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!

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.