MY BEST RAW CHOCOLATE RECIPE

Chocoholic? 🙋🏽 Who else here eats it every. goddamn. day. I haven't always made my own and probably because for so long I could never get it the way I liked it. But this is pretty damn good. And also amazing with coconut flakes, dried blueberries, goji berries, flaked almonds, you name it! And it takes no time at all!

SHARING THE LOVE THIS VALENTINES DAY

If you hadn't already clued on, yep, it's Valentines Day this weekend. Whether you believe/participate/love or hate it, I see it as an excuse to eat more chocolate than usual and snuggle up on the couch with a good movie and my gorgeous man. Go all out or not at all... we can all have a little more chocolate in our lives now can't we? 

So here is a small collection of a few recipes I've made over the years that will satisfy any loved-up sweet tooth, is perfect for sharing, and will not ruin your health like a block of Cadbury might.

NOURISH: CHEWY CHOC FUDGE SQUARES (---> ADDICTIVE)

Every now and then you'll come across a recipe. One that knocks your taste buds outta the park. And then you find out that the ingredients are not in fact a long list of crap, but a list of nourishing, nutritious, raw foods that'll make your heart sing. Literally. Cacao. For the heart yeah?

Guest Post from Georgia Stirring change - Raw Cacao: Hype or Science?

Ooh I love a bit of controversy don't you? Sure it can erk us one way or another, but particularly in the food and nutrition industries, a little bit of it is good as everything we read is contradictory, and being told as absolutes - which I believe nothing is absolute. Whether, let's use this instance for example, cacao is good or bad for us can only be answered with one individual in question. The same goes with apples, and coffee, and so on.

But I digress... here is an article written by my gorgeous friend Georgia from Stirring Change - and here she is doing exactly that - stirring the pot on the "superfood" we all love; Cacao.


Raise your hand if you fell for this one too.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. It was an irresistible idea, presented by some very charismatic people. Arguably one of the biggest scams to emerge out of the so-called ‘health’ movement.



Cacao is not a superfood

Don’t get me wrong. I consider fine, dark chocolate to be a fantastic indulgence food, with a few health benefits to boot. It’s in that same seductive category as coffee and red wine. Delicious, double-edged swords, to be enjoyed in moderation. (Beware the dose response curve.)

However cacao, of any kind, shouldn’t be considered a superfood. At least, not by my definition.Optimal, healthy foods are those that are truly nutrient dense, easy to digest (ie ideal for humans) and devoid of toxic antinutrients. Surely we should, at the very least, hold ‘superfoods’ to the same criteria?

A high ORAC score (antioxidant rating) ain’t everything. In fact, the USDA’s Nutrient Data Laboratory recently removed the ORAC Database due to mounting evidence that the system has no relevance to the effects of bioactive compounds on human health.
Their primary concern? ORAC values are “routinely misused by food and supplement manufacturing companies to promote their products and by consumers to guide their food and dietary supplement choices”. Touche, USDA.

So what else shouldn’t be present in a ‘superfood’?

Mycotoxins

Upon harvest, cacao beans require fermentation to be edible. 64% of the microbes that facilitate this process create toxins called mycotoxins. Aflatoxin and Ochratoxin A are two such mycotoxins that have the following effects:

• Neurotoxic (destroys nervous tissue)
  
• Immunosuppressive (suppresses immune function)
  
• Genotoxic (causes genetic mutations)
  
• Carcinogenic (cancer causing)
  
• Teratogenic (causes birth defects)
  

These toxins are present in cocoa, coffee and cereal grains and their concentration greatly depends on the correct harvesting, fermentation and storage. Cacao farmers are generally poor and often operate in places lacking proper sanitary regulations. In this study, 98% of South American chocolate sampled was contaminated with ochratoxin A and 80% had a co-occurrence of aflatoxin.
Most of the raw cacao beans that I have personally inspected are visibly mouldy – even those from reputable brands. And while roasting won’t inactivate the mycotoxins, it will at least completely destroy the moulds that produce them.

So let’s look at a couple of the fabricated claims made about raw cacao, compared with its traditional roasted counterpart. I have not been able to find a single reliable study that favours raw cacao. Perhaps traditional cultures like the Maya, who roasted their beans, had it right all along?

Myth 1: Raw cacao contains more antioxidants

FALSE. In fact the exact opposite appears to be true. This study found that there were significantly more free-radical scavenging activity in dark roasted cocoa beans compared with both pre-roasted and raw beans. And this study found that the antioxidant flavanols catechin and epicatechin increased by around 650% with roasting.

