two servings of spaghetti.  We decided that tonight we’d have a simple meal, and Steve made a raw tomato sauce while I got the zucchini spaghetti ready. The results are here. We had crackers with some hummus and wonderful snap peas that we ate in the shell. It was great, we felt good, and there was very little to wash up after.

Eating raw can really be the epitome of elegant simplicity! (KJ)

All Raw Spiralized Zucchini "Spaghetti" with Snap Peas, Sauerkraut & Oinion Crackers

A Little This, A Little That

We haven’t written for a while, not because we haven’t been doing our raw food journey – just because we’ve been very busy. We’ve got several things to report. First, on the health front, I am still having to find a balance with my blood pressure, and an old problem re-emerged for a week as I felt constant gas and discomfort from eating raw. This has really surprised me since everyone is so complimentary about how much better you feel when you go raw, and for the first month I did feel that way. However, it has been explained to me that once the body starts getting used to being fed “real” food, it begins to let go of the toxins that have been stored up, and an inner housecleaning gets underway. Well, if that’s all it is, I don’t mind. But it really does annoy me to think I’m doing all this good stuff for my body, and the body is not responding as it’s “supposed” to.

We went to an interesting Raw Food Meetup Group meeting where the presentation was given by Dr. T – Dr. Tel-Oren – about what foods are good, and what is not. He said if we eat things that aren’t good for us, we need to be aware that we’re compromising. It’s not about justifying – just accepting that there are times when we do eat things that may not be the best for us. On his list of no-no’s, agave syrup and raw cacao. Shocker! Dr. T said that there are so many things floating around the raw food movement that are stated as gospel, when they are actually incorrect. He said cacao is poison, no matter what studies tell you. He said if we must eat chocolate, it is better to have it cooked than raw. And he had about the same thing to say about agave syrup related to poison. His recommendation for sweetener is date paste. He thinks honey should only be used in very small amounts. So…that was an interesting evening of information that we may not have wanted to hear in total, but it brings more awareness about the need for discretion AND for really checking out the research – not just reading what each of the “me too” books keep passing along as fact. Check out more about Dr. T. He is a fascinating man who has a raw restaurant called Ecopolitan in Minneapolis, and travels the world giving workshops and talks about foods that matter.

Que Seraw Seraw

We found a wonderful raw food take-out place in Burlingame. For those of you on the S.F. Peninsula, this is good news. Que SeRaw SeRaw has been there for nine years next to Earthbeam Health Food Store on Broadway and Cappuccino. The owner, Alicia Parnell, is a vibrant and vital woman, having gotten into raw food herself to improve her health. She is a dynamo and is planning to expand to other sites further south on the Peninsula.

Que Seraw Seraw

Since finding her take-out shop, we’ve been back several times, and there are several offerings I really like a lot. Sundried Miso Pate is yummy as are the sunflower crackers. Cranberry Scones appeal to my love of something not too sweet to go with an afternoon cup of tea (yes…I have not given that up yet). I’ve had the green olive pizza and the vegie lasagna – both really yummy, and my favorite – the beet salad is a wonderful zesty addition that would please anyone. In fact all the food

Que Seraw Seraw

there is great whether you are a raw foodist, vegetarian, or omnivore. I’m so glad we have this close by so we can enjoy and support this kind of quality food offering. Oh…and then the other thing which was not available the last two times we went – the collard green wrap was SUPER. Parnall makes a “cream cheese” spread from cashews, lemon, and her own special spices that is just delicious, and all the fresh veggies and dried cranberries wrapped in the collard green were fresh, full of flavor, and just hit the spot. This is a thumbs up place for sure. Jamie Oliver ought to be promoting some of THIS food for schools! Here he is giving a Ted Talk! You can check out Que SeRaw SeRaw at: http://www.queserawseraw.com/index.htm

We’ve done 4 videos for You-Tube on non-cooking with Steve and Dave, sharing four recipes that our friends wanted to learn how to make. We decided to do the videos while the boys prepared the food, and they were fun and informative. We’ll have them up as soon as Steve is able to get them edited. He’s been inundated with editing jobs recently, so that’s another reason we haven’t been posting as he is our tech wizard with the pictures.

Thai Coconut Soup

Our latest recipe was a delicious Thai coconut soup…very good. Here are two photos of recent Thai Coconut Soup creations… the latest recipes we’ve been playing with.

