For the Love of Raw

Goodbye, Farewell, Adieu

2011-11-13T05:45:00.000-08:00

After 3 years of blogging about the raw vegan lifestyle, I've decided to call it quits. I've made a lot of changes in my personal life lately and simply no longer have time for blogging. I'm still raw after all this time and rarely indulge in cooked foods. These colder days have me craving hot soups so I've been feeding my cravings, but for the most part I am staying all raw all the time. I wish you, my readers, many happy days of raw vegan living and hope you follow your heart and mind in choosing the right foods that work for you.
Thank you for all your support over the past years, I should let you know that my boyfriend and I are working on our first cookbook and these early mornings that I used to use for blogging are now going into editing an intensive all-raw cookbook.

Live life, Love life, Be Raw!

Pickled Watermelon Rind - raw & vegan

2011-10-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I've never actually tasted pickled watermelon rind, and I was inspired by a woman in my neighborhood who drops off a jar once a year to my boss, to make my own raw vegan version. Pickled watermelon rind is sweet, and I think that my recipe tastes similar to those mixed vegetable pickles, you know the ones that have the little onions and pieces of cauliflower and pimento? Yep, almost exactly like those...yummmyyy!!!
It does take some time, but the sweet reward is worth it.

Recipe: Pickled Watermelon Rind
Step one:
4 C watermelon rind* (cut off all fruit, peel off outer green skin and cut into slices)
1 T salt in 1 C warm water, dissolved.

In a glass jar, marinate watermelon overnight in the salted water, adding enough water to cover pickles. Let sit in refrigerator overnight.

Step two:
The following day:
Drain watermelon in strainer.

1/2 C vinegar (I used champagne vinegar, but I'm sure raw apple cider vinegar will be just fine! I was experimenting and wanted to use up some vinegar in my pantry)
1/2 C agave
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
6 whole allspice kernels
1 jalapeno

Heat vinegar, agave, jalapeno and spices in dehydrator at 130' for one hour.
Place watermelon in glass jar, pour heated vinegar mixture over rinds, let cool until room temperature and refrigerate for 48 hours. Your pickles will be ready after 48 hours and should stay good for at least two weeks. Enjoy the sweet and spice of these delicious pickles!

* don't use half eaten rinds, instead cut fruit directly off rind first and then use rind to make the pickles, you don't want saliva mingling in your pickles.

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies - low glycemic!

2011-10-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Making these cookies solved two conundrums...how to make a low-glycemic cookie without using agave, and how to use up all the almond pulp I save from making almond milk. They remind me of almond joy candy bars. These cookies are tasty, travel well and provide sustenance and a touch of sweet. I use low-glycemic lucuma powder, which you can find online. It lends a malty flavor which is perfect for raw desserts.

Recipe: Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

4 Cups almond flour (leftover from almond milk OR you can buy prepared almond flour*

1/4 C ground flax

1 tsp Celtic sea salt

1 C lucuma powder**

1/4 C Thai coconut sugar

1 T vanilla extract

1/4 C cacao nibs

1/4 shredded coconut

1/2-3/4 C water

Using a food processor, mix all ingredients but the cacao and coconut until a dough forms. Place dough in large mixing bowl and mix in nibs and coconut. Form into cookies. I roll cookies into ball and then flatten into a uniform size. Dehydrate on 114 overnight until a crust forms on the outside, the inside will still be soft and moist. Expect about 20 cookies or so from this recipe. Refrigerate for longer storage, lasts up to two weeks or more!

*A local source for almond flour (philly, pa) is the Spice Market at the Reading Terminal - great prices!

**Why lucuma powder?
I'm steering clear of agave these days. Agave was once touted as the diabetics answer to sugar, but recent research suggests it is not as healthy as it once was thought. For me, agave just doesn't feel right, it makes my digestion wonky and causes breakouts, but I still like to eat sweets! Lucuma powder is a plant-based low-glycemic alternative, that I'm digging lately and is easy on my body.

Catching up on September

2011-09-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

bye bye summer, I'll miss beach time and your warm sun

September flew by this year, and it is such a month of flux for me, I unconsciously decided to take a little break on blogging. Just needed a little break, is all. I'm still rocking the raw food lifestyle! let's catch up!

hanging with Henry David Thoreau, master of the simple life and my personal hero.

learning to clam, not a vegan activity, but firms the bond between family

Flux:
This year, Fall rushed right on in. No sooner had I returned to Philadelphia from a glorious Labor Day in Massachusetts, that included jumping in Walden Pond, swimming in rivers, kayaking, whale-watching, cannonballs and lots of driving, the weather turned cold and damp and was downright depressing. I refuse to switch my wardrobe over from Summer to Fall, just yet, but I also have nothing to wear, so I should just face the facts.
Another flux situation, is I left my job last week, (it was causing immense stress and unhappiness in my life) and now I'm just floundering. And making lots of food, but certainly not flounder! hehe.
And a third flux: my cat. is not doing so well. And I have to start giving him subcutaneous fluids to treat his kidney failure. Sadly it is the beginning of the end, but I'm ok. Hey, if we can get through the cancer thing, we can get through this.

he loves Buddha too

Eats:
Thank God for Revitalive Cafe in Newburyport, MA. Visiting my family is so easy when there is a raw restaurant in town. Revitalive is my kind of place and is very raw vegan deli-like. They serve a lot of wrap sandwiches and smoothies, other stuff too, like soups and quinoa, but I tried three different wraps during this trip (Un-Tuna, Enchilada and one other), a few smoothies and their amazing quinoa sushi stuffed with kale.

Futomaki from Sun in Bloom

Recently I tried a little spot in Flatbush, Brooklyn called Sun in Bloom. This is an all-vegan place, but they serve some raw food, quite a lot, actually. We each had a wrap, which Josh found too small, but I found just right, although I admit, it would have been nice to serve a side of what looked like amazing sauerkraut or homemade kimchee instead of two measly little romaine leaves topped with kale chips crumbles. Don't get me wrong, the romaine was a nice touch, but a more substantial side for a 9 dollar wrap would have been lovely! I can't forget mentioning the chocolate-espresso-peppermint torte that we gobbled up on the ride home, really really heavenly. Eating like this, impromptu, really makes me miss New York, I love trying new places to eat and in the raw vegan world, New York has it going on.

A farmer's market bounty

So what's been cooking?
I've been so inspired by all my free time that corresponds directly with the harvest season! Think lots of tomatoes, peppers and zucchini!

I discovered an amazing marinara sauce in Julie Morris's new book, Superfood Cuisine. It is meaty, because it's made with walnuts and hearkened me back to Chef Boyardee raviolis for a hot second, but much, much better, filling too!

Tomato-Spinach tart from Rawmazing. Amazing! I saw this recipe on facebook and had all the ingredients on hand. It was simple to make and the marinated, garden-fresh tomatoes were definitely the star of this dish.

Yellow watermelon gazpacho: Adapted from a recipe in Raw Food, Real World. I used all orange and yellow fruits and veggies for this one, plus hot peppers straight from my backyard (read: fire-escape)

Bi-Bim Bop: a Korean feast! recipe from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Asia. I made this after working all day and it only took a little over an hour. The marinated veggies are all a little different, but all use similar spices and seasonings, plus the veggies are very inexpensive. This is a great meal to impress people with, especially if you are on a budget.

Samosas with jicama-currant rice: recipe from Raw Food Real World:
making these samosas was a full day. first making the coconut wrapper and then all the good stuff that went inside, plus chutney and rice. It was worth it, mmhm that coconut wrapper! Funny, because I was just about to toss Sarma's book in the resale bin when I started leafing through and making dishes. I have issues with this book, a lot of recipes are loaded with pricey ingredients and time-consuming prep, but after a closer look, I think I'll hang onto it!

My next post I promise a recipe for low-glycemic yet delicious cookies! Just wait!

Making Manicotti

2011-08-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

Manicotti is my new go-to Italian dish and I've found I can get this whole dish on the table in under one hour, if I really hustle. This dish is prepared in 4 easy steps.
Let's get to it!
Recipe: Raw Vegan Manicotti

For the manicotti:
2 medium zucchini
sea salt

Prepare these by slicing lengthwise using a mandolin or handheld slicer. When buying zucchini, choose stick-straight zucchini and not too big. If you use baby zucchini, use 4 or 5. Let sit in casserole dish with just a hint of salt, mixing well.

For the filling:
1 C macadamia nuts*
1/4 C pine nuts
2 T lemon juice
1 tsp salt
water as needed
two cups of baby spinach (optional)

In your high-speed blender blend all ingredients, taking your time, stirring around, adding just enough water to get to a smooth, ricotta-like texture. Be patient, this may take up to ten minutes. Add more salt or lemon to get the cheese to perfection. Hold aside the spinach, if using, until you get to assembly portion.
* macadamia nuts make the cheesiest of cheeses but they can be pricey. You can substitute cashews, keeping in mind cashews make a softer, sweeter, creamier cheese. Conversely you can also use almonds for a textural mild cheese. All are nice, depends what you have on hand.

Chunky Marinara Sauce:
This is my favorite sauce that I whipped up one night. I keep going back to it. It's tasty on hearty dishes like here, and also works well on noodles or as a pizza sauce.

