Back in gloomy London and so invented a warming spicy tomato soup!

So, I wasn't too bad when I was in France, and I started off really well. I brought some jalapeno burgers and flax crackers with me which I had with some big salads. And I had my green smoothie for breakfast every day. I did go out for lunch a couple of times though and had a goat's cheese salad and a greek salad so wasn't entirely raw, but was pretty healthy considering it's not easy to eat out vegetarian in rural France, and definitely not vegan! I did drink a ridiculous amount of wine while I was there though... got to try to get back on the wagon again now.

I had a lovely few days in France. It was boiling hot and sunny every day, 40 degrees on the last day, which was actually getting a bit too hot, even for me- a massive sun worshipper- and I had to move into the shade! Then a couple of hours later I stepped off the plane in Stansted into the most gloomy depressing weather, relentless rain, black skies and really cold. I hate this climate! I would be sooooo much happier if I could wake up every day with the sun shining.

At the moment everything I want to eat is spicy, I think it's the general dampness of the climate which I'm finding really depressing. Makes me want to warm things up a bit, and chili is the best way I have at the moment! Ginger and garlic are great for warming you up too. I'm going to make some more jalapeno burgers tonight, I think I might be addicted to them! I'm definitely addicted to chili. I'm rehearsing a play at the moment so even though I'm on leave from work for another week I'm still bringing packed lunches and snacks with me whenever I leave the house, so the burgers will be great for that.

Spicy tomato soup

I've just made a spicy tomato soup that I invented the recipe for myself and it turned out really good. It's also really easy- just bung everything in the blender! Here's the recipe:

3 large fresh tomatoes
1 small onion
1 stick celery
1 clove garlic
1 red chili
1/2 avocado
1/8 to 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes (I used 1/4 cup but next time I'd only use half as much I think)
1/2 cup soaking water from the sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (optional)
Dash of salt and black pepper

Delicious mixed salad with marinated mushrooms, olives & more!

I've also made some more marinated mushrooms from Ani Phyo's book: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes, they are so good, I eat them all the time, and had them with a big salad for my lunch yesterday. I couldn't get any organic portabella ones though, so just did it with normal organic mushrooms. And they turned out fine. In the salad I put mixed salad leaves, cucumber, tomatoes, mixed sprouts (mung beans, lentils, chick peas and aduki beans), kalamata olives, green chili and the mushrooms. Just made a quick dressing of extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar which I took separately in a little bottle, as was running late so didn't have time to make anything more exciting. But it was gorgeous anyway. Had the last of my flax crackers with it too... must get round to making some more actually.

The next savoury thing I'm going to make is broccoli and brazil nut mash (yum, it's the best!) with more marinated mushrooms and mushroom gravy, again from Ani Phyo's recipe. So I'll take a pic of that and put it up soon. Need to make something sweet next, another dessert, but not sure what I fancy,  so any suggestions, let me know!

Kale salad

Ok, so this is probably another case of one of my dishes looking revolting but tasting great! I made it from Russell James' recipe for Wilted Kale Salad with a Creamy Chipotle Dressing. I know it doesn't look like much but it is a great, unusual salad. It's got a lovely slightly smoky, spicy taste from the chipotle chili, and a richness from the kale. Word of warning- if you haven't got a Vitamix (which I  haven't YET, it's out of my budget at the moment... but still patiently waiting, one is coming soon right Universe?!) don't bother trying to make the dressing in a normal blender, it's not going to work... believe me, I tried it last time and had no joy. But it works fine in a normal food processor, so just do that if you don't have what they call a 'high speed blender' (i.e. a Vitamix, which are just brilliant... can you tell I really want one...? ;))

Was going to invent a raw soup tonight out of the veggies left over in my fridge at the moment but never got round to it due to eating too many chocolate cookies (see yesterday's post) and flax crackers. I'm going to stay with my dad in France for a few days from tomorrow so made some more crackers and jalapeno burgers to take with me, as you have no idea how hard it is going to be for me to eat raw when I'm there! My dad thinks being veggie is weird enough, let alone vegan, and though he tries to understand, and will eat raw things when I make them for him, I know he thinks people that are raw are a load of crackpots! Which I do understand, it can all seem a bit weird until you find out more about the health benefits. It is a bit frustrating though as he is diabetic, but he won't look properly at any links I send him about how you can cure type 2 diabetes with raw food. He thinks that raw food people are "a load of old hippies from the sixties"!

