A Feast For The Eyes: Corn Fennel Salsa

Sometimes, looking is enough.

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

Friday Food Porn

I have fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes, bell peppers and sweet corn coming out of my...well, suffice to say, I have a lot. Hey, I'm not complaining. Oh no, I will never tire of grocery shopping in my own backyard. And when I found this flavorful recipe for Corn Fennel Salsa, I immediately conjured up images of guacamole and kale chips. Ah, a match made in heaven.

Bragging rights: five of the eight ingredients called for, came out of my square-foot garden. Woo Hoo!

Raw food advocate Diana Stobo is the culinary artist behind this colorful salsa. Diana's all about making raw food accessible, easy and delicious, so go feed your inner voyeur some Naked Nourishment. Want more sexy recipes? Check out a new version of Diana's show, The Daily Juice, every Monday.

Live a little. It's the weekend

Let's Go Wild For Blackberries

It's blackberry season and I spent an afternoon foraging in the nearby woods for the luscious ripe berries. My arms are loaded with track marks from the vicious thorns that guard the precious fruit, but I managed to collect a large bucket full.

Chances are, wherever you live, there are wild blackberries growing nearby. As they ripen, the berries will grow in size and change color from green to pink to purple to shiny black when ripe.

It took every bit of restraint I could muster to not pop them directly into my mouth as I was picking. Once you get them home, cover the berries with cold water, add a teaspoon of salt (to kill any bugs), and let them stand for an hour or so. Then transfer them to a colander and rinse thoroughly under cold running water.

Blackberries are one of the healthiest fruits you'll find. These powerful antioxidents are also a delicious source of vitamins A, B, C, E, calcium, iron and fiber. In fact, just a half-cup serving of raw blackberries has about the same fiber content as 3/4 cup of brown rice. Lab studies on these thorny-bushed berries at The Ohio State University (my alma mater!) showed the ability to stop tumor formation in the oral cavity, as well as proliferation of colon cancer cells.

As with most fruits, you get the maximum health benefits when you eat them raw. I've always preferred to eat them just as they are — nature's candies — but then I took a tour of cyberspace and found these wildly creative recipes. While raw, each one just enhances their flavor. Try one or try them all, but please, watch out for those thorns!

• Organic Greens with Basil & Blackberry Salad Dressing
• Wild Blackberry Cobbler à la Earth Mother 
• Watermelon Blackberry Soup
• Blackberry Blast, a refreshing drink
• The Raw Epicurean's Chilly Almond Panna Cotta with Blackberry Compote
• Ani Phyo's Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Blackberry Glaze
• Raw Vegan Peach & Blackberry Tart

A Feast For The Eyes: Coconut Ceviche

Sometimes, looking is enough.

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

Friday Food Porn

I've spent a considerable amount of time in Central and South America, and enjoyed many variations of ceviche, a traditional seafood dish. So I was intrigued when I recently found this raw vegan coconut ceviche. The lime marinade and coconut texture that's reminiscent of raw squid, certainly satisfied my taste memories of Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru.

You can save yourself some airfare and feed your inner voyeur at the same time by visiting b.alive. No passport required.

Live a little. It's the weekend

A Feast For The Eyes: Apple Berry Yogurt

Sometimes, looking is enough.

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

Friday Food Porn

Looking for a quick summer breakfast or dessert idea? Behold, a creamy raw vegan alternative to yogurt. A handful of ingredients, a blender or food processor, and you're good to go.

This berry good tasty treat was whipped up by the beautiful vegan crew: Lyn, James, Josh and Claire. They'd be happy to feed your inner voyeur a wide assortment of sexy recipes, and beautiful videos too.

Live a little. It's the weekend

Tipis, Daisies and Deer, Oh My!

So I once lived in a tipi for a year. Yeah, I'm one of "those people" — green, long before it was fashionable to be eco-friendly. Actually, my living arrangements had less to do with shrinking my carbon footprint and more to do with expanding my time in the great outdoors. I just feel most at home in nature, close to the earth. Always have. I figured if Daryl Hannah could live in a tipi, why couldn't I?

Anyways, after the tipi was raised, I asked my neighbors — four legged, winged and crawlers — to please respect my sacred space (as I would respect theirs) and be so kind as to remain on the outside of the tipi. In twelve months I never had so much as a spider visit, but walk outside and I encountered a whole menagerie of wildlife: deer, fox, hawk, snake, turkey, and more. A very copacetic arrangement.

So when I put in my square-foot garden this spring, I did pretty much the same thing and asked the deer, bunnies, crow, and aphids to please refrain from dining on my veggies. And lo, not a nibble.

It never crossed my mind to make the same request of my flowers.

Eeek! I awoke Sunday morning to find decapitated plants in my flower beds. And I'm pretty sure I found the daisy-petunia-munching culprits.
Ah, the appeal of a plant-based diet. *wink*

Which reminds me...Sunday also marked the one-year anniversary of In The Raw. And what an adventure it's been. A year of discovery and immense change, for certain. In addition to my new-found health and vitality, I've encountered so many wonderful souls since touching down in Raw Food Land. To all of the followers, subscribers, readers, commenters — Thank You! You enrich my life more than you'll ever know.

A Feast For The Eyes: Mango Salsa

Sometimes, looking is enough.

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

Friday Food Porn

I may have been the last holdout in cyberspace to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, but now that I did, I'm hooked. Despite the aggravation of having my account hacked and now yesterday's system-wide attack, the twittosphere is an amazing resource for meeting fascinating folks whose path you'd not otherwise cross. Case in point: mooifood.

The genius behind Mooi — that's "moy," Dutch for beautiful — is culinary wizard Stephen Hauptfuhr. You can snag the recipe for his raw-vegan mango, strawberry & avocado salsa in corn tortilla here. And if you're fortunate enough to live in Pasadena, check your local Whole Foods Market, where you can sample one (or all!) of his three-course packaged meals.

Stephen's latest creation, Mooi restaurant in Echo Park, should be open in time for the holiday season and will feature his signature raw-vegan desserts and ice creams.

Crying cuz you don't live on the west coast? Yeah, me too. Well, the rest of us can always feed our inner voyeur Chef Hauptfuhr's sexy recipes by ogling his catering site. Warning: wear a bib. Drooling can be messy.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

Let's Go Shopping In The Backyard

As someone whose food used to come in boxes and bags, or more often than not, get handed to her through a window, I can't begin to tell you how exciting it is to step out back each morning and see what goodies have sprung to life in the garden.

I've enjoyed this quick, easy and delicious raw vegan recipe for Stuffed Peppers a couple of times already.

And just last night, I made one of my new all-time favorites that I discovered at Choosing Raw: Thai Peanut Noodles, made with my own zukes and cukes. Mmm, lip-smacking good!

The cherry toms usually don't make it in the house. I just pop 'em in my mouth, right off the vine. No chemical pesticides and fungicides here.

Hello? Do I hear some homemade fermented sweet kraut calling my name? You betcha.

Anyone else been grocery shopping in their own backyard this summer?