Viva la RAWvolution!

About 8 years ago I went to Euphoria Loves RAWvolution – a raw food cafe/store in Santa Monica – where I fell into deep admiration for how they varied their menu.

There were a choice of breads or foundations, and a choice of main toppings like spreads or sauces, and then there were was a whole host of fresh produce that could be used in a multitude of ways.

Then the menu was built by mixing and matching different foundations to different main toppings. I remembered how my mind flashed back to Geranimals (the kids clothing line that taught how to create outfits by pairing a lion tagged shirt to a lion-tagged pants). I realized how easy it was to create a viable menu plan while avoiding waste.  It was brilliant because if there were five foundations and five main toppings, then they could produce twenty-five meal options. Then add the variety available with fresh produce. The options of quick meals and avoiding waste were wonderous.

RAWvolution’s manner for making a raw restaurant manageable became the inspiration for how I teach meal planning (something I refuse to do because most people can’t follow a menu plan and then feel like failures).

I happily bought Matt’s book and made many of the recipes contained therein.

To this date, my visit to Matt’s restaurant has been one of the most pivotal moments of my raw career, and his book is probably my most falling-apart-tattered-therefor-most-used raw food prepbook.

– – – – – – – – – – – HERE’S AN EARLIER BOOK REVIEW OF MATT’S BOOK – – – – – – – – – – –

My most used book, RAWvolution, is filled with recipes that are easily accessible. The ingredients can be readily found and they’re affordable. I’ve gone through it so much the pages are falling out.

I fell in love with Matt’s food when I visited his cafe, Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, in Southern California. He had the neatest way of arranging the foods – the bases were available to be underneath any of the spreads and toppings. I called it mix-and-matching. It became the model for my quick and easy meals: a dehydrated base, a perishable spread or topping and fresh produce or a salad. This system allows me to make great tasting raw meals in just minutes for one or fifteen people.

The lifesaver recipes that have come to be critical in my pantry are the Onion Bread, the No Bean Hummus, and the Taco Meat. I’ve only met one person who didn’t like the onion bread (he told me later that he didn’t like onions, so that doesn’t count as a strike against the onion bread) – I still offer it to everybody as an introduction to raw food, along with my granola. It makes believers out of people.