Chocolate Coconut Custard Pie and Energy Soup

I made pie! I'd like to call this my own recipe, although it is based very loosely on two recipes. The crust is similar to the pumpkin pie recipe I used for Christmas and the filling very vaguely resembles a recipe Matt Monarch, of The Raw Food World TV Show, created on a whim to experiment with Irish moss.

I like to call my version Chocolate Coconut Custard Pie. Mmmm. I absolutely loved this pie. My family, however, had mixed, and slightly less ecstatic reviews. I don't know if this is because my taste buds are adapting to all the raw, plant-based foods I'm eating, or if I just happen to be a fan of Irish moss, the obvious culprit in the situation.

I'll try to relay how I created this concoction. However, I largely just made it up as I went along and did very little measuring. The crust is nothing more than a total of 2 cups of mixed raw cashews and pecans, dates (maybe 1 lb or less), cardamom, and sea salt ground to a chunky, but dough-like consistency in a food processor. The chocolate filling is made from the meat of 4 or 5 young coconuts, a splash of the coconut water therein, probably a good 1/2-1 cup agave nectar, about 1/3 cup cacao and 1/4 cup carob powder (total guesses on measurements, just start small and add to taste), about 1 t. vanilla extract, and a few big spoonfuls of Irish moss. This is where it gets crazy. Irish moss is a sea vegetable that you can buy dehydrated, then soak, rinse, and blend with water to make a gel that can be used as a thickening agent. This gel, which can be made from more than one type of seaweed, is often seen on ingredients lists of common foods listed as carrageenan. This video shows how to prepare Irish moss to be used in food preparation. On it's own, Irish moss smells like the ocean and maybe even more like the sulfur pots at Yellowstone (don't lie and tell me you're not drooling). Once blended into a dessert, the flavor is mild, and I found it to actually give my pie a rather minty flavor for some reason. I was so intrigued by this stuff, I decided to use it as a topping as well. I blended loads of agave nectar and Irish moss, probably in nearly equal proportions, with another 1/2 t. or so of vanilla extract in the blender until it turned white and really fluffed up a lot. I was actually hoping it would turn into a whipped cream of sorts, but instead it turned into this really cool custard type of topping. This made me really excited to experiment more with Irish moss. I feel certain I could make a really close imitation of flan with some sort of caramel-like topping. So basically, the pie is just the crust, the chocolate filling, the custard topping, and a sprinkle of carob powder mixed with cardamom on top. If I could change anything next time, I might put the custard on the bottom or the middle, or put more Irish moss in the chocolate filling, as the heavier custard seemed to weigh down the softer chocolate filling. 

Onto my dinner. I mentioned energy soup the other day. Well this is it. It's basically a cold vegetable soup. It took me a while to get used to, but I like it now. Also, it's so versatile it's like an entirely different dish every time. My mom, who isn't a big fan of greens didn't like it much, but I think even she could come to love it if we tailored it to her preferences. I feel like I may have already touched on how to make it, but I'll do it again in case I didn't. The base is typically a water rich, low sugar vegetable such as zucchini, cucumber, or or bell pepper in any combination. The version in the link above uses 1/2 of a golden delicious apple, if I recall. Proportions for 1 large bowl might be something like 1/2 cucumber and 1/2 to 1 whole bell pepper. Next is 1/2-1 avocado, or add to your taste in creaminess and fat content. Seaweed, such as dulse, will give it a salty flavor and add some minerals. And of course, don't forget the greens. This is a great way to get in a bunch of healthy greens into your diet. Any kind will do. I tend to use spinach or kale frequently, but try to mix it up for a maximum variety of nutrients. Blend all of this with enough water to make it a thick liquid. Add sprouts at the end, and blend again, as the sprouts tend to oxidize more easily. You can basically make this any way you want, but it's best to stick to the general rule of water rich, low sugar vegetables, avocado, greens and sprouts. Rejuvelac, a fermented wheat berry liquid which I mentioned in a previous post, can be used in place of water. In today's version of this soup I used 1/2 cucumber and 1 watermelon radish for the base, 1 avocado, baby bok choy, 1 bundle of spinach, 2 cloves garlic, a handful of dulse, fresh rosemary, sea salt, pepper, and water. I didn't have any sprouts; sad day.

