June 9, 2010 View Comments

Lunch at Pure Food and wine

By Neven Jones in Thoughts

Every time I’m in New York City I dream of eating at Pure Food and Wine, this week I finally had the chance.  It was a beautiful sunny day so I sat outside in their garden with my son ready to enjoy a great lunch.  I felt relaxed as soon as I sat down, the garden is like an oasis in the middle of the city. It felt really good to be surrounded by so much greenery. It made me want to drink a green juice. I immediately ordered the jolly green; a delicious blend of greens, cilantro, lime and pineapple. It was refreshing, sweet and smooth.

Green Juice

My son ordered the banana nut shake; a flavorful blend of banana, nut milk, cinnamon and vanilla. It was rich, creamy and delicious. This was my first time eating at a restaurant that was 100% raw. It was so nice to know that I could order anything I wanted on the menu. I felt so free. I didn’t have to ask if anything had dairy in it. I wanted to try everything.

green juice and milk shake

I finally settled on the  lasagna since I heard so much hype about it. I just had to try it for myself. My son didn’t order anything since he had just eaten lunch.

Lasagna

I was never a big fan of cooked lasagna.  I’ve always felt that noodles layered in sauce and cheese and topped with even more cheese was just too heavy. The raw version however, is amazing. When you order a lasagna dish, raw or cooked, you are expecting something a bit hearty. I wanted to feel full, but not stuffed.

raw lasagna

The presentation was really beautiful, I knew it was going to taste good just by looking at all the fresh ingredients. The zucchini looked like it was slightly marinated because it was pliable. I liked that it didn’t taste too raw and crunchy. The lightness of the zucchini was also a nice relief from the richness of the nut puree. I enjoy eating nuts, but sometimes nuts can really overwhelm the flavor of a dish. I found the nut puree to be just rich enough and was balanced nicely by the tomato sauce and the pesto. It was a really delicious combination. I felt satisfied after I ate it, but not overly stuffed. It was the perfect amount. I really wanted to try one of the desserts, but I was too full. I’m looking forward to my next visit. I may start off with some raw ice cream that way I’ll be sure to try it.

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June 1, 2010 View Comments

Inspiring small gardens

By Neven Jones in Thoughts

small garden

Hope everyone is having a great day. I wanted to share a post I recently wrote on mySA about inspiring small gardens. I love looking at gardens when I travel to a new city or walk my dog in my neighborhood. I especially find small gardens in unexpected places very inspiring. The photo above is of a small urban garden planted in someones front yard. I hope you check it out!

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May 31, 2010 View Comments

Stop growing so fast

By Neven Jones in Thoughts

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day. Last week was such a big week, my son graduated from Kindergarten and school came to an end. I wasn’t prepared for either event.

tie and diploma

Yes, that’s my son’s tie, it was his idea to wear one! He was very excited to graduate, and I was excited to see him graduate as well. Still I couldn’t help but think that I was losing my little baby. He looked so grown up as he stood on the stage with rest of his class. They were all so excited at the thought of going to first grade next year. It was a very emotional day.

looking for bugs

Just when I thought he was so mature and growing up too fast, he turned into a little boy again. We headed outside to take pictures, but him and his friends decided that looking for bugs was more interesting. It was fun watching them lose themselves as they played with the bugs. School is officially over and ready or not it’s time for  summer vacation.

I’m planning to travel a lot with my son and visit the rest of family who is scattered all over the US. He will also be going to some really fun day camps. I’m looking froward to spending more time with him before he enters first grade. This is such a special time for both of us. Have a great day and be sure to check out my latest post on mySA. It’s about the importance of eating greens.

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May 27, 2010 View Comments

Cantaloupe and dulse

By Neven Jones in Recipes

When I was a meat eating foodie, which now feels like a lifetime ago, one of my favorite summer foods was cantaloupe and Prosciutto di Parma. The saltiness of the prosciutto was a great compliment to the sweetness of the melon. Eating prosciutto is not even an option for me anymore, still I can’t help but recall the good memories I had sipping white wine with friends and eating prosciutto and melon. It’s been such a long time since I’ve last tasted the combination, but I recalled it vividly when I so that cantaloupe melons from California were in the stores. I decided to make my own raw version using dulse as my “prosciutto”

cantaloupe and dulse

I love dulse, it has such a  mineral/ salty flavor, it is one of my favorite sea vegetables. It is rich in B12, B6 and iron. Healthy and delicious. It tasted perfect paired with my juicy ripe melon. Salty and refreshingly juicy at the same time. Perfect for summer.

cantaloupe and dulse

I hope you try this, it’s a really good combination. Have a great day!