He is actually a lot better than he used to be though and he does eat more vegetables and salads, and has learnt to make a lentil and vegetable casserole, so he is trying to be healthier. He is also recovering from bladder cancer, my mum died from breast cancer, my uncle has prostate cancer and I also have 2 cousins with breast cancer. So our family history is one of the main reasons why I am taking my health into my own hands and being proactive in trying to attain optimum health. And I have never felt happier or healthier since I started my raw journey.

The burgers I made (currently in the dehydrator) are the best I've ever made- I think I might even persuade my dad to eat them and like them. I've made them bigger and they're a more professional looking round shape, rather than my usual lumpy mess, and they taste great, really spicy. And my flax crackers came out great too. So I may not be able to update for a few days while I'm away but I'll fill you in on my trip when I'm back and if I managed to stay raw. My intention is to do so!

Double chocolate cookies (my own recipe!)

This afternoon I fancied something sweet and chocolatey so thought I'd have a go at making something- I didn't know it was going to be cookies when I started, but the texture of the mixture when I'd finished adding everything seemed to lend itself to making cookies, so that's what they became! I have to say, they are very good, if I say so myself. I don't know the exact recipe as I was kind of adding bits and bobs without measuring them, but if anyone is interested, let me know and I could hazard my best guess. I ground some almonds and pecans in the grinder, then put them in the food processor with raw cacao nibs, cacao powder, medjool dates, coconut oil, goji berries,natural vanilla extract, agave nectar and a little bit of cinnamon and cayenne. I think that was everything. To be honest, you couldn't taste the spices in it at all, so next time I would add more or just not bother with them! I formed the mixture into little balls, flattened them into cookie shapes, then put them in the freezer to set for a few minutes. Now they're in the fridge. Well, most of them are, I've already eaten 5! I was going to make Russell James' Wilted Kale Salad with creamy chipotle dressing for my dinner but I'm not hungry after all those cookies, so the salad will have to wait til tomorrow. It is a great salad though, I love it, so I'll make it for my lunch and put a pic up tomorrow.

For breakfast I got juicing again, and made a really lovely one with oranges, carrot, celery and ginger. It was packed with flavour and really fresh tasting, a great start to the day. Then for lunch I had a gorgeous salad with that liquid gold elixir salad dressing that Sherry told me about from The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss
In the salad I put mixed organic leaves, plum tomato, cucumber, corn, celery, orange pepper, enoki mushrooms (my new favourite thing!), with some chopped hot chili for added bite and all tossed in that dressing. Yum!!! This pic is from before I added the dressing so you can't really see all the ingredients, but I scoffed it all so fast after I put it on the plate there was no time to take a picture!

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about that kale salad, and maybe a raw soup too.

Oh wow Chili!!!

Tomato chili with walnut taco meat and sour kream

Well, I ended up staying in tonight after checking my bank balance and discovering I'd spent way more than I meant to this month! So, I got busy in the kitchen and finally made Ani Phyo's chili... oh WOW it was incredible! Utterly delicious, I am definitely going to make this again and again. I made half the recipe, which is supposed to serve 2, and I ended up eating it all, because it was so unbelievably tasty I couldn't stop! Ok, so it doesn't look quite as pretty as the picture on Ani's page but it was truly gorgeous to eat.

There's a weekly farmer's market outside work every Wednesday, with an amazing organic veg stall. They sell a great range of local produce, I always get kale, chard, mixed salad, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries... well loads of things! Anyway, last week he gave me a bag of organic mixed chilies so I added a couple of these to the recipe for an extra kick! I put in 1 (small!) scotch bonnet (oh yes, I'm proper hard, me) and a birds eye one, and they gave it a really lovely flavour as well as some extra heat. I put taco meat on top and made sour kream from soaked cashews, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and just enough water to make the right consistency.

