Celebrating an all-natural lifestyle

Hippocrates Health Institute Video Giveaway

Every now and then, a fellow blogger will graciously give away some of his or her cookbooks in an effort to downsize. I’ve got a habit of hoarding keeping cookbooks, so you won’t see me donating them anytime soon, but I am far more generous with my video collection.

Some time ago, a dear friend gave me an almost complete series of video lectures from the famous Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida. This health resort is often known as the throne of the live foods movement; they make supplements, educate interested people in the nuances of sprouting, and offer their own health practitioner certification course.

The video lecture series covers all of the basics of the Hippocrates brand of a raw foods lifestyle: a very detailed account of food combining, supplements, fasting, detoxification, and so on. They’re inspiring and positive, and they’ll certainly make any rawcurious viewer even more motivated to explore! I will offer a full disclosure: these videos aren’t really copacetic with my own practice of a semi-raw life. For one thing, they’re geared toward people who eat, or wish to eat, close to 100% raw. For another, there’s a spiritual emphasis in the language that I don’t relate to. Most of all, I don’t agree with a number of the practices discussed (such as fasting and the systematic use of home enemas), and in fact I think that they can be hazardous when practiced by people who are interested in raw foods for the wrong reasons (for example, unnecessary weight loss).

Still, it’s always valuable to explore viewpoints that are different from our own, no? And while I don’t agree with much of what’s taught at Hippocrates, I do admire and support their longstanding efforts to promote good health through the teaching of raw and vegan dietary principles. There’s no doubting that Hippocrates is a formidable institution, and I think that anyone who wishes to explore a more exclusive brand of the raw lifestyle should check the videos out!

Lecture 1 - Principles of Health: A brief history of how Hippocrates came into being. A comprehensive explanation of the food groups in the Living Foods diet.

Lecture 2 – Internal Awareness: The basics of the digestive / eliminative system and how to detoxify.
Instruction on the proper way to use enemas and implants.

Lecture 3 – Supplements, Algae, Herbs, and Homeopathy: A guide of the diffrerent acailable supplemtents and their benefits. Also alternative opinions to complete the needed consumption that our human body requires.

Lecture 4 – Ancient and Current Self-Help Techniques: Many helpful healing techniques that can be done at home. For challenges of cuts, burns, impaired vision, infection, pre-mature gray hair, and many others. These time-tested remedies are at your fingertips.

Lecture 5 – Fasting on Liquid Nourishment: The benefits of fasting on green juice rather than water. A review of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits of fasting.

Lecture 6 – Questions and Answers I: Questions on the science, psychology, and food of the Living Foods Lifestyle. The responses provide clear and thoughtful information.

Lecture 7 – Detox and Elimination: The workings of the elimination systems (Lymph, Liver, Lung, Kidneys and Skin) and your bodies’ reactions to a detoxifying program).
View in English

Lecture 8 – Practical Living: How to really live the Hippocrates Lifestyle when you return home. How to have what you need at home, work, and in social situations.

Lecture 9 – Questions and Answers I: Questions of the participants are posed. The responses provide clear and thoughtful information.

Lecture 10 – Bringing it all Home: The physical, emotional and spiritual healing process. How to achieve your highest goals in life. Applying the Hippocrates lifestyle at home.

Lecture 11 – Food Combining: Proper combining of foods for good digestion. Foods that should never be eaten together. Key information for optimal health.

Here they are, having lived a nice life on my shelf, right next to season 4 of The Wire (takes a moment to bow head in solemn reverence for the greatest show of all time).

Hmmm. According to my home video library, I’ve got rather eclectic tastes.

In two weeks (that’s July 25th), I’ll announce the winner of this 11-video set.

To enter

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me which of the videos would interest you the most, and/or
2. Tweet the following: “check out @choosingraw’s Hippocrates Health Institute video giveaway! http://bit.ly/aMBGiC” and then comment to tell me that you did.

Gooood luck!

xo

Surf n’ Turf, + iHerb Giveaway

Happy Sunday, friends. I appreciate your kind words about my mom’s boyfriend’s son — they meant the world to me.

