mmm mmmm good!

happy monday, i hope a lovely weekend was had by all! the mr and i had quite a busy weekend and i must admit i'm pretty happy when my peaceful monday rolls around. i realize that i am one of the few folks in the world who enjoys this day, so i won't linger on that thought too long.

today i wanted to share one of my new go to recipes. i mentioned in my last post that one of my recent obsessions is zucchini pasta. not only am i in love with it because it's so stinking delicious, but it's also so super easy to make and clean up after.

as you may or may not already know, i've been making an effort to incorporate more raw foods into my diet. since doing the master cleanse a couple of weeks ago, i now crave healthy delicious raw foods pretty much every moment of the day. more raw foods = more living foods = more energy going into your body = a happier me! i can say without a doubt that i notice a difference in how i feel when i'm eating less processed foods and more whole, raw, delicious goodies! so without further adieu, here is zucchini pasta in all its glory...

this has become my raw food bible. the recipes are so easy, and so far all fabulous!

the recipe...

the ingredients...

bell pepper, tomato, onion, basil, oil, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, zucchini, salt, pepper, and a spiral slicer. i purchased this slicer to really do the job right. i absolutely love it and would recommend it to anyone! you certainly don't need one to make this dish though. you can use a veggie peeler instead and make wider noodles. just as yummy!

the sauce prep work...

chop it all up and throw it in a food processor or blender. easy peasy!

the finished sauce... mmmmm!

making the pasta...

this slicer makes it ridiculously easy to make long spaghetti type noodles. some ended up being about 3 feet long and i realized i should probably go ahead and slice them up a bit before serving. it takes all of about 30 seconds to turn one zucchini into a bowl of noodles!

beautiful!

then just pick out your favorite pasta bowl...

evan and i always eat pasta out of these super cute bowls our friend lesli made us for a wedding gift.

and just like that you've got an amazing raw, vegan pasta meal you can feel fantastic about devouring! we went ahead and ate ours at room temperature and it was amazing, but you can certainly warm it up a bit if you like. the goal of eating raw is to retain as much of the nutrients as possible without cooking them away, so you just don't want to heat it above 116 degrees F.

i've made the pasta for lunch a few more times since this, and just had it with fresh basil, olive oil, and chopped sun dried tomatoes. it's been amazing each and every time i've had it. you simply can't go wrong!

if you're thinking about working some raw meals into your diet this book is a great place to start. almost all of the recipes use about 5 or 6 ingredients, and they're often things that you would already have in the house. i'm the kind of person that gets easily overwhelmed by cookbooks, but i've found this one to be a great intro into the world of raw food. amazingly easy, and equally as tasty! you can also watch the author, jennifer cornbleet, make this recipe here, and some of her many other creations here.

also check out her "not tuna pate". it's the perfect thing to keep in the fridge for a quick healthy raw lunch. i especially love it on a simple bed of arugula, with a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of lemon, and a bit of ground black pepper. yumm-o!

obsessed with...

with the change of seasons i've recently found myself with a whole new list of things i'm in love with. and in no particular order, here they are...



heart shaped sunglasses...

<3

retro swimwear...

<3

yoga. all day, everyday...

<3

lounging around in comfy dresses...

<3

sporting classic white keds with above mentioned dresses...

<3

hipstamatic app for iphone...

<3

raw food. namely zucchini pasta...

<3

as far as obsessions go, i think these ones aren't too bad!

click the hearts for photo credits...

new life for an old piece...

you may or may not already know this about me, but for about a year and a half i worked for a local artist by the name of beth philips doing furniture refinishing. if you happen to find yourself in cornelius, nc at any point in your life you can see her work at an adorable little shop called bebe gallinis.

while i no longer refinish pieces as a profession, i certainly still put that skill to use to decorate my own home. here is a recent purchase that had a bit of new life breathed into it...

evan and i were in need of some new dressers because the ones we had moved with us down from brooklyn and didn't quite survive the trip.

we found this fabulous little solid oak piece for 20 bucks at the very salvage spot i spoke of in my last post. it wasn't looking so good when we found it, but i saw the potential that was hiding under there!

i used a belt sander to get off the many layers of paint and stain that were bringing this baby down!

then used a dark grey primer to coat the whole piece, and chose a rich mustard yellow as the final color...

i sanded the whole thing again and roughed it up quite a bit to give it more of a shabby appearance. the color still felt a bit too vibrant for me at that point, so i rubbed a deep oak stain across the whole thing.

i'm quite pleased with the end result...