Ani Phyo is fabulous, her books are such a delight- all the recipes are simple, without millions of ingredients and everything tastes great. I love her. And I'm so glad I finally got round to making this chili. It's so easy to do, only takes a few minutes and doesn't need a dehydrator or any complicated equipment. Really fresh and delicious.

I'm going to make some of the liquid gold elixir that Sherry recommended next and bring it work with a big salad for lunch tomorrow. I got some of those enoki mushrooms too, so they will definitely be in it. I'll let you know how it turns out!

The Master Cleanse and Sherry's salad

I haven't talked about it on here before, but just over a month ago I did the master cleanse. It's basically a full-on detox for 10 days, where you have no food, just a drink that you make from fresh lemon juice, grade B maple syrup (or madal bal tree syrup which I used as it contains more nutrients), cayenne pepper and water. It is hard but it is a really great detox. In them mornings you're meant to do a salt water flush- I tried this once, it was revolting, and didn't have the desired effect! It's meant to make you go to the loo and empty it all out of you, but it just stayed in my stomach, swishing around and gave me a massive bloated belly. So I switched to doing coffee enemas, which were really effective and a great cleansing/ detoxifying aid. In the evenings you have a herbal laxative tea. This whole process really cleanses your colon and bowel and I felt lighter and freer at the end of it. It sounds a bit wanky to say this but I really did feel detoxified mentally as well as physically at the end of it.

Then after the 10 days, you need to ease yourself back into food, so you do 2 days of just drinking fresh organic orange juice. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to orange juice that much, but I got a load of oranges and put them through my juicer and oh my days... it was the BEST orange juice I had ever tasted! After 10 days without food I felt like my taste buds were exploding! Then the next 2 days I just had a variety of different fruit and vegetable juices, to prepare my body for going back to solid food gradually. I made some delicious ones, including carrot, beetroot, apple and celery, and pear and ginger. Yum! But the most interesting thing about this 4 day period was that I started taking psyllium husk to finish off the cleansing process and clear out the remaining debris from my intestines. Oh my gosh, I won't go into detail here but it really does work, you wouldn't believe what starts coming out of you! If you're interested, do a google image search for mucoid plaque (if you're not eating!) and take a look! I have to say, it was quite satisfying! And now I'm fully back on food, my digestion has definitely improved. Probably shouldn't go into any further detail now, don't want to gross people out any more than I already have ;)

Anyway, the results of this were so great- I felt a million times better, really happy, light, healthy and positive, oh and I lost 13lbs (put 2 lbs back on when I started eating again and my colon started filling up again, but hey!) that I kept talking about it to my friends. And Sherry decided to give it a go herself. She'd been having some health issues which doing a good detox and eating more raw foods could really help. She did amazingly, even getting up at the crack of dawn to do the salt flush every morning (well done Sherry!). She's now completed the full cleanse, and is starting to eat raw foods. She made an amazing looking salad the other day which I have to share with you. See the picture below.

Sherry's salad

Liquid gold elixir

It has in it: lettuce, beetroot, cress, marinated courgette strips, grated carrot, marinated corn and red onion, red chili, enoki mushrooms, cashews and sesame seeds. Yum! She also made a dressing from Natalia Rose's Raw Food Detox Diet book, the liquid gold elixir, which she says is possibly the best thing she's ever tasted! That was one of the first raw books I bought, yet I never made that dressing but I am definitely going to make it after that recommendation! Sherry, you are inspiring me.

So,  I still haven't got round to making that chili but tonight that is definitely going to be my dinner. I will let you know how it turns out. It better be good after all my building it up! I'm sure it will, I love all Ani Phyo's recipes. So I'll do another post either later or tomorrow to let you know how the chili was. And I want to get some of those enoki mushrooms- apparently you can get them in Asda, but I reckon I've seen them in the little Japanese shop up the road so will be popping up there in my lunch break. I'll be having a big salad with taco nut meat and sour kream for lunch, and some more crackers (which I've already scoffed...) And I had a delicious green smoothie for breakfast. It's all good!

Wasabi peas need a rethink...

