Go Raw Chicago

Hi all,

Sorry to have been gone for so long.  Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went to Colorado Springs and had a really amazing time.  We went biking in the Garden of the Gods, experienced some really fresh mountain air at the top of Pikes Peak, got to sample some mineral water for several different natural springs, did some hiking, and even got a psychic reading.  It was all pretty awesome.  Here are some pictures of the trip below.

<–sampling some natural spring water in Manitou Springs.  It tasted very minerally and not as clean-tasting as I was hoping.

<–Ponderosa Pine trees smell just like butterscotch!

There are no raw food restaurants in Colorado Springs (yet) but with the help of Lara Bars and Safeway’s organic produce section, we did pretty darn good diet-wise.  There was also a great organic restaurant in Manitou Springs that we ate ate twice.   My advice for travelers is to bring some organic fruit for the first couple mornings and also some tupperware containers and utencils for making your own salads when you go grocery shopping, along with some Lara Bars, bee pollen, and Vitamineral Greens.  I bring Celtic Sea Salt and stevia too whenever I travel.

<–”Seven-Falls” behind me.  What a gorgeous day and view.

<–Garden of the Gods from afar.  Very appropriately named!!

Anyway it was a fantastic trip as you can see and it really is true that you can eat well –raw-vegan-organic pretty much anywhere!  (well Lara Bars aren’t organic but close enough ;)  I was hoping to do more wild food foraging and was studing my book the entire way there on the plane but there wasn’t much that I recognized.   There’s always my front yard though!!

I found out yesterday that I was in the Chicago Redeye on Monday.  Here is the article.  It’s about detoxing and the pains and gains of it.  It’s short and worth the read.

Two other tidbits:  I just bought myself a Q-Link because I’ve been feeling like it might give me some more energy (and more energy is always a great thing).  I think it’s really been helping me.  It didn’t go off when I went through the airport metal detector either. There are some really good deals on these on Amazon now.  I think the price has really gone down substantially and could be worth it.  I’m not a huge fan of wearing it as jewelry so I just safety pin it to the middle of my bra and it seems to work.

Also, I think I’ve found my replacement for Kombuchas.  I really love Kombucha (mainly the carbonation of it) and have been brewing my own in my apartment.  However, it takes quite a while to brew if you want to get all the sugar out (about 2 weeks) and I’m only making about 5 1/2 bottles worth at a time so it goes pretty fast.  But I just discovered this great drink called Talking Rain at Costco last night!  It’s fizzy, organicly favored sparkling artesian spring water, and it has zero calories and no artificial flavorings.  It’s perfect.  And it was only $9 something for 24 bottles so that’s about 42 cents per bottle.  Pretty good compared to 3.50 or so per bottle.  Just thought I’d share that with all you Kombucha addicts out there… ;) 

P.s.  I am also looking into taking a reiki 1 class so if any of you have done this or have any recommendations on where to take this class please e-mail me.  Thanks so much!
~Lenette

<–me being smoothie gurl at the All Things Organic Expo helping out my Superfood Snacks friends.

Sorry for the absenteeism on here lately.  Life has been sort of hectic–in a good way though, of course.  But I am back in the swing of things now.  I have, once again, a plethora of things to share with you!  Here’s the run down of what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been observing in the past 2 weeks in Chicago Raw Food-Land (I’ll save some for later though so this post won’t be too long) :

