Today’s Sacred Strawberry Raw Food Lunch Pop-Up at Sunshine Health Food was Carrot Burgers spiced with cumin and sumac on Olive Bread with Beet Hummus, mixed greens and sunflower sprouts. Sage and Onion Kale Chips Goji Berry Ketchup
Dill and Chaga Sauerkraut
Not pictured is the Raw Chocolate topped Raspberry Cream Cake. So much yum!
Last night, our local vegan/veggie group here in Shreveport had our first potluck! The turn out might not have been insane, but it meant that we were able to chat more intimately with each other, and I personally am all about that kind of interaction 🙂
Also, vegans usually know how to rock a kitchen and there was no disappointment in the offerings- even considering that Dan and I don’t eat wheat! So much gluten- free vegan goodness. My friend Nancy even made gf vegan crab cakes and remoulade sauce!
We brought a Spanish Omelette and Raw Superfood Brownies. It is a real basic raw brownie recipe, but I pimped it out and wanted to share!!
Raw Vegan Superfood Brownies with Chocolate Coconut Ganache
3 cups walnuts 1/2 cup cacao powder 1 tbsp lucuma powder 1 tbsp Maca powder 1 tbsp mesquite powder 2 tbsp Sacred Strawberry Pura Vida Powder (or any other green superfood powder you like!!) Pinch vanilla powder Pinch kalahari or Himalayan salt 3 cups dates
2 tbsp coconut oil
In food processor, process walnuts until just crumbly. Add everything else except dates and coconut oil and pulse until combined. Add dates and process until the dates are fully broken down and homogenized with the mixture. Add coconut oil and pulse a final time. Press mixture into pan and leave in fridge to set while you prepare the ganache.
Chocolate Coconut Ganache
3 tbsp coconut oil 1/4 cup maple syrup 2 tbsp cacao powder
Pinch vanilla
Blend in high speed blender until smooth and drizzle or spread over brownies. Let set in fridge.
I happened to have some of my raw Chicha chocolates left over from an order, so I melted those and drizzled that on, too! Yum, total decadence!!
I am so proud of myself this week! I have managed for the first time in a long time to eat mostly raw! Sounds crazy for a raw food business owner, right??! But I have to be real, open and honest 🙂 I reached a point where I just felt physically bad again because here in the States, unhealthy food really is ubiquitous- it is the status quo without a doubt. The amount of planning, research and willpower that has to go into maintaining a truly healthy diet ( raw or not ) is mindboggling. Which is why I do what I do!! If I can help someone eat a little better and feel a little better by offering high quality raw snacks and food then I have done my job 🙂
And the truth is, a week in- I feel amazing!! I’ve had lots of green juices, including this one with broccoli stalk, parsley stems, green apple and lime
Raw soups, like this carrot, cashew, and Ras-al-Hanout spiced one
This smoothie with mango, banana and spinach is pretty much like the very first green smoothie I ever had so many years ago!
And I have been LOVING having different variations if Kate Magic’s Purple Mayhem for breakfast.
The basic recipe is this: 2 tbsp. mesquite powder 2 tbsp. cacao powder 1 tsp. purple corn extract Mix in bowl, then add 1 tbsp. tahini 1 tbsp. coconut nectar 1 tbsp. water Then stir in
1 cup sprouted buckwheaties
I love trying out new variations on this and if always keeps me satisfied and energized for hours!! Also, breakfast has always been one of the most challenging meals to keep interesting while doing raw because I never, ever want a smoothie first thing in the morning.
Hope you try it and enjoy it! Much love.
I hope everyone reading this had a stress-free, relaxing Labor Day! I ran into the supermarket today, and while I am grateful it was open for what I wanted, the truth is that it could have waited and I felt bad for the people working.
We woke up this morning and I made some blueberry vanilla almond flour pancakes. I love love love using almond flour and sometimes an almond/coconut flour combo instead of packaged gluten free pancake mix! The recipe I use is just so simple!!
Gluten-Free Almond Flour Pancakes
1 cup almond flour ( I sometimes sub 2 tbsp. for coconut flour) 3 flax eggs ( or other egg replacer or organic pastured eggs if that is your thing)
3/4 cup almond milk ( or water or any other plant milk)
You can add in whatever you like!! I added 1 tsp vanilla powder and a big handful of organic blueberries.
I cook mine in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. They do take longer than regular pancakes- maybe 3-5 min per side. I like to top mine with coconut oil, real maple syrup and more fresh berries!
