How the Cookie-Pusher Changed My Perspective

by Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt

Mo and I flew to Atlanta last summer to visit my grandparents. I love my grandparents. They’re a total riot… and I don’t think intentionally so. Take, for example, the day they took us to lunch. My grandmother confessed that she just couldn’t bear the thought of not being able cook us a lunch, so she decided to deal with it the only way she knew how: she took us to the local steakhouse so that we could partake in their salad bar.

This salad bar was much like every other steakhouse salad bar in the South. Not only did we have our choice of iceberg lettuce or iceberg lettuce, but we also got to choose from a variety of canned fruits, unnamed chunks of pressed meats, and puddings with skin. Mo and I were in heaven. How could we not be with plates piled high with iceberg lettuce and cherry tomatoes? We thought we’d hit the jackpot! “Just eat what you can and I’ll take you out later,” I said in my best ventriloquist impersonation.

“Don’t y’all want any boiled eggs or cheese for that salad?” asked my concerned grandmother when we returned to the table. “It’s just that the baby here’s looking a bit thin.” Mo, then 11, by the way, is the baby. We politely declined and proceeded to eat our food with greatest gusto we could muster.

When Mo went for her second plate, my grandmother discreetly got up from the table. As I continued eating, I watched my grandmother go to the desserts counter, grab something, and corner Mo by the salad bar. I saw Mo talking to her, but couldn’t tell what was being said. Later I learned that my grandmother had been attempting her usual Granny Coercion Tactics: “Why don’t you just have a cookie? You don’t have to tell your mother. I can’t believe she makes you eat this way!” Mo later told me she responded, “She doesn’t make me eat this way. I’m choosing to.” I remember seeing my grandmother returning to the table, looking defeated, and munching on the swiped cookie.

As Mo recounted the cookie incident to me that night, I thought, Man, when I was her age, I would have never turned down a cookie! When I was her age, I was eating fast food, buckets of candy, and, basically, anything on offer. So, what happened in the chasm between my grandmother and my daughter? What did I learn from my grandmother and my mother that would have spurned me, a raw vegan?

So many raw foodists that I’ve run into have said that they chose their lifestyle from a place of lack – lack of health, lack of nutrition, lack of energetic attunement. I chose mine from an abundance of love and excitement. Yes, those other pieces were and are important to me, but the joy of eating and the appreciation of eating in company… those I got from my grandmother. Some of the funniest and sweetest memories I have of my childhood center around food. And, yes, we may have been eating Burger King at the time, but the feelings of love were fat and plenty.

I understand that when my grandmother was pressing that cookie onto Mo that it wasn’t from a place of deviousness. I know her. She struggles with comprehending how someone could not want to share a joy-filled taste experience. For her, this sharing is connexion, intimacy. I feel this way, too, when I offer someone a taste of my latest creation. I love her for that gift.

I used to be angry at my maternal lineage. Sometimes I would get so despondent from having to undo all the years of unhealthy eating. Focusing on that negativity left me exhausted. In order to heal, I began to recognize that I couldn’t have gotten here if I wasn’t intelligent, compassionate, and appreciative of the humour of it all… all the things I learned from grandmother. This path from my grandmother to my kid may be lined with fried foods and double-iced birthday cakes, but underneath that is a real love, a real need to feel close to someone.

In order to honour my path, I have to honour my grandmother’s and my mother’s… and all the women before them. I have to see that each of them learned from their mothers and believe that they tried to improve upon what they were taught. It’s so exciting to think that Mo will take my lessons around food and eating and push them up a notch. Where will she end up? What will she teach her children? And will I get my chance push a raw vegan cookie on them?

Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt is a raw foods chef and teacher and owner of Rite Food and Company (www.ritefoodandcompany.com), which offers workshops on intentional and joyful eating. Lisa Marie and her homeschooled daughter, Mo, record a weekly podcast – called Sweet Peas Podcast – chronicling their raw foods journey together.

Who Needs Botox?

