Tag Archives: Kate Magic

Raw Living

When I first went raw almost two years ago, I really had no idea where to start. I had read about the benefits of raw food on several websites but it wasn't until I started to delve deeper that I began to understand the philosophy behind it. Raw food is simply about getting back to nature and eating whole foods in their natural form. This way, you consume the maximum amount of nutrients and enzymes and gain maximum energy. And quite honestly, who doesn't want more energy?!

I have always loved food. Even before I started eating more raw food, I would often find myself spending hours in the kitchen coming up with new creations and more often than not, you'll find me drooling over a recipe book of some kind. So when I got asked to review Raw Living by Kate Wood, I jumped at the chance. Kate has been living the raw lifestyle for nearly 20 years and has raised her three sons as raw vegans (which let's be honest is no easy feat!). What I love about the book is that it very much caters to the mum who wants to feed her children super healthy food but doesn't have the first idea of where to start. We all have limited time these days and Kate makes it as easy as possible for you to transition to eating a superior diet packed full of foods with higher nutritional profiles than we are used to. The very first chapter is choc-a-block with info on how to feed your kids, your (possibly fussy) partner, how to cater for kids parties as well as laying out some sample menu plans for you to use for meal planning. Good start to a book I say! So, on to the recipes.

The first thing I made was Beetroot soup. I made this because this is a challenge for me. Not the making but the eating. I don't mind beetroot grated in a salad or in a juice but the idea of beetroot soup doesn't appeal so I was intrigued to taste it and be converted. Fortunately it was a winner and super tasty so I can give this a big thumbs up. The other ingredients used in the recipe really disguises the earthier taste of the beet.

There are literally dozens of suggestions of soups, breads, cakes, crackers, dips, snacks and breakfast recipes. I also really enjoyed the Spinach and Mushroom Quiche, Mediterranean Stuffed Tomatoes, Coriander wraps and Love Burgers to name a few.

One of the easiest ways to get friends and family into eating more living food is by introducing them to raw desserts. Most desserts can be made easily in 10 minutes by combining some nuts, dried fruit or sweetener, flavouring and some kind of fat like coconut butter or cacao butter. The person you are feeding won't know it's raw unless you tell them! And when you do, they'll have a hard time getting their head around the fact that it has no eggs, white sugar or flour!

Next, I made the Superfood 'Cookie Dough' Balls from the guest recipe section only rather than roll balls, I made one big cake. This tasted good and was inhaled rather quickly by my hungry brother!

If getting started with raw food, I recommend you have some raw recipe books on hand because if you're not sure how to create meals from scratch, you'll end up staring into your fridge wondering how to put all the delicious living foods together that you've just gone and bought. Trust me on this one - I have heard it hundreds of times!

Having a plan of what you're going to eat and having recipes to stick to can make the difference between whether you succeed and experience the benefits with the raw food diet or get stuck on eating the same thing and getting bored. So if you don't have a recipe book yet, or want to add to your collection, I recommend buying Raw Living by the lovely Kate Wood.

I taught the first 25 hour course in Goa in January, and it went very well, better than I had hoped. Initially, I was worried about teaching for that long (would I run out of things to say?!), but in actuality I found it easier to teach over a longer period than I do a shorter period. It meant we could fully get to grips with the material, without rushing through things, trying to fit them in. Plus, I think what is just as important on the course as the material, is the opportunity to connect with other like-minded people on the same path. We had a gorgeous group of people in Goa, and the opportunity to connect and build friendships is even greater over a week than it is when we are just meeting for a day. We had two couples come out of our Goa retreat, and I, for one, made a few new best friends.

So here's the lowdown, and I hope you can join me either in Iceland in April, or in Turkey in May. If you're looking to share raw foods professionally, either as a chef, or educator, or as an adjunct to your existing work as a yoga teacher, naturopath or motivational coach, for example, I can truly think of no better way to steep yourself in the information you need to set you on your path. It's an exciting time for raw foods, but the movement will only gather pace if people are sharing the correct information, and coming from a centred and stable place with the diet. I'm confident that I can point you in the right direction, so you can set sail on the good ship Raw Magic for all the adventures your heart desires, without fear of shipwreck!

Raw Magic in Iceland runs from April 23rd-27^th . It’s £320 (61,000 Kr) Special Early Bird Price available until 1^st March 2012. From March 1^st the price will go up to £350 (67,000 Kr). For two people booking together the price will remain £320 (61,000 Kr) each.

Raw Magic in Turkey is on from May 21^st-25^th.   The Special Early Bird Price is £275 (800 TL) and it’s available until 1^st March 2012. From March 1^st the price will go up to £300 (900 TL). For two people booking together the price will remain £275 (800 TL) each.

We can give you the option to pay in instalments. We require £100 non-refundable deposit, and require payment in full before the course starts. There is a £10 admin fee if you choose this option.

