Sunday, October 30, 2011

French breakfast


Fresh baquette, butter, cherry jam, fruit jam, nutella, orange and mango juice, pain au chocolate, latte, grapes.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Snack bars



I realized today I have some dates in my fridge, that have been in an opened package for almost a week, so I had to figure out something to do with them. I decided to go for some snack bars that I could put into the freezer - and take with me as a snack whenever. Didn't have any recipe at all, but the result was pretty delicious. The recipe is tagged "raw", but I'm not really sure if oat brans are raw.. guess not.. but it's not so nöpönuuka!

Snack bars
dried dates (soaked)
the soaking water
carob powder
lucuma powder
toco powder
cocoa nibs
organic oat brans
almonds (chopped)
little honey

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Kale sweet potato soup


Nothing feels nicer on a chilly autumn day than a big bowl of hot soup, enjoyed with two huge pieces of oven-warm home made nutty bread! The recipe is from the lovely Joy the Baker blog.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Morning after breakfast

Green smoothie, walnut bread with butter and happiness-flavoured black tea <3

This breakfast felt so good after a great girls' night in. The green smoothie had banana, pear and parsley in it and tasted awesome!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Why eat what you eat?

Eating is making choices. You vote for the food production, you can make change on what you see in the shelves of a supermarket and most importantly - you make the choises for your own body and health. Here are some of my choises. Writing this blog, I just feel a need to share this.

Why no meat?
I have been lacto-ovo-fish-vegetarist for seven years now. This period of time included short period when I ate white meat (chicken and turkey) and also some accidents when living in Germany, when I thought kebab was made of turkey. Hehe, I know it now!! But since over a year I have gone back to my path, which is vegetarian food + milk products (lacto), eggs (ovo) and fish (fish). Yeah, fish-lacto-ovo-vegetarist is probably not a real term, but it's way better than what I started with in year 2005 "lacto-ovo-lasagne-vegetarist" :)

My reasons not to eat meat are threefold. First, I've never really liked meat, it was only minced meat I liked growing up (and I think we all know by now what's in it). Secondly, our bodies do not need meat to be healthy. For instance, soya "meat" balls have five times the amount of protein of regular meat balls. The third, biggest, reason is that the way production animals are treated, is just horrible. It's come so far from the happy-go-lucky farms that we still see in the kids' books. The production animals do not eat what they naturally would eat and they are pumped up with antibiotics and hormones. And you think this has no traces in the meat sold nicely packed in the supermarkets?


I recommend everybody to watch Food INC -movie and after that, I feel everyone can make their own decisions. I do not judge, I just feel that everyone should make concious decisions.

Why whole food?
Ever taken a look in the INCI-list of the products you buy from the supermarket? And compared it with the ingredients list that you had imagined. Quite a difference, most of the times. Food coloring, preservatives, sweeteners, stabilizers... When ever you have the chance, the time, the energy and the money - try to cook your own meals. And choose organic.


Why raw food?
Raw food is food, that is not heated over 45 degrees, therefore preserving all important enzymes and nutrients. When food is cooked, most of its enzymes, beneficial bacteria and heat sensitive vitamines are destroyed. Also the carbohydrates, proteins and fats have changed their structure when heated. They cannot maintain the body's functions in the same way, than the original forms.

Raw food is also un- (or very little) processed. The corner stones of raw diet are berries, fruits, vegetables, root vegetables, sea weeds, seeds, nuts, peas, beans, and un-heated oils. Some also include eggs and milk into their raw diets. In raw food the leaf green plays a major role. I already have talked about it here.

There are amazing stories, how raw diet has healed diabetes or even MS-disease. Everyone can decide themselves if this can be true or not. But I do believe, that body (and mind) has amazing abilities to cure and heal itself, when given the fuel it needs. And letting go of the non-food, that is just putting stress on it.

Why not to enjoy life?
Do I eat only vegetarian whole raw food? No :) No no no. Even the thought makes me claustrophobic :D And this is also a decision I have made for myself. Everyone makes their own decisions. I love to eat out, I want to enjoy serious double chocolate cheesecake and sometimes grap a ready made lunch. I even have found myself putting some artificial sweetener in my tea in a boring meeting. And if I'd some day grave a burger from McDonalds, there is absolutely nothing holding me back. Just that I know myself, and.. I might go to a nice restaurant for a veggie burger instead :) The whole point is, that you are aware of what you are doing and how your actions affect your body, mind and wellbeing.


Be brave to challenge yourself, try new things and figure out the best path for you.





Thursday, October 20, 2011

Raw Mokkapala



Hey, mokkapala is such a concept in Finland, that translating feels a bit cruel. We have a pajamas party tomorrow at my friends place. Originally, I was supposed to make a decadent chocolate cake, but.. I couldn't! I seriously couldn't. I tried to write down the ingredients on a shopping list: 300g butter, 300g chocolate, 5dl sugar and then some white flour.. I started to feel nauseous. I mean, for sure I could have enjoyed a piece of it, but making such a thing.. I couldn't.

So in this little attempt of saving my friends from toxic overload, I decided to make raw "mocca brownies".

