This is one of those meals where it was a case of just tossing together whatever was available with no thoughts of creating a new recipe for the blog, but it turned out so well I decided to post it anyway. It looks a bit like a bird’s nest, but satisfying and tasty.
These are our favourite kinds of meals: easy, quick, one chopping board, a sharp knife, spatula and frying pan. Little mess and lots of nutrients.
Prepare all your ingredients beforehand, have your seasonings ready and plate warming, because it all comes together very quickly.
This recipe is for 1 serving, amounts and timings are approximate.
Ingredients are organic where possible. For a little more colour you could add spiralised or shaved carrot. I am sensitive to nightshade foods, so I haven’t included bell peppers.
Ingredients
1 Tsp Raw VirginCoconut Oil
1 Small Onion, sliced or several Spring Onions, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 Thin Slices of Fresh Ginger, minced or chopped very finely
6 Sugar Snap Peas, topped, tailed and chopped
Half a Stick of Celery
4 Large Chinese Leaves, including stalks, chopped
1/4 Large Courgette, spiralised
Handful of Cashew Pieces
Half an Avocado, chopped
Handful Green Lentil Sprouts (or any other sprouted beans)
Handful Alflalfa Sprouts
Few splashes of Tamari
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
(I haven’t included salt as the Tamari is quite salty anyway)
Method
Melt Coconut oil in Large Frying Pan until a piece of onion starts sizzling, but not smoking
Add onion, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for a couple of minutes
Add Celery and Sugar Snap Peas, keep stir-frying for a further couple of minutes until the onion starts becoming translucent but not soft or brown
Add Cashew pieces and Chinese Leaves and stir-fry until leaves start to wilt a little
Add Spiralised Courgette, plenty of Black Pepper and a few splashes of Tamari
Keep stir-frying all the time
When everything is cooked but still has a bite to it, remove from heat, add Lentil Sprouts, stir a few times, add Avocado , a bit more Tamari and Black Pepper if desired and remove to hot plate. Add Alflalfa Sprouts.
A busy day today! Belatedly inspired to make some raw chocolate for Valentine’s Day, I devised not 1, not 2, but 3 recipes for different palates. They are very simple to make: once you’ve got the cacao butter melted and measured, it takes seconds to mix together and then all you need to do is pour and freeze.
(We use their products because they are Organic, Raw, Fair Trade and Excellent Quality. Apart from the bars and cacao butter, most of their products come in Resealable Bags and the new packaging is Recyclable too!)
This version is very dark, coconut palm sugar is not like refined sugar, it is much more subtle. You may also want to grind it a little finer so that it blends more easily.
Remember, Raw Chocolate is very rich and you won’t eat as much at once as you would if it were commercial chocolate.
Note: As always, we tend to do things by eye and taste, so measurements are inevitably approximate.
First, cover a baking tray with greaseproof paper and have some small cookie shapes ready. Heat up some water to melt the cacao butter in a small bowl in order to measure it if it’s in a block or if it’s broken up into small pieces you can put it straight into the bowl with the cacao powder and coconut palm sugar.
Ingredients
90g Raw Cacao Butter
60g Raw Cacao Powder
60g Coconut Palm Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Approx 3 Tbsp Finely Chopped Raw Almonds (We actually forgot to measure. Just sprinkled them on!)
Method
Melt Cacao Butter and add to Cacao Powder and Coconut Palm Sugar in a bowl over a pan of hot but not boiling water.
Stir until sugar is dissolved and everything is thoroughly mixed and smooth. Add Vanilla Extract and stir in well.
Pour into moulds on parchment-lined tray or directly onto parchment. If the latter, roll the tray around to make the chocolate spread.
Sprinkle with chopped almonds and lightly press into mixture.
Freeze until hard.
Carefully press out of moulds or break up the flat chocolate into pieces. It is best left in the freezer until required. We portion them up so we can just take out the amount we need and the chocolate doesn’t start melting while you break it up or sort out how much you want.
