Chocolate brownies and strawberry ice cream

So, I had a bit of a raw food prep day yesterday, filling up the dehydrator, fridge and freezer with staples and treats for the week. The things I made were: chocolate brownies; strawberry ice cream; buckwheat flax crackers; jalapeno burgers; carrot, raisin and cashew bread; marinated veggies; kale chips and the ultimate salad dressing! Some of the recipes I made up, others I got from books and other websites which I will post up here. I'll do some of the recipes today, and try to finish them off tomorrow :)

Chocolate brownies

First off, Chocolate Brownies. These have a more gooey texture than traditional brownies and are really rich and delicious. I made this as I wanted something chocolatey and had walnuts leftover from making the jalapeno burgers (the burger recipe is already on this blog- look in the index on the right of the home page if you're interested, they are really good).


Ingredients:
I cup walnuts, soaked 4-6 hours
1/2 cup dates
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup raisins
squirt of agave (optional- to taste, depending on how sweet you like them. and how well your mixture is holding together)

All you do is put everything in a food processor and mix it all up until it starts sticking together. It will probably all go into one ball if you leave it long enough!
Then spread the mixture in a baking tray or glass dish lined with greasproof paper, score it into squares, put another piece of greaseproof paper over the top and put it in the freezer to set for about half an hour. Keep in the fridge.


Next up, real Strawberry Ice Cream, YUM! This is amazing. You would never know this was not a dairy ice cream. Well, actually it's way better than that as it has no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavourings, sugar, dairy or any of that bad stuff AND tastes even more delicious. I adapted it from Ani Phyo's basic ice kream recipe which you can get from her book Ani's Raw Food Essentials.

Strawberry ice cream!

This picture does not do it justice at all, I can't tell you how delicious it is. Real fresh strawberries taste so delicious in ice cream. 

Ingredients:
1 cup cashews, soaked 2-3 hours
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup water
1 punnet strawberries (mine was 227g)

Again, it's really easy, just blend it all up together until smooth. Use as little water as you can get away with, as too much will make it harder and form ice crystals. Add more if you need to, to get the mix to the texture of thick cream, but 1/4 cup seems about right to get a lovely creamy, ice cream texture. Taste a bit of the mix (amazing  right?!) and adjust the sweetness if need be. Then put it in a tub in a freezer to set overnight. I recommend doing it overnight so you're not tempted to scoff it before it's done! I made mine in the afternoon and had "tested" it quite a lot before it was frozen! You don't need to churn it like dairy ice cream, it sets beautifully without forming ice to break up. I stirred mine up once, when it was just frozen, but you don't need to. Then, in the morning it's all ready to eat! 

Well, I've run out of time for today but will put more recipes up tomorrow. :-)

Chia pudding

Ok... so this looks pretty weird, I know, but go with it, trust me, it's delicious! I took this pic on my phone after letting it sit about 10 minutes, but it gets thicker and more gloopy the longer you leave it. Kind of frogspawny. Er, not really selling it here am I?! I guess it's sort of like tapioca pudding, if you can remember that? Look, all you need to know is it's really gorgeous and sweet and filling and absolutely amazing for you :)

Put 1/2 cup of cashews (soaked for 2 or 3 hrs then rinsed) in a blender with 3 cups water & 6 dates. Whizz it up until smooth. Put this cashew milk in a container, e.g. an old ice cream tub or similar (N.B. It tastes pretty delicious at this stage- you might want to try a glass!)

 Then mix 1/2 cup chia seeds into the cashew milk & leave it to sit for at least 10 minutes. Ideally leave it for longer- it softens up and gets thicker the longer you leave it. Stir it to break up any lumpy bits. This will keep for a few days in the fridge. It's a lovely breakfast or dessert & really good for you. This amount should make 2 or 3 big bowls or more, depending on how hungry you are.

Chocolate orange truffles!

Oh my, I have been slack with this blog, haven't I?! It's been over a year since I last wrote, oops. In part, that's because I have been eating lots of crap and not making any exciting  and new raw stuff. And also because I have been lazy :/ But no more! I made loads of tasty raw delights at the weekend and so I'm going to update you with some new recipes.

The most delicious thing I invented on Saturday were: raw chocolate orange truffles.

They are so quick and easy to make and one of the most delicious raw sweets I've made.

