RAWWOMAN RECIPE FILE:

ALISA'S SENSATIONAL SUPERFOOD SMOOTHIE

Yields approximately 1 quart

½ cup frozen strawberries

½ cup frozen mango

½ cup frozen blueberries

½ frozen banana

3 Tbsp cocoa nibs

1 tsp vitamineral green powder

1 tsp spirulina

1 tsp chlorella

1 tsp maca powder

1 tsp hemp protein powder

1 tsp wheatgrass powder

1 tsp vitamin C powder

Add enough organic apple or orange juice to get the mixture to blend and to make it to your texture consistency pleasure. I prefer my smoothies thick so I add less juice. Using fresh squeezed o.j. or apple juice is best, but in a pinch any organic juice is fine. You can use filtered water if there is not juice on hand or if you do not want to make it any sweeter.

You may use fresh fruit instead of frozen…again, it is your pleasure.

ANOTHER VARIATION OF A GREEN SMOOTHIE

Simply use your favorite frozen or fresh fruit, plus some liquid, in the same proportions as above and add a large handful of fresh greens (spinach, kale, baby greens, romaine, parsley, arugula, etc. – mix it up too).

Marie / On the Road to Raw

The Green Drink

Every morning Alisa would come into the Bed and Breakfast with a large glass containing a green drink. It looked remarkably like slime, reminding me of something from an old B science fiction movie – something that grew and devoured a town. But Alisa drank this stuff as if it was ambrosia and, despite it’s somewhat toxic appearance, when she offered me a sip one day I decided “why not” and gave it a try.

That afternoon I was driving myself into town, shopping list stuffed into my purse, to get all the ingredients I would need to make myself one of those verdant concoctions the following morning. You couldn't help but be a convert; it was really good, made of fruit and all kinds of superfoods including cacao nibs. Alisa, with her self- admitted chocolate fetish, always put in at least two tablespoons of those. They have the reputation all by themselves of being mood altering – which probably explains why Alisa was always so eminently even tempered.

I started drinking the green slime concoctions every morning when they took the place of breakfast. All of a sudden – just like that – I was starting my day out raw. I barely even had to think about it. Strangely, even though I’m always creating these elaborate breakfasts for my guests, I never eat any of them myself. Oh, sometimes I would love to! I stand around waiting for leftovers like a dog expecting scraps from the table. But most often there are no scraps to be had. I wash empty baking dishes and pie plates hungry and unfulfilled with a few hours of work still ahead of me before I can eat. I end up starving to the point of ravenous by the time I get home around 11:30 after clearing the table, washing and drying dishes and cleaning the rooms. I inhale my lunch as if I’d spent a week on hunger strike! Don’t ask me what I ate… I wouldn’t know except that it usually began with bread – the first thing I could shove into my mouth! The green drink takes me three minutes to make in the morning- most of it blending time and it satisfies and staves off hunger well into the afternoon. A revelation! When I get home henceforth, I calmly make myself an enormous salad full of everything I can find in the crisper. I add some nuts. I cut up an orange. That salad could sustain ten men. Within a week of doing this I realize that I am living my day- at least until 5 o’clock – totally and irrevocably Raw. Almost immediately I experience a shift. It’s funny but I begin to feel strangely happy. There is almost an aspect of feeling drugged. In the raw food literature, they frequently talk about how raw food is the fountain of youth, the experts regaling us with ‘proof’ that when you eat a raw diet you tend to eat less and people who eat less live longer and look better. Well, that’s all very well and good but what I feel is happy – sometimes so happy that I have to cook something or eat a doughnut just to get a feeling of relief. I’m not used to so much ecstasy. I believe that there is something narcotic about such a pure diet… all those fruits and vegetables, the blender buzzing like an orgasm. Raw food guru, David “Avocado” Wolfe tells us that introducing raw foods into our diet helps to remove the junk that has built up in our bodies and that as we move through this purification “you’ll feel a sense of intuitive powers. You may feel a sense of absolute relief… you may feel a sense of just gentle and ever increasing energy. You’ll definitely notice an enhanced change in your immunity.” Alisa says once you really go raw it opens you up to so many possibilities, not just physically but mentally. I believe it has opened me up to the possibility that I might be insane because where else could all this happiness be coming from? It’s unnatural! I look around me and see that the floor isn’t properly swept. There is a spot on the glass of the back door. I catch sight of a little tear on the corner of the bedroom rug – perhaps something the cat decided to scratch at when I wasn’t paying attention enough to pay attention. I notice that my daughter’s homework is not in a neat pile on her desk but fanned out sloppily like discarded cards. I notice that all is not perfect but in the midst of it all I smile. Boy! Do I feel good!