So in my last post, I mentiond that I grew up eating a little differently from most of my Greek fam. They were carnivorous; red meat made me squirm. They liked their veggies cooked through; I liked mine crunchy. They liked dishes that were salty and heavily flavored; I liked my food plain. Of course, there were things we all agreed on: my Grandmother’s spaghetti (which, even though slathered in butter and made from white pasta, was quite tasty); my mom’s wonderful broccoli, made with tons of lemon and olive oil; giant salads, which adorned the table at every family meal, and which, as the resident veg-aholic, I was usually put in charge of; and, in later years, my vegan baked goods, which totally transformed my mom’s conception of vegan sweets and treats.

So while there were things we didn’t all agree on — such as lamb, and the 101 uses my Yaya found for it — we did agree on a bunch of things. One of our main areas of unison was this: there were lots of mainstream American foods we didn’t know much about, and hadn’t tried. I don’t think I ever tasted a sugary cereal growing up. I had my first soda at the ripe old age of ten (ripe, sadly, by mainstream standards). There were no hot pockets or pop tarts at home, no chips or cheetos or even oreos. This doesn’t mean our pantry was perfect: there were other things, like spray margarine and Lean Cuisine, that were, in retrospect, pretty foul. But we were fairly cut off from the cornucopia of processed food that is the American supermarket.

More than that, there were lots of classic American dishes that we never grew up eating. Sure, my Mom made the usual sorts of comfort food dishes on occasion — veggie pot pie, for example, or tuna casserole — but most of our food was Mediterranean in flavor: grilled fish, chicken or zucchini broiled with lemon and tomatoes; pasta with pesto and veggies. And because that’s what we ate at home, that’s usually what we ate when we went out to restaurants, too. So there were tons of restaurant offerings that remained mysterious to me well into my adult years.

One of these was “surf and turf.” Believe it or not, I was twenty the first time I learned what this was, vacationing in a hotel with my father and his family. It sounded like such a fun dish, until I learned what it was: a side-by-side offering of steak and seafood, oftentimes fried. To me, that reeked of an animal protein overdose. Needless to say, it’s not a dish I’ve ever tried — I’d guess that many women haven’t — but the name has always amused me.

This weekend, I found myself with a pantry full of dwindling bags of sea veggies. You know, bags that have less than a real portion left, but are taking up space while I wait to finish them off. I thought I’d whip up some seaweed salad. As I contemplated that prospect, I also realized I had a portobello cap in my fridge that I hadn’t found a good use for yet. Portobellos, of course, are often called upon to represent “meatiness” in a vegan meal. And sea vegetables are just the closest I’ll get to touching fish. So with these two components at the ready, I decided to try my hand at my own version of “surf n’ turf” — vegan, raw, and healthful.

This salad is wonderful. Really. It’s salty, savory, and fun to eat. Mix the seaweed around with the kale and mushrooms, and you’ll happen upon lovely, intermittent pockets of flavor. Mushrooms, along with my hempesan, provide an earthiness, while the seaweed gives it a delicate and salty touch. The kale, meanwhile, is crunchy and a great contrast to the rest of the meal.

Note: every time I post a sea veggie recipe, someone asks if there’s a substitute to be had, since he or she hates seaweed. Sorry guys: the sea-veggie flavor is a fundamental component to this dish. So if you’re not into dulse or wakame, I’d say you’ll be missing out!

The process:

Gena’s Surf n’ Turf Salad (serves one VERY hungry person)

Ingredients:

1/2 bunch curly kale
1/3 cup each: shredded carrot, cabbage, zucchini
7 grams (or so) each: wakame, dulse, arame
1 portobello cap
3-4 tbsp hempesan
1 1/2 + 1 tbsp olive or hemp oil (separated)
2 tbsp nama shoyu
1 + 2 tbsp lemon juice (separated)
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Directions:

1) The night before eating: mix 1 1/2 tbsp olive or hemp oil, 2 tbsp lemon, 2 tbsp nama shoyu, and 1 tsp sesame oil together. Slice portobello and submerge it in the marinade, leaving it overnight.

2) The next day, remove mushroom from marinade, storing it in the fridge. Reserve the marinade.

3) Soak your seaweed (wakame, dulse, arame) in water for at least 1-2 hours. Rinse. Transfer the seaweed to your leftover marinade, and let it soak for at least an hour. When it’s done, remove seaweed and place it in a sieve; press gently to squeeze out excess marinade. Discard the marinade that’s left, or save it for something you’ll marinade right away; there should still be quite a bit of it.

