Raw Vegan Day 1

Started a new challenge today, not out of concern for my health but because I lost a gentlemen's bet. The 49ers lost the game. I lost the game. I lost my bet. If the 49ers had just won the Super Bowl, my friend Jared would have given up red meat for a week. If they had won by the spread, he would have gone vegetarian. I didn't think vegetarian was enough of a big deal for me, so I wagered raw vegan as a fair counter to what giving up meat would mean for my friend.

A big surprise that I got was not only that some friends were willing to help me out by letting me use their juicer, but that they are preparing the juice for me (and with me when I can help). Three friends are also joining in on the endeavor (Maka, Moana, and George).

I was going to start yesterday but remembered we had our winter party at work last night and I didn't think it would be appropriate to skip out on haystacks that my bosses had so lovingly prepared (nor on that pumpkin cake my boss made, nor on the cheesecake that the store made).

Start time is 10pm on February 19th.

This morning I went to Shemmie's and skipped my standard order of oatmeal and raisins in favor of a salad with no cheese. I set the onions aside, and enjoyed my breakfast of iceberg lettuce, tomato slices, green bell pepper, and fresh squeezed lemon juice to flavor.

Also at my disposal are two 2-liter bottles of juice.

Bottle 1:
Orange/Strawberry/Tropical Fruit/Banana blend with a hint of ginger.

Bottle 2:
Red leaf lettuce/red bell pepper/tomato/celery/apple blend with lemon/ginger/cayenne powder accents.

Both bottles also have chopped flax seed, and I may have forgotten an ingredient or two, but if I did it was a raw vegan ingredient.

Bottle 1 has an incredible flavor, and let's just say bottle 2 is somewhat palatable.

Fruit/Veg Challenge Days 32-36: Grapes, Apples, Collard Greens, and Walla Walla Sweet Onions

The challenge lives on through days of road travel and a short retreat in Walla Walla, Washington.

As I drove across the United States in a moving van, the options to stop and seek out less common fruits and vegetables was slim, but that's not a problem because we had more common options on hand and I still managed a healthy supply of fruits on the road. So I claim grapes and apples from the two full travel days.

I'm currently staying two nights with a friend from Walla Walla University and his family. His mother prepared a wonderful soup last night and my thoughts focused in on the green vegetable inside. I'd been wondering when I could squeeze collard greens into my schedule and there they were. Collard greens: check!

Today I have a small dilemma. I claimed white onions in the challenge but now I'm in Walla Walla, home of the Walla Walla Sweet Onion. While it's not the only fruit or vegetable I had today, as someone who spent three years of my life living and studying here, I feel obligated to honor this prized treat. Walla Walla onions are special, and as the one in charge of my own personal challenge, I'll allow it.

Days 30 and 31: Fruit/Veggies of the Day: Cranberry and Peacherine

My fruits for the last two days are the cranberry and the peacherine. I love dried cranberries on my salads and even though I'm foregoing the more traditional experience of cooked cranberries or the lovely molded cranberry from a can, they make a great salad topping and can really change a salad. The peacherine is probably a trademarked name for a hybrid between peaches and tangerines. The bummer of tangerines is you have to peel them and with peaches you only have to deal with a little fuzz on the skin. So somebody somewhere thought the two together would make a novel fruit that someone who wants to try eating different fruits might pay for. They were right. Anything I can find something novel it's basically a free pass from having to use up a more common fruit or vegetable. I enjoyed it but it wasn't breathtaking; It tasted like a sour peach. I got my fiber and they got my money and an easy pass for my fruit/veggie challenge for that day.

With that, the first half of the challenge is over. The hardest part of the challenge so far is dealing with long work days. Now I'll be dealing with travel days instead. My initial travel for my journey to Thailand has begun and I'm on the road to Oregon/Washington, then flying to California for a little over a week, then flying to Thailand. I'm looking forward to an exotic selection of fruits there to fill out the last 15 days of my challenge and you'll get to read all about. I'm also starting a blog about the Thailand journey if you'd like to join me for other experiences than what fruit I found.

