Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

BISCUIT BASE
2 cups buckwheaties (dehydrated buckwheat sprouts)
3/4 cup coconut oil
pinch sea salt
2 tsp lucuma or mesquite meal
squirt agave syrup

Melt the coconut oil in a pot by swirling it just above the flame until melted. Don't let it sizzle or burn.
Put all the dry ingredients into the food processor. Turn it on and pour in the coconut oil. Add a little agave to help it bind. You will have a loosely held together crumble mix. Press into a pie case and smooth out. Sit in the fridge.

FILLING
1 cup mixed dates and apricots
1 cup mixed coconut and sunflower seeds
2 tsp cacao
1 tsp agave or honey
1 drop mint essence

Soak the fruit in warm water for a few minutes to soften.
Put the dry ingredients into the food processor. Drop in the fruit and add a little honey or agave to bring it together. Roll out the 'fudge' mixture into a circle to fit over your biscuit base. You may only need to use half of the mixture. You can make fudge balls with the leftovers!

CHOCOLATE TOPPING

1/2 cup cacao butter, grated
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 cup cacao powder
2 tablespoons mesquite or carob or lucuma

Make a bain marie (sit a glass bowl in a pan of simmering water so that the glass bowl is held by the sides but does not touch the water) and melt the butters. Stir in the cacao powder and mesquite or carob or lucuma. Check for sweetness, add a little agave if you like but I like the chocolate topping to be a little bitter as the rest of the cheesecake is quite sweet.

Pour the melted chocolate over the pie filling and let it set in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then, you can transfer the pie to the fridge as you don't want the base and filling to freeze solid.

Great for a special occasion. Enjoy!

Ps, Alternatively, you can add the mint essence to the chocolate topping as opposed to the filling.

Banana Crepe or Pancake

I made these first thing this morning so they were ready by mid morning. They are delicously light yet satisfying. Put your favourite fillings into them and enjoy.

4 large bananas
1 cup flaxseed, ground
1 tsp ginger spice
pinch sea salt

Process in a food processor until you have a creamy batter. Take a tablespoonful or the mixture and make circular crepes, spreading out thinly. Dry on the teflex sheet at 145 for an hour then flip over and continue drying at 145 for another hour. They may be ready now. If not, turn dryer down and continue drying until completely pliable and dry. Fill with your favourite raw fruit jam.

Raw Chocolate Orange Cake

This is a delicious chocolate orange cake which is quite mousse like. You can double the cacao butter if you want it to be richer and more solid but I like to keep the fat down this time of year.

1/2 cup cacao butter, melted
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup goji berries
2 medjool dates
1 orange rind
1 tsp purple corn extract
2 tsp maca
1/2 cup cacao powder
1 tablespoon hemp protein powder
dash sea salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
dash chilli powder
vanilla (opt)
1 1/2- 2 cups water

Melt the cacao butter or warm to soften by putting in a glass bowl over a pot of hot water. Put the blueberries, gojis and other ingredients into a vitamix, except the cacao. Add 1 and 1/2 cups water to get going. Add in the cacao with the mixer running and pour in the cacao butter. Add a little extra water if you need to.
Line a bowl or dish with plastic food wrap and pour in the chocolate mixture. Cover and allow to set in the fridge. Turn out onto a plate and decorate with fresh fruits in season. You can keep this cake in the fridge and just thaw out a piece when you want it. Enjoy! It really is delicious.

Glorious Muesli

1 cup goji berries
1 cup dried coconut
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates or apricots
1/2 cup hemp seeds or pumpkins
1/2 cup of buckwheates or crushed flax crackers

Mix together in a bowl and store in an airtight container. To serve, make up any seed or nut milk and pour over the muesli, top with fresh blueberries and strawberries (opt)

Delicious!

The Cost of Tradition

It seems that there is a great trend here in Britain to keep to tradition. I wonder at the cost this view is having on environmental issues and animal welfare. On the one hand, we have people saying it's okay to eat the animals as long as they have a good life, albeit short. Given the choice, would these people prefer a short happy life or a long happy life? Such a contradiction.

