On the 18th August, I teamed up with Kind Living Cafe in Maleny (about an 1.5 hours drive from Brisbane), Queensland to conduct a raw food class for their Thursday night students, and then some more.

The lady behind this wonderful concept cafe (I say concept as Kind Living Cafe is way more than a Living Foods Cafe – it is a franchise and if you follow their facebook page you’ll see they are even working on a retreat plus way more) is none other than the lovely Lucy.

Lucy contacted me to see if I would be willing to guest present a class for her Thursday night students on my recent holiday home in Australia as she knew I was a local girl.

I jumped at the chance, even though I was on holiday with family, I was itching to get myself up to Maleny anyway, to sample their menu.

So I took my family with me for lunch before the evening event.

Onto the class [Photos courtesy of Kind Living Cafe]

The thing that really struck me about Kind Living Cafe, and Lucy, was the loving energy resonating from not only the staff but also the customers and students. If you follow Kind Living Cafe on facebook, you’ll love the statuses Lucy often puts up about how grateful she is for the staff she is blessed with. And the food was pretty tasty too

I felt honoured to be in their company that night and look forward to my next venture to Maleny on my annual holiday home.

Kind Living Cafe

 Next post I’ll give you the lowdown on where we stayed!!!

If you are interested in hiring me for Raw Food Classes contact me here 

When I was in Singapore last week, I caught up with fellow Matthew Kenney Academy (formerly 105degrees) alumni and buddy, Sandra for lunch.

(That’s Sandra behind me)

We were the only international students in our group – me from Saudi/Australia, and her from, yep, you guessed it, Singapore!

I was thrilled to be invited to check out Sandra’s culinary academy Fresh Food Academy on my visit before we sat down for lunch.

The studio itself  brought back fond memories of our month long adventure we spent in Oklahoma City last April becoming raw chef qualified here:

So much so, I was immediately planning my move to Singapore

The visit culminated in a double serving of ginger and orange kombucha, made by the lady herself.

She even gave me a scoby to get me started on my own batch! Can’t wait!

Doesn’t look pretty though.

Sandra will be starting classes up in the near future, so link up with her on the Fresh Food Academy facebook page here or her website here. And if you do, tell her that I sent ya!

Watch This: Want an easy way to clean your blender? My pal Tess from Healthy Blender Recipes demonstrates a fool proof way here

Tomorrow I’ll be back with the winner of Sybille’s Salads ebook.

**All photos of this post taken on my iPhone as we left our big camera at home

Hi everyone! How are you all going?

Sorry I’ve been AWOL but you cannot imagine how much busier a holiday home to your family here in Australia becomes when you have a little person to introduce to everyone.

But rest assured, I’ve got loads of posts to update you on when we get back to Saudi next week (:() , but in the mean time, last night I headed to the only raw food night I know of in Brisbane at Cafe Checocho with this lovely lady.

Ames of Raw and Peace from Northey Street Organic Farm Markets, has been running raw food Monday nights out of Cafe Checocho in Brisbane’s West End for the past 10 months but decided to close the doors for the time being as of last night. So I was priveledged to be there for her first night and her last.

Citrus Slaw

Plate of dips and breads/crackers

Brocolli and Sesame Salad

Have I heard of a hairbrush?

We ordered a few plates of mains and desserts and shared them amongst the four of us.

Pistachio & Fig Pie – my fave

Strawberry Cream Pie

Ames is a really talented lady and will be offering Raw Food Classes in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide next month, starting with a class this Saturday 3rd September (click here for Tastes of Spring Brisbane)in Brisbane.

You can keep up to date with Ames stuff on her facebook page here. Oh and if you do, tell her I said hi. I’m a big fan

So I got a little dressed up…

And let him take me out for dinner to where we first met

Living in Saudi does have it’s social limitations (women need to be covered in an abaya when we are out in public, but there are some restaurants on other compounds that enable us to ‘enjoy’ some of the luxuries, most people take for granted in their own countries – ie going out for dinner in a restaurant without having to wear an abaya, and having to be segregated from the opposite sex – for more information about the abaya we must wear, you can see the video post my friend did on her blog here).

