.SOMETIMES RAW.

“I knew that when I met you, an adventure was going to happen.” – Winnie the Pooh. 

We are big on exploring these days. Nothing is safe basically -we try it all. My title picture has been taken in Canada and the land you see is ours. We purchased it a couple of months ago and will start building on it soon. Projects over projects but I am very excited about it and maybe will even share bits and pieces here. 

Today we ran some errands in the city of Norwalk’s “business district”. Well, the police department is there, banks, the main library and whatnot but it is also a nice area with a park that stretches all the way down to the river. There you can find little cafés and bistros to grab a quick bite which we did; walking and exploring all day gets you hungry. We stopped at “Chocopologie” . I would recommend this place highly for a nice romantic Sunday Brunch because of the variety of food choices they offer especially for breakfast/brunch. Of course I ate the French Onion Soup. My son had a portion of fries which were not greasy but nice and crunchy. There were some chocolate samples on display that made our eyes sparkle. We sat at the window to people-watch which we both love. For some reason people seemed happier than usual, more content and less stressed out. It might be due to the change of season that is imminent now that everybody steps on too many leaves on the ground. 

Just about before our lunch arrived an elderly couple walked by. Hand in hand and the man made sure that his wife did not walk too close to the road. This made me think how lucky I am, hoping that I will walk with my husband side by side all the way till the end. There was so much more to see. A dog walking a woman, people talking loud on the phone and then our food arrived and we ate. For dessert I had a coffee which tasted awesome (good coffee machine at the café) and we shared a brownie. To die for! 

We walked through another park to the Norwalk Public Library.  Before we entered my son needed to climb up some statues in the park. He is terrified by these performing artists with their customs on who sit still for hours and as soon as you drop a coin in the hat they suddenly move and sometimes make weird noises. Terrified! Well this was just a real stone statue that he touched almost to make sure it is not moving. We do go to museums as well even though he is not two years old yet. If I want to go and see an exhibit he comes along. Simple as that. He grows up with art (all over, in the parks, streets, on walls but also occasionally in museums) and I am happy to be able to raise him like this. I don’t try to force him in any direction, this also goes for reading. He sees me with books constantly so he picks up books and “reads” next to me. We go to libraries and bookstores together and he loves it. I try to emphasize his creativity simply by giving him the options. Whatever he does with it later on is up to him. My son grows up in a place where he can witness all these examples of what this unconditional love is that I have for his father and he will be able to explore without fear for himself what this all means when the time comes. Isn’t it just a beautiful amazing thing? Just again, one of those perfect days. 

“Love your body.  Be kind to it, nourish it, tender it. It is the pure instrument of expression that allows you to experience life on this planet.” – Ramtha 

Sometimes Raw is – yes, you guessed right, also about eating raw sometimes. I started replaced some of my food with raw food since I heard about Florian Sauer. He is a raw food and life coach and is truly inspirational. Read everything about him here. So far I have never attended a liver cleanse or a raw food weekend at any of his places; however, it is still on my bucket list whenever I am back in Germany. Today I would love to share a simple chocolate cake recipe that is done very easily. I love chocolate – I don’t know a woman who does not so when I ate this cake for the first time I could not believe that I did not have to bake it and have such strong flavors and chocolate heaven in my mouth. Plus that it is actually healthy and you can enjoy is without regret. I mean what else do you want! 😀

You will need: a 11 inch (28cm) baking form and a good mixer. I have the Vitamix which never let me down. 

Let’s start with he ingredients for the base/crust of your cake:

7 oz or 200g nuts (I used almonds. Make sure to soak the almonds in water for 8 hours! Read why on my blog!)

3.5 oz or 100g Dates or Figs

1/5th of a cup of water or 50ml (so very little)

Coconut oil to grease the form (or any type of oil you have at hand)

Put the soaked nuts in your mixer without the water, add the dates and 50 ml of water. Mix on high speed and use the tamper to push it all down while it mixes. It should be a nice soft dough but not sticky. So be really carful not to add more water. Now grease up your baking form. I used coconut oil for my recipe which added on the flavor even more. The first part is done.

Now we make the creme: 

2 Avocados

3 bananas (the riper the better)

3-4 tablespoons of real cacao powder

Agavesirup (depends how sweet you want it, I put 3 tablespoons)

3 tablespoons of water.

Now you put all your ingredients in the blender and mix up nicely for a couple of minutes until you have a soft creme. Take a spatula and put the creme evenly on your base/crust of the cake. Now put the cake in the freezer for 45 minutes up to 1 hours. Done and ready to serve! 

I made this recipe for friends once and literally started the cake (besides soaking the nuts for 8 hours) one hour before they arrived. While we ate our main course I kept the cake initially in the freezer and put it into the fridge after 45 minutes so it was ready for dessert. 

Enjoy and let me know if you try it. 

“I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening.” –  John Lennon

The General Assembly is about to start at the United Nations and everybody who knows what all this entails will tell you to stay away from the city as far as possible. Or at least try to avoid 1st and 2nd Avenue along the UN Headquarter. Then again, a good friend of mine is in the city with her daughter and they had this idea of meeting in Central Park for a walk. I am in of course! 🙂 To get to the city from my house is approximately one hour drive which it was exactly up to the point of entering the traffic chaos as soon as you see the sign “Manhattan”. Anyway, we were on a mission to get to Central Park to walk along the avenues together. It was just my son initially because we were at the Plaza Hotel where we were supposed to all meet ahead of time  

We took the stroller; however, my son is in this discovery mood these days and wants to walk and explore. I know my husband will lose his mind now reading this but I let him out of the stroller. He loved to look around and see what’s around the corner or in this and that store. We did not have to walk far to Central Park so it was okay. I smiled and let him wander the streets of Manhattan just being close by to protect him because I just cannot trust him at two years old to know when to stop and wait for me. 

I think at some point it was too much for him. The yellow cabs passing us so fast and people left and right of us rushing by made him uncomfortable. He is not used to this kind of madness and he put his tiny hand up to take my hand. I take it and clasp tightly making his hand completely disappear in mine. To hold his hand makes me really happy. He needs protection and I am his mother to provide safety and shelter – if he only knew how much I love him. As we walk further I am thinking how fast time flies and I wish I could remember forever how awesome this time with him was when he was this age. So hold on tight my love. 

I can see Central Park approaching and my son keeps pointing out dogs, birds (we saw birds close to Central Park but otherwise you really don’t in the city), cars and people. He is still holding on to my hand tightly and says “Croissant bitte” out of nowhere. So we stop in this little bakery to buy one. He is all over croissants these days. I try to make every day magical and special for him. Always including something that makes him happy. Playground, beach etc. but I must say that Manhattan so far is not really his thing. Still holding my hand which he usually never does for that long. My son is very enthusiastic and fearless unless we go to Stew Leonard’s  and he sees the “cow”. 

We still have some time so so my son and I sit down on a bench watching the ducks in the pond while he eats his croissant and I drink my coffee. I watch him eating as world buzzes by so quickly – honking, screaming fast fast fast. I love how our life is sort of free but still structured with this little routine that he loves. I realized as we sat there that it is all happening and is all coming true. We are a family and will be together again soon with new adventures and new stories to tell. I have always dreamt of a life like this. Full of craziness, spontaneity and excitement. My son looks at me and smiles while I wonder if there is a way to stop time just for one second to freeze this moment for a bit longer. I hope that he will remember these days and look back at them happily. He is done with his croissant, slips his hand back in mine and says “Go”. We walk back to the Plaza Hotel and my friend and her daughter arrived – smiling.