I LOVE my gig as Wellness Director at Preston Wynne Spa . I get to define a wellness curriculum, meet local holistic health and wellness practitioners, and then learn a ton of good stuff to bring home to my family. Case in point: Last night’s Raw Foods workshop with CJ Jackson of Awen Gardens . CJ is hilariously funny and outlandishly talented. This guy sits around and thinks about how to make raw foods taste good, and the recipes he comes up with are amazingly delicious.
Before this class, I had watched a former employee of mine lose a ton of weight on a raw foods diet. I mean, she looked so HAWT and I was so jealous, that I was motivated to try it myself. Except, I don’t know anything about food except how to eat it, so I needed some help. Of course, I eat raw foods like everybody else (i.e., an apple or an orange or a banana), but I don’t know how to make anything fancy or exciting with raw foods. Well, now I do, thanks to CJ.
First, he made us a smoothie with a banana, an apple, some organically quick-frozen berries, almond milk, and SPINACH. A LOT of spinach. At first I thought, this is going to taste like a train wreck, but I was happily wrong. It was delicious. I am motivated to buy me a blender today, it tasted so good. Then, he made us a raw tomato-basil soup that was pretty good, too – although cold soup is not necessarily my favorite thing in the world to eat. THEN, he made us walnut pesto-stuffed mushrooms, and THOSE were something to write home about (I am, after all, blogging about them). Oh my Gawd, they were scrumptious. I had one, then two, and then I wanted thirds, but was too shy to ask, as there was only one mushroom left and there were 5 of us in the class. (I mean, I was the hostess of the night, so I had to preserve a little bit of decorum.)
Lastly, he made dessert: a bittersweet chocolate pudding out of nothing but avocados, cacao powder, agave nectar, and a dash of salt. It tasted ridiculous (that’s my slang for, “ridiculously good”). I was like, “Are you kidding me? Even I can do this at home.” After all the students left, I stayed after under the pretenses of helping CJ clean up, but all I really cleaned up was the rest of the chocolate pudding. I put that thing away!
Anyway, that dessert was too good not to share, so here is his recipe, in case you also have a sweet craving and need a raw-lly good fix:
5 avocados, 2 cups Cacao powder, 1/2 cup of agave nectar
1. Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit, then scoop out the soft tissue and put it in the food processor.
2. Pour in the cacao powder and agave nectar.
3. Process until smooth and creamy. Add about two ounces of water to give it a pudding-like consistency.
4. Taste and then add more cacao powder or nectar as desired. CJ also added some salt to make it interesting.
5. You can also layer with strawberries and cashew cream (recipe forthcoming) in a martini glass to make a parfait (see picture)!
To contact CJ or book one of his upcoming 4-hour Raw Foods classes, write to cjjackson@awengardens.com.
I LOVE my gig as Wellness Director at Preston Wynne Spa . I get to define a wellness curriculum, meet local holistic health and wellness practitioners, and then learn a ton of good stuff to bring home to my family. Case in point: Last night’s Raw Foods workshop with CJ Jackson of Awen Gardens . CJ is hilariously funny and outlandishly talented. This guy sits around and thinks about how to make raw foods taste good, and the recipes he comes up with are amazingly delicious.
Before this class, I had watched a former employee of mine lose a ton of weight on a raw foods diet. I mean, she looked so HAWT and I was so jealous, that I was motivated to try it myself. Except, I don’t know anything about food except how to eat it, so I needed some help. Of course, I eat raw foods like everybody else (i.e., an apple or an orange or a banana), but I don’t know how to make anything fancy or exciting with raw foods. Well, now I do, thanks to CJ.
First, he made us a smoothie with a banana, an apple, some organically quick-frozen berries, almond milk, and SPINACH. A LOT of spinach. At first I thought, this is going to taste like a train wreck, but I was happily wrong. It was delicious. I am motivated to buy me a blender today, it tasted so good. Then, he made us a raw tomato-basil soup that was pretty good, too – although cold soup is not necessarily my favorite thing in the world to eat. THEN, he made us walnut pesto-stuffed mushrooms, and THOSE were something to write home about (I am, after all, blogging about them). Oh my Gawd, they were scrumptious. I had one, then two, and then I wanted thirds, but was too shy to ask, as there was only one mushroom left and there were 5 of us in the class. (I mean, I was the hostess of the night, so I had to preserve a little bit of decorum.)
Lastly, he made dessert: a bittersweet chocolate pudding out of nothing but avocados, cacao powder, agave nectar, and a dash of salt. It tasted ridiculous (that’s my slang for, “ridiculously good”). I was like, “Are you kidding me? Even I can do this at home.” After all the students left, I stayed after under the pretenses of helping CJ clean up, but all I really cleaned up was the rest of the chocolate pudding. I put that thing away!
Anyway, that dessert was too good not to share, so here is his recipe, in case you also have a sweet craving and need a raw-lly good fix:
5 avocados, 2 cups Cacao powder, 1/2 cup of agave nectar
1. Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit, then scoop out the soft tissue and put it in the food processor.
2. Pour in the cacao powder and agave nectar.
3. Process until smooth and creamy. Add about two ounces of water to give it a pudding-like consistency.
4. Taste and then add more cacao powder or nectar as desired. CJ also added some salt to make it interesting.
5. You can also layer with strawberries and cashew cream (recipe forthcoming) in a martini glass to make a parfait (see picture)!
To contact CJ or book one of his upcoming 4-hour Raw Foods classes, write to cjjackson@awengardens.com.