Myth 2: Raw cacao is a better source of magnesium

FALSE. Raw cacao certainly contains abundant magnesium. Does this mean it’s a good source for humans? Not really. Paradoxically, many foods containing significant amounts of magnesium, such as cacao, pumpkin seeds and spinach, also have phytates, lectins and other plant toxins that bind minerals and render them fairly unavailable to us.
Traditional cultures prepared foods in a way that minimised plant toxins and maximised nutrient bioavailability, such as adequate fermentation and cooking. Raw chocolate manufacturers pride themselves on having a short fermentation period (1-2 days). However, this study showed that the mineral-binding antinutrients hydrocyanate, oxalate and theobromine actually decrease with increasing duration of fermentation, with the most significant reduction over days 6, 9 and 12.

Myth 3: Raw cacao is full of enzymes / Enzymes are important

Anyone watching the raw cacao industry will know that up until recently, the majority of products on the market were never truly raw. It’s exceptionally difficult to produce good quality chocolate that hasn’t been heated. Good summary, here.
Regardless, it bears mentioning that there’s a distinct lack of studies confirming that (or even suggesting why) cacao enzymes are in any way beneficial to human health. In absence of this, might it not be best to rely on what we do already know? (Hint: traditional wisdom and current science). 

It’s interesting to note that Jeremy Safron – supposedly the true originator of raw cacao within the health movement – has reversed his stance on it after noticing devastating health effects among those consuming it over the long-term. He points out that native cultures predominantly consumed the fruit, which contains the benefits without the detrimental effects.

So if you’re going to indulge, good quality dark chocolate is a healthier option than its newfangled raw cousin. Just try to keep it in perspective: it’s an utterly delicious stimulant, with a few health benefits – not a superfood. And now for some Michael Pollan verdict appropriation:  Eat chocolate. Not too much. Only roasted.


So there you have it. And as a chocolate lover over here, I want to know how you feel about this one. What are your thoughts and feelings? Are you a chocolate lover? Do you prefer raw chocolate or the regular stuff? 
Leave your comments below

Christie xx

Georgia is a Sydney-based nutritionist, whole foods chef, health educator and founder of Stirring Change. you can read more about her here and find out about her upcoming workshop What To Eat; The Refeed Program here.

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A Whole Lotta Love in the Air

Ok wow there seems to be so much going on right now and I'm LOVING every little piece of it all!

There sure is alotta love going 'round. And with Valentines Day this Thursday, International Self Love Day this Wednesday, and me trying a little more to my own self-love department... I'm not at all surprised it's all in my radar vision at the moment.

What I see everytime I sit down at my desk :)

Here are a few delicious things going on this week:

- Sacred Self's sending out free self-commitment meditations on Wednesday to newsletter subscribers so make sure you join up here
- The beautiful Melissa Ambrosini has just launched her first ever eBook 12 Steps To Wellness and I grabbed my copy this morning and haven't put it down, I'm LOVING it!
- Jess Ainscough from The Wellness Warrior (who I saw speak at a Womens event up in Cairns last year, and can say first hand she is a delight to listen too), and Melissa are teaming up together to bring us all a free teleseminar Falling In Love With Yourself which I was soooo looking forward to, but my first evening back at college has had to be changed and it's now on Tuesday night! Argh!! Might have to get my man to watch it and fill me in :)

As for me, I've recently began adding some self love practices into my day and the reason being (asides from we all really need to be doing some) is that I simply feel it's time - for me. It's something that I've either ignored, shyed away from, ran away in fear from, or merely thought I was doing (like working out thinking it's a good thing when my body really really couldn't do it). Time is a funny one though - in hindsight it's not. We're all ready when we're ready (to do anything), but this can make for frustrating times when we think we really want to do something, but maybe we're not ready (in the grander schemes of things).

I digress...

So I've began:
- A short grounding and breathing technique each morning and night that only take me 5 minutes, as any longer I know I wouldn't do (this is HUGE for me; I've had massive resistance to meditation for way too long and get super fidgety sitting attempting to allow my thoughts to pass through my mind - I'm much more accostommed to having them come in, hang around, wreak havoc, and leave a mess)
- I've got a list of things I love to do titled Self Love Menu on my wall in front on my laptop, and I do at least one thing from my list everyday
- I'm focusing my attention on the (negative) talk in my head and asking myself if what I'm hearing is really true (I know it never is, but sometimes... woo... hard time convincing myself otherwise)
- I am writing (aiming for daily) in my gratitude journal again
- I'M QUITTING SUGAR starting from today; I felt the time was right to experiment with this for my health (more to come as to why) and Brock is supporting me and joining me for the ride. Exciting!!
- And I'm letting myself and my body just be; not feeling like I have to workout if I'm exhausted, not feeling like I have to study when I'm too tired, not feeling like I have to say Yes to additional work shifts... that list goes on...
- Using my oils more; twice a day or more even! I LOVE using my essential oils, chakra balms, alchemy oils and Bush Flower essences (more on all these beauties at a later date - I can't wait to dive in here with you all)