Thai Coconut Soup 2

Finally, on the raw food front, I recently bought a DVD called Raw Food for Real People done by Rod Rotondi. It’s a 3 DVD set including step-by-step recipe demonstrations and a recipe booklet. I would have given this a 5 star rating except for the most annoying music that unfortunately plays throughout most of his demonstrations. We did a showing for a few friends, and two of them had to leave the room because the quality and choice of music was really almost completely opposite to what the raw food experience should be. Oh, well. Too bad they didn’t have a choice of subtitles so we could have turned off the sound. Other than that, the recipes are great, and he gives a lot of good tips. If you are interested, you can go check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU2XGFzLWFM I just saw that he has a recipe book by the same name, so that might be a good option for those of you who are sensitive to noise.

Hope you are having an enjoyable spring and trying new recipes and ways of increasing your joy with raw food. That’s it for now! (KJ)

Cooked Food Experiment

On Saturday we had my younger son over for a farewell lunch. He has been living nearby in San Jose for many years and was preparing to leave to live in Chicago. He’s a big meat-eater and would not even begin to accept eating raw food, so we decided to put on a minor feast consisting of grilled skirt steak marinated in garlic and spices, his favorite potato salad with bacon from a local grocery store, and cooked garlic broccoli, one of my specialties.

He loved it and we thought it was pretty good also. However, after he left we both fell into a sound coma-type sleep! That’s a far different reaction that what happens after a raw meal!  When eating raw we feel rejuvenated and alive! What an amazing difference!

Lately, on our Journey2Raw experience we have been experimenting with eating some raw and then some cooked foods. Going completely raw is starting to feel like a better and better option as we feel what happens with our energy levels after eating each way.

It would be an easier choice to go all raw if society and the food chain that has been constructed would favor raw fresh foods. One has to be extremely strong and committed to be 100% raw all the time. That’s not always realistic. And I am beginning to understand that some things may actually be better for you cooked such as broccoli? I will be looking into this subject more along the way.

Last evening Kathleen made a wonderful raw tomato sauce which we had on top of some beautiful spirilized raw spaghetti zucchini which Kathleen had made using our new Saladacco machine. I was surprised at how good it tasted and then how good we felt afterward as we recovered from our over-indulgent cooked meat and potato luncheon! Going raw seems like a better choice now than ever before!  – Steve

Body/Mind/Spirit and The Tapping Solution

It’s fascinating how things work. We are a combination of body/mind/spirit. We’ve heard it before, we know it intellectually, but when it comes right down to the every day actions we take, most of us are living lives that are out of balance. We are either overly involved in mental pursuits, spend too much time focusing on our physical bodies, or have turned our back on the physical world to be connected to our spiritual link. The point being, we are busy striving for physical perfection, for knowledge, or for a space in an afterlife that keeps our focus way out there rather than right here now.

What I’ve noticed about doing more raw food is that it gets me to the raw emotions that run my life. I’m seeing where I’ve been hard wired for fight/flight, and how that has affected my health and my choices in life. As an offshoot to choosing new ways of eating, I’m suddenly finding different mental constructs lighting up things from my past. And as I open myself to meditating again after not doing it for years, my insights trigger new behavior patterns that are doing for my mind and spiritual life what the raw food diet is doing for my body. It all goes hand in hand. Also, I’m seeing the continuous flow of synchronicity as books or DVD’s begin to come across my screen that are pertinent to where I am in the current moment and offer what I might need to get me to the next step.

A DVD that I found VERY helpful is The Tapping Solution. It’s all about digging in to the hidden statements that are running a subconscious program we aren’t consciously aware of. As we   make statements that reflect what is going on in the moment while tapping on body meridians at the same time, changes take place. Moreover, one statement leads to another and another, plumbing the depth of an issue that has heretofore been out of reach. It’s a valuable process, and I recommend going to the website to look at the DVD trailer and the interviews provided.    (http://www.thetappingsolution.com/index1.php )                                         As much as the production company’s DVD  on Raw for Life  http://www.rawfor30days.com/index4.html  got me to concentrate more on a raw food diet, this one has brought insights that have helped me release hard wired ways of being that have had a negative impact on my health.

What I thought was a Journey into exploration of raw food has become a much more profound journey into fullness of life and wellbeing that exceeds my expectations and offers a doorway into much more vibrant living that is open to all of us. It’s about finding balance, creating harmony, and being fully alive regardless of our age. This journey offers incredible rewards…it is actually a hero’s journey that I wrote about in my novel, Vision of the Grail. (www.grailvision.com) The only criteria is that we need to be ready and willing to give up habits that have left us disillusioned and been self-destructive.

As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.”  We have the tools. We can make this a fun process, and by embarking on this different path, we might be surprised and amazed at what shows up for us. Anything and everything is possible! (KJ)

Journey to the Health Club

Imagining a bright future...

