Amanda and I picked up a bottle of this interesting concoction for the first time around the same time I got started with raw foods.  The first sip was reminiscent of carbonated apple cider vinegar…ok….although not delicious, intriguingly the flavor grew on me, and about an hour after finishing it Amanda and I both noticed, not only a warm feeling in our stomachs, but also a burst of energy!  I started doing some research on this fizzy living beverage and found that it was brewable/growable at home!  Being a DIY kinda guy, and learning that it’s inexpensive to brew your own, I was IN!

Showing off the SCOBY at my first 'bucha workshop at Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe as Glen Colello films

About 2 years ago we picked up our SCOBY (which is short for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) and got brewing!  I was so psyched up to add this to my raw and living food concocting experiments, and it really brought me back to those days of raising Sea Monkeys and other weird pets…only this one I would be eating.  I did lots of research on this wonderful brew, and watched other home brewer’s adventures on YouTube.  After creating some batches that were a wee bit south of that fizzy goodness we had experienced from the health food store, I pulled off a batch that was outstandingly good and cost a fraction of the pre-bottled stuff!!  As if that wasn’t neat enough, I can now add my own fun flavorings to the kombucha when I bottle it up for the second fermentation, flavorings such as fresh squeezed ginger juice, blended wild blueberries, or vanilla bean pods!  Oh yeah!  Turning a ridiculously healthy beverage into a tasty one that could rival soda….now that’s the kinda stuff I’m into!  :0)

Fast forward to my life now, doing raw food presentations and talks, I noticed people’s faces light up when I would mention my kombucha brewing endeavors during a raw food workshop.  So I did a kombucha creating workshop at Catch a Healthy Habit Café shortly after moving here to CT, which was very warmly received.  The videos of this first workshop (taken by Glen Colello of Catch) can be found at his YouTube channel (which I HIGHLY recommend ya check out if you’re interested in raw foods and healthy living! There have been many, many awesome speakers at the Café and Glen has filmed large portions of their talks!  So there is a wealth of fun info there waiting to be watched!)  

Flash forward to just last night at Catch, where I presented my second kombucha workshop and I shared much of the cool new info I’ve picked up about culturing, brewing and flavoring this bubbly, healthy drink!  Again, Glen has shot some awesome footage of my workshop (which I had a blast doing!) and I can now give you a sneak-peek of what it would’ve been like to be there!

This first video gives you a good idea of the equipment you’d need to start brewing your own goodness at home…a lot less than you might assume!

Part 2, I get into some of the other fun uses for your SCOBY….from bath toy to band-aid, a zoogleal mat can perform many tasks! :0)

Part 3, Where (and where not) to brew your culture and putting some love in your brew! 

Part 4 Finishing off your brew, other brewing vessel options and why you should or should not use your SCOBY as a hat.

Enjoy and happy brewing! :0)

Hello again my friends. Do you ever stumble upon a recipe that just get’s ya hooked and not only tastes freakin’ good , but is fairly simple to whip up? Well I’ve got just such a recipe that I’ve been enjoying on a nightly basis for the last two weeks. I’ve been craving something a lil’ spicy that incorporates root veggies to warm up these cold Connecticut evenings. After blending some almond butter into one of my smoothies…it hit me… Thai style wraps with “peanut” sauce….Oh yes!

The sauce is deceptively simple…..I mean that it just seems too simple to taste as good as it does! As is the way with the many Thai dishes that I recall from cooked food concocting years. I simply plopped some Raw Almond butter in the blender with a lil’ water, a squeeze of lemon juice, some honey (you could use agave and it works just as well….I’m just a honey freak due to its’ high enzyme content), a lil’ sea salt and a generous pinch of cayenne pepper! The proportions I usually use are as follows~

1/2 cup of water
2-4 tbsp’s of raw almond butter (more or less depending on how thick ya like it!)
Juice of half a lemon
1-2 tbsp’s of honey
1 tsp sea salt
1/4-1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (more for some that like it hot)

The cool thing about using almond butter is that it blends right on down in even the wimpiest of blenders! If you’re using a high power mama-jama, like the vita-mix, you could go ahead and sub the almond butter for soaked almonds.

