Our family has roared it’s way through August. With three Leos on board, our Golden Bay whanau have delighted us by celebrating a first, a fourth and a 38th birthday this last week. That’s alot of cake! And alot of food prep! And I kinda didn’t want to push anyone, and I kinda did…but the big party ended up to be a raw event. Watching the children surge forward and grab hand-fulls of raw plant matter made my heart swell…and this was before they saw the dessert selection!

A table full of dishes dedicated to honouring the seasonal garden was licked clean. Seaweed crackers, guacamole, no-fried beans, cashew cheese, sunflower hummus, marinara sauce, toona pate, kale and sweet potato crisps, crudites, olives, flowers and salad all gobbled up. Happy, smiley faces with good clean energy to party hard created clay cacao creatures, faery familys and mushroom villages. Live music for musical statues, singing and dancing. Hide’n’seek and find the adults kept us in doors while the rain fell hard outside dampening no-ones spirits. While the dishes were cleared and sweets brought out, the parents beat the children to the table in a bumping, shoving, drooling kinda way. Yummy chocolate brownie 4th birthday cake, and a spiced carrot 1st birthday cake with cashew cheese icing, raw chocolates, fruit salad, carob dip and apple slices, nut torte, ginger thins, orange and cardamon bliss balls, lemon chia truffles, tropical icecream squares, brownie bites, chocolate mousse, macaroons, fruit leathers and chia me up pudding. You can guess how much was left over!

I’d like to say I don’t usually go to so much bother…but I would be bending the truth! To see my children eat such an array of sunshine foods to celebrate their childhood, and to share the feast with beauti-full friends makes me feel full inside. Knowing that there was no packaging, nothing refined and processed and only foods to honour our mama earth and our childrens future lifts me high…and ticks the boxes of my six year olds high expectations.

No sugar highs, no burn out and with only positively, shiny people, our scheduled three hour lunch party carried on well past tea time. Well nourished and happily worn out, the girls didn’t even ask for tea.

Chucklin’ Chocolate Super Cups

2 ripe avocados

1 banana

1/3 cup cacao powder

1/3 cup lucuma

1 tbsp mesquite

1 tbsp maca

1 tsp purple corn extract

seasonal fruit

1/ Pop all ingredients into a food processor and mix until yummy, creamy and chocolately.

2/ Spoon into wee cups or shot glasses, decorate with fruit and refrigerate until you can stand it no longer.

3/ Find a reason to celebrate, thank your day and indulge in cacao heaven.

Sarah Lea

ps/ Although working on warping time, I still only have as much time in a day as any busy homeschooling mama. Preparing ecstatic raw foods is faster than watching an oven create the cooked version…and as the foods still in it’s natural state, it’s easy to change tastes if it doesn’t tantalise your taste buds. The girls get immense pleaasure in helping create such simple foods, and it gives them something to keep inquisitive minds on while I quickly capture time and make the rest. Any of these foods are easy to travel with and when celebrating at friends parties, we take a selection of these delectable treasures to share, knowing that we too can eat in celebration.

pps/ Sarah’s Love Life Raw Chocolate workshop shares a birthday cake recipe alongside other goodies to party with, and there are still spaces available. This Saturday 26th August, The Brigand Cafe, Takaka. 9:30-11:30am.

Check out Sarah’s Facebook page Love Life Raw

LoveLifeRaw Chocolate Workshop. Sunday 26th August. 10am-12 midday. Takaka.  For info and bookings please contact Sarah on 525 9102.

 Online Course: Eat More Energy – A 30 day nutrition plan to re-energise your body, mind and soul