Deliciously Sugar-Free Raw Chocolate

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Triple Layer Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter Dessert

Medjool Date Sweetened Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate Raspberry Ganache

Chocolate Pudding

 Raw Chocolate Dessert Class

"I was so happy I came.  

I've never had deserts like this."

~ MB

True Food Beauty Raw Chocolate Class

"It is always a great time around people who enjoy healthy food. " 
~ M

Experience The Benefits 

Raw chocolate contains anandamide which is know as the bliss chemical and which actually enhances our sense of well-being.  Another mood enhancing compound found in raw chocolate is PEA which triggers the release of the same neuro-chemicals we experience when we fall in love.

Polyphenols and flavanols in raw chocolate help improve blood circulation.

The healthy fats found in raw chocolate are similar to the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil.

Raw chocolate is a good source of magnesium which helps to lower blood pressure.

November Cooking Class - Dessert - Delicious And Guilt-Free!

Don't Deprive Yourself Over The Holidays!

The good news is - you won't have to spend hours slaving in the kitchen to enjoy delicious holiday desserts.

Learn how to make a repertoire of delicious - decadent, and did I say easy to make, desserts!  These desserts literally take moments to whip up.

Most will feature chocolate, of coarse, and many will feature fruit and nuts and natural sweeteners such dried fruit and dates.   

None of them have sugar - not even organic cane sugar - and none of them have grain, grain products or gluten of any kind.

Best yet - you will not be turning on the oven.  

November 12th 4 - 6 pm

Sign up:   lisavalantine@gmail.com

Cost: $40.00

Couples: $75.00

The CSA Box Challenge

CSA boxes, in addition to regular farmer's market foraging, can present a culinary challenge when you get all sorts of things you might not ordinarily buy.  Today as I prepare for a busy work week I am making good use of the CSA Box and the vitamix blender.  In fact, I have used the vitamix more times than should be counted.

I got a basket of strawberry guava in the CSA box this week.  I decided to make a batch of strawberry guava juice to flavor botanical elixirs.  It smells heavenly and is the most delicious looking color.  I can't wait to try it.

Next I prepared a batch of blended gazpacho from beautiful CSA and Farmer's Market heirloom tomatoes.  The gazpacho is already jarred for work week lunches.

Gazpacho Ready To Go To Work

I happened to get a wealth of summer squash in the CSA box.  I made a blended summer squash soup seasoned with fennel seed.  This blended soup will be very welcome when I come home at the end of a busy day and want something in a hurry right?

Beets, cilantro and green onion stirred into quinoa and dressed with lemon and olive oil are jarred for lunches.

We are in the middle of a mid-September heat wave here in Southern California.  The fragrant melon sitting on the counter, the local California mango, local California blueberries, the crisp cucumbers and celery will make refreshing juice and smoothie concoctions.

The remaining bunch of radishes, romaine lettuce, arugula and cucumbers are stashed in the crisper drawer to become this weeks salads.

I just discovered that what I thought was dill in the CSA box is actually baby fennel!  I have never had baby fennel before!  I wonder what I will make with it?

~ Friends Gather To Enjoy Local Flavor ~

Another Ferment-Centric Culinary Adventure

Preserved Lemon Class ~ August 20th 4 - 6 PM ~ Thousand Oaks

Meyer lemons, which are actually a cross between a lemon and mandarin orange, are considered the ideal lemon for making preserved lemon because they more closely approximate the flavor of Moroccan lemons.

Even though it is not Meyer Lemon season here in California I found some really nice lemons at the farmer's market that were a good substitute.

What do you look for if you want to make preserved lemon and don't have Meyer Lemons?  Look for small lemons that can easily be packed into jars and that have plenty of juice.  If they are on the dry side augment the jar with plenty of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Dinner Featured Local Farmer's Market Produce!