1 C sun dried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for 20 min
2 medium organic tomatoes
1/4 parsley
1/4 basil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
dash of dried rosemary, marjoram, oregano.
dash of stevia powder

You can still see bits of fresh tomato chunks..delish!

In food processor, blend parsley and basil with clove of garlic to fine bits. You will need to scrape the sides of the processor a few times to get blended. Add sundrieds, oil, salt, herbs and stevia until blended but chunky. Now add the two tomatoes, pulsing lightly a few times until incorporated but chunky.

Assembly:
Lay two or three zucchini slices side by side so they are slightly over-lapping, so that they are about 3-4 inches wide. If using spinach, take about 6 leaves and lay on the bottom third of the zucchini slices. Top with about 2 Tablespoons of your cheese mixture. Using one quick action, roll the manicottis from filling end to top and lay in casserole dish. Repeat until casserole dish is full. You may have some leftover zucchini strips. Carefully spoon chunky marinara sauce over manicottis, reserving some extra for serving.

voila..the finished product!

Enjoy! Tomorrow, I'll post on the joys of owning a SodaStream with great drink recipes!

preparing for the storm

2011-08-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

I've already failed in my attempt to blog every day for the rest of August...but hear me out! Blogging takes time and with this huge hurricane heading towards Philadelphia there are things we needed to do to prepare. Luckily I'm not too worried, I'm right in Center City and am pretty well-stocked with candles, batteries and flashlights, and Scrabble.
Also, living the raw vegan life and shopping bulk helps to always err on the side of preparedness, I have pounds and pounds of nuts and seeds, tons of seaweeds and algaes and a lot of supplements. We've got a good supply of water in case we lose power.
Last night I stocked up on essentials, like kombucha and coconut waters! I'll be riding the storm out in style.
But what really kept me from blogging was removing ALL those darned plants off my fire-escape (landlords orders). To see what that work was like, visit my last post where I don't even show half of our green bounty! The last thing we want is our precious plants being destroyed by high winds when they are all just about to reap their bounty!
Then the cats were curious and almost ate the leaf off an extremely hot ghost chili pepper so we had to put those in our stairwell. I feel like I live in a garden.

This weekend is a good one to catch up on reading: right now I'm reading My Life in France, by Julia Child. Some people may say, well, Julia Child has no place on a raw, vegan blog, but I beg to differ. Not only was she a pioneer, but she literally changed the face of culinary history and that's what we, as raw foodists, also attempt to do.
I've found so much inspiration in this book, first as a woman, second as a francophile. Did you know that way back in 1948 there was talk of a European Union and that Julia held radically liberal views? I was also struck by a passage where she talks of making pie crusts and that French pastry flour and American pastry flour differed so much, due to the fact that Americans took all the fat out of the flour for longer shelf life, while the French kept it in, see they were messing with our foods way back then! Julia actually got people into the kitchen, making foods from whole ingredients, exactly the type of food revolution that is happening today.
Julia Child lived to the age of 92 and although her diet was full of things I would never eat, and she and her husband often had digestion troubles, I think her success was partly due to fresh ingredients and also to her joie de vivre.

My garden grows

2011-08-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is a follow-up post to How Does your Garden Grow that I posted at the beginning of the summer and...things are growing, though not as fast as I would like. I think it's the constant deluge of rain we've been having in Philadelphia, although I see better tomatoes growing on other peoples' vines, oh well, at least we got something.

Burdock, you can eat the baby leaves but they are bitter. We will harvest these roots when it gets cooler. Sadly my maca plant did not make it

Jalepenos anyone?

Peppers in a topsy turvy. We are starting to see Yellow Burkina hot peppers that look like patty pan squashes. I'll let someone else try them first.

He loves being near all these plants!

Yellow Tumblers and Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, best yield of all the plants

hot peppers galore! We've taken over the neighborhood!

This big tomato has been this big and green forever...when will we get some red ones?

The Goji Grows. I had no idea what to expect when I planted a goji, but I found out that Pennsylvania is in a pretty good place to raise them. This guy won't be ready for another two years; it takes about 3 years to get to berry-bearing maturity. I'll wait!

Red Habeneros?

Yellow Burkinas, they look like space ships

Ahhh..Tongues of Fire!

Purslane is gone crazy! Here it is sprouting up from my neighbors carpet! I've been adding it to salads.

I'm perplexed by my strawberry plant; it just keeps giving and giving and giving! I thought they only fruited during early summer but not our berries!

There he is: The Pepper Man!

As you can see, we've got a lot of hot peppers and many varieties. Too bad this gal can't really eat them! Next year I want cucumbers and peas. I'm loving being able to grab fresh herbs like parsley, basil, thyme and sage from my back-porch. I'm also loving dotting salads with teeny-tiny heirloom peppers, but I can't wait for the big ones.

Tips for Great Skin!

2011-08-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

I said it in my anniversary post: that I literally look younger now than I did four years ago, before I went raw. Literally! I distinctly recall analyzing my skin on a daily basis after turning 30 and being scared/alarmed by the start of crows' feet, wrinkles around the eyes and wrinkles on the forehead. Today...I don't see these...they are gone! I was also plagued by scarring from acne and now, they are almost invisible.
You've heard this saying, " once you go raw you 'get the glow', and you do! You glow with life and your skin vibrates good health, you can see it on the outside because of what you doing on the inside. If you eat dead, lifeless food, then your skin will reflect that. No $300 cream is going to work miracles if you don't also do the work. So once we 'get the glow' how do we keep it?

First, start with a good skincare routine for your face and body. I use toner, serum and spf lotion every day, and I usually buy these at health food stores or Whole Foods, there is no need to spend megabucks on crazy products that promise youth when you can get it from your diet. As a raw vegan you have an obligation not to support companies that employ animal testing so you really need to be a label reader and look for that special symbol that says, "not tested on animals". It's hard to believe in this country that animal testing, from bunnies to chimps, is still legal and going strong. If you live in Europe, you are in luck, because animal testing is illegal. (Europeans are so much smarter than us, they also say no to GMOs, why can't we be more like this in the States?)

After a good skin care routine, it's important to look inside to see what is going on outside.

Water: the ultimate detoxifier. I'm so bad when it comes to drinking 8 glasses of water a day, I drink maybe 4, but I always start my day with a glass of water before eating or drinking anything else. It helps pave the way for good digestion and cleanses the organs and removes any left-over bacteria and toxins from the intestines, it helps provide balance.

Foods rich in water content include cucumbers, romaine and red peppers. Eat a salad full of these babies, or make a juice. Cucumber really helps to remove impurities and is a great astringent if used topically. The reason we raw foodies glow is because of all the foods we eat that are rich in water, as they help to remove toxins.

Resvetrol: I first heard of resvetrol through Oprah of all people and I thought resvetrol was one of those things only available to millionaires. Or alcoholics. Resvetrol is found in red wine, mulberries and acai. I started taking a resvetrol supplement about 6 months ago and it was only lately I looked in the mirror and said, "wow! this really is the fountain of youth!" Really! I love mulberries, they are the most amazing dried berry I ever tasted. I'm hooked. At my house we've been drinking a simple yet ridiculously expensive beauty tonic of Acai and Goji Berries.

Recipe: The $50,000 anti-oxidant beauty tonic
I call this the $50,000 beauty tonic because Acai powder is $25 or more a bag! Goji Berry powder is not far off. So it doesn't cost $50,000 but it will make you look like 100 bucks. You'll find that the acai doesn't blend well and the taste is not awesome, so just shoot this texture-y beverage down with about 6 ounces of water and smile!
1 heaping Tablespoon Acai Powder
1 heaping Tablespoon Goji Berry Powder

Mix well using a wire whisk or shake in a sealed glass jar until well-mixed. This is a tonic and I don't drink it for the great taste or weird texture. I drink it for my skin. The goji powder adds a touch of sweetness and even though it is expensive, I crave this every day.
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Other great detoxifiers include: lemon, hot peppers and garlic. be sure to include these in yor diet to get results and clean, younger looking skin!

If you notice skin disruptions that is a sure sign that something not-so-great is going on inside. A great tip I learned from my colon hydrotherapist is if you see a pimple on your face, take a probiotic tablet, or better yet, drink a green powder full of probiotics, like Ormus Supergreens. Your skin should clear up in no time.

That's all for now!

addendum:
How could I forget hemp?? Foods rich in omegas contribute highly to soft, glowing skin. Hemp oil is awesome because it contains Omegas 3-6-9! Incorporating 2 Tablespoons of hemp oil into your diet will greatly improve skin elasticity and give you a healthy velvety sheen. You can do this easily by making all your salad dressings out of hemp oil. I prefer Nutiva or Manitoba Harvet brand. Hemp is such a versatile food, the seeds can compliment a savory or sweet dish. You can sprinkle them on cereal to salads. One of my favorite snacks is hemp seeds with sauerkraut and avocado. Hemp seeds make a great nut butter, easy to do in your food processor and taste great with apples.

ok, really, signing off.

