Now, don't get excited - I'm not pregnant or having a child anytime soon ;) I just watched a wonderful little YouTube video today of Summer Kolesar speaking with Paul Ni
son about raising raw children and got inspired... You can see that video HERE. Summer is a beautiful soul si*star* who I had the pleasure to meet when I spoke in Asheville in 2007. If I recall correctly, she was raised ‘semi–wild’ in Canada, foraging the bounties of nature and she is still a wonderful wild–food gatherer to this day, plus all–round gorgeous raw goddess and mother ;)
As you may recall, the current RawReform Giveaway Contest is also about raising children raw (you can see the details for the 
giveaway HERE to win a signed copy of Shazzie’s latest book, Evie’s Kitchen). We have wonderful suggestions flowing in daily by email about how to best help children eat healthier food...
SO, with all this wonderful info buzzing around, I felt inspired to compile a list of useful resources for those interested in raising children raw. This is actually smthg people ask me about often, although I am not (yet ;) a mother, so I thought it would be helpful to collect all these fabulous resources together in one place, for all to enjoy ;)
(FYI - I also just posted this info to the main RawReform site in the articles section HERE, in case you'd like to refer to it without the food logs etc in the middle ;)
Here we go:
Websites
*http://www.thegardendiet.com – beautiful Jinjee is raw mum ext–raw–dinaire to at least five little ones – she has masses of info, pics, ebooks, magazines, audios, videos and more to share on pregnancy, ecstatic birth, child–raising and more...
*http://www.rawmom.com – fabulous site that is home (among other things) to a blog where 
different raw mums from around the world write weekly, sharing guidance.
*http://rawtoddleralex.blogspot.com – blog from yummy–mummy Melissa Gilbert who has been raising her son Alex raw and tracking his progress online since birth. She has two wonderful raw recipe books for baby/toddler foods. Melissa also has her own blog at http://rawmom.blogspot.com.
*http://pullingdaisies.blogspot.com – sweet Annelise’s blog following a raw pregnancy, birth and child raising.
*http://www.karenranzi.com – Karen has been teaching about raising ‘Super Healthy Children’ for a decade. She has classes, a book and a great list of links at her site.
*http://www.brigittemars.com – Brigitte Mars is a herbalist, mother, raw foodie and all round
shining light ;) She is mother to the gorgeous Rainbeau Mars, who is also a raw yogini mama – see http://www.rainbeaumars.com.
on Jan the 10th I had:
1 quart water
little mug of spicy tea
1.5 cups veggie juice: celery, turnip, kale, local greeeeeeens, Jerusalem artichoke, purple cabbage, fennel, endive, ginger, lime
2 cups energy soup with flax crackers and tahini on the side, followed by three little yumpots of durian ice cream = YUMMM :)
3 cups water
double shot of wheatgrass
2 cups energy soup with flax crackers and tahini on the side, followed by a little bowl of blended sweet yum: carob powder, lucuma powder, maca, cinnamon, vanilla powders, with gojis and water
little cup rooibus tea
3 cups water
Articles/Videos/Magazines
*‘Raw Vegan Children’ article by Shazzie
*‘Raising Raw Children’ article by Matt Monarch
*‘Raw Parenting’ interview with Shazzie on Natural News
*Revvel interviews Jinjee Talifero
*Revell interviews Shazzie
*Summer Kolesar on YouTube
*Juno Magazine – all about natural parenting, raw foodie Kate Magic has contributed a great deal to this magazine.
*Pear Magazine – this an online raw food magazine, which often has articles about raw children or written by raw parents.
Books/DVDs
*Evie’s Kitchen by Shazzie
*Birth As We Know It (one of the best DVDs I’ve ever seen)
*The ‘Anastasia’ Books by Vladimir Megre (these books have influenced me more than any others)
*Baby Greens by Michaela Lynn
*Fresh by Sergei and Valya Boutenko – has info on how to transition kids to raw.
*Eating without Heating by Sergei and Valya Boutenko – raw recipe book from the Boutenko ‘kids’.
*Raising Children Raises Us book & DVD by Shannon Leone – Shannon’s gorgeous, loving spirit flows through her work.