Vanutte Chunks
Sweet Mulberry Raw Chocolate
This second recipe is sweeter as it has raw maple syrup in, children might prefer it, although it is still dark.
As before, have some moulds ready on a parchment covered tray.
Ingredients
25mls Melted Raw Cacao Butter
15g Raw Cacao Powder
25mls Raw Maple Syrup
10g Cashew Pieces
10g Dried Mulberries, de-stalked and broken up
Method
Mix together Cacao Butter, Maple Syrup and Cacao Powder in a bowl over a pan of hot but not boiling water until well blended.
Mix in Cashews and Mulberries and pour or spoon mixture into moulds, or pour mix into moulds and add nuts and mulberries on top – this will probably give you more shapes, we did it the first way and it made the mixture very thick.
It only made about 6 small shapes that were quite thick, so adjust amounts accordingly if you have a lot of chocolatey mouths to fill!
Freeze and store as before. (They are on the right of the photo below – we tried one first!)
Sweet ‘n’ Sour Raw Chocolate Chunks
Recipe Number 3 is also sweet and as there are so many different tastes in our family we thought we would cover all bases and add some sweet and sour dried fruit as well as the nuts to this one!
My husband loves raisins but the younger family members won’t eat them so he can have that row all to himself! I love dried Golden Berries, they have a sweetly tart flavour that I can’t resist, so there’s a row of those for me. In the middle are cashew pieces and dried mulberries.
Ingredients
30mls Melted Cacao Butter
30mls Raw Maple Syrup
20g Raw Cacao Powder
Handful of Raisins
Handful Golden Berries
Handful of Cashew Pieces
Method as before, but pour onto parchment in a tray and roll around to spread it out, then sprinkle the other ingredients in rows to cover the whole area and press in lightly.
Freeze and store as before. (We were able to keep the rows separate once solid by gently using a knife in a sawing motion and then breaking them up).
With all these recipes you can add different flavours. Some like mint, orange – even chilli!
Ps Here’s a whimsical music video By Death By Chocolate. Enjoy!
I have a confession to make. You know all those kitchen gadgets I mentioned in Gadgets Anonymous ? Well… <typing in quiet voice, head down, eyes looking sheepish> I have another one… But it’s not a blender!
Nope, a spiraliser. Lurch is its name.
To be fair, it isn’t new. It’s been sitting in the cupboard for some time, still in its box, waiting for us to catch up to it. And last night, we finally did, amd what fun!
On this plate are a Red Apple, a Carrot, half a medium Courgette and a quarter of a long Cucumber. Look at the wonderful colours!
It is highly unlikely anyone would sit and eat those items whole with a knife and fork. But spiralised, it becomes a whole different experience. Spiralising really does make a difference to how they taste, the texture and how much you can eat.
I had all this for dinner last night, along with a couple of very tasty, easy-to-make items from Jason Vale’sSuper Fast Food app, which I hope to review when we’ve given it a good workout – so far, so thumbs up!
(We made the Zesty Creamy Rocket Pesto and the Nutty Seeded Crackers, both flavourful and nourishing and now added to our menu for regular use).
For the kids, it’s so much fun watching the twirly ribbons of veggie noodles emerging from the spiraliser, they just want to take a handful, tip their head back and start feeding the spirals into their mouth.
The Lurch spiraliser is very light and easy to use. Kids can help make their noodles with supervision. It comes with 3 different blades which are stored in the side and have protective hand grips to make it easy to switch.
It has suction feet to stop it slipping or travelling while in use. It also cores, and kids find the leftover middles amusing to play with or eat, or they can be juiced.
I am so excited! I know I am late to the party as far as spiralising is concerned, but I’ve been wanting to try for so long and better late than never!
Just hope the juicers and blenders aren’t going to view this as an act of betrayal! (But they needn’t worry, they continue to have pride of place on the kitchen counter, the spiraliser for the moment is still confined to the cupboard).
It’s orange with black chia seeds and it roooaaarrrs! It doesn’t really have tigers in, but it does have tiger nut milk! It’s packed with protein, Vitamin E, potassium, omega oils and lots of other goodies to help power you through your day.
