Category: Raw

Green Goodness

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So at the end of the week, I like to round up a whole lot of green stuff and make a pesto sauce with it. It’s an absolute gem to have in the fridge for the week, and doubles as a salad dressing, pasta sauce, sandwich filling, dip, cracker spread and soup stir-through.

sauce

There really is no recipe, but I want to share the idea because its a great way to boost your raw vegetable intake with minimum effort!

I literally gather up whatever leafy greens I have plenty of, add some fresh herbs, cashew nuts, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, water, and blend it all until it’s smooth. It keeps in the fridge for about 5 days, and if I make an extra big batch I freeze some.

This emerald-green pot of goodness was made with about 6 silver beet leaves, 2 big handfuls of rocket (I’ve been clearing out my vegetable garden for spring-yay!), a few sprigs of parsley, mint and coriander, juice of a lemon, 1/3 cup raw cashew nuts, about a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of salt and enough water to get a good consistency.

You can use any greens; kale and spinach are also good, and you can mix the flavour up with garlic and different herbs or nuts. Give it a go-you won’t know how you lived without it!

Keep-me-going slice

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I love that this slice has enough protein to keep me full for ages, but lots of other good stuff too: oats for fibre and slow release carbs, fresh fruit, and enough sweetness to satisfy the 3pm slump. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe, so feel free to change up the nut butters and fruit toppings.

raspberry slice

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup nut butter (I used 50/50 peanut and cashew)

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup rice syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup fruit (I used frozen raspberries)

2 tablespoons coconut butter (or oil, but makes the topping less creamy)

1-2 tablespoons maple syrup

 

Blitz the oats in a blender until they are fine crumbs. Add the coconut, nut butter, coconut oil, rice syrup and vanilla, mix, and press into a tin. Sprinkle the fruit over the top.

Gently melt the coconut butter and maple syrup, and drizzle over the top.

Refrigerate for an hour or 2.

 

 

Happiness in a glass

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Needing an afternoon pick-me-up today (it’s hump hour of hump week!) I threw a few goodies in the blender and was pretty stoked with what came out. This little ray of sunshine contains a glass of almond milk; handful each of silverbeet leaves and frozen berries; a splash of vanilla essence and maple syrup; and a teaspoonful each of peanut butter and cacao powder. 30 seconds on high speed and voila!

smoothie

 

Vege night Friday!

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Saturday morning is when I stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables at the local Farmer’s market, which means Friday is the night to use up all the old vegetables that are languishing in the fridge to make room for the new guard.

To be fair though, there was nothing sad or floppy about tonight’s offerings. Literally a toss-together of whatever I could find, this little beauty was a combination of half a bag of baby spinach, capsicum, spring onion, fennel, grated carrot, radish, sliced apple, steamed green beans and grilled cauliflower and broccoli. To elevate it to the next level I tossed through a handful of crumbled blue cheese and toasted walnuts, and added a diner’s choice of either grilled haloumi  or tempeh and a slice of wholemeal sourdough.

Not bad for a Friday night, and no fish and chip hangover tomorrow morning!

salad

When you’re eating clean but need dessert now!

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Finished dinner, still a bit hungry, feel like something sweet…but am eating a vegan diet. Fruit salad won’t cut it tonight. Should I cheat and have some chocolate? What can I make that will be ready in 5 minutes, be raw and vegan, but still satisfy my sweet craving?

This was my conundrum last night, and this is the invention that necessity was the mother of. Creamy caramel pudding with fresh banana; tasty, velvety, and oh so filling!

caramel pud

 

1/2 cup raw cashews

1.5 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon lucuma powder

1-2 tablespoons rice syrup/maple syrup (to taste)

1 banana

Extra maple syrup for drizzling

 

Blitz half the banana with all the other ingredients (except the extra syrup) in a blender until really smooth and creamy. Share it between 2 bowls. Slice the remaining banana over the top of the pudding, and if desired, drizzle over a bit of extra maple syrup and maybe shake some more cinnamon over the top.

This recipe is not technically raw if using maple syrup, which doesn’t bother me as it’s still a natural wholefood, but you could make it raw by substituting raw honey or rice syrup. Don’t worry if you don’t have lucuma; it adds a nice caramel flavour but won’t make a big difference if it’s not in there.

 

5+ a day? No way!

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As a keen runner, walker, swimmer and yogi, having to spend 4 weeks in a moon boot with no chance for physical activity at all has meant that I’ve had to be very creative and disciplined with my diet! One thing that I wanted to improve was my vegetable intake. I just don’t believe that the World Health Organisation’s target of 5+ servings a day is adequate for good health. The research is beginning to back this up; see this article from The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10735633/Healthy-diet-means-10-portions-of-fruit-and-vegetables-per-day-not-five.html

I spent a bit of time researching various food trends, and one that got my interest is the Alkaline Diet. Eating food that is alkalinsing for the body is touted to have plenty of health benefits, especially for autoimmune diseases like RA, so I decided to give it a go. Like any food fad, you can do it moderately or go the extreme way. With a busy job and family, I opted to ease into the diet and pick out the bits that appealed to me.

So the most basic and important and part of eating alkaline is to make 75% of your daily intake fresh, preferably raw fruit and vegetables. The other 25% should be made up of alkaline foods, but I kind of figured that any treats could come under the 25% allowance too! So basically my plan was to eat at least 7 cups of veges a day, and cut down on everything else.

