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... 

And once again, a stroke of culinary genius! Yet another one of my childhood favourites made vegan, and mostly raw!  Whenever summer time is around the corner, (yes, all you Canadians, it did just get warm today, I KNOW I'm wishful thinking...) I start thinking about how much my sister and I loved Caf é  Li é g e ois back in the day.  Every summer when we went to France and got to eat at a restaurant, it was our dessert of choice. It was an unspoken rule that regardless of what we ate, we would still make room for one of these bad boys. I can only imagine what it would be like for our parents to have two small children on coffee and sugar!  The real deal is pretty "unhealthy" stuff: coffee, cream (made with God only knows how many egg yolks), sugar and vanilla ice cream... The version I originally wanted to make would consist of a sweetened vegan coffee-like substance with raw vanilla ice cream dumped in and topped with coconut whipped cream. However, I'm g...

Back in my optimal health days, I ate a grapefruit every day. There were so many great reasons to do that, and I can tell you I definitely felt a difference! You might already know that along with celery, grapefruit is one of those "negative calorie" foods, ie. it takes more caloric energy to eat it than the calories in it! There's also a flavonoid in grapefruit that helps balance out blood sugar levels and to prevent metabolic syndrome, which is when you pack on the pounds around your waist. Finally, if you start your day with a grapefruit, it actually kick starts your liver into fat-burning mode! Now, I've discovered a way not only to get my daily grapefruit in, but also add a whole bunch of other healthy ingredients to make an optimal morning or post-workout meal. I give you: The Fat Busting Smoothie This smoothie has a satisfyingly tart and "healthy" taste. Packed with fibre, all sorts of nutrients and metabolism boosting goodness, it's...

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...

I celebrated two stages of matrimonial bliss this weekend, all of them involving mountains of happiness and buckets of tears. Needless, to say it was an emotionally packed weekend, but I'll share its joys with you in the way I know best... through food. The first tearjerker was the beautiful wedding of two very dear friends. They both just  looked so beautiful and so happy. If I haven't cried already at some point during the day, all you have to do is push the "first-time-the-couple-hears-the-terms-husband-and-wife" button that just really gets me going. Call me old fashion but there's something so beautifully transitional (and traditional) about that moment that's just... timeless. But back to the food. The reception was a pot luck, and given that the bride has been a vegetarian/raw foodist/vegan, it was right up my alley. Everything I made was of course 100% organic, 100% vegan, and 100% made with love. For a main dish, I went for something that would f...

I actually find it really bizarre to eat certain foods out of season. I think it's my body recalling the ancestral days when we could only eat what was only readily available given the time of the year. Eating watermelon and strawberries in the winter? As much as I love them, that's just plain wrong... so is eating pumpkin in the late spring/summer. Okay, so I know lots of you out there love pumpkin, so you might disagree and want to eat it at all hours of the day and all seasons of the year. That's totally cool, and also exactly why I busted out this high raw pumpkin ice cream recipe yesterday to make Andrew happy: High Raw Pumpkin Ice Cream Yield: About 4 servings. 2 C cashews, soaked 1 1/2 C canned pumpkin pie mix 2 C water 1 T of coconut oil, melted 2 T maple syrup 1 inch chunk of ginger 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum (optional) 1/2 teaspoon of salt Directions: 1. Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and b...

I had a sudden urge for pesto when I saw some at the Wild Oat Bakery  yesterday. I've made vegan pesto a few times before, but the way I make it, it never tastes as good nor is ever worth the hassle so I usually just buy it. Immediately after I did, I figured out that I could concoct the best thing to do with kale since I discovered the joys of my  kelp noodle kale salad ! Creaminess, oh yeah... Pesto Kale Salad Yield: Serves 1 or 2. 1 head of massaged kale 1/2 to 3/4 C pesto veggies of choice (I used peppers, celery, carrots, and tomatoes) Directions:  1. Once you've massaged your kale (click here for a how-to), stir in pesto. 2. Add in chopped veggies. 3. Eat!  Yep, it's that simple! Have a great weekend!