We may also need to address how we celebrate things like Christmas, Thanksgiving day and Easter. In this modern age, is it still right to be breeding millions of turkeys just so we can dish it up at the table on the said day? As the level of consciousness grows amongst the population, it may be time to start asking these kind of questions and really looking at what we are doing for the sake of tradition!

Broccoli Tomato Soup

It's been a while since I had a nice soup but I made this today and really enjoyed it.

2 large tomatoes
3 large broccoli florets
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp agave syrup or 1 date
1/4 tsp sea salt

Lovely served over grated zucchini and nori strips. Yum.

Delicious Seed Pate

This is a lovely pate to have in the fridge to dip your crackers or vegetable in any time.

1/2 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds or mix.
1/2 red bell or yellow bell pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
juice 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp sea salt

Blend the above with water up to the same amount as the ingredients in the blender. Pour into a jar and allow to thicken in the fridge.

Raw Intelligence

Well, all I can say is that when you are raw, the body sometimes does it's own thing and you (the ego) have no control over it. We're moving towards a full moon and the equinox all in the same week and there is strong expanding energy influences. This has affected me in the last week with a strong cleanse, where I have been put in the position of resting and juicing with frequent trips to the bathroom. I'm beginning to feel stronger now but am going slowly with food. This kind of thing also happened around the same time last year and the year before, in fact probably every springtime since being raw. So, if you're feeling a little out of sorts at this time, don't despair. It's just the raw intelligence of your body at work. Take it easy and enjoy some invaluable 'me' time.

Breakfast at New Moon

This morning I hopped out of bed and immediately started eating blueberries. I normally get up and have hot water and lemon/ginger but today I just wanted to eat.
Whether it's because we have a new moon tonight or not I don't know but the last few days I've been eating a little more. I followed the berries with some rich chocolate milk (recipe on the previous posting.) Delicious and filling until lunchtime. Eating lightly for lunch as I'll be doing a liver flush later tonight.

Rich Chocolate Milk

I made this today and it was delicious. I think the combo of maca, mesquite and cacao make it uniquely rich and flavoursome.

Milk
1/2 - 1 cup almonds, soaked
3 x the amount of almonds you use as water eg. 3 cups water to 1 cup of almonds

Blend up the nuts and water. Strain the mixture and pour the milk back into the blender. Add in the following:-

1 tablespoon cacao powder
3 tsp maca powder
3 tsp mesquite powder
1 handful raisins dried
1 inch of vanilla bean
pinch sea salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp mixed spice (opt)
pinch cayenne

Chocolate Truffles

I've been making these the last couple of days. Yum.

The ones in the picture have raspberry added.

1 cup soaked dried fruit (figs, apricots, raisins)
1/2 cup cacao powder
2 tablespoons coconut or sesame seed
cacao for rolling in

Only soak fruit for about 5 minutes. Strain the water. Add all the dry ingredients to the food processor. Run the processor and drop the fruit in a little at a time.
Process until you have a sticky dough. Take small pieces and roll into balls, dip in cacao powder.

Springtime cleansing

Well, it's March now and the nights are getting a bit longer each day as we move toward the spring equinox on the 21st of the month.

It always amazes me how the body just starts to do it's own thing around this time of year with liver cleansing in mind. Desire for food is less and there's a move towards eating nice light fruits and salad even although it is still a bit cool. Seeds and nuts are minimised as the body adjust to a lighter cleansing diet.

I also enjoy saunas this time of year and especially infra red at the moment as it's like getting sunshine into the body when there may be snow and hail outside.

Useful tips for cleansing the body of it's winter excesses is to do the following.

Take lemon/ginger water in the morning with a little honey.
Follow an hour later with a teaspoon of milk thistle seeds sucked and chewed.

Then have a nice light breakfast of juicy fruit like blueberries, strawberries or apples. If you prefer have a smoothie.

For lunch, have a nice kale salad with onion, corn, courgette and carrot. some grated beet is good too and good for the liver. A light dressing of flax oil and lemon juice is good with some pressed garlic. A soup is a good option too as you may find salad and fruit a little cooling.

