Raw Talk

I've been wanting to do a post about some raw food topics for some time now. I really enjoy eating raw foods, and experimenting and developing raw recipes. I talk about more about my raw diet feelings in my new True/Slant post, and offer up a raw Chocolate Cherry Brownie recipe. Go get it!

In my article, I mention that I order raw ingredients from a local company. That company is Real Raw Food. I've been wanting to share their link with your for a while, because they supply wonderful raw raw nuts, dried fruits, and more. I buy raw cashews, brazil nuts, walnuts, goji berries, vanilla beans, coconut sugar - and more - from Real Raw Food. I have noticed a marked difference in the taste of their raw, organic nuts and raw nuts from a grocery store. Recently, I ran out of brazil nuts and picked some up at my local health food store. When I tasted them, I noticed a slightly rancid flavor coming through. Never with these raw nuts. They taste fresh and clean. The coconut sugar is my new favorite unrefined sugar. It has a caramel color and flavor, and is simply a beautiful sugar. I buy in bulk, and it is no more expensive than unrefined sugars at my health food store (in fact, it's often cheaper). Their goji berries and vanilla beans are also very reasonably priced, and both are softer and fresher than others I've tried. They also carry these pitted herbed olives which are freaking amazing! They are like a Moroccan dry olive - but far better. Very intense and pungent, and just a few chopped go a long, long way in a dish... if you like olives, you'll love these! Finally, their trail mix is a current obsession of mine. The walnuts in the mix taste particularly delicious, and with bitty pieces of mango, dried banana, and other fruits and nuts, it is not only healthy but entirely delicious. I don't know if orders will be economical if you live in the US, but if you are Canadian you should definitely check out Real Raw Food and stock up on some goodies.

And, the final bit of raw business I have is about a cookbook. I received a review copy of Raw for Desserts by Jennifer Cornbleet. Since raw desserts are particularly enticing to me, I was well chuffed to receive this cookbook! I don't have a full review to share with you, as I have only tried one recipe (and it was lovely). But, I can tell you that this is a tidy, appealing book that offers recipes that are not overly complex. At times, raw recipes can appear intimidating and laborious with required soaking, dehydrating, etc. Jennifer has a collection of sweet treats in this book that allow home cooks to dabble in raw cookery without feeling overwhelmed. Most recipes use just a handful of ingredients, many of which are quite common. Only a small number of recipes use less commonly known and used ingredients such as young coconut. These are raw recipes that can be prepared fairly quickly and without too much advanced preparation (apart from some soaking of dates and nuts in certain recipes). So, if you'd like to try out some healthful, simple, raw sweets, look into Jennifer's Raw for Dessert.

ta for now! :)

My Taste of Health cooking demo!

Hiya guys! Well, I was a bit absent last week. Not only has it been very busy as a mom with the girls, but it's also been busy with the release of ED&BV and preparing for my Taste of Health demo yesterday.

I had a super time at my demo!! Some of you reading may have been there, and if so, I hope you had fun and enjoyed the munchies! :) I did meet a few of you in person, and that was truly a treat for me!! How special to actually put a face to a name... like Angie with her beautiful little girl. So, thank you all for coming out to my demo. Yay, I love cooking for you!!

Here's a picture from after my demo, and the Earthsave volunteers you see here in matching shirts... well, they were just marvelous - helpful, keen, and lovely people. Can I have you help in my own kitchen?! Evan, thank you for all the food prep and serving all those samples. It was tricky to pull off the 4 recipes in 45 minutes, but we did it!

So, as I mentioned I showed four new recipes from ED&BV at the demo. I started with my Acai Antioxidant Smoothie, followed by Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, then my Living Caesar Salad ('raw' foods dressing), and of course.... of COURSE a sweet! I finished with 5-Star Ice Cream Sandwiches, and did another version using my Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Vive. So, needless to say we had LOTS of samples floating out to the audience.

I had a number of people comment on how 'authentic' the Caesar Dressing tasted. One of the volunteers, Emma, kept saying "I'm just shocked... it tasted like Caesar... for the first time... and not like tofu"! That's EXACTLY what I was going for with this dressing. Hurray! And there's a story behind this dressing. I originally had a 'Classic Caesar Dressing' for the book, which was delicious but like many vegan caesars, it used silken tofu. Then, I came up with this 'raw' dressing, using raw nuts. I remember e-mailing my publisher as we were close to finishing edits with the book, saying "we really need to add this Caesar... can we?" They did, thankfully, and we decided to swap it out for the other Caesar so the recipes wouldn't get confused in the book. Later I'll give you info about the soy-based Caesar, along with some cool and exciting news, but it will be a couple of months before I tell you about it (and no, it's NOT another book)! And isn't this the prettiest picture? We did this outside at our photo shoot... I love this photo, though I tend to use more dressing on my own personal Caesar. As I've said many times, I'm a saucy girl!

One more thing about this Living Caesar Salad. The recipe gives two versions - one with nuts using cashews and pine nuts, and the other using seeds. I wanted to give you two options because of nut allergies. So, the second option uses sunflower and sesame seeds... and is just as delicious! You simply need to add a touch more agave nectar to the seed version because the seeds are not as naturally sweet. You'll see this in the recipe sidebar. Finally, this is another photo from my book, showing the salad with my Polenta Croutons. The polenta croutons obviously aren't 'raw', but they are delicious - and EASY to make! So, use what you want as an accompaniment to the salad - traditional croutons, my Polenta Croutons, or use raw or roasted pumpkin seeds. Any way it's delicious!

Now that I've raved about this Living Caesar recipe, I won't tease you much longer. I WILL post the recipe this week, once I have the electronic edited version.

I will also publish the Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, shown here in another photo from ED&BV. So, check back for those recipes... unless of course you already have ED&BV! Do you?... has it arrived yet?!!

I sampled a few foods at TOH, which were really yummy, but I didn't stick around too long. I was rather wiped after the entire week, so I headed home early knowing I still had a bit of a drive ahead of me. But, if I lived in Vancouver, I'd be back there today getting some nummies! Taste of Health is still happening today (Sunday), so go down to the Croation Cultural Centre if you want to check out new veg foods and samples!