Raw Bento

Some time back, I took a trip up to Hokkaido with the non-raw fiancé to scout for possible wedding locations. I knew that we were going to stay in a lodge with a fully kitted out kitchen so I brought my trusty travel blender to make sure I’m high-raw away from home.

Upon our arrival in Chitose, where the airport was located, we did a big shop at a supermarket for groceries to last us for five days.

Since the supermarket was a very Japanese one, I kept my meals very basic and the only things I regret not bringing were some spices from home and they would’ve been easy to pack and made a big difference in my raw dishes.

Veggie sticks with guacamole. The non-raw fiancé always gets very excited when he sees this dish so I always make more so we can share.

The produce in Hokkaido just tasted so much better than in Tokyo and all the salads I made, though simple, were just stunning in flavor. I made very simple dressings like parsley, olive oil, garlic, salt, black pepper, lemon juice and dried Italian herbs, or my go-to fruit dressing – orange juice, olive oil, salt, garlic, water.

I brought chia seeds and a bag of walnuts so I could make nut milk and chia pudding. I also toted along a bag of raw granola to make things more interesting during breakfast.

When I say it was a very Japanese supermarket we went to, it means foreign produce like berries and other fruit besides banana, apples, oranges, were not available.

So I kept it very simple like this banana walnut milk smoothie. It’s amazing how good frozen bananas taste on their own. Pictured above is a basic spinach and frozen banana smoothie. Again, it was so delicious and I made a mental note not to over stuff my smoothies when I got back home.

I’m actually writing this post in Moscow while waiting for the non-raw fiancé to go to the ballet this evening. I actually feel nostalgic when I look at these pictures because I don’t have my blender with me this time (different voltage) and I’ve not been very raw at all.

“She used to be raw vegan,” pointed out the non-raw fiancé to his co-worker while we had dinner the other night and explaining my veggie tendencies. Hmm, labels…they are a funny thing. Just two weeks of eating “normal” vegetarian food has labeled me an ex-raw vegan – lol!

I never thought I would say this but i really miss being raw in Moscow…

Today was a great uncooking/cooking day. Not because I was feeling idle but I had a heckavua busy day and I felt the need to get super-organized to help myself be 100% alert and with it. I prepped all my ingredients in the morning — soaking nuts, dates, and lentils.

I started off with a peach banana maca spinach smoothie, then a pineapple banana hemp seed coriander smoothie after my Tracy Anderson workout, and chased that with a big bowl of chia pudding. I had a short half-hour break and whizzed up an all-time fave raw soup (celery, cucumber, dill, avocado) and then returned home to a red lentil daal curry with zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and carrot over brown rice and a simple raw Caesar salad.

Then, after wrapping up work for the evening, I made raw chocolate ice-cream parfaits with banana, vegan chocolate chips, and vegan chocolate sauce (cocoa powder with maple syrup).

The layers are not that easy to create. I found that scooping the ice-cream into the glasses messed up the sides and you have to be careful not to mush them too close to the other ingredients. It was my first time so I could hardly see any layers like these awesome ones at Sweetly Raw. But it tasted so amazing and it was like a reward at the end of a non-stop day.

I made this one first for the non-raw fiance. He loved it even though it looked quite the mess. I made the one in the first two pictures second so it looks a bit better.

I’m so going to make more raw parfaits this weekend. I adore the way the different flavours come together in my mouth. I think my next one will be a berry fruit one…

I’m having a self-declared half day off on this Friday morning. All I want to do are things that are close to my heart and relaxing so I’m actually listening to Karen Knowler’s latest teleclass while blogging this.

These pictures don’t do justice to this raw lemon cheesecake but I almost always eat desserts in the evening hence the not-so-clear pictures.

Anyway, this is an easy recipe to follow and it’s a top favourite in our household.

Recipe:

Cheesecake filling (in a high-speed blender):
2 cups soaked cashews
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3-4 pieces of lemon zest
3/4 cup nut milk
4 tbs maple syrup
2 scraped vanilla beans

Crust (in a food processor):
1 cup walnuts, soaked
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked
8 dates
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of cinnamon
1 tbs cocoa powder

I deliberately left out any coconut oil or flakes because I wanted a distinctly different flavour from my other cheesecakes — raspberry vanilla, pineapple coconut, coconut lime, orange chocolate tart.