Foods I avoid while on the raw diet

2011-08-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

I'm all hopped up with insane energy after my last post celebrating my third year as a raw, vegan blogger, so...to thank all my readers, I'm going to post something every day through the rest of August. Todays' topic is foods I avoid on the raw diet. Obviously I avoid processed foods and sugars so I won't even list those. But as we embark on new lifestyle full of whole foods, there may still be foods that don't agree with you, and instead of getting discouraged and going back to your evil ways, there are ways to navigate through food to get to a healthier you! My purpose for this list is not to say, 'oh look how difficult I am', but to maybe help you as you transition to a new lifestyle. Just because you are eating a plant-based diet doesn't mean all foods will agree with you all the time. I hope to help bring a greater understanding of how your body works through this list.

Corn: Corn is yummy. Corn off the grill with olive oil and salt, yummy! The only time I've eaten corn in the past two years is at a family meal, and it was cooked. Why don't I eat corn? It is starchy, making it difficult to digest. I'll feel bloated and uncomfortable after eating it raw. Plus it's one of the crops most likely to be genetically modified. It's one of the few crops subsidized by the government, so we can pass on it's GMOs to the cows we feed with it. Finding organic corn is getting harder and harder as Monsanto gets bigger. I will not eat non-organic corn, under any circumstance! Some people make crackers and salads with raw corn but it's too starchy for me, and many raw food advocates don't advocate eating corn based on these reasons.

Soy: I gave up tofu as soon as I switched to raw. Soy is highly processed and another one of those subsidized GMO crops. It's also an allergen and can be difficult to digest. I have a hard time believing that tofu sold in many stores is organic, even though the label tells me so. I always say if I'm going to eat soy that I would have tempeh if presented with the choice out to dinner, but I've never actually done that in the last 3 years. Tempeh is fermented soy and not as highly processed as tofu, please buy organic. I do eat miso, but I buy soy-free misos from South River Miso...the best misos in the world!

Mushrooms: I LOVE mushrooms! They were always my favorite food. Always. So imagine my discontent when I realized that mushrooms simply don't agree with me, when they are prepared raw. Turns out that mushrooms are a fungus-forming food and shouldn't really be eaten raw at all! They irritate my digestion and cause candida symptoms to erupt, making it a forbidden raw food for me. Just recently I ate a raw burger at a local cafe and all I could taste was Bragg's (nope don't use that anymore either, it just tastes gross to me!) and mushrooms and it tasted horrible to me! Cooked mushrooms are okay, so when I 'cheat' sometimes I'll go for mushrooms.

Cashews: Cashews are the sweetest meat I'll ever eat. However, these beauties are also fungus-forming and high in sugar (as far as nuts go) and have to be limited. This is my own fault, for in the beginning, when I first went raw I would have these insane cravings and nosh on a half pound of cashews before bed. The result was a blossoming of Candida symptoms, breakouts and other unpleasantries. I do eat cashews, they are essential in raw desserts and make a great raw mayonnaise and raw cheese too, but I don't over do it, I've learned my limit. Sunflower seeds make a great substitute in those more-savory dishes.

Legumes: Especially in the older raw food cookbooks, a lot of recipes call for sprouted legumes, like chickpeas or adzuki beans. I find these impossible to digest, and often difficult to sprout without rancidity. I'd rather eat cooked beans (black beans, garbanzos, adzukis) and save my sprouting for the more delicate legume, like mung beans and lentils. I'll sprout green peas too, they are delicious.

Grains: Sprouted grains are often called for in those older books too, and again..impossible on my digestive system. The only grains I'll go for is sprouted buckwheat (great for cereals or breads) and quinoa. I'll eat quinoa cooked or sprouted, but I haven't delved much further into other sprouted grains, and probably won't. On a rare, rare occasion, I'll eat cooked brown rice, it feels good in my belly.

Nutritional Yeast: Is tasty on popcorn. That's a fact. (I haven't had popcorn in at least a year, but I'll buy organic popcorn when I do and use a air-popper) Nutritional Yeast is also another fungus-forming food and I don't need that hassle. Nutritional yeast is often called for in cheese recipes and kale chips, but I've found that you don't need it at all. Maybe you'll need to add extra salt or lemon to get that cheesy bite, but I don't miss it. Plus it's not raw.

Sugars: I'm including this because sugar is bad for you, no matter what form it takes. It is highly addictive and causes acne, poor digestion and irritation. Everyone loves something sweet, even me. Agave is too sweet for me, but useful in dessert recipes for color and consistency. Maple Syrup is not raw, so I don't use it, but instead use maple extract with sweetener. Honey is not vegan, actually it is bee vomit, so I won't eat that either. I prefer using coconut syrup or stevia as sweetener, and am venturing on a journey to use less sweeteners in my desserts. I rarely eat sugar unless in fruit or dried fruit form or an amazing dessert that I just can't resist but pay for later.

Oils: I use cold-pressed olive oil, hemp oil and sunflower oils predominately. Walnut oil, avocado oils and other seeds, like sesame or almond oils lend a nice flavor. Canola oil and vegetable oil have no place in the raw food diet.

Alcohol: I was once a bar-hopping girl burning a hole in her pocket. But eating healthy and living healthy go hand in hand. Once I turned vegan I found I couldn't digest red wine if I had more than 2 glasses. (something to do with less fat in my diet, I think). While it was a big wake-up call, and I avoided alcohol for some time, today I drink occasionally. Up to 4 times a month or less, depending. This has a lot to do with new friends and nice weather too. Once you progress on the raw food diet you may discover that alcohol has no place in your life. Moderation is key. Moderation is fun!

I hope this is a good list for some people out there, as always, questions or comments welcome. Next time, I promise, less text more photos!

Three-year Blogiversary

2011-08-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Yup, it's my three year blogiversery and I still have just about the same amount of readers I started with. Oh well, obviously I'm not blogging for fame or fortune, but For The Love Of Raw food. Thanks for sticking with me! In this post I'm going to talk about why I've been raw for this long and the effects on my life, good and bad.

I've been raw for 3 1/2 years now and sometimes it's hard to believe how fast time flew while other times it's hard to believe it's only been three years. I don't want to rush life, but sometimes I feel like I've been raw forever, in a good way.

Let's get into it: Why I am still raw after 3 years.
My brief history is that I went vegetarian when in 1995. My last meat-based holiday meal was Thanksgiving 1995. It was there I decided to never eat meat again, it was so barbaric! Once when I was 14 way back in 1989, I tried to go veg, and my Mom tried her best, but times were different then and I didn't have my own income, car or kitchen, but once I was on my own I found it was much easier. In 2005 I went vegan, after being convinced that eating dairy was just as bad as eating meat (it is). Both choices to go vegetarian and vegan were based on animal cruelty and not nutrition, but back in the Spring of 2008 my vegan boyfriend and I picked up a couple raw food books, tried out a few recipes and were hooked. We have never looked back.

So, why am I still raw? Do I ever eat cooked food and what are the benefits?
I am still raw because, quite simply, it is the best way to live. Being raw has dramatically improved my health, kept my figure trim, improved my skin and hair. I actually look younger today then I did 4 years ago, I used to see wrinkles and now I don't...no joke. It's made me a more compassionate and confident person. It helps me to keep me focused. It is really exciting to feel so awesome all the time! I rarely get sick and when I do, I can usually kick it in no time.

Most of the time I stick to 100% raw diet, but on the occasion that I'm going to a family party, or eating out with friends, I'll eat a cooked, whole foods based, meal. About once a month I stray, but not too far. And I don't feel bad about it, at all.

A typical day would be:
Breakfast: fruit and flax bread or chia pudding. I try to always start my day with a little protein and a little fruit. Making a sweet dehydrated flax bread and eating it with slice peaches is tasty, but so is a hearty chia pudding made with almond milk, fresh fruit and nuts. I would love to be that person who juices every morning.
Lunch: usually a salad. sometimes left-overs. I try to keep lunch as lean and green as possible. Sometimes I'll add pate to my salad, a la tuna salad on greens or something like that. Right now gazpacho is king in my world and many restaurants serve gazpacho, so you can go out to lunch with all your friends and not feel like an outsider. I love summer with its bounty of fresh produce!
Snack: I usually come home from work and have a green drink. Juicing can get expensive and I really love the flavor of Ormus greens. So refreshing.
Exercise: I go to yoga classes about 4 times a week in the evening. This makes dinner complicated because there is not enough time in the day to do everything. But finding exercise is important. When you first go raw, you'll lose a lot of weight and you'll need to balance that out with some sort of exercise. It took me about a year to get my butt in gear and find a routine that worked for me.
Dinner: We like to have a well-balanced meal for dinner. This usually means three dishes, we like 3 components to our meal: protein, greens and vegetables. A typical night might be stir-fry with a big green salad, or nut burgers with all the fixings and a nice side vegetable, lettuce leaves, tomatoes, onions served with flax bread or collard wraps. I never get bored with raw food, how can you? It tastes so amazing every time.
Supplements: I take a lot. Vitamin D, multiV, Vitamin B-complex, magnesium, resvetrol, MSM, green trea extract.

There are a couple drawbacks: Yes, there are drawbacks to this amazing life style, can you live with them?
One: expensive. Yes, living the raw life can get expensive. But think about how much you will save on your health 20, 40 years down the road. You won't be getting diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, like millions of Americans will as they age. You won't be spending money on Big Pharma every month. I find that raw food is where I want to spend my money anyway. Got an extra 20 bucks...goji berries please! You don't need a diet full of expensive superfoods, but they are nice when you can afford them. I mostly shop at WholeFoods, out of convenience (it's 2 blocks away) but there are places where I can get organic produce cheaper and I always feel better getting a bigger bang for my dollar. Buy your nuts and seeds in bulk.

