Beautiful Canadian Autumn

It's Fall and those famous Canadian maple leaves are turning colours and falling. Here are few of my photos from this fabulous season ...

I hope you're having a fabulous Fall - wherever you are in this world. More raw vegan recipes coming up next week. Until then ...

DIY # 6: Peacock Feather Headband

On a recent trip to the children's museum (with my nephew, not on my own of course!) I collected quite a few peacock feathers. Aren't nature's craft materials the most beautiful? I've been known to collect shells, rocks and flowers for crafting, but nothing compares in beauty to a freshly fallen peacock feather. Plus searching for feathers kept my nephew entertained that afternoon. My first instinct was to try to fashion a necklace with the feathers, but I couldn't find the right findings. Instead I made this quick & easy headband and it came out great. It took less than 5 minutes and is simple, inexpensive and very chic. Here's what you'll need:

• feathers (as much or as little as you desire)
• headband
• hot glue gun

If you scavenged for your feathers like me, you'll need to wash and dry them first. Decide on how you want them placed on the headband. Place a dollop of hot glue on the headband and glue the feathers into place. Careful not to burn your fingers on the hot glue. Set aside for a few minutes to dry. Voila! Your very own couture headband.

Organic Vegan Halloween Candy

Halloween is fast approaching. Do you hand out candy at your house? Chances are (even if you're a health food nut like myself) you do. What is a healthy conscious vegan supposed to do on Halloween? Thanks to various whack-jobs with a large supply of needles on hand, the days of handing out apples are unfortunately behind us. Hand out raisins you might say, well you might as well hang out a sign that says, "egg my house please".

That's why this year I'll be handing out candy from Pure Fun, an organic candy company that makes vegan, kosher, gmo-free, gluten-free, and allergy free candies. Pure Fun's Halloween kit comes with 30 lollipops including a superfood flavour - goji. These lollipops are also sold at a price that is about the same as conventional Halloween treats -only $4.29. A great deal if you ask me. The ginger candy works wonders on a sore throat, although probably too spicy for trick-or-treaters.

Sure it's not "health food" but at least you'll be supporting an organic company and more than likely introducing a lot of kids to organics. Best of all you can have the leftover lollies!

Happy Halloween!

The Vegan One Hundred

I found this on Kiersten's Full of Beans blog, and I thought it was so fun. Here's the low down:

1) Copy this list into your blog or social networking site profile, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment on this post linking to your results.

The Vegan Hundred:

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Coleslaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet or Habañero pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes NYC
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice...with Extra Ginger
50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless 'Pixie' Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

I love it! Now I have a list of new vegan foods to try. Not sure when I'll be able to make it to NYC for # 68 though ;)

Do You Eat Raw in the Winter?

I awoke this morning to a light dusting of snow. WOW! Summer sure flew by fast. While on the one hand I'm excited about getting out my bamboo yarn and knitting, on the other hand, the colder weather makes me less inclined to eat raw. Does anyone else share this experience with winter and raw food??

Raw Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

To my Canadian readers, happy Thanksgiving! To my readers south of the border - no you're not in a time warp. Thanksgiving is in October here in the true north strong & free. This just happens to be my first raw Thanksgiving, so I've scoured the internet and uncook books for the tastiest dishes. This Thanksgiving I'm giving thanks for quick, easy and delicious raw recipes that don't include cooking a dead bird's carcass.

Pictured above is 1 lightly steamed corn cob topped with a pat of Ani Phyo's raw olive "butter", a simple salad (cukes, tomatoes, green onion, dill and julienned carrots), raw mashed "potatoes" and raw cranberry sauce.

Raw Mashed "Potatoes" (recipe from gone raw)

• 2 cups parsnips, washed and cubed
• ½ cup pine nuts
• squeeze of fresh lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1½ cup water

Combine everything (except the water) in the food processor. Slowly add the water until the desired consistency - some people like stiff potatoes, others like them runny. I opted to julienne my parsnips first because my food processor isn't that powerful.

Festive Raw Cranberry Sauce

Holy poop! I can't believe I ever used to eat this out of a can. This recipe is so simple and so tasty. Definitely a keeper for the holidays.

• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 apple, peeled (I used Ginger Gold)
• 1 orange (zest first then peel, cut & quarter)
• pinch of cinnamon
• 5 dates, pitted
• raw sweetener (to taste or none at all)

Combine everything in the food processor. If you like it chunky, then just pulse in the processor. If you like it smooth, then the blender might be a better choice.

Ani's Raw All American Apple Pie (recipe from Ani Phyo's Ani's Raw Food Kitchen)

I've had my eye on this recipe for a while now. With the leaves falling and the crisp Autumn air coming in, apples are at their peak in my corner of the world. So why wait any longer?! Serve à la mode with a dollop of raw serve. I halved Ani's original recipe, so the picture is a mini apple pie.

ALMOND PIE CRUST -

• 2 cups almonds, dry
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups pitted dates

SYRUP -

• 1/2 cup pitted dates
• 1 orange, peeled and seeded
• splash of water, as needed to make the blender go round

FILLING -

• 5 cups apples, peeled, seeded, thinly sliced, about 5 or 6 apples
• 1 cup raisins and/or dried cranberries (optional)
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

The directions for this pie aren't on Ani's website, so I won't publish them here. However, you can watch Ani making this pie on ABC here.

Happy (cruelty-free) Thanksgiving everyone!! Wishing you all lots of ...

Happy Birthday Shanghai Monkey!

It's time to celebrate. Shanghai Monkey is 1 year old! Exactly one year today, I published my very first post - vegan pumpkin pie. Since then I've dazzled you (hopefully!) with my posts on raw vegan food, organics, crafts, yoga poses and more! Hugs to everyone that reads, comments and follows the blog. There's lots more goodies to come so stay tuned ...

Yoga Asana of the Month (October)

This month's yoga pose is kid friendly, but fun for adults too! Butterfly pose (purna titali asana) is a great hip opener and can help to relieve tension in the legs. To begin start with your feet together so the bottoms of your feet are facing each other. Pull your ankles as close to your body as possible. Keeping your back straight, unlike the child in the video ;) begin to wiggle your legs up and down like a butterfly's wings. If you can't get much movement in your legs on the first try, don't worry. After a few days your thighs will loosen up allowing you to move deeper into the posture.

Note: The above video is provided by YouTube. I have no control over the ads within this video. I am not affiliated with these advertisers, and do not endorse their products.