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I’m leaving for New Hampshire tomorrow, as part of Operation Live Free or Die, to help win the first presidential primary for Ron Paul. Staying healthy while traveling for 9 days is a challenge under any circumstances. A vegan health nut staying healthy in the midst of republicans and libertarians is near impossible. I’ve only ever done this successfully for a couple of days, but I’m convinced it can be done longer term with a little preparation.

I will need to bring snacks and supplements that require no preparation, pack up small, and can make it through airport security. Here is what I have come up with for my trip.

Raw energy bars: I made these myself and dumped in whatever I had around that looked nourishing. They contain sprouted buckwheat, sprouted quinoa, apple, pear, ground flax seeds, barley grass powder, and a hint of vanilla. I also made a second batch with shredded coconut, cacao (raw chocolate) powder, and maca powder, for some extra energy in the morning. These taste absolutely horrible, by the way, but I can eat just about anything if I know it’s good for me.

Manna bread: This sprouted grain bread is very nutritious and very dense. I can break off a chunk for a satisfying snack.

Greens+ Chocolate Energy Bars: I am very addicted to these and have never been able to stop myself from eating them when I buy more than one. I bought 9 for my trip and will attempt to limit myself to 1 bar per day. It will be an interesting experiment. I know it’s really just another candy bar, but it’s very healthy as candy bars go: no sugar, no gluten, high fiber, high protein, and alkaline.

Also included in my travel stash are some supplements: Probiotics, MSM, B12 tablets, and noni pills, to keep my immune system working at full capacity. I’m also bringing along some digestive enzymes for those times when I have to eat some less than ideal food.

Some extra good news is that I will be staying with another vegan Ron Paul supporter, which is amazing luck, and there will be plenty of good produce and snacks in town. But I won’t be able to eat the same healthy meals I normally make at home, like my daily green smoothies, and I’m sure to be stuck without many food options at some point during my trip. I am hopeful that this nutrient-packed foods will keep me healthy and energized on the Ron Paul 2008 campaign trail.

Just like every year for the past several, this has been my healthiest year ever. Having some very simple recipes and basic ingredients on hand has been the key to maintaining a clean diet and avoiding junk food binges and restaurant outings. Below are the simple meals that have made up a large part of my diet throughout 2007. Generally speaking, I try to eat at least 2 mostly raw meals per day. I’ve posted my favorite breakfast recipes in a separate post.

“Meal Salad”
The idea of the meal salad is to take whatever vegetables are in the fridge (I never use leafy greens) and mix up a little dressing to make it more filling and appetizing. I usually use these vegetables:
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1 stalk celery, chopped
¼ onion, chopped
sprouts or shredded zucchini
5 black olives, chopped small

My typical salad dressing:
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp flax oil or olive oil
1 Tbsp Bragg liquid aminos
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
½ lemon, juiced
a little bit of black tahini

Cucumber Seaweed Salad
This is based on a recipe from Living on Live Foods by Alissa Cohen. (Pictured above.)

½ package of wakame or arame seaweed, rehydrated
1 cucumber, sliced thin
¼ onion, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp Bragg liquid aminos

Mix all ingredients together. Best when you let it sit for 30 minutes.

Cooked Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
¼ onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
sea salt or herbamare to taste

Mix the quinoa and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, add onions, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Garlic Manna Bread
Manna bread is a very dense and nutritious sprouted grain bread made by Nature’s Path. It is cooked at low temperatures but it isn’t raw. If your local health food store carries it, you can find it in the freezer section.

1/2 loaf Manna bread, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp olive oil

Mix garlic and olive oil together. Spread on Manna bread slices.

Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day. When I was a kid, I delighted making pancakes or french toast with my family. When I became vegan, I was thrilled to find vegan versions of my favorite breakfast foods. Just because I’m a gluten-intolerant health nut with a focus on raw food, doesn’t change my emotional need to have exciting breakfasts. It certainly doesn’t change the fact that a filling, healthy breakfast is the best way to start the day. Listed below are the recipes that I eat on a regular basis.

Green Smoothies
If I don’t eat a green smoothie for breakfast, I will usually eat one for lunch or dinner instead. I believe they are an ideal meal for just about everyone and can go a long long way in counteracting any other junk food that finds its way into your diet.

1/2 head of any leafy greens
2-4 pieces of fruit

Blend in a high power blender or cut the greens and fruit into small pieces and blend in a standard blender. It’s best to eat a variety of greens if eating them every day.

Porridge
This is my favorite weekend breakfast treat. I usually have this at least once each weekend.