After a quick blend the sauce is ready to go. You can store it in the fridge for later use (I’d say with the lemon juice it should keep in the fridge for 2-3 days), but know that the cayenne will mature the longer it sets, so what might’ve been mild will become medium and what was medium will become nuclear! Food is so freakin’ fun….ya never know what it’s gonna do when left unattended…around here it usually get’s eaten….especially if it’s a raw dessert. My advice is to save the empty frozen veggie bags and hide those goodies in there….and hope that no one who raids the fridge is readin’ this post! :0)

Now on to the wrap ~ My all time fave raw wrappers are romaine lettuce leaves, they’re mild, crunchy and tend to compliment whatever ya got goin’ into them…even cooked foods for those who’re doing high-raw or transitioning. You could sub romaine leaves for taco shells as my Mom describes in the video. You could also use collard leaves which make a fun flexible wrapper that you could form into lil’ egg-roll style rolls.

The next part is fun, simple, and darn tasty. Take a carrot and using your julienne peeler shred that bad-boy into thin noodle like strands.

You wouldn’t believe how just changing a veggie’s texture can make it so much more palatable until you start playing around with different cutting methods. Personally I’m not a straight up carrot munching guy, but you shred them down or thin slice ‘em and I’m in! So if a veggie doesn’t appeal to you, try it in different forms…you might be surprised!

Take your tasty mass of carrot strands and sprinkle with a lil’ sea-salt, cumin and garlic powder, toss and they’re ready. You can let them marinate a lil’ bit and they’ll actually get softer, but I love this dish so much that they usually don’t have that option!

The “icing” on the wrap is some seasoned tomato chunks (you can sub ripe red bell pepper as well and it’s equally as tasty!) Just dice some tomato and sprinkle with garam masala, this spice mix can be found in most grocery stores or your local Indian Grocer, but if not, you can whip up your own at home with equal parts ground coriander, black pepper, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon.

Assemble your wraps however ya like, I personally like to go light on the fillings and do more of them, to get as much greenage as possible! Set these up on a plate with a lil’ bowl of the dip and you’re in business!

The sauce recipe was so good that when I concocted it I called Mom and shared it with her, and she’s been playing with it as a veggie dip and salad dressing. So many people have been asking for an update with mom, and thankfully the snow today wasn’t bad enough to put a stop to us doing just that! So we headed on over to chat with her and share this awesome recipe. Mom has been doing really well with her raw diet and has been making great choices for her cooked food options as well! She’s ditched artificial sweeteners, immensely reduced her gluten intake and has turned down numerous offers from her neighbours of homemade, but not so healthy goodies! I’m so happy to see her rockin’ such a healthy lifestyle and proud of her for sticking with it! :0)

 Amanda, Isabel and I also visited the Vital T-Leaf, which is an amazing Asian tea house/shop where you can pull up a chair and enjoy free samples of the extensive selection of bulk teas they sell. Not only do you enjoy some great tea, but you also get quite an education on the proper brewing of tea. What was really neat was that they didn’t excessively heat the water nor allow the teas and herbs to steep for long. The resulting teas were light and tasty without a trace of bitterness. We picked up quite a few to have our own tea parties back home since Isabel enjoyed it so much! I also picked up a bag of dried whole stevia leaves, which I’ve been playing around with adding a lil’ to my Elixirs and chocolate smoothies in an experiment to cut back on using sugar rich foods. For those who haven’t messed with stevia, it’s an herb which has a sweet taste yet is totally non-glycemic, which makes it a useful natural “sweetener” for those with blood sugar issues. I like using 50% stevia to 50% honey or agave (by sweetness, not by weight) and I find it pleasant like that

