Something raw, something cooked

I'll start with the raw. Last month I attended a 3 day vegan yoga retreat at Hepburn Retreat Centre (formerly Continental House). It was a truly inspiring experience, I only wish it had lasted for a full week. I met some amazing people, cooked/ate some amazing food & chilled out with yoga sessions in between. One of the things I took away from the weekend was that I want to start incorporating more raw food into my diet. The raw philosophy makes perfect sense to me, and anything that helps me incorporate more whole foods into my diet can only be a good thing.

At this stage of my life I can't imagine ever going 100% raw, but I also remember thinking I'd never go vegan when I was vegetarian for all those years. I guess the lesson there is never say never. For now, I'm taking small steps, which includes replacing at least 1 cooked meal a day with a salad or smoothie, plus upping my fruit intake generally. I'm also trying to replace cooked sweets with raw ones.

These Sunny Cashew Apricot Energy Cookies caught my eye immediately. I mean, seriously, how good do they look!

OK, OK, mine don't look that good. In fact, mine kind of crumbled as soon as I even went near them with a knife. A combination of not grinding the mix fine enough, not freezing for long enough & a lack of binding liquid. You should check out the photo on the recipe page though - they really do look amazing.

I tell you what though, they tasted awesome. They're very similar in make-up to the many varieties of fruit balls I've made. Except the cookies are sans added sugar & freezing them changes the texture to make them slightly crispy & yum!

Given that I'm not 100% raw yet :-), I gave this Vegan Zucchini Frittata a try for dinner last night.

I added tomato to the top and I'm glad I did as I think the extra flavour was needed. Don't get me wrong, the frittata is tasty, definitely improved with a nice garden salad on the side. Unfortunately, it didn't really hold together & turned into more of a scrambled tofu once it hit the plate. But, given the healthiness factor, I'll probably make this again.