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!

One reader asked the following and it’s a question I get frequently, and although I am not a baby specialist or a nutritionist (yet) I am happy to share my findings with any interested mama’s out there.

Any advice for a mumma about to start solids?? Ive got my little one on banana and avocado… Any good books? I want to keep her raw for at least until 12m, we’re a high raw but not full raw family and have juices and smoothies several times throughout the day, my elder 2 were brought up on cooked foods but in the last year we have gradually gone to 50%+ my bubs is only 6m so I’m not sure of the natural progression between foods when it comes to raw?? When should she be able to digest greens?!

First of all, I want to say that I was advised to start M on solids at 4 months of age by his paediatrician. As I was supplementing my breastfeeds (more on my breastfeeding issues here ) with formula feeds, I think I was more open to instruction from the doctor rather than going by my own instinct, which was telling me to wait until M starting showing signs of wanting solids like reaching for my food.

So at 4 months of age, I blended up some spinach, water and banana into a thin smoothie consistency and tried to feed it to M. At first he was curious, didn’t think much of it, and as per normal for first time feeds, it went mainly out rather than in. I really had no desire to attempt any rice or usual baby cereals.

M didn’t particularly like the banana, so we then moved onto mashed sweet potato (mixed with formula – would have been breastmilk had I still been breastfeeding) which he loved for 2 weeks straight then wouldn’t have a bar of it. Plus (sorry) his poo’s started to get hard and he got a little constipated, so we mixed a little steamed pears in with the potato and started experimenting with other vegetables, using the delicious recipes in Raising Happy Healthy Babies as a basis.

After about 2 months of trial and error with raw and steamed vegetables and playing games to get M to eat up (it was a constant fight and would end up just giving him his bottle instead) I finally came across Baby Led Weaning (you can read more about it here) and bought the book immeidately. M was around 8 or 9 months by now and still only mainly getting his food from his formula – which if course I now know, is where the majority of it should be coming from for their first 12 months. Either breastfmilk or formula.

Baby led weaning was first introduced to me by my friend Natalie, whilst I was still pregnant, but it was out of context for me at the time so it went forgotten until I really needed it.

Baby led weaning runs on the idea, as the name suggests, that you follow babies lead. You wait for them to show interest in your food, before trying to force and play games with them and get down mashed or pureed food that teaches them to swallow before they chew – a little bit backwards.

BLW also allows the baby to be in control of their food, sure they may gag now and then as they get used to moving the food around in their mouths, but as long as they are controlling the food to their mouth then it is not dangerous. Gagging is unsettling yes, but normal and doesn’t happen nearly as much as you think it might, if you follow the rules and I certainly recommend reading the book and not just the website.

You don’t need to puree or mash any foods and you can serve them a little of what you are having, so it takes the work out of having to prepare separate meals and freezing them ahead of time for your babe.

Also, they don’t need to have teeth, it is all about exploration and play time, they are getting their full nutritional needs met by their breastmilk/formula, so this is all about playing and learning.

It is a great way to develop their independence and motor skills, and at 11 months of age, I had a little boy who was spoon feeding himself, albeit a little messy, but that is par for the course.

Another great book that is on it’s way to my mail box that I have been dying to get my little grubby hands on is Evie’s Kitchen by Shazzie Love which is a raw foods recipe book for children. I need some ideas as little people can have different desires to us, but at this stage, M LOVES the food we are eating – last night our dinner closely resembled pureed baby food and he didn’t want anything to do with it!

One major regret I have is NOT doing baby led weaning as soon as we started solids, so we were a little late to the game, however we definitely follow it along now and have had great success with it.

Here are some foods that we have given to M and he has enjoyed:

Cooked

• steamed and mashed sweet potato and pumpkin
• steamed and mashed parsnip and pear
• steamed broccoli trees & carrots
• gluten free pasta with vegetable tomato sauce
• vegetable stirfry with brown rice (usually add the tamari/salt after cooking so we can keep it as salt free for M as possible and it’s amazing how those little hands can pick up grains of rice
• hummus for steamed vegetable dipping
• arabic bread

Even though I am ‘Girl on Raw’, yes I do eat cooked foods! But I do aim for a predominantly raw food diet, usually I only eat cooked food at dinner where I share a cooked vegan meal with my husband and son, or if Pat is eating meat, I will make a component of it veggie for me and Manus.