Along with all of this fun stuff we also got to connect with our friends Aimee and Chris. We connected with Aimee online through raw fu and by checking out her awesome blog back when Amanda and I first got started with raw foods. We had the pleasure of meeting up with her and Chris at Raw Spirit Fest East and it was very cool to get to hang out with them again in Seattle! Chris and Aimee showed us around town and then we hit up Chaco Canyon for some raw eats and fun conversation. Turns out that not only had I run into Aimee and Chris back when I first got into playing around with vegan recipes at a NOFA conference yeeeaars ago, but we all have the same wedding anniversary, in fact we were married on the exact same day! Weird and fun synchronicities!  That evening, as they dropped us off back our hotel , Aimee mentioned that there was going to be a raw food meet-up at Thrive and that Dave the Raw Trucker would be there! I could not pass that up!

I’ve been following Dave’s story and I’m totally inspired and impressed by all the wonderful things he’s done and the transformation he’s experienced. Dave lost over 230lbs, ditched diabetes and feels wonderful after switching over to a low-glycemic raw foods diet and doing a lot of juicing! This would be totally impressive on it’s own, but you have to factor in that my man Dave does this while driving truck! He totes his juicers, a cooler and plenty of extension cord and does his raw thing on the road! For all those who wondered if raw is doable while traveling, here be your answer!

We arrived at Thrive just as he was settling everyone in and gearing up for the meet-up. Right off the bat, meeting him you could feel the love and energy that he carries! Dave and I got to talking and hit it off right away.  You know when you run into someone and you can just tell they’re on the same wavelength as you and you get all geeked up talking with them? Well than you know what I’m talkin’ about.  Dave was excited to hear what I do with raw-chefin’ and very geeked up to hear about the raw challenge my Mom had undertaken with my guidance.  It was awesome hanging and chatting with Dave, Aimee, Jeff (the Naughty Vegan….I get a kick out of all the fun raw nicknames out there…Dave the Raw Trucker, Jeff and the Naughty Vegan and Rawdawg Rory. Haha!)

While talking and showing Dave the last video we did with Mom he thought it’d be fun if we did a vid together and it ended up being a doozy! We ended up filming for over an hour and the raw love was flowing throughout it all! We were gonna do an interview style vid, but I was like nah let’s just let Dave flow with it because he was on a roll! There’s a lot of awesome topics he touched on so rather than just throwing a lump of vids on at once were gonna be putting up segments of the awesomeness that occurred regularly and hope to catch up with Dave again in the future!

The latest portion we’ve posted touches on one thing very near and dear to me…and that is Spreading the Raw Love! Dave talks about how once he had experienced all these wonderful changes he was driven to share with others how he was able to do this so that they can also experience the awesome benefits of raw-living! This struck such a chord with me because that’s exactly how I got started doing what I do! As I was experiencing so many awesome improvements to my life, I wanted to share not only the fun of it all, but simple and totally do-able raw recipes with others so that they can get their groove on!  

I’ve received so many touching emails from people looking to get their family members and loved ones into eating raw that I thought it’d be fitting with the topic to share in the intro to this video some of my best advice on spreading the raw love and a lil’ update on what my mom’s been up to! So without further ado…enjoy!

 For those keepin’ up with my Family’s raw adventure, the six week challenge is over!  It’s been a fun mission for me chefin’ it up for the family, and a lot of fun having Mom and Bear here.  Now that I’m catching my breath from all this activity, it’s time to catch all you up on the final results and on-goin’ raw goodness!

 My bro Aaron has lost around 50lbs, and my sis dropped 16!! They both have experienced an increase in energy and plan to make green smoothies, raw granola, veggies and seed dips and other raw goodies a regular part of their diet.  I’m psyched to see them both enjoying not only the results of their raw transformation, but also how tasty raw eating can be!  My nephews are also seriously diggin’ the raw goodies (especially the granola and all the deserts) they came running for green smoothies along with my daughter, Isabel!

