Rosemary Corn Shroom

Rosemary Corn Shroom

Hi all,

Recently I was asked, thanks to Heathy, to be a featured chef on the new website and online community Eighty Percent Raw. This site was started to provide support for individuals interested in refining their diet and moving towards a healthy more sustainable way of eating and living. March 1st was the launch of 80% Raw. As a contributing chef I put together a simple side dish recipe that requires no special training, gadgets or tools. Visit Eighty Percent Raw the innargarul March edition. In the meantime check out this video featuring Rosemary Corn Shroom.

Canadian Adventures 2 – Mousse Crossing

Welcome to Ontario

Previously on “Canadian Adventures” from The Live Food Experience; Adam was scarfing down a pomelo at 34,000 feet on his way to visit Heathy in Canada. Although the oversized citrus managed to put up a fight, it was subdued by Adam prior to his arrival in Winnipeg. Fun stuff traveling. Actually it can be stressful and tiring,

Warm Fire

but when there are loving folks on the other end to greet you it makes it all worth it. I safely arrived in Canada around midnight and was collected from the airport by Heathy and her mother Elaine. There warm welcome offset the freezing conditions outside. I tucked in all my loose ends and gathered up all my Homeland Insecurity searched luggage and embarked upon my first adventure in Canada. That first evening in Winnipeg we stayed at the home of family friends Anya and Francis who own and operate a European shoe store and bed and breakfast. The shoe store and the bed and breakfast are separate businesses although they may honor a request for Birkenstock in bed.

Cedar

I awoke the next morning to a snowy wonderland. I was anxious to get out in the cold so Heathy and I took a walk up the snowy neighborhood road. It was a short walk. We were cold and we needed to get on the road and back to her home 5 hours away in Sioux Lookout, Ontario.

Mousse Crossing

What was waiting for me in Sioux Lookout? A warm fire, lovely dinner, happy doggies and the most amazing dessert; Strawberry Lime Mousse Cake. We now join our program that is currently in progress… Travels with Heathy:

Conscious Shopping

No need to gamble...

The task of shopping is set before you and you must prepare yourself. You have a list, but is it the best possible list for yourself and the planet? What is your motivation for shopping? Are you motivated by saving the most money or feeding yourself and your family? If you answer both ways a compromise has to be made and that compromise is your health. Being an informed and conscious shopper doesn’t mean you have to spend more money, on the contrary. When you are a conscious shopper you see things at the store for what they actually are as opposed to what they are advertised as. Defining your motivation is one way to become a conscious shopper. Let’s say your motivation is simply “to feed yourself and your family.” Now if that is the extent of your answer then the food manufacturers are left with plenty of liberties in regards to defining the “food” you are shopping for. If you expand your answer to say, “feed myself and my family the healthiest and best foods possible with consideration to planet and global community” you empower yourself and eliminate the inferior food choices that make up the majority of items in the grocery store. You and I know that grocery stores abound with mountains of toxic ingredients combined together and dressed up to appear as food. This is where advertising comes in; which is just another way of saying propaganda and mass manipulation. It sounds harsh but it’s true. An advertisement for a product is successful only to the degree to which it convinces the masses to purchase the product… regardless of whether it is telling you the truth or not. Be an informed and empowered shopper and everyone will benefit.

Here’s a challenge for you:

1. Purchase quality items that aren’t advertised heavily.
2. Purchase items with minimal packaging.
3. Limit the number of ingredients in a processed food to 12 or even less.
4. Buy products that don’t use artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors or additives.
5. Purchase products with ingredients that you understand and can pronounce. If you are unfamiliar with an ingredient, write it down and look it up on the internet.

Taking this challenge and adopting these practices can go a long way to save you money and time. Let me explain. The money savings in the short term come in because you are purchasing higher quality unprocessed food items with denser nutrition. Denser nutrition means “less is more” in that your body will be satisfied and nourished with less by eating quality food rather than eating more of an inferior food. This is an easy equation for losing weight and optimizing health. Often times people choose food items on the basis of size and price while totally overlooking the actual ingredients. “Twice as much for half the price” is usually a signal to look at the ingredients. You’ll likely find an assortment of cheap fillers. Would you buy gas from a station that offered it for half the price if you knew that what was coming out of the pump was half gas and the other half water? No you wouldn’t, so don’t make the same choice with the food you purchase. In regards to saving money in the long term just think about health care costs. Shopping consciously means long term health benefits. My personal consumption choices are my health care plan. Being sick costs time and money so once you’ve removed sickness from your living equation you have extra time and money… a win, win situation. On the subject of saving time, once you raise your personal consumption standards, you will have eliminated thousands of items from even being considered. You literally have eliminated ¾ or more of the grocery store which I refer to as the “waste land” or the “dead zone”. This optimizes your shopping potential in a major way. Now you enter the grocery store with a focused purpose and that is purchasing only conscious products. These products are concentrated in the produce department, bulk foods section and in the refrigerated and freezer sections: everything else is just a distraction to be ignored. Save time, save money, save your health, save the planet and lose weight… I think we may be on to something. Give it a try and let me know how things shape up. Until next time… Keep It Live!

