Eating Out At Prasad & Preparing For October

Is it Wednesday already? I've been busy getting ready for MoFo and Raw Balance, which both start on Saturday, and I'm uber-excited about both events!  Every day in October I'll be posting about Fall Themed High Raw Vegan Food.  There will be something new and yummy every day starting Saturday.   Think pumpkins & apples & Halloween.  Fun!

In the meantime I thought I'd share some delicious high raw vegan meals we enjoyed recently at Prasad.  Prasad is a cafe in a yoga studio in Portland's Pearl District.  It's a happy, healthy, friendly place that serves fresh vegan food, juices, and smoothies. 

BRAVO BOWL (raw)
yam rice, shredded kale, avocado half, walnut taco crumbles & fresh
tomatoes with a side of jalapeno cashew cheese

GANESH BOWL

bhutanese red rice, kale, curry sauce

TRI-DOSHIC 

carrot, beet, celery, ginger, apple, cilantro

Check out the avocado with the Bravo Bowl!  Drooling yet?  Eating at Prasad has inspired me to make Bowls at home.  Veggies + grains + sauce = a great way to use up left-overs and make tasty meals.  And I can't pass up a juice that includes beets.  I have a weakness for pretty food.  

I hope you're having a lovely week.  The next few days are the calm before the storm around here.  See you for MoFo awesomeness on Saturday morning!!!!

Simple Eats For Busy Work Days

Wow, it's been a busy week!  So, I thought I'd let you in on a little behind the scenes Fresh Young Coconut insider information blahblah.... If it's quiet around here on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays every week it's because my alter-ego is off working with people on the other end of the health spectrum.  Some of you probably already know that I'm a Registered Nurse.  One of the reasons I'm such a cheerleader for the vegan and raw lifestyle is because I see first-hand the consequences of sickness and disease when they've reached the point of needing surgical intervention.  I have literally held hearts in my hands that can no longer function properly because the vessels are so occluded by plaque and fatty deposits.  My job inspires me to lead a healthy lifestyle and to hopefully inspire those around me to make healthy choices so that our long term quality of life can be awesome!  And that's why my posts are sparse and I don't visit the blogs I love and I sometimes can't respond to comments until Thursdays.  But Thursdays are great because I get to catch up.  Fun!

With such a busy start to my weeks I eat quick & simple foods. Like these:

 Roasted Roots Wrap from Kitchen Dances

 Hearty Salad for Lunch featuring hemp seeds, currents, nutritional yeast, sunflower seeds, pecans, tomatoes, cabbage and arugula

Chia Pudding, Hearty Lunch Salad, Gala Apple, Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Quinoa

 
Keeping it simple and using up left-overs from the weekend is my key for making it to Thursday.  I also rely on a lot of fresh fruits & veggies.   Do you have a strategy for keeping yourself full of delicious, healthy foods on your busy days?

And I know we're all kind of experiencing different opinions about things like spirulina and chia drinks.  But I thought I'd share, even though I'm pretty sure my taste buds are in the minority on this subject.  I tried the chia kombucha in several flavors and LOVED all of them.  Haha, what can I say?  My tastebuds are wacky.  Anyways, I made this drink at home and enjoyed it very much:

 water, spirulina, lemon juice, and ch-ch-ch-chia!

Feel free to be grossed out in my comments!  But, apparently my taste buds have a mind of their own.  Rebels :)

With Vegan MoFo coming up in just over a week (YAY) I've been doing lotsa planning so I can post every single day for the month of October.  I now have a link on my sidebar in case anyone wants to sign up *wink-wink*. 

Hope everyone enjoys the final day of Summer.  Tomorrow is the start of my most favorite season.  xoxo!

Super Morning Coconut Drink

Sometimes I make something so simple and obvious that I hesitate to post it here, for fear that people are going to look at it and go, "um, duh".  But sometimes it's so good, like today, that I think sharing is nice.  Also, posting yet another blended green drink might not be as exciting to you all as it is to me.  But, this is my blog and I love my blended greens and this one involves a young Thai coconut. 

Three ingredients:
1 young Thai coconut, flesh + water
1 handful spinach
1 tablespoon spirulina

Now, you probably should like the taste of spirulina if you're going to love this.  I happen to enjoy spirulina by the spoonful and could eat it on its own or sprinkled on just about anything. This drink also lets the fresh sweet taste of the coconut shine through.  That makes me double happy.