Alisa/ On the Road to Raw

Diets, Donuts and Rheumatoid Arthritis: Part Two

The first book I bought on the raw food diet was Juliano’s book entitled, appropriately - RAW. It was a beautiful book. It was filled with his exciting story about how he was introduced to raw and what it did for him. His story was inspirational. I felt hope for the first time. I felt if he could do it so could I. The pictures in his book of the food that he created looked absolutely delicious. His story was delicious and he looked delicious (although I must admit when I first saw him I thought he was a girl….oops, I’m bad…take a look yourself).

Now, you have to remember that I don’t cook. I don’t like to cook. I never really stepped into a kitchen. I was not the cook in my family. My now ex-husband, friend cooked and I cleaned. I burnt butter. I burnt water. I was a disaster in the kitchen. O.k. the scariness returned. I panicked a bit. How was I going to do this while I was raising a young child and working a million hours at the office???

Well, at the time that I was suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, my ex was suffering from high blood pressure. He had suffered a massive stroke not long before my illness appeared. Being the supportive partner that he was, he said that he would create the recipes. He would prepare the meals and we would take this journey together. He would go raw with me. I was relieved, thankful and hopeful once more.

Because I was in such excruciating pain, and because I always dove into something new with both feet first and am an extremist by nature, I declared “no more cooked food!” I was going to eat 100% raw food. I was going to heal my condition and I was going to do it now! We cleaned out all of the cupboards, the pantry, the refrigerator, etc. of all cooked processed foods. We threw out the microwave and got rid of all pots and pans….this act almost gave my ex another stroke because he was a Cordon Bleu Chef and LOVED to cook but he went along with it because both of our health was at stake. We could always buy more “stuff” if it didn’t work. I wanted to start with a fresh clean slate. I could have nothing around that would entice me away from my goal of regaining my health.

O.k. so now our kitchen was a “raw” kitchen. Where to begin??? Because I love bread, being the Italian that I am, and because I’d always loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we decided to try Juliano’s recipe for Peanut Butter and Jelly on his version of what he called ‘bread’. The photograph of the sandwich looked scrumptious. The one that I made? Not so much.

Well, what I learned very quickly, even though I had never followed a recipe in my life, was that recipes don’t always work out the way they say they should. My first try was a complete and utter failure. We followed the recipe to a “t”. Was it the fact that I couldn’t cook?

I put the book aside and began simply. I ate fruit for breakfast. For lunch, I took baggies to work filled with nuts, seeds, fresh and dried fruit. For dinner I ate the largest salad in the world filled with as many fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds the bowl could hold. This was my diet for the first month. And let me really make it clear. When I say I ate a bowl of salad, it wasn’t a typical salad bowl size bowl it was a family bowl size bowl! I ate it all by myself and I loved it…because -by now you know- I’ve always loved salads.

While we ate this way, I also introduced this new information to a friend of mine. She became immediately intrigued and began her own research. A couple of weeks later she invited us to her home for a raw dinner. I was jealous and shocked that she was already preparing a real four course raw meal when I failed so miserably. I wondered what book? Juliano’s? I couldn’t wait to see and taste her creations because I was ready to eat something more than just salad.

My girlfriend’s home is beautiful. She lived in a townhome on the water in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her dinner table looked gorgeous. As did I, she jumped into raw with both feet. She went one step beyond me though. She immediately ran out and bought an Excaliber dehydrator (the one recommended by all raw foodists), a vita-mix (the mother of all mothers of a blender), a Champion Juicer (the mother pate and ice cream maker) and a 14 cup Cuisinart food processor. She bought everything a raw foodist needs to prepare any and all raw food recipes. If I thought I was jealous before, I was drooling now.