*The Children's Health Food Book by Ron Seaborn
*Breakthrough DVD – from Jinjee and Storm
*Raw Living and Eat Smart, Eat Raw – both by Kate Magic, these raw recipe books are packed with practical recipes Kate used to raise her three boys.
*The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff
*Primal Mothering in A Modern World by Hygeia Halfmoon
*What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen (If I was only able to read one non–raw–orientated book on being a mother, I would choose this – AMAZING info ;)
*Sun–Sational Raw Baby Food and Sun–Sational Smoothies by Melissa Gilbert – 2 ebooks from this lovely raw mum.
*Wise Woman's Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed
*Pregnancy and Oral Health by Mama Gums
on Jan the 11th I had:
1 quart water
little mug of spicy tea
1.5 cups veggie juice: celery, turnip, kale, local greeeeeeens, Jerusalem artichoke, purple cabbage, fennel, endive, ginger, lime
3 cups water
double shot of wheatgrass
2 cups energy soup with flax crackers and tahini on the side, followed by a little bowl of blended sweet yum: carob powder, lucuma powder, maca, cinnamon, vanilla powders, with gojis and water
little cup rooibus tea
3 cups water
Foods that children seem to LOVE :)
As previously mentioned, I am not yet a mother – from what I’ve observed of raw children however, these seem to be some of their favourite foods:
*fresh fruits
*smoothies – greeeeen or nut–milk based
*nut/seed milks
*raw cakes, pies, cookies, yumballs – anything sweet ;)
*bee pollen
*chia puddings
*raw food snack bars
*grawnolas/cereals
*dried fruits like mulberries, goji berries, incan berries
*freeze–dried fruit – mangosteen, jackfruit, durian
The biggest struggle most raw parents seem to have is getting greeeeens into the little loves...well, here’s sending you all great gushing green smoothie love... ;)
Ok, I listed everything that came to mind here about raising children raw...I hope this is useful to at least some of you ;)
I’m sure there are other wonderful resources out there too – feel free to leave a comment below HERE if there are other links/books etc you’d love to see added to this list :) Also remember that you can see this article HERE for reference without the food logs etc...
ENJOY :)
One love,
Angela. xxx
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Raw Pregnancy and Raising Raw Children
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
The Philosopher's Notes...
There is a VERY exciting new project I’d like to introduce you to (if you haven’t discovered it yet already ;) It’s called ‘Philosopher’s Notes’ and basically, it’s like mini ‘Cliff’
s Notes’ for self-development books.
Brian Johnson (the man behind the wonderful ThinkArete site, which I keep mentioning) has taken all his favourite inspirational books and distilled the offerings in them down into 6 pages each OR MP3 recordings of around 20 minutes, that you can listen to as you go about your day... I think it’s an INCREDIBLE project and such a wonderful offering to the world...think of ALL those amazing books you’d love to take the time and space to read and it maybe never quite happens for you...sound familiar? Well, now you can quickly and easily get the ‘skinny’ on titles like ‘Loving What Is’, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Eckhart Tolle’s ‘A New Earth’ and so on from a guy whose true gift in life seems to be assimilating universal truths and presenting them for others in a way that makes them super-easy to understand and integrate. See w
hy I’m excited about this now…??? ;)))
In fact, I’ll let Brian explain the project himself – here’s what he wrote on the Notes:
“The idea is simple: you’re busy. AND you’re committed to reading/learning/growing and all that good stuff. When you put those two together, it can be hard to keep up!!!
Brian already has Notes ready for 35 different titles, with many, many more to come. The current introductory price for a year's subscription to the service is an incredibly reasonable $19.95, set to rise to $39.95 on June 1st (this Sunday). That investment gets you instant access to all the 35 titles that are already ready, PLUS you’ll be emailed a set of Notes from the archive every other week (both PDF and MP3 formats).
