goji chocolate cheesecake!

on monday night, sarah came over to help me make a goji chocolate cheesecake (from sweet gratitude, page 106 though the recipe appears to be right here!)

sarah processed the nuts and dates for the crust!

 i blended goji berries and cashews and other fun things for the filling!

 isn't it beautiful?

 yes!

 i liked sarah's crust pressing technique!

 first part of the cheesecake... i remember worrying that there wouldn't be enough leftover to mix chocolate in for the swirl...

 and there ended up being like half the cheesecake in the blender... somehow more than the 2 cups i was supposed to need.

so it became a layered cheesecake rather than one with a swirl! so i'll have to try out the swirl next time! 

 i LOVE the texture and crazy taste. i have to limit how much i eat of it though because it's a real caffeine boost or SOMETHING. i'm wired after eating it! and of course it made its debut last night (a bit later than i expected! i was up so late afterwards!!!) after me, sarah, renee and kasha saw a cute (but a lil' long) thai rom/com called hello stranger. it's set in seoul which was fun like watching something filmed in vancouver. i love looking for familiar sights!

speaking of korean things (?), i found organic vegan kimchi at the farmers market at main station this afternoon! so awesome!!! i should get looking at ani phyo's korean-inspired recipes...

radha, 2nd chance.

i went to radha for the first time for dinner just a few months ago... i was excited to eat somewhere with raw-friendly offerings on the menu and my friend had just got back from LA, experiencing a RAWvolution! we shared some raw nori rolls and cabbage rolls and a lime cheezecake for dessert. the most inspiring part of the meal was that i had a mother in my kombucha. it was a major bummer.

but i really believe you can't base an opinion on one experience and when the opportunity arose to catch up with a friend from almost a decade ago who is new to vancouver, we came to radha. it was wonderful!

she had panelle with tagine & ratatouille (the top plate in the photo) and i had the living/raw special which was a falafel with salad and there were so many familiar strong tastes but i am at a loss of words to try recall them all! i was so happy to have crunchy and soft, spicy and cool... it was a glorious balance. hurrah!

and then i had a raw white chocolate mousse with raspberries and strawberries. YES!

it reminds me that i tried a chocolate/mango parfait, new at organic lives in the afternoon which i've been excited to try. i think it should just be a mango parfait. the cacao mousse is not KAPOW enough. just sayin!

so anyways, i just watched, er, sort of listened to in the background while i'm typing, a thing about diet versus skin cancer. and it's been something i've been thinking about a lot lately. the sun has finally come out here and fairly intensely and i've been biking around a fair bit and i have not gotten burned. i'm amazed. and i have burned my skin in the past looking at a sun vacation brochure. i swear. and i'm not feeling invincible or anything - like mike adams says, i'm not going to go out and fry in the sun for 8 hours with confidence that i'm not doing damage (everything in moderation, yes???) but i do really believe more and more that sunscreen is a big scam (how terrible does it feel to put it on and how many people do you know have reactions to it? and goodness, thinking about putting this gross stuff on and letting it seep into my skin! GAH!) and that diet and general well-being play a huge role in getting cancer or not...