This recipe makes enough for two big appetites and a baby 🙂
After such a delicious but heavy breakfast we played outside with Amethyst in her sand box and did some more tidying. For lunch I wanted a salad!! I made this and it was sooo good! Farmers Market kale massaged with avocado and lemon juice, with grated carrot, chopped apple and spring onions all seasoned with sea salt and pepper and topped with homemade Dill Kraut! So perfect!
Amethyst didn’t really eat much salad so I made a big smoothie that we all shared with banana, avocado, frozen blueberry, cacao beans, dates and almond milk topped with fresh berries.
We went for a drive and met this Elder who let us take some of her berries! We are going to tincture our haul this time and have some wonderful immune support this winter! We were so pleased as we hadn’t been able recently to get to know a lot of Louisiana flora. Glad to know that Elder lives here too!!
After that I was hungry and tired so I stopped into the stupormarket where I bought pineapple and some purple corn on the cob (so surprised to see this) which we had for dinner! I had my corn with coconut oil and black pepper. Delicious and satisfying!!
Aside from the chaos of trying to run a semi-commercial kitchen from home where 4 adults need food as well has been interesting and not always conducive to mealtime creativity, but I am finding some balance between making wholesome, filling food that my omni household will enjoy and food that I want to eat and am okay with the little one having some as well… Quite a feat! What it means I have been doing is making whole-food vegan meals at dinner time and having lots if smoothies during the day.
This was dinner one night. Vegan Spanish Omelette or Tortilla Vegana that I learned to make while living in Spain. Chickpea flour base with lots of Farmer’s Market veg- onion, yellow squash, banana pepper, tomato. We had this with a cucumber, shredded carrot, green onion and homegrown sunflower sprout salad.
Another family dinner with comfort food, redone Emily style 🙂
Vegan Chili Mac. Quinoa noodles with a vegan chili made from local tomatoes, onions and yellow squash with garbanzos, black beans, lots of garlic and aji amarillo chili powder. Hormone free cheese for the omnis and avocado on the side for me 🙂 Kelp noodles and yellow squash noodles mixed with raw vegan pesto and crunchy tomato chips. Perfect summer lunch!
Raw vegan corn chowder. Hemp seeds, coconut water, jalapeño, locally grown corn and lots of black pepper.
Piña Colada Green Smoothie enjoyed outside on the grass.
Enjoying the abundance of ripe peaches. Super simple smoothie- frozen banana, juicy peaches and a pinch of vanilla.
Fresh mixed berries with a cashew creme sauce.
This little love eats all the food you see here and more. Girl loves to eat!
Nag champa incense smell in the bedroom. Not living in our own house right now is challenging, but walking into our bedroom and being enveloped in this scent makes me happy. It energetically feels like it makes the space ours even though we are surrounded by my mothers things.
New books! I look at them as an investment. Personally and professionally, never stop striving to do better than ever! Education is key in this endeavor .
Rosemary Gladstar- Medicinal Herbs A Beginner’s Guide
Now, while I wouldn’t exactly call myself a beginner, I have never read one of her books and it is always fun to review the fundamentals of ANY topic you love! I love discovering new techniques and approaches to things I do well 🙂
Superfood Kitchen- Julie Morris Same thing here as above. I love reading new recipes with ingredients I use daily! When you discover a new combination of flavors or textures, it is so exciting! The Law of Divine Compensation- Marianne Williamson
I have so much baggage around the topic of success, especially financial. It stems from a history of simply not valuing myself and I have worked hard over the last few years to overcome it. I chose this book because I still have a lot of resistance to actually choosing to love myself and value my gifts.
Smoothies- I seem to have gotten my smoothie groove back. Here are a few I posted to Instagram
Frozen blueberry and banana, hemp seeds, coconut water, Malabar spinach from the garden, pomegranate powder and Ormus supergreens.
Frozen banana and peach, Malabar spinach, local kale,fresh stevia leaf from the garden, moringa leaf powder, sprouted flaxseed, medjool dates and coconut water.
Young coconut meat and water, frozen banana, strawberry, strawberry powder, lucuma, Yumberry powder, and Medicine Flower strawberry extract. Shared with a special Littles in her special sippy cup.
And then there was this:
Carrot Cake made with coconut, hazelnut pulp, carrot pulp, dried pineapple, dates, lucuma, mesquite, coconut sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and clove.
