Strawberry picking and raw carrot cake...

Aaaahhhh....British strawberries, is there anything better? Have you seen the price of them in the supermarkets these days though? A great way to save some money and have a nice afternoon out is to go to a local pick your own farm. That way you also get to choose your own fruit, and you know that it is local to you, which makes it all the more special. David, Max and I managed to find one close to where we live, so we took a trip down there a couple of days ago. Max absolutely loved it and was gobbling the strawberries and raspberries all the way round!

We had a huge basket and managed to fill it up with beautiful ripe fragrant strawberries!

Then we headed over to the raspberry field and had a great time finding the nicest looking raspberries for our box.

So what did we do with all that beautiful fruit? Well we did just eat a lot of it plain and unadulterated which was delicious, but as you know berries have an extremely short shelf life so in order to preserve them a little longer (we obviously picked too much!) I made some raw strawberry ice cream, and some delicious raw raspberry jam.

The jam was so easy to make, just put a cup of raspberries or strawberries in the blender, add 1/2 cup medjool dates and blitz until smooth. Store in a screw top jar in the fridge. Will last for a week or so. Yum!

I always have loads of carrot pulp from making juice. I never throw this away, I put it in a sandwich bag, label it and store it in the freezer until I am ready to use it. I wanted to make a carrot cake with it this time. Warm and spicy with a creamy vanilla icing, mmmm. It turned out delicious! 

Carrot cake:

2 cups carrot pulp (squeeze out excess moisture if possible)

2 cups almond flour (finely ground almonds)

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup soft dates (soaked if dried)

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

Pinch Himalayan salt

Put almond flour, oats, spices and salt in the food processor and blitz to a flour. Add dates and process again to form a dough. Add carrot pulp and blitz again to incorporate. Add coconut oil and blitz again. Finally add pecans and coconut and pulse to combine. Don't process too much as we don't want to amalgamate and break down the nuts and coconut too much, we want to create texture and crunch with these. Put the dough in a silicone mould or a 6 inch loose bottom cake tin lined with cling film and put in the fridge to firm up while you make the icing.

Creamy vanilla icing:

1 cup cashews, soaked 4 hours or more

1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. vanilla powder (or more extract)

2 tbsp. coconut oil

Drain and rinse the cashews. Put everything in the blender and blend until creamy and smooth. You may need to keep stopping and scraping down. You may also need to add a small amount of water if it is too thick for your blender. Just remember we want the end result to be a thick cream icing consistency so don't add too much water. Spread or pipe over the cake. To pipe, it is best to put the icing in a bowl and place in the freezer for 30-60 minutes to firm up. Then put in the piping bag and pipe over the cake. If it firms up too much just leave it out to soften a bit.

Let me know if you make any of the recipes here or in previous posts, and leave me some feedback or ask any questions that come up, I'm happy to help if I can!

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie.

rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

Summertime Raw Food Ideas

I've been doing a lot of yoga over the past week. I have started teaching in a beautiful local yoga studio, and I also teach two of my own classes per week as well. I love doing yoga outside when the weather is warm like this, it's like doing a hot yoga class but you don't have to pay to heat up a room, plus you get a nice breeze as well!

Max was practicing with me today, his downward dog is coming along really well!

I have felt really drawn to hemp seeds recently. They are by far my favourite seed, and I really feel like they have the power to save the world! They are a complete protein and with a huge 9g per 30g serving, they are the worlds most complete and bio available protein source, and take so much less water and energy to produce than the same amount of animal protein. Hemp seeds are also high in Omega oils 3 and 6. They contain 2.3g Omega 3 per serving which takes care of your daily needs, and they contain 400mg Gamma Linolenic Acid (Omega 6 GLA) per serving as well. The hemp plant is one of the most eco friendly and sustainable crops on planet earth. It is one of the fastest growing crops, ready for harvest after just four months, and the whole of plant can be used, seeds and fibre. The seeds form the most nourishing, satisfying and health giving food known to man. The fibre or straw has many uses, including sustainable building materials, paper and fabric. Did you know that one acre of hemp can produce as much fibre as 4 acres of trees! Another amazing use of this wonder plant is that it can actually be turned into clean burning eco- fuel. Hemp fuel does not contribute to global warming like petroleum does.

Some really great reasons to start adding hemp into your diet today! Here are a couple of recipes we have been eating recently that use hemp seeds:

We started our day today with banana hemp smoothie. Creamy, sweet and satisfying. As it has hemp seeds and protein powder, it makes a satisfying and filling breakfast, but would be great to have after a workout too!

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2 frozen ripe bananas
2 tbsp. shelled hemp seeds
2 tbsp. Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp. agave
2-3 cups pure water

Put everything in a blender with 2 cups of the water and blitz until smooth. Add more water depending on how thick you like your smoothies, (the consistency also depends on the size of the bananas). You can also use non frozen bananas and a handful of ice cubes. The riper the bananas the sweeter and more flavourful the end result.


