Recipe by Chaya-Ryvka Diehl

www.theLivingVision.com

Chaya@theLivingVision.com

The following is a simple and simply delicious recipe - perfect for this season while we still have an abundance of strawberries available. Use it on your favorite yogurt, ice cream, fruit salad....the possibilities go on, on and on. I first created this recipe when playing with raw ice creams and ice cream sunday’s. When I tasted this strawberry sauce the carefree fun feelings of childhood were instantly re-awakened throughout every cell of my being! It’s so easy and so good. I hope you try it out for yourselves and love the outcome as much as I have!

It’s that time of year again.  Sure, you tried to give up the enriched wheat flour, the partially hydrogenated oils, and the inverted sugars… but we all know what happens when those adorable girls show up at your door with boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  Are you sure you can resist the allure of thin mint bliss?

Well, thanks to Rawdorable chef Shannon Marie, you won’t have to.  Check out mission “Chocotastrophy,” her personal challenge to create raw vegan versions of the 5 top selling Girl Scout cookies: Thin Mints, Samoas (Carmel Delights), Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties), Do-si-dos (Peanut Butter Sandwiches), and Trefoils (Shortbread Cookies).

Seven years ago today I was 19 years old and running away from a flirtatious and awkward 18 year old boy who wouldn't give up on me.  For months prior I kept giving hints that I wanted to be friends and nothing else.  I felt weird that he wasn't getting it, and I wasn't certain enough to outright tell him.  

We met online.  I was desperate for a roommate at the time and he thought that I was interesting.  I met him at my favorite smoothie/tea shop and he gave me my favorite movie on DVD (which he bought in preparation for our first meeting) before I even sat down.  He quickly became one of my best friends and we started working together dressing up as Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam for a tax company (which was far beyond his comfort zone, but allowed him to be close to me).  He obviously wasn't having a good time dressing up and waving at cars (something that I felt inspired about at the time).  We didn't have much in common.  I was a newfound feminist student activist; he was a programmer and gamer.  I was weary about dating him because I didn't see us having similar goals or even similar languages. I was the type of person that wore a prom dress made of duct tape.  He was the type of person who left high school out of disinterest.  

He made advances that pushed at the boundaries of friendship and I nervously rejected them, unsure of how such a relationship would work.  While sitting on the couch, he would reach for my hand or lean in for a kiss.  I didn't know how to react and so I didn't say anything and carefully avoided him in romantic settings.  I thought maybe something was wrong with him because I didn't understand why someone would be so intensely interested in me.