Last Sunday, the Chicago Young and Raw Group had a meetup brunch at The Balanced Kitchen, a relatively new organic, vegan, local-foods, gluten free, green restaurant in Chicago.  They’re not a raw vegan food restaurant per se, but I’d say they can definitely hang with the best of them.  (Currently, they’re only doing raw for special events.) We were served 6 course meal and treated our taste buds to some amazing new flavors.  One friend in our group even said that the food there was better than a meal him and his girlfriend had a Charlie Trotter’s (a VERY VERY VERY expensive restaurant in Chicago that will serve a raw food course upon request).  The interesting thing is that none of the chefs there are “Raw Food Chefs”– they are pretty much self-taught.  In a way, I think this is a lot better because it’s not the same old stuff–raw hamburgers, raw tacos, raw pizza, etc.  They are creating completely new flavor combinations (not that other raw food restaurants aren’t though) using the chef training they have, as well as whatever they’re learning from raw recipe books or websites.  All in all, I was really impressed.  We left feeling quite good, and definitely not stuffed.  It was kind of like going to a raw food tapas restaurant–nibbles and tastes here and there, really savoring the flavors and the company!

There were a couple of new businesses that presented to us before and after we ate at the Balanced Kitchen that I really wanted to mention.  Why not? I feel we should all support each other–especially new and upcoming green/raw/organic businesses ;)  It’s always so thrilling to hear entrepreneurs tell the story of their product/service and business vision/unfolding with pride.  I think back to my visions and how (especially lately) they have been unfolding and changing and getting tweaked here and there and all over the place.  Now I think I’m going to be going into the online e-commerce business.  What a complete 180 from a opening up a smoothie/juice bar!  But I digress…the first business is my friend Jason’s.  He’s making organic, vegan, gluten-free raw desserts like cheesecakes and pies and he just got into a few Whole Foods in the Chicagoland area.  His company’s called Raw Creations.  How exciting.  I can’t express just how wonderful his desserts are.  He’s always coming up with new things too.  After brunch, we were treated to a cacao-lavender pie and it was just amazing.  Check his website out here if you’d like to learn more or if you’re near the Whole Foods in Wheaton or Willowbrook.  Here’s an awesome video of him talking about his product with “190 North” too.  Check it out! 

A “decadent raw vegan organic chocolate and catering” business called Cru Cacao was also in the house that Sunday.  Cru Cacao was started by couple Dereme and Blazej only back in December (wow) and they were there presenting their amazing chocolate truffles to us.  They had about 8 different flavors with exotic ingredients and flavorings such as mango dust, rose water, saffron, clear agave nectar, and gold flakes (not all in the same truffle).  They run about $4 each and will be available at Whole Foods soon.  These are what you’d give your honey or mom when they’ve been real good.  We each got to sample one.  Below is a pic:

Another quick note (EXCITING): I just got an update last week from Emily, the person who keeps up the Raw Food Restaurant Guide Blog and List, and 17 new raw vegan restaurants have opened up since mid-February.  What exciting news.  And that means more places for us to eat! Lol.  But a real important note here, especially for those not in the city of Chicago: please take a look at her list.  If you know of someplace (either raw vegan, or organic and very raw friendly) that should be on this list, PLEASE e-mail Emily and let her know.  It will take two minutes.  I know she will thank you on her site for the tips too! Thanks to you from all of us raw fooders too

MUCH appreciation for your readership and support,

~Lenette

The basis of your life is absolute freedom, the goal is joy, and the result of that perfect combination is motion forward, or growth. Your goal is to find objects of attention that let your cork raise. — Abraham

This post actually is on how to go and stay raw in the city…the city of Las Vegas!  The two Go Raw Cafés there definitely make it possible.  I really didn’t see any other organic dishes on any menus to even consider the plain-salad-and-your-own-flax-crackers option.  I just snacked on organic fruit I brought from home, a couple Lara bars, and some pumpkin seeds and ate two good-sized lunches from the Go Raw Café.  

