Friday, August 31, 2012

Day Two on the Fiber Train...

Once again, thanks to all of you that have been reading my blog and especially to those of you that have taken the time to comment on anything I've written.  We are on day two of Ani Phyo's book 15 Day Fat Blast   As I mentioned yesterday I'm not posting the exact recipes as this is copy written material.  I hope you are getting enough information regarding the recipes despite not having the actual amounts of each of the ingredients.  
Ani's book has a lot of other information besides the recipes we are eating these next two weeks.  She talks about the benefits of eating a vegan diet as well as the benefits of eating raw.  It is hard to argue that eating food in it's most unadulterated form can be anything other than great for you.  She mentions the fallacy regarding those that profess eating a vegan diet but primarily eat heavily processed, often boxed foods. There are many vegans who are junk food junkies despite never eating a hamburger. Like any other processed food anything that is manufactured and rendered shelf stable for more than a few days must contain chemicals that you would not find in nature.  

To illustrate how processed foods are not only full of mystery chemicals that are actually designed to create cravings while you are eating them!  60 Minutes did an amazing story about how food chemists take desirable flavors and smells (apparently research has shown Roasted Chicken has the highest appeal), break them down into their chemical compounds and add them to foods that you would never guess just to increase appeal and create cravings!  It's actually quite diabolical, I think!  Here's a link to the written story where you can also watch some of the episode if you would like. Flavorists Create Cravings 

Knowing exactly what you are putting into your body is worth the effort.  

Here's today's menu:  

First up this morning we have our Simple Strawberry Shake. The recipe as written has not only strawberries and cashews but also some sweetener and the same coconut oil as yesterday's morning smoothie.  No surprise, I left the oil out since there were nuts in the smoothie.  I also left out the sweetener since I figure a cup of ripe strawberries is plenty sweet enough for my taste.  Even though I left out the extra fat I still felt that the cashews gave the smoothie a sense of extra fat that I wasn't crazy about.  It's probably just me - but I would probably halve the number of cashews I put in here the next time around.  Otherwise it is a nice morning drink.  It's probably worth a B the way I prepared it but I think as written I'd easily give it a C-.  

The second shake of the morning for a snack is what she named an Apple Green Mar-tea-ni.  This unusual  and inventively named drink is part green apple - check, part green tea - check and the rest is your greens of choice.  I chose spinach and after yesterday's smoothie with little bits of kale I made sure I chopped up the spinach into itty bitty pieces in the Vitamix.  Then I added the rest of the ingredients and gave it a long time to process in hopes that everything was pulverized so it was drinkable.  This helped some - the bits of spinach were small but still noticeable.  
The problem with going crazy with the processing is that a LOT of air gets pumped into the smoothie.  This is also a problem with drinks produced by the juicer.  My juicer gets around this by having a wonderful pitcher with a piece in the spout that keeps out the foam that floats to the top.  This smoothie wound up having so much foam that it was nigh on to undrinkable.  Yuck!  I poured it into my juicer pitcher and was able to drink it after ridding it of the foam.  Even with this intervention I felt as if it would benefit from being run through the juicer.  I like the idea of using green tea as the liquid of a smoothie to add the benefits of green tea but I'm not terribly excited about this smoothie.  I give it a C.  

   
Moving on to lunch we have our first of two savory soups for the day.  First up is Ginger Soup. I was actually surprised that it was called ginger soup since the ginger taste was very subtle.  I might add more then next time I make it and there will be many, many more times in the future that I will have this soup.  It was divine!  In addition to the ginger there is miso, a half an avocado as well as some thyme.  This lady really knows how to dream up some yummy soups.  I'm sure this would be good warm, too.  A clear winner and an absolute A or even A+ give how quickly I gobbled it down and went back for the left overs.  No mid day snack for Ann today!  

I finally had my dinner soup late this evening after I went to my very first Xtend Barre class that my sweet babooh gave me as a groupon gift a few months ago.  Love, love, love this work out.  Was much more "dance-y" than the other barre type classes I've tried out before. Even though I was one of the older people there I made it through the entire class and still feel pretty energetic later in the evening.  I didn't even have my usual guilty pleasure of a mid day diet coke.  This is pretty major for me - so I'm thinking there is something to this extra energy rumor when eating a raw diet.  I may not be able to walk tomorrow but I will definitely go back in the very near future. Here's a link to a video about .Xtend Barre  For those not interested in the exercise you'll probably enjoy the hot looking women in leotards.

