oriental stir-unfry

I'd washed a pile of spinach to make a green smoothie, but when it came to lunchtime, I wanted to eat, not drink. So I made this instead. YUM!

I used the concept of stir-fried Chinese greens, which is one of my favourite things to eat when making oriental food at home. I say oriental as we always take a bit of Chinese, bit of Thai, bit of Japanese and hash it all together. In 'real' stir-fried greens you'd use pak choi, but this recipe, since it isn't cooked, recreates the original texture best with spinach.

ingredients:

200g (half a pound) of spinach, washed and dried

1 spring onion (green onion, scallion) finely chopped

1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped

half inch of ginger, finely chopped

2 teaspoons sesame oil (or other nutty flavoured oils)

splash tamari/soy sauce/nama shoyu

1 teaspoon honey (if you're true vegan, substitute with your favourite sweetener, but I'm not sure it will have the same effect.)

sprinkle of sunflower and sesame seeds

method:

Mix half of the oil, the garlic, ginger, tamari and honey and leave it to infuse for at least ten minutes (you can do this the day before for extra punch.)

Make sure the spinach is thoroughly dry. Drizzle the rest of the oil over the spinach and massage, with your hands, until the spinach darkens and becomes soft and glossy.

Add the chopped spring onions and seeds, then give the dressing a good mix or if you made it in a jar, then shake until homogenised and pour that over. Mix well.

Serve in rice bowls with chopsticks as a great oriental starter or side dish to some nori rolls.

autumn juicefeast - days 3 & 4

It's been a challenge. I'm still battling a cold accompanied by an evil headache. YummyHubby is mostly just hungry.

day 3 

I stayed off work, dozed, listened to some podcasts and dozed again, to see if the coughing and spluttering would clear up. I don't like spreading germs around and am lucky to be able to decide to stay home and take care of myself.

We made a ton of juice first thing, before I was totally washed out, so YummyHubby had his first taste of taking juice to work with him and I could just get up and go to the fridge to get my juice when I needed it. YummyHubby will be getting juice from the juice bar near where he works on weekdays, so our daily consumption will differ and the juice lists from now on relate to what I drank. 

Today I had:

orange-apple-carrot-ginger juice (extra ginger to help clear out my respiratory tract)

orange-apple-carrot-ginger-greens-mint juice

spinach-romaine-mint-pear-cucumber juice

lots of water, herbal teas, crystal manna, hemp oil and coconut oil treats.

Turns out the juice bar near work for YummyHubby does have decent juices, boosters, superfood shots and so on, so he's quite happy. Hurray! The nearest juice bar for me is ok, but a little tame. They don't have what we'd call hardcore juice - mostly fruit, and no greens, though they do one juice with celery. It'll do in a pinch but not ideal. Whereas YummyHubby is totally set up with ubergreen juices to go. Hurrah!

day 4

Today was much the same as yesterday. I stayed off work, slept and dozed my way through the day, trying to get rid of this cold and headache. I hate that I tend to be slow recovering from anything that involves headaches or my respiratory system. But I'm on the honey and pollen and with the juicefeast cleansing properties I should build up my immune system soon.

I am delighted to see that I've lost the bloat I acquired just prior to and during my holiday. I've lost a couple of pounds since starting the juicefeast but I think I must have lost a good few during last week's green smoothie and salad regime, too. Though I didn't get weighed before I started on the clean 'n' green regime last week, I look a lot slimmer than I did. Hurray for green smoothies!

Talking of which, the lovely Penni over at Real Food Tulsa is also juicefeasting right now, but with a twist - she's adding some green smoothies and blended soups into the mix. I suggested to YummyHubby that we could do that if things got tricky. I could certainly go for some miso soup right now...

Today I had:

orange-peach-passion fruit juice (mmm, thick and creamy. Delicious!)

orange

'gazpacho' tomato-cuke-basil-leek-apple-peppers-lime

herbal teas with honey, hemp oil, coconut butter treats

cool as a cucumber soup

We made this last week for dinner and it was really very good. Destined for stardom, I'm sure.

Based on a recipe out of Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food made Easy, it's fast, delicious, good for you - everything you want from a raw food recipe.

ingredients

1 medium cucumber, peeled

1 avocado, peeled and pitted

4 mild lettuce leaves 

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon fresh herbs (I used mint and dill)

1 clove garlic, crushed

splash olive oil

pinch salt and pepper

method

Blend everything together. Serve. Hurray!

No really, that's it. The dill is just fabulous in this dish, it really does work. It's creamy, refeshing and filling. Perfect.

Serve with awesome "crazy bread" or flax crackers. 

moroccan stuffed peppers

Here's a yummy dinner I made tonight. I stole ideas from various places and put this together. You'll need a dehydrator and a food processor or a sharp knife and some quality time. Quantities serve two.

ingredients:

2 orange bell peppers 

1 parsnip

1/4 red onion

1/4 cup mushrooms

3 dried apricots

3 sundried tomatoes (in oil or rehydrated)

a few olives

tablespoon pine nuts

tablespoon fresh mixed herbs (I used chives, lemon thyme)

Moroccan spices/Harissa paste

Halve and deseed the peppers and dehydrate for up to 6 hours, until they start to soften but don't lose their shape.

