Pure Gratitude
Hi all,
Hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was filled with snow (all hail the great Blizzard of ‘09!), with some cooking, with holiday parties (including a very nice gathering at a friend’s place last night, as the winds raged around us), and with some live performances (a culture vulture friend was visiting).
Thanks to Michelle and Lori, it was also filled with raw treats!
The holidays are wonderful, but they can also be difficult. I know I’ve struggled to purchase all of my last minute gifts this weekend, to bake some last minute goodies for my colleagues, and to keep my head straight as I sort through Christmas plans (being a child of divorce makes the holiday schedule slightly complex). But there are some folks who manage to make time to do kind, thoughtful things for others, even as the holidays test their patience and energy. And the Pure2Raw twins are most definitely such people.
On Saturday, I was lucky enough to recieve the following package:
It was assortment of raw breads (including such scrumptious varieties as swiss chard and black sesame seed flatbread), crackers (some of which I scarfed up immediately, including a kale and pumpkin seed cracker), and sweets (like fudgy chocolate ginger coconut bites):
Lucky, lucky me!
The Twins, as you know, are the geniuses behind Twin Cakes, where they offer catering services, baked goods, and raw cooking class. Their amazing un-baked goods are not only highly delicious, but cruelty free and supremely health-conscious! The Twins, unlike other raw un-bakers, take care not to overdo it on nuts, and they even use a combination of stevia and dates/agave in some of their recipes so that the sugar content is moderate. Good stuff!
The best news for you all is that you can order packages of their excellent products online at the Twin Cakes website, or you can find out more about the opportunity to learn directly from the ladies themselves! The Twins are also offering a special January package of scrumptious, yet all natural and healthy goodies to help you begin the year off right. Paired with participation in the Choosing Raw + Spark! Wellness January Cleanse, I think it’s the best kind of start to a new year!!
Lori and Michelle are some of the warmest, kindest, and most devoted raw folks I’ve met. They believe deeply in good health through raw and vegan nutrition, and they’re 100% committed to the lifestyle. What you see on their blog (that is, kindness, intelligence, and determination) is most certainly what you get in person. I thank the twins for sharing their culinary wizardry with me at Christmas!
I also thank them for bestowing the Beautiful Blogger Award on me! I’m a little late in sharing it, but I was so flattered to recieve it from them.
This award asks me to share seven random things about myself with you all. Here they are, a mix of intimate and trivial, food related miscelleny, in no particular order:
1) I’ve lived my whole block in the same forty block radius of Manhattan. I know I’ve told you this before, but quite honestly, it’s so peculiar to me sometimes that I often repeat it.
2) I’ve wanted to be an editor since I was a kid. Most editors–who are writers who had a change of heart, or academics-to-be who got dissilusioned, or people who couldn’t decide what to do with an English degree–think it’s freakish that I knew so early, and also strange that I never nursed dreams of being a writer myself (which I didn’t, and don’t; editing is my forte!).
3) I was not popular in high school. At all. In fact, I was nerdy and bookish and quiet and often the brunt of teasing; on the other hand, I was a little snooty about my book smarts. I like to think I’ve grown out of the snootiness, and grown into more of a social butterfly.
4) The only vegetables I do not like are radishes and onions. And cooked spinach; I love raw spinach, but cooked spinach gives me the creeps.
5) Though I’m half Greek, I don’t identify with my Greek heritage very much at all; I’m an Episcopalian, not orthodox, and don’t speak a word of the language, save some curse words. It’s neither a good or bad thing, but given how overwhelming Greek culture can be, it’s odd.
6) I went to an all girls’ school in NYC. And we had uniforms. Contrary to what people assume, though, it was about as far from Gossip Girl as can be: I was actually very sheltered growing up, and very well behaved (painfully so), and didn’t even think about dating till my senior year of high school. Far cry from the New York City kid stereotype!
7) I hate watermelon. Like, a lot. I’m not much of a fruit lover in general, but watermelon really sinks to the bottom of my list. I know most people like it, but not me!
And now, seven people to whom I pass the torch!
1) Melissa
2) Jessica
3) Katherine
4) Aletheia
5) Diana
6) Tasha (who’s having a giveaway right now!)
7) LC
Love to you all!
It’s another busy week, but I promise to return with some pre-Christmas recipe posting. Get excited.
xo
Testimonials
–Lyn D., MarylandBefore I started working with Gena, I wasn’t sure whether it would be worth it, since I knew what I “should” be doing. Her counseling, however, turned out to be a key factor in my success.
Not only does she have great advice when I am struggling, but her realistic approach helped me make major changes despite having no time and limited funds. Her recipes and ideas are for real people with lives beyond their diets, and they are great. Gena is down to earth and non-judgmental. She strikes a great balance between encouraging me to go a little father but to keep things in perspective and have fun with the process.
Read more >>
FAQ
So where do you get your protein?Ah, the million dollar question. I know that my fellow raw foodists are uttering a collective sigh of frustration with me. But it’s inevitable, so here goes:
I get my protein from a wide array of vegetables, sea vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes. The notion that we need to supplement our diet with large amounts of protein, especially in the form of animal products, is mistaken: our bodies are capable of assembling amino acids from all of the foods we eat and building the “complete proteins” that we’ve all been told we need to get in a single sitting.
