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