2 cups sprouted buckwheat or soaked oat groats (soaked overnight)
1 apple
1 pear
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana, sliced

Mix all ingredients, except for the banana, in a food processor until well mixed and remove from food processor. Mix in sliced bananas. Pour in fresh almond milk for an added treat.

Cooked Amaranth
This is a good breakfast to make on work days (or it was when I worked a “real” job) because you can set a timer get ready for work while its cooking. Just don’t forget to mix in the fruit about half way through.

1 cup amaranth
2-1/2 cup water
1 banana, berries, or other fruit
2 Tbsp flax seed oil

Mix amaranth and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes. Mix in fruit about 10 minutes before the amaranth is done cooking. Remove from heat and mix in flax seed oil.

Green Gorilla Smoothie
The name was stolen from a similar smoothie for sale at Green Life Grocery here in Asheville. I don’t have any measurements on this. Every smoothie is like the kitchen experiments my sister and I used to throw together, except these actually taste good. No two are ever alike. All of these ingredients are not necessary, but these are the most common ones I use.

Almond Milk and/or young coconut water and meat
2 or 3 heaping spoonfuls of spirulina powder
a spoonful of barley grass juice powder
a spoonful of cacao powder or nibs
a spoonful of maca powder
2 bananas
pineapple
shredded coconut

Blend well. Make sure the powders aren’t stuck to the sides.

If you haven’t been a Republican for the past decade or so, there is a good chance that you regard the GOP as the root of all evil; forever on the side of corporate greed, marching the country into perpetual war based on lies, and cramming Jesus down every last heathen’s throat. But if you look at the history of the Republican Party it is supposed to stand for smaller government, lower taxes, and personal responsibility. That may or may not be your idea of good government, but it certainly is not an evil point of view.

At least in the time that I’ve been old enough to vote, the Republican Party has been hijacked by big spender, big government, social conservatives. We have a party that says it is OK to borrow billions of dollars from China in order to finance the “War on Terror” but America is doomed if homosexuals get married or if cancer patients smoke a little marijuana. Not a great set of priorities. What to do?

One possibility is to flock to the Democratic Party. We can vote them into office, en masse, and they will get us out of the war and stop the tyranny of the Bush administration. Oh, wait, we did that already, and the Democrats didn’t do jack squat. They voted to renew the Patriot Act (that means you, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards), they continue to fund the war, and they won’t even discuss impeachment. OK, so now what?

Take back the Republican Party. Get involved. In many counties, the GOP is in a sorry state. They desperately need volunteers. They need precinct chairmen, they need help at the polling stations, and they need members to just show up at events and meetings. Become a delegate. If you’re a “Ron Paul Republican,” don’t feel like you aren’t welcome in the GOP. If you believe that the federal government should be fiscally conservative and limited in its authority over local governments and individuals, then you are a Republican.

Complaining about how the GOP has been hijacked doesn’t help. Just like any organization, the GOP is only as good as its active members. So get active. Go in with a genuine interest in rebuilding a strong, honest party that truly represents what the people want.

If the Republican Party is not for you, get involved with the Democratic Party. They are going down like a sinking ship too, now that they’ve proven themselves to be such a disappointment. They could use some help getting back on the right track. No matter what your political bent, I think we can all agree that it’s about time we have a choice between the greater of two goods, rather than the lesser of two evils.

Does anything compare to the ingenuity, enthusiasm, and hard work that Ron Paul has inspired in his supporters? Every time I think the grassroots has had its grandest hour, they go and do something even more crazy and awe-inspiring. Initially, it was mostly a whole lot of clever videos, songs, and blog posts about Ron Paul. Supporters, including myself, couldn’t stop seeking out online media to learn more about the candidate and his chances of winning. Lately, the effort has shifted into massive real world projects that would never be remotely possible for supporters of any other candidate to achieve (although they do occasionally try). Here is a list, in no particular order, of efforts that have made my jaw drop. In many cases, I believed the goal was set too high and failure was certain, but I have been proven wrong every time.