~ Local Non-GMO ~

Beautiful Organic Non-GMO Eggs - Locally Raised

Even in the face of an impossibly large Industrial Food System.  We really are much more powerful than we suppose ourselves to be.  We each individually make a difference.  We can change our personal health destiny.  We don't need to feel helpless, hopeless or victimized by the system.  We vote with our dollar.  What we buy we support.   We have the opportunity every single day to vote with our dollar - to either bring higher consciousness to our food choices by supporting local organic farmers and the local food economy or - often  unwittingly because we didn't know we had other options - to support GM food and other industrial faux foods that are adulterated in myriad and often unfathomable ways.  If the GM foods are not supported by consumers - trust me they will go away simply because they don't make economic sense.

So rather than catching yourself grumbling about an industrial food system,  rather than wasting energy feeling distressed or victimized about the potential health hazards of GM foods and what Monsanto is dishing up, I offer another option.

Why not take the focus off Monsanto and what they do - and simply BE the solution.

See how good it feels to just say "No" and take your power back!

~ Another Plug For Local Food ~

Local Foods Support Health

A primary indicator of health is the human ability to adapt and thrive in the environment in which they live.  In the past people lived closely connected to the land.  It was not uncommon for generations to live and die within the sight of a particular mountain range or valley.  In the past people ate food that was locally produced, and the cheeses and milk, for instance, produced from the grasses and flowers of a particular region produced colors, flavors and aromas that were distinctive to the region.

One of the things that modern people seem to have lost is an intimate knowledge and connection with the environment in which they were born and/or living.  We do not experience the land or the seasons in the profound way that our ancestors did.  We are mobile, often moving from place to place.  And an industrial food system makes it possible for us to eat food that comes from great distances.

One of the most powerful things that we can do to re-connect ourselves with the land,  no matter where we live, is to eat food that is grown locally.   Local food strengthens the human adaptive capacity, strengthens health, is fresher, more nutritious, and usually tastes better too.

~ Terrior and the identity of local flavor ~

Locally Grown Carrots

Once again I re-visit the tantalizing topic of local food.

What does our valley, our soil, taste like?  How does it create a unique local food flavor?

The local terrior - the local soil and environment - interact together to play a role in the genetic expression of plants and when all come together create a unique food expression.  So peaches grown in Conejo Valley will actually taste different - and should btw taste different - than peaches grown in Ojai.

How do we embrace our uniqueness?  How do we even begin to discover what that uniqueness is and learn how to identify it and distinguish it from other flavors?  Very simply - start visiting and shopping at farmer's markets and grow a garden.

I remember my first visits to this valley.  My family was planning to move from Santa Monica and we often spread our picnic in orange groves and as a child I remember I played in farm fields and hid in ditches or oak trees when farmers rode by on horseback.  Basque sheep herders came down each year from northern California to graze their sheep.  It was a very different valley than the one we see today.  The farm fields pretty much disappeared decades ago.

With the food producing land all but vanished - what resources do we have to begin to explore and build a local cuisine, a local food culture?  I like to focus on the positive.  What we DO have is the most amazing climate that grows just about everything.  What we DO have is a whole network of backyards.  Backyards that could be converted to permaculture and create a kind of food redundancy and food security that would benefit the entire community.  Each backyard connected like little points of light - a whole wonderful interconnected food web.

I would get very excited to learn that someone in the community became very passionate about growing heirloom beans.  There are so many interesting varieties and beans grow very well here which I happen to know from my own garden experiments.  I would be very excited to learn that someone in the community became passionate about growing squash.  I can't tell you how many delicious beautiful varieties of squash ARE  NOT grown commercially.   Or how about someone getting so interested in baking real artisanal bread that they go off to study with Chad Robertson in northern California or travel to Europe to study traditional bread baking.  What about artisanal cheese?  What about locally raised backyard eggs from chickens who lead lives that chickens are meant to lead?

Once we start getting excited about local food and food culture the possibilities are endless and things really start to get interesting.

Those of you who attend my classes know that they are all about local food and that at each class participants can expect to experience a whole plethora of new local flavor sensations.  Each bite becomes an education to the palate and is an important first step to discovering, recognizing and cultivating local food and local food identity.