I don't know what to call these cookies, but they are by far my favourite raw cookie of all time. When it comes to my sweet tooth preferences, I've always been fairly vanilla. I'll choose the fruit pie over the decadent chocolate ganache cake any day. I'll choose the ginger snap over the chocolate chip butter pecan cookie. So for those who prefer those latter choices, this is definitely a fairly understated cookie. However, in its simplicity and elegance lies deliciousness. My Favourite Raw Cookie Yields: 12 cookies 3 C shredded coconut 1 C fresh dates, blended into a paste 3 tablespoons of raw almond butter 1 teaspoon of salt 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract 1 tablespoon of liquid sweetener (I used maple syrup) 1. In a food processor or Vitamix dry blender, blend coconut first  until its powdered and clumping together. (for those who know, the point when it's about turning to coconut butter) 2. Scrape do...

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...

One month, I'll eat collard wraps for dinner every single night. Another, I'll just eat banana soft serves all day long. This week it's cinnamon sprinkled bananas, apples, dates, and granola crunchies every night. Even though I probably have bananas in some form in most of my meals, sometimes the slightest change can make the biggest difference. It's like eating starchy carbs as bread vs. pasta, same thing but big difference. The secret to this recipe? Cutting your bananas laterally instead of in slices... ooOoOOoo, wild and crazy, I know. In my continuous pursuit to remain as LFRV  as possible, this dinner combination definitely fits the mold. The granola crunchies are probably LFRV sub-par, but I need crunchy texture in my food, especially when I mostly eat blended fruits and greens... So yep, this has been my dinner for about a week now. I tend not to question what my body feels it wants to eat at this point, so I just go with it. Banana Apple Date Bowl Y...

Just wanted to share some recent finds from our trip to DC last weekend! Our favourite health food store in Rockville, MOM's , moved to a bigger location down the road. The bonus (aside from a gorgeous new store) is that everything at their old location was 50% off. This was a serious score because MOM's is really conscious about vetting all their products to make sure they are all super healthy to both us and the environment. Essentially, you can really trust anything you buy there! Here are some of my favourite goods: 1. Just Great Stuff's  Peanut Butter Powder With supposedly 85% less fat than peanut butter, this organic peanut butter powder just needs to be mixed with a couple tablespoons of water to turn back in its creamy original state. That being said, this stuff is so tasty, I actually prefer to eat it by the spoonful and have been making ridiculously delicious banana soft serves with it. It only has a few ingredients: organic peanut butter powder, or...

Aside from feeling energetic, happy, and awesome, there's something about raw food that really just makes me smile. I've often talked about the Chinese cooking elements of taste, texture, colour, smell, and flavour. The ideal dish has all five, along with being nutritionally maximizing. Raw food is often able to hit all of those things to perfection, but I have to say, our trip to la Belle Verte across the bridge in Gatineau took that concept to a whole new level. We've been wanting to try this place since we moved here, mostly because it's kind of the only raw vegan restaurant in the area right now. On the downside, because it's in Gatineau and we're car-free, it's a little hard to get to. However, since we had to rent a car this weekend to go help out some friends anyway, a trip to la Belle Verte became a top priority. The food there is just so beautiful. I already love my veggies to begin with, but their platage actually made me giggle and do my l...

Over the past few weeks, wednesday has become juicing day. Surprisingly, I'm still not a huge fan of juicing... it does something weird to my digestion. However, if I had to pick the most positive thing I always get out of juicing, it's always the fun mental trip it takes me on. I can't speak to what will happen this Wednesday yet, but last week, I think I might have experienced minor juicing dementia. As I was walking to the gym after time at the dance studio, I started to physically crash. I had no energy. Half of me was ready to call it quits, go to bed, or just fall asleep on the sidewalk until Thursday. I was so lethargic, I just wanted to go home. The other half of me was a crazy hungry monkey who just needed to have a salad . Now, I cannot express how crazy this monkey was. I think it could have been willing to hurt a small child for this salad. The whole way to the gym, it kept repeating, "I want a salad. Just have a salad. It's just a salad. What's ...

