Day 1 - what's in the fridge?

To start the day, I cut up some watermelon and snacked on that as I puttered around getting my morning underway. Drank my usual glass of water and apple cider vinegar, and got the daily quart of nettle/dandelion/plaintain infusion going to drink throughout the day. Threw in some mullein at the last minute, that hadn't quite dried completely from the batch I took out of the dehydrators earlier this morning.

Again, it just felt like I was doing the "right thing", in pursuing this way of eating. It was what my body needed for now. For lunch, I chose one of several recipes I had tagged in Dining in the Raw, and after a quick jaunt through the garden I made Zuchinni Carrot soup. I'll be putting together some raspberry-banana frozen dessert after awhile, the berries and 'nanners are working on getting frozen so I can throw them in the Vita- mix.

Here's how the soup goes together: Blend 1/2 c. tahini (or in my case, lacking tahini at the moment, the last of my raw cashew butter), a cup of water, some Bragg's Liquid Aminos, some garlic and green onion. Grate a medium zuchinni, a carrot, add half to the blender. Blend smooth. Pour into a bowl, stir in the rest of the grated veggies, some chopped cilantro, sliced green onion, and more Bragg's to taste. After a taste test, I also stirred in 1/2 tsp. lemon juice. Chill, letting flavors blend.

This chilled soup is creamy but textured, fresh and crunchy and filling. I really enjoyed it, and will put it on my "make again" list.

Dinner. Hmmmm. Dinner. Well, I have some couscous in the pantry, and a ton more veggies waiting in the wings. We'll see what they decide to waltz across the stage.

Well, now! They didn't do too bad for a bunch of amateurs! They chose to present Garam Coucous.

Here we have couscous (bring water to boil, stir in couscous 1/1 ratio, take off heat, lid, and let set 5 minutes - wahlah!) in the pot, with some garam masala spice stirred in (one of my FAV spice blends); diced red pepper, grated carrot, sliced scallions, chopped cilantro, a couple of olives (escaped from their can), toasted ground cumin seed, with some Bragg's Liquid Aminos and Udo's Oil Blend to provide flavor, nutrition and moisture to marry the cast as a harmonious and delicious family.

Plated, it looks like they made a successful production! I could eat that. And with the spoon of veggie raita left from our Indian feast the other evening, it was perfect! The flavors are multi-layered, the textures varied for interest, and the warm couscous had a perfect counterpoint in the cold raita (cucs, onion, tomato, plain yogurt, ground toasted cumin seed).
There was plenty of coucous and veggies left to combine with the Bragg's and Udo oil and more ground cumin seed, for a lunch bowl I can look forward to tomorrow.

There's still dessert to come. The frozen banana-raspberry-goat milk icecream is divided into 1/2 cup dessert cups, safely stashed in the freezer for those moments of bliss we all need in our food.

My tummy is happy. My heart is happy. I would call this a good start.