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Hello blog-land- it has been a while, hasn’t it. When I started blogging less and less, I always wondered if eventually I would hit a “blog-craving” – you know, when you are looking your blog and you think “I really want to post.” I did occasionally, because I like sharing things about life, gluten-free vegan food, travel, and sundry topics… and then I would post about it on Instagram.  Interestingly, I had semi-sort-of foreshadowed all of this almost exactly three years ago too: Looking at the last few weeks and ahead at the next few weeks, it is likely that posts here will continue to be sporadic, so I encourage you to follow me on Instagram in addition to this site.

I remember when I was blogging actively, I could not imagine not blogging.  And back then, I could also not imagine cooking more elaborate interesting meals. Yet, fast forward a few years, and I most definitely have done both things. There have been (too many) weeks of spinach salad with hemp seeds, smoothies, lara bars, red lentils cooked with turmeric, baked tofu, rinse and repeat.  2016 was the height of food simplicity, but 2016, along with 2015, are the two years I have worked the hardest in my life. In 2016 alone, I had 17 to 19 work trips, depending on whether you count by cities or by times I was out of DC).  Oddly, though, I kept at my 5 workouts/yoga classes a week, and eating gluten-free and vegan, sticking to at least one green smoothie or green juice a day.  That’s a post for another day, but looking back to some blog entries in the past (like this one), moving did not always come so naturally to me, yet now I take it for granted.

Fast forward to today. 2017 is a little more balanced in some ways.  Back in January, I decided to post an average of 1 instagram a day and see if eventually I would want to blog again. I called it my January plan, and kind of forgot about it. So some combination of that plan, and/or 2017 being a bit more balanced, might be why today, of all days, I truly wanted to put a post out there.  I suspect the craving will hit again at some point (I have several post ideas percolating), but in the meantime, there’s always instagram – I think of it as mini-blogging.  Even if you don’t have instagram, you can always look at it without having an account.


General Disclosures & Disclaimers

The Choosing Raw Cookbook – Review

by Valerie on July 13, 2014 · 4 comments

Choosing Raw: Making Raw Foods Part of the Way You Eat is an amazing new book by Gena Hamshaw who, among many endeavors, writes Choosing Raw, one of  my very favorite vegan food blogs. In this recently released book, Gena shares her infectious enthusiasm for raw cuisine, inspires us with beautiful and creative raw recipes complemented with cooked recipes, and provides guidance on how to easily add more raw vegan foods to your life. 

Choosing Raw Cover

In addition to the recipes – which I can assure you are very good, having tested over 50 of the 125 recipes included, and tried several of the others as well, the book provides a simple path to health and wellness. Gena draws from a mainstream, scientifically sound perspective on healthy living, and makes a vegan diet with many raw options feel easy instead of intimidating.  The majority of the recipes are easy to make, and naturally gluten-free for my fellow gluten-free friends (or easily modified – i.e. things like replacing shoyu with gluten-free tamari, or substituting gluten-free bread for the tartine and avocado toast recipes).  

choosing raw black bean avocado scramble

First, though, full disclosure – Gena is a dear friend. In fact, long-time readers know Gena and I became friends several years ago, initially through our blogs, and ultimately being neighbors in DC the last couple of years.  Over the years, we have shared many meals and moments of hilarity, as well as the less-fun-bits-of-life-that-don’t-always-make-it-to-our-blogs. There have been birthdays and other celebrations (with cupcakes, more cupcakes and, did I mention cupcakes), potlucks, food sharing, juice pulp sharing (cue more hilarity), and many SweetGreen salads(recap of the first).

Choosing Raw, both the book and the blog, is quintessentially Gena – thoughtful, compassionate, inspiring and humble and, at the same time, informative, warm, and sensible.  Like the blog, the book is also beautifully written.  I initially found Choosing Raw just under five years ago, not long after Gena had begun blogging.  After overhauling my diet and going gluten-free/dairy-free/egg-free (I was not vegan at the time, though was leaning that way), I started dabbling in raw foods to increase my repertoire since many raw recipes are naturally gluten-free as well as vegan.  The food was great, but the raw foodie rhetoric did not sit well with me.  Lots of talk of cleansing, toxicity, and “all or nothing” approaches around raw eating. I loved the creativity of the recipes but was not running across many raw foodies I could relate to. 

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Enter Choosing Raw, the blog – at the time, Gena was an editor in New York and working long hours, and I could immediately relate to her enthusiasm for raw foods balanced with a solid dose of pragmatism in light of her heavy work schedule.  A few years later, Choosing Raw, the book, maintains that same balance – Gena writes about being a raw foods enthusiast and provides guidance on how to add more raw vegan foods to your diet in a completely judgment-free, relatable way. The book is chock-full of information on leading a vegan lifestyle, how raw foods can be beneficial (regardless of whether you want to adopt a raw-leaning lifestyle), and then introduces you to the food using an approach of building blocks.