Inserting gross side note here (please skip paragraph if sensitive): Remember my grapefruit frenzy? Well today I made fresh grapefruit juice out of 3 grapefruits with the skin, having forgotten all about them not being organic and the pesticides probably being in the skin. I was going more for the lost nutrients in the peel. Well, let's just say I found out the hard way that grapefruit juice can be a natural diuretic, especially with the peel on. So if you're retaining water and need to release it, just follow my lead! Be forewarned, however, that, at least in my case, the water released went straight to my colon. On a happier note, it felt very much to me like the expelled fluid was highly alkaline, and I have heard that citrus becomes alkaline in the stomach. End gross side note.

Moving on! Here's what I ate today:

• The tall glass of grapefruit juice mentioned above
• 1 slice of the pie mentioned above
• 1 cup of coffee sweetened with agave and stevia, with a splash of almond milk and coffee mate :(
• 1 med/large serving of the soup pictured and described above 
• 1 tart cherry melon kombucha
• 1 more small./medium serving of energy soup
• A couple slices of apple with maple vinegar, agave nectar and sea salt
• Supplement drink made from water, chlorella, maca powder, and my herbal fiber mix 

And last, but not least, I think my weight may be budging again. I was down over a pound today, broke below 160, and am down a total of 18.6 pounds. I think my before and after pics after a mere 5 weeks are quite astonishing. However, I still feel a bit too shy to share them. I promise I will after 3 months, tops. Unless I forget. Ha!

That's it for today!

Much love

Devan

Joys of the Farmers Market

Cedar Park Farmers Market spread from my 12-29-12 visit

I just got back from the Cedar Park Farmers Market and look at all the beautiful goodies I got! In the center we have purple carrots, beets, fennel and watermelon radishes. On the left is spinach. On the right is a member of the Brussels sprout family, and in the jars is my beloved local Buddha's Brew kombucha! 

I really like this farmers market. It's located in the Lakeline Mall parking lot and despite this less than ideal setting (in comparison to the ones I used to frequent in Utah, which were held in a park and a quaint historic city center), it has a very festive feeling to it with one long row of vendors bustling with happy patrons toting about their local goodies. Every week they have live music being played at the end of the row, which totally livens up the place even more. 

I arrived near closing today, which kind of back-fired on me. I was hoping to luck out on some end of the day deals. Instead I got held up at the kombucha booth. This booth is always busy, and I can understand why. The vendor is absolutely delightful. He gives every individual his total attention and is very passionate about his product. He loves talking all about the process of creating kombucha as well as making casual conversation. He even offered to give me some of his own stash of kombucha to use as a starter culture, which I might take him up on next week after I've done my homework a little better. How many vendors like to actually tell you how to make their product on your own? Very few, that's how many. And I think it's fantastic. I find friendliness and openness in a business to be beautiful and I feel strongly that if anything, this only made me a more loyal company. Also, I've found that kombucha makers are very passionate about what they do, and there is almost a kombucha culture of sharing your... well, your culture (ba-dum-bum CHING). So that was fun and well worth it. However, when I got to my favorite organic produce vendor it turned out the recent frosts have killed off some of their supply of greens such as kale, which is mainly what I was going for. So I rummaged up the lovely supply pictured above and went on my merry little way. I was complaining for a moment about the shortage of greens, when I remembered that I should just be grateful to be able to go get any fresh, local, organic produce this time of year, as in my home state of Utah the farmers markets tend to wrap up in October. Bad Devan! Don't get greedy and take it all for granted. Ok, we're good now.

This is the beautiful watermelon radish. I'd imagine it got its name from its greenish outside and pink inside. It tastes largely the same as a regular red radish, but I do feel that I enjoy it more for some reason. I can't tell if it's psychological because it's so pretty and has a lovely name or if there is something to it, but I think it might taste a little more mild, sweet, and earthy. I sprinkled some pink Himalayan sea salt on it and drizzled it with a mushroom sage olive oil and man is it delicious. I hope that this exploration of new foods continues for a while, cause I am simply having a blast with it. I also cut up a honeycrisp apple and drizzled it with lemon juice, balsamic fig vinegar, agave nectar and sea salt. That was fantastic as well, but I forgot to take a pic.

So, it's been a great day so far, and I plan on trying to make it continue as such. I think I might try to hit the gym, as I haven't in probably a week and my weight is plateauing again. I'll try to post what I ate today before I go to bed.

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So instead of posting a separate blog, I'm just tacking today's food list on here. 

• Peach kombucha
• Watermelon Radish with mushroom sage oil and sea salt
• Honeycrisp apple with lemon juice, agave, balsamic fig vinegar, and sea salt
• Grapefruit, celery, cucumber juice
• Raw Meal (a sprouted, raw meal replacement)
• Juice from 1 young Thai coconut mixed with 1t chlorella
• 1 slice of homemade "Chocolate Coconut Custard Pie" (details tomorrow!!!) ;)

Also, I did indeed make it to the gym and ran for half an hour, did some stretching, and two sets of push-ups to exhaustion. 

