It is DAY 29 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and I am humbled and honoured to be featuring the visionary leader of high-end vegan cuisine, the brilliant Eric Tucker, Executive Chef from the highly acclaimed Millennium Restaurant at the Savoy Hotel in San Francisco. Since this "Vegan Mecca" opened in 1994, it has been widely considered to be the best vegan restaurant in the world, gracefully setting the benchmark for sophisticated vegan cooking. Using exotic ingredients, subtly nuanced flavours, and absolutely exquisite presentation, Tucker and his team have elevated vegan cuisine to the level of fine dining. THE MILLENNIUM COOKBOOK shared many of their inspired gourmet vegan dishes with the home cook. In their second... Keep Reading

It is DAY 27 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and I am delighted to celebrate the incredible Jennifer Cornbleet, celebrated Raw Food Chef, Recipe Developer, Instructor, long-time faculty member, and “teacher to the teachers” at the famous Living Light Culinary Institute in California. She is also author of the best-selling book, RAW FOOD MADE EASY FOR 1 or 2 PEOPLE REVISED. If you are a raw food beginner and want to learn everything there is to know about “going live,” Jenny is THE woman! I LOVE the fact that ANIMAL LIBERATION by my Aussie compatriot, Peter Singer, was one of the catalysts to Jenny becoming interested in vegetarianism. Then after being introduced to raw foods by the fabulous yoga instructor and... Keep Reading

It is DAY 26 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and as I fly into NY, it is only fitting that I celebrate the GODDESS of the Manhatten vegan restaurant scene, the spectacular Pamela Blackwell, founder of the famous Blossom Restaurant. It is pretty hard to walk around the Chelsea area without "Blossoming!" Pamela and her trusty team have got the vegan market covered, and they fly the "plant-based" flag in spectacular fashion to happy, healthy Manhattenites! I was lucky enough to meet the gorgeous Pamela, and her rock star manager, R.J Thompson, when I strolled into the new Blossom Du Jour location in midtown a few months ago. Scott is living there until Christmas, and not being comfortable with his vegan alkaline meals I... Keep Reading

It is DAY 21 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and I HAD to celebrate our Breville Sous Chef® Food Processor Giveaway with the incomporable Penni Shelton, founder of the incredible raw foods community Raw Food Rehab. Those of you who followed "Raw Food Recipes with Excalibur" in August will remember my feature on Penni and her delicious Raw Chili Rellenos with Mole Sauce & Mango Chipotle Salsa. Penni was SO incredibly supportive of that event, posting about it every day in Raw Food Rehab. I wanted to make sure you ALL KNEW ABOUT HER and this amazing resource in the healthy living community.  I love that Matthew Kenney participated in this month's event with his Raw Vegan Veggie Medley Couscous, as I met him for the first... Keep Reading

It is DAY 18 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and we celebrate our Breville Sous Chef® Food Processor Giveaway with one of the most creative food bloggers in the world, the phenomenal Michael Natkin, the genius behind the widely popular and award-winning vegetarian food blog, Herbivoracious. For several years, Michael was the author of the bi-weekly column “Serious Meatless” on Serious Eats, where he gained a reputation for cutting-edge vegetarian cooking. His blog and his recipes have been mentioned nearly a dozen times in the New York Times Diner’s Journal; been listed for four consecutive years on Saveur’s “Sites We Love”; and his photos are regularly featured on TasteSpotting, FoodGawker, and other sites. I confess,... Keep Reading

It is DAY 17 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and we celebrate our Breville Sous Chef® Food Processor Giveaway with the incomparable Ricki Heller, the GENIUS behind the hilarious and highly informative anti-candida vegan blog, Diet, Dessert, and Dogs. Those of you who have been following me for a while will remember Ricki from the Gluten Free Baking with KitchenAid event earlier this year, where her Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting was a SENSATION, and the most popular recipe of the month with over 10,000 hits. If you are not acquainted with Ricki's PHENOMENAL blog and cookbooks, then you are missing out on one of the great treasures in life! I have made TONS of her inspired recipes and they have all been... Keep Reading

It is DAY 13 of "Gluten Free Recipes with Breville" and the gorgeous Heather Nauta from Healthy Eating Starts Here is joining our Breville Sous Chef Giveaway party today. I connected with Heather through JL Goes Vegan, and I have absolutely fallen in love with her. For those of you who don't know Heather, she is AMAZING and has a really cool story.  A former commercial pilot and flight instructor in Canada, Heather developed a keen awareness for environmental issues and a passionate desire to solve them back in 2004. She moved to the West Coast, where, with her partner, Phil, she started experimenting with veganism, raw foods, Eastern philosophies, holistic principles, and organic gardening. After both experiencing dramatic weight... Keep Reading

It is DAY 8 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" celebrating our Sous Chef® Food Processor Giveaway, and we start Week Two off with a bang with the ROCKSTAR of the raw foods world, the incomparable Matthew Kenney. I was fortunate enough to meet Matthew a few years ago at a “RAWkstar” Degustation Dinner at Matthew Kenney OKC (formally 105 Degrees). You can read my story about that event here. I will unleash the squealing teenager in me again and openly admit that I felt a few butterflies bounce around in my overdulged stomach when I met Matthew. He is just HOT! He is THE movie star poster boy for eating raw foods!  If seeing him in person doesn’t make you grab for a naked celery stick…..nothing will! "Yes, my name is Tess, and I... Keep Reading

We are in the second week of our Vitamix 750 Giveaway, and we continue our celebration of the FABULOUS new Vitamix website and recipe center. This week is all about dips and spreads, and I am going to share some of my favourite super easy recipes this week. Those of you who tried my mango salsa green smoothie a few months ago will remember my fondness for fruit salsas. I love how versatile they are -- you can pair them with sweet and savoury flavours. They make a fantastic quick easy dip with corn chips or veggie sticks, or as a side with grilled vegetables or tofu! I even enjoy this mango salsa on vegan ice cream. YUMMO!  Making salsa in your Vitamix is SO quick and easy! Who needs knives and cutting boards? You can literally throw... Keep Reading

It is DAY 30 of "Raw Food Recipes with Excalibur" and I have deliberately saved this lovely lady to last! Not only because we are nearing the end of August and moving into the California Food Literacy Month of September that she successfully lobbied for; but also because she is one of my very favourite food bloggers in the world! I speak of my friend, the FABULOUS Amber Stott, founder of California Food Literacy Center, and blogger extraodinaire at Awake at the Whisk. If you don't know Amber, well, you are just missing out on one of the most incredible women on the planet. Literally. I first met Amber at IFBC in 2011. I fell in love with her there, stayed in touch, and then hung out a whole lot more at BlogHer Food 2012 in Seattle... Keep Reading