The temperatures are as high as 34-35 degrees C and I’m surprised I want stir-fried noodles and rice as early as lunch time. I’m trying not to feel bad about it and I know from experience it is better to eat instinctively than force myself to have something you should have.

Do you ever check with yourself what is going, in relation to your food choices? Well, I try to be analytical and honest with myself. I am sure I’m not depressed, in fact, I’m happy with all areas in my life, I’m not bored as I’m actually busy, but I’m working out alot so I do feel a bit more tired than usual, so I’ve been a bit less motivated to make food. I scoffed cooked dinner leftovers for lunch two days in a row.

What’s up with that? I think I’ve got other things on my mind other than food preparation. I even wished someone would come into my house to make me fresh healthy food for free and to make it exactly the way I like it, but of course, that was wishful thinking. I got my act together and made a huge salad for dinner and had it with some brown rice, stir-fried veggies, and a fried egg. I think my period may be approaching too, hencewhy the wonky food choices.

So while we are on the topic of cooked food, I went to one of my absolute favourite joints for vegan food — Chaya Macrobi Cafe. They state all their ingredients and indicate if it has dairy or fish. They only have one fish dish at the moment but everything else looks vegan on the menu.

This burger was made with soy meat and a delicious savoury sauce that I couldn’t put my finger on what was in it. It was a bit like ketchup with a hint of mustard…Big YUM.

It came with a minestrone soup and the set cost 1,300JPY (USD16.50). It was a filling lunch but I didn’t feel like I was bursting at the gills.

Chaya Macrobi is located in B2 of Chanti, a shopping mall in Ginza (info here). The menu is seasonal and they change it up quite a bit except the veggie curry which is a main stay. I once had a vegan lasagna and loved every bite.

I’ve been juicing a lot lately though and am loving this…

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
1 grapefruit
1 carrot
1 celery stalk (including leaves)
1/2 head of chicory leaves
1 cup water

Add ice and slurp this baby up.

What are your fave veggie eats in this stinking hot weather?

These dishes have been inspired by Choosing Raw — I constantly stalk Gena’s blog for food inspiration because she keeps it so simple that I can always find the ingredients in my fridge or pantry….and her food tastes good.

I wouldn’t say this was a duplicate at all of Gena’s chickpea avocado nori spread but the idea of having a simple platter of raw veggies plus a dip was totally what I needed on a busy hot day.

I made a simple guacamole dip (avocado, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, white onion, lemon) and ate it with romaine leaves, carrot sticks, and cucumber slices. No fussing or machinery involved!

And Gena talked about how she improvized on a cucumber mint dressing by adding tahini, so I made my own cucumber tahini dressing (without the mint) and it was so lovely with my salad.

Cucumber tahini dressing recipe (in a high-speed blender; 2 servings):
2 tbs tahini
1/2 cucumber
Juice of one lemon
Pinch of dried dill
Dash of cayenne pepper
Dash of sea salt
Dash of black pepper
Splash of water

But I followed her Cinnamon Cherry Blast to the letter…..It was very yummy and rich. I would highly recommend it if you are in a hurry but need a filling smoothie to tide you over several hours.

I just love it when it’s so easy to be raw….

I have waxed lyrical about raw almond milk here before — that was when I was using my cheap-ass-can’t-blend-to-save-its-life-blender and it tasted great. First I blended water with almonds, strained the pulp away, then I blended in dates (usu two or three) to sweeten it up but I always ended up with fairly big chunks so what I really drank was almond milk with some date chunks and debris at the bottom.

But with my new beast of a blender, the dates were pulverized in no time. I could see some very fine “powder” floating at the bottom of my glass, but it didn’t feel powdery at all. I used raw almond butter and water this time so it was a dreamy creamy batch done in a few seconds — my kind of nightcap.

Raw food is sooooooo much better with a kick-ass blender. I would highly recommend it.

It occurred to me that I’ve never really talked much about raw green juices in this blog — weird, because these are so important in helping me achieve wellness daily, so here’s an ode of some sort to the green juice.

At home, I make one every morning but if I have an early morning appointment, I just make a large green smoothie and drink a green juice later in the day. If I’m travelling or staying at hotels, I’ll not have green juice, but if I have access to a blender and a kitchen, I’ll whip out my nut milk bag for straining so I always bring one along when I travel just in case.

