raw purple corn chips!

i have been vowing to use the purple corn kernels i've had in the fridge for raw chips for YEARS, i'm sure. i'm actually scared to do a search on this blog as i know it's been way too long.
well, finally i tried it! and i'm impressed.
i used this recipe from rawfullytempting.com and it was perfect.

first i needed to blend my flax seed into powder and process all the corn. i try to avoid corn in my usual day, though i am a sucker for anita's white popping corn! gah. anyways! i most definitely used organic (non-GMO!!!) yellow and purple corn for this recipe.


using my vita-mix for processing the corn and such was not ideal, but it just meant i had to take many breaks (as the motor was working overtime) and had to keep spatula-ing the sides to get everything mixing evenly. i really need to get a big food processor one of these days as my mini one is just not cutting it. it is, but not just not enough at once! ha.

the spreading part, as the recipe states, is not the easiest part. i didn't quite take my time and they are uneven. but now i know that i like the thicker parts better than the fragile thin chips!
but all sizes of chips taste awesome in the red pepper chickpea hummus paul made last night! 

no-pumpkin pie custard-like smoothie!

oh goodness, is this delicious!
smooth and thick like a custard, cold and refreshing as a smoothie, comforting like a pumpkin pie, though i can't remember the last time i had a pumpkin pie! the last "pumpkin" pie i had was at organic lives (last year maybe?) and it wasn't made with pumpkin either!

ingredients:
-1 cup almond milk
-1 frozen banana
-1 frozen persimmon
-1 nub of ginger
-a good-sized shake of cinnamon
-a sprinkle of lucuma
-a sprinkle of mesquite
-a small splash of maple syrup

heirloom dinner.

on thursday night, for the first time in what seems like ages, i met up with sarah and went out for dinner! yay!
we checked out heirloom, just off granville on west 12th, which had just opened up the week before. it's an all vegetarian restaurant with many labelled vegan and raw and gluten-free options! hurrah!
we got the popcorn ($3) to start which was awesome. although i normally eat my popcorn with coconut oil and nutritional yeast just as heirloom does, the added beet powder that the restaurant uses was perfection! best popcorn ever!
i got an algae lemonade to start ($5) that i definitely have to start doing at home - e3 live with lemon and maple syrup? yum!!! so refreshing and invigorating! i think it would do me well to sip on in the mornings at work, though, maybe more so in the warmer months!

we shared the avocado fries ($7? i can't remember) and the raw slaw ($6.50? i can't remember either. oops!). the avocado fries are deep fried in a chickpea batter and served with a homemade catsup which has a strange sweet taste, at least to me and sarah. i kept using it as a dip though because the fries are drying and in my opinion, really need the dip dimension. i think they would go better with a salsa. the slaw was pretty good. sarah mentioned the sesame taste being too much. the slaw was really carrot-y and light. i appreciated the basil garnish and would have enjoyed more basil. 

i would definitely go back to heirloom to try more food. so far, the highlights for me are the beautiful space, my friend vanessa serving (and creating her amazing holistic drinks!), the popcorn, and my company, sarah! 

i'm super excited that vancouver keeps opening up new and beautiful veggie-friendly restaurants!

iced mock mocha

i thawed out some e3live this morning but only had enough for a shot for paul. later, i wasn't in the mood for the taste so i thought i'd do something with raw chocolate! my result is something that reminds me of when i used to drink iced cappucinos at tim hortons (more than half my life ago, ok?) and the raw cacao is definitely giving me a coffee buzz! yay! i totally needed this jolt.

e3live "mocha" and a shot of e3live (with green grapes as a chaser!)

for my blended drink, i used:

*about 2 tablespoons raw cacao powder (i'm guessing! i'm pretty sure it was more than 1 tablespoon)

*1 "shot" of e3live (ie the amount i could pour off the unthawed stuff to fill a shot glass)

*1 tablespoon maple syrup 

*1/2 tablespoon lucuma powder

*1 cup unsweetened almond milk

*4-5 ice cubes (made with a stainless steel ice cube tray! the best! i love the old look and updated material! ie aluminum-free!)

