My Raw Vegan Husband

Sarma's Favorite Green Shake, Sarma's photo too

My husband Marc doesn’t have it easy. For today, I’ll stick to the food part but trust me it goes far beyond that. In terms of food, I’m sure there are weekends he wished we didn’t have to lug the giant, non-wheeling (the stainless steel didn’t come with wheels!) cooler into the car. Maybe he had hoped that life would have less lettuce, more gluten or that he wasn’t asked if everything was organic. Despite my tendencies, Marc maintains a fairly “normal” diet. He loves his beer, bread and coffee and on many nights from the kitchen I hear something resembling “Daaaad you ate all the cookies. “  Marc’s a fit guy plays hockey, skis in the winter, cycles and plays tennis and golf in the summer. There are marathons and triathlons but still…lots of beer and cookies.

We leave for vacation tomorrow. A client recently enjoyed the “not just juice cleanse” from One Lucky Duck the takeout outpost for one of my favorite restaurants Pure Food and Wine. I’ve done many of the popular cleanses before but I thought this one might work for Marc. There are two versions and one wasn’t necessarily geared at weight loss but it’s raw, vegan and very different from the way he typically eats. Marc looked at the sample menus and decided to give it a try (have to say I was shocked, the guy previously wouldn’t drink a green juice). This past Saturday, I looked over at Marc. It was our last ski weekend and we were out at a local restaurant. In front of my man was a festive green, St Patrick’s-themed Bud Light and a Patron on the rocks. “What?” he said in reaction to my eye rolling, “I have to get it in while I can”.

Monday was the first day. For solidarity, I signed myself up for “Shine” and Marc for “Glow”.  At 7am I realized Marc was still in bed, I think he was fearful of his coffeelessness. I’ll admit I wasn’t looking forward to a caffeine free workweek so I made us a cup of coffee to split. The kids, home on spring break, woke up and my older son asked for BACON. I made bacon (organic, nitrite free) and waited for our first delivery, it was delayed and Marc left for work without food. Later, my son and I delivered his first bag of food to his office and he reached in and grabbed his Blue Sunset smoothie.

I know, he looks thrilled

 He enjoyed it; even my eight year old enjoyed it. Later in the day, after his taco salad I received an email “I could eat like this forever.”

On one hand I agreed, everything we were eating was fantastic. On the other hand I couldn’t believe Marc was eating this food without a complaint.  He had cut out dairy, meat, fish, coffee, refined sugar, most grains and was drinking green juices, eating shoebox-sized salads and enjoying himself. I am still split as to whether this is a male thing or a testament to the fact that if food is interesting and satisfying, change is quite manageable.

We weren’t hungry at all this week. Some of my favorite items were the Swan Juice (cucumber, spinach, dandelion, grapefruit, tarragon, spearmint and yuzu), a Spicy Sesame Salad and chocolate pudding. Marc loved the taco salad, the tortilla wraps (give him Mexican-y and he’s happy) and the Mallomar.  There were some really funny moments too.  On Day 2, I saw dinner was  “Portabella and Hempseed Burger”. Marc hates mushrooms. I hid the menu card and placed the slider-sized meal on the table. Marc ate the delicious concoction with pickled pink onions.

This is a salad plate so you get a sense of the portion.

 He then asked what he had eaten. On Wednesday, Marc realized he had plans to go to the Ranger game with two colleagues. First, he rushed home for his Brazil Nut Crusted Sea Vegetable Croquettes. He met the guys at steak house at the Garden and had seltzer.  They had steak, creamed spinach- the works and gave him such a hard time for his cleanse. One day I left some greens over from my lunch. I had saved them in case dinner was sparse. At 10:30pm Marc eyed the greens and pulled them out “this is delicious” he declared. He had come a long way from the cookies.

Sarma, the owner of One Lucky Duck has two great cookbooks. When you read through the recipes you realize how involved raw food is. There’s soaking and dehydrating and many steps but it was a real treat having the deliveries this week.

Have you experimented with raw food? Ever done a cleanse? Do you think food changes are different for men versus women?