Raw Bloggers' Digest

You know I don’t  promote any “isms”–vegetarianism, veganism, raw foodism.  I’m secretly a fan of all those movements. But I don’t adopt them because I think they send most people running for the hills. And I believe that sticking to the idea of eating MORE PLANT FOODS wins more converts.

But I don’t cook/serve animal flesh in my home. My older daughter, though, is a militant vegetarian.

The younger one, Libby, 14, struggles. She admires her sister’s “cause” orientation, and has “gone veg” several times but it doesn’t stick. She goes to her dad’s where meat is a staple, and she caves in, falls off the wagon. She has been looking at vegetarian vids on youtube and studying the issue.

Today she brought me this typed statement:

“I, Libby Pay, am going vegan. I will not eat anything with eggs or milk. Or meat. So I want to make  special veggie foods for myself since the rest of you drink kefir in the mornings. If I have to drink kefir I will be deeply hurt. Anyways, to make my special food I would like these ingredients. Some of them I have already, but just want to make sure I am allowed to use them. I want to be hardcore vegan. You don’t have to be. But I really want to.”

“Brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potatoes, fresh kale (to try this one recipe I found), black beans, that seaweed stuff you buy, big carrots, garlic and onion, green and black olives (not needed, just somewhat wanted!), green beans, cucumbers.”

“I feel very strongly about this. If it gets too hard, I’ll just be vegetarian, but I really want to do this.”

A few hours later, she came in with a binder she’d made, with lots of printed material about cruelty to animals and nutritional support for a plant-based diet, in plastic sleeves. The cover page has this printed, in large text:

“WHY I DO NOT EAT MEAT:

“Yes, God may have put them on the earth for us to eat. But in the scriptures it says to eat meat sparingly in times of winter and famine. I don’t think our Heavenly Father intended for the animals we eat to be tortured, stuffed into tight cages for their whole lives, beaten, and to rarely see sunlight. Chickens, pigs, and cows have been chemically altered to grow way bigger than they are supposed to. They put steroids in the animals to make more meat. These animals can’t walk, and are tortured daily.”

I’m so proud of my kids when they stand for something. When it’s something that will benefit them and the world, even better!

Now if I could just get them to take a vigilante stand against SUGAR.

This salad is based on a recipe taught to me by top raw food chef and friend Chad Sarno. This is one of Chad’s all-time favourite raw recipes and it’s also one of mine too. I’ve been teaching this variation now for a number of years and everyone is AMAZED at how great it tastes. The beauty of this meal is that it’s delicious, filling and extremely nutritious – one of the best ways to get healthy greens and fats into your body in a way that feels good and looks good too. EQUIPMENT A good sharp knife – that’s...

October 2004 was predictable. First, there would be my granddaughter’s third birthday, then Halloween at the hospital and after that, homecoming at the university. All three were traditions by now and there was no question I would be participating.

The birthday itself fell on Sabbath and for any little celebrant in Sabbath School, it was a landmark occasion. She was dressed in her finest.

Children who could repeat their memory verse had their hands stamped as a reward. Her birthday warranted lots of stamping and she was thrilled.

When all was said and done, she was a little pensive because it was over.

Well, that part was but the next day, we were all set up again in the wind tunnel aka the picnic shelter at the Imagination Station. This year, the theme was “My Little Pony” complete with a cake with my granddaughter’s picture.

Before it was cut, Mom and daughter posed for a picture.

She looked like, “Enough, already!”

My other daughter-in-law and granddaughter were there for the festivities.

After the picnic, cake-slaughtering and present opening, there was the real fun. She was getting old enough that she could run and climb with the best of them.

She was really pleased with herself because she could slide all alone this year.

As for me, it was fortunate that I didn’t care a whole lot for cake. I had enough sinful food favorites to make up for it. I wasn’t one to get up in the middle of the night to snack but watching TV wasn’t watching TV unless I had something to munch on and it showed.

Halloween had rolled around once again and it was time to do the dress up gig. I decided I would show my true self and went as an old hag.

You could see that, while I might have a lot of problems, a lack of appetite wasn’t one of them.

A big deal was the pumpkin carving. Below are a few of the ones done that year. The first one is sort of poking fun at the people who insist on smoking even though they have breathing problems.

I thought this one was particularly creative:

The next big deal was Homecoming. My granddaughter was dressed in a new outfit and was glad to pose so I could take pictures.

What made this Homecoming even more special than usual was the Reunion Concert by all the members of the singing group my son had sung with for several years. The pipe organ was the backdrop.

This is about half of the group that was on the platform. DS1 is wearing a black suit and standing to the left of the podium.

There was a get-together meal afterward with quite a spread of food. As luck would have it, we sat with another of the singers and his wife. It was during the stuffing of my face that I found out she was an old flame’s daughter. She insisted on taking a picture of me to show her father. I wasn’t too happy with that turn of events and glared into the camera. The picture was probably on a par with my Halloween one. There was one thing that was sure—I wouldn’t hear from him as a result.

Listen to Roger Doiron’s TedTalk, about how we take control of our food supply and change the world. This video is worth your time:

View Roger Doiron’s TedTalk HERE!

I’m a huge fan of growing your own food. It can truly change your life. It empowers you. It connects you to your food source. It gets you out in the sun with your hands in the dirt, which gives you the most important hormone/vitamin to prevent cancer, and grounds you to help eliminate the harmful electromagnetic frequencies you build up. It saves you money. It will make you feel happy, I promise.

Step 5 in 12 Steps to Whole Foods is all about how to grow an organic garden, in any amount of space, and use everything you grow. Thank you to Marianne, our new webmaster and a longtime GSG reader, for sharing this video with me.