Little by little I do feel subtle shifts in my thought patterns, in my physical bodily sensations, in my mood and emotions. I'm yet to write up all about how my health is going, but when I'm having a rough day, these little things can make all the difference and be sure to put a smile on my dial  : )

What are you doing to look after yourself at the moment? 
Day by day?
What do you do to enhance your own self love?

I'll leave you with those and a super quick recipe that I found here and will definitely be trying out as a cacao fan, and only recently, a no-sugar girl. Yum Yum.

Love and sweetness
Christie x


Disclaimer for today: No I am not making any money, getting any free products or services from any other above mentioned wonderful females, their businesses or their blogs. I have decided to write about these women as I follow their work, love what they do, and want to share it with you, as I know you will love it all too xx

Australian Cacao Fruit

The other week when my mum was up here visiting, my sister and I took a drive with mum up to Port Douglas for the day. The drive alone is stunning - golden road bends overlooking vast ocean seas, palm trees and pebbles on each opening we passed, and blue skies stretching as far as the eye could see.

The markets were on when we were there, and I was over the moon when I found a lady selling raw chocolate bars, blocks and pieces, along with cacao pods and nibs - from AUSTRALIAN CACAO FRUITS!

I'm not suite sure why I never stopped to think whether cacao could or was being grown in this beautiful country of ours; assuming it was all overseas. So you could imagine my excitement! I have since found out that there are 4 or 5 plantations of cacao up here, all making their own chocolate. HELLO WILLY WONKA!! We'll definitley be planning a little adventure trip to suss them all out soon enough that's for sure!

But when I saw that this woman was selling cacao beans that she had herself taken straight out of the cacao fruit, and dehydrated to dry... I was sold. The fleshy fruit was still hanging on the outside of each bean. And this makes for a totally incredibly different taste sensation on eating...

It's fruity and tropical with hints of sweetness and tang. But once that disappears you're left with the bitterness of the cacao bean. It's Mother Nature's perfect combination...

And afternoon tea's perfect snack.



The following week my partner went on his own adventure up to the Daintree and brought me back that big cacao fruit above. Indeed. Yep. A whole fresh intact cacao fruit. In it's entirety. In Australia! I was speechless! Well no not really, that's a lie. I was jumping up and down in excitement (once again - could I really be that predictable around food?).

This is what it looks like inside - incredibly soft flesh and not much of it. Enough to keep the beans soft and moist. When you bite into a bean when it's like this, it is not hard as you may have had before. It's almost a little chewy. But a little powdery too. I know how odd that sounds and no doubt hard to imagine, but trust me, its' delicious.

The beans are purple inside, not chocolate brown, and you would be hard presed to just sit there and eat many more than just a few. We had fun adding them to smoothies too, believing we were getting an even better, fresher, bigger, richer hit of antioxidants from these babies! Hehe.

So I will be sure to keep you updated on our cacao hunting trips up here! In the meantime, I'm keeping myself very busy with work at the health food store which is great, college work piling up on me as I was in bed for about a week with what I think was a nasty case of influenza running around up here, and trying to rest and get myself back to my usual bubbly self :)

Peace, Love and mung beans xxx

Mocha-Chip Smoothie

I thought I'd share something a little more tasty than our last poo talks here and here this time around.
I've got my delicious Mocha-Chip Smoothie recipe for you.

I'm not sure if I've made mention or not here before but I am partial to a (damn) good double espresso. No milk. No sugar. Nothing. If it's good coffee... mmmm it's BLISS. I put it down to my barista-ing for 8yrs that I have a bit of a snobbery when it comes to good coffee - but with good reason in my opinion. Why pay for something if you're not going to enjoy it right?

Anyway... it's not a daily ritual for me, as it is for some. It's not even a weekly one. I go through periods where I don't want it for months on end, and then I want it twice in two days. For me, I do notice though if I have coffee everyday, it affects my adrenals and before i know it, I'm tired, lethargic, stroppy, cranky, I have no energy... the list goes on. Maybe it's due to all those coffee's I drank daily behind the machine I don't know?

