Spirited and Blissful Adventure

This is part two of my blog about a raw food meetup weekend. To see the first part, go to Mixing Business With Pleasure.

So, after a wrong turn, a tour of the Pentagon parking lot, and a little flirting with the Pentagon Policemen, @RawTN(Joanna) I and were pretty late arriving at Natural Zing's Spirit Bliss Farm. We recognized our twitter friend @blaqberry right away and let me tell you, she is even prettier in real life. She's just so graceful and sweet! Her husband, AlienImplant, is playful and enthusiastic. I immediately felt like I had known this couple for ages!

We listened to Sproutman (Steve Meyerowitz). 

He spoke enthusiastically about his experiences 

with sprouting and it's many health benefits.

He had a generous supply of helpful tools from sprout bags and chart wheels showing sprouting times for various seeds, peas and beans, to more elaborate giant sprouting machines. There were juicy sprouts available to sample in bowls everywhere!   

Jeff made some of his amazing pies to share. 

My friend Stacy is just discovering raw foods and she showed up to see what it was all about. She brought some frozen strawberries that she had picked herself. I had a fresh container of my date caramel. Blaq Berry wasn't sure what to bring, so at my request she arrived with baby carrots for dipping with my caramel and she brought a bowl of cashew sweet cream for the strawberries. Joanna supplied us with her onion bread and a really flavorful raw nuts and dried fruit mix. Later Laura Fox drove up from Richmond and I had the pleasure of meeting with her again. 

I found big bowls full of Kale Chips... My Favorite!

While we all talked and mingled, 

children were running and playing, but weren't under foot. 

We saw people gathering berries,

 playing drums, 

...and being silly outside (comparing muscles)! 

Jeff and Helen, always the perfect hosts, 

appeared here and there,

answering questions and filling Natural Zing orders.

Finally, we made our first Raw-Fu Divas picture:

Sadly, we all eventually had to leave. BlaqBerry offered us a home made chocolate truffle she had stashed in her car. Really yummy. It seemed similar to the brownies I'm always making for me and my family. It started off from Sunny Raw

Kitchen's Whipped Cream Frosting and Rawdorable's Million Dollar Brownies which we modified to fit our tastes and our mini food processor. We make small batches because it's fast and easy. 

One of our favorite ways to prepare chocolate treasts is something I've been calling...

gRAWssHopper Pie:

"Green Cream Filling"

1/2 cup cashews 

(soaked in water for at least 4 hours)

1/2 cup coconut milk 

(blend 2 cups water to 1 cup shredded coconut until frothy. Pour through nutmilk bag. Use 1/2 cup for cream filling, save the rest to make ice cream-yay!)

2 TB raw cocoa butter

2 TB agave nectar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 TB wheatgrass powder (for color and nutrition)

1/4 tsp peppermint extract (covers the wheatgrass flavor)

1/4 tsp celtic sea salt (has more minerals than table salt- healthier for you)

2 tsp emulsifier/binder like *psyllium or lecithin 

Both work well to help prevent separation but I prefer psyllium because it's good for the heart and I avoid Lecithin because it's soy based and some contain GMOs)

Blend everything except emulsifier in high speed blender until creamy (it will heat up if you're not careful). Add the emulsifier last, blending well. Chill in fridge while making crust.

"Crust"

1/2 cup raw almonds 

1/2 cup raw walnuts

3 TB raw cacao powder (cacao chips ground in coffee grinder or cocoa/carob powder works, too)

1/4 tsp of sea salt

6 large dates, soaked briefly (like 20 minutes)

1/2 TB raw cocoa butter (softened)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (not raw, but tasty)

Grind first 4 (dry) ingredients first until you have a fine powder

Add last 3 (wet) ingredients and blend until you have a dough ball. 

Roll this into a long log and divide into 12 equal sized balls. These are good plain, or rolled in shredded coconut, or continuing on, tuck these into a mini muffin pan like mini pie crusts. 

Spoon in a big spoonful of green filling into each pastry. Place in freezer. To remove from pan, take out of freezer for about 2 minutes. Loosen sides with butter knife and pop out. Store in an airtight container in freezer for easy snacking.

Enjoy!!