Eat Dance Live

My magically mysterious recipe of the day was Meredith's Cucumber Dill Dressing served over a lovely salad. Actually, that's a lie. I made this over the weekend but was saving it as collateral for a day I would be sans new recipe. While I did make another one of Meredith's recipes today, it's still in the works (aka. the freezer) so I had nothing concrete to report, thus you get a salad pic instead. Cucumber and dill go wonderfully together, they leave such a refreshing taste in your mouth. There's a reason why the combination is so popular. The first thing I think of when I hear 'cucumber dill' are those cute little tea sandwiches that you'd imagine eating with lace gloves during High Tea with the Queen of England... or is that just me? I also made Alissa Cohen's 'Almost Tuna' recipe from her book, Living on Live Foods . Though we took pictures of it, it photographed just like tuna; by that I mean, it turned out looking like a grey-ish goo

... ain't nobody happy!" Love that quote, because it's so true. I thought of it because I'll be the first person to admit that I used to hate caraway. And man was I an unhappy princess when I ate some by mistake. I always thought it had this strange full-bodied after taste that took over my entire palate like a strange icky mentos. It's hard to describe, but I used to literally be unable to swallow something if it had caraway in it... now, I'm a convert. Thank you, Meredith. You've achieved something no one has ever been able to do before! I am Chantal. I come to you reborn, as one who loves caraway! Of course, the result of this was yet another one of Meredith's recipes , specifically her Sunflower Rye Bread, which was just about the tastiest and lightest raw bread ever. Finding a bread without nuts is a blessing! For me, it makes it considerably more digestible. But when I was first making it and saw '3 tbsp of caraway seeds', my first thought

Ashley from ( never home)maker came up with the brilliant idea to set up a a foodie book club last month, connecting foodie bloggers across the internet under one united banner of obsession... food! We'll be reading one book a month, and connecting via Ashley's website to see what everyone has to say about it. Considering that pretty much everything I've been reading for the past two years has been food related, I was excited to be able to share my experiences with both fellow food bloggers and now all of you. So here goes: The first book on our list was Chef Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits , a collection of essays and works on his food adventures and misadventures. I have to say overall, it was a very entertaining read: full of witty dry humor, and for the most part was very intelligently written. His introduction on seal meat reminded me so much of my own experiences with strange, exotic dishes from my non-vegan, vegan, and now raw days, and I love the absolute joy

I still think banana whips (frozen bananas that have been blended into ice cream) with spirulina powder is just about the best thing ever... On a totally different note, here is my weekly workout recap! I'm off to the theater for the second time in two days! I love my life... Monday: 1.5 Hours of Bikram Tuesday: 5 minute warmup on stairclimber Ab cycle on floor mat (3x12 of 3 ab exercises) 1 minute plank 3x12 dumbbell chest press 3x12 shoulder press machine 3x12 dumbbell flyes 3x12 dumbbell side raises 3x12 seated tricep pull down machine 10 minute stress Wednesday: 25 minutes HIIT on treadmill 5 minute stretch Thursday: 10 minute cardio on stairclimber Stability ball ab cycle (3x12 of 4 different ab exercises) 3x12 lat pulldown 3x12 bicep curl 3x12 bent over row 3x12 hammer curl 7 minute cooldown on bike 10 minute stretch Friday: 20 minutes of surprisingly difficult HIIT on elliptical 5 minute cooldown on recline bike 10 minute stretch Saturday: Fun outdoor wonderfulness (aka. wee

... And by that I mean Meredith 's yummy raw chocolate milkshake, of course! For the very little amount of work it takes to put this together, it certainly was a nice treat. For my own personal tastes, I think I would use about half the sweetener, but other than that it was super tasty! I'm excited to try the vanilla one now, since it's usually the taste I prefer if asked to answer the age old vanilla or chocolate question. Again, the great thing about the raw diet is how you can enjoy pure, living and raw foods that you know are good for your body, spirit, and for the environment without having to give them a second them. While everyone in the mainstream world is freaking out about what is actually in one of those 'chocolate-y' candy bars and chocolate percentages and what not, we can enjoy the optimal health benefits of cacao without question. Did you know that cacao is one of the foods with the highest magnesium levels? It helps our body bind calcium to built str

Ever since I saw a picture of raw 'chicken nuggets' on the Raw Seed aeons ago, I knew I had to have the secret to that recipe. I was thrilled to see they made it into Meredith's ebook! Thus, today's recipe was her chik-un nuggets and bbq dipping sauce. Now I've got to admit I used to have an obsession thing in my early teen years for chicken nuggets. Not the healthiest choice I know, but unhealthy foods tend to be addictive, and, unfortunately, when I was growing up, I had one particularly unskilled baby-sitter who pretty much knew how to make little else but chicken nuggets and white rice... thus, the beginning of my love affair with chicken nuggets. This recipe brought back all the best parts of why I loved chicken nuggets minus all the not so great things about them. They actually tasted battered and fried, had the same texture and saltiness... They were awesome!!! Don't they look authentic?? When I serve food, I also like to do it well. If I'm going to