I find my adrenals are the first thing to go when I'm not looking after myself so I have to watch my intake of this oh-so-delicious beverage enjoyed my millions daily worldwide.

So, I came up with a sneaky alternative for when I really want my (two) shots, but know it's not in my best interest -

Mocha-Chip Smoothie

4 1/2 small bananas (I ate half in the process)
1 cup water
2 heaped teaspoons of cacao powder
8 organic coffee beans
3 fresh dates
2 tablespoons of cacao nibs
drop or two of vanilla


Blend everything except the cacao nibs until smooth. Then add the nibs and pulse once or twice more. Doing it this way ensures the coffee beans have been pulverised a fair bit, but you still get your cacao crunchies.


If you've got a cupboard full of superfoods, other add-ins I love include (1 tsp) acai, (1/4 tsp) pau d'arco, (1/8 tsp) licorice root, even goji berries.

If it's hot where you are, use frozen bananas! If it's cold (like Sydney at the moment - OH MY GOD!), use warm water to warm them bones. If you want less banana's you can easily do that also. I had this smoothie this morning after a run and was starving!

So delicious this one is, and in comparison to a double shot espresso (using god knows how many hundreds of beans), this recipe only uses 8 teeny tiny baby ones! But the coffee flavour is sure there!

Enjoy!!  :)

Hot Choccie to warm them bones

Alright fellow Sydney-siders (and anyone else anywhere in the world where it has been ridiculously cold out of the blue for no good reason)... thanks to my gorgeous girlfriend Bianca, I've got a yummy scrummy hot choccie recipe to share with you all next time that chill hits!

I don't know about you but I have not been able to concentrate on my studies I've been so cold. Trakkie-daks, hoodies, fluffy socks, slippers, scarfs, non-stop pots of tea... I've done the lot! But when I saw taste-bud-tantalising pic, I instantly felt warmer. There's something about hot choocie I think. Just those words;    

      h o t   c h o c c i e

It seems to remind everyone of childhood. Memories of winters at home with the family, or on school camps, maybe the walk to school was a hot choccie time. Whatever the reasons and memories, they always seem to invoke warmth, yummy-scrummy-cuddle-time, and an all-round sense of wellbeing. Who would have thought; Chocolate?

Everyone!

Hot Cacao with Almond Mylk

2 cups of homemade almond mylk*
3 teaspoons of raw cacao powder
1 teaspoon of mesquite powder
1 teaspoon of agave
a dash of cinnamon

First up set aside 2 Tbsp of almond mylk (you'll see why). Put everything else in a pot on the stove and heat on low heat (do not boil) stirring it slowly... once it's the temperature you're happy with, pour into your favourite mug and serve with a swizzel of fresh almond mylk (to make the heart!) and a dash of cinnamon ...that makes hot cacao for two ..

Served with a coconut chia pudding, sliced bananas, coconut flakes and a few dates

 * I've got a recipe for brazil nut milk here, but you can easily substitute amlonds instead. Or use whatever you've got. Almond is nice as it's a subtle flavour, but sesame milk is divine, brazil nut is one of my fav's, or I dare you to try hazelnut milk ... hello Ferror Rocher!!

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever!

So yesterday I gave you my excited news #1, and today I promised some more exciting news.


I made the best cake ever! Yep!!

Check it out!!

A friend asked me if I would be able to make a vegan birthday cake for a vegan colleague of his - and if possible make it raw as he has been tinkering with the idea of going raw. And so, knowing chocolate is a sure-fire winner in any crowd I hunted for a recipe to that would knock the socks off anyone and everyone and boy did I find a winner!

First up was making nut milk, and lots of it! I needed 9 cups of nut milk pulp for the choccie base.

This was mixed through with ingredients such as cacao powder, coconut oil, agave, and other things I can't recall at this minute... Alongside a walnut, agave, coconut caramel fudgy mix. That was amazing!

 

To assemble the cake it was a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of walnut fudgy stuff, chocolate cake, fudgy stuff... And was left in the fridge over night. What I loved about this cake was regrdless of the time involved, it was totally fool-proof and came out looking a million bux (which is the same reason I love making Heather's Moonie Pies)

I took it into work the following morning as my mate was picking it up off me there, alongside a rich chocolate sauce I made and flavour-filled strawberries I grabbed on my way in.

Then the best bit... pouring chocolate into the centre and carefully lending a helping hand with the back of a spoon to ensure it reached the edges, and slowly dripped off, over and down...