Last savory soup for the day is Marvelous Minestrone.  No surprise there are tomatoes in this soup.  This time I actually remembered to put them in!  Hence the light red color.  In addition to the tomatoes we have miso, celery and garlic as well as some cayenne and oregano.  At first I thought I went way overboard with the pepper but it really, really grew on me.  One thing I tried with this soup to avoid was having a bunch of little bits floating around unemulsified, was to let it settle for a bit and then reprocess.  I don't know if it really had a huge effect but I didn't find anything at all chunky in this glassful of tomato-y smoothness.  So - I would give this a solid B, you might like it better if you love having a spicy after taste.


Here's today's summary list:

Recipes            
Name Category Diet Day Page number Column1 Rating
Blueberry Blast Smoothie Fat Blast one 116   B-
Pineapple  Green Shake Smoothie Fat Blast one 124   B+
Spicy Bok Choy Soup Soup Fat Blast one 144   A+
Tomato Bisque Soup Fat Blast one 150  
Simple Strawberry Shake Smoothie Fat Blast two 125   B
Apple Green Mar-Tea-Ni Smoothie Fat Blast two 113   C
Ginger Soup Soup Fat Blast two 102   A/A+
Marvelous Minestrone Soup Fat Blast two 147   B


Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Switching Gears and Hoping to Blast Some Fat

Hello from the steam bath that is Southern California right now.  Holy smoke! I feel like this whole region is having sympathy pains for my dear hubby AKA - MSB (My Sweet Babooh).  For the uninitiated.  He just arrived in Conackry, Guinea safe and sound.  Thank you for all your prayers for his safe travels.  You may continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers since they are in the midst of a cholera epidemic. Also for their huge patient screening that they are having next week on September 3rd.  If you'd like more information about our time with Mercy Ships please visit my other blog: www.knitdoc.blogspot.com


Bluff walk over looking beach
Although most of the country has had an unseasonably hot and dry summer I really should not mention our weather here.  Especially given that the south is experiencing hurricanes and the fallout from such horrible weather that people are losing their homes!  No matter what the weather we are so grateful that the Lord has blessed us by letting us live in the paradise where we are.  Late in the evening it cools off enough for a nice walk.  Here's a gorgeous shot from my walk last night with our little doggie.  Indeed - I have nothing to complain about! 

It is a great thing to be following an uncooked diet when the weather is so steamy, wouldn't you say? Today we are embarking on the first day of 15 following Ani Phyo's 15 Day Fat Blast diet.  Ani Phyo is a Raw Food Chef who has written multiple books on following a raw diet.  The Fat Blast diet book has other ideas for health and fitness that I will touch upon in the next two weeks.  Tonight I have to run off to my very first guitar lesson so I'll have to be brief. 

Here's today's menu:


   I won't be posting the actual recipes here since this is from a copy-written book but if you have the book I'll post the page number in the chart at the end with the names and my ratings.  I'll describe the recipe but I don't want to get into hot water publishing something without the author's permission. 

First on the hit parade is Blueberry Blast.  Once again we have a sweet breakfast drink that will give you some quick energy.  There are a number of things you'll notice with this diet.  First of all we are making smoothies and soups.  This means we're leaving the fiber in for you to consume.  This several implications:
  •   More fiber creates volume so we're buying less of our expensive produce to go into the recipes
  •   More fiber is definitely more filling
  •   Depending upon the health of you gastrointestinal tract more fiber may be a great thing or possibly a not so great thing
  •   Great or not - you will definitely notice that things feel different. 
It is really up to you to decide whether you prefer the light feeling that comes from not having a colon full of fiber or if you like the full feeling and it doesn't go overboard and make you feel all bloated and uncomfortable. 

For most people increasing their fiber intake by leaps and bounds takes a little getting used to and one can experience either more bowel movements and others fewer.   'Nuff said.