– by Kate Nicholson

Woo-hoo! Met up with a friend last week that I haven’t seen for a while. She wanted to know what I’ve been doing to myself ‘as I look ten years younger’! So I pointed her in the direction of our brilliant Green Smoothie Queen site. So Chris, if you’re reading this – thanks for the wonderful compliment and here’s the reason for my new glow!

For all those of you out there who, like me, have been seeing the odd wrinkle and grey hair appear, I’ve been looking at some anti-aging ingredients for smoothies.

First up, there are blueberries. According to http://www.beautynhealthytips4u.com, they are rich in anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which make them great for preventing premature ageing and the onset of wrinkles.

Blueberries are also cited by Dr Nicholas Perricone (the anti-aging expert) as a superfood. And surprisingly, he recommends the humble apple for its phytonutrients and the quercetin (an anti-oxidant) it contains, for beauty and health.  Of course, Dr Perricone extols the virtues of dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and broccoli (we all know already how wonderful they are!) as great for helping the skin to block the sunlight-induced inflammation which leads to wrinkles.

He also writes that asparagus may help prevent broken capillaries due to the large amounts of the bioflavonoid rutin that it contains. Now I haven’t tried asparagus tips in a smoothie, so if anyone has, I’d love to hear what it’s like!

So play around, fellow green-smoothie drinkers, and let us know any good recipes and any tips for natural anti-aging strategies. (I like to do half an hour’s yoga before making my smoothie. The combination of yoga and the pure, wholesome goodness of the green smoothie keep me serene and frown-free all day).

“Our food choices ensure that our skin will look youthful, supple and radiant,” says Dr Perricone. Hear, hear, I second that!

***

Shushma. (2009).  Health and beauty with blueberries. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from  http://www.beautynhealthytips4u.com/2009/04/health-and-beauty-with-blueberries.html

Steintrager, M. Top ten foods for beauty and health.  Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/healthy/nutritiousdishes/beautyfood

“Coconut Kids” Smoothie & Keeping Cool

by Joanne Newell

Hello everyone! A belated Happy New Year to you – has your 2010 started off well? Don’t you love the start of a fresh new year?

It’s been hot, hot, hot here in Melbourne. Well, some days it’s hot, some days it’s chilly – and it can be four season in one day in this lovely city!

To keep cool, we’ve been whipping up some ice-cold drinks, including a phenomenal smoothie created by an amazing Aussie mum called Delia Raizon. Delia writes recipe books with her sister, Lana (their latest book was published by The Five Mile Press, who also publishes my books in Australia), and Delia has posted a few high-raw recipe videos on the “Lana & Delia Raizon” website.

You’ve gotta check out the videos – SO cute, and inspiring. Delia’s at the start of a raw journey, and I just love that there’s another voice out there promoting the health benefits and taste of green smoothies and high-raw foods to Australian families.

You can see Delia’s “Coconut Kids” smoothie video here, but if you’d like to give it a go, here’s the recipe itself:

Coconut Kids Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 young Thai drinking coconut
• 5 frozen bananas (if your blender isn’t powerful, you might need to chop the bananas before freezing)
• 3 or so pitted dates, soaked, with the soaking water
• 2 handfuls soaked almonds
• extra water
• ice cubes

Method

1. Tip the flesh and juice from the coconut into a blender.
2. Add the frozen bananas, pitted dates (and their soaking water) and almonds, and blend.
3. Add extra water and ice and blend to achieve your desired consistency.

This smoothie has become a favorite at our house!

In our continuing quest to keep cool on these dreamy, long summer holidays, the girls and I have also been whipping up a few treats from Ani’s Raw Food Desserts (by Ani Phyo), including “Chocolate-Covered Bananas” (choc-coated frozen bananas on skewers, found on page 77 of the book) and “Key Lime Kream Bars” (page 25).

Surprisingly, when making the banana ice lollies, the kitchen didn’t become covered in chocolate – most of it actually went on the bananas (or into little – and big – mouths). The girls weren’t quite so keen on the kream bars, but I adore them, and have been cutting off little wedges every now and then as a zesty, creamy snack.