Strawberries in place for aesthetics as well as to both contrast and compliment the delicious rich chocolate sauce that would melt in your mouth and send you off into Willy Wonka Land...

Oh my...

Gosh!!

And then it was picked up and taken away for vegan birthday festivities!! My friend sent me this picture of his morning tea slice, much to the delight of his choco-holic taste buds!!


It looked, smelt, and (so I was told) tasted AMAZING!!


Definitely making this recipe again! I was a piece damn it!!


Buonappetito!

Carrot Juice with Chocolate

I could say I went slightly carrot-mad last week, but I felt like my body was craving the orange beauties so I kinda went along with it. I was having between 500ml and 1L of fresh carrot juice everyday as an experiement to see how my skin conditions would fare having read so much on carrot juice recently (check out a blog post I did for the Raw Divas here). My skin didn't turn orange but my acne looks better :)

And with left over pulp from juicing so much I also made a big batch my my favourite carrot soup, and my favourite carrot falafels of Gena's you can find here, but never got 'round to making these delicious individual carrot cakes here. Another week perhaps coz you can freeze vegie pulp until you've got enough for what you want - or until you've got time to get in the kitch again!

If I can tune in and listen to what my body wants I'll run with it - so when it was screaming CARROT JUICE, that's what I did. And I feel amazing from drinking it! The only problem I have is when my body feels like chocolate - alot of chocolate - then I'm not so sure if my body is telling me the truth or playing little white lies :)

So with Easter just around the corner I've spent the last 2 days mucking around in the kitchen trying to make some choccies. I had a couple of recipes to try and a whole load of different ingredients to experiment with I was like a little kid in a lolly shop full of exciement!

So what was the outcome? Well let's start with the question "What did I learn?"
To trust in my own abilities more that's what. To not put all your eggs in one basket (no pun intended), and to make sure whatever happens when you're in the kitchen, remember to LAUGH!

Why? Because even when I followed each recipe they both turned out horrible! One tasted disgusting. One wouldn't mix properly...

Then I had problems where my chocolate wouldn't come out of the moulds (more than once which really did my head in). I mixed the ingredients too much in the second lot which made my once glossy silky mixture turn kinda chewy and thick ...

and ontop of that going wrong I was thinking about the deadlines I had for other things going on in my life, college work, packing that I still had to do to go away, and the house was a mess... ARGH! I felt like I was wasting time TRYING to be the Easter Bunny and make yummy choccies but it wasn't working!

It's been a stressful last couple of days (with a head cold trying to rear its ugly head at the same time but I'm not letting it) but I have now made my choccies!

And you know what? It was the laughter that made the biggest difference! That and deciding to poo-poo the recipes I had and come up with my own. TRUSTING in my own abilities and you know what? The best tasting ones are the ones I came up with myself! They were the smoothest, silkiest, easiest to work with look amazing!

Easiest Tastiest Choccie Recipe Ever!

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup cacao powder
25ml maple syrup
1/8 cup cacao butter, melted (you can omit this)


Melt the coconut oil and cacao butter down then slowly whisk in the cacao powder and maple syrup (or any other sweetener you like - by the time I got to this recipe after mucking up so many others, maple syrup was pretty much all I had left but it does give a beauiful depth to the flavour).


Pour your choccie into moulds or into a container to cut up into pieces or squares later on.

You can add anything you like to these too. Be creative! Nuts, seeds, goji berries, bee pollen, buckwheat crunchies... I also made a bunch with a few drops of peppermint oil for a minty surprise!
The hardest part of waiting for them to set!

(Another super easy recipe that also worked amazingly well and tasted sensational - if you can get your hands on CACAO LIQUER, melt that down and add sweetener to taste. That's it. And it sets at room temperature. The taste is incredible! I ran outta that stuff real quick!)

This recipe is so damn easy coz alot of people would have coconut oil in the panrty, but not alot of people have cacao butter lying around. And to be honest with you - as I am yet to perfect a chocolate recipe using predominantly cacao butter, coz I just don't like the taste of it! At all. So I need to find a ratio where I do. Where as coconut oil - now you're talking! The only down side is that they can't be kept at room temperature or they'll likely melt. Cacao butter wouldn't. But the health benefits of coconut oil versus those of cacao butter - ENDLESS (and you can read a little here) !!

So when my body craves choccies that I have made from my own recipes with lots of coconut oil, there's good reason and I will listen intently :)

But from tomorrow I'll be goingn away on retreat for 6 days and consuming nothing but GREEN SMOOTHIES which I am SO EXCITED about!! So I wont be doing any blogs for at least a week if not a few days more, but will be sure to SPILL ALL when I get back! Have an awesome long weekend!

