Raw Food-Day 1

The second reason we are trying a raw plan for a couple of weeks was our disgust after watching Supersize Me and the documentary Food Inc. within 24 hours.  I honestly don't recommend this.  It was too disappointing and gross.  I should say that I am not your average go with the flow chicka.  I do not just jump on bandwagons when the popular kid says they want to be Vegetarians(which we will not be).  It even took us this long to watch these two films b/c we didn't want to just hear the hype about our food industry.  For us it took feeling like poo.  We really came out of the holidays bloated, uncomfortable, and just moody and lazy.  I know these are common feeling after the eating fest December, but it made me start questioning if this was how we were supposed to feel or if we were just used to feeling like poo?  These films gave us a lot of doubt in our meat industry.  A lot of doubt about ever buying meat from a grocery store or restaurant again.  I am not one to say never and we realize this would limit our meat intake greatly due to cost alone, but maybe it is worth it?  Living in Austin, we are thankfully given lots of healthy options.  We are the Whole Foods mecca.  We have a huge Farmer's Market that we have access to every week.  We have awesome restaurants like Mr. Natural, P. Terry's, and Mother's trying to do things right.
If we were true rockstars we would probably eat at these places all the time, but in trying to stay with our normal grocery budget we know we could skip the supermarket meat aisle and at least get a few veggies in it's place!  So, onto the menu.  Today we have had Granola with a little bit of Almond Milk.  For lunch we will have Not Tuna Pate and dinner is yet undecided but looking like Chili.
For now: Breakfast-both by Jennifer Cornbleet
Almond Milk:
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups soaked almonds
3 pitted medjool dates, soaked
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

Place items in blender and then strain out the milk!(short version of directions)
This was not difficult at all but did not produce much milk.  Unfortunately this would be one of those things that a family or even us if this were a long term diet could not keep up with financially.  There are things you can do with the ground up almond bits to not have to throw them out, but even then you are just not getting enough milk to justify the cost.  I say this is unfortunate because this would obviously be a more natural option.  I will buy a box of Almond Milk from the store today to compare cost and ingredients.

Granola:
1/4 C. soaked raw almonds
1/4 C. soaked raw sunflower seeds
1/4 C. soaked raw walnuts
4 pitted medjool dates, chopped, unsoaked
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
dash of salt
1/2 C. fresh fruit of choice
1/2 C. Almond Milk

Place nuts and seeds in food processor.  Pulse breifly.  Add dates, cinnamon, and salt and process just enough to mix.  Sore in a sealed container in fridge.  Will keep for 2 days.  Add fruit and milk to your liking.

OK-we decided we would rate the recipes from 1-5.  1 being something we could not finish and 5 being something we will keep around past the two week mark.
The granola gets a 4.  We both finished our bowls and know that we will finish the batch tomorrow, but were both really full of it quick.  I think when we make it again we will use less dates--I LOVE sweet things, but even this was too sweet for me.  I was really impressed overall though.  I usually don't do the nutty, grainy cereal due to texture, but this had good enough flavor that I enjoyed it pretty well.