Welcome back to LA smoothie and salad extravaganza! July 8, 2010

To calebrate the return to Hollywood, I was treated to a feast of raw food goodness on a grey LA day. First stop was my perpetual favourite, Real Raw Live, (in Franklin Village, Hwood) for some smoothies and snacks. Today my companion and I both chose to get highlighter orange Monk Shakes, delicious, light, refreshing and full of banana, goji berries, papaya, toco’s, nut milk and agave, the perfect thing before a gentle workout.

I also purchased  a mountain mint flavoured Wildbar, delicious and chocolatey and packed with the raw vegan goodness of blue-green algae and all sorts of other good stuff. It definitely felt good on my blood sugar after a workout and tasted like yum. Along with that I grabbed an up cup, in mint chip with maca flavour, as I’ve been feeling a little drained from constant travel, lack of exercise and slim pickins in raw food delicacies on the road and maca is a great energising herb.

Finally, the day was rounded off with some fresh fruit, larabars and this sexy salad from a deli down the street, yum! Tour was amazing, but it’s good to be back for a bit!!

Food Tour blog at The Gauntlet! July 1, 2010

Currently I’m in Nashville, Tennessee, on tour with the System of Freaks tour, featuring Mary Magdalan and Blue Felix with myself as the host of the show. I’ve been on tour for about a month now, and let me tell you, it’s been a little tough, but it’s been a great learning experience as far as how to eat healthy, vegan, and with a particular emphasis on raw, on the road!

I’m traveling in a 50ft tour bus, with 13 guys, none of which who are raw, vegan, or even remotely vegetarian (minus one “pescaterian”!) so pickings are a little slim on the ground for sweet raw vegan eats, though I have been incredibly lucky in places such as New York, where I got to stop by One Lucky Duck for a delicious raw choc  smoothie (see pic above!) and raw oreo cookie!!!!! But more on that very soon,

I have actually been writing a blog for The Gauntlet about what I’ve been eating on the road, the internet has been a little scarce on tour, but I have so much good stuff coming up for you that it’s unbelievable! In the meantime check the piece on the gauntlet out, but stay tuned, for Raw on Tour is on the revamp!

Rawnola bar snack! February 11, 2010

I’ve been looking these over for a long time. They had been tempting me out of the corner of my eye each time I ordered a smoothie at Real Raw Live and perused the shelves and refrigerated section of the place looking for more deliciousness to devour. But I had always resisted the urge to throw one on the counter and announce it was to be mine. That is….Until Now.

For some reason, when the little raw food bar whispered hot things in my ear after I gave it the once over, I finally gave in. And Oh My Goodness. Why oh why did I not give in to that little devil sooner? This rawnola bar has to got to be by far one of the most scrumptious things I have ever had the good fortune to ingest! I think they almost just beat my complete and easy favourites Larabars right off the map. Uh oh, Rawnola is where it’s at!

I just checked out the list of ingredients in these things, and there’s even one sourced from New Zealand, my home home (other than LA!), it’s just like we were meant to be.

Rawnola bar ingredients: *Coconut, Soaked *Almonds, *Pumpkin Seeds,*Figs, *Real Raw Agave Nectar, *Sun-Dried Sea Salt (certified organic by BioGrow of New Zealand), *Cinnamon, *Ginger, *Vanilla Bean (whole). (*organic)

Delish, definitely give them a taste test if you’re blessed enough to stumble upon them, because like I said before, Rawnola is where it’s at.

Hemp Protein Shake, Raw Cherry Cheesecake and Super-Wellness Shot from Real Raw Live February 10, 2010

Today I stopped by Real Raw Live in Franklin Village, Hollywood, to get a bite to eat. And by bite, I really mean sip! It was a wonderful rainy day again, all grey and gloomy and beautiful outside (I love a little of this dreary weather, it’s a welcome change from the LA sun seeking to scorch me with its far-reaching rays all the time!) so I figured now would be as good a time as any to top up the olde immune system again.

To start:

Super-Wellness Shot (pictured above)

This delightfully dark green drink was comprised of all sorts of sexy, constituents, from cayenne pepper to lemon juice, algae and chlorophyll. It’s not as bad as it sounds, I swear! It’s got a spicy lil tang to it, but you just knock it back in one or two hits and you’re good to go. You’ll feel great and your immunity will get a little ramp up while you’re at it!