I would urge you to take time to scrape the black powder from vanilla pods because pure vanilla like that would give your cheesecake that rounded, soft flavour we associate so much with sweet desserts.

The tablespoonful of cocoa powder in the crust doesn’t really give it a chocolately taste but it makes it a deeper colour and adds a bit more oomph to a straight-up nut and date crust.

Last April in New York, I went to Rockin’ Raw with my bestie again. I think it’s becoming a ritual — me likey. I can’t get enough of this place and when I look at the pictures, I want to fly back just to eat their food.

We did a relaxing session of Yoga in Williamsburg and we were starving by the time it ended. Get ready for the parade of food…

Technically this was a green smoothie, called The Green Drink, but I think they most definitely have a Vita-mix or Blendtec to get this kind of juice consistency. It was refreshing and just what the doctor ordered.

These Rockin’ Raw nori rolls are the bomb. Stuffed with jicama, avocado, cauliflower, mushrooms and other goodies, we ooed and aahed over them. The dipping sauce was super-yummy.

This small wakame salad came with the nori rolls and it was lightly sprinkled with sesame seeds — so simple but yet so delicious.

The Tallarines a la Huancaina, zucchini pasta in creamy spicy nut sauce, was just as good as the first time I had it. Yes, it was that fabulous, but then the bestie was adventurous so I could have something new to try too.

I searched their menu online but couldn’t find a description that fits this dish, so I think it must have been a special of the day. Check out that raw “fried egg”! It looked pretty real and we couldn’t figure what was in it.

“This tastes like a dessert from a yoga retreat,” chuckled the bestie. Yeah, I would have to agree. I think this was called a nut-less cheesecake with a seedy, buckwheat crust and a lemony lime filling. It was so-so and I’ve had better raw desserts.

We kicked back and chin-wagged in the cosy pretty garden out back. I remember it was a sunny day but not too hot. My bestie isn’t totally raw or even vegetarian but she loves raw food — it felt wonderful to enjoy the same food with a dear friend. I guess I’m so used to being separate from others in the way I eat that this was such a treat. I’ve got to laugh — I don’t notice it till I stop and think about it.

I love you, Rockin’ Raw!

This soup and salad lunch with bread came about quite haphazardly. I was scrounging around for ingredients and this was the result: raw tomato soup with leftover marinated veggies and mushrooms, with a piece of Lydia’s Organics Sunflower Seed Bread.

Recipe for raw tomato soup (in a high-speed blender):
2 tomatoes
3-4 basil leaves
Dash of dried Italian herbs
1 garlic clove
1/2 avocado
1 cup water

For the marinated veggies recipe, click here. I think I put this together in less than 10 minutes and hoovered it in less than five. Busy days require quick, nourishing lunches.

Do you make it up as you go along on the raw path? I used to eyeball my recipe notebook to make dishes but now I just let my instincts take over and somehow it turns out at least edible, if not surprisingly delicious.

As the owner of three blogs, my camera and desktop are constantly overflowing with photos. I stumbled upon these photos of a bento I made in early May — before my aversion to nut pates. At the time, this bento was pretty yummy. I don’t have a name for it, so maybe “red pepper macadamia”…

Recipe in a high-speed blender:
1/2 red bell pepper/capsicum
1 cup soaked macadamia
1 garlic clove
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup water
Sea salt to taste
Dash of nutritional yeast

I wonder if you guys ever get sick of looking at Raweos in my bentos? I put in some prunes and blueberries for variety. The crackers are Lydia’s Organics Green Crackers, I think.

The bento didn’t transport the nut pate very well — it dribbled onto the crackers so they were a bit soggy when I ate them. But this was certainly a great snack to have while I stomp all over Tokyo to teach Japanese adults.

The one thing I’m craving now is raw savoury soup. They are an all-time fave but I love them more in summer. I have my ever reliable everything-but-the-kitchen-sink raw green soups almost on a daily basis but sometimes I think I need to pamper myself a little.

