Raw Week - Day 1

I survived the first day! And I wasn't even hungry. Overall, a pretty good day of raw food. I started the morning with Level 1 of the Shred. Then I whipped up a batch of almond milk! In the blender, I mixed 1/2 cup of raw almonds (soaked overnight), 5 cups water, 3 pitted dates, and a little vanilla extract.
Then I strained it into a large bowl, ending up with some ground up almond pulp that I saved for another use.

And now I have bottle of almond milk for the week!

Its not bad - doesn't taste like milk, but its creamy and slightly sweet. Then I moved on to breakfast - banana and avocado pudding. Back in the blender I mixed half an avocado with 1 banana and 1 sliced date.

I blended this up, adding almond milk to thin it out. Scooped into a bowl, it didn't look too appealing...
But topped with berries and few sunflower seeds - beautiful!

This was better than I expected - very thick and creamy. And it kept me full for a good 4 hours! I was shocked! Must be all that good fat from the avocado. For lunch, I broke out a new toy.

A mandolin! I've wanted one of these for a while, and I figured with all the vegetables I'd be slicing this week it was the perfect time to get one. I thought it was going to be a breeze to use - it was not.
I tired to use the julienne setting to slice up a raw golden beet, and it was not easy. I think I just have to get used to the movement of pushing down and running it along the blade smoothly and quickly. I got kind of frustrated with it, but still managed to make a delicious, crunchy salad.

I added the julienned golden beet to mixed greens, sliced fennel (also cut on the mandolin), a segmented orange, and some chopped walnuts. I dressed it with orange juice, grated ginger and EVOO. This salad was huge and because it was so crunchy it took my forever to eat. After crunching for over half an hour, I couldn't eat anymore and had to save the rest for later. I finished it while I was making dinner - fettuccine alfredo! Sort of. I got the recipe off of a great resource for raw food, Gone Raw. I mixed in the food processor 1 1/2 cups soaked cashews, 3 cloves garlic, juice from half a lemon, a little water, and a few Tbls of EVOO. It got amazingly creamy! I tossed it all with spiralized zucchini (resembling pasta), grape tomatoes, sugar snap peas, some more golden beets, red peppers, and carrots.  

Isn't it pretty? It was pretty good - very creamy, garlicky sauce. Now I'm munching on a few grapes.

So, the verdict after day 1? I was surprised that I was not hungry at any point today. Raw food takes so much longer to eat, I felt like I was eating all day long. I also didn't feel like I was missing anything in my diet. I skipped my morning tea, and the lack of caffeine was a little tough. But overall, I didn't really notice that I had more or less energy than normal. I'm not going to say this was easy - or that this week won't be a challenge. But I am looking forward to trying more new things! I've already had several things I've never eaten raw before. And ate dates for the first time - they're delicious. So, stayed tuned to see how the rest of the week goes!