No January PBG Raw Food Group Meeting

There will be no group meeting in January. The next meeting will be the first week of February.

Our January potluck will be be announced shortly. There are many raw food happenings in January. I want to schedule our potluck accordingly so there won't be any conflicts.

Viveca

Meeting Thursday, Dec. 4th

Our next Palm Beach Gardens Raw Food Group meeting will be this Thursday (December 4th) at 6:30 p.m. at the North Regional County Library in the meeting room. This is the Palm Beach Gardens library near Legacy Place.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Viveca

Thanksgiving Raw Potluck--Saturday, November 22.

We are planning our next raw potluck for Saturday, November 22. We will hold it at Loggerhead Park (where we held our last potluck). It will be at 3:00 p.m.

We are hoping that everyone will make something similar to what one would eat at Thanksgiving (but 100% raw and mostly organic). If you have questions, need a suggestion of what to make, or need a Thanksgiving type recipe, just contact me.

I will be making a pie. It is called Tastes Like Pumpkin Pie.

I hope we have a good turn out. The price is right, and it gives us an opportunity to have a Thanksgiving meal with friends and a large selection of raw foods. I know a lot of you will be sharing a traditional Thanksgiving with family. This gives you the opportunity for an nontraditional (and yummy) raw food Thanksgiving, too.

Our Next PBG Raw Food Group Meeting

Our next raw food group meeting will be this Thursday, November 6 at 6:30 at the North County Regional Library (in Palm Beach Gardens).

We will be discussing our next raw food potluck. This will be a Thanksgiving potluck, and we hope for a large turnout.

It will be at 3:00 on Saturday, November 22 at the Loggerhead Park in Juno Beach.

We would like everyone to make some type of raw Thanksgiving dish. Contact me for details.

Saturday Fun!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow (Saturday). I'm going to Hippocrates Health Institute for their annual open house party. This year the theme will be the 50's.

After that, I'll be going to the Soma Cafe to enjoy their wonderful raw lasagna. Then Paul Nison will be giving a raw food demo and lecture.

I will be sharing this day with a lot of my raw food friends. I'm grateful to all my new raw food friends here as well as my new raw online friends.

Raw Food Potluck

We had our first raw food potluck. We found a nice pavilion at Loggerhead Park. The weather was beautiful. We had a small group, but it was delightful, and the food was yummy.

Raw Food Potluck October 18

We will be having our raw food potluck at a shelter at Juno Beach on October 18 at 5:30. I will post the shelter number after I get it.

Palm Beach Gardens Raw Food Group Meeting

This Thursday, we will be having a raw food group meeting. We are able to use a community room in the library for this meeting. I am hoping we have a good turn out. Although, we are limited to only 30 people.

Please contact me, if you will be able to attend. I will give you all the details.

I am also hoping for us to decide upon the date for our first raw potluck. We will discuss this at our meeting.

Raw Lasagna

Yesterday I made raw lasagna for the first time. I found a recipe on the internet and wanted to give it a try. The recipe was called Vegetable Lasagna with Cashew Ricotta & Marinated Portabella. I already had the marinated Portabella mushrooms from Friday's dinner.

The cashew ricotta turned out great. I put just a little less salt and fresh basil than it called for. The marinara wasn't quite to my liking, so I added 2 dates and a small clove of garlic.

I changed the recipe slightly as I added a couple layers of fresh spinach. I massaged the spinach in a little oil first to give it more of a "cooked" texture.

Originally, I had hoped to duplicate the taste of the raw lasagna from the Soma Cafe. I knew it wouldn't be just like it since it also had the mushrooms. However, I got a different taste, but this was an unexpected good thing.

I liked everything about this lasagna. It is good that I can have something different at home and still can look forward to the other lasagna at the Soma Cafe.

Marinated Portabella Mushrooms

I have found something very easy to prepare that both my husband and I love. I tasted these before, but have just gotten made them for awhile.

I marinate Portabella mushroom slices in oil, Nama Shoyu, & some fresh orange juice overnight. Then I put in the dehydrator the next morning. I made these a couple of days ago. I dehydrated them for about 5 hours at 105 degrees. I think another hour or so would have made them a bit warmer, but not necessary.

