Come To My Free Class, Get a Chance to Win a Whole Foods Gift Card, and Enter a raffle to Win Superfoods!

All that in one evening?? Yes! Mark your calendar for June 12th! I'll be teaching a class at Whole Foods at 7pm on Thursday evening.

Topic: Cleansing, to welcome in the summer

Come and learn how to prepare delicious cleansing dishes, such as:

Cucumber Cleanse - A refreshing soup to welcome the summer

Hemp Tabouleh

Berrylicious Summer Salad

Space is limited! RSVP by commenting below and you will have a chance to win a Whole Foods gift card and be entered in the raffle to win cacao, goji berries, etc by Navitas Naturals.*

Is there anything you'd like to learn about (within the subject of cleansing and raw foods) during this class? Share in your comment below!

See You There! 

Don't forget to bring your kids, your questions, and your appetite!

Also, share this free event with your friends around the Bay Area. You never know who will benefit from learning how to make clean, nutritious dishes that are so simple to prepare!

♥

*You must be present to win. 

An Event-Full Raw February 2014

Whew, what a month! February was about exciting events, birthday, emotional ups and downs, and a raw anniversary!

More than anything else, this post is about some amazing foods I was fortunate to try. As a aside-note, however, yes, I am an Aquarius, born in February, so it was my birthday and my 3rd anniversary of having lived the raw lifestyle!!! Yay! : )

I went down to L.A., Thousand Oaks and Costa Mesa in Orange County, to be specific, to attend and educate at two of my favorite events of the year: the Raw Living Expo, and the Longevity Conference. Yay, it was such an amazing two weekends back-to-back. Can't wait for next year's…

While I worked a lot at both, I did have some time to explore, listen to some wisdom being shared by speakers and enjoy a couple of special dinners.

At the Expo, I was invited to the VIP Gala Dinner prepared by the hotel staff trained by a chef from the Bay Area....and I managed to take some photos of the several courses we were all served...

On the menu was:

Sesame Flatbread, Garlic Herb Boursin, Hickory Honey Fig coulis:

Black Sesame and Hemp Crusted Teriyaki Mushroom Fillet with Cauliflower Mash:

Cacao Crusted Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Maca Rose Cream Caramel and Mulberries:

I must admit, even though I've never been into raw cheeses, of all the items, the Garlic Herb Boursin was my favorite!

And this was just the beginning…I also had a wonderful evening with a few friends at Au Lac. I had heard so much about this restaurant for years and I couldn't wait to try their food! The amazing dishes are created by Chef Ito, who came by our table to greet us in person!…What a sweet guy! We shared many dishes and, I must say, it was an memorable experience! Everything was incredible!….A welcoming atmosphere, wonderful people, nice servers, and very yummy food : )

I'm tempted to start with the dessert but I'll just show you what we had in order…

Song Salad….absolutely divine. I wouldn't eat at Au Lac without ordering it. How often do you get a chance to have a salad made of watercress? It is so delicious:

Kelp Noodle Chow Mein…as if it was cooked Chinese food….without the frying though! ; ) Incredibly soft "pasta". No crunchy kelp noodles that you might have had at other restaurants:

Curried rice….served over avocado. My goodness, it is so delicious. I highly recommend it:

BBQ Pizza….with macadamia nut cheese:

Cali Roll….of course, it is clean and delicious. It's so easy to make though that I would never order this in a restaurant. Here's how to make your own rolls, which I call "California Rawlls" (Rolls). 

And now, the desserts! If you feel full and there is just no way you could have any dessert after dinner, it might be a good idea to order some to go. They're just too special to pass on. 

Donut Holes….a MUST try! Warm, with the center melted…they're so incredible:

Chocolate to feed your soul (too). I don't think they were any special, but I make my own chocolate so, you know, what can be better than home-made?? They're still yummy, and the smeared-on decoration, colored with spirulina, etc (I'm guessing) is such a "PET" (pretty, edible thing) on the side.

…and, since there was a birthday-girl among us, we had to celebrate with a plate of cake! Again, order some if you can. They are all well worth it:

So, you get the idea…. It is a place to go visit!!! The good news is: I've heard that Chef Ito is opening up a second restaurant in Hollywood in about three months!  Yay, two of them to go to. Never too much of such yummilicious food created by such a kind man! : )

Alright, enough for now, I just thought I'd check in ; ) while I'm working on a surprise for all of you out there….

Have a rawsome day/night/time….till next time.
Lots of love,
D.

The Rawking Bay Area ~ Two Events In A Week!

...Yep, there's no shortage of them and lately, I'm trying to make it to as many as I possibly can.
I started with a party titled "Chocolate Love Affair" that took place in Berkeley. This was an all raw event that's put on annually around Valentine's Day and it consists of recipe demos by chocolatiers, samples of all kinds of products made of cacao, treats and samples by local vendors, etc. and is attended by many chocolate lovers, local raw chefs and other well known, public figures in the raw food community.