Fruit/Veg Challenge: Day 29/62: Heritage Purple Bean

When I saw these in the supermarket the other day I had to have them. Other than being purple, they looked like green beans. Not only that, but they were inexpensive so I figured I had nothing to lose. Boy was I wrong. When I cooked these this afternoon as I watched them boil I realized I was losing the purple for which I'd paid the better part of a dollar and two quarters. These beans were magically stealing my novelty away and leaving me with green beans. Granted, they tasted perfect. I cook green beans so rarely that I'd forgotten I enjoy their flavor, and this food challenge is a great reminder for things like this, but if you want your purple beans to stay purple, you may have to eat them raw vegan style.

Fruit/Veg Challenge Days 21-28: Summary

Before my memory fails me, here's my list for the last 8 days. 

21- Mission Olives - We had a pizza luncheon for Net 2011. It wasn't a great day for eating fruits and veggies for me and sadly this was what I came up with

22 - Jalapenos - Jalapeno bagels and Jalapeno dip. I had other veggies this day, but the challenge is variety so here it is.

23 - Cucumber - My boss made a great vegan cucumber salad for our work potluck. I know it had some spices and a little Veganaise.

24 - Spaghetti Squash - With the heat wave I was relieved to find out this is easily prepared in the microwave. Once cooked, the squash can be scraped with a fork and it comes out in the shape of noodles. I flavored mine with a little Braggs liquid amino and some cayenne pepper. The braggs is very similar to soy sauce but with a little more sodium with an assortment of amino acids that are supposed to be healthy. I used it sparingly because I'm still not OK with the idea of putting that much sodium into my food.

25 - White Onion - I'm really not a fan, but they ended up on my sandwich and I ate them raw.

26 - Romaine Lettuce - A Caesar salad turned out to be one of my best options for eating breakfast/lunch without breaking the bank at a semi-local restaurant (Niles, MI). I didn't like the idea of paying $8 for pancakes when I could get them in Berrien Springs for $3.

27 - Rhubarb - I asked a friend who likes to bake to make us a strawberry rhubarb pie. The rhubarb wasn't as tart as we had hoped for but it did come out pretty good.

28 - Snow Peas - Since I don't eat these often, I'll use them for yesterday. I'm sure I'll cross paths with them again in Thailand and I won't be able to claim them there now, but I'll take that risk.

62 Day Challenge Days 17-20: Ugli Fruit, Avocado, Carrot, Blackberry

So I finally got my Ugli* fruit back on Sunday and it was still edible. With 12 hours at work the timing could not have been better. I took a little break and scarfed it down. The fruit is a Jamaican hybrid between a grapefruit, an orange, and a tangerine. It's like one side of the fruit takes on the size of the grapefruit and the other side takes on the size of the orange, and it comes out distorted and ugly. The inside is like eating a seedless orange, but the fruit is very sweet. To me this one reminded me of the flavor of a peach or an apricot.

*Ugli fruit is a trademark of Cabel Hall Citrus Limited

I'm claiming avocado in its traditional southwestern form: guacamole. This was one of the ingredients in our haystacks on Monday night at our work summer party.

Yesterday I had carrots in an excellent vegan carrot raisin salad. I loved it because instead of adding sugar and whatever dairy is traditionally used, this salad had three simple ingredients, carrots, raisins, and pineapples. The pineapple added enough sweetness to it without adding a lot of junk. The only downside was that it was a little watery from the pineapple.

Today I had blackberries for the third or fourth time since the summer began. My love for blackberries goes back to when I spent a summer in Oregon as an adolescent and they were growing everywhere at the farm we stayed at. From what I remember, they were a lot cheaper then!

Day 16 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Artichoke

This artichoke was huge and just looking at it in the produce section was making my mouth water. I don't really remember eating a boiled artichoke in at least 10 years and possibly not since the early 90s when I was a teenager. Sure, I've chewed up plenty of artichoke hearts since then but this time I wanted to cook the whole thing. After church today my wife and I finally got around to boiling this monstrous artichoke in our biggest pot and we sat down together with the goal of finishing it together. While it looked like a monumental task, and my memories of artichoke eating involved spending long nights at the kitchen table slowly eating one scrape at a time, it seemed to go fast with the two of us scraping away and before we knew it we were ripping out the heart of the poor artichoke.

A common theme lately has been antioxidants, and among vegetables artichokes are #1 (but some fruits are better). One site credits artichokes with being able to regenerate liver tissue and slow the spread of cancer. Other listed benefits are common to most vegetables because the fiber content in vegetables helps with digestive health.