Tropical Infusion!

In the spirit of summer and the hot weather I have decided to come up with a new smoothie recipe.



I also was inspired to create this by an email I received from SunWarrior. SunWarrior just happens to be my favourite raw protein to use in my smoothies. So if you are wondering how to get protein on a raw diet this is one of the products that you can use. Here is a post on why I love it so much.



So here is my smoothie contribution. It is light, tropical and great for a hot summer day. I hope you enjoy! I am sure this would be great on a beach.

Tropical Infusion

500ml Water
1 Star Fruit
10 Organic Strawberries
1 Ripe Mango
2 Tbs Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1 Tbs of Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
1 Scoop SunWarrior Vanilla Rice

Add water to Vitamix. Peel mango and prepare star fruit by cutting off ends and trimming edges. Take tops of strawberries. Add fruit, SunWarrior protein, lime juice and coconut oil. Blend until smooth. The smoothie will be nice and thick. Add 3 ice cubes to a fancy glass and fill. Garnish with starfruit slice .





Close your eyes and imagine that you are on vacation on a a beach relaxing and enjoy a healthy drink. (That's what I do)

Starting August 8th-18th please go over to Sunwarrior and Vote for my smoothie entry. A winner will be chosen based on how many viewer Likes it has. You must like the Sun Warrior Page First and then scroll through to find my smoothie in the photos.

Fennel Salad and Zucchini Stars

I got a whole lot of zucchini and fennel this week in my CSA box. I love this box, you never know what you will get.



I know this concept does not work for everyone. Some of you may like to know exactly what you are getting each week. However for me this has been fun, it brings out my creativity in the kitchen. I imagine myself being on a TV show where you have a mystery ingredient and then you are off to the races to make something new....


So here is my Going with the Flow Fennel Salad

1 Fennel Bulb, sliced thinly
1-2 Oranges, peeled and cut into cubes
1-4 Sun dried tomatoes, chopped
Lettuce
Parsley


Assemble salad by laying fresh lettuce on a plate. Layer fennel on lettuce, followed by orange chunks and sun dried tomatoes. Sprinkle parsley on the salad.

Dressing

Olive Oil
Hemp Seeds
Orange Juice
Apple Cider Vinegar
Honey
Pinch of salt

Mix well and pour over salad.

Enjoy!



The sun dried tomatoes add some extra texture and colour.




I also got about 5 LARGE zucchini's, so I sliced them up for my daughters Birthday Party of the weekend. The zucchini had these great ridges on them and formed star shapes when sliced.


Zucchini Stars

This is from one zucchini!


I used these as veggie chips and offered it with a delicious hemp dressing.



So get out there this week and find a new ingredient to use in your salad or meals. Maybe it is something that you have wanted to try but have been afraid to experiment with.

Be open to new vegetables and tastes and you might be pleasantly surprised. I would love to hear what you come up with!!

5 Reasons Why You Should Try a Raw Food Meet Up!

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a raw food potluck for the K-W Raw Food Meet Up. It was a success and the turnout was a great. Big thank you to all of the members!



5 Reasons Why You Should Try a Raw Food Meet Up:

1. You get to sample a multitude of raw food dishes. Having access to 15-20 different dishes to choose from is amazing.









2. The company is just as great as the food. You will meet all sorts of people from all walks of life and most of them are passionate about raw food whether they are new to the raw movement or have been in it for a while.


3, Share resources on raw food recipes, books, films and information.



4. You become part of a community. You can do a lot of things together like go see health related movies, have discussions and go to raw food events together.




5. The sweetest part is the SUPPORT. Whatever stage you are in on your raw food/health journey you can get moral support from other's in the group. I think this is one of the most important points. While you start to eat more and more raw food it is nice to have the support of others to help you along the way.



I hope you get out there before summer is over and enjoy some raw food with friends! Big THANK YOU to all my raw foodies for the great day.

If you haven't seen it yet, I would love for you to check out the guest post that I wrote on Crazy Sexy Life on "Raw Food Strategies For Your Family" and leave a comment.

.............Stay tuned for our next contest coming up soon.

Cacao Smoothie & Hazelnut Cupcakes

Hope you are having a great day! First I would like to share this beautiful photo that my professional photographer took this week. Pretty good protege? Only 5 years old.

Check out my guest post on Crazy Sexy Life today on raw food strategies for your family. Here is a healthy cooked recipe that was featured as recipe of the week.



I am sure you are all wondering why I have been on this hazelnut kick lately. To tell you the truth, I found this amazingly huge bag of raw hazelnuts, that I rarely ever see. It has led me to some creative time in the kitchen. So I thought I would share a few photos. I actually made these a little while ago but forgot to share them.




My daughter and I made these together. She loves to get in the kitchen and get messy.




