Hoooray for long weekends, they’re amazing, the extra day of relaxation is just what I needed, ahhh. Someday when I’m queen every weekend will be a long one:) My three day weekend was spent wisely, I was surrounded with great company, doing fun things in the beautiful and hip city of Boston.

Trying out new raw restaurants while on vacation is one of my favorite things, while in town my awesome company was game to stop in Alissa Cohens raw restaurant Grezzo. If your in Boston I highly recommend it, we had a great time, the food was delicious and our waitress was great. Here is the down low of how things went while there.

Grezzo is located in the North End of Boston, A.K.A ‘Little Italy’, the area is beautiful and surrounded my a mecca of traditional Italian, resturants, bakery’s and gelato shoppes. I did think it was odd that this lone raw restaurant was in the heart of these Italian establishments until I found out that Grezzo means ‘raw’ in Italian.

We arrived at 4:43pm to be exact, the hostess asked if we had a reservation and the answer was of course no-I rarely plan that far ahead-ha. We were turned away and told to come back at 5:00pm, when the restaurant opened because they still needed to light the candles. The hostess took my name and number and called me at exactly 5:00pm to let me know we could come back. We moseyed on back around 5:15 and the tiny restaurant was already full. Raw Bostonians must love this place and rightly so.

We ordered two appetizers and a dessert to split between four of us. It was a tasty, tasty sampling. We couldn’t help but notice what everyone else in the restaurant was eating and all the dishes looked amazing!

Grezzo has a cozy and romantic red interior that housed several large paintings of colorful fruits and vegetables. This is a good place for a date if your looking for excellent food, service and a restaurant that’s intimate and has something new to offer.

The Gnocchi was delicious, it was topped with a creamy dressing, fresh peas, crisp eggplant and young pea shoots. Grezzo is not ideal for taking food porn photos because it was dim, I mean dim in a good mood setting kind of way. I wish these photos were a little brighter so you could see how colorful these dishes really are.

This is the Grezzo slider, it was made with flavorful patties stacked on top of watercress and a sliced tomato, with ‘pommes frites’, they were basically tasty raw potato chips, topped with pickles, a creamy dressing. This was the favorite dish of the table it’s packed with a lot of flavor and fun textures.

We ordered the Mexican Chocolate Torte for dessert on our waitresses recommendation and it was AWESOME! I loved it, the torte was rich creamy mix of raw cocoa, coconut butter with a dash of Habanero peppers and cinnamon. It was served with coconut ice cream and a cardamom raspberry infused sauce. The blackberrys were SO good, it was my favorite dish of the evening-ok so dessert is usually always my favorite;)

Alissa herself was there, she let me take a photo of her kitchen. It was pretty amazing that everything is made back here, look closely-there’s no stove, no microwave and no heat lamps.

These forks and knives were stuck in the side walk in front of Grezzo, I thought they were charming.

If your in the neighborhood grab your friends and stop by, it’s delicious! Remember you should probably make a reservation:)

Address: 69 Prince Street, Boston, MA 02113
Phone: 1.857.362.7288
Hours: Wed to Fri 5pm to 12 midnight, Sat & Sun 11am to 12 midnight

http://www.grezzorestaurant.com/

Look at all the cool things I found at the green market! I have never seen fresh nettles for sale before. I was so excited I bought two big bunches in case they weren’t there next week, my green smoothies are getting a new a new addition.

Burdock root may look strange but its fun to eat because it’s crisp, crunchy, a little sweet and pretty juicy. I’m not sure if they’re members of the same family but I wouldn’t be surprised if burdock root and radishes are cousins. I heard through the raw grapevine that you can forage for burdock root in Central Park-pretty nifty.

Isn’t this the most beautiful salad mix you have ever seen?!?! I think it’s gorgeous, it was tasty too. I’m not sure what kind of flowers those are but they are tender and a little bit spicy, oh la la a spicy flower.

These were tasty shrooms, I sliced them up and put them on top of my flower power salad. I like to marinate my portabello mushrooms by turning them upside down and drizzling olive oil and a splash of lemon or lime juice. The little mushroom gills will soak up the liquid in about 20 minutes and they are soooooo delicious.

I’d never seen or heard of these before today but these onion like things are called ramps, they belong to the onion family and they are tasty, tasty, tasty. They have a mild onion flavor but they are a little bit sweeter:) Here is some more interesting info on ramps and how they got that strange name. http://southernfood.about.com/cs/ramps/a/ramps.htm

More pretty green ramps lounging in the sun. The woman who was selling them said that you can eat all of them even the roots.

Now that summer is just around the corner the green market will be at it’s best. I can’t wait to see what interesting organic local treats they bring the heart of Manhattan.

What do raw foodies and boy scouts have in common? The same motto “always be prepared!” I know, I know it sounds like a bad joke, ok maybe it is one:)

I did a little traveling this weekend and I have to say that Jet Blue has let me down, they no longer carry “Rawvolution” bars at the John F. Kennedy Airport, I’m totally bummed out, I was planning on having one as part of my raw dinner! http://www.rawfoodporn.com/?p=64 Although disappointed I would have made any boy scout proud because I came prepared with a giant cucumber and four mandarin oranges. Even though it was a little on the skimpy side for dinner I was able to stave off salty stale airport food.

Here are a few of my favorite raw snacks that pack well for all occasions, they work like a charm;) I pack these tasty babies everywhere to ball games, the park, work, running errands, traveling and shopping of course!

1-Sliced apples with a dip made of raw honey and almond butter-delicious!

2-A no nonsense, no nut trail mix of raisins, coconut chips and dried cranberries.

