HiHoRosie's Place

So remember that secret or surprise I mentioned a few days ago? Well, today is the big reveal! more animals You can check out the unveiling here at Pure Jeevan's blog .

Hubby picked up this chocolate bar for me from a local raw vegan store so I thought I'd share my thoughts. I'm sharing this mainly for those unaware of these types of treats. Normally, a dark chocolate bar with that high of a percentage of cacao (88%!!) would taste so bitter to me but believe me, the raw versions, including this one, are not bitter at all. I had one bite of this d-lish chocolate bar and I was in heaven. Smooth, perfectly sweet, ORGANIC and RAW. A bit pricey just like most decadent goodies but it was worth it to me. For those unfamiliar with raw chocolate, if you had tasted this without knowing it was raw and/or vegan you would never have guessed.

See that? That merlot lettuce, fancy green leaf lettuce (no idea what it's called or the variety but it sure is pretty!), and spinach all came from our garden. We grew that. As frustrating as the weather has been this year and the problems associated with gardening, especially as first time gardeners, we're really proud of our latest harvest. These are OUR carrots. So wonderfully sweet and perfect looking. Those look that way after only a simple scrub. No peeling. Try to get carrots like that at any store. The end result: a delicious homegrown salad. Okay, not all the ingredients here are homegrown obviously. I'm just so amazed at how wonderfully tasty this salad was. It was infused with love and life that is indescribable. And with the added finishing touches to the salad it was worthy for royalty. Me. Z:-D

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this earlier but just to toss out a little teaser to you raw foodies something big and exciting is coming your on August 31st . If you're a member of Raw Fu and watched Bunny Berry's recent video she also eludes to this something. hee hee! Don't ya just love the suspense?! Dun dun dun! You will have to stayed tuned as to what it is but you will definitely LOVE it!

I finally made these crackers found on Gone Raw ; Heathy also featured them here and made some changes, which I followed. Or some of them anyway (I followed her notes on the nuts and seeds but forgot to add in any additional spices and sun-dried tomatoes like she did). One thing I did have to do was add in some water in order to get the stuff moving. I don't recommend doing this unless you have to. I should've mixed this in stages. With the batter being more wet than desired it didn't give the crackers a very nice look. Still tasted good but weird looking. If you check out Heathy's page you'll see how they should look. Like appetizing crackers. :) Now, whenever I come across a raw recipe that's titled after something found in the conventional world I find that most of the time it doesn't taste much like the original. That isn't to say that the raw version isn't any good; most of the time it's delicious. It's just the names of some of thes...

Okay, it was Sara Beth 's birthday on Sunday but it's never too late to wish someone happy birthday in their birthday month right?! In honor of her birthday she had a dessert party last night, which you can catch up on here . I thought I'd add a few pics of my own from the evening. The dessert spread ( all raw desserts people! In the center of the pic are blackberry shortcake and blackberry cheesecake. You non-raw foodies are missin' out!): Blanche patiently waiting her turn in the chair: My sample plate, which I had already begun sampling (from l to r: mango pudding, German chocolate cake, chocolate and vanilla ice creams drizzled with chocolate sauce with a side of cashew whip cream, and mint ice cream - again, ALL RAW and not made from any dairy): YUM!

I did it! Woo hoo! I did it! I did it! I did it! I donated blood today. Why is this so exciting? Well, the last time I tried to donate it wasn't a good day but today I passed the iron test with flying colors of red! Red as in my blood. This also means I received my one gallon pin . I'll add a picture of it when I have my camera. My phone takes horrible pictures as witnessed by my arm pic above. Did you know that with each pint of blood it can help up to three lives? So those eight pints, or one gallon, that I donated means I could've potentially helped 24 people. Gets me emotional thinking about it that way. I admire those who can donate regularly. Curious about more blood facts? If so, click here . Although, for #39, which states there is no substitute for human blood, however it is a fact that coconut water, in cases of emergencies, can be used as a sub for blood plasma . Here's more info on blood plasma . I had a good feeling about today; actually, I just really wan...

