DINNER

Because most of us already eat protein-containing meals for dinner, we leave you on your own here. Just make every effort to use high quality REAL (not manufactured or processed) ingredients and pay attention to our Rule #1, in order to maintain insulin/blood sugar balance and acid/alkaline balance.  Using clean, nutritious ingredients will also reduce your "detox" needs.

Note that even we break our rules, as when we have Trader Joe's frozen woodburn-oven pizza (made with white flour) to which we add fresh basil, raw cheddar cheese, thin sliced tomato, maybe shitake mushrooms, or thin sliced onions, etc. We also innovate. Sauces made with fresh ginger, tamari, olive oil and raw honey dresses up salmon or a "miso" sauce  (made with fresh garlic and olive oil and lemon, flavored with miso) can REALLY be good on chicken or fish. When we want "breaded" fish, we dip in an egg/cream mixture first, then into a mixture of ground almonds (from Trader Joe's) and grated Romano, then place in baking dish heavily coated in coconut oil, and also top fish with lots of coconut oil, then bake. DELISH!

For lasagna, we have reduced the noodles, and increased the ground beef which we brown in coconut oil. We add sauteed onions and even use organic tofu in place of some of the ricotta cheese (which we blend with eggs and oregano and garlic) because we find we can digest our lasagna better this way. (Possibly because the Ricotta is from pasturized, commerical milk?)  We top with grated imported Romano, and/or raw cheddar which we heat to melt at the last minute. Our chili is now made with far more ground beef in relation to the kidney beans, and lots of organic tomato sauces, garlic, onions, green chillis and celery plus lots of cumin, paprika, chili powder, oregano and basil.

Often times our meals contain only the protein/fat plus a big salad and maybe one green veggie. That is all. If we get hungry, a glass of Kefir or a bowl of berries and cream do the trick.

Overall, we have learned to approach recipes with our Rule #1 in mind. Not only do our meals usually taste really good, they are satisfying and health-promoting as well. With each new meal we are also learning to make tasty and liberal use of "healing herbs and spices" along with better fats, protein and carbs. As we allow ourselves some creativity (which is then rewarded with good-tasting, satisfying food) we have found that cooking and/or raw food preparation - while we would not describe it as fun exactly - is more enjoyable.

As a basic rule of thumb, always provide at least 4 ounces of good protein for each person, add in adequate non-starchy vegetables and to the degree needed for your guests some favorable carbs along with minimal unfavorable carbs only as absolutely needed. And always add some good fat, especially butter or cream, and perhaps a good quality olive oil for homemade, one-minute salad dressings. Note that it is always best to fill up on fats before adding favorable and unfavorable carbs, since it is good fats which help our bodies maintain acid/alkaline balance over the long term.

Each meal should contain, on a per serving basis and in approximate terms:

• 4 ounces or more of best protein. We sometimes count cheese as a protein, even tho we count it as a combination food. We find that we can handle, and thrive, when we eat most raw cheeses even though we considered ourselves "lactose intollerant" previously. We also sometimes count bean and rice combinations toward our protein, so long as we also consume adequate good fat (avocado, sour cream, etc) with it.

• 2 - 6 cups non-starchy vegetables, per person  (cooked vegetables take up less volume, and some people may do best with cooked and served with butter)

• A pat or so of butter or cream for each person, minimum - and perhaps some olive oil in salad dressing or such (cream in coffee does NOT count)

• additional favorable, and minimal unfavorable carbs, according to metobolic needs (it is always best to fill up on fats first, since most of us are "fat starved")

Again we recommend Nourishing Traditions  as well as Recipe for Living Without Disease both for  their recipes and related information.