Mainly, pics from 'An Evening of Raw Vitality & Splendour at Vantra'

I've been really busy the last week or two so haven't had time to update this blog much but I have stayed 100% raw, and eaten a lot of amazing things. I even managed to stay raw and alcohol-free when I stayed at my sister's last weekend- I brought a load of stuff down with me, including my favourite cheezy kelp noodles- I think the recipe for these is in this blog already- as well as loads of salads, fresh fruit and chocolate mousse!

My phone is full of pictures of things I've been making and eating out that I haven't had time to upload yet. Haven't got a lot of time now as really want to try to get an early night so I think this entry is going to be more pictures than words!

But I want to show you the pictures from Saturday night first. I went to Vantra for an event with Phillip McCluskey and the food was great. The service was kind of slow, so I was ready to eat off my arm by the time my starter arrived, but nobody minded too much and I met some lovely interesting people and had a fab night.


The starter- canapés, including a big kale chip and
flax crackers with different toppings



My choice of main course- stuffed red pepper with nut roast. The other
choices were Thai veg noodles or courgette lasagne. All seemed to be
very well received.

 

Pepper with the lid off so you can see all the yummy stuff inside.
It was really tasty, and the dressings were beautiful.



Berry and rose tart

Carob tart

Pineapple and passionfruit mylkshake- doesn't look too exciting
from this photo but trust me, it was one of the most delicious
drinks I've ever had! The maca and mesquite living latte was
also gorgeous!

I'm going to call it a day now, but will try to update some more in the week and catch you up with all the other things I've been making, including some chocolate crispie cookies I invented that turned out sooooo good! I've also ordered a load of stuff for making raw chocolates so going to get on that soon, which will hopefully stop me from spending the small fortune on raw chocolate bars that I do at the moment! Laters x

Hot purple kale chips

I admit it, I am completely and totally addicted to kale chips, I can't get enough of them! My favourite recipe is usually the Renegade Health Show's cheezy kale chips (you can find the recipe on this blog- look in the alphabetical index on the right hand side titled "Labels", under cheezy kale chips) as they're completely delicious and tangy and addictive. But yesterday I invented a new kale chip recipe. I'd bought some from Inspiral last week that had purple corn in, so I decided to use some of that in mine too. I used a different recipe to theirs though- I looked on the tub and the Inspiral ones just had cashews, nutritional yeast and salt in. And kale, obviously. Here is my recipe:


1/2 cup cashew nuts, soaked for 2 hours
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons purple corn flour
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 chilli (I used a scotch bonnet, seeds and all, which made them really spicy! You might want to use a little less, or a less strong chilli... if the mix is too hot, add a little more agave)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Whizz it all up in the food processor until smooth- you may need to add to some water to get it to the right consistency- thickish but still runny- I think I added about 1/4 cup, maybe more.

Then coat the kale with it really well, rub it in so it's all stuck to the leaves.
I used 1 pack of organic curly kale from Waitrose- I can't remember how much that is in weight- probably the equivalent of one head/ bunch whatever they call it.

Then spread the kale out on teflex sheets on dehydrator trays- use enough trays so that it's well spread out, not all clumped together, so the air is able to circulate and the kale can dry out properly.

Dehydrate for about 8 hours at 105 degrees until crispy.

Keep in an airtight container. Well, I've eaten the whole lot already so storage isn't a problem! Enjoy!

This picture is my lunch today- more courgette pasta, but this time with marinara sauce, the one from Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People, which is the best tomato sauce I've made, it's really rich and tasty. And just a little salad of pea shoots and spouts and stuff with it. I also scoffed a load of blueberries, flax crackers, macademia nuts, goji berries, kale chips, a Nakd bar, and a bar of Raw chocolate throughout the day! And had a green juice for breakfast. All very satisfying and delicious. I did also make a kind of coleslaw with red and white cabbage mixed with more carrot-ginger dressing but didn't manage to eat that, so will have it for lunch tomorrow. Might make some guacamole too to have with crackers- I'm working late tomorrow night so will have to bring enough stuff for dinner as well as lunch. I'll let you know what I concoct!

No more master cleanse... FOOOOOOOOOOD!

