This champagne will go to your head.

Breakfast today...three champagne mangoes and some leftover strawberries. If you haven't tried this kind of mango, run out and get some. You will appreciate the sweet taste without the stringiness that sometimes comes with regular mangoes. Delicious.

The avocadoes are ripe...what do you do? What do you do?

What to do with very ripe avocadoes and gorgeous strawberries? Make a dark chocolate and strawberry pie, of course. I had leftover pie crust in the freezer. Popped it in a glass pie dish and put in the dehydrator for a few minutes to soften. Pressed it in the bottom.

Then lined that with thinly sliced strawberries tossed in a bit of agave. Set in the fridge.

Took a bunch of avos, added in David Wolfe's organic cacao powder, Artisana coconut creme, agave, salt and the meat of two young coconuts, plus a little of the water. Blended in the FP, threw in a handful of cacao nibs, stirred, poured into the waiting pie plate. Garnished with remaining strawberries and some nibs.

That finished off my giant jar of DW cacao powder, so I poured the remaining coconut water into that, shook it up, and drank it.

Say it with me, friends.

RAW ROCKS.

Coconuts Roasting...on an Open Fire.

I had my first fire tonight. Not in a Drew Barrymore/Stephen King/Firestarter kind of way. The home where I'm now living has a fireplace. And all of my apartments and homes since moving out of my parents' house have been sans fireplace. It got really chilly tonight, so I set up a little fire and hung out in front of it. There's nothing cozier than a wood fire, and the smell is so gorgeous. What's this got to do with raw? Well, I'm gonna tell you.

At my last home, I was fortunate enough to be on a farm, with a landlady who had a huge compost that I could use. We found out quickly that my young coconuts took a bit too long to break down, so I resorted to throwing them out. Not any longer, superfriends! Scrape those coconuts out, let them dry, and they make rawesome fire catchers. Or kindling. Or whatever. Anyway, it burned well and I had a groovy, warm, incredible fire to toast my toes and chilly nose.

If you've got a fireplace and a love of young coconuts, get on the coconut boat and do your part to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

I'm your firestarter,

xo
V

Today's Smoothie: Trippy Tropical

• Meat and water of 1 young coconut
• 1 large, luscious mango
• 2 bananas
• 1 Tbsp maca
• ice (optional)

Blend. Sip. Sigh.

Rawsources, or How to Get the Raw Booty.

I'm so happy.
Why, you may ask (all three people who are aware this blog exists)? Because today, I found a source for raw cacao beans.

If you go online to buy whole beans, or even the nibs, you'll pay a decent amount for them. About $12-15 for a pound. So today I went into a little artisanal chocolate shop near my job and asked if they had raw beans. The owner, a very cool guy, sold me 2 pounds for $6. He also cracked them for me. So I have 2 whole pounds of raw cacao nibs, that he actually bought in Costa Rica and brought back. Glorious. I will be making a chocolate/almond butter pie next. Don't be hatin' -- I'll save some for you.

This led me to think about resources. Or rawsources, as I like to call them. Being raw means investing not only in your health, but in your food, too. Organics aren't always the cheapest game in town, and some of the superfoods we like to eat are downright pricey. But there are ways around it, as I found today. So here are a few ideas on how to save some coin.

Farmers Markets. Duh, right? But a lot of people don't take advantage of their farmers market. Don't know where they are? Try http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ and enter your location. FMs are great for fresh, local produce at a low cost. Now, not all of the farmers are organic, but you can talk to them and find out which ones are. Some farms have organic practices but haven't earned their certification yet. Develop relationships with your favorite farm vendors and you'll find they're happy to tell you what's fresh, what's coming up, etc.

CSA. Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, is a great idea. Local farms sell families a season's pass of fresh produce. Each week, a box or bag of veggies, fruits, and other yummy goodness is delivered, usually to a drop-off point. I've been buying arugula from a local farm through a CSA, and it's ruined all other arugula for me.
To find a local CSA, go to: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.

Ask and You Shall Receive. Next time you go to the Asian market with a jonesing for young coconut, ask for a case. They'll pull it from the back, it will be fresher coconuts, and you'll get a good price for buying the case. Think about other ways to save, too. Like my serendipitous cacao find today, using your imagination can yield some great deals. If you have a big family and need to buy in bulk, talk to your local produce person in a Whole Foods or other grocery store with organic stuff. They may be able to give you a deal on quantity.

