Tag Archives: hemp

Hemp Butter

The only other kinds of nut or seed butter I have up until now – apart from peanut butter before I went raw – were raw almond butter and raw tahini.  I like both but they are comparatively coarse in texture, certainly not very buttery.  This hemp seed butter, on the other hand, has an amazing silky, muscular texture that half runs, half dollops off the spoon.  It tastes not unsimilar to peanut butter only not so salty.  I keep finding new ways to use it, not just in dips and spreads but in sweet concoctions too.  Hemp packs a big nutritional punch and so this butter is a creamy and tasty way to get my Omega 3 and everything else that hemp delivers.  Besides which, it’s greenish in colour and I can’t help thinking that anything green is good to eat.  With the possible exception of bogies and caterpillars.

Organic Hemp Seed Butter

I like hemp. I like hemp A LOT.

And we all know that hemp is pretty fantastic for us, full of protein and those essential fatty acids.

Despite this, I've never really loved hemp butter, always finding it a bit grainy and not that exciting.

So, I was a little bit dubious before trying this one. This changed as soon as I took the lid off. Creamy and smooth, this organic, slow ground hemp butter drips beautifully off your spoon.

It's amazingly versatile, too! You can spread it on your raw breads and crackers, make into sauces for salads or blend into smoothies. It's also wonderful by the spoonful, of course...this is peanut butter for the super being, I think!

I also used it to make a super quick hemp milk, just by whizzing it up with a cup of water and vanilla powder in the blender - gorgeous !

The only problem I have with this hemp butter is that I'm torn: do I want to devour its dreamy deliciousness all at once, or do I savour it slowly so as to make the jar last as long as possible?

Hemp Butter

Hemp is pretty much perfect. Apart from spirulina and chlorella, to the best of my – albeit relatively limited – knowledge, there are few foods which are as nutritious. Just why is hemp so wonderful? It can grow pretty much anywhere, very easily. Organic hemp is easy to grow since it requires no pesticides. They can make it into paper and fabric. It has ten amino acids, including all the essential ones, and is one of only a few plant foods that do. Perhaps most famously, it contains a perfect Essential Fatty Acid ratio - omega-3:omega-6 balance of 3.75:1 (Official guidelines state we should have 4:1 – hemp comes closest! Olive oil has a ratio of 9:1 and canola or rapeseed oil has a ratio of 2:1). We all know how important EFAs are – the clue is in the name! It’s also high in chlorophyll, vitamin E (which is something I personally tend to be low in), and various minerals.
Hemp comes in various forms – seeds, both hulled and whole (See Raw Magic for more information), oil, and protein powders. Recently I began to use hemp butter, which is a relatively new addition to the market as far as I’m aware. Manitoba Harvest is a great brand, I’ve been using their organic hulled seeds and their protein powder for a while now, so I was excited to give this brand a go!
When you first open the jar, I’ll grant that it does look a little bit... green... but that’s ok! It doesn’t have an overpowering smell at all, and the taste is brilliant – definitely tastes like hemp, which you’d expect, but not in a catches-your-throat kind of way.
So what can you do with hemp butter then? You can use it in any way you’d use any other nut or seed butter – make salad dressings with it, use it as a dip, in a nori or green leaf roll-up, anything you can think of. It would be great for feeding kids at hallowe’en too – naturally green gunge, no artificial colours required! You can also use it in milks or smoothies for added hemp goodness. When you’re travelling or moving – as I am now – you often don’t want to or simply can’t carry powders, oils, seeds and butters with you. This is where hemp comes in great!! It fills all the roles you could possibly want it to in a convenient 283g jar (it’s a bizarrely specific measurement, I know – I assume it has something to do with using American and Metric measurements on the same label).
Raw Magic – I know I constantly mention that book but it’s the recipe book I’ve gotten the most use out of out of any that I’ve ever owned – has lots of recipes which include hemp, my favourite of which is Balance Your Hempispheres Salad which you’ll find on page 130. I made it substituting the illusive hemp oil with olive oil and omitting the sauerkraut because I didn’t have any to hand but it was still amazing – nom nom!!

