Spring has finally sprung and easter is around the corner, what better way to celebrate then with a moist (that word gives me shivers) and fluffy banana bread!? Spring is one of my favourite seasons, all the colours, flowers and sun light fill my life with nothing but joy. It would honestly be my favourite season if it would’t be for my hay fever, let me tell you every spring I have to stock up on tissues and resist the urge to pull my eyes out! But all the flowers, sun rays and this banana/raspberry bread make everything well. One thing i can guarantee is…
Archives for March 2016
Raw Sun Dried Tomato Sauce
One thing I ate a lot while being raw, was this sauce. It goes perfect with salads and raw crackers, but even if you’re not on a raw food diet u should definitely try this sauce, try using it a spread for on bread or with some zucchini noodles. Its almost embarrassing calling this a recipe, its so easy all you literally need are 4 basic ingredients. I’ve literally been eating this with all my salads!
The past two weeks I’ve been a bit under the weather so I couldn’t work on the blog or new recipes, although recipes isn’t a problem because I still got a ton in the works! Next week I’ll be working hard on some new posts and recipes. I’ve also been thinking about making some recipes especially for meal prepping and are cost effective. Who doesn’t like cheap and delicious food, right!?
The fun thing about this sauce/spread is that you can customise it however you like! you can add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast for that extra cheesy flavour or you can add some spices to give it more depth of flavour, maybe even some herbs, just do you! I’ve tried different varieties and you cant really go wrong with it so go and experiment! And let me know how you’ve made it!
Bless,
A.J.
Raw Sun Dried Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 4 sun dried tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 juice of half a lemon
- 1 pinch salt (optional)
- 1 hot pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Put everything in a blender and just enough warm water to cover the cashews and sun dried tomatoes. Let them soak for a couple of minutes to make the sun dried tomatoes a bit softer. Now blend until you get a nice smooth consistency (you might need to add a little splash of water) Before using it I suggest keeping it in the fridge to cool down completely.
Week 4 – Raw Vegan Challenge
I can’t believe the raw vegan challenge has come to an end! The past four weeks have been a real journey for me and I can’t wait to share my final post on this raw food challenge. If you haven’t read my previous entries yet you can find them by clicking these links: week 1, week 2 and week 3.
There is one thing that I am sure of, this was one of the best decisions i’ve ever made! This sounds really dramatic, but going raw for a month has really changed my life and I feel like it has been the beginning of a new chapter for me. Actually this challenge might have come to an end but its actually just the beginning.
Let’s get personal
The reason that this change of diet has had such a big impact on me is mainly due to my not so healthy relationship with food, which has been an ongoing struggle for the past 15 years. I’d either not eat at all, binge and purge or simply go on emotional binges. Obviously I wasn’t happy with my appearance, which was one of the main reasons I developt my unhealthy eating habits. This has caused me to yoyo and never really have a steady weight, I’d either be underweight or a little chubby.
I really had to learn how to love my body and learn to accept it, and since going vegan most of those issues were dealt with, the only thing I was still having a hard time with, food related, was emotional binging. I no longer restricted my food or purged, but the moment I was dealing with some stress the first thing I would reach for was food (or alcohol but thats a whole other story!), and not the healthy kind, no I’m talking about bags of chips and deep fried vegan junk. Although this was a struggle it wasn’t very extreme and I did feel like I had some grip on the matter, but there still was room for improvement! Maybe one day I’ll make a more detailed post on this but for now I’d like to keep it short.
Going raw really made me face some of my food related demons, of course I could go and binge on raw foods but thats just not as appealing as a warm slice of vegan pizza and a bag of chips. I just don’t see how binging on some fruits is a bad thing, since most raw food is less calorie dense as cooked foods. So whenever I did feel overwhelmed by emotions I took the change and looked for another way to deal with them. This is where yoga came in, yoga really helps with getting in touch with the body and emotions I took this practice with me throughout the day and together with being raw for a month it has really been a huge help and push in a good direction. A new chapter has started where I’ll keep working on being mindful and aware without trying to banish any little or huge emotion with food and or alcohol.