Process the parsnip with the s-blade until it's evenly sized, you're looking to make a rice substitute. Put in a mixing bowl. Finely chop or process onion, mushrooms, apricots, tomatoes and olives and add to bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix well.

For the spices, I used a tablespoon of harissa paste and salt and pepper, but you could easily add cumin, cardamom, curry spices and so on.

Stuff peppers with the rice mixture and dehydrate for an hour or so until warmed through.

Serve with minted "yogurt" drizzled over the top (try a macadamia or cashew-based sour cream with plenty of chopped mint.)

Bon appetit!

back on the wagon: day 3

wednesday 9 july

here are the recipes i promised you. 

cashew crackers aka crazy bread (requires dehydrator)

1 red pepper

1/3 cup cashews

2 teaspoons minced onion, chives and garlic

pinch salt

pinch paprika

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

blend everything together in the food processor until smooth. spread onto a teflex sheet to about 6" square. score with your spatula to make the shapes you want. dehydrate overnight then remove teflex sheet and flip over. they should be light and crispy in time for dinner!

this is a small quantity recipe, we ate the lot for dinner, they were so yummy fresh out of the dehydrator.  next time i'll make double the quantity. i made 6 crackers and piled pate on top for dinner, but you could score them into triangles to use as snacking 'tortilla chips' too.

find the original recipe over at carmella's raw freedom community.

karen knowler's carrot almond pate

2 large carrots

2 cups almonds

1/2 cup coarsely chopped red onion

1/4 cup lemon juice

pinch sea salt

water

my tweaks: i swapped a few almonds for some sunflower seeds and i added a few drops of bragg's liquid aminos. next time i'll soak the almonds first and possibly add a little oil to improve the texture.

as there was too much for just us two to use up without getting bored of pate, i rolled some spoonfuls into little balls and stuck them in the dehydrator overnight and took them to work to have as a side to my lunch. that worked very well!

today i was hungry again by the time i was leaving work. need to take something to snack on in the late afternoon, so that i don't get home and eat too much before dinner. but i'm doing well. i signed up for bunny berry's 100 day raw food challenge, too. that should be fun. what a crazy lady!

today i had:

water, tea

green smoothie

salad with sprouts, chopped veggies, lemon, honey, mustard dressing & carrot-almond balls

more tea

larabar

fresh pressed orange juice

coconut macaroon

edamame - not raw, steamed, salted beans

kale salad

carrot-almond pate balls (as in recipe above)

it's all good.

back on the wagon: day 2

tuesday 8 july - what a difference a day makes

feeling better already. wheat-belly subsiding, head clearer. 

today i had:

morning water and tea as usual

green smoothie

3 strawberries

salad with sprouts, grated carrot, tomatoes, seeds, homegrown lettuce, peppers, lemon dressing

2 chunks conscious chocolate with superfoods

more tea

handful candied almonds and teriyaki almonds fresh from the dehydrator

small kale-avo salad, carrot-almond pate and 'crazy bread'

glass red wine from same bottle as yesterday

i was very  hungry when i got home, hence the act of eating nuts straight from the dehydrator. but that's better than reaching for the cookie jar, right? 

the 'crazy bread' might have to be rechristened as the name is prompting lots of questions! i'll write up my version of the recipe, and the carrot-almond pate tomorrow. both were very nice and the 'crazy bread' once i've adjusted the recipe a little, will be a fabulous quick and easy standby.

two days in a row of 100% raw success. yeah, baby!

the week that was

hello all. so, some of you know, cos we're twitter buddies, and some of you don't know... i broke my juicefeast last weekend.

i'd had enough. i tried to explain myself to YummyHubby and the thing that i kept coming back to was that 'my heart's not in it' then went to look at the feastbreaking protocol on juicefeasting.com and what was the first reason to quit on their list? your heart's not in it (and you know you're going to eat something) so i'm sure it was the right thing to do. so i kind of feel rubbish because i didn't stay the course, but you know what, i juiced for an amazing 65 days, and the last 15 days were really tough, so i say 'go me!'

i broke the feast with the prunes - which i didn't enjoy so much. the first 5 or 6 were fine but i struggled to eat the whole 8oz. YummyHubby helped out by picking at a few and i left three in the bowl.

on my first fruit day i had a charentais melon for breakfast, which was divine, and the second day i made papaya whip (i love this: blend coconut meat, papaya, mango and passionfruit. eat. worship at the altar of tropical fruit) which is soooo decadent for breakfast. i love that.

my first salad meal was a soft green lettuce with a few bits of tiny chopped up pepper, tomatoes, spring onion. my alfalfa sprouts are still sprouting. not ready yet. i added half an avocado, thinking i'd need the fat for my crinkly skin but i ended up picking it out and leaving it as i really didn't want avocado. i've been all over the place all week. one minute craving salty things then the next thing tastes too salty. wanting fat then feeling sick, because i don't want fat. hmmm. i'm a bit out of whack and need sorting out. 

