Eat Dance Live

Given yesterday's recipe, you'll noticed that I've been on a summer melon jag recently. Today's breakfast and lunch were variations on my melon sensation. The morning version had mint and ginger and the lunch version had stevia leaves. Tasting the leaves from my stevia plant were the first time I ever tasted stevia, and I have to say, it was... different. Funny thing is, I've only ever seen it in powder form, and to me, it tastes just like artificial sweeteners. It's what I remembered Sweet N' Low to taste like (which I've only had once when I was a kid before my mom noticed, and horrified, told me it was "fake sugar." I never had it since!) Though I love my plant, I'm not sure stevia is a plant I'll get use to. Dinner was zucchini pasta with marinara sauce, and Andrew's dessert was vanilla ice cream with raw cookie pieces. He came up with the brilliant idea to top his vanilla with raw honey, which hardens it like I've heard peo...

Today was another day of wonderful flavour pairing. It began with a good old strawberry-banana-pineapple smoothie (what makes this simple combination so wonderful??). And it continued with some more raw ice cream kitchen fun. I tried to recreate the two flavours I used to have every single time I used to go to an ice cream parlor. Really, I think from the age of about 8 through 14 all I ever had was coffee and lemon ice cream. I remember announcing to my family once that I would travel the world and only ever order those two flavour. Then I figured I would be a global expert in coffee and lemon ice cream. I could tell you that the best lemon could be found in a small town in the South of France, and the best coffee was in Rome. I'd say I got pretty far, given how much I got to travel. However, I was easily tempted by other flavours after a few years, usually by something berry-wonderful like cassis (black currants) or black raspberry... then I discovered pear sorbet at the infamous...

As I mentioned I wanted to make my super mom a super raw dessert for Mother's Day and I figured the best thing to dazzle her with would be an ice cream cake. I also know that my mom likes the following things: berries, french vanilla ice cream, and marzipan. So that's exactly what I did. I made her a marzipan crust vanilla-raspberry ice cream cake. Here was the breakdown (not the best photo, I know, but all I had on hand was my mom's little point and shoot): -1 layer of raw marzipan* -1 layer of vanilla ice cream (a beautiful union between my and Meredith's ice cream recipe) -1 layer of sliced strawberries -1 layer of raspberry sorbet** -1 ring of Heather 's whipped cream (sans lecithin) piped with my snazzy new cake decorator -2 heart shaped strawberry slices *soaked and peeled almonds, agave nectar, almond extract, and salt, Vitamixed **frozen raspberries and a couple frozen bananas, Vitamixed It was wonderful. Even my 90 year old grandmother loved it. She even ...

Have I already touted the benefits of green tea? and more specifically matcha green tea? While I've always been a fan of green tea in general, I was first introduced to matcha the way most Asian people are... through green tea ice cream! Of course now, you can find it all over the place, but I remember when it was just something you could find in our local asian grocery store. Matcha is a higher quality green tea. It's covered before it's picked, making its leaves turn a deeper green than other tea leaves. It also tastes much stronger than other types of tea, so you'll always recognize it once you've had it once. Because of its strong taste, you only need to use a little bit (usually about one teaspoon or so) to get the full range of its taste, colour, and health benefits. According to Dr. Weil , it has the nutritional value and antioxidant content of 10 glasses of 'regular' green tea, and has a much higher antioxidant count that both blueberries and spinach...

Wait... doesn't 'perfect parfaits' just mean 'perfect perfects'? Well, they are! And as the weather gets warmer, I'm increasingly craving the mix of fruit and cold ice creams and sorbets over heavier treats. I want tangy, water-dense, citrusy, or tropical fruits, and I find my desire for denser and warming fruits and spices like apples, figs, or cinnamon falling out of synch with the season. I'll save those for next fall and winter! It's funny how ours bodies naturally acclimatize to the seasons, and recognize what is local and in season and what is not. I'm finding that since I've switched to the raw diet those impulses are even stronger. To fulfill my needs, I'm finding that parfaits are the perfect solution to warmer weather. Cool, refreshing, fruity, crea my, zesty, spicy, they can really be whatever you want! With temperatures now in the high 20s °C and low 30s °C (that's in the high 80s °F low 90s °F) , I've recently whipped ...

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...

My day began and ended with mint in stranger ways than I could have ever imagined... Over a breakfast of green juice for breakfast (kale, cucumber, apple, celery, mesquite and maca), I created yet another raw ice cream. This time it was a variation on previously made mint chocolate-chip ice cream in what Andrew called my new raw 'mint oreo ice cream'. Here's the secret: Raw Mint 'Oreo' Ice Cream 2 C cashews, soaked overnight 1 C water 2/3 C agave nectar (or maple syrup, I think I did half of each) 1 tsp vanilla (or 1 whole vanilla bean) 1/3-1/2 C crushed mint leaves 1/2 tsp (or to taste) of mint extract dash of salt pinch of spirulina for green color raw oreo cookie dough (see below) cacao nibs, optional 1. Blend everything in a Vitamix (or blender or food processor) until smooth 2. Pour into ice cream machine and follow directions! 3. In the middle of the ice cream machine process, or once the ice cream starts to get a solid enough ice cream consistency, blend in t...

As you might have noticed in one of my earliest recipe posts for my Ginger Three Ways Cookies , my undying love for ginger is quite profound. I stick ginger in everything from my green smoothies, my salads through a ginger-almond-miso dressing, to my cookies, and now I give to you on my favourites: raw Ginger Ice Cream! It's a really no-nonsense recipe that requires little more than 'stick everything in blender and turn the on button'. I made it again today because I thought the flavor would go beautifully with the fruitcake I mentioned I made off of Raw Goddess Heathy's blog yesterday... and I was right! Here's what you'll need: Raw Ginger Ice Cream 2 C cashews, soaked overnight 1 C filtered water 1 tbsp non-acoholic vanilla (or 1 whole vanilla bean) 2/3 C maple syrup or agave nectar (you can tweak this a bit for sweetness) 1 tsp salt 1 inch piece of ginger (diced) 1/2-3/4 C crystallized ginger (I kept half of it and diced it to add back into the ice cr...