Given that I've posted about falafels more than once on this blog, whether they're raw or they're cooked , you might be able to safely say that I kinda sorta like them a lot... That, and I recently admitted to my secret falafel digestion pocket located somewhere in the deep confines of my stomach. Because I've been juicing and doing green smoothies so much over the past week, my dinner-for-my-other-half creativity has been somewhat limited and perhaps less than enthusiastic, even though I love being in the kitchen (and aside from the killer vegan shepherd's pie I invented for him earlier last week, if I do say so myself). A couple days ago, I decided to go big or go home, and create for him: the epic raw Middle Eastern plate. It started off with the classic centrepiece: Matt Amsden 's Raw Falafels wrapped in romaine lettuce, and surrounded it with my raw hemp seed tabbouleh , a garden salad, and some black olives and sprouts. Speaking of which, th...

I figured "Juice pulp makeover" was a much nicer title than "Re-using your juice pulp" or "What to do with the chunky stuff left in your juicer." Call it my precursor to Earth Day recipe. But wait... Me? Juicing? For those of you know me or have been following me for a while, I'm not the biggest fan of juicing. There's something about separating the sugars from the fibres from your fruit that I'm not totally convinced with (in terms of what it means to eat the most naturally possible), but I've heard enough good things that I can be swayed when it's cleansing season. Being me, I can never just throw away all the stuff that comes out the other end of the juicer. While I'd have no problem chucking a pack of Oreos if a friend forgot them at our place (I just realized I don't think I have any friends that eat Oreos... hmm), I can't justify throwing out something that is still food to me. And of course, by throwing out, I mean...

So, remember back in November when I got so obsessed with the deliciousness of collard wraps that I ate them for a month straight? Yep, well, I've found my March food obsession: massaged kale salad with kelp noodles. OMG. Aside from the fact that I'm now eating kale salads for dinner about 4 times a week, the addition of the kelp noodles just sent me over the moon. This dish pretty much has every nutrient under the sun. Kelp noodles are high in all sorts of minerals, while kale is one of the healthiest of the cruciferous greens. Including all the fixings, I can't think of anything it doesn't have! Of course, I don't have a full recipe for this, but just a mix of the things I always make it with. Here's to experimentation and kitchen intuition: Kelp Noodle Kale Salad Yield: 1 serving 1/2 to 3/4 head of kale 1/2 bag of kelp noodles 1/2 avocado 1/2 to 1 lemon salt and black pepper, to taste nutritional yeast onion powder tahini honey...

Oh, stinky stinky deliciousness... A fruit so smelly it's banned from many airports and other forms of public transportations in Asia, and yet, there's lots of great reasons to eat durian: (sure it kind of looks like a liver... or half a brain... but it's delicious I promise!) it's rich in fiber, so helps with digestion and appetite. durian is rich in folate, so can help combat anemia, which women are particularly prone to have High in vitamin C, it promotes collagen production, so healthy skin, bones, tendons and ligaments (which is probably a really good idea for me right before I run my 1/2 marathon next week!!!) Rich in potassium, it's great for bone health too! With high levels of manganese, it also helps regulate blood sugar. For thyroid health, durian is a good source of copper, which plays a role in maintaining your metabolism. B6, one of the nutrients needed to produce seratonin, a mood enhancer, is quite high in durian... so eating durian mi...

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, family, and readers! May your day be filled with gratitude and yummy delicious food.  We had our first snow here in Ottawa yesterday, and while everyone started to complain, I'm still choosing to get excited by how magical the first snow fall looks! So to go along with the whole theme of the day, here are 5 foods that I get really excited about during this time of the year and that I'm grateful Mother Nature decided to give to us: 1) Persimmons So, I know a lot of people who didn't grow up eating persimmons find them gooey and weird, but there's something about their strange texture that I just can't get enough of. I can't say I know much about other types of persimmon, but hachiyas steal my heart away every winter. Their awesome colouring shows that they are high in anti-oxidants like vitamin A, B, and C, beta-carotene, and lycopene, amongst others. They also contain a carotenoid, called zeaxanthin, w...