Then I donned my abaya and we headed to the mall, for some essential shopping….

Rewind back to Sunday night, and I was busy doing my last Raw Basics Workshop, pre baby arrival. A friend of mine was taking really great photos, so I’ll share them when I get hold of them

Out pops my HANDBOOK – obviously very used and covered in plenty of food! I refer back to this folder almost every day, and I’ve added ALOT more to it since graduating as well.

This week’s maki (sushi) rolls were filled with a parsnip based ‘rice’ and not a cauliflower like last week’s.

Which I preferred much more.

Also seasoned it with agave, salt and brown rice vinegar and dehydrated it for about an hour or so to make sticky.

Marinated some mushies to top some veggie pasta (unpictured but you get the idea from here)

The finished maki roll. I swear the more you do it the better they become.

If you want to see a great video on how to roll great sushi/maki, Russell has one here.

Yep they were pretty as well as delicious. I served them with a macadamia/chilli/shoyu sauce (which incidentally didn’t work out during the demo, but working with different flavour combinations and getting the participants to join in, we troubleshooted it, and it tasted quite good!)

So what are you thoughts on V day? Love it or loathe it? Last year we went out for a group dinner with all our friends (single and coupled) to boycott the night that can make some people feel pretty lousy when they shouldn’t!

My Raw Food Basics workshop was a joy and I loved having the ladies over to enjoy what raw food is all about to me. Health, taste & fun.

I took some brief photos of the lead up but on Sunday I’ll be having another workshop and my pal with a camera will be in attendance, so I’ll hope to have more pics for you but here’s some to whet your appetite.

I’m also recording the class as well, so maybe I’ll be able to share it all with you who can’t make it all the way to Saudi

This preggy lady needs to put her feet up!

Night all!

Something to listen to: have you heard of the Great Health Debate? Last night Dr Mercola (world’s most visited natural health website)  ’debated’ with Dr Gabriel Cousens (of Tree of Life and Raw for 30days fame) about their differing views on diet and I listened to it today whilst prepping for my workshop. You can listen for free for 24hrs or else pay for access later. I’m looking forward to them all. They got some pretty heavy hitters.

Something to vote on: Living Light is holding another Hot Raw Chef competition and my friend Amber of almostveganblog.com and recent fellow graduate of 105degrees is in the running to win. Even if you just pop over to get some raw recipe ideas from all the contestants, place a vote, you’ll receive a free ebook with all recipes at the end of the competition. What a deal!!

For those of you in Saudi (like me) this is the beginning of our working week…so ours is done and gone

But hopefully this will cheer you up!

Russell James, one of my raw chef mentors, friends and instructor when I was at 105degrees Academy in Oklahoma City in April last year, has decided to celebrate 2011 and say thank you to all his loyal readers of HIS blog (if you haven’t checked it out, you should sign up for his News From the Kitchen newsletter now) by giving a very generous discount for his home study program.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you fancy getting skilled in the raw food kitch, but cannot  go and learn the way I did, why not learn it all at your own pace in your own home with Russell’s Home Study Kit and do it whilst the price is sooo HOT!

Here’s what you get! (all prices listed in $US):

Usually $497US,  the discounted price is $339US (and can be shipped to most countries!)

From now through Monday 10^th January, Russell is offering a 33% discount on his acclaimed Raw Chef Homestudy Training DVDs.

Now you can get the entire DVD series (pictured below) for 33% off the normal price.

The course sells every day for $497 …but you can save 33% and get the entire set of DVDs for just $339!

And if the 33% savings isn’t enough cause to celebrate, He’s also throwing in…

7 Free Bonuses Worth $355.97! PLUS a Lifetime Subscription Bonus
Worth $27.00 per month!

If these eight bonus gifts were sold separately, they’d go for over $600.00 …but when you accept the third off offer, you can have them free!

You’ll get instant access to…

***Click Here to Purchase***

So what are you waiting for??? I would be buying myself if I didn’t already have all those great recipe books and hadn’t learn all these skills already!