The Drink

Protein Power Smoothie: This was full of hemp protein (be sure to ask them to make it with hemp protein if that’s what you like because they also have (non-vegan) whey protein and I believe brown rice protein too – you don’t want to get poisoned!), L-Glutamine (supposed to be awesome for your muscles!), almond milk, bananas, almond butter and cinnamon. I also added the superfood Maca to it. (Costs a little extra but certainly worth it! Maca is an ancient South American superfood meant to aid your libido, hormone balance and energy levels!)

Dessert!

This was a cherry dream cheesecake by Earth Cafe. These are too good, they are melt in your mouth tasty! Also completely vegan, raw and gluten-free.

According to the ingredients list it contains: Fresh cherries, soaked cashews, coconut, coconut butter, agave nectar, soaked pecans, soaked walnuts, lemon, lecithin, vanilla bean extract, cinnamon and sea salt.

The label also mentions that it’s made with love, yum!

The whole thing was gone in 60 seconds, I swear! Just that good!

Superbowl Sunday Dinner at Cru! February 8, 2010

Well on Superbowl Sunday, after a day of posing as a Fallen Angel for a photoshoot,(pics should be up on my other blog at some point soon) and ironically, the Saints winning the same day as I fell bloody and broken-winged from the sky – , I was incredibly fortunate to be taken out for dinner yet again to another one of my new fave raw restaurants, Cru!

Cru is a cute little restaurant in Silverlake that is completely vegan and has a menu choc-full of delicious raw food delights! My dinner date and I arrived at about 8pm tonight, to an almost full-house. We were lucky enough to secure the last table in the place, the same exact table as we had actually been seated the previous time I had gone there.

The wait staff were very friendly and helpful, and the girl even cracked a joke about us being seated back at our same spot. While we were eyeing up absolutely everything on the menu, several parties of people arrived, eager to get some sweet vegan eats. Alas there was not a seat left in the house but these brave souls would not let this deter them. They waited and oh they waited and were finally rewarded when other groups of guests left.

The pile up continued as we ordered and ate our meals. Cru was going offffff tonight!

And it’s not hard to see why, the minute our meals arrived we were immediately reminded of the reason – oh my god is their food ever good!

Now to the breakdown:

The Appetizer

Bruschetta Rustica: Sunflower bread with a traditional chopped tomato and basil spread and cashew cheese. Amazing way to kick off the night!

The Thirst-Quencher

Fresh squeezed raw ginger limeade. I had looked at this on the menu last time I was here, and this time I just had to order it. It was soo refreshing!

The Main Event

Hawaiian Flat Bread Pizza: Sunflower flatbread with cashew cheese, sundried tomato sauce and shitake mushrooms, side salad (x2 – it’s just that good we both had to get one each!)

The Grand Finale

Coconut Chocolate Mousse Pie: off the raw dessert menu.

This cake/ pie thing was soo tasty. My dinner companion didn’t like the consistency of the coconut layer so much (I had no problem with it, I loved it!), but said it tasted amazing – the chocolate part though = pure and complete heaven.

I think this sums it all up nicely:

Cru, I will definitely be back!

Hot Cayenne Pepper on a Cold Day – Lunch from Healthyca February 6, 2010

Today was a lovely, rainy LA day, and inspired by yesterday’s delicious delving into the world of cayenne pepper, I decided to order something hot and spicy to sip on again. I chose “The Fighter” a drink from Healthyca in North Hollywood, which contained… you guessed it… cayenne pepper.

The dude on the phone told me that he would go easy on me and make mine a mild so I was a little apprehensive when the drink arrived that he would have gone a little too easy and left the cayenne out all together. I think this combined with its yellow colour may have been the issue. I was expecting bright, firey hot neon red plasma in a cup! But the delivery guy allayed my fears and told me “that’s what its supposed to look like.”

So with that in mind I took the jump and drank the drink and oh my was it ever good! Not too spicy and not too sweet with just that tang of cayenne as a somewhat secret afterthought. Cayenne pepper is meant to be great for the metabolism and circulatory system so I was of course stoked on that, it was the perfect warming drink to get on a cold day that didn’t veer too far off the raw foodie’s path. The drink also contained pineapple, grape, orange and ginger, yum!

Add to this my mammoth salad (oh my!) and I was in complete and utter raw, vegan heaven. The size of these things is enormous! Full of all the good stuff like avocado (my favourite!), hearts of palm, jicama, artichokes, mandarins, pecans and baby greens! I got the balsamic dressing and a side of quinoa. I love quinoa, it’s such a versatile, nutritious grain and I highly recommend it!I’ll talk more in depth about quinoa and other great nutritious foods, but for now I’m off to Planet Raw 😉