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May 23, 2010 View Comments

Brad’s Raw Chips review

By Neven Jones in Raw Foods

I was lucky enough to win two bags of Brad’s Raw Chips recently from Philip McCluskey of LovingRaw.  Winning a prize is always fun but winning a delicious raw prize is even better.  If you have not visited Brad’s site yet I highly recommend it. He has a video where he makes an amazing salad, since watching it I have made it three times already. Just look at this delicious salad, even my husband loved it.

Salad

Brad is one of those people that is fun to watch on video and it’s not just because he’s easy on the eyes. I digress. Back to the chips. My box arrived a few days ago and I couldn’t wait to tear into it and taste the chips. Raw food is best eaten fresh so I wasted no time opening the box and trying them.  The two flavors I chose were hot red bell pepper and Indian.

Brad's raw chips

As soon as I opened the bag of the hot red bell pepper chips I was treated to the intense smell of red bell pepper and savory spices. I love food that smells like what it is made of, I knew these chips were going to taste amazing. What I love most about these chips is that although they contain flax seeds, flax is not the overwhelming flavor of the chip. I really liked that the flax stayed in the background and let the other flavors be the star. Sprouted buckwheat groats, which are the second ingredient,  give the chips that crunch that you expect from a chip, but are surprised to experience in a raw chip. Overall I loved the chips and really enjoyed eating them with my favorite raw tomato soup.

soup and chips

The Indian and the spicy red bell pepper are similar in flavor, next time I try the chips I will definitely try some other flavors that aren’t so similar. It’s really the only way to get a true feeling of a product. The important thing to remember when eating any dehydrated food is to drink plenty of fluids after eating them. I like eating these chips with other water rich foods like soups and salads. If you are looking for a crunchy delicious chip I highly recommend these awesome chips. Brad really knows how to uncook!

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May 18, 2010 View Comments

Back from South Beach

By Neven Jones in Thoughts

I just returned from a trip to Miami with some of my old roommates from college, and I’m feeling relaxed and happy.  There is something really special about going away with friends that you have known for a long time. It’s great to catch up, reminisce about old times but the best part is that you can just be together in silence without feeling awkward. I enjoyed spending time at the beach smelling the saltwater and listening to the ocean waves. It was so relaxing.

Miami

I loved being in South Beach and found it easy to stick to my high raw way of eating. I did have more seafood and wine than I normally do when I’m at home.

Crowd of people in South Beach

I passed by this huge crowd as I was headed to my new favorite raw friendly restaurant. The music was blasting and everyone was in their skimpy bathing suits. Welcome to Miami!

Miami

I loved walking around South Beach and looking at the architecture and the city.

Espanola Way

Finally I made it to Juice and Java and ordered my new favorite drink, a wheat grass high. It has carrots, apples, celery, parsley and of course wheat grass. It was so delicious and gave me that wheat grass high that I needed after staying up way too late the night before.

wheat grass high juice

I paired it with a large salad, it was the perfect lunch.

Salad

I just love a salad that has avocado and is piled high with sprouts, I was in heaven. It was so nice to walk back to our hotel after a satisfying lunch and just lay on the beach. I love Miami and can’t wait to go back.

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May 6, 2010 View Comments

Delicious vegetable juice

By Neven Jones in Juicing

Yesterday while I was at my Bikram yoga class, I was thinking about the juice I was going to make when I got home. My morning juices are usually greens and fruit, I knew I wanted to try something different.  As I was lying down in savasana, I was dreaming about all the vegetables that would go into the juice. When I got home this is what I made.

Vegetables ready for juicing

Delicious vegetable juice

3 carrots

3 stalks of celery

1 chunk of red cabbage

1/4 of an onion

1 lemon

1 tomato

1/2 zucchini

1 bunch of cilantro stems

I juiced everything and squeezed more fresh lemon juice on top.  It was so delicious and savory, just what I wanted. The onion and the lemon gave it a sharp flavor, and the zucchini made it taste slightly creamy.

Delicious vegetable juice

I will be making this juice again soon. It was a great way to use up all of my cilantro stems too! Have a great day.

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May 5, 2010 View Comments

Day 27 100% raw: Dealing with emotions

By Neven Jones in Thoughts

This 30 day 100% raw challenge has been an eye opening experience for me. As you know from my last post I’m not 100% raw anymore, I’m more like 90% raw. But percentages don’t really matter to me; the important thing is I’m eating more living foods. I’m also going through a period where I’m re-evaluating a lot of my life.  I need to make some important changes in my commitments. Sometimes I find myself overextended and as a result have little time for myself. I know I need to cut out the things in my life that have little or no reward and are emotionally draining. All of this is not easy to deal with, because it involves making some tough choices.  I found that every time I thought about these things I just wanted to suppress my emotions to avoid dealing with them. So instead of dealing with the issues I started to eat a lot of pretzels.