Do you like the taste of spirulina?  If you make this drink let me know what you think.  And have a super Sunday!

Sweet Saturday: Chocolate Almond Butter Cup Cookies

Drizzly overcast days are great for spending in the kitchen with a buzzing dehydrator.  I was in the mood for something chocolate and gooey and full of good nutrition.  These cookies were just the thing I needed to make my sweet tooth happy.  Especially when eaten warm from the dehydrator.

Chocolate Almond Butter Cup Cookies

1 cup raw pecans
1 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup agave or maple syrup
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon maca powder
2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder
4 medjool dates, pitted

Mix all ingredients in your food processor until well combined and starting to form into a ball.  Drop by tablespoons onto teflex dehydrator sheet.  Make a well in the center of each cookie with your finger.  Fill each cookie with 1/2 teaspoon Almond Butter Filling:

Almond Butter Filling

1/3 cup almond butter
2 Tablespoons agave or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon maca

After all of the cookies are filled with the Almond Butter Filling place the tray in the dehydrator for 2-3 hours or until cookies are warm.  Share with friends.  Make them ooh and ahhhh, then tell them that what they're eating is living nutritious vegan food that will make them feel amazing. 

Hope your Saturday is sweet!

Announcements: MoFo, Raw Food Rehab, and Naked Food

Good Morning, Friday!  I'm feeling awesome this morning for many reasons and I'm super excited to make some announcements before the weekend.  First of all, in the blink of an eye Fall weather has arrived in Portland.  One day it was 90 degrees and sunny and then suddenly we have a chill in the air, gray skies, and sprinkles of rain.   I'm an Oregon girl all the way and love everything about this weather!  Boots and cardigans and pumpkins, yay!  My first announcement has a Fall theme.  This year's Vegan MoFo starts October 1st. 

 

This is my first year participating and my theme is going to be Fall inspired raw vegan gluten free yumms.  Pumpkin, apple, persimmon, squash, sweet potato.... I'm going to celebrate Fall's bounty every day in October.  You should sign up too!  Raw vegans represent!

source

Another place that's going to be happening starting October 1st is Raw Food Rehab.  They're kicking off their final 11 week initiative RAW BALANCE and Penni Shelton along with her new team are putting together a program that's sure to inspire us to new levels of wellness .  If you're not a member already you might want to check it out.

 

Talk about inspiring... I saw the gorgeous Diana Stobo last night.   She is bursting with energy, encouragement and information about healing and nutrition.  Not to mention absolutely stunning, engaging and super fun to watch.  She's down to earth, approachable and makes getting healthy seem totally do-able (because turns out, it is!).  I picked up her books and can hardly wait to refer some of my raw-curious friends and family to her website and videos.  I love how she's left out the fuss and fancy of getting raw.  She's all about Getting Naked, or "stripping away the foods that weigh you down" to facilitate detoxification and healing.  Ok, I'll stop my star-struck gushing now.  You get the point. 

I'm going to spend some time today planning out my MoFo.  Let me know if you decide to join in on the fun!  Who doesn't want to spend the month of October going nuts about vegan food? 

Light Lunch: GF Pistachio Pesto Wrap

I'm trying my best to get caught up on some things around the house today, but wait... I'm here watching twitter and blogging about my lunch. 

I was in the mood for something quick and high raw so I wrapped up spinach, tomatoes and some pistachio pesto that my bf made earlier in the week.  Yummmm.  The wrap is gluten free, made with teff flour.  It was ok, a little chewy, but not bad in flavor.  The pesto was super flavorful so the teff wrap was really just a vessel for the filling's goodness. 

Ok, back to my chores.  I have a few announcements to make tomorrow about projects I'm starting in October.   Can hardly wait to share! 

Hope you're all having a nice lunch today. 

Lunchbox 9/14/11

Hi-ho, hi-ho....

Clockwise from top left:  grapefruit, kale salad (purple kale, avo, tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, hemp nuts, sunflower seeds), chia pudding (chia seeds, coconut milk, coconut shreds, currants), banana.

Have a great Wednesday!  What are you having for lunch today?
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