SPECIAL OFFER for RawReform Blog Readers: On top of the already inexpensive subscription price, Brian is very generously offering readers of this blog an extra 10% off. If you hop over to the PhilosophersNotes.com website now with THIS LINK, you can save an extra 10% on the yearly subscription price, reducing it to just $17.95 – wow, thanks Brian :)
I really hope y’all enjoy this new service...
on May the 25th I had:
1 quart water
2 quarts cucumber/celery/apple/ginger juice
little bowl of strawberries and cherries = yummmmmm
baby spinach leaves, mixed sprouts, pumpkin seeds, a couple of brazil nuts, wakame seaweed
3 cups water
½ an incredible honey-like papaya
1 quart water
On Monday I went to the magical launch party of Miss Magic’s new book ‘Raw Magic’ in Brighton. FUN :) (We're going to have the book available soon in the US - we're working on it - bear with us ;) Kate didn’t know I was back in the UK, so it was fun to surprise her, as well as catch up with other raw yumsters here and meet some new faces on the UK raw scene ;). It was lovely to meet Philip McCluskey in person – here is a snap of us both below, taken by the fabulous Suki...there was masses of raw chocolate on offer at the party – I’m on juices though right now. The last few weeks I kind of lost the plot with juicing once a week for the Global Juice Feast – it seemed challenging while travelling in Thailand etc. Well, right now it feel
s TOTALLY right to be back on juice again – my body is still pretty spun-out from jet-lag/sleep deprivation etc and juicing feels like the quickest route to recovery ;) I think I’ll juice for at least 3 consecutive days now...we’ll see what happens after that ;)on May the 26th I had a juicy day of:
1 quart water
8oz AMAZING pineapple juice
1.5 quarts cucumber/celery/apple/ginger juice
1.5 quarts watermelon juice
2 cups water
shot of wheatgrass/ginger juice followed by a shot of straight ginger juice and a few sips of Suki’s intense wild greens/garlic juice
2.5 cups celery/cucumber/lettuce/spinach/sprouts/carrot juice
1 quart water
on May the 27th I had:
1 quart water
8oz pineapple juice
3 cups celery/cucumber/lettuce/spinach/sprouts/carrot juice
3 cups watermelon juice
2 cups beet, carrot, ginger, lime juice
double shot of wheatgrass juice
2 cups water
1 cup ‘relaxing tea’
1 tbsp green powder, 1 tbsp bee pollen
3 cups green juice: celery/cucumber/lettuce/parsley/ginger/apple
2 cups watermelon juice
2 cups water
WOW, it is SO beautiful to me to see how the raw community is coming together to support Melissa Gilbert and her family, who I wrote about on this blog a few days back. Thanks to all of you who have bought her e-books or sent in donations.
Melissa and her family are now officially homeless and out in the Arizona desert in a tent.
Her husband has thankfully found a new job – they are now going to live in the tent until they have enough money to start renting a place again. Yesterday Dhrumil re-posted my blog post about the family to GiveItToMeRaw.com and it is just WONDERFUL to see all the responses there from people who have gone to Melissa’s site and bought both her e-books for $20, to help support this beautiful raw family in their time of need. You can see that thread on GITMR HERE. You can see Melissa’s blog HERE, which is now being updated by her great friend Aleesha, until Melissa has an internet connection again. If you didn’t purchase Melissa’s e-books yet and would like to, you can see them HERE. For those of you who HAVE already purchased them and maybe not received them as email attachments – please be patient – they are trying to get them emailed out to people asap as they receive the orders...you can also actually email Aleesha on timelessspirit@shaw.ca once you've paid for the e-books and she will send them to you, as Melissa has no real internet access right now...and again, as I wrote before, if you feel drawn to simply donate funds to the family, rather than purchase their books, you can transfer money with Paypal to: loverawlife@gmail.com.All love,
Angela. xxx
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Show Your LOVE :)
WOW – did you see the review of ‘Raw Emotions’ posted over on RawFoodRightNow.com yet? They just posted it up a couple of days ago and it was so much fun for me to see this book summarised from someone else’s perspective. So much of my time and energy this last year went into co-creating this book that it’s kind of challenging for me to get perspective on it anymore – you know that feeling? When you’ve worked on something so intensely, you’r
e just immersed in it and can’t get an overview...well, this review helped to show me what it was that this book is all about ;) LOL... They even give a section-by-section breakdown of what the book contains...
Here are a few little excerpts from their review – you can read the whole thing HERE.
