Purpose of this blog and the Jalapeno Nacho Cheese Salad

I have so many ideas swimming around in my head.  So much experience and know how that has been accumulated over these three years since I started my raw journey.  With this in mind, one of the first things I would like to state is that raw will look different to each individual!  The purpose of this blog is show what it looks like for one person, me, so that I can share with my readers my personal triumphs and challenges.  Hopefully you will be able to identify with these challenges and say, "Hey, me to, I've felt like that."  Even though I believe myself to be a complete snowflake, unique in every single way, I also feel that no matter what I'm going through, there is someone out there who has gone through or felt a very similar way.  The thing that makes my experience mine is simply that it is my experience.  i.e.  Have you experienced this? ...yes, but have you experienced this as ME?  Ah ha!  There it is folks.   So as I move along here, please take everything with that proverbial grain and make the experience yours.  Nothing ever has to be perfect, including you, because as some like me believes, you already are.  Awesome.  Now I'm questioning weather I think I'm saying this to other people or myself.  A little of both is a pretty good answer.  Ok, so back to the raw foods.

Here is a tip - I buy these clear plastic squirt bottles to have on hand.  They are a dollar and some change each.  I use them for easy storage and use of liquids such as: dressings, nut cream toppings, dessert toppings, nama shoyu, flax oil, etc.  I usually have one or two dressings, maybe a sour cream topping, nacho cheese topping on hand for easy access and use.  I just pull it out and squirt.  No opening of lids, dirtying a spoon, replacing the lid.  Just use one hand to pull it out and squirt some on. This is a pretty big tip because one of the most common resistance points that I hear people tell me about raw food is that they can't do it because it takes too long.  Which is a really good lead in to the next paragraph.


Today I made myself a delicious raw plate from leftovers I had in the fridge. I cut up a small head of lettuce and put a couple of scoops of a sunflower seed pate.  The pate is flavored to taste like refried beans and has chipotle chili and sundried tomatoes in it.   I topped this with two squirt bottle toppings I had sitting in the fridge: sour cream, and jalepeno nacho cheese.  I squirted these liberally over the lettuce and sun seed pate.  When this was done I decided to give the dish a little more color and texture so I quickly chopped one tomato and a little bit of red onion and placed it in the center of the plate over the pate and lettuce.  There!  This took less than 7 minutes to put together, including rinsing out the colander I washed the lettuce in, and the cutting board and knife I used on the tomato.

Here is my jalapeno nacho cheese recipe:

One cup of cashews (soaked for one hour)
Juice from one lemon
4 tbs of red star nutritional yeast
One chopped red bell pepper
Pinch of salt
1/2 to 1 Jalapeno to taste
2 tbs of Agave (optional)