Happy Halloween! Raw Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

For the first time in at least a decade, I went trick o' treating this Halloween in rural Woodbury, CT with an old friend. We had a blast, and of course in true Halloween spirit, after coming in from the cold, I dumped my booty out on the floor and counted how many candy bars I had scored in each flavor. My favorite candy bar has always been Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and I could not resist unwrapping that shiny orange paper and biting into its saccharin sweetness. It tasted good because it brought back childhood memories, but let's face it, the Reese Cup is pretty low on the quality scale for chocolate and peanut butter.

So today I decided to make a raw version! I researched a few recipes, and finally decided on the one from Gone Raw. This was my first attempt at raw candy, so I would definitely do a few things differently next time. For example, melt the coconut oil before processing it with other ingredients. And I definitely made the chocolate layers way too thick- the recipe was enough to make 16 and I only produced 9 so the ratio of peanut butter to chocolate was low. Overall, however, I produced a much tastier Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, as confirmed by my father during an official taste test. His official comment: "I like the chocolate better." Raw cacao baby!

And perhaps one could argue this version of the Reese Cup is healthier, but raw or not, it's still candy. Yes, there is such a thing as raw junk food!

Raw Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
From Gone Raw 
Servings: 16 candies

Ingredients: 

½ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup coconut butter (Ed. note: I thought this was a bit high, would reduce next time to 2/3)
½ cup agave
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ teaspoon sea salt
5 tablespoon raw peanut butter

Preparation: 

Blend all ingredients except the peanut butter in a food processor until smooth. Then put half of the batter into a 16 cup mini muffin tin that has been lightly greesed with a little oil. Put in the freezer for two minutes. Then put about one tsp of peanut butter into each cup and then cover with the rest of the chocolate sauce. Freeze (about five minutes-but I keep them in all the time and just take them out when I want one) and enjoy.

Juice recipes

Some more juice recipes to inspire you and delight your senses. Do you have any favorite recipes you'd like to share?

Utopia Juice
1 canteloupe (get organic and it can be rind and all)
Mint (I juiced 20g and then added about 1/3 of that)
3 sticks of celery (smallish sticks)


Olfactory Delight Juice (makes one pint)
60g of alfalfa sprouts
60g of roquette/ arugula (It is arugula season right now and it is sooooo good! I would have added more but this was all I had).
20 strawberries (they were on the small side)
juice of 1 lime
1 cucumber


Blow your mind green juice (makes more than 1L)
3 handfuls bean sprouts
2 zucchinis
1/2 large red pepper (or 1 small)
knob of ginger
1 cucumber
3 pears

Yum yum yum!

Juicy Green Italian Soup

Today is Day 3 of my first ever juice fast. I am doing the fast through an online program offered by Natasha St. Michael on Raw Radiant Health. So far, so good! My sense of smell has improved enormously -- to the point where I can smell the traffic fumes on my morning ride to work. No wonder fasting causes people to radically change their lives!

Last night I made a super delicious green juice, poured it into a bowl, sprinkled a few spices on top, and ate it as a soup. Really delicious and filling! Above is the picture of ingredients before going through the juicer, below is the recipe. Enjoy!

Tguch Green Italian Soup
1/2 head of red lettuce (could increase this to 1 head)
5-6 stalks of basil
1/3 bunch of parsley
6 tomatoes
1/2 a large cucumber
1 red pepper
3 carrots
1/4 fennel (yum, juiced fennel is awesome!)
2 garlic cloves
cayenne pepper + paprika sprinkled on top

Consciousness and the restaurant

Occasionally a vision jumps into my head of me sitting in a restaurant with friends or family and ordering a meal off a menu that someone else has purchased ingredients for, prepared, and served to me. This vision is accompanied with a warm feeling of comfort. A comfort that comes from being taken care of by someone else.

When we eat out, we trust that the restaurant is offering us food that will benefit our bodies. And in response to this trust, we turn off our brains. Eating out is enjoyable in part because we allow ourselves to turn our brains off and eat without consciousness -- consciousness of where the food came from, how it was prepared, what it's nutritional value is etc. In part, the comfort of eating out comes from the comfort of not having to think.

On a raw food diet (and sometimes on a vegan diet) eating out is no longer a comfortable experience. One, most menus do not offer more than one raw option. And two, eating together is a communal experience and I am always concerned that my eating companion will be uncomfortable with my side salad or plate of crudités in comparison to their appetizer, main dish and dessert. As a result, unless it is a raw or vegan restaurant, I no longer eat out with friends. So what else is there to do? you may ask. Good question! It has been fun finding other social activities to invite friends to that do not involve eating.