Will I stay raw?
Although I’m a big lover of cooked foods, I wont be going back to the way I used to eat, and no my future is not as a raw vegan. I’m going high raw! I’ll still be making lots of delicious cooked recipes and of course eat them, but I am going to incorporate more raw foods into my lifestyle. I’d also like to add that this will change depending on the season and weather, like now that the weather will be getting warmer it makes a lot of sense for me to eat a lot of raw foods, but during winter and fall, my main focus will be warming foods. My message here is to listen to your bodies, its your greatest teacher.
This brings me to my first experience with cooking foods! The very first thing I decided to make was a calzone, because why not!? And I really wanted to work on one so I could share the recipe here on my blog. The first thing that I noticed is that after eating the pizza I felt extremely lazy, where raw foods would give me a nice energy boost, this calzone made want to do a little nap. But everything has its ups and downs, because my body did feel nice and warm and I didn’t have to eat as much to feel full. Having this experience did make me realise that eating a high raw diet seems like a great plan at the moment, but I won’t be giving up my rice and spicy cooked foods!
Benefits
- The biggest plus for me has been the fast that this challenge has opened a whole new chapter for me. Not has it given me a new understanding when it comes to emotional binges, it also opened doors to other types of recipes and I found a whole new appreciation for food.
- My skin has started to clear up, this is also due to the fact that I almost didn’t drink any alcohol. My eczema stopped breaking, but I did notice that while trying my new cooked recipe and using a lot of water to wash my hands my skin started to get a bit more dry and irritated. So I guess that sadly, no, my eczema hasn’t disappeared, but I’m open to trying new methods, so feel free to leave me any tips, I would really appreciate that!
- Eating a variety of raw foods made me feel very light and energised, my belly never really got bloated and after eating a big meal I didn’t feel like taking a nap.
- It saved me a lot of time prepping meals. Smoothies only take a minute and salad not more then 10. This really saved me a lot of time throughout the day!
- I never experienced bad morning breath!
- I got new inspiration for recipes that I’ll be sharing here on the blog as soon as they are done. Can’t wait to share all the yummy recipes I’ve got planned!
Struggles
- One thing I found very difficult was that it was very difficult for me to find proper meals when I wasn’t home and wanted to eat out with friends. This always made me resort to having to go to the supermarket so I could get some fruits or I’d eat a million date bars and raw chocolates.
- If I’d chosen to do this challenge during the summer season it would have been a lot more easier, in the summer there is so much more delicious fruit available in the Netherlands. I really missed watermelon everyone!
- When I would choose to indulge myself with some raw vegan gourmet foods, I’d end up spending a lot of money, I found them a bit over prized! And making them myself wasn’t really a option because I don’t own a dehydrator at this moment.
- The variety of dishes was a bit boring. For dinner I always had salad, which I got used to at a certain point, but a little more variety would have been awesome!
Conclusion
I’m very happy that I decided to go raw for a month! It has been an awesome experience that came with its ups and downs, but thats live and I wouldn’t take it any other way. This experience has given me a whole new appreciation for food and given me more inside into my emotional binges. Apart from that it has motivated me to become more fit and healthy and inspired me to make more raw food recipes and work on some fabulous cooked recipes, so stay tuned for that. Will I ever do this again? Well I won’t say never, but for now incorporating more raw foods into my lifestyle feels like the right thing to do! And if I would ever do this again, I’d definitely plan it during the summer or spring.
I’d also like to add that I’m inspired on sharing more lifestyle posts, like how I quit smoking, what I eat in a day and way way more. I’m really excited to see where this new chapter will lead, and I’d love to share my journey with all of you! Feel free to let me know what you think about that.
Stay awesome and kind!
Bless,
A.J.
