Kristen Suzanne to be precise.

She runs a very popular and one of the first raw food blogs over here and has quite a few ebooks and books that you might like to check out, as well as an awesome published book called Raw Awakening which if you pre order now, you will also get a FREE copy of her ebook Raw Transitions – perfect for the raw food beginner or trying to introduce more raw food to your family.

So Kristen and I developed an online friendship when I first delved into raw food when I was still a flight attendant out of London.

I bought her ebooks online and we got to know each other through our emails, which developed into a mentoring relationship then friendship, with Kristen being the first person I spoke to when considering going to Raw Culinary school.

Pat affectionately called us soul sisters, as we got to know each other, that we had plenty in common too.

So of course I was elated when Kristen told me she would come to visit us in Long Beach (she lives in Arizona) on our trip to LA. It would be the second time I got to see her in person (the first was here) but the first time I was able to meet her precious daughter Kamea and this time Pat was also able to meet their family.

We lunched at Long Beach’s only known vegetarian cafe, Zephyr’s – Kristen had dined there the night before so we decided to head back there the following morning!

We all ordered the popular MK works burger (black bean patty) and it was quite nice – in between trying to keep Manus entertained, you know a mother of an active child rarely enjoyed a sit down meal in a restaurant. Even this pic was snapped mid way between shoving some in my mouth and trying to pacify Manus.

The food was ok, but the service – 45 mins to get our food when we were the only ones in the cafe. Weird.

It was so lovely to chat (between looking after the kiddos) with my friend whom I wish we lived so much closer to! The food alone we could share would be incredible – she an incredible raw food chef.

After saying our sad goodbyes and sending Kristen and her family off on the last part of their road trip, we headed off on a mini road trip of our own.

The weather was overcast but we were still yet to see the local beach.

Here’s one of the local beaches at Long Beach – you can see the Queen Mary and the port in the background.

Being a Sunday, there were plenty of families playing on the beach (and in the water, which we were advised to stay out of due to the oil refineries spilling oil and possible sewerage – ew!) and also I wish I had of taken a photo of the family that were grilling on a BBQ in the back of their truck. It was pretty cool.

Then we drove further south to Huntington Beach.

After a beach side drive we ended up at, you guessed it, Whole Foods.

Check out this awesome juice bar. They even had a beer and pizza bar in this one too. NICE!

We got our token green juices and watched Manus create a lot of noise.

Before calling it quits and picking up some stuff for dinner.

I picked up the avocado and mango brown rice sushi – GREAT flavour combination!

And a seaweed salad.

Who would you really love to meet?

Manus enjoying a Lara bar in the background.

And spent at least an hour in the store, just pouring over their goodies:

KOMBUCHA!!! Every flavour you can think of.

Raw snacks like cakes and cookies and kim chi.

And a whole dry stores section dedicated to RAW FOOD.

This is what I walked out with but not limited to:

Although not raw, this vegan cheese makes awesome pizza topping, which will be making it’s way in my suitcase back to Saudi. Not very nice raw but yummy melted just like Kristen’s mum made for me on my last visit to her in Arizona here  (Whole Foods Long Beach even have a pizza bar where you can get made to order vegan pizza – ok it’s not the healthiest but nice to have vegan junk food options when the need arises).

Raw cheesecake

Salad bar complete with kale tangerine salad (YUMMO) and vegan egg salad made with tofu instead.

Organic & dark chocolate peanut butter cups. Reese’s eat your heart out!

Coconut water – great for hydrating and electrolytes however better if you can crack open your own coconut as this packaged stuff is pasteurised

Seriously. This tart is heavenly. I ordered these for my passengers in private flying days, 2 years ago, on a trip to Houston and they didn’t eat them all, so of course I took them home and shared them with friends – and myself They were amazing and remind me of Mint Slices – an Australian chocolate covered cookie/biscuit.