Tonight I made a version of the Gardener’s Pie I tried when I was on the Quick Cleanse 15 day detox, which I thoroughly recommend. I haven’t done one for years, but it is a great starter for people wanting to learn about healthier eating and needing a clean out of old toxins, without going crazy on the fasting. Anyway dinner. I made my own version of the pie in the program and served it with salad. Manus usually loves my cooking but for some reason tonight, he wasn’t really fussed on this, even though Pat went back for seconds. We think it is because it resembled baby food (pureed pumpkin) which our little 13 month old is way too mature for of course

So this pie is a great Vegan version of the good old Shepherd’s Pie. Give it a try and tell me what you think!

Lentil & Harvest Pie

adapted from here

• 1 cup dry lentils soaked between 12 – 24 hours (changing water every 12 hours) I used green lentils but have also used red
• 1 teaspoon garlic power
• 1 large onion  chopped
• 1 garlic clove , crushed
• 2 stalk celery , finely sliced
• 2 carrots grated
• 3 small or 1 large zucchini, chopped
• 1 head of broccoli cut into small florets
• 2 tablespoon organic & sodium free vegetable seasoning (I use Kallo brand)
• 1 tablespoon  tamari or wheat free soy sauce
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 cup of tomato paste
• 1 butternut pumpkin/squash boiled and mashed for topping

1. Place soaked and rinsed lentils & garlic powder in a large pot and cover with water and boil until soft

2. Peel and cuba pumpkin/squash and boil until soft. This will make your mash when done.

3. Preheat the oven to 425F/220C 3. Whilst your lentils and pumpkin/squash are cooking, sautee garlic and onion in a large pot, with 2 tablespoons of water for 5 minutes or until clear.

4. Add the remaining vegetables and cook for 5 more minutes, ensuring you stir frequently to prevent sticking to the pot.

5. Add the drained and cooked lentils and remaining ingredients. Cook through until mix becomes thick.

6. Place mixture in a lasgana dish and top with mashed pumpkin/squash. Garnish with sliced of tomato and cracked pepper.

7. Cook for 15mins and serve.

You can play around with other ingredients like adding mushrooms to give it a meatier taste if you like.

Well I’m back home in Saudi and blogging! And I’ve got plenty to update you on.

First up, on the 1st April I met up with 6 other health focused ladies at an informal Healthy Bloggers/Biz Owners networking meet up outside of Brisbane, in Redcliffe. After I left our little gathering which had us all chatting for almost 4 hours (!) I realized that I didn’t even get a photo of us together!

It was originally planned to get people whom I’ve ‘met’ online away from their computers and meeting face to face, because when I get back home to Australia (which I do 1-2 times per year) as much as I think I have so much time for family and friend catch ups, I really don’t so it makes it hard to set aside time to meet up with my new online friends too. Last time I was in Australia, I managed to set aside the time to do a quick raw food class at Kind Living Cafe, which was fun, but I didn’t have any surplus time to do any classes this time around.

It was a great turn out with some people already working in the healthy biz realm, or others like Ale, who are readers and happened to be in town coincidentally.

The attendees:

Lisa – an active member of the Raw Food community came along and shared her knowledge on anything raw food related on the Sunshine Coast plus brought along her friend Kim

Holly – a naturopath based out of West End who offers naturopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, counselling, intuitive healing and hypnotherapy. www.brisbanenaturalhealth.com.au

Ale – from Chile a reader of both my blogs and the Wellness Warrior, just happened to be travelling through on her way to Byron Bay  and Western Australia. It was lovely to add some international flavour to our meet up.

Teniele – a raw foodie about to start blogging.

Linda – 20 years plus of experience in horticulture, organics and sustainability, she teaches organic gardening courses at Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens, does garden consultations and helps with sustainability planning. http://www.facebook.com/ecobotanica

It was a great opportunity for like minded people to chat casually about social media in Australia (yes it’s a little behind but will get there soon!), different personalities that influence us, share ideas and new contacts plus chat generally about our chosen fields.

One of the other topics I only touched on, but am interested to embark on if possible, is the potential for a Raw Food Summit early 2013 in Brisbane, where we get some big and little names on Raw Food and related topics to gather together for a whole day of sharing and learning as I feel there is definitely a growing interest in the topic.