4) Wash, rinse, spin, and chop the kale. Place it in a large bowl with the carrot, cabbage, and zucchini, and then massage the whole thing with 1 tbsp lemon, 1 tbsp hemp or olive oil, a salt and pepper to taste. Add a little drizzle of agave if you’d like to. Set aside.

5) Top the kale salad with half of the seaweed (you can save the other half for another meal!) and the mushroom. Sprinkle 3-4 tbsp hempesan over the whole thing.

6) Dinner is served.

Talk about treasures from land and sea. This salad is packed with nutrients: rich in iodine, vitamin K, folate, and B vitamins from the sea veggies; vitamins A + K, iron, and calcium from the kale; and protein, essential fatty acids, and more B vitamins from the hempesan, not to mention additional fatty acids if you use hemp oil.

In other words, this salad is a whole lot more nourishing than the fried, butter slathered original dish — at least in my book. So the next time the CEO of your company waxes poetic about the steak+lobster plate at a business dinner, you can smile inwardly, confident that you’ve got an even healthier alternative up your sleeve.

Hope you all get a chance to make this one soon!

Before I go, a lil’ giveaway for you all! I’m sure quite a few of you have seen giveaways for a $50 shopping spree on iHerb already. Well, I’m joining the bandwagon: Abby, over at iHerb, was kind enough to offer me a sample shopping spree of my own ($50 worth) and an additional giveaway to one of my lucky readers! What’s iHerb? It’s a no fuss, no gimmicks online supplement store, featuring everything from “superfoods” to baking goods that are allergy friendly. Other stuff that makes iHerb special:

1) 95% of Orders placed before 1 pm, PST, ship the same day.
2) Free Domestic UPS Ground Shipping for Orders over $40
3) Free International Airmail Shipping for Orders over $60 and 3 lbs or less
4) They sell products for up to 50% off suggested retail prices
5) They carry close to 19,000 products that include vitamins, herbal supplements, health food and personal care items

What did I purchase in my shopping spree? I picked up some of my fave MegaZymes enzymes; some almond flour, which I’ve been meaning to try out; and some probiotics. Basically, my supplements of choice. The items arrived almost immediately, which was a major plus!

If you’d like a chance to pick up some goodies on iHerb, here’s the deal:

1) Leave a comment on this post, saying one supplement or product you might like to try
2) For an additional entry, tweet the contest or link to it on your blog, and tell me you did

That’s it! Winner will be announced next Monday, May 10th. In the meantime, if you simply can’t wait to shop on iHerb, go ahead and use the code UGE458 at checkout, which will get you a $5 discount.

Good luck!

And finally, before I go, Diana recently reminded me that I forgot to announce a winner to my Sun in Bloom giveaway. D’oh!!! I’ve been so distracted lately. The winner of a complimentary entree at Sun in Bloom is #59 – my friend and soon to be hot mama Lauren!!!! I am so happy to pass this on to her. Congrats, Lauren! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the restaurant.

OK, kids. I’ve got lots to do this Sunday. For now, peace!

xo

Carrot Cake Smoothie, and Tribest Blender Giveaway!!

Hello readers!

I’m often asked whether it’s necessary to own a Vitamix to enjoy a high-raw lifestyle. The answer is no, absolutely not! I was eating raw foods long before I got my Vitamix. This said, having a good blender will enhance and contribute to a raw or semi-raw lifestyle immensely. With a decent blender, you can make soups, smoothies, and salad dressings; you can grind nuts, chop vegetables, and even whip up raw ice cream. Yum!

The only downside of having a good blender at home is that one tends to become spoiled; as soon as I grew accustomed to my blender (and, later, my Vita), I found myself longing after homemade smoothies and soups when I was traveling.

