Happy Mail ~ Cacao Crazy!

I got some HAPPY MAIL yesterday!  YAY!  This was a REALLY HUGE order from The Raw Food World! 

The Raw Food World now has their own line of Cacao Products!  I grabbed them all!  Raw Cacao Powder, Raw Cacao Butter, Raw Cacao Paste, Cacao Beans, and Cacao Nibs!  I'm super excited to start working with them!  I hope to submit recipes to The Raw Food World NEWS Site using these Cacao Products soon!

After taking the photo I realized that some of the Raw Noni Powder snuck in there!  I have been wanting to try their Noni Powder for a while now and FINALLY decided to get some!

I have been a bit obsessed with nut butters over the last year.  I may dunk my spoon in one from time to time for a dessert or snack on the go.  A little bit goes a long way.  I usually only do about a tablespoon at a time.  I had to reorder the Superberry Maqui Camu Sprouted Almond Butter - it's AMAZING. 

I also grabbed a few new-to-me nut butters including Almond Crunch, Silk Almond, and Pistachio Halva. 

As you can see I re-ordered the Citrus Essential Oil Spray - the girls in the office LOVE it so I got more for work!  AND...there is some NEEM OIL in there, too! 

Here we have an assortment of items including Raw Yacon Powder, Irish Moss, Lucuma Powder, Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, Kelp Noodles, 2 different Olive Pastes, and 2 different truffle 'balls' including Peppermint and the other is Goji Cherry! 

A few side notes on a few of these products...with the powders I am now in need of more mason jars.  Years ago I switched everything in my pantry into glass Mason Jars and I'm running low on them now. 


With the Irish Moss - I have never worked with it before - so it's will be a journey that is for sure.  And with the Sea Salt - since I'm not much of a salt fan - this may very well last me the rest of my life! LOL - Previously I had bought 2 ounces of it and I think it lasted me 3 years!

It's been a while since I stocked up on flax snacks so I ordered some and 2 of them were on back order but these will certainly tide me over in the meantime!

My sister asked where to get bulk quinoa from and I told her that The Raw Food World carries it so I decided to get some for her! 

I was almost out of Tahini and this brand was on sale so I couldn't resist!

They also had some of their raw breakfast crusts on sale so I added that to my cart, too!

AND...a Bamboo Lettuce Knife?  Yes, please!  PERFECT timing because I will be doing salads nightly for dinners VERY SOON!

And finally - another stash of snacks and superfood cereals!  These will last me a while but I also have a plan for them.  Not only will I snack on them but I plan on using them as toppings for smoothie bowls, too!

AND...a new mini goal and project I have up my sleeve!  Since I have been doing a lot of driving with my job now I want to set up my car to be more raw food friendly with foods, snacks, and to-go foods that I can easily access throughout the day.  I will be - at some point - putting a personal cooler in my car - and will be blogging about my efforts and attempts.  So I will start a new tag for Raw Foods While Driving, Raw Foods For Travel, if you can think of any others let me know!

I Think I Have A Problem...

Apparently my newest addiction is obtaining vegan and raw vegan cookbooks. Here are my latest additions!

* Raw Food Quick & Easy, by Rydman & Rodwell

* Raw Food For Everyone, by Alissa Cohen

* Easy Sexy Raw, by Carol Alt

* Ripe from Around Here, by Jae Steele

* Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day

* Ani's Raw Food Desserts: 85 Easy, Delectable Sweets and Treats

* Raw Family Signature Dishes

* Rawlicious: Delicious Raw Recipes for Radiant Health

* Living in the Raw Desserts, By Rose Lee Calabro

* How We All Went Raw, by Top Raw Men

I have to say that I've already spent a lot of time with the last one on that list - How We All Went Raw and I really enjoyed it! It's FUN, informative, creative, and is in a binder so the pages turn and lay flat - perfect for kitchen use! I hope to do reviews of all of these books at some point! It might take me a while but that is one of my mini goals I have this coming year!

