Monthly Archives: January 2011

It was beautifully sunny earlier this week and I went for a walk on the downs to enjoy the fresh air, blue, blue skies and almost spring like feeling in the air.

I also picked my first wild greens of 2011; some baby cleavers to have with my lunch and some young nettles for adding to my green juice.

This meal took 5 minutes to prepare and was full of vitality and the fresh taste of just picked wild foods combined with Raw Livings wonderful sea vegetables.

The salad itself consisted of young cleavers shoots, rocket leaves and Raw Living's delicious dulse, soaked for a few minutes.

I then mixed a simple dressing of 1 tablespoon tahini with the juice of one lemon, a drizzle of Flax Farm's flaxseed oil and 1/2 teaspoon Raw Living 's blue green algae powder.

Couldn't have been simpler or more yummy!

Irish Sea Spaghetti

That's meant to be a reference from The Little Mermaid, I don't know how obvious it is though.

Anyway!! If you've ever read any of Kate's books - which you should have by now, preferably all of them - you'll know that sea vegetables are to be considered an important part of a balanced raw diet, especially for minerals. If you've been raw for any length of time, you'll know how challenging it can be to get a wide enough variety of sea veg into yourself without getting bored of them - there's only so many ways to roll a nori roll! I know that personally I seldom eat enough sea vegetables, simply because I never really learned what to do with them (probably my own fault in fairness). Tired of surreptitiously snacking on dulse out of my pocket during tutorials, I took the plunge and decided to give sea spaghetti a go!!

Raw Magic boasts a number of recipes for sea spaghetti in various guises, and there's one in Ecstatic Beings too if memory serves me rightly. The simplest one I could find to make was the Spaghetti Goujis, simply because I had all the ingredients to hand. There really only are about five ingredients so it's a really simple recipe to throw together when you get in from work/uni/school/the park and can't be bothered with anything more complex but want something that seems like it took effort.

The recipe says it serves four but there's only one of me unfortunately, so I quartered it but there was still loads! The bowl was quite big and quite full.

The first thing to know about sea spaghetti is that it's more taglietelle shaped than spaghetti but that's just an observation. The texture is much firmer than I expected even after soaking it for a full 24 hours. Very al dente, but once you get over the surprise of that (which isn't a surprise any more since I just told you) it's not unpleasant at all.

It also doesn't taste overly sea-y which you expect it to when you smell the soak water. I'd say with a thicker sauce like some of the other ones in Raw Magic you could actually disguise the taste completely if you wanted to.

It's also been cooked-foodist approved by my flatmate. He's Irish and so is the sea spaghetti so maybe he's biased but he seemed to like it even more than I did, which is encouraging!

So there we have it - cooked foodist friendly, delicious, versatile and good for you. Definitely going to be a kitchen staple from now on!

Alpha Dream Dragon Cream

For a long time I was an avid user and proponent of a certain high-street cosmetics chain which prides itself on being luscious. I had a bad experience with them though, and while my remaining supply of face cream has been running lower and lower I’ve been searching for a replacement which is just as ethical, cheap, effective, and toxin-free – no mean feat, I have to say!

So with that in mind, I have to say that the Alpha Dream Dragon Cream is, well, an absolute dream. It’s completely vegan and not animal tested; the ingredients are all-natural in the truest sense of the word – not a chemical in sight, the ingredients can actually almost all be found in my food cupboard with the exception of the essential oils; and it’s more effective by far than what I was using before; and it works out cheaper than the old! Can’t say fairer than that.

So what’s it actually like then? First impressions are that the jar is small, and that’s true, but it’s packed full of great things, and a little of this stuff goes a long way. I’ve been using it every day for over a week now and you can barely tell it’s been used at all. The smell is amazing – cacao butter central – but not overpowering and once it’s been on for a minute the smell is gone, which is great if you’re using other scents or you don’t want to smell like a chocolate bar all day. Going on it feels quite greasy and at first that can be off-putting, but it sinks in very quickly and leaves no shiny residue all over your face, which is brilliant. The hemp oil with its Omega oils is great for your skin, especially dry skin, and the MSM provides sulphur which most people are severely lacking in – feeding your skin from the outside, essentially!

I have to say I’m very, very impressed overall with this cream, it will definitely be a bathroom cabinet staple from now on!