Mr. Bumble Bee Created by Yellowss Hey there Mr. Bumble Bee, how are you today? Do you enjoy sitting on that flower? Where are all your friends? Don't they like to fly? Where do you live? Why are you so fuzzy? Is yellow your favorite color? Are you a boy, or a girl? I Know I'm asking a lot of questions, but what's that behind you? OUCH! BUMBLEBEE . by David Lyne-Gordon if i were a bumblebee and you a scented rose, i'd invite myself to tea and nibble your toes. i'd nibble you all over and make you squeak and trill, lying in a bed of clover, keeping out the chill. when morning came i'd serve you tea to keep you satisfied. and make you feel you wanted to be with a bumblebee by your side. Okay it's me now. This bumble bee would not leave me alone! I think he was first drawn to me by my new purple garden gloves and then just hung around for awhile. Head to toe. Total stalker! Hubby would have nothing of it when the bee tried to land on him. I guess for me I hav...

Got this email from both my aunt and my dad - I thought it was a fun quiz so decided to share. Click on the link below. 15 pictures will come up with a category noted at the top. (Such as most appealing drink, landscape, etc.) Click on a photo in that category that appeals to you most. It will then show you 15 different pictures. Click the one for you and move on. Just continue to keep picking and it will automatically go to the profile. (After you answer a couple of questions.) It will give you a profile of yourself. It's called a visual DNA. Your choices dictate your profile. Just click on the tabs to see the next area of the profile. It isn't complicated........ Give it a try........ Http://DNA.imagini.net/friends Here are my results: http://youniverse.com/personality/feedback/6d9a0f620810c6cf50a151c0d638e57a

Aimee recently posted on her blog some basic info found on the Raw Network of Washington 's website about the raw food diet. I thought it was helpful that I thought I'd share too. Here are a couple of links which I'll also post in my sidebar. What is a raw food diet? Why raw food? chart created by Bob McCauley I understand that the raw food lifestyle isn't for everyone but there are many things about it that EVERYONE can benefit from in some way; hopefully these links will help answer a few questions. One of the standard questions raw foodists hear is where do you get your protein ? I still plan on doing a separate post about this but haven't had a whole lot of time lately so in the meantime, for those interested, here is a 9+ minute video that talks about protein . Update: yes, I do have spirulina from time to time in my smoothies. Only small amounts though as it does take some getting used to. :) And speaking of not a lot of time lately, I'm a bit behind i...

Recently we went to the international market; for WA people: this is a different market from Uwajimaya . While we were there we could hear a guy over the PA going on and on about something. Since we don't speak or understand Korean we had no idea what. As we were leaving Sam asked the cashier about it (joked is he reading a book? She laughed...uh no.); she sa id he's con ducting flash sales, basically going around the store and selecting an item to feature and marking it down to ridiculous prices! She didn't say it like that but it's pretty much what it is. She did tell us that we should find the moms and grandmas when he's doing this as they're the ones usually following him on his crazy sale trail. We went to the market yesterday and when the sales started we looked around to where the guy with the mic was. Hee hee! He was surrounded by all the smiling and giggling Korean moms and grandmas! No lie. And yay, he was in the produce section . I joined the crowd an...

This super yummy dish was named and created by Yardsnacker just for me. It has all the makings of pesto on top of tomatoes but not blended in the traditional pesto way. The basil is fresh from our herb garden unfortunately the tomatoes were bought while we wait for ours to ripen. Yardsnacker's Anti-Pesto 1 large tomato, sliced into wedges slivered sweet onion slices, optional small handful of pine nuts, coarsely chopped fresh basil, chopped or torn into shreds drizzle EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) drizzle balsamic vinegar S&P to taste Toss and eat! P.S. If interested, I added a slide show of my meet up with other raw bloggers to an earlier post.

Hey, this is my 100th post ! I can't believe it. Who knew my lowly ol' blog would've made it this far? I've come a long way from the days of saying I would never have a blog. Sigh, I remember when I first saw my name listed on someone's blogroll. I felt like a STAR! Thanks to my hubby and my sis for their support and encouraging words when I first started and thank you all for coming along for the ride and enduring my many rambles. Your support and encouragement is also greatly appreciated. I mean you're my friends now! That means a lot to me. In the few days since my last post, where I bragged about losing 5 pounds, yeah, well two of those pounds are back. :( I don't believe it's all due to the Korean food I ate but maybe partly? Could it just be water retention? I dunno but I'm not exactly pleased but I'm also not going to obsess over it. As I've said in prior posts my challenge over the 100 days is to be vegan and mostly raw so I was happy...