So - back to Blueberry Blast.  This gorgeous drink is loaded with blueberries, of course and more surprisingly almonds.  Even more surprising is the addition of coconut oil.  In the health food world coconut oil has been getting a huge amount of press. It is rather counter intuitive since we've long been told that any fat that is solid at room temperature has to be bad for you.  Well apparently since this oil has more medium chain fatty acids than the looong chain ones in the hydrogenated, solid fats it is supposed to better for you.  It seems like over kill to me to have almonds AND coconut oil in this morning drink.  In addition - since the drink is cold the oil has a solid feel when going down that I really don't like much at all.  In the food biz I believe they call it "mouth feel".  I'm not a fan. 

As for me, I figure if you've got nuts in something you have all the fat you need.  Take your pick - nuts or oil just not both.  So - if I'd omitted the oil this smoothie would get high marks but as written I'm giving it a B-

Now, let's talk a little bit about fat - more specifically about nuts.  But first - click on this YouTube video so you can have the same song in your head as I have now...Why Can't We Be Friends? Unbeknownst to me nuts have turned into a war zone of opinions between several of the icons of healthy vegan eating that I cited on the first day of this blog!  I had no idea they were feuding.  Apparently one of them is a big nut proponent and others say "Balderdash".  Well - maybe they don't actually say balderdash so no actual quotes, but it appears that these guys are the newest "Point / Counterpoint" since Jane Curtin and Dan Ackroyd would go after each other on Saturday Night Live in the 1970's.  Yeah - I know I'm old.  Let's go to the video tape...Jane Curtin vs. Dan Akroyd SNL 1978

As luck would have it one of the very good healthy eating blogs I follow talked about this very conundrum regarding Nuts vs. No-Nuts just today.  Rather than rehash - here is the link to her insightful and well written blog  Healthy Girl's Kitchen .  For me the bottom line is I'm trying to minimize my own bottom line - so I try to avoid fat as much as possible and use nuts only sparingly. 

So - have we beaten that poor, dead horse long enough?  I sure hope so.  Next, for our mid morning snack we have the Pineapple Green Shake.  This is also a very lovely drink and of course is green like the past three days because in addition to pineapple we have a cup of Kale.  This makes the drink incredibly healthy but since it's just blended instead of juiced there was a fair amount of kale bits to contend with. So, because I'm not a huge fan of the Kale bits my score here is a B+

This is the part where I will wax poetic about my lengthy love affair with my Vitamix .  To call this machine a blender is a disservice.  Not only does it blend but because it has infinitely variable speed so it can do everything from coarsely chop to  liquefy.  Their promo materials even show it making saw dust out of a hunk of wood!  It is that powerful! 

That said - I didn't feel like I blended the Kale enough to not have little bits coming thru.  The taste was wonderful.  Not too sweet.  I really enjoyed this drink a lot. I think the next time I would make it I may just process the kale by itself to really puree it before I throw in the other ingredients. 


The fiber in these two smoothies must be pretty substantial since I had some errands to run and didn't get to make my lunch soup until 3pm and I was only a bit peckish by then.  Very encouraging!  For lunch our soup is Spicy Bok Choy Soup and it was certainly worth the wait.  This very yummy soup is just slightly spicy but very creamy due to the addition of a half of an avocado.  This is a luscious soup! Obviously this soup deserves the highly coveted A+! Perfect for a hot summer day. The creamy mouth feel and refreshing taste makes you want to keep eating the soup -so that the challenge here is to not eat the entire recipe so that there is some left over for a snack later in the day. Fortunately I did have enough for about a 6 oz. glass full that really hit the spot about 6:30 when I got back from my guitar class.

We were talking about fat in our diet earlier and of course avocado is a high fat fruit that is usually avoided if trying to lose weight.  However avocados contain the good fat known as monounsaturated fat - not the saturated or worse yet the trans fat that are now banned in many foods.     From the website Bodyecology there are several reasons to select monounsaturated fats when using some fat in your diet.  Here's the list:

Research shows that diets with healthy amounts of monounsaturated fats have a host of amazing health benefits, including:1
  • Decreased risk for breast cancer. A study of women in Sweden found that those with diets higher in monounsaturated fats (as opposed to polyunsaturated fats) resulted in less frequent incidence of breast cancer.
  • Reduced cholesterol levels. The American Heart Association recommends the consumption of MUFAs to improve your blood lipid profile.
  • Lower risk for heart disease and stroke. Diets with monounsaturated fats correlate with healthy hearts and fewer strokes.
  • Weight loss. Studies have found that switching to monounsaturated fat from diets with trans fats and polyunsaturated fats results in weight loss.
  • Less severe pain and stiffness for sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis. Diet plays a role in improving the pain and stiffness of those who already have rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Reduced belly fat. A study published by the American Diabetes Association found that diets with monounsaturated fat could improve the loss of belly fat better than high carbohydrate diets.

