GreenChefs is the modern “G” Food Network. The new Organic Food Lifestyle featuring luscious organic and seasonal based recipes from the top Green Chefs around the world.
It’s day ten in the no-eating-animal-products house — which means I’m a third of the way through my plant-based experiment. Five days ago, I pledged not to overdo the 3 “S”s, which were: sugar, soy and seitan. Here’s an update on how that’s going.
Sugar. Wah waaaah. I have definitely been consuming more than I should. It’s not that I’ve been scoffing “G” brownies and soy ice cream all day, but I have been eating my fair share of sugar-laden granola and other breakfast cereals (topped with agave), coffee (with a generous amount of agave), fruit and nut bars, dates, bananas… that kind of thing. Okay, I know that doesn’t sound too bad, but you don’t know about my shady past as a cereal addict of Seinfeld proportions. There was a period in my life — all through college and many embarrassing years beyond — when I literally lived on Sultana Bran.
Olive Gnocchi with Parsley-thyme Sauce(vegan) Recipe by Veganlicious
Enjoying your own freshly made gnocchi is always a treat, but even more so when the olives are special treats from France. Nyons is famous for it’s olives and olive oil. This year on our fall vacation, we made a point to bring back some of the specialties from the area.
Asian Carrot Avocado Salad and Dressing(vegan, raw) Recipe by Julie Morris
Julie Morris is one of our contributing authors and now she has started making her own food videos. So, we decided it would actually be nice to see some of the writers, so we have posting this very entertaining and beautiful recipe video for an Asian Carrot Avocado Salad with a dressing.
Julie decided to make this salad, to break away from a purely green salad, adding some excitement to her normal eating routine. This is a very quick recipe anyone can make.
This week’s My Way feature comes to us from health and wellness practitioner Lori Painter. Lori is the author of the very educational and extremely entertaining blog, Inspire 2 Act. In addition to her health enthusiasm, Lori is passionate about the eco living, working out and raising her two lovely kids, Alex and Megan. Lori and her family live in Southern California.
My Way: Lori Painter
Just my luck that Dhrumil asked my to be featured in “My Way” when it is winter, rainy and cold (which is rare) in Southern California. It only makes eating 100% raw more of a challenge. However, instead of eating totally raw, I have decided in the winter months to focus on hydration, greens and eating fruits and veggies versus too many gourmet recipes. I’m still working on using food to feed my emotional needs. Since I belong to an organic produce buying club, my meals tend to be very simple and repetitive. It depends on what is in season. Each week it is a little different. This is how I do things My Way.
Monday
Off to the gym to earn my breakfast. I shower from the inside out in the sauna and visualize my dream day! Today’s menu consists of simple monofoods: breakfast is 2 apples and a banana, Lunch is a green salad with an avocado based dressing. I am sure to get my daily 4 quarts of water in too. I check online messages and correspond accordingly, watch some YouTube subscriptions and post a little twitter. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
Apricot Tarts with Chocolate Sauce(vegan) Recipe by Veganlicious
These pretty tarts are very nice and light, especially nice after a full meal. Using a heart shaped tart form makes them a perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day.
Serves 4 people
For the Crust:
1 & 1/4 Cups Unbleached White Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 TB Powdered Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Coconut Oil (measure it in solidified form, in a dry measure)
This is a raw vegan version of the classic Middle Eastern recipe that has grape leaves stuffed with creamy pine nut cheese and a healthy salsa made of alfalfa sprouts, raisins and pine nuts and finished with sweet pepper sauce.
I learned a very similar recipe to this one when I was working in a Moshav in Israel for two months from a dear Palestinian friend when we were invited over for dinner one night after work. The beautiful part was that there were people from different religious background who shared long-lived cultures that are now suffering from past attachments. This is why I decided to call it Jerusalem Style Dolma, because I also share the same vision that we shared that night, the vision of freedom from ourselves.
Serves about 2 people
For the Dolma Leaves:
12 medium-sized brined grape leaves
Step 1 Rinse grape leaves and set them aside on a plate.