Upon entering, you were greeted by chocolate samples at the door, then you found yourself in a room full of different kinds of chocolates by a variety of companies. You could taste all you wanted and they were also available at a special price to take home with you. There was even a chocolate fountain set up with strawberries underneath. How often do you see something like that, let alone get to dip into it?

The middle room had an elexir bar with superfood chocolate samples and incredibly nourishing smoothies made to order. Needless to say, the space was filled with people asking questions, tasting, buying products. I wonder how many (if any) of them were following a fully raw diet / lifestyle? These kinds of events are invaluable when it comes to introducing the health conscious crowds to something they might not be familiar with. And all the information, even most of the food, is available at no cost, so anyone can learn and taste. You even get to meet people you might have only seen on your computer screen before or maybe read their books, but it's rare that you see them in person.
David Wolfe, Blessings, and others were there and some of them I only met for the first time too. What a night! I feel so lucky to have been part of it. : ) Can't wait till next year's party!

It's an event you'll walk away from with loads of information, unparalleled experiences and conversations with very interesting people, and a chocolate high (no kidding!). Were you there? If not, you better make it next time!

Few days later the San Francisco Vegetarian Society put on a Valentine's Day party. Again, it was my first time meeting people in that group but this time I even got to prepare some of the food because most of the food served was raw vegan...yay!
We made numerous dishes such as "pasta" marinara, patė, pesto, guacamole, fruit salads, strawberry cake, and many more... Look at all the gorgeous food:

Some of the items on the menu are shown above, from the top left corner to the bottom right:

Greek Salad

Sunflower Seed Patė 

Lettuce & tomatos for Tacos

Hummus-Filled Bell Pepper Boats

Pomegranate Seeds

Guacamole

Walnut "Parmesan Cheese"

Apple-Pecan Cobbler

Strawberry "Love" Cake

Zucchini Pasta

Papaya Salad

my plate with some of the many yummy dishes

"just" Oranges 

Again, if you have a chance to go to one of these parties you'll meet a lot of health-conscious people and many of them are interested, or at least heard about, raw foods too. I'm so glad I've made it and I'm thrilled that I had the opportunity to prepare some of the food to feed the exciting crowd!
The society has been around for decades and it looks like it will be around for many more. They put on parties and different kinds of events so come join us if you can..I sure will, as often as I can make it :)

Love.

Alicia Silverstone Wants a "Kind", Vegan World!

Were you there??? Peta2 invited the actress/environmentalist to give a talk at UCLA and I wanted to see her and hear what she had to say. Last night was not just about her encouraging everyone to quit eating meat. It was about saving animals from suffering, becoming healthier, creating less pollution, wasting less of our resources, protecting the environment, reusing/recycling, etc. As you know, I promote the vegan lifestyle and all of the above, so I was really happy to meet someone who thinks the same way, someone who shares my views and is spreading the word and ready to educate people. She and I were both really happy to see so many people in the audience who were not vegetarians or vegans. She said she hoped to inspire and "convert" as many as possible.

I got a front row seat but still didn't get a good picture (her excitement clearly shows, nevertheless), what I did get was an insight into her caring lifestyle and compassionate, conscientious living. I learned that she just had a baby, whom she's raising vegan of course, and having a child made her even more aware of how important it is to care for the planet and our limited resources.

The greatest parts of the evening were:
• Alicia's down-to-earth behavior and her way of talking to us in a sincere friend-to-another-friend way
• She touched on most areas I would have touched on
• There were plenty in the audience that could be potential, new vegetarians/vegans. I'm so happy to see more and more people interested in compassionate living! I hope they didn't just show up for the free vegan Thanksgiving meal, catered by a very popular vegan restaurant in the area, but even if they did, they were exposed to new ideas and who knows, it may have changed their lives forever...
• I'm so glad she showed clips from slaughterhouses and animals being victims of barbaric treatment. I couldn't look after the first two seconds, it was enough to hear the horrendous sound but hey, I'm a vegan anyway, I don't have to be able to look, right?! Instead, I turned my head and looked to see the faces in the crowd. Most everybody had a frozen expression while being glued to the screen. I just wish I knew what went on in their heads during and after watching a cow's head being chopped off and dangling while still half-way attached, and seeing a (still alive) piglet slammed to the ground!
As horrifying as these moments were they are very necessary to bring awareness to people and I was so hoping this would be part of her presentation!
• My absolute favorite line was the quote by Paul McCartney, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everybody would be vegetarian!" This line was left on display for a while and after the clips were played, I'm sure, most of the audience agreed with it or at least acknowledged it as food for thought!

That is what I'm leaving you with too, some food for thought:

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everybody would be vegetarian!"

P.S: What are you making for Thanksgiving??? I'm just trying to come up with ideas so I want to hear all about your plans! Thanks! : )