Next I want to share this quick smoothie. You could add many other things to this if you wanted to. The sky is the limit. You could also add ice to make it cold and frothy.




Ingredients:

Frozen Banana
Almond Milk
Touch of Maca-optional
Vanilla Powder
1 scoop sunwarrior vanilla protein
Cacao Powder
Bambu Alternative Coffee Mix

Blend together in the vitamix and ENJOY on a nice hot summer day!! This is definitely a guilt free treat.

Stay tuned for a new contest coming your way in a couple of weeks. You won't want to miss this one!!

5 Reasons Why You Should Eat Local Produce

One of the best things about the summer is the chance to eat local produce. Have you ever gone to the grocery store and just looked at all of the food and how far it is come from? This year I signed up for a local CSA (Community Shared Agriculture), since my little furry friends in my backyard like to nibble away at night on my veggies. I wasn't sure I was going to find one so late, but I managed to get signed up and I am thrilled.



Here are my top 5 reasons that you should Eat Local:

1. FRESHNESS

Imagine picking up your vegetables right of the farm or getting a box of fresh vegetables just an hour or two after they are harvested. The quality can not be topped. Nutrients are not lost over long transit times from one side of the world to the other, not to mention the reduction of our carbon footprint. The vegetables are picked at their peak time, instead of being harvested early and ripened while sitting in a truck.


2. VARIETY

What you will often find on the farm or in you local CSA box is variety. Vegetables that you may have not seen before. Different herbs and wild greens. This new variety can force you out of your comfort zone and ignite your creative juices.



One of my favourites is garlic scapes, which are the flowering part of garlic. They are loaded with the same healing properties such as garlic such as boosting the immune system, a source of calcium and anti fungal.

3. EDUCATE YOURSELF AND FAMILY

This is a great opportunity to help educate your family on where food comes from. It doesn't just show up in the isles of grocery stories. This can help reconnect your children or even yourself to the earth and our food. Where and how it is grown and what it looks like in the field.


4. ORGANIC AND GREAT FOR YOU

You can find some great organic options in your community. Start talking to local farmers and see what organic produce they have. If you are like me and eat a lot of vegetables, you will want them to be organic and pesticide free. Just think of all the green juices and smoothies that you can make.




5. SENSE OF COMMUNITY

When you are out and about you have a great opportunity to MEET people. Yes to get out of our fast paced world, slow down and talk to people. Meet your farmers and others in your community. Just this week I was able to connect with some really nice people, that I maybe would not have met if I was rushing through a grocery store. We even went to an asparagus festival last weekend.

Hopefully I have encouraged you to go find some farms, join a CSA or even visit your market. I would love to have you comment about what your are doing in your community and if you are part of a CSA.

If you haven't already it would be great to have you join my facebook page .

Stay tuned for another one of our Blyssful Health contest coming up in the month of July!!!!!

Raw Ice Cream Sandwich Challenge

Have you ever entered a cooking challenge? If you have not, you must try because they are so much fun and pretty addictive. Last time I got to enter a raw cake pop challenge and I was totally obsessed with it for a couple of days. It was so much fun and it kind of pushes you out of your comfort zone and gets the creative juices going.

I was planning on entering the 5 in 5 Raw Chef Contest this week, but did not make the deadline. However I caught a glimpse of some awesome Raw Ice Cream Sandwiches over on Rawkinmom blog the other night and I felt a twinge of sadness that I didn't enter. So I jumped over to Nicole and Lisa's Blog and found that I still had a little bit of time...less than one day.

So I decided to try and race against time and get one in before the deadline. So here it is:

1. Cacao Hazelnut Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich


Cookie Base:
1 cup raw hazelnuts
5 tbs raw cacao powder
1/2 tbs lacuma
3.5 tbs agave
5ml Vanilla powder
10ml ground flax seed mixed with 2 tbs water

Blend hazelnuts in your food processor until they are a fine powder. Add cacao, lacuma, vanilla powder and pulse. Add agave and flax mixture and process until mixture forms a dough. Take dough out and either roll into little balls and flatten into circle shaped cookies. The alternative way is to roll out the dough which you can place between two teflex sheets from the dehydrator. Note: rolling produces a thinner cookies, while rolling into a ball technique creates a thicker more rustic cookie. Dehydrate at 105 for 3.5 -5 hours depending on your preference. I dehydrated mine for 5 hours.




Vanilla Ice Cream Filling

1 cup homemade almond milk
( To make almond milk take one cup of almonds to 1 and half cups water. Blend & strain)
5ml vanilla powder
30 ml maple syrup ( or 30 mls agave. I used maple syrup)
1-2 bananas

Blend in Vitamix and then freeze well. Use cookie cutter to cut out ice cream patties for a perfect circle. Or pulse in the food processor a few times to get a softer fluffy texture.




Enjoy!!!