Raw Mokkapala
2 dl walnuts
1 dl almond flour
2 dl dried dates
1/2 dl coconut flakes
1/2 dl raw coconut powder
1 tbsp toco powder

frosting:
1/2 dl raw cocoa powder
1-2 tbsp lucuma powder
6 tbsp coconut oil
2-3 dried dates (soaked)
2 tbsp coffee
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence

+ coconut flakes on top

Blend and blend.
Hih, I love the simplicity of raw recipes! A few notes: try to get organic coffee (I didn't, I used instant coffee from Lidl, haha) and also try to replace vanilla essence with something more natural, like vanilla extract.

Also, don't expect to get a full baking tray. I was kinda disappointed by the size, but I'm pretty sure the taste makes up for it. Or, you can always double the recipe ;)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Raw Apple Pie


This pie was the first raw pie I made last spring and this is still one of my favorites. Especially gorgeous when made using fresh domestic apples. I think even my friends liked it - or then they are just very good actors :) This recipe is for a normal size pie, this time I made only half.

Raw Apple Pie

Crust: 
2 dl sunflower seeds
1 dl cashew nuts
1 dl brazil nuts
1 tbsp raw cocoa powder
2 dl raisins
3 dates

Filling: 
5 apples
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp lemon juice

Blend the ingredients for the crust. Blend the ingredients for the filling (apples do not need to go all smashed). Enjoy!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Raw Brownies



I have some friends coming over tomorrow and as I feel everyone in the world should get acquainted with raw goodies, I decided to make them some raw brownies and tomorrow a raw apple pie. These brownies would be just a perfect match with some raw ice cream!


Raw brownies
3 dl walnuts
3 dl dates
2 dl raw cocoa powder
1 dl coconut flakes
1/2 dl honey (or a bit less agave syrup)
a bit of salt
(cocoa nibs / mulberries / dried cranberries...)

Grind walnuts, blend everything together. Add last the extra ingredients you like. Voilà!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Tropical Cake



We went to eat lunch in Silvoplee (an amazing vegetarian / vegan / raw) restaurant in Hakaniemi. Last time I also got a piece of cake as a dessert take away - and boy, it costed 7 euros! The tiny (ok, well, quite a huge) bit! So this time I was also craving the cake, but instead of buying it, I made it :) And just guess if I measured anything while making it..

Tropical cake

The bottom: 
Dried plums (soaked 1h)
Almond flour
Crunched almonds
Coconut flakes
Coconut oil (maybe just 1tbsp)

Filling: 
Bananas
Mango (frozen of fresh, if available)
Pineapple
Lucuma powder

Topping:
Oat creme whipped
Coconut flakes
Vanilla essence / honey
(and bigger coconut flakes as decoration)

Blend the plums into a puree. Then just mix everything up. Spread the bottom and put it into a fridge to wait. Blend the bananas and half of the mangos into a puree, then mix in the rest of the mango, pineapple pieces and lucuma powder. Add the filling on top of the bottom.

Whip the oat creme, blend in the coconut flakes and vanilla essence or honey. Spread carefully on the cake and decorate with coconut flakes.

My warning goes: the cake is not exactly firm, it's a bit more like.. a pile of mousse. But - no complaints were heard of the structure, I guess the taste made up for it :)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Raw red soup



This is a very basic raw soup that you can easily make and take it with you as a lunch. I like to chop some carrot or celery in it just before eating. Other vegetables work as well for sure. And yes, you might first consider if the soup fits to the bowl before pouring. But since it is the national failure day, this just goes with the theme. I also might consider taking proper lunch hours and not eating in front of my computer..

Raw red soup (1 serving)
1 huge or 2 normal tomatoes
half a red sweet pepper
couple of sundried tomatoes
handful of walnuts
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
(salt)
water

Blend it all into a soup. Doesn't get any easier.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Raw chocolate party!








  • almond vanilla
  • rum rum raisin almond
  • heavenly mint
  • cayenne pepper hot hot
  • lemon ginger love
  • cranberry mulberry coconut

Oh lord were these chocolates good or what?! I cannot describe. Each batch just came out even more heavenly than the previous one. I had a bunch of first timers around the table and I kinda feel they liked both the making and the eating. 

The basic ingredients were coconut oil, cocoa butter, honey, cocoa powder, lucuma and salt (and cocoa nibs). We also used toco for the last batch and ginger syrup to the lemon ginger love. 

Friday, October 7, 2011

Lemon raspberry buns







I'll tell you guys, THIS is not what I had pictured in my mind about these lemon raspberry buns - OMG. I have only made buns once before in my life (a long time ago) and now I do remember seriously supersizing them as well. Hello buns! And how about that table after cutting these babies. I almost hurt myself laughing. Talk about overdoing the filling. My heavens! :D

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Creepy risotto and a giant tomato


Tadaima! I'm back (in japanese). Hey hey take a look at this plate! It's mushroom risotto and the biggest tomato you have ever seen. I had this italian black risotto rice in my cupboard since ages and finally I made something out of it. I assure it looked even more freeky when cooking it, because it was more purple than black. The finished risotto also has this purplish black color. Looks kinda Halloween but tasted excellent!

The good thing with good risotto rice is, that it barely needs any spices, just a hint of black pepper and salt. And of course you need to use real butter. The bad thing with this rice was, that it took aaaaaaages to cook! After standing a torturing 45 minutes in front of the stove, I decided it was ready. A bit cruncy is just fine, when you are really hungry.