Raw Food Cooking

I bought a new cookbook at Borders this past week: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo. I have to say, I'm intrigued by the idea of eating more raw foods for health, energy, and mental clarity. I've noticed that I feel most inspired with writing ideas after I've eaten healthy foods. So I'm excited to try some of the recipes in my new book.

This morning I made her almond cinnamon oatmeal. The only thing is, we don't have oat groats, so I used regular rolled oats instead. Yes, that means the recipe wasn't completely raw (because rolled oats are cooked while processed), but oh well. At least I got the taste! And never fear - I plan on making a grocery list soon. :-)

Here's how it turned out:

The taste of it was very sweet. I substituted agave nectar for dates (because of course, we don't have any dates - I'll put them on the list!), and next time I don't think I'll use as much.

At first, I tried adding some soymilk to tone down the sweetness:

Then I tried it with a bit of almond butter (sorry, no pic). That worked better.

One thing I liked about this recipe was the cinnamon. I loooove lots of cinnamon in my oatmeal, and this definitely had an intense cinnamony flavor. Yum. I'll be making this again - hopefully next time with completely raw ingredients!