Two: it can be a little anti-social. I have no interest in checking out the latest restaurant. There happens to be a huge backlash to the vegan movement and I don't want to be around any of these new restaurants with all their 'humane' meat and exotic organs. No thanks! Why would I ever want to to support that? So...I don't get invited out anymore and I'm okay with that. I have a few choice places I like to go and that seems to work out just fine. However, many people are open and interested in the raw food lifestyle, so I bring food to them and you will also meet new people because of your lifestyle choices.

Three: Sensitivity: I am highly sensitive to odor. I can't stand being near a cigarette smoker, it is nauseating. I can smell a smoker yards away, even if it is just on their clothes. It's like a bionic weapon I've developed, incredible smeller.
Grilling: there is nothing delicious smelling about rotting, carcinogenic flesh on a grill. Enough said. Except that my gorgeous little back porch is often poisoned due to smells from one or both of the above and even though it is a perfectly lovely day I can't tolerate these smells and I need to close up all my doors and windows and stew in my discomfort.

I wouldn't stop being raw for the world. How do we maintain a successful raw lifestyle? First, you have to want to feel good. You need desire to live!
I'm in a state of flux right now, in between jobs but working plenty. This summer I quit my office job of 4 years simply because it just wasn't cutting it for me. I got paid next to nothing and I wasn't feeling fulfilled, so in the last couple weeks I've had a few extra hours in the week to fool around with food. Still, even with this new schedule I only have two days off a week and during those two days I try to make a lot of snacks, like almond butter, flax crackers, breads and kale chips. All these take little time and you can go about your day. Having healthy snacks in the house makes life more interesting and savory and always spices up a meal. Find time that works for you to populate your home with sweets and treats, you'll thank yourself later in the week when you just want to out your feet up and relax. Sometimes we go for an ambitious meal, but after years of practice, even the most complicated recipe doesn't seem that difficult anymore. We try to keep our meal prep to under an hour. Finding balance in your life is key, you don't want to be up until 11pm getting dinner on the table, right? (been there!)

If any of my readers have any questions about raw food, the contents of my blog or anything else, please! Fire away!
This week I'm going to post secrets to great skin and a manicotti recipe, stay tuned and thanks for sticking with me for these last three years! Soon, I'll be juice-feasting again too, exciting times!

Cinnamon Buckwheat Graham Crackers

2011-08-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to make these cinnamon buckwheat grahams after picking up a bag at Oasis earlier this year. My one goal while making these was to avoid using agave. I don't know about you, but agave really hits me the wrong way. Sugar makes me irritable, causes skin disruptions and digestive problems. Sugar is habit-forming and highly addictive, so I'm trying to use less sweeteners, (no matter how 'healthy'), in my life and feel and look better because of it! Expect to see foods with less sweeteners during the next few months as I transition. Expect to see me use more stevia, my new favorite ingredient.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Graham Crackers
3 C buckwheat, soaked 8 hours, drained and dehydrated for 8 hours
1 1/2 C coconut flakes
1 C lucuma powder
15 drops liquid stevia
1 Tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt
1/2 C coconut oil
up to 1 C water

Grind buckwheat into flour in high-speed blender. Set aside. Grind coconut flakes into flour, combine with buckwheat. In food processor, add flours, lucuma powder, stevia, salt, cinnamon and vanilla, and process until well mixed. Slowly add coconut oil. Add water slowly until a big ball of dough has formed. Spread mixture onto two Teflex sheets evenly. Spread an additional teaspoon of cinnamon onto one side of batter, if desired. Use a rolling pin or wine bottle to even out batter. Dehydrate for one hour on 115, score into squares, and dehydrate for about 6-8 hours or until firm and crusty on the outside. Flip and dehydrate one more hour. Voila...graham crackers.

Serving suggestions: Spread with Artisana Coconut Butter and top with fresh fruit.
OR, spread with hemp butter and top with bananas. Great snack or breakfast!

Yoga, Acupuncture, Detox Retreat

2011-08-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a yoga, acupuncture, detox retreat in the Poconos! This was my first retreat and I wasn't sure what to expect. I went with my friend Jenny from work and we had a blast getting to know each other better. My first hurdle was getting over my fear of driving and since the turnpike was closed due to a horrible accident I was able to combat my fears immediately and did it with finesse and ease. Fear of driving be gone, with special thanks to my trusty navigator!
I knew I was there because I love acupuncture, yoga and vegan food, and basically that was the three components of the retreat. I'll break it down:

Yoga:
I don't talk about my ~~obsession~~ love of yoga much here, but I've been doing yoga for a little over 18 months and I just love it. The teacher, Brittany, is very keen on alignment and she'll just keep everyone in a pose for as long as she can, until everyone is on the same page. I learned the hard way not to skip ahead during a class of hers last week, when I rolled into wheel only to have her point at me and not exactly yell, but my hands were slipping and I felt if I didn't do it then and there it wouldn't have happened at all, and I quickly came down and felt like the bad kid in the room. Brittany's style of teaching is very thorough and I have to say I took one of the hardest classes ever while on that porch surrounded by beauty and pleasant mountain breezes. She can wax a little bit too long on the self-love, but I used that time to get deeper into my poses, which I think is the point. We had two classes a day; a vigorous morning practice and a restorative class in the evening, both on the porch surrounded by nature. One evening there was just a little rain shower and it was magical doing yoga under the protection of the porch with the sounds of rain gently hitting the leaves of the trees. The poses were designed to aid detox, so lots of twists and poses that help cleanse the organs. The restorative classes were always followed by acupuncture.

Acupuncture:
Carloyn, our acupuncturist, was such a gentle spirit that moved with ease and grace. While we all lay in savassna, she inserted needles in our ears to aid detox. She explained that she had witnessed incredible transformations in addicts that received a similar treatment. So, we are all laying on this porch with the sound of crickets and breezes blowing in the trees, covered in blankets surrounded by the sound of gongs and the scents of sage and lavender. I had some pretty incredible visualizations while laying there and it was simply magical and relaxing, definitely cleansing to the mind. Carloyn was an excellent facilitator, I really can't recall ever being so relaxed.

Detox:
The detox really took part in three stages, body-mind-spirit, and I'll do my best to differentiate. First is food. Brittany made all the food and man, was I impressed by her talent in the kitchen as well as her boundless energy! The day always began with warm lemon water followed by fresh juice. She made kale, cucumber, celery one day, beet, carrot, apple another and something between on the another. Juice was followed by yoga and then onto smoothies. All her smoothies were yummy and I loved that she threw the entire kiwi, skin and all into the blender. Now, because I'm normally 100% raw, I expected to eat some cooked foods and Brittany made great soups for lunches, like a detox soup full of kale, carrots, and spices, and a carrot-cantaloupe soup which was pretty darn tasty! On the last day, we all pitched in for the gazpacho and I think it tasted better because of all the hands that went into its creation. Dinners were hearty but light: upon arrival we were greeted with roasted cauliflower and kale salad, and another night we had roasted eggplants with kale salad. On our last night she made roasted beets with tahini and a tomato-cucumber salad. All the food was great, except that she used the pulp of her juicing veggies to make experimental side-salads, which we coined 'rough-town salad' and personally, I found them bland, textureless and flavorless. I think I may have convinced her to buy a dehydrator for her next trip and suggested to use that excess to make flax crackers, we'll see! I wanted to experience the food her way, though and not get too involved with my raw food preaching!
I have to admit I was surprised to have a detox headache because I wasn't eating too differently from my norm, but I will say my decision to forgo desserts is that much stronger now, knowing the effect of sugar and the withdrawal had on me.
Another level of detox was the spirit and let me just say right away this was my least favorite part of the retreat. I was sad to forgo our restorative session for the sake of time, so that we could perform this fire ceremony where we all had to release something we wrote earlier on our meditation hike into the fire with positive affirmations from the group followed by this circle of love where we all poured positivity into the poor souls forced into the center. I have just quit my job that was giving me lots of stress in my life so I feel I released what I was holding onto the day before the retreat and had I known I could have sat out the ceremony I would have and if I go again I will definitely sit it out. Putting my emotions on stage in front of strangers does nothing to cleanse my spirit and I felt bitter and angry that I was expected to do so. I wished that we did kirtan chanting around the fire instead of what we were asked to do. Bedtime was never so welcome. I guess the point was to bring people out of their comfort zones but it was a little too uncomfortable for me.
Mind detoxing was all kind tied together, we went on a meditation hike and had forced quiet time, including after practice/before bed and even a quiet lunch. I wanted to say, "this soup is delicious!" to my friend, but instead we just sat there and enjoyed our bounty in the beauty of our surroundings.