And some dairy free (but not raw nor sugar free) yoghurts to check out. I am determined to make my own version of almond milk yoghurt when I get back to Saudi. I have made my own coconut yoghurt plenty of times before, you can see my recipe here

LET’S CHAT

Even though I am going a little crazy (good crazy) with all the raw packaged foods that are a plenty here, as well as the gourmet raw and vegan restaurants, I just wanted to have a little chat about my style of eating raw.

Most raw foodies will agree, that it is very exciting to be in a location where raw food is recognised and there are plenty of options both for eating out and convenience snacks like lara bars and hail merry macaroons for example, however if I lived here full time, I would be making more of my own foods, and more simple raw foods. I would most definitely be taking advantage of the beautiful and organic produce that is aplenty here in California, and using these packaged and take out foods as treats.

I know that when I feel really loaded up with heavily processed and cooked foods, all I usually crave is a crisp apple or a green juice or smoothie, so as much as it feels that some parts of the world are lacking the amounts of choices I am showing you available in LA, it is nice to make your own food and know EXACTLY what is going into it.

People ask me all the time, where can they buy raw food in their part of the world, and I say, right where you buy your fruits and vegetables. Sure it is nice to have pre made raw cakes and drinks, but raw food at its finest is as nature intended.

I wrote more about being gourmet or simple raw foodie here.

But or course, it is nice to be treated to someone else’s ‘un’ cooking for a change

Your thoughts?

Like the home of the Academy Awards: Kodak Theatre

This was taken 2 days ago of my husband and son.

And this photo was taken of me 7 years ago on my first trip to LA

Outside Grauman’s Chinese theatre: home to  footprints and handprints of movie stars from today and days gone by.

Then of course, an obligatory picture with one of the characters on Hollywood Boulevard.

Complete coincidence that it was Jack Sparrow Mum was more impressed than Manus.

Afterwards we saw two more Johnny Depp characters – the Mad Hatter, and Willa Wonka – amazing costumes.

Then it was time to get some afternoon refreshments and some juices after a drive down Sunset Strip

Completely by chance we ended up at Wholefoods, well I am the navigator you see

And Beverly Hills at that!

Was a great 1st trip to Wholefoods for this trip, but it was a smaller one, so I only stocked up on some items to take back to Saudi, but it was Pat’s first time in a Wholefoods, and he bought oodles of supplies as well.

Then it was time to do a drive by Rodeo Drive

And Two Rodeo Drive

As we were in a driving mood, we headed back to Santa Monica where the weather had turned to misty and foggy with the mist from the ocean meeting the heat of the land.

And we went for a stroll down Venice Beach.

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!

How about this view right? From our chair lift less than 100m from our chalet.

Back in October, we began discussing the possibility of a snow holiday, as Pat has wanted to ski Lebanon or Iran for the past couple of years but the seasons are so short and the windows of opportunity just didn’t work in with our vacation slots.

Then when we decided to visit my home sick sister for Christmas in Paris, we thought why not check out the snow, as the world famous Alps were not too far away – well ok they were at least a 9 hour car ride from Paris, but still, it’s all relative.

Yep Manus gets a little hot in his baby carseat, so we strip him off and here he is on a quick toilet stop having a play with daddy.

Skiing in Scotland 2006

Me not being much of a skiier – I’d only tried it 3 times before in New Zealand’s North Island, Australia’s Perisher, and Scotland’s limited ski area, I wasn’t really that fussed, but Pat, was keen to try out his snowboarding skills. Well, he is a keen kiteboader and surfer so his talent translates well to the snowboard.

In the end, friends of ours, also from Saudi, got in on the idea, then at the last minute, my sister and her French husband decided to join us for a week of ski/snow/boarding action on the world famous slopes of Tignes les Brevieres.

As our holiday was planned very last minute, Pat did some finger surfing on the web and found the last place available for us to stay which slept 7 adults comfortably and included breakfast to our rooms each morning and a 3 course dinner wine included everytnight – just what you want after an exhausting day on the slopes – someone else to cook – they even offered different options for dietary requirements.

