Raw Vegan Cornbread from Mimi Kirk's "Live Raw"

Raw Vegan CornBread from Mimi Kirk's 
Live Raw: Raw Food Recipes for Good Health and Timeless Beauty

Live Raw: Raw Food Recipes for Good Health and Timeless Beauty

Mimi Kirk is amazing & has led a fairly interesting life.  From Gurus to working on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  In her seventies, she sports an uber natural beauty, sin botox. She says a little peroxide in a bottle is the "extent" of her manipulating her looks.  Passionate about fresh foods, but not OCD about it & not into one particular style of raw (like no fat, all fat, low glycemic, all fruit, no fruit).  She offers a bit of everything.

Just have to love the colors!! It's so obvious what we should be eating.  This food needs no dye.  Actually, if you aren't careful, the Turmeric will revolt & "dye" without permission!  A girl put a bit too much in a facial mask & had to go kind of "orange" for a few days.  At least her face won't have a lot of fat plaque on it!! (Turmeric is thought to help reduce inflammation & plaques-so being studied for it's effects on Alzheimers).  People also use it to put in their hot drinks, to ease joint pains.

I used frozen corn.  Organic (corn is one of those "dirty" GMO crops-as most is fed to cows).

Happy Fats.  Sunflower seeds have lots of Vitamin E.  Well, everyone knows about "Flax", the "Old school" wonder seed.  Now it has gotten a bit ousted by Hemp & Chia.  

Food Processor.  My idea of "cooking".

Spread on dehydrator.  Square models work best.  If you are seriously thinking about making raw treats, get a square model!  The air flow is better and it's also more conducive to crackers.

After a few hours.

This was a little different than "crackers" as you want cornbread to be more pliable.  You could fully dehydrate to make crackers, but then you would want to spread it out a bit thinner.  The benefit of fully dehydrated goods is that they travel well and last a fair amount of time either in transit or in a jar on your shelf.

The Cornbread was a hit......And it's so pretty!!  

And the dogs.......

www.gatewaypets.com

Fallon & Shiloh have been rescued from East St. Louis streets and need a forever home.  Horton, poor guy, is STILL waiting.  His girl, Savvy, was rescued by an Angel & Savvy gave birth to 10 puppies.  Oh, GPG needs fosters so badly.  Horton gets along with everyone and seems to get along with all the dogs on the street.  No food aggression.  Just a doll.

Shiloh (son of Fallon) bites Pj's butt.  A love nip!

This kind of things makes these mornings suck.  It's too hard to watch some stuff sometimes (the dogs are fine, well, we didn't see them again, but nothing bad happens in the video!).  You just have to totally detach yourself from the situation.  It's a "situation" and you don't have much influence in it.  Even if they cross okay this time, lots of these dogs are always by busy roads or highways, and you just  have to accept that you have no control over it.  We don't have fosters for all of them.  In addition, most of them need a lot of coaxing and need to get "trapped" to be rescued.  We can't just "pick" most of these dogs up.  Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to even "trap" a dog.  When dogs are "social", they tend to get pulled much more quickly, just because they hop in the car, or it requires no planning.  There are no "animal services" that truly serve these communities, excluding the pound.  The pound is not a hippy, happy, new style place.  I think it is more a enter & die place.  These are truly forgotten cities in Illinois, and in the country.  And industries in this area are located in a nearby city, Sauget, and evade the tax base.  Not only do they skip out on taxes, they are so kind to pollute the environment.   An Indian man, Safir Ahmed, wrote a bit about East St. Louis, and it sounded like even he was in a bit of awe, as this wasn't happening in India (where US companies can routinely do this sort of activity), but right here in the States, our awesome, God fearing country.  Excerpt from "Third World Traveller".

"I'm from India. In Calcutta this would be explicable, perhaps. I keep thinking to myself, 'My God! This is the United States!' "

                                                                               -Safir Ahmed

Groovy Stuff. Gluten Free Asafoetida, The Urban Bhagavad Gita, and Shiva & Parvati. And how to "Get Ready For a Date".

