toronto! to raw in tow?

last weekend my friend alison shields had her grad art show in toronto and i feel so lucky i was able to come out for the opening. i'm so excited for her finding her 'thing' if that makes sense? at first i wasn't really in the mood for travelling, strangely enough, but it didn't take long after getting off the plane to be excited to eat at live again and well, to see some great people again!
over the just under 3 days i was there, i went to live 3 times! hehe. so i'll start with that. definitely my favourite raw place. they have cooked things too but it's all vegan. and i love getting recommendations to go there from people who eat meat! it's always amazing! i have not ordered ANYTHING there that has been a letdown and that's pretty impressive!
i'm currently debating buying live's recipe ebooks... i can only imagine some amazing meals in the future if i had such inspiration... hmm....
on friday, i went for a late lunch/early dinner and couldn't decide so i went for the raw combo which included some pizza, falafel, spring rolls and beet ravioli! there was also a salad! this was probably the first time i did not finish everything on my plate and someone else's at a raw restaurant :) i can't even name my favourite dish on the plate! all incredible. ooh and i had a blueberry kombucha which reminds me that i started making my own kombucha just before i went and it was ready when i got home! my first batch ever! eek!

anyways, the next night, i came for dessert and we picked the black forest cake, almond butter cup and the raspberry strudel? (i can't remember what it was called) but again! nothing was a miss! wow. i don't know how this place does it!

and then, on my last day, i came for brunch and had the raw huevos! SOOOO incredible!!! i don't know what the thick cracker-like thing was that everything was piled on but it was super hard to cut into but seemed like too big of a mess to pick up... but no matter, it was delicious!!!

 that last day started with a rushed brunch (i had to get to lunch at live right afterwards!) at starving artist. i had a fruit bowl (amazing berries and such! i hate canteloupe/honeydew plus one grape fruit bowls!) and 2 mini vegan, gluten-free waffles with fruit!

oh and i musn't forget the awesome place i went to on the saturday: mylk uncookies in cabbagetown. their thing is "something for everyone". i had raw treats (of course) - the lucuma one was my favourite- but the cookies looked amazing - like pillows of chewiness! wish i had taken a photo! they have gluten-free and vegan things and of course, gluten-free, vegan, raw things! i had a couple tea lattes with house-made almond milk! they didn't have raw uncheesecakes that day but i hope to someday be back and try them!

oh and wouldn't you know but the owners are originally from vancouver and used to shop regularly at the kitchen shop i worked at for a number of years! i love how small the world is sometimes! :)

i didn't get to rawlicious which i went to last time i was in toronto and i still haven't tried cruda cafe but i'll just have to next time!

anyways... i had a wonderful weekend in toronto... got to meet up with a lot of amazing people and eat amazing things and i managed to bring a few things back from panacea too, including kale chips from live and a raw chocolate easter bunny lollipop from live on chocolate! YES!

hooray vancouver!

ok so maybe not so much "raw" news as vegan news on a rainy monday in vancouver... easter day-off monday... but yah...

so first, i was super excited to finally check out the completely vegan shoe store that just opened up on fraser between 19th and 20th, nice shoes! i had an ethical deal coupon (um, could i get any luckier?) for a pair of colourful grass (notice the 'u' in colourful? oh yeah, canadian! vancouver island even!) flats in vandana rose. any chance the name is inspired by vandana shiva, who i just recently saw in the inspiring good food, bad food or first heard of when i picked up manifestos on the future of food and seed? or am i just a food nerd?

 and well, how could i resist a pair of hopeful-for-summer-soon flats that bear my name!? and the brand name novacas means "no cow" in spanish and portuguese! love it! and these sandals are so comfy and i love that they snap open and shut and they are slouchy. and they are BUILT BY KINDNESS. how glorious is that?

oh and to bring this back to the raw... nice shoes is also carrying hurraw! lip balm which is "all natural, organic, vegan, raw, good" (hehe) lip balm! i got grapefruit and i LOVE how smooth this stuff is. like coconut oil but absorbs in more of a strong glide if that makes sense. when i have dry lips, i feel coconut oil is too thin to convince me it's working? i don't know. i haven't bought anything skin-related in so long but that was a super fun purchase. plus i love that the container is like a flattened version of the typically cylinder wind-up.

