rawocado-mono.

Avocado Power Yo! For those of you that don't know, avocados are my favorite food. They are the complete, ready to eat, treat! They are calorically and nutritionally dense so 1 single avocado goes a long way in providing you with well needed nutrients. This makes them a perfect raw mono meal. What is a mono meal? A mono meal is a meal that consists of 1 whole food item, generally in bulk amounts to complete calorie and nutrient needs for that meal. Did you know that the body has to digest every single ingredient one at a time during the digestion and absorption of the food you consume? People often cause more harm to their bodies than help due to poorly combine food choices/meals, frequency of meals and overworking of the gastrointestinal tract. Mono meals are a great way to give your digestive tract a break from complicated food combinations. They will digest easier and have a faster transit rate than non-mono meals. If you have met your energy needs by providing the right amount of a single food in your meal than you will achieve satiety and be able to sustain until your next meal. You can learn this by learning the caloric intake of the individual foods you want for your mono meals and then properly adding enough of that food based on it's caloric intake. A common example might be bananas. Let's say 1 banana yields you 90 calories (we know the definition for calories = energy) aka energy. If you are looking for 500 easy to digest and sustainable energy then you would find a way to enjoy 6 bananas for a mono meal and rack yourself up to 540 calories to thrive off of! Another thing I love about mono meals is they allow you to appreciate the food and respect it as a whole, You also get to enjoy it's tastes without others getting in the way and hindering the pure delight of eat bite!

Three of my favorite & funnest ways to eat an avocado rawocado-mono style:

1. Carefully peel the skin and eat it how you would a stone fruit, being careful not to bite into the pit!

2. Cut in half, remove the pit and spoon out the flesh! Do some fruit meditation while you are at it ; )

3. Blend with quality filtered water in a food processor and enjoy a beautiful bowl of avocado-bisque soup!

10 Tips & Tidbits on Avocados:

1. These fruits are known as "alligator pears".

2. Avocados contain 5 grams of plant based protein per average size avocado (6 ounce size).

3. Avocados start to oxidize fast when cut into and exposed to air, always eat right away for optimal nutritional value. If you must store it then leave the pit in the part you did not eat. Store in an air tight container sized to fit your leftover avocado. Sprinkling antioxidant rich lemon on top will also help preserve it.

4.Avocados are a heart healthy source of dietary fat and have been shown to lower heart disease whereas other fats increase the risk and cause it. Avocados are a great fat substitute for those on meat and dairy diets and a palatable pleasure for those who enjoy the flavor of butter, nuts and creamy salty soft foods.

5. There are over 400 varieties of avocados.

6. Growing an avocado tree is a real art, it can take up to 10 years to produce an avocado abundance.

7. Become an Avocado King or Queen (or whatever pronoun in between!)...Your perfect avocado should be firm enough to hold and slightly soft enough to gently squeeze. It is easy to peel. The color of it's peel will depend on it's variety, most range from a blacken color to shades of bright or olive green (on some this indicates an unripe fruit, know how to select ripe avocados when picking them!) to dark purplish shades. The peel should not have sun spots or outer or inner mold. It should never be brown inside and it's peek color when ripe is a semi bright but soft shade of lemon lime. They should never smell or taste funky. You will know the avocado is bad if the taste is off. Once you know the true nutty, creamy, dreamy delicious taste of an avocado you will be hooked and never want to go back to a life without them : ) You will crave them and if eaten properly your body will thank you in return!

8. Always eat organic (you deserve it, so does the earth) but if you cant, avocados are one of the safest non organically grown foods to eat due to their thicker skin that acts as a protective peel.

9. The pit of an avocado is edible! They are rich sources of nutrients, especially copper, potassium and magnesium. A little bit goes a long ways, trust me. It has a very pungent and burnt earth flavor to it and must be ground down before consuming.In order to grind an avocado pit you must have a high speed blender, such as a Vitamix, or a high speed coffee or nut/seed grinder. Do not attempt to bit into the pit, always grind it first and use a small amount at a time. An easy way to use the pit is to toss 1/4 of the pit, or less, into a smoothie.

10. Avocados are one of the easiest dietary fat sources to digest. On average it takes 2-3 hours to digest an avocado.

What are you waiting for yo!? Get your avocado on!

Heart to Heart: Today's Assignment

Pick yourself nice ripe organic avocado and find a way to enjoy it as a rawocado-mono meal : D ENJOY!!!

real food = real good.