So, I completed 16 days on the master cleanse! I lost 10 lbs, not as much as previous times, due to the time of the month, but I lost 2 inches from my waist, an inch from my hips, an inch from each thigh and an inch and a half from my boobs (bit gutted about that last one!). Feel a lot trimmer and my jeans are now too big!
I had been planning on doing 20 days, but I got up on the morning of day 17 and could not face one more lemon/ cayenne/ maple drink. So I made fresh orange juice and damn it was GOOD! I haven't put any weight back on since I came off the cleanse (5 or 6 days now I think), in fact I've lost another pound and I am eating tons! All raw of course. I feel amazing, so much better than I was before the cleanse and am so glad I did it. And it feels so great to be eating raw again. I've had loads of delicious stuff.

The first couple of days I stuck to juice then eased my way back into raw. Last night I had a friend round for dinner and made courgette pasta with my spiraliser and fresh raw vegan pesto.

Courgette pasta and pesto

I put loads of fresh basil, a clove of garlic, olive oil and pine nuts in the food processor, blitzed it all up and mixed it in with the courgette. It was lovely! I also made loads of salads to go with it, as well as flax crackers, macademia cheese, and chocolate mousse for dessert.

I kind of made up the recipe for the flax crackers, based on the ingredients from a packet of crackers I bought from Inspiral the other day. I soaked 250 g of flax seeds in a litre of water for 12 hours. Then I processed up a 225g punnet of baby plum tomatoes, a red pepper, 1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes, a clove of garlic, a scotch bonnet chilli, loads of fresh parsley and 1/4 teaspoon of himalayan crystal salt. I put the gloopy seed mixture in, whizzed it all up then spread it over 4 dehydrator sheets and dehydrated it for about 12 hours. Then I flipped it over and did it for another 6 or so hours. And they turned out pretty good!


Flax crackers, mashed avocado,
macademia cheese & alfafa sprouts

The macademia cheese was amazing! I got the recipe from Raw Food/Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow, and I really recommend this. You wouldn't believe a mix of macademia nuts, peppers, lemon, a pinch of salt and nutritional yeast would taste so amazing. This is dehydrated too, and comes out with a great texture. I just had some more of it now for my dinner, on flax crackers with mashed avocado and alfafa sprouts and it was gorgeous.

Chocolate mousse

The chocolate mousse is an old favourite from Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People. It's so quick and easy and tastes delicious. It's made with avocados but you would never know, it just tastes really rich and creamy and chocolatey but is totally dairy free! As well as the avocado I put in some medjool dates, raw honey, vanilla extract and raw cacao. The photo is never going to do it justice as it just looks like a dollop of brown stuff but it is soooooo good. I had the leftovers for lunch today which is why it's in a tupperware!



Today's packed lunch

So with all the leftovers from last night, I had the best ever packed lunch today! The yellow/orange stuff round the outside of the salad (picture on the left) is carrot and ginger dressing from Natalia Rose's The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss. The salad has red cabbage, mixed bean sprouts, yellow peppers, pea shoots, spinach, grated carrot and marinated mushrooms.
I am so delighted to be eating real fresh raw food again! I've been having green juices for breakfasts too- this morning it was apples, cucumber, celery and ginger. Beautiful!

I'll try and keep this blog more up-to-date now, as I am totally re-set and back into the raw for good. I promise you I feel really amazing and will continue to keep it up!

Day 13 master cleanse

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to start including psyllium in my detox... well I have and it is producing great results. I've been having psyllium and bentonite shakes and you would not believe what is coming out of me! I was toying with putting a picture on here but decided that was probably one step too far! But suffice to say, A LOT of old stuff that has been clogging my intestines is being eliminated, which is great. I also just did a coffee enema which also brought out a load of stuff. I mean a LOAD of stuff! I apologise if you're eating or if you find all this talk of bowel movements revolting but I am finding it very interesting! Ok I won't go into any more detail... today anyway ;)

I should say, some master cleanse purists don't think you should do anything extra on the cleanse as you don't need to, e.g. Peter Glickman, who wrote Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days, Second Edition, which is a great book, the first master cleanse one I read. He feels that the salt flush and laxative tea along with the lemon drinks is enough to detox you fully. However, others feel that it is ok to add other processes for a deeper cleanse, such as Tom Woloshyn, who wrote The Complete Master Cleanse: A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximizing the Benefits of The Lemonade Diet which is also a brilliant book. Woloshyn studied with Stanley Burroughs and talks about various other techniques that can assist with the cleanse. I think that it's ok for me to do it now, as I've done the recommended full 10 days of the cleanse following the instructions to the letter, and now I'm carrying it on beyond 10 days I think it's fine to add further elements to help deepen the cleanse and rid myself of the stubborn toxins.

