I was privileged to be featured on the Fruitive Company Blog for Recipe Fridays! I shared my favorite Rainbow Summer Rolls + Peanut Sauce recipe. When being contacted, one of the topics to be included in my guest post was a short story/bio/testimonial of how I live my health...
Raw. Vegan. Apple. Caramel. Tart.
Are you ready for this?
Fresh baked apple tart with warming spices and a big ol' dallop of vanilla ice cream...I know you know what I am talking about....and I know you know you loved it growing up. My mom used to make the absolute best apple tart. We had an apple peeler and corer (and still do) that would core, peel and thinly slice the apple at the same time. When I was younger I thought it was the best tool to ever have been invented in mankind.
Anyways...back to the story of this apple tart. 
I can never get over how creamy and dreamy banana 'nice' cream is. Its seriously so much better than any of that Dreyer's I used to eat (rock hard sometimes) as a kid. I love to use this dish to encourage people to consider veganism, or simply increasing the amount of plant-foods into their diet. Banana nice cream has never been a miss in my kitchen, and I encourage you to try it for this reason! Make it for yourself or make it for you to share with a loved one (you'll have to make 2 servings....maybe three..don't say I didn't warn you).
There are two main reasons why I am told a high raw, or even a vegan diet in general, does not work for everyone. I am here to tell you why I think that these reasons are not valid, and are often just misunderstandings and misjudgments.
The SSV Etsy Shop is now open and these babies are on sale! I hope you all love these as much as I do. It was such an enjoyable experience making them with my grandma and finally learning how to sew. Plus I got to...
I finally got around to making pesto kale chips!
After my family and I had a pizza night, we were left with extra pesto to use up. I have been making this pesto so often that I almost just opted to throwing it out. My mom, being a mom, took it and stuck in the freezer instead (thank you mom, this recipe would not be here without you!).
So one day, when scouring through the freezer for some frozen fruit for an afternoon snack smoothie, I found a jar filled with something green. I had no idea what it was and to my pleasant surprise it was the pesto that was left over from pizza night. This gave me an idea to make a new snack that I had never made before, and these chips were born!
I grabbed some kale from the garden, washed it, removed the stems and tore it into medium sized pieces. I dumped the pesto over it and massaged massaged massaged until the kale was soft and the pesto was well incorporated. I pre-heated the oven, lined my baking sheets, and baked the kale until crispy.
This was actually the first time I have ever made kale chips with oil and salt. I know it may be shocking to most as kale chips traditionally use oil to make them light and crispy, but think again! I have made numerous flavors of kale chips without oil and I usually use my green salt in place of normal salt. One of my favorites is my Spicy Cheezy Kale Chips, which was actually the first recipe I ever posted on my blog. Let me tell you that salt or no salt, oil or no oil, all the homemade healthy kale chips you will make will turn out equally as delicious. 
This summer in LA has been unbearably hot most days. I feel like I always say this, but summer seems to be getting hotter each year. This is actually probably true, and I have been told it is caused by global warming and the destruction of our atmosphere, but I don't really want to get into that here. Besides, this drink is what you're here for, right?
I was given the opportunity to try out the Kiss Me Organics Matcha last week, and I came up with this as my taste testing recipe! I tried the matcha alone, but I am not a matcha expert and honestly could not judge it based upon that tasting. So into a recipe it went!
This organic matcha is very fresh and has a naturally strong aroma to it. Don't be frightened - that's how all the antioxidants say hello!
I was inspired by my favorite Moroccan Mint Latte from Urth Caffe. For those if you in California, I definitely recommend you try it out when you're by an Urth Caffe! They have them all around LA and in Berkeley as well (which is where I first tried it). I wanted to recreate the drink in my kitchen, but in a more weather-friendly form. The drink is warm, but I wanted something cool. I originally was going to just make an iced latte with coconut milk, but I also wanted to decrease the fat without compromising nutrient density AND flavor, so I went with fresh young thai coconut water.
