Sunday 1 September 2013

The Raw Food Kitchen's -Raw food & Yoga Workshop.





Off I went, destination Manly, it was to be my first Raw food & Yoga Workshop.
Once I arrived, I was immediately met by the lovely, Amanda, the founder of The Raw Food Kitchen & also Sarah Burrows, the Hatha yoga teacher. I was promptly handed a little shot glass of the loveliest cleansing green juice, now most people may screw up their noses at the thought of a green juice, but I can vouch for this one, it was super delicious.
 

I chatted with Amanda about Ubud, Indonesia; she had just returned from there. I am Ubud bound in less than 3 weeks, so I picked her brain about the best cafe’s & how to avoid bali belly. She happily shared some tips. Slightly off topic but Ubud is a raw foodie’s mecca (plethora of raw cafes ), not to mention the abundant array of yoga ashrams & retreats. 

Ok, back to the workshop, so more people started filing in, all ages, which included young girls to older ladies. I love seeing the diversity of people that have somehow been inspired by this raw food lifestyle. I chatted with a few ladies & before I knew it, it was time for Sarah’s yoga class. This was the perfect start, held outdoors, on the deck. It put me into a lovely relaxed state & assisted in building an appetite for an afternoon of raw food delights.


Yoga complete & slightly bleary eyed (in a good way), I found myself a seat in the kitchen where Amanda started her first recipe, a rejuvenating smoothie. Amanda managed to easily explain the recipe, whilst whipping up what looked like a super nutritious smoothie, full of fabulous fresh ingredients, containing a couple of my favourite superfoods, acai & hemp protein. When the individual taster cups came around, I nearly fell off my chair, it was so good. Darn it, why don’t my smoothies taste that good. Ok, ok, that’s why I was there; I needed to inject some variety into my raw food lifestyle (which up till now has been pretty limited). I only really started delving into the raw world at the start of this year.

Next up was a kaleslaw salad. Ah the crunch of fresh kale/cabbage/carrot/beetroot, along with a wickedly good dressing, made from cashews & a whole slew of other nourishing yummies. Now that summer is creeping back, I’m looking forward to embracing more salads again.




Amanda moved onto a dehydrated raw herb & garlic bread (it’s not actually bread as there was no wheat & gluten). Now, I’ve never made bread in my dehydrator, so I was all ears. When the taster came round, topped with a basil pesto, let’s just say that I possibly will never eat ‘normal’ bread again. Amanda guided everyone through, happily answering all questions, from where to source ingredients, to how to substitute ingredients within a recipe. Amanda is such a wonderful wealth of knowledge.

  

Next up was Kombucha. Now, I’d never heard of this wonderful home brewed effervescent drink. It holds many health benefits, one of which includes 10 trillion good bacteria, just in a glass of 100ml, pretty outstanding if you ask me. So, digestive problems be gone! Amanda talked us through exactly how to start our own Kombucha brew. Currently, my scoby (Kombucha) is brewing snuggly in the cupboard & hopefully turning into the wonderful healing and immune boosting elixir. 

Next we were onto the sweet things, my favourite! If anyone out there has never had the opportunity to enjoy a raw dessert, do yourself a favour & try one, as they are delicious. A great starter into raw food, as you get your sweety fix, full of raw ingredients/superfoods. So, yes, you can feel good about eating dessert. WIN!
Lime & coconut mousse was the dessert, which was so simple, the main ingredients being coconut & avocado, along with lime & a few other ingredients. Drop everything into a vitamix/food processor & let it do its thing. Refrigerate & voila, a sublime light summery mousse.



Amanda has a small stall/shop on site & in the break you can purchase ingredients to take home with you. I purchased a scoby so I could work on brewing my own kombucha.

Amanda then announced that it was The Raw Food Kitchen’s first Birthday & because of that, we were getting a bonus dessert. A berry swirl cheesecake. Gah, it was heavenly. For those of you that don’t know, raw food diets do not contain any dairy, grains or meat. So a raw cheesecake is made up mainly of cashew nuts, that have been soaked (activated), and then blended in a vitamix/food processor until it turns into the creamy body of the cheesecake. I like to think I’m a cheesecake connoisseur & I can tell you, you’d be hard pressed telling the difference when it comes to taste between a full on fatty dairy cheesecake & a raw super food cheesecake. I know which one my body prefers!
 


So lovelies, I highly recommend Amanda’s Raw food classes, great for a raw food introduction or to broaden your raw repertoire. This workshop ran for 4 hours & I think it was WELL worth it.
I’m thinking I will also attend her next class, Introduction to sprouting & fermenting. I’m especially interested in the benefits of eating fermented products & being able to make them myself.

Details are, date: Saturday 19 October, 2013. 2pm to 5.30pm. See you there!

See Amanda’s website The Raw Food Kitchen for e-books full of recipes.