We were given lots of free time between meals and on Sunday and I did a lot of reading. I could have sat and read in those surroundings the whole time and been content, although a trip to the mountain lake was very cleansing and refreshing.
I came back from the retreat feeling whole, while upon departure I was telling my friend what an emotional wreck I was from quitting my awful job with no future prospects, but what I realized while there was that I can do anything I want with my life and there is nothing stopping me but myself. I think I may get certified to teach yoga in the Spring and run raw food retreats with my boyfriend, raw chef extraordinaire. Anyway, I'm inspired.
Upon returning home I could not wait to eat 100% raw again and made a summer salad of local radish and home-grown cherry tomatoes and herbs with collard wraps stuffed with veggies and a sunflower seed spread. The ironic thing is although I was there to detox, I had a hard time releasing my bowels and it wasn't until I was back home with my normal diet that I was able to release anything at all.
Post-retreat, my spirit is lifted, my skin is glowing and my soul shines. I'd like to stay in this place for a bit, if I can only keep it going.

Movie Review: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

2011-07-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

It is 104 degrees in Philadelphia and I made a vow to myself that I was not going to leave the house today. Instead, sleeping in air conditioning, waking up late and watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix streaming was the way to go.
I've wanted to watch this for a while...I follow the film on facebook and have seen lately that screenings and talks were taking place on the East Coast. I hope they come to Philly!
This was a smart documentary following one man's 60 day juice fast after he decided to take control of his health and life. The movie follows Joe Cross as he travels the country probing people's eating habits and inspiring change through the power of juicing. Joe even has a Breville juicer in the trunk of his car hooked up to a battery! Now that's what I call riding in style. I don't want to give too much away, but this is just as much Joe's story as it is truck-driver Phil's. This movie was one of the most inspiring movies I have ever seen and far-exceeded my expectations. I love when that happens.
Unlike Food Matters which can incite anger and hopelessness, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead humanizes people who desperately need help and Joe deftly manages to laugh at the right time and not be judgemental.
I want everyone I know to see this movie, so many people over 40 years old have developed a lifetime of bad habits and people older, in their 60s, often refuse to believe that what they put into their body is wrong. In this movie, sometimes Joe succeeds and sometimes he doesn't, but not everyone wants to change. They'd rather eat their way straight to the grave and there's nothing you can do to change that. But there are plenty of people who want to change but just need a push. Do you need a push? Check it out, get inspired. And then...Get Juicing!

I didn't juice today because my fridge is near-bare and I don't want to leave the house, but today's raw food journal was:
Ormus Greens

Chia Pudding: made with macadamia nutmilk, mangoes, strawberries (my own homegrown!), blueberries, cashews and shredded coconut.

Iced Mint Tea
Open-faced sandwiches: left-over almond-dill pate with rye 'bread', lettuce, onion, cucumbers and mayo.

Dinner will be:
Zucchini noodles with Alfredo sauce, romaine salad.

Next weekend I go away for a yoga-detox retreat (will recap!) but before summer is over I'm going to do at least a 10-day juice feast!

Journeying On: Raw Desserts, part four

2011-07-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

I've taken on the daunting project of making every dessert in Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw Desserts. Over the last few weeks I've added three more to my roster, but honestly, I'm not so sure how much further I can go! For one, sugar is wreaking havoc on my body, I'm just not used to consuming so much agave and a dessert after every meal is not a habit I would like to keep, however, someone has to eat them right? A solution to this is to play around with my new best friend, stevia and also use coconut syrup instead, and also..share. Agave is just too sticky-sweet for this raw gal. Plus next weekend I'm going on a detox-yoga-retreat weekend and I don't want sugar withdrawal. And I want to juice fast before summer is over.

So what did I tackle these last few weeks? Neapolitan Ice Cream, Milk Chocolate Pudding and Stone Fruit Pie (which graces the cover of the book).

Neapolitan Ice Cream
I waited until I had bought an ice cream maker to even look through the section on ice creams, and silly me, I didn't have to wait to make this one. This was so easy..the hardest part is waiting. Waiting for layers one, two and finally three to be firm enough to dig in. I won't give away the recipe, but will give you a hint. To make this ice cream, follow any vanilla ice cream recipe, split it in thirds, and make one third chocolate, one third strawberry and keep the last as vanilla, layer in a loaf pan and voila, you've got layers! You could play around with flavors too, make a German flag or something! I should have tried to make one for Bastille Day! I really loved this dessert, gosh, I can't tell you the last time I ate this kind of ice cream....years!

Stone Fruit Pie
This one was hard to imitate, because Matthew Kenney himself put it on the cover of his book. I used a spring form pan and not a tart pan, so I didn't get the fluted sides, but still it turned out good. Last week we went to the Fair Foods Farm Stand and picked up oodles of fresh, ripe, organic, local apricots and cherries. I put them to good use in this pie, it was soooo delicious, ask any of the five people who tried it. It's easy to make, but looks impressive, a great dessert to bring to a pot luck or friends' house.

Milk Chocolate Pudding
If you are looking for an easy dessert with an explosion of flavor, look no further. This reminded me of pudding that I would eat for school lunch, that my Mom would pack for me. I definitely felt like a kid while I enjoyed it. It's not easy to make chocolate pudding look good in photos, but I hope this looks good to you.
I played around with sweetener on this one, this was when I was starting to get fed up with agave and my body felt unbalanced, so I used just a tad of agave but mostly coconut syrup.

So...this leaves me at a place where I'm ready to put this journey on hold for a while and I'll probably lay off the sweets for a bit. I still would like to make some fancy cakes from this book, but as I write it is 104 degrees in Philadelphia and the last thing I'm thinking of is cake.

Stay Cool!

Birthdays, SodaStreams and Manicotti

2011-07-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

I'm at a point in my life when I just really need to focus! Focus Susannah. Focus. It's just so hard when the weather is nice and you fly by the seat of your pants. Case in point: Wake up early Sunday to go to Farmer's Market but laze around in pj's until 1/2 hour before they close. Get half-way there and realize BOTH of you forgot your wallets. Turn around to go home...find ten dollars in pants, turn around and decide to spend it all: which was 4 peaches, one pint of blueberries and 3 tomatoes. Sad Sunday.

Saturday was by far better. It was my boyfriends' birthday and luckily he is easy to shop for, but leave it to me to wait 'til the last minute only to battle epic thunderstorms, navigating breaks in the rain to get my errands done! Well, all in all it worked out and I gave him a SodaStream! Let the drink-making magic begin! Just remember to support your local retailer. In Philadelphia, Kitchenette is my go-to kitchen store. On Monday we bought Rose Petal Elixir at Herbiary and I added about 25 drops of rose elixir, 2 drops of stevia to 8 oz of sparkling water straight from the SodaStream! Rose Soda!

Coconut chia breakfast pudding

I made us chia pudding for breakfast, blending 1/2 C young coconut meat, with 4-5 ripe strawberries and 2 cups almond milk and a couple drops stevia ( have I mentioned how much I am loving stevia these days?) Give it a stir, let it sit for at least 20 minutes, stir again. Top that off with fresh fruit and hemp seeds, cashews and dried fruit, and you got yourself a breakfast! Plus it's pink! Gotta love that.

For dinner, I wanted to make something fabulous, but having nothing in the fridge, we decided to make do with what we had. I turned out these incredible manicottis! I was too impatient to fool around with photography and wanted to dive in!
To make these manicottis, we sliced zucchini lengthwise very very thin using the Benriner Japanese Mandolin, I'm sure any mandolin will do, but since we had tons of baby zucchini we wanted them paper thin, we layered 4 strips lengthwise, 2 if using bigger zucchini, and then placed about 2 tablespoons of ricotta-like cheese on one end, width-wise. Roll up and place in casserole dish, laying each side by side until dish is filled. Top with chunky marinara. Serves 4-6

That looks like a good day to me!

Farmer's Market and the Fourth

2011-07-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

After a four-day trip to Massachusetts, I came home to eat a delicious almond pate that my boyfriend lovingly prepared. I really really missed eating 100% raw, especially during these summer months when everything is fresh!
Waking up Sunday morning we went to the farmer's market. I was surprised at how many people were there, given it was a holiday weekend. I wasn't putting much thought into what was going to be for dinner on the Fourth, I just knew I wanted fresh produce and fast!
At the market we bought:

carrots (yellow & orange) with tops
beets with tops
kohlrabi
parsley & dill
tomatoes
peaches, cherries, blueberries
icicle radishes
Bibb and Romaine lettuces
yellow and green pickling cukes
cabbages and more!

Greens to-go with our own tomatoes! Go nuts with the bounty of greens this summer!

A lady asked us: "What do you do with the carrot tops? I put mine in smoothies" Hmm I'd never even thought of that, so when I got home, I made a gigantic salad mix with beet tops, carrot tops, parsley, cabbage, mint from our garden and big pieces of soft lettuce. This was possibly the best salad mix ever! Later in the week I even added burdock leaves to the mix, also from the garden! Preparing a big bunch of greens in advance makes packing lunch oh-so-easy! First thing I made the next morning was a big green juice: 4 Cups carrots tops, 4 apples, 4 stalks celery, and a knob of ginger...divine!

So the Fourth: I make no secret that the stench of grilled meat makes me ill. It's no wonder that I don't get invited to any parties anymore, but to be honest, staying home on these big BBQ days is always a good thing, as all our grilling neighbors go elsewhere! Whew! One day of respite when I can open my doors and not be confronted by foul odors!

So what country did I represent on Independence day?....Russia!