At first it sounded daunting, but the first step was to go to the local market and get a huge variety of fresh vegetables. With my fridge chock-full of all that crunchy fresh goodness, getting inspired wasn’t a problem.

The first thing I did was approach meals differently, so rather than plan how to include fresh vegetables in my meal, I planned how to make it with vegetables and accent it with a small amount of protein or grains. I tried to eat only as much wheat as other grains, and keep dairy to a minimum. I included small amounts of fish and free range chicken, but avoided red meat as it is highly acidic.

Some clever tips and swaps I have discovered have been:

  • Swap a bread wrap with an iceberg lettuce leaf to make a lunch wrap entirely raw. A bit of hummus or home made aioli adds protein
  • Swap pasta/rice/noodles for spinach. It works! One night the kids made nachos, and I spooned some bean mixture over chopped raw spinach. It was delicious and surprisingly filling!
  • Get vegetables in at every opportunity. A vege juice first thing in the morning, carrot sticks with hummus for morning tea, salad wrap for lunch, avocado and tomato for afternoon tea, and a salad for dinner easily adds up to 7 cups
  • Use less alkalising food as an accent, not the main event. So a few bites of chicken could liven up a curry, while only making up about 5% of it rather than being the main ingredient. A couple of slices of haloumi can lift a vege platter to a new level!
  • Legumes are your friend. Sometimes it feels like vegetables alone just will not fill you up, so a handful of chickpeas, a spoonful of bean salad, a blob of hummus or a couple of falafel can give you the protein you need for satiety
  • Be creative about making snacks vege-based. I have been snacking on beetroot chips, sliced red capsicum, carrot sticks, kale chips and avocado
  • I know it’s become a bit of a cliche, but cauliflower makes an excellent substitute for rice, bread, and potato. Here’s some delicious cauliflower pizzas I made topped with fresh vegetables (and cheese for the kids). Let me know if you’d like the recipe.

The hard-core Alkaline people get technical about food combining and ph levels, and I’m sure that you would get even more health benefits from following all the rules. But for now, I’m happy to be serving more fresh vegetables to my family and using nature’s bounty as the basis of all my meals.

Post run treat that you won’t regret eating

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When I was a kid, Saturday mornings used to revolve around the local Harrier club. Groups of like-minded runners would get together and go for social (or not so social) training runs around the hills of Wellington. Pity the poor parent who had to take a gaggle of kids out in the wind and rain (which in my memory there always was).

But my main memory of those Saturday mornings was the cups of tea and peanut slabs enjoyed by all the grown-ups afterwards while they stood around and talked. Fast forward a few years, and I still get the peanut slab cravings after a long run or ride. I thought I’d better come up with a more nutritious way to get that peanut-chocolate hit without the sugar rush that comes with a chocolate bar, so here it is. You’ll be pleased to know it still goes well with a cup of tea.

peanut-slab

Base

2 tablespoons rice syrup/maple syrup

3 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon coconut oil

3/4 cup almond meal

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

 

Caramel peanut topping

3 tablespoons rice syrup

4 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

6 -8 dates, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes

1/2 teaspoon seasalt

3/4 cup raw peanuts

100 grams good quality 70% dark chocolate

 

To make the base, gently melt all the wet ingredients together. Pulse the oats in a blender until fine, the add to the wet mix with the rest of the dry ingredients. Press into a silicone or baking paper-lined loaf tin and put in the fridge to set.

To make the topping, put all the ingredients except the peanuts and chocolate into a blender and blend until whipped and smooth. Spread over the top of the base. Toast the peanuts in a frying pan over medium heat until lightly browned, then sprinkle and press these into the caramel topping. Finally, melt the chocolate and drizzle of the top. Put in the freezer to set.

You could modify this recipe if you prefer it to be all raw; just make your own chocolate topping from roughly even amounts of coconut oil, cacao powder, and maple syrup. Adjust to taste.

Or, for an even more decadent treat, use twice the amount of chocolate, and dip cut bars into it so they are completely chocolate coated.

 

 

 

 

Healthy bounty bars

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Plenty of people have tried to come up with a cleaner version of the classic Bounty Bar. Here’s my take for all the coconut lovers:

bounty

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste

1 tablespoon coconut flour

3 tablespoons cacao butter

2-3 tablespoons rice syrup according to taste

1/4 cup cacao powder

 

Blend the coconut, oil, vanilla and coconut flour in a high speed blender until it forms a sticky mixture. Roll into balls or bars and refrigerate for at least half an hour until cold.

Gently heat the cacao butter, rice syrup and cacao powder in a small saucepan until melted and smooth. Dip the coconut balls into the chocolate to coat, then return to the refrigerator to set.

Makes about 7-8 little balls or bars.

 

 

 

Raw peppermint slice

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I have one child who just loves peppermint slice; you know, the recipe with the sugar and butter filled base and 2 layers of icing? I told him if he could find a raw alternative, I would make it, and he came up with this in the blink of an eye. I found the base to be a bit dry so added a tablespoon of melted coconut oil, and needed to up the peppermint essence significantly, but I think I’ll be returning to this lovely recipe from Wholefood Simply. 

peppermint slice