Creative Health Institute- Day 3 Advanced Raw CHef Training

Finally I can post about Day 3 and our graduation. I have been away from blogging because we had to get ready for a 5 night/ six day trip to the homeschool convention up in Orlando so I have not been able to get anywhere near blogger for several days now. I tend to only focus on a few things at a time or I get overwhelmed and grumpy. So my focus the last several days has been on the kiddos and our homeschool convention. We had a great time, but traveling raw and with kids who are gluten free/dairy free and high raw, is always a great challenge. Will post about that later.
Day 3 at CHI Sunday, May 1, 2011
Breakfast was served at 8AM. We were treated with the following killer menu:
Atifah's Raw Pancakes with Blueberry and Gojilicious Syrups
Raw Vegan Bacon
Fresh juice OJ
Raw almond milk

Right after breakfast the food prep stations were humming once again--the roar of Vitamixes and food processors and the hum of numerous dehydrators.
We had to prepare kale chips from 9:15-10:15AM
Team 1- Pizza Kale Chips
Team 2- Sour Cream Kale Chips
Team 3- Krispy Kale Chips (our team)
Team 4- Corn Chips
10:15-10:30am BREAK TIME
10:30-12:00pm FOOD PREPARATION BEGAN
TEAM 1- Not So Meat
TEAM 2- Mexican Refried Beans
TEAM 3- Taco Tostados (our team)
TEAM 4- Not So Cheese
Can you tell what was on the lunch menu?? Raw tostados!!! Talk about fantastic. These were so amazing and I am so glad I know how to prepare all of these wonderful recipes now.
When I got home one of the first things I made were the tostadas and the refried beans.

 Take a look at our lunch menu:
Not So Meat
Spanish Rice "Sofrito" (recipe)
Taco Tostados
Not So Cheese
Mexican Refried Beans
Rejuvelac (sprouted quiona)
Apple Lemonade

 Rejuvelac and Apple Lemonade

 Tostados and Not So Meat

 All the Fixins for Raw Tostadas

Even though the food was delicious and the people we were sharing it with were beyond amazing, I couldn't help but feel a little sad during lunch. After lunch we all would graduate and that meant going our separate ways as well.
Here are my graduation pictures:

 Bobby, Master Chef, Presenting Diplomas



Speech by one of the Chefs at CHI

 My Sister-In-Law and Bobby

Cynthia's Speech (my sister-in-law)

 Me, the Happy Graduate with Bobby

Me Crying and Giving Thanks

Cynthia (on left) and Me, CHI's New Raw Chefs

You can see my sister-in-law's blog pics here.
If you are interested in these raw chef classes here is all of the information for Creative Health Institute:
866-426-1213
www.creativehealthinstitute.com
email: info@creativehealthinstitute.com
+JMJ+Today I am grateful for the mindset of beginning each day as a fresh start, with no mistakes....yet. Keeping it positive! Peace.

Day 2 Advanced Raw Chef Level 1: Part II

Day 2 Part II
So now I will continue writing about our fantastic Day 2 food preparations.
From 3-4PM we were busy creating raw cookies and brownies.
Team 1- Coconut Macaroons
Team 2- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Team 3- Walnut Date Balls
Team 4- Best Brownies
I must admit that by far my favorite of these raw goodies were the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Bobby, our Master Chef, said that he took his grandma's cookie recipe and converted it to a raw recipe. We were able to eat them warm out of the dehydrator and it was a cookie experience I will never forget. They really were THAT good!!!
Next up on the schedule was the Garden Burger Demo followed by the Ketchup, Mustard and Mayo Demonstrations. My sister-in-law and I took this time in our busy schedule to sneak out to Saturday's Vigil Mass at a very nice, orthodox, Catholic church--just like we like them. It was a much needed escape for us from all of the information overload that we were experiencing during this amazing Raw Chef Training and a time to give thanks for all that we were so blessed to have accomplished thus far. When we returned we were brought up to speed on what we missed and it was time for a Pesto Stuffed Mushroom Demonstration.
Before dinner we were able to go and take a tour of CHI's sprouting room. Boy was I in sprout Heaven, as you can imagine!! Take a look at these pics--can you tell what everything is??
If you want to see a pic of me "Grazing on the Wheat grass" go here and scroll down to the end of my sister-in-law's post. Too funny!!

