5 Awesome Weekday Happenings

1) Making my own Version of this Raw Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Gorgeous, isn't it? I did get to taste it, but it was for my catering gig. I changed the crust from the original recipe. I also tweaked the proportions of the filling and omitted the orange extract because I was out. It's the perfect for the Fall!

2) Pairing an Awesome Chocolate Orange Cheesecake with a Raw Pumpkin Cheesecake

This is one of my own making. The crust was pecan, walnuts, and dates. The filling was pumpkin, lemon juice, soaked cashews, agave, vanilla, pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, allspice), and sea salt.

3) Receiving a Stash of Sunwarrior Goods in the Mail

So over a month ago, I won a giveaway from the lovely Ayah over at Healthy Tasty Cheap. When I won, it totally made my day since that was around the time my laptop had gotten stolen. However, the package must have had quite the journey to get to me. I'd been in and of town, there was a mail strike up here in Canada, the package was sent back to Ayah and then sent back here again, but one month and a bit later, it finally got to my door! Thanks again Ayah for not giving up on me :)

The food goods are all from Sunwarrior (a great brand of raw protein) and include Raw Activated Barley packs, their raw vegan protein powder in two flavours, their Ormus Supergreens powder mixes, and because the Healthy Tasty Cheap folks are awesome, I also got lots of other neat goodies :) Look out for smoothie recipes soon!

4) Our Awesome New Natural Rubber & Wool Bed with Organic Cotton Sheets

Our new organic bed comes from Obasan, and we love it so much. The difference between this bed and our old bed full of "toxic" stuff is phenomenal (as much as I was absurdly emotionally attached to the last one). I can just breathe the sunshine and lollipops the minute my head hits the pillow on our new bed... this is only marginally an exaggeration.

Why avoid "regular" bedding? Well, they're more prone to collecting mold and mildew, and bed bugs. If that's not enough, a lot of the components of regular bedding contain flame retardants and nasties like DEHP (a phthalate which outgasses badly enough that it's been banned in Europe), antimony (a toxic chemical), boric acid (mostly used as an insecticide or flame retardant), other pesticides, polyurethane foam (yet another noxious outgassing chemical substance), and penta-BDE (a flame retardant that's been attributed with behavioural disorders, also banned in Europe and California).

On the flip side, our awesome bed and organic bedding in general lasts longer, protects against dust mites and bed bugs, helps naturally maintain your body temperature when you sleep, and obviously doesn't contain any nasties.

5) Getting to Hang Out on Farms as Part of my Doctoral Work

(image source)

Yep, as part of my PhD coursework, I will be spending the next few days (and hopefully lots of time over the next couple years) hanging out on farms, talking to folks about their work and their views on sustainable agriculture and food systems. Can you think of a more ideal scenario for me, because I can't! Hopefully, a lot of this will also roll over into my dissertation.

The picture above is of highland cattle which I'm particularly excited about because I get to see some on a biodynamic farm on Saturday. Have to say that some parts of my life are pretty freakin' awesome.

Have a great weekend!