How did I live before kelp noodles???

For me the hardest thing about eating healthy and raw food is preparation. I usually end up buying too much produce and it goes to waste or don't buy enough and then don't want to bother running back to the grocery store so I'll just eat something that's not healthy/raw that's already in the house. So these next two weeks before the baby gets here and I "officially" start trying to be more healthy and lose weight, I'm trying to make a raw recipe here and there so I'll have a few "go to" meals under my belt.

Today I made some raw kelp noodles with lightly steamed broccoli and a homemade, raw spicy peanut sauce. Let's break this recipe down:

1. Kelp noodles. These noodles can be found in Asian markets and health food stores. They come in a package and are pretty cheap and a great substitution for pasta. Even if you aren't trying to go raw, you could eat them instead of spaghetti to get less carbs in your diet and they are very low in calories. They don't have much of a flavor so you can use different sauces to make different types of meals with them and all you have to do is soak them in water to soften them, no cooking! Here's the brand I use:

http://kelpnoodles.com/products_seatangle_noodles.html

Broccoli: I love broccoli so I lightly steamed some (not raw) and put that on top of my noodles. You could add anything you like though to this dish.. grated carrots, olives, nuts, raw corn, whatever sounds yummy to you.

The spicy peanut sauce: Honestly, when I've gone raw in the past, I always would look at the recipes for these raw sauces or marinades and think "man, that is TOO much work! I'll just buy a bottle of peanut sauce and be done with it, even if it's not raw". Well, I couldn't be more wrong. I made the following sauce from a recipe I found online and it was actually really fun making it and I was surprised at how good it came out:

4-5 tbsp almond butter

1/4 cup filtered water

3 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1-2 jalapeno peppers, de-seeded

1 tbsp agave syrup

1 tbsp nama shoyu (a healthier version of soy sauce)

1/2-1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

I used honey instead of agave syrup so my dish wasn't vegan and I used a different type of pepper because my grocery store was out of jalapenos (I know! crazy, right?). The only thing I might have changed was to add some crushed red pepper flakes to it but it came out smooth with a little heat and a touch of sweetness as well on top of the almond butter flavor. I know a lot of these ingredients sound strange to people who don't eat raw foods or vegan but you can find everything at your local grocery store. Here's a pic of the final dish: (Ok, I still can't figure out how to put the picture in the bottom of the post, so it's at the top for now! sorry!)

This is definitely something that is easy to make, satisfying, and a meal I would eat a couple times a week and feel good with. Again, once the baby is here I'm going to try to have a green smoothie for breakfast every weekday, a raw meal for lunch every weekday, and then something healthy for dinner, preferably vegan or vegetarian. Weekends I'll just be trying to eat healthy in general.

Thanks for reading and if you decide to use some kelp noodles yourself let me know how you like them!