Dinner was served at 5:30PM
Here is what we had:
Garden Burgers with romaine lettuce buns
Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms
Not So Cheese
Kale Salad with Blessed Tahini Dressing
Coconut Macaroons
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Best Brownies
CHI's Almond Joys
Walnut Date Balls
That evening we watched the movie "Eating" and learned sooooo much information that everyone should know. I am really glad we got to see this film, I have been wanting to view it for quite some time now. After the movie several of the students went into the Banya sauna. Then it was light out at 10:30PM.
I will post about Day 3 soon. I was so sad to see our weekend come to an end but I also was so grateful for this amazing opportunity. Stay tuned for Day 3 and our graduation ceremony.
+JMJ+ Today I am grateful for seeing my First Grader learn his math facts for the day. Way to go MA.

Day 2 Advanced Raw Chef Level 1: Part I

Saturday, April 30th, 2011
Day 2 began at
8AM with Breakfast Preparation
Team 1 was preparing Raw Quinoa
Team 2 was preparing Rawsome Oatmeal
Team 3 was preparing Green Smoothies
Team 4 was preparing Almond and Pecan Milks
Our team made a wonderful green smoothie. Everyone really enjoyed it--it was gone before we could even put it on the breakfast table. All of the "Chefs in training" kept sampling it.
Once we all had our preparations completed it was time for a fantastic, raw, nourishing breakfast.

We enjoyed:
Fresh Juiced Orange Juice
Rawsome Oatmeal
Rawsome Quinoa
Fresh blueberries, strawberries
Banana Manna Bread with Cashew Frosting
Green Smoothies
Nut Milks
We also were able to sample the delicious Energy Soups

The one in the forefront is the unsweetened Energy Soup and the one in the back round is the sweet Energy Soup. They had "toppings" to add to the soups:

The toppings were:
Kelp
Dulse
Flax meal
Rye seeds
Here is how my Energy Soup looked and boy was it yummy!! I chose the sweet version.

We were so fortunate to have several demonstrations throughout our training and preparation sessions. Like I said in the previous post every minute of everyday was utilized and devoted to teaching us as much as possible during our Raw Chef Training Program. One of our many demonstrations was given by Chuck. He demonstrated how to make the Banana Manna Walnut Bread with Cashew Cream Frosting.

10:00AM Food Preparation resumed

Team 1- Granola Cereal

Team 2- Muesli Cereal

Team 3- Better Than Lara Bars Blueberry

Team 4- Better Than Lara Bars Cashew Cookie

My sister-in-law

11:00AM Food Preparation
Team 1- CHI Corn Chowder
Team 2- Mama Angelina's Tomato Basil Soup
Team 3- Broccoli Soup
Team 4- Paige's Sweet Potato Soup
Our team prepared the Broccoli Soup. It was good and beautiful also.

I dressed it with some EVOO, sprouts, fresh basil and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Mama Angelina's Tomato Basil Soup

We then jumped right into our next Food Preparation. All teams prepared Raw Pad Thai Salads.

Zucchini Noodles with red bell peppers, sprouts, lentil sprouts, and cilantro. Here are the left over zucchini cores.

Bobby, our Master Chef Instructor told us how he seasons these and then dehydrates them for later uses. What a great idea! He calls them "mushrooms".
We prepared an incredibly delicious sauce for our Pad Thai.

Here is our dish, tossed:

During our Pad Thai preparation we were served a delicious Pineapple Orange Coconut Banana Smoothie. The interns at Creative Health were so gracious and made sure that we were well hydrated and that our energy levels were high.

Lunch was served. We were able to sample each team's Pad Thai and we also had a broccoli and cauliflower salad served with Bobby's famous Poppy Seed Dressing. When I returned home I just had to make this dressing. It is just delicious! Here is how my recipe looked.

Four more awesome demonstrations were on our schedule. These were:
Seed Cheese
Smoked Pepper Cheese
CHI Sour Cream
Sprouted Quiona Rejuvelac

I will stop here for Part I of our Day 2 experience. So much happened each day it still makes my head spin when I think about all that we did and learned. I will finish Day 2's post soon. We had the opportunity to prepare raw cookies and brownies, more demos and our dinner preparation, movie and Banya time.

+JMJ+ Today I am grateful for my son's increased energy and rosy cheeks.