A little rant followed by 2 recipes

It's Thursday! I hope you're all excited for the weekend to begin - even those of us (me) who have only worked one day this week.

So I have to start today by getting something off my chest. I'm a little anxious right now because today I have been a bottomless pit. I have been hungry all day long no matter what I seem to eat. For some ease these hunger pains (it could have been that 6 miler I did yesterday, but logic is hard to come by right now). This usually kicks me off my path of wellness, I'd say 8 times out of 10 time, letting the ED voice ring loud and clear, but today I stood strong by allowing myself to sooth the pains with food. Without even a second thought at that too, well, until now.

Night time usually is my hardest time because I would usually rehash everything that I'd done for the day to calculate what I needed to/could do tomorrow - what I could eat, how long and how hard I needed to workout, etc. But tonight I'm trying to just sit and feel. Feel the fullness of my stomach, the satiety from a wonderful dinner, feel the emotions - anxiety and all - that are racing through my heart and head. I have to admit in the back of my mind the ED wants me to do something bad, but in my heart - and the rest of my mind - I know that I'm going to be ok (ED 0, Burns 1.7 million!).

Yes, I'm going to be ok.

Thank you for letting me get that out. I'm still a little anxious, but like I said I know I'm going to be ok.

Well like I promised yesterday I have two raw vegan recipes to share with you all today. And like I promised, you won't be disappointed. First off, I know some people are still a little confused at the whole raw thing. I am trying to achieve as close to a fully raw diet as possible, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself - nor should any of you - to be 100% raw 100% of the time. I aim for a softer approach of 80/20, meaning either 80% of my day I eat raw food followed with 20% cooked and/or 80% of each meal is raw with 20% cooked.

For example, I love beans and right now I haven't gotten to sprouting yet so I take the route more traveled and do the cooked beans. Vegetables have a great amount of protein, but I need the beans to satisfy and get my nutrients. So until I have my own kitchen to do my own sprouting, I'll put these in my 20% cooked category for that meal. I also happen to love oats for breakfast - or any time really - so until I find the time to soak them, I'll resort to cooking them. And I'm ok with that, 80/20 after all.

Today I wanted to share with you a raw wrap that is so good and so easy, you'll be wondering why you hadn't been doing this sooner.

Wraw Wrap:

1 large collard green
2 - 3 tbsp hummus
Any and all vegetables you can fit in it (I used an avocado, a tomato, and a carrot)

First, remove the fibrous stem (about 1/3 the way up into the actual greens) from the collard green like so.

Next, cover with the hummus followed by your vegetables. Then fold the two longer ends up over the vegetables and roll together as you would a tortilla.  And enjoy!

I had to wrap mine in foil (please recycle if you do too) because I got a little over zealous with the hummus - oops - a delicious mishap. The collard green has a slight sharpness and spiciness to it, but it has much more flavor than a store-bought tortilla. Talk about a great way to get some more greens in your day.

The second recipe I have for you all tonight is seriously going to change the way you think of mousse again - and avocados come to think of it. This is my raw carob mousse recipe adopted from Gena's and Lyne's recipes of chocolate pudding.

Raw Carob Mousse:

2 ripe avocados
8 medjool dates - pitted and soaked in 2 cups very warm water
2 heaping tbsp carob powder - you can use cocoa powder if you don't have carob but make sure it's fair trade and organic
1/2 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp raw turbinado sugar
1/2 - 1 cup water from the dates
pinch of salt

Start by soaking the pitted dates in the warm water for about 20 minutes so that they can reconstitute.

Place the ingredients into a food processor or a blendor starting with 1/2 cup of the date water. Turn on high speed and slowly add the other 1/2 cup of water 1/4 at a time. You probably have to stop every few minutes to scrape down the side. Once it has all come together it should look like this.

It looks super rich and decadent and a little soft and fluffy too.

But refrain from taking a spoon to it yet. It has to refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow the flavors to meld and the fats from the avocado to solidify. I promise, it's worth the wait.

After an hour it should look more like this, very rich and decadent, silky and creamy, and oh so chocolatey.

I'm still working on getting the necessary ingredients for my tofu recipe I want to try so I can give you a tutorial on using tofu. Until then, enjoy these two easy, very nutritious, and super delicious raw recipes!

Did you try something raw today or maybe even something different?