I’m trying to be more careful about consuming nuts because I’m on a mission not to gain weight before my wedding. I’m not trying to lose weight, but if I do, I’ll be a happy bunny. Other things that I’m tweaking are no desserts but I would indulge if I’m out with friends on the weekend, no eating after dinner no matter what (even if my stomach grumbles — I’ll just drink some water and go to sleep), cutting down on carbs to 3-4 times a week as opposed to every single day and I’m trying my best to eat till I’m satisfied and not-bursting-at-the-seams full.

The last point is definitely something I struggle with because I don’t have a sweet tooth so cutting desserts from my diet more strictly is seriously not a big deal to me. I tend to let daily busyness get the better of me and I tend to binge at dinner (two helpings, carbs etc).

Cutting down on carbs is proving a little easier than I imagined as I’m a carboholic but I’m enjoying alternating rice/noodles with beans/quinoa. And I’m sure alot of you veggie lovers out there can relate to this especially if you don’t like having beans or quinoa every single day. I like them both but I cannot eat both or either every single day. Apparently quinoa is highly caloric so I’m cutting down on that too. I used to eat quinoa 2-3 times a week but now just once a week or not even.

On top of all that, I’m trying to work out at least four times a week for at least an hour each session. I do struggle with this sometimes because time is always a constraint but I’m working on this.

Anyway, let’s stop the diet ramble and start on the recipe for this chocolate chia pudding without nuts (recipe with nuts is here). Even if I’m not being weight conscious, I think I would move in this direction, cutting down on nuts. I still eat avocados, buckwheat, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds but lately I’ve had no cravings for even raw ice-cream. Seriously, it feels so heavy to me that I have lost my appetite for it. I made a raw lemon cheesecake and there are still leftovers in the freezer because I am just not into it anymore. Weird, eh?

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
2 tbs chia seeds
1 cup hazelnut milk
1 tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp raw cacao
1 tsp maca (optional)
3-4 soaked dates
Splash of vanilla essence

After I blitz this concoction, it would be this silky smooth gel-like chocolate soup. I topped it with bananas, Lydia’s Sprouted Cinnamon Cereal, and Japanese cherries that look like cherry tomatoes. They are more subtle in flavour than American cherries but delicious in their less sweet way.

I felt really satisfied after this breakfast and before that I had a glass of green juice. I love raw brekkies….

…in terms of time….Don’t you think it takes a while to chop everything up into nice bite-sized pieces? That’s why I only tend to have fruit bowls for breakfast on the weekend…

This one has raspberries, apple, strawberries, blueberries, and banana. It was so yum…

Happy Friday!

I was inspired by raw mama Kirsten Suzanne again and made cucumber boats. When I saw her picture of guacamole in cucumber boats, I was intrigued.

As you know recently, I’ve been a bit turned off by green smoothies and I also realized that I was in a raw food rut. I tend to drink lots of smoothies and soups so I’ve this urge to munch on food instead of chugging it down.

I prepared my fave avocado dill mash (one avocado, chopped garlic, handful of chopped dill, sea salt and black pepper); dug out the cucumber seeds and mixed them together with the mash; topped the boats with the mash and devoured them all.

We only get skinny Japanese cucumbers in Tokyo and I’ve yet to see fat English cucumbers being sold.

I rounded up this munchy lunch with half a Fuji apple and almond butter.

Sometimes, you just need to chew to be happy.

This was a good day — the sun was shining and I felt blissed out tucking into some raw granola (Go Raw is my fave my far!) and walnut milk with strawberries, bluberries, banana, and raisins.

There are bad days too. I get emotional thinking about potential big aftershocks, learning what to do in an emergency, and reading about the severity of the Fukushima reactors. All physically far away, but like anyone living in Eastern Honshu, there’s an underlying tension beneath smiles and daily life of getting on with it.

Actually, just to let you know the reality of it, people in Tokyo aren’t so concerned about radiation contamination anymore….the talk of impending earthquakes more than 7 in magnitude are a possibility more likely than a nuclear cloud coming. Seriously. Can the international press chill the fuck out?

Hi there, remember me? Sorry for being absent — life was a bit of a mess after the horrific Mar 11 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region, which is in northeastern Japan. I live in Tokyo so I’m fine. But the days that followed the 9.0 earthquake threw the whole of eastern Japan into infrastructural chaos, compounded by fears of a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, which is 250km from Tokyo.

