Have Stuff On Hand

Oh, 'tis the season, eh?

My housemate is making 500 (or so) cookies for her clients in the next two weeks and although it makes the house warmer and more X-mas-y, it's hard to resist the cookies...so I made some raw ones yesterday (tried very hard not to eat them all last night) so that if I ever craved one of hers, I could eat one of mine.

I had all the things I needed on hand, so it was easy to have them available. One thing that several folks are stressing this holiday season (or any, for that matter) is to have raw alternatives or raw ingredients in your house. Keep your shelves and cupboards stocked of your fav. sweetener, cacao, coconut oil, nut butters, nuts, fruit, smoothie ingredients, and greens in case you get a craving.

Often my (lame) excuse for not eating raw is that it takes too long to make something just as satisfying. But those cookies took about 10 minutes and a few hours in the dehydrator and voila! SO GOOD.

I'm going to try these cookies tonight because I also have these ingredients on hand.

There are SO many raw blogs out there...I don't always feel supported by folks in my life, but getting to read about all the raw experiences of other people makes me really happy. I am inspired and excited when I see AMAZING raw recipes. I'm excited to conceive our baby while on the raw food program, and I can't wait to have a raw baby!

From this month on, it's about a year until we plan to start trying (I'm a virgo, we like to plan). Since there is a lot of transition right now, knowing that a year from now we can let loose and focus on growing our family gives us a whole cycle to really ground into our lives. Buying a house, growing a small production garden, starting a business, transitioning away from office life, and simply getting into a groove will help with the major life change.

Being raw is REALLY important to me in that regard. I see Jinjee Talifero (go here for her info-packed site) and I feel good about being pregnant and raw. There is so much to deal with when pregnant, that I don't want to have to deal with excess weight or other things that I have control over. I'll just let my body do what it needs to do without the extra struggles of digesting cooked food. Fine by me. So lots of people say that the year prior to conception can affect the baby and this is why I started raw foods a year ago. I knew that I didn't want to be overweight and additionally (after I went raw), I don't want to have to deal with my crazy digestion, so it just made sense to start off as raw as possible.