Enter the Tribest personal blender. This incredible little contraption allows you to whip up blended foods and beverages wherever you may roam. Small, transportable, and super high-powered, it’s an unbelievable tool if you’re looking to bring healthy habits on the road. My Tribest has lived under my office desk, has traveled home for the holidays with me, has accompanied me on two business trips, and is a terrifically easy to clean alternative to my Vitamix. In many ways, I depend on it more than the Vita, if only for its conveniance. To operate it, you need only put food or beverage contents in the custom cups that come with the blender, screw on the blade attachment, put the blade and cup into the motor base. You press and twist the blending cup, and in moments you have homemade soup, salsa, tapenades, smoothies, or ground nuts and seeds. Best of all, the pieces are easy to dissassemble and clean up–a rarity among appliances!

Various raw foodies have blogged about and promoted the Tribest blender. You can check out my girl Ani Phyo’s review here, and my friend Ingrid’s review here. Suffice is to say, the blender is super popular in the raw community, and with good reason!

Now, you all have a chance to try the Tribest out, too. The good folks at Tribest have generously agreed to share not one, but two models with me.  They have models to suit a range of needs, and models PB-150, PB-250, and PB-350 all feature BPA free blending containers.

The PB-350 Mason Jar Personal Blender, which Tribest sent me to sample and review, offers glass containers with blending and grinding containers. In the past two months, I’ve used it to make the following:

Green smoothie for Christmas morning:

Salad dressing with fresh basil:

Ground almond meal:

…in addition to a ton of raw soups and dressings. Check out the incredible glass jar collection:

The verdict? The PB-350 is an awesome home kitchen device. Best of all, it’s allowed me to bring raw soups and smoothies to the office!

As if this gift wasn’t generous enough, Tribest has sent me a second model, the PB-250, to share with all of you! This blender features:

• Personal Blender Motor Base – 110V
• one Blending Blade Assembly
• one Grinding Blade Assembly
• two 16 oz BPA Free Blending Containers
• two 8 oz BPA Free Grinding Containers
• one commuter sipping lid
• three Regular Lids

It yields about two servings, and of course you can take it on the go anywhere, anytime.

So, what do you have to do to enter this giveaway? I dislike being forced into fourteen various entry steps, so I’ll keep it pretty simple:

1) Leave a comment on this post, telling me what the first thing you’d make with a new Tribest blender would be

and

2) If you want an additional entry, Tweet OR mention the giveaway on your blog and then leave a comment saying you did it.

I will announce the winner on Wednesday, Feb. 24th!

I wish you all luck!!

Finally, a friend and client emailed me on Friday with the following request:

Hey Gena! I have really been wanting carrot cake type flavor lately…think there is any kind of smoothie recipe for that??

I’m sure there are a ton of options, but my own kitchen fiddling gave birth to this one. Of course, I used my Tribest blender to make it!

Carrot Cake Smoothie

1 1/2 cups carrot juice
1 cup ice
1/2 cup cashews, raw
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice

Blend all ingredients on high. This will yield at least two servings.

OK, guys. Enough about me. Get commenting, and good luck!

xo

Vegan Ice Cream Takes Over the World: An Interview and Giveaway with Rob Sedgwick of Stogo Ice Cream

Hey kids.

Is there a much beloved food—a treat, a comfort meal, or an all-American favorite—that you’ve never quite “gotten”? A dessert, maybe, that others devour with relish and abandon, but you’ve simply never really liked? Chloe, for example, just doesn’t like chocolate. She doesn’t dislike it, exactly: she just doesn’t crave it, or think about it, or fantasize about it on a semi-regular basis.

Obviously, this is akin to sacrilege in my book! But there are a ton of favorite foods that I simply never liked at all—long before I was vegan. These include, in no particular order:

• Pizza

• Chinese takeout

• Cake

• Any kind of cheese that has a scent (ie, the expensive ones that people love to taste and sample and serve with wine)

• French Fries

So OK. Cake’s not for everyone. But there’s one standout in the list of foods I never really “got” that shocks everyone, omnivore and vegan alike: ice cream. That’s right. As insane as it sounds, I was never much of an ice cream fan! Never bought it, never ate a lot of it, never sought it out. I can’t really say why this is: perhaps it’s the fact that I’m always cold, so cold treats don’t typically entice. Maybe it’s the fact that dairy hasn’t agreed with me since…well, ever. Maybe it’s the fact that ice cream often just strikes me as a little boring.