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Recommendations
Juicer (average $50.00 - $500.00)If you’re like me, and juicing is a crucial part of your lifestyle, then the cost of a juicer will absolutely be worth it! It will buy itself back again and again and again. The juicer I recommend is the Breville Two-Speed Juice Fountain Plus. It’s the only juicer I’ve ever owned, and it has never let me down. I recommend you invest in a juicer that has at least this level of performance in order to juice leafy greens.
Some of you have asked me whether it’s wiser to buy a juicer or a Vitamix.
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The twins are lovely, and now that I have found them I have no more excuses not to hop on a plane.
Maybe!
Happy Xmas, Gena X
Oh, thank you for sharing this resource. I was just about ready to order my own raw food Christmas treat and it’s wonderful to know about these!
What a sweet package (no dirty pun intended)!
“I was not popular in high school. At all. In fact, I was nerdy and bookish and quiet…” Ditto. But look at us now!!!!
wow, I wish we had companies like this in New Zealand. I guess I’ll have to learn to make my own!
Those raw treats look delish! x x
Aw, thank you so much, girl!!
Your treats look amazzing.
what a heavenly package – the contents all sound delicious!
editing might be your forte, gena, but your writing is an absolute joy to read. it’s a rare commodity in blog world, and one i appreciate every time i stop by yours. (i was nerdy and bookish in high school too, if i didn’t just make that apparent lol. clearly i haven’t grown out of it.)
raw onions and radishes taste awful to me too – but cooked is another story.
what a wonderful gift from the Twins and thanks for mentioning their online shop! oh, and thanks for the award!!
those goodies look GOOD! Interesting facts – I too hate watermelon. it just tastes like nothing to me. I’d rather drink water straight up. And I was a shy little book snot growing up, too, but I turned out a writer, and I knew it would be that way from a very early age as well. The part that is up to me, the writing, anyway. Not quite ready for an agent yet. ^.^
Lori and Michelle have hearts of gold, and possess true culinary talent!
Congratulations on the award – love the facts! Some similarities there, for sure
I’m the same way about being Greek – my only claim to Greekdom is that I had to be baptized Orthodox in order to marry my husband!! – yet the only Greek words I know are food words, swear words, and the words you use to tease someone like “voithe” or “bila”, haha!
Love those treats, Michelle and Lori are amazing!!
So nice to learn more about you!
Gena,
I adore you. I always smile when I read your blog.
xo!
Congrats on the goodies. I agree the Twins are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!
And of course, love the factoids; thanks for sharing. I “know” some of the ladies you passed the award torch to and they’re awesome as well!
Such interesting facts, Gena! I don’t like radishes, either. I think it might be texture? I don’t like water chestnuts, either.
So interesting that you lived in the same 40 block radius! I am not a big watermelon fan either so you aren’t the only one.
What an awesome care package!!!! And interesting facts! I think it’s strange that you’ve always wanted to be an editor. As a newspaper reporter, I’ve only started thinking about how I wouldn’t mind being an editor in recent years. As I kid, I’d decided I was going to be a famous novelist. Then, in college, I realized newspaper reporter might be more feasible. Now I sometimes think I’d rather just copy-edit all day long.
So you’re telling me you don’t want a big, fat Greek wedding some day? Well crap, I already bought you a fondue set.
THANK YOU for the award, my love! I have warm fuzzies.
All those raw treats look amazing!
I’m not a fan of cooked spinach, either. It’s pretty dang creepy and weird.
thanks sweetie! some of those facts always surprise me! thanks for all your support today!
ps I think I may be an exclamation point whore :/
I just found Michelle & Lori’s blog this week… and love that they don’t over sweeten their treats. (as i am cutting way back on sugar)
congratulations on your beautiful award and love the tid bits about you Gena!
GENA! YOU JUST CAPPED OFF MY DAY. What an honour!!
Pretty darn envious of your raw treats…YUM!
Definitely excited about the pre-Xmas posting! And that package you received–looks great. Thanks for the wonderful facts about you! Do most New Yorkers move around a lot (and that’s why the 40-block radius is so unusual?). I found the not liking watermelon to be more atypical!!
Have a wonderful holiday, Gena–enjoy the snow
Yay for the holiday season! It definitely can be a bit stressful at times. I don’t have many people to buy gifts for or many parties to go to, but just thinking of the relatively little I still have to do can be overwhelming.
I’m glad you are having a good time over in freezing NYC! I have seen all the snow the east coast is getting on the news here and I get cold just looking at it! Stay warm!
Thanks for passing on the award to me, I can’t wait to pass it along to more people. And you know, Gena, I always love your writing and I learn so much from you about raw food goodness, but the more I read about you personally and who you are as a person, the more I think we would be great friends. (I went to an all girls school, too! Only for a year, though. It was a tiny horse centric boarding school in Massachusetts. I hightailed it back to Saudi after a year because BRRRR! Riding and mucking stalls in sleet and snow is not okay for this desert girl!)