Sunday, January 31, 2010

Moments


This was during my Chef Instructor Demonstration, i was as red as a tomato.


Karrilee stopped cause i got real car sick over the mountain.


Tyler and I


Dara and Karrilee


Dara and I again, with her beautiful red lipstick.


THe beautiful flowers i saw walking home on my last day.


Dara, Edgar, Emily, our last 3-6-9 shot, with our diplomas!


3,6,9 and Brandon and Linus


My diploma and Jenny Cornbleet


Hiroyuki, Ken, and Phillipa, it truly was an international crew.


The beautiful Phillipa and I


Me and Maddie in my moms lovely aprons.


Some more of my living light family.



Some beautiful people, i miss them all!


Dara and I


Chef Instructor Dara.


Ms. Alina Lovin


Graduation Chocolate Mousse Pie.


Delicious Dolmas


Mint Chocolate Cheesecake


Amazing Enchiladas

So today I finally have mustered up the energy to talk about my last few days experience at Living Light. All i can say is that im super sad and that is why it has taken me so long to even think about writing to ya'll. Okay so you just saw a synopsis of my last few days in Fort Bragg, from enchiladas to diplomas. It was so hard to leave everyone, i just tried to pretend that i would be back soon and everyone would still be there. But the reality has sunk in, I will not be back there with all the same people, because we are dispersed all around the world, and just like I leave my family in Jersey, I am stuck leaving yet again another family.

Yes I feel burdened with sadness, but the one thing this course has left me with was the euphoric feeling of love and happiness. So i had a little cry one night when a friend, Andree, played us a song called Moments she had written about her grandfather. It was really touching and it was so true: Why don't these moments ever last? Well they do in a way, sort of staying in our memories for a little while, but the sad part is when they start to fade. So im going to stock up on B12 so that my memory doesn't diminish too much!

Well i suppose that i should get over the sadness that has encumbered me and start to tell you about how i felt after being on the raw food diet for 3 weeks: It was incredible, my weight i believe stayed the same, i might have even gained 2 pounds, its hard to say since i used different scales. But I've been feeling amazing, I'm not as exhausted as i use to be, my mind feels clear, and my hair is curlier and healthier (the curls could be a by product of the 3 weeks of straight rain), my skin is glowing, and to be completely honest i feel beautiful, something i know i should have felt a long time ago, but now i really feel it! Russell has always told me how "special and beautiful" i am but i never believed him before now.

So all in all i think that going raw is an incredible amazing life choice, however it does take a lot of commitment and passion and love. So if you want the energy and euphoria that surrounded me these past few weeks i would totally recommend trying to incorporate 90% raw foods into your diet! Thats all for now, i will probably edit this and add more tomorrow!

Peace Love and Vegetables!

Embones

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Mayo Detestation...


My Burger garnished with a Crispy Onion!


Dara enjoying her Delicious Burger!


Look at how burger like this Zoom Burger is! YUM!


My Crispy Sweet Onion Rings


our yummy yummy quiche


My mom made me this most amazing skirt, i wore it around all day, which is obvious since im outside posing with artwork!


This one's for you Russell!


Jersey girls, soul sistas!


Some of my beautiful raw food babes!


Hello Hello. Today was my student demo: Crispy Sweet Onion Rings. This is where we had to get up in front of everyone and pretend we were Raw Emeril Lagasse and BAM here's our recipe we're teaching you. We were equipped with video camera's, and microphones that clip onto your chef coat, and there were 26 people watching, it was pretty intense! It went good though, i guess, i was a bit neurotic but everyone else said they didn't notice. It took me a while to calm down, but it was fun all in all.

Today we ate the most satisfying quiche for lunch, YUM! It was spinach mushroom, olive and sun-dried tomatoes! Really freaking good!! Then for dinner we had Zoom Burgers with a side of Onion Rings, kale coleslaw, homemade Ketchup (catsup), spicy mustard, and cashew mayo. For those of you who know me, you know that i detest mayonnaise, it is like a bad horrible nightmare. I blame my detestation of mayo on my darling brother Henry. My brothers were very smart, as soon as i learned how to walk they trained me to pour them drinks, and make them food, but i have this one distinct memory of a situation with mayonnaise. It involved my skinny little scrawny hand fitting in the mayo jar with a knife to get every last drop to put on Henry's sandwich, but this mayo got all up my arm, and in between my fingers and it was just soo disgusting, then my brother cut his sandwich with a knife and there was mayo all over the knife and he then licked the knife. Oh so gross. Now my husband loves mayo (im not sure how people could possible like it) and he was really sweet and made me dinner one night, well he slapped so much mayo on my veggie chicken sandwich that i screamed at him, don't you know that i HATE MAYO? and i got so mad at him for ruining it. He thought he would try and sneak it onto my sandwich without me knowing, ugh ok ok thats enough background on my detestation of mayo. But here is the point of all my rambling i loved this CASHEW MAYO!!!