She chose to create a raw Japanese meal b/c we loved eating sushi. We had shared many sushi dinners in the past. The first course was a raw miso soup!! Although it was not hot (which kind of freaks you out at first), the flavor was right on and just delicious. The second course was a seaweed salad. My first reaction upon sight was “yuk” but after the first swallow, I knew that my life was just beginning. I knew I could eat this way. The main course, of course, was sushi, but without the raw fish. She substituted rice with jicama (what the hell is jicama??) and fish with vegetables. I have to say, without having to lie – it was scrumptious and I did not feel deprived at all because it was fishless. The dessert was banana ice cream. Banana ice cream, I asked myself?? The only ice cream I’d ever eaten before had to have some kind of chocolate in it because chocolate was and remains the number one ice cream flavor in my book. The banana ice cream was out of this world. I have broadened my horizons.

After consuming every last morsel I was literally in heaven. I felt wonderful, light and happy. It was one of the most delicious meals I had ever eaten. I couldn’t thank her enough. My raw adventure really began after that meal. So, although I had introduced her to raw she introduced me to the rest of my eating life.

So what happened to me after that? What happened to my Rheumatoid Arthritis? You’ll just have to keep reading our blog.

Thanks for listening. Stay Raw with Us!

Alisa/ ON THE ROAD TO RAW

Diets, Donuts and Rheumatoid Arthritis

I wish I could say that my introduction to raw foods came as a result of a party and a dream; however, unlike Marie’s introduction, mine came as a result of being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I know, I know, Marie’s beginning was intriguing, exciting and fun; whereas, mine was shocking, scary and uncertain. Literally, my body forced and propelled me into the raw food world. I can only say now, 9 years later, that it was the best thing my body ever did for me and it changed my life forever just as it has now changed Marie’s. So, although, as you read on, you will see that our initial stories vary greatly, what is most important and powerful is that where we’ve ended up is in the same magnificent place and we both agree that it is a dream and we have made it come true together.

Back in 2002, while I was practicing law, my diet consisted of 2 thirds white processed sugar (M & M’s, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Milky Way Bars, Kit Kats and Snickers Bars) and 1 third meat, potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, cheese, pizza and French fries. I am of Italian decent, so pasta, pizza and bread were a mainstay in my diet.

I grew up on Long Island in New York in the suburbs with my two wonderful sisters, a fabulous brother and two of the most magnificent parents anyone could ever ask for. Don’t get me wrong, my childhood definitely had its moments as does anyone’s in any given family and you will learn more about that in a future blog because all of our experiences throughout our entire lives contribute to the creation of our habits including, but not limited to, eating, sleeping, exercising, spirituality, thoughts, etc. For now, let’s stay focused on food. In our house, I thought we ate a “normal” diet. Only later did I find out it was what we now call the Standard American Diet or more accurately termed the SAD diet. I was blessed and lucky to have a mother who was a magnificent cook. She prepared breakfast, dinner, school lunches and afterschool snack every day for us. For breakfast we ate such foods as pancakes, waffles, French toast, cereal, eggs, toast, bagels, English muffins, ham, bacon, sausage, an assortment of cheeses and spreads. Lunches consisted of cold cut sandwiches on nothing but the infamous Wonder Bread (Here is a little secret that I will share with you. When I was young, I used to sneak into the bread drawer and take ½ of the loaf of Wonder Bread. I would hide in my room, remove all of the crust and roll the dough into a huge ball and eat it…yes, I did that at least once a week. My mother could never understand where all the bread went). Sometimes I voluntarily ate cafeteria food and we all know how nutritious they were. Afterschool snacks consisted of yodels, ring dings, devil dogs, cupcakes, Duncan Heinz cakes with icing, Entemann’s cakes and donuts and more. I developed and today continue to have a huge sweet tooth. Dinners consisted of meat, potatoes, and a veggie. Occasionally we ate out. Growing up we loved to eat at McDonalds, Burger King, Chicken Delight, Wendy’s, Carvel (ice cream shop), Dairy Queen, Steakhouses, Seafood Restaurants, Pizza joints and Chinese takeout.