And a Happy Happy Easter :)

Coming down from cacao...

So I was going to politely ask you all to bear with me whilst the perfectionist in me looks over the 40-odd pages of notes I took last weekend to condense it all down into something quick, easy, informative, and interesting for you to read... but in doing so the playful child in me is yelling "who gives a rats ass, it's more fun to write as you're thinking, in the moment, wing it, and see how it goes".

So here I am!

I love that I sit here typing to you guys like I’m really typing to myself, talking with myself… I am still beaming and buzzing from what was one of the best weekends of my life to date! And no, that is no exaggeration!

Cacao come down...

So I met my superhero! Number one. My living breathing superhero. David Wolfe (Never come down from that one). The man I know I will work with one day. I have seen him before but never actually went up to talk to him. This time I did. So a self-confessed-David-Wolfe-junkie if there ever were such a thing, I was over the moon when I sat down to talk to him. Speechless even – stupid really. But I did infact tell him I’m a bit if a groupie, that I’m gonna be the first aussie female version of him (watch this face), that I couldn’t contain my excitement when I found out about his raw nutrition certification course (booked in baby!) and I’ve been following his teachings for a couple of years now. YAY! He was excited. I was excited. He was smiling. I was smiling. All hugs and smiles. Best day(te) ever!

So last Thursday night is where it all began. A lecture here in Sydney where I was on the edge of my seat waiting to dive into all the information about to be presented to me. Surrounded by like minded individuals, pen and paper in hand, ready to go!

“YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT”

Take it, leave it, try to ignore it, forget it, or prove it wrong… those few simple words have stood the test of time and will continue to do so. And these few words are what David usually starts with. And where I feel the strongest connection.
Food. Nutrition. Education. Throw them all together and that’s me. That is my passion. It is also David Wolfe’s passion – thus the self-confessed-DW-junkie right here. Loud and proud.

I went along with my good friend Jess, but ran into loads of people I knew; friends and trainers, my colon hydrotherapist, people who recognized me from the raw café, from work, from my blog even (and finally met the woman behind The Raw Butterfly). It was a fantastic mix of people all with similar interests and a few really different backgrounds. I love that!

We learnt fascinating facts, figures and fantasies about hormones and how to correct your own; this stuff is all very new to me still – I started getting into hormones about 8months ago and every little bit I learn is incredible interesting to me so I loved all that! David also spoke in depth about bone density, Chinese medicine philosophies, Chinese herbs and jing, Ormus, calcification in the body, cancer, herbal immune boosters, detoxing, cell rejuvenating, longevity, immortality, goal setting, thought processes, he even gave his thoughts on what he believes 2012 to be all about.

But the core underlying of the whole weekend was YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. This is the fundamental principle to it all. To everything. For so many reasons. And on so many levels. It's something I really want to dig deeper and deeper with you guys on. Explaining in more depth the reality behind those few words.

Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, sprouts, seaweeds, grasses, superfoods, superherbs.

This is exactly what my diet consists of currently. Of course some things more than others like anyone really, but in learning more about different things I am trying more and more, seeing what my body can handle and handle well. Seeing what impacts me, works well for me and what doesn’t work well for me.

A human guinea pig. It excites me! High doses of different superfoods daily, then not at all. Sporadic taste testers, more of one thing, less of another, mixing it up, all together, each on their own. Surprising my body. I get kicks out of seeing how my body takes to different things and how I feel. And what gets me jumping even more? When I can then tell someone else about my experience – along with things I’ve read, heard, or researched. I get customers, clients and friends asking me all the time about different supplements, superfoods, healing foods, natural remedies and more… and I love when I can give them a solution based solely on my research, my education, AND my own experience. That is the icing on the cake in my books. And usually what most people are wanting to hear about I find.

"Eat the best food ever and observe the results over time. Eat the worst food ever and observe the results over time. Compare and contrast."

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

But enough of that for now, we'll revist that later on...

On Saturday Jess and I had way too much energy (I take that back - there's no such thing) so were outside during our lunch break lazing about on the softest grass ever, and then both had the same impulse to start doing cartwheels...

and handstands...

crashing down all over the place but having a ball, both filled with childlike energy and enthusiasm. Buzzing with all the knowledge we were taking in! So we thought we'd take it one step higher - with CACAO! Yep we both had our first Sacred Heart chocolates (well my second as I caught one David threw in the crowd on Thursday night - that was pure manifestation baby). So this stuff is the bomb! The creme-de-la-creme of raw chocolates.

