Celebrating an all-natural lifestyle

Raw Chocolate Extra-vegan-za

Thank you all so much for your sweet words yesterday–and for the huge, excited response to my tofu burgers! I was really touched, especially since I woke up today feeling rather ashamed of my one woman pity party. So my internet’s down. So what? I have a job (which gives me a computer, from which I can blog and send email), I have my friends, I have my health, and, most of all, in exactly three days I will be in San Francisco, hanging out with my favorite person on the planet (Chloe). No more complaining!

Speaking of reasons not to complain, I got a pretty amazing care package a few weeks ago:

My friend Vanessa, the beautiful, savvy, and talented CEO of Gnosis Chocolate, sent me a bunch of her new products to sample.

I. Was. In. Heaven.

Don’t know Gnosis yet? Fix that, now. Gnosis is my favorite brand of raw vegan chocolate and other goodies. I heart the company not only because it makes delicious food–the Gnosis “simplicity” bar is probably the best raw chocolate I’ve ever had–but also because it’s eco-conscious, good to its employees, and because Vanessa is a hugely supportive member of NYC’s raw “tribe”–a loose conglomeration of raw foodists and raw food lovers here in NYC. I met Vanessa over two years ago, at which point Gnosis was a fully operational company, but still very much a chocolate company. Today, the brand has grown and expanded into so much more. Not only is it widening its product horizons (Gnosis also makes a slammin’ raw trail mix,  beautiful raw soaps, and it sells various superfoods and supplements), but Vanessa is also growing into her role as Gnosis founder with grace and style.

Take this example: this year, as we know, there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding agave nectar. Since Gnosis uses agave in certain products, Vanessa took it upon herself to explore the issue in depth. She did this not by reading a few articles online, but rather by visiting an agave manufacturing site herself, and writing a thoughtful report of her travels. I couldn’t have been more impressed with Vanessa’s honesty and commitment to upholding the integrity of her brand. I’m also wowed by her efforts with the Raw Integrity Project, a forum where Vanessa shares her experiences and findings in pursuing integrity and transparency in the raw food and chocolate business. To guarantee that the ingredients Gnosis uses are Raw, Vegan, Organic, and of the highest quality, she regularly returns to her suppliers with increasingly in-depth questions, and she puts her hands in every stage of production at the farms and factories she visits to ensure nutritional integrity in Gnosis foods.

Me? I’m not a stickler about “how raw” my foodstuffs are. That is, I’m not bothered by the possibility of nuts or rice or other foods that have been heated unbeknownst to me, because I don’t believe that heating food about 115 degrees destroys or lessens all of its nutritional value. But I respect that other raw foods lovers do feel that way. As a business owner, it’s Vanessa’s job to be honest with those customers. I really applaud her for traveling around the world to be certain of how her ingredients are being sourced, and for being such a “hands on” food maker in the first place.

Putting all of this admiration aside, of course, I’m just a big ‘ole fan of Gnosis food. So when Vanessa’s gift arrived, I was over the moon (perhaps some of you saw my embarrassingly happy tweets?). Vanessa sent me four flavors to try. The first was Superchoc, which I’ve tried before. It’s Vanessa’s “signature” bar in many ways: a raw chocolate bar infused with “superfoods” like goji berries and mesquite”

The second was her immune boost bar, which contains pumpkin seeds, cacao, currants, and cranberries. I loved this one!

The third was her “power choc,” which is chock full of hemp seeds and Sproutein powder for a major protein boost–great for those with higher protein needs:

I really enjoyed this one, too! It felt more like a workout snack than a dessert.

And the final gift was Vanessa’s perfect simplicity bar, which I haven’t got a photo of. Why? Because it didn’t last long in my house! Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s how it tastes: perfect. This is most definitely my fave Gnosis flavor. I love that Vanessa creates such innovative flavor varieties, but I’m a true food purist, and I almost always like what’s most simple. I take my dark chocolate straight up.

Thanks to Vanessa, I have tons of chocolate still in my fridge, and I can’t wait to savor it in the coming weeks! I’ve also got a bar of cinnamon soap that I haven’t used yet, but it smells so good I have to stop myself from chewing on it:

AND a sample of her ridiculously delicious PowerChoc trail mix, which is the best raw trail mix I’ve ever had, and do you know why? Because it’s full of chunks of dark chocolate, that’s why. I am obsessed. I bring it to the office in little snack baggies:

And recently used it (along with strawberries) to top some of my Vega chia pudding (this is the same as last week’s recipe, but I blended it in the Vitamix after I made it) for breakfast today:

Yum!