Why do I drink green juices so religiously? Well, my skin looks better in the long run. ie. fewer breakouts and less puffiness. If I don’t drink it regularly like when I was away in Sydney and Singapore end of last year for five weeks, my skin gets all sorts of bumps and acne. But when I returned from the trip and juiced daily, my skin looked noticeably smoother and radiant after a month. Also, I feel more energetic than if I don’t. On days when I feel less than stellar, I would have two juices.

Do I make non-green juices? Why yes, but not very often. The only time I make a raw fruit juice (usually orange or blackberries, topped with soda water) is late at night on the weekends when I’m watching TV – strange? Haha…

Right now, I alternate between these two recipes…

1 white grapefruit
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
Coriander
Cabbage

1 lemon
1 cucumber
1 stalk celery
Parsley

I used to put apple into my green juices but lately I found that I do better with less sugar — I get hungry less frequently and have fewer sugar highs and crashes. But I still occasionally include apples if I feel like it and I eat them in salads or with almond butter or peanut butter. I would also throw in fruit and vegetables that are close to expiring like broccoli, zucchini, sprouts, kiwi, orange, pear, and berries. I tried chucking in capsicum once but I didn’t fancy it so much but it was drinkable.

What are your fave raw juices?

I constantly see this brand of peanut butter on vegan blogs and I was curious if I could get it for a reasonable price from the US to Tokyo, but guess what? They sell this on Amazon Japan! YAY!

Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve had peanut butter. I wouldn’t say I forcibly stopped myself from eating it but I don’t buy bread anymore so I didn’t think I had anything to use as a vehicle to eat peanut butter with. Furthermore, I have almond butter in my fridge, but as much as I adore almond butter, peanut butter has a special place in my heart…

When my booty arrived, I spread both flavours, Dark Chocolate Dreams and White Chocolate Wonderful, on apple slices. Gawd, I was in heeeaaaven…

And I made a protein shake with the white chocolate one: hemp seed milk, white chocolate peanut butter, brown rice protein powder, maca, and a banana. WOW! Even though it is quite chilly here, I made another one with frozen banana and it was even more awesome.

I’m a happy bunny. And my poor almond butter lies neglected in a corner of my fridge for now..

These are the smoothies of the moment in my kitchen…

An absolute classic: melon and spinach. I found a bruised melon at my local supermarket for 580JPY (USD7) so I nabbed it and turned it into four of these smoothies over a week for breakfast.

I have a HUGE container of brown rice protein powder and I stopped consuming it for awhile because I couldn’t really find the right mix to pair it with. But while cleaning my pantry, I stumbled across it and decided to start using it again. I made a very very very simple recipe: frozen mixed berries, a tablespoon of brown rice powder, a banana, and nut milk. It was amaaaazing. I think my problem before was that I put in two heaping tablespoons of the powder which made my smoothies very chalky. Less is best.

I love pink drinks…

I constantly run out of avocados because I consume at least one a day and this is why….I put them in smoothies too. Gawd, I love this one: frozen mango, frozen pineapple, 1/2 avocado, and a handful of parsley and/or coriander plus some water to get things moving.

I like Vega powders too and am so into the berry flavour. This was my last packet so I had to take a picture. I have a box of natural flavoured ones so I’m still stocked up on Vega.

I usually have this smoothie when I am in a screaming rush — no time for even cutting up spinach. I chuck leftover nut milk, frozen mixed berries, a banana or two, and the powder in my blender, scoff, and run out of the house.

What are your fave smoothies?

Persimmons are one of my faves — if only they were available all year round!

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
1 persimmon
1 frozen banana
1 cup nut milk (I love walnut or hazelnut)
1 tsp maca powder
Dash of cinnamon

This is a simple snack and sometimes I add rice protein powder to this mix.

I’m a bit of a grot girl, if you noticed the dirty dishes in the background – lol!

As much as it’s essential to fuel up well before a long run, I think what you put in your body after is also equally important. When your body is exhausted and hungry from so much exertion, it truly inhales the nutrients you consume afterwards so it’s worth being mindful of post-workout food and drinks.

Why is it so important to take care of yourself after a strenuous run? Well, for one it would help your body repair sore muscles or potential injury, plus it would help to cut short the time you feel achy all over.

I’ve noticed that when I’m not careful with this, I could be “out of business” for up to three or four days which is not good for when you are training for an event or just want to be stricter with your exercise regimen. I find that when I drink a few of these smoothies on the day of a hard workout and the day after, I can resume exercising with a break of just one day of downtime. Pretty awesome, eh?