I’ve yet to try out the enticing-sounding “Raspberry-Ganache Fudge Cake”, which Raw Mom Shannon tried when Ani’s book first came out. Can’t wait to sample that one. Thanks, Ani, for such a beautiful little book!

If you’re after some lively raw inspiration, I highly recommend Ani’s book, and popping over to Delia and Lana’s website.

Take care, everyone, and hug your babies!

Love Jo

365 Days of Green Smoothies with Jessica

We are always excited when people write to us and tell us about how green smoothies are changing their lives.  So we were thrilled when we came across Jessica and her initiative to make green smoothies a part of her daily routine this year.   This gal’s going all out – not 3 days, not 10 days, not even 24 days, but 365 days of green smoothies!  We’ve invited Jessica to tell you a little about her and her blog, and we’ll be looking forward to receiving monthly updates on her progress.  Be sure to stop by her site and give her some green love! 

- by Jessica Mauk

Hello there!  My name is Jessica and I’m a green smoothie addict (“Hello, Jessica”).  That’s ok, though.  If being addicted means higher energy, shinier hair, a smaller waistline, and better overall health well sign me up!

The truth is, I haven’t always been addicted to green smoothies.  In fact, up until October 2009 I “enjoyed” a standard American Diet (SAD).  Enjoyed is in quotes because I thought I was enjoying my food, when in fact I was enjoying the flavors that I had trained my palate to expect.  My body was certainly not enjoying itself. 

One day I posted on Facebook about my children being sick for the 578^th time that year and a friend of mine suggested I check out green smoothies.  I’m sorry, check out what????  Green smoothies.  Oh, ok.  Having no idea what she was talking about, I did some googling, hit up the local library and then made a trip to Barnes & Noble.  My husband thought I’d lost my mind, but he thinks that often, so I wasn’t too worried. 

Eventually, I dug out my blender (and had to dust it off) and threw some fruit, some water and some spinach in it.  I tentatively took a sip, with a glass of my trusty favorite soft drink near by just in case I needed to wash out my mouth.  But holy moly, my life was forever changed in that one instant.  I downed that whole glass and poured myself another.  I ran into the living room and shoved this new concoction into my children’s faces screaming “Oh my good golly, you HAVE to try this!!!”  I think my children were too shocked (afraid?) to question me and just did as they were told.  They both gave it a thumbs up and we, as a family, haven’t looked back!

I began making our smoothies every day.  Then the holidays hit us in full force and I became a little relaxed with our newly formed habit.  And I really noticed the difference then.  It’s funny, when you’ve eaten a SAD diet for your entire life, being overweight, sluggish and exhausted all of the time really doesn’t register into your brain.  But once you’ve seen that energy, noticed the difference in your waistline, and removed the cobwebs from your brain, going back is like taking a quick trip into Hades. 

We were driving home from my inlaws’ home on Thanksgiving 2009, and I looked at my husband and said, “I need a smoothie.”  Right then I made a vow to eat one quart of smoothie every day.  I knew I couldn’t keep this miracle food to myself, so I decided to write a blog about my adventure, invite all of my friends and family and the rest of the world to come along on my journey with me.  Won’t you please join me on my Year of Green Smoothies Challenge?  You’ll never go back, I promise.

Visit Jessica and say hello at: http://365smoothies.blogspot.com/

Getting Onboard a Raw Food Detox

I’ve been writing a lot lately, but most of my love notes have been directed to participants of our 6-Week Deep Tissue Detox. We’ve been immersing ourselves fully into the process and it’s been quite the learning experience. You’re welcome to read one of my posts on the 6-Week Detox blog. I thought I knew a few things about food and my relationship to it, but I’ve still got lots to learn.

Today I’m starting a week behind the others, because I just simply was not ready. I had a few more steps to put in place for myself to get to where I’m settled and comfortable enough to put my focus and attention on simple, cleansing, GREEEEEN food.

