Weekend in Vegas with Raw Fusion Foods!

Last Thursday I headed to Las Vegas to spend the weekend with my FIL and his fiance and help out with a pregnancy related project for their raw food company (I will get more into that later).  My husband flew in on Friday evening so we got to have a nice little weekend getaway!

Here is a little recap of our weekend:

First of all...let's talk about these views from my FIL's condo:

This is the view of the Red Rocks from the back side of the condo and our room...

And this is the view of the strip from the front side and living room area....

Pretty awesome huh? 

They live about 15 minutes from the strip.

So, here is a little bit more about this new project I get to be involved in...

My FIL's fiance, Meka, is the CEO of Raw Fusion Foods which she founded in 2010.  Her, her Mom and the rest of their team provide catering for events, create new recipes, have published books, produce instructional videos on their recipes and raw food techniques and much, much more. 

One of their next big projects is to write a book on pregnancy nutrition and a book on baby food.  And that is where I come in, since I am preggo!  I am kind of like a research project ( or my official title- Media Consultant ).  I spent all day Thursday and Friday trying raw food recipes, learning about the best nutrition for pregnant women and reading pregnancy books and raw food cookbooks.  I learned SO much! 

Then on Saturday, I spent the day with Meka and a video camera and recorded a series of videos about my diet, my pregnancy so far and raw food in general. 

Here are just a few of the recipes I tried:

Cauliflower Soup

Raw dips, crackers and chips ( the dehydrated beet chips are AAAMAZING )

 Raw Fettuccine Alfredo (restaurant style Fett. Alfredo is my weakness...if I could have one last meal before I died, it would be Fett. Alfredo.  So, I was very skeptical of trying it raw.  But to my surprise it was really yummy!! It was creamy, cheesy and super healthy.  The sauce is made from cashews that are soaked in water for a period of time and the "noodles" are summer squash and zucchini!)   I also tried a squash soup, curry beans, carrot salad, raw chocolate banana ice cream and several smoothies and juices.     If you are reading this you are probably wondering if I am planning on changing to a raw diet... The answer is no, not 100%.   My goal is to add in more raw foods (mainly fruits and veggies) to my current diet, cut back on processed foods, meats and dairy.  I see a lot of benefit and value in a lot that I learned over the weekend and I know it will only benefit me and my baby by making these changes.  I am TERRIBLE about eating veggies, especially raw ones.  But I learned a lot about other ways to add them into my diet without feeling like I need to eat a handful of raw carrots and celery....adding them to smoothies is my favorite way! So, will I still go to Chick-Fil-A or eat fettuccine alfredo at Carabba's?  You bet....but in moderation of course.  Will I be eating A LOT more fruits and veggies every day and continue learning about ways to incorporate more raw foods in my every day life?  Absolutely!   If you know me, you know I LOVE to read and I love to learn.  I have stocked up on nutrition books, raw food cook books and pregnancy diet books.  My goal this week has been to add in 2 more servings of fruit each day and replace my past snacks of goldfish and pickles with fruit.  So far, it has been a success.  Next week I plan on experimenting with more smoothies and veggies.    You will probably see a few changes coming to this blog over time...more diet/raw food posts and recipes, some links to the videos once they are edited and posted on You Tube and more.  I am so excited that Raw Fusion Foods wants be to be involved in this next project and I am looking forward to learning more about the raw food world and nutrition for pregnancy.    If you are interested in learning more about raw foods, their website can be found here.  Or head to Amazon and you can purchase the cookbooks that have already been published!  Or feel free to ask me and I can point you in the right direction! =)     After all the work was done, we headed to the strip for a little fun on Saturday night!   Crab and Shrimp Enchiladas...YUM!  If you want good Mexican food in Vegas, go to Javier's at Aria Resort & Casino.  It is awesome!     Then we went to see the newest Cirque du Soleil show, Zarkana, at Aria.  One word- AMAZING.  I didn't think there would be anything better than O at The Bellagio...but I was wrong.

   And we ended the night at Hyde in The Bellagio.  I love the Bellagio fountains and I wanted to make sure to see them while we were there.  Well, my FIL has quite the connection and got us the best table in Vegas...we were feet away from the fountains on the patio of Hyde.  I could watch the fountains over and over again :)  We got there around 9 before Hyde turned into a nightclub and had intentions of only staying for a little while.  A little while turned into 3 hours.  This pregnant lady was exhausted!   Note:  If you want to be judged and get strange looks from people, go to a nightclub in Vegas at almost 6 months pregnant.  By 11, there were too many people smoking around us and my insides were vibrating a little too much from the music so I had to get out of there.  It was a lot of fun though....you CAN go to Vegas and have fun even if you are pregnant!  ;)

View from our table @ Hyde

The group!

Sunday morning it was time to head back home to Texas!  We wanted to stop by the famous Vegas sign on the way to the airport so I could take some pictures:

     And that is our weekend in Vegas!  =)