Hiya everyone! Sorry for my absence of late, but I think you know I have a very good distraction!

Even if he is ‘Sir Poopalot’ it’s a welcome distraction and I am loving being a mum to Manus Kai.

Also I want to again say thank you to EVERYONE who has poured out so much love to him and our family with the beautiful gifts, cards and well wishes. So many people to thank I just hope I don’t forget anyone – it’s gonna take months to get around to it!

I had all these brilliant guest posts lined up to share with you once I had Manus, but I am finding that being a mum to a newborn (even with grandma and grandpa’s help!) means even having time to have  a shower is a triumph! Any other mum’s in the house know what I am talking about???

Anyhoo, it’s clear that I am incapable of running a giveaway in a timely manner whilst having a bub, so I wanted to let you all know who the winner of the year subscription to Nüde-Food Magazine was…..

Congratulations Steph, could you please drop me an email at robyn@girlonraw.com with your postal address so we can get this sorted for you ASAP.

So as I mentioned I have some wonderful peeps doing some guest posting here til I get back on track, but I’ll be popping in as well over the coming weeks (my online shop should be up and running mid April wahoo!) so stay tuned for more news and I’ll pass you over to my long time pal, Natalie.

Natalie and I only met briefly a few years back through a mutual friend, and since then I’ve also worked alongside her brother at Virgin Blue and we’ve also maintained a virtual friendship through facebook and our blogs, (aren’t online friends wonderful?) and she offered to guest post for me when she travelled with her family to the US and Canada last year as a new raw foodie. Plus she’s also a little ahead of me in the mummy game so she’s been offering me wonderful advice.

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Bio

Natalie is a Melbourne, Australia based Registered Music Therapist who is currently learning lots about the raw food lifestyle. She has recently started her own blog, Learning To Raw, which can be found at www.learningtoraw.com and facebook here

Family Travelers Exploring Raw

I traveled to the US and Canada in late 2010 with my husband Ron and 10 month old daughter Ruby. As a beginner raw food explorer, I was keen to seek out some tasty raw treats for us while we were away. I’d like to share with you some of what we found…

Raw Snacks For On The Go

We did a fair bit of train travel (from New York to Toronto and back) so we stopped at a local Whole Foods Market in New York’s Union Square and picked up some yummy snacks for the train ride and beyond. While we were in Wholefoods we had a beautiful lunch from their salad bar. I tried kale for the first time, and found some exotic red bananas.

Here are some raw ‘ready snacks’ I found that traveled well. I haven’t found commercial raw snacks like this in any stores yet in Melbourne – but I’ll keep searching!

A live ‘granola’ bar. This was quite dry and chewy with a nutty and earthy flavour. Not my favourite but healthy and filling!

These raw chai spice macaroons were yum! Nice and sweet and soft but quite crumbly. Ruby loved them too!

Raw Gourmet For The Weary Traveler

We spent two wonderful weeks in Collingwood, a small town in Ontario, Canada where I lived for three years in the mid 2000’s. My little town has grown up so much since I left in 2006 – they even have a gourmet, organic, raw food café called Pure.

I was lucky enough to be able to get to Pure twice during my visit. The first time was for a green juice energy boost.

The second time was for a whole meal – yum! I had an awesome raw nachos dish (made with flax cracker ‘corn chips’) and a chocolate ‘mylk’ shake.

Ron had their ‘Gorilla Taco’ with nut meat, veggies and more served ‘gorilla style’ (I love that!) in a red cabbage leaf.

The food was all completely yum, the owners and staff awesome and the business itself is as environmentally friendly as possible.

Although I was very full from lunch, I had to try one of their Irish Moss Parfaits to take back to our B&B for later. I was very impressed with the creamy taste (I had the latte flavour) and texture.

Check it out! Even the take-out cup is compostable!

Go and say hi to the lovely folks at Pure if you’re ever in beautiful little Collingwood. Their website is www.purefoodbar.com

We had an awesome trip and an amazing adventure. Ron got to do a treetop walk and 150 foot high flying fox ride, and I got to spend half a day relaxing with a massage and soak at an outdoor Scandinavian spa – bliss! We were also very fortunate to be able to see His Holiness The Dalai Lama give a lecture in Toronto while we were there – he was inspirational. I highly recommend travel with a small person tagging along – it was a delight to see Ruby experience new people and places. Be sure to do some research before you go about healthy/raw places to eat and shop, and child friendly transport, shopping, restaurants and attractions.