 Mom’s transformation has been nothing less than freakin’ AMAZING! Let’s get right into the awesome benefits she’s experienced from the raw challenge…

~41lbs…kicked to the curb!

~Her blood sugar levels improved so much that she is off of her medication!!  Before she began the raw mission her levels would be as high as 260…now the highest readings have been around 93 and this is right after having a raw dessert! The meds she was taking were one step away from insulin so this is a major improvement!

~Mom was taking four different blood pressure meds when she started and has since dropped the 2 strongest ones! The Doctor says that if she keeps this up the other 2 may be on their way out soon!

~A chronic ulcer that had been on her leg for over three years has totally disappeared! This ulcer had required constant attention and visits from a nurse to apply medicated bandages…now the large basket that had housed all the gauze, tape and bandages has been cleaned out , and she’s got it filled with fruit on her kitchen table! :0)

~There has been a major improvement in Mom’s energy and mobility! Just check out the video! We were so psyched to see this change because Mom loves going to Family events, but has missed some in the past due to mobility issues…. with her new found get up and go we have a feeling this is gonna change!

~ As if all this wasn’t cool enough, her hair’s thickening! Her doctor was literally awestruck and happily surprised by all these awesome changes! He’s encouraging her to keep goin’ with raw foods… along with the rest of us!

 Before Mom left to head home I stopped by her place to stock up her cupboards and get her dehydrator set up.  Since returning home Mom has been chefin’ up a raw storm!  Avocado and tomato salads, onion dip, almond milk, chipotle sunflower seeds and more.  Her plans are to do a high raw diet and I’d say she’s goin’ along excellently!  I hung out with her this past Tuesday evening and showed her how to make a gluten free vegan curry to be a healthy addition to the cooked portion of her diet.  She told me that she loved all the awesome comments, compliments and words of encouragement on her videos and was surprised by all the friend requests on Facebook! 

I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful words, well wishes, props and prayers!  All this awesome feedback and the stories of people being touched and inspired by my family’s raw challenge have been amazing!  You all rock hardcore and your kind words are not only touching us, but they’re also giving Mom motivation to keep rawkin’ it out!   So from our family to everyone out there rooting for us THANK YOU, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!  Hah-Ha! I can’t say it enough!  :0D

 My mom isn’t the only one rawkin’ it out, my sister, Danielle, and bro-in-law, Aaron, and my lovely wife, Amanda are also now 10 days into the 100% raw eating, and have been having great results!  Aaron, who’s decided to dive into the raw challenge head first by goin’ 100% raw from the get go has shed over 40lbs in 4 weeks!!  Danielle, who doesn’t have much to shed, has dropped 15lbs over this past 10 days of eating 100% raw, and Amanda has shed 10lbs during the same time!  Aaron has been presently surprised by how tasty and filling raw food can be, and has been enjoying all the eats I’ve been whipping up, particularly my marinated mushroom wraps with seed cheese, BBQ Portobello Burgers and Raw tacos with the works.  It’s really awesome for me to be chefin’ it up for my family and sharing with them the strategies and info that has brought about such an awesome transformation for me!  It’s great to be doing this for them with all the love and support they’ve given me! 

 These videos that I’m sharing here have been featured on Raw Fu and Raw Food Rehab and the  response to them has been overwhelmingly awesome!! Sooo many people have written to tell how they’ve been touched by what we’re doing and have been sharing them with family members who they’d love to see make awesome improvements to their health.  Amongst these cool responses have been many who say they’ve been re-inspired to tackle their own raw food challenges!  I’m so happy to hear all the wonderful things that are comin’ about from my family’s raw adventure and they’re excited as well to hear all the great comments, words of support and encouragement, and tales of others inspired by their changes, so from all of them and myself to all the people cheering them on we wanna say thank you so very much and you all freakin’ ROCK!!  Peace, love and rawness~ Rory and Family :0)

 Just a couple examples of what we offer. Styles change all the time.