But unfortunately, I miss that comfort that comes from turning off my thoughts and just indulging. I am ashamed to admit that because one of the reasons I strive to live a vegan raw lifestyle is because I want to live consciously. But there is something relaxing about not being conscious... perhaps with time I will find that same sense of relaxation and comfort in this choice as well.

Recipe: Summer Zucchini-guine with Miso

Day 14 of my 30-day 100% Rawgust adventure, and I am so psyched to be sharing my first raw food creation with you. This is the very first raw recipe thought up completely from scratch in reaction to what tastes and food my body was craving. And it was delicious! A really nice, light, flavorful pasta dish for the summer. I would do a few things differently next time around, and I am including these potential variations in the recipe below. As with all raw recipes, take liberties with it and mix up the veggies based on what your body gravitates towards. Bon appetit!

Summer Zucchini-guine with Miso

Summer Zucchini-guine with Miso

Pasta: one round zucchini spiral-sliced in a saladacco to make wide noodles. I have recently started using the round zucchinis as they make thicker strips then the long squash, and I love a nice pappardelle noodle.

Sauce:
- Bring water nearly to a boil (this will be the quantity of your sauce so use as much or as little water as you want. Remember also that the zucchini will expel water unless you salt and drain it prior to mixing in with the sauce).
- When the water has cooled a touch, mix in with 1/2 T of white miso. Let sit while you prepare your veggies.
- Cut up your veggies. I chose thinly sliced yellow onion (1/4 of an onion), freshly shelled peas (my first time eating raw peas - yum yum and yum! be sure they are not old- you will know because old peas' skins come off and the peas split- as old peas are bitter), thinly sliced radishes (about 6), green onion (2 bunches), 1/2 green pepper. You can see I was gravitating towards bitter and spicy veggies... I will add tomato next time.
- Back to your miso: cut up ginger (I did 2 T) and add together with sesame oil (few squirts) to miso. I also added a touch of agave, but next time I will use lucuma as I prefer the taste, and the powder will help to thicken the sauce. Whisk it up!
- To serve, I put the veggies on the bottom of the bowl, then added the noodles, then poured the sauce over the top. Stirred it up, and ate it with a smile.

Any comments or thoughts, please share. And enjoy!

It takes a village

According to my friend Arletty, a raw foodie Curaçao-Parisienne, there are 100,000 raw foodies in the entire world. This is not a large number, yet simply being able to count the size of this community points to the growing interest in consuming a living, plant-based diet. The Paris raw food community parallels the global dynamic--it is small and growing.

As with any diet and lifestyle choice, the reasons for choosing a raw food diet vary. For me, one of the reasons is I love food, and I love experimenting with food -- I was curious to make a raw lasagna. Second, I was also curious to see if the health benefits were really as life-changing and profound as raw food advocates claimed. Last year I did a 30 day raw challenge with support from Alissa Cohen's Raw Food Talk Forum. For anyone considering going raw, this is a great place to start.  The changes in my energy level, mental clarity, and skin were incredible. And finally, I believe that as individuals, each time we consume, we have the power to choose the economic and world order we want to see manifested. And a raw food diet does not support today's mainstream agro-business.

I think the desire for better health and greater vitality is probably the key factors that attract people to a raw food diet. And then the delicious variety of food keeps them hooked. Perhaps this is why Arletty organizes cru potluck (raw potlucks) in Paris.

Last week, we gathered together near the Seine on the eve of Bastille Day to share homemade raw goodies, and the food and conversation was so inspiring the next day I made raw pizza bread.  Check out my pizza marinara made with a raw basil/oregano/flax seed/almond flour crust, raw marinara sauce, and fresh basil from my balcony garden. Yum!

I am not 100% raw right now and when I travel, I tend to migrate back to cooked foods. But since our cru potluck, I have once again started experimenting with raw recipes such as zucchini-etti with raw alfredo sauce (cashews, fennel, shallots, lemon juice, and garlic) and banana carob pudding (banana, coconut oil, carob powder, cinnamon and lucuma). The joy that comes from eating raw food always raises the question as to why I choose not to eat it 100%. But that's another question for another post.

When I look at the pictures from the cru potluck, the saying: It takes a village to raise a child, pops into my mind. In this particular analogy, the village is the child -- 100k strong and growing. Tomorrow night I have been invited to a ladies night with a group of women I do not know very well. I am inspired to bring a raw dessert -- a combination of this raw almond cookie and cacao walnut cookie recipe with my own twist -- and spread the raw food vitality to a new community. I am amazed at how joyful I feel to do so. A year ago I was tentative to discuss raw food as I often felt as though I had to defend my choice, and being on the defensive is never enjoyable. I no longer feel the need to explain myself. The food will speak for itself.

