If you are looking for weeks 2 and 3, don’t bother. They were a lot of learning and lessons that can be summarized here…

1. I was making eating raw WAY TOO DIFFICULT

2. I was making eating raw WAY TOO EXPENSIVE

3. I was making eating raw WAY TOO CALORIC

So here I am at week 4 and here are my NEW “Raw Monday Rules”…

1. I only make ONE meal from a recipe

2. The other meals/snacks are either fruit, veggies, salad, or nuts

3. I eat primarily whole foods and not store bought raw packaged stuff

4. I look for meals where the MAJORITY of the meal is fruit/veggies

5. I look for meals with lower caloric count (unless it’s dessert I make raw that day of course)

6. If the meal does call for large amounts of nuts, dates, oil, or other calorically dense foods, I use a tad less

Armed with my new rules and lessons I have learned over the past month, I feel confident in my raw journey ahead.

So today I made a DELICIOUS recipe from rawmazing.com…

Curry Carrot Salad

4 cups grated carrots, (approximately 10 medium carrots, grated)
2 cups snow peas, sliced into 1/2-inch long pieces
2 cups diced fresh pineapple
1/2 to 1 cup raisins
1 bunch scallions, sliced thin

Curry Dressing

1/2 cup cashews, soaked for at least 6 hours and drained
1/2 cup fresh almond milk (you can use water but it won’t be as flavorful)
2 teaspoons sweet yellow curry powder
1/2 teaspoon nama shoyu
1 tablespoon liquid sweetener of choice
Himalayan salt to taste

I also added cilantro to the “salad” and garlic, turmeric, and ginger to the “dressing”

1. Toss carrots, snow peas, pineapple, raisins and scallions together in a large bowl.
2. Place all dressing ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
3. Pour dressing over salad and mix through to coat all pieces.

This salad is seriously AMAZING, the only problem is that is serves 6 and I ate the whole thing. YIKES!!

So now the only RAW MONDAY issue I am having is over-eating. Any suggestions?? I have been posting recipes and pics here…

www.facebook.com/FoodFitnessFinanceFun

I would love to get some raw-dvice from any experts out there!!!

I am super excited to make this because one of my favorite meals at a restaurant I love is Sweet Potato Masala!! This may be one of my most successful vegan recipes yet!

Tuesday 10am: Grocery Shopping…10 mins…only needed a couple things I didn’t already have…

• 2 Large Sweet Potatoes $2.85
• Large Can of Crushed Tomatoes $1.19
• 2 Cans of Low fat Unsweetened Coconut Milk $3.58
• Cilantro $.34
• Basmati Rice $5.29 (and will last me all week for sure)

Ingredients I already had…

• 1 Tbsp. Fresh Grated Ginger
• 3 Cloves Crushed Garlic
• 1 Tbsp. Cumin
• 1 Tbsp. Garam Masala
• 1 tsp. Turmeric
• 1 tsp. Coriander
• 1⁄2 tsp. Cardamom
• 1⁄2 Tbsp. Chili powder
• A few Cloves
• A few Fennel Seeds
• Salt to taste

Spices are pretty expensive up front, but last a long time. Even the Cardamom that was like $12 only comes to pennies each serving. So I would guess for this meal all the spices would total $2-$4.

Tuesday 11am: Prep time 10 minutes

Combine the ginger, garlic, tomatoes, coconut milk, spices, and cubed Sweet Potatoes in your Crock Pot.

Cook on high for 3 hours and then low for 3 hours. Or high for 4 or low for 8 or whatever combo works with your schedule.

Tuesday 5pm: Made Basmati Rice…took 20 minutes total

Let it cool a bit and sprinkled cilantro leaves on top.

My Taste Test…8 out of 10. I thought it was DELISH! And very spicy which I love. I didn’t really measure my spices out, I just tossed them in so not sure which of the spices actually made it spicy but it’s perfect for me.

Hubby’s Taste Test…8 out of 10…WHAT??? I may be a good wife yet!! He said if it was creamier it would be a 10. The recipe I adapted mine from had yogurt and corn starch in it to thicken and cream it up. I live in a small town and there wasn’t vegan yogurt at our store and for some reason corn starch scared me, so I just omitted them both. I will try it again next time with the vegan yogurt for my hubby! YAY!

Total Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cost: $16.25

We each had 2 giant bowls of it for each meal and it fed us a total of 6 meals (3 each) so we paid $2.71/meal

Like I have said before, we eat twice as much as a normal person so you guys could probably get it done for about $1.35/meal.

YAHOO!