These handcrafted bags allow you to easily and more safetly tote around your favorite green, nut milk or fruit smoothies!  Also great for water!  The insualted liner is made from Reflectix Brand insulation which is a foil wrapped bubble wrap type of insulation, so not only does it hold in the cold, but it also adds a bit of breakage protection to your mason jar!  The shoulder strap allows for hands-free carrying *bonus!* and when the strap’s not in use you can stuff it in between the liner and the bag so it’s out of the way when it’s parked on your desk!  These bags also conceal the ”interesting” colored beverages that co-workers and on-lookers may otherwise give ya funny looks about.  Until I began using my smoothie bag I had heard it all, “What’re ya drinkin’ ? Pond scum ?”

 So now that ya got the low down on what our smoothie bags are I wanna anounce that Amanda has cranked out some awesome new ones!  These smoothie jar bags also come with a couple of options for lids!  We put in a wide mouth jar lid insert with a pre-drilled straw hole and a standard size plastic jar cap also with a pre-drilled straw hole.  So all you need to add is your favorite mason jar!  So if you need a fun new way of carrying your smoothie goodness and/or you have some raw foodies on your holiday shopping list then check out our Etsy page to see all the neat choices we have!  Peace everyone and have a rawsome day! :0)

Hey everyone! I am sure by now you get a sense of how fun it is for me to be sharing the benefits of adding more raw and living foods to one’s diet, well then you can imagine how geeked up I am to tell you that my family is embarking on a raw food challenge!

My Mom, Sister, Bro-in-Law Aaron and my lovely wife Amanda are currently two weeks into a transitional raw food diet (80% raw and 20% cooked) and after another couple of weeks of that their going to be going 100% raw for six weeks!! To help them along I’m not only giving them guidance and showing them how to make awesome raw eats, but I’m also chefin’ it up for them! You name it and I’ve been un-cookin’ it!

It’s a lot of fun for me and the changes that my Bro Aaron is experiencing already are awesome! In his first week of transition (well he decided to skip the transition and go 100% right off the bat! I discussed potential harsh detox symptoms with him, but we determined that this method of going hardcore into challenges works best for him!) he lost overe 20lbs! This has slowed a bit in his second week, but his energy is waaaaay up!

All my family members doing this have various health issues they’re hoping to improve from pre-diabetic conditions, to high blood pressure to chronic fatigue and being over weight. I’m so psyched up to be sharing this way of eating that has done so much for me with my family! And of course they’re loving having a live-in raw chef! :0)

Check out this video of me and Mom talking about the challenge and  showing her how to whip up some of the yummy onion dip I’ve been delivering to her during her transitional diet!

 Chocolate Fudge Sauce~

5 Dates (pitted …and checked for “frass”!)

1/4 cup of water

1/2 cup of agave nectar (or if you’re a freakin’ beegan like me, raw honey)

5 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (oh yes!!)

1″ piece of vanilla bean pod (or the seeds of a 1″ piece if you’re using a standard blender, or a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract)

pinch of sea salt (to amplify the yummy goodness)

Blend everything until silky smooth. This cacao-concoction will keep in your fridge for 3-4 days and makes an awesome ice cream topping as well as a heck of a good dip for fresh strawberries or slices of ripe bananas!

The class was a blast and lookin’ forward to my next one “Viva la Mexicana!” hope to see ya there! :0)

Montezuma's Castle

 The first place we checked out was Montezuma’s Castle. There we not only got to see and be in the presence of an amazing remnant of civilizations of the past but, we also met some of its present inhabitants. Like this cute lil’ mamajama.

Here lizard, lizard, lizard...

I also got to meet the Mesquite tree. This majestic beauty is  responsible for that wonderful drool inspiring BBQ smell , but more importantly (to me) it also produces a fruit that resembles a pea pod. This mesquite pod was ground into a meal by native peoples and was a staple of their diet. Now mesquite meal is a popular addition to many raw desserts and smoothies for it’s tasty caramel’ish flavor!

