Review of Grezzo Restaurant

I stopped by Boston on my way to visit the Berkshire Mountains this past week and of course I wanted to check out Grezzo, Alissa Cohen's raw restaurant in Boston. When I first walked into the restaurant I was impressed with how cozy and vibrant it felt. It is a smaller sized restaurant with beautiful vibrant pictures on the wall of various fruits. While looking at the menu I had a hard time deciding on what to get. It all looked delicious. I started with a spring mix salad that was very good and had dollops of raw cheeze on the side. To drink I had cranberry lemonade which is a combination I hadn't thought of yet but will definitely try making at home. Then I had the bacon wrap which I enjoyed! The wrap was made out of flax seeds and various seasonings, the bacon was made out of eggplant and it was also filled with a cashew based cream cheeze, lettuce, tomato and avocado. The eggplant bacon on its own tasted a bit too salty for me but altogether everything tasted great. On the side there were potato and sweet potato chips which I enjoyed. For dessert I had the apple crisp with clove ice cream on the side. The apples were sliced very thinly which made for a nice aesthetic appeal. I loved the clove ice cream as well! Together with the clove ice cream it was a delicious dessert! If I get a chance to go again I want to try the brownie sundae which many customers ordered and looked amazing!
I fell off of the raw wagon last week while visiting in the Berkshire mountains at Kripalu. It is hard because in my head I feel that eating raw food is best for vibrant health but I still struggle with tempting vegan dishes that are cooked. I also have problems staying raw when I am traveling because I don't have all of my favorite go to raw places to rely on. Anyways, I am back on raw again and loaded up a ton of fruits and veggies for the week with a focus on whole fruits and veggies and I didn't buy any nuts this week or dried fruits. I am planning on making a chocoalte mint pudding this week.

Chocolate Banana Pudding!

So today is my second day eating 100% raw minus the nuts! It has been going quite well actually. I have been making green juices, today I made celery, parsley, and apple juice. It was quite tasty. Just sweet enough to drown out the bitterness of the parsley. I had a large kale salad with an avocado on top and honey drizzled on top of that. Besides that I have been grazing on grapefruit, apples and bananas pretty much eating until I felt satisfied :-). Tonight I made a chocolate banana pudding (since I am cutting out the nuts I made a pudding dessert instead of a pie). I am not digging into this until tomorrow because I want it to set but I confess I licked the vitamix and it tastes pretty darn good.
So I want to talk about some things I have noticed eating this way. I notice that I am filling up eating fruit rather than trying to fill up eating nut based foods. I actually am feeling completely full and satisfied too. I have noticed that my skin is clearer and my hair is not as oily. Seriously, every morning when I wake up my hair is usually oily enough that I feel I have to wash it. Today when I woke up I noticed that it wasn't oily and if I didn't wash it, it would still be fine and clean. That is awesome to me because honestly what girl doesn't want good hair? I just notice my hair is healthier and less weighed down eating this way. This is only two days of eating this way and I am already noticing positive changes. I don't know that at the end of this month I will completely cut out nuts but I definitely was eating way too many. I may even guess some days I was eating 3/4 of my diet in nuts. Anyway, I am going to be making a lot of puddings this month because I still have to have my desserts you know! Oh, in this last picture I am drinking the coconut water leftover from the coconuts I used in this recipe. I love coconut water! So yummy!!!

Chocolate Banana Pudding

3 Avocados
3 Bananas
1/4 cup of honey (add more or less depending on how sweet you like it!)
1/4 cup of raw chocolate
*Mix these ingredients together in the vitamix or blender. In a blender you may need to add some water to get it to mix together. When creamy and smooth, spread the pudding into a dish.

Whip Cream Topping:
Meat from 2 young thai coconuts
1/4 cup of honey (again more or less for your tastes)
*Mix together in your vitamixer. Mix until it is creamy and spread it on top of the chocolate mixture.

*Garnish however you like. I used one banana and cocnut flakes! Enjoy! Cheers!