Ingredients
1 Banana
Handful of Organic Sunflower Seeds
Handful of Raw Chocolate Company Goji Berries*
1 Tbsp Raw Chocolate Company Chia Seeds
1 Heaped Tbsp Organic Quinoa Flakes
1 Organic Dried Apricot
Medium Glass of Tiger Nut Milk* (see Recipes) – more or less depending on how thick or thin you like it.
Blend until smooth, and if you’re reading this in Summer, pour over ice – if not, add a pinch of turmeric and roooaaarrrr!!
(Psssst couldn’t resist posting this YouTube link to Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’!)
Warning: Cycling season is back so fun Orica-GreenEDGE YouTube video at end of recipe!
There is always a debate in our house whenever nut milk is made as to what do with the leftover pulp. It seems wasteful to just discard it and you need to have some idea of what you’re going to do with it before you make the nut milk. Having soaked the almonds for the milk last night, I was lying in bed this morning trying to devise a way to use up the pulp. I had a nice long lie-in! There are already recipes using Tiger Nut Pulp on my Raw Treats Recipes Page and here’s the one I came up with using the Almond Nut Pulp.
See, I really was working not sleeping 😉
As always, measurements are approximate, substitutions of like for like are encouraged, whatever you have in your cupboards that behaves in the same way.
All ingredients are organic and vegan.
Before you begin, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, then break up the bar of raw chocolate into a bowl to be placed over a pan of hot water (not boiling) to melt when you’re ready to drizzle. Heat up some water in the kettle to melt the cacao butter ready to add to the food processor with the rest of the ingredients.
Ingredients
1 Cup Almond Pulp
1 Cup Mixed Dried Figs & Dried Apricots – about 2/3 figs to 1/3 apricots
1/2 Cup Mixed Seeds – we used Sesame, Pumpkin & Sunflower
1/2 Cup Melted Cacao Butter*
1 Tsp Raw Maple Syrup (Optional)
1/2 Cup Dried Mulberries*
1/2 Cup RoughlyChopped Almonds + some more finely ground to sprinkle on
1 22g Bar Pitch Dark Raw Chocolate*
Method
Place Almond Pulp, Figs, Apricots, Mixed Seeds in processor
Pulse a few times, then process a few seconds, stirring down if it sticks
Add Melted Cacao Butter and Maple Syrup and process a few seconds, again stirring down to make it all come together well
Working quickly, add Chopped Almonds and Dried Mulberries
Process a few more seconds, they need to still be rough to give a little bite.
The mixture should come together when pressed
Quickly press into tray – the cacao butter will be setting – then melt chocolate and drizzle or spread over mixture, ours had a bit of both: The part that has chocolate spread over it also has finely chopped almonds sprinkled on.
Place in the fridge for a few minutes then slice.
Makes about 12.
As the professional cycling road race season is back, here is a fun video of the guys from the Aussie Orica-Greenedge team having some fun with the kids in South Africa to ‘Uptown Funk.’ However bad your day is going, this is guaranteed to make you smile! Enjoy!
It’s been blowing a gale and raining cats and dogs, one of those days when you want to batten down the hatches and tuck into a bowl of something hot and sustaining. (Think that’s my quota of meteorological metaphors for one post! What I really wanted to say was: ‘It’s been raining for days in Pigeon Street!’ Anyone remember that?)
So, combined with the fact that I am mid dental treatment and have to be careful what I eat, soup is going to be on the menu quite a bit over the coming evenings.
This one is thick and hearty enough to have as a meal rather than a first course or soup in a mug.
Makes enough for 3-4 servings.
The main thing is to cook it on a low heat, very gently and slowly, so as to maximise the nutritional content.
As always, all veg, oil, etc are organic where possible (the sage is from our garden), carrots have skin left on, all measurements and timings approximate.
