Eat Dance Live

Am I finally an early adapter for the next cool thing? I think I just might be! Sure I might have joined Instagram or Twitter (and even Facebook) months, if not years, after everyone... but I just discovered Vine, thanks to the awesome Christine , and I'm pretty sure I'm addicted! Vine allows you to make 7 second videos with your phone of anything you possible want. It's a really fun and creative way of figuring out how to get a message across in very little time and with only a few images. So much fun! What did I do with my first video? My signature smoothie of course (just click on it and unmute the volume to get it started!): Hehe... kind of feel like the Chairman from Iron Chef at the end of that: Vine was bought by twitter so you can cross-post your vine videos on Twitter , Facebook or you can easily embed them in your blog just like this! Expect a lot more of these in the future... 

How many times have I gone on and on about my on-and-off again relationship with yoga? From an ode to discovering the beauty of a Yin  practice, to endless praises for the benefits of a daily 20 minute yoga practice , to my 3 month love affair with Bikram , I always wanted to commit... and finally, I've made the leap! I can now say that yoga and I have been in a steady relationship for about two and a half months. I don't know what came over me when we got back from our trip to France in mid-June, but I got home and knew it was time to nurture that relationship again. As usual, the first month or so was super emotionally taxing, releasing (or starting to release) all sorts of bizarre hang ups. Now, as much as yoga is always  about clearing the mind, I know it's become more about the physical practice as well, learning to push and test my limits just that much more, and grow physically as well as mentally. So far, I've been doing a minimum of two and a half hours...

Time for another What I Ate Wednesday post! I've only done one other before... The problem with any WIAW post of mine is that they'd all probably end up looking pretty much the same, changing up maybe only every season... conveniently, my constance means when I forget to take pictures, I can just recycle some old ones. Breakfast: My favourite Green Smoothie (note the obvious photo recycling thanks to the dead giveaway of the Christmas table runner) At this point, I've probably had this smoothie over 500 times in my life considering it's been my go-to breakfast for a few years now. I would do something different, but I don't, because it's just so yummy. Mid-Day Snack: Raw   Granola Crunchies These crunchies have also become my replacement cereal option since I went raw. I now cut the liquid sweetener all together from the recipe and just used pureed dates (dates and little bit of water to make it mixable). The batch I had today were the same ...

FINALLY! A place to get some raw eats in Ottawa! On Saturday, Natasha Kyssa's Simply Raw Express opened its doors in the Hintonburg neighbourhood (989 Wellington West to be exact). It's a welcome change from the pubs and meat joints lining up the rest of the street, except the Table Vegetarian Restaurant which was our Hintonburg haunt until now. Whenever I check out a new place making the "healthy" claim, I'm always curious to see how far they take their ethic and Simply Raw Express definitely goes the whole mile. Aside from offering fresh and organic raw vegan foods to go, the restaurant really lives up to its claim: reclaimed wood tables and service counter, compostable to-go containers, cork lamps, eco-friendly washroom products, and more. If you're not a raw vegan, don't be frightened! To bring health and veggies to the Ottawa area, Simply Raw also offers some cooked vegan options including a daily soup or a quinoa bowl. If you have any question...

Thanks so much for all your feedback both on facebook, email, and in the comment section about Birth Control. I love to hear all of your stories and how you dealt with the choice. It was a choice I strongly felt I should never opt for, and as far as I know, it's worked out for the best! Anyway, I know there is a thing about not eating fruits that are too sweet in cold climates because our bodies weren't meant to be processing them in the winter. The sweetness of summer fruits aren't meant to be digested in the cold winter, so they might sit in our stomachs a little longer than necessary, causing potential fermentation, which yeasts love to feed off of. Fruits that can be found in Northern climates during the snowy season , mostly berries or hardier apples, can still be assimilated by the body with little problem, but other ones should be eaten less liberally. Interestingly, I've found that I have no desire for the summer fruits of my region until the proper season...

I don't think there will ever truly come a time in my life when I've had too many smoothies. They're not just convenient, but can be so versatile, and can easily boost you with all sorts of energy to start, continue, or end your day. Yesterday, we went out for brunch at one of our favourite Ottawa haunts, Cafe My House (reviewed here ). Among other things,we had a plethora of amazing smoothies. Their choices are as colourful as they are endless. To the seven of us, I think we ordered about 2/3 of their options, and they were all divine. From their mango-lime-cilantro, which is now something I make at home daily, to their raw cacao latte, there's definitely something for everyone. I opted for their Green Protein Plus, a wonderful combination of vegan proteins (pea, alfafa, hemp and brown rice), bananas, and cinnamon. Sunday brunch inspired me to expand my usual morning smoothie repertoire, and it was super successful. In the mood for something a little more tropical tha...

What better way to start the day than with a high antioxidant, alkalinizing smoothie? I don't think the taste of my smoothies ever significantly change when I put milder greens in them, but if you're not into the whole "green" smoothie thing, just add in greens little by little and stick with the ones that have less of a taste like spinach or mixed greens. If you want you can move on to the big leagues later and ones like dandelion or beet greens, collard, kale, and more. By breaking them up in the blender, adding greens to your smoothie makes them a lot easier for you to digest and absorb their nutrients. They're high in iron, calcium, magnesium, and Vitamins A, C, K and lots of the B family. And of course, greens are rich in chlorophyll. I just found out that chlorophyll is almost molecularly identical to hemoglobin, which means that by having your greens, you're actually helping your blood rebuild and clean and replenish itself. Raw foodists known th...

