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

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!

I'm back... with cheezy kale chips!



Kale chips coming out of the dehydrator



Hello! Well I haven't updated this blog in a while for a few reasons. Been debating whether or not to go into it all here, but I've decided not to bore you too much for now! One reason was because of being in a play- rehearsing evenings and weekends as well as doing the day job didn't leave me with much time to make anything exciting. And some other stuff going on. But that's all over now and I am back on track! Last night I made Cheddar Kale chips from Ani's Raw Food Essentials: Recipes and Techniques for Mastering the Art of Live Food. I LOVE kale chips, they're so addictive. I have just eaten the whole lot this morning, an entire bunch of organic curly kale! They had red pepper, cashew nuts, olive oil, agave and water in... I think that's it. Hmmm, maybe something else too but I can't remember what... I'll check later.



Ani Phyo's cheddar-kale chips



They were good, but I have to say, my favourite kale chips recipe is one I made from the Renegade Health Show a while ago. They were so tasty, just thinking about them makes me want them again. So I'm going to buy more kale later and maybe do those tonight or tomorrow. Check out the link above and give them a go, there's a video too. They're less sweet than Ani's ones- that's what I liked least about her's- they have agave in which made them sweeter than I'd like. I like it savoury! Anyway, just a quick post to let you know I'm still here, I haven't forgotten about this blog! I'm fully back into creating raw food recipes now and will be making a lot more and putting them up here soon.

The next thing I really want to make is a raw version of scones with jam and clotted cream from Ani Phyo's book. Sounds amazing right?! Can't wait to see how they turn out. So bye for now, but I promise to be back soon with more raw food dishes.