Frosting made with cashews, coconut sugar, vanilla, probiotic powder and spring water, gently fermented and then chilled. So freaking awesome ;). I am loving the leftover cream with all the fresh berries from the Farmer’s Market.
Lots of work to do before getting ready for tomorrow’s market so off I go!
Our next stop on a raw foods tour of Austin took us to Beets, an all raw cafe on West 5th St. It took us a little effort to find the place but once we did it was on!
My hubby and I with our baby daughter and my parents in tow all went. My parents are not seasoned raw foodies. At all. They love their meat, but even more frustrating to me is their love for all things processed and chemical laden. I try to buy them alternatives to their favorite packaged foods, but it sometimes doesn’t work. For example, my father just does not like maple syrup as much as he likes his maple flavored diet syrup (eeeww!)
To start, I ordered a Goji Lemonade
Lemons, gojis and agave. Not too sweet and the gojiness was really intense.
And Dan ordered a green juice. I can’t remember what it had in it, but it was green and had lots of ginger.
Then we ordered our mains.
I had the chalupas- a corn tortilla with sunflower beans, veggies, guac and a sour cream drizzle. Really yummy! I got the kale salad for my side.
Dan had the raw reuben, it had a mild sauerkraut, homemade raw vegan thousand island dressing, marinate portabello mushrooms, caramelized onions and some kind of cheese on a really nice raw bread. He really liked this dish, and I did too. I would absolutely order this next time.
It came with chips and a beet salad. My Dad had the ELT, which was an eggplant bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. He *said* he liked it, haha but when I offered to trade him half of his sandwich for one of my chalupas he did not protest (but this is probably a testament to how much the man loves him some Mexican food than anything else!) I liked the sandwich and once again, I was impressed with the bread. The texture was not at all cracker-like, not overwhelmingly flaxy either, soft and yielding to the tooth but not mushy or soggy.
And my mother ordered the nori roll appetizer and a side of sprouted lentil salad. These were fairly basic nori rolls but good for my mother because that is what she wanted- something familiar. The lentil salad was okay, but I soaked red lentils are just too starchy for my taste. Not a fault of the restaurant, just my personal tastes!
After, we had a selection of raw chocolates from the cool case up front. I thought the chocolate was good. It was clearly made with coconut oil in addition to cacao as it got melty really quickly. It was also the kind of chocolate where you taste mainly the dark chocolate flavor and not the flavorings much at all. My dad broke his tooth on a super hard goji berry though! 🙁
The service was great, our waitress was very personable and commented on how well-behaved Amethyst was being (although to me she was fussy!). There is tons of seating and I can’t imagine the place ever being full.
All in all, I would give Beets a 7.5/10
The menu had all the classics that you would expect to find- hamburgers, tacos, sandwiches, pizza, nori rolls, juices, smoothies, cheezecakes, etc. Everything was done well, tasty, reasonably priced and well presented. The only complaint I have is that there wasn’t anything that was really interesting or a new take on the classics.
Next in the series- locally made raw chocolate and The Daily Juice Café
I’d love to do this post in one looong entry, but alas i’ve got a baby who is WIDE awake although it is about 1 in the morning here. That sounds awful, but she is laughing and squealing with joy so I can’t complain too much, hehe.
So when we first got into Austin it was about lunch time and we were super hungry so we decided to hit up Whole Foods for some provisions, being as it is the flagship store and all. And I had also heard that they had a raw foods bar. Um, yes please.
We found this-
and this-
and this-
We ended up getting a broccoli salad with a creamy dressing, some pesto stuffed mushrooms (raw except daiya vegan cheese), and pumpkin pie
big ole kale salad
heaps of kimchi
some raw brownies
a fermented carrot drink
and I got this tasty thing here
and we also got some raw meetball things that for some reason i don’t have a picture of
Let me just say- Not impressed. I really hate to say that as I wanted to be blown away. There was such a variety of foods there, and maybe we just chose badly but I really don’t think so. The brownies were not good, tasteless and way too heavy. They were sort of indicative of the whole deal- everything looked amazing but tasted just really meh. Maybe my expectations were too high? But there was some good to come out of it.
1. The kimchi was good and I loved having loads to use as a condiment.
2. The local products we found were fucking amazing. The Pineapple Greens Buddha’s Brew Kombucha is the best booch I have ever had and I looooooved the raw brownies by New Earth (although they call them Chocolate Goddess Clusters, a name with which I am in complete approval) I showed you the other day. In fact, you get another peek as they deserve it.
