Birthday, bananas,burgers and beets

   Yesterday was James' birthday. I started the day early, early making banana pancakes with fresh berries and agave nectar and smoky tempeh strips:

    After a super delicious breakfast and dropping E off at school we ran some errands (including taking his birthday shoes back to the Vans store), then went to a burger place in Denver called Park Burger (http://parkburger.com/). Friggin' awesome. I had the turkey burger with bacon and guacamole... One of the best burgers I've ever had. James had the buffalo burger with brie and slices jalapenos which he said was also pretty killer. We split a side of sweet potato fries too, which were perfectly crispy and salty. After lunch we headed downtown to see a daytime showing of Sucker Punch which was a pretty good flick, then headed home to pick up E from school and start on the birthday cake.

    So this cake we made (which came out really good), I saw on an episode of Christina Cooks on PBS. This woman has amazing recipes all of which are wholesome and great for you, but an even more amazing story. She was diagnosed with terminal leukemia at the age of 26, she met with a whole foods advocate, radically changed her diet and lifestyle and overcame her diagnosis. This particular recipe was a chocolate red velvet cake, instead of using food coloring like most recipes would call for to get that rich red color, she used beets.
(you can find her recipe and read her story here:
http://www.christinacooks.com/_webapp_3121462/Chocolate_Red_Velvet_Cake)

  

 It came out really good. There is a definite interesting flavor from the beets, but it all blended together super nice. I added vanilla gelato in between the two layers and drizzled the chocolate icing (which is included in her recipe) all over the top. It was definitely a cake you don't have to feel bad about enjoying :)


    Also last night I was able to watch the premier of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution which I missed Tuesday night because I was in class. Again I want to say how amazing this man is for what he is trying to do for the youth and future of America. I can not believe that he would be denied access to public schools in California. It is an absolute shame that his help wouldn't be accepted, and probably for no other reason than that the school board is ashamed of what they are feeding their kids, they should be even more ashamed of not allowing change to happen. The information he presented about beef and "pink sludge" I believe he called it was sickening. I can not wait to see how much progress he is able to make this year.


Birthday, bananas, burgers and beets :)
Valley