I saw some delicious corn on sale at my local supermarket so I nabbed a couple and turned one into raw corn chowder.

Recipe in a high-speed blender (adapted from The Sunny Raw Kitchen — don’t you just love Carmie and her adventures?):

2 cups pumpkin seed milk
4 pieces of sundried tomatoes
1 green chili
1 garlic clove
Dash of shoyu
Dash of toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp cumin

Top soup with a handful of chopped cilantro/coriander, white mushrooms, white onion & avocado. You can put in capsicum or grated carrot or julienned cucumber, too.

This totally hit the spot and I’ll probably make some more as I’ve got one more corn to use up.

Gosh it’s HOT over here in Tokyo so I’m really into salsa type dishes. This is one of my faves…

Recipe:
1/4 ripe pineapple, chopped
1/4 white onion, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
Sea salt & black pepper to taste

Mix well. I prefer it without lemon or lime juice because pineapple is pretty tart to me. I love the sweetness and saltiness dancing in my mouth. If I had cilantro/coriander, I would most definitely chop some up and toss it in.

Usually I eat this with flax crackers or slice up a beautiful avocado to go with it.

Food aside, did anyone catch Karen Knowler’s latest teleclass? It was really what I needed to hear and Karen has a knack for speaking from the heart. What struck a chord with me is that the raw journey is yours and only yours and it’s okay to take a step back. And this was brilliant, too: if you’re not eating as optimally as you wish, it’s not about the food and about what is going on in your life. Hello, that’s me!

Life has been a bit stressful recently and I found I had to force myself to be raw (I nearly gagged when I had a nut pate the other day and salads still don’t beckon me) — in the heat of summer, no less — what is going on? I don’t know but am taking a two-week trip to Australia and will do more reflecting there. For now, I’m just staying afloat and eating as much raw as I can.

You know I adore chia pudding and I literally eat the same one almost daily, but the other day, I thought, “Let’s make this one rock!” And set about making a raw cacao milk with walnuts.

Recipe:
1 cup walnut milk
1 tbs raw cacao
2 dates

This turned out to be a bowl of energy (Go Raw buckwheat granola, raisins, banana, and a punnet of blueberries on the side. The chocolate milk needed to be sweeter, I think, and I would probably add four soaked dates, instead of two dry ones, to spread the sugar around.

I’m sorry but I won’t be posting as much here because work is crazy and I’m going on three trips in the month of July. I’ve scheduled some of my raw eats to be published once a week so you can still expect some content here.

I really love coming in here to write about raw food because it’s fun and doesn’t need a lot of effort, plus I can just be myself and be a raw nerd. I’m going to miss blogging randomly about raw food for awhile but I need to cut some stuff out of my schedule to make time for more important, urgent things.

In the meantime, I’ll be slurping on green juices and smoothies as my fuel.

Since I’m getting into marathons, I decided to increase my protein intake to help me recover faster. Actually I was quite happy with hemp protein shakes but I was wondering if I would feel any different if I amped things up.

The reason why I wanted to explore rice protein powders was because I heard many good reviews about Sun Warrior which is a raw rice protein powder. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it at Whole Foods in New York when I was there so I bought this brand instead.

Secondly, although I like Vega because it makes sense to drink it for recovery (mix of split pea protein, hemp, chlorella and other powerful goodies) but the flavour needs to be better for me to take it daily. Right now, I only drink Vega after very intense or long workouts or if I’m on the road — I got the individual packets which are awesome for a road trip snack.

The ingredients profile is very natural and I’m happy with it but I do realize it doesn’t claim to be “raw” although it says the rice protein has been processed under very low temperature to preserve the enzymes.

At this point, I’m not sure if I should be concerned about the technical details of that and clearly what’s more important is — does this work?

After two months of taking this several times a week after workouts, I’m not sure if this does better than hemp protein. The flavour is gentle because of the vanilla but it is pretty grainy even if it’s mixed with nut milk or a banana.

But overall, I still like this option if I’m not in the mood for hemp shakes or if I run out of hemp. Would I buy this again, though? I don’t think so…

Has anyone else tried this protein powder? What do you think of it?