Online. Yep, it's not always easy to find raw food products, especially if you live in a more remote area. Going online will allow you to compare prices at different sites. Check out some of my links for various raw stores. I sometimes buy certain things from one place, and others from another, just because of the price difference.

Swap Work for Booty. No, I'm not suggesting you resort to illegal and questionable activities. I mean booty like the pirates. Aaarrrrrr. A lot of small farms need help during the harvesting seasons. Some of them may be willing to trade your labor for some produce. And it may be the very produce you helped to reap that ends up on your plate.

I'm sure you crafty kids have all kinds of ideas for keeping raw resources at a reasonable cost. Let me know your tips and tricks. I'm going to go huff some raw cacao nibs.

xo

What's for Dinner?

Eating raw does funny things to my appetite. One day I'll eat a field's worth of greens. The next I'll pick at stuff. This evening, the only thing I was craving was some raw hummus and flax crackers. The crackers I made last night by mixing gold and brown flax seeds, sea salt, and a pureed mix of orange pepper, scallions and some Nama Shoyu. The no bean/no nut hummus is props to Matt Amsden and his fantastic recipe book "RAWvolution."


Matt Amsden's No-Bean Hummus

• 2 zucchini, peeled
• 3/4 cup raw tahini
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled (I added more, but I'm of the mind that there's no such thing as too much garlic)
• 2.5 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin

Throw all the ingredients into a food processor or blender, blend at high speed until creamy and smooth. Serve with flax crackers, veggies, as a sandwich spread, salad dressing...the possibilities are endless. I crowned mine with some fresh watercress, a radish and some paprika.

This was a great treat, because sometimes I just need to get away from the heaviness of beans and nuts.

xo

Coconut and Banana Cream Pie (I Would Eat This for Breakfast Pie)

So I've been reading all my raw recipe books, getting ideas, and I decided to make a pie for the potluck I went to this evening.

Taking some cues from different recipes, I did my own thing and was really pleased with the results. The only thing I'd like to work with is getting the pie to set more firmly, but I think Irish Moss will do the trick. So, here's the 411. I tend to measure a lot by eye, but this time I wrote stuff down. Enjoy, and try not to eat all the batter before you pour it into the shell.

Equipment needed

• food processor
• mini prep food processor (if you have one, if not, just use the regular one)
• 9-inch pie pan

For the crust:

• 2 cups of hazelnuts
• 4 Tbsp almond flour (optional--I found that it added a good dry balance)
• 3/4 cups of dates, soaked and pitted
• 2-inch section of vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod discarded
• sprinkle of sea salt
• 2 tsp of raw cacao powder
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil

Grind up nuts in food processor until fine, put aside in bowl. Then grind up dates, vanilla seeds and coconut oil. Put nuts back into food processor, add almond flour, sea salt and cacao powder. Blend thoroughly. Will have a sticky consistency, but shouldn't ball up.

Press the mix into your pie pan, pressing up the sides and smoothing the bottom. I put my pie shell in the dehydrator at 115 degrees for an hour or so, just to dry it out a bit since I was going to be adding wet ingredients.




Filling

• 1 cup of young coconut meat
• 1 cup of young coconut water (reserve any additional water in case you need more liquid)
• 3/4 cup coconut butter
• 1.5 large bananas (you may want to add more, depending on your preference)
• Couple pinches of sea salt
• 3-inch section of vanilla pod, scraped
• 3 Tbsp of lecithin (this emulsifies the ingredients and helps them to stay blended)
• 3/4 cups to 1 cup of dates, soaked and pitted

Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth. I actually pre-blended the dates in a mini food processor, just so there wouldn't be big chunks, but that's totally up to your preference.
Put the mixture into a bowl in the fridge while the pie crust is in the dehydrator.

Topping

• Unsulphured dried and shredded coconut (Reserve to the side)
• 3-4 Tbsp Raw cacao powder
• Squirt of Agave nectar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• About 2 Tbsp Coconut oil
• pinch of sea salt

This is one of the cases where I eyeballed the ingredients. Go by your tastebuds. Warning: this stuff is seriously edible. I put all the ingredients in a mini food processor and whirled it around.

When pie crust comes out, allow to sit out for a bit. Pour the filling into it, smoothing it over. Put into the freezer to set the top. After about a 1/2 hour, sprinkle the shredded coconut over the top (how much you use is up to you). Make the chocolate sauce, drizzle on the pie. Put it back in the freezer or fridge to set up a bit.

Eat. And moan with happiness.

xo
V