“In Raw Emotions, Angela Stokes takes her six years of experience overcoming a lifetime of emotional eating addictions, and provides a practical and spiritual blueprint for traversing the inner raw emotional journey. From identifying how your emotions are tied to food, to creating your Optimal Vision, and following up with an incredible wealth of very useful tips and tools, Angela has run the gambit in Raw Emotions. The book is a complete guide. From start to finish, Angela winds you around each potential pitfall and giving you "power-ups" along the way for those extra tough times. This book truly is a wealth of information. We are confident that any reader interested in really exploring, releasing, and finally overcoming their troubles with going and staying raw will obtain serious benefit with a read through of Angela’s Raw Emotions. She knows this journey, inside and out. She's lived it. She's been there, and because "success leaves clues", it's highly recommended that everyone who is considering (or has!) changed their diet significantly in the more raw direction, grab a copy and read with an open mind and heart.”
Thanks guys :) You can read that whole review HERE and purchase Raw Emotions HERE.
on May the 12th I had:
1.5 quarts water
water of 2 large young coconuts
masses of rambutans
2 cups water
2 tbsp bee pollen and a small handful of dulse
1 small round delicious durian
2 quarts water
Are you familiar with the world of ‘RawBabyAlex’ and mum Melissa Gilbert? If not, Melissa has been documenting her raw food baby’s progress online for quite some time and it makes fascinating reading – especially for anyone interested in raising kids raw. Melissa has actually compiled two wonderful e-books of all the different recipes that Alex has loved as he’s been growing up, from baby foods to toddler treats. (He is such a healthy big boy now that his blog has actually been moved along to ‘Raw ToddlerAlex’ ;) Melissa also keeps her own lovely blog at RawMom.blogspot.com, as well as writing regularly for the info-packed raw magazine Pear.
Unfortunately, this amazing little raw family are having some pretty challenging times at present...in February they were burgled and all their possessions were taken. They moved house and even state, only to discover that they cannot find work in their new location and that very soon they will likely be homeless. They are in a time of crisis. On her most recent blog, Melissa writes that she visited the local food bank to try to get something to eat. They had no raw foods, except 5 bunches of celery, which they gave her. When she got home however, she realised they were almost totally rotten and unusable. Melissa is an incredible mother and gives tirelessly and with so much love to the raw community through her writings. I would feel so sad to see this amazing young family living out in the scorching Arizona desert in a tent with seemingly nowhere left to turn. They really could use some support right now - this is an opportunity to help out an incredible raw family. Inste
ad of just asking people to donate money to help them with their situation however, I’d love to recommend that you invest in Melissa’s 2 fabulous ebooks – ‘Sunsational Raw Baby Food’ and ‘Sun-Sational Smoothies’. They are just $10 each, available from her site HERE. Imagine the difference $20 could make to a family that is in dire straits right now...and YOU get smthg wonderful too – two recipe books packed with tried-and-tested recipes ;) I sincerely hope the raw food community will reach out and support this loving family unit in their time of need...please feel free to re-post this message and pass it along to others in the raw food community too...and enjoy the recipes ;)
(P.S. If you DO feel moved to simply send a donation to the family, their Paypal email address is loverawlife@gmail.com) Thanks.
on May the 13th I had:
1.5 quarts water
large amount of fresh rambutan
water of 2 large young coconuts
bowl of blended yum: bananas, coconut meat, spirulina, maca, vanilla powder, with some seaweed on the side
2 quarts water
Many health-orientated people in Canada have become concerned this week about ‘Bill C-51’
– if you haven’t heard abt this yet, here’s the ‘skinny’ from the lovely Natasha of SimplyRaw.com:
“If the Bill is passed, it will affect all Canadians' rights to health through the regulation of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements. Currently, many of our councilors and MPPs are unaware of the details of Bill C-51. Canadians need to be informed and act immediately as it is a very serious matter. I just blogged about Bill C-51 at http://www.ottawaraw.wordpress.com Here is the online petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/billc51FI”
Thanks Natasha...Canadians, the Bill ball’s now in your court ;)
One love,
Angela. xxx
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Reviews, RawMan and a Recipe :)
‘Raw Emotions’ has been on sale for about 3 weeks now and the feedback for it continues to GlOOooOOOOOooWWWW :) Thanks to all of you who have been letting us know what this book means to you and the shifts you are setting in motion in your own lives as a result of reading... :) Here’s what Sara in Italy sent us:
“Ciao Angela, I have read your new e-book Raw Emotions, I have to say that it is the best raw food book I have ever read so far (and I have read many :), you have done such an amazing work and I could totally relate on everything you have gone through. Very, very good job! Thanks you so much for it! Sara”
WOW, thanks Sara, feedback doesn’t get much more rewarding than that ;)
Uber-slick ‘Green Living’ site GLiving also recently posted a nice little article on Raw Emotions too, called ‘Raw Emotions: Got Food Issues?’. You can check that out HERE if you didn’t see it on their site yet: http://gliving.tv/bodydesign/raw-emotions-got-food-issues/
I love the last paragraph especially:
“It actually sounds like worthwhile reading for non-overeaters. After all, we all have issues, regardless of how they manifest themselves. And the fact that this information is coming not from a scientist crunching data in a lab, but from a living, breathing woman whose body is her showroom gives it credibility.”