Things did improve that night when we tried Beets, the raw food restaurant. That coming up tomorrow….
All in all, Whole Foods gets a 4/10 for even offering a raw food bar. I love that it is accessible, albeit pricy (as Whole Foods inevitably is). They tried really hard to offer a wide range of products freshly made but they could do with better recipes and trying a little harder with ingredients. I’m glad we went, but I probably wouldn’t eat there again. Especially not with all the other wonderful eats in Austin. I can however see myself popping in for a quick kale salad and kombucha (and probably some more Goddess Clusters!) next time I am in town.
I haven’t updated in a while. To be honest, physically I have been *exhausted* and my meals have been super simple. I’ve been eating tons of watermelon ( I really do mean it. I ate a 6 kilo watermelon in 2 days recently!), gluten-free pizzas, homegrown sunflower sprouts, tahini+stevia+carob on rice cakes, raw fruit sorbets, etc. Things that are quick, easy and tasty are what I am about now. There are so many recipes that I want to try out and I would love to spend hours in the kitchen doing it but my body is rebelling against that. I suppose that with less than two weeks until the baby comes, I need to rest when I need to rest and that is that!
I did, however, whip up these super easy, super delicious and (in my book) super healthy cookies from Sketch Free Eating. These cookies are the bomb! They are filled with high quality ingredients like buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, honey tahini and flax. And the recipe is so versatile! For example, the recipe calls for honey but I wanted my husband to be able to enjoy them as well, so I substituted the same amount of xylitol and added some quinoa milk I had on hand to thin out the batter a bit. I also love the fact that with the chickpea flour, they are quite high in protein.
Find the recipe at the website: Fudgy Socca Carob Cookies.
Last weekend, we went out to the river again and had a lovely day. We went to a more remote part, which meant that we had the entire place to ourselves! The pools weren’t quite as deep as the more popular (i.e. filled to the brim) spots, but they were more than sufficient to totally immerse yourself in the cold, clear water!
I basically spent the whole day laying in this! I only got out to have a beautiful lunch of some tortilla de patata, gazpacho and pimientos de padrón. All made by a friend who must love me very much 🙂
me getting my Vitamin D!
I hope your week has been great so far! I am looking forward to a lazy afternoon and a ginormous salad!
Here we are again, at the start of another week! My weekend was tiring but nice. On Saturday, we decided to venture into the city and have lunch. It ended up taking much longer to get in than planned, but we made it and decided to go to one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Madrid, Yerbabuena. If you are ever here, I recommend it as they have much more imaginative cuisine than most other veggie places here.
To start, I had corn tortillas stuffed with veggies, guacamole, pico de gallo and nut cheese. Then, I had an enormous salad with endive, lettuce, seaweed, sprouts, avocado and more! For dessert, I had a delicious mint sorbet. The hubby had a salad to start, with black rice, tofu, avocado, sprouts, and so much more, and a creamy pea risotto for his main. I don’t have any pictures because we were sooo hungry and way too excited to tuck in!!
Anyway, today so far I have had:
a breakfast parfait of vanilla-cashew chia pudding + apricots, peaches and nectarines mixed with a bit of lucuma, hemp protein powder and cinnamon.
For lunch, I had a big plate of sliced cucumbers, rocket and lettuce with a simple pumpkin seed and garlic cream, raw burgers from this recipe at the Sunny Raw Kitchen, my sprouted falafels and a simple zucchini/flax wrap (in recipe index if you are interested!) Those burgers are delicious, and next time I will absolutely use the jalapeño, I just didn’t have any on hand this time 🙁
I worked for a bit on my yoga projects, then decided I needed something sweet. We aren’t fully stocked up on chocolate making supplies at the moment, so I winged it with this coconut oil+carob powder+goji berries+raisins+pumpkin seeds+buckwheaties+xylitol creation. Simply mixed everything together in a bowl, poured into some silicon cupcake cases and put in the freezer to set. Took all of 5 minutes from start to finish. Talk about instant gratification! I may or may not have had more than my fair share 😉
I had these with a green/nettle tea.
Today, the husband came home with some non-GMO corn pasta, so I am going to make that for dinner with a bit of tofu, broccoli greens, carrots, zucchini and garlic in a coconut-curry sauce.
With some watermelon sorbet for afters.
So, that is a day in the kitchen of this high-raw vegan, pregnant lady!