My introduction to Sarasota RAWked! Exploring my idea that creating something together with other people in our raw community, rather than going it alone, is more fun, plus makes a bigger splash. We produced and threw down a pumping RAWktail Party, it was the biggest and most successful raw event in Florida to date! Dress code was RAWkstar, of course. A wonderful event and a very warm welcome to Florida and Sarasota.

A RAWstar RAWktail Party isn’t complete without headshots. Is that too cheezy?….

We brought together a fun crowd of local hipsters, movers, and shakers. Raw foods help us feel great, look our best, and fuel up for a long night of celebration. Raw food is also great for recovery, detox, and combating damage after a night of partying too hard and not sleeping enough.

The event was held at the Weller Historic Estate, and it was filled with rich period furniture and wonderful styling details. The host Jeff Weller is below in the white button down and jeans. I was to discover later that Jeff gives great massages!

The Weller Historic Estate was at full capacity with well over 120 attendees, and the energy was contagious.

I demoed 4 recipes, which follow below, while people stood around a 20 foot long table to watch and learn how to make fast, easy, delicious raw food treats. Below is Bryant Meyers, to the right, an ingredient sponsor who’s home is packed full of cutting edge healing therapy machines like an infrared sauna and scalar wave technology. I was skeptical at first, but the scalar waves made me pass out and sleep restfully the following day. Now I’m a believer.

Above is the spread for our Taco Wraps, served in a cabbage leaf. With raw food, it’s easy to have our ‘kitchen’ anywhere, even in the living room.

Lisa Tomasi, in pink, runs the Naples raw food meet up group. She saved the day and was the best assistant I’ve ever had! A testament for raw foods, Lisa drove over 2 hours to come to the event, worked all night, drove home, then came back the next day again. An enegizer bunny and beautiful woman.

The man in black above is Vincent Dessberg, who has a roof top garden on a warehouse in the industrial area of town, called “I Grow My Own Veggies”. He sponsored cabbage, edible flowers, herbs, and strawberries. I harvested from Vincent’s garden just a few hours before the party. It was amazing to see so much food growing on top of an industrial warehouse!

Now, for my recipes. Enjoy!

To make Cashew Kream, place cashews, honey, vanilla, and water into blender. blend smooth. Add as little water as possible for thicker consistency.

To make Chocolate Sauce, place honey or agave and cacao in blender. Blend smooth.

Here’s a sneak peak into one of my favorite recipes from my new book, Ani’s Raw Food Essentials (available June 1st). We shot this recipe last Thursday for TV, cable, and web.

I’ve been craving raw Tomato Chili the past few days, so I made sure to pick up some beautiful tomatoes, bell pepper, and fresh oregano at the farmers’ market. When I went to make this last night, I realized I had run out of chili powder, so I used chipotle powder instead. It turned out spicy hot. To help cool it down, I made a batch of raw Taco Nut Meat, which helped a bit, but not enough. So then I added some Cashew Sour Kream, and that helped. It was delicious, and energized me to write late into the night.

This recipes is simple and quick to make. I enjoy the mediation of chopping with my knife. But you can also just place ingredients into your food processor and let it do the chopping for you for an even shorter prep time.

Tomato Chili with Taco Nut Meat
(from pages 145-146 of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials)
Makes 4 servings

TOMATO CHILI

• 3 cup tomatoes, chop
• 1 cup red bell pepper, chop
• 1/4 cup celery, chop
• 1/4 cup yellow onion, chop
• 1/3 cup mushroom, chop
• 1/3 c corn kernels
• 1 teaspoon garlic, mince
• 1 – 2 teaspoon chili powder, to taste
• 1 teaspoon cumin, powder
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano, fresh or dry
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, to taste

Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl, toss to mix well.

Place half of your mixture into your food processor or blender and puree. Scoop back into bowl with mixture and toss to mix well.

NUT MEAT TOPPING

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon cumin, powder
• 2 teaspoons coriander, powder
• 1 teaspoon bragg’s or nama shoyu, or 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, to taste

Place all ingredients into your food processor, and process into small pieces.

To serve, scoop raw Tomato Chili into bowls. Top with Taco Nut Meat. Enjoy.

Tomato Chili will keep for 1-2 days in fridge. Taco Nut Meat will keep for a week or more.

Yesterday, we shot 3 segments for Ani’s Raw Food Essentials for web, TV, and cable:

• Tomato Chili with Taco Nut Meat, pages 145 – 146
• Coconut Cake with Nutella Hazelnut Sauce, page 271
• Water Kefir, page 56

The videos will air one a month starting late May, after the new book is available. Here’s a few photos from the day.

Makeup works wonders, and each time I work with a makeup artist, I learn new ways for applying looks. Martin Christopher does makeup for the Playboy Bunnies, and I loved what he did with me eyes and hair.

To get as much of the counter and ingredients into our shots, I had to stand as low to the counter as possible. That meant standing with my legs straddled for hours…quite the thigh workout.

Skye Van Raalte-Herzog (producer), Todd Stevens (exec producer), and Aaron Lee (camera) were great at giving me feedback and direction. They’ve obviously done these shoots many times before and really knew what would work well on camera. They were an awesome team to work with.

A behind-the-camera perspective photo shot by my assistant Jules Castillo. Jules helped us to set up the kitchen for our shoot, then he helped me prep my ingredients too. Great assistants like Jules are wonderful to have around on shoots and projects.

Everyone enjoyed eating up all the food after the shoot. It’s always fun to watch reactions to my food when folks try it for the first time. Skye enjoys lots of raw foods already, but Todd was blown away at how simple and delicious everything was. Thank goodness he loves nuts, since both dishes used walnuts, almonds, and brazil nuts.

I had a birthday celebration to attend last night after the video shoot. Sweetie Martin made sure my hair and makeup were perfect for my evening out. What did I tell you….Playboy hair! I felt like an LA hottie. That is one of the many things I love about LA. You can never be too over or under dolled up.

Once these videos go live, I’ll make sure to post them here. So check back for the first one late May. I can’t wait to watch them myself!