Yesterday I didn't do as well but no matter, today is a new day and I am starting it off with a strawberry and banana smoothie. I am going to have a snack banana later also.

I have started to get the dizzy spells again which is to do with my ears so I started steaming again yesterday. When the dizzy spells happen and my ears start to play up I always have to steam which I have to do for about a week. I used to get dizzy for weeks at a time, one time it lasted for 7 weeks, no kidding, 7 weeks of being very dizzy and feeling sick with it.
I need to purchase a new steamer because the one I have is years old and it is cracked around the face part...dangerous! But I am careful.

My mam visited yesterday. I get on so well with my mam and step dad now, it's amazing! We have such a laugh.

Not a lot else happened yesterday so I will be back throughout the day today. Oh! I am in the mood to make raw chocolate today.....ummm we'll see. Russell James does the tempering in one of his Dessert weeks so I might grab that printout and make raw chocolate...OOOooo....MMMmmm - Oh! With durian, I have dried durian in my cupboard.....I LOVE durian, it's like marmite, you either love it or hate it, well I LOVE it!

It is getting a lot cooler here and it even hailed stoned last week, or was it the week before? I can't remember and BIG hail stones they were too.

Anyway, I am rambling now so I will be back throughout today.

I got up this morning at 8.00am to see Adam off to college and then I hopped back into bed and would you believe it but I slept until 1.00pm...Oh Dear! The last time I done that I was a teenager but I certainly must have needed it.

I have had a banana today and I am planning on making a few things which I will put on here later today.

We are experiencing internet problems today, we have informed the provider and they have detected a problem which they are going to sort out within 48 hours, so here's hoping the get it sorted quick because I am trying to publish this post and it is giving me jip.

Well, I have managed to post the pics below so I am going to chat about them before it wont let me post again.

 

These are Russell James' Lemon and Garlic mushrooms all prepared for the dehydrator.

Russel James broccoli sprinkled with nutritional yeast ready for the dehydrator also.

 

I decided to make broccoli salad using the left over broccoli stalk which I grated along with carrot, I then put on a little vegan mayonnaise, I then decided to mash a little bit of avocado and mix that in also.

I made some lemon water by squeezing fresh lemon juice into filtered water, the lemon was left over from making the mushrooms. I added a few drops of orange oil into the lemon water also...yum and very refreshing.

 

VOILA! My evening meal. Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, Russell James' sunflower sprinkles, broccoli and mushrooms and my broccoli salad. This was really nice although a tad oily, I think I should have patted as much of the oil off as I could, I will next time but over all this salad was DELCIOUS!

 

Back tomorrow

I have given my blog a new name, 'Real Raw Housewife' this pretty much covers it and I am trying to give myself a boost with a new title, and why not?

I weighed in this morning, not good.

A pic for today. My eldest son all suited up.
He had been to his girlfrinds sisters wedding and he popped in to our home so I could take this picture of him.

Back throughout the day.

I had 2 bananas throughout the morning and for lunch I had 1 apple and a little bit of peanut butter. I am thinking of a salad for my evening meal and I might try my hand at my own salad dressing, I've never made my own dressing before but I am feeling that it might be alright after following Russell James's course.
I made Russell James' salad sprinkles, well, I made 2 of them; spicy sunflower seeds and the tamarind and maple cashews, they are lovely but I have to confess to leaving the spices out....teehee so the sunflower seeds were garlic and onion sunflower seeds and I of course left the spices out of the cashews....well, I aint no spice girl...teehee
I will put up pics up of them today. There are some more things from week one I want to make then I need to move onto week 2 for this blog. I have already watched his vids and read the recipes but I just want to share what I think on here.

I seriously need to get stuck into some housework, my mother is popping round tomorrow so I want the house more cleaner...like we do when our mothers are popping round eh?!

*UPDATE*

Here is the pic of Russell James' recipe of spicy sunflower seeds and tamarind maple cashews.

 

I made my salad for my evening meal, picture below.

I sprinkled on some of the sunflower seeds on top of my salad which gave the salad a lovely flavour and a little crunch. These seeds are very morish.
I made my dressing but I did add too much apple cider vinegar (ACV) maybe I should have just used lemon.
I blended up half an avocado, ACV, herbamare a dash of agave and then for flavour I added onion powder, I decided then to add a little olive oil also. The dressing was very nice and went well with the salad but as I said, a tad vinegary!

I then made a dessert that Mrsleafygreens has on her You Tube.
Figs, strawberries and covered with puréed banana. I added a little vanilla powder in with the banana which has given it that brownish colour but once again it tasted like I added a little too much vanilla powder for my liking....I think I might be a tad heavy handed...teehee

Well I have been all raw today!

I am now going to make Adam some packed lunch for tomorrow because he is at college all day tomorrow.

Back tomorrow

My evening meal on Monday, served in one of my new wooden bowls, which I STILL haven't taken a pic of...doh!