I have one simple statement to make today: Meredith 's Chocolate Mousse Pie is chocolate orgasm on a plate. I wanted to blog about it while it's still fresh in my mind, but words to describe food usually don't capture them at all. "This taste good/this taste amazing, etc." doesn't give away what you a truly experiencing. The taste of this cake is absolutely amazing, the texture is divine. It has the perfect resilience, not too mousse-y and not too hard. It's juuust right! Andrew's and my favourite hang-out when we lived in Kingston was a place called the Sleepless Goat . It had the most amazing cakes (both vegan and non-) that you could ever imagine. Once we left there, I never thought we'd be able to recapture those experiences, but this cake brought them all back. Right after my first bite, I thought "Wow, this is just like Goat cake" (no, you never do stop giggling, no matter how many times you say that). On a scale from one to yum, th

I 'd like to introduce you to a new addition to my blog, my often-mentioned other half: Andrew. For the forseeable future, I shall be dubbing this day of the week Man Wednesdays, as he'll be posting on well... whatever he wants! Just to give you a bit of background, Andrew was vegan long before I was. He got off the diet when he met me (oops...) then got back onto a vegetarian one with me about a year into our relationship. When I went vegan (ironic, I know), he joined me again. When I went raw last June, he joined me down this new and amazing road as well within a couple months. As far as I'm concerned and considering other people's definitions, he now fits most people's definition of high raw, that and he's one sexy piece of man. I now give you, Andrew: "Where do you get your protein?" Like most people on any alternative diet, this is the question I'm asked most often. Doubly so since I train most every day. It's a mind-virus that is progra

If you're the kind of person who likes a challenge, I've got one for you: try to take a photo of soaked chia seeds and make them look tasty (as opposed to the primordial goo from which all life was born). Part of our complete breakfast this morning (or should I say "our complete breakfast this morning...") was Meredith 's Blueberry & Chia Pudding. It was the perfect balance or warmth and yumminess. Even Andrew who wasn't originally a huge fan of soaked chia thought it was great! Chia, an edible seed, is really something I encourage you to make a part of your own diet. And yes, the ones we eat are the same ones as we sprout as Chia Pets. Urban legend says that they are SO nutrient packed that one tablespoon can sustain you for 24 hours. More conservative estimates say that one tablespoon a day makes your much needed calcium levels shoot through the roof (so yes, you can definitely get enough--and a better source--of calcium on a raw diet by eating chia see

Though I don't talk about my non-food related life much, I do have to say that I'm super-psyched that I rocked my MA oral exam this morning and got great feedback on my thesis draft. Graduation here I come! Now back to food... and by that I mean my continuous journey through Meredith's new uncookbook. Yesterday we had a do-it-yourself dinner after I made her red pepper flax crackers (I made some into crackers and some into wraps by dehydrating them for dinner lengths of time) and her hummus recipe, 'the hummus among us' (it might look kinda green because I used a zucchini instead of the other more hummus colored option). We served them with sliced veggies and leafy greens and made up lots of little sandwiches and wraps that were the perfect dinner after a long sunny spring equinox! I've never tried a recipe book where each recipe is as amazing as the next. I haven't tried a single one yet that I would even just say 'meh' to. That's rare! It als

This was a pretty cardio heavy week, I don't know if it's because the sun is shining and spring is here but I definitely wanted to be sweating it out a lot more than I do during the winter months :) I think this might be a growing trend as it gets even nicer out. You'll also see that I've gone back to my preferences for short but more intense cardio than the drawn out endurance kind! Monday 22 minutes of HIIT on treadmill 40 crunches (2x20 of 2 different target areas) 5 minute stretch Tuesday Ab circuit with stability ball (3x15 of 3 different exercises) 3x12 lying side leg raises (for abductors) 3x12 lying side leg raises (for adductors) 1 minute plank 20 minutes of cardio on elliptical 5 minute stretch Wednesday (short on time) 10 minutes of cardio on treadmill Floor ab circuit (3x12 of 3 different exercises) 3x12 low row 3x12 bicep curls 5 minute stretch Thursday 20 minutes of HIIT cardio on stairclimber 10 minute stretch Friday 10 minutes of hills cardio on elliptic

What a way to start our day! I think I have to amend my statement from yesterday that I could live off of Green Machine Smoothies, I'd like to add 'Dustin's Mimosas' to my list (another one of Meredith's great recipes !) One of the recipe's ingredients is Kombucha, which I love to get on occasion (the only option I know of are individual 16 oz. containers that are too much for my environmentally obsessive-self, despite them being made of glass)! Kombucha is an amazing drink, and GT's Organic Raw Kombucha has some wonderful options (the Gingerade and Spirulina are my favourite... go figure). Kombucha is a live culture of healthy microorganisms that benefit your body from the inside out! It's a drink (some people call it a tea) packed with active enzymes, probiotics, amino acids, antioxidants, and more. Really, it's a cultured and fermented drink that pretty much tastes like fizzy water with a kick. On a raw diet, I probably don't ge

