Day 1 was spent wandering around Long Beach – where we are staying, in a haze of jet lag, after a 16 hour flight from Dubai which Manus HARDLY slept a wink,  just trying to familiarise ourselves with our new home for the next 10 days and to pick up our rental car – we fell asleep by 4pm!

Day 2 headed off to Costa Mesa to South Coast Plaza – after being recommended it as a shopping destination by my flight attendant buddies who call Long Beach their second home. Costa Mesa by car is about a 45 min drive away, in Orange County. If you do happen to make it there as a tourist, make sure you ask for a Tourist Passport that gives you access to discounts and deals across different stores in the centre. It’s a massive centre which has a garden bridge that joins the home part of the mall to the main part of  medium to upmarket stores.

Here I fell in love with a store called Williams-Sonoma – kitchenware and some foods (like gourmet cupcake mixes and do-it-yourself kombucha kits) and was pleased to discover they conduct daily free workshops. I happen to arrive on just the right day. They were demonstrating how to culture kombucha! This month they are also doing juicing and reboot workshops based on Joe Cross (Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’s) 60 day juice fast.

We took a lunch time break to head up the road 5 minutes to 118 degrees for lunch (not to be confused with 105’ degrees which is now Matthew Kenney Academy in OKC and where I did my culinary training).

I had a Daily 5 smoothie, which was seasonal fruit, with almond milk and coconut and greens (I think) and shared with the big man.

But i had serious food envy off Pat’s coconut lemonade – coconut water and lemon juice. YUMMY.

Cheese and Cracker Platter (as per the website)

3 of our house made cheeses- pistachio pesto, chipotle cheese and tahini cheese and everybody’s favorites our sprouted grain bread and crispy flax crackers.

Really tasty especially the tahini cheese – both our faves – but in my opinion, more dips than cheeses.

Then Pat ordered the Buddha bowl with seaweed as an addition

Curried Vegetables featuring Cauliflower, Grapes, Chopped Chard, Shitake and Enoki Mushrooms with Sprouted Grains on Sweet Miso Noodles

and I ordered the Topaz Pizza

Decadent Pistachio Pesto with Tomatoes and Herbed Italian Squash on Our Sprouted Grain Crust. Served warm with Sun-Dried Tomato Topping, Chopped Olives, Marinara & Basil Cheese.

Honestly, largest serving sizes ever! We could have ordered one meal to share, probably because we had also shared the cheese platter too, but serious sizes.

And then, I didn’t even realise until after we left, but we met Jenny Ross, the owner, as she came out to chat to other guests, and was asking us about Manus as he was a little naughty walking around the restaurant, chatting to other lunchers and she had a little newborn in her arms! Gorgeous.

The highlight of the trip to 118 degrees was discovering on leaving that Jenny was in fact the raw chef that wrote a raw recipe book with none other than Doreen Virtue, one of my mother’s favourite authors and gurus, who we happened to meet about 7 years ago when she toured Australia – Doreen even gave my mum a random reading in a talk she did in front of about 1000 people. Cool hey? So of course I had to buy the book!

Dinner was a vegan friendly local Korean BBQ restaurant I found online at Veg Out (Happy Cow’s vegetarian restaurant app for iPhones) and was happy to enjoy their Japchae (rice noodles with tofu and seasonal vegetables)

and some vegetable dumplings

alongside the traditional Korean pickled vegetable accompaniments (love them!), whilst husband was happy that he was able to still enjoy his Korean BBQ ribs. Win!

Hey friend!

Thank you to everyone so far that has voted for me in the Hot Raw Chef! I still have a few spaces on my wait list for eBooks of my upcoming book How To Travel In The Raw; Staying Healthy On The Road so if you haven’t voted for me yet, what are you waiting for? Details are here and thanks for all your support.I’m video #19.  It’s because of you that I keep up with the blog and the recipe creations

Today I wanted to talk a little about food combining as it’s something I really know very little about but have tried to learn over the time I have been interested in a raw food diet.

Alot of people become interested in knowing what foods combine best with others when they have a poor digestiion or other issues like IBS etc, but I really have been fortunate to not have to worry about it.