Onto the recipe…

2 frozen bananas
1 fuyu persimmon
1 slice of ginger
1 tbs hemp protein powder
1 tbs chia seed powder
1 tbs maca powder
2 cups spinach
1 tsp dulse flakes
1 tbs sprouted buckwheat (Go Raw‘s Simple “Granola”; has flax in it, too)
2 cups water

The original recipe from Brendan Brazier’s book Thrive Fitness, called for four Medjool dates but I didn’t have any soaked ones on hand. I don’t like using dried dates in my not-so-speedy blender because I would just end up with date chunks in my smoothie. I’m not sure why Brendan Brazier doesn’t include bananas in most of his pre-and-post workout drink recipes (his post-workout pudding and energy bars have them though) but I figured bananas should be okay since they are full of sugar, too.

I felt a bit icky about putting dulse into my smoothie but I didn’t taste a thing (burping it, though, is another story). The green pills on the side are actually chlorella tablets which I got from ordering something from The Raw Food World and they are recommended in his post-workout smoothies. He also suggests using spirulina which I also don’t have so I just chucked in two cups of spinach for extra green power.

Now the persimmon addition was also my idea. One of his recipes had a yummy-looking papaya and ginger combination, but alas, papaya is ridiculously expensive here so I used persimmon instead. Persimmons are sweet, heavy, and orange like papaya so I thought they would be a good substitute.

The base of his post-workout smoothies is really made up of dates, sprouted buckwheat, hemp protein powder, maca (to heal stressed adrenalin glands from the intake of caffeine in the pre-workout smoothie), sea greens (spirulina and chlorella), dulse and chia powder. The rest of the fruit in there are just for flavour and sugar.

This was a very delicious and filling smoothie — definitely a keeper.

Hey guys, I’m kinda spending some time on the Internet before I head for a loooooong run (15km). I’m training for a half marathon that’s happening in two weeks (read here about a previous one I did near Mount Fuji). I always get a bit nervous before running with a bunch of vegan runners — they are SO good and fast. I’m a slow poke.

But I’m fuelled up on one of Brendan Brazier‘s pre-workout blueberry smoothie. I followed the main tenets but tweaked it to make it more palatable to my taste.

Recipe:
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 date
1 frozen banana
1 tbs chia seed powder
1 tbs sprouted buckwheat (from Go Raw)
1 tbs raw cacao
2 cups green tea
1/4 lemon
1 tbs hemp powder

I subbed the two Medjool dates for just one soaked date (to make blending easier on my cheap blender) and one frozen banana (I like bananas in my smoothies). The recipe called for salba which is an heirloom variety of chia seeds but I just had regular chia seed powder at home. Yerba mate tea was also in the list but I subbed that with raw cacao. I also dislike putting coconut oil into my smoothies so I just swallowed a tablespoon of it with the smoothie. Fat is important to slow down the release of sugars in the bloodstream, by the way.

Basically a pre-workout smoothie needs 3 parts carbs and 1 part protein plus some caffeine which comes from the green tea. I like and follow role models but I don’t copy them exactly. I think it’s important to understand the concept and then just roll with it. It’s hard to get the same ingredients but I’m fine with that and just replace or skip those I don’t have.

RARRRRRRR- I’m ready to rock!

Update: I forgot to mention that I only drink this for long workout sessions. For regular 40-45 minute runs, I just scoff down a handful of prunes or a banana or blitz two oranges in my blender. I find that short sessions only really require simple sugars that fruit have.

This is frozen pineapple, banana, hemp seeds and cilantro/coriander. I cannot live without hemp seeds now and I just love how they make the flavour of my green drinks deeper, almost like dairy, but it’s not!

The other habit I’ve got into is sprinkling bee pollen onto smoothies for a quick vitamin B fix. It’s so energizing and I always have this when I feel a bit tired.

This one’s raspberry, goji berries, hemp powder, banana, and hemp seeds. Big yum. Sometimes I like to have non-green looking smoothies and hemp powder lets you have the power of greens but without the colour! Don’t get me wrong, I love bright green smoothies, but recently, brownish looking smoothies don’t seem as appealing as before. Well, brown or grey smoothies come about when you mix blue/red fruit with green — they taste good but my mood for these have waned slightly. Maybe it’s hormones….Sigh.