A Feast For The Eyes: Vanilla Chia Pudding

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

Even Oprah's jumped on the chia bandwagon since her bud Dr. Oz touted the health benefits of these lil' seeds. And boy, do they pack a wallop. Containing all the essential amino acids, chia seeds are considered a complete protein. Pair them with fresh blueberries and hemp milk, and you have an easy, delicious summertime dessert.

Feed your inner voyeur this raw vegan Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding and have a snoop around Foods For Long Life. Dr. Joanne Mumola Williams received her doctorate in holistic nutrition in 2007 and has been creating sexy, healthy recipes ever since.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

Finding My Balance

I share a bit more of my story today and talk about coming into balance in a guest post over at Fertilehealthy. I hope you'll stop by. Fertilehealthy is the brainchild of my friend Hanlie in Cape Town, South Africa. If you don't know Hanlie, you should. Just open the dictionary to the word perseverance and you'll find her picture.

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

Fresh cherries only come around once a year and now's the time to take advantage of the season's bounty. I've been gorging on these beauties. And why not? Besides being incredibly sweet and juicy, they're loaded with Vitamin C and important disease-fighting phytochemicals.

There's lots of varieties at the market, but my two favorites are the Bing and Ranier. Typically, the darker the cherry, the sweeter the taste, but I find the yellow-rose Rainers to be even sweeter than the mahogany-red Bings.

Whatever your preference, look for plump, firm cherries with pliable green stems. Dry stems mean old cherries. And don't pull off those stems until you're ready to start eating, since removing them promotes spoiling. Likewise, only wash what you plan to eat, because rinsing encourages molding.

Because cherries are fully ripened when you purchase them, they'll only keep for a couple of days in the fridge. Good news: they also freeze well if you want to use them a few months down the road.

When preparing recipes with cherries, pitting them with a knife can be rather tedious. Trust me. Save yourself some time and aggravation by picking up a handy-dandy cherry pitter.

How 'bout taking a gastronomical tour through cyberspace? Here's 10 tasty raw, vegan cherry recipes for you to enjoy:

• Simple Cherry Chocolate Shake a la Julie's Raw Ambition
• GreenChef Jana's Pink Cherry Raspberry Shake
• Beat the heat with this lip-smacking Red Alert drink
• Decadent Double Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake
• Raw Cherry Tart compliments of Vegalicious
• Good medicine: Dr. Timothy Brantley's Cherry Pudding Supreme
• Cherry Mango Ice-Cream Cups, oh my!
• Wow your dinner guests with this Swiss Chard Apple & Cherry Salad
• Watch Annmarie Gianni whip up a spectacular Cherry Chutney
• The Raw Epicurean's refreshing Cold Cherry Soup with Fresh Mint

A Feast For The Eyes: Cherry Ice Cream

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

Heaven help me, I made it to Friday! Between the great roller blade wipe out, and then having my twitter account hacked and all followers wiped out, well, I'm wiped out. I just want to lie on the sofa and be spoon fed something decadent and delicious. Too much for a girl to ask?

Lucky for me, one of my tweeps posted a link to this scrumptious Cherry Ice Cream, prior to my account getting hijacked. It's raw. It's vegan. Cherries are in season. I think I'll eat it all weekend!

The genius behind this creamy creation is dietary consultant & photographer, Elena Wilkins. She has lots of sexy recipes to feed your inner voyeur at Eat Healthy! Be Happy! As soon as you're done drooling over her food photos, feast your eyes on her wedding and portrait photography.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

We Have A Wipe Out...And A Winner

I decided to be brave and adventurous (or completely out of my mind) yesterday and take Maya rollerblading with me. She's a sled dog. Likes to pull things.

We were doing fine until she just had to smell the tree...back there.

Splat.

Do you think they sell full-body protective pads?

Eight at a time, Cesar? C'mon!

Just call me The Dog Screamer.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Hey, in case you missed it, I posted the winner of the Cuckoo For Coconut Oil Giveaway this morning. Congratulations to "Kathy C" and thanks to all who entered!

A Feast For The Eyes: Sweet Potato Fries

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

A year ago, I was the reigning Queen Of The Drive-Thru Windows. I knew my way around the city via its fast food joints. I ate French fries. Daily.

