Raw Blackforest Cake

Oh boy.. I had been waiting ALL winter for this time of year! It finally happend!! Cherries, cherries, cherries! What a bumper Crop we have had !!

So, in honour of all that cherry goodness,, I did something I have wanted to do for a LONG time!

I made a Raw Blackforest Cake.

Dani and I are trying some new techniques we are learning through the Sweet Gratitude book. The raw dessert book from the Cafe Gratitude people. Amazing book!

It is so exciting to learn and grow. Seeing the process evolve into something you could only have dreamed of is a thrill that I am happy to say I know well now.

This cake took a long long time to make. It was many stages, and waiting times. Honest, it was a 5 hour process for us this time! Maybe we were tired that day, or maybe there were just a lot of steps and experiments going on. Not sure. But it was worth the effort.

Enjoy the beauty of this splendid cake.. it tasted as good as it looked.

ps. The cherries with the stems were from the neighbourhood. I found the tree on a local walking path.. yum!

Banana Split

Last Thursday we had a class on making Raw Banana Splits at Planet Organic in Victoria BC.

The class was awesome!!

We had many people return from other days, and had some new people who came up to me and said..

 " EJ, we were told to come to these classes because they are SO good!! I Loved your class.. thank you !"

I must admit, I find it spectacular when people get so much good out of my classes, that they want to share them with others!  

Here are some pictures of the LIKENESS of the Banana Split we made! We were so busy teaching and showing that we forgot to take pictures.

The next day, I made this one at home.. we don't happen to have any banana split bowls. So I used what we had. A martini glass!

It was a super hot day here on the Island, and the ice cream started to melt pronto! 

This one is made with 

Strawberry Ice Cream

Fresh Raspberry Coulis

Chocolate Sauce

Chopped Walnuts 

and 

A fresh Cherry

It was sooo good. I did not even finish the photo shoot of it before I started to eat up the chocolate coating, which got all crunchy and yummy! 

10 Easy Budget ways to Eat Raw!

I Just posted this to Raw Fu today, responding to Wendysmiling question... Raw on A Tight Budget.
Thought it would be GREAT idea to have it on my blog too!!! ( seeing as I have not figured out entirely how to link things yet.)
You can find the forum at this link, Raw Fu Forum .

Here are some things that I do that bring me joy as well as lots of yummy things to eat. AND then I just feel ABUNDANT when thinking about food!

1. I LOVE to forage and Find lot of delicious things like: berries, apples, cherries, miner's lettuce, dandelions, other greens and other kinds of fruits. I make fabulous smoothies with these! ( It helped to have a book on edible wild plants when I started out)
   
2. I grow sprouts on my window
3. Find the foods in season, usually very reasonable pricing .
4. I grow some food on my own outside. That is fun, but I don't really grow enough to feed my family by what I grow.
5. I shop the 'sales' and find what is on sale at variety of places. I get the sales from grocery stores sent to my inbox that helps with knowing what is on sale, without having to do a lot of running around.
6. There are many grocery stores and a fresh grocer that sell many items that are locally grown! How great is that!
7. There are also community gardens, but they are too far away to walk to get to.. so I don't get to those. But if you have a community garden close by, great to participate in!
8. Those are some ideas I have used for my family. My kids eat some cooked food , so there are things that I buy that are in bigger quantities. Like rice, beans, etc.
9. We also had the grocery stores in our area without any 'reduce rack' produce, for a few years! I kept asking for it, and one day, in one of there stores.. it popped up!
10. I have also made friends with many of the produce people in the grocery stores,, just because I am there so much. So, when I see things that are really ripe, and think they will not last to the next day I ask the produce manager ( or staff person) if I could have it at a reduced rate. Sometimes it they say yes. sometimes they say no. But when they say yes, I get it for half price or more!

Hope that helps!

Peace and light
EJ

Raw Banana Split Class

Tomorrow Is BANANA SPLIT DAY

The plans are all in place
Chef EJ ( ME!) will be teaching this class with my lovely assistant Dani to help out .
Thurs. July 16
6:30 -7:30 pm
Planet Organic
Mckenzie Ave and Quadra St.
Victoria BC

You will learn how to make a scrumptious guilt free... RAW Banana Split
These Recipes will be shown at the class and you will be given the print outs of them too!

Super Fast and Easy Chocolate Ice Cream
Chocolate Sauce
Raspberry Coulis

So tell all your friends, and Join us at this FREE class! YUMMY!!!!