How charming! Looks like I'm not the only parsley fanatic!

Sundays are my OFF days. This means I am off my usual schedule. I get up bright and early, make my super smoothie and jet to the Farmer's Market to stock up on an abundance of locally grown, seasonal, fresh organic food. This is how I eat and boy do I eat good. I have been running errands all morning and am home now and feeling very happy inside my heart! The rain has come to visit me again and decided to be nice and wait until I got home to start it's sprinkling surprises! I am very proud of myself for my power smoothie this morning. I haven't been using coconut meat since I get so much dietary fat from my avocados but used coconut meat in place of my avocado for my smoothie this morning. I always use coconut water from a fresh cracked Thai young but have been giving Dante the meat with his meals. HE LOVES IT. Who doesn't? Coconut is going to be good to start using again for my weight gain and muscle building process. I mixed 1 Thai young coconut - water and meat - a heaping handful of parsley and some raw honey into the most delicious green smoothie shake ever! This kept me going ALL morning long due to it's high energy yielding macronutrient and healing micronutrient contents! It feels so good to truly nourish your body, feed your cells and brain and be able to optimally operate in return. Two of the greatest gifts I've ever given myself are 1. the gift of nutritional education and 2. the decision to go raw and stay raw six years ago. Eating fresh feels like pure bliss and you know you are doing your body good so that feels good. There is no room for misuse, abuse or complaining with real raw foods! I love that I can actually ENJOY my foods and the entire process of growing them at home or selecting them from the Farmer's Market... as well as the fun of preparing them and the humble act of harmony when eating them. It's like a powerful circulation of energy with every bite or sip and swallow. God has really blessed this earth well with vegetation. I am lucky to live in California where I have a rainbow variety at my fingertips!

+ Deuteronomy 32:1-4 +

¹ Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

² Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.

³ I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

⁴ He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he.

Today I will: try to nap, eat more than I usually do due to time differences and my potential plans are: make a live fruit enzyme scrub or facial mask to pamper with ... possible movie on the couch with a nice crackling fire and my heating blanket specifically for the couch... a long good foot rub from the Good Old Faithful - KING KONG foot massager! Relax! Enjoy! Be HAPPY ; D

Heart to Heart:

Your assignment and affirmation of the day...

Treat yourself to a nice raw meal, it doesn't have to be complicated and anyone can do it! How about some fruit meditation? a nice salad? a bowl of live sprout and avocado soup? freshly made coconut milk? freshly made veggie juice? a handful of fresh medjool dates? bananas in pajamas!?

"I am worthy of nourishment."

in heat and happy.

in heat and happy. today the last part of my new bedding investment came... my heated mattress pad! some of these inventions are just brilliant. now i have heat beneath me and on top of me (i sleep with a heated electric blanket and a heated pad on my belly). i was so excited to set it up today. my bed is my favorite escape during mealtimes. i can center here and do much better here. i am doing so well right now, making a ton of progress, rebuilding health and enjoying my lovely raw foods that are healing me. it's been six years now since going raw and i have seen so many remarkable changes happen which is why it has been a crucial aspect of my recovery. i often wonder if others also feel God's love penetrating in the precious plants and trees that supply real food for us to thrive on. everything changes when you go raw, i don't know one true raw foodist that doesn't agree with that statement. there is an abundance of energy & clarity gained when taking in life force. how grateful we must be for the soul factor that these plants are surrounding their life to give us life. before i went raw i would of never even considered making a statement like that and probably would of giggled at it but now things are different. i have more appreciation for the earth than ever before. glory to God for providing in abundance. one of my greatest pleasures is organic gardening. i love being able to grow my own food with my own two hands and gather my raw rewards season by season. how wonderful it is to be able to step outside, barefoot, in the dirt and carefully pick my presents! dirty earth on my feed, under my nails, a snip here and a snip there and before you know it a meal at hand! yard snacking after the rain is the best ever. i love how fast things shoot up just after it's rained. it's almost like God sprinkling miracle grow in the form of holy Heavenly water. i give gratitude to God when He waters my garden for me! --- i am here now, finishing a divine bowl of nutrient and calorie dense raw soup, power packed with micronutrients my body will digest, absorb and thank me for. i am in bed, in heat and happy with all my electric bed inventions on high in my favorite green fitted t-shirt and green candy stripe boy briefs. times like this? priceless.

heart to heart:

question of the evening...

what are some of your most cherished moments?