Vanessa also happens to be a consummate event planner. Every few months, she throws “chocolate parties” that feature not only cool music and cool people, but also feature amazing raw food and heaps of her raw chocolate products. They are seriously fun, and if you’re interested in attending the next one, check out the details here. To recap them for you, it’ll be raw food, raw friends, and raw chocolate on a giant boat. Sounds like a serious party to me. I won’t be able to join, but I’m hoping any New Yorkers who do go will give me a full recap!

Thanks, Vanessa, for being such a confectionery genius, and such a vibrant and enthusiastic part of the raw community. I hope to hear more about your adventures as a chocolate maker and small business owner in the future!

Before I go, I have three announcements. The first is that my pal ZestyCook is kicking off a month of recipes that are student friendly, which is to say tasty, affordable, and healthy. I think this is a really noble effort, and we should all check in with his site often in honor of the students in our lives!

The second is that, starting today, all of the proceeds from Mara’s blog for the month of September will be donated to the A to Z Literacy Project. A to Z is a charity spearheaded by a coworker that sends thousands of books annually to needy children in Zambia, and entirely worthy of our support as bloggers. I don’t think any of you need reasons to read Mara’s blog–her tasty food and passionate, witty writing are reason enough–but this little initiative gives you extra motivation. Please support Mara’s efforts!

Final announcement? My dilly sunflower cheese makes for some awesome work lunch leftovers.

Anyone try it yet??

Phew. OK. It’s time for me to power through some work, because I have to be home later this afternoon to wait for my nemesis, Time Warner, to fix my modem! Cross your fingers for me, please?

xo

Raw Picnic Dinner

Last night, my favorite movie of all time was playing outdoors, in Central Park:

Needless to say, I had to be there.

My friend Nelly and I planned a hot date—including a picnic dinner—to see the movie together. When we arrived at Sheep’s Meadow, I was delighted to run into Hadley, who was there with a group of friends.

Nelly and I found a little patch of spare grass, and, as we waited for the movie to begin, we got down to the real business of the hour: dinner!!! We attacked our picnic bags with gusto. Nelly, who’s a passionate athlete and runner, had been playing in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament all day. And me? I was just really hungry

Nel and I shared a little chuckle over the fact that we’d had at least some of the same picnic ideas: hummus and raw veggies were in both of our picnic bags. Nelly’s a vegetarian, so I can usually count upon our enjoying some of the same things, but we also share a lot of the same tastes. Nelly had with her a container of whole wheat pita, some Sabra hummus, veggies, and a delicious homemade cocktail made with ginger beer, cucumber, and fresh peaches. On my menu was (obviously) a giant kale salad, marinated earlier in the day:

I’d also discovered this brand at my local health food store earlier in the week:

It’s Chocolatree, which is the prepared food made by the staff at Chocolatree Cafe in Arizona. I picked up the pizza crackers (made with buckwheat and sunflower seeds) and the onion flatbread (made with sunflower seeds and chia seeds). Interesting fact: I have learned, thanks to Lori and Michelle, that while I do not like raw onions (or cooked onions, for that matter), I really like raw onion flatbread. Go figure.

My verdict? Two thumbs up! I really liked both breads. The pizza flatbread is heartier, and more “bread” like; it reminds me of Lydia’s breads and crackers, which I truly adore. The onion bread is nice and thin, and I imagine it would make a great raw “wrap.” While I’m still a loyal devotee of the Twins’ flatbreads and crackers, the Chocolatree brand is a nice second choice. I love that my local store takes care to stock these lesser known raw food brands!

I made two little open faced raw sandwiches. One was onion flatbread, roast red pepper hummus, tomato, avocado, and cucumber:

And the other was pizza flatbread with a simple topping of tomato and avocado:

Both were delicious! Between these, kale salad, and raw veggies+hummus, I was a very, very happy camper. And a very full one.

Of course, what made me really happy was the joy of seeing my favorite movie on a big screen. And what could be more appropriate than watching Woody Allen’s love poem to New York City in the middle of Central Park, surrounded by skyline?

I got a little misty when we got to this scene:

Forget Love is a Many Splendored Thing. Forget Casablanca. Forget Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dr. Zhivago, Gone With the Wind, and even An Affair to Remember. Those movies are all terrific, but in my world, there is no more romantic movie still than this one from Manhattan:

My understanding of romance will always and forever be intertwined with my love affair with Manhattan. Part of why I—well, why most New Yorkers—love Woody Allen’s work so fiercely is that he understands that feeling. His movies chronicle the vicissitudes of human love, but the infatuation with New York is always a constant. In other words, he gets it.

Dinner last night was so extraordinarily good that, today, still basking in the haze of cinematic joy, I repeated it. Using only the pizza crackers this time (I’m saving the onion flatbread for later this week), I made one flatbread with avocado and tomato:

And another with cucumber and my dilly sunflower seed cheese.

