Weekend Love!!!

Hello Longevity Seekers!

How are you??? Cold? Hot? Rainy? Sunny? Snowy??? What temp are you dealing with right now???

This weekend was a fabulous weekend!

Saturday

I picked up my number and foot pod for the race on Saturday!!! YEAH!! 

I am officially #61!

This was definitely an exciting moment for me.  My first 5K, My first organized race!! YES!

I have made a list of goals and wishes for 2010/2011 and it’s exciting to have some of these Goals and Wishes stricken off the list!

After I picked up my number and T-Shirt I journeyed over to one of my favorite vegan cafes – Flore Vegan!  I had my favorite smoothie!

Flore is a great little place in the heart of Silver Lake!  GREAT AND VEGAN!!!  Check them out if you are ever in Los Angeles!

Flore Vegan

3818 West Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90026 

323.953.0611

Sooooo Delicious!

I know this color probably leaves little to be desired BUT it is incredibly good!! Avocado, Orange Juice, Agave Syrup! MMMmmmm! unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it BEFORE I drank it!

 

Opened the shop as usual.  It was a nice and easy day! 

 

Sunday

Now this is one memorable day!

I woke up at about 12 noon!  It had been sooo long since I had slept this late and this soundly! It felt sooo nice.  I was warm and comfortable!  I got up and showered.  Had a cup of “joe” and set out for an hour Acupressure Massage and 1 Hour Foot Massage.

The spa was called – “A Beautiful Day Spa”. 

As I entered the spa, a kind man greeted me and took me to the massage room.  The rooms were dimly lit and quaint.  I lay down and waited for the masseuse to enter. 

Now this was so amazing!  The Acupressure massage was what I needed.  I was pleased with the professionalism and cleanliness of the establishment. 

During the Acupressure massage the very top of my head to the very tip of my toes was massaged!

This was the first time I experienced an Acupressure Massage!  It was heavenly!  Truly an HOUR MASSAGE and TRULY WONDERFUL!  As I lay on the massage table I just kept thinking how lucky I was to be there, how relaxed I was, how thankful I was my “taste tester” was supportive enough to drop me off and pick me up!  Before I knew it, the hour massage was over and it was time for my 1 HOUR FOOT MASSAGE!  Whew!  I felt like a little cat purrring and purrring and purring! 

I got dressed and left the massage room.  I entered another room with 3 chairs.  I chose the chair I wanted and my feet were immediately immersed in hot water with chinese herbs.  While my feet soaked, my shoulders, neck and arms were massaged again! Prrrrr. Prrrrr.  The last 40 minutes the woman massaged every part of  my leg all the way down to my foot. Whew!  It felt absolutely FABULOUS…I wondered if that is what samadhi feels like.  I WAS IN TOTAL BLISS!

And what was really impressive – $20.00 for 1-HR FOOT MASSAGE!! Can you believe that??? AMAZING DEAL!!

After I left the spa, I journeyed over to Whole Foods.  I was looking for pea sprouts.  I love this nutritious green. I was on a mission to have a healthy and tasty meal!

I decided to recreate a specialty I used to order from a Muslim Chinese Restaurant in San Gabriel, California.  The restaurant was named – Tung Lai Shun.  Great Food! The name of my favorite dish was Diu Miao (Pea Sprouts with Garlic).

Started with FRESH PEA SPROUTS:

Then the gravy:

Ingredients:

1 Cup water

1/4 cup Arrowroot

8 cloves Garlic Thinly Sliced

Olive Oil

Preparation: 1) Heat pan with a low heat and 1/2 cup water 2) once steam appears add garlic and splash of olive oil 3) In separate bowl add arrowroot to remaining 1/2 cup water and whisk 4) Add Arrowroot Mixture to pan 5) Once you can smell the Fragrance of the Garlic turn off low flame 6) Add peas sprouts and Mix 7) Wait for peas sprouts to turn bright Green

The Final Dish:

This was a great dish!!! I added this on top of a parsnip I had shredded in the food processor.  I also added a small amount of toasted sesame oil, splash of bragg, and black pepper to the RAW RICE.

All and All and WEEKEND OF BLISS AND LOVE!!!

Namaste!

Please comment and discuss anything with this blog!  

Next Giveaway – FOODMATTERS – Tune in tomorrow!!!

Mango Salad Adventures – Part II & FREE GIVEAWAY!

FREE GIVEAWAY!!!

Raw for 30 Days DVD!!!

All you have to do to enter the raffle is leave a comment and/or subscribe to this blog!  (Pretty easy, huh?) I will draw the lucky name on March 27, 2010!!!

Now let’s get to those wonderful mangos!

Last night I began making a spicy powdered mixture for the Ripe Mangos I received from the universe.  I figured that was the best thing to do.

