My raw "cooking" premier

This weekend I managed to "cook" some nice raw recipes. I made nut mayo, which is absolutely delicious, I had it on rye bread with nutritional yeast, yummi!

And I also made sweet potato pie, with nut and date crust. I like the crust, but sweet potato mix didn't come out quite well, maybe I used too much maple syrup as it came out way too sweet. I served it with raw strawberry sauce, which was lovely. Next weekend I'll try to make raw cheese with cashews, and hopefully some other delicious raw recipes.

Nut Mayo with cashews, olive oil and lemon juice.

Raw sweet potato pie with strawberry sauce

Not so raw weekend

Weekends seem to be definitely hardest to stay in track with raw food. I had toast again for breakfast on Saturday, then we went to farmers market in Hertford, and found French restaurant, where I had onion soup. For dinner I had kale salad with falafel, and some of that freshly baked rye bread that my husband bought from the market. Sunday fry-ups are now being slowly banished, we just had some beans and scrambled eggs, not much raw there though. For lunch I made lovely beetroot and spinach salad, and for dinner we had monkfish with aduki bean, spinach and sun-dried tomato quinoa. Wasn't keen on monkfish, I've always loved the ugly fish when ordered in restaurant, but the one I made wasn't that good.

So to conclude - far too much bread and cooked food this weekend, and my body is not happy! My belly is so bloated I look like 6 months pregnant, and I feel exhausted. If there was even a little bit of doubt that it's healthy, raw food my body needs, it's now gone. Even if I might have not felt any major change when I was eating healthily, I definitely feel the change to worse when I'm not.

At least I've been good with juicing, had kale-celery-cucumber-apple juice on Saturday and celery-grape-watercress juice today.

Fish or no fish

Haven't been here for a while, busy weekend. I was supposed to post this on Thursday, but the blogger didn't work at my workplace, so here it comes:

This week has been great! (I know, there are still some days left) I haven’t eaten bread, hard cheese and meat since last week, and I must say I feel great. I haven’t had any major energy boost yet, but I guess it comes with the time. I do try to think more consciously how I feel; can I already reap the health benefits of raw food? It’s not easy, but I think I feel lighter, not in a physical way, but like inside my body there is more space, no more heaviness like you feel after huge rich meaty meal.

This morning my hair felt very soft and shiny though, this being due to high raw food intake or my new and incredibly expensive shampoo and conditioner kit – who knows. http://www.ojon.co.uk/volumizing.html

I’ve discovered my new favourite raw snack from Raw Intent: Mediterranean Flax Crackers with fresh basil and tomato. These are absolutely delicious with a bit of sauerkraut on top of them! Since I started the raw lifestyle, I’ve been pondering over if I should have midmorning and mid afternoon snacks. I do feel quite hungry around 10ish, as the fruit salads I eat in the morning are digested quickly. So now I can eat something really tasty that is also very healthy – flax seeds are rich is omega oils and are good source of protein and sauerkraut is great immune booster and digestive aid. Only downside is the price – crackers cost over £1 each…

For lunch today I had huge avocado, Romanian lettuce and red onion salad with some leftover baked salmon. I have decided not to give up fish, not only because I love fish, but also I think that there is still some goodness in fish. There are huge amounts of studies done into the health benefits of fish, most seemed to agree that eating few portions of fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel is good for you – the health benefits outweigh the risks. There have been concerns about the pollution toxins in fish such as mercury, PCB’s and dioxins, but it has now been concluded that the levels of these toxins are too low in an average fish to cause any health issues in adults. Then there is wild or farmed fish – here I believe that wild salmon is better, apparently farmed salmon is being fed with feed high in PCB’s which is stored in fat cells and farmed salmon being the fatter ones means more PCB’s. Organic is of course to prefer, if price is not an issue.

So while I had my delicious spinach, roasted butternut squash and feta salad yesterday for dinner, my own recipe fish casserole was cooking away on the stove. As I get home quite late at evenings, I either have to prepare something quick, or if doing cooked food, I prepare it day before. My fish casserole has mixed fish, parsnips, 1 potato (for texture) and loads of cauliflower, spiced with fennel seeds, saffron and dill. It’s incredibly tasty, I hope that Maya will eat it as well; she’s not keen in fish, even though I’m trying it over and over again. One evening we had salmon with steamed veggies, and she would not eat it, so I decided not to give her anything else and off she went to bed without dinner. Didn’t seem to do much harm, she had the same food for lunch day after and ate the lot!

Almost raw day

As usually, I'm doing great at the beginning of the week, I'm full of resolution and enthusiasm. Would I be able to feel same for rest of the week?

Anyway, today I've had raw breakfast - fruit salad, and raw lunch - avocado, fennel and tomato salad (I borrowed recipe from Gena (www.choosingraw.com), it was delicious! For dinner I had carrot-celery juice and pok choi and veggie wok with quorn. I've also taken another bowel flush today, as I feel I need to cleanse my digestive system again after weekend full of bad food.

I've started today with liver tonic, and have also ordered Epsom salts for my liver flush. I'm thinking of doing the liver flush this weekend, if no other plans come up. Will let you know how it goes.