I stocked up on raw snacks for my office space and my car and since I will be on the road a lot more with my new job I need to have better/best foods by my side so I'm not spending a lot of time and money at not-so-good places and food.  Yes...it's true! This is my latest shipment from The Raw Food World and a bunch of the goodies I grabbed! I couldn't resist the super low price on those Kale Krunch Chips! They were among the at-cost specials they offered! I also grabbed two of the breakfast bowls and one of each of the Gopal's Power Wraps! They are Nori Wrapped Energy Sticks! You can see that I have the Italian, Curry, Masala, Japanese, and Mexican flavors! I tried a few of the flavors in the past and find them to be great snacks for on-the-go!

I decided to break down and by SunWarrior's Vanilla Flavor of protein powder. Not necessarily because I'm worried about my protein intake (I'm not) but more so because of the flavor. Jason Wrobel uses it in a lot of his smoothies and desserts because he says it adds a 'cake batter' like flavor to it.  I also stocked up on various Raw Crackers, too! One of the many things I buy over and over is their raw cashews and this time I grabbed some raw pumpkin seeds. 

  

I will say I've used it once already and I do like the flavor. Even more - tho - I LOVE the aroma of the Vanilla! Very nice!I've been wanting to try Coconut Secret's new sauces so when I saw they had them available on The Raw Food World site I threw them in my shopping cart right away! I've enjoyed all of the other products I have tried from the company so I'm assuming these two new sauces will follow suit. One is a Garlic Sauce and the other is a Teriyaki Sauce. I did grab one of their new deodorants but it's not technically vegan - it has beeswax in it along with Shea butter. So I guess it would be Beegan instead of Vegan for those of you who were wondering.  The price of their D3 and B12 patches were CRAZY LOW so I decided to grab those, too! I have used the B12 in the past and only use them every once and a while either when I'm not eating the best or on the road or feeling sluggish. I have yet to try the D3 patches but with the winters where I live a little extra Vitamin D wouldn't be a bad thing. Again...it's not because I fear I'm not getting enough - just curious about the product, really.  Also in that photo above - you will see my newest Bamboo purchase! Yup! I added Puzzle Party Platters to my growing bamboo collection. I haven't used them yet but LOVE the way the look and hope to be taking photos of food on them SOON. They fit together like a puzzle...and I just might be buying more of them to play with down the road.

The paper bag like package in the back is a bag of Chia Crackers from ChocolaTree Organic Oasis! This is the first chia cracker product I have tried from this company. I have to say that they have one of the best textured chia crackers I have tried so far! It's not hard - but light and crispy - rather. I really like the cayenne kick, too!  Finally - I've had my eye one these Himalayan Sea Salt Lamps for a while and they have them for $16 off this month! I bought one and thinking about buying 2 more. LOVE them! It's not the best picture but perhaps I will take more down the road. Have you found any new-to-you products lately that you are excited about? 

Dressings, Bamboo, Lip Balm, Marinated Mushrooms & Rice, Chlorella To Relieve Pain, and a Stellar Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Pasta Dish, too!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a great Christmas - and for those who don't celebrate - I hope you had a nice Thursday!   Ours was nice - we went to DH's Grandmother's House for the extended family gathering on his side Christmas Eve - then went to my parents for about an hour and a half after that.  Christmas Day we went back over to my parents for a few hours and then when to the home to meet with DH's Family.  My Step-Father-In-Law is here for long term/rehab - he had surgery last week but has been in and out of the home and hospital most of this past year.  The weather was very mild for our area.  Christmas Eve it got up to the higher 50s and even reached 60 in some places. 

Last Christmas Eve Night we had high winds which caused some damage in certain spots.  Yesterday for Christmas Day it was cooler but still warmer than usual for Christmas!  I think it was mostly in the mid to upper 30s.  We had NO snow.  I'm okay with that.

Today I thought I would catch up cross posting about some of the things I have been submitting to other sites.  Mostly The Raw Food World.  I took a few screen shots, too!  Above you will see my Peanut Curry Dressing that I made a while back but tweaked for the site.  Check out the updated version of the Peanut Curry Dressing Recipe.  Another thing that I reviewed in greater length was the Bamboo Bowls I got from them a while back.  Not only did I find a vegan alternative for Burt's Bee's Lip Balm - I found one that was RAW, too!  Check out the full length post for Hurraw! Mint Lip Balm.

I'm still REALLY excited about the Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Pasta I did a while back - so be sure to click on the link above for that full recipe!  It was converted from various Chicken Wing Pizza Recipes I saw online.  NOTE - there isn't any Fake Meat in that recipe - just whole and natural foods!