I haven’t forgotten about our 21-Day Challenge. I just decided that they might not be 21 consecutive days. In spite of all the best-laid plans and good intentions, sometimes life has a way of prioritizing what you need most when you need it. We had been working on a 21-Day challenge to put new habits in place for the year 2010. I can see that putting changes in place gradually has really been helpful for me this time around. In the past I used to just declare a bunch of resolutions on January 1st and break them by noon the same day. It’s happened more slowly this year, but I can really feel clarity and control (the good kind) moving into my life in an empowering way. Already, I can see really clearly that:

• I am putting new habits in place to help me with organizing my finances.
• I’m being so much more disciplined about taking time to read, to learn, to study and to improve things.
• I finally made it to a yoga class after SIX MONTHS of saying I would, should, could. I DID IT and I’m going again tonight.
• I’m better about scheduling and writing battle plans for the day. I’m learning how to let go of things, delegate and delete when necessary.
• I’m prioritizing in a healthier way.
• My love life is SOOOooOOOO amazing and supportive and just keeps getting better and better.

The upcoming W.I.S.H. Summit is really going to take the areas of life we addressed and focus on them for about 10-days. We’ll have 4 speakers on each topic touching the most intimate and pressing questions on womens’ minds. I’m so excited about this happening and we’ve been working on months to get it this far.

I mentioned on the 6-Week Detox blog, that my children are making some fabulous compromises to the way they eat in order to accommodate my new detox regime. It has been fascinating to put new discipline in place and see the improvements in their health and attitudes. I’ve experimented with different levels of intensity before, but they’re older now and a bit more autonomous, so it feels more significant that THEY are choosing to cooperate and support me in this adventure.

After just one week of gluten-free, high-green foods, my daughter’s psoriasis has really improved!! They both seem a lot nicer to get along with, too, but that’s probably because I’m being pretty careful about gluten and other foods for myself. (Not such a crusty mommy.)

One decision I made recently, in light of the changes I’ve observed in the kids and myself this last week, is that I am going to be securing myself a cacao-free home. After my consultation with Dr. Ritamarie, I need no more convincing. Having removed it from our menu plan for a few days, then put it back in, I really got to see that this is NOT a food I need or want to include in my diet anymore. I flushed all soy-based products down the sink, too. I’m not saying I won’t ever eat them again, I’m just saying I won’t keep them in my home and for the duration of our 6-Week Detox, I’d like to avoid them wherever possible.

Cleaning out my cupboards was a big part of my being able to clean up my family’s diet this last week. If the cupboards are full of junk and tempting treats, then it’s a lot more difficult to put discipline in place. There’s also something spiritually cleansing about clearing out your cupboards–as though the space we’re in affects the space within us. You know what I mean? I’m really working on being more disciplined about putting the laundry away before it stacks on my bed. I’m trying to keep the receipts sorted, the dishes washed, the counters and ledges clear. It’s a sort of dance, really. Especially with two kids who sprinkle, splash and spill wherever they go! We have a fantastic program for helping clear out the clutter and get organized. You can check it out here, if you feel the tupperware is spilling from all corners of your kitchen.

Our 6-Week Detox will be ending on March 7th, but the following session will be starting up right away. If you’d like to cleanse and detox this spring, I cannot recommend the 6-Week Detox highly enough. The next session will be starting on April 3rd! You can register now and reserve your place.

The preparations for W.I.S.H. are stepping up to full steam ahead. I’m very excited about what this program will do and decided that I’m going to do a 40-day countdown to the big day. Since we have about 40 speakers on the program, it will give me a chance to share a bit of the information on the calls and help get us all excited and ready for the big event. Speaking of which, I’ve got work to do.

Smooches ’til next time.

xo

Tera

The Queen’s on Facebook!

I gotta tell ya, I’m pretty excited.  January has been such a blast so far.  My Green Team has been helping me around the site, behind the scenes, and working to put together some delicious improvements for all of you who benefit from the information we share.