I made a really nice noodle soup yesterday which I enjoyed eating with chopsticks.

NOODLE SOUP

1 courgette, 1/2 of which is grated
1 large tomato
1 tsp slippery elm or flax seed
1 tsp miso
knob of ginger
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
pinch turmeric
sea salt
sea spaghetti or thongweed or strip of nori

Half the courgette and grate half of it and place in your soup bowl. In another bowl put a handful of sea spaghetti and 1/2 chopped onion in it. Pour on just boiled water to blanch. After 5 minutes strain the liquid from the sea veg into your blender and add the other half of the courgette with the tomato, herbs, spices, elm powderand miso with enough warm water to cover. Blend until smooth. Pour over the grated courgette, blanched sea spaghetti and onion. Eat with chopsticks for fun.

Super Smoothie

If you want a smoothie that fills you up for a while, this is it.

1 cup strawberries
1 banana
handful goji berries
2 tsp maca
2 tsp cacao
1 tsp bee pollen
1/2 tsp spirulina
pinch sea salt
pinch cayenne
1 tsp coconut oil (opt)

Place ingredients into a blender and pour cold or warm water to the level of the food. Blend until smooth. Add more water if you want it thinner. Enjoy. There's so much nutrition in this smoothie, it is filling.

Apple/banana cookies without seeds/nuts

Made up some apple banana cookies today as it was raining and I like doing things like that on a rainy day.

2 apples
2 bananas
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (made from ground sprouted and dried buckwheat)
1 tablespoon coconut (okay just a little nut for taste and flavour)
1 tablespoon of hemp protein powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 tsp dried ginger
1 tsp maca powder
pinch salt
1/2 tsp spirulina (opt) makes cookies green in colour!

Process all the above in a food processor. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and place on a teflex sheet. Dehydrate for 2-3 hours at 145 turning over halfway.

Keeping Warm

I was feeling pretty cold today as the weather has been non-stop heavy rain and being the middle of February, pretty cold winds too. I had been eating small amounts of fruit and a vegetable mix. When I had some chocolate I got a little warmer. It wasn't until I had my rich spicy tomato soup that I truly warmed up. Here is the recipe if you need to warm your bones wherever you are.

2 large tomatoes
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 courgette
1 teaspoon coconut oil
2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp turmeric
knob ginger
a couple of slices of onion
1 tsp unpasteurized miso
dash sea salt or to taste
pinch cayenne

Put ingredients into a blender and add warm water to the same level as the veggies. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Chocolate Cake

There's something about Sunday that makes you want to relax and almost imitate the coffee/cafe culture/newspaper in hand kind of day. I thought I would attempt a chocolate cake. I was following a recipe I saw on youtube that seemed simple but wanted to change a few ingredients so it wasn't so nutty. Instead of cashews I used coconut. I also used a little less dried fruit as we don't like things too sweet.
As I went along I really had to adapt the whole thing. In the video they put the ingredients into a vitamix but I knew from experience this wasn't going to work (in the US they seems to have wider jugs). I processed the ingredients in my food processor instead and then blended up a little of the mixture in the vitamix into a sauce to stir through the processed mixture. All in all, I will do my own thing next time but it introduced me to making raw cake so that it comes out like solid chocolate and you can actually cut a nice triangular piece.
raw chocolate cake

Winter Into Spring

It's been a cold winter but at last the snowdrops are here and the crocuses and daffodils are showing face. The sun has been out for the last few days too making the it almost seem like summer with the way the light is getting stronger. This morning however, I woke up to a very frosty and cold misty day.

I put on the flax crackers straight away so they should be ready early evening. For breakfast I had an apple followed by pear and banana custard. For lunch I made a zucchini, carrot and yellow pepper salad, sprinkled with some savoury pumpkin seeds that come out just like roasted seeds. I have also had a few chocolate hearts (well, just preparing for Valentines Day).

I have spent some time getting a slideshow onto this page for you to view my recipe pictures. Some of these recipes will be in my raw food recipe book, due out at the end of March.