If you were wondering what was in my jar yesterday, I'll let you know how you can find out, as it is part of this raw cupcake recipe, inspired by today's Q&A (now that was a mouthful, sort of like the cupcake. Yum!).
As I've mentioned in the past, I like to credit Juli Novotny of Kookie Karma for starting me out on my "unbaking" path. After being introduced to her yummy creations on the GLiving site, I was ready to get a little more experimental in my own kitchen.Although I was already raw at the time, I had barely gotten my feet wet in the raw desserts department. Let's just say I'd only dipped a toe in to test the waters; Juli was the inspiration I needed to dive into the deep end (this is starting to remind me of how my aunt taught me to swim, but that's another story).
I remember her starting a thread on the GLiving community message board, requesting ideas for an exclusive raw cookie recipe. She wanted to know our favorite flavors, so she could "rawify" (a term I came up with later) one special for us. The resulting oatmeal chocolate chip cookie was so simple and yummy that I just had to make more.I began to play around with the ingredients, coming up with new cookies, bars, cakes, and eventually cupcakes, etc. If it wasn't for Juli, I probably wouldn't have a raw cupcake e-book in the works.
Speaking of an e-book, she has one coming out soon all you "PURE mamas" are going to want to check out. Yes, I did say "mama," as Juli is one herself. She's been busy with her two children, while still expanding her product family at Kookie Karma with a new online store (where she even sells raw ice cream; Mmmmm!) and some additions to the line.
Lucky for me, she let me test drive the kale chips (which were perfect for my green theme yesterday), Kokoa Krunchies cereal (I'm "kokoa" for this one) and these scrumptious (you know it has to be good when I use that word) Lime Coconut Krunchies, used in today's recipe.If you want the recipe, you have to stop by Juli's Pure Mamas blog, where I have a guest post/recipe. Check it out, after you read my interview with her below.
Q: How have things changed for you since having your two beautiful children?
A: "SO SO SO much. They are so close in age, so I was basically pregnant for a LONG time {so it feels}. Being pregnant for that long has sort of forced me to be HOME and do more in the kitchen.
"Having these babies has really helped me manage my time better, too. I never thought in my life I could multi-task to this degree or accomplish so much in one day. I STILL somehow run my biz {barely}, my new blog and a new online store, but work the same amount of hours (?). I can't get out in the field as much as I should for Kookie Karma, but as far as computer and kitchen and photos and getting creative - I've seriously been on a CRAZY roll!
"I LOVE having this job of creating the most nutritious, great foods for my young boys. It is one thing to treat myself really well, as far as diet goes and see how I react to a clean diet; but it's even more miraculous to see how little ones do when you feed them well from the beginning. You don't meet too many babies/kids that have been fueled on superfoods, raw foods and a veg diet very often. I personally think it really helps with their immunity, consistent energy levels, quality of sleep, minimizing temper tantrums, and fuels better concentration.
"Their reactions to this diet is what ignited my desire to share my {and other raw or vegan moms} ideas with other moms. Some of my ideas are fairly common in the raw/veg food world, but other tips and facts are unique to my household and my creation. It's those things that I want to share with others {hence my new eRecipe book launching (soon)}."
Q: Tell us a little about the new PURE Mamas eRecipe book. Do you have a favorite recipe from it? What are your kids' favorites?
A: "My new eBook contains a lot of raw food dishes. But, it also contains GREAT cooked food ideas for parents who eat cooked food. The idea behind my book is to help moms include raw foods and superfoods into an otherwise fairly "normal" or "traditional" diet. It's very important to me that I don't overwhelm parents with the idea of feeding their children super/raw foods {in other words, some of the recipes require a dehydrator and some use an oven}. ALL of our recipes are super simple though and don't take too much time. "I include dozens of ways to give raw meals a cooked feel and cooked foods a douse of super foods. The recipes are also for children, so I like to be sure that texture and palatability is taken into consideration, as well.
"Kale chips are a must-have at my house, so are "cooked" vegan cauliflower bites {those are my children's FAVORITE for sure}. Vitamin C boost smoothies and seaweed wraps are also my personal favorites."
Q: Any plans to add more kookie flavors to the Kookie Karma line? If so, would you consider doing another contest to select the new kookies?
"We are coming out with a new lone of kookies called KOKOs {means coconut}. The main ingredients being Coconut! Sort of a macaroon-style snack. You won't be disappointed. Trust me :-)"