I had Romaine, Nectarines, Fresh Figs, Mushrooms, Grated Carrots and Cabbage, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumber and Alfalfa...YUMCIOUS!
I did also add a dash of vegan mayo mixed with a little Dijon mustard and then I sprinkled nutritional yeast on top.

My snacks over the last couple of days have been a wedged apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
I am planning on having spring rolls wrapped around some veg for my evening meal tonight.

I still haven't got on with the Russell James week one....I MUST! Before I have to move onto week two.

I have been busy helping my husband in his loft these last few days which is good exercise.

*UPDATE*
Forgot to say, I walked into town and back last week...WooHoo - my poor old feet suffered and are still suffering with blisters because I had to wear new-ish shoes...I HATE new shoes...I must be the only woman who HATES having to have new shoes...teehee

I can't remember if I told you that my 2 year old Cuisinart Elite broke down on me a few weeks ago?...BooHoo - Anyway, I received a brand spanking new Cuisinart Elite from Cuisinart a week later....WooHoo Very pleased with Cuisinart for doing that. I had registered the broken Cuisinart when I purchased it and Cuisinart give a 20 year guarantee, doesn't get any better than that!!

For my evening meal I had spring rolls with Alfalfa sprouts, sweetcorn, julienned Carrot and Avocado rolled into the wrappers, I enjoyed them very much! For afters I had Coconut yogurt and fruit, pictured below.

I found this new Coconut yogurt a month or so ago at the Nutricentre but when I was there again last Friday I bought the plain AND then I also found the new Chocolate flavour.

 

These are really nice although a tad pricey. The plain 400g tub is £4.99 and the small 125g tub is £1.99.

 

Finally here is a pic of the wooden bowls that I bought a few months ago. These were a bargain. I would like to go up for a few more, there is a wooden fruit bowl that I would like to get, maybe I wil get there before they stop selling them or run out of stock. I bought them from a wholesalers type place and they seem to get new and different things in all the time.

 

 

These are GORGEOUS in the real!

Straight Sided Bowl (25cm) - £5.24
Salad Bowl (30cm) - 6.74
2 x Small Bowls (15cm) - £1.49 each
2 x Straight Bowls (15cm) 1.49 each
TOTAL £21.53 inc VAT

I had to go to Asda this afternoon to take a bag of sausages back because when I opened them to start preparing my family's evening meal the sausages were stuck together with ice crystals, they were frozen anyway but it wasn't right for them to be covered in ice crystals, they were also covered in freezer burn and didn't look right at all, to me it looked like thy had been re-frozen and there was no way I was going to feed my family those...NO WAY!
Asda did give us a new bag of the frozen sausages....so they should!

Well, I think that is all for today so I will be back tomorrow!
Night, night

Dust myself down and start all over again! So here I am.

I have had a strawberry and banana smoothie for breakfast.
RIGHT! This is it....I am going to get this thing going, get this raw nailed!

Anyway, what has been happening? First of all the roofer guy has been and removed our chimney stack and installed the loft window. We still have a little more work to do in the loft i.e. insulation and one or two of the beams are to be slightly altered but that is all that is left to do which is nothing compared to getting the chimney stack removed and window installed. We plan on having another window installed, maybe next year but it wont be half as much work because there is no chimney stack to remove, just a window to install, but at least now the main part is done. I had noticed that our chimney stack was not looking too great and because we have a cemetery at the back of our house it leaves our house quite exposed and we get battered with wind and rain and I was becoming quite worried incase the chimney stack blew down. I asked the roofer what he thought about the conditon of the chimney and he said, "well, it has certainly seen better days." We are both pleased it's down as it served no purpose anymore. We used to use the chimney when we had solid fuel heating but now that we have gas the fireplace is not used.

I done a big grocery shop on Friday so I am stocked up with lots of gorgeous, yummy, healthy foods again.
I am going to get started with Russell James' salad extra's from his main course. I also now have Russell James' full Dessert course, so we will have to see what my desserts turn out like also.

Oh! Here are two pics that I drew when I was 18 years old.
They are from War of the Worlds.

I will be back later today with pics of meals etc

I wanted to say as to why I haven't been around daily, and the reason is that I have been battling depression, it has been flaring up quite badly. I am taking anti-depressants and have been for a number of years now.
This flare up of depression has not been helped by my bad eating. I have been in a vicious circle of not eating right but wanting to get myself back on track but because of not eating right I have been finding it harder to get off that vicious roundabout to eat right and help myself...thats my theory anyway, or maybe there is more to it again, I don't know. Depression can just take over you as and when it chooses. Depression is always there with a sufferer but it can get a harder and nastier grip when it chooses, it is a constant battle really. I feel the anti-depressants do help take the edge off a really bad depression, help us to handle life but I don't feel they make everything fine and dandy but then life was never meant to be and is never going to be easy.

I have got to think positive! So tomorrow is my day, and my first small challenge is to be raw throughout September hence today's blog title - RAWTEMBER! Small challenges is what I am aiming for now.

I done a body scrub in the shower this morning which is part of helping myself get back into the swing of things.
September is my Rawtember.

Back tomorrow..night