How’d I made the “cheese?” This is just a simple sunflower seed pate, made all the more delicious with the addition of dill. Observe:

Dilly Sunflower Cheese (yields 1 1/2 cups, or 6-8 servings)

1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked at least one hour
2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4-1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup water
8-10 small sprigs fresh dill, coarsely chopped

1) Place soaked seeds, salt, and lemon into the bowl of a food processor and let it run till they’re broken down. Scrape the sides of the bowl.

2) With the motor running, drizzle 1/2 cup water into the food processor, so that the sunflower seed cheese becomes light and creamy. If it starts to get at all watery, stop adding water! I usually use anywhere from 1/4-2/3 cup water; it totally depends on how much water the seeds have absorbed, so use your judgment.

3) Add the dill to the processor and pulse a few times to distribute it into the cheese. What you’ll have left looks like this:

…and it tastes tart, salty, and fresh!

Along with some salad and raw veg action, it was a perfect midday meal:

Sometimes I find that raw flatbreads and crackers leave me totally empty only a few moments after mealtime; I’m really impressed with how nicely the Chocolatree products fill me up. A good reason to make these a semi-regular “splurge.”

And now, I’m procrastinating with Mad Men diligently working in preparation for the week ahead. I hope you all had great weekends. New Yorkers, were any of you with me in the park last night? And here’s a question: what cinematic moment or image ranks as most romantic in your book? I know that questions like these are a little reductive and silly but they—like naming the scene in a book or film that you find most sad, or most poignant—tend to say fun things about peoples’ personalities!

xo

Vegan Corn and Zucchini Pancakes

It’s always nice when a recipe you like seems to “take off” with other bloggers. This has been true recently of my sweet potato and chickpea burgers, which Matt and Katie have made recently, as well as a bunch of other bloggers and readers who have emailed me or left comments on the original post. Thank you guys for trying the recipe out! I hope you’ve enjoyed the sweet, dense taste and texture as much as I did when I first made the burgers.

My experience with the sweet potato burgers got me hooked on chickpea flour. Versatile, high-protein, and possessed of a starchy texture that’s fairly unique, chickpea flour is ideal for all sorts of pancakes, burgers, and bread recipes. Just check out the Twins’ socca adventures if you’re looking to be inspired!

I’ve been enamored of chickpea flour as a burger ingredient, but this week I wondered whether or not I might extend its powers to the world of pancake making. Not sweet pancakes, but savory ones. Back before I became a vegan, I had a zucchini pancake recipe I loved, which came together with shredded zucchini, flour, and egg whites. I’ve long wanted to veganize it and amp up the color with more veggies. On Monday, with some corn and red pepper in hand (ah, summer produce!) I decided I’d give a zucchini and corn pancake a shot—made with chickpea flour as a binder, of course, and with flax as an egg replacer. The results were great!

With most of my raw recipes, I remind you guys that most substitutions and tweaks at home are just fine—they won’t do much to disturb taste or flavor. With anything involving flour and flax, however, I tend to say that it’s best to stick to instruction, because small changes might really affect texture and results. If you make these, then, try to stick to the instructions.

Corn and Zucchini Pancakes (makes 4 large pancakes)

1 small zucchini, shredded
Kernels from 1 large ear corn
1 red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
6 tbsp chickpea flour
1 tsp non-aluminum baking powder
1/4 cup flax meal + 6 tbsp water, mixed 5 min prior to making pancake batter and set aside
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp Herbamare or Spike
1/2 tsp cumin
Dash red pepper flakes (to taste)

1) Preheat a griddle or large saute pan over a medium flame. Spray or rub it with coconut oil—just enough for pancake making.

2) Mix all ingredients together.

3) As if you were making regular pancakes, drop the batter by 2-tbsp servings onto the griddle, and wait until the bottom side is nicely browned. Flip, and cook till second side is browned.

4) Serve!

These are fresh, sweet, and tasty:

And I imagine they’d be equally perfect for breakfast OR dinner. For my part, I enjoyed them over a big raw kale salad (how else?):

A few months ago, I made raw and cooked versions of homemade Sunshine burgers, which also got some nice reader feedback. You guys will be glad to know that I’m hard at work on a perfect raw version of these corn and zucchini pancakes, so stay tuned! It’s time to take advantage of the last few bushels of summer produce.

On that note, I have a long and busy Saturday ahead of me. I hope you guys have a great one—if you’re in NYC, enjoy the sun for me—and I’ll be back tomorrow.

xo

Antioxidant Smoothies and Nostalgic Melodies

As usual, those were some amazing comments on my last post. I love writing about veganism on my blog. I always get such incredibly insightful and honest feedback! For those of you who missed this post, please go back and check it out: I was thrilled with the level of conversation.