it separated a little after i had it sitting out for a bit: dark green and brown swirls, not as appetizing. but stirred, it's a pretty normal looking chocolate colour! and the raw cacao is the perfect caffeine buzz for today and i can't taste the e3live! (does anyone else sometimes not like the taste of wheatgrass or e3live? today is one of those days...)

korean middle school cafeteria day 1

breakfast! i was very excited to try this raw granola by didi's. i brought soy milk which isn't exactly something i normally have (soy? boo!) but i only have that one drink box and another coming up for this small pack of granola! anyways... it was super rad to have a nice salad and grapes along with this meal!












then... lunch! i brought dehydrated veg crackers from organic lives and balanced some salad on top with apple cider vinegar and olive oil (that i also brought from home). works for me!













and dinner... in effort to switch things up, i added some tamari to my oil/vinegar dressing and some sprouted almond croutons from, you guessed it, organic lives.

living foods in LA...

so i've just arrived in korea and i have packed a mega huge "food" suitcase so i have basically all meals provided while i teach at this 3 week camp. i'm hoping there will be salad and fruit for me! otherwise everything i have is dehydrated! gah! i will start posting what i've managed to extract from the cafeteria when i get a chance!


anyways... so that my dreams are still vibrant, here are some places i went to and amazing food i ate while in LA:



first... sunpower natural cafe near universal city:

i had a bbq sunflower burger with the raw green bun with coleslaw.







i had 'dirty chai' raw vegan ice cream at kindkreme around the corner before lunch and then i had to go back afterwards for their soft serve vanilla with caramel sauce and cacao nibs! YES!















on my last day, i got to real food daily which many people recommended to me:




i had the living (collard greens) wrap and now i wish i had taken a photo at more of an angle so you can see in! but it was wonderful. they had great juices too (i had a "sweet green").



i was super excited to go to erewhon natural foods market and pick up snacks for my way home (and for the korea food suitcase!)

first i HAD to try dr. cow's cashew & brazil nut cheese as i hadn't before and i've been waiting years!


i LOVED it! and i'm excited to get a chance to have it again sometime. it was like a soft cheese and mild aged taste... perfect with the flax crackers i was happy to take with me here to korea as flax isn't anywhere!


i took these cookies onto the plane and i wish i had gotten a before photo as they are a mess in this one :( they were super cute with the chocolate chip in the middle! they tasted like a raw dough (yah, obviously everything is raw but you know, like a raw, not yet baked dough). so that was kinda fun.



then i tried these later. i definitely want to find them again. kinda reminded me of a quaker chocolate chip granola bar!





i'm still learning this layout stuff and sometimes korean is popping up so i find it even harder to know what i'm doing. but i'm trying.

cafeteria meals coming up!

how i survived 15 hours at disneyland as a vegan...

hurrah for buying snacks at whole foods the night before!
the "gone nuts" rosemary garlic sprouted pistachios and almonds were a garlic lovers's must-have, though i didn't like that there were a lot of clumps of garlic/spices - hard to eat without the pistachios and almonds underneath! the "rawk-n-roll cuisine" pizza flavoured kale went over well with others as well but i wish there was more! it seemed like there were just 5 clumps of it in the $10 bag! the "kookie karma" cherry cashew bar wasn't memorably different than a "larabar" if i remember correctly but i guess it was raw so that is a plus? and the "two moms in the raw" mango chia bar was quite nice and i'm definitely going to try making something like it when i get a dehydrator - hopefully at the end of summer. it was just a bunch of fruit and chia seeds, probably soaked for awhile in some juices and then dehydrated. simple and perfect! i drank my "amy and brian" coconut water before getting to the park as i expected to be dehydrated. i ended up filling my water bottle at fountains throughout the day despite being convinced my water smelled like bleach. gross! i am spoiled drinking kangen water at work! the "kevita" lemon ginger kefir drink was quite nice and i was grateful to have brought some fun drinks!

at first, i was cynical about the market stands in disneyland... i saw the chip bags and smirked at what should be produce. and then i noticed that they DID have produce! sadly, this one had watermelon and grapes and pineapple buried under the ice and it was nasty looking upon closer inspection. and the only organic thing they had was a dehydrated fruit leather type thing that wasn't straight-up fruit... but hey... these are steps in the right direction! these fruit stands were everywhere!
so, anyways... i was soooo grateful i could bring food into disneyland!