Brotherly Love & Broken Windows

My mini-vacation to Philadelphia was most exciting and tons of fun. As this is my food/eating-related blog, first and foremost let me say that I was able to be 100% raw the entire time. Not an easy feat, but it's getting much easier. That Roomie is so accepting and supportive is a big part of my so-far success as a raw foodist. He doesn't insist on going out to eat all the time; he's willing to try pretty much any kind of food at least once; he doesn't make me feel bad for having to lug around a cooler full of food every time we travel.


As with my trip to Cleveland last month, this jaunt required lots of planning and lots of packed food. Thankfully, we were staying at an extended stay-type hotel so our room had a kitchen with a full-sized fridge/freezer. That made things much, much easier. It allowed me to pack en masse, all the veggies and dips (see previous entry) and fruit that I would need to eat, rather than worry about having to find a grocery store/restaurant to suit my needs.


So here's how things went down:


Wednesday: It takes me nearly 2 hours to pack/prepare all the food I need. I would rather err on the side of having too much than not enough. I take the following: a thermos of Green Lemonade (it only keeps about 24 hours so I could only pre-make it for the first morning I was gone); 2 gallons of broccoli (I'm using Ziploc measurements here); 1 gallon of cauliflower, 2 bags of baby carrots, 5 celery stalks in sticks, a yellow pepper, sliced; a pint and a half of cherry tomatoes, a half-gallon of mushrooms, a pint of blackberries, a pound of strawberries, a honeydew, 4 bananas, 5 peeled oranges, 2 heads of romaine, 1 head of green leaf lettuce, a bunch of fresh spinach, 3 zucchini, mandolined; a mango, 4 pounds of grapes, a pound each of raw almonds, raw cashews, raw walnuts, and a container each of pesto, romescu, vinaigrette, and tahini. I also made a big salad to eat in the car on the road.


Like I've said before, raw foodism is not for wimps or people who aren't a little bit in love with their kitchens. (**note - very little of the above-mentioned foods made the return trip).


I also tried two new recipes prior to leaving, Quinoa-Grape Salad and Macpep Cheez. The recipe for the former I'll leave to a near-future post as it also concerns my first adventures in sprouting. The latter however, is a fairly simple blender/food processor & dehydrator dealie. This recipe is from "Raw Food, Real World." Once again, I halved the recipe for space's sake - though I give the original measurements here.


Macpep Cheez
1 1/2 cups chopped red/orange peppers
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 cups macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast


Puree the first three ingredients in a blender.
In a food processor/dry blade blender, pulse the nuts until they are ground. Add the nutritional yeast and pulse a few times to mix.
Pour the pepper mixture over the nuts and blend until well mixed and only a smidge chunky.
Spread thinly over solid dehydrator trays or parchment paper sheets and dry overnight. Remove from the sheets and dry on slotted trays for another few hours.


Roomie likens this to the walnut-covered cheese balls often found on party platters. I thought they tasted a little like Doritos. Roomie just rolled his eyes and asked when was the last time I had a Dorito. My admission of, "at least 6 years" was met with laughter. Whatever. This cheez is really tasty; very hearty crumbled on salads or as a side for some raw veg. Keep it for up to a week in an air-tight container. It gets better with age.


Thursday: One of the best parts of travelling is finding new places to swim and run. As important to me is having the right thing to eat, is being able to keep working out the way I want. It took a little digging on them internets, but I found a health club with a pool that didn't charge an arm and a leg for a guest pass. A 3-mile run, 2K swim, hot shower, and thermos full of G.L. later, and I'm pretty much a happy camper for the day.
Unfortunately for my rowing friends, it torrentially poured the night before so the Schuylkill was moving superfast and full of boat-damaging debri. It also decided to torrentially pour during the day, cancelling any practice rows. I just hung out in the van (recently christened "Frankenstein" explanation below), grading papers and munching grapes and raw veg & romescu. We also found Roomie a place to sublet over the summer that happens to be within walking distance of a Whole Foods. I can now visit him with confidence.


Friday: Lots of rowing to watch today and I run about 6 miles on the bike path along the river. It was neat to see the starting line of the boat race since usually I'm cheering at the finish. Lots of sun today, too. When we finally get back to the hotel, Roomie and I both have pretty awesome sunglasses tans. Though the girls head to Buca di Beppo's for dinner, Roomie and I opt for wine, pesto over zucchini noodles (for me), and pasta with vodka sauce (for him) in the room. I think part of the reason Roomie is so accomodating with my eating idiosyncrasies is that we are also trying to save money/be more conscious of our spending. Eating in is more cost effective, especially on the road.


Saturday: Even though Roomie's crew didn't advance to the finals (they rowed SO well, though!!), we go back into Philadelphia for the morning to de-rig the boats and load them on the trailer. And, more importantly, run the Philly Art Museum steps like Rocky. It was a wonderfully hot and sunny day. Me, Roomie, and about 18 rowers head out running the 1.5/2-ish miles to the museum, ran the stairs 4 times, and ran back to the boats. Exhausting but very fun - especially when "Eye of the Tiger" is cued up on the ipod.
The plan then was to get the car, drop a few people off downtown to see the sights, and head back to the hotel for lunch and a nap. However, the individual who wanted my GPS and Roomie's ipod bad enough to break the van window changed those plans. It was almost 4pm before we were done cleaning up shattered glass and filing a police report. The bike cops at the regatta were, surprisingly, less than helpful.
Following the van debacle, Roomie and I decided the van's new name was Frankenstein since it's on its 3rd windshield, 2nd bumper and fender, has had all of its side panels un-dented and buffed out, and is about to get a new window. For being 10 years and 142,000 miles old, the old girl ain't doing so bad.
We also decided that we earned a restaurant dinner. In a nice coincidence, there was an all-vegan chinese place within walking distance of our hotel. SuTao had a full menu of typical chinese foods (lo mein, general tso's) but everything was made with soy or vegetable protein products. I had seaweed salad and pickled vegetables. All raw and all delicious.

Sunday: Have you ever driven 8 hours on a highway with the window rolled down? It makes talking and listening to music quite hard. It is also quite cold. I was worried that birds might try and fly in, but Roomie assured me that was highly unlikely. It wasn't the most pleasant car ride I've ever taken but there was plenty of raw food for snacking so all was not lost.

Now I'm back in Athens, the van is almost fixed, and crew season is over. Kind of a bummer, but less travelling means more time to be experimenting in the kitchen. Plus I'm starting my training for the Hilton Head Firecracker 5K this week.

No rest for the weary. No rest for the raw.