With all those beets and greens I couldn't resist making borscht, dill-y cucumbers with homemade sour creme and another of those massive salads with all those fun greens with herbed tahini dressing. I didn't feel un-patriotic, I felt that I made what the season dictated...and it was delicious. Freedom never tasted so good, that is, the freedom to choose organic, fresh, local veggies to make a slamming meal.

Summer Summary: desserts & Beachy Times in Newburyport, MA

2011-07-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had to run up to Massachusetts last week for unexpected family stuff, but it turned out to be an incredibly relaxing and reflective time, hence the lackadaisical approach to the blog lately.

First let's catch up on all things dessert: the next chapter in my project making all recipes from Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw Desserts!
And so I give you Gianduja!

Gianduja! Chocolate-Hazelnut delight.

Gianduja is an Italian delicacy made from chocolate and hazelnuts...which reminds me that it's been a while since I've made my own 'nutella' spread, gotta get on that! One bite of this and you will be transported to somewhere lovely and Italian (don't you wish?), but for me, it really brought up memories of my summer studies in Italy six years ago! Geesh..time flies. This simple confection was easy...and had the texture between fudge and pure confectionery chocolate, it was too good! Plus it's just fun to say...Gianduja!
Sadly, this was the only dessert I've tackled in the 3 weeks since I've last blogged, and quite frankly I needed a break from all that agave, but I just bought an ice cream maker and I'm stocked with organic cashews, so stay tuned for some frozen treats next time.

Plum Island: possibly the best beach in the country. shhh don't tell anyone!

So how about that trip to Massachusetts? Since I went by myself this time, my first trip ever being separated from my honey!, I didn't pack much food other than a few packaged raw snacks I grabbed at Whole Foods because I knew that I would probably eat vegan with a few trips to Revitalive for their awesome smoothies, sandwiches and snacks. And a few trips indeed I did make. First I had the Revitalive smoothie, filled with superfoods and multi-greens, sweet and satisfying. I ordered the Revita-wrap for dinner and also a bag of kale chips. The sandwich was amazing and the chips were good, even though I make better kale chips at home, if I do say so myself. Still it didn't stop me from gobbling the whole bag in one sitting. I had to make a second trip after the beach and tried a chocolate-almond smoothie and grabbed my adorable niece a vanilla shake. Thumbs up! I'm so thankful Revitlive is doing so well!

Grounding: a much needed escape from LIFE!

For the sake of ease, I had a couple vegan take-out meals from The Natural Grocer, my go-to stop when I'm in town. I was really looking for a black bean burger, had my heart set on it, but had to settle for spelt sushi and pad thai. I really missed my all-raw diet after four days! Really! Cooked food just tastes blah to me, but the Natural Grocer has a lot of fresh juices, which I should have chosen instead. Luckily my parents grow lots of their own veggies and I had a huge strawberry patch to feast upon.

I miss these long walks to the sandbar...why did I move so far away?

I went on a little more than I intended today...so stay tuned for my Fourth of July wrap-up and my first visit to the farmer's market...I'll give you a hint: I was so un-American I'm almost ashamed! What country did I represent on our Independence Day?

Have you been following my adventures in raw desserts? Have no fear, you only missed two entries: My last post and this one.

Continuing the Journey Through Desserts

2011-06-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

This is the second installment of my journey through Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw Desserts. For the first part, read here. Why am I doing this? For two reasons: one is I highly neglected my love of desserts for the first three years of being raw, I rarely made or ate desserts before this Spring. And also, because every single dessert in this book looks absolutely amazing. Let's just say it's been very enjoyable so far. I admit, I put on a few pounds since eating desserts on a regular basis. This only means I need to start using the jump rope I just bought and also to step up the yoga practice. When the warm weather comes I find it hard to stick to any routine, but I try to be active every day.
There are a few recipes I won't be making from the book, but I'm going to to try to make many of them. And....I just bought an ice cream maker so that I can start tackling some ice cream treats...hello ice cream cookie sandwiches!
First up is the Green Tea Flan. My new tea obsession is matcha tea, supposedly one of the healthiest green teas on the planet. Matcha tea has super-high levels of anti-oxidants, helps lower cholesterol and boosts metabolism. Matcha tea is in powder form and is pretty expensive, but I am loving a cup of matcha tea here and there, it is so green and almost tastes ocean-y. A little bit goes a long way.

Green Tea Flan

Here is the Green Tea Flan, I know it doesn't look like much, but it tasted delicious, sweet with a touch of bitterness. My experience with flan is typically a delicate little custard with some caramel on top, but this flan was eaten right out of the custard cup, like a firm pudding. It was tasty and easy to make. It would be perfect for an ending to raw vegan sushi night or spicy Asian noodles. Often Josh and I split one for dessert, but I found I could also eat a whole one! These little glass custard cups were once my grandmothers and she was the queen of making custard, I like to think she'd be proud!

Lemon Curd Tart

MMM! I love anything lemon! I had to make this Lemon Curd Tart immediately. Lemon Curd is an English treat, used to spread on scones and muffins. My boyfriend had never heard of it, so I have to assume that my readers may also be unfamiliar with lemon curd. It is a little gelatinous, like jelly, but very lemon-y. Once again, patience is a curse. I made this mistake last time too, I didn't wait long enough for the first half of my ingredients to be fully blended and as a result there were microscopic lumps in my curd that I just could not blend out. The Queen wouldn't have it! But it was delicious and tasted great on a hot summer day.

Chai Chia Pudding

I am so intrigued by the health benefits of chia, they are so high in omegas and are one of the ultimate superfoods. My boyfriend is kind of a texture-phobic person and in the past, when I've made stuff with chia (mostly smoothies or crackers) he just wasn't a fan. I was going to make this dessert whether he liked it or not, and lo and behold, he loved it! This is one of the EASIEST recipes in the book and...yum! Who knew chai chia pudding would be so good? In fact, it spurred a whole new breakfast revolution that Josh wants to guest-blog about, so stay tuned! We are addicted to chia breakfast puddings. If you liked tapioca pudding as a youngster, you will love this. I especially appreciated this recipe because it enabled me to take a little time-out from making complicated desserts and still having something complex, rich and delicious.

Lastly. Key Lime Pie. Key. Lime. Pie. I would choose key lime pie over anything chocolate any day of the year. I remember going out to eat with my family and always ordering key lime pie. After a certain age, I became a key lime pie snob and wouldn't eat it if it was green, I knew the best pies were that natural light yellowish green and that those were the best (although if you have a pinch of matcha tea on hand, I think that would color it perfectly). Finally I mastered the art of patience and blended the key lime filling until the cashews were completely creamy. Look Ma, no lumps! I used 100% macadamias for the crust because I ran out of cashews.

I almost forgot! To make the green tea flan and the lemon curd tart I needed Irish Moss Paste. I ordered some about 6 months ago and finally was brave enough to break it open. It smells like ocean and it is covered with sand, and you have to rinse it and soak it. I made the mistake of using 2 cups of dried moss when the recipe called for 2 cups of soaked moss...big difference, so I had to use extra sweetener and had a lot of extras. Irish Moss is what gives texture and bounce to some desserts and throughout the book, Kenney says you can use the Irish Moss paste to make cakes fluffier. It looks pretty much like a brown-yellowish jello and all you needed was a blender.

With the addition of the ice cream maker and loads of organic fresh fruit finally appearing my next batch of recipes will focus on what fruit I have on hand. I'm just a little obsessed with peaches and cherries, but I have to make at least one chocolate dessert or I might lose my readers!

How Does Your Garden Grow

2011-06-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is our third straight year container gardening on our tiny little firescape. This year, we are taking over some of our neighbors spaces to accomodate it all. Josh is crazy about hot peppers and he planted 72 of them this year! Seventy-two!! At last count we need 18 more pots and I have no idea where we are going to put them.
I made lunch today out of fresh greens grown right by my backdoor. I used a mix of mache, baby mustard gerens and a mesclin mix. They were delicate and flavorful.

Salad made with homegrown greens

Box of greens, yes I probably plant them too close together

We've the usual suspects as well as some unusual varieties this year. I'm excited to see what works out.

Basil, three types

sage and chives

parsley, ready for pruning!

Cilantro, getting big!

Tomato: we counted 32 green little orbs that will turn into
tasty red-fleshed delicious tomatoes

strawberries! I have eaten about 6 so far, so sweet!

Grow Goji. Grow Goji, Grow. Grow. Grow Goji
Three cheers for the Goji plant!

One of many hot pepper plants, type unknown? Mystery pepper!

Oregano and Nettles

Burdock Root and Maca

The maze that is our fire escape

I can't wait for these peppers to find homes! So crowded!

I'm most excited about the new batch of superfoods! I can't wait until the maca and burdock and the goji get bigger. I hope the goji bears fruit, that would be so exciting. I know it likes the warm weather.
We've been using herbs already..made a cashew creamy cheese with fresh basil, and I've been grabbing herbs for salad dressings and garnishes. Fresh herbs make all the difference! I'll keep you posted on some of the more interesting crops as summer progresses.

