Tag Archives: raw girl

VOTE Raw Girl for Best Health/Wellness Blog in Black Weblog Awards

Dearest Readers:

Raw Girl in a Toxic World is a nominee for Best Health/ Wellness Blog in the Black Weblog Awards. Voting goes until October 1st. You know I heart all of you and so appreciate your readership!! If this blog has provided you with any good insights, health tips, natural cures, recipes, or quality information as I have intended I would so appreciate you taking a minute to VOTE. It’s very simple. Visit the link below, you can skip all of the other sections and just go to Health/Wellness and click Raw Girl in a Toxic World. DO IT NOW, before you forget and spread the word. Thanks so much veggie lovers! -XoXo Raw Girl

http://www.blackweblogawards.com/vote-here/

Vegan Dish: Stuffed Zucchini w/ Brown Rice & Veggies

So, I decided to make a vegan dish tonight while eating with the fam. Haven’t had brown rice in a few months, but I’ll live. Too much of it, makes me feel not so great, but little amounts I can handle. I tend to fluctuate between periods of all raw, and then I have cooked things like brown rice, quinoa, and steamed plantains that I love to incorporate every once in a while. I also really wanted to make something yummy to possibly encourage my father to get back on the veg bandwagon. My mothers stayed on as far as I know, but I hear he’s fallen way off since their 40 Day vegan fast. Anyhow, I was toying with doing stuffed bell peppers or zucchini, and stuck with the latter because I have so much from the garden right now. Below is the recipe. Remember that you can modify this any way you like to suit your taste buds. You can make a veggie version w/ no brown rice, or a version with quinoa, which is probably equally as delicious. You can even make a vegan version that includes daiya cheese (vegan cheese) as a topping. When I cook food, I choose to not cook things very long, because I don’t believe in zapping every last ounce of life force from my food, but you can modify the cooking times to suit your preference.

Ingredients:

Cooked brown rice

1-2 Zuchinni

red or green bell pepper

red onion

tomatoes

garlic (diced)

broccoli

Seasonings: Braggs, black pepper, curry powder, pinch of sea salt

Heat oven at 350 degrees. Cut your zucchini in half and scoop/cut out insides without breaking the skin. You can use a spoon and/or knife. Place on a baking pan or foil that has been drizzled with olive oil. Dice up veggies: broccoli, garlic, bell pepper, red onion, and insides of zucchini. Rinse thoroughly, and add all veggies to a wok or frying pan.  Add pinch of sea salt, two dashes of yellow curry, black pepper to taste, and generous amount of Braggs. Cover and let veggies cook/steam for a few minutes then add in brown rice. Heat until rice mixture is warm.  Use a spoon to scoop rice mixture into zucchini halves. Place zucchini in oven and let back for 15-25 minutes, depending on your preference. Serve & enjoy!!! 🙂

Blog Giveaway! Win a copy of MAIN STREET Vegan by Victoria Moran

Dearest Subscribers:

Because I heart you so much I want to start giving you perks for being committed Raw Girl readers. This is going to be the first of many awesome Raw Girl giveaways! To enter you must be a subscriber of the blog and fan of the Raw Girl Facebook page. This book is best for vegans-in-transition but anyone can benefit from it, I learned a lot. Are you new to veganism? Need some great tips on how to start? I read Main Street Vegan and I so wished it was around years ago when I went VEG. Victoria Moran covers EVERYTHING you need to know in a personable and entertaining way.

Email a photo can be simple, cute, or creative, whatever you like,  along with 60 words or less of why you have decided to go vegan or stay committed to a vegan lifestyle to rawgirltoxicworld@gmail.com. I’ll narrow it down to three top entrants and we’ll let the voting begin for one day only via the Facebook page! Raw Girl fans will vote with likes who is the winner of the book. To be eligible, email your entry by midnight on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 . Finalists will be notified on Saturday, September 8th.  

More goodies on the way! -XoXo Raw Girl

Raw Girl on the Radio!