Last Saturday Kathleen and I decided that as part of our new health regimen we would go and check out a new fitness club that had just started up. It was built into the local community college but was open to the public. And since the same community college also hosted a Saturday farmers market we decided to kill two birds with one stone. After gathering up our organic greens and such we decided to check out the new health club.

The new club had just been opened April first and they were still applying fresh coats of paint. It was quite impressive. They had all the latest equipment in spades. They even had two pools! One pool was Olympic sized. They had Pilates rooms and yoga rooms and spin rooms galore! They even had a special room with workout equipment for the disabled. This was of special interest to me since I work with the disabled on a daily basis.

After the tour the nice tour guide girl showed us the price list that she had kept so closely guarded throughout the tour. When we first walked in we had asked the cost and she said that she did not know. But she obviously did.  Sweet girl.  She did not pressure us to join so we left to think it over. The prices were a just a bit below what 24 Hour Fitness had quoted us in the past. But there was the issue of parking. It would cost an additional $7.50 per month.

We were intending to also check out a brand new 24 Hour Fitness which was just a block from my workplace. I knew it would be more expensive.  Being in our sixties, and not having the income we once enjoyed, we decided to think it over. Why did we want to join a health club?  For health reasons of course. How much would we actually utilize the club once joined? If my past history is any guide, the answer would be perhaps once a week or less.  As an example, several years ago we joined a health club that gave us a fantastic rate – something like $190 per each for the entire year. I think we went twice!

We decided to skip the tour of the 24 Hour Fitness and went home to mull things over. Once home we looked around and saw that we had a lot of piled up cardboard boxes in the garage that needed to be deconstructed and made ready for trash day. Next we noticed that certain areas of the garage had become cluttered and needed a decent clearing as well. In fact the entire garage needed a clearing! Then, thinking beyond the garage, we thought that it is Spring and the entire house could use a decent Spring cleaning, the patio needed a good sprucing up and the garden needed planting. The side yard fence needed to be rebuilt. Then there was the compost pile and worm farm I had just ordered. That would need to be set up next week.  I had been planning to clear out my computer shop in the basement and also my studio.

After careful consideration we decided that we already had a health club right here at home!  With a weekly bike ride and project after project lined up we should have enough physical activity to last through the entire year! And the cost? ZERO!

So why is it people join health clubs?  I figure that it is most likely younger people who want to look buff and attract a mate. They probably have desk jobs and have a tiny apartment and not a lot of actual real world chores to do.  We, being of Germanic descent have an ingrained work ethic burned into our DNA chip. So it makes no sense to go work out without actually accomplishing any real work! Now that I understand this, I can feel a whole lot better about not having joined a fancy health club! – Steve

Journeying Through Raw Food Into Spiritual Communion

Raw food that has been organically grown is great. It is as close to perfection as we can get in the physical form. We aren’t adulterating it, we aren’t modifying it, we are merely taking in the fully loaded gift of nature to our bodies – a partnership that was designed to work. In conjunction with eating raw, we find that as the body is cleansed and renewed through the aliveness of living food, we also begin to feel the stirring in our bodies of wanting to have a more fulfilling connection with our spiritual life. This may or may not be a religious life – but is the raw unadulterated connection to the Source of our Being.

Just as we appreciate living food, we search for spiritual sustenance that is alive and vibrant. And our diet is a first step in that direction. Sure, we can meet our Creator regardless, but there is something that happens when we get the junk out-of-the-way. By overloading our system with toxic elements, we’re bogged down. We become sluggish in body and mind, and when that happens, we often find ourselves with less interest and energy to give to the greater questions of our full purpose here and now.

The Journey to Raw is also a journey to the spiritual underpinnings of our lives. Raw food and raw connection to Source go hand in hand. They are unadulterated and designed to work in a beautiful symbiotic relationship. As we activate the electrical system in our body through the elements we put into it, we light up the grid that receives information from the non-physical plane, and in that field of possibilities, suddenly our purpose and path become clearer. Yes…it requires that we take the time in prayer and meditation, but that’s exactly what we do with raw food. We make up our minds to engage in an interchange with our body’s best friend – real food. And we do what it takes to prepare it, create something beautiful that we honor upon eating, and find ourselves suddenly feeling joy and vibrant health as a result. When we do the same thing with our spiritual life – putting that as the first thing on our daily agenda, the results are the same. We honor ourselves by honoring our food and our spiritual life – we light up all the cellular and ephemeral points in our bodies and become what we were designed to be in the first place – the living light of That Which created us! (KJ)