Online booking is available at http://www.rawliving.eu/

If you want to put down an initial deposit email melissa@rawliving.co.uk. All other course enquiries, please email inga@41.is for the Icelandic course, and melania.gildesagredo@gmail.com for the Turkish course.

This 25 hour course gives you the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in raw cuisine and philosophy, in beautiful surroundings, with wonderful people.

Kate will cover the full spectrum of the Raw Magic lifestyle; we promise that you will finish the course armed with a practical knowledge of how to make magic in the kitchen, along with a transformed awareness of how to empower yourself and implement the magic in your world.

Everyone who completes the course satisfactorily will receive a certificate, an endorsement from Kate and Raw Living which you may use should you wish to start teaching classes or offering catering services yourself. You also get your own beautiful Raw Magic apron, worth £15, and the course booklet.

All participants get 10% off their Raw Living shopping from the time that they book, and for a month after the course. Everyone also receives a free month’s membership to Kate’s Magic Bubble for the month following the course.

Both courses have accommodation on site, with raw meals and yoga classes available. In Iceland, we will be going to Glo for dinner each evening, one of the best raw restaurants in the world, as well as taking trips out to the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle. If you choose Turkey, you can enjoy the stunning beaches and soak up some rays in the lush Mediterranean climate.  At the first course we had participants from 10 different countries! So it’s a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and develop your network of raw friends around the world.

The Course

Topics covered on the course include: holistic detox techniques, superfoods, the most important principles to create the best foundation in the body for optimum cellular health; travelling and how to stay raw when you’re not at home in your own kitchen; children on raw; and what in Kate’s experience is the best raw food diet for the Northern European climate. Kate will share information on all the important elements to include on a raw food diet, from both the nutritional aspect, so as a chef you will be creating dishes with optimum nutrition and maximum digestibility, and equally the flavour aspect, so you will be creating recipes that your friends and family repeatedly tell you are the best things they have ever tasted! We will comprehensively cover all the new and unusual ingredients that comprise the raw store cupboard and how to work them into your recipes. There are ample opportunities to taste both the food and the individual ingredients throughout each day.

Recipes include Green Juice, Sublime Sushi, Onion Bread, Deviation Chocolate, Strawberry Deelite, Hemp Milk, Mystic Mayo, Kale Chips, Crazy Curry, Rum n Raisin Fudge, SuperSmoothie, Broccoli Burgers, Hardcore Salad, Chris’s Muddy Crackers, Gorgeous Goji Pudding, They Call Me Mellow Yellow, Renegade Chia, Siouxsie Soup (with Kelp noodles), Mayan Relish, and last but not least, the legendary Quantum Cake.

What Previous Course Participants Say

“Thank you Kate for an amazingly Magic week! Thank you for your hard work and energy. Raw Magic in Goa was everything I wanted and much more….because of you I now have 22 new friends!” Sonia, UK

“It was an amazing time…. powerful learning experience being a part of the Raw Magic school. Thank you.” Anna, UK.

“The course was an inspirational, spiritually awakening, refreshing and mind expanding experience that I believe everyone should take part in before they embark on a raw food journey. The most valuable things that I have learned is that it is not a diet, it is a way of life, and that you must include other vital rituals so we can make the most out of our lives as a whole. Kate’s experience, sharing and teaching is an essential part of the raw food revolution. Thank you so much.” Leah, UK

About Kate

Kate Magic has been on a raw food path for over 20 years. She is raising three vibrant sons on the diet, now aged 8, 12 and 14.  She is the author of Eat Smart Eat Raw, the UK’s best selling raw recipe book, Raw Living, and Raw Magic, a superfoods recipe book. She travels extensively teaching classes and workshops on raw foods, primarily around Europe. She is the creative director of Raw Living, Europe’s largest raw foods and superfoods online store.  You can visit her subscription website KatesMagicBubble.com to keep up to date with her latest recipes, articles, videos and interviews.

Kate says, “I am driven by a passionate desire for change in this world. I believe we all have the potential to create miracles, and that changing our diet to one filled with raw foods and superfoods is the easiest and most enjoyable way to access that divine spark within us and make magic happen in our lives. Raw foods is at the tipping point right now, and it’s very exciting to see the movement expanding and reaching so many people. I want you to have the right information and support, so that going raw is easy for you, and you can eat the best food and feel more amazing than you knew was possible, and I feel very blessed to be able to be there for you. Switching to a raw food diet can seem confusing or overwhelming, but with my experience I am confident I can make it simple and fun. I hope you can join me, if not at one of these courses, at another event somewhere soon.”

To find out more about both courses, visit

http://www.katesmagicbubble.com/category/events

Online booking is available at http://www.rawliving.eu/event.html

Kefir is a living culture, similiar to that which is used to make yoghurt, which when fed with sugar, produce anaerobic bacteria, which are extremely beneficial for the digestion. Milk kefir is more commonly known, but we make water kefir, by just adding organic sugar and water. If you can track down some kefir grains, I highly recommend it, not only as one of the most beneficial things you can do for gut health, but also as one of the most delicious drinks you've ever tasted.