The first 10 days of the 100 day Raw Fu challenge has been a success for me. I managed to lose five whole pounds. Yippee! And I was relatively all raw except I did have a couple spoonfuls of organic peanut butter and if you have read Yardsnacker 's recent post he rats on me, er, I mean he merely mentions that I had some cooked food brought down by a neighbor (he included a pic of my leftovers). If you haven't read it, go ahead and then come back here and read the rest of my post. Hurry. Okay, so our neighbor knows we eat "healthy" but doesn't know the full extent of it so when he offered us this meal he wasn't sure if Sam would eat it because it had some fish cake in it (I wasn't sure I'd eat it either - fish cake sounds wrong). He and his family are so nice and generous that I had to accept the meal (they're always giving Sam stuff, I'm a lucky recipient by default - guess they like him better then me. boo hoo!). It was a rice cake dish (th...

I’m a bit tardy in posting about our lovely garden but you know how it goes sometimes. It was pretty wild when we went to the garden last weekend and did our usual stuff but then I went with Sam to the garden for a mid-week visit and HOLY MOLEY! Our garden, everybody’s garden had EXPLODED! And yes, those caps are deserved. Yesterday we went and saw even more growth. It's just crazy how quickly this has all grown when we've wondered if and when this would happen. Btw, that's our merlot lettuce pictured. Things had been coming along pretty nicely up to that point but over a few days it was almost like they had doubled in size. None of us are complaining. We’re all happy to finally see our gardens grow so much. It’s amazing what a little bit of sun can do. We don’t really have anything yet to harvest except for romaine (a nd lots of it) but there is a whole lotta promise in store for us. First our carrots. Peek a boo! Tomatoes (don’t ask me what variety these...

This past Thursday, Yardsnacker and I met o ur internet friends LolaBloom , Aimee , her husband Chris and Sara Beth . I have to say these are some of the nicest people! It was refreshing to talk with others who understand the raw food lifestyle. That is in no way meant to be insulting to anyone else but I think we can all relate to that to some degree. I value the love and support I get from my friends and family who aren’t raw and I know that I can comfortably talk with them about what I’m doing however it is nice to meet up with people who are into the same lifestyle. So our new friends are as real as they come across in their own blogs and each one is so fun and witty and beautiful and intelligent – it just made for a memorable evening. We met at Chaco Canyon for dinner and dessert. Sam was a real trooper sticking with juices while we ate. Must be hard. But the food/juices and company were great and we talked until the restaurant closed and then hung outside and talked...

A couple of you have asked me how I'm doing on the challenge so far. Well, since this gives me a chance to talk about myself (b/c I never do - ha ha!) I'd like to share with you all on how I'm doing. As the title states, so far so good! We're on day six of the Raw Fu challenge and am still going strong at 100% raw vegan. I feel great, nothing significant to note except that I have lost 3.5 pounds so far (bye-bye!). My first weight goal is within reach. I should point out that I started cleaning out my closet and getting rid of clothes that just plain ol' don't fit anymore. You know how sometimes you can get away with wearing some of the bigger clothes but not so much anymore. It felt really good to get rid of clothes, just like with the microwave. What is my deal?! :-D My meals are still really simple so I'm sure that has helped a lot and I'm only having to be concerned about what I eat since hubby is juicing. So I've been eating a lot of fruit and ...

Yesterday, I asked Sam to take the microwave out of the kitchen. His jaw dropped. Of course, he had to remind me what I told him last year that I would NEVER get rid of it. ha ha! Times have certainly changed. But since he's not ever going to use it and I rarely use it and won't be using it for the next 96 days I figure move it out and free up some space. Maybe we'll keep it in storage for a bit or just give it away. Haven't decided on that yet but for now, my kitchen is microwave-free.

...that title is said with a sarcastic tone. I read this article today and thought well, duh. If the adult portions are unhealthy then what makes anyone think the kids' options are any healthier? Because they serve apples slices made to look like fries? Kids are still eating a fatty salty burger or chicken nubbins. We need FAST RAW FOOD restaurants (a dream) for those looking for convenience and healthy options because McDonald's and Wendy's aren't the type of places that come to mind when looking for good eats. Kudos to those trying to make a change but we're a loooooooooong ways away from seeing any real change.