PretzelsPhoto by Hypnotic Aubergine

When raw foods make up a high percentage of your diet and whole foods make up the rest, what you eat will not numb you. You have no choice but to deal with your emotions. Cooked processed foods, especially carbohydrates, will make us feel numb if we eat too much of them. These foods suppress our emotions temporarily. I knew that I needed to start dealing with my emotions and stop trying to hide from them.  I decided to do the 30-day raw food challenge mainly because of this.

I was doing really well in the beginning and I felt like I could stay 100% raw forever with ease. Then something happened. I was busy with work and I started to skip a few meals here and there and eventually added some cooked foods back in to make up the calories.  Instead of eating pretzels to avoid dealing with my emotions I was staying really busy and not eating enough to avoid dealing with them. I just replaced one bad habit with another. This all really started making sense to me after I watched this video that Penni from Raw Food Rehab made. I realized I needed to change my thinking and not worry so much about what I was eating.

My diet is pretty clean, if I deal more with what I’m feeling on the inside and not worry so much about staying raw I will be much better off. Thankfully I don’t eat pretzels, or any other wheat product anymore. My plan to deal with my emotions and difficult issues is simple.

Journals

I plan to write in my journal more to help organize my thoughts. I will also talk to close friends and family more about what I’m going through. Talking to someone always makes me feel better. Emotions can be really difficult to deal with, but it’s better to try dealing with them than it is to suppress them.

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April 29, 2010 View Comments

Day 21 100% raw-ish

By Neven Jones in Cravings, Raw Foods

As you can tell from my title I’m not 100% raw anymore.  I have been craving salmon for the past week and a few days ago I finally gave in and had some for lunch. This is the longest I have ever gone without eating fish so I don’t think my body is used to it yet.

salad with a side of salmon

I have to say that I felt a lot better after I ate it so I think it was the right decision for me.  I ignored the craving for a few days and the reason I finally had some was because I didn’t want to feel deprived.

When I did my first juice fast I started to feel really deprived around day 6. Looking back on it, I should have ended it early the right way instead of staying on it and ending it the wrong way. Instead of slowly introducing light solid foods I ate a really heavy meal because I felt so hungry. I wasn’t consuming enough juice on the fast so my body was just craving fat and calories when I stopped fasting. I don’t like feeling deprived, there is just no reason for it. I’m eating this way because it makes me feel good, not to torture myself. It is important to listen to your body and to give in to cravings that are healthy for you. If I had a craving for potato chips I would ignore it because, nobody needs potato chips.

The main reason I even craved salmon was because I got busy and skipped lunch a few days in a row because I didn’t plan my meals. Sometimes when things are going well I tend to forget the reason they are going well. Things were going well when I was 100% raw, because I was planning my meals and making time to eat them. I was just as busy when I started as I am now, I think I just lost sight of my goals. So here they are again.

Goals

  • Eat 100% raw for 30 days
  • Sweat daily (sometimes I walk for my exercise and I don’t really sweat)
  • Plan my meals for the week, every week
  • Create a recipe binder filled with recipes I love
  • Work on proper food combining (stop eating fats with fruits, my body doesn’t like the combination)

I have been doing really well with my food combining so I am really happy about that. I have also created a recipe binder, I do need to add more recipes to it. I am not sweating daily, but I have increased the number of days that I’m sweating so I need to improve upon that goal. I am not eating 100% raw any more, but I am eating a higher percentage of raw foods than I was eating before I started. I have stopped eating all wheat products, which I’m really happy about. I had a brief addiction to Snyder’s pretzels, glad that is over.

Overall I’m happy with my progress. If I can get myself to plan my meals, or just plan anything in general, I’ll be much better off. I need to post my goals near my desk so that I will look at them everyday that way they will become a reality. I’m not perfect, but I am enjoying the process. Have a great day!

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April 23, 2010 View Comments

Apple date romaine salad

By Neven Jones in Recipes

It is a busy time of year here in San Antonio because it’s Fiesta, a city wide celebration honoring the memory of the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. I will post an update soon on how my 30 days 100% raw is going, in the meantime I wanted to share a really fast salad that I love. This especially nice to eat after a hard workout. After I workout I usually crave something sweet. I love the combination of dates and apples together, paired with romaine lettuce and some lemon juice it makes a really delicious salad.

apple date salad

Apple date romaine salad

1 head of romaine lettuce chopped

1 red delicious apple cubed

2 large medjool dates pitted and chopped

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Squeeze the lemon juice over the romaine lettuce and mix well, add the apples and dates.

This also tastes really good with granny smith apples, the tartness of the apple is a nice compliment to the sweetness of the dates.

I usually eat my salads without a heavy dressing, because I grew up eating them that way. When my parents made salads they always dressed them with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. I still prefer to eat my salads this way. Have a great day and Viva Fiesta San Antonio!

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