That is until my soul sister and her husband and friend came up with a great iPhone app called FoodCombo.

Regular readers will know how much I dig Kristen and how much of a part she has had to play in my raw food journey, I even got to meet and stay with her when I went to the US last year.

Those are her awesome raw recipe books on the right of the page too.

I was fortunate enough to test out FoodCombo when it first came about and found it so simple and easy to use, that I often use it when creating my shopping list or even when in the store.

Here’s Kristen talking about the app here

I find it incredible value for money and means I dont need to read up on all the different food combo’s when meal planning.

iPHone peeps you can find it in the AppStore under FoodCombo.

Also, I’ll be announcing a US based giveaway for email subscribers later today. It’s a beauty, so look out for it in your inbox.

I’ll be back later with a recap of my birthday weekend in Dubai and a review on juicers.

As my girlfriend whom I stay with lives close to Dubai Mall I have been getting to know the place quite well each time I visit Dubai.

Usually my first stop is Planet Nurition on lower ground floor where I pick up a juice from the Jason Vale Juice Master stand.

On my first trip there I had a wheatgrass shot with a Dreamy Detox chaser

Apple, celery, cucumber, ginger, lemon.

On the way back from Italy, I tried another wheatgrass shot with the hubs, who met me in Dubai for a couple of days before we came home.

And I tried the Turbo charge but failed to take a pic.

It had pineapple, apple, celery, cucumber, spinach, lime juiced, then blended with an avocado.

Pat had smoothie envy as he chose the Pure Berry Boost, after just having had a similar mix earlier in the day at another cafe.

I had a carrot and orange mix – YUM.

We then had the hot and cold buffet lunch at Organics Food & Cafe – which is not entirely vegan but here’s my plate

VEGGIE heaven. The pumpkin curry was pretty delish.

I also picked up a DVD copy of Jason Vale’s 7lbs in 7days Super Juice Diet like any ‘post pregnant carrying a few extra kgs more than she should be’ woman would be tempted to. But once my common sense kicked in, I was more interested in grabbing it for juicing research, and so glad I did.

Jason talks on the DVD (which incidentally is an extension of his book and CD of the same name) about how he really didn’t like the name ‘diet’ being attributed to the program as he believes the word diet conjures up feelings of deprivation of which his program is not. I totally agree and avoid using the word when I can. But his publishers believe he’d reach a wider audience and that can’t be a bad thing when trying to educate others on healthier choices right?

Jason counts Jordan aka Katie Price, as one of his celeb clients who’ve had success on the ‘program’ among others, and the DVD is shot in his retreat in Turkey, which also hosts different juice retreats throughout the year.

As for me, still being a breastfeeding mama, it’s not the right time for me to complete the program to a T, but we’ve already started making some of the juices and will follow along as much as we can over the coming weeks. Plus it’s given me my juicing bug back again, although it always seems to come and go.

Today I made the Super Juice as featured here

I subbed the fresh wheatgrass for 1/2 t of Vitamineral Green – in hindsight, should have halved it as I already had 1 t of spirulina in the mix.

All slurped down with my new smoothie straw, care of Strawesome.

If you come back on Friday, we’ll be running a glass straw giveaway, so don’t forget to stop back here.

Karen Knowler is better known as the Raw Food Coach, and creator of the RawFoodDirectory.com and has been a raw food fan since the age of 20 in 1993 and teaching, writing and coaching professionally since 1998.

I’ve been reading through the book this week and really love how easy ‘going raw’ Karen makes it seem from giving a simple 5 day raw lifestyle plan to 15 quick easy and delicious recipes anyone can make.

Her style is not rigid nor does she promote this as the ‘Raw Food Diet’ or as some kind of Holy Grail, rather encouraging you to discover the path that is right for you, which could be as basic as simply increasing the amount of raw food in your diet and ensuring your cooked food is of high quality.

Karen also talks about how to equip your raw food kitchen, dealing with family/social situations, time money & energy issues as well as some real life success stories.

Karen’s book has been involved in a virtual book tour this week with the last stop here.

Previous stops for the book tour were:

The Sunny Raw Kitchen - http://thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/

Sane, Slim, and Gorgeous - http://saneslimgorgeous.com/blog

So do you want to grab a copy for yourself??? Alternatively, you can purchase a copy by clicking here.