Jewel Alchemy Lip Gloss

Winter is almost definitely here and for some of us that usually means  dreaded dry skin and chapped lips.  There is nothing more unsexy than rocking a chapped lips look!  Us raw goddesses need to maintain our sexy glow and luscious lips all year round you know...

Well don't fret, help is at hand, (or should that be mouth?), with the gorgeous new range of Lip Glosses available on Raw Living.  I'm all about natural skincare and products so was super excited to see these new glosses on the site.

There are two gorgeous options for you to try, Ripe Rose Geranium and Ripe Ylang Ylang.  Kissing my lips was the magic rose geranium gloss which slides on like a dream, coating your lips in sumptuous flavour (tastes kinda like a sexy turkish delight) and a beautiful rose tint.  Made with the sexiest of ingredients including hemp seed oil, cacao butter, rose essential oil, vitamin E oil and LOVE* (*certified organic) it left my lips feeling super conditioned and moisturised for hours.  I will confess to applying it more than I need to just because I love the taste of it!

Also I think this lip gloss has real magic powers.  The reason being, I always, always lose my lip gloss/salve.  Those little tubes seem to disappear in to the ether or go to lip gloss heaven but thankfully not this one.  Nope, no matter how careless I've been and jet-setting all over the globe this little tube has stayed firmly by my side and never once made a disappearing act!  That's devotion for you...must be the love.

The best bit of all though, was this quote from my husband, "Your lips look delicious." Can't really ask for more than that!

Greener Grass

It took me a while to get round to trying Raw Living's green powder blend, Greener Grass, as I had most of the individual ingredients at home and I didn't think it necessary to buy the blend. Having started including it my diet recently however, I think it ranks among my favourite nutrient-dense food supplements ever. Here we see a wonderful example of how the whole is sometimes greater than the sum of its parts as Miss Magic has once more lived up to her name and created an alchemical mix of superfood and herbal powders that is detoxifying, alkalising, blood building, deeply nourishing and balancing to the mind and emotions.

If there is one type of food that is necessary in today's world, I believe it's these kinds of high quality greens which can help us get many of the trace minerals that are missing from modern foods without having to resort to expensive pills. Greener Grass powder is very easily digested by the body, which many multi vitamin/mineral supplements are not, so you need less to get a beneficial result. Many people in our culture have a highly acidic diet which is lacking in many of the most vital nutrients. Even those of us that eat a well balanced diet high in raw foods can often suffer from the stress that accompanies our modern, fast-paced lifestyles and stress is one of the most acidifying things for our bodies. Stress also depletes magnesium so it's essential that we correct this balance with high magnesium foods like Greener Grass. What's wonderful about Greener Grass is that not only does it help us deal with the damaging effects of stress, it actually prevents it as many of the trace elements it includes help to keep the mind more balanced. I have certainly noticed this effect from taking the powder, much more so than when using any of the individual ingredients separately.

You can enjoy it in a number of ways; stirred into most foods, sprinkled on greens, added to a spouted quinoa and seed salad, mixed into creamy hemp or cashew dressings and blended with raw soups to name but a few. If you're not completely raw, never fear, you can add it to cooked foods too, I've enjoyed it with cooked quinoa and millet, just make sure you add it after cooking so as not to destroy any of the vital nutrients by heating it.

Greener Grass, fresh leaf and sea veg salad with seeds and a lemon and flax dressing.

Greener Grass contains a lovely blend of vitamins, minerals, trace elements and amino acids and the protein in it makes it a great food for vegans. With barley grass, hemp protein, spirulina, he shou wu, purple corn, crystal manna, kelp, crystal salt and a wee kick of chilli it'll get you up and at 'em in no time.

Algae is an ancient food with the memory of the world stored within its simple cells. It offers us these things, simplicity and connection to the world around us when we consume it regularly and with gratitude. To me, Greener Grass is a vital food which keeps me connected to the here and now in a balanced and nourished way. That's why I think the grass is greenest here and now, at least when you have some Greener Grass to sprinkle on your dinner!

With blessings for all that is green and good,

Lucinda x