First Taste of Raw Meal Drink Mix

YUK.

I’d mentioned that I was going to get some Garden of Life Raw Meal drink mix, to improve my poor health. The stuff came in the mail and I had my first real big glass of it today.

*gag*

Wow, this stuff is mean. MEAN.

The powder is the consistency of light chalk. You scoop two large scoops into 16 oz of water. And down the hatch (if you can).

I attempted to mix a small amount with orange juice, and it wasn’t terrible. Then I decided to try it straight. YUK YUK YUK! But I drank it. I held my breath and DOWN the HATCH. After drinking it, my body shuddered. This stuff isn’t cheap, either– $42 for the jug of powder that supposedly lasts for two weeks. I’d much rather spend my money on gadgets or cheap printing, sure! But I need to improve my health. I’ve reached “critical” now.

But I need to have a health boost like this. After 5 months of intense heavy labor during the renovation, my health tanked. I suffered through one of the worst humid summers in New York State history, ate poorly, got little sleep… it took its toll. I’m a wreck!

My hair is now starting to grow back (yay!), and my skin is starting to show signs of being fresh and clear again. But my energy level is very low. I’m hoping this Raw Meal thing does the trick.

FourFoods on Friday #123

Looks like FFoF is back! Here are the questions for this week:

Tell me either the four strangest things or four non-food items that are in your fridge.

Hmmmmm… this is a toughie. I think I’m pretty average when it comes to food…. I’ll try my best here.

1. Hummus. Three packs. My daughter loves it. I do, too, but I have to be in a “mood” to eat it. Our favorite is roasted red pepper hummus, but we also like the spinach/artichoke and green olive kinds, too.

2. Pickled banana peppers. And pepperoncini. Is this unusual?

3. A 2-pound bag of kale. It’s a huge bag. Kale is a wonderful vegetable. I love it raw. I used to devour the kale garnish on plates when we went out to eat. It’s just so good. Kale is one of those terrific natural fat burners for women. It’s also a member of the cruciferous family, known to fight disease (especially cancers). We use kale as a replacement for lettuce.

Gosh, this is hard… I have average stuff in the fridge, nothing very exceptional.. ummm….

4. Tiny heads of red cabbage, about the size of a baseball. I plucked them out of the garden before the frost, and we STILL haven’t done anything with them yet….

So! There you have it! Thanks for enduring this far, lol….

Yummy Lunch

My daughter put this plate of leftovers together for me. WOW, it’s terrific! Looks simple, and it IS simple, but so healthy.

The dish uses all leftovers. The daughter quickly steamed some broccoli and kale, and placed it on a plate of leftover Jasmine rice. She dribbled a little bit of leftover pot roast broth and a dash of soy sauce on the rice. She toasted some leftover Panera bread and buttered it with garlic butter. Voila! Instant, super-healthy lunch. It was so good, and so filling.

Going to Try: Garden of Life Raw Meal

I saw a friend of mine drinking this weird-looking green-drink recently. She said it was “Raw Meal” from Garden of Life. I tasted it and —ICK— it tasted like grass pulp. But the stuff is terribly, terribly nutritious. So I ordered some. I’m waiting for it to come in the mail, and I’ll be giving a review and maybe some tips on how to improve the taste.

I need to improve my health. After having Child #4, my health deteriorated quickly. I was very anemic and lost that youthful oomph I’d always had. I have always worked very hard physical labor all my life, and never really ate well or took care of myself. Now that I am older, my body is showing signs of unhappiness with all my neglect and hard toil. And the extra weight I’d gained over the years hasn’t helped at all. I considered taking the best diet pills and vitamin supplements… and I do still try.. but I am horrible with taking pills.

So I’m looking to eat better. The Raw Meal will help. It has 100% of everything! I’d read that adding fruit or juice to the mix helps with the taste. I’ll be experimenting!

Chili in a Wok

It looks terrible! But it was incredibly savory. The kids moaned when they saw it, and it is awfully ugly, but we had no leftovers! I call it Chili in a Wok, because it tastes like chili but it’s not as tomatoe-y. It was really easy to make and it used up some stuff we had in the fridge. Vest of all, it’s incredibly nutritious. It has three types of beans, and with the rice, the meal makes a complete protein– next best thing to cow’s or breast-milk, eh?– and very, very healthful.

Chili in a Wok
Olive oil
Boneless pork steaks, cut into strips
White onion, diced
Garlic, chopped
Canned beans: I used 1 can of kidney, 1 can of northern, and 1 can of garbanzo.
Kale, chopped in small sections
1 small can V-8 tomato juice (8 oz)
Chili powder
Cumin
Salt

In a wok, heat up the oil. Toss in the pork. When it starts to cook through, add the onion and garlic. Allow the pork to cook entirely. Open the cans of beans and drain the liquid entirely. I also rinse them to remove the goopy liquid. Add the beans to the wok, and gently stir.

Add the tomato juice, kale, and seasonings. Cook, stirring, until the kale begins to soften.

Serve with jasmine or basmati rice.

Now, my dish was a little on the spicy side because I used a lot of chili powder and cumin. You can adjust the recipe according to your likes.

So while this dish won’t win any beauty contests, it’s great comfort food for a cold, nasty day (which it was, that November evening). It’s easy to make and so healthy! I’ll be doing this one again.

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