{Recipe} Raw Dark Chocolate Pudding

• I'm in the mood for chocolate. So.... What now? Well.... For starters..... I have a blender. I have an avocado (yes, just one), raw cacao powder and some raw buckwheat honey. PERFECT.
• This is what I indulged in. Sinlessly too, mind you. Not only is this baby filled with magnesium goodness, it has healthy fats from avocado and antioxidants from raw honey. 
• So good you'll be making this a staple in your repertoire.

Without further ado.... *drum roll*

RAW SUPERFOOD DARK CHOCOLATE PUDDING

Serves 1 or 2 (depending on how generous you are feeling)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 ripe Avocado
• 1/4 cup Raw Cacao Powder (+ 2 tbsp if you want a richer dark chocolate taste)
• 1/4 tsp Red Maca Powder
• 1 sachet FSF Instant Reishi 
• 1/8 cup Raw honey (I highly recommend Raw Buckwheat Honey)
• 1/4 cup Raw Almond Milk (see below for a quick and easy way of making nut milks)
• 1 pod Madagascar Vanilla Bean (seeds scraped)
• Dash of Ceylon Cinnamon (optional)
• Crushed Anything But Salads Raw Chocolate Kale Crisps (optional)
• 1 or 2 blackberries

METHOD:

1) Make nut milk:

- Soak 1 cup of raw almonds in filtered water for at least 8 hours or overnight.

- Drain and rinse.

- Place soaked almonds into high powered blender.

- Add 3 cups of filtered water 

- Blend on high.

- Strain milk through cheese cloth. Voila!

TIP:

- Dehydrate the almond pulp for use as flour in tart bases.

- Ratio of water to nuts is always 3:1

2) Place all ingredients into high-powered blender. Blend until smooth

3) Dig IN!

RECIPE VARIATIONS:

1) Mexican Chocolate Pudding: Add cinnamon, allspice and a hint of chilli powder.

2) Sprinkle Bee Pollen on top just before serving for some added crunch.

3) Berry-My-Love Chocolate Pudding: Add frozen berry powders to blender with other ingredients and BLEND! or fold in fresh berries just before serving. Otherwise, make a raw berry sauce by blending frozen/fresh berries in the blender with some raw honey/maple syrup and drizzle over chocolate pudding! YUM!

4) Green Power Chocolate Pudding: Add 1 tbsp of Spirulina or your favourite green powder mix to the blender with all other ingredients. (tip: Adding some Mint extract or orange zest really makes this ZING!) Blend till smooth. Drizzle with some raw honey to finish. So delish! Take your taste buds on a trip (pun intended. ;P)

5) Otherwise, feel free to add some other medicinal mushrooms to your pudding. You can find the full range here: http://www.anythingbutsalads.com/collections/fsf

Bon Apetit!

"Now We Know"

5:51am.

Such a precious time. It's quiet. It's relatively cold. My dog is curled up in a fluffy ball on my green rug, snoozing happily away. I have been up for 2.5 hours, working, straddling a Salli saddle chair with a stale mug of coffee, a really strong glass of kombucha (27 November 2013, & cut, thank you), in my witchery-striped socks and a 10-year old hoodie.

Yep, picture perfection. You'd never guess I am CEO and Founder of a health foods company.

News flash! : I have just recently moved into my new apartment with my boyfriend, M. I'm sure most of you can identify with me when I say moving is HECTIC! Don't get me wrong, it's simultaneously rewarding as you discover & unearth more and more of your apartment as you pack. (Shame on you Cal, 80% of the useless items in the house are yours!)

Given M and I are both CEOs of health food companies, you can imagine, the kitchen/kitchen pantry is the most important aspect in our flat. In fact, it was the first thing we arranged and put together properly. Like our dog, we can sleep atop piles of useless clothing (embarrassingly, 99% of which is mine), but unlike our dog, we need proper sustenance. And by sustenance, I mean superfoods.