Here's me opening the Immuno Mushroom - cacao nibs, maple sugar, cacao butter, whole cacao beans with their skins on, pine pollen, and the good stuff - medicinal mushrooms, and quite the list - chaga, turkey tail, reishi, maitake, shiitake, cordyceps, himematsutake, mesima, oyster and lions mane, all made to perfection in a chocolate that is so prefectly rich and creamy, bitter and sweet, melt-in-your-mouth soft yet with a delectable snap of a bite. I've never had any raw chocolate come close to how good this stuff is!

So I got loads! 69% whole bean with vanilla. 58% "milk" choc. 70% Sun Sweet with inulin (jerusalem artichoke) - which was my first one and so rich, no sweetener at all, my fav so far. 83% Midnight (looking forward to that one). And 52% Amazonian - the powerhouse choc. Get this -

amazonian jungle peanuts, coconut, brazil nuts, quararibea funebris, incan berries, cashews, purple corn extract, maca, acai, lucuma, vanilla bean, stevia leaf, sacha jergon, camu camu, sacha inchi nuts, yacon leaf, clavo huasca, yacon root, andean salt, chuchuhuasi, tahuari golden, canchalagua, iporuro, pasuchaca, hercampuri, pau d'arco, guayusa, chancapiedra, yerba mate, cats claw, and manayupa amongst the cacao nibs, cacao butter and maple sugar.

Could you get a better chocolate?

I think not. But you could (and we did) combine that with awesome music, awesome people, more cacao, and have yourself a RAW CACAO ECSTACY PARTY! Welcome in Saturday night.

Cacao smoothies, cacao mousse, cacao ice cream, cacao brownies, and superfood bliss balls. Jess and I made sure we tried them all (and went overboard with 2 serves of ice cream).

After a cacao celebration ceremony to honour the sacred bean, we danced our butts off with David and friends we ran into as the weekend progressed. Bare foot, arms up, hips moving to the drumming beats from Ganga Giri, blissing out on cacao, having the time of our lives!




THE BEST WEEKEND EVER!! I had an absolute ball :)

Permission to show off?

Okay I've just gotta show off what my friend Jess and I made last Thursday night -


Moonie Pies!!!

A recipe of Heather's that I've wanted to make for soooo long (even though I'm not a fan of making chocolate-dipped-anythings really). I thought it would be alot of chocolatey-messy-fun to do with Jess. So we rolled up our sleeves, and around so much chatter we slowly got things under way.

A date and walnut base, covered with a vanilla-coconut-cream layer, topped off with a another layer of the date and walnut base... all left to set layer by layer until it looked like this. One mighty big slab of we cut up into about 30 pieces.

Then the messy (taste testing) part - the chocolate dipping. Although if I do say so myself... we were pretty clean!

It amuses me that something of reasonable size, once dipped into a rich cacao sauce and left to set, instantly turns into giant blocks of rich chocolatley goodness - almost too big for one!
I said almost ;)

Of course we had big green salads full of goodies, as I've gotta have greens when making something with cacao or I feel sick as a dog (even so, the following morning I woke feeling the effetcs of the cacao).

Yummy kale, sprouts, mushies, cukes, sunnies, avo, asparagus, seaweed, onion chili relish, olive oil... loads of fun!!

Aside from that, last Friday I had orientation for college (which starts tomorrow!!) - which wasn't all I cracked it up to possibly be by the way... but once that was over, I met Dani for a whopper sized organic vegie juice on her lunch break then took my time walking from Crown Street all the way to Newtown to get my colonic!! Yes, it was the 35+degree day here but I've gotta say I love the heat! And aside from one other friend of mine, I think I could be the only person in Sydney that loved it last week. Ok so HEATWAVE I know. I get it. It's hot. Maybe I need to move north?

Anyways, I hadn't my therapist in a while so I was very excited to catch up on everything we've missed! As usual, a great session (no need for gorey details) followed by my little slice of bliss - the infra red sauna. Not usually a sweaty person I love getting in these things coz i actually sweat! And coz of the temps we were having last week, I was dripping in less than 5minutes. Want proof?

From head to toe baby!

So tomorrow begins my new adventures in Nutritional Medicine as I begin my studies! It's something I have wanted to do for far too long and so I am excited to finally be beginning - but at the same time, which surprises me actually, I'm very bloody scared!

Wish me luck! I'll let you all know how I go.

Chocolate Stuff

Ok so where have I been? Nowhere. Absolutley nowhere.