I’ll be posting more on this idea later in the year, but if you think you’d like to be involved, send me an email to events@girlonraw.com

Tomorrow I’ll be blogging about a raw food class we attended whilst at home.

I’ve been neglecting the blog of late due to our travels to Oz (yep we are still here – hubs leaves to head back to work tomorrow and I have another week here), but I’ve been updating daily eats, and raw food tips on the facebook page if you’ve missed me!

One of the great things about writing a health focused blog is connecting with other great likeminded people, who share the same healthy living vision and enthusiasm to encourage others to join in.

Over the years of writing Girl on Raw, I’ve not only met some wonderful people in real person, but online too, and it’s a great little community we are building.

Today I’m going to share with you 3 people whom I’ve ‘met’ and had the pleasure of reviewing their products which I know you guys will absolutely love.

First up is aimed at the guys (and gals) who are worried about being on a raw diet and losing too much bulk/muscle. Although I aim for a high raw diet, my husband, even though he advocates it, does tend to lose a great deal of weight without supplementing with protein powders/formulas.

When the author ‘Thor’ sent me out a copy to review, it was during busy Christmas time vacation and it sat on my desk for a month or two, until it caught Pat’s eye, and he devoured it in 2 days.

He shared with me some of the book, including ‘Thor’s’ workout plan for a busy father who has little time to dedicate hour long or more workouts at the gym. He also talks plenty about the best foods/juices for pre workout and post. And how to supplement to get enough protein.

You can grab your copy from Amazon for $14.95US here

Next up is the gorgeous  and fellow Queenslander Jess Ainscough. Jess healed her cancer through a healthy diet and lifestyle change and is now known as The Wellness Warrior. Her latest ebook, Make Peace With Your Plate, has been selling like hotcakes. You don’t have to be vegan or vegetarian (although it would be nice!) to gain from reading her book, as she doesn’t discriminate.

For those of you who have unsuccessfully battled diets for years or are looking for ways to clean up your act, Jess’ concise, easy to read ebook will help you well on your way from the basics to the more complex.

You can purchase her ebook from her website here for $19.95AUS

And lastly is another cancer survivor and inspirational speaker/blogger Polly Noble who if you haven’t checked out her beautiful website yet, go over and check it out! She has generously offered 5 lucky readers a chance to win a copy of her ebook “7 Day Kickstart – a Beginners Guide to Eating More Raw” which comes complete with a raw food plan and shopping list, perfect for those newbies or those of you stuck on where to get back on track.

Ok, there’s no child labour laws here in Saudi clearly

Anyway here’s an article I’ve been wanting to share with you for some time from my friend Jenni Maddions from Coconut Magic about the truth about one of my favourite foods, coconut. If I was stuck on a tropical deserted island I would be in heaven. Really.

I hope you enjoy the guest post!

Coconut Oil, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease.

Back in the 1930’s tropical oils were being widely used around the world. People were happy and healthy using coconut oil for its many health benefits. For almost 4000 years the news about coconut oil had been all good.

Coconut oil was then one of the leading and most consumed plant based vegetable oils. The American Soy Bean Association decided to scuttle and destroy its reputation. For economic and political reasons they set out to take over the market with their own hydrogenated and heavily processed vegetable oils and margarine. Sadly, at the great expense of our health, they succeeded.

In a very clever single swoop approach that tarnished the reputation of the good oils along with the bad – all saturated fats were labeled as bad.

The tests published at this time were done using hydrogenated coconut oils. These studies have no relevance to the non-hydrogenated coconut milk or virgin coconut oil that you eat today.

It is now known that the process of hydrogenation creates trans fatty acids (TFAs). TFAs are toxic in the body and known to impede cell functionality and cause a rise in blood cholesterol. These substances are not present in organic virgin coconut oil.

This scuttle is what has created the widespread misconception that coconut oil is bad for you, raises cholesterol levels and causes heart disease. Coconut oil was clumped in the ‘saturated fat is bad’ category, along side saturated animal fats.

Saturated fats in the form of animal fat do carry foreign cholesterol that tends to ‘clump’ together in the arteries, leading to raised cholesterol levels and heart disease. Coconut oil is a plant based, medium chain saturated fat that does not carry any foreign cholesterol. In fact it is the medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) of coconut oil that makes it so incredibly healthy.

Virgin coconut oil is now being rediscovered as the healthiest and most versatile oil on earth.

Jenni Madison

http://www.coconutmagic.com/