3-Sprouted mung beans and lentils, the lentils have a pepper taste and the mung beans taste like fresh garden peas-yum.

4-Celery sticks with a sesame dipping sauce. I got this recipe from Domino Magazine, they had a feature on raw foods in their March issue you can check it out online, they also have several other great looking raw recipes. herehttp://www.dominomag.com/howtos/recipes/savory/crudites_savory_dip

5- Citrus fruits and bananas, these thick skinned fruits have a naturally perfect package for packing around.

6- Mini tomatoes and green beans are what I like to grab from the grocery store as a quick and easy snack on the go. These bite size treats come in handy when your in a hurry and not near your refrigerator. I frequently get this combo when running around NYC.

Now that your prepared with all these great snacks to pack what will you pack them in? Now you have a good reason to buy another great bag that’s big enough to hold your raw food! YAY!

Don’t worry men there are plenty of cool bags for you too. Check out these fun murses, they have great manly designs and some of them are even organic-wooohoo! http://www.satchel-studio.com/designs_murse.htm

While we are on the subject of scouts I can’t help but marvel at these “Raw Girl Scout Cookies” by Shannonmarie, this woman is seriously talented with a dehydrator. http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/2008/01/raw-girl-scout.html

YUM! I like to have a few dishes on hand that store well in the fridge so I can just grab a bite to eat and go. This tasty recipe for Butternut squash soup is light and refreshing, perfect for spring/almost summer:)

Butternut Squash Soup

2 Cups water

1 Butternut squash seeded and chopped

1 Apple chopped and cored

1 Clove of Garlic Chopped

1 inch piece of ginger chopped

1 Large hand full of cilantro

4 Chopped Green onions

4 Tbs Agave nectar

3 Tbs Mellow white miso

1/2 Tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 Tsp Sea Salt

Pepper to taste

Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds, chop into 1 inch pieces. If you don’t have a vita mixer you may want to soak the squash for an hour or so in a bowl of salty water. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend till uniform. Garnish with cilantro or chopped green onions.

Cinco De Mayo calls for celebreation! You can have your own mini Mexican fiesta today with a Kombucharita, spicy flax crackers, fresh guacamole and salsa-ole, ole, ole!

Kombucharita

1 Bottle of GT’s Mystic Mango Kombucha

1/2 Cup raspberries

1 Cup of ice

Place the ingredients in the blender and blend until uniform. Pour into a festive glass and serve with a mini umbrella, no fruity drink should go without one:-)

Flax Crackers

2 Cups golden flax seeds

3 Large juicy tomatoes

3 Chopped green onions

2 Tbs Mexican seasonings

1/2 Jalepeno pepper with out seeds

Place tomatoes, green onions, and seasoning in a blender and blend to a puree. In a bowl combine tomato puree and flax seeds, stir well. Pour mixture onto dehydrator and dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 4-6 hours. Cut or break into squares then flip over and dehydrate until crispy.

Fresh Mexican Salsa

5 Large diced tomatoes

1/2 diced white onion

1 Clove of garlic

1/2 Teaspoon cumin

1/2 Tsp sea salt

1-2 Diced green Serrano Chilies, stems and seeds removed

Dice all ingredients and mix well-eat up!

Groovy Guacamole

2 Ripe avocados

1/2 Chopped tomato

1/2 diced red onion

1 serrano chili stems removed and diced

2 Tbs chopped cilantro

2 Tbs lime juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mash avocados and tomatoes, mix in the remaining ingredients.

Wave those those Maracas in the air like you just don’t care, have a great CInco De Mayo!

I love pie, always have and always will. Martha Stewart Living is one of my favorite magazines, the food in there always looks amazing. In the last issue she made a “Strawberry Galette” that looked so tasty that I had to make a raw version. I call it…….drum roll please………. Strawbana Pie! Hhhhhhmmmmmmm, fresh strawberries.

Strawbana Pie

Coconut Crust:

2 C Ground almond meal- You can buy it at Trader Joe’s for about $2.50 or you can make your own with unsoaked almonds in a coffee grinder.

1/2 C Melted Coconut Oil-melt the oil by running the bottle under warm water or in a pan over LOW heat.

1/2 C Shredded Coconut or Coconut flakes

2 Tsp Mesquite powder

2 Tsp Cinamon

1 Tsp Cloves

1Tsp Vanilla extract

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the melted coconut oil slowly and stir until a dough forms. If it’s too dry add more melted coconut oil. Line your pie pan with plastic wrap and place a handful of dough in the bottom of the pan. This is the fun part:) using your hands press dough flat to make a pie crust. Continue this process until the crust is fully formed. Place in the freezer to solidify.

Strawbana Filling:

1 pint of strawberries stems removed-frozen berries will work too.

1 Large ripe avocado

2 ripe bananas

3 Tbs Agave nectar

2 TBS psyllium husks-any health food store will sell this.

Remove the pie crust from the freezer and lift up on the plastic wrap to remove the crust, the crust is fragile so be careful not to break it. You can put the crust back in the pie pan or place on a serving dish. My pie pan is not cute so I opted for the serving platter. This is a critical step, if you bypass this step and try lifting the pie out of the pan while full your crust will break and leak filling:( You can still eat though it will taste great!

Place all the ingredients into the blender and blend until uniform, add psyllium husks last. Quickly pour your mixture into the crust and let sit for 20 min. This will allow enough time for the psyllium husk to form a mouse like texture.

Topping:

15 sliced strawberries

1 Sprig of fresh Mint for garnishing

Slice strawberries and decorate the top of your pie and place back in the refrigerator until your ready to serve. Bon Apetit!

This “Strawberry Galette” is what gave me the raw ambition to make my “Strawbana Pie.”