The eclectic learner

I've been raw for 2 weeks but my weight dropped so much (3 kg) that I had no choice but to return to eat just about everything ELSE!!!!!!!! Nothing to laugh about - raw food is the BEST way of keeping slim! (too much! LOL) For Christmas I dehydrated fruits of all sorts and surprised some friends with scented little packages: yummy to eat, surprisingly tasty and of course, unique. Happy New Year...

Hello! This is what I have dehydrated last night: orange, cinnamon apples, garlic courgettes and tomatoes! Yummy! After 3 days on 100% raw I felt great and brimming with energy!  Tonight though, we at dinner at our friends... I had chicken, cooked veggies and melon - now I feel bloated and heavy and even my shoulders ache. Strange...

I have been 85% raw for weeks… and then 95% raw for 2 days… but today I managed 100% raw I think - and I feel great! Every once in a while it's a good idea to detox from normal foods and go 100% raw. Some people suggest to do it weekly or even monthly. This is my menu: Breakfast: peach and pear smoothie Snack: dry fruit (mostly sultanas) and peanuts Lunch: a super tasty mushroom soup and then fruit and a large salad Snack: fruit Dinner: spring rolls made with lettuce leaves (for the wrapper) filled with veggies Mixed salad with cucumbers and radish Fruit salad with one whole pineapple and lots of grapes Raw ice-cream made with bananas and summer berries Recipes....and photos. This menu would be okay for a one day detox only. It is too high in fruit sugars and if you want to improve it, do substitute the fruit with avocado and more substantial vegetables. Being slender, I don't mind… Mushroom soup: Provides 1 serving Blend 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of cashews ...

These two recipes need adjusting to suit our taste and both come from Karen Knowler's book "50 quick, easy and delicious raw food recipes". Karen’s Super-Sexy Olive Cream So-called because when a friend first tried this recipe she gasped and  went, “Ohhh, that’s SO sexy !” – and well, it kind of stuck. Well, there is  a certain something about it… Equipment Hand blender OR Food processor Ingredients • 1 avocado • 1 fresh tomato • 5-6 pitted black olives • Garlic to taste Directions 1. Simply process all ingredients together until a thick creamy consistency is achieved. 2. Taste-test. Adapt as desired. 3. Serve with crudités, as a dip or spread on sprouted bread or crackers. Sex-y! RAW COACH TOP TIPS • Feel free to try adding a little juice to this such as lemon, orange or pineapple – you never know what you might create! My opinion: although I tried to spice it up with garlic and I love olives I wo...

Raw pizza I found a good recipe in the online book "50 Quick and easy healthy delicious recipes" by the famed British raw food coach Karen Knowler.  There are several versions of this recipe online and I paid for the download of this e-book, so please ensure copyright is protected. On the net you will find zillions of similar recipes anyway. Mushroom “Pizzas” If you don’t have pre-prepared raw pizza bases laying around (and to be honest, who does?!) this is a very quick way to get all of the taste of a raw pizza in a smaller, just as tasty version. Equipment Hand blender OR Food processor Ingredients • As many large portabella mushrooms as required (ideally 1- 2 per person) • 1 cup cashews • 1 cup macadamia nuts • Juice of 1 lemon (we found it too strong so we used 1 teaspoon only!) • 1 clove garlic • Pizza toppings of your choice – suggested toppings: Tomato, fresh basil, black olives, chopped red bell pepper. Dire...

Fruit roll ups An easy way to eat naturally when outside is to have  fruit roll ups. Although their fructose content is high (so if you are on a diet or suffer from  diabetes decide when to stop) fruit leathers are a good thing, in moderation. I would use them as  substitute for more problematic sweets that we tend to eat or give to our children: for example lollipops, wine gums etc which feature ingredients made in a plant (a factory). To make a fruit roll up, simply make your favourite smoothie, not too liquid, and then  pour in into the Teflex sheet of the dehydrator. Leave it there for 7.5 hours at a medium temperature - the soft disc that you find in the end can easily be rolled up and packed in cling film.  I like cutting it in small pieces... To decorate your leathers, the technique I came up with is easy: 1) Prepare 2 smoothies with different colours (i.e. one red, one yellow)  2) Pour the first...

Another nutritious soup for my collection. Velvety vegetable soup Ingredients for 2-3 small bowls: 1 avocado, chopped, pitted 1 cup zucchini, chopped 1 cup cooked sweet peas 1/2 cup basil, shredded 1 cup kale or spinach  some olive oil to taste a bit of soy sauce or a dash of salt 1 tsp dried onion 2 cloves garlic, crushed (slightly cooked is better) 1 dash sage and onion a bit of chili powder 1 vegetable stock cube (Swiss bouillon) hot water Preparation: put everything in the blender and then slighty warm up to let the taste mix up nicely. You can cook it as well by keeping the temperature at 40C. Taste it often while mixing up and add your favourite flavours - it may be a bit bitter.

Guys, this is a quick and easy recipe! Pineapple crisps Ingredients: a fresh pineapple, sliced  or 1 canned pineapple with the juice Preparation Blend the pineapple in the smoothy maker. Pour into a non-stick sheet in the dehydrator and set to dry at medium temperature for 7.5 hours.  Check: if you want a roll up stop dehydrating when the fruit leather is  soft, if you want it crisp and crunchy as in the photo above keep dehydrating until you achieve the desired crispiness. Cut into shapes using scissors when it's still pliable. So yummy…so easy.