But fat is still fat so if you are wanting to lose weight and are puzzled that it's not going as well as you'd hoped cut out the fat - and that means avocados and nuts.

Finally - for dinner tonight we have another very luscious soup aptly named Tomato Bisque. I will be the first person to admit I do not like tomato soup.  It has to have a spicy taste or be heavy on the basil - like the juice we had the other day for me to tolerate Tomato soup at all.  This tomato soup also has a half an avocado in it as well as some garlic, thyme and sea salt.  I was frankly very surprised that I really, really enjoyed this soup.  It is creamier than a gazpacho but another great summer soup when you can't bear to add anymore heat to your kitchen.  This version of tomato soup is definitely a keeper.  A solid A from me on this one.

Thanks to everyone that has submitted comments either via e-mail, the blog comments or Facebook.  It is so encouraging to know that you are reading this and some of you are even trying the recipes.  I hope we all meet our health goals via healthier eating and along the way we may even lose a few pounds.  Let me know how you're doing. 

Here's the summary from today - see you all tomorrow! 

Recipes          
Name Category Diet Day Page number Rating
Blueberry Blast Smoothie Fat Blast one 116 B-
Pineapple  Green Shake Smoothie Fat Blast one 124 B+
Spicy Bok Choy Soup Soup Fat Blast one 144 A+
Tomato Bisque Soup Fat Blast one 150

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Exotic Juice

As they say - much of life is how you deal with Plan B. I think I'm having a plan B kind of day. It's nearly 9pm and I'm just now sitting down to start writing about all the great juices I've enjoyed today. So - I'll try and be complete but a little more brief than the last few days.







 Here's today's menu from the Reboot website.  We start our morning with yet another sweet and incredibly tasty juice called Apple-Carrot-Beet   I definitely enjoyed this juice much more than the uber purple concoction from yesterday.  This was sweet but not cloyingly so. This one is definitely a keeper and deserves the coveted A  

Next up we had something called Great Greens Juice. I suppose this was called great greens due to having 7 different green vegetables in it. This is a really great tasting juice! Very, very refreshing! I highly recommend it and of course - I give it an A  too.

Now, for more about plan B - in addition to fielding multiple phone calls through out the day, a two hour dental appointment that was for naught, it appears that my phone will not send pictures via e-mail. I could post the generic green juice picture - since I'm not going to pretend that most of these juices didn't look as green as the next. But - I'm way more honest than that. So - let's continue.

For lunch we have what they call Tabbouleh Juice. (insert generic green juice picture here)  I love regular Tabbouleh as a salad but I was a bit dubious that this juice could be anything other than horrible. I mean primarily parsley and some onion? Yikes! But I was really pleasantly surprised. Yes, this is a savory juice but unlike yesterday's overwhelmingly savory V28 juice, this offering was very tasty and not at all difficult to drink. I think I'll give it a

Next, our afternoon snack is an equally exotic sounding Bruschetta Juice.  Here is another juice I was fully ready to dislike intensely. Garlic juice? I think I've heard everything now, hmmm?  But, this too was a really flavorful, drinkable, savory juice that tasted a lot like a cold tomato basil soup.  This juice is also worth a B in my book. I really wish I had the picture of this juice as it was actually an attractive, dark red color.  Indeed - for once not a green juice!

Finally for dinner we have what they've decided to call....wait for it....Green Juice.  Yes, - I thought that was pretty comical that after three days of almost all green juices this is the one they call green.  And it is.  Green. It tastes green.  There's just the bit of ginger root to give it a tart kick.  Otherwise there's not the citrus or fennel taste that stands out so much in the other juices.  The Green Juice is refreshing and simple.  Tasty but nothing that really knocks your socks off.  It probably deserves a B, too.

One other thing I wanted to post during these three days of juicing is the option of portability.  Yes, juices are portable.  The juicer, not so much.  My Sweet Babooh (MSB) is used to my penchant for dragging along kitchen appliances if we go on a road trip.  I've been known to take my Vitamix, the Rice Maker, a Slow Cooker and a few other things on a few RV trips.  I can't stand a vacation where I'm piningfor my kitchen appliances.