oh and talking with joanne at the store, she showed me this video of a 109 year old man who has been eating raw forever and he is just incredible! look at his skin! he's going to open a restaurant? his life has just begun! i love how he says "you've heard people say you are what you eat? well, you are!"

on my way home, i stopped in at gorilla food for a goji almond crunch cookie and i couldn't believe it! they now have a debit machine! apparently they've had it for 2 weeks? but i swear it wasn't there on friday or wednesday when i was last there :) hehe. but no matter! i'm just so excited that i don't have to wait until i have some cash on me to stop in! YAY!!!  i have to mention though, that when i was there on wednesday with 2 friends who didn't have cash, i had $40 for dinner for all of us and it was a success! we shared desserts, a smoothie and 3 menu items! who says raw, vegan, organic food is expensive?

bananarama!

tell me this doesn't look like the perfect thing to come home to after work... coconut water and the new chocolate banana pie from organic lives!

my new favourite dessert!!! (besides the brazil nut/almond heart cookie, of course!)

i was in the mood for macaroni and cheese and this didn't really do it for me but it was fun to use kelp noodles again and experiment with making a sauce with brazil nuts. i added some pistachios and lemon and nutritional yeast and regrettably a bit too much chili powder. i added some parsley (and cilantro) and steamed some spinach (for iron's sake! i just learned the other day that spinach's iron content is way more absorbable when steamed) and chopped red pepper and mushrooms.

soup and sandwiches and... pad thai

so the other day, i tried to make soup again.. this time it was too salty. 

 but then i made ice cream out of frozen bananas (with cacao macaroons on the side) to make it all better!

 but really the best lunch is a sandwich using whatever veggies on hand, brazil nut and nacho "cheeses" on the juice pulp/flax dehydrator bread!

 i have to start using the recipe books i have! i've started looking through ani phyo's raw food essentials and did kelp noodles with pistachio avocado pesto. so creamy and great!!!

 had cashew creamery's cacao chip mint ice cream spread into a cacao coconut frozen crust for dessert.

 i put too much coconut oil in the crust but it was super fun to eat! like dq ice cream cake. sort of.

 ok and then i tried soup AGAIN. this one wasn't a total bust! and paul actually ate it all... with lots of nutritional yeast of course. this one was inspired by ani's kream of broccoli (page 138) but i didn't add the red pepper kream on top and i used brazil nuts instead of cashews. simple, green and good!

 ooh but the real hit... the pad thai with kelp noodles! (page 227) wish i added crushed nuts of some sort on top or cauliflower or something to look more pad thai-ish. but the cilantro and lime and bit of jalapeno glow... yum!!!

organic connections cafe

last sunday, i was super excited and lucky to get to white rock to check out organic connections cafe.

they are a mostly raw, all vegan cafe overlooking the water and eek, it was great!

here is the menu:

i had the banana ice cream sundae first!

then all 3 of us ordered the burger! i had it with the side salad with dijon dressing (DELICIOUS) and my favourite boys had soups. 

 had to have dessert again after lunch... the blueberry cheesecake! and check out the "just eat an apple" magazines from 2002/3... wish it was still around now!

can't wait to go back! though it'd take almost 2 hours to get there on transit if i were to try! but it'd be worth it!

easy bread!

i've been juicing a bit more than usual lately and i've started using the leftover pulp! hurrah! i save the carrot, parsley, beet, whatever scraps and then mix with soaked ground flax and some whole flax and add some sprouted chickpea miso or spices or something (though i'm not convinced it needs anything) and then spread it onto some teflex sheets for 1/2 a day then flip it onto the mesh and finish it off in 1/2 a day or less! it's been the best! especially with some brazil nut cheese or nut butter or mashed up avocado. and whatever veggies. YES!

bananas and chocolate!

i don't know what i would do without bananas. frozen for smoothies, smushed up with cacao bits and coconut for a snack, fruit on the run... they are just the best!

tonight paul was saying he wished he could dip his banana in chocolate, so, grateful for the inspiration, i started throwing things into the vitamix.

i put about 4 spoons of cacao powder, a heaping spoon of coconut oil, a heaping spoon of almond butter, a few hunza dates, a number of splashes of almond milk (had to keep adding because there wasn't really enough in the blender to mix things around - as it were, there are still some chunks of dates).... anyways... it was so good and i'm convinced this is my raw chocolate pudding recipe. and i'm definitely going to start making it on the regular!