...and apparently so is our little juan!

i just scooped up another dresser this past weekend which will hold every bit of our goodies. this one shown here isn't really big enough for much more then some unmentionables :) i'll be sure to share some before and afters of our new piece if it ever stops raining long enough for me to get out and paint it!

the greatest place on earth...

i did a little cast iron hunting this weekend and decided to showcase some of the other treasures to be found. this place is incredible!

hope a fabulous weekend was had by all!

master cleanse- day eleven... bummer!

after coasting through days and days of just drinking the master cleanse mix, i hit a brick wall. i take full responsibility for it though, because yesterday i was not a very good cleanser.

i woke up feeling fabulous yesterday, lots of energy, cleansing business as usual. i was so busy all day though that i neglected to drink much of the lemonade. by not much i mean i had three glasses all day. as a point of reference for you, you're supposed to have about 8 to 12 minimum! this was not smart. a total of just shy around 200 calories in an entire day, a busy day too, is probably going to bring anyone down pretty low. this morning, day 11, i woke up feeling like poo! i was nauseous, and uncomfortable, and upon realizing that i needed to get some calories in me quick i started to make my way into the kitchen. this is when it got ugly. i started sweating, shaking, and slowly but surely blacking out. i grabbed a glass of water, dumped some maple syrup in it, and sat on the floor right there. after a few sips i was able to make my way to the couch, where i proceeded to spend the next 5 hours. no energy to move, just enough to put on the first season of arrested development and veg for awhile.

i full on intended to go for 12 days until this morning and it bothers me that i had to stop early. however, the reason i started doing this was to get a healthy new start, clean out my insides, and feel great! losing some weight was definitely part of the equation, but starving myself was most certainly not! if i'm not doing this the right way, then it's time for me to stop. this whole process has really taught me to listen to what my body is asking for, and right now it's asking me for some food! so i'm swallowing my pride and giving in a day early. i went to the full 10 days which was my original goal and i do feel great about that. i'm really excited to start working on my new plan too, incorporating lots and lots more raw foods into my diet. steph and i have been researching raw meals and i'm stoked to start working on some of those!

so for today it's onto orange juice. later steph and i will be making a large pot of fresh veggie soup and i'll also get to drink some of the broth from that. breaking a fast correctly is just as important as the fast itself, so i'll be sure to at least do that part right.

let the cleansing come to an end...


photo found on flickr

master cleanse- day seven, and some weekend goodies!

the cleansing is still going strong! it's day 7, and after a slow start to the day, i'm feeling fabulous. steph (my cleanse buddy) and i did a little fabric shopping earlier, and even hit the gym after that! i haven't updated in the past few days because on days 4, 5, and 6 i was pretty much just coasting through it. with the exception of some really low energy on day 5, it's been pretty uneventful. the weekend was a little bit tougher though, simply because it was beautiful out and it would have been so lovely to have a little cookout, and most weekend get togethers tend to revolve around food or drinks. somehow we all stayed strong and made it through!

i'm still thinking about going for 12 days instead of 10. i'm already at 7, and the thought of being done in 3 days is quite appealing, but i feel like i could really benefit from just a couple more days. it is after all, just two more days out of my life, not eating solids. in the grand scheme of things, not too big of a deal at all.

all cleanse business aside, check out what evan built in our backyard this weekend. a raised garden bed! lots and lots of veggies await!

she's a beauty!

on saturday we drove out to blue max and had them dump a ton and a half of soil in the back of evans truck. that baby was riding low!

then it was time to fill her up!

perfect!

barkley discovered that the soil was a nice cool spot to lay out...

...and take a much needed nap. gotta love that pup!

hope everyone enjoyed a lovely weekend as well!