I’ll let you read about my experience 48 hours after the quake here and how Tokyo is getting back to normal here.

The picture of that super-bright pink chia pudding was a late breakfast 24 hours after the initial big quake. I thought I would want something warm and comforting but I only really felt like having my all-time fave brekkie of berries, cashews, chia, and raw granola (International Harvest‘s Mulberry & Walnut Raw Granola). I was tired, sleep-deprived, stressed, sweaty, with a whole lot of work and phone calls to deal with the day after so I chose something nourishing, sweet, and delicious.

I had this photo in my camera and looked at it longingly when I clicked through my photos — I hung out in Kyushu, south Japan, for almost two weeks to wait out the nuclear reactor drama (it’s not getting very much better by the way). I was obviously not raw when I was away from home because I was in “real” Japan (no exotic foreign imports) and I was in a hotel (sans blender naturally) so I had no access to my fave raw salads and smoothies.

I’m not complaining that I had a hard time because I am lucky enough to live in a neighbourhood in Tokyo where there are no rolling blackouts (my hood is like a business hub) and my apartment is extremely earthquake proof so I am safe and alive and everything in my life is pretty much back to where it was before.

But I missed my own food, because while a hotel is very comfortable with folks on standby to clean your shit up, it just ain’t home so I could hardly contain myself on the shinkansen (bullet train) homeward bound last Wednesday evening.

You bet I made myself a huge bowl of raw chia pudding the next morning, too…

For this pudding, I blended cashews, dates, vanilla essence, water, chia seeds and raspberries until smooth and topped the thick soup with strawberries, bananas, and raw granola.

Bright colours in a bowl cheer me up always. I need a lot of that lately to keep my spirits up. Tokyo is getting back to normal but there is fear of radiation in the tap water. The levels are fine now but there are more leakages up north and I don’t know if they can contain it. Bottled water can be bought but are rationed out (1 or 2 per person) at supermarkets if you can find them at all. There is so much to be said on this topic but it’s close to 11pm in Tokyo so I’m weary physically and mentally. If you want more updates on Tokyo that is non-raw food related, do go over to my expat blog. I’m not sure if I’ll be posting much on food here as I’ve a lot on my plate work-wise and I’m not being very imaginative in my meals (just salads and smoothies)…we’ll see.

So upon my return, I filled my grocery basket with tons of fresh produce. I didn’t have a lot of time to chomp my way through a salad, so I made some raw soup.

Recipe:
2 cups carrot juice (one carrot blended with two cups water and then strained)
1 zucchini
Handful of coriander
1 clove garlic
1 green chilli
Half an avocado
Juice of half a lemon
Dash of sea salt

The result was a bright and tasty raw soup with lots of vitamins that would benefit an under-the-weather bunny…

I also paired this raw soup with orange cashew cheese nori rolls that was inspired by Choosing Raw’s recipe here.

I added garlic to the recipe because I thought it was a bit sweet for something that was meant to be savoury.

Recipe (in a food processor):
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
Juice of half an orange
3-4 pieces of orange zest
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon of white miso
Dash of sea salt and black pepper
1 clove garlic

You need to keep pulsing to get the smooth creamy consistency you see in the picture. Cashews tend to be a bit chunky if you don’t process them enough, so keep going till you get the smoothness you want.

My nori rolls had purple cabbage, broccoli sprouts, avocado, and dollops of this refreshing orange cashew cheese.

I loved the citrusy taste of it and more so because it was so simple. I’ve moved onto seasoning my raw food less in terms of herbs. It’s more from a flavour perspective (I like simpler food) and the convenience of not having the right ingredients — I prefer to use what I call “the basics”; ie. fruit and vegetables in my pantry. For example, I always have oranges, garlic, and cashews but I may not always have fresh rosemary, dill, mint, or basil which I have to make a mental note of if I want to consume them.

I loved the deep blush shade of this raspberry chia pudding and that’s the only reason why I’m posting this picture (!!!).

It’s exactly the same recipe as my pink bubblegum strawberry pudding but just with raspberries.