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About 1 month ago Welikeitraw.com asked their readers if they had any questions for restaurant owner + chef + entrepreneur and guest blogger, Sarma Melngailis. Today, on her 36th birthday, we excited to bring you Sarma’s answers. But, before we do that, we’d like to take a moment to say: Happy Birthday Sarma! Thank you for everything you’d done for the raw food community. Your work is an inspiration and your friendship is always appreciated. Here’s to changing the game! Much Love from Anthony, Shannon, Philip and Dhrumil.
Ask Sarma
Andie asks: “What’s your favorite/least favorite parts to your job? is it overall enjoyable or do you ever get really stressed out? plus, what’s your favorite snack?”
Sarma: My favorite parts to my job? First, it feels weird to even call it a “job.” It’s just me, it’s what I do, it’s what I am, and I wouldn’t do anything else. But that’s exactly one of the best parts… having all the certainty imaginable about what I’m doing. Another favorite part is getting to work with ridiculously lovely talented people. And I love meeting new people at the restaurant and making people happy. I love when new dishes, desserts, ice creams or cookies are developed at the restaurant. I love finding really cool new products to add to the oneluckyduck site. Except… right now we have a huge backlog of things I want to add to our inventory and we can’t yet add them. So, this brings me to a less favorite part of what I do. It would have to be that I still feel that my hands are somewhat tied. This will change soon, but for now it’s challenging. I want to do so many things and not being able to do them can feel frustrating, but I’m working on that! I would love more space and resources. Sometimes I wish I could forget about it all for a while. That part is hard. Building a big business is maybe a little bit like having kids. You can’t put them back, or walk away from them. And you wouldn’t ever want to, because it’s so great and you love them (it) with all your heart and they are a part of you. But, still… sometimes my soul longs to do something mindless and without weight and responsibility. My work and home are combined into one, so there isn’t much separation, which is okay. But I really do want to take a true vacation one of these days. No laptop, no blackberry. Some of my favorite parts of what I do are also the hardest parts. Being in charge is great. But sometimes I don’t want it all to come back to me, and I wish I could just defer to someone else and go take a nap instead. Sometimes I actually do this. I have good support all around me—that’s really nice too. People I love and trust who know the overall vision, so if I need to take a mental break and run off, I can in fact sometimes do that. I should do that. Hmmmm. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
Andie asks: “What’s your favorite/least favorite parts to your job? is it overall enjoyable or do you ever get really stressed out? plus, what’s your favorite snack?”
Sarma: My favorite parts to my job? First, it feels weird to even call it a “job.” It’s just me, it’s what I do, it’s what I am, and I wouldn’t do anything else. But that’s exactly one of the best parts… having all the certainty imaginable about what I’m doing. Another favorite part is getting to work with ridiculously lovely talented people. And I love meeting new people at the restaurant and making people happy. I love when new dishes, desserts, ice creams or cookies are developed at the restaurant. I love finding really cool new products to add to the oneluckyduck site. Except… right now we have a huge backlog of things I want to add to our inventory and we can’t yet add them. So, this brings me to a less favorite part of what I do. It would have to be that I still feel that my hands are somewhat tied. This will change soon, but for now it’s challenging. I want to do so many things and not being able to do them can feel frustrating, but I’m working on that! I would love more space and resources. Sometimes I wish I could forget about it all for a while. That part is hard. Building a big business is maybe a little bit like having kids. You can’t put them back, or walk away from them. And you wouldn’t ever want to, because it’s so great and you love them (it) with all your heart and they are a part of you. But, still… sometimes my soul longs to do something mindless and without weight and responsibility. My work and home are combined into one, so there isn’t much separation, which is okay. But I really do want to take a true vacation one of these days. No laptop, no blackberry. Some of my favorite parts of what I do are also the hardest parts. Being in charge is great. But sometimes I don’t want it all to come back to me, and I wish I could just defer to someone else and go take a nap instead. Sometimes I actually do this. I have good support all around me—that’s really nice too. People I love and trust who know the overall vision, so if I need to take a mental break and run off, I can in fact sometimes do that. I should do that. Hmmmm. 
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