Probably the most difficult part of our five months in Africa on the Mercy Ship was the lack of control over what we ate.  I would have loved to have had some fresh juice similar to what we've had for the past three days. Bringing my Brevelle in carry on baggage was not an option. Recently I came across a cute three pound hand juicer that I intend to take with me when I fly so I at least have the option of making juice. This juicer is called the Manual Wheatgrass Juicer  Don't let the name fool you.  You can juice almost anything with this and in some ways the juice extracted from greens is almost more efficient than with the high speed extractors. You just get a ton of exercise cranking the handle forever and ever. Well that's a "two-fer" if ever there was one!

Here's the summary chart for all three days for your reference:

Recipes
Name Category Diet Day Page number Rating
Carrot Apple Ginger Juice Reboot one NA A++
Mean Green Juice Reboot one NA B+
Gazpacho Juice Reboot one NA
Citrus Inspired Green Juice Juice Reboot one NA B
Sunset Blend Juice Reboot one NA
Purple Power Juice Reboot two NA A
Green Lemonade Juice Reboot two NA B+
V 28 Juice Reboot two NA D
Spinach Fennel Cucmber Juice Reboot two NA A
Bountiful Brassica Juice Reboot two NA B+
Apple-Carrot-Beet Juice Reboot three NA A
Great Greens Juice Juice Reboot three NA A
Tabbouleh Juice Juice Reboot three NA B
Bruschetta Juice Juice Reboot three NA B
Green Juice Juice Reboot three NA B

Tomorrow we're starting on day 1 of Ani Phyto's 15 day Fat Blast diet. I won't be posting the recipes here since they are from copy-written material but I will describe what's in each offering.

Thanks so much to those of you who have given me so much useful and encouraging feedback. Thanks for coming along on this journey with me. See you tomorrow when we start on our FAT BLAST!




Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Taste Explosion!

So far today I've had a pretty busy day.  I'm sure that's true for most everyone.  Since I don't have a job right now I often feel like I have all the time in the world and then I find myself over scheduled and trying to fit everything in.  One thing that is pretty nice about a diet like this is everything is pretty quick and easy.

First there's no cooking!  Second there's very little preparation. Best of all the clean up is pretty simple.

Of course, most of this ease depends upon what sort of juicer you use. I had a Jack LaLanne juicer for a very short time many years ago but I soon sent it back as it kept jamming up and shorting out on me.  I must have been doing something wrong because I know a lot of people love their LaLanne juicers.

After seeing the "Fat,Sick and Nearly Dead" movie my dear hubby, AKA My Sweet Babooh or MSB and I decided to buy the fancy Brevelle Juicer featured in the movie. Ha!  Apparently Joe's influence caused a run on Brevelle Juicers. We couldn't find any available on any internet site!  We finally tracked one down at the local Bloomingdales and grabbed it!

I cannot praise this juicer highly enough!  Our's is stainless steel so there's no concern about staining the parts with the intense juice you are making.  The clean up is simply a breeze.  Since fiber is so sticky it is vital to clean up the juicer after every juicing "event" but there's not much to it.

So - that's my commercial for the day.  Since today has been so busy we'll just get right to the juicing.

Here's today's plan from the Reboot website.  I encourage you to register and take advantage of all the resources at this website.  There are 100s of juice recipes to try there and advice from Registered dietitions if you have questions or special needs.









First on the hit parade is our Breakfast juice.  Calling this Purple Power  just doesn't seem to do it justice.  It is purple and then some!  There are a ton of purple grapes in here and it is amazingly delicious!  It clearly deserves an A but it is really too much - well it was for me.  These recipes all make a lot of juice and I simply couldn't finish all the juice that this recipe makes.  I found out many years ago that I don't do well with sweet juices or smoothies since I get a real sugar rush.  Of course, the rush feels fantastic but I then get horribly hypoglycemic about 30 minutes later and have a crash landing!  As I was drinking this sweet, fruity juice I could feel that sugar rush coming on and I just had to stop drinking.  So, if you have someone to share with I think it is a real winner and looks simply gorgeous in all its purple glory.