I’ll be back later today with THAT recipe and my weekend eats (in between cleaning madness!) and tomorrow I am going to show you A Day In The Life Of A Vitamix for those of you still not convinced you’d get the usage out of one and also in honour of my gal Hannah, who finally got her Vitamix for Christmas!!!

Chat to you laters!

I really enjoyed getting to put some faces to the names that I had ‘met’ online and show my home about my ‘crazy’ diet

I even roped my mum into some labour for the evening.

She made the most compliant assistant.

The venue, before the madness. (Look how tidy my station is! NOT FOR LONG!)

And the magic begins:

GREEEEEN smoothie!

Talking with hands!

YUM.

Thanks to Lyn for some of the action photos!

The only bummer for the night – I forgot to push record on the video camera

Oh and I went a little overtime.

Thank you to everyone for your attendance and support. I loved catching up with some old buddies (as far back as school days – that’s been a while!)

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments regarding my weekend visit to my newest favourite state of the US of A, Arizona and my pals at the Kristen Household.

Did anyone notice that I ran out of time to blog about Day 10 (Friday at 105degrees?).

In pictures…

Kimchee – expect to see this ALOT in YOUR & MY blogging future  Freakin yum.

Then we made it into a filling:

For it’s future incarnation:

Kimchee Dumplings

A little secret: I actually wasn’t very good at this bit…I gave up and got a bit cranky at having to do something that I clearly wasn’t very good at. Of course I have shared the GOOD photo with you all

Then it was onto making fillings for the savoury tart shells we had made earlier in the week. I decide on Mexican & Italian.

Back in for some more dehydration love.

Then onto today.

Time to check on my chia sprout babies….

Oopsy, they need a bit more water….

Then it was time to get into CHOCOLATE mode. Who knew that today was going to be a chocoholics paradise???

First we began trying to dominate the hunk of cacao butter….

Maybe I will invest in Cacao Butter and not Gold…this stuff is pretty pricey.

Russell made me promise to blog about this, and if I didn’t he would reveal it to the world about my airhead moment when trying to melt the Cacao Butter for our recipe. I was wondering why EVERYONE else’s butter was melting so effortlessly with a water bath, then after complaining about it, it was apparent, I had doubled up my bowls so no heat could get to it….

DOH!

Here’s a sneak peek at the chocolate torte we made today as well…more on that tomorrow

See I told you it was chocolate day!

Bit of quality assurance of course (best bit about being a chef me thinks!)

And one of my fellow students, thought it was funny that I took over 2 workstations…lucky the space was free..but more cleanup for me I’ve never claimed to be a tidy cook!

Blonde Macaroons!!!! (Were supposed to be chocolate but we were either all wearing or full or both of the stuff by now – chocolate is messy business)

Lunchtime. I chose the Mexican Tartlet that I had made last week. And ordered a side of Kale Caesar Salad from the Cafe.

Then it was back to work to learn how to make Nut Cheese. We will come back to this.

Then if we didn’t have enough chocolate already, I broke out some of this stuff I bought in Arizona for my kitchen buddies to try.

(What is up with the creepy hand angle???) I think I like this flavour better than the Caramel. Sorry Kristen, but that leaves more for you

Chocolate cookies.

Ready for my tummy tomorrow.

Here’s a sneak peak at a recipe I’ll hopefully be able to share with you tomorrow

And my attempt at ‘Rawnola’

Lots of you have been asking for recipes as would I looking at all the lovely stuff I am learning how to make, well hopefully tomorrow, if my ‘Rawnola’ turns out as I hope then I will be more than excited to share it with you. This is our first attempt at our own recipe creation so I will be excited to see how it turns out. The only requisite on Chocolate Day was, you guess it, it had to have Chocolate in it.

For those of you emailing me with questions on the course and other things lately, please bear with me, I am in my 3rd week of my 4 week course so I may not get back to you straight away, but I will get back to you Don’t forget if you do want more info email me at girlonraw@gmail.com

Share on Facebook ]]> http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/who-doesnt-like-chocolate-day/feed/ 15 http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/1366/ http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/1366/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 09:03:14 +0000 GirlonRaw http://girlonraw.com/?p=1366 more »]]> Introducing my new lover….

