bad girl

I'm the worst raw foodist ever! A couple nights ago, I was really hungry and since I don't fall asleep until around 3 AM now - don't ask - I wasn't going to go to bed for several hours. What was I craving for no reason? A big, fat sandwich (I don't even GET cravings, let alone eat sandwiches, so it was truly bizarre). What'd I decide to do? Make a big, fat sandwich.

It was so comfort food-y. Delicious.
First, I toasted some organic sprouted chia bread and put on lettuce and avocado. Then I baked some butternut squash mac n' cheese leftovers, and sauteed some tofu in Bragg's, homemade breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. Stacked it all up and cut it in half - then sat down and enjoyed.
I know! Even typing this out makes me feel indulgent. Oh man. This is the most unhealthy thing I've eaten in... forever.

 I'm comfortable with this, occasionally. I've written posts about this before: there's many reasons I'm not 100% raw. My living situation, my family, my lifestyle, and also what eating all raw means to me - because sometimes it's NOT for the best. When I eat 100% raw, I unfortunately become a little obsessive about it, to the extreme. I get too idealistic. This isn't healthy. Ultimately all I want in my diet is health. So for me, eating a percentage of cooked food is healthier mentally, than eating totally raw.

In the future I do want to become pretty much 100% raw, after I move out and buy all my own food (another reason I'm not all raw - it stresses out my family). But I need to get comfortable with myself and how I think of the diet before this happens, otherwise I'll be doing it for the wrong reasons. 

Note: If you don't care about raw food, sorry you have to read this! It probably sounds insane. If you're a raw foodist, I hope you know what I'm talking about.

At the end of the day? Loved every bite of this sandwich.

make your own parma

This is a staple for me, but mostly my mom! She used to put Parmesan on her popcorn all the time, but she didn't like the smell. Once I went vegan my family also started eating way less meat and dairy (yes, everybody feels better and has lost weight) so now she won't even eat it because she says it stinks - true - and makes her feel sick - not surprising.

But she missed her cheesy topping, so she was in Karmavore and bought Parma. When I saw it I told her I could just make it myself! So I invented our own Parma.

Usually I do use walnuts, but I've tried other nuts as well. Although nutritional yeast isn't raw, it meets my standards because it has a lot of nutrients and is close to a whole food. Plus it gives you that cheesy, rich flavour, some B12 and protein (NOT THAT WE VEGANS ARE DEFICIENT).

We make it in bulk because we eat so much...

 -

Walnut Parmesan "Cheese" (Homemade Parma): makes about 1 1/4 cups

1 cup walnuts (soaked and dehydrated if possible)

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon salt and pepper, or more to taste

I like to add curry powder or other spicy mixes - woo hoo!

Process walnuts into a rough floury mix, add in other ingredients until you have a crumbled Parmesan cheese texture. Taste it and add other things according to your palate. 

I put this stuff on almost all my savoury dishes.