Me and the Mesquite Tree :0)

 Next we headed out in search of vortexes at Bell Rock. For those who haven’t heard of the vortex phenomenon what it is, is basically spirals of energy emanating from the earth at various areas around the gorgeous ginormous red rock formations in Sedona. These spirals of energy have been known to cause interesting reactions when people are exposed to them and tree’s growing nearby even begin to take on a twisted form, seemingly growing with the flow! On our trek up to Bell Rock our friend Barbara experienced some funky vibes from the area and I definitely got chills when walking through the same path she had been on. But, what was even cooler than vortex hunting was the amazing view that surrounds you at Bell Rock. It literally looks like you’re walking on Mars with the red rocks and silt beneath your feet and the plant life is something else! 

Chillin' with the infamous agave :0)

 The agave plant (besides being one tasty vegan sweetener for raw desserts)  has one ridiculously huge flower stalk when it decides it’s time to go to seed. The flower stalks are so massive and solid that they can be used as a walking staff! Check out this one …

This lil' agave plant had a flower stalk at least 14 feet tall!

 Bell Rock was amazing but, as much as we wanted to hang out their all day and lift up all the rocks in search of critters (well ok that’s what I was up to!) We needed to get moving. Just then it seemed my search for desert critters finally paid off…sort of. I lifted a large rock and saw what I thought to be a small scorpion clinging to the underside of the rock …well I was half right. It was actually the exoskeletal shed shell of a scorpion left behind from a presumably now larger scorpion. Oh well still a neat find!

Wonder where the lil' guy that left this behind went...

The doorway to rawesomeness...

Nori Nachos with Southwestern style salsa! *Oh yes!*

Thai Spring Rolls! The wrapper was made from young thai coconut meat blended with spices :0)

The Collosal Platter of Falafel, My kinda dish! :0)

The Sea Star Cilantro Salad. Loaded with nutrients and flavor, perfect combo!

                                                                                                                                      

 Everything was amazing and ya know I had to load up some of their raw chocolates on my way out. It was like being in a raw version of Munson’s Chocolates, (one of my fave chocolate places as a kid/teen)! If you’re in the Sedona area you’ve gotta check this place out! I’d recommend it to anyone…raw or not!

One of the masterminds behind those raw masterpieces at Chocola Tree, Chef Illip :0)

 Our last stop in Sedona was an amazing view of the sunset over the city a great way to end a great trip!

 To all you lucky mama-jamas livin’  in or near Sedona…rock on! Peace and love everyone :0)

The co-conspirators of rawsomeness at Catch, Glen Colello and Lisa Storch :0)

Thursday Oct. 15th 6:30 pm

Just Desserts!~ I’ll be showing you how to put together some really quick, easy and delicious raw desserts! There will be Q&A and of course sampling!! I’m gonna be whippin’ up the following~

Strawberry Pie           

Banana Ice Cream

Chocolate Fudge Sauce 

Fig Walnut Brownies!

The cost of the class is $25 a person RSVP preferred, but walk-ins welcome as well! :0)

Tuesday Oct. 27th 6:30 pm

Viva La Mexicano!~ We’re gonna be whippin’ up some tasty dishes just in time to warm up our cold weather diets with a lil’ spice!  Samples and plenty of Q&A! :0)

Rawfried Beans                        

Sunflower Sour Cream

Zesty Salsa

Rawdawg’s Fave Guacamole

Fajitas!

The cost of the class is $25 a person or sign up for both classes for $40 (pretty sweet deal, eh?)  RSVP preferred but walk-ins also welcome!

To RSVP for either (or both) of the classes, contact Glen Colello  via email at catchahealthyhabitcafe@yahoo.com or call 203-521-7648

Lookin’ forward to seein’ ya there! Peace, love and rawness! :0D