I'm getting so sad at the thought that we are leaving on friday! I mean i am excited to go back to oz, but i just really loved the connections i've shared with all my new friends here. They are such amazing beautiful people and i am so sad to part from their amazing positive energy and outlook on life and food and health and their ideas on how to change the world with one recipe at a time! I love how this course brought us together and it's no coincidence, we were meant to share this experience and go down this path together! I love you guys!
So yesterday im sorry if i disappointed any of ya'll by not posting, but today is my Student Demo. So i was fooling around, and preparing for my demo with a few of the amazing cats that im living here with. We are down to 3 days left, and the thought of leaving all my new friends is rather quite sad, but i'll have to look at it as im going home to see all my great friends there!

Ok so Im going to try and weigh in tomorrow, which i'm very unsure as to how im doing in that department. My wedding ring no longer fits on my finger but my gut has been swollen like a poor lil bloated cow. But ill try and do that tonight or tomorrow. Then i'll have to pack, but i will definately catch up with writing on sat and sunday. Love to you! Emily



Me and Luciana eating like little piglets!


THis was our Minestrone soup we made that Karrilee demo-ed. Delicious as well.


This is one of our Pizza's, really fantastic. My friend Andree demonstrated this!


THis is my lunch, it was what Edgar was presenting: Teriyaki Pineapple Skewers, and then i added a boatload of other veggies and saurkraut! So delicious. Look at how the pineapple seems to have a cooked texture!




Here are some silly pics of me and Karrilee, and Tyler's Mr. Banana, and of Edgar doing his student demo.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Where do you get your protein?

Well it's 8:09 here in Fort Bragg and it's still raining (it has for the past 2 weeks with an exception to saturday). Today we are practicing for our student demonstrations we have to do. I am preparing Crispy Sweet Onion Rings, which entails slicing 5 1/2 lbs of onions today, and 2 1/2 on Wednesday, should be fun!

I suppose i should update my moods and things like that, today i woke up no problem, and I feel really excited about something? Im not quite exactly sure, but it's that kind of euphoric feeling i've been getting lately!! I ate all raw yesterday thanks to my darling Dara, and Edgar who made me stuff like raw hot chocolate, a green smoothie, these delicious cabbage bites with walnut cilantro pesto, topped with a salad of cucumbers, apples, radishes, radish greens, lemon, and salt! Then we put diced tomatoes and cubed avocado on top! They were incredible, but my camera was dead from all those mushroom pictures i had taken so there regretfully is no photo documentation! The raw chocolate was made from maca powder, vanilla powder, some special chinese herbs, coconut butter, flax oil, salt, agave, and cashews, i'm sure im forgetting some ingredients but ill check with Dara.

Ok about the question "Where do you get your protein?" : Well it's a massive misconception that you can only get protein from animal foods. Greens are 50% protein by calorie, so in theory if you were to only eat greens (which is unrealistic but it's just an example) youwould get more protein than if you were to eat just meat. Also when your eating raw, you are absorbing your protein better, thus getting more protein then what you would from animal protein. Here are some great vegetarian ways to get protein: 1 tablespoon of Spirulina (5g) Hemp seeds are high in protein 5-6% but sorry aussie's you can't get it in seed in Australia. And just eat a green smoothie in the morning to get that extra boost of protein! There are also some supplements like Vita mineral Green powder you can put in your drink if you think you need more protein!

Ok off to school i go!! Hope this helped!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Botanical Gardens




































So yesterday I was suppose to do a lot of things, including cleaning my room, make chocolates, do laundry, do homework, update blog with recipes and pictures, and be ready to go to dinner with a bunch of my classmates. Well the only things i did on my to do list was go to dinner with classmates!

I woke up excited to exercise so i actually went for a run. It was the first sunny day in what felt like 2 weeks. So I really and truly went for a run then did a small and some may even say feeble attempt at exercising, but it worked cause i woke up sore this morning!

Yesterday was a fabulous day, filled with sunshine and good people! After my "exercise" me Karrilee, and Carolyn went to the Botanical Gardens here in Fort Bragg, then walked around the cute town of Mendocino. Ill post a bunch of pictures of all these crazy mushrooms and beautiful ocean views. Then we came home and got ready to go back to Mendocino for dinner. It was really fun, although our food took forever and i mean it was 2 1/2 hours after we ordered, but none the less it was delicious. Minus the fact that the sprouted quinoa was more like crunchy un-soaked quinoa! I had maybe not even 1 glass of wine, and it was a white wine, which i normally dislike, but this was super delicious. After our escapades at Raven's restaurant (yes i got the same ravioli dish i had got the time before), we went to our friend Matt's. There were the most delicious little zucchini roll ups that tasted just like they could be those junk food hot pocket like things that are made of saturated fat and carcinogenics. They were warm, right from the dehydrator and we dipped them in salsa...so freaking yummy! I forgot to take pictures of them because i was too busy shoveling em down my guliver (throat). Now i have to research the nutritional content of onions for my student demonstration that will take place on Wednesday. Oh and a recipe i promised all you eager readers! haha

Here's a Basic guacamole that i"m going to make for lunch today:

3 Avocado's ripe Cubed
1/2 tomato diced
1/4 onion minced
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 lime or lemon juice
1 jalapeno minced
small handful Cilantro (coriander) chopped finely
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl....yum!