This is my super refreshing cucumber and avocado soup. It is light, tasty and toddler and husband approved!

Chilled cucumber and avocado soup:
1 large cucumber, peeled
1 ripe avocado
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. shelled hemp seeds
1 small garlic clove, crushed
Pinch Himalayan salt
6 ice cubes
Garnish:
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1 spring onion, finely sliced

Chop the cucumber into chunks and put in the blender. Slice the avocado open, remove the stone and scoop the flesh into the blender. Add in the lemon juice, hemp seeds and garlic, salt and ice and blend until smooth. You can add a couple of tablespoons of pure water and blend again if it is too think, it all depends on the size of the cucumber! Pour into bowls and sprinkle with the garnish ingredients, and drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil.


I hope you get a chance to try these recipes as they're delicious and nutritious!

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

Happy International Raw Food Day!

Hi everyone,

This is my first post this month, I have been very busy over the last few weeks here at Raw Lifestyle Coach HQ, developing new recipes, hosting a very successful June retreat and working on a new top secret VIP programme I think a lot of you will love! Stay tuned for updates and sneak previews about that.

Other things I have been up to recently, I went to see the amazing Michael Buble in concert at the O2. It's the second time I have seen him now and it was a fantastic show. If you haven't seen him before, I highly recommend his shows, his charm, sense of humour and stage craft make for a truly unforgettable experience. Oh, and there's glitter and confetti!

My family and I have been loving the long awaited sunshine. A lot of people find it so much easier to eat raw when its warm outside. We have been enjoying refreshing salads, pates, juices and smoothies. I give Max half an hour outside in the morning (before 10am) with no sun block on so that his body can make some vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D stores well in the body, and because we're in the UK where this sort of weather is rare to say the least, I recommend taking advantage and getting out there, exposing as much skin as possible and getting your vitamin D levels up for when the weather goes back to normal again! It is always advisable to stay out of the sun or cover up and wear a natural sunscreen between the hours of 11 - 3pm. We also supplement with a sublingual vitamin D spray.

Here's Max outside getting his vitamin D and enjoying his green smoothie!

As it's International Raw Food Day today, I have a couple of delicious new recipes for you. I'd also like to tell you about the official website for IRFD, http://internationalrawfoodday.com 

Go there and sign up today and they will send you all sorts of free goodies, raw food ebooks, free talks and magazines etc, it's a great thing to be part of. 

We have been enjoying the beautiful organic British strawberries in this delicious smoothie. It also has goji berries in it. Gojis are a true superfood, high in antioxidants, essential fats, and all amino acids, making them a complete protein. This smoothie is protein packed, fruity, creamy and satisfying, keeping you full until lunchtime!

Strawberry goji smoothie recipe:

10 strawberries

1/4 cup goji berries

2 tbsp. Sunwarrior protein powder

1 tbsp. maca

1 tbsp. white almond butter

2 frozen bananas (or 2 bananas and 4 ice cubes)

2 cups pure water

Blend until smooth, starting with 1 cup of water and adding more to achieve desired consistency. Serves two.

How about a delicious sweet treat to celebrate IRFD in style? You could try making my raw banoffee pie recipe! This always comes out perfectly and is a real winner with guests and kids!

Banoffe pie recipe:
Base:
1 cup walnuts
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup flax meal
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/4 cup peruvian carob
2 tbsp. agave
Pinch Himalayan salt

Toffee:
2 very ripe bananas
2 cups soaked dates
2 tbsp. almond butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
Pinch Himalayan salt
Pure water to blend

Cream:
1 1/4 cups raw cashew nuts, soaked 1 hour
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
3/4 cup pure water

Filling:
2 very ripe bananas

Garnish:
Raw chocolate bar

To make base, grind nuts in a food processor until fine crumbs. Don't over process though or you'll start making nut butter! Add the rest of the base ingredients and pulse to combine. Press into a 9 inch loose bottom cake tin lined with non PVC cling film, or a silicone cake mould. Chill in freezer to set.

Put all toffee ingredients in a blender, adding a few tablespoons of water and blend until smooth, adding more water if needed to achieve a thick, smooth toffee cream. Spread this over the base. Slice bananas and arrange neatly over the toffee layer, then put cake back in freezer.

Put the cream ingredients in the blender (after rinsing clean), starting with half the water, and blend, adding more water to achieve a thick whipped cream consistency. Spread the whipped cashew vanilla cream over the banana layer. Grate some of the raw chocolate bar over the top to decorate and pop into the fridge until ready to serve, or go ahead and cut yourself a nice big slice and enjoy right away! Happy International Raw Food Day!

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

rawlifestylecoach.co.uk