And some fun for Manus during the day  

What a luck out Chalet Chandons was. A budget conscious but not light on the service, British run establishment that offered long stays work for cheaper rent, so essentially the staff that looked after us, were also guests and usually fellow skiiers/boarders on the slopes. So after their work was done for the day they were free to hit the powder.

Even though we stayed in their other Chalet (Hattiers) it was a mere 8 minute walk to Chalet Chandon each night for dinner at 730pm where we were sat with other guests, most of whom were returning from years past.

The thing that amazed me about how this place was run, was that everyone seems to be so happy, hardworking, friendly and happy to help out. Also for a place that relies heavily on temporary seasonal staff, everything seemed to run like clockwork with the daily operations from the delivery of breakfast, cleaning of the rooms, to even the occasional routine verandah sweeping after heavy snowfall (we had 2 days of snowfall and the rest of the days were sunshine!)

So back to my virus. Since leaving Saudi the week prior, all 3 of us had been fighting off sniffles and on arrival to Paris, it turned into chesty coughs (we put it down to the travel). Then on the day we departed for the Alps, I had a slight fever, and on arrival to the snow after the 9 hour car journey, I had a crazy fever, and my aches were keeping me in bed with 3 bed covers on!! Manus survived with just a chesty cough and Pat has only started to feel the aches and pains now, but after a quick visit to the medical centre in neighbouring ski resort Val d’Isere, it was determined I had a virus and was prescribed saline solution for my nose and panadol (which I was taking already). Manus was over the worst of it, and I thought Pat has survived it as he was hitting the slopes hard from day one, whilst I stayed in bed. Will no appetite and no energy, I was relegated to watching from our chalet window until day 4! But then I made up for it!

We were a little anxious to see how a 9 month old would cope in the snow, and how much fun it would be for any of us, but rugged up right in a snow suit and thermals, he really enjoyed playing in the powder.

If you are interested in where we stayed in Tignes, check out Chalet Chandon here and chat to Nicky or Kat and don’t forget to tell them that I sent you! They were fabulous with us, and Kat even had a little boy around the same age as Manus .

Our snow gang!

I’ll be back onto the raw posts next week, I’ve got plenty in store for you in 2012!

Good morning everyone. Or rather Happy Eid, Health & Happiness كل عام وأنتم بخير و صحه و سعاده

It’s Eid time here again, Eid al-Adha to be precise. That means vacation time in the Islamic world, so even for us expats we get the same public holidays as well, which began today until next Tuesday. Whilst most of our expat friends are off on amazing holidays to Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Dublin or even home to Australia, for the first time, we decided to stay home – the compound is a ghost town. Hubs is studying and I want to get our messy house in order without social distractions, plus we have a big Christmas holiday coming up to Europe.

Which brings me to title of this post. Seeing as I am not going anywhere, perhaps I can list for you where I’d like to be, and the place that is first on my bucket list. Plus one of our friends from camp here left for NYC last night. Despite my various trips in the USA to:

Hawaii

Los Angeles

Washington DC

And Houston, Boston, Arizona and Oklahoma City, I’ve never once made it to my dream destination of  New York City.

I was in the midst of planning my first vacay there last year when I found out I was pregnant. Somehow heading to Chicago for Lollapalooza and then onto NYC didn’t seem right with a bun in the oven, so I postponed it.

Most of my friends have visited NYC multiple times and I have lived through their accounts and a bestie is also a native – I still laugh when I first met her and I asked her if she was American and she said no, she was a New Yorker.

New York City is the one place I know exactly what I would do when I arrive and I’m afraid to say, the majority of it revolves around food. Shall I indulge you with my virtual foodie tour?