But I have been making chocolate stuff so that makes up for everything else :)

As I write this up I'm at home whilst the cicadas make noise outside signalling Summer is here! They are my favourite sound. I'm swapping in between Bon Jovi and Michael Buble's Xmas carols, singing along and sipping on a delisciously cool refreshing thai young coconut. YUM!

So I've been working each day as per usual. Finishing up all college work in preparation for Graduation (which has now passed so YAY I've graduated with a Diploma of Transpersonal Life Coaching)... Organising other stuff for my last college weekend. Running around buying and making Xmas pressies. SEEING MUSE AND BON JOVI LIVE!!! Which were both AMAZING by the way... Muse's mosh pit was everything I wished for. Their light show incredible. Sound magical. And they played my ffav songs I was hanging out to hear.
Bon Jovi on the other hand - I can now die a happy girl having heard and participated in Living On A Prayer LIVE in a stadium of 40,000+ people! The grin did not leave my fave from the minute we parked the car until I got home into bed. Long time fan. Loved every second of it!

Matthew Bellamy on piano, Dominic Howard on drums, and Christopher Wolstoneholme on bass guitar.

Matthew Bellamy. Mmm. Doing what he does best.

But back to FOOD STUFF! My blog has suffered from a lack of attention due to my attention being directed everywhere else! But my kitchen hasn't. Although my camera has. Again. So not alot of pretty pics.

The past little while I've been sprouting alfalfa and chickpeas so I've experimented with a raw chickpea hommous that I had wanted to do for a while. Off the top of my head after making cooked hommous for years I threw all this in a food processor:

About 2 cups sprouted chickpeas
2 big tbps tahini
2 cloves of garlic
good pinch of sea salt
tiny drizzle of olive oil
filtered water to get it moving - more or less depending on how you like your hommous

Blend it all until it smells divine and then dunk fresh mushies in and eat asap! Yum!

Brock SURPRISED me with some VEGA Complete Wholefood Health Optimiser which literally made me jump out of my skin with excitement!


I have wanted to get this stuff for soooooo long, and can't get it online, can't get it sent here, and was resulting to getting an American friend to bring some for me when she next came to visit (I'm sure alot of other bloggers down under have wondered how to get their hands on some). So you could imagine my excitement!! I immediatley made myself some with water as the recommendation suggests, but found it to be very sweet so since then I have been throwing it in my smoothies with everything else - bananas, acai, cacao, maca, hemp seeds, protein, etc and I'm loving it!

AND... MAMMEE SAPOTES!! I've been looking forward to these babies since November last year when I tried my very first one. Brock and I were on the lookout whilst up in Darwin (check out the other amzing fruits we had here and here) but found them here when we returned and have been eating them ever since! If you've never had one before and can imagine soft flesh like avocado with a sweet potato/pumpkin pie flavour... that's the best description I can give.


As for the Xmas treats I spoke of last post... well tomorrow I get to throw myself into and take over mum's kitchen for 2 days. I've been looking forward to it for weeks now. KITCHEN FUN! My kitchen is tiny and at mum's there's so much natural sunlight and I can crank the stereo... ooh I'm itching to start!

In the meantime if you want to whip up something really really quick for small pressies, or for yourself, try this STUFF. I made it for some of the peeps I work with who always love my food creations, and they thought it should be called "Christie's Stuff". Enough said apparently. There need be no name as "Christie's Stuff" ,to them, was enough to know it would be amazing. Love those guys.
So, call it Christie's Stuff, or Chocolate Heaven as I first did. I'm not so keen on that name anymore though. Fudgy Goodness perhaps? You guys try it and let me know your suggestions.

So here it is: STUFF

6 tbsp coconut oil
6 tbsp agave syrup
4 tbsp cacao powder

Sieve your cacao powder to get rid of any lumpy bits. Melt your coconut oil, and mix all three ingredients in a medium-sized bowl until well combined (a whisk works well).

This "stuff" is amazing poured ontop of ice cream as it turns into ICE MAGIC! I suppose you could try it on bread like Nutella too. But my fav - eaten straight from the jar. OMG! I once made it with raw honey as I didn't have agave and this works well too although at first it doesn't mix so well. To fix that little problem, set your "stuff' in the fridge and then stir it all later once it's thickened.

So let's hope I'm back up to speed now. College is over. I'm not working for just under 2 weeks. In fact I'm going up the coast with Brock for 10 days after Xmas which will be really good to get away and chill for a bit. Tomorrow starts my 2 days of KITCHEN FUN at mum's place. My sister comes home for 2 days. And then it's XMAS! YAY! I love it!

Merry Christmas guys :)