As any “normal” child I suffered from “normal” childhood illnesses: regular colds, viruses, bronchitis, pneumonia, and other common diseases like the chicken pox and mumps, even though I had every vaccine known to man.

Right now, I must interject a side note that, all by itself, really means nothing but, by the time you get to the end of this story, you will understand its irony and significance in my life today. Growing up, my mom tried to get all of us to play a role in preparing our meals. I had no interest and did not enjoy cooking food. Everyone else didn’t seem to have a problem with it. I just did not like the kitchen. The one part of a meal, however, that I was drawn to prepare was the salad and salad dressing. I loved, absolutely loved, to prepare and eat salads. I used to love eating at Wendy’s salad bar. Over time, I was called the “Salad Queen”. It became a standing joke in my immediate and extended family. I became famous for my salads. I even created a dressing that everyone agreed no other dressing could match. We’ll get back to this note later and you will understand its irony.

Once again, unlike Marie, I was not well endowed and was only 5’ 5” and weighed in at 128lbs. I was average height and weight. I was not beautiful by any means. I was described as maybe pretty but usually just attractive. Interestingly, up to and through high school, even though I ate like a pig, I did not have to watch what I ate. I ate everything and anything I wanted and stayed at that weight. I was never considered thin or skinny but, on the other hand, I was never considered overweight or fat. But that all changed when I got to college. I gained the typical “freshman” 10 - 30lbs. Looking back, even though I was eating the SAD diet, the weight gain was probably due to the fact that there were no more home cooked meals mixed in with sweets, but rather, lots and lots of junk food and more and more sweets. As soon as I gained the weight, my quest to lose weight began for the first time in my life. I knew being overweight wasn’t healthy, but that was not what motivated me to get thin. What motivated me was that I wanted to look my best and, at that time, being thin was what I thought was best. All of my friends were thin. All of the women in the magazines that I loved to read were thin. Thin women appeared to get the men they wanted and men seemed to want thin women. From that point on I was always dieting because my weight never remained the same.

Although I was a cheerleader one year in high school and jumped into the aerobics craze popular at that time, I didn’t really get obsessed with exercising until after I graduated college. At that point I went wild trying and doing everything and anything that was advertised to help you lose and control your weight. I did aerobics, running. step aerobics, jazzercise, biking, weightlifting, power walking, etc. They all seemed to help somewhat but without starving myself and dieting on and off, they didn’t seem to work by themselves. I took diet pills. I skipped two meals a day and ate whatever I wanted on the third meal. I tried every new diet book that came onto the market. I tried vegetarianism and veganism but never stayed with them long enough to see if they worked. During all of this however, I never, never, never gave up my sweets, particularly anything chocolate. I would rather give up 3 square meals just so I could keep my weight down if it meant I could eat an entire box of chocolate donuts. I even took up smoking cigarettes in college so I could keep my weight at bay. Yes, cigarettes cut your appetite. Whenever I tried to quit, I would gain 10lbs or more. As soon as I couldn’t fit into my “skinny” jeans, I would start smoking again.

Have you noticed that not once thus far have I talked about my health??? Up to this point I was obsessed with food and exercise but not for health reasons, per se, but rather, for weight control. From the time I graduated high school up until I discovered I had Rheumatoid Arthritis I continued to get sick just like I did throughout my childhood. I thought that was “normal”. Everyone around me was experiencing the same thing so I never questioned it. It never dawned on me that my illnesses could have been related to what foods I ate. No diet book ever discussed or linked health and food, only weight loss and food.

I kept up this eating, dieting, and exercise routine throughout college, law school and into practicing my law career. It wasn’t until my body decided to rebel that I was forced to look at what I was eating and that it may be having a direct effect on my health. Up to then, I never ever thought that was a possibility and I considered myself an “educated” person; a crazy thin obsessed educated person.

So, finally, we get to the question of the hour, the question you are probably asking yourself: how and why did I go from law to raw? One day, while I was at work sitting at my computer working on a deposition, I noticed that my wrists were feeling stiff and slightly painful. At that time, I chalked it up to too much typing and perhaps was developing carpel tunnel syndrome. I was practicing workers compensation law at the time and saw ions of carpel tunnel cases so I was very familiar with the symptoms. I shook it off and didn’t think much of it and continued to work.