No... Our pantry is definitely not the ideal kitchen pantry (#justkidding) (#ofcourseiamkidding)

So back to right now. Jia Peng Fang is playing in the background, my apple cinnamon candle is flickering languidly away on my altar, my sprouted quinoa & broccoli seeds are drying off nicely atop my kitchen counter and a pot of water is currently boiling (I am attempting to resurrect my stale coffee). I'm putting together the ad material for our online social media channels (e.g. Facebook - yes, please do 'Like' us) to promote the launch of special raw chocolate bon bons for Valentine's Day.

Draft version! Raw chocolate mint hearts, place an order with us (info@anythingbutsalads.com)

FYI and insider news alert, we're launching these specialty bon bons with my special mint 'cream' filling just for V'day. Because the chocolate will be traditionally hand-tempered, poured into moulds, filled and treated with care, precision and love, only 50 boxes (6 bon bons/box) will be available for sale. So if you want to lock in your order, you'd better do so fast! Email me at info@anythingbutsalads.com. 

 Have I mentioned I was a pastry chef once? No?

Some of my old work.

Well, now you know. =)

Oh GAWD. Speaking of that - Have you seen this?! M showed it to me once after I shamelessly inhaled my mushroom omelette dinner and I nearly died laughing.

Shrooms and eggy-bits did threaten to spew all over him as I guffawed over my (MCT)oily plate...  

But that's EXACTLY why he loves me.

To answer your question: Yes, major randomness does go on in our home.

Come to think of it, I think we're living antithesis proof against the stereotype that health foodies are all "granola", "people-who-do-yoga", "super zen", "tree huggers", "brusselsprouts" (this has got to be my favourite label ever - it makes NO sense) and "Om-nified" (Seriously?!). As you can tell, living a life full of superfoods = living a life full of wellness, fullness, love, joy, laughter and energy.

Yep and ooooo.... 6:46am.

NOW WE KNOW.

Building from Scratch

You know those conversations you have with people who love food and love healthy, super foods? Those conversations where you discuss at length just exactly what you'd put in your own store IF you had a store?

Yep. Those conversations.

I've had those conversations. But somehow, as I lay sprawled across my bed with a displaced pelvis and a dog who was unhappy I didn't let her onto my bed; I couldn't for the life of me, figure out what I wanted to stock in the new upcoming ABS Shop.

In case you we wondering, my dog, Gaia. Also fondly known by my boyfriend as "The Rat".

As you can see, she has mastered the art of looking adorably pathetic.

I mean, honestly, Cal.... What were you thinking? (Or not thinking in this sense)

Gee... I dunno. You tell me. I just got out of bed numbnut.

Isn't it funny how you tend to think you know everything and imagine how life would be soooo simple IF ONLY you had what you didn't have, but when life finally gives you what you thought you didn't have, all you can do is draw an enormous blank?

Yep, that's me. This morning.

This is how I felt inside : Stupid.

So here I am with this amazing shop space in an amazing location, with full control over what I want to stock in my lil' ideal superfoods store, and all I could do was draw a blank.

Said amazing store. 

Location: G/F, 18A Tai Ping Shan St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

I mean, yes, I did consider the following options (over and above my own Anything But Salads products):

1) Organic superfoods, e.g. Maca, Raw cacao 

2) Organic herbs, spices, nut butters etc etc etc

3) Fermented Cod Liver Oil

4) More naturally fermented products (e.g. raw vegan cheeses, chutneys etc)

5) Four Sigma Food's Instant Shroom-y Beverages (MAJOR fan here, thank you)

6) Organic Fairtrade Coffee & Teas

7) Coconut sugars

8) Flavoured gourmet superfood raw dairy butters (e.g. Shiitake butter, Miso butter)

But really.... What's the difference between my lil' store and others then? My vision for ABS is to stock a range of delicious and unique superfoods. Somewhere you can go to get all your delicious healthy needs without have to sift through the crap (e.g. Agave *eye roll*)

The point here is: 

Any ideas?

What would you like to eat?

