catching up with a long post...

We've really been upping the raw food intake around here, and feeling great for it!  I think most folks in the summertime feel the same with all the fresh produce and hot hot temps.  Here's my second slice of raw dream pie from Zerbo's, this one was strawberry and oh so yummy!



We've also been taking a note from Sheri at Green and Crunchy to eat a raw brazil nut daily for selenium, which is so good for our thyroids that get bombarded with stressors/toxins in our modern lifes.  I had a jar in the fridge so we munch one down each day, they're tasty =) 



This had been another afternoon snackadoodle for me lately.  Yummy organic dates with nut butter, mmmmmmmm!  And this hot afternoon I enjoyed a cold kombucha too.



Last week's trip to the farmer's market bounty was:  organic toms, cukes ( I hope our cucumbers end up tasting this great!), and red potatoes, some fruit that was not organic, but they assured me they didn't use pesticides, apricots and cherries.  He actually gave me the cherries, how kind!  It was toward the end of a hot hot day and he was looking for homes for them, they needed to be picked thru, but man were they delicious!  I've been eating tons of stone fruit, yum.



I was a lucky winner during the giveawayathon on The Daily Raw Cafe of two of Matthew Kenney's books!  Thanks Terilynn and 105 degrees!!  I have been reading through both books and am really contemplating ordering a dehydrator again...I was hoping to use the funds from our garage sale for it, but we didn't quite make enough this year ;)  I was really proud of myself when I got to buy our Vita-Mix from my lucky first try at stock trading (the stock was a sustainable energy product), I got in and out and got my glorious blender I'd been dreaming about =)



I've been enjoying the rest of the Garden Pate from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen on big salads.



another recipe from Ani's new book, Raw Food Essentials we tried was Cheddar Cheeze Sauce.  I did end up adding some nooch to it after tasting and liked it better that way, although maybe it just needed to meld together a bit before serving for more flavor, anyway it was good and the whole batch is gone now along with our sunflower seed stock ;)  Dinner that night was Carrot Angel Hair with Sun-Dried Tomatoes in Cheddar Cheeze Sauce, I pulsed in with the cheeze the sun-dried toms instead of leaving them on top. 



another night we had salads with lots of local bounty, oh and the raw olives are AWESOME and hubby loves them too. They are sort of like kalamata, but less bitter and even more delicious.




and sweets with some of the Cheddar Cheeze sauce and garden basil on top.  I like to lightly bake the sweets so they're still sort of crunchy in the middle and you have to cut them up.



I met up with a dear friend for lunch that was by a Costco, so you know I had to go in for some provisions =)  I seem to always walk the entire store and end up with just the same few things to buy.  I stood in front of the Shark steam mop that I've been debating about...still didn't buy it.  Here's what a pretty normal Costco trip looks like for us.  There are a few other things that we buy, but they last us in our two person household a looong time. 



Yes, the hubby eats cheese at home... this will get shredded, divided, and  frozen so it will last a while too.  Everything is organic aside from the avocados (they are one thing that I do unfortunately routinely buy non-organic), Costco's avocados are always so perfect.  I picked up another set of the Glasslock containers so we have enough extras for freezing pieces of our raw cheesecakes.  I thought I was all set to make the cake until I went to get out the cashews from the freezer and there wasn't any;)  I ordered more from our Co-op and hoping they'll be here tomorrow so I can use these fresh strawberries in it as well.

We've also been munching on these crackers.  This flavor we hadn't had before, Averie had talked about it here, and were on sale at the co-op (and I also had a coupon, so this box ended up being  about $1.99, pretty good!)  We both like the flavor for a change.  Costco sells the original in a bigger box with two bags inside, great for entertaining here.



do you see the most important ingredient??? L o v e .



Here's a dose of green in the form of a yummy smoothie.  Our green smoothies have been including lots of garden greens, fresh apricots, cherries, peaches, and berries.  This cute smoothie cup was a gift from a dear Aunt of mine.  I don't usually choose to use plastic, but it makes me happy that she bought it for me and that will outweigh my fear of the plastic, and it will be handwashed and not heated ;) 



Second coat painting trim is on the agenda for today, our cute little office is a few steps closer to being done =)  also hoping that some reading time fits in (stayed up late last night to do so), I'm into The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry.  If you'd like a book recommedation, check out The Lace Reader by her as well, it was one of my most favorite books.

Also Vita-Mix is having special pricing now on their reconditioned blenders if anyone has been thinking of ordering one, I just got the email about it this morning and thought I'd share =)  I would buy ours over in a heartbeat.  My only recommendation would be to be sure you get the blender container that is BPA free, you might want to check, I know that ours is and it's the 5200. 

Happy day to you all and thanks so much for reading =)