As the weeks began to pass not only did I have stiffness and pain in my wrists but now I felt it in my fingers (they were swelling like balloons including my knuckles. I couldn’t even see the delineation between them any longer); then it moved to my elbows, then my neck and finally into my knees. Within six months from first noticing my wrist pain I was in severe pain and had severe inflammation in my fingers, wrist, elbow, neck and knees. Upon arising, when I tried to brush my teeth, I couldn’t even hold my toothbrush without being in excruciating pain. I couldn’t move my neck to either side. I couldn’t straighten my elbows and I could no longer do a squat with my knees. I was in trouble.

I was now scared out of my mind. I knew there was something more serious happening. I had to find out what it was but, at the same time, I was petrified to find out what it was.

Now you have to understand that, except for when I was a child, I refused to go to a doctor b/c although, back in the day, I didn’t know much about what we now term alternative health, holistic health, integrative health, intuitively, I knew that conventional medicine fell short of finding healthy ways to treat illness. Taking pharmaceutical drugs never sat well with me, but as a child one had no choice. That is not to say they do not still serve a purpose today; they do in certain circumstances. They are a last resort for me. It is my belief, that each individual must decide what is best for his/her body.

So, first, I went to a conventional doctor to get “diagnosed”. I wanted to know what I was dealing with. He told me that I might have arthritis. I was shocked. It made no sense to me. I was too young; that became my mantra. Then I went to a center that specialized in arthritis. They examined and tested me and they confirmed that I had rheumatoid arthritis. Immediately, they wanted to put me into an experimental program that was testing new immunosuppressant drugs. They were chemotherapy type drugs. Again, I was scared and shocked.

Entering such a program wasn’t even something I had to think about. It wasn’t even an option for me. I would exhaust every other healing possibility before doing something so severe to my body. I didn’t know what I was going to do or what might work but I was going to try everything I could to heal naturally.

I went to a chiropractor. I saw an acupuncturist. I had therapeutic massages. Although I felt some relief after a treatment, it was only temporary and, well, none of these healing modalities could abate the swelling or the pain for any great length of time. Nothing was working and the pain was excruciating.

Now this is going to sound very weird but what I am about to share with you is what changed my life forever. And remember even if it wasn’t true or you don’t believe, it lead me to what eventually healed me and created my life as it is today. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how you get there - it is just that you get there…right?

So, here is what happened. I had a very good friend who was a psychic, yes, a psychic. I went to him to see if he could shed some light on what was going on with me. He told me that I should call a friend of his that lived in Utah. She was a “medical intuitive”. Allegedly, a medical intuitive is someone who can tell you what is going on with your body without seeing you and without performing the typical conventional medical examination. I know it sounds crazy, insane, and impossible. I was desperate though so I wasn’t about to say “no” to anything or anyone. I wanted to get well. I don’t do “sick” and, when I am, I don’t do it well. Immediately, I scheduled an appointment. We spent at least an hour on the phone together. She knew nothing about my health, past or present. I told her nothing. My psychic friend knew nothing about my health. He just knew I was presently ill. She was able to tell me about every childhood illness I had ever had. She was able to tell me everything that had ever gone wrong with my body up to that date. She told me that I could heal myself. These words were magic to my ears. She said all I had to do was eat raw. I said “o.k.” I thought how hard could this be?? I didn’t bother asking her what that meant; I assumed it meant that all I had to do was to eat salads (which I was already the master of creating). However, being the attorney that I was, I thought I should do some research because even though I’d always loved to eat salads, I couldn’t imagine eating just salad the rest of my life. To my surprise, I found out that there were actually books on how to eat raw; that eating raw was a lifestyle; that it was an actual way to prepare food; that there were recipe books and other people eating this way and that it wasn’t just about salads. What really got to me though was that not only did the information say that raw food was delicious, but, most importantly, it said that people were being healed by eating this way and that it changed their lives mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually forever. Although I had no idea what they were talking about, I wanted some of what they had. I was on board. In addition, when I read this information, intuitively, I knew it was the truth. I knew I would be healed. Once again I was shocked, but this time in a good way. I was no longer scared, but excited beyond belief.