Can't wait to blog about my pie experiment tomorrow! 

Much love
Devan

Kombucha, Chlorella, and Pie! Oh, My!

Looks like I'll be juicing grapefruit for a few days. Walmart, of all places, had this enormous 18 lb bag of grapefruit for something ridiculous like six dollars. They are local and delicious and while they don't seem to be organic, they have a thick skin which supposedly means you can get rid of much of the chemicals by peeling it. Sweet! And I mean that in every sense of the word.

So I decided it might be fun and helpful to post what I eat in a day from time to time; helpful to me so I can actually look at it all written out, and helpful to anyone interested in what someone transitioning into a raw food diet might be eating. I haven't decided if I'll make this a daily part of my blog, or just do it from time to time. Today was a good and interesting day to do it though, as my food intake was quite different from usual; very random, scattered, and snacky:

• Garbage Disposal Juice Blend (had produce to get rid of): cucumber, zucchini, broccoli sprouts, sugar snap peas, apple, celery and ginger.
• 1 glass rejuvelac (fermented wheat berry water).
• Small serving of zucchini pasta with homemade marinara
• Leftover raw vegan pumpkin pie (I may post a pic and recipe later, but in the meantime, the link will take you to a YouTube video of one of my favorite raw educators showing how to make it).
• Rooibos tea
• 2 Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bars
• A handful of sprouted garlic sunflower seeds
• 1 packet of seaweed snacks.
• The water from one young coconut mixed with a tablespoon of chlorella (a single-cell green algae).
• Ginger Buddha's Brew Kombucha (YUM!)
• 1 serving kelp noodles with Thai peanut sauce, shoyu, and bee pollen.
• Psyllium husk/herb blend (1 Tbs) blended in water

I think that's about it!  A little bit of a lot of things. 

So, speaking of kombucha, tomorrow is the farmer's market where Buddha's Brew sells four flavors of kombucha... ON TAP! It is so delicious. Just like I used to love beer on tap much more than from a can or bottle, kombucha on tap is equally cool, fresh, effervescent, and flavorful. For anyone who doesn't know what kombucha is, it is basically sweetened black tea fermented with a culture of bacteria and yeast, sometimes referred to as a mushroom. This makes an "original" kombucha, but now days there are all sorts of wonderful, delicious flavors. I can't wait to go and fill up my mason jars. Discounts are given for bringing your own containers AND it's more eco-friendly. Score! Gotta love it.

Anyone tried kefir? My brother and his partner (two wonderful people who are incredibly environmentally conscious and full of great info) were telling me today about how kefir can be made from coconut milk. Sounds good to me! I wonder if I have a bit of an obsession with fermented things and probiotics. Oh well, I can live with that. Who knows, maybe even live better! 

So looks like I'll have to get back to everyone with a farmer's market report.

Much love

Devan 

The Infamous Green Drink

One of the more interesting adventures in my journey so far has been juicing. Unlike all the smoothie concoctions I've made over the years, I find that with juicing I become MUCH more adventurous, with delicious or disastrous results. The fruit juices are pretty safe, but you have to be careful with the green drinks as you're getting used to them. Spinach tends to be mild and grassy and safe, but when you start using stronger greens the flavors get quite interesting. A rough guess in order of most to to least palatable to someone on a Standard American Diet (SAD), some common greens would be romaine, spinach, kale, fennel, broccoli, dandelion, and mustard. Tastes vary from person to person, of course. The drink in the above picture contains something along the lines of mustard greens, which are quite spicy, dandelion greens, which have a somewhat strong and bitter flavor, either mung bean or broccoli sprouts, cucumber, celery, spinach, and fennel, which tastes like licorice. It was quite a surprise, to say the least. Some of my favorite juices include various combinations of apple, carrot, ginger, spinach, kale, romaine and celery. I also quite love a good wheat grass shot, however that's rather expensive to do at home; unless you grow your own wheat grass, I'd imagine.

Can't wait to keep playing with the juices. Let me know if you have any faves!

Much Love
Devan

Thus Far

Ok, so I tried for the longest time to record a video to upload, thinking it would be quicker and easier than typing this all up, but alas, I spent all that time trying and am now typing it all up anyway; stupid lousy internet connections, laptop that needs a microphone, and inexperience with using my laptop cam. 