Carole Walsser from France made this lovely video of our time at the Raw Magic course in Goa. She does a great job of capturing some of the atmosphere there. We had an amazing time: the venue was stunning, and everyone on the course was wonderful. It was the first time I've taught a 25 hour course and I was a little nervous, but it went really well and everyone seemed to get a lot out of it. I'm looking forward to doing the next ones in Turkey and Iceland, I hope that you can join me.

Recently I was in West London for a couple of weeks, and I couldn’t take any of my raw staples with me.  I decided to have faith that I would find what I needed and lo, it turned out that Planet Organic was just round the corner from where I was staying.  I knew Planet Organic have begun stocking Raw Living products so I wasted no time in exploring the store.  And there it was, a whole section of shiny packets with the familiar purple labels, and quite a few other branded goodies too.  It was like bumping into old friends in a foreign country.  Actually it was more exciting than that, I felt like Dorothy in a sort of raw food Oz – chia and cacao and maca, oh my!

Everything in the shop is well presented, fresh and appealing, I felt virtuous and lovingly catered for just walking through the door.  First thing you see is the display of fresh organic produce and freshly baked bread.  Then there is a chill case displaying things like raw desserts including slices of raw chocolate tart called Chocolate Blackout.  I just had to test that out (well, it was my birthday and yes it was wonderful.)  There was raw hummus and other spreads too.  There's a counter where they serve fresh juices, smoothies and food, both hot food and salads.  Then of course is the raw section with Raw Living granola and superfood powders, plus a whole lot of other raw staples.  There is a boggling selection of raw chocolate bars and goodies, including Raw Living chocolate crispy cakes and most of the Raw Living chocolate bars.  Planet Organic have their priorities right.

I spoke to Matt, the manager at the Westbourne Grove store.  He said they began on the raw trail about 18 months ago but in response to demand, they now stock a much wider range of products.  He expects the raw section will not only be a permanent fixture, but that they will expand the range even further.  Matt did also say that he often gets people asking about raw foods, they want to know more about it and what benefits they can expect from raw, so education is definitely on the cards, too.

The raw goodies extend beyond just one section, if you have a good look around.  On other shelves I found raw crackers, good coconut butter and nut/seed butters, and oh joyous! - big jars of raw Biona sauerkraut.  There was an impressive range of green powders like barley grass and sprirulina, and green superfood blends.

Beyond my immediate pleasure at being able to easily get hold of good raw supplies while away from home, I find it uplifting to see them on offer in a High Street health food store like this.  It shows that the raw movement is gaining momentum and demand for it increases with each year that passes.  There will come a time in the foreseeable future when we will no longer be seen as a bunch of nutballs by mainstream eaters, but will be catered for in the same way vegetarians are now.  Eventually, maybe we WILL be the mainstream, with a minority of dinosaurs clinging to their cooked habits.  Imagine if you had to wear a hoodie for a furtive visit to McDonalds because it was considered so sleazy and self-destructive to eat stuff like that.  I’m reminded of the Pot Noodle tv ad, a tongue-in-cheek thing that put eating Pot Noodle on the same level as pornography.  But I can imagine a time when ‘eatin’ nasty’ is viewed for real by the majority as being akin to drinking and driving, illegal drugs or smoking.  Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but I can dream.

Here's a new recipe video from Kate, it's a simple inexpensive raw kitchen staple.

On Friday 21st October, while I was visiting NYC, I had the honour of dropping in on my friend Jay Smooth as he hosted his weekly radio show on WBAI, Underground Railroad. Jay is a popular blogger, social commentator, and hip hop DJ, who always has something interesting and astute to say about the topics of the day. You can listen to the audio recording of the live show here.

Kate Magic on Underground Railroad

This is a bit of an old review now - but very nicely written by Johanna Best - of a class I did in Sweden about a year ago. I love visiting Scandinavia. I feel they are actually ahead of us in the UK in the way they are adopting raw foods into the mainstream. The countries I have visited - Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark - all have much smaller populations and yet have more webshops, raw products in the supermarkets and wholefood stores, raw cafes, and beautifully presented raw recipe books than we do here.

Raw Magic Secrets

This video was filmed by Johanna Bjork at The Raw Life festival in Angsbacka, Sweden at the beginning of August. The festival was amazing, & I really recommend trying to get there next year if you can. It was a raw food paradise: beautiful setting, outstanding food and wonderful people.

If you want to see more videos from the festival you can find them on Johanna's blog RaFrisk! (it's a bilingual blog - in Swedish and English).

Raw Life: Kate Magic on Her Favorite Superfoods: Adaptogens & Green Powders from Råfrisk! on Vimeo.

Raw Life: Kate Magic on Her Favorite Superfoods: Adaptogens & Green Powders from Råfrisk! on Vimeo.