You'll have to check out the testimonial I did for Chlorella - To Relieve Pain, too!  I've very pleased with some of my own personal findings!

And finally - a very simple and flavorful dish - Marinated Mushrooms & Rice!

Where Did This Week Go & Happy Mail

This week has been CRAZY with work and that's the main reason I haven't blogged!  I won't get into all of the busy-body-ness that I have been involved in this week...instead I will look forward and share with you some Happy Mail I received this week!

Starting things off is the shipment I received from Adagio Tea at the beginning of the week.  I decided to cash in a bunch of my credits on Cyber Monday and with their free shipping incentive that day I received all of this at no cost.  Since I have already tried almost all of their cataloged teas I only ordered a few of the black teas and black tea flavors and then they sent me a few samples such as the mango which I have already tried, too.

What I am really interested in from Adagio is the tea blending feature they have on their website.  I've created over 20 blends the past several years.  I finally ordered a few of them including the Love Spell one I blended which was inspired by Victoria Secret's Body Wash.  I know that might sound weird but it's true.  I think the tea aroma smells just like the body wash!  It's a pretty good floral flavored green with a bit of fruit and other natural sweetness in there.  I also grabbed the Mulled Cranberry Apple Cider which was a neat mix of flavors as well.  A 3rd Blend of mine I finally purchased was the one I named Dragon's Palm Tree.  It's mostly a white base tea with a hint of strawberry.  Since I am a Sci Fi Freak I decided to get a few other blends from other tea blenders including two from their FANDOMS.  One was the Dr. Daniel Jackson Blend from the Stargate Series and the other is the Darryl Dixon Blend from The Walking Dead Series.

One thing I forgot to take a photo of was a reusable bag I received from NBC Universal.  You can see it in the background of this photo from their site.  It's pretty awesome.  I received this because I participated in their website One Small Act.

In this 2nd photo - as well as the next 3 photos - you will see the last shipment I received from The Raw Food World.  I decided to stock up on raw snacks for work. 

I got 4 different flavors of Kale Chips from Love Force.  The American, Indian, Mexican, and Italian flavors. 

You will see one of two Nutritional Yeasts, a POUND of Raw Organic Mesquite Powder, and  Mung Bean Pasta.  Oh!  Yeah!  There is a small loaf of Apricot Bread in there, too!  I can't wait to try that!

Pardon the pun...but I went a little NUTS with the Cashews!  Yes...I got 6 pounds of Raw Cashews!  They were having a crazy awesome sale on them!  I couldn't resist!  I also bought some Organic Walnuts.  You will see that I scored some Cashew Cacao Hemp Nut Butter, too! 

I took advantage of their At-Cost Pricing on the Hurraw Vegan Lip Balm and grabbed a mint that was at regular price, too!

I've totally been getting into Bamboo more lately and I LOVE wooden spoons so I decided to grab a 2nd set of the Bamboo Kitchen Tools you will see in the netting.  I also decided to get another set of the Bamboo "silver" ware...a spoon, knife, and folk.  I LOVE these.  And I finally broke down and bought the "Edward" Salad Hands.  I just LOVED the name and never had anything for large salads or tossing so I figured WHY NOT?

More snacks for the office!  GO RAW Flax Snacks - spicy and pizza flavors as well as two cookie flavors - Chocolate and Ginger Snaps!

And let's not forget about the books!  This time around I picked up a Vice Cream Book and the Simply Dehydrated Book which I have been wanting for the last several months!

I have been wanting one of Cherie Soria's books for a while now and I decided to get Angel Foods.  I've been a fan of T. Colin Campbell and added The China Study Cookbook that his daughter Leanne Campbell wrote.

I have been wanting to get into and educate myself more on Micro Greens so I bought one of the many Micro Greens books that the Raw Food World has for sale on their website.  Another book I threw in was Go Further by Actor Woody Harrelson and Friends.  It's a book about 'being greener'.  The photos aren't that wonderful but I think it will be a good read and a good book to refer back on from time to time.

One of my goals for the new week SHOULD BE to dive into some of these books, eh!?  What do you think!?  Anything you have and LOVE or anything you see that you might like in my recent Happy Mail photos?