• Pure Food & Wine - would be my FIRST stop of the Raw Vegan restaurant variety and no doubt one of many. The baby of the raw goddess Sarma Melngailis (co author with her then partner Matthew Kenney of Raw Food Real World), I’ve heard bookings are a must, so I would most likely book prior to leaving home just so I could wrap my tastebuds around their famous lasagna, mallomars, sake cocktails and extensive wine list.
• Quintessence – gourmet raw vegan cuisine
• Blossom - vegan cuisine restaurant
• Rockin’ Raw – raw living cuisine with a Peruvian/New Orleanean/Creolean flavour. Real soul food
• Bonobos – vegetarian and raw cafe
• Caravan of Dreams – organic vegan cuisine with raw options
• Babycakes - gluten free & vegan bakery selling the most amazing looking cupcakes and cinnamon buns
• Sacred Chow - organic vegan cuisine
• Candle 79 – NYC’s premier vegan destination
• Hangawi - vegetarian Korean restaurant
• Stogo - organic dairy free icecream
• Sullivan Street Bakery – vegan pizzas and breads
• Liquiteria  juice bar – organic Norwalk pressed to go juices
• Angelica Kitchen - organic plant based cuisine

So tell me, where is your favourite place in the world to go for food – either visited or dreaming about? I must admit, when I lived in Mexico, the food was amazing, but I wasn’t surrounded by the food we’ve come to know as Mexican, ie no nachos or burritos. I also love Thai, Italian and Indian.

Also, indulge me, have you been to New York or any of the above restaurants? I’d love your take on the city!

Our heads are a little sore over here, we had a farewell party to go to and stayed out a little later than expected, but whilst at the party I received an awesome email that I was so excited to share with you all just in time for this Fab Friday giveaway!

Regular readers of the blog will know how much I adore my Tribest Personal Blender, even as much as my lovely Vitamix. And here’s why:

• Great for travel. This baby has not only seen me through my days as a career flight attendant on the road, making sure I keep up with my green smoothies in my hotel room, but also has been on our vacation to Cuba, where green leafy veggies weren’t always available so we used fruit from the breakfast buffet blended with Vitamineral Green to keep us going through our daily salsa classes. It’s the perfect size to pack in your suitcase

• Ideal for grinding seeds and nuts for raw desserts or throwing flax into your smoothie.
• Salad dressings. Not only is this baby used every time we travel in our household (which is alot) but the Personal Blender comes in handy when making salad dressings which I do several times per week. The BPA containers with lids are also perfect for salad dressing storage.

• A new use! Baby Food! Since Baby M has begun eating solids, I’ve been using the blender to make his baby food (both cooked and raw) in batches and the power of the blades is able to provide silky smooth steamed vegetables and fruit puddings like banana and blueberries.

The Tribest Personal Blender comes with one Blending Blade,  one Grinding Blade, two 16 oz BPA Free Blending Containers, two 8 oz BPA Free Grinding Containers, one commuter sipping lid, three Regular Lids.

I even went ahead and purchased 2 more XL cups for on the road smoothie making which get plenty of use.

Lucky for you guys, you get the chance to own your own. Tribestlife have generously offered one lucky Girl on Raw reader their own Tribest Personal Blender 250 valued at $US65.25.

All you have to do is answer the following question is the below comments to go in the draw to win:

“What would be the first thing you would make with your Tribest Personal Blender?”

The giveaway will be open until Midnight GMT Monday, 19th Sept, where a winner will be drawn randomly and announced on the blog on the following Tuesday.

Bonus entries will be given when you tweet the following and return to the comments section to say you did!

“@girlonraw & @tribestlife are giving away a Personal Blender here http://bit.ly/njFJoD”

Entries are open world wide which means if you live in the US you will receive a 110v and if you live elsewhere you will receive a 220V (the one I have). Perfect.

If you are interested in what other wonderful healthy life products (ie you’ve got to check out their latest dehydrator the Sedona. I’ve not used it but it looks pretty snazzy!) TribestLife have to offer you can sign up for their catalogue by emailing service@tribest.com or check out their website here or check www.tribestlife.com

Good luck!

As promised I’d thought I’d share with you a little of the beautiful accommodation and service we received whilst our venture up to Maleny for my Raw Food class as Kind Living Cafe.

Lucy arranged for us to stay in the picturesque and relaxing King Spa Suite at Aritsan Spa Views Bed & Breakfast for the evening following the class I had conducted so we jumped at the chance.

