Cafe Bliss is Here!

Cafe Bliss Grand Opening!

Proud owner, Cosmo serving up smiles with everything. Proud owner, Heather serving up smiles with everything too!
Heather and Shayou busy making juice.
Follow your bliss, and do not be afraid. Doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. ~ Joseph Campbell
Robyn, juice making beauty!

Happy Bliss salad customers.
The chalk board menu (and my artistic contribution to Bliss.)

Sister hugs.

Being juicy and raw in Victoria, B.C. just got a whole lot easier with the opening of Cafe Bliss!

The grand opening was yesterday, and it was rockin' busy all day, with people flowing in to try Bliss salads, wheatgrass shots, freshly pressed juices, and amazing smoothies. Oh, and don't forget the chocolate truffles!

We went for lunch and had the "Baja" cracker plate (yam crackers with guacamole, fresh cut salsa, and cashew sour cream) with a Sombrio Salad (tenderized kale, B.C. kelp, arugula, cucumber, daikon radish, grated carrot, red onion, and pickled ginger tossed in orange/miso dressing and topped with marinated shitake mushrooms and cashews.) It was so good that David and I went back a second time yesterday, and had a five o'clock "Johnny" (orange, banana, lime, and wheatgrass) and a "Cacao Jedi" (almond mylk, banana, cacao, hemp hearts, maca, and dates)

Should we go again today? I think so!

It is so fantastically exciting to me to see just how switched on everyone is getting to the joy of fresh, raw foods and juices!

Thank you Heather and Cosmo and the whole Cafe Bliss team!!! We love you!! Your food is amazing!!

Disclaimer at the bottom of the Cafe Bliss' menu:
We cannot claim responsibility for the vibrant health you achieve by eating the organic, local, living foods served at Café Bliss. We are not responsible for anyone running naked, laughing with non-causal joy, barefoot in the rain.

Raw Ice Cream Support!!

Heather and her amazing, supportive of raw foods cashew vanilla ice cream with fresh berries.

Hello!

I have been enjoying my family so much this past month. It is amazing to me to remember how difficult it was to go raw, two and half years ago, when I am now surrounded by family members who are also amazing raw food chefs!

My dad has become an amazing creator of delicious crackers, the whole family makes wonderful green smoothies, David makes my favorite Brazil nut pate, my dad's girlfriend Constanze just filled the fridge with sprouted almond hummus and cacao fudge that is to die for, and my sister Heather is about to open Victoria's first all raw cafe so you can imagine the treats she is trying out on us! Even my nine year old sister Finn tells me that her future husband is going to be "very nice, and he will eat raw food."

It can be very difficult to switch to raw foods. Two years ago Constanze remembers "you were living way out in the forest (well, I was living in a house in the forest) and you would come into town and tell that you were eating only raw food, and we thought Oh sure Katrina, whatever!!!" I can remember it was very difficult for me to eat all live foods for that first year...I was not able to, in fact. I realized how important it was to surround myself with support for the shift, and so after a year of trying to go raw in a cooked world, alone, I set off for The Tree Of Life. Once I was there it was a whole different world, it was so easy to eat raw food when all I was exposed to was raw food, and all the people I spent time with understood my choices and the conversation was not dominated by the need to explain why I was eating raw food! How refreshing!!

Even after two and half years, I still suffer amnesia in the face of some situations as to why it is that I am choosing to eat live foods. Take the recent move David and I have made for example...I have had to re-commit to myself all over again that I choose the best foods possible, especially while staying with my beautiful mother who really does make amazing food, both raw and cooked! I found that re-reading bits from the books and websites that inspired me to go raw in the first place was all it took for me to feel a sense of grace around eating raw foods rather than a struggle against cooked foods. I realized again that I CHOOSE to eat raw foods not because I "can't" eat bread but because raw foods create magic for me.

If you are new to raw foods, or even if you are not, do not underestimate the power of support. In addition to friends, potlucks, and family, I use on-line support as much as possible, and now there is even more with sites like Give It To Me Raw, and all the amazing blogs and personal websites of people who are walking the same path. Go out there and get some support for yourself! We support you! You are not alone!

And if it is inspiration you need, here are some pictures of Heather's amazing cashew vanilla ice cream with strawberries and raspberries fresh from the garden:

Constanze says "yum yum!"
Ayrie says "Delicious!"
Finnerty says "mmmmm!"
Heather says "I'm so glad you like it!"David says "Wow!"
Katrina says "Thanks for the support, Heather!"

Oh, and because I promised, here is the Post Juice Feast Smoothie-Luck that we had on Wednesday! Enjoy!


Find more videos like this on The Juice Feasting Green Room

63 Pounds of.....

....STRAWBERRIES!!!!!

David and I went strawberry picking with ma Rineke yesterday morning and picked, yes, 63 pounds! What a treat! I ate so many berries while picking that they stopped tasting good to me for the rest of the day, (that is a lot of berries!) but luckily this morning I was ready and eager to add some of the red jewels to my morning green smoothie.

I also got a lovely link from Jinjee's Daily Raw Inspiration for finding a U-Pick near you, click here. (BTW if you haven't signed up for this amazing daily resource, do it! I love reading what Jinjee has to pass along every day, and often discover new and wonderful things from her lovely words and links.) Check it out! Nothing tastes better than food right from the source, still warm from the sun.

Katrina in berry heaven!
Ma Rineke in her berry picking hat.
David and Katrina with the load of berries from Stowel Lake Farm.
David and strawberries.
Ma Rineke and Katrina prepare the berries for freezing. Come December these berries are going to be very special, a taste of sunshine!

We are doing wonderfully, we hope you are too! More to come on life post-Juice Feast soon! Today we have come to stay with Ayrie, Constanze, and Finny-Foo and they are planning on doing a post-Feast video, and I'll be sure to post it here once it is up and live.

Love and blessings,

Katrina