Ingredients
Pre-soak 1/2 Cup Rinsed Green Lentils to make them more easily digested, discarding the soak water before use
Splash of Olive Oil
1 Leek rinsed thoroughly and sliced into rings
3 Medium Carrots, chopped
1 1/2 Sticks of Celery with Leaves, chopped
Half a head Broccoli, chopped, including stalk
1/4 to 1/2 Cauliflower, including stalk, chopped
8-10 Brussels Sprouts, peeled and chopped
Dried Sage + Black Pepper
Optional: 1 Dsp Nut Butter
1 Vegetable Stock Cube + 1 Tsp Yeast Extract and Squirt of Tomato Puree dissolved in approx 600 – 700mls hot water, then cooled a little
Method
Slowly heat oil in large saucepan, don’t let it overheat
Gradually add vegetables, stirring and moving about as you add each handful.
With the lid on, and on a very low heat, gently sweat the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally
Add Sage + Black Pepper + Nut Butter, if using
Add the water, enough to just cover the vegetables
Add Lentils
Stir well.
Replace lid and on lowest heat leave to cook for about an hour or until vegetables and lentils are tender.
Do Not Boil!
When ready, allow to cool a little before blending just enough to thicken the soup but leaving chunks of vegetables for colour and bite.
Test seasoning.
I haven’t included any salt because the stock cube, yeast extract and tomato puree all contain salt. If salt is required at the table, Pink Himalayan Salt is recommended as it retains most of the minerals lost in the processing of normal table salt and no added nasties.
Thank you to the kind scribbleartie for nominating my blog for this award! Her blog is all about crafting trash into treasure and she does some lovely delicate and whimsical ink blot paintings too, have a look!
In accepting this award, I am tasked with listing 7 things about myself and nominating other bloggers whom I judge write with integrity and on a variety of topics.
So, the hard part, 7 things about myself:
After being vegetarian for 39 years and after a few attempts during that time, I became vegan a year ago.
I once worked at Woolworths, mostly on the cosmetics counter, but sliced my finger on the bacon slicer when standing in for someone else. (And people wonder why I’m vegan!)
I gained a First Class Honours Degree with The Open University in my early 40s. An amazing ‘University of the Air’ founded by the Labour Government of Harold Wilson in the 1960s.
My husband and I spent our first date looking for my contact lens!
I once saw Paul McCartney and Wings for 50p when they turned up unannounced at uni and asked if they could play their first songs. They played their single ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish’ several times. It was banned by the BBC.
My dad’s first car was a black Morris Minor 1000. I have no idea how we got 2 adults, 4 kids and a dog in it!
Our first car was a green Morris Minor 1000 and our current car is also a green Morris Minor 1000 but not the same one, we had a blue one in-between!
Now to the blogs I recommend:
Pioneering the Simple Life is the most inspiring blog I’ve read. Posts and tips about living sustainably, about their experiences in Nepal and building an underground network of individuals to provide and transport vital supplies to villagers following the devastating earthquake there.
Organic Guinea Pig blogs about physical and mental health, providing recipes and lifestyle advice as well as having a Pet Therapy business working in schools, pyschiatric units, care homes and so on.
From Pyrenees to Pennines is a lovely gentle blog of posts and photos about the English countryside (and weather!), historic places to visit – including continental towns – as well as musings on geneaology and other everyday topics.
Itching for Hitching I have never been caravanning nor ever had a desire to do so, too claustrophobic for me, but this Australian blog makes me smile every time I read it.
Mandy’s Running Blog illustrates that life doesn’t have to start slowing down once you reach 50! Far from taking things easy, Mandy has become an ultra runner mainly up the hills of Vancouver, Canada!
Natural Juice Junkie Neil Martin writes a very informative but acessible blog on all things to do with health, nutrition, juicing, motivation, lifestyle coaching.
The Vegan Family blog recipes and beautiful photos from the woods in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Our Green Nation is a group of individuals who pool their expertise to help empower us to make decisions on health and lifestyle with informative, factual posts on education, environment, food regulations, the role of Big Pharma and Agriculture, sustainable living, recipes etc., plus posts on mindfulness, thought for the day and so on. A great read. I learn something every day.
