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!

Immunity Dinner at Planet Raw February 6, 2010

Last night I got taken out to my newly-fave raw restaurant, Juliano’s Planet Raw. The food there is always absolutely delicious, they excel at everything – from delectable desserts (raw “cheese”cakes and the like) to invigorating elixirs (smoothies, juices, teas,”milk” shakes and all kinds of crazy, creative concoctions) to slammin salads (better than any I’ve ever had ANYwhere – and I’ve had a lot of salads!) and dazzling main meals (lasagna to die for! Avo sammies! raw pastas, noodles and curries oh my!) – and last night was definitely no exception!

Juliano is not only famous for his amazing restaurant, but also his great “un”cook book called “Raw:The Uncook Book New Vegetarian Food For Life” which I don’t yet own but drool over every time I go to the restaurant (you can buy a copy for yourself here if you like!). His recipes are truly gourmet, and everything is presented in style with delicious raw flair, both in the meals served up at his eatery, and in the pages of the book itself. They also run cooking classes/raw chef certification out of their restaurant which I am thinking of checking out soon!

Now on to the food!

The appetizer:

Raw spring rolls, I think I have had them every time I have been there. These spring rolls are THE bomb for sure. The wrapper is made somehow from coconut ( I guess they dehydrate the coconut to make it nice and wrappery) and the insides are tasty veggies and avo.

The dipping sauce and marinated veggies are also mouthwateringly good. Even the garnish makes me melt. I cannot tell you how good these are. I would travel eight hours each way to get there, just for a bite of one of these spring rolls!

The main courses:

Fat cheze melt

Green curry pasta

The thirst-quenchers:

Tasty Probiotic Immunity drinks (we figured since it was raining we’d better top up that immunity!)

The grand dessert:

Coconut “chez” cake

(SOOOOOOOOO Good)

The midnight snack:

Raw choc balls

When I am “at home” in LA ( you will see me refer to New Zealand and probably various other places
as “home” too!) I like to take advantage of the fact that there are so many good places to eat here!
I am also fortunate enough to have great people to go try them all with! But fear not, very soon I will
have a brand new raw road warrior series for you, as well as more in the lifesavers series and plenty
of how-to/informative articles on veganism, nutrition, raw food, health,great eats on the cheap, and
living the rawk n roll lifestyle! Not to mention more pics of what I ate today, tomorrow and beyond!

Also thank you so much to the wonderful Gala Darling for giving me a shout out on her blog! Much appreciated, and hi to all you nice iCing readers, hope you’re enjoying my blog, and how are you doing??!

Lunch at Real Raw Live! February 4, 2010

Today I ordered the Super Maca 3500 shake with hemp protein and spirulina at Real Raw Live for lunch. That’s probably my favourite drink there, full of vegan protein so it keeps you going with banana, flax oil and the superfood maca. Adding in the spirulina helps me get my greens on.

And as you can see by my pic it turned out pretty green today. It also tasted fantastic which is why most of it was missing by the time I took this pic!

I also grabbed a (non-Raw but still vegan) avocado sushi and a Nude Foods raw choc cheesecake which were both pretty good! The cheesecake is pictured here on my mostly useless stove. All I cook are salads, yum!