Brad's 7 Day Raw Challenge: Day 3 - New Recipe! Mango-Almond Stir-Fry.

It’s Day 3 of our challenge and day 1 of my new and hopefully improved diet routine. No need for chit chat today. Let’s get rawkin’!

Early Morning Routine:

Once again, I’m starting my mornings off with a nice glass of lemon water. It’s a great way to hydrate the body, flush toxins out and get your metabolism jump started. 

I also did a few stretches. I’m hoping to add a small 10 minute yoga routine in the morning to get my body rolling.

Breakfast:

No smoothies. Yep. I decided I will keep that for post workout. I’m hoping my change from NOT eating anything to eating a smoothie loaded with carbs, protein and fats after my workouts will help with recovery time. The change is also to help with the discomfort I have been getting lately with drinking smoothies at 6am in the morning. Instead of gradually increasing my meals from light to heavy, I’ve been starting off with heavy and ending with little to nothing. So far the change has made a significant difference. My stomach is emptying faster and my digestive system seems to be more relaxed and not so overworked.  

Today for breakfast I switched my daily morning smoothie for a mono meal. If you have never heard of a mono meal, it is simply a meal consisting of only one type of food. Eating a mono meal, specifically in the morning time, allows your body to slowly break the overnight fast of detoxing and cleansing so that it can start focusing on digesting the foods you have eaten to help fuel you throughout the day.  If you throw a smoothie loaded with 10-12 ingredients into your body first thing when you wake up, your body automatically goes into overdrive as it works to break down and separate the nutrients from each food type to be further digested and absorbed. With a mono meal, your body only needs to focus on digesting one type of food. It’s quicker and gentler on your system. 

Think about it. You don’t like to be aggressively woken up do you? Don’t you prefer a gentle shake until you are able to slowly and gradually wake up? Well, you’re body and digestive system prefers the same. 

 My mono breakfast was a beautiful bowl of farm fresh strawberries; some tart, some sweet, some firm, some soft, all juicy and bright! It was the perfect start to my morning. Not too heavy just purely satisfying.

Mid-Morning:

I enjoyed a lukewarm mug of green tea with raw honey to sweeten. I love cool green tea. It’s a really refreshing drink that way.

Lunch

Oooh am I excited about this one!  My cravings for stir-fry combined with a taste for a mango dressing recipe I ran across led to this crazy concoction: Cauliflower “Stir-Fried” Rice with Mango-Almond Stir-Fry Sauce. Sweet, fruity, savory, salty, tangy and a pinch spicy…it had to work! And it did! 

The mango sauce is mildly sweet and tangy with a slight hint of spicy umami savoriness. The almond butter rounds out the sauce giving it body and a smooth mouthfeel. The sauce perfectly complements the mild, fresh, crunchy veggies in this dish giving you a feeling of complete satisfaction, even if you were craving the cooked version. Trust me. With this dish, you won’t miss it.

Raw Cauliflower Stir Fry with Mango-Almond Stir Fry Sauce

Recipe by Beth Mickens

Serves 1 bowl

Mango-Almond Stir-Fry Sauce

• 1/3 cup ripe, sweet mango (Haitian or Champagne mangoes works perfectly!)
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• 2 tsp nama shoyu or tamari
• 1 ½ tsp of lime juice
• 1 heaping tsp of raw almond butter
• 2 Tbsp of water
• Pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne
• Pinch of salt

1. Place all the ingredients into a small blender, aka bullet, or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Add water as needed to reach desired consistency. You’re looking for a thick, but pourable sauce that will well coat the veggies.
3. Set aside

Vegetable Stir-Fried Cauliflower Rice

• 1 ½ cups of cauliflower
• 2 Tbsp of each:
• Mushrooms
• Red bell pepper
• Carrots
• Sugar snap peas
• Zucchini
• Any other veggies you can think of or prefer
• 1 green onion, sliced
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 avocado, sliced, for garnish
• 1 Tbsp of chopped cilantro, for garnish

1. In a small food processor, blend the cauliflower florets until finely chopped and it resembles a coarse grain similar to rice. You should yield about 1 cup.
2. Pour the cauli rice into a medium bowl and add the remaining veggies. Toss to combine.
3. Season lightly with salt.
4. Pour the veggie stir-fry into serving bowl.
5. Drizzle with the mango-almond stir fry sauce.
6. Top with slices of avocado and garnish with cilantro.
7. Serve.

It tastes just as great next day, room temp or cold.

NOTE: You can also toss the veggies in the sauce before serving. It was prettier poured :)

Enjoy! 

If you make this dish PLEASE send me your feedback! This “chef” thrives off of constructive criticism. I request it.

Snacks: 

The new change in my eating routine left my belly craving for more, lighter foods. So I enjoyed this perfectly sweet, savory and crunchy raw Cherry Walnut Crunch bar by Thunderbird Energetica and a banana before working out!

Dinner:

Another fabulous smoothie by Kobi Kenzo, revised to my needs of course. 

Ch-Chi-Chia

Adopted from Kobi Kenzo

Makes 16 oz 

• 2 handfuls of spinach or preferred greens
• 1 tbsp of chia seeds
• 1 tbsp of raw almond butter
• 1 small or ½ large frozen banana
• 1 cup raw almond milk
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp of hemp seeds
• 1 Tbsp of Sunwarrior’s Vanilla protein powder
• Turmeric, aloe vera (optional)

Blend away!

This was shockingly tasty despite my bias expectations. Anything with JUST banana is always icky to me but this…this was good. Really good!

I have to say, I feel tons better this go around. I think this new eating routine is going to be a positive one.  I can’t wait to see the results. In the meantime, I’ll continue to listen to my body..and you should too.

Good Night Rawkstars!

For my friends in Australia who love to cook; want to learn and be an expert!? The Melbourne cooking classes are available in sit-down and hands-on formats with intimate classes being the norm. Click Here for more info!!

Thank you, Trupp Cooking, for contacting me and providing me more info on your classes! Wish I lived in Australia!

* Beth *