Looking for spinach soup and keeping hope on my brain :)

[L.]

Today I am looking up spinach soup recipes and to be honest I'm a little scared of what I might make.  I am not the greatest cook, let alone uncook, but I'm going to keep trying and trying until I get it!! >./p>

I'm trying my best not to count the days because I truly want this to become my lifestyle, but it's been almost a week and I've been 100 percent raw! (or if you wanna get specific, 90%, but 100% fruits and vegetables--except today I added in chia seeds!  my only fat I've been eating so far has been avocado--don't mind it at all, I scored a gorgeous amount of wonderful avocados at my costco and feel so fortunate to live near one now!!).

Things that are giving me hope:

I haven't taken my medicine yet this morning, and I forgot to take it yesterday morning, and although I did take it last night (it's twice a day), I don't feel as sore as I usually would in these sort of circumstances this morning.  Normally when I forget my back hurts so much I feel like I should be in a wheelchair, and although I'm very stiff I am going about my day pretty normally and I am having an easy time getting up from a sitting position, etc.

My skin on my face is clearer :)  And I haven't changed my face routine at all :)

My eyes are clearer and feel better--it could be a coincidence because I skipped one or two days of my daily moisturizing this week, which seems to always help my eyes (I'm still not giving up the routine though because I love having nice skin), so we will see.  They certainly still have the grayish red tint they've always had ever since I contracted the eye virus back in August/September 2012 (a few months ago, and although it's dormant now, it can take a while to recover, they said.  also, I have dry-eye, and ever since the virus it seems to have greatly worsened, so I'm watching for a lot with my eyes.).

I ate two large avocados yesterday and those pepped me up a lot.  I love the way they make me feel and my arthritis, even on cooked food, seems to do better on days where I eat avocados so I've been including them in my diet and I think they are wonderful.  If I feel weak or like I haven't eaten enough, I pop an avocado in a recipe or use them as a dip, or just salt it and eat it plain and it gets me back where I need to be.  I could cry I love them so much!!  Haha, isn't that silly!?

I've been using garden of life raw protein powder because I do think protein is a nutrient that needs to be focused on getting, speaking from experience after having eating disorders (years ago, feels like a different person!!  completely recovered!) and which foods helped me the most during recovery.  Especially since at the moment we can't afford the large amounts of fruit that I see lots of fruitarians who are healthy intaking, so if you aren't doing a large quantity then you need to focus on getting the essentials like protein and fat.  I also today just started using chia seeds :)  I made some sort of strawberry vanilla chia pudding.  Honestly--not a big strawberry vanilla-y flavor kind of a person--more a chocolate and vanilla kind of a girl, but we are still waiting for our bananas to ripen (I am going crazy without banana icecream!! >.<).

Might juice some grapefruits today :)  I just worry because my stomach is pretty sensitive and I worry about the acidity.  I tend to get acid reflux when I eat sour things, but it's day 5, maybe my stomach is performing better by now--so we'll see.  I can't believe it's the fifth day--and doh--I counted!!  But that's okay :)

Have a gorgeous day, I am SO INCREDIBLY THANKFUL THAT IT'S THE WEEKEND.  And thankful that I am lucky enough to be able to eat this way.

Take care :)

[Talia]

I just wanted to share a tasty green soup recipe from Victoria Boutenko's Green Smoothie Revolution. Just blend all of the ingredients in your blender and enjoy!

SPICY GREEN SOUP
*Yields 1 quart*
2 cups spinach
1 cup radish tops (or mustard greens, horseradish greens, watercress, or other spicy greens)
1/2 cup fresh basil
1 red bell pepper
2 limes, peeled
2 medium-size ripe tomatoes
1/2 avocado
2 cups water
Serve as soup with dulse or any other seaweed.

[L.]

Oh my gosh!!! I am getting way more protein than I thought!!! I knew greens did but I forgot all about oranges and didn't know the other citruses have so much!! Will definitely be juicing a lot of grapefruit orange concoctions very soon :). Thankyou so much for this!

[Vasa Tate]

Hello, I just wanted to send you this word of encouragement and congratulations for your commitment and progress on your living foods journey.  Keep on keeping' on.  We're all rooting for you!

[Amber]

I just looked it up and for an average orange there is about 2g of protein per each one.  Grapefruit is 2g of protein on average, 1g protein per lemon, 1g protein per lime, 2g per tangerine.  When it comes to greens: 1 serving (1 cup) spinach is 1g protein, kale is 2g protein, chard is 1g, collards is 1g, and romaine is 1g.  Hope this helps you out!

[L.]

Oh and thankyou so much for the tips--so useful!!  I didn't write back to every single word but I took in everything you both said avidly and I am excited to try everything!  And waiting to hear more if anyone else wants to comment (if not that's okay too :P ) :)

[L.]

Oh that is wonderful to know about the citrus, Amber, because I've been blending tons of oranges!! :)  Thanks for the tip on soup!!  Good to know.

Hi Jayna :)  2 grapefruits and an orange--wow that is a good idea!!  I will try that for sure.

I ended up making a green soup today--2 full packed cups of spinach and 5 stalks of celery!! :)  With all the other things I added it was so surprisingly good, I was shocked!!  I think the key may be having some good water-based veggies and mild greens if you are adding lots of them (like spinach), and then spices and lime/lemon juice.  I thought I was going to add avocado afterward but I ended up not needing it, which felt crazy :)  I will post the recipe on here later because I am not so confident yet with everything that I make and I want to make sure I get all the ingredients right before I share it, but when I do I will post it!

[Jayna]

Hi Lyza!

If you are worried about the acidity of grapefruit juice, you could try combining with orange juice (less acidic than grapefruit). I love to juice 2 grapefruits and an orange! Maybe you'd prefer a different ratio?

For green soup, I generally just blend up whatever I have on hand that I would normally put in a savory salad. Greens (I like spinach and kale), veggies (radishes, cucumbers, tomato, carrots, bell pepper, etc.), and some sort of 'dressing'. I really like lemon, avocado, and salt & pepper. 

I'm interested to hear what you end up making : )

[Amber]

You will get lots of protein from greens and citrus (most people don't know about the citrus) which may help you as well.  I like to make green soup with a handful or two of greens, a cucumber or zucchini, a splash of ac vinegar, a splash of aminos, and water (if needed to thin out enough to blend.  It will really depend on your blender).  That's my base I then I sometimes add in things such as green onion, carrot, tomato, avocado, etc.  Good luck!