Ewww just a quick one to say my made-up recipe for raw wasabi peas did not work! The peas just shrunk up real tiny, went chewy and the wasabi coating lost all of it's flavour. Gutted cos it was really hot and spicy before I put them in the dehydrator. It fell off the peas and tasted of sawdust. Hmmm. That recipe needs a serious re-write!
However, on a good note, my green smoothie this morning was the best ever... delicious, and packed with superfoods. It was banana, strawberries, goji berries, rainbow chard, bee pollen, camu camu, green powder and a bit of water. I think it's the nicest smoothie I've ever made. I'm taking the MSM separately now as it really is revolting, it tastes like cheap speed, so drinking it dissolved in a bit of water on its own instead of letting it ruin my smoothie.
And that dill cheeze is WAY better today than it was yesterday, must have needed a bit of time for the flavours to take. Had some for my lunch as well as chili burgers, mixed salad and flax crackers. Also had some apple pie mid morning, mmmmm.
Was going to make chili tonight but STILL not managed it... will do tomorrow I swear. I ended up scoffing all the remaining chili burgers tonight. I can't tell you quite how delicious they are. Even if you're not a raw foodie, give them a go, you won't be disappointed. Will write properly tomorrow. x 

Apple pie, chocolate mousse, sunny dill cheeze, taco nut meat, sour kream, jalapeno burgers and possibly wasabi peas!

Well, I've been busy uncooking today, getting loads of things made up for the week so I've got no excuse to be getting unhealthy snacks! My crisp fetish is over and I am fully back on track with the raw. I had to go out for a few drinks after we wrapped the film on Friday night and followed that with some not so healthy food and I definitely don't want to do that any more... so all that unhealthy snacking is out of my system now and I'm back in the zone!

I was going to make Ani Phyo's Tomato Chili for my dinner tonight but because I've been tasting everything else I've been making all day I had no appetite left for dinner! Still I've got the taco meat and sour kream that go with it made up now, and they'll keep a few days in the fridge, so I'll make the chili fresh tomorrow night and have it for my dinner then... looking forward to it, I've never made it before and it sounds delicious.

Apple pie- it tastes better than it looks here!

I made All-American Apple Pie today too, from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen which is one of my favourite ever desserts. It was one of the first raw dishes I made, about a year and a half ago, and at the time it convinced me that a raw lifestyle was possible, after much umming and ahhing and my first few not so successful attempts at making raw recipes. It's so good, I really recommend it- even my dad loves it (who usually stays away from my raw stuff on principle!) and ate about half of a pie when I made some last time I was staying with him. I only made half of the recipe this time as it makes a lot, but doesn't keep too long. It's really delicious, you'd never believe it was raw. I think that you should definitely make this- I promise you will love it.

I also made chocolate mousse from Raw Food Made Easy... ok, so this photo makes it look a bit like poo, but believe me, you would never think this was a raw, vegan dessert. It tastes just like a regular, rich, chocolatey mousse. The secret ingredient is avocado! But I swear you can't taste it in the mousse at all! It's also got raw cacao powder, dates, agave and a bit of water in. Its such a nice treat to have a chocolatey dessert like this and it tastes way better than the non-raw version with dairy etc in. It's gorgeous!

I made more jalapeno burgers too, the same ones I mentioned before, which I think might be my favourite raw thing. Definitely the best raw burger I've had. I make them slightly differently though- I don't put in any hamburger seasoning (what is that??) and I made twice the recipe, which makes about 10 good size burgers for me, and I dehydrate them for about 6 hours instead of 1. Oh, and I only put the temperature at 105 degrees as that's generally felt to be the max temperature for the food to remain raw. They are SO good that I already ate 4 of them which wasn't supposed to happen... just a good job I made double the recipe. They are really tasty and full of flavour, I love them.

I also made sunny dill cheeze from Ani Phyo's book (the same one I linked to above) which turned out ok, but not amazingly delicious. It'll be nice on my crackers with salad and burgers for lunch. But I have say, to not packed with flavour- quite mild but it's not bad.