Giveaway Time!

So, if you are in need of a bit of a push to get things started in your own raw food journey, or you think you know someone who might benefit from what Karen and her book have to offer, here’s your chance to grab yourself a copy.

You have 3 chances to win and can elect to do one or all of the following to go in the draw to bag yourself a copy! Maximum of 3 entries per person.

1. Place a comment down below on why you’d love to win a copy of of Karen’s book Raw Food Made Simple

2. Tweet a link to this post and the giveaway, and then come back and leave a comment here telling me that you did so.

3. Like this post using the Facebook “Like” feature below, and/or share this blog post on Facebook, and then come back here and leave a comment telling me that you did so.

Entries will close at midnight GMT, Friday 25th February, 2011 with the winner announced here on the blog on Saturday 26th February, 2011!

Good Luck!!

Tupperware is not readily available in my part of the world and I usually favour glass storage containers and jars, but sometimes they do come up with some beauties.

More in the video….

Emily is based on the Gold Coast but also conducts parties in the Brisbane area too.

emtupperware@froggy.com.au

Before I get started just wanted to remind you that you are running out of time if you want to grab yourself Russell James’ Homestudy Program for 33% off plus all the extra bonuses. Go here to find out more!

If you still aren’t convinced you need a Vitamix (or that you would get the usage out of one) I thought I’d document a typical day in the life of MY Vitamix.

Usually I start my day off with some kind of smoothie and I try to make it a green one.

Unfortunately, blueberries win out so the spinach doesn’t get much of a view when you add it on. This is my Berry Berry ‘Greenish’ Smoothie I featured yesterday’s post.

Then it’s on to mid morning where I have taken my almond meal from a previous day of making almond milk, out of the dehydrator.

Time to whip up some almond flour for Ron*

Then I store it in the freezer for another day, another recipe.

Then it’s onto lunch. Salad. Yes please. What has this got to do with the Vitamix you ask?

Dressing:

Lemon Love Dressing Ingredients: Olive oil, lemons, black pepper, himalayan pink salt, and raw honey (from Oklahoma).

This is seriously my GO TO dressing at the moment. I may or may not have eaten the remainder as it set into a pudding in the fridge. Oops!

I’ll share the recipe tomorrow

This dressing rocks with rocket/arugula, fennel and grapefruit.

Then onto dessert. As we didn’t have any frozen bananas at the ready, soft serve icecream was not going to happen, but since the hubs mentioned strawberry milk at the dinner table, I decided to create my own raw vegan version.

2 cups of almond milk, 1 cup of frozen strawberries (seriously, what is my obsessions with the strawbs of late?), 1 t coconut butter, 2 fresh bananas 1 T agave nectar, dash of lemon juice, dash of vanilla extract and pinch of salt.

Strawberry Milk indeed.

Of course each day differs with what recipes I tend to make, however this post is pretty typical of my usage amount, as it never really gets any less than this on a typical day. Dressings, smoothies, ice creams, puddings, sauces, you name it, there is so much this little powerful fella can do. And like my hubs said to me yesterday as we bundled up our old supermarket blender to sell yesterday, it’s no VITAMIX – you’d never go back.

*Later on.

Monday night I was a proud and honored patron at Cafe Checocho in West End (Brisbane)for the debut of raw night Mondays by raw foods chef Ames of Raw and Peace.

I first met Ames when she had taken over the prime real estate of newly departed, Skye Craig of Wild Sugar Desserts at the Northey Street Organic Farm Markets (ok I LOVE that place).

She had me at her Raw Pizzas (and my non vegan, non raw dad! He loved them!)

On my following visits to the markets she has showered me with pizza and cheesecake love but NOW you can enjoy even more of her tasty raw creations.

Raw Food Dining has made it to Brisbane!!! Can you believe it?

I took my mum and she thought she was tagging along to another workshop or a talk so was really excited when she discovered I was actually taking her out to say thank you for her hard work as my trusty assistant at my Raw Basics Workshop on Sunday afternoon.