Ganesha Goes to Lunch: Classics from Mystic India (Mandala Classics)

I picked this up while at Borders, checking out their sales, and adore it.  The author is a beautiful storyteller and is able to communicate timeless stories from Indian Text into easy to read, engaging short stories.  Haven't read all of them yet but loved the story of Parvati reuniting with Shiva on a mountaintop.  And Ganesh getting sent to go to lunch of a person who could never ever have enough.  Love these stories.  They text is so colorful & the blend of "heaviness" & "lightness", brilliant.

Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All

I bought the audiobook of this awhile back.  I didn't even know who Russell Simmons was until I kept hearing his name in relation to Yoga.  While he very much engaged with the physical world of fashion, business, & beautiful women, he seems quite aware that it isn't the only channel.  Here is an "urban", modern take on some lessons from the Bhagavad Gita.  Some people may be turned off to some of the analogies he makes, but I find it interesting & entertaining.  And to think that it is marketed to people in "pop culture" is cool.  Of course the title, "Super Rich" doesn't refer to monetary wealth.  

Live Raw: Raw Food Recipes for Good Health and Timeless Beauty

Have been digging the awesome photography and chit-chat in Mimi's book.  Mimi was voted sexiest vegetarian a few years back in the over 50 category.  And she was something like 71!!  This gal has studied with gurus, worked on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and been involved with the media/celebrity culture for years.  She was vegetarian for years and just in the past few years (I believe) has gone Raw.  Claiming it has helped her with common issues of aging.  It is SO awesome to see women that aren't 20, 30, or 40 just selling sex and totally botoxed out.  She is very sexy, but part of that appeal is that she seems super comfortable in her own skin.  She isn't botoxed out and her face isn't stretched from here to the North Pole.  And she's gorgeous.  She is also a mentor for the rest of us gals on graceful aging.  Her recipes are great.  A great variety of ones that do use seeds & nuts and others that are very fresh & basic without added plant fats!  She's adorable.

Raw Garden: Over 100 Healthy and Fresh Raw Recipes (The Complete Book of Raw Food Series)

I don't know if I love this book yet, but I do like that there is so much produce involved.  Many of the recipes are from people who would come to Raw Potlucks so there is a wide variety of style here.  I think a few dishes from this book made me think I do prefer green beans cooked, but part of that is just ME.  But there are some great recipes in here & many that are not so heavy on seeds & nuts.

Gluten Free Frontier Naturals Asafortida Powder -- 2.32 oz

Finally.  My Asafoetida (I guess this word can be spelled a gazillion ways) came.  Yeah, you can buy it anywhere, but anywhere means that they use Wheat Starch to cut it.  Hubby brought some regular stuff home from the Indian Grocery, and I LOVE having it in my cabinet because it smells awesome to me.  But I wanted Gluten Free Asafoetida and was delighted that Frontier would deliver.  

And humor.  For some reason my single friends think I know something about men.  Or can offer dating advice, which is comical because I never really "dated" and I have been married 12 years & was with my hubby, living in sin (apparently we were quite attached to sin),  at least 3 years before marriage!  One of my best childhood friends, who I thought would be married with kids at maybe 23 because she always wanted them, well, she's "shopping" now for a great guy who wants kids.  She's about one month away from 40, so there maybe a small amount of pressure there.  Well, I think most recently I told her to dress like a whore, f*ck like a slut, but also be the woman who has fantastic values, who is uber ethical, and would be a SuperMom.  A SuperMom when she isn't being a PornStar.  Make sure the shirts are nicely pressed, behave in public, while simultaneously being a  whore.  After I hung up, I wondered, "wow", where did that come from.  Hmmm...maybe influenced from my Hubby's new FunnyGirl on YouTube.  Jenna Marbles.  I think he showed me a different video but somehow I gravitated towards this one.  And if you know any amazing men in the Chicago area that want a "Beautiful Bolivian Babe" who actually can pull all that stuff off, well I have the girl for you.  But act fast!

Cracks me up.
Jenna Marbles

What you you guys reading, eating, advising lately??  Do girlfriends ask your advice?  Do you give it bluntly or do you totally shy away from "advising" others?