Maybe I’m just always so distracted by the prospect of chocolate to care about any other kind of dessert

Whatever the case, I am one of very few individuals who does not count ice cream among their favorite treats—a shame, since there are so many incredible varieties of raw ice cream to savor! I can certainly enjoy it (a scoop of the Oreo ice cream at One Lucky Duck, for instance, is likely to make me really, really happy). I just don’t sit around thinking about it.

But I’m weird. Most people adore the stuff. And they’re in luck, because there is never a shortage of new brands, flavors, and makers of ice cream. For many years, the ice cream market was a grim scene for vegans: sure, they could find ultra specialty brands, but the cost of shipping was a fortune. Nowadays, vegans have a huge variety of soy and rice-based brands to try. Better yet, there are now at least two major brands available nationwide that use coconut milk as a base: So Delicious and Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss. If you guys haven’t tried these brands, I really recommend them. They’re delicious, made with minimal and quality ingredients, and they’re a joy even for those of you who aren’t vegan, or lactose intolerant, or whatnot. (For more on the Coconut Bliss brand, check out VeggieGirl’s recent post!)

Here in New York, we’re lucky enough to have a local business that specializes in outstanding vegan ice cream. Stogo has gotten lots of love around the blogosphere these days, and with very good reason: it’s the non-vegan vegan ice cream. I do not say this to suggest that vegan ice cream is not a great thing in its own right. But what makes Stogo so wonderful is that it looks and tastes like—and, in my opinion, it surpasses—the best conventional ice cream you’ve ever had. The stuff is incredible: rich and creamy and decadent enough to please even ice cream snobs. And yet, it’s 100% vegan, made with high quality, organic ingredients, and absolutely free of refined sugars, GMOs, preservatives, and artificial flavorings.

A few months ago, I had the great honor of interviewing Rob Sedgwick, co-owner of this wonderful establishment. Rob is a professional actor (in case you were wondering, yes, he’s the younger brother of Kyra Sedgwick, so it seems that thespians run in the family!), a member of my gym, and, it turns out, the cousin of an old friend. I’d met Rob quite some years ago, and we’d lost touch; when I learned that he was the owner of Stogo, it was a nice excuse for me to say hello again.

I met up with Rob and his partner, Steve Horn, on an unseasonably rainy and cool late summer day. It wasn’t a perfect day for ice cream, but Rob and Steve’s warm, affable, and generous attitudes quickly had me excited for my own special tasting. Before digging into the array of Stogo flavors, I had a chance to ask Rob and Steve about their vision for Stogo.

The idea is simple: vegan ice cream that’s marketed like regular ice cream. Rather than emphasize the fact that their ice cream is vegan, Rob and Steve focus on the fact that it’s really, really good. Good enough to stand alongside Häagen Dazs, Ben and Jerry’s, or any other favorite brand. Its excellence is what makes it sell; the fact that it’s vegan is what makes it (to me, anyway) truly special.

Rob and Steve are old friends; they met over ten years ago when Rob was working at a restaurant called Goodbye Columbus. A few years ago, Steve told Rob that he was interested in making a great vegan ice cream. Rob concurred, and the two budding entrepreneurs enrolled in Malcolm Stogo’s famous ice cream making school. Stogo, who helped to create some of the most popular ice creams on the market (Carvel, Häagen Dazs, TCBY, Columbo) loved their work, but reacted with shock when they told him they wanted to make a vegan product. “Vegan?! [pronounced vay-gan]” he cried. “Vay-ganism?!”

As soon as Mr. Stogo witnessed Rob and Steve’s hard work and savvy, though, he began to sing another tune. He, along with Gene Stone (co-author of the bestselling Engine 2 Diet), invested as founders, and Stogo was born. The restaurant opened in December of 2008—hardly an auspicious season for an ice cream launch—but was an instant hit. In the last year, Stogo has been featured  in The New York Times, New York, countless blogs, and various vegetarian and vegan magazines. Meanwhile, it’s become the favorite treat stop for vegans all over the city – including my pals Heather, Ashley, and Lindsay!

Rob and I then strolled over to Stogo for an ice cream tasting and a chat about the store’s progress. He was gracious enough to answer my most burning questions about the business.

1) Can you say a few words about why you and your partner, Steve Horn, thought to start a vegan ice cream shop?