Raw For 30 Days

I am committing to eating raw for 30 days starting today. Although I do eat very high raw (90 - 100% most days) I am going 100% for December. I am also going to focus on eating fruits and veggies as I talked about in an earlier post. I definitely have the tendency to eat gourmet raw foods and I can tell I am not looking and feeling my best when I do this. If we are what we eat then I would rather be a juicy piece of fruit than a dried up piece of fruit. I will be cutting out the nuts as well as I can tell I seem to have trouble digesting them. I have been reading blogs from people who follow the 80 10 10 raw food diet and am seeing myself heading more in that direction. A part of me is sad over this because I love being creative in the kitchen and I feel I will be limited. I love making gourmet raw food and desserts. However I am just going to try this out for the month of December and see how it goes. Today I went grocery shopping and loaded up my cart with as many fresh fruits and veggies as my heart desired. I was shocked when I got to the check out and my total was $40. I normally pay around $7o and I guess it was because I didn't get all the dried fruits, nuts, etc that I normally get. However, I am still going to be making my chocolate pies with avocados and making pies with coconut meat, I will just use my nutless pie recipe :-). Don't worry I will still have some good recipes on here just ones a bit simpler :-).
I am leaving on Saturday to visit friends at Kripalu for a week (why I am going up North during the winter time is beyond me!). I am planning on going to Grezzo (Alissa Cohen's restaurant in Boston) so stay tuned for a review from there. I might have to break the no nuts rule when I go there as I know most things will probably have nuts but I have heard such great things about this restaurant I really must try it :-). In other news I have been slowly getting over a cold that began the day after Thanksgiving. I have been drinking tons of liquids and eating lots of fruits and veggies. I can tell it is clearing up today but I am still feeling a bit run down. Good thing I don't have as many yoga classes to teach this week. I do have one tonight though which I will have to muster up some energy for. Well, hope all is well for everyone!

Divine Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes

Today I made my Thanksgiving desserts so that they would be able to set and be perfect to eat tomorrow. I made a Chocolate Whipped Cream Pie garnished with coconut flakes and raspberries and Apple Cranberry Crisp. I am starting my quiche tomorrow morning so it will be ready by dinner time. My dad helped me make these which was nice of him. So we are no longer going to Charlotte for Thanksgiving. Since our cars still need to be serviced we are staying in Atlanta. Tomorrow I am going to my friend Todd's house around 11 am for an acroyoga / thanksgiving potluck with friends. That should be fun. I am going to bring the apple cranberry crisp there. Then, I will go home and our family is going to the dollar movies and then we will have dinner at home and eat the chocolate whipped cream pie, quiche and kale salad which I am planning garnishing with pomegranate.
I have been doubling my vegetable juice from what I normally drink lately. I want to keep my immune system extra strong. I also realized that I am not quite at the point of eating low fat raw because if I don't have the fats I start eating unhealthy cooked food instead. Eating the higher fats helps me to stay raw right now. It is such a balance and I guess it takes a while to figure out what is right for your own body. I am still learning for sure. I will have more pictures tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

For the Cranberry Apple crisp follow the directions here. The only difference is that I juiced 1/4 cup of fresh cranberries and poured it on top of the apples.

Chocolate Whipped Cream Pie:

Ingredients crust: 2 cups of almonds, 1 cup of dates, dash of sea salt

Directions: Process in a food processor until well combined and press into pie pan.

Chocolate Filling: 3 avocados, 1/4 cup of raw chocolate, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/8 cup of water (adjust to your own liking)

Directions: Whip in a vitamixer or blender until creamy and smooth. Spread the chocolate layer down first.

Whipped Cream: 2 cups of coconut meat, 1/4 cup of honey

Directions: Whip in vitamixer until creamy and smooth. Smooth the whipped cream over the chocolate layer.

Garnish your pie with dried coconut flakes and raspberries and enjoy!

