For those of you who are wondering what the Master Cleanse is you can view it on
Wikipedia. I think we have decided to start in March 2 - a Friday, because supposedly on several accounts of what happens, you should be near a bathroom - and it is after both of our birthdays. Also Akom is going to Sedona in April and he wants to be "clean on the inside" prior to going, so this is good timing.
As for going raw, I haven't gone totally raw yet. I had fresh squeezed orange juice which I actually have been having fresh for awhile - Simply Orange - does not compare. Akom's parents got us a
Citrus Press from Breville which is amazing. It is quick and easy AND best of all, clean up is a cinch. Clean up has always been my downfall in any cooking experience. For example, we have a
Jack LaLane Power Juicer which yes, powers through making juice but 1) the juices come out very frothy and 2) cleaning takes awhile. Since we embarked on the journey of opening a restaurant we have bought a
Champion Juicer 2000+. I got a really good deal on it from the online store
Healthnut Alternatives - cheaper than anywhere else.
Today we experimented with almond milk. We have made almond milk using several recipes in the past. So far the book Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngalias has given has the best starting off point for foods. Their almond milk though is too "sweet" for me but the extra ingredients definitely give it a full body flavor, as if you were drinking whole milk. On a side note, becareful with this book - I who does not like salt very much - EVERYTHING is salty in this book. Also if you are beginning at raw it is a catch 22. We don't recommend this book for beginners to raw food HOWEVER it is the only recipe book that we have used where the food is tasty but the amount of time you will spend making one dish will make you rethink the entire raw food endeavour. This book also has forced us into experimenting because sometimes we just wouldn't have the ingredients needed.
Anyway, back to the almond milk. Today we used Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens. We tried the Strawberry Almond Mylk. The milk comes out MUCH thicker than any of the other recipes. This milk is much less sweet than RFRW's recipe - which is of no surprise since Cousen does not use sweetner in any of his recipes. We think for people just coming off of "normal" food - you need to use a sweetner - we use Blue Agave Nectar as the sweetner of choice.
Also a quick tips 1) instead of buying nut milk bags - go to your nearest Lowes or Home Depot and by paint straining bags - they are $2 vs. $8 or $9. and 2) 2 cups of dry almonds produces approximately 1 cup of pulp (give or take on how well you blend and strain your milk)