I also made creamed spinach. I got this recipe from the Hipprocrates raw food class I took. This is delicious. Last week I made this as usua

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l, but but in the dehydrator while my nut loaf was dehydrating. The creamed spinach was absolutely delicious this way. It reminded me of spinach quiche. Of course, I have had that in over 5 years (since I became a vegan).

Updates, etc.

I am looking forward to going to The Soma Cafe tomorrow night. I not only will enjoy a wonderful raw lasagna, I will also get to hear Paul Nison speak and share the evening with like-minded people.

This coming Thursday at 6:30, our Palm Beach Gardens Raw Food Group will meet. If you are interested, please contact me for details. Space is limited, so I need to make sure our space will be large enough to accommodate everyone.

Yummy

It is a good thing that I took a picture of the cheesecake because it is gone. Luckily, I shared it and didn't eat the whole thing myself--though I could have.

Strawberry Cheesecake

Here is a picture of the cheesecake before I put on the topping.

Here is the finished strawberry cheesecake.

I made the cheesecake, and it was better than I anticipated. My friend, Cathy, came over, and I gave her a piece to try. I think she liked it as much as I did.

I did think that the strawberry topping was a bit sweet for me. Next time I make it, I will use either half as many dates as it called for, or no dates at all.

This was the first time that I made this recipe. I have to say that it is the recipe that I've been looking for ever since I had a piece of raw cheesecake in San Francisco about 5 years ago!

Sunday Updates

I continue on my raw food journey. I have made so many new friends since becoming raw again. I am staying more than busy. In fact, I don't have enough time to do everything that I want to do. But I am having fun.

Last Sunday night, I went to a raw potluck at Graziano's Italian Cuisine. I saw a lot of people I have been meeting lately and met some new ones. We sure had a feast!

The owner, Fay, will be serving some raw food items on her daily menu. I am looking forward to eating there soon.


Here is a picture of the carrot cake that I took to the potluck.


This last week, my laptop crashed. I had to use my (unused) desktop computer for a few days while my laptop was being repaired. I didn't realize how outdated it was with all the programs. Also, it seems so slow compared to my laptop. I spent a few days updating all the necessary programs on the computer. At least I had it to use while my laptop was gone.

I got the laptop computer back and have spent the past 4 days installing and downloading programs and software that I use on my computer. Some I had cd's, some I had on an external hard drive, and some I downloaded from the internet to get the latest version.

Unfortunately, I hadn't backed up pictures, passwords, and documents for a few months. I've had to spend lots of time remembering passwords and configurations for web hosting accounts, etc. Luckily, I did have some of these saved from a while back.

About a week before my problems, my daughter, Denise, had some computer problems. After that, I thought it would be wise to do a new backup for my computer. Well, I didn't get around to it (and I thought about it the day before the "crash.") Live and learn. When was the last time you backed up photos, documents, passwords, etc.???

I have been making more crackers in my dehydrator. The other night, I tried a new recipe that tasted good. Last night I doubled a batch of crackers, because a few of my friends expressed a desire to buy some the next time I made them.

Last week I made some apple leather, and my daughter and granddaughters enjoyed it. I made another small batch last night to have on hand for my granddaughters, when they visit me.

I have been making my wheat grass juice daily. (I buy the wheat grass from Hippocrates.) Monday I will be getting some sunflower sprouts from a local grower. I am excited about this. This will be a weekly thing.

I just finished making a raw cheesecake. I guess I don't have to say it's raw since the name of my blog is Viveca's Raw Food Journey. It is a recipe I never tried before. I found it on the internet, and it looked like the recipe that I've been hunting for. It is in the freezer now. I will let you know how it turns out. Also, I'll post a picture of it here.

I need to go in the kitchen and clean up my mess now. Then I'll look for a main course type recipe to make. Something like walnut burgers. I'm tempted to make the nut loaf recipe again, but I want to try something different.