Lemon Cream Bliss Balls
I’m literally overjoyed now that spring has started, this means more outside activities, more and longer sunlight, and everything will start to flower, isn’t that the best!? Oh spring how I have missed you and welcome back.
After all the raw treats containing cacao or cinnamon I felt like having something fresh! I mean don’t get me wrong I could dive in a bath full of melted chocolate anytime a day, but since spring has finally started (only the weather still needs to receive the memo) I decided to make a more refreshing and light bliss ball, mission complete! They are really moist and almost buttery with a nice touch of lemon, my new obsession and I probably ate one to many.
These balls are filled with whole foods and good for a quick snack and energy boost! Its also another 5 minute recipe that will last you for a couple of days to a week, or even longer if you stock them in the freezer and forget about them. These raw treats have really been a life saver when it comes to time and convenience!
I rolled 1/3 of the finished balls in a mixture of coconut, chia seeds, turmeric and hemp seeds and to the other 1/3 I added raw cacao powder to the mix and the rest of the balls I rolled trough just raw cacao. You can choose to do the same or your own thing, as usual there are no rules into making these! If you feel like adding some lime zest or spirulina, you should! Or maybe you want to be a rebel and choose not to coat them at all, go ahead its your party!
Also feel free to play around with the fillings and when you’ve struck gold be sure to let me know!
Hope you’ll like these lemon bliss balls as much as I did!
Bless,
A.J.
Lemon Cream Bliss Balls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dried figs
- 3/4 cup cashew
- 1/2 cup dates
- 1 lemon zest
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
Instructions
- Put everything in a food processor and pulse until the mixture starts to get together and form a into a ball. Now roll little balls from the mixture and roll them through some coconut, raw cacao, chia seeds, other ingredients or a mix of some. Store them in the fridge or freezer!
3 Ingredient – Hazelnut/Cacao Bars
For this recipe I’m keeping this very simple and basic, all you need are three ingredients and a food processor. And even more awesome is that this recipe will require only five minutes of your time, sometimes less is more! Ok you need to wait a little bit in between while you’re soaking the nuts and letting the bars set in the freezer, but its worth it, trust me.
Raw treats are the best, they are literally the easiest things to make, healthy and great as a snack. I always keep my freezer and fridge stacked.
One thing that I’d advise for this recipe is to soak your nuts. The reason I soak raw nuts is because it makes them easier to digest, the nutrients become easier to absorb and you remove some enzymes that are good for the nuts and seeds but not so wonderful for us! In some cases it also makes nuts a bit softer making it easier for them to be blended into a smooth cream. You can soak the nuts in warm water with a little bit of salt and leave them overnight. After draining the nuts you can dry them with a clean towel, bake them or use a dehydrator to remove the moisture. I dried them with a towel and kept the bars in the freezer to prevent spoiling because baking wont keep them raw and I currently don’t own a dehydrator.
Fun Fact: I’m slightly allergic to raw nuts, so even when I soak them I have to be careful not to eat to much. If I do my throat starts getting tighter. And if I eat just a few my lips start feeling itchy and I don’t even have to think about rubbing my eyes after handling raw nuts! But this will never stop me, obviously, I like to live on the edge.
My raw food challenge is almost finished but if your a raw foodie don’t be worried! I’ll keep working on raw food recipes and still have some I’m working on at the moment so stay tuned for that. And starting next week you can also expect some cooked vegan foods again. Its gonna be the best of both worlds.
Stay awesome everyone
Bless.
3 Ingredient - Hazelnut/Cacao Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw hazelnuts
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 1/2 cup soft dates
Instructions
- Soak the raw hazelnuts for about 7 hours or overnight and drain them. Dry the nuts and throw them in a food processor. Pulse the nuts a couple of times and then add the dates and cacao powder. Process until everything comes together. Place everything on a piece of parchment paper and press it into a rectangle shape. You can top them with some crushed hazelnuts (optional).
- Now place the bar in the freezer until it sets and you can cut it into little bars. Enjoy!