It was all Steve’s idea, and I backed him. He felt that there was nothing out there that was vegan and tasted good, and that there was a better, healthier way to make the stuff. His (and now my) fantasy was a vegan Ben and Jerry’s.

2) Part of what I love about Stogo is that the “veganism” angle isn’t overplayed: you guys focus on good taste, not a specialized diet. Obviously, I want people to wave the vegan banner confidently, but if not dwelling on the product’s veganism is likely to entice those who would never give dairy free ice cream a chance otherwise, I’m sold! Tell me more about how you guys have tried to market the Stogo product and why.

I think your second question relates to what I said above: we want to become the vegan Ben and Jerry’s, minus the ‘vegan tag.’ As we say in our mission statement and to customers in the store, people like to hear more ‘dairy free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘no refined sugars’ etc.—not necessarily vegan, per se. Our basic angle is that we’re great tasting place for desert that happens to be healthy.

3) One of the things that distinguishes Stogo from other vegan ice cream brands is that you offer two non-soy bases (coconut milk and hemp milk), and you never use refined sugar. What inspired you to branch out beyond soy?

Again, this was Steve’s idea, to give the customer a broader choice. Also, some people have an aversion to soy (most who claim allergies to it are, as you know, reaching). The coconut has more flavor because of the higher fat content, so people who are used to more traditional ice cream are pretty much at home, and the hemp was installed just to give the customer another, perhaps more exotic choice.

4) OK, think quick: what’s your favorite Stogo flavor?

My favorites are off the bat chocolate coconut and salted caramel pecan. But we’ve got a flavor for every taste!

5) What do you imagine for the future of the Stogo brand — and other healthy, enlightened products?

I don’t know about other products, but we are thinking either upper west side for our next place [yes please!!!!!] and/or CA. We are still refining the store, and, moreover the product. That doesn’t end. We’re coming up with new flavors all the time in addition to taking suggestions from customers, employees, anything to make it the best it can be. We’re frankly thrilled at the response we’ve been getting. Also at some point, hopefully soon, we will be getting into the pint business and be at a store near you!

I know that LA weather favors ice cream, but I, for one, am hoping that that next location is the Upper West Side!

After our sit down chat came the highlight of the afternoon: the tasting.

I began with the most popular flavor: salted caramel pecan. Take it from a non-ice cream lover, people: this stuff is amazing. (What IS it about salt and caramel?). Then, I tried the mint chocolate chip (the favorite flavor, apparently, among male clientele). It was also great, but what I really wanted to try were the coconut flavors.

As you all know, I’m not a fan of processed soy (even the organic, non-GMO variety) and I prefer my clients to try coconut milk based ice creams. And the Stogo ice creams are, by far, the best I’ve ever tried. I tasted chocolate, vanilla, and pina colada, and they all blew me away! So much so that Rob sent me home with a complimentary pint of the chocolate and the pina coloda (the latter was my favorite of the day). Not surprisingly, these didn’t last long!

Before heading out, I also had a chance to taste the hemp flavors (not quite creamy enough for me, but good) and to eye the amazing chocolate collection (Fine and Raw is sold here!):

So have I been converted into a diehard ice cream fanatic? Nope. Favorite foods are favorites for a reason, and I’ll always prefer dark chocolate or vegan mousse to ice cream. But it was a real treat to have my eyes opened to the wonderful tastes and possibilities of dairy free ice cream.

More importantly, I delight I the fact that, with each passing day, there are more and more vegan businesses working to conquer the notion that vegan dining is a “substitute” or a sacrifice. It isn’t. In the hands of capable chefs, vegan foods stand on their own merit as gourmet items to savor and enjoy; they demand no sacrifice from discerning foodies. And restaurants like Stogo are blazing the trail, showing consumers everywhere that good “healthy” and “delicious” can—and always should—coexist.

Thanks, Rob, for such a wonderful day, and for all that you and Steve do.

And now, a new giveaway! For all those of you in New York, or who plan to travel to New  York, I’m giving away twenty dollars worth of Stogo Ice cream! To win it, simply:

1) Comment on this post, letting me know which Stogo flavor you most want to try, and

2) Announce it on your blog or Tweet it.

Winner will be announced two weeks from today.

There’s a sweet start to your weekend!

Happy Friday, all.

xo

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