LOL, thanks guys ;)
On March the 29th I had:
1.5 quarts water
1 cup cucumber/spinach/lettuces/beetroot/carrot/pak choi juice
3 cups beetroot/apple juice
bowl of figgy pudding: fresh figs and dried mulberries blended together and swirled with spirulina powder – WOW :)
1.5 quarts water
20oz spinach/carrot/pak choi juice
bowl of cucumber yum: grated cucumber mushed with sunflower seed pate, avocado, finely sliced onion, mixed sprouts and karengo seaweed, served in lettuce leaves
2 quarts water
While we’re on the subject of little reviews, dear Melissa over at ‘RawMom’ recently posted a write-up of her experiences learning to play and dance with some of our poi. You can
check that out here:
http://rawmom.blogspot.com/2008/03/review-on-poi.html.
You can get your own set of magical poi from our site HERE and if you never saw my poi spinning video, or would like to exercise your...eyeballs watching it again, click HERE ;)
OOOOOOO and while we're on the subject of fun YouTube vids, I would HEARTILY recommend you tickle your amazement nodules by checking out the spectacular 'Adventures of RawMan and Green Girl', made by Ron Gilmore and recently shown at the Raw Film Festival - WOW :) This 7 minute short is JUST like an old-style superhero animation - with R
AW superheroes :))) LOVE IT :) We just watched it tonight and were repeatedly exclaiming 'WOW' out loud - thanks for sharing, Ron, I think it's AMAZING :) You can see it HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzWVk2eKmA
on March the 30th I had:
1.5 quarts water
slice of watermelon
20oz spinach/pak choi/carrot/cabbage juice
bowl of figgy pudding: fresh figs blended with fresh oranges, lucuma/yacon/vanilla/cinnamon powders and spirulina :)
1.5 quarts water
20oz romaine lettuce/dandelion/red pepper/carrot/cucumber juice
bowl of cucumber yum: grated cucumber mushed with sunflower seed pate, avocado, finely sliced onion, mixed sprouts and karengo seaweed, served in lettuce leaves
2 cups water
½ a watermelon
2 cups water
Ok, one final special treat for today...many of you seemed to be intrigued to know the contents of Mr Monarch’s spectacular spontaneous Easter surprise cake. WELL, charmer that he is, he pieced together the recipe for me to pass on to you – SWEET :) Here it is:
Ext-RAW-dinary Easter Layer Cake
*Blend 20- 25 Turkish dried figs in enough water to create a creamy consistency.
*Pour mixture into a big bowl and add:
2.5 cups of dried mulberries
1/2 a cup of diced dried figs
4 tablespoons of almond butter
2 tablespoons of tahini
*Let it all soak for at least 4 hours.
*Return to the mixture and throw in a tablespoon of vanilla powder, then mix thoroughly.
*Divide this mixture up into two bowls, making it ALMOST even but not quite.
*Add 1 cup of yacon powder to the bowl that has less in it and mix thoroughly.
*Put a layer of the ‘non-yacon’ mixture on the base of your display plate, then a layer with the yacon mixture, then the rest of the non-yacon mixture
*Then spread the rest of the yacon mixture around the entire top of the cake as a frosting.
*Decorate with dried or fresh fruit pieces, or as desired :)
ENJOY :)
One love,
Angela. xxx