Living well, China

I first became interested in a raw food diet after a detox fast in Koh Pgnan, Thailand. I was living in Beijing, China at the time and two of my best girlfriends convinced me to try a fast with them to counter the negative effects of China's pollution and lifestyle. In Thailand we met many expats from China using their vacation time to detox and take care of their health. I loved living in China, but I am convinced it did slice off the end of my lifespan. In fact, one reason why I moved to Paris was to try to add back a few years by living somewhere cleaner and with a greater variety of healthy eating options.

I am fortunate that my work brings me back to China several times each year. During this past trip I came across a few new developments indicating that China's big cities are beginning to offer access to some of the health trends sweeping other large international cities.

Macrobiotic restaurant, Shanghai

In Shanghai I had a delicious and energizing dinner at Annamaya, a macrobiotic restaurant owned and run by a Japanese woman. The menu is great with a range of offers -- to drink there are fresh fruit juices and teas, as well as organic sulfate-free wine, and to eat there are various salads, curries, vegan burgers, and I am sure I am forgetting everything on offer. I had a delicious meal starting with a salad of carrots and daikon radish followed by a veggie curry with barley. Afterwards I felt totally grounded and peaceful. If I still lived in Shanghai, I would be eating here quite alot.

Annamaya
3 Taojiang Lu, near Hengshan Lu (French Concession Area)

Wheatgrass, Beijing

Beijing is not built on a human scale. It is larger than life with Soviet-style buildings that take up entire 15-minute walk blocks. Development is never ending, and new shopping malls, apartment buildings, office buildings, and compounds containing all three, sprout all over the city.
I entered a newly developed shopping mall called Fortune Shopping Center (Caifu Gouwu Zhongxin) off Dongsanhuan where only a handful of shops had opened, and came across a kiosk called Jambo that had trays of fresh wheatgrass in the window. Wheatgrass is not easy to grow, so to see it nonchalantly growing in an empty shopping mall in Beijing surprised me. So I entered the kiosk and promptly ordered a shot. Not only can you buy a wheatgrass shot at Jambo, but you can also order pots of freshly grown wheatgrass delivered to your home. If you buy a wheatgrass machine from them, they give you two free pots of wheatgrass. Amazing. I hope they are marketing their product well throughout the city and that this business thrives.

Jambo Juice
Caifu Gouwu ZhongxinDian 2nd Floor
Enjoy Liquid Sunshine at Home -- +86 15710023807
Oh yea, their juices are great too!

Wellnessecity, China
I am sure there are many other new, health-conscious initiatives happening in China. My friend Amena, who is based in Shanghai, has started a new project called WellnesseCity focused on helping urbanites live healthier. This past May she organized a Health & Wellness Fair in Shanghai that brought together a range of local producers and organizations all focused on holistic, natural, healthy living.

Hmmm, if the air was a bit cleaner, I could be convinced to move back to China!

Update: Since writing this post, I have come across two great resources for Beijing-ers.

• One is the Beijing Organic Consumers Yahoo! Group.  The mailing list is great even for non-Beijing- based folks filled with interesting information and discussions.
• Another is the World Health Store in Beijing. They are offering a Raw Class this August 14th!

New England is Awesome

I currently live in Paris, and although I have lived out of the United States for nearly twelve years (my goodness, has it been that long?!), I still consider Connecticut to be my home base. As such, from time to time I like to check out what the Tri-State Area offers in terms of my various hobbies and interests. Who knows why? Maybe I still think I will move back one day...

I was delighted to discover the Raw New England Community. They have a bi-monthly mailing list that serves as great sources of information for raw food and healthy living events for all of New England. And the website has links to products, books, recipes, and restaurants in the form of a discussion board.

If you live in New England, check out the site and join the conversation. It's tag line is: New England is Awesome. With that positive attitude, how can you not check it out?

Bio Panier: organic local goodness delivered!

France has a proud agrarian culture that is reflected in the outdoor markets, at the food and wine expos, and in the focus and respect for  local cuisine and artisanal products.

To protect its agrarian heritage, and to maintain its culinary and vegetation diversity, there is a growing focus on promoting organic and local food production. This promotion meshes well with increasing demand from consumers for better health and to know where their food comes from.

As consumers, each time we spend our money, we vote for the type of economy and world order we wish to have. It may sound dramatic, but it is the truth! Buying locally produced organic sustenance is a vote against the industrial, monoculture agriculture that is stripping natural resources from the planet and our health, and a vote to support your neighbor workers and the ecosystem that surrounds you.