Put 1 cup of cashews, soaked for for 2-3 hours, in the food processor with 1/2 cup of dates. Process these until they start to stick together. Then add 1/4 cup of raw cacao powder and the zest and juice of half an orange. (This is the amount I used because I had half an orange leftover in the fridge! You could use more or less, experiment to taste.) Process it all some more- it will start sticking together and going into a ball. Taste the mixture- you might want to add a squirt of agave if you like them sweeter. 
Then just take out spoonfuls of the mixture and roll it gently into balls in your hand. Put them in a container and into the freezer to set. They'll be ready in about half an hour, if you can wait that long!

Then keep them in the freezer! You don't need to put them back into the fridge to keep, eat them straight from the freezer, the texture is amazing! They're still soft, not hard at all, and don't seem 'frozen' but it gives them a lovely creamy texture. And they have a very rich taste. Enjoy! More recipes to follow :)

Raw caramel apple pie

I took this pic with my phone
before the caramel had set so it
looks a bit rubbish!

Ok, this isn't my own recipe, but it's so delicious I had to share it. I got it here, from the one green planet blog. The author of that does another really good blog too, Raw on $10 a day (or less!) which has loads of great recipes and tips for being raw on a budget.

The pie has a base of walnuts and raisins- except I used a combination of raisins and dates in my version (just because I didn't have enough raisins!)- ground up together, pressed into a dish, then left to chill in the freezer. The apple filling is sliced apples, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (this was what I used instead of pumpkin pie spice as I don't think you can get that in the UK), lemon juice and agave, mixed up and softened in the dehydrator for a couple of hours (you could skip this step if you don't have a dehydrator). Then the caramel sauce is raw almond butter, agave, water and olive oil blended together and poured over the apple mix which you spread over the base. It's so gorgeous I just had a fat slice for breakfast. I recommend this recipe LOADS, and really you only need a little slice as it's really rich... although having said that I just had a pretty massive slice and am already contemplating another... Well, why not, it's all healthy, raw and good for you... enjoy!

Mastercleansing again

Well, so much for my last post all about moderation... I've just returned from a week in France where I ate LOADS of cooked food, including plenty of dairy and wheat- pizza, quiche, pasta etc!- and loads of wine and cheese. Hmmm. In my defence, it is pretty impossible to eat out raw in rural France- it's hard enough to get vegetarian meals, let alone vegan, everything has cheese in it! So I decided to just go with it for the week and reset myself when I got back. I did make a green smoothie for my breakfast every day while I was out there... oh, except for two days when I had croissants, ahem.

Now I'm back and my tummy has definitely expanded so I'm back on the mastercleanse. I've explained loads about this before in this blog, I journalled the last time I went on it, so do look at my other posts if you're interested in more details. So far I'm starving but it's only the first day! However I wasn't in work today, and now have a weekend ahead, so hopefully will be in the swing of things by the time I go back to work (which I am DREADING by the way...)

Also, need to get back into exercising. Too broke for Bikram this month so am going to start doing another 30 day challenge with the EA Active personal trainer on the Wii, starting in the morning. Wish me luck!

I also have another colonic booked for tomorrow. Not sure how that will go after a week of stuffing myself (oh, and I also had crisps, pretzels, biscuits and crackers in France... did I mention that?). But hopefully it will all help in resetting my system. Heaven knows I need a reboot!

Onion bread, kale chips, aubergine bacon and chocolatey bites

Hello! I haven't written this blog for ages and decided it was time to get blogging again. I've been kind of on and off the raw food over the last few months and have come to a few realisations. The main one being I absolutely definitely feel better when I am eating raw. I have more energy, I'm more positive, productive, and generally feel happier and healthier. The change from when I'm eating rubbish food and drinking alcohol is immense. But I have learnt not to be too hard on myself and take it easy when things don't go to plan.

Aubergine bacon, recipe below

I've noticed a lot of raw foodists lately, who used to go on about being 100% raw now referring to themselves as "high raw". And I'm kind of doing the same. I think as long as the bulk of my diet is raw, say 80-90 %, I am not going to beat myself up about the remaining 10-20% that may be cooked foods. I am still remaining vegan, and the funny thing is, since I have "allowed" myself this, I have actually been pretty much totally raw! I think I have finally discovered moderation! Instead of grabbing a bag of crisps when there is nothing tasty and raw around and then saying "ah sod it, I may as well eat crap all day now", and then getting chocolate, a sandwich, a glass of wine, biscuits etc, and then getting on that whole stuff-your-face-with-junk merry go round again, if I now allow myself the odd "bad" thing and carry on with my mainly raw diet it all works out fine!