The building blocks approach to the 125 recipes begins with the Essentials – lots of easy recipes for satisfying meal-sized salads, soups, spreads, crackers, snacks, desserts, and breakfasts, followed by the Tried and True section – then Something New, followed by Brave New World, which leans to the all-raw or high-raw.  The book concludes with Desserts for Everyone, like the No-Bake Tartlet with Raw Vegan Chocolate Ganache (p. 243) you see below.

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I mentioned above, as one of the recipe testers for the book, I tested 50 of the 125 recipes. Even more importantly, my husband tried all 50 of them. He is not vegan and, unlike me, does not think green smoothies are a way of life.  He also does not love hummus and quinoa anywhere near as much as me, though he likes certain vegan entrees and salads, regularly eats kale or spinach salads topped with hemp seeds, and often suggests zucchini noodles as a dinner option.  That said, he also eats meat, cheese, pizza and dairy/egg based desserts, and his palate is far more mainstream than mine, but he found the majority of the Choosing Raw recipes he tried very good, and put the remaining ones in the category of  “this is new, interesting, and might grow on me.”  This should not be a surprise to me as an early Choosing Raw recipe for kale chips (and the inspiration of the kale chip recipes in the book) is known as the magical kale chips recipe in our household.  They were the first kale chips my husband liked and now, a couple of years later, he eats a wider variety of kale chips than he originally would have sampled.     

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My experience working through the Choosing Raw recipe testing process with my husband sampling and opining on the recipes really confirmed my opinion of the accessibility of the book’s recipes to anyone, regardless of their palate or preferences. Whether you are looking to add a few delectable salad and smoothie recipes to your repertoire or change your diet completely, Choosing Raw is a fantastic resource.  It also works very well for a couple or household like mine – i.e. where one person is vegan and/or raw and the other eats a more mainstream diet – because the recipes can work for both.  For example, you could make a dinner of Curried Chickpea Salad (p. 162, part of the Tried and True  section), with a Raw Cobb Salad (p. 145, Meal-Sized Salads), and Gazpacho (p.180, Something New) and address multiple palates and dietary preferences.

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The photos I share in this post are of Mango Coconut Chia Pudding (p. 172, part of the intermediate Something New section) and the Chocolate Acai Bowl (p.209, Brave New World), both of which happen to be favorite breakfast or anytime snacks.  I am also sharing photos of the Coconut Curry Kelp Noodle (p. 223, Brave New World) and of the No-Bake Tartlet with Raw Vegan Chocolate Ganache (p. 243, Desserts for Everyone), which never cease to impress people, vegan or not.  There are several kelp noodle recipes in the book, and all have Asian-inspired flavor profiles – so I often pair them with veggie sushi.

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Below I share a recipe from Choosing Raw for the Avocado Black Bean Breakfast Scramble (p. 178, Something New) – if there ever was a recipe that made me believe that raw vegan foods can appeal to a palate as mainstream as my husband’s this was it.  You will note it serves 4, but we finished the whole recipe between the two of us as dinner the first time we tried it.  The Avocado Black Bean Scramble has become a staple for us, as have the Heat-Free Lentil and Walnut Tacos (p. 191, also Something New), the Zucchini Pasta with Mango, Avocado and Black Bean Salsa (p. 216,  Brave New World) and the Pumpkin Quinoa Risotto with Pomegranate Seeds (p. 195, Something New).  

choosing raw black bean avocado scramble

Avocado Black Bean Breakfast Scramble
Makes 4 Servings

2 large avocados (about 12 ounces), peeled and, pitted, and diced into 3⁄4-inch chunks
1 1⁄2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 1⁄2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large carrot, grated (about 1⁄2 cup)
1⁄3 cup diced red onion
1⁄2 cup minced fresh parsley
1 cup cooked black beans
8 lettuce or cabbage leaves
4 slices sprouted-grain bread (optional)
1. Place the avocados in a large mixing bowl and, using a fork, mash them lightly with the lime juice, sea salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.
2. Add the pepper, carrot, onion, parsley, and beans. Mix well, until the avocado resembles a “scramble” and the veggies are distributed evenly.
3. Scoop into lettuce or cabbage leaves and serve (about two per person). You can also eat this piled high on sprouted-grain toast.
To keep leftovers fresh, sprinkle them with lemon juice before storing in an airtight container in the fridge. Kept this way, the hash should last for 2 days.

