Pure Jeevan Blog - Pure Jeevan Raw Foods

Jim here... A little over a month ago, we couldn't contain our excitement about an online contest to win the best job EVER -- living as caretaker of a tropical island in Queensland, Australia, on the Great Barrier Reef for 6 months (and being paid $100k for the task!).

The deadline has come for this and, as we promised, we BOTH applied. My video was the first to be processed. So, we posted a screenshot above, which you can click to go view it (or just click here) -- and also please vote and rate it a 5!!! (I've heard that the rating system can get a little screwy on that site -- that you need to wait for it to load and maybe mouse over the rating part first. But, a 5-star rating would really help, as would the traffic, even if you don't watch the entire video.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Perfected Raw Vegan Potato Pancake Recipe!"][/caption]

I've done it, I've done it, I've DONE IT!!!? I've perfected a recipe for raw vegan potato pancakes! My friend Melissa shared her potato pancake recipe with me and, like always, I had to play around with it (I rarely go by a set recipe). Had it not been for her original recipe, I wouldn't be writing this post! So, thanks, Melissa!!

In the next day, or two, I'm going to type up the recipe and send it out to all of our subscribers. So, if you haven't signed up recently for either our newsletter or the two free eBooks, do it soon! In addition to the potato pancakes recipe, I'm going to share another amazing recipe I created for Jim's birthday this past weekend: Raw Vegan Ice Cream Cake!! YUM!

Jim here...? Ahh, yes, you noticed, didn't you ? We'd started posting a video series called "Know Your Food" recently, promising to shoot for it being a DAILY series -- only to have its presence totally disappear as though Harry Houdini himself had taken control of our blog.

Well, we just wanted to post a quick explanation for you. Short answer: Know Your Food is coming back SOON!? We've been at work on so many amazing projects here at Pure Jeevan, a few of which we needed to complete prior to officially launching Know Your Food in a big way.

To put it metaphorically, Pure Jeevan can be thought of as an enormous hang glider. With hang gliding, you have to make sure everything's in order before jumping from the cliff and soaring freely above the landscape. (Ummm, not that we've ever actually hang-glided. What IS the past-tense of hang-glide, anyway )? So, we're just checking the rigging and so forth right now.

When we do step off that precipice, though... wow, you won't believe the cascade of huge announcements we'll have for the raw foods community. Know Your Food (which will return soon, prior to all of the huge announcements we have in store) will return in all of it's YouTube-esque glory very soon. So, thanks for your patience in that matter!

One more thing:?

Our friend Kevin Gianni is turning 30 this weekend. When you do the math, that means he was born December 7, 1978, which was pretty much the apex of the disco era in America.It's no wonder the man struck the above pose in our back yard; dude's got the Village People in his blood! So, it would be really nice if you boogied down to his site, www.RenegadeHealth.com, and wished him a happy birthday. He's also on Twitter -- cast a shoutout to: @KevinGianni.

Announcing: Pure Jeevan's Halloween Raw Pot Luck - A Costume Party for All Ages!!

When:? October 31, 2009, 6:00 p.m. - ? ?

For my Fun-Filled Friday and this entire weekend, I'm going to do something fun that I rarely get to do. What is it? It's nothing...literally NOTHING! What's the fun in doing nothing? Well, to be honest I think it's impossible to do nothing. If you decide to stay in bed all weekend, doing nothing, you are really doing something--staying in bed all weekend. Right?

So, what will my nothing include? Who knows! That's the beauty of doing nothing---I have no preset plans, no expectations of myself or others, nothing at all! I have lots of things to do, of course, but I'm not doing any of them this weekend (no working on Pure Jeevan activities, no cleaning the house or doing laundry, no working on the computer, no organizing future plans/activities, no fancy meal preparations, etc.).

Read more: Fun-Filled Friday

Recently I've been to three potlucks in the span of four days. They've all been wonderful for different reasons -- one was a birthday party for a lovely young woman, Bethany, another was part of a women's circle that my friend, Melissa, invited me to attend, and the other was at my home as a meetup when Kevin and Annmarie Gianni were here visiting. Lots of fun, connecting with people, and raw foods to eat.

Sounds perfect, right? Well, something's been happening with me and raw foods over the past year. It became even more evident after eating at three different potlucks over four days. I've noticed more and more that when I don't eat something that I've created, I many times have reactions to the foods I've eaten. The reactions have ranged from flushed facial skin, slight headaches, hives, full-blown headaches, upset stomach, water retention, achy joints, etc. All signs of being sensitive to something I'm eating, right? I've narrowed it down to a few things, but it doesn't seem to be an exact science to knowing what's going to cause the reaction.

At home I know that I feel better if I don't consume garlic even though I love the taste and smell of it. When I eat too much of it I experience headaches and sometimes flushed cheeks. I gave up raw vinegar a long time ago because it makes my joints ache. Recently I noticed that whenever I eat Nama Shoyu I get a headache, flushed cheeks, and sometimes some hives. So, at home I can control my reactions to foods -- I simply avoid eating the things that sometimes trigger problems for me. I feel great most of the time because I eat more simply and my body doesn't experience any problems.

I thought I'd share some recent pictures with all of you. Let me know what you think!?

Carob Peppermint Hearts

This is a recipe I created to take the place of a packaged raw cacao dessert that Jim loves. I don't like to eat cacao, because it disturbs my heart, so I use carob. A new raw friend asked for a recipe for this dessert, because she loved it so much, but I don't have one. I dump walnuts, coconut, agave, and peppermint oil into the food processor and mix until it's a consistency that can stick together. For Valentine's Day I shaped the mixture into hearts. Sweet!?

The Environmental Working Group publishes something really useful called the Shoppers Guide to Pesticides. In it, they offer two handy lists: (1) The Dirty Dozen -- conventionally grown produce items that contain the most residual pesticides, and (2) The Clean 15 -- conventionally grown produce items that contain the least residual pesticides.

While we believe that organic is always best, there nonetheless are times when most of us (for whatever reason) consider purchasing or consuming conventionally grown (meaning "sprayed with pesticides") produce.

It's nice to meet new people, isn't it? For today's Take the Time Tuesday, I'd love for you to meet someone who's really helping to make a difference in the raw food world in an exciting way.

Take the time to meet...

Q. I recently read the following on Dr. Micahel Eades' (dr. protein power) blog & would appreciate your opinion:

Have you any comments on the RAW FOOD movement and particularly Dr. Cousens claim of a ?cure ?
Dr. Eades' response:

I don t know anything about Dr. Cousens. I do know that people in the raw food movement seem to believe the raw foods deliver ?natural? enzymes unaltered by cooking to the GI tract to help it do its work. Problem is these ?natural? enzymes are made of protein and are denatured (the same alteration process as cooking does with heat) as soon as they hit the stomach acid. The fact that proteins can t make it through the stomach without being completely altered is why diabetics can t take insulin pills and have to get their insulin via injection. Insulin is a protein, just as enzymes are, and it can t make it through the stomach without being denatured.

Read more: Wondering Wednesday: Enzyme Controversy

For many people, a change in diet is largely a mental issue. You *decide* that you're going to do something different, and then commit to it. You may shop a little differently than before, but quite often that is the extent of any action taken (other than preparing and eating the new foods rather than the old ones).For many, the commitment aspect is the trickiest part. ?Books could be written on this subject alone (and we're sure we've discussed this at length here on the blog).

Today we want to share a super-easy tip to help with the commitment side of this: Keep your fruits and vegetables VISIBLE.