Freelee's #1 tip for switching to a vegan lifestyle

I've recently gotten hooked on Freelee the Banana Girl (YouTube high-carb raw vegan advocate). She's probably the most extreme kind of vegan I've ever heard of, high carb raw vegan, or sometimes called 80/10/10, you basically eat a ton of raw fruit and vegetables.  There's a whole clique of raw vegan vloggers on YouTube, I'll post a list of my favorites some time.   I have to admit, all of the high carb raw vegan YouTube people are in such amazing shape, so high energy, and they talk about how their health, watching their videos is great motivation!

Anyway, in this video Freelee answers a ton of questions from her Facebook fans, and one that came up was "What is your #1 tip for switching to a vegan lifestyle?"

Anyway! Freelee talks about educating yourself about why you should go vegan. Here are the links in her video description (I suspect some of these may be graphic, I personally don't watch these kinds of videos):

Earthlings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7Ys
5 reasons to avoid eggs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfvdypnAgg
5 reasons to avoid milk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9hh-Npc50
What's really in your burger? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD0RTBtl0Pc

Also, she says find a community or start one. Let me know if you have your own tips in the comments!

New Foods: Prickly Pear Fruit

I love cactus!  Isn't this prickly pear fruit sooooo pretty?  The color is amazing!

Nopales salad is one of my favorite foods, but I had never eaten the fruit of the cactus before! (I had been tempted to when I saw one growing on my neighbor's cactus when I used to live in California, but my husband was like, "Keep moving!")

I forgot to take a picture of this  BEFORE I started eating it, but the picture above is the very last slice (sitting in the dish) and the peels.  The flavor was actually quite subtle, not that sweet, and not that distinctive.  There are round black seeds embedded in the fruit which I swallowed (I hope that is OK) and those give the fruit an interesting texture.  When I picked up this fruit, I saw some directions that said cut off both ends of the fruit, cut it in half lengthwise and then peel the skin off.  I didn't know if I was supposed to peel the skin off with a knife like you do with an apple, but then I quickly realized there is a softer layer between the center and the peel where you can separate the peel and the fruit quite easily by just pulling.



I ate the whole thing by myself as a snack, but I think most people use them in recipes, and it seems that most people like to use the fresh juice in things.

New Fruits

Since my husband and I have been in Jamaica, we've had the opportunity to try lots of fantastic new foods!  Here's a list fruits we were introduced to on this trip:

• Ackee
• Sour Sop (as juice)
• June Plum (as juice)
• Breadfruit
• Coconut water with jelly (the coconuts here are different than the kind we get in NY, I think those are imported from Thailand) 
• Sorrel (in a drink)

I've already written about Ackee, which tastes like cheese or egg (my husband thought our Ackee dish was was egg and cheese).

The Sour Sop Juice was from a grocery store, and it was so highly sweetened it was hard to tell what the fruit flavor alone was (there was also lime juice added).  It was a bit like lemonade with a slightly different tang. If I go into town again, I might try to buy a fresh sour sop just to try it fresh and unadulterated.  (And yes, that is a rainbow in the background of the photo above.)

I had June Plum juice at breakfast one day, which slightly reminded me of lemonade, but with a vague shiso-leaf-esque flavor that made it more refreshing. 

Breadfruit was served sliced into a cube, and it tasted like a slightly dry, more dense, and highly refined cube of Wonder (white) bread.

The Coconut Water and Jelly is similar to the Thai coconut, except it is not as sweet, and the meat (the jelly) is much lighter.

Sorrel is delicious in a drink, I had it as a sort of iced tea (it looks and tastes similar to hibiscus, which it is related to).  It is a bright red tangy drink, sweetened with sugar.  My husband has had a Sorrel cocktail every night we've been at this hotel!  Here's the hotel's recipe (in case you can't see the photo above):

Sorrel Daiquiri
2 oz Light Rum
1/2 oz lime juice
3 oz Sorrel Juice  

You can add ginger to make it taste even more Jamaican!