The Avocolada from Matthew Kenney’s Raw Food, Real World.

Seriously, the tastiest smoothie that has ever touched these lips.And I’ve had plenty of smoothies.

This is a recipe for glowing skin, as learnt at todays Plant Based Beauty class by Megan at 105 degrees. Expect to see this in my future.

We also learnt about different ingredients to avoid, fruits and vegetables to use on or bodies and we made our own lip balm and deodorant.

After the class we decided to hang out for a pensioner dinner at 3pm. I sampled 1 or 2 of 105 degrees cafe’s daily feature cocktails, Key Lime-tini (with sake). Yep, I am pretty much living there at the moment, even on my days off.

Started off with some Kimchee Dumplings to share. No picture so here’s one from last week.

Shared the dinner menu’s Kale Salad with additions of avocado, jalapenos & cayenne. Tasty.

Then finished off my early dinner with these babies.Cannelloni, Pignoli Ricotta, Sun-Dried Tomato Marinara, Pistachio Pesto

Then it was off on a search.  Junkies searching for the best dealer (health foods of course!)

And when I got home I saw these in my parking lot. Hmmm a classic car show on this weekend perhaps?

I’ll be back tomorrow with hopefully a review on my Bella Cucina that I have not yet broken out of the box (I’ve been spoilt at the Academy with smoothies all week).

I’ve since found out through a pal on facebook who has contacted General Mills (who purchased LaraBars in June 2008) that the following bars are still raw:

The following bars are still 100% raw with no sugar…
Apple Pie
Banana Bread
Cherry Pie
Cinnamon Roll
Coconut Cream Pie
Ginger Snap
Pecan Pie
Pistachio Bar

The ones with peanuts are roasted, the the cocoa is heated. The cashews use heat to extract the nut.

Good to know!

Today at 105 degrees class was pretty jam packed and we didn’t even notice how quickly the day went. Just the way I like it! First up was dominating these babies. Regular readers will know these are one of my all time favourite. Young coconuts.

The result of all my hard work. Young coconut meat.

And my reward. I adore this coconut water.

Then it was onto Ice-Cream making.

We had free reign to decide on our flavours. I went with a childhood favourite. Choc Mint. Of course I taste tested it

Before the ice-cream maker….

After the ice-cream maker.

How could you not LOVE eating raw when you get to eat this kinda stuff?

Then time to make nut milk. Sorry no pics but we did some dehydrating of the leftover nut pulp ready for another recipe.

Then nut milkshake recipe time. I love it when we can be creative and make our own version.

I went with nutrition packed spirulina, nut milk, coconut meat, coconut butter & a banana and whizzed it up.

And I ordered a cafe Kale Caesar Salad to accompany it. Don’t ya just love the pine nut parmesan and rosemary croutons?

We also learnt different types of tomato sauces and different uses for them which was fun and tasty

I raced home after school, got changed and headed out the door for a workout at the gym. I intended to give the Cardio Box and Zumba a try (I love my salsa and have been dying to try this out for ages) but when I got to the gym the class looked quite ALOT different to the one I do back home so I chickened out and stuck to an hour jog on the tready. Is there something in particular that intimidates you at the gym so much so that you won’t even try it? I’m afraid I am a creature of habit, but I do like to try out new classes now and then. Today I was a scaredy cat.

Quick stop at the supermarket to pick up some breakfast goodies after the gym (bananas etc) and home to do some washing and now it’s bed time.

I can’t believe week 1 is almost done. I hope it doesn’t go too much faster. See you tomorrow with more goodies FOR SURE.

People have been asking me if 105 degrees has a cookbook/recipe book available for sale and apparently not at the moment, but possibly in the future. However Matthew Kenney (Director of Culinary Arts & Operations) does have 3 Raw recipes books – I have all 3 of course) and so far I can tell the dishes on the menu have his flair. You can find very similar recipes in these until a 105 degrees book comes out. (here’s hoping!)