So this week started off a bit rocky. There was even a Tornado Warning in effect (!!!) on Tuesday I think it was and at about 3pm....everything went BLACK (we got a ride home that day).....Every morning, me and my new found friend, Beth, walk to school, about 2.5 miles each way. Our hotel is nesteled just on the back side of the NW Expressway, and yes the Expressway is just that, 8 full lanes of high speeding, two-way traffic, divided by a strip of concrete island down the middle. We traverse this every time we venture out. Once out past this mile of highway, we hit shopping center after shopping center with malls and mini malls filled with NOTHING really that either of us would partake in, tons of fast food restaurants, and clothing stores that I am unfamiliar but wouldn't count as options in my world. We pass Dillards, Jamba Juice, Cell Phone Stores, but nowhere we could go for take-out or food to bring back to the room- or even go out to for an emergency meal. Once we are away from school- food options are down right bleak. land-locked and seemingly food Locked, we both grew frustrated and hungry...School was awesome but we are only in session from 9-3pm- that leaves us with no access to food from 3 on, unless we eat at 105 AFTER school which we never have...If we ate what we had made for lunch during school, we only have left over sauces and scraps that a meal they do not make.........until Walmart.........WALMART!..........it had come up that Walmart had "select items that were organic".........REALLY? We had passed it on every single journey to and from school and every day we would walk by and say, there are so many people going in and out of this place.....WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED FROM HERE? So we made a plan....We would get a ride home (carrying leftover ice creams) and then traverse BACK out to Walmart....just to see, check it out........ We walked in and it was like walking into MECCA (among other things, those emails about Walmartions....they really do exist).....There right in front of us this bounty of fresh produce greeted us....Organic Lettuce, organic mixed greens, organic citrus, melons, bananas....FRESH FRUIT AND PRODUCE- a pretty extensive selection to boot! We were running around the store showing each other our organic and transitional treasures... Gone were the days of going without food in the evening, or trying to fill up on school food leftovers......We could have a salad, or fruit! Beth lugged 40 pounds of produce in her backpack, I carried the rest....we were the happiest we had been walking the highway walk, breathing in the fumes....we got home and broke into the watermelon....It was the most satisfying RAW meal to date.
Since, we have gone on "food field trips".....Lia, who is also in our friendly circle of Chefs, took us all to the HEALTH MART and Super CAO, both of which I am just floored exist out in the mid-west/ Bible belt locale...(check out the license plate)... The Health Mart was HUGE, with a full organic Juice and Smoothie Bar, but filled with organic fruits and vegetables, Superfoods, RAW foods, specialty foods and was holding a lecture while we were there, educating clientele on whole foods and the dangers of sugars and refined foods- it was incredible. We all got a coconut, and stuck a straw in it and rolled lazily through each aisle looking for more food blessings...it was PACKED! They had a crazy selection of RAW foods- more than I have ever seen in a store-store.....We shopped for over an hour and filled up Lia's cherry red convertible Mercedes. I have never seen anything like it on EITHER coast, the selection was just mind blowing. Later in the evening, we wanted more coconuts- we found them at the Asian Market-Super Cao- apparently there is a huge Asian contingency in OKC (?) Again, I couldn't believe it, it was like a warehouse STOCKED with goods, young coconuts, DragonFruit, Asian specialty items, produce, CRAZY produce....packages containing Vegetarian "Lamb Chunks" and "Veal" which I promptly passed on.....(???) but we came out- each of us loaded with coconuts, special hand tools,...- a Cleaver! It was awesome......I am amazed how the RAW community has infiltrated this very spread out landscape of Fast Foods- this is truly Fast food Nation...and here are these Gems that are standing and thriving in the midst of it......So now, my hotel fridge is FULL up of coconuts, organic greens and lettuce, cucumbers, lemons, limes, melon, (we ate the bananas), raw, soaked and sprouted pumpkin and sunflower seeds.....all and all, the week rounded itself out.
We did a little yoga in my room (HILARIOUS how the three of us strategically placed ourselves around the bed) and went to 105 for dinner and brunch this morning.....sat next to Mr. James Cromwell- .....("That'll do Pig, that'l do")...LOVE HIM- I was too worried to ruin his meal to go up to him, but I learned he will be attending again later in the week- so I will catch him then, LOVE FROM OKC. XOE

105 DEGREES....RAW.....WEEK ONE

So I have to say, I am more in love with food than I ever have been before. I am not sure if it's the feeling of being in total alignment with the PRANA or LIFE FORCE of of RAW, plant based foods, or if it is being in a place of total inspiration of what is possible with fruits, veggies and nuts- whatever it is.....I AM DOWN!

In one week, I have made beautiful KIM CHEE, gorgeous raviolis out of beets, layers of vegetable lasagna, pesto out of pistachios, Maple Maca Vanilla Pecan ice cream, hand rolls, sushi rolls, and the most amazing Chipotle Cheese Kale chips......ALL in the FIRST WEEK!!!

I spend all day every day working with the most amazing ingredients- simple, whole foods from the earth......how could I not be in love or inspired?
Thus far, my experience has solidified what I know I know about food, preparing it, putting flavors together...but it has humbled me all over again in knife skills and the wonderfully meditative aspect that comes when connecting with a task at hand...ONE task at hand...supreming an orange.... cutting 1/4 x 1/4 x 2.5 batonets, or 1/16 x 1/16 x 1/16 fine brunois.... I LOVE THIS SHIT......It is also lovely to know human beings can connect on so many levels and that food, for me, is indisputably one of my most favoritest of ways. I have met and share a classroom with 6 other fascinating individuals- all of whom on the first day I was like..."Who am I going to hang out with?" and in the course of one week, I would love to hang out with all of them. Beth, Tamara, Fran, Lia, Monica, and Sean. Chef Haylee is our resource and our guide through this fantastic journey and I want to know all that she knows! (I secretly want her job...but I think it would have to be on the east coast....). I am 5 days in and the most RAW I have ever been and my plan is to commit to being RAW for the time I am here. What is more amazing is that being here and being RAW, I realize I LOVE my beans, my bloomed brown rice and other favorite cooked foods and I will no doubt have them again- however, what has become abundantly clear is that my true commitment is to forever and ever, and from this day forward- EAT MORE RAW, more of the time, all of the time-and to share the wealth of health that comes from doing so- without hang ups, without guilt or expectations of what it is "suppose" to look like or what my percentage of RAW foods is.....For me RAW connects me to the planet and all of it's corners and creatures in a way and more than anything I have ever experienced, like an internal knowing that has been awakened- it connects me to the nourishment that is food, life, sustainability and sustenance.
Day one I was so excited about EVERYTHING that I put in my mouth...one of the first things we made was a macadamia nut ricotta cheese for our lasagna.... I couldn't help but bounce and bob around amidst all of my new comrades and out slipped a "FRICKEN YUM".....Sean quickly caught it and asked "why do you say FRICKEN?" I paused and sheepishly looked at him and I explained that there was just no other way to put it.

So my message? EAT MORE RAW.....My Mission?

To eat more raw organic foods, to inspire my community, to be BADASS, to be kind to others and all living things, to take care of the Planet, to shop local, to empower every individual through inspired action- so that they can be a source of empowered inspiration, to lead the change, be the change and share the change, infusing my community and the Planet with HUMANITY. RAWK ON.
FRICKEN YUM, LOVE, Ellen