And finally, I am attempting to make a raw version of wasabi peas! I'm not sure if it's going to work as I just made up the recipe, but they're in the dehydrator at the moment, I'll let you know how they turn out tomorrow. I coated the peas in a mixture of raw wasabi, ground sesame seeds, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and a little water... I'm hoping if they work they'll be a good alternative to my inexplicable cravings for crisps and bombay mix! We'll see... watch this space!

Natural skin care

So tonight I thought I'd write a little bit about natural beauty products. Basically, there are a lot of harsh chemicals in most beauty products you buy which can cause all kinds of health issues. Check out this website, it's scary. You can put in the name of any beauty product and it will tell you about the ingredients. A lot of common products contain chemicals proven to cause various problems with human health, some even have been linked to cancer and other diseases. Try it and see. So now, I make my own skin care products which are really effective, cheap, organic, easy to make and great for my skin.

So I thought I'd tell you about my face products first. For cleanser I use green tea. Just brew one tea bag of organic green tea for 15-30 minutes, then squeeze the bag out and use the tea. I add a little bit of olive oil and a few drops of lavender oil to this. Make it in a small quantity (I do 100 mls a go) as you should make it fresh once a week. Then for toner- half organic apple cider vinegar, half distilled water and a few drops of lemongrass oil, or lemon juice. Moisturiser is organic avocado oil with a few drops of essential oil- I used to use lavender but am using rose now, which is lovely. If you need to put make-up on in the morning, just splash your face with lukewarm water afterwards and pat it dry, and you're left with a great make-up base. In the evening, you can put loads of oil on and leave it as it is overnight. It's really moisturising and softening. It is sooooo good for the skin, check this out for more info on its beneficial properties: http://www.ageless.co.za/herb-avocado.htm

Basic ingredients for naturally healthy skin

The condition of my skin has improved so much since I started using natural products, I really recommend it. I first got into it after a friend showed me a newspaper article about a woman who had switched to making her own products after having serious problems with fibroids, and her doctor believed her condition was linked to the chemicals she was putting on her skin on a daily basis. And according to the article her fibroids did disappear after stopping her harsh skincare regime and switching to a homemade natural beauty routine. And the woman's skin looked amazing, which sold me! I really recommend making your own products, it's so easy, cheap, great for your health and will definitely improve the condition of your skin.

Busy busy busy

Hello! Well it's been a few days since I've updated due to a few reasons- been knackered and busy and feeling a bit rubbish and... not been 100% raw. Well I haven't been dreadful- I've been having my green smoothies for breakfast, and salads, flax crackers, burgers, marinated veg etc for lunch and dinner BUT on Monday when I finished work I was really hungry and craving crisps so I bought a packet and scoffed them while I was waiting for the train home. Then last night I did the same and then I started fantasising about Bountys and in the evening I popped down to shop and got one... However, in my haste I locked myself out! I only bought my wallet with me so I then had to go to an internet cafe, look up my phone contacts on the O2 website, find the number of someone who has a set of my keys, phone her from a payphone, and eventually got back in, phew! Serves me right. Oh and also last night I drank a bottle of wine. It was raw and vegan (Shiraz Rose from Co-op) but drinking a whole bottle when home alone is something I am not supposed to be doing! Finally, today I had another packet of crisps. But that is it now, no more crappy snacking, its not even as tasty as I thought it would be, not sure why I'm doing it. But it's out of my system now and I'm back on track from tomorrow. I'm filming tomorrow and Friday so I'm going to have to make sure I bring a good supply of food with me, as the production company are laying on sandwiches etc and I'm NOT going to succumb!

Mung bean sprouts!

My first crop of mung bean sprouts were ready today, and they're great, really fresh tasting. I did them in a nut milk bag and it was really easy, much less hassle them sprouting in a jar. I didn't make enough though as they'll all be gone in one salad (I like them a lot so have a lot of them in a salad!) so need to do a whole load more.

Flax crackers

My flax crackers turned out great, though not as spicy as before. The recipe called for 3 to 4 fresh chillies and a tablespoon of chilli powder which I thought sounded excessive, but I forgot I only made half the recipe before! So I only put in 2 fresh chillies as well as the powder, so they are quite tasty but not massively spicy like they were before. They are good though and will last a couple of weeks in an airtight container (if I don't eat them all before then!) so they will keep me going for a bit. 