Cooking Without Limits has wonderfully simple vegan recipes, try her Raw Vegan Cheesecake all done in the blender.
That’s as many as I can manage. Apologies to other bloggers that I follow, I have tried to include blogs you may not already be aware of.
This Shake features some of my favourite nutrient-packed fruit: Peruvian Golden Berries and Blueberries.
Golden Berries are regarded by some as one of the Superfoods, being nutritionally dense, and with their sweetly tart flavour they are delicious on their own as a snack, in your breakfast bowl or smoothie. (There is also a recipe for GoGo Berry Fudge on my Raw Treats Recipes page using both Golden and Goji Berries).
Also known as Physalis peruviana, Inca Berry and Cape Gooseberry, Golden Berries are comparatively high in antioxidants, fibre and iron – reportedly, they contain more iron than spinach – as well as protein and Vitamin A, whilst being lower in sugar than other berries.
They contain essential fatty acids that aid in insulin sensitivity and Dr Oz believes Golden Berries also aid in burning fat.*
So here is a recipe for a delicious and nutritious protein-rich thick shake using The Raw Chocolate Company* raw, organic Golden Berries (as I write they are still in the sale). A spoon will be required!
Golden Cacao Shake
(All ingredients are organic where possible, measurements as always approximate).
Ingredients
1 Small Ripe Banana
Handful Blueberries
2 Tbsps Raw Organic Golden Berries*
1 Tbsp Sunflower Seeds
2 Tbsps Gluten-Free Oats
Juice of 2 Apples
2 Tbsps Yogurt of your choice
2 Tbsps Raw Hemp Seeds*
1/2 Tbsp Raw Organic Cacao Powder*
Blend, Sip from a spoon, and be like the funky Jill Scott: Live Your Life Like It’s ‘Golden!’
As the irrespressible James Brown sang, ‘I Feel Good, I Knew That I would!’ (Click the link to see black & white footage of a very energetic performance and you’ll see what I mean).
So, here we are, the end of my Super Juice Challenge following Jason Vale’s SuperJuiceMe! Plan.
Results
I feel alert, energised, my digestion is calmed, I am calm, my aches and pains are calmed, no inclination to snack mindlessly, and I have lost 5lbs – but that was just an added bonus, I was not looking to lose weight.
Plus, despite having to cope with some quite stressful situations, I am the only one in the family not to have caught a cold or cough this month!
There were times when I really wanted to crunch an apple and occasionally I added some ground seeds to a juice, but the Plan allows for occasional SOS additions. Apart from my Bit of a Wobble, I found it easy to get into the routine of it and didn’t have any desire for junk, sweet or savoury treats.
The plan is devised so that every so often you have a sweet, fruity, almond milk smoothie that assuages any craving for something sweet or just different from a juice, and the juices provide all the essential nutrients your body needs.
So no cravings.
Many people ask, so what now?
Well, the first thing is to say what you don’t do: Don’t start planning your next visit to a fast food restaurant! Not that you will want to after any kind or length of juice cleanse. You will find that your tastebuds have been rewired. What you really look forward to is a colourful, crunchy salad or a big, juicy green apple!
Likewise, don’t be persuaded by those around you to go out for a celebratory meal/drink – you will regret it. Your body has just been given a oil change and tune-up and you don’t want to start putting the wrong fuel in!
It is important to ease yourself in gently to eating solid food or your digestion will suffer and you will lose some of the benefits you’ve striven to gain.
Continue having a couple or more juices a day for the first 2 or 3 days at least – I do this normally when I am not juice cleansing anyway – no coffee, alcohol, grains, pasta, meat, dairy.
Eat slowly and mindfully, chew thoroughly, sitting down at the table.
Try to keep eating fresh and raw as much as possible, as many colours as possible on your plate.
My First Post-Juicing Meal on a Plate: Mixed Rocket & Spinach Salad Leaves, Sugar Snap Peas, Mung Bean Sprouts, Carrot, Grapes, Broccoli, Cucumber with Tamari and Olive Oil Dressing
7. If you eat fish, you can then introduce fresh salmon (high in omega oils) or steamed or baked other fish. Light Soups or Baked Sweet Potatoes. Steamed Veg. Stir-Fries
8. Keep grains to every other day to begin with to allow your digestion to get back into the swing of things and to help identify any problem foods.
