Dinner w/ the Ladies

July 19, 2010

The ladies and I getting ready to munch on some raw grindage!

As a traveling yoga instructor and raw food chef, I take on a lot of random house sitting/pet sitting gigs.  I love it!  It gives me an opportunity to experience new places and new animals constantly.

My dear friend and one of my very first yoga teachers, Kate Mitchell, has always offered her beautiful home to me whilst she is off on her adventures.  Kate is a raw food educator who continues to do beautiful work at the Living Foods Institute in Atlanta, GA.  She is an inspirational, beautiful being, who I’m always excited to be in the presence of!

Explaining what's for dinner!

The last time she went on an adventure away from home, I invited some of my bestest girlfriends over for a Goldielocks dinner!  I had been thinking and dreaming of ravioli for some time now and decided I was gonna go for it!  With a few recipes in mind and after reading over different recipes online, I got to work.  In 4 hours, with the help of my beautiful assistant Heidi and my salad making sista Nicky, we busted out a RAWvioli dinner for 6, with days of leftovers.

Mandoline sliced daikon

Since my indecisiveness was shining bright this day, I decided on two different variations of raWvioli!  I used beets as the raWvioli shell for one variation and daikon radish for the other.  I sliced them both using the mandoline.  I then marinated the beet and daikon in garlic, olive oil, himalayan salt and lemon for a few hours before assembling.  The beet raWvioli was stuffed with a traditional cashew cheese and topped with a creamy pesto sauce.  The second variation was a daikon raWvioli stuffed with a creamy portabello filling and topped with a sweet creamy beet sauce and a olive, brazil nut tapanade.  Of course, I love variation, so I set up a table and let the girls assemble their own plates with their choice of “shell”, filling, and sauces!

RaWvioli stuffed w/ cashew cheeses and topped with fresh pesto and sweet beet sauce!

Of course a dinner party would not be complete with out a beautiful raw dessert!  I decided to make banana mango crepes for dessert.  I have always been a huge fan of  crepes, especially for breakfast or dessert.  In my eyes, crepes must be stuffed with something creamy and delicious.  My dear friend and partner in crime Ms. Heidi Blair assisted me in creating a beautiful ice cream to fill the crepes.  We made a delicious cinnamon/ginger cashew based ice cream!  I soaked some bananas and berries in a little rum and agave to make a drunken fruit topping!

Banana Mango crepes stuffed with cinnamon/ginger icecream and covered in drunken berries!

It is always a blessing to share raw foods with people I love.  The girls were stoked and we are excited for the next dinner party to come!