I’m going to have an announcement for you quite soon about a new FREE program we’ll be offering.  Each day I check in with my guys and gals to see how things are coming and each time I do, I get more excited.  This is a program I want everyone to try!  You see, I believe that the more people I can tell about green smoothies, the more my dreams of helping people to become well through their own wisdom and action seem within reach.

And you know, this really is the sort of health information that’s most successful when it’s passed on from person to person.   Someone told me about green smoothies, now here I am!  So… I got to thinking (do you smell green smoke too??), why not ‘get with the times’ and use the social networking tools that are available?

So I got me a profile!!  Ain’t it purty?

Green SmoothieQueen

Create Your Badge

So just clicky-clicky the badge above to join me on Facebook and then you can enjoy our posts while you’re killing time  or sipping your morning smoothie and checking in on your friends.  You can share your comments there or click through back to the blog – either way, I’ll get ‘em and read ‘em!

Lotsa love and have a slurp-tastic green weekend!

Winter Wild Greens

We thought we’d bring you something a little different today and connect you with some of the great videos that are out there on wild greens!  Depending on where you live, you may still have access to some outdoor wild edibles this winter.  Get yourself a guide book or follow along with someone who can show you what to pick and how to use it!  Once you catch on to wild edibles, the great outdoors will soon become the yummy outdoors!

Wild Edibles During Winter Time

Happy Winter Foraging!

Diving into Detoxing the Easy Way!

- by Caitlyn Furness

Some of us are diving into the 6-week detox this week.  This means we are up to our ears in green juices and green smoothies.  Last week was a preparatory week for the detox, and this week is technically week one of the GI (gastro-intestinal) repair phase, which is supposed to last for two weeks.  We’re supposed to drink up to 2 quarts of the green stuff a day, either green juices or green smoothies.  I’m there now, but I had to work my way up to that over the last six months!  When I first started drinking  these, green juices especially, I had to add a lot of apple juice and lemon juice to it, but now, I can do more green juice and less fruit.  In fact, now I can munch dandelion greens straight and I even like them that way!  Don’t worry though, I still have a problem with wheat grass juice!  But thankfully, my favourite green detox drinks are simple to make.

In fact, my point of writing this post is to show how easy it is to make up a smoothie, even when you’re on the go.  Last week, a family member was in the hospital, and I was running back and forth because of it.  I never knew when I’d have to pick up and go in a hurry.  Smoothies and salads were my lifesavers!  I’d make a couple smoothies, put them in my stainless steel bottles (which happen to be bright pink!), and away I’d go with no worries about having food in a hostile hospital environment with take-out food everywhere!

Here’s one of the recipes I was carting around in my pink bottles:

Berry Blaster Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 frozen bananas
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• 4 ribs celery
• 2 giant handfuls kale
• Small handful dandelion greens
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 T coconut oil

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into your blender and blend (start with the softer ones first if you have a regular blender)!  You might have to do this in batches if you don’t have a high-speed blender.  Of course, you can use fresh bananas and blueberries in place of the frozen, but it’s winter, and this is what I have on hand now.

Enjoy!

It’s Easier Being Green Than You Think!

Hidden Dangers of Green Juice that the Raw Food Advocates Don’t Talk About!

That’s right.  Matt and Angela aren’t talking about it.  Tera has kept it a secret.  But I’m here today to reveal the dangers of drinking green juice in a white shirt.  And a white sweater.  While driving.  And the car in front of you slams on its brakes…  I’m sure you can see where this is heading.  (To the dry cleaner!)  Yup, I got a big old splash of green juice this morning on my little white shirt dress.  And my sweater sleeve.  And shift stick, and seat, and steering wheel…

I didn’t have any napkins in the car, but I did have a package of those natural hand wipe things.  So, I maneuvered one out and started soaking up the stains, albeit with one hand while driving.  Apparently I slowed down considerably while trying to achieve this because the cars behind me started honking and going around me.    By the time I got to work, the stains had faded to yellow, and I blotted out the rest in the sink when I got here.  Good thing my juice didn’t have any wheat grass!