Next up is our mid-morning snack called Green Lemonade. This is a nice, refreshing drink that if you examine the ingredients it is nearly identical to yesterday's Mean Green juice. Only difference is an extra apple and some ginger so that today's offering does taste more lemony.  I think the best part about this plan is realizing that you can throw a lot of different produce into your juicer and it will usually taste pretty good.  Getting a handle on whether you like more citrus - so add a lemon, or prefer it a bit sweeter - throw in an extra apple can make the difference between tolerating your juice and really enjoying it. Personally, I enjoyed both drinks and will give today's the same B+ that yesterday's Mean Green received.

Moving on to our Lunch! I will confess that I had a lunch date with an old friend and did not go all uber liquid diet on her and make her watch me sip my juice. We went to an Asian restaurant and I had some miso soup. So - I didn't have a raw diet but it was still pretty liquid. That said I came home and whipped up the lunch and snack juices since I was a bit hungry after just having a small bowl of soup.

Now here's an interesting aside.  Why is it that a glass of juice satisfies my hunger for several hours but a similar amount of soup containing just miso (soy) leaves me hungry 45 minutes later?  I'm thinking it must be the enormous amount of nutrients these juices contain.  I've always thought it was amazing and frankly strange that just drinking five good sized glasses of juice I'm really not hungry despite not ingesting many calories.  I think it must be the nutrients in the juice.

Ok - so now on to our lunch juice called V 28.  I don't know what the 28 is but I will say there's virtually nothing in this juice that I like to eat on its own or camouflaged in a salad.  I'm not a fan of jalapenos and I simply loathe radishes.  Yes - loathe them.  They go in the same category for me as blue cheese.  Ack!
But - as your faithful scribe and guinea pig I felt obligated to make this recipe and let you know what I think, albeit only a half serving.  Indeed, this is one savory tasting juice. Savory with a capital S is still an understatement. There is a bite to it and some zing. I could see where some people would really enjoy something like this. I would not be one of those people. So, if you like somewhat spicy, hearty tasting juice I would recommend this. It might be more palatable if it was warmed up like a soup. Let me know if one of you tries this idea and finds it to your liking. I think I'm going to have to give this a D


For our afternoon snack we have a juice named Spinach Fennel Cucumber  I found this juice to be a welcome, refreshing drink. The thing that makes this juice different from the others is the fennel bulb addition. I must warn you to not go overboard on the fennel though. Previously I made a juice that called for a portion of fennel and I figured I'd throw the whole thing in. Whoa! Huge mistake! When it comes to Fennel it's like the old Brylcreme commercials  - "A little dab'll do ya!" Children - go ask your parents.   Anyway - suffice it to say do not overdo it on the fennel or you'll probably throw the entire pitcher of juice out just like I did.

Since this juice was so light, refreshing and enjoyable it deserves an A  No doubt my pleasure in this concoction is due to lingering V 28 dismay - such is life.

For our dinner we have a juice called Bountiful Brassica  where there got this name? I do not know. This is another savory style juice that makes me scratch my head wondering why someone thought cabbage juice would be a good idea. Surprisingly, this is not bad. Obviously the cabbage, kale and broccoli jack the nutrient content of this juice threw the roof. The lemon and ginger root give this juice a fresh "zing" so that it is very drinkable. I think this juice definitely deserves at least a B+. You might give it a strong A.

So, with the entries from today's juices we have the following tally.

Recipes
Name Category Diet Day Page number Rating
Carrot Apple Ginger Juice Reboot one NA A++
Mean Green Juice Reboot one NA B+
Gazpacho Juice Reboot one NA
Citrus Inspired Green Juice Juice Reboot one NA B
Sunset Blend Juice Reboot one NA
Purple Power Juice Reboot two NA A
Green Lemonade Juice Reboot two NA B+
V 28 Juice Reboot two NA D
Spinach Fennel Cucmber Juice Reboot two NA A
Bountiful Brassica Juice Reboot two NA B+

Tomorrow is our last day of the Reboot Three Day Weekend Plan.  On Thursday we'll be switching gears and following Ani's 15 Day Fat Blast.  I'll have to find some time to review the next days of recipes and go do some more shopping.

Let me know if you've tried any of these recipes, what you've thought and if you've got some ideas for how to make V28 palatable.  I'd also love to hear if you've found some items on the Reboot website that you thought were interesting and worth trying.

Thanks for reading!