What do you always wish you could purchase but no one else stocks it (dammit!)?

How do you think I can make the upcoming ABS Shop a holistic shopping place for superfoodies and health enthusiasts?

I'm all ears. Hit me up in comments! I'll send you a free ABS T-shirt!!!

70% organic bamboo, 30% organic cotton. So soft & smooth you'll think it's satin.

For now, as I wait for your comments, I'm going to indulge in one of my favourite superfood combos:

Raw Buckwheat Honey + Raw Cacao

Sticky, gooey and delish!

Ooooooh snap! Here's another item:

9) Raw Medicinal Honeys + Raw honeycombs.

Now, your turn.

Connections

Have you ever woken up one day and just felt this vibrational buzz of energy in the air?

Have you ever walked through a park, a garden, a forest or stood right next to your potted plants and felt the plants' energies?

Have you ever looked out at the ocean and felt the vast expanse of wisdom washing in towards you with each crash of the waves?

Have you ever felt the strength of the mountains radiating back at you as you walked on them?

Have you ever met someone and there was that invisible 'click' and the infallible belief that you were both going to get along very well?

Have you ever had Connections?

Have you ever believed?

I have.

But it's not always been so. I used to walk my path blindfolded. My spirituality was beaten out of me from a very young age; i.e. being told I was crazy to believe in things I felt but couldn't see, or apparitions that I saw but no one else did. For a time, I didn't believe and it was a miserable and lonely affair. I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but for me, it was an intense feeling of disconnection. From everyone and everything. It was a knowing feeling that you were lacking something, or missing something or that you had lost your way and needed to come back. Go home. Return. That disconnection. Have you ever felt it?

I have.

It's lonely.

The beautiful thing about connection is that it grounds you. It makes you realise that you are part of something bigger and greater than yourself. It makes you realise that you are part of Life and Life is a part of you. It is extremely humbling and yet extremely profound. It is invigorating and complete.

It is something I discovered again, this morning, as I was walking my dog in a square next to a shopping mall which was lined with some bushes, ixora plants and purple flowers. I felt connected. There was a buzz in the air, and if I let go off my mind, I could see a slight furry in the air - the energy of living things. If I looked up at the sky, I could see the expanse of the universe and felt energy radiating down on us. It was really really amazing.

I know this entry might seem a little bizarre coming from an organic health foods start-up's CEO/Founder... But it is something that I really feel like sharing. And if anything, it does also provide some insight into how I run my company and how I select members for the team. It's always all about connection. That instant 'click'. Building and creating something together implies a significant amount of trust within the team and it implies that we must like each other enough to trust one another; which then leads to open and honest communications; which then leads to a very nurturing and healthy corporate culture and finally distills itself into operational efficiency and efficacy. Connection is a very powerful tool within any social/team dynamic. It's also very powerful in your personal life.

Don't believe me? Try it.

Let go of all your fears and doubts and insecurities. Release yourself from social stereotypes that you have programmed yourself to operate in. And just for today, or even that split second, let your heart tell you what it loves. Let it show you Connection.

I was listening to a podcast the other day - Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Lecture Series' "How to Build Instant Connections by Ori Brafman". Have you listened to it? No? Well, you should. It's awesome. It's great food for thought.

For today, I shall leave you with these 2 words:

BE CONNECTED.

Much love & light,
Calista

2014: New Beginnings & how I hate fads

2014.

Yep, I like the sound of that. 2014. Sounds FRESH. It's got a ring to it, y'know?

2013... Well, 2013. To encapsulate 2013 would be to describe it, broadly, as a year of change, a year of awakenings, a year of difference. ABS moved from a food catering business model to a snacks manufacturing business model (visit our store to check out our new line of products! www.anythingbutsalads.com)

ABS is in the midst of expansion. The health foods movement is finally kicking into gear in Hong Kong. ABS is growing. Fast.

Demand currently outranks supply. This is a happy problem, albeit still a problem.

