Top RAW Food Potluck and Guest Speaker, Jennifer Diamond, in Scottsdale!

Join us and our scintillating guest speaker, Jennifer Diamond, Certified Plant-based Health and Nutrition Coach, at Natural Grocers in Scottsdale on Saturday, November 1, starting at 5:30pm for this month's Top Raw Potluck! Jennifer will be giving us inspiring tips on traveling and living a plant-based lifestyle. Come and experience the grandeur, the spectacle, and the wonder of the world's most succulent and tantalizing foods. You'll discover new and creative dishes, consisting of savory and satisfying flavors, from foodstuffs found only in Nature. Get Real. Have Fun. Enjoy Life. And Living Foods! Hosted by Mary. (NOTE: This is a potluck, so please bring a RAW Vegan dish [to feed 8-10 people] and bring your own plate, utensils, and drinking cup [and take them with you afterwards].)

Jennifer Diamond is a Certified Plant-based Health and Nutrition Coach who transformed her life through the healing power of whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) eating. After years of battling chronic illnesses including severe sinusitis and debilitating neuropathy, Jennifer embraced a lifestyle free from animal products, oil, salt, sugar, flour, and gluten. Her journey not only restored her vitality but ignited a passion for helping others discover the life-changing benefits of plant-based nutrition. Today, Jennifer inspires her global audience through her YouTube and other social media channels and her coaching practice, where she shares recipes and nutrition guidance, for practical, flavorful, and nourishing ways to embrace and enjoy a healthier life.

Jennifer's Topic is Secrets to Healthy Travel: Packing Plants

• Smart Travel Prep: How to plan ahead, pack portable staples, and make sure you always have healthy, WFPB options on hand — even at airports and hotels.
• Dining Out with Ease: How to navigate restaurants and menus, ask for what you need, and enjoy social meals without compromise or stress.
• Staying Nourished on the Go: My favorite go-to foods, tools, and mindset tips that help me stay consistent, satisfied, and inspired while exploring new places.

This is a potluck, so please bring a Vegan RAW food dish (veggies/nuts, herbs/spices, salt, olive oil are generally acceptable ingredients for dishes), or a salad (fruits, veggies, nuts, spices), or a fruit/veggie platter for eight (or more) people, fully prepared and READY TO EAT. Don't know what to bring? There are literally 4.63 gazillion recipes on the Internet. Type in: "Raw Food Recipes" in a search engine and see what happens!

To see what others have brought at past Meetups to this event visit: https://www.meetup.com/VEGphx/photos/29509277/

This event starts at 5:30pm with food at 5:45pm. Please be on time so your dish can be featured in the line on attendees first pass through it. There is a guest speaker each month after the potluck. Stay tuned for forthcoming details.

HOUSE RULES at Natural Grocers: No items with gluten whatsoever are allowed, and there's no soliciting nor selling of anything at the store (which are the exclusive realm of the venue hosting the event). And to cut down on costs/waste, please bring your own plate, utensils, and drinking cup (and take them with you afterwards). Also, if you could list the ingredients of your dish, that would be helpful to people with allergy issues. Finally, we must have cleaned and vacated the potluck room (just inside the front door to the left) by 8:00pm. Please cooperate in that regard.

Please be advised that this is a RAW-Vegan potluck. For those persons unfamiliar with "raw," that generally means no foodstuffs that have been heavily processed/heated/cooked. In other words, "raw" typically entails foodstuffs as Nature intended (e.g., fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, sprouts) which have all their nutrients intact, and not cooked out of existence, nor processed into oblivion. Most manufactured/canned/bottled/packaged foods, such as popcorn, chips, Veganaise, etc. are typically not "raw"; though, cold-pressed olive oil, raw coconut aminos, raw agave, spices, and salt are generally-acceptable exceptions to the non-packaging precept.

For those persons not familiar with the term "vegan," that generally means free from animal products and their derivatives. This includes all dairy products, honey, and whey. If, on the off chance that someone new attends this event, and is unfamiliar with the RAW-Vegan parameter of the event, please be in keeping with the longstanding tradition of the leadership and members of the Vegetarian Society of Phoenix (which includes the VEGphoenix! Meetup group) to be accepting/understanding (in the moment) of all people, their current level of awareness, and their own individual paths in life. This means that if there is a particular potluck item that is not entirely "raw" and not entirely "vegan," do your part (in a calm and loving way) to help make sure that this item is clearly labeled as such, and let the participants at the event decide for themselves whether or not to indulge in it.