9. Take note of anything that makes you feel yuck. Anything that makes you feel tired, uncomfortable, bloated, have heartburn or indigestion and cut it out for a while. Try again another time and if the same thing happens, probably avoid.
10. There are several follow-on plans you can use if you need ideas and support: Jason Vale has his 5:2 plan, the Soup’n’Juice Plan and his new Super Fast Food App that has over 100 recipes and the facility to devise your own 7 Day Meal Plan with shopping list provided. See his website for details.*
Here we are, the penultimate day of my Super Juice Fortnight and I don’t want it to end! I am loving the Sweet ‘n’ Smooth Veggie Blend for breakfast (see Jason Vale’s Super Juice Me! Plan*), despite the ever-present parsnip in the list of ingredients – and of course it was very swiftly replaced by a sweet potato!
I am so full of energy and have been very productive, writing new blog posts and recipes, editing old ones, making cards and participating in a Blogging 101 course.
None of the usual January slump.
My brain is firing on all cylinders, I’ve made decisions I’ve been putting off for ages, I am bursting with ideas for writing – my body can’t keep up!
Many people find January a difficult month to do a juice cleanse due to the drop in temperatures, others find it an ideal time after all the Christmas over-indulgence, when they are full of New Year resolve.
Spring isn’t too far away – I have crocuses out already in the third week of January and daffodil buds that have been bursting to open for a couple of weeks now – so if you didn’t manage to join in the January Juicing, but have seen the stunning results achieved by others who have:
Why not plan to do it in February or March?
Here are some tips on how to begin:
Begin by reducing your intake of processed foods, sugar, coffee and alcohol while adding fresh veg and fruit. This will reduce any withdrawal symptoms you might experience in your first few days of a juice cleanse.
At the same time as you are preparing yourself physically, prepare yourself mentally by reading a book or watching a film about juicing and how to go about it.*
Make sure you use a nutritionally-balanced plan.
Buy the best juicer and blender you can afford. Seek the advice of regular juicers, read my reviews and those of other bloggers/consumer sites. If you’re reluctant to splash out until you’ve given it a try, you can often find secondhand juicers at car boot sales and on eBay.
Introduce one juice a day to get into the habit and get used to the preparation, timing and consuming of it.
Find a good local source of organic fruit and veg if possible
There will always be people around you who are sceptical, arm yourself with the knowledge you need to commit to your goal, don’t try to engage them, let them see your results.
If possible, recruit some like-minded friends, or find support online, there are Facebook juicing groups and lots of juicers on Twitter who will provide support and advice.
See your doctor before embarking on a cleanse, have your BP, cholesterol, blood sugar and so on tested, then again later on.
Don’t just weigh yourself, take your measurements too. It is usually these that are the most startling if you need to drop a size or two.
You don’t need to juice just to lose weight. Do it for your health!
You will be so pleased with the improved condition of your skin and your hair, your eyes will shine again, you will have more energy, feel more alert. Many people experience improvements in aches and pains and chronic conditions, including Type 2 diabetes, as well as more balanced hormones and a resetting of your taste buds!
You will discover which foods irritate your digestive system, produce mucous, make you feel tired and which make you feel more alive.
You will be flooding your system with all the nutrients it needs and it will thank you for it!
NB You don’t need to do a cleanse to beenfit from juicing, just adding one green juice a day will make a difference to your health and sense of well-being.
I have one more day of my Super Juicing and I am so looking forward to the shakes for tonight and tomorrow night’s meal – they both have home-made almond milk in them (see Nut Milks, Shakes and Smoothie Recipes). Yum!
You can watch Super Juice Me! The Documentary free on YouTube here:
*Joe Cross’s website also has juicing plans and resources while his film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is another inspirational tool when considering juicing.
How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
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