I recently discovered the Bio Culture site that delivers organic fruits and veggies from France and Europe at a reasonable cost every Wednesday to my local wine store. In the above picture Serafina is checking out the goods. Each week I am informed as to where my produce comes from, and what stage of the harvest we are in. I swear there is something about having this knowledge that makes the food taste better! There are many different bio (organic) delivery or local produce sites in France (see the list below for delivery sites around Paris), and around the world. If you live in the United States, check out Farm Fresh for a list of local farms and what produce is in season near you.

Paniers Bio
www.mon-panier-bio.com
www.reseau-amap.org
www.lespaniersduvaldeloire.fr
www.lehautdupanier.fr

Raw food at Bob's Kitchen

One of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Paris is Bob's Kitchen. It is just up the street from the Marais Bikram yoga studio, on Rue des Gravilliers, and after class I love to treat myself to their fresh juice of the day. My fave so far has been lemon, strawberries and mint. Yum!

Two weeks ago I noticed they were announcing a raw food special dinner hosted by local raw foodie Arletty Abady with special guest chef Adam Graham. Hooray! This was my first discovery of raw cuisine in Paris, I was more than excited. Could this mean no more trips to London for raw desserts?

The theme was Italian food, and it was delicious. The appetizer was a fennel, orange, yellow pepper salad and mushrooms marinated, stuffed with olive tapenade, and dehydrated. As someone who has dehydrated a fair amount of mushrooms, I can tell you that these were divine. Full of flavor and a great texture.

The main course was zucchinetti (can I trademark that word?) with a pesto made from a wild herb foraged in the forests of Belgium. Foraging is becoming a new interest of mine, so I was very excited to discover a potential forest guide in neighboring Belgium. There was also a delicious eggplant, marinara tomato, cashew cheese stack.


Dessert was a chocolate cheesecake (made from cashew cheese) parfait with raspberries. It was divine. Raw desserts are the best! The raw heart-shaped chocolate was made by Arletty herself.

Overall, it was a wonderful evening. It was great to meet other folks in Paris interested in raw food, and I look forward to working with them to help build the budding community. There will be other raw food events in the future, I will be sure to post about them here. In the meantime, check out the awesome veggie resto. Enjoy!


Bob's Kitchen
74 Rue des Gravilliers 75003

Yoga thought: winding down

You're hitting the last five minutes of an hour long conference call, or the thirtieth - and final! - review of your article, and in those final moments it it easy to say: I've done great work till this point, I'm tired, let's just wrap this up. As a result, we tend to wind down at the end of projects.

I practice Bikram yoga, a 90-minute practice that consists of 26 postures repeated twice on both the left and right side. It is towards the end of holding each posture that is the hardest; my muscles are tired, my determination fumbles, and I think, I've held the position so well until now, there are only a few seconds left, I can let go.

In fact, it these last few seconds that are the most important. It is in these last few seconds when my mind and body are struggling the most that holding the pose delivers the most benefits. And the other day my teacher gave me a new thought: in the last few seconds, he said, do more than maintain - go deeper in the pose, reach further.

If you have worked hard until the last few seconds, why give up on the end? Maintain or even increase your intensity, and instead of winding down, the project/call/yoga posture may wrap up to a new level, may produce an even greater result, may reach a greater expectation. What a reward for all your hard work! So, why do we wind down?

How Food Shapes our Cities -- Carolyn Steel on TED.com

Very interesting presentation linking how food distribution shapes our world. Premise is that we do not value food today, which means we have lost our most important relationship to nature.

Raw Mac 'n' Cheese

Recipe From Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw

Sweet potato crisps

This is a simple raw recipe! Peel a sweet potato, then use a mandoline to shave thin rounds. Dehydrate for 3-5 hours at 40°C. They look lovely and taste delicious! You will be amazed at how much flavor natural crisps have!

My only issue was they were not as crispy as I would have liked. I need some dehydrating tips! How can I ensure a satisfactory crispiness?

Eggplant bacon

I came across this beautiful post on Raw+Simple with Matthew Kenney's raw eggplant bacon recipe plus pictures. Yum! Grease! were the two words that sprung into my mind. After completing the 30-Day Raw Feast I celebrated by buying myself a dehydrator. The first vegetable I dehydrated was tomatoes, the second was eggplant. The result was not bad! Very tasty (delicious with sunflower seed paté), but not crispy enough.

I recently made sweet potato chips in the dehydrator and they were also not as crispy as I like. A question for expert dehydraters: what is the trick to crispiness? Lower temperature for longer time or a higher temperature for a shorter time period?

Below a visual step-by-step of making eggplant bacon! Check out the link above for the full recipe.

Step #1
Peel the eggplant, sprinkle with salt, and let sit.

Step #2

Marinate the eggplant

Step #3

Lay out eggplant in the dehydrator

Step #4

Eat! It even resembles bacon.