Seder #2

Today's Repast:
Breakfast:
Cacao Morning Madness with coconut water, frozen banana, psyllium seed powder, flax seeds, cacao powder and nibs, almond butter and agave; YUM!!

Lunch:
Salad with romaine, carrot, mushrooms, radish and sprouts with dulse and nutritional yeast; dressing of sea salt and olive oil

Snack:
Synergy Grape Kombucha probiotic drink
Raw Revolution chocolate hazelnut bar

Later Snack (I knew I would be eating late due to the seder and was hungry):
raw cashews

Dinner:
OK, so first of all, I had some more wonderful Shmurah (hand-batched) matzoh tonight, enjoying every crunch.
I only took sips of my wine and grape juice for the 4 cups; total of both maybe = 1/3 cup
jicama and avocado salad with what tasted like a mango dressing (raw)
red and golden beets with a vinagrette (cooked)
cucumber tomato salad (raw)
carrot walnut salad (raw)
Kiwi slices with scoops of pineapple and mango sorbet (no sugar; just fruit and ice)

I just got home from a beautiful second night of Passover seder at the home of Rabbi Moshe and Leah Shemtov of Stamford Chabad.
Chabad is an organization dedicated to serving Jews of all ages regardless of religious background or affiliation.
I cannot say enough about the energy each time I walk into their home. I have been invited their a few times for dinner, and this time for seder. Last time I was there, because Leah knows what I do as a health counselor and how I eat, she made me all kinds of raw vege appetizers for a Sabbath dinner! She has even organized a holistic health night for the community.
The love, the spirit of community and family and the welcoming energy were all present.
When I came in, Leah told me that specifically on Passover, they never use anything processed to make their food; it is all from scratch. They don't use any sugar. She said she had been thinking of that and of me, knowing I would appreciate that. Because of this, though, they do not use oils and just for Passover use chicken fat (schmaltz) instead; just a little bit in all the main dishes.
So, I had all the amazing vege and raw starters and skipped the main course. One of the main course dishes had chopped parsnip and carrot and sweet potato and eggplant; roasted root vegs. I didn't eat it because of the chicken fat, but it looked delicious. Forty five people came to share this seder!
I sat across from a neurologist and we shared what we each do professionally; he appreciated my focus on food as medicine, healing eating disorders and creating an ecstatic relationship with food as our most intimate partner.
He was even sharing some holistically oriented methodologies he brings into his practice.
There was a wonderful young man in his junior year of high school asking me how I deal without having meat and how hard that must be. I got to tell him that it is actually ecstatic. Surprisingly, the neurologist piped in and said, "Meat is an inflammatory in the body, right?" I loved it!!
Please write in and share what food you appreciated today...

Tradition Counts as Much as Raw

Today's Food:
Breakfast:
Blueberry elixir with coconut water and water, frozen blueberries and banana, psyllium seed powder, flax seeds, raw crunchy almond butter, cacao nibs and agave
a few slices of Manna carrot raisin bread (gave the rest away, as I'm done with grain during the 8 days of Passover)

32 ounces lemon water

Snack:
Raw cashews

Dinner (non-raw!):
Shmurah matzoh ( hand-baked matzoh for Passover that is crisp and yummy)
vege chopped liver (made from nuts and maybe peas? though I don't think so because we don't eat peas on Passover)
eggplant salad with olive oil
Charoset: A specialty for the holiday, used to symbolize the mortar that the Jews as slaves used to make the bricks.
a plate of food with: grilled veges, raw carrot and walnut salad (thank you, Fredi!), tomato cucumber salad, and a piece of my mom's (and Nana's) Farfel Pudding that my cousin made tonight, which contains, apples, walnuts, matzoh meal, matzoh farfel and sugar.
One more vege dish that I can't remember

Dessert (yes, I had dessert!):
1/2 special bakery macaroon with chocolate, thin slice of chocolate ganache, 1/2 tortle (chocolate, walnuts and sugar that looks like a "turtle) and some raspberries and blueberries

I love Passover. We always had the best seders growing up, steeped with tradition and tons of fun. Today it's a time I also think of and miss my dad, who has been gone for almost 3 years. When I was a little girl, he would take me with him through a ritual done the night before Passover, where you symbolically clean your house of all bread and grains. He would place small pieces of bread around the entire house, including the basement, and as guided by the doctrines of the ritual, we had a wooden spoon, a feather and a candle. As we crept through the house, room by room, the game was for me to locate each piece of bread in delight. Then my dad would take the feather and bend down to "sweep" the bread onto the wooden spoon. This went on until we had made our way through all the rooms. In the morning, I would watch him outside as he burned the bread and said a prayer. Then I knew it was really Passover.
To this day, I love ritual and engage in it and facilitate it as much as possible, from clearings to honorings to intentionings, I drum and chant and pray and summon in God and my angels, including my father.
I also love tradition as it extends to food. I love that my cousin Fredi made my Nana's and my mom's Farfel Pudding, and I thought about that and felt it as I took each bite. I loved sharing food with family and connecting with others around the table.
I loved the decadence of those Passover tortles that my mom always had at our seder table, too.
I loved the Charoset, as it always holds incredible memories of being in the kitchen with my mom and my first sister-in-law, who has since passed away, laughing and talking like girls and making Charoset together.
With every bite of food, I honor the holiday and the memories and the love and connection of family, as well as the cherished ones who are no longer with us.
Tomorrow I will be back to raw, and tomorrow night a second seder (stay tuned :)
When you choose to honor something important to you, do it completely and with full intention and appreciation.
Please write in and share your family traditions...