Marie / ON THE ROAD TO RAW

My Introduction to Raw

My true introduction to the world of raw foods came as a result of a party and a dream. From the moment we met, Alisa and I liked each other . There was no ‘becoming’ friends. We just were. But beyond that we both recognized tremendous benefits to our joining together as business partners. Oddly enough both of us had corresponding visions of creating a women’s community. Now, granted, in Alisa’s community all the women ate raw food – but basically our ideas of creating a space where women could bloom physically, spiritually and creatively were so similar that it seemed synchronistic that the universe had succyeeded in bringing us together. And the thing was, I had the perfect place to start us out. I had been operating the Crystal Mesa Farm as a Bed and Breakfast and miniature animal farm for sixteen years during which time I had fallen in love with the property much as one does with a person and never fallen out . I have often said I would sell my body before I sell my house and I stand by that to this day. It’s a beautiful place, rurally situated but within half an hour of downtown Santa Fe. Lots of land and space and a very special energy that drew guests in and kept them coming back year after year, falling in love with it all – just like I did. So many have claimed that being here is both healing and regenerative. Only perfect. Alisa and I agreed that the Crystal Mesa Farm would be a wonderful place to launch raw food workshops and retreats. I thought we could support these with additional workshops in creativity, journaling, meditation… things that would help to encourage the changes that women would experience in their journey to ‘raw’. Their journey to raw.

My own journey, I was not so sure of. I love food. I love to eat. I have been fortunate up until now (knock wood hard) to have an enviable metabolism; I shall not tell a lie… I have never been fat. When I was young my nickname was ‘Pin’ and it was only my amply endowed bosom that saved me from skinniness. Depending on how one looks at these things, my lactose intolerance has also worked to my advantage; no fatty milk products to metamorphose into extra pounds. Actually I believe that the real story there, is that I just ate way too much cheese when I was growing up in Switzerland. At one point the sixth grade class went on a week-long trip into the heart of the Swiss alps to learn about glaciers and orienteering; every single day consisted of miles of walking up some serious mountains after which we would be given a brown bag containing our lunch; half a loaf of hard French bread, a mammoth hunk of cheese, a thick chunk of chocolate and an apple. This was basically finger food, not by choice but by necessity; they gave us no knives. We just sat there on the alm chomping away at these gargantuan portions like prisoners condemned to hard labor. I never looked at cheese the same way after that trip. Chocolate kind of suffered too. As a treat they took us on a tour of the Nestle chocolate factory. I remember thinking it would be more like Willy Wonka’s but what it was bordered more on the industrial: huge metal vats full of silky dark chocolate, metal arms stirring, ingredients poured in automatically… factory workers there mostly to oversee the machines. The smell of chocolate was so strong it could make a person faint. At the end of the tour they led us into a room filled with the finished products- all the different kinds of chocolate they produced. All the kids just looked at each other. Hardly anyone ate anything. I recommend this plan of action for anyone who can’t get enough chocolate. It’s a surefire cure.

Nowadays when I have cravings, it’s usually for fruit – or pickles! But I happen to have two kids. Ronald McDonald usually does a guest spot in our lives once a week, most often on Tuesdays when afterschool activities bring our estimated time of arrival back home to 7:30PM. And even though, left to my own devices, I could probably easily be a vegetarian with only the extremely occasional craving for grilled steak , my children are most definitely carnivores. So - to save time and effort - when they ate meat, I did too.

And then, there’s this: I love to cook. It’s one of the reasons I opened a bed and breakfast. I’m one of the few women I know who cooks all the time, who consistently prepares actual meals for her family. My husband always says I’m kind of like a 50’s wife. We hardly ever go out to eat; I’m too busy cooking. And eating, of course. When you cook, you eat… they kind of go hand in hand. Me, raw? Not likely. I would feel deprived.

