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Birthday parties with whole foods!


Robyn Openshaw - Aug 03, 2009 - This Post May Contain Affiliate Links


Dear GreenSmoothieGirl: What do you do for birthdays?

Birthday 1

So it’s my kids’ birthdays (yes, all of them–within three weeks of each other–go ahead and make your jokes about me and November).   And last night I had a family party.   Dinner was taco salad without the taco meat (though my mom brought BBQ chicken for those who wanted it).   I provided sprouted-wheat tortillas as shells, and I cooked brown lime rice, and black beans cooked in veg broth and salsa, plus all the fixings (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, shredded cheese if you want it) and homemade dressings and guacamole and salsa.   And a big fruit platter.   It was easy.

You can see here I made a chocolate beet cake (see Ch. 11 of 12 Steps), containing pureed beets, no refined sweeteners, no white flour, and only high-nutrition coconut oil.   I also made a regular cake-mix with tub-o-frosting cake.   Check out my two oldest kids (and my niece, Macie) in the photo above, blowing out candles on both cakes.   Everyone had both options, and I told them exactly what each cake was.

Now check out what happened.   The cake that not a single person chose was . . . drum roll please . . . the cake mix.   Everybody loved the beet cake and some wanted seconds:

Birthday 2

See, what happens when you become the nutrition guru, the health food nut, the earthy crunchy, is that people learn that WHAT YOU MAKE TASTES GOOD.   They expect yummy food of you that doesn’t make them feel regretful.   They make the healthy choice at your house because they trust you.   I influenced my family in no way last night, didn’t say “This beet cake is really good,” or anything like that.   I just said, “This one is a cake mix, and this one is beet cake; which one would you like?”   It’s not that you’ll NEVER make anything that doesn’t taste good.   (Read the dedication in my new book for evidence of that!   No one is perfect.)   But you’ll learn a repertoire of things people really like.   And the people you love will appreciate that.

And then here’s what you’ll do with the junk.   This is where the entire cake-mix cake ended up, an ignoble end, but a fitting one.   Nobody ate propylene glycol and partially hydrogenated fat and refined sugar and vegetable oil and a dozen chemicals and preservatives I can’t pronounce.   (I’m so proud of my family.)

Birthday 3

Posted in: Relationships, Whole Food

5 thoughts on “Birthday parties with whole foods!”

Leave a Comment
  1. Anonymous says:

    Has anyone replaced sugar for Tapioca pudding with anything more healthy…sucanat, agave, honey? I LOVE tapioca, but don’t want all that sugar.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks, Carolyn

  2. Anonymous says:

    Dear Jehan Sandra Salem,

    Your problem may be poor food combining.

    Check out this website re: raw food, natural hygiene etc.

    This site will teach you how to be a raw food vegan in the purest form:

    http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/

    Check lesson 22, may as well read from the start later.

    Also, it could have been pesticides too. Watermelon should never be combined with other food at a meal. That goes for all melons.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Dear Jehan Sandra Salem

    Check out detox symptoms as well. You may need to go on a fast to cleanse your body, esp. the digestive track. Lesson 21 for detox, 20 for digestion, 46 for fasting. You’ll need to do a lot of reading but so did I. I did not have your symptoms though. Can you see a Natural Hygienist any time soon? That would be best!

    BTW, a 36 hr fast is nothing, it’s so easy, 2 nights and one day. I tried it and proved to myself that I don’t need to keep on eating and eating. Mind over matter! BTW, I’m underweight by the American standards and was too concerned about it but I realized my body is going thru a detox and this must happen.

    I must be patient.

    Best of luck!

    Monika

  4. Anonymous says:

    Hey Michael, Ch. 11 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods marks recipes with a 1, 2, or 3. The ones rated 3 are all raw. (1 is all whole foods, 2 is fermented with lots of raw ingredients, and 3 is the whole banana.) What I am trying to do here on GSG and with 12 Steps (even though I very often make all-raw desserts) is help bridge the gap between folks on the Standard American Diet and the 100% raw world. I’m teaching people high raw, whole foods, plant based. In other words, 60-80% raw and the rest legumes, whole grains, etc. I find that more people can embrace that (and stay satisfied, and feed families, and fit this into their time and budget restrictions, and function better socially in the “real world”) . . . but man I love all you 100% raw folks too.

  5. Anonymous says:

    I want to try your beet cake recipe. It sounds good, and looked good.

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