MSM and Camu Camu from
http://www.rawliving.eu/

I got my new supplements delivered yesterday- well I say 'delivered', I actually had to go and fetch them from a postal place in Brixton as they just left a card through my door on Saturday. I was actually in, and if they had bothered to ring the bell they would have discovered this but instead they just left a card so I had to go fetch them. But never mind, I got them in the end! I put them in my smoothie this morning and it was pretty gross. I think it was the MSM, it tasted really bitter! Might have to take that separately or find a way of disguising the taste more. The camu camu is so pretty! It's a pale pink soft powder from a fruit, and contains a really high concentration of vitamin C. I've also been taking a vitamin D supplement as it's really hard to get any of this on a raw vegan diet, especially living in a gloomy climate like this where we don't get nearly enough sun. Ugh, one day I will live somewhere that is sunny every day! How great would it be to wake up to sunshine every morning? I would be so much happier!

Anyway, better go now as I have to get up stupid early and I really ought to have a look at my script as I am slightly concerned about the large possibility of looking like a total nob on film. We taped a bit of what we were doing in rehearsal yesterday and watched it back on the telly and I looked awful!!! It's so hard to find the right level between doing too much and doing too little. Still, there's no point in stressing, I'm just going to do my best see what happens! It's my first proper go at acting for screen and we had absolutely no training in it a drama school so if I'm shit, I'm shit!

Might not get chance to blog again til the weekend, but promise to make some exciting raw stuff this weekend to tell you about. I'm thinking desserts... maybe Ani Phyo's apple pie, also chocolate mousse, and some savoury stuff- gazpacho, more aubergine bacon (I've got a white aubergine from the organic man) and maybe sunny dill cheeze (Ani Phyo again). Also maybe a chilli- the organic man gave me a packet of chillis, include scotch bonnets! Great, never seen organic ones before so looking forward to making something hot and spicy. Well I'll let you know what I make soon. Night x

P.S. Forgot to say I met a friend for dinner at VitaOrganic tonight... except it's not VitaOrganic any more, it's called VitaO. And there's a sign up saying they are under new management and are phasing out the current menu and phasing in new stuff with Eastern spice flavours... I hope this doesn't mean they are phasing out the raw menu, but suspect it does. Disappointing if another raw place bites the dust :(
Had some lovely salads though and a great juice with beetroot, carrots, fennel and stuff... I hope they keep the juices at least...

Had a fun day today, rehearsing for the short film. We've got 2 full days of rehearsal for a 20 minute film, which is amazing, and I'm really enjoying it. So because I was out all day I haven't made too much but I've just made the spicy flax and herb crackers I mentioned yesterday and stuck them in the dehydrator overnight. It was a right faff though as I forgot that I usually only make half the amount in the recipe... I made the full amount and it was too much for my food processor so I ended up having to mix it by hand as soon as I added the ground flax seed, which was a bit more work than I had anticipated for a Sunday evening! So they better turn out good. I also got some more walnut chili burgers out of the dehydrator this morning so got those to go with my lunch in the week.

I brought a packed lunch with me today, but everyone else went to the café for lunch, so I ate mine sat in the sun outside then joined them for a peppermint tea! I had a big salad with various organic leaves and loads of mixed sprouts and peppers with scoops of guacamole, salsa and brazil nut cheeze on top... that brazil nut /sundried tomato cheeze is the business, it's so gorgeous, I could eat it by the bowlful! Also had those raw crackers I bought from Waitrose and a piece of my cake for dessert. The rest of the cast were also having biscuits and cake and coffee during the day... I need to bring some more snacks for myself next time. I've only got to be in the office 2 days next week as I've got one more day off for rehearsal, then 2 days for filming. 2 days at work a week I can handle! But will still need to get organised with the packed lunches.

Anyway, it's getting late now and I want to chill out with a sleep-inducing herbal tea for a bit before I go to bed so I'm signing off for now. My crackers will be done tomorrow so I'll let you know how they turn out. Night night!