So I'm assuming that organic mango season is over in countries that Canada trades with, because mangos have virtually disappeared from natural food store shelves. While I'm sure I could find regular pesticide mangos in some regular food store if I really wanted to, that's just not the way I roll... So I'll wait til they're organically available again. And hey, the world probably doesn't need my extra mango food miles anyway. In the meantime, I've had to forgo one of my favourite summer breakfasts: the infamous mango-cilantro-lime smoothie . With the weather getting colder, my body is conveniently not really into having those kinds of flavours anymore anyway, but I still absolutely loved the sweet and cilantro combination and was dying to get it any way I could. The solution? The banana-cilantro-spinach smoothie. Who would have thunk? Now I get that yummy taste AND extra greens. The recipe? 1 or 2 frozen naners, that iron-licious handful of cilantro, a few l...

When it's hot, drink more water. Otherwise, here's another solution: eat fruit that's in season and the more water in the fruit the better! The hotter it gets the more I crave sweeter more watery fruits anyway. I want the ones that dribble down your chin with yummy sticky juices like peaches, watermelon, honeydews, or mangos... mmm. Here's what I came up with when the heat was just too much to bear, and it hit the spot perfectly: Watermelon Sensation a few very generous chunk of watermelon 4 or 5 ice cubes optional ingredients (not necessarily all at the same time): 1/2 to 1 C of canteloupe 1 tsp grated ginger or peppermint leaves 1. Blend everything in a good strong blender (aka. Vitamix). If not thick and icy enough, add ice. 2. Pour and top with a sprig of mint! Stay cool!

It was another green, green day today but that won't be the focus of my post. For all you curious raw foodies though, today was all about 2/3 green juicing again. I think this may become something of a permanent habit of mine because I'm really loving it. Breakfast was papaya, frozen pineapple, and spinach. Lunch was me voraciously eating 3/4 of the batch of tabbouleh I made yesterday (think me = lion in the savanna and parsley = poor defenseless wildebeest), assorted veggies and some watermelon. Dinner was another green smoothie of 1 pear, 1/2 frozen banana, beet greens and frisee lettuce, and water. I ate dinner during my weekly use of Pangea 's awesome Face Mask , and I was very entertained by the fact that my face mask was the same colour as my green smoothie. Classic. ( phot o source ) Anyway, on to the actual topic of my day: Self-Appreciation. We spend way too much time beating ourselves up for things we both do and don't do and it really has to stop! While we ca...

I've established today that I could never be a raw foodist who mono-diets. By that I mean, I couldn't eat just bananas or just apples or just kale for a whole month, a week, or even for a couple days. I've been making green smoothies for 2/3 of my meals since Monday, and the desire to chew or just to eat something non-green has become somewhat overwhelming. Everything has been absolutely fantastic tasting, but I guess it's still just not cutting it. I finally food splurged this morning by not putting greens in my breakfast smoothie, and just had a "plain" papaya-frozen pineapple-superfood smoothie instead. It was legendary. Lunch was back to the greens. It was a beautiful 1/2 orange, 1/2 apple, 1 handful of lettuce, 1 big handful of parsley, 3 ice cubes, and one small piece of ginger smoothie. While I thought it would be vile, it was actually really good! I couldn't drink it fast enough (but for digestive reasons, remember to chew your smoothies!) I'm ...

The food plan for the next three days is going to be all about Green Smoothies. Why? Because it's hot, because they're cooling, and because I feel like it. Also, every time I eat a vibrantly green smoothie Andrew says it's to help keep me human. If I forget to have a green smoothie... I might turn back into a monster. Shhh, don't tell anybody. (this monster is from here ) I came up with the idea thanks to the Green Smoothie Queen who has a free introductory 3-day course on Green Smoothies. While I know all about how nutritious and yummy they are already, I'm always up for learning and getting new recipes! So I signed up to her intro on Sunday and have been getting snazzy new emails in my inbox every morning with tips, tricks, and recipes. I love it! I am still taking my tinctures, though I've given up the Rejuve Powder because I don't feel it's been doing anything for me digestion-wise (aside from making me nauseous). I started my day with a green smoo...

Sorry for the lack of post last night. I got caught up preparing for my thesis presentation this weekend. I get to make a powerpoint with fun anti-GMO protest pictures like this: Gotta love Greenpeace. Also, ' Man Wednesday ' was put on hold, because said 'Man' was out :) But let's keep the ball rolling! I was inspired by Gina's post last night, asking her readers to show her their smoothies! Considering I eat them every morning (or at least, every other morning), I figured I'd be the perfect candidate for the challenge. So here are my smoothies! Over the past couple years, my breakfast has pretty much consisted in one of these two smoothies (the recipes are for two people): 'Tropical' Smoothie 3 C papaya/pineapple/mango (or any combination) 1 teaspoon of maca powder 1 heaping teaspoon of mesquite 1/3 to 1/2 C water (I like my smoothies thick) (The man version you also see featured has an extra scoop of hemp protein and one scoop of brown rice prote...

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... ...