Yes, it’s my birthday AND day 60 of my raw journey… No, I did not plan that 🙂 A few days ago, my little girls began asking what kind of cake I was going to have. Normally, it would be something chocolate… with chocolate on top. I wasn’t going to have a cake, but I remembered Kristina’s FullyRaw Valentine recipe and thought perhaps we could give that a try. She calls them “love bites“, but we left them in “cake” form.

I am certain her food processor must be more powerful than mine. My processor had a difficult time processing the figs and dates, so I added a tiny bit of coconut water. Another factor, might be the fact that I live in a very dry climate and at 7K feet of elevation… while Houston is definitely more humid and closer to sea level. Whatever the reason, mine needed a bit of moisture added to it. It became a deliciously gooey mass of yum. I couldn’t help but lick my fingers. The girls helped me pit the dates, and the son snapped photos… because after all, it is my birthday... even if I had just gotten out of bed, still in PJs, and had “bed head” (as you will see below).

I should have put more strawberries on the second layer. I really liked the bites with fresh strawberry in them, so more would have meant more opportunity for that. I used an egg slicer to slice the strawberries. It’s funny, but even when we ate eggs we rarely used the egg slicer for eggs, we actually bought it to slice fruit.

I bought two young coconuts, but we discovered that one was bad when we opened it. This is not a pleasant discovery since these things aren’t cheap. Here are some pictures to help you see what a coconut should NOT look like when you open it. I needed the meat from both coconuts to do the recipe (because the one that was good didn’t yield quite enough – pictured left), but I made it with what I had and It turned out fine. I had to add some extra strawberries to the “icing”, which made it a bit more “runny”, but it still tasted nice.

After garnishing with a strawberry and some blackberries, we put it into the fridge and went to lunch at Salsa Brava, where they made me my special salad. I don’t think the kids have eaten at Salsa Brava since going vegan 17 months ago. At first they were a bit intimidated by trying to figure out what to order (especially the grain-free kid), but with our help, they were quite pleased with their dishes. Salsa Brava is very accommodating when it comes to dietary needs. We have never had a problem with them substituting or altering dishes to meet our vegan (and even my raw) standards.

We came home and had “cake”. I was surprised by how enthusiastic they were. They wanted seconds… and more after dinner too. It was really good and I would definitely give Kristina’s recipe “two thumbs up”.

Are you looking to make some changes in 2013? Check out The Journey for more information.

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What I read: Numbers 14-15; Psalm 90

What I ate:

• Breakfast – Green Smoothie (6oz AJ, 6oz CW, 2 bananas, 2 oz Kale, 2 oz spinach, 6 oz strawberries)
• Lunch – Special Salad @ Salsa Brava (greens, mango, pico de gallo, avocado, lime juice)
  
• Afternoon Snack – “Love Bites” Cake
  
• Dinner – 8 oranges juiced
  
• PM Snack – “Love Bites” cake
  

What I did: It’s my birthday

Here are the notes I made regarding my symptoms throughout Day 60:

• slowed digestion (gas, abdominal pain, bloating)
  
• headaches
  
• puffy hands, feet, and face
  
• sinus congestion
  
• dry/itchy eyes, skin, and scalp
  
• acne
  
• aching muscles and muscle spasms
  
• foggy brain
• irritability
  
• mood swings
  
• blood sugar fluctuations
  
• fatigue – still having bouts of fatigue, but not as bad
  
• unable to sleep well
  
• unquenchable thirst
  
• cravings
  
• chest pain
• cold sores – last one 1/13/2013
  
• kidney stones – eliminated when we went vegan Oct 2011
• tooth pain