Breakfast of Champions

I'm going mental for mangos at the minute, and tesco had them and some berries on sale last night so I came up with this.
The bottom layer (of the front one/top layer of the one at the back) is mango and raspberry; the top layer (of the one at the front/bottom layer of the one at the back) is is mango and blueberry. With a few decorative berries on top just because I like my food to look nice for the few seconds before it's devoured.

Raw Food Stereotypes

Emma and I having a chat about raw food stereotypes. Warning: Strong language (and accents) ahead.

Haulage

Some raw foodist in Glasgow must have had a clearout recently, 'cause the Oxfam bookshop on Byres Road had LOADS of raw food books floating around it yesterday. I may have gone a bit overboard:

Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens
Angel Foods by Cherie Soria
Living Foods for Optimum Health by Brian Clements
Vital Creations by Chad Sarno
Dining in the Raw by Rita Romano

All for £18! Bargain!

Chocolate Orange Smoothie

1 mango
2 bananas
2 tbsp cacao or carob
Juice of 4 oranges
Five leaves of fresh mint

Blend and devour ;) officially serves two but I had the whole recipe to myself for lunch (along with some figs) and want more!

This is adapted from Shazzie's "Detox Your World" - her original includes a teaspoon of your green powder of choice (I think crystal manna would look really pretty in this but at £44 for 100g I don't think it'll be filling my cu

Hogmanay lunch

I'm on a bit of a "what do I have in the fridge?" diet at the minute but never fear, it actually turned out pretty good!

Spicy Tomato Soup
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
Half a red bell pepper
Half a small avocado
About 80g sundried tomatoes
1 clove garlic
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
Half a teaspoon oregano
However much cayenne pepper or chilli powder you like ;)

Blend it all (if you have a shiny new red Vitamix that you got for Christmas like I did, blend it on "high" ;)) until smooth (and, if you have a shiny new red Vitamix, until it's warm). Serves one.

Not only did I get a Vitamix this December - I was also given a spiralizer, a mini food processor, and Mimi Kirk's book "Live Raw". I think both sides of the family are starting to get to grips with this "raw" thing now - Mum even made me a raw Christmas dinner, bless her!

Yet another breakfast smoothie (and the costs of eating raw)

I've been going a bit mental on the smoothies lately. They're just so damned convenient and delicious!

This morning's smoothie consists of four large oranges (two juiced, two peeled), two mangos, and about 150 grams-ish of frozen blueberries that I defrosted last night. It looks like this:

And it's delicious. It's about 600 kcal, 7g of protein (people are always shocked that there's protein in fruit), 49% of your daily vitamin intake (150% for vit A, 465% for vit C and over 50% each for folate, thiamine and B6 amongst others) and a quarter of your daily vitamin RDA (including 20% of your RDA for calcium and 23% for iron).

I was doing a talk about raw food at a fair in Edinburgh this weekend and one of the people there (actually a friend of mine) said at the end that she had found it really expensive eating raw food when she tried. It's true that eating raw (especially if you're buying a lot of superfoods) can be horrendously expensive. That said, the nutritional content of food is something I think people should take into account when considering the cost of food. This smoothie costs about £3 to make (£1.50 for two mangos, £1 for a bag of oranges and the blueberries were on 3 for £5 and I used about half of one so I'm guesstimating there). Sure, that's more than a bowl of cereal with milk would cost, or toast and whatever it is people put on toast (cheese? Peanut butter? Butter? Whatever), but look at how much more nutrition you're getting. Two slices of toast and jam have just 6% and 8% for your vitamins and minerals respectively. I understand that not everyone can afford to spend £3 a day on their breakfast, but for those who can, I think it's well worth it. You really get what you pay for when it comes to your food.

Banoffee Pie - LFRV version

As a lot of my friends (well, ok, two) have gone more LFRV over the last few months it seems unfair to exclude them from the joys of raw banoffee pie. Obviously within the LFRV movement there are a lot of different viewpoints on, for instance, bad food combining or freezing, both of which feature in this recipe and so if that turns you off then apologies in advance. But this recipe does fall under 80/10/10 (coming in at 84/6/10 according to my nutritional analysis program) and doesn't contain any fractional fats so as long as you don't eat the whole pie by yourself you'll be good.

To make the base, take grind up 30g of almonds in a food processor, then add in half a cup of dates and process again. Transfer into a springform pie mould and squish it down to cover the base.

Now, in your blender chuck five quite big bananas, 100g-ish of stoned dates, and a big dessertspoon or two of mesquite, and if you need it, a little little bit of water to make it blend. Whiz it all up until it's really smooth and then pour into the pan and level it out. The tricky bit is in making it set without coconut oil, so I've opted for the cheats way out - bung it in the freezer until it's solid and then take it out half an hour before you want to serve it! Simples.

If the idea of an LFRV lifestyle is new to you, check out the sites 30 Bananas a Day, and for more recipes check out Megan Elizabeth and Brian Greco's pages. If you're in the UK and want a helping hand from a fruity nutritionist, give Star Khechara a shout!