We left Baby M with the grandparents and enjoyed some adult only time in the luxury B & B which boasts the largest spas in Australia with outdoor views of this unique volcanic region right from your spa bath tub.

[View from the spa]

Randy greeted us on arrival and later I met his lovely wife, Maree, who would be one of the students in my class that night, and we enjoyed chatting about Randy’s Artisan wood work (hence the name “Artisan”) of which is showcased in each of the rooms from the headboard to the door frames and skirting, no detail is left untouched.

Maleny is famed for it Bed & Breakfasts and couple getaways (hence the missing baby) and although we only had one night to really enjoy our surrounds, we’ll be back for sure.

Various activities such as  hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, abseiling and kayaking are all available locally or why not stay in your room and enjoy the time spent with your loved one – oh and that spa too!

Maree and Randy offer complementary breakfast and cater to all dietary types, with Maree learning more about Raw Food cuisine through her classes at Kind Living Cafe, so it’s a wonderful option for us Raw Foodies.

Breakfast for me was a fruit plate which was so delicious and in season

Pat chose the cooked breakie.

Afterwards we took the short drive to the closeby town of Montville

And daydreamed about a move here someday

Revelling in the greenery that is such a vast difference from where we live in the desert here in Saudi Arabia.

And played silly buggers, in the country side:

checked out a winery

before hitting the European styled village for lunch

Poet’s Cafe [My favourite]

Shopping

At the village’s famous Clock Shop

It was like we had stepped out in Germania.

and picked up some fudge for our parents (babysitters!)

before racing home back to Baby M.

Better yet, have you tried to explain this to people who don’t really get the blog/social media thing and think it’s a little strange?

Haha, well I have had the chance to meet up with my virtual friends not once, but three times, including when I met my mentor Kristen,

one of my favourite flight attendant bloggers Sara on a work trip to the US,

another flight attendant group bloggy meet up here

and lastly, only a few weeks back, one of my favourite Aussie bloggers, Hannah of Wayfaring Chocolate.

Without wanting to recap her trip with what she has done so eloquenttly herself, you can go and read up on her visit from Canberra to Brisbane part one and part two.

What does that have to do with today’s post you ask?

Well after I sent the hubs on an unsuccessful motorbike ride around to the shops on camp after dinner last night to get him to find us some dairy free chocolate (preferably Lindt Madagascar), I decided to make something for us to hit that sweet spot we needed to fix.

Step in the Raw Coconut Chocolate Chilli Goji  Butter that Hannah gave me as a gift.

Yep a mouthful right?

If you’ve been reading GOR for sometime you’ll know I’m a freak for anything coconut and Hannah is a freak for chocolate so why not.

Well it didn’t stop there.

CGC (Chocolate Goji Chilli) Macaroons

1 cup of almond pulp (I used what is left after 1 serve of making almond milk, however you could use almond meal here)

1/4 cup Raw Coconut Chocolate Chilli Goji Butter – I realise MOST people won’t have this ingredient, however you could use 2 T cacao powder and 1/4 cup drippy almond or another nut butter. If you want the spicy kick of chilli add some chilli powder to taste.

1/4 cup of coconut

1 T Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder (use 1 T vanilla extract instead)

2 T agave

squeeze lemon

1 generous pinch of celtic sea salt – this is a must to complement the sweetness and spice.

Place all ingredients in a food processor until sticky enough to form into balls, then roll em on out then pop one in your mouth. The rest I put in the fridge.

The great thing about this recipe is they do not need dehydrating. And it’s a great way to use up your almond pulp.

They came out with just the right amount of chocolate sweetness, with a hint of chilli and to be honest I couldn’t even taste the goji, so if you were trying to replicate these at home, then use the suggestions I have made and don’t worry too much about the lack of goji

Will make 10-12.

I do love to use my cookie scoop or you could use your hands.

Thanks Hanns, I do wish I could send ya one! But only one!

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.