Apple Buckwheat Breakfast

unsprouted buckwheat

Sprouted buckwheat is a really magical food. Most people know buckwheat in terms of buckwheat pancakes but sprouted buckwheat ain’t the same thing. Buckwheat isn’t even a grain like the name “wheat” might imply. It’s a “achene” which is a technical term you can investigate. For simplicity sake let’s just call it a seed that is unrelated to wheat therefore having no gluten. Buckwheat flour used for baking and raw buckwheat groats are unsprouted and contain enzyme inhibitors which need to cooked or sprouted to deactivate. Newbie rawfooders may initially have a bad experience working with buckwheat if they don’t sprout it. Buckwheat needs to be thoroughly rinsed, soaked and sprouted. Check out this post regarding sprouting buckwheat.

Once you have sprouted the buckwheat you have a very versatile ingredient for food prep. Don’t be shy when sprouting buckwheat. The sprouted groats can be dehydrated and stored for later use in recipes.

sprouted buckwheat

Buckwheat can have a dominant flavor and texture if not used in the right proportions. When I use it in granola  I typically add 3 times the amount of nuts or seeds to buckwheat in the recipe. You’ll know if you have too much buckwheat in a recipe because it will taste bland and have a chalky feel in the mouth.

Buckwheat is a warming food which makes it a great breakfast option during cold months. It is high in calcium and also a great source of rutin which helps to strengthen capillaries. If you bruise easily or are wanting to rid yourself of varicose veins, add buckwheat to your diet.

Here’s a quick and easy buckwheat recipe. I used apple for this version but banana or pear can easily be substituted. I added hemp oil to give the porridge the satisfying effect when fats are added to a recipe. You can add a thick nut or seed mylk instead or a nut butter. Have fun with the recipe and adapt it to your liking.

Sprouted Buckwheat Apple Porridge

¼ C sprouted buckwheat

3 T shredded coconut

1 apple – cut up

2 T gojis or raisins – mix in at end

1 T maple syrup, honey or agave

1 T sweet cinnamon or 1 t cinnamon

1 T mesquite

1 T hemp oil

1 t maca

pinch of Himalayan salt

Combine in all ingredients except for raisins/gojis in food processor.

Day 3 – Canada Juice Fast

Reishi Pau d'Arco Tea

We’re rocking and rolling along under sunny and frigid conditions here in the great North. How cold? -33C or -27F to be exact. This is the kind of cold where you have to plug your car in at night so it will start in the morning or even at midday. At this temp it’s too cold to snow and steam bellows out of the doors of homes when you step outside. We’ve been minimizing our outdoor time and maximizing our relaxation time. Light yoga gets us moving and keeps us loose.

Block Heater

On day 3: 1 hot lemon water, 2 juices, 4 hot teas and a warm miso soup with garlic and lemon.

We also took some Colosan after our first mornings juice. The intent was to clean out our GI tract and prevent some detox discomfort. In the past the Colosan really cleaned house for me, but this time it was mildly effective. It kicked in after 6 hours sending running to the bathroom and did its job. Don’t worry, I didn’t take pictures.

As I write this on Day 4, both Heathy and I are in good spirits and full of energy. There’s talk of orange, grapefruit, lemon juice today. That will give me a taste of home.

Brisk Baby

Basil and Spice Article

Candied Pecans

Recently I submitted a recipe to Basil and Spice. The site features tons of cool health oriented content.

Take a look at this holiday recipe… candied nuts, yummy.

Rawfood Workout – Durian Curl

Feel the burn

Here’s some rawfood fitness fun to warm things up this winter. Just in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays… durian curls. Now you can work off those extra pounds and be super buff for the new year.

Philly Cheeze Fake

Philly Cheeze Fake Foo Shizzly!

Take a look at this divinely inspired creation that is a synergy of marinated eggplant, breaded dehydrated onions, cashew cheese, walnut pate and tomatoes. This was the featured entree the other night at Conscious Media Tuesday at Shakti. The turn out was the lowest but the entree was the bestest! I’m debating whether to do “Philly Cheese Fake” 2 weeks in a row. Send me an email if you want specifics on the recipe.

I’ve got a video in the works of the assembly. Here are the basics in photo form:

Lay out the eggplant

Add walnut pate and breaded onions

Cheeze it

Wrap it

Decorate it

Blam It!