Buckwheat crispies, almond milk, jalapeno burgers, spicy mayo

Delicious lunchbox salad with olives,
caperberries, carrot, tomatoes, mixed sprouts,
peppers & other lovely things that I can't remember...

Haven't written for a while as I've been mad busy with rehearsals, as well as being back at the day job so I've been pretty much been sticking to eating some old staples that are quick and easy to make. At my colonic last week, the therapist told me that there was too much sugar in me, which was causing me to be bloated, so advised me not to have too many smoothies. I think this was probably also down to starting drinking wine again which is full of sugar and very bad for fermenting inside you! There is quite a lot of debate in the raw food world around smoothies, largely due to the high sugar content. Victoria Boutenko was pretty much the first to start the "green smoothie revolution" and a lot of people follow this and feel great, but others, including some at the Hippocrates Health Institute, are not into blending at all, and think juicing is much better. So although I do love starting the day with a green smoothie packed with superfoods, I've been alternating them with raw cereals.

Buckwheat crispies with almond milk

I made a big batch of buckwheat crispies, which are really easy to make and they stay fresh for months, in an airtight container. All you do is soak raw buckwheat groats in pure water overnight, rinse them really thoroughly, then dry them in the dehydrator for about 6 hours. I first got this recipe from Ani Phyo's books, and she recommends dehydrating for 3-5 hours, but it think it takes less time in LA as it's so flippin hot there all the time, whereas we can't rely on such good weather here in London! They are quite plain tasting, kind of like Rice Krispies, but much more nutritious! I have these with almond milk, which is delicious and also really easy to make. Soak half a cup of almonds overnight, then drain and rinse them, and blend them up for a minute or 2 with a couple of dates (depending on how sweet you like it, you can add more if you wish), a litre of water and a capful of natural vanilla extract (optional). Then you strain it through a nutmilk bag, or muslin, or a sieve would probably work. It keeps for 4 or 5 days in the fridge- it will separate, don't worry about that, it's normal, just shake it back together again! You can also add raw cacao powder to this to make chocolate milk, then it's kind of like Coco Pops!

I've been eating jalapeno burgers a lot too- I realise I keep going on about them but have never given the recipe. The recipe I use is based on the recipe here: http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/showthread.php?t=3467 but I make a lot more and slightly alter the amounts, and made the preparation a bit easier as I'm a lazy cow so just bung it all in the food processor basically, instead of having to do lots of fine chopping! And dehydrate longer too. So here's the recipe I use:

Jalapeno burger, mixed sprout salad, marinated mushrooms,
cherry tomatoes with coriander. Lovely lunch.

Soak 3 cups walnuts for 6 hours and then put them in the food processor with 3/4 cup soaked sundried tomatoes and 1/4 cup soaking water. Grind it up until you get a kind of mince texture and put in a big bowl. Then put 2-6 chillies in the food processor, depending on how spicy you like your burgers! I usually add 2 scotch bonnets or 4-6 jalapenos, but for me, the spicier the better. And I love the rich, earthy flavour that jalapenos add to food, not just the heat, so these are my favourite chili. Then also put in 2 small onions, 2-3 tablespoons tamari, a few twists of salt and black pepper, and some cayenne pepper if you want it spicier! You only need to chop these ingredients roughly before putting in the food processor. Blitz it all up until it's finely chopped, then mix it all in with the nut mixture. Form the mixture into burgers- this makes about 18 when I do it, but it depends how big you want them! I roll a spoonful into a ball, then flatten it and put it on the dehydrator tray. I usually dehydrate them for about 6 hours, 3 on each side. They are sooooooo good!

I also made this spicy mayo/dip to go with the burgers and salad, which came out really good:

Rubbish picture of spicy mayo

1 cup cashews, soaked 2 hours

Juice of 1 lemon (approx 2-3 tbsp)

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 large clove of garlic

1/2 cup water

1 dash salt

Put it all in the food processor and blend until smooth. That's it!

I have finally got new batteries for my camera, so you won't have to put up with rubbish mobile phone pictures after today's entry! I promise to use my actual camera and take better pictures from now on!

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!

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.