So I had a long recipe post planned for y’all, but it’s been a long and hard day, so you’re getting a product review instead. Months ago, Matt over at Miessence—a company that produces high quality vegan, organic body, skin, and haircare products—offered me a few samples of supplements. Namely, he wrote to see whether or not I was interested in three supplements:

1) An antioxidant “superfood” powder called Berry Radical

2) A wholefood probiotic powder called Inliven

3) A liquid probiotic (gluten-free) called Fast Track

Well sure, I said. I’m not in the habit of turning down free, high-quality probiotics—though for the record, I don’t take a regular probiotic supplement unless I’m traveling or my stomach is feeling off. (I did take probiotics religiously for a period of time in which I was “healing” my IBS, and I think they helped me tremendously. And I’ve written about probiotics and enzymes in this post.)

Matt went above and beyond the call of any man offering a blogger a sample product. When I posed questions to him about the products, he responded instantaneously and kindly. My main question was this: As I understand it, most probiotic bacteria is killed in the stomach, due to its very acidic environment. This is why enteric coated probiotics are popular. So I wondered how the liquid probiotic, Fast Track, could withstand such a low pH? Matt wrote back,

Thanks for your question, a very good one at that! I am not the best at describing how Fast Tract works as a probiotic, I use the In-Liven product myself – which is formulated in a way that ensures that lactic
acid in the stomach does not “kill” off the good bacteria (lactic acid is formed when bacteria are fighting each other). This is done through providing a food source (superfood) for the bacteria, whilst also allowing the good bacteria to establish themselves in the digestive tract. Also, the bacteria strains have been established through rigourous “breeding”, using extreme cold and extreme heat to use the
most resistant strains of the bacteria. Fast Tract is to be used as a precursor to transitioning to In-Liven, to allow the gut to have a baseload of good bacteria who can handle the predigested gluten.

Something also to keep in mind is that the products are certified organic, completely raw and unprocessed (well, they are predigested over 30 days, fermented somewhat). The use of enteric coatings is to protect the contents of the pills, my basic research into these coatings highlights that they use chemical based coatings predominantly.

I thought this was a great, if confusing answer! Not because Matt articulated himself poorly, but because I’m still not 100% sure how probiotic bacteria withstand the stomach pH. And vegetarian, chemical coating to ensure efficacy in a pill still strikes me as smarter than a liquid supplement that won’t have its intended effect. If any med or science folks in the audience have further insight to offer, do please share!

In any case, I was really impressed with the due diligence that Matt gave my queries, and with his attitude in general. I get the sense that Miessence is an honest and solid company.

As for the products, I enjoyed them quite a bit! The enliven tastes just like Kombucha. This was good, in that it’s a taste I like, and bad, in that I wanted to drink it like a beverage, rather than take it by the teaspoon and as a supplement, which is of course how I was instructed.

The InLiven is tasteless and easy to put in smoothies, soups, and nut cheeses! I tried it all three ways – I even made a batch of my raw “goat cheese” with it – and it worked nicely in the fermentation process.

Did I notice a difference in my digestive health? Well no, not really. I’m happy to say that, at this point in life, my digestion works like a well oiled machine, and I these probiotics had no impact to speak of. But perhaps they would make a big difference for someone who has digestive irregularity or trouble; in any case, I think they’re as worthy as any other probiotic of a trial! As for the Berry Radical antioxidant powder, it made a fun and tasty addition to my summer berry smoothies. Here was my favorite concoction:

I used the Berry Radical:

…and I also used a packed of Sambazon’s original acai pulp. Acai—along with goji berries and mulberries and maca and lots of other “super” foods—tends to elicit my teasing. But putting aside for a moment it’s purported health benefits, I really do like the way it tastes, and so I purchase these guys sometimes:

And sometimes, I even use terms like “superfoods” with a straight face. Like now.

Gena’s Berry Antioxidant Superfood Smoothie (serves 1)

1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 pack Sambazon “original Rio blend” acai
1/2 frozen banana
1 tbsp Miessence Berry Radical antioxidant powder
1/2 cup nut milk
2 tbsp cacao nibs (I used Navitas naturals)
Ice as needed

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender till smooth. I prefer my smoothies to resemble ice cream, rather than liquids, so this will be thick, but you can of course add more nut milk as needed! I topped mine with a little raw granola, too – this brand, which I find at my health food store and quite like!

It’s a delicious and decadent mix, made chocolatey by the cacao and the acai (which has a chocolate overtone). I suggest you try it soon!

Thanks so much, Matt, for giving me a chance to sample the goods. I may be ambivalent about many kinds of supplements, but I do admire what you’re doing, and have no doubt that your products can and will benefit many.

Switching gears completely for a moment, were any other NYC kids at Cakeshop with me last night, seeing Tennis perform? They were impressive, even in the tiny and sweaty space. For those of you who weren’t there, I present you with my music pick of the week. Listen now, thank me later.

xo

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