Home Stretch Time!

Another late night for a long day but I have some amazing recipes to make sure you know about before we finish up the last of our 15 days together with Ani Phyo.

I feel like I've short changed you all by not summarizing other very informative and helpful portions of her book.  There is a section that gives suggestions on how to deal with the challenge of trying to stay on a raw vegan diet while socializing or travelling.  There's also a chapter on suggested raw vegan meals if you training for certain types of athletic events, if you're trying to build muscle and other goals.

For those of you reading this and still on the fence about going ahead and buying the book - after 13 of 15 days I'm pretty impressed with the plan, the recipes and the variety.  Go ahead and buy it.

Since it's already after 10pm and I have another early morning I'm going to get to business.  Here's today's menu:

First up this early morning we have a lovely, light green Avocado Shake. I'm telling you it's light green because for some reason my phone refused to take pictures until late tonight.  So sorry.  Although this is called an avocado shake and is a light green it actually tastes like strawberries since there's a lot of strawberries in this lovely shake.  It is sweet and an easy morning drink and gets a B from me.  

For the mid-morning snack we're to have Fudge Brownies with Fresh Berries. I don't know about you but I don't think I can face brownies in the morning.  I decided to make this for an evening dessert. These brownie are made with walnuts, cocoa and dates.  They are rich, rich, rich.  I don't know how anyone would want to eat these for a mid morning snack.  So - these are good and I can see where this would be considered a terrific dessert but I don't see me making these again since they are way too rich for me.  I'm giving this a C - I'm sure others will like these better than I did.    

For lunch we have Fennel Slaw with Dill Vinaigrette  This slaw type salad is nice and tangy with fennel and crunchy Jicama which is a personal favorite.  I know I had never heard of jicama until I moved to So. Cal. since I believe it's really popular in Mexican cuisine.  I made this salad for lunch but we had a large lunch meeting at my conference today - where I was able to get a large, raw salad so I tasted some of this slaw after coming home.  The dressing had plenty of time to absorb into the slaw and gave it a nice tang.  The one thing that this slaw desperately needs is some color!  It is oh so beige!  I distinctly remember taking a nice picture of it this morning however it is nowhere to be found.  You'll have to trust me on this, it's beige.  It's tasty so I give it a B.  

Mid afternoon's snack is a wonderful, tangy, incredibly tasty Carrot Ginger Soup.  This is terrific and I am looking forward to having this soup many more times in the future.  In addition to the carrot and the ginger there is our soup staples of avocado and miso with a dab of coconut oil.  This one is a real winner and I give it an A.  

All rolled up and ready to eat!

pesto wraps still flat

Finally - to top off the day we have Pesto Wraps.  Remember the wrap we had a few days ago that I raved about?  Forget I said I loved it - this, this is the wrap you want for lunch, to take to a party and to convince your friends that you're not nuts to be eating raw stuff.  This one is 'da Bomb people.  All I can say is make it and eat it.  YUM!  Ok - let me calm down and tell you what's in this beauty.  The pesto is made from pistachios, garlic, basil and avocado.  It is processed to a pesto paste and then spread on collard leaves.  Cucumber, pepper and some sprouts are placed on the pesto and then rolled up quickly so you can snarf them down without delay.  I think I've found my new pesto recipe - and I make a lot of pesto.  You're probably not surprised I'm giving this an A.  

Here's the spreadsheet for this phase:

Name	Category	Diet	Day	Page number		Rating
Vanilla Blueberry Shake	Shake	Fat Blast	eight	128		D
Red, White and blue berry salad	Salad	Fat Blast	eight	166		B
Kreamy Chipotle Salad	Salad	Fat Blast	eight	136		A
Kreamy Cucumber Soup	Soup	Fat Blast	eight	146		A
Zucchini Noodles	Dinner	Fat Blast	eight	160		C
Pineapple Cilantro Shake	Shake	Fat Blast	nine	124		B
Cucumber Guacamole	Dip	Fat Blast	nine	158		B+
Cabbage Salad with Cucumber Miso Dressing	Salad	Fat Blast	nine	131		C
Garlic Bell Soup	Soup	Fat Blast	nine	142		A
Celery Almond Pate'	Dip	Fat Blast	nine	158		A
Pear Lime Ginger Shake	Shake	Fat Blast	ten	122		B
Watermelon Grapefruit Salad	Salad	Fat Blast	ten	168		A
Zucchini Hummus	Dip	Fat Blast	ten	159		B
Curried Cilantro Cucumber Soup	Soup	Fat Blast	ten	141		C-
Mixed Vegetable Seaweed Rolls	Roll	Fat Blast	ten	154		B
Green Grapefruit Shake	Shake	Fat Blast	eleven	119		A
Shredded Sesame Salad	Salad	Fat Blast	eleven	137		B-
Coconut Miso Soup	Soup	Fat Blast	eleven	140		A
Collard Rolls w/ Cashew Pate	Wrap	Fat Blast	eleven	152		A+
Orange Vanilla Shake	Shake	Fat Blast	twelve	121		B+
Peach Crumble	Crumble	Fat Blast	twelve	163		C
Italian Salad	Salad	Fat Blast	twelve	135		A
Curried Zucchini Cucumber Soup	Soup	Fat Blast	twelve	145		A
Marinated Mushrooms in Lettuce Wraps	Wrap	Fat Blast	twelve	153		C
Avocado Shake	Shake	Fat Blast	thirteen	114		B
Fudge Brownies with Fresh Berries	dessert	Fat Blast	thirteen	161		C
Fennel Slaw with Dill Vinaigrette	Salad	Fat Blast	thirteen	134		B
Carrot Ginger Soup	Soup	Fat Blast	thirteen	139		A
Pest Wrap	Wrap	Fat Blast	thirteen	156		A