Raw zucchini pasta This a well-known recipe among raw food enthusiasts. If you have a spiral slicer to obtain "spaghetti" go ahead and use it. Otherwise, happy slicing! You can also use a mandolin slicer. Years after posting this recipe I found a good link so I'm adding it! http://www.insonnetskitchen.com/how-to-make-zucchini-pasta-with-a-mandoline-slicer/ All you need to do is prepare your favourite sauce and mix it over the sliced zucchini. Be careful not to end up with watery zucchini... I had two versions: my usual Italian tomato sauce with canned tomatoes, garlic, spring onion, chili pepper, basil and a dash of salt, and a "pesto" sauce with pine nuts, lots of basil, extra-virgin olive oil and crushed garlic. We liked both dishes. 

Another recipe I tried today! Heavenly blackberry sorbet Blend in the smoothie maker the following ingredients: 2 ripe bananas 200 gr. of your favourite blackberries  10 ice cubes + some water 6 dates, pitted 2 ripe pears a tsp of strawberry flavour (1 tiny lid from the bottle) 3 tbsp honey (you can put less if the berries are ripe) 1 avocado (it gives creaminess) You will obtain 400gr of product for a bowl of sorbet and enough to make seven ice-lollies or if you have an ice-cream maker, some lovely ice-cream (it melts fast) We loved the taste of this recipe!

An almost raw dinner Today we ate: wholemeal Basmati rice (cooked, sorry)  fresh greens salad gojiberries - they seem to be healthy stuff  a bowl of kale chips Ok It wasn't 100% raw, but nobody said we aim to eat completely raw food. I think that a good 60% would be great.

Good afternoon! Apparently kale chips are a raw-food favourite and kale is really good for your health. I found a good recipe here: http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/raw-food-kale-chips-9-ways/ I I decided to give it a try. They taste glorious! And now here is my version: Kale Chips Wash and spin dry your kale leaves. Remove the tough spine and tear into bite size pieces, keeping in mind that they will shrink in size as they dehydrate. 3 Teaspoons of Extra-virgin Olive Oil a tiny amount of Atlantic Sea Salt Spices as preferred (I used dried garlic and curry!) Combine olive oil and sea salt in large bowl. Stir in kale and coat. Place on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 40C for 4-6 hours or until crisp. I guess that small bits of kale chips can be used to garnish dishes or to cover the top of a dehydrated meal to make it look more textured!

Zucchini omelette I like vegetable omelettes and I wanted to recreate them without all the connected frying and sogginess. I picked up a gigantic courgette from my garden, mixed it with a few things, dried it… and it tastes better than a traditional omelette!!!  My kids saw me eating it for breakfast and wanted to try it…. and the whole thing went in 3 or 4 minutes!  I am stunned… I will definitely make this again! Yahooo! So… for you brave chefs…here it is.  Zucchini omelette Ingredients grated zucchini (1-2 cups) - I used the food processor grating blade for this a bit of wholemeal flour, probably about to make it so it's not too thin 3 or 4 tbsp of ground flax seeds (leftover from dried onion rings) a bit of sage and onion mix (the one used for stuffing in the UK) tiny amount of salt Preparation: Mix the above ingredients to obtain a loose mixture, but not too wate...

I found a recipe here: http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/zuccini-cacao-cookies/   and I adapted it as usual. This recipe is a keeper! If you have children, it will help them to eat more (hidden) vegetables. Not bad... Susan Powers, the author and owner of the Rawmazing website, is a magnificent photographer and raw food teacher. Her website photos are mouth-watering. I highly recommend it! Zucchini Cacao Cookies ▪ 3 cups grated zucchini (I measured it, it's 250 gr.) ▪ 2 cups oat flour (raw)* (or soaked quinoa, or ground oat flakes/almonds) ▪ 3/4 cup cacao ▪ 2 apples, cored and quartered ▪ 1/2 cup agave nectar/ we used honey instead ▪ 1/3 cup water ▪ 1/4 cup olive oil (cold pressed) 1. Grate zucchini and set aside. 2. Mix together cacao and oat flour. Set aside. 3. Place apples in food processor with agave, water and olive oil. Process until smooth. 4. Stir together flour mixture and apple mixtur...

We found this recipe in a raw food website and thought we would try it. It definitely needs improving. Perhaps the onions ought to be sautéed first…? " Fried " Onion Rings Preparation time: long; drying time: 14 hours Ingredients: 1 large sweet or spanish onion cut into thick rings and slightly cooked and dried 1st coating in a bowl 4 tbs. olive oil 2 tbs. water Sea salt to taste 2nd coating in a separate bowl 1 cup ground golden flax seeds 1/2 cup ground unsoaked almonds (or 2 tbsp nutritional yeast) 1-2 tsp. paprika/ could also try 1/4 cup soy sauce Sea salt and pepper to season How to:  Take each onion ring, eliminate the outer slimey skin, dip it into the 2nd coating, then into the 1st coating and then back into the 2nd coating. Your goal is to get as much of the 2nd coating as possible. This will not work if you make them wet first.  Once you have achieved th...