Now to the point. I wanted to give an overview of when and why I dove into raw foods. I might go into more details upon request, but for now I'll just say I started November 24, 2012 because I realized I needed to make a radical, permanent change in my life. Over the last few years, despite being vegetarian and intermittently vegan, I managed to become about 45 lbs overweight by slipping into unhealthy eating and drinking patterns within those parameters. The realization and acceptance of how unhealthy some of my habits had become, combined with a weigh-in at a new record high, pretty much handed me a bigger determination than I've ever had to make real and lasting change. I spent hours online, and found raw foods. I had heard of living on a raw food diet before, but it never spoke to me. Somehow it suddenly sounded and felt right. I found The Raw Food World and their TV Show and fell in love with Matt Monarch and Angela Stokes-Monarch and basically went from there. I will share more about what resources I've come across in future posts. 

So how has it gone so far? I started out weighing 178 lbs one month ago and am already down 17 lbs to 161.  This includes the last few days over Christmas, which saw no weight gain, and if anything a little loss. 

What has my diet been like? Because I started before I had learned much, I began with fresh fruits and veggies, raw nuts and seeds and green smoothies, which I had already incorporated into my vegetarian/vegan diet. As I learned more, I began making energy soups (cold green vegetable soups made in a vitamix; Raw Food World Recipe) and sprouting. Then I started adding in more superfoods and raw staples such as dulse and kelp (sea veggies).  More recently I have actually been playing with recipes such as raw vegan zucchini lasagna, zucchini "mac & cheese", and raw pumpkin pie. I will post recipes in the future. 

I am absolutely loving this lifestyle so far. I went through a minor detox period where I felt ran down and had constant headaches for a few days, but after the first week I started feeling better and better. Now, after only a month, I feel better than I have in at least a couple years.

I'm considering posting some progress pictures, but do worry about scaring people away. ;) Maybe I'll just stick to recipes of my food creations. 

Anyway, I'm sorry for the disjointedness of this blog. Hopefully they will get better as I get more used to writing again, and specifically blogging. I look forward to sharing more.

Much love

Devan

Intentions

Hello friends, family, and fellow earthlings (or non-earthlings if you're reading this for some godforsaken reason). This is my first blog, so I plan on introducing myself and my intentions for my BlogSpot.

My name is Devan Mark Fronk (call me Devan, Den, or Dendenut, please). I'm from Utah originally, but currently live in Cedar Park, not far from Austin, TX. I have two beautiful parents, two beautiful step-parents, two beautiful brothers and two beautiful half-sisters.  How very well balanced, eh? I also have a pet corn snake. Yes just one; weird, I know. As of this time in my life I am declared an Environmental Science major at Austin Community College, and I’m sure I’ll post about it if that changes. My interests include playing and writing music on the piano, hiking, running, astrology, spirituality, learning in layman’s terms about things such as science, environmentalism, health, nutrition, and raw food. 

A couple of the aforementioned interests bring me to the purpose of my blog. While I do plan on including random tidbits about my personal life on here, I largely intend on using this space to chronicle my exploration of the raw food lifestyle as well as posting interesting things about going green and loving the planet we live on. I feel that these are very interconnected subjects and will complement each other nicely in creating a rich and meaningful space for me to share with you all. I will be chronicling my weight loss, education, new recipes, sense of well-being or lack there of, favorite products, major life changes, and then some. Basically this will be an outlet for me to journal and revel in this exploration while sharing with whoever may be able to benefit from or enjoy it. 

I like the name "raw earth love", because I love each word individually, paired, or as a threesome. I can find SO many meanings in this: a "raw earth" - one that is not cooked by chemicals and global warming OR one that is full of raw, living foods and people who are living off of these foods; "raw love" - the love of raw foods OR something a little more racy (bow-chicka-wow-wow); "earth love" - the love of earth and the sense of being loved by the earth; "raw earth-love" - unadulterated love of the earth; "raw-earth love" - love of the raw earth; "raw earth love" - all of it! 

Thank you to any of you who take the time to look through this thing. I hope it is of some help, entertainment, or any value to you whatsoever. If not, may you be blessed with an eventful enough life that you no longer feel the need to drop in. Alternatively, PLEASE feel free to let me know what type of things you might like to see me explore, experiment with, learn about, and post about so that this blog can be more fun for all of us! Thanks for your love and support.

Much love

Devan (a.k.a. Dendenut, Den, Denden, Detsun, Denin, the nut, Dendenew, etc)