Coffee enemas are great for accelerating your liver's ability to detoxify, not just for the effect on the colon. You should only do them after a purification process is underway though. They have a clearing effect upon the liver and leave it in a much better state to continue with detoxifying. I learned about these and a lot of other excellent cleansing techniques from an amazing book which I really recommend, Cellular Awakening: How Your Body Holds and Creates Light. OK, that's enough book recommendations for one blog entry!

I am still feeling amazing, and have loads of energy. My mind also feels detoxed, I am feeling much more focussed and positive. My tongue has still not gone pink though it is starting to get better! And I am still eliminating plenty of unwanted matter. So the master cleanse continues!

Day 12 Master cleanse!

Well, I have decided to go on beyond the 10 days I originally intended as I am still definitely detoxing. I think days 8 and 9 were big detox days for me and on the morning of day 10 I knew it wasn't time to call it a day. My tongue has not gone back to a healthy looking pink yet (a sure sign that I'm not done detoxing), and I've also come out in a bit of a rash on the inside of my elbows and the nape of my neck, which means that toxins are still being released.

I'm still feeling really good though and have bags of energy, I'm not feeling tired or weak or hungry at all. I spent about 3 hours cleaning my flat today and also went on a long walk around the park to try and burn off some of my excess energy! That's not to say that I'm not looking forward to eating actual food again, because I REALLY am, but I'm not desperate... yet!

I've also introduced psyllium husk into the cleanse, as of yesterday, to help clear out more of the old stuff from my colon. And this morning I made a tea with some herbs that are supposed to help get rid of parasites- wormwood, cloves and pau d'arco- but it was REVOLTING! It tasted so bad I almost threw up! I won't be trying that again. They say at least 80% of adults have parasites in their intestines and I wanted to try and clear them out but there's no way I'm drinking that again. I think I'm going to get a zapper instead, they're supposed to work well. You can get a really cheap one on Kate Magic's site: Raw Living. They also do the Terminator, which is meant to be the best one, but they're more expensive.

Not sure how long I'm going to continue with this. I should think at least to 14 days, maybe 16, possibly 20. I'll see how my tongue is looking in a couple of days! I'm still losing pounds and inches too, and definitely feeling a lot trimmer and healthier. So I may as well carry on a bit while I'm finding it easy and it's still doing its job. Hopefully this will set me back on the right track to raw living. I'm so looking forward to making some raw foods when this is all over. I think I have properly re-set myself!

Anyway, going to make a peppermint tea now, I'll check in again soon. x

Day 6 Master cleanse

Well, my sixth day of the cleanse is coming to an end and it's still going remarkably well! I decided not to update this blog every day while I'm cleansing otherwise it will get ridiculously boring, but will check in now and again until it's over and I can start posting some more raw recipes again.

The salt flush has got so much easier. At the beginning it was revolting and I could barely keep it down without gagging, but now I can drink it easily and for some reason it doesn't taste so bad at all. And it certainly does the job with cleaning me out!

And I'm not feeling hungry at all yet, which is a surprise! Although I did have a couple of brief cravings today, for the first time. I woke up thinking about cheese on toast, then later it was grilled halloumi, then after that cottage cheese. So I would assume that my body is eliminating cheese today! But weirdly, I just thought about the food without having a desire go out and eat them.

I read another another really good master cleanse book,  The Complete Master Cleanse: A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximizing the Benefits of The Lemonade Diet which was great. Very different to the Peter Glickman one I read at the start of the cleanse, although that was good too. But this one explains a lot about the science behind the cleanse, the digestive system, how the cleanse actually works etc which I found really interesting, and it really helps with keeping focused.

Well, if I finish this after 10 days, I only have 4 days to go! However, you're meant to do it until your tongue goes pink- while on the cleanse it gets a very unattractive coating as the toxins are being expelled, and then goes back to clear pink when you are fully detoxed. So if my tongue is still not fully pink on day 10 I will probably go on until it is, if I feel like I can. Want to get fully cleansed! It's also not good to stop if you're having any major detox systems on the day- as then, obviously, you're still eliminating so should carry on until they have stopped. So I'll see how I feel on day 10.

Back to work tomorrow on Tuesday, unfortunately, so things might get a bit harder then. But I'm determined to keep going and see this thing through! Wish me luck!