It sucked, but was a gentle humorous reminder of how much things have turned around.  It used to be that I would eat a powdered donut on the way to work in my black clothes and try not to get donut powder on me!  (Unless it was needed in a pinch if I left my compact at home.  Then I would rub a donut on my face.  Haha!  Just kidding…)

I think my internal gravity is off today because after I got to work, I also managed to squirt Ginger Spice lotion onto my shirt, and then when I opened my compact the powder spilled out onto my pants.

However, I’m having a great hair day.    So, I guess 1 out of 4 ain’t bad.

How to Establish a Family Tradition for the New Year With Your Not-So-Raw-Family

- By Patricia Autry

Maybe you’re making a point this year of increasing your level of raw, but you know that somewhere down the line there’s going to be moments and opportunities for entertaining with friends and family.  Planning a party can be stressful enough, but when you are planning a party to start and establish a raw family tradition for your not-so-raw family, all the existing paradigms go out the window.

Thus, today we’re bringing you advice that you can use throughout the year to make your parties and entertaining extravaganzas a fun and positive experience for everyone!

1.    Schedule the Event

Get everyone on board as soon as possible.  You will need to plan in advance how many people are willing to attend as purchasing the ingredients for your event will take some planning.  You can’t just run out and purchase a couple of bags of chips and dips laden with gmo’s (genetically modified organisms) and preservatives to serve.  This is the real deal diva.

You need a head count and you need to let your guests know in advance that this will be         a special raw event and the beginning of a new year where the food that will be served will be live food.  Reassure them that ‘yummy’ is still on the menu!

Nothing could be worse than to have a few people show up and then be told, “Oh! By the way, we are having raw food for our dinner this evening.”  Stand back sugarplum and get out of the way, as your fear-sticken guests head for the door like a herd of spooked cattle.

2.    Create Meal Plans

When you’re extending your invitations, it’s not unusual for people to ask what they can bring to the party, though they might be a bit nervous if they’re new to raw food.  You can offer suggestions of beautiful raw fruits and vegetables or perhaps a bowl of raw almonds or raw assorted nuts… something familiar your guests can get their heads around.

If your not-so-raw family balks at this idea, then be prepared to accept whatever they bring.  It will be more rewarding to have them at the party trying new raw dishes than to have them feel left out or feel like an outcast just because they were anxious about the ‘foreign’ menu being offered.  The not-so-raw family will benefit far more from being at the party and maybe trying that one raw dish that changes their minds and hearts towards the raw lifestyle.

Now, similar to a cooked food party or dinner party, it’s always a good idea to make recipes of food you’ve tried before.  Serving your guests an experiment, especially one that doesn’t turn out, may not be wise if you want them to come away with a positive first impression of raw food.

3.    Make it Meaningful

Come up with a party plan and creative displays that will leave a lasting memory in their hearts along with many laughs too.  It’s okay that they’re unfamiliar with raw food.  You can take the opportunity to show them.  People are often nervous and afraid of things they don’t understand.  You can help them.

For example, in advance, have a spot set up with beautiful bags of seeds or beans to be sprouted.  Tie them with lovely festival ribbons and positive message cards or tags. These are little gifts that your guests can take home and enjoy themselves.  Have sprouting jars already with seeds soaking for everyone to try their hand at sprouting so that they get the idea.  Mix it up like a green smoothie with different seeds and beans.

Can you imagine their excitement of going home and having to continue the process of rinsing and soaking with the reward of their very own sprouts to enjoy in a couple of days?

You can also send home a sprout chart with instructions of the many types of nuts, seeds, grains and legumes that you can sprout.  The possibilities are endless for this project.

4.    Remember the Moment

Take photos of your not-so-raw family celebrating their new raw tradition.  They will cherish these funny and unorthodox photos for years to come with the reminder of when they were introduced to a New Year of health and joy.

Hugs and Happy New Raw Year,

Patricia