Fast forward 365 days, minus 115 pounds. Not one measly fry has passed by my gullet. So when my eyes spied these raw vegan Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Mayo, my taste buds stood at attention. Hellooo, sailor!

For all the folks who think raw foodists eat only "rabbit food," feast your eyes on these babies. In fact, why not feed your inner voyeur a full-course meal over at Rawmazing. Susan Powers is the creative force behind all the sexy recipes, proving that you don't have to give up flavor and beauty when you enter the healthy world of raw, living foods.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

Cuckoo For Coconut Oil Giveaway

From the moment I unscrewed the lid on the jar, I knew I was in for a treat. The smell! Unbelievable. I never had that experience before when opening a jar of unrefined coconut oil. This was my first encounter with Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. I stuck my spoon right in.

Yowza! I think I heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah as the oil melted in my mouth. "Holy shitaake! What's in this?"

Ingredients: 100% Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (USDA certified organic)

I've had other brands that listed the very same ingredient, so what gives? How come this stuff tastes like "gold"?

After doing some poking around on the company's website, I discovered that all of their coconut oil is made by hand on Mt. Banahaw in the rural Philippines. The volcanic soil of Mt. Banahaw makes these organic coconuts some of the most nutritionally rich coconuts in the world! Coconuts are hand-picked from small family farms, and production begins within 24 hours of harvest.

A couple of years ago, this rural area was having problems with its water sources. Water is needed to make the oil. So, using Filipino ingenuity, they started collecting and using the pure coconut water from inside of the coconuts instead. The fresh coconut meat gets shredded, and then cold-pressed using the coconut water to make coconut milk. The milk is then allowed to sit for about half a day, while the oil naturally separates from the heavier water. The oil then gets filtered from the solid curds.

Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is slightly heated at the end of the processing, prior to packaging. This is to ensure that no moisture is present, and to draw all the oil out of the curds. This heat is very low – less than boiling temperatures – and is for a very short duration (10-15 minutes). No chemical or high-heat treatment is used. Commercial coconut oils, by contrast, undergo steam deodorization at temperatures of around 400 degrees.

Well, I'm sold. This stuff tastes unlike any coconut oil I've had before. Trust me when I tell you, it's delicious as is, eaten right off the spoon. I've also used it in place of olive oil in my Sprouted Hummus, thrown a dollop into my Kiwi Smoothie, and drizzled it along with some fresh lime juice over my Mermaid Pasta With Veggies. Mercy, mercy me. [I should mention that coconut oil will solidify under 76 degrees. Just put the jar in a pan of warm water to reliquefy.]

The couple who started the company in the Philippines, Brian & Marianita Jader Shilhavy, have written a book entitled Virgin Coconut Oil: How it has changed people's lives and how it can change yours! I received a complementary copy and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Not only am I getting loads of ideas from the more than 85 recipes included, but I'm learning all about the health benefits of virgin coconut oil. They've broken the book into sections — like Diabetes, Crohn's, Fibromyalgia, Hypothyroidism, Weight Loss — and present the research as well as personal healing testimonies. There's even a section on Pet & Animal Nutrition.

Tropical Traditions has a Referral Program, so if you place an order with them as a first-time customer, please select “Referred by a friend” and in the box that says “How did you hear of us?” enter my sponsor ID number: 5244492. By telling them that I referred you, you'll receive your own complimentary copy of the book!

The Giveaway

The folks at Tropical Traditions have been kind enough to offer one lucky reader of In The Raw, a jar of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. And, I'm not talking about a trial-size jar. This is a whopping quart-size (32 FL. oz.) jar.


So here's the scoop:
You have until Midnight Sunday (EDT), July 19th, to enter, at which time Mr. Random Number Generator will choose one winner and I'll announce that fortuitous person here on Monday. All you have to do is visit Tropical Traditions, browse their site and leave a comment below telling me one thing you learned. Simple.

