Douglas McNish December 2 at 10:30pm

Hello to everyone in this group. My name is Doug and I am a professional vegan chef. I have been cooking for 12 years now in some of the cities best restaurants.

I turned vegan almost 4 years ago and chose to take vegan cuisine on as my passion and love. I have a major life changing story and would love to share it with each and every one of you when I see those smiling faces come through the Raw Aura doors.

While I am currently not completely raw I am vegan and live a very healthy lifestyle.

I exercise every chance I get and love living life. I am going to dedicate myself and my career to creating the most amazing raw and organic cuisine I can.

I was previously head chef at Live Organic Food Bar and learned to appreciate and understand this type of food and lifestyle. I love flavors, textures and the magic of super foods.

I am in the early stages of writing up a new menu right now so look out for that. There will be parties, tasting menus, themed nights and much much more. If anyone ever has a question regarding food or reservations please do not hesitate to contact me

I look forward to seeing and meeting everyone. Lets make some magic happen……

Doug

Since switching to a 90% raw food way of life, and sharing my bars with people, I have been asked by many to share my recipe with them, so here it is . . .

To make enough to fill a 9″ x 14″ (approx) baking dish:

4 Cups Large Flake Oats (I don’t bother with organic, steel-milled, etc.)

3 Cups Khudry dates (I don’t know why this kind, but they are very common)

1 Cup dried, plain Cranberries

1 Cup Shredded, Un-Sweetened Coconut

1/2 Cup Raw, Organic Cacao Buds

1/4 Cup Raw Cacao Powder

1 – 1 &1/2 Cup Almonds in skin

1 Cup Walnut pieces

1/2 Cup Goji Berries

1/2 – 3/4 Cup COLD water

I like to use a huge mixing bowl for this, as I like to mix it all with my hands to feel the textures and to mix it really thoroughly.

I use a food processor, on pulse, to chop the almonds, goji berries, and cacao buds, not too finely as I like the bars to be kinda crunchy. Tip this into the mixing bowl, add the oats, cacao powder, walnuts, and coconut. Toss it around to get it nicely mixed.

Now comes the messiest bit – pulse the dates in the food processor until they form a big ball of date-stuff. Tip that into the bowl, add the water, making sure to pour it all over, not just in one spot.

Mix the whole lot, sort of kneading it, and sort of squishing it between your fingers, until it is all mixed well.

Scoop it up into a big lump and spread it into the baking pan, and place in the fridge, covered.

A few notes:

1. The amounts of all ingredients are approximations.
2. The water is just to help it all bind together, so you can slice it for easier eating – you may need more or less, just experiment.
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3. Using the amounts of ingredients above will equal about 5,000 calories, so resist the temptation to eat half of it in one sitting.
4. This will keep in the fridge for a week – it hasn’t lasted any longer in my house, so I don’t know if it lasts longer than that.
5. If you want to make this as a granola cereal, you can – just leave out the water, so it stays a sort of a loose mix, with lumps only caused by the dates adhering to other ingredients.
6. Get your kids to try it, just don’t tell them what’s in it. Since I introduced my 15-yr old, who hates anything that isn’t junk food, to this, he has not eaten any commercial granola bars or awful cereal, because he loves this. Once I told him how healthy it is, he loves it even more.
7. If you want more of a chocolate flavour, add more raw cacao buds or cacao powder; more coconut flavour, just add more shredded coconut. Just don’t add too many dates, or it becomes too hard to keep in shape.

So there you go, give it a try. Let me know how it turns out for you.

Calling all Raw Foodies, Vegetarians, and Vegans in Milton . . . . Come out, come out, wherever you are.

I’m just curious to learn as much as I can about these lifestyle options, as a way of naturally increasing my energy, boosting my whole family’s health, and generally feeling better and cleaner.

Are there local groups for people with these interests?

I have found some excellent resources online for learning, and will be compiling a page of links in the near future, which I’ll ask all of you to submit links to your favourite web sites, as well as info on any local resources. I’m finding it particularly challenging to find some food products without going down to The Organic Garage in Oakville.

If you have tried the newly-opened raw foods restaurant in Port Credit, http://raw-aura.com, I’d love to get your opinion on it. The web site for it makes the foold look particularly good.

So, talk to me please. Tell me where you buy your produce, any other supplies, etc.

Here’s something I was surprised to find, quite accidentally, I might add – the chain Booster Juice sells trays of wheatgrass in their stores, at a very reasonable price – $16 for enough to make about 16 x 1oz juice if drinking it straight. There’s one down at Trafalgar & Dundas, and the one I went to is in the mall-type-thing at Mississauga Road & Derry, right by my Mississauga office.