We started off with the Plate of Living Dips/Cheeses with Sprouted Seed Crackers to share

And I couldn’t go past the Bruschetta. I’ve been dying to come up with my own as the Kitesurfer dude who has my heart, loves the real thing.

Random sidenote: I get to see him hopefully this week

Then we agreed to get 2 different mains that we could both test out.

I just HAD to have the Kelp Noodles with Almond, Chilli, Lime & Ginger Sauce. I lived off kelp noodles when I was studying at 105degrees.

(Please healthfood stores in Australia and Sea Tangle , when are you going to stock kelp noodles so we don’t have to ship them in ourselves?????)

Kelp noodles for the uninitiated are actually clear noodles with NO flavour at all, that are made entirely of sea kelp. They take on the flavour of the sauce you pair with them and are fat free and gluten free (and very low in carbs for those that still worry about carbs….) AND you don’t cook them!!!

Mum had the Roast* Vegetable Stack which was capsicum, tomatoes, portobello mushie and cucumber with sprouted seed pesto. Sorry iPhone pics were quite dark as was a bit worried to take the big gun camera out in such an intimate cafe

We were pretty full and satisfied but who could go past this:

Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Icecream. Off. The. Hook.

Mum and I thought it be a good idea to take something home for the father, so he was given the Sticky Date Chia Pudding with Cashew Cream and Agave.

But not before we took big chunks out – QUALITY ASSURANCE of course!!!

Ames messaged me to let me know afterwards that even through this was her first night, and she is only ‘appearing’ at the cafe one night per week (it is NOT usually a Raw Food Cafe):

“it was an epic night!…. turns out in the end it was their busiest night EVER – crazy busy right up til the end, and I didn’t get out til 1am! AND (this is the best bit!), loads of first timers, total newbies that just stumbled in, are totally converted now! Yay, raw food yay!!”

Those were her words and isn’t that exciting!!!

So Brisbane friends, whether you are already converted or simply raw curious or just want a different and healthy night out (I think they are even BYO woine!) you totally have to check this place out every Monday night from 5pm.

Get there early to get a seat as we arrived at 530pm and the place was almost packed then! When we were leaving at 730pm the line up was out the door and people were ordering food and eating it out on the pavement.

Cafe Checocho

69 Hardgrave Road

West End QLD 4101 - (07) 3846 1144

*Roast means dehydrated to give the illusion of being cooked.

Not sure what it is about markets but I love them! From ever since I can remember, every Sunday we’d be bundled up in freezing cold Melbourne weather and trundled off to the local trash and treasure markets.  The waft of hot jam donuts is still strong in my memory.

Years later my dad would occasionally do his major spring clean then sell off (unknownst to her) mum’s LP’s, my favourite cassettes, even his stamp albums only to do it all again a couple of years later after another major cleanout. So many of my belongings were lost to the markets!

Prior to taking off for overseas living, first the UK now Saudi Arabia, I spent a whole Sunday at the local markets selling off my wares to raise funds and clear out my parents house of Robyn Junk. I actually did quite well out of it, but even if I didn’t I just loved being there, rounding up the punters.  Mum and Dad reckon I’m a carny deep down! Maybe my whole family is.

I think my brother had furnished his whole teen bedroom with items bought for a pittance at the markets or found at the tip! A true FREEGAN! But he did alright actually. Stereo with massive subwoofers, brand new BBQ set, and even ended up with a box of unused and usually very pricey, GHD hair serum (haha ok, maybe his girlfriend had  a part to play in that!)

So you get the picture? I love markets. Of any kind. And the souks back home in Saudi/Bahrain just aren’t the same to me.

So Saturday, Ma and I waddled (well I did) off to Davies Park Markets in Brisbane, after a friend of mine told me that my all time fave, Northey Street Organic Farm Markets, was just not as good. Well I had to see for myself.

Not too bad. First couple of purchases were bulk bags of apricots and nectarines – I love summer stone fruit! We were lucky to be gifted an extra bag of very ripe apricots that had to be eaten immediately. Not a problem.

Then some of the brightest red tomatoes I think I have ever seen outside of Italy. Hydroponic. Yep another bag of those please.

