Jo's Raw Food Adventures

Gosh, it’s so hard to believe Mother’s Day is over. What? I have to wait another year for breakfast in bed? Get outta here! From now on this little mum is having her breakfast brought to her at least once a month. Who’s with me on that?

Mother’s Day was just one highlight of my weekend – on the day prior, I made my first ever trip to a Melbourne raw food meet-up group. Earlier in the week, I’d tried out a recipe by fellow Raw Mom blogger, Monique’s – banana-chocolate tart (see the recipe here). The recipe is for tartlets, but as I don’t have tartlet tins, I used a normal-sized tart tin and made one lovely, big tart, to take to a girlfriend’s house for a playdate. Mamma mia – what a taste experience! Even my husband, Darren – he who would curl up in the fetal position and sob if asked to touch a carrot stick – devoured slice after slice of the leftovers.

For the meet-up, I wanted to try something different with the tart base, to make it less moist (I don’t have a dehydrator and so couldn’t make almond flour – I might need your advice about this, Monique!). So, I changed the base slightly, and planned on cutting the tart in two to take to the meet-up – the tart tin wouldn’t fit in our Esky (portable cooler) properly otherwise. But to my horror, the tart base was waaaay too moist, and there was no way that tart was coming out of the tin in two pieces. So I had to turn the Esky on its side, place freezer blocks inside it under the tart tin, coconut whipped cream etc, and carry the stupid Esky at a really awkward angle. All while also carrying a large calico bag with assorted cake servers, forks, spoons etc, and my never-leave-home-without-it handbag… Before I waved goodbye to Darren and the girls (leaving them to continue work on my mother’s day presents!), Darren gave me express instructions – “make sure you bring back a piece of that tart.”

The meet-up was held at a fantastic spot – an environmental park called CERES (check it out at www.ceres.org.au – it’s just fabulous!) in Brunswick. I trundled down the bumpy path from the car park, clutching the hulking great Esky under one arm and trying to keep the bags from falling down the other arm. Although it was a fairly mild afternoon, I was sweating and trying not to think about the fact that my wrist was about to break off under the weight of the Esky. I finally found the meeting room and staggered inside, where the party was already in full swing. I was fashionably late, of course, with many other tasty morsels already having been devoured, so my tart ended up being a very timely dessert. One kind lady acted as “mum” and served out the tart to all and sundry while I chatted. Before I knew it, the whole tart had been demolished – sorry, Darren (he’s still moaning about not getting a piece – and it’s Tuesday already)! So there you go, Monique – it was a winner, despite my rather moist version of the tart base. You are the dessert queen.

I had an absolute ball chatting with fellow raw foodies – the meeting had a really festive, family-like atmosphere. Everyone chatted animatedly, sampled each other’s food and smoothies, swapped raw-food histories and debated raw theories. A merry crowd gathered around the kitchen area to wash up (yeah, thanks guys!), and a couple of cute wee doggies added their two cents’ worth to the conversations. All in all, a really fun meet-up. Can’t wait for the next one – now I just have to find another dessert to match the sublime banana-chocolate tart.

Although, I think I’ll avoid anything that requires a tart tin…