• November 5th Money Bomb – This legendary fundraiser changed the corporate media’s attitude toward Ron Paul overnight, raising well over $4 million dollars in one day. The official campaign didn’t need to do a thing.
• Operation Live Free or Die – Hundreds of people are taking time off of work to go to freeze their butts off in New Hampshire, so that every voter in the state knows who Ron Paul is, and what he’s about. It’s hard to get people to leave their homes for a couple of hours even to attend a potluck. But for Ron Paul, they are willing to leave home for days or weeks at a time to get him elected. The organizer quit his cushy job at Google to coordinate the effort. Others have quit their jobs to participate.
• Tea Party – Not only does it look like the December 16th money bomb will be significantly bigger than the first one, it has also turned into a massive publicity event in Boston, where volunteers are expected to travel from all around to reinact a modern version of the Boston Tea Party, this time dumping the IRS, the Fed, the Iraq War, and any number of other unconstitutional federal programs into the harbor.
• Ron Paul Blimp – I’m sorry, the what??? A blimp! Awesome. Ron Paul supporters must agree because they have already given $135,000 to pay for this effort. They need to collect $200,000 by midnight on Friday so make sure you send in your money ASAP.
• Granny Warriors – These dedicated ladies painted their RV up with Ron Paul messages and have taken it all over the country to campaign for Ron Paul over the last year. They barely see their homes because they travel so much. They have virtually given a year of their lives in support of Ron Paul.
• Ron Paul Love Bug – A supporter in Asheville, NC decorated his beautiful new VW bug with Ron Paul bumper stickers and message decals to help spread Ron Paul’s message wherever he goes. Word has it that he gets a lot of attention, and reactions have generally evolved from curiosity to support.
• Ron Paul Yacht? – I can’t find any pictures, but I hear there was a Ron Paul yacht outside the recent Florida debate. Huckabee is reported to have asked Ron Paul if he arrived on the boat. There was a huge show of support in Florida. Guiliani commented on the large numbers of supporters for Ron Paul.

Ron Paul Love Bug

These are a few examples that spring to mind, but equally inventive efforts are happening all over the country, and in fact, all over the world. Can you imagine groups of Giuliani, Clinton, Romney, Huckabee, or Obama supporters pulling off even one of these endeavors? Several have tried to at least mimic the “money bomb” success, but none have come close. Because, while other candidate may have supporters who think they’d do a good job, Ron Paul has supporters who believe there is nothing more important right now than to get this man elected. The only thing more amazing than what grassroots supporters have done for Ron Paul’s campaign is the slew of imaginative efforts that are bound to follow.

Did I leave off your favorite Ron Paul grassroots effort? Let everyone know about it in the comments section.

In the 13 years that I’ve followed a vegan diet, the question most commonly asked of me has been, “where do you get your protein?” Meat-eaters, vegans, and aspiring raw foodists alike, all seem to ask that question. There is a lot of disagreement and controversy surrounding what kinds of proteins are best and how much protein individuals require. For an interesting discussion on protein and the benefits of eating essential amino acids from plant sources versus whole proteins from animal sources, I highly recommend the book Green for Life, by Victoria Boutenko. This is a list of protein sources that have worked well for me. I usually include 2 or 3 of these foods in my diet every day.

• Green smoothies: Not only are leafy greens very high in all the essential amino acids that form complete proteins, but they are also excellent sources of other nutrients, such as vitamins A, C, K, calcium, and fiber. They are also very cleansing to the body. It helps to have a high power blender like a Vita-Mix or K-Tec, but even a regular cheap blender will do the job if you chop the greens and fruit well before blending.
• Cooked whole grains: Quinoa and amaranth are great protein sources and are alkaline-forming grains. Acidic diets promote disease, while alkaline diets promote health. Just 1 cup (after cooking) of quinoa has 8 grams of protein. Amaranth is even higher. I enjoy amaranth for breakfast, cooked with banana slices. Wild rice is also a good source of protein, but not quite as good as quinoa.
• Sprouted grains: I haven’t quite gotten into a regular habit of sprouting grains, but I have tried some sprouted grain breads such as Manna Bread, which makes for a tasty, filling, nutrient-dense treat that is high in protein and fiber. Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain products, including breads and pastas, can be found in most natural food stores. I often make porridge out of soaked oat groats, which have 6 grams of protein per 1/4 cup (before soaking).
• Nuts and seeds: Nuts and seeds provide significant amounts of protein, but since they are also high in fat, they can weigh you down if you rely on them for protein. Pumpkin seeds are a better choice because they are also high in iron, copper, magnesium, and some other minerals. About 1/5 cup has more protein than a serving of wild rice. Almonds are a good protein source as well.

Before becoming more health conscious, most of my protein came from processed fake meats and soy products. Beans are another common vegan protein source, but most are difficult to digest and contain a lot of toxins. It’s not hard to find adequate vegan protein sources, but if you’re trying to improve your health, steer away from the processed foods and beans and give some of these ideas a try.