Hey Gang:

Tomorrow, (Friday morning), I will be interviewed on the Newd Radio show “Its the Naked Truth” live @ 10 am! Anyone can tune in via the internet to listen at www.newdradio.com. and beginning next week on January 25th, the pilot episodes of my health radio show “Healthy Living in a Toxic World,” will begin airing on Wednesdays at 5pm. Same place: www.newdradio.com

You don’t want to miss this first episode! I interviewed Bernando LaPallo the 109 year old raw foodist who I previously wrote about on the blog, and got tips from him on living a long healthy life. Feel free to email health questions for future shows to rawgirltoxicworld@gmail.com. -XoXo Raw Girl

The Trials & Tribulations of Staying Vegan in France

In front of Carlton Hotel in Cannes.

Bonjour! Raw Girl finally has her raw vegan swag back. I am on Day 3 of green juicing and I am starting to feel normal again. Cannes was an amazing experience, the beach, the films, the people, the shopping! The only drawback for me was the food. I was worried before leaving because my last run in with French food while visiting Paris, was difficult, and I was perpetually hungry and to add insult to injury, didn’t speak a word of French.

This time, thanks to my handy dandy Rosetta Stone, I knew the basics, and in addition to getting the Bonjour, Bonsoir, and Enchante’s down, I also mastered the phrase, “Je suis vegetalien.” I am vegetarian. I don’t even know if the French have a word for vegan! Once I would say my catch phrase, I would then have to explain to the waitress or waiter that for me that also meant no dairy or meat. Each and every time, I would get this horrified (but totally sympathetic) look from the waiter who then would work with me to try to dream up a somewhat edible vegan concoction on or off their current menu. It was a task. It seemed I was perpetually hungry for the entire trip. Thank God the French love quinoa and mache (my new lettuce love), because I was able to find these at some restaurants.

Before the festival was in full swing, I went to a grocery store and got some rations for salads, but once the networking mayhem began there was no time to be in my kichenette whipping up vegan friendly food. So what did I do? Improvise. I ended being mostly vegan, instead of mostly RAW during the trip. It was not a picnic since I do not like the heavier feeling of cooked foods, but it really was the only way to survive in such a fast paced festival environment. Apparently no meal is complete in France without bread, cheese, or meat. Seriously, almost every salad had all three, and there were never any vegetarian options UNTIL…I stumbled upon Cafe Florian.

Was heading for a meeting about my film project, and me and the colleague I was with couldn’t find anything veggie friendly at the place she chose (not even a salad). So we wandered down one of the lovely winding streets of Cannes and found Cafe Florian, which I sensed may be veg friendly from the bright green decor. When we sat down and I glanced at the menu, I almost cried. FRESH VEGGIE JUICE! Quinoa! Salads without meat and cheese! I was in heaven. Cafe Florian became my hot spot whenever I was close by, and then later I also discovered an awesome Indian place, which I knew would have veggie options, and the food was amazing. Besides that I became addicted to this incredible coconut sorbet that was vegan and had shreds of real coconut in it. YUM. At the end of the trip I ended up meeting this French entertainment lawyer who I discovered later was vegan. I wished I had a chance to chat with him in-depth about staying vegan in France, because from the cuisine it would seem right to assume that French vegans do not exist. Will be looking him up next time I’m there. Was a glorious trip, and I am thankful to say I survived and now that I am back to one. The first thing I did after sleeping for almost two days straight was buy some coconuts. Never been so happy to see a Whole Foods in my life! -XoXo Raw Girl

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdFNSy579lk]

Be a Caller on Raw Girl’s Radio Show!

Dear Veggie Lovers:

I am in need of questions for the recording of several radio shows ASAP!  If you are also interested in being a live caller please also include your phone number in the email. Excited about the range of shows coming up and some pretty fantastic guest interviews. Stay tuned for more information about where to listen.  If you would like to have your question answered On-Air, please send any health related/vegan/lifestyle questions to rawgirltoxicworld@gmail.com. Appreciate your participation! –XoXo Raw Girl

Raw Girl on the Radio!!!

Happy March veggie lovers! I’ve been M.I.A. shooting a film, and today is my first day back in blogging mode. Even more exciting…I’m going to be on the radio! That’s right, yours truly, will be launching very soon, a health radio show called “Healthy Living in a Toxic World.” We are recording the pilot episode this weekend focusing on the topic of longevity, and are in need of questions from you.

