Some days I really wonder what on earth I am doing writing this blog…

I’ve recently started Nutrition at Uni full time, I still work 2 days per week (dropped from five days) and I still have to cook and clean for the family, which happens to include 1 giant teenager and 1 giant pre-teen, both who eat so much food it is not funny…  They willing try my raw food recipes but mostly want to eat what they know so I often cook 2 or 3 dinners each night.  My son and boyfriend are vegetarian and my daughter loves her meat… so I do raw for me (and anyone else wanting to try), a vegetarian dish and sometimes even a meat something – all wholesome and healthy of course… but this alone leaves me exhausted…

Then maintaining this blog of a new raw food recipe everyday!!!  This may sound easy… but at day 278 I just want to make all the dishes I already know are yummy and delicious and that I like, but I have to keep on trying new ones… it takes effort.

Every week I am searching through books, creating new ideas from previous recipes, writing up a shopping list (which by now is much easier than initially when I had no idea what Nama Shoyu, Buckwheat, Agave or Tahini was… let alone Maca-root, mesquite and nutritional yeast!. Oh then there was the whole conversion of US terminology in recipes to AUS terminology… Thank God for google… cilantro is coriander… rye berries are not berries at all they are rye grains (that was a fun moment in the health food shop)… flaxseed is linseed…  etc…etc…).  I should  feel good – I’ve come a long way and I have learnt SOOOOOO much!  AND this really is awesome – it has empowered me no end and I so love teaching others what I have learnt in my raw food classes and just in general.  People are curious about raw food and they ask questions and want to learn more.  It is amazing how many people I have met who suffer allergies, illness, food in-tolerances and I feel so good being able to point them to raw food recipes that would work for them.  Great tasting food that is healthy and good for each of their individual needs.  I guess more than anything, this is what has lead me to reignite my desire to learn more and return to University and study Nutrition.

Coming back to my blog… I’ve created recipes that are absolutely revolting and I would never touch again.  I have created recipes that are amazing, absolutely divine, tasting like nothing on earth that I have tasted before – so full of flavour and so healthy and nutritious… Many of these amazing recipes are simple and easy.  I’ve created complex dishes that take days to prepare and have been totally worth it.  I’ve learnt about blending, juicing, dehydrating, sprouting and fermenting.  It has been an adventure I have been so grateful that I set myself this challenge.  The week away on holidays – the catch up after.  The stress of full time work and still creating a new recipe.  Weekends spent cooking.  Disasters in the kitchen when food has been dumped into the bin irretrievable.  Jars and bowls of creations sitting in the fridge for weeks and weeks… Cakes, cheesecakes piled up in the freezer…. icecream… the inspiration to grow my own fresh veges and then using them in my recipes… it has had it’s share of highs and lows…

Now at recipe number 278 as I reflect on my journey..  I have the desperate urge to just re-create what I already know.  I feel like I now know how to create raw food.  What more is there to learn?… Is there more? It’s hard to find the time to dedicate to the kitchen and research.  Uni studies loom over me every minute.  Housework piles up. Work beckons as 5 days of work is now squashed into 2. Kids rummage through a pantry devoid of processed and packaged foods, a fridge vacant of pre-prepared meals and pizzas… there is no ready food unless I prepare it… (of course the fruit in the fruit bowl doesn’t count because what child will actually pick up an apple and eat it… OK I know some kids do – mine just don’t)…

Where to from here?  Less than 100 days to go… Yet 87 more new recipes to find or create.  I must go on.  There must still be much to know.  I haven’t yet shared with you Ann Wigmore’s Energy Soup – something she lived on each and everyday.  I still have not created a layered chocolate cheesecake.  I have not yet shown you how to grow wheatgrass and make your own juice.  I haven’t shared a raw quiche with you and I haven’t created other flavoured flaxseed crackers…  Then there are other creations I am yet to even know about… I must find them and learn more…

I originally started out on the adventure because I learn by doing and I wanted to learn more about good health and healthy eating.  I had met numerous people who were on raw food diets and had healed themselves from food in tolerances, allergies, asthma, chronic fatigue and cancer from just eating raw food.  I was curious to learn.  So I set the challenge to proactively learn by doing.  I’ve learnt heaps and there is more to learn.  Books to finish reading.  Videos to watch… People to meet.

This has become more than just about me learning though.  I’ve talked with others.  I’ve met people with health issues related to what they eat.  Every week I seem to attract another person with another story.  All curious to learn and know.  So now this is not just about me, it is also about you.  I hope that you will find recipes here that are good for you.  Recipes that make you feel well and give you energy.

I’ve felt overwhelmed – time poor, I’ve felt like quitting – compromising with ‘I’ve done enough’ – but writing this blog has helped me remember that I LOVE raw food.  When I eat it I feel great, my body sings, my digestive system flows effortlessly.  When I stop being 90% raw or more and eat a cheesy pizza, a risotto or a bowl of pasta, my body clogs up, I bloat, feel sluggish and don’t want to jump out of bed in the morning and go for a walk.  I feel 5 KG heavier in the stomach. My energy levels drop and my face breaks out in pimples.  Winter has been tough and I am so glad we are on the final stretch.

With spring only weeks away – I’ve set myself the goal of finishing off my blog and writing up all I’ve learnt, along with my favourite recipes, into a book.  I’m excited.  I’m looking forward to going back through all the recipes and picking out the top 100. The best.  The easiest.  The ones that work. The healthiest.  I’m looking forward to putting together the science behind the benefits and limitation of a raw food diet.  I’m going to link all my recipes in with various allergies and food in-tolerances so a quick look up and you can find the recipe for you.  I’m looking forward to sharing ideas about listening to your own body and what it needs and wants.  What is good for one is never good for all, we are all unique individuals…

So on-wards… the challenge continues… and I look forward to bringing you some more exciting recipes in the next 87 days.

Ally x