 The only thing I am keeping off though is the wine- when I drink booze I really do loose all sense of moderation and that is when stuffing my face with junk takes control! So I am remaining off the booze for the time being. And the more raw food I eat, without feeling like I'm being strict on myself, the less cooked food I want to eat. I have only eaten raw for the last week as though I told myself I could eat cooked stuff too I actually haven't wanted to. And with my extra energy I have been making loads of raw treats- this is another key thing, make sure you are prepared and have plenty of treats around so you're not left with only a salad or something as a choice.



Onion bread



 I just made a double batch of Matt Amsden's onion bread from Rawvolution, I had forgotten just how good this was. Rawvolution was the first raw food book I got and it's also my favourite raw food restaurant in LA. And this bread is so easy to make, it only has 5 ingredients, and I swear my batch came out just as tasty as the bread I had at his place in LA, if I say so myself! It takes ages to dehydrate though, so make sure you make it in advance (36 hrs in the dehydrator total) but the actual making of it is so simple: you just grind sunflower seeds and flaxseeds, slice onions, then mix it all up with olive oil and tamari (or nama shoyu if you can get it, or braggs or another equivalent). Then spread the mix over dehydrator sheets. Then wait, while the smell of it cooking tempts you to eat it out of the dehydrator before it's done! (or is that just me... I am greedy!)



Chocolatey bites

 I also invented some lovely chocolatey bites, that are so simple to make. I soaked 1 cup of cashew nuts for an hour then put them in the food processor with a cup of chopped dates, 2 tablespoons of raw cacao powder and 1 tablespoon of mesquite. Process it til starts to come together, then shape into mouthful sized cookie shapes (or whatever shape takes your fancy!) and put in the fridge. That's it! And they are delicious.

I also made another batch of bacon out of aubergine (photo at top of page), I've put the recipe on here before, but you can find it here. I love this stuff, it's really crispy and full of flavour. I didn't have any chipotle so I used smoked paprika and chilli which worked really well. The marinade for the aubergine is amazing- I've also used it on kale chips and in salad dressing!

Talking of kale chips, my love affair with them continues. These are the things that I could not do without and keep me away from crisps as they taste just as good! I've put enough recipes for kale chips on here, but experiment and invent your own. The farmers markets in Brixton and Swiss Cottage have some amazing kinds of organic kale, there's a purple one I love and some Tuscan kale with massive leaves that's great too. I've also been getting neon chard from them which is beautiful and great for smoothies. I did a green smoothie detox last month which was great, and I have continued with green smoothies for breakfast each day, a great start to the morning. A couple of bananas, then any other fruit- mango, papaya, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, peaches etc, they're all good! Then add some water, and maybe some maca, mesquite, purple corn or whatever superfood you're into and a couple of handfuls of greens and you're good to go.

Well, I'm glad to be back, I'll be back soon with more raw food stuff. I've been making some skin care products too so might let you know a bit about these too. Bye for now x

Raw chocolates!

My new favourite thing= homemade raw chocolates. They are so quick and easy to make and completely delicious.

All you do is put 100g of raw cacao butter in a glass bowl, on top of another glass bowl filled with hot water, and melt it down to liquid. Then whisk in 6 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (I use a 1/3 cup measure and a 10ml measure). Use a metal whisk, it gets it all mixed up better than a spoon. Then add 2 tablespoons of agave nectar and about half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Then you can add whatever you like as flavourings really. The batch I knocked up last night I put mesquite and lucuma in and they are really good! I've got a bit of a thing for mesquite at the moment, it's so gorgeous, I put it in my smoothie this morning too!

I've made them with a few drops of rosewater in before too- they were good- a bit turkish delighty tasting. But you could add orange, mint, chopped nuts, goji berries... whatever takes your fancy! I bought a silicone mould to make them in but you can easily make them in an ice cube tray.

I have also used the leftover melted chocolate to dip some raw ginger flapjack biscuits I made in, and they turned out great. I got the biscuit recipe here, they call them ginger oat cookies, they were lovely as they were, but massively improved by being chocolate coated!