Then it was onto the spice man. Ali, from Brookside Olives enjoyed chatting to us about his olive farm and his home country of Iran, despite him being Australian for 27 years, I was interested to share with him where I live.

A familiar Middle Eastern aroma of spices was found in the dukkah (almonds, sesame seeds, coriander, garlic, dill, cumin, nigella, sea salt, Australian lemon myrtle, and crushed pepper) my mum bought from him.

I tried it with some bread dipped in his lemon myrtle infused olive oil. Yummers. I had to buy a bottle of this olive oil to test out at home.

Then we just wandered to check out the sights. Plenty of fresh produce, spices, baked goods, and ready to eat foods for EVERY kind of eater.

Although I enjoyed visiting, I will have to say the Northey Street markets are still IT for me. They are certified organic, which the Davies Park market are not, and they have some of my favourite raw food goodies there. Always nice to get out and try something new right?

Do you have any favourite markets where you live?

I’ll be back tomorrow with that Rocket, Pear & Parmesan Salad recipe I promised!

Don’t forget about the Robins Kitchen giveaway for Australia based readers only (sorry guys). It closes this coming Friday so if you haven’t entered yet, here’s your chance!

Thank you Lola! You’re a doll! It was such a lovely surprise after missing out on getting a copy at the book launch a few weeks back. So it made for some delicious holiday reading.

And I even got a personally autographed copy

So now back on home soil I’d decided to make a variation on Lola’s  Quinoa Salad

Quinoa Salad

adapted from Inspiring Ingredients by Lola Berry

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked red quinoa

4 tomatoes diced

120g of mixed lettuce leaves

1/2 red onion diced

2 stalks celery finely chopped

handful of sultanas/raisins

1/3 cup of sunflower seeds

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

handful of chopped fresh coriander/cilantro

pinch of himalayan salt, cracked pepper and sumac

juice & zest of one lemon

Dressing:

Juice of one lemon

3 T nama shoyu/tamari

1 T agave

1 T olive oil

1 t apple cider vinegar

seasoned with himilayan sea salt and cracked pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and FEAST!

This served 3 hungry adults (Mum, Dad & I)

I love eating salads with bite size pieces that you can shovel into your mouth, and even better I ate this salad with a spoon!

Then whilst watching my new TV obsession, the UK version of Come Dine with Me, I put together a snack plate of this for us all to enjoy.

Almond butter on fruit.

I can rarely enjoy that show without something to nibble on.

First dad eyed off the plate with a bit of a funny look, but when he saw mum and I hooking into it, he bravely sampled a banana then was happy to try out the apple.

What’s your TV obsession right now?

I am also loving Banged up Abroard/Locked up Abroad on the National Geo Adventure Channel.

***UPDATE:  Thanks for your responses yesterday regarding your blender ideas. For those of you currently in the market for a new blender, here was some great feedback:

Kate Quinn (founder and Editor in Chief of Living Raw Magazine) said:

I thoroughly recommend the Vitamix but if you can’t afford it look towards a cheaper one – although I generally recommend 1200 watts or above as the 600W ones (at least here in Aus) don’t break down the greens very well. I have run comparisons side by side and the difference is quite stark.

I have tested of a new product called Ladyship which is mid-range priced (about $400?) and while it has a 600w motor the strength is in its torque. Green smoothies are great in it and it also does nut milk – straining the pulp and all – because you can put a filter in the jug (so it also does juicing). I’m quite impressed and now recommending this for people who don’t want an cheap and tinny blender, but can’t afford the Vitamix. More info here: http://www.ladyship.com.au/

InTolerantChef said:

It’s always worth while purchasing the very best equipment you can afford, or maybe saving a bit longer to get the right one. As a chef who uses this type of equipment constantly, it’s not worth while cutting corners to save a little bit of money. It’s false ecconomy in the long run.

Shani said:

I recently upgraded from my breville blender which I used for about 12 months before it gave up on me, but I still could not afford the Vitamix, I ended up researching alot and buying a Powermill Blender form Vitalitly 4 Life in Australia for around $600 AU and it is fantastic. It blends up everything so smooth and does everything else I wanted it too. It was alot cheaper than the Vitamix and I am very happy with it.

You can also read more positive Vitamix comments here on my facebook page.