Extra Entries: This is completely optional, but if you'd like to increase your chances of winning, please leave a separate comment for each extra entry (ie. 1 comment = 1 entry)

• Subscribe to In The Raw, either by RSS Feed or Email (you must verify your subscription)
• Follow me on Twitter AND tweet the giveaway with a link to this post (please leave your Twitter ID in the comment)
• Mention this giveaway on your blog and link back to this post (please leave the link in your comment)
• Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter

NOTE: Anyone can enter this contest. You DO NOT have to live in the United States.

Thanks for entering and good luck!

Update 7-20-09: This contest is now closed. "Kathy C" – you're a winner. Congratulations!

A Feast For The Eyes: A Chocolate Kiss

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

I'm big on presentation. And no one, I mean no one, does presentation like Chef Omid. I often wonder what I would do if I ever had the opportunity to actually eat one of his creations. Would I? Could I?

Heck yeah! But, not before staring at it — for a really long time. I mean, tell me you can't already begin to taste the rich, creamy melt-in-your-mouth texture of this delightfully decadent dessert? Oh Lord, save us all!

If you haven't already visited Chef Omid's corner of cyberspace, you need to. All recipes, food styling and photography at Tried.Tasted.Served is done by the master chef himself. Trust me when I tell you, you'll be lead on a visual as well as a culinary adventure the moment you touch down.

Oh go ahead. You know you want to. Feed your inner voyeur a little Chocolate Pistachio Kiss and while you're there, feast your eyes on the chef's other sexy raw vegan recipes.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

Dining Out In The Raw

Last month, I was able to live vicariously through Kristen Suzanne as she lead her readers on a gastronomical tour of Manhattan's raw vegan restaurants, cafes and juice bars. Occasionally, I can do the same à la Gena at Choosing Raw or, on the left coast, Debbie Does Raw. I've enjoyed a virtual dining experience at Pure Food & Wine, Quintessence, Caravan of Dreams, Candle 79, Blossom, Bonobo's, Au Lac, and Cru. Luckily, I have a very vivid imagination, but still, I much prefer an actual dining experience.

Here in my neck of the woods, there aren't any living food restaurants. Does that stop me from enjoying a lunch out with my gal pals or an evening meal with a special someone? Au contraire, mon frère. Although, I'll grant you, the fast food joints have lost a considerable amount of revenue since I stopped visiting their drive-thru windows a year ago.

Actually, it's rather easy to dine out at any of the chains like Applebee's and TGI Friday's, or ethnic eateries – Japanese, Thai, Middle Eastern, Italian – and eat a high-raw vegan meal. You can always order entree-size salads and extra sides of steamed or lightly sautéed veggies. Brown rice is a good standby and if you're not gluten intolerant, you can choose whole wheat pastas and pitas.

But these days, particularly in the summer months when fresh, just-picked produce is so readily available, I gravitate toward raw foods. After 12 months, my body-mind-spirit is happiest when I abstain from cooked food and eat primarily raw, living foods. That's why I came up with this laminated card I can present to restaurant servers:
I got the idea from Victoria Boutenko who mentioned in her book "12 Steps To Raw Food" (note to self: do a review of that book soon) that her friend carries a similar business-card size in his wallet. Since I started using my card – more like a 3x5 size – it's eliminated all the guesswork and lengthy explanations in communicating with the wait staff. The best part? I've had some fabulous meals! And, more often than not, the chef has come out of the kitchen and visited my table to make sure the meal was to my satisfaction.

So, tell me, what do you typically do when eating out to prevent getting derailed from your chosen raw and/or vegan lifestyle?

A Feast For The Eyes: Zucchini Cannellonis

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

Okay, raise your hand if you've had friends and family exclaim in disbelief, You eat RAW food? Well, I have just the dish to stick into their mouths the next time they start droning on about your food choices.

I'm telling you, taste buds will dance with just one bite of this Zucchini Cannelloni, created by Julie Kalivretenos. Her beautiful Greek family is proof positive that just because you eat raw vegan cuisine doesn't necessarily mean you cruise around in a VW bus, munching on carrots and celery sticks all day.

But don't take my word for it. Hop over to Julie's Raw Ambition and have a look around. You can feed your inner voyeur and find lots of sexy recipes, sure to dazzle your family and friends. Who knows, you might even convert a few.

Live a little. It's the weekend.