I was featured in Sunday's Los Angeles Times newspaper here in LA, in their Holiday Guide. Here are a couple recipes and hopefully some ideas you will find useful and inspiring for keeping it fresh whole food, raw food, vegan, and healthy recipes during your holidays! Enjoy xoxo
Ani's Juice Kitchen in action. I'm crafting a bunch of new organic recipes for delicious, healthy detox, plus nourishment. This is a similar process as when making food recipes, but in liquid form. And I'm focused on color and flavor. What's your favorite seasonal juice combo today?
I'm offering my final 2013 series of Ani's Raw Food Certification Courses in September in Santa Monica, CA. Level 1: September 20, 21, 22. Friday 3pm to 6pm. Saturday 8am to 4pm. Sunday 10am to 2pm. Level 2: September 27.28.29. Friday 3pm to 6pm. Saturday 8am to 4pm. Sunday 10am to 2pm. Level 3, Teacher Training: September 29, 30, October 1st. Sunday 4pm to 6pm. Monday 10am to 4pm. Tuesday 10am to 2pm. My inspiration for creating these courses is to help people learn how simple, quick, and easy raw food preparation can be! It's all about delicious and nutritious recipes made using a handful of easy to find ingredients. Complexity is added with sauces and plating. To support a healthy diet and lifestyle, we need to know how to make our own food, quickly! In my courses, I also discuss lifestyle topics including fitness, natural beauty, organic and eco-green living, healthy detox, weight loss, and much more. And for those interested in launching their own business, writing a book, and or creating a show, I talk about business strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing strategy, and keys to building your brand. I hope you can join me in September for one or all 3 of my courses! It's a really fun course, and a great way to detox feasting on the best raw food ever!! For more information, please visit my course page.
I recently spent a few days with Kyra and Billy at their home in beautiful Carmel Valley, CA to help Kyra with her weight loss and health goals. I left Kyra with 2 days of recipes and a couple new exercise regimens that will help build her muscle mass while accelerating her fat burning. BACKGROUND: Kyra had been struggling with her weight since she turned 40. She lives a clean life, is mostly vegetarian and eats fish a couple times a week, and is in tune with healthy living. Kyra goes to the gym several times a week, and takes long walks almost daily. She travels for work about 2 weeks each month, and wanted an easy plan for preparing her own food when not at home. Plus, she wanted to be able to balance out the excess food and drink across the rest of her life with healthier detoxing foods made at home. Kyra needed refinement to her regimen to up her health results. Her man Billy, on the other hand, is not as health conscious. His diet consists of primarily animal products, and it's been a struggle to get him to even taste the healthier foods Kyra makes. SHOPPING AND PANTRY: First, I helped to clear out Kyra's fridge and pantry. Next, we went to the local co-op, where I taught her to shop for ingredients and produce. We also went to Earthbound Organic's Farm Stand, which was full of amazing veggies and fruits. MY FOOD PROGRAM FOR KYRA: I replaced all of Kyra's protein powders with whole, unprocessed foods like quinoa, buckwheat, sea vegetables, dark leafy greens, with occasional eggs and fish. To offset her intense sugar cravings, I upped her protein intake, [...]
We kicked off Ani's Raw Food Certification Course, Level 1 on March 15, 16, 17th, 2013 to a packed house! It was a weekend of raw food making and eating, eco-green living inspiration, and happiness all around. Experiencing visible transformations as people detox on raw food for 3 days is incredible! The room's happiness index kept rising up as our days passed, and people glowed.
Ani's Raw Food Certification courses are held a couple blocks from the Saturday morning Santa Monica Farmers' Market, where local farmers bring us seasonal produce that's been picked just a few hours before. Sometimes, we'll find heirloom ingredients available for only a week, or better yet.....dry farmed produce. That's when the plants just thrive on their own, without watering nor chemicals! Fresh, local, seasonal, gluten free, vegan, and organic...what better way to detox and cleanse from urban toxins?
Ani's Favorite Green Juice Recipe: Dandelion Kale Cilantro Jalapeño Fennel Basil Turmeric Cucumber Celery Spinach Lemon I love green juices, and think of them as my daily multi-vitamin. In the same way I would never think to live off a bottle of vitamins only, I don't think to starve myself on a 5-10 day juice fast in order to detox (unless I had a tumor to starve or some other acute health crisis). It seems to be a new trend here in LA that people with unhealthy processed diets and lifestyles, who even smoke, suddenly think it's okay to starve for 7 days on a juice cleanse to make everything better. How about focusing instead on creating a healthier lifestyle through exercise, clean eating, mediation, and happiness rather than starving? These are the real keys to longevity. Green juices are wonderful for vitamins and minerals, and for nourishing our bodies. But, it's so much more FUN and less painful to enjoy delicious Raw Foods while accidentally DETOXing! Feasting on Raw Foods, rather than starving on a juice cleanse, is safer and healthier for you. We're designed to be eating whole foods. Starving our bodies on just juice cannibalizes our muscle mass, slows down our metabolism, and will make us gain weight as soon as we eat again (besides throwing off our hormones, along with triggering a slew of other biological reactions). It's painful to starve ourselves. Why deny ourselves when instead we can feast and enjoy delicious Raw Foods to cleanse and detox? I'd rather eat clean, detoxifying foods, than starve myself. Wouldn't you agree?
During my silent 10-day Vipassina mediation last October, I had a vision to work with kids in underprivileged neighborhoods teaching them how to garden, grow food, and make healthy food. These neighborhoods lack fresh produce or healthy food options. The only way to save lives is to teach kids about food, real food. Growing our food builds confidence and self reliance. It's important for kids to understand where their food comes from. Neelam Sharma is the Executive Director of Community Services Unlimited, Inc. and is largely responsible for the development of CSU's food justice and youth training programs. She helped create The Healthy School Food Coalition, The LA Food Justice Network, and the California Food Justice Coalition. An inspirational lady...passionate, intelligent, and beautiful. Neelam and I met at the Expo Center garden, where I first met Dana Clay, the Urban Farm Assistant responsible for this beautiful garden. I found a curry tree for the first time, and the leaves tasted pungent, like curry. They even had a cherimoya tree! Yum. The last time I saw a cherimoya tree was in Baja. I love cherimoya, and just picked up 3 at the local farmer's market. Visit CSU's weekly Farm Stand in front of the Expo Center on Menlo just north of MLK on Thursdays from 3-6pm. Find more about Community Services Unlimited events, and how you can volunteer on their website. A special thanks to my good friend Bryant Terry for introducing me to Neelam and CSU, inc.
Mayor Gavin Newsom at SF Green Festival last Saturday. It’s the largest green festival in the country. Mayor Newsom is a long time vegetarian. The hall was packed for my talk on raw food desserts, nutrition, and overall well being. I demoed my famous Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake and Spiced Blueberry Cobbler, recipes from “Ani’s Raw Food Desserts”. There was a feeding frenzy over the sample tastes of the desserts, and they were delicious! Read more about the SF Green Fest on VegNews Magazine’s blog.