Arnold's Way: Review

2011-06-02T06:07:00.000-07:00

I finally made it out to Arnold's Way in Lansdale, PA, just a short drive from Philadelphia. I've heard about it for years and years but never got around to going. It's very easy to get to if you take the train from Philadelphia, but we decided to drive; it was a beautiful day, there was no traffic and we were there in no time. Or at least we thought we made it. Little did we know we were in some small town about 5 miles away, circling the train station on Main Street in this little town that was not Lansdale. I copied down directions from the website, but it would have been much easier to use GPS, which sits in the trunk, uncharged and outdated. We ended up using modern technology to get there. When will I ever learn?

My first impression of Arnold's Way was hot, followed quickly by over-whelming. It was 90 degrees and there was no air-conditioning. The poor hemp oil sitting on the shelf! My next impressions were dilapidated... but cool! And then we dove into the madness. Arnold's Way is half health-food store and half raw food cafe; he's big on the green smoothie. Immediately we ordered 2 green juices and grabbed a bunch of prepared foods. Crackers on top of crackers were stacked in clear take-out boxes about chest high in some places, over-stock was on the top shelves, there were crackers and breads and kale chips galore. There's also a small fridge where you can buy pates, spreads and desserts and a produce section. Let's see...we got a multi-cracker mix of 4 different crackers (tasty), tomato pie crackers (really hard! not so sure I liked them), and collard chips (which Arnold described as "interesting, not for everyone", and toona pate (delicious!!). I later realized that the crackers are made from left-over juice pulp, so there's dozens of flavors and I doubt you ever get the same thing twice.

Once our juices were ready, which took quite some time, but we were patient, especially after realizing that it looked like Arnold had only one Vita-Mix to work with (luckily we ordered the same thing!), we ordered a gorilla wrap off the special board. Then I realized that other people were eating different food and once we asked for a menu, a whole new world of food opens up. Arnold's is so jam-packed that is is hard to see what is right in front of you. But it seems they are out of this and out of that, so we stuck with the wrap and ordered a burger wrap. That took quite a while too, peppered with kind assurances that it was coming. I really liked the gorilla wrap, stuffed with special hummus and veggies, wrapped in collards. The burger was clearly made with Namu Shoyu and mushrooms, neither of which I eat, so I wasn't a fan, and I wished I had more toona. If I were to classify this type of food, I would say, "old-school raw."

Arnold's Way is a lot more than a cafe. It is a meeting place for health-food junkies and wannabes alike. It's unique. People are quick to talk to you and ask you about your diet. Arnold hosts monthly pot-lucks and one day we may just go. It seems like a fun place to grab a smoothie or juice, the prices are reasonable, but the food seems to be hit or miss. Still, there's a lot of pantry items you can grab, like lucuma powder and yacon syrup, cacao powders and butters, dried fruits and superfood powders, as well as equipment like the Vita-Mix and spiralizer. Be careful to watch expiration dates, I bought something that had expired 3 weeks earlier and was disappointed. He has a great selection of raw food lifestyle books and it is comfortable enough in there that you can order a smoothie and sit back on the futon and look through some books (or you can trampoline while you wait for your food!). Arnold's got it going on and you just have to relax and go for the ride.

The ride home was a piece of cake, no longer the confusing maze of small towns with Main Streets, and it was made that much sweeter by the blueberry cheesecake we brought to go. Yum! A perfect combo of fruity-cheesecake on a crumbly coconut crust. Delicious. The rest of the desserts we bought were no so good, I felt like they were just blobs of fruit and dates and couldn't even eat them. But that cheesecake was good and fresh. Fresh is key. I guess all in all I was disappointed because I spent so much money there and about 4-5 items were either inedible or expired and it felt like I was eating left-over scraps turned into salable food.

Check out Arnold's Way YouTube Channel to get an idea of his energy: he is entertaining, passionate about healthy eating and living it!

Arnold's Way may not be my way, but it is the way for a lot of people, and it was once a happening spot, all the tables were full when we were there. It's really a place for community to gather and get support to make lifestyle changes that will reverse symptoms of disease, help them loose weight, live longer and happier lives, and bring a higher quality of life to themselves and those around them, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Raw Vegan Barbecue

2011-05-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

I love long weekends, but I don't love being constantly engulfed by my neighbor's meat-stink borne from the cave-man like instinct people get during the summer, "let's grill meat arrgghh!" Granted, there is something truly American about barbecue and barbecue sauce is tasty, but being barraged by carcinogenic meat smoke is not my idea of a fun holiday. If you are vegan or raw vegan, then you know what I'm talking about, I'm sure. One of the detriments of living such a pure lifestyle is the heightening of senses, and that includes smell, and it is hard to be content when you are being bathed in stank of dead animals, you know??
Holidays usually are quiet for me and my man, we usually picnic somewhere off the beaten path so we can breathe clean air, whether we stay in the city or jet out of town.

raw vegan barbecue

This weekend, we made barbecue vegetable skewers and they were to die for! Josh had this idea of first bathing the veggie chunks in a sunflower sauce to make them 'more meaty' and then, after dehydrating for an hour or two, swathing them in barbecue sauce. Absolutely delicious!

First we made the creamy sunflower sauce in the blender and poured it over vegetables that we chopped into inch-sized pieces. We used about 4 cups of assorted veggies: carrots, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, onion and red pepper and grape tomatoes. Once well-mixed, by hand, making sure sunflower rub is spread equally over all the veg, skewer the veggies carefully. It will be hard to skewer the carrots and other firm veggies, so be careful and take your time.

brushing the skewers

We made a simple barbecue sauce, using Matt Emsden's recipe from Rawvolution, and brushed it onto the dehydrated skewers.

mmmm delicious barbecue

Happy Memorial Day!

This recipe made a lot! Enough for 4-6 meals, so one night we ate at home and the next day we picnicked on West River Drive, amongst no less than 100 curious Canadian geese. The funny thing was, when we opened the only item we brought in a plastic bag (some raw flavored nuts I bought at Arnold's Way the day before, stay tuned for a little review on that place), the geese all rallied around like they were getting snacks! Even the geese get excited about unhealthy food. People!!! Do not feed the geese fried potato chips, corn chips Doritos or whatever else you feed them...they are animals and they eat grass!!!!

Josh's Sunflower Rub

1 1/4 C sunflower seeds
1 tsp sea salt
3/4 purified water
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
dash cayenne
Mix in blender until smooth and pour over cubed veggies, follow step by step instructions above. Many raw vegan cookbooks have recipes for bbq sauce.

my first strawberry

Nature gave us a gift this weekend, our first strawberries! They were really tart and we are only growing two plants on our deck. I grew up on a pick-your-own strawberry farm so this was rewarding for me and brought back happy memories of fresh strawberries with sugar and cream, and not-so-happy memories of swatting off horseflies, greenheads and mosquitoes, bathing the body in cold showers and hydrocortizone to reduce the swelling from the bug bite welts and making about a dime for all that work. I'll take my modern way for now, even if the bounty is much smaller. That's all until next time!

Eating my way through Everyday Raw Desserts

2011-05-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

It's become a mission of mine to make every recipe in Matthew Kenney's Raw Food Desserts. Last year I had the same idea with another book, but then all the sugar made my candida symptoms blossom out of control and I had to abandon the project and strip down to just greens for three months in order to get my body back in balance! This time, I have a better idea of what my body can handle and am doing it one dessert at a time, usually one a week.
At first glance Matthew Kenney's recipes seem HARD, because they are so lengthy and have so many ingredients. But I've found all of them to be manageable so far, if not challenging. In the past, I've not been a huge fan of agave, but it does have the right consistency for many desserts in the book, in most cases I throw caution to the wind and go for it, sometimes I'll substitute with coconut syrup instead. When Kenney calls for maple syrup, I use an alcohol-free maple extract added to agave (maple syrup is not raw.) I've rounded up photos from my past ventures and will continue to post as I make them. Don't think that you can't make any of these yourselves, you totally can! I always store my desserts in the freezer, so I'm not obligated to eat them so quickly, and I always try to share with friends.

Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies are my absolute favorite! I'm much more of a fruity dessert person than a chocolate dessert person. I just had to make these and immediately went out and spent way too much money on adorable spring-themed cookie cutters. I haven't rolled cookie batter in years, so that was a challenge on its own, that and finding counterspace in my kitchen. Kenney calls for blueberry filling, but I used frozen organic mixed berries and they were delicious!

Chocolate Walnut Tart

This was a sweet ending! This recipe called for lots of agave and was deemed too sweet by my boyfriend, so I'm left to battle this amazingly delicious, if sweet, chocolate-walnut tart all on my own. I know I did something wrong while making the walnut filling; it had become so hot in the vita-mix and then you are supposed to add coconut oil slowly, but my oil congealed and didn't mix well and I ended pouring the surplus oil off the top. I couldn't swirl the chocolate topping properly but let me just say that I love the salty, walnut contrast with the sweet sweet chocolate, and in my opinion, it turned out fine. This one is still sitting in my freezer, but I've been sharing plenty!

Rocky Road Brownies

This was one of those recipes that simply looks daunting! So many steps! While I prefer my sweets not-so-sweet, this brownie was borderline bitter, but was delicately balanced by the sweet marshmallow-like topping. Next time I will add just a little bit more sweetener to the brownie mix. Instead of all the complicated toppings, like caramel and candied nuts, I added cacao nibs, chopped dried cherries and mulberries. Mulberries are my new superfood obsession, they taste like mini marshmallows!