it's kind of disappointing that i'm tempted by some cooked stuff, too. ben's comment on my previous post is inspiring and yet doesn't seem to be working 100% for me. no, i don't want beer or curry(!) but cheese and, bizarrely, chargrilled artichokes are still tempting. i could say that perhaps if i'd stuck it for the remaining 27 days i might have dealt with the rest of the cravings but i think that's unhelpful conjecture and i'll spin it around and say that i know i will still have stuff to work through and deal with during my raw life. hell, even uber-raw karen knowler continues to up the ante with her raw lifestyle at regular intervals, so why should get a different paradigm? it's a spiral. onwards and upwards. cyclical and metamorphic. it's a journey i'm looking forward to.

when i knew i was going to quit the juicefeast i saved some juice pulp and i made some flax crackers. i split the 'dough' into two batches and added piles of fresh herbs to one half and to the other i added curry spices (a generous present from a house guest - i have an awesome collection of yummy fresh herb and spice blends.) i made the herb ones into thick rounds for pizza bases and the spicy ones for crackers. then i took a couple of crackers and some hummus to work for elevenses, which worked really well. i made a bruschetta topping for the pizzas and had them for dinner. yesterday i added a pile of rocket on top and then tonight i had a big green salad separately. it was tasty both times :)

i've got a few plans for food and i'm looking forward to making stuff. the optimism is there, which helps. i don't feel defeated at the thought of organisation and preparation. after a juicefeast, this is just a walk in the park.

i've been happy about not having to spend so long in the kitchen each morning. i've had a couple of lie-ins compared to the ridiculously early hour i got up at during the juicefeast. i've taken shopping bags to work and prepped a big lunch salad there, which only takes a few minutes, not like prepping and cleaning up after juice. this is all good :)

i'm trying to be more aware of the food as it goes into my mouth. the temptation to shove it down quickly is still there, so i need to get a handle on that. don't think i'll go quite as far as fletcherism, but i do need to concentrate, taste everything, and chew thoroughly before i swallow. i'm still learning.

oh, right, before i forget. those vital statistics. i wrote down my various measurements at the start but haven't measured myself since, so i'll do that tomorrow and let you all have the final weight loss and size loss figures. in non-specific terms we're talking substantial :)

top photo: pizza bases about to go in the dehyradator. they're slightly pink from beetroot. YummyHubby thought they looked like meat patties. gross. bottom photo: tonight's pizza. both taken by YummyHubby.

AGM & kale salad

AGM

on saturday i spent the entire day at our AGM. i'm a founding member of a small start-up, and this past year we've had real clients so we have to have an AGM and sign papers and take minutes and stuff. but it's great to hang out with a bunch of cool people i hardly ever see (the rest of them are US-based) so even though there was a serious, business side of things, we also tried to fit in some QT, which included hanging out in borough market and going to the inspiral lounge for dinner and drinks with a client and various friends. i made a huge batch of greens&veg juice before i left in the morning, and made juice for everyone as a mid-afternoon snack and quaffed a good deal myself. i also had bits of juice other people had made for me throughout the day, and it rocked! i had a veg juice at borough market, which was really tasty, and at the inspiral lounge i had two juices - mostly veg but not sure what was in them, i just asked for juice, whatever they had. anyway, it's certainly been my most varied juice day ever!

kale salad rocks da house

on sunday i made lunch for everyone at the second part of our AGM, and besides some shop-bought tarts, i made a regular "wimp" salad of baby salad leaves, cucumber, tomato etc., and a kale salad. i have to confess, i did eat a forkful of the kale salad. just couldn't help it! everyone loved it, asked for the recipe, and polished it all off. what a success! YummyHubby says it's his expert kale massaging technique that really makes the salad, and that may well be true. he is getting good at it :)

if you have never made kale salad before, it's easy peasy. this is my take on karen knowler's salad (bragging rights: she taught me it in person!)

300g or so curly kale

handful small tomatoes

handful black olives

2 avocadoes

2-3 spring onions or half red onion

red/orange/yellow bell pepper

juice of 2 lemons

olive oil

coarse salt

wash the kale and trim off all tough ribs. shred finely (i do this with my hands, it's easier than with a knife) then put in serving bowl with a glug of olive oil and pinch of salt (if you're in the UK, use Maldon salt, it crumbles fabulously) and massage the kale. get your hands in there and gaze out of the window or meditate for 5 minutes until the kale is really supple and dark, shiny green. now add the lemon juice and stir. 

cut the avocadoes in half, score the flesh and then squeeze them out into the bowl. remove the stones and you're left with softened lumps of avocado. get your hands back in there and massage again until most of the kale is coated and there are only a few chunks of avocado left.

halve and pit the olives, chop the tomatoes, pepper and onion and throw in the bowl. stir well to distribute. serve. be showered with compliments :)

this salad lasts well. the lemon juice keeps the avocadoes from browning, so do make lots and it'll stand you in good stead for lunchboxes at work. fabulous.

image credit: kale salad by hnau. please respect the creative commons licence: attribution, non-commercial.