Please email any general health questions or questions about longevity to rawgirltoxicworld@gmail.com and your question may be answered on the radio show. If I don’t get to it in the first episode, I will include it in later episodes or in the “Dear Raw Girl” segment on the blog. The show will be airing on multiple radio stations  in the DMV area and also will be available to listen to live online. Check the blog for updates! -XoXo Raw Girl

Raw Girl’s OWN Audition & Impromptu Ambulance Ride

Hey there raw vegan lovers. I have had a CRAZY past couple of days, and so I have been M.I.A. First off, I was trying to get my video together in time for yesterday’s deadline for the Oprah Winfrey Network, and secondly I was in a car accident that could have been fatal but thankfully I emerged with all of my raw self in tact and fully functioning. I am sure you may have heard by now, that Oprah is looking for new shows, and she had in-person, and on-line open calls for people to submit ideas. My idea was an extension of this here lovely blog. Basically Raw Girl In a Toxic World, but live and in-color. You know you want to see it!  Please check out my video via the link below, and if you likes what you see, VOTE for me!  YOU CAN VOTE MULTIPLE TIMES. (PS I had an enormous amount of technical difficulties in the making and delivering of this audition video! It was crazy! Hope you will forgive anything noticeable and vote for me anyway 😉

http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=882&promo_id=1 

Now…back to the accident. All you DMVers may have heard about slugging? It’s an organized system where you can park your car in a commuter lot and hitch a ride on HOV with drivers so that you can all get into DC faster. I love it, it’s saved me a ridiculous amount of time and energy getting into Georgetown on a regular basis. Well on Tuesday, as I was doing my regular slug-a-lug— and the driver of the car I was in was not very focused. She’s chatting away with the passenger in the front seat, and talking to her like she’s chatting with a girlfriend at Starbucks over a frappucino, eye contact and everything. In my head, I’m thinking: “Watch the ROAD woman!”

Anywhoo, we are on 395 in the HOV lane, and she, not paying any attention steps hard on the brakes, just before hitting another car. The car behind us, misses the signals and slams right into us! Mind you, I AM IN THE BACKSEAT. All I remember was feeling a very HARD thrust in my back, jerking forward, calling out to God and grabbing my head before it hit the seat in front of me. Luckily, I did have my seat belt on. Next thing I know my lower back is throbbing, and my neck feels really odd. Tears were streaming down my face and the ambulance workers arrived and began firing questions at me. What’s my name? Where does it hurt? On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is the pain? etc. Long story short this Raw Girl ended up with a neck brace on, strapped to a board and staring into the sea of unrecognizable faces and then the blue sky as I was lifted into the ambulance. Destination: INOVA hospital in Fairfax, Virginia.

We reached the hospital and my tail bone was burning. I couldn’t tell if it was from the board, or if somehow the crash broke my sitting bones!  I was laying there and I hear this loud, almost sexual sounding moaning around me. Mind you, I was still strapped to the board and couldn’t move my neck at this point even if I wasn’t to see what it was. The moaning was getting louder and louder, and started to make me uncomfortable. Finally a doctor arrived and started asking the son of the wailing woman some questions. Apparently her knee was swollen and filled with liquid. Doctors confirmed with her son that she did have high blood pressure, and perhaps some history with diabetes. In that moment I was thankful that although I may have something broken, at least I was not in the severe pain that woman seemed to be in.

 After a while and two examinations from different doctors, I got an X-ray of my neck. It was really funny because the woman who X-rayed it was so excited about how “nice” my neck was that I had to see it. So she showed me what the bones looked like on the monitor. That was cool. She also asked me how my hair was attached! Not so cool. Even though I was a little peeved, I flashed a smile and explained that I had dreadlocks, and that my hair was attached at the root. Back on the gurney I’m rolled back to wherever I was to begin with and my mother is there. The doctor approaches us and says my neck may be broken, they saw a line that may be some sort of breakage in the x-ray. My mother gasps, but in my mind at that very moment, I was repeating the mantra: “I am well, there’s nothing wrong with my neck, I am well…” So, I am off to get a cat scan. More waiting, and we find out…it’s normal. All is well, I just have cervical whiplash. Finally I left the hospital, wearing a neck brace just for stability, thanking God that the only thing that would bring me to the hospital is a severe out of the ordinary accident.  I thought of the wailing woman, and wondered what became of her. At least at the end of the day, I know that I step up and take responsibility for my well-being so that I will not contract a terminal DIS-EASE, and  I am grateful to know that I have some guardian angels that take care of the rest. So thankful to be living and have my spine in tact! ~ XoXo Raw Girl