It's been such a pleasure reading through " The Magically Mysterious Raw Recipe Book ". It's nothing super complicated, but like I said, it's beautifully put together and not just because of the pictures. There is such positivity seeping out of every page of this ebook, I love it! It doesn't just make me add that happy and loving feeling to my food, but it's already there in the recipe! That's double the happiness right there! Triple if you count me when I eat it :) I tried two of the book's recipes today, one for lunch and one for dinner. The first was Meredith's 'Green Machine Smoothie' which I think I could probably live off of for the rest of my life and be one happy raw foodie! The only change I made was omitting the raw honey because the fruits made it perfectly sweet! I also didn't opt for the extras since I had already put them into my own breakfast smoothie. This photo just comes to show how pretty the smoothie came out...

I just received my copy of Meredith Frantz's awesome new e-uncookbook the " Magically Mysterious Raw Recipe Book ", have you? If you don't have one, I definitely suggest you get a copy! Featuring 27 of Meredith's yummiest recipes for the affordable price of $13.99, the book is beautifully put together with colorful and mouth-watering photos on every page (and a printer friendly version attached too for your convenience). It also includes tips and tricks to help you along the raw food diet. Meredith has been an incredible inspiration to me on my raw food journey. I randomly found her blog, the Raw Seed , almost a year ago now, when she was coaching Rebecca Troutman through her own transition to the raw food lifestyle (her story can be found at Project Raw ). Seeing how much Meredith just seemed to glow with happiness and energy from her choices, I knew she was someone I had to talk to to figure out my own 'whys and hows' of why I too should change my life t

If I'm sounding totally incoherent it's because my brain has been thesis-fried for the day. Today's secret into the absolutely guiltless pleasures of the raw food diet: a Raw Banana Split. 1. Split a banana in half 2. Scoop three balls of raw ice cream onto it 3. Top with raw chocolate fudge 4. Sprinkle with candied walnuts 5. Top with raspberries 6. Eat without having any second thoughts about how you'll feel afterwards! The ice cream recipes below only require that you blend them well in a Vitamix or food processor and place the mixture in your ice cream maker. All the ice creams make much more than you need for just one banana split, but who says that's a problem! Once the ingredients have been blended together, you want the mixture to look creamy, neither too liquidy nor too thick! (Also, agave nectar works instead of maple syrup if you're a purist) Raw Vanilla Ice Cream 2 C of soaked cashews 3/4-1 C of water 1/2 C maple syrup (or 1/3 C if you don't wan

Because it's crunch time for the first draft of my thesis, I'm going to distract all of you yet again with pictures of recent raw foodgasmic creations of mine. The first was in honor of the recycled glass glasses we recently bought at Ten Thousand Villages: a raw breakfast parfait! They were made up of two sets of the following layers (in this order): homemade raw granola, protein-boosted almond cream (soaked and ground almonds, water, agave, vanilla, almond extract, mesquite, maca, and raw brown rice protein), raspberry coulis (a fancy name for mushed raspberries), and banana slices. The entire thing was topped with raw candied walnuts, more bananas and raspberries, and blueberries!) Second, this is how I keep us motivate myself to eat our veggies (with pictures of my raw crackers included!): And finally, here is yet another sweet potato pie (I'm going through a phase...). The crust is a blend of cashews, ground spelt berries, coconut flakes, dates, and salt. The filling i

Last May, back in our cooked vegan days, one of the loveliest trips we got to take was to the White Pig , a vegan B&B in Virginia. For the first time in months (if not a few years), while traveling, we were able to eat whatever was put in front of us without having to worry whether it was vegan or not, and even whether it was organic or not. Going raw, we kind of assumed those days were over and that unless we specifically went to a raw food restaurant, we thought we'd be sitting in our hotel/b&b rooms eating fruit and dehydrated snacks we would have brought a long. Dawn, the owner of Speedwell Forge , certainly proved us wrong. When I made our reservation there about a month ago, I knew that Dawn was already very accustomed to making breakfast for people with all sorts of dietary particularities: macrobiotic, vegan, gluten intolerant, you name it! So I thought I'd give it a shot... I shyly mentioned in my reservation that we were both raw, but that we were totally okay

Awesome PA trip, Day 2 : Sometime after sunrise, our day began with a beautiful walk in the woods beside the B&B we stayed at on Wednesday night ( Furnace Hills B&B , a gorgeous place with very graceful hosts. If you're urban dwellers like us and miss the night sky, you can see the most beautiful starry skies at night which you can enjoy from the comfort of an outdoor jacuzzi! Their website does not do their place justice). It was so wonderful to be able to walk in nature again. While I love DC for the amount of green spaces it has, nothing beats being truly out in nature. The air was so clean and fresh, the skies so blue, and the ground was dirt and humus and not the harsh pavement of every day urban life. I even found a friend in the woods! Though I do want to focus on the food, our first stop of the day was for a tour at the PA Wolf Sanctuary attached to the Speedwell Forge B&B where we spent that night. I don't understand how wolves get such a bad r