Saturday is cake day!

Pretty pink juice

It was so nice to get a good night's sleep last night and woke up feeling much better today. I started the day with a juice instead of a smoothie this morning- beetroot, carrots, celery and apple. Hopefully I'll remember that I had beetroot juice when I get up tomorrow so I don't think I am dying when I go to the loo...

I went shopping in Brixton Wholefoods today, I love that place, and got some really good rose and lavender raw chocolate truffles. Needless to say I scoffed them before I'd got home so no photos of them to put up! Got some other bits and bobs too to make some staples for the week. I forgot to soak nuts overnight last night though so couldn't make my crackers today, so I'll soak them tonight instead. Going to make the spicy flax and herb crackers from the Raw Food, Real World book.

Bit of a rubbish dark picture but this is
Ani Phyo's sundried tomato cheeze- a kind of
pâté made with brazil nuts, lemon juice, garlic
and sundried tomatoes.

Tomorrow I'm rehearsing all day for a short film I'm going to be in, so I'm going have to force myself to make them and get them in the dehydrator when I get back before I go to bed! Thinking about what to bring for a packed lunch tomorrow. I've got some Provençale flax crackers which were a bit of a rip off when its so cheap to make your own, but for convenience's sake, they're good. I made some sun-dried tomato cheeze today too, from Ani Phyo's book, which is delicious, really moreish, so I'll bring some of that too and some salad. I've still got salsa and guacamole left too cos I made WAY to much!

I've just made a tasty raw cake! Ani Phyo's basic flourless cake with "nutella" hazelnut chocolate spread. It's gorgeous, but very rich and filling so you only need a little bit. Which is just as well as there are a lot of nuts in it so it's quite calorific, but worth it for the taste! And with raw foods you digest them a lot easier so don't tend to put weight on when eating raw anyway. You should always soak nuts before eating them or putting them in things because this breaks down and gets rid of the enzyme inhibitors in them, so they're much easier to digest. Brazil nuts and hazelnuts are the exception though as I've read that they don't need to be soaked, but I don't suppose it can do any harm. Different nuts and seeds have different soak times which I'm sure are online somewhere, I use the chart at the start of Raw Food Made Easy, lots of useful stuff in there and good basic recipes that you don't need a dehydrator for.

Well, I've had a very civilised day today, didn't go down to Brighton Pride for debauched times and instead been doing practical stuff around the house, and I'm staying in tonight! But I do have to get up early and get up to North London by half 10 and I'm meant to be familiar with my lines and cues, which I'm not, so better get on and have a look at them! See ya.

Nibbles

So I made some fresh cherry tomato salsa and some guacamole tonight and had it with the jalapeno corn tortilla chips I made the other day. Yummy! I stayed in tonight after the drunkenness of last night and I'm going to have an early night. I felt pretty rubbish all day, I forgot how much excess alcohol takes it out of you the next day. So I am definitely back on the wagon again, I want to get closer to optimum health, not further away from it! I've been drinking loads of water all day, and also drunk a carton of coconut water which is brilliant for rehydrating you. I lke this brand, the others taste a bit fake and not like the real thing at all, but this one is prepared without being exposed to light, so it's pretty close to the real thing and tastes great.

I also had a piece of Living foods raw chocolate with chilli which is so delicious, I really recommend it. The ginger and orange flavour they do is really good too. Raw chocolate is normally really expensive, around £3 for a small bar, but this one is only £1.95 and you get a really big chunk- I have to cut it in pieces to get it in my gob! In fact I'm going to get another bit now, it's addictive!  

Oops, I did it again...

Morning. Well, last night I went out to Lounge and wasn't exactly the healthy bunny I should be. Technically, wine is considered raw, but I drunk rather a lot of it and feel a bit sh*t today. I definitely feel a LOT better when I'm not drinking and so I'm definitely going to lay off the drinking again as of today. Before this week I did a month without booze and felt really great, but I've been out the last 6 nights in a row- mainly to the theatre to seee friends in plays- but each time I've had 1 or 2 glasses of wine and last night I had quite a lot more than that. But I must admit I did have a great night and did lots of dancing but I feel sooooooo dehydrated today. So because of this I haven't got any exciting raw photos yet to put up yet today, but I'll put some up later.