Visiting this raw food restaurant was one of the major to-do things on my list :)  Sure, I love my green juices, smoothies and salads, but every so often it is SUCH a treat to go to a raw food restaurant for the fancy-shmancy stuff.   On Sunday, my boyfriend and I took a $25 taxi cab ride (yikes!) out there from the strip for a late lunch.  It just over 6 miles away from the strip.  We were starving so we chose to order and split three entrees.  We got the cheeseburger, Mexicali pizza, and mock salmon rolls.  We were in heaven!!!!   I even remembered to take pics this time.  It is always so refreshing to be in a new raw food restaurant.  I just love soaking up the healthy vibes.  I am also so grateful and lucky my bf appreciates healthy, raw, organic food so much.  This brunch ended up being part of my b-day present so I couldn’t have been happier!   We ate the food so slowly and happily; we were even laughing as we ate it!  Raw food is happy, fun food!  I think what we loved the most about this place was the bread they used for the bun and pizza crust.  The owners/managers of this place are the same ones as the Raw Makery.  It’s not just flax but a TON of ingredients including oranges and yams.  I usually try to make things myself once I can figure out the ingredients but this stuff would be way too much work.  It was very special stuff.  If you haven’t tried their products yet, I would strongly recommend trying it out.  Karyn’s Fresh Corner sells it.  It’s kind of pricy but it’s a real treat.  And you could make it last if you wanted to.

 And guess what?  We later found out they deliver for $10 so the next day, five of us in our group made a lunch order and they delivered it to the Flamingo!  (Got the cheeseburger and pizza again-they were so good).  I forgot to take a picture of us but believe me– all of my friends (non-raw foodists) were loving it!  I just love giving my friends the opportunity for a raw-food experience

Las Vegas was awesome.  We took a limo instead of a taxi cab on a whim for only $6 each; my friends surprised me by taking me to go so the Cirque Du Soleil show “O” at the Bellagio for my b-day; and my boyfriend and I won at the roulette table FOUR times in a row!!!  We took Vegas at the very last hour!!  Not to mention all the fun we had at the craps table.  I just love craps.  My friends can really throw those dice too ;)  FUN, FUN, FUN in the Vegas sun…

Stay tuned for my first youtube video coming soon.  The Young and Raw Chicago Meetup Group is having a potluck meetup this Saturday with special guest naturopath Kathy Warpinski of Nature’s Blessing.  I plan on video taping her doing some eye reading and muscle testing

~Lenette

View Photo Slideshow

The Raw Spirit Fest was where it was at last weekend :)  Never have I been around so many HAPPY, HEALTHY, ALIGNED, INFORMATION-SEEKING, beings.  It was truly sight to behold and a high vibration to experience.  The beautiful red rock Sedona mountains were all around us, there was music going on somewhere or another all the time.  And there was a plethora of things to do at any given moment of the day.  I wish I could have cloned myself so I could be in several places at once-the sacred exercise area, up front in the a main stage area, in the workshop area, inside at the food demo area, walking around checking out other amazing companies and their products, and at my booth meeting and greeting everyone and feeding them yummy Chocolate Goji Treats.I was helping out my friend Adam at his Superfood Snacks booth.  They were a major food sponsor of the event and consequently, our booth was front and center of the main stage.  It was the best location ever.  We (along with most booths) had samples for everyone and I definitely had my share.   I actually ate quite a bit of delicious raw food samples.  I think chocolate bars and snacks were the most popular.  My fave was definitely the Chocolate Goji Treats though.  Check it out and see for yourself.  They’re now at Karyn’s Fresh Corner in Chicago and they’re coming to all Whole Foods very soon.   I took shots and dropperfuls of all sorts of other things too-noni juice, ormus gold, phytoplankton, E3 live, and this other Gold Rush product.  There was no limit to well-being and health here.  Good stuff!!

The entire weekend was such a treat and I am so grateful for the new friends I made, for all of the amazing experiences and foods I had, and for all the amazing (famous to me) raw food health leaders I met and heard.  It makes me so happy to find more and more companies thriving in this industry and coming up with more and more products (for people like us).  David Wolfe is so right when he says that: yeah-the world is experiencing the worst stuff ever right now AND the world is experiencing the best stuff ever-and it was all at the Raw Spirit Fest.  I’ll definitely be going back next year!