But then Alisa had her party. In those days I had very little to do with the raw food preparation. It was kind of alien to me. I was just supplying the venue. Oh, and the name. As un-raw as I then was , I was the one who came up with ‘RawWoman’. The party, in effect, was a means of introducing ‘RawWoman’ to the community. And part of the introduction – the largest part –was a smorgasbord of raw food. I watched Alisa and her crew preparing things. There was hummus and guacamole, fresh salsa and a spicy carrot dip that someone came up with on the spur of the moment. There were delicate nori seaweed chips and tortilla chips slightly jeweled with little touches of red pepper, all made from scratch. I myself had never made anything like a tortilla chip before. But the most interesting thing of all was the vegetable lasagna lovingly created from the freshest of ingredients. One of Alisa’s kitchen helpers was mixing something in a bowl that appeared to be crumbled sausage.

“What’s this?’, I ventrured,curiously.

“Oh, this is the meat”.

“Raw Meat?”, I asked incredulously, my stomach doing a sick flip of revulsion.

“Well,” Melani clarified, “ this is what we call ‘the meat’. It’s actually beets, dehydrated and mixed with a bunch of spices. Here: try some”. She held out a spoon.

Dubious, but not wanting to appear rude, I tried it. And it was good. Really good. Actually, it was kind of better than sausage. Not as fatty. Not as cloying. Surprised, I moved on to the next ‘station’ where Alisa was stirring something around in another bowl.

“What’s that?”, I asked. It looked like cheese.

“Cheese”, Alisa said, matter-of-factly. Then she laughed. “Not real cheese, of course. It’s a nut cheese.”

Never having known that you could make cheese from nuts, I was more than a little surprised. I have to admit… it sounded a little gross too.

When the entire lasagna was assembled with its layers of fresh tomato sauce, zuchinni noodles, spinach, beet meat and nut cheese, it was really delicious… no matter how bizarre it sounded. Everything tasted so fresh and full-flavored. And it was beautiful too, every color crisp and bright.

As the party began I plowed through the buffet like an industrial vacuum, sucking up everything in my path. I developed a special weakness for the Not Tuna Pate mounded in a nest of baby lettuce; I love tuna salad and this tasted like a very delicate one – but it was Not. Everything was – not just good – but, amazing! And then, there was the chocolate. The best chocolate I have ever tasted or smelled; rich, dark with cherries and flower petals. Raw chocolate. The silver churning vats of the Nestle factory could not compete with this wonderful concoction. If this is raw, I thought, I could do this. I looked around at all the people in my house, happily eating and remarking on how great everything tasted. No deprivation here. Alisa passed behind me, drink in hand. Leaning in she whispered, “It’s going really well, don’t you think?”

“Yes”, I said, “ It’s all wonderful”.

Marie / ON THE ROAD TO RAW

In The Beginning…

Last winter, when I first met Alisa, I had very little notion of what a raw food diet entailed. For all of my sixteen years operating a bed and breakfast here in Santa Fe, NM, I had only once run into guests that were living with what I then believed to be the limitations of a vegan diet - let alone a raw one. Usually the first thing I do after securing a room reservation is to inquire of my future guests whether they have any dietary restrictions or ifthere are things they simply can’t stand (to which I usually get the answer ‘liver’ , a dish that fortunately never had its place on my breakfast menu). On this occasion I remember hearing the word ‘Vegan’. I remember my honest inquiry, “so, what can’t you eat?” and the responding litany: “ no eggs, no milk, no cheese, no butter… no dairy of any kind, no animal products of any kind, no beans. As shell shocked as I am about the dairy aspect, I am floored by the bean thing. Why the hell not? What’s wrong with a bean? Later someone will inform me that it has something to do with their resemblance to a fetus. I ponder on this for a long time. What am I going to make these people for breakfast?

For the entire two weeks before the Vegans were to dine at my table, they haunted me. I would see that particular reservation taunting me with the ominous label ‘VEGAN’ scrawled alongside it in red, underlined, a box drawn around it. Somehow it struck a kind of terror in me. How was it possible to cook a breakfast without so much as a single egg? It appeared to require some sort of magic that I did not possess. The children’s story, ‘Stone Soup’, flashed through my mind more than once; that actually seemed like the kind of thing they might be able to eat. Maybe I could convince them to have lunch instead… then I’d have something to make them. As it was, even one breakfast seemed daunting and this couple (plus one vegan toddler) were staying for two! It may as well have been a hundred. I went through my many personal recipes and my extensive collection of cookbooks and, even with this veritable library , the pickings were slim. Eventually I came up with a stuffed apple using soy spread instead of butter and stuffing it with various nuts, raisins, dried fruit and cinnamon mixed into a vegan granola that I made from scratch. Day One taken care of! Next!