Initially I was going to go with an Japanese theme for dinner last night, however I ended up on an Indian note. I’ll explain…

There is a spice mixture used in Japanese cuisine called “Shichimi Togarashi”.  The ingredients are dried chilies, black peppercorns, tangerine peel, black sesame seeds, minced garlic, and white poppy seeds.

As I looked around my spice cabinet I realized that my memory had failed me once again…No white poppy seeds, and I was also missing  few of the other ingredients.  I went with all of the new indian spices I had purchased at India Sweet & Spice.

This is the mixture I made:

2 tbs.  red kashmiri dried chilis

1 tbs. tangerine peel

1 tbs. lemmon peel

1 drop organic lemon essential oil

1 drop organic orange essential oil

3 garlic cloves

2 tsp. nori

2 tsp. black sesame seeds

2 tsp raw hemp seeds

Preparation: Grind all ingredients and put in a small airtight dish to save.  This will make approximately 1/8 of a cup.

Next…

I cut the mangos into slices and placed them in a large bowl.  I added 1 large scoop of the spice mixture I had just made.

As I was experimenting with my next dish to serve with dinner last night I came up with a RAW BIRYANI RICE recipe!

What is Biryani? Biryani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, rice (usually basmati) and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. The name is derived from the Persian word beryā(n) (بریان) which means “fried” or “roasted”.

Biryani was brought to the Indian Subcontinent by Muslim travelers and merchants. Local variants of this dish are not only popular in South Asia but also in Arabia and within various South Asian communities in Western countries.

The spices and continents used in biryani may include but are not limited to: peas, beans, cumin, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander and mint leaves, ginger, onions, and garlic. The premium varieties include saffron.

The difference between biryani and pullao is that while pullao may be made by cooking the items together, biryani is used to denote a dish where the rice (plain or fried) is cooked separately from the thick sauce (curry of Meat or vegetables). The curry and the rice are then brought together and layered resulting in a dish of the contrasting flavours of unflavored rice(which has a hint of the aromas and juices of the curry) and intensely flavored sauce and meat or vegetables. (Wikipedia)

RAW BIRYANI RICE

1 Large Parsnip

5 Sund Dried Tomatoes

2 tbls Spicy Sambar Masala

1 tsp Tumeric

1 tbl. Cumin

1 Handful Fresh Cilantro

1 Large Handful Raisins

3-4 Cloves Garlic

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 cup peas

Preparation:  Peel and chop parsnip.  Place the parsnip in Food Processor with “S” blade and process until it resembles rice.  Place in a bowl and set aside.  Place all other ingredients into the food processor.  It should be a very chunky and be extremly fragrant!!!! YUM!

Here is the Parsnip Rice…

The spice mixture before the rice…

Everything all mixed up and redy to serve…

Here is the final presentation…

I added the peas last, since I didn’t want them to get squished while I was mixing in the spice mixture into the parsnip rice.

My taste tester was quite pleased with this meal I must say!!!  He said he could smell the mangos and chili mixture from the kitchen while he was relaxing in the living room.  Very excited about this dish!  I will definitly be making this again!

Thanks for visiting my blog and don’t forget to ENTER THE RAFFLE!!!

Namaste!

Stir the UN-FRY!

Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids.  All important stuff!  I am on a quest for wellness and hope you come along with me!

Last night I made another Un-Stir Fry.  The last Un-Stir Fry you can see here.  It was paired with the Sesame Nut Balls.  I made the RAW RICE with cauliflower and peas.  This time, I made my RAW RICE with PARSNIPS!   YUM!  I am wondering if this would make the RAW MASHED POTATOES taste better than they did before. :/  That was not a good food experience! The cauliflower left little to be desired!!

Here is the Parsnip Rice before I added anything to it…

The vegetables about to be marinated…

The list of veggies used is as follows:

1. Broccoli – (1/2 Cup) -
2. Parsnips – (1 Cup) -
3. Peas – (1 Cup)
4. Snow Peas-(1 Cup)
5. Portobello Mushrooms- (1 1/2 Cups)
6. Sesame Seeds -(Handful, Raw
7. Mushroom Marinade – (3/4 cup Nama Shoyu, 1/4 cup sesame oil, juice of 1 organic lemon)

Since I wanted that Dehydrated-Marinated Flavor (another words a bit warm) I placed the veggies in the Dehydrator for 2 hrs @ 115.  After that I added the peas and parsnip rice to the mix.  The final result is here…

And here we have a wondorful Raw Meal.  Quite delightful in the stomach I might add!  Broccoli and Peas are high in Vitamin C and Phosphorus.  A fair amount of Selenium as well.  (Minerals I will be speaking about soon!)

So this was a definite hit.  I finally was tired of just eating an avocado and salad.  It was time for some more RAW CULINARY adventures!

Special thanks to RAWMAZING!