My Happy V-Day to you ~ Very Potent Love Raw Chocolate Potion Mayan Style.

(Psst... Recipe is at the end ;-)

Enjoy!

Chocolate: One of the Secrets of the French Paradox?

A perfect treat for the holidays that is quick, easy and affordable to make for holiday parties and family events. This is the type of recipe you can enjoy that will help to keep you feeling fabulous, stay fit and GLOWing this holiday season.

Rich sugar laden food like pastries and chocolates are everywhere in France. Yet you rarely see overweight people and they have some of the lowest rates of heart disease. I had the privilege of living in the land of everyday best food and wine you'll ever taste, for a whole 9 months (where my culinary passion  began :-) While in living in France, I noticed that a big part of French food culture is including small amounts of very delicious rich foods, like chocolate after meals to satiate appetite. 

Whereas in North America, most people have a habit of eating large amounts of tasteless fast food junk food like frozen pizzas, cookies, chips that leave you mentally hungry for more. So in my books, including rich tasting healthy treats that satiates, in moderation and consumed with mindfulness are a very very important of my whole foods lifestyle.

Above: One of my favourite raw chocolate recipes yum!

I have been buying fresh organic figs now on sale at Whole Foods in Vancouver which are now only $2.99/ lb. I also spent the weekend picking delicious superfood FREE wild and local blackberries. So I wondered if I could come up with a decadent uber-healthy seasonal organic local dessert made a la affordable, quick and easy. Here's what I created - doing my best to meet all the above criteria! This recipe was partially inspired by Genny Bourdage's chocolate fig pudding recipe.

Here is a recipe to celebrate the last of the summer's organic cherries. While I wouldn't call this recipe affordable per say, it is a delicious treat that I like to enjoy at least once (ok twice;-) a year when antioxidant rich cherries are in season. On of my favourite raw food chefs, Ani Phyo inspired this creation, Enjoy!

Balancing Spring Greens with a Decadent Healthy Dessert

I am delighted to have been getting enthusiastic feedback from all my posts with tips on how to include more Spring liver-loving greens into your everyday. Balance is important in life, so I thought I would sneak in a recipe for a delicious decadent dessert ~ still very healthy of course! :-)


Left: Almond Butter Chocolate Mousse Cups. A co-creation with my friend Andrea Potter from Rooted Nutrition.

A Flavour Review: Raw Organic Chocolate

The Secret of #3 for Easy of Everyday Healthy is to learn more than one use for a flavour or a whole food ingredient. Why? When you know several uses for a whole food, inspirations for using the ingredient in your everyday cuisine come easily, especially if you learn Secret # 4 for deliciousness (aka flavour combining).

Left: Julie's Very Potent Love Potion: Raw Chocolate Mayan Drink

Food for the Gods

Thank you to my friend Alexia Harris for writing this blog post and sharing her very secret raw chocolate recipe. Alexia is in my class at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and works at Organic Lives in Vancouver. She has a passion for nutrition, health and a love for raw chocolate. I asked her to share some of her secrets and she agreed! I love this recipe because it is versatile and is a good base for many other creations and is convenient because it uses ingredients from the Everyday Pantry Shopping List.

Raw Chocolate LOVES...Figs and Genny

Thank you to Genny Bourdages, who writes a blog called Blowing Up My Kitchen, for contributing a very easy and quick. I have not had the chance to try it yet since I can't find fresh figs. As I am writing this..I realized that I have dried figs in my pantry so I am considering try to reconstitute them in water and then giving this recipe a whirl. It is a great recipe to keep in your raw chocolate repetoire for the end of summer when fresh figs are in season.

One of my favourite parts of my job is learning! I make a point of regularly volunteering for my friend Andrea Potter's cooking classes. Andrea is a professionally trained chef, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and was the head chef at Radha Yoga and Eatery before she launched her own business Rooted Nutrition.

I had the pleasure to assist Andrea with her Valentine's Day Cooking Class at Radha Eatery and everything was incredibly delicious. I was delighted that she chose to make a Raw Chocolate Ganache Tart. I have never made one before and was excited to add this delicious delicacy to my repertoire of raw chocolate recipes. While I wouldn't say this tart everyday fare, it is fairly easy to make and uses ingredients from my Everyday Pantry Shopping List. This means Raw Chocolate Ganache is convenient if you have your basic and versatile staples on hand.

Andrea was kind enough to allow me to share her recipe with you. The Raw Chocolate Ganache recipe will soon be featured in the Vancouver Sun along with other items on her Valentine's Day Vegan menu like Lentil Shepard's Pie, Miso Gravy, Roasted Marinated Mediterranean Veggies, Polenta and Baked Apple Turnovers. Luck for you, you get a sneak preview :-)

A Food Worthy of the God or Goddess In You

Cacao originates from Central America and has been consumed as medicine and for spiritual purposes for centuries by the indigenous people of the area.  Traces of Theobromine, an alkaloid found in raw cacao that gives this blissful substance it's superfood quality, have been found in bowls dating as far back as 1900 -1500 BC in Chiapas  Mexico.

The Greek prefix, "Theo" refers to the "study of God" and "Bromine" originates from the Greek word "broma". According to my archeologist friend Jay, author of the blog Not the Discovery Channel, who loves research more than anyone I have met and has taken on to researching food topics for me ;-), broma means "oats". But I prefer, the Natural News' article translation of broma: "food". Because this means that, theobromine, can translate to Food of the Gods, instead of Oats of the Gods. Actually...come to think of it, I like the idea that the divine equivalent of morning oatmeal would be chocolate ;-)