On day two I hit Whole Foods. I reminded myself of my 85 year old father for whom the grocery store is an all day affair involving extensive reading and computation. Not once does he just ‘put something in the cart’. Unlike me, however, he is not looking for purity of ingredients but for volume: what costs the least with the most in it. On this day I take three times as long as I have ever taken in any grocery store. I study every ingredient on every box in the frozen food aisle that even moderately hints at being vegan breakfast food. Finally I come across vegan waffles. Fabricating a berry compote in my head ,I come up with recipe Number Two. A bonus of this visit to ‘market’ is my discovery of Vegan Sugar. The bag gives no hint as to what makes it vegan so I buy it – not so much to serve it to the guests (although that, too, was in the game plan) – but as a reminder to ask these folks , “What’s the deal with the vegan sugar.?”

The next morning, over a delicious waffle breakfast that had both grownups and toddler asking for seconds, I asked about the sugar. It seems slightly moister, less granular than the non-vegan sugar I normally put on the table. Apparently the process by which regular sugar is made more crystalline uses bone. Yes, bone. I guess that would be an animal product. Who knew? We spend the rest of breakfast talking about all the most disgusting aspects of dairy. Growth hormones are mentioned. Disease is mentioned . The word ‘pus’ comes into the conversation. Milk was starting to sound like a really bad idea. Now these were nice people with an adorable child. But I am relieved when they leave. The pressure is just too great. I wasn’t sure I had another vegan meal in me.

And that brings me back to Alisa, who, out of nowhere, walks into my life… all energy, all enthusiasm, all Raw. Making ‘vegan’ look easy. And there’s that word: RAW - something about it doesn’t sound right. Something about it sounds uncomfortable. I mean, what would one be able to eat? I envision bowls of salad lined up into infinity, into the Rest Of One’s Natural Life. No croutons. No bacon bits. Not even a bean. Now I like salad. Honestly, I’m practically a vegetarian. But there is a concept known as ‘too much of a good thing’.

“What about snacks?”, I ask, “ Cookies? Chips? Chocolate?”

“Oh”, Alisa says, “ I love chocolate!”

I scratch my head at the newsflash that chocolate exists ‘in the raw’. As do tortilla chips. And cookies. And even a kind of bread.. I run the word through my mind again a few times for good measure. Raw. It marches through like an army of carrots and celery interrupted by the occasional chunk of chocolate that still fails to entice me, surrounded as it is by all the rabbit food.

There is an irony in that the week I met Alisa – I was in the process of reading a book subtitled, “How Cooking Made Us Human” - and then here I was talking to someone who didn’t cook at all. Who didn’t believe you needed to cook. What did that make her?

It seems odd – this lack of acceptance with ‘ raw’ - when our not-so-distant-ancestors were foragers and would have eaten an entirely raw diet consisting of fruits, plants, nuts and maybe the occasional scavenged squirrel, and now this entire concept had become too abstract to even conceive of, let alone embrace. Here we are living in a time when foraging has been left far behind in favor of having our food supplied to us. Unlike our ancestors, most of us barely have a relationship with our food beyond the chewing and swallowing – which we seem to do damn well. Half the women I know (never mind the men) never even cook their own food. They buy a finished product and microwave it; they order out. We are domesticated animals; someone else takes care of us right down to the processing and packaging of what goes into our mouths. Little is fresh by the time we eat it; much is laden with chemicals. Yet this has somehow become acceptable. Expected. We barely even think about it unless someone on the nightly news says that this week ‘artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause cancer’ and last week ‘gluten was found to be responsible for autism.’ Somehow we are able to justify all of these things and yet RAW sounds weird. Like some discipline practiced by an alien life form. Alisa looks human. Except… she kind of glows.

I do not know quite what to make of it but somehow I get this odd feeling.As I listen to Alisa wax rhapsodic on how raw food healed her body and changed her life, I have this strong premonition that she might just be here to change mine.