Week 9, Day 1 - Manna Bread Sandwich & I lost 3 lbs!

Does this sandwhich not look delicious?!!! This is Manna bread topped with tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, salt, pepper, avocado, fresh basil, and baby yellow bell peppers.

I made a trip to the local health food store today, and on my list was the Manna bread. It's not 100% raw but it's pretty darn close - close enough for me, as I'm aiming for as mostly raw as I can. I would much rather have something like Manna bread if I am going to have something cooked, rather than potato chips or something!

The loaf is very small, and cost me $4.99. I know, ouch. I may look into making my own but it all seems rather complicated with lots of sprouted stuff, lol. I bought a rye loaf and it doesn't taste anything like rye to me, but it has kind of a sweet taste - no yeast or anything. It makes me wish I had not sold my dehydrator last summer so I can start making some raw wraps again.

After dropping the kids off at school at 8:15, I headed to Lifesource Natural Foods, but realized they don't open until 9am and they are only about a 20 minute drive. Hmmm...

Ever since we got home from AZ on Monday night I've been writing down some things that we need grocery-wise, and grouping them into the 4 store we usually shop at: Costco, WinCo (lots of bulk), Lifesource, and Norman's Farmer's Market. I decided to swing into Winco - I had maybe 8 things on my list so I figured that wouldn't be too hard with the 3 littles - 4, 3, and 1.

Hmmm...funny the things you buy that you didn't realize you NEEDED! Half an hour later of solid shopping and many, many different bags from the bulk section, we trooped out. I realized while in the store that Easter is, um, TWO days away, and I only have 1 single solitary stuffed bunny! And I feel sick every evening so it's not like I want to go shopping while Bret is home with the kids.

So I just tossed in 6 chocolate bunnies, peeps, jelly beans, etc into the cart - the kids were really good about it. They got fussy after a while but I found a small package of vanilla cookies for $.48 that I let them munch on. For the Easter baskets, I also bought a 10-pack of cornnuts, 3 packs of jerky to split into 6 baggies, and a family pack of ritz cracker with cheese. Marie helped me pick out some Easter reese's cups and some jelly beans. That was too easy! To fill up the baskets I'll use white tissue paper - much less mess than the fake grass. All I need are some bunnies and a couple of baskets - I realized I'd saved 4 baskets from last year so we'll just reuse them.

I weighed myself this morning and was VERY happy to see that the scale is back down, from 133 a few days ago, to 130.0. I remember from ages ago that, even while pregnant, eating raw food helps me to lose 2-3 pounds pretty much within days due to bloating and the heaviness that comes with eating SAD food. So now I can officially say that as of week NINE I have only gained THREE pounds! Yay! Last pregnancy at week 10 I had gained 6 pounds, so I am ahead - at least, if I can stick with the raw foods.

At the natural food store I was disappointed that their SO SO SO yummy food bar was not open yet - they always have the best vegan vegetable stirfries that are all natural. Instead I opted for a day-old cold piece of pizza made from spelt flour - delicious! It had artichoke hearts and all sorts of yummy veggies - all good EXCEPT for the mozzerella. But it was very minimal so I felt ok about that.

I also found a RAW ice cream sandwich! It was this tiny little thing, about 2" square and cost me $2.89 but felt oh so good to splurge a little and enjoy. It didn't taste anything like a regular one, the "cookie" part tasted alot like dates, but the ice cream was delicious, exact same texture. I also found and bought a Rawvolution chocolate coconut bar for $1.79 - very good. I ate it like candy, yum! I especially enjoyed the coconut.

When I made the kids their lunch, I had bought some Lay's chedder & sour cream chips for them - we make all our kids' lunches at school so I like to put in a few to make the lunches not so mundane. I inhaled the smell and while it did smell good, it smelled really...oily to me. I knew that if I ate some, 1) I would feel poorly shortly, 2)I would wish I hadn't because I really want to stay raw, and 3) they wouldn't taste as good I remembered them. That's just how it is - once you're mostly raw for a while, things that you remember being really good and that you crave, become wayyy too salty (like the garlic french bread I had the other day) or just more "bleh" than I remember.

At Winco they had 1lb containers of strawberries for $1.18!! The cheapest they usually go around here EVER is $2. Maybe because it's Easter and everyone is going to have strawberry shortcake and/or fruit salad, lol. I couldn't believe my eyes, and what made me actually look for them was the SMELL - wow, this delicious smell kept wafting my way in the produce section. I would have probably purchased 10 packages as we go through them like water, but there was a limit of 4 per purchase - probably a good thing, lol. They were covered with a layer of dirt, and looked & smelled almost exactly like the ones locally grown here. Usually strawberries are prime here the end of May/early June so we're almost there!

I am feeling almost no effects of morning sickness today. I am very curious as to whether this is because I am eating better (I was 100% raw yesterday, munching on that broccoli salad almost all day!) or because I'm coming closer to "the end"?? Regardless, I am thankful - I feel almost back to my normal self except I am still pretty tired.