Monthly Archives: September 2010

Wild Orange Blossom Honey

Raw Living’s raw orange blossom honey is simply divine. When I got my delivery I couldn’t wait to open it up, first things first... Put my finger in and........ yum! I don’t usually stick my finger in honey pots but this honey tastes like no other. It’s solid in the jar and melts in the mouth. With a subtle hint of orange it is very morish. My favourite way of eating it is to get a Brazil nut, dip it in the pot, scoop out a lashing of honey and pop it in my little mouth.
I’m sure you are aware that bees are dying off! We need to do our best to keep this from happening as bees keep our agriculture alive. Without bees we wouldn’t be able to pollinate crops. Buying raw helps provide a good life for free-range bees that are not treated badly for their precious honey. Raw honey provides good quality, enzyme-rich, medicinal, powerful food. David Wolfe raves about honey and the medicinal properties of honey; buying raw guarantees you that quality. There have been strong supportive scientific studies conducted on the different types of honey collected and the different medicinal qualities they provide for different ailments.
Raw Living’s honey is such good value at £5.99 a jar! Practically the same for a high street jar of honey. They also sell heather, chestnut and multifloral honey.
I am now hooked on honey – raw of course....

Vanilla Powder

Autumn days are upon us again. Clear crisp mornings with bright blue skies and a chill in the air that tingles your cheeks, there is much to love about the changing season. As the mornings get cooler, I've started to add a few more warming ingredients into my morning smoothies, one of which is this delicious vanilla powder.

I always remember as a child thinking that vanilla was the 'plain' flavour. Vanilla ice cream or mousse didn't really taste of much. What a surprise it was to discover in later years that vanilla is incredibly flavourful - rich, deep, aromatic and comforting, this is a spice you want to have in your cupboards, especially at this time of year.

After saffron, vanilla is the world's most expensive spice and comes from the seed pods of beautiful tropical orchids. These days, vanilla is mainly known as a flavouring in foods but it also has a long history of use in herbal medicine, primarily as an aphrodisiac. In fact, early reports suggested it had the ability to turn men into extraordinary lovers! Anyone willing to test that out? It's also a helpful aid to digestion, being warming and mildly stimulating, and contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.

For me, vanilla is one of the feel good herbs like rose, cinnamon and chocolate and it combines well with all of these. In aromatherapy, the essential oil is often referred to as a 'hug in a bottle' and that's a perfect description of it's effect, comforting and warm yet with a little spicy kick to get you moving. It's also been used to treat gloom and mild depression because of it's uplifting effects.

I used to use the inside of the dried vanilla pods or a homemade vanilla extract but this powder is much easier and more convenient and doesn't have the alcohol content of the extract. It's delicious in raw cookies, cakes and chocolate or try it in a lovely shake like the one below which contains almond milk, half a teaspoon vanilla powder, half a teaspoon cardamom powder, a date and a heaped teaspoon carob powder. Perfect for lazy autumn mornings.

Gone Nuts

Gone nuts products are definitely nutty!
The nuts are gently air dried to preserve their freshness AND rawness, not cooked like commercial nuts are.
I had Cilantro which is a spicy lime tasting flavour and spicy chipotle which will blow your taste buds' mind! They both contained Pistachios and the lime one contained sprouted seeds, both with lots of yummy spices.
The chipotle flavour reminded me of barbeque flavour nuts with a spicy kick. I loved the way they formed little clusters within the pack making them nice and crunchy. The lime flavour was milder and reminded me of summer and mojitos!! They were so tasty me and my little boy had eaten them within two days.
Oscar’s favourite was the chipotle flavour (he has advanced tastes for a two year old). I loved both flavours as they are both so different to each other, and it was really handy have a bag that you could just take around with you. As Oscar is such a big eater it is good to know I have something he really like and which is raw that he can snack on whilst we are out and about. I even converted some cooked fooders who couldn’t believe they were raw!!

Be Real

You know what I missed the most since going raw? Cereal!  A lovely big bowl of crunchy cereal with lashings of cold milk.  That was my fave comfort food since as far back as I can remember.  Any kind of cereal would do as long as there was lots of it.  Of course, when I went raw I knew I could make my own style granola but to be honest it just didn't cut the cereal mustard.

Imagine my delight when Kate mentioned she was working on a raw cereal range?  I couldn't wait to get my greedy little hands on the new Be Real!  I ordered all three varieties, Be Bright, Be Good and Be Happy.  All are made using sprouted buckwheat, berries and superfoods.  Be Bright is strawberry and coconut, Be Good is chocolate and mulberry and Be Happy is goji and orange.  Talk about the best combination of flavours ever! These are just delicious with a lovely hemp or almond milk topped with fresh berries.

There's little surprise in my household that Be Good is my all time fave, being lovely and chocolatey.  I love how filling these cereals are which is surprising because unlike your typical home-made granola these are very light and easy on the digestion - ooh, did I mention they have probiotics?  :)

These are fabby to have in the cupboard, not only guaranteed to make your breakfast extra special but to satisfy that mid-afternoon or evening snack attack!