SuperMagic

Just when I thought no chocolate bar on the planet would come close to my favourite Lucky Me bar, she's gone and done it again!  Yep, Miss Magic has waved her magic chocolate wand and created a new chocolate bar creation even more delicious than is scienterrifically possible!

The new SuperMagic is like a raw version of a Double Decker bar (are they still on the go?), not in taste (it's way better than that), but in concept.  This lastest bar is a fabulous fusion of a Be the Change chocolate bar and a Truth chocolate bar in one. Check it out:

These two bars brought together create a fabulously rich and creamy chocolate experience guaranteed to send you to the chocolate dimension.  I love how well the flavours combine and melt together and because you're effectively eating two bars in one, you get double the superfood benefits with a heady combo of Etherium Gold, Crystal Manna, Mucuna and Aulterra, quite a potent punch I'm sure you'll agree!

The even better news is that this is a King-sized bar, fit for a chocolate queen coming in at a chocolate-lover satisfying 50g.  I even had enough left over for the next day!

I highly recommend this bar.  Get some!  Get some now!

Following on from my earlier blog about blackcurrant powder, I thought I'd share another wee recipe I've made using this marvellously fruity curranty mix

Blackcurrant Milkshake

Serves 2

3 cups of hemp milk (you can use whatever milk you prefer)

1 TBSP blackcurrant powder

1 TBSP lecithin

1 TBSP lucuma

1 tsp vanilla powder

1 tsp purple corn

1 TBSP sweetner of choice (honey, agave, xylitol)

Blend and enjoy whilst marvelling at how purple it all is :)

Rawtella

When I was in my sixth year at high school, every single day after school me and a couple of friends would go to my best friend Jo's house (she's still my best friend...actually, all my friends are the best).  As soon as we walked in the door we'd go straight to the kitchen and get out a loaf of bread and the mammoth jar of nutella.  I think I'd average between 4 and 6 pieces of toast and nutella every day!  I was a hardened nutella addict!

Unfortunately, the real Nutella is jam-packed with quite a few less than healthy ingredients including refined white sugar, a whopping 55% of the entire ingredients, vegetable oil (and I'm not talking from a carrot), hazelnuts (hooray) making up 13%, cocoa, a teeny toaty 7% (hello? chocolate spread?) and other paraphenalia not even worth mentioning including artifical vanilla flavouring...ok so I did mention it.

Thankfully, Raw Living have brought to our wonderful selves a brand new healthy raw vegan, nutella reminiscent, chocolatey spread made using but the finest of ingredients of course.  It's called Rawtella (naturally).  The producers combine soaked and dehydrated organic hazelnuts and stone-grind them with organic cacao nibs and coconut crystals for a sumptuous spread you will become addicted to!  Oh yes you will...

The amazing news (as if you could get any more amazing than a healthy chocolate spread) is that it won't affect your sugar levels as it's made with coconut sugar, a low glycemic sweetener.

If you're stuck for ideas on what to do with it (?) then you'll be pleased to hear there are many uses as suggested by Raw Living:

• Ice cream topping
• Spread over berries, figs and other fruits
• Delicious inside crepes
• Spread over croissants
• Instant hot chocolate! - Simply add 1 heaping tablespoon of Rawtella to 1 cup hot water.  Stir well and enjoy!
• Perfect for chocolate fondue
• Or, just eat it straight from the jar off the spoon!

I have to say I opted mainly for the last one.  In fact, entirely.  Jar, spoon, gob, in that order and very enjoyable it was too!  Once you've tasted it, it's very difficult to fight the overwhelming compulsion to keep going back to the jar for another spoonful of the dreamy, creamy, melt in your mouth, chocolatey goodness.

Although more expensive than your usual run of the mill chocolate spread (coming in at a whopping £12.95 a jar) I can say that it's worth the price for the indulgent experience.

Given the price I'm more likely to save it for extra special occasions - if nothing else for fear of being locked away in a rehab for rawtella addicts!

Blackcurrant Powder

The following is a true story, names have not been changed to protect the ecstatic!

I was reading the Donna Gates Body Ecology book the other day and it was talking about things to eat to combat candida.  If you haven't already read the book it recommends cutting out sweet fruits with the exception of lemons, limes, cranberries and blackcurrants.  So I thought to myself, the last time I had blackcurrants was in a carton of Ribena about ten years ago, how on earth will I find any blackcurrants?  I don't think I've even seen a real-life blackcurrant since I was a little girl!  Raw Living to the rescue (I swear I manifested this) with their magical blackcurrant powder!