What in the world is a raw vegan?

So growing up my mom was always making amazing creative meals.  Sometimes she used recipes and sometimes amazing ideas just came out of her head when I would look in the pantry, fridge and freezer and spouted off what we had available to use.  Most of the time the meals were really healthy and delicious and sometimes they were just delicious. From a young age I remember being in the kitchen with my mom and I remember her letting me try things myself.  It was(is) always easy to ask her questions, and easy to take instruction from her. She never(that I remember) got frustrated with me and she was always so calm. When I would ask her how she wanted something cut she was never to picky and things never had to be prefect.  Unless necessary she never had a certain way that I had to do something and unless I asked she would let me figure out how to do it.  The way she was in the kitchen made me feel so free to experiment myself.  I would always make up my own recipes which usually turned out ok if I was cooking.  But with baking, that is another story!  I will never forget the rock hard bran "things" I made once in our kitchen on St. Andrews.  I don't remember how young I was but I imagine 9-12years ish!  My mom even tried them...how sweet.  I don't remember her saying they were horrible or that they were great.  I think she may have just told me it was a great try and then gave me some tips for next time.  I feel that was the perfect response!  

One day our family received a used Vita Mix(it's a REALLY expensive blender) from some friends and that kicked up our healthy eating up a notch.  My mom and I would experiment making healthy smoothies with barley green, blend up whole grains to make our own flour or we would lightly heat up veggies and blend them to a pulp like a thick soup(and take it to our algebra class we took together where everyone would gross out).  My mom was always making crazy healthy recipes.  I didn't always love it, but I grew to love it and to this day I can honestly say I am a health food hippy nut because of my mom.

 To this day I LOVE experimenting in the kitchen.  I love all kinds of food and I have loved "coming into my own" in the kitchen.  Over the past 3 months though I have tried my hand at vegan cooking and raw vegan un-cooking, and I am hooked! Most people are familiar with veganism(no meat or animal bi-products...dairy, eggs, honey), but not many people are familiar with raw veganism.  4 months ago I had no idea this whole other culinary world existed.  I think I had heard of it before when my mom and I went to hear this guy(my mom will remember his name) speak at Windsor Park Baptist Church about how he ate mostly raw fruits and vegetables and it helped him with his battle with cancer. He wasn't very creative with it from what I remember so I wasn't too excited.  Salad's all the time? I love salads but... No Way!  But come to find out there are all kinds of raw food recipes out there on the web.  It's AMAZING. Raw vegan sushi, chocolate mouse, flax crackers, green smoothies,  and sour cream are just a tip of the ice burg.   

From here on out a lot of my posts will be sprinkled with raw vegan recipes because I really need an outlet for how excited I get about this.  You can ask Tristan; I watch a few raw vegan videos on-line and you would think I was on speed!   I have been praying for at least the past year for the Lord to show me my strengths and passions and this is one of them.  I LOVE learning about crazy health stuff, integrating it into my life and then helping others to integrate it into theirs.  I remember as a 12 year old girl reading 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 and the Lord speaking to me that my body is His temple and that I should honor my body even with my health.   

Now, for my finds for the day.  

This summer Tristan and I find ourselves traveling a lot(esp. back and forth from Brownwood to Austin) so the video below peaked my interest.  It's a video on how to eat raw while traveling.  She gives a lot of good tips that will help anyone trying to eat healthy while on the road.  

Enjoy!

How to Easily Eat Raw while Traveling

Our 1st Home with Rachel Russo Photography

Several months ago when I found out that Rachel was going to do a photo shoot of us in our home I promised myself that as soon as I got the photos back from her I would blog them and get back into blogging. I received the photos in the mail Monday, and today got to sit down and look through all of them. I picked out SEVERAL favorites to share here on the blog.

I am now trying to decide which to print and hang in our new apartment, so I thought I would get all of you involved! Cast your vote in the comments section for which 3 are your favorite and help me make some decisions!

Thanks again to Rachel Russo for sharing her splendid talents with us and capturing so many great memories for us in our first home.

Thank you Lord for talented friends, and for the way you loved us through giving us such an amazing first home. We are grateful.

Surprise!

Today I checked my RSS feeds for the first time in a few days and when I went to check Tara Whitney's Blog and catch up on all the posts I missed, this is what I came across! 

Happy Day! I won a contest!  I will be receiving a beautiful necklace made by Lisa Leonard!

YEAH!!!!!

What is so funny is that I only entered one time.... and as most of you know I entered SEVERAL times when Rach and Caroline had their giveaways!  So, you never know! 

I will post a pic of me wearing the necklace when I receive it!

Lachiem!!!

Tap Class

For those of you who don't know:

 I am teaching an after school tap class for 12 at risk 2nd grade girls.  We have been having class for about 5 weeks I think and it has been wonderful!  The smile on those girls faces when they get to make noise with their taps is priceless. They are doing really well at learning their steps, following directions, and even keeping their feet quiet while I am talking!  I had one little girl write for her teacher that her favorite thing to do at school and at home was tap dance!  That was wonderful to hear!  I am really hoping that this will give them hope and encouragement to try new things and be creative.  Most of them come from homes where they aren't encouraged to work hard, do their best, get exposed to art, or smile and get and give hugs and encouraging words....but in our class we smile, laugh, encourage each other, give hugs, be positive,work hard, and get creative.  Hopefully the Lord will use our 45 minutes once a week to make lasting impacts on these girls futures!  

I love black and white films, big band music, 50's and 60's music, Fred Astaire, Ellenor Powell, Frank, etc,etc......and these girls no nothing about any of that so I take some time each week to remedy that!  Tristan made me a DVD of lots of old black and white tap clips from old movies and I show a clip every week.  The girls love it and constantly remark on how old the videos must be!  I came across a wonderful video of Ellenor Powell in my search for clips and just have to share it with the blog world.  I wish I could have made a career out of tapping like she did!  Also, I am such a fan of Ms. Powell that I hope to one day name a daughter after her!

 I hope you enjoy the video and that it reminds you to pray for all my little girls! 

Click Here to watch the video!

Woodsy Table Scape

If you didn't know yet that I LOVE to decorate.....now you do!  I LOVE IT!  And beautiful pictures of creative ideas inspire me soo much.  I ran across this pic on a blog a follow called ReNest, and fell in love.  Somehow I will re-create this table, in my own way with things I can find here at my home.....somehow...somehow(part of the fun of decorating for me is figuring out how to do things....especially when it involves using something to decorate that usually doesn't have a function relating to decor).

Here is the link to the blog post: Woodsy Table Scape

Tea

Another must have tradition for the fall is the drinking of tea....and espescially the drinking of tea in the company of people you love! 

Here is Tristan and I enjoying some of that warm goodness together.

Check out the contest Caroline Joy Photography is having...tomorrow is the last day to enter.

Holly...she's the perfect fall treat!

My sister(she is actually my sister-in law.....I hate to put the in-law part on any of my sister-in-laws titles because they are all like real sisters....or what I imagine a sister should be since I don't have a blood sister....by the way...if you include all the Russo girls I have 7 sisters....pretty amazing huh?) Holly came to visit this weekend and we had a wonderful time.  She reminds me of fall.  She has gorgeous Auburn curly hair like Anne of Green Gables, and Holly herself goes perfectly with any fall color!  She loves fall just as I do and enjoys the smells, the colors, fall attire, folk music, the fall weather etc....so I would have to say that spending time with her is one of my favorite fall traditions.  

I love you Holly!!!!

Don't forget to check out:

Caroline Joy Photography

for an AWESOME give-away!