A Day In The Life Part 2: Cooked Stuff and Cooked/Raw Combinations We eat

This is a continuation of our Day in the Life Story of what we eat ... talking now about the cooked stuff too. To the often-asked raw foodie question "what percentage raw are you?" I think I prefer the answer "I am not a label".  I eat cooked food and I eat raw food in varying amounts, depending on the day, the weather, my cravings, or whatever.  Here are some details on the cooked stuff we eat...

Cooked Stuff and Cooked/Raw Combinations

We still eat cooked food.  Most often in the evening.  Sometimes during the day (I still crave eggs now and then).  We've found some great ways of upgrading standard cooked food into better ingredient options and even combinations of cooked and raw foods that work great for us.  Here's what we most often gravitate to when we crave cooked stuff:

• Baked Potatoes / Baked Sweet Potatoes
• We now bake our potatoes in the oven rather than the microwave (takes a bit more planning).  We're in the process of upgrading from regular white baking potatoes to sweet potatoes (more minerals and better for you).  I especially like the Jersey Sweet Potatoes because they're more tangy than sweet.
• On top of our baked potatoes I put flax oil (tastes like butter) or hemp oil, Dan still uses organic butter.  We both use Sun Fire Salt and I add a few sprinkles of Fiesta Mole Powder.
• I've been craving greens so much, and hydration, I now add a huge handful of mixed baby salad greens on top of my dressed baked potato.  It's my upgraded version of "potato salad". :)
• Chipotle Style Burrito Bowl
• We have historically LOVED the burritos we get from the Chipotle chain of restaurants.  I gravitated to vegetarian burritos once I started my raw superfood journey and Dan has recently done the same.
• Now we make our own version at home:  brown rice cooked with lime juice, cilantro and a little organic butter; organic black beans from the can cooked with a little chili seasonings; sautéed green bell pepper and red onion; avocado, organic salsa, and lots of lettuce on top.  It's oh so yummy! 
• Upgraded Pizza
• We've tried lots of different upgrades for our pizza cravings.  We've made our own flax seed pizza crusts in the dehydrator (so-so); tried "natural brands" like Kashi, Whole Foods, and Amy's; bought cornmeal pizza crusts (ew) and have finally settled (so far) on an organic whole wheat pizza crust that we can customize.  We use organic pasta sauce and now the raw goat milk cheese on top, plus any other yummy veggies we like.  The interesting thing is that the old styles of pizza we used to like don't taste good to us anymore.  Our tastes have upgraded and we don't eat pizza nearly as often.
• Tacos
• We love tacos and we especially love our upgraded raw/cooked tacos.  We use the Taco Eat nut mixture for our meat and lightly warm it on the stove.  We've found some organic sprouted corn tortillas we really like and we warm those on the stove too.  Then we combine the taco eat with raw goat cheddar cheese,  Frank's RedHot Hot Sauce (our fave), green onions from our garden and some lettuce on top.  Super yummy and we never miss the meat.
• Pasta

• Sometimes we do raw pasta with a squash and the spiralizer and sometimes we cook noodles, though not nearly as often.  For cooked noodles I prefer rice/quinoa noodles or something like that rather than wheat.  I also really like spaghetti squash which I cook in the oven (haven't tried it raw yet, but I bet that's good too).
• For sauce, I still heat up organic sauce from the jar because it's quick and easy.  Sometimes I'll make a pesto sauce and I'm playing with some raw marinara sauces. 
• Potato Soup
• This is a favorite and even goes camping with us often.  The idea came from a lady who analyzes live blood cells and said this is the best combination for hydrating your cells.  It's also similar to the "Hippocrates Soup" that the Gerson Diet recommends for addressing cancer and other diseases.
• Here's my recipe:  1 onion loosely chopped, 1-3 cloves of garlic, loosely chopped, about 2 Cups of potatoes chopped (ideal when they are not white and sweet potatoes are awesome), 5 stalks of celery chopped, 1 carton of potato leek soup (works best) or vegetable stock. Optionally add sliced carrots or tomatoes (Hippocrates Soup style).  Put all ingredients in large soup pot and add water as needed to cover all ingredients.  Add spices like parsley, cilantro, salt, pepper, celery seed, bay leaves, and cumin.  Simmer for about an hour or until potatoes are soft.
• Veggie Soup
• I prefer the potato soup, but veggie soup is a nice alternative with lots of tomatoes, various veggies and maybe some noodles or rice.
• Tomato Soup
• We've been getting the roasted bell pepper tomato soup in cartons from Costco because it tastes so good, but lately I've been noticing how milky it is.  Stay tuned for some upgrades to raw versions of tomato soup.
• Eggs
• I still love eggs.  Every now and then I'll make a poached egg on an english muffin for a late morning snack.  I used to love them scrambled, as an omelet, in fritatas and so on, but now I just  have one egg poached when I crave it.
• Green Onion Sandwiches
• The one wheat-based item we still get as a treat now and then is a french baguette.  We especially like to use it for green onion sandwiches with organic butter a little salt and the green onions from our garden.  I guess you could say that's a raw and cooked combo. :)
• Popcorn
• We used to eat microwave popcorn because it was easy.  Now we've upgraded to a stove contraption that lets us use the organic white popcorn we get from the store and coconut oil to pop the corn.  We top it with a spray mister of flax oil (tastes butter) and our beloved Sun Fire Salt.

Stay tuned for the additional parts of this Day In The Life diatribe:

Part 3:  How Do You Transition To More Raw Foods?

Part 4:  What Tools of the Trade Do You Start With?

Enjoy your journey!

With lots of Love,

Melissa