Competition is picking up. And that's good. More awareness. More traffic into the health foods scene. More movement. More wisdom & knowledge shared. More awakenings. More dynamism. More for everyone.

Yes, I love the sound of 2014.

The cherry on top of all this is (finally) an Anything But Salads super store!

We're located on Tai Ping Shan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Doors open end March 2014. (Don't worry, I'll keep you updated).

Apart from that, ABS and I are getting lots of press coverage and you may check some of them out here:

http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/supplement/food/art/20131120/18515023

http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/supplement/food/art/20131230/18571022

So yes. ABS is moving. We're growing. And the tiny seed has blossomed into a sprout and the sprout is growing into a rather large tree. As with all growth and development, change is called for.

Time for a face lift.

Let's get started.

One thing I've noticed about myself is that I loathe fads. I honestly do. Fads are great for people who want to cash-in and cash-out quickly. They're good for those who like to take advantage of other's weaknesses, insecurities and lack of knowledge. They don't widen your scope of knowledge. And why would they? If you're knowledgeable, there's no advantage. Where's the profitability in that? They just give you what you THINK you want at that SPECIFIC time. Demand --> Supply. Most times, these individuals don't give you the whole picture. They just feed your inner demons. 

Easy economics. Gullible buyers.

Think I'm being too harsh? Allow me to illustrate this for you......

"I've gained some pounds over the holidays. I don't like how my body looks and feels."

"Oooo.... Spiffy. Wanna lose weight fast?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Well, I've got JUST the thing for you!"


Pfft. They ALWAYS have "just the thing for you".

So what choices do you have? Currently, in Hong Kong: Juice fasting. Raw food-ing. Fasting. Slimming centers. Slimming pills (how is THIS even legal?!) Blah blah blah.

Honestly folks, ask yourselves - what do you know? Socrates, a reputed wise man, once said that wisdom is knowing that you don't know anything at all. When you fast, have you ever asked yourself why fasting came about? What the actual motivations behind fasting are? Do the people selling you that fasting package tell you how to fast the correct way, how to break your fast and how to lead a sustainable healthy lifestyle, of which fasting is a mere part of? And is cutting down caloric intake the FASTEST way to lose weight? (I'm going to write an article about this later. But for now, the answer is NO).

How often do you find yourself yo-yo-ing between I-feel-amazing for 2-3 weeks and then swinging back to I-feel-awful-and-think-I-need-to-fast? Short term vanity over long term peace and happiness. I don't know about you, but the choice is pretty darn obvious to me.

In my conversations with people, I find lots of evangelists - They, or someone they know, or someone they know who knows someone, have read some blah-blah article on the internet and POOF! They're suddenly experts overnight. Or, they take some raw foods course (not bashing raw foodists here, I am a raw foods chef myself don't get me wrong) and POOF! They're suddenly experts on treating cancer and other ailments.

Despite having a solid grasp of nutrition and foods, I still do not dare profess myself as the evangelist of any one method. Our body is a complex organ. And the wonderful thing about Mother Nature is that everything and everyone is unique in their own special way.

There is no magic diet. There is no magic lifestyle. There is no magic pill.

There is life. And what you make of it.

So this is why I loathe fads. Fads create profiteering evangelists who treat YOU, the consumer, as puppets.

I'm not a puppet. That's why I don't view my clients as puppets or people whom I manipulate. No. ABS is founded on the principle of mutual respect.

I hear your problems. I empathise. I know what you're going through (Lord, do I know.... I've been through hell and back). I know what makes you tick (FYI, I am a psychologist). I know human weaknesses and insecurities. In spite of that, I'm not here to take advantage of you.

My mission is not to feed your inner demons. It's to empower you.

So I, and therefore ABS, do not believe in pushing products onto you. We do not flood channels just to make our bottom line look f*ing amazing. We do not preach that our products can cure your cancer or make you slim. No, we just offer you options of upgraded choices, in varying permutations, so you can decide what works for you.

Yes, we respect you.

That's why we exist.

2014.

Yeah, I like the sound of that.