From Choosing Raw by Gena Hamshaw. Reprinted with permission from Da Capo Lifelong, © 2014.

Gena, it feels like only yesterday that you moved to DC, or when we had this long discussion regarding eating disorders and the executive woman, or many of the other discussions we have had over the years.  It has been such fun having you as my upstairs neighbor, and not just because I got to try even more of the book recipes than I made myself (though that was certainly lovely).  Congratulations again on a beautiful book! 


General Disclosures & Disclaimers

Boston Minute Redux, Part 1: Instagram Edition

July 8, 2014
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A couple of years ago, I was in Boston for work and, at the time, wanted to come back for a vacation.  Having gone to college near Boston, I always like to visit, but two years ago I was especially aware of how much the city had changed and wanted to see some of the […]

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On 2014 and Blogging and Instagram

March 16, 2014
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So it has been pretty quiet around these parts.  My resolution to blog more in 2014 has not exactly happened as I expected.  I feel like I blinked three times and it became mid-March, and yet I feel like it was just the end of January.    I did end up deciding what to do about […]

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Snow + Yoga = #snowga

February 13, 2014

Hello from snowy Washington, DC.  My office was closed today so I worked from home.  And did #snowga: (Photo courtesy of Tranquilspace & Kimberly Wilson) One thing I really appreciate about living in downtown DC is that as long as you can climb over the (badly ploughed) banks of snow, you can generally get in […]

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February – Day in the Life

February 9, 2014
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6.10am – The alarm on my phone rings. I don’t want to move. At least it is already around 30F (-1C) instead of in the single digits.  Also it is raining. Hard.  Still rain > snow in my book, so I can live with that. 6.25am – I am out of bed. I am freezing […]

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January – Day in the Life

January 31, 2014

As January draws to a close (where did it go?) I have thought a lot about what I want to do this year in term of goals / resolutions / themes.  Initially I had a long ambitious list of things I want to accomplish – but that was more of a checklist, which, to me […]

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Chicago Recap – Closing Thoughts

January 28, 2014
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As the winter vortex continues outside, I am starting to think that my Chicago minute trip last month was a good preview for this weather.  As short as the trip was, we did more than eat – we walked around all through the downtown area, went to the Chriskindlmarket, which was amazing, and checked out […]

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Chicago Minute Part 3: Gluten-Free Vegan Sunday Brunch at Karyn’s On Green

January 21, 2014
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When I went to Chicago last month, Karyn’s on Green was absolutely at the top of my list of places to try.  I had read about Johnna’s, Gena’s and JL’s experiences at Karyn’s on Green over the years, and had a feeling I would love both the food and the restaurant’s approach.  Did I mention […]

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Chicago Minute Part 2: Dinner at Frontera Grill

January 13, 2014
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When my husband and I were first discussing our brief stay in Chicago, Frontera Grill was high on his list – I was shocked I was able to make a reservation for a Saturday night, which was the only night we could go based on my work schedule.  I called Frontera Grill  the day my […]

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Chicago Minute Part 1: Lunch at Karyn’s Cooked

January 2, 2014
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Hello from snowy Washington, DC.  I hope everyone who is affected by snow is warm and safe.  The weather out there is reminiscent of Chicago, especially now that the wind has picked up.  I was in Chicago just a few weeks ago for a weekend (prior to a work trip there), and right now I […]

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Happy New Year!

January 1, 2014
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Happy New Year, dear readers!  I hope you have all had a wonderful first day of 2014.  I am usually a big believer in the first day of the year setting the tone – I always make sure to include the following: a fun outing, some yoga, delicious nourishing (and green!) food and drink. This […]

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#kalemail – Drink Your Veggies with Daily Greens

December 27, 2013
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A couple of weeks ago, the folks at Daily Greens contacted me to see if I would be interested in trying out a few of their cold-pressed green juices.  Based in Austin, Daily Greens launched nation-wide delivery this month.  You may have seen the hashtag #kalemail on social media.  Now, you all know I love […]

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December Sanity Retreat 2013–Mindfulness

December 21, 2013

This is my week to host the December Sanity Retreat 2013 – when I looked ahead to the month, my goals were daily reflection, daily check-in’s with myself, and twice-weekly sessions of focusing on my breath for 10 minutes (like I said in July, baby steps on the meditation front).  While I envisioned them as […]

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Grain-Free Vegan Cranberry Pie

December 2, 2013
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Happy Monday after Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers – and happy Monday to everyone else.  I had a bad case of the Mondays today, which is unusual for me.  So let’s talk about pie instead.  Cranberry pie to be exact.   A pie which does not look like a pie, but nevertheless is made in a […]

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