Kale Salad

This kale salad has been one of my favorites lately. I am eating it today for lunch :-). So I have been coming to a conclusion on a new way of eating for myself. It is still raw but I feel that I focus so much on the gourmet raw foods and although they are yummy and I still want to make gourmet raw foods I need to take my focus back to pure fruits and veggies. I just get caught up in eating gourmet and my diet ends up being filled with so many nuts and little amounts of fruits and veggies. I really feel that the fresh fruits and veggies are where the real healing comes from. I will focus on getting my fats from avocados and coconuts and try using a very minimal amount of nuts and seeds. I can usually tell a difference in my body whenever I have eaten this way, I look a bit healthier and feel better too. Another cool thing is that I think I may end up saving some money doing this. Nuts and seeds tend to be more expensive than fresh fruits and veggies at least here in Atlanta. Today I went to the farmers market and I can get an entire bag of organic pink lady apples for $3.69 for 13 apples. I think I am going to try and make eating fruits and veggies the staple of my diet and save gourmet recipes for once a week or special occasions. I am still going to focus on making veggie juice daily.
Now Thanksgiving is coming up this week so I will be making some gourmet recipes for that! So far on the menu I am going to make green bean casserole (same as last year), chocolate pie (from avocado) with whip cream topping (coconut meat based), apple crisp, kale salad, cucumber salad and I want to try something new this year but am not sure what. I have enough desserts so I am thinking of another side dish. If you have any good suggestions for something new I should make let me know!
On another note I am putting out into the universe that I will have more yoga jobs. My goal is to have 2-3 yoga jobs a day each paying $50 and to teach M-F. May the universe provide this for me.
I guess that is all on my end, hope you all have a wonderful week!

Kale Salad Recipe:

1 head of kale
2 tablespoons of honey
1 avocado
1 carrot shredded

Directions: Chop the kale up fine, mix all ingredients together and eat!

Yoga Retreat and Peanut Butter Cookies

So the retreat this weekend was fun. This is a sample of some of the body building we did with each other. I am to the right with blue pants on on the bottom. This is the yoga room that we practiced in which is so beautiful. All of the food served was vegan and always included a nice salad. I haven't juiced in a few days and just started back up again today. I made peanut butter cookies yesterday and I think they are a nice snack. I really want to focus on adding more veggie juices to my diet. I think I will try doubling the amount of juicing I am doing now. I feel that is really where the healing comes from, the green juices.
I have been reflecting on my life lately. I have done a lot of new things in the past year: got my yoga training, studied theatre, voice and piano for a semester in college, went to Kripalu and have started on building my yoga jobs up. A year ago around this time I was in my yoga training in Mexico and had just quit my job of four years. I left something with great pay and great benefits behind to search for something else. It has been an interesting journey and I think one of the most valuable things I have gained is my connection with other people. I feel that I have learned how to connect with other people in a much more meaningful way and that has added richness to my life. My friendships are more real and more fun too! I am still on this journey and actually am planning to do a bit more traveling this summer to Mauii to live and work on a meditation and yoga retreat. The detials are not definite yet though.

Peaunut Butter Cookies:

2 cups of raw peaunuts
2 cups of coconut flakes
25 organic dates
1/2 cup of water

Directions: Grind the peaunuts up until you get a fine powder (use a food processor). Put the dates in the vitamixer with water and mix until well combined. Mix all of your ingredients together to make your dough. Once thoroughly combined roll out your dough and use a cup to make circular cookies. Put in the dehydrator for 10 hours at 110 degrees.

Simple Snack: Flax crackers and guacamole

So my snack / lunch this week has consisted of these flax crackers with guacamole. I love making flax crackers because they are so quick and easy and I can make yummy dips to eat them with! In other news I have taught one yoga class today and have two more to go. Then, tonight I am watching improv at Dad's garage with my friend Gary who just got into town from NYC. I will have to pack tonight because tomorrow around 12 I am carpooling to Brunswick, GA for a weekend of acro yoga! Last night my dad used my pizza recipe and made four pizzas all by himself. I am trying to encourage him to learn how to make raw food so he doesn't have to depend on me to make it. I tried it this morning and it turned out perfect! He wants to make some for a thanksgiving potluck going on at his work next week.
Last Friday I got my hair trimmed and cut into layers. I really like it and feel it helps to give my hair more body. I took a picture of my hair after I curled it (which I don't do too often) and so that is the picture here. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Flax Crackers Recipe:
3 cups of flax seeds
1 cup of water
Soak the flax seeds in water for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes you should have a nice flax type paste. Spread the paste onto a dehydrator trays and set it to 110 degrees leaving them in for 10 hours. Then I just break them apart and have nice crackers for dips! Enjoy!