Mango-Lime Cheesecake

Mango-Lime Cheesecake is what started it all. Once I made this dessert I realized I can make any of the desserts in this book. This mango-lime cheesecake was so light and fluffy and so much like cheesecake I could hardly believe I made it myself. I've always been handy in the kitchen, but never ventured much further than cakes and cookies, this one was a real feather in my cap. So good on a summer night after raw vegan tacos!

Other desserts I have made from Everyday Raw include Brigadeiros and Vanilla Macaroons. If you are going to start anywhere, start with the Brigadeiros! These are like mini chocolate mousse bombs of goodness covered with crunchy cacao nibs, great for parties! They are one of the easiest recipes in the book and the complexity of flavors will knock your socks off!

Up next: Green Tea Flan, Raspberry Streusel and Lemon Curd Tart.

Guest post: Raw: A Beginner’s Approach

2011-05-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've been begging Melissa, who is raw-curious, an amazing writer, person and friend to write about her experience with raw food for my blog. Without further ado...my first guest post!

Raw: A Beginner’s Approach

My husband and I have been eating mostly raw for a couple of years now. Our current goal is to eat about 70% raw, but I have to admit: this May, I’ve been eating only about 30% raw. Our mostly raw lifestyle does mean that we eat cooked meals, including meat or even the occasional dairy, every week. Below, I share my approach to eating, which I think could be helpful for others who want to incorporate more raw food into their lives.

Get your Greens Everyday

Ani Phyo, in talking about transitioning to raw foods, recommends that cooked folks begin their transition by introducing raw desserts to their lives. In this way, they don’t have to subtract any of their usual favorite things, but they can learn to enjoy raw foods via sweets. But if you eat meat, breads, and/or pasta, if you take sugar in your coffee, and if you have the occasional muffin or croissant, you probably don’t need to add agave, nuts, or a ton of fruit to your diet. What you really need is more greens!

For me, this initially meant adding a side of greens to many meals. I kept it simple, i.e. salad greens, a little vinegar or lemon juice, and sometimes some chopped cucumber. Now, along with adding raw greens to the side of my cooked meals, I also try to have a green smoothie every day. Our typical green smoothie consists of a blend of many greens (collards, bok choy, green and red chard, lettuce, etc), a fruit (orange, apple, or mango), coconut water, and an herb (cilantro or basil, mostly). Just a few days into drinking green smoothies, I felt a huge difference in my energy levels and mood, but I don’t think this is specific to green smoothies; I think it’s a fundamental part of healthy raw eating.

Learn Where your Food Comes From

I think many of us often don’t take the time to think about what we’re eating, where it came from, and what it will do when it gets into our bodies. The same argument could be made about how we live our lives in general. Often, we find ourselves absent in our own lives, following standard routines without thinking about why they exist. One way to start combating this is by researching our own lives. This could be as simple as taking a closer look at where your food comes from. Admittedly, I’m not very good at this myself. I bought a few oranges yesterday but I’m not sure where they were grown. In doing this kind of work, we have to ask ourselves, “What did it take this orange to get here?” It’s not an easy question, but it can help us start to tackle some of the root problems with the way food is produced/transported/marketed to us. It can also help us make more thoughtful decisions about where to buy.

Develop an Eating Philosophy

An eating philosophy requires that you take some time to figure out what’s most important to you. For some people, eating as much raw as possible is the most important thing. For others, eating as much local food as possible takes precedent. This doesn’t mean that we should become our own prison wardens, setting up rules and then persecuting ourselves for not sticking to them, but it does mean that we should be accountable not just for what we put into our bodies, but more importantly, for why we do it. It’s sort of like having to choose between (a) a restaurant that serves smoothies, but uses a sweetened juice base that comes out of a can (I’ve been to a restaurant like this in our city) and (b) a restaurant that offers local produce and organic eggs, but serves mostly cooked food. Given the choice, I’d go for the latter, but that’s based on my eating philosophy.

I’m not sure that what I’ve written here is very clear-cut, but these ideas have really helped me in my own thinking about what I eat and why I eat it and I hope they can help others to think these things out as well.

Noodle Tools!

2011-05-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

I went about this backward, I should have posted noodle tools first and then my previous two posts, but sometimes you just have to roll with it, right?

I've said this before...I am constantly buying tools for the kitchen, in hopes of replacing something else, but I end up stock-piling every device because they all are just a little different, but equally useful! Last summer I bought the Joyce Chen Spiral Slicer and thought: this is it! The ultimate noodle maker! The Joyce Chen makes the best angel hair pasta-like noodles and it is easy to use. The down-side is that it only makes one size noodle and sometimes you want variety. You can get this for about $22.

Angel hair noodles

Next up is the ultimate noodle king and the newest addition to my noodle-making family. I love the Paderno Spiral Slicer! It makes noodles in 2 different sizes, plus it comes with a vegetable slicer that I have yet to use. Making noodles is fun using the spiral slicer! These make the longest noodles ever! This one goes for about $30, but you can get spiral noodles makers similar to this that cost over $700! That is too much for me!
I've been making a lot of noodles these last few weeks and almost every time I reached for this device. But still, it is fun to pepper up your noodles with fine angel hair noodles of carrots or cucumber using the Joyce Chen, but then you have all these extra dishes to do.

Big ole bowl of zucchini noodles

My mom gave me this simple vegetable slicer that, at first, I thought was super ceded by all my fancy tools, but it is a great thing to have on hand for garnishes and also travelling. You can really get creative on a car trip with a stop to a farmer's market, by just popping this in your bag. I can't imagine this cost more than $7.

I'll be honest, I don't use this a lot, but it is handy and I'm not ready to part with it, besides, out of all my tools, it's the cheapest and takes up the least amount of space. If you are just dabbling into raw foods and don't want to invest in big devices, then this small tool may be the perfect place for you to start.

My last tool is the basic mandolin. My sister gave me this one (gotta love family and the gifts for the kitchen!). The mandolin, even this cheap-y version for $12.99, has a lot of versatility. Not only does it makes noodles, although not as easily as some of the other tools, but it also makes chips and thinly sliced veggies in a bunch of cuts, even waffle cut! You have to first slice your noodle veg into a size that fits onto the mandolin, and then you have to be very careful not to get too close to the blade. I would say, this is an adults-only toy, just because it is easy to scrape your knuckles on the blade. This tool is slender and narrow and can easily be packed into travel bag or slid into a neat space into your kitchen, so it doesn't take up a lot of room. The noodles are just one type and they are not the long stringy noodles that you can have a Lady and the Tramp moment with. Noodles made with this mandolin are about 4-5 inches long and somewhere between angel hair and big fat fettuccine.
We also recently bought the Benriner Japanese Mandolin and boy oh boy does it blow the basic mandolin out of the water! This groovy tool feels a little safer than the average mandolin. The Benriner goes for only a few dollars more than the basic mandolin and I highly recommend making that investment. I mean, look at how thin you can get cucumbers! It's it totally worth it.

super thin cucumber slices

So to sum up: which tool is the best for you? It depends on your budget, how often you make noodles and how much space you have to store these things. The hand-held little veggie peeler is a great place to start, but I recommend investing in either the Joyce Chen or the Paderno to have a lot of fun with noodles.

Take a look at my last two recent posts to get an idea of how you can make noodles work for your family dinner in no time at all!
More on Noodles
and Noodlin' It part II of a 5 part series: easy raw vegan meals.

More on Noodles

2011-05-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

I'm all about noodles this month, I can't help myself! In fact I had noodles last night and noodles for lunch today. Can't. Get. Enough.

In my last post I promised to talk about tools you can use to make noodles, I have oodles! And I promise, it is coming...
First, an easy recipe for meatballs. Remember last week when I said making spaghetti and meatballs takes time? Well, it turns out that a few days later my boyfriend and I turned out a solid meatball, cheese and spaghetti dinner in just over an hour! (And some of that time is waiting for the balls to dehydrate, so you can chill out before diving in.)

Meatballs (Raw Vegan)

Recipe: Walnut MeatBalls (Raw and Vegan)
1 C walnuts, crumbled (pulse a few times in food processor)
1 C sunflower seeds ground into flour (I use my Vita-Mix)
1/4 C chopped yellow onion
1 celery stalk, chopped finely (optional) *see note
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp basil, dried
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 C water

In a bowl, combine all ingredients, adding water only to make mixture easy to work with. The moister the mixture, the longer it will take to dehydrate. Using an ice cream scoop or spoon, take about 1 tablespoon of mixture and roll into balls using palms of hands. Place directly onto mesh dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 145 for one hour.
* celery contains high water content, so if you are in a hurry, you can omit.
Serves 4-6. Serve with zucchini noodles and cashew mozzarella

Earlier in the week I had pad thai using kelp noodles. I don't eat kelp noodles often, but I really love them! They can be kinda loud and crunchy, but I found if you let them sit for a bit, they soften up. It's just hard to wait when they're sitting right in front of you! I used Ani Phyo's recipe for Pad Thai from Raw Food Essentials, but I added a lot of spice! I used a whole jalepeno and added red pepper flakes, and made carrot and cucumber noodles, with cashews. Easy. Yum!

Pad Thai with kelp noodles