I realised I was out of bananas when I got up and I need bananas for my green smoothie, so I brought my Smoothie To Go into work with all the other ingredients and bought a banana on the way! So in it I put 1 banana, about 8 strawberries, about 8 raspberries, 1 medjool date, a teaspoon of green powder, a teaspoon of bee pollen and a capful of natural vanilla essence. It was yum and is sorting me out nicely. Though I'd really like a few more hours sleep as I didn't get to bed til 3 and was up again at 7. No more partying on a school night for a while. I need sleep! And definitely no more drinking. Yuk.

I made some fresh corn tortilla chips the other night which I haven't had yet, so tonight I'm going to make salsa and guacamole and have those with them for my dinner, yum! The chips are from the Pure Food and Wine recipe, the book's called Raw Food Real World which is a lovely book with lots of great sounding recipes but a lot of them are quite complicated so I haven't made too much out of there. But the tortilla chips were easy and really tasty. I've also made their red pepper crackers before which were gorgeous, think I might make some more of them tomorrow. I'm not going to bother taking pictures of my lunch today as I was in a hurry this morning so I just grabbed a couple of slices of Russell James' bread and filled a tupperware with salad so I'm going to have another raw sandwich. That bread is so good!

Right, signing off for now as I am in urgent need of water...

Hello and welcome!

So this is my new blog, where I am going to attempt to keep you updated with everything that's going on with me on my raw food journey.

A sandwich I made with Russell James'
Mediterranean Almond Bread

I first got interested in raw food about a year and a half ago through a friend who had been on a detox retreat and introduced me to the concept (thankyou Gina!) and since then I've been really on and off with the whole raw lifestyle thing. I didn't really get it at first and made a few half hearted attempts at introducing more raw food into my diet which didn't usually last long, and my first few attempts at raw dishes were pretty unsuccessful! But then I was introduced to raw "fried rice" from Jenna's Healthy Kitchen and Ani Phyo's raw apple pie both of which totally surprised me with how tasty and delicious they were and this really opened my mind to a whole load of new eating experiences. Right now I am back on 100% raw, feeling really good and hoping to stay that way.

I should tell you, I haven't always had a healthy lifestyle, far from it in fact! I used to party a lot, drink waaaaaay too much and take a lot of recreational drugs. That's not to say I'm Miss goody two shoes now either, I still like to go out and have fun, but I'm now much more interested in looking after my health for various reasons, some of which I'll go into later.

Melissa Mango's cheesy kelp noodles

And I want to show you that living a raw life doesn't mean you have to dedicate all your time to it- I have a full time job as a PA, I do part time work for another company and I'm also an actor, so I'm pretty busy. I don't have as much time as I would like for preparation of raw stuff, but I usually try and dedicate part of one day on the weekend to fire up the dehydrator and prepare a load of staples to get me through the week- usually breads, crackers, cakes, marinated veggies, 'bacon', burgers, that sort of thing. Then I always have a stock of fresh organic fruit and veg to make salads and side dishes and smoothies and juices to go along with it.

Jalapeno burgers, marinated mushrooms, "bacon",
salad and cashew mayonnaise.

Raw food does not have to be boring! Some of the tastiest food I've ever had has been raw, and raw desserts- well I've never tasted cooked desserts as good as some of the raw ones I've eaten. Raw ice cream, raw chocolates, and raw cakes can be amazing! I'll be sharing with you some of the recipes I've found or invented and giving you an idea of what I've been eating along the way! There's still loads I don't know about being raw, I'm learning as I go, but I do know that I feel so much better when I'm eating raw, I love it.

I've also stopped putting chemicals on my skin and started making my own skin care products from basic kitchen ingredients so I'll give you some recipes for natural products too.

Green smoothie- my usual breakfast-
looks revolting, tastes delicious!

Well this is just a short intro post as I'm still trying to get my head around how this thing works, but I'll write more soon, and upload some more pictures of the things I've (un)cooked and eaten recently! Bye for now.