Maya is now off from cows milk, she's taken to Rice Dream very easily. She's also eating more raw veggies, and  lot's of fruit as usually. Her favourite is still pasta though, and cooked food generally, so I've replaced wheat pasta for quinoa and  rice or spelt pastas, served with yummy tomato sauce and lot's of "hidden" veggies. If I only had found the raw food life style when I was doing Baby Led Weaning with Maya, it would've been easier to introduce her directly to all the goodness of raw vegetables, now she's resisting the change. Would be great to find a blog of a parent who's been or is in similar situation, any inspiration is needed at the moment.

Google is my best friend =)

Will power and self discipline

Easter weekend is over now, and as much as I enjoyed the time off, I didn't do too well with the food. Raw food was hidden in the fridge, and somehow didn't find the way out from there. I've had prawns, baguette, chicken and beef borritos this weekend, yesterday we had salmon. I've been feeling bloated and tired whole weekend, and the more "bad" stuff I've been eating, the less good stuff I've been wanting, despite the way the it makes me feel - bad stuff bad and good stuff good. So why, one must ask? Why do I choose the baddies over the goodies? Taste of course, and the habits perhaps. But is it the lack of will power that makes me want to eat food that I know for sure is not good for me? Everything I need is there: the knowledge, the healthy food in my fridge, the good intention, but still there I go and reach for that piece of cheese, I butter the toast and put the cheese on it and eat it, almost like a robot, while thinking, I should eat fruit salad instead. Why? I don't know, but my guess is weak will power and lack of self discipline.

Definitions of Will Power and Self Discipline

Will power is the ability to overcome laziness and procrastination. It is the ability to control or reject unnecessary or harmful impulses. It is the ability to arrive to a decision and follow it with perseverance until its successful accomplishment. It is the inner power that overcomes the desire to indulge in unnecessary and useless habits, and the inner strength that overcomes inner emotional and mental resistance for taking action. It is one of the corner stones of success, both spiritual and material.


Self-discipline is the companion of will power. It endows with the stamina to persevere in whatever one does. It bestows the ability to withstand hardships and difficulties, whether physical, emotional or mental. It grants the ability to reject immediate satisfaction, in order to gain something better, but which requires effort and time.


Everyone has inner, unconscious, or partly conscious impulses, making them say or do things they later regret saying or doing. On many occasions people do not think before they talk or act. By developing these two powers, one becomes conscious of the inner, subconscious impulses, and gains the ability to reject them when they are not for his/her own good.


So, I might have to develop these two abilities before I can become raw foodist. Time to Google more, find books and read, read, read.

Happy Easter?

Easter. Besides being off from work for 4 days, it's not much to it, never really has for me. I remember as a child painting eggs and swapping them with friends, then eating them until ready to vomit. During my years in Sweden I did celebrate Easter more, but here in England not so much. So my only worry for this holiday is how to stay on the raw food track. Weekends are my weakest points anyway, so long weekend will be a challenge. But I'm positive, I can do it!

Have been reading few other raw food blogs, and I'm getting some inspiration. I admire everyone of you out there who are not tempted with all this "junk" we are surrounded with on daily bases. Maybe one day I'll be there, I'm taking one step at the time, introducing new foods and supplements as I read and learn more.

This morning I gave Maya rice milk with blackstrap molasses. She had around 150 ml, didn't seem to mind. But tonight she only had few ml's, wasn't overly keen on this. Hmm, we might even manage to wean her off from the bottle... As for eating more raw food, I discovered that if I chop vegetables into small cubes, she'll actually eat most of it, so that's what I do every morning before I go to work. Luckily she loves fruits, probably as they are sweet, anything sweet goes. We had raw blueberry cheesecake today for afters, she ate nearly all, very reluctantly sharing with her poor mum. But main meals remain headache, she loves her cooked food... more research needed!

Whole food supplements

I borrowed a raw food cook book from a friend of mine, interesting reading: "The Joy of Living Live" by Zakhah. She mentions 7 daily whole food supplements in her book:
- Blackstrap molasses
- Sesame seeds
- Kelp
- Brewers yeast
- Fresh parsley
- Fenugreek
- Wheatgerm

So off I went to my favourite shop in London - Planet Organic, and I managed to get hold of few of those supplements. Blackstrap molasses is actually a healthy sweetener - spoonful provides almost your daily needs of iron, calcium, potassium, and is rich in B vitamines, copper, magnesium, phosphorus etc. You can add it to your smoothies or juices or water. I have been thinking some time to try to wean Maya off from cows milk, but not sure what to use instead. Soya milk is not best option for babies/toddlers, and many seed and nut milks are very expensive. I tried almond milk, which tastes quite strong, but then I found rice milk, which has mild, a bit watery flavour. You can get it with added calcium, but if you add spoonful of blackstrap molasses to it, it should provide many of the vitamins and mineral a toddler needs. Will try it tomorrow.

I also bought wheatgerm and brewers or nutritional yeast, I'm yet to try these. Parsley and sesame seeds I already have at home, the latter not used very often though, mainly in woks. No kelp and fenugreek yet.

Wohaa, it's midnight already, I'd say it's enough of blogging for today...