I'll try to post more often. Especially, now that the bulk of my reconstruction of this laptop has been completed. Oh yeah, now to also start on my Fitness Motivator Newsletter for September!

Keeping Busy

Tonight I am going to The Hippocrates Health Institute Open House & Lecture. This happens on the last Thursday of each month. I look forward to this.

Monday I got home after 8:30, but tonight will be 3 nights in a row that I've had somewhere to go. I am not complaining because not too long ago, I didn't know that many people here, and stayed home a lot.

My life has done a reversal, and I'm going to have to really practice balance and setting boundaries.

I am really enjoying my new friendships I am making with others interested in raw foods.

I got my Maca yesterday. I added it to my green smoothie and found it had an interesting flavor. I will continue to use it, but I will only be adding 1 teaspoon to each Vita-Mix container of smoothie I make. It has kind of a malty taste. I can see adding this to carob almond milk. It might taste something like a Frosty, if I also use ice.

Today I bought some wheat berries to sprout. I will record on my blog how they turn out, after I try sprouting them.

Today I get started on my blog!

I have been putting this off. I went back to a raw vegan lifestyle early in May, but I've been too busy doing it, and procrastinating, that I just getting around to this! I have so much to say, I hardly know where to start...so, I'll just start.

I went raw 5 years ago and stayed 100% raw for 1 year. At that point, I decided that I proved I could do it, and I wanted to add a little cooked food to my diet--such as steamed veggies. Well, gradually, I added something else, and then something else.

I had become a vegetarian in 1980, and had wanted to give up eggs for years. I had a love/hate relation with them. After becoming a raw vegan in 2003, I was glad to finally give up eggs & cheese.

So, when I started eating cooked again, I decided at least I would remain vegan. I moved to Knoxville, TN. and found a wonderful vegetarian society. There was a lot of cooked vegan food at these potlucks, and I decided that if it was vegan, I would eat it. It wasn't long before I began gaining weight and getting back into some of my old eating habits.

After moving back to south Florida, my raw friend, Cathy, asked me if I wanted to go to a raw lecture & demo with her. I agreed because I thought it would be nice to do since I already knew about eating raw and knew I would enjoy it.

Four months after being back in Florida, my weight was up higher than I wanted. I decided to go raw again. This time I thought I wouldn't be so fanatical. I would do between 80-90% raw. Then I went to a green smoothie demo and within a week, I realized that I wanted to be 100% raw again.

Since I moved back, I noticed how many more raw foodists are here. There are raw food demos, lectures at different health food stores, a monthly open house and raw food prep & sprouting classes at The Hippocrates Health Institute, and raw potlucks in West Palm Beach. There is even a new raw cafe, the Soma Cafe, in Lake Worth, which is about 25 minutes from here.

I kept seeing some of the same people at these gatherings. I decided to create a raw food group here in Palm Beach Gardens for us to form a sense of community with like-minded people. Since then, my life has become so busy! Every week there is some kind of raw event around here.

Saturday night, Paul Nison gave a lecture at The Soma Center (this is also where The Soma Cafe is). He has a Meetup.com group--if you are local, be sure to sign up to find out when his lectures and events are. His next one will be September 27.

Each Tuesday night, Rene Oswald gives a raw food demo at Nutrition S'mart on Northlake. I look forward to these.

More exciting news is that an Italian restaurant called Graziano's Italian Cuisine, will start serving 3 raw menu items daily. They will kick it off with a raw potluck this Sunday, August 31. I have r.s.v.p.'d and going to bring my raw carrot cake.

Monday night I got my new dehydrator. It was at night because I had to take my husband to Miami that day and had it delivered to a neighbor. By 10:30 p.m., I had the dehydrator going with my first batch of crackers.

In the past 3 days, I've made 3 different kinds of crackers, 1 kind of cookies, a nutloaf with ketchup, dehydrated walnuts (to use for making nutbutter), and also some celery (to make celery powder). I finally turned off my dehydrator at 6:30 tonight. I wanted to get a lot done at the same time, so I wouldn't use it for a few days.

Now that I got this started, I hope to update it frequently.