It’s funny how much my diet has changed. When I first discovered raw and vegan and vegetarianism, I went mad trying new dishes, but now my daily feeds look like this (this was taken from my food journal on Monday Feb 21 2011; yes, I keep one to track my moods, food intake, emotions, thoughts in order to understand how my life is affected by my diet and vice versa):

Green juice: celery, carrot, grapefruit, spinach, amazing grass powder

Green smoothie: mango, hemp seeds, hemp, romaine

Lunch: big salad with carrot, romaine, baby spinach, cucumber, celery with yummy raw ranch dressing (hemp seeds, cashews, oregano, dill, mixed herbs, garlic, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, water, olive oil, lemon juice, two dates) and leftover chickpea mash

Green smoothie: blueberries, banana, celery, spinach (lasted me like forever! Had this at 430pm and then only felt hungry at 9pm)

Dinner: small purple cabbage salad with carrot, cucumber, baby tomatoes, and all were shredded in simple four-taste dressing (garlic, lemon, dates, olive oil, salt, water) + leftover broccoli and potato yellow curry + leftover quinoa pilaf (greens, oyster mushrooms, garlic, chilli, tomato, onion). Very full after but felt hungry at midnight.

Banana with almond butter

Basically, I just have green juice, green smoothies, salads, nori rolls, romaine/cabbage wraps, chia puddings, overnight oats, lentil curry, beans, quinoa, veggie stir-fries, soba noodles, gluten-free pasta, rice, and the occasional refined carb treat like udon noodles or regular pasta (macaroni is my weakness) which are my “cheat meals”.

I’m not sick of this routine as yet… Do you need a wide variety of dishes to keep you interested in vegetarianism?

It was pelting snow last Friday and it was a rare sight indeed because Tokyo is relatively snowless in winter. It has already snowed about three times in the space of a week and the weather has been perfect for snuggling in my futon.

In case you are wondering, I do live right next to that tall office building. It is a bit weird to be surrounded by buildings but I didn’t think about it until I snapped this shot.

Socially, I had several options last weekend but I chose to stay in because I just needed the downtime. I wasn’t tired physically but lately there has been so much “noise” in my daily life that the cacophony of it all wore me out mentally.

That leads me to think fondly of my “me time” that is usually over breakfast when I make a green juice and then proceed to slowly devour a bowl of overnight oats like this…

I don’t consume chocolate often but this snowy weather has somehow kick-started a short-lived craving. I soaked organic rolled oats in walnut milk overnight with chia seeds and then I added chopped banana and chocolate sauce (cocoa powder and maple syrup) with a dollop of Peanut Butter & Co Smooth Operator peanut butter. It was such a treat and definitely a new favourite.

As you read this, I’m flying to Hokkaido for a long weekend getaway to bed down my wedding that’s happening this October. The hotel offered us two nights’ complimentary stay which was very kind of them indeed. While my better half skis in the day (after wedding planning of course), I’ll ensconce myself in the onsen and then our hotel room to watch cable TV news and read a book. I’m easy to please haha — I just want some peace and quiet! By the way, I do snowboard but my ankle is still recovering from a nasty fall I had in Jan so I’m taking it easy till it is 100%.

…yet another chia pudding. This is a hemp seed milk one with raw buckwheat cereal from Raw Pleasure in Australia with strawberries, banana, and dried cherries. I had a few chia puddings in Singapore when I bought some from the organic section in local supermarket chain, NTUC. I was so surprised to find buckwheat and chia seeds there! It’s great that some Singaporeans know about these raw products.

And how I missed my chia puddings so…I’m having them in one shape or form daily this chilly winter.

I love my chocolate cashew chia version, and its berry sister, and my basic chia seed pudding that just has nut/seed milk topped with raw cereal, raisins, banana, and blueberries. I like my chia seed puddings with soaked dates the best but sometimes I don’t plan ahead enough…note to self to soak dates more…

Decorating chia puddings with interesting fruit like figs stirs up the mix wonderfully, or sometimes when I travel, I keep it really simple — nut milk, chia seeds, banana, raw granola. Or I could eat it out of a Tribest container if I don’t have a bowl handy.

More recently, I’ve taken to chucking chia seeds into overnight oats which are lifesavers in this chilly winter in Tokyo. It is more filling than a basic chia pudding and great for times when I don’t feel like making a nut-based one.

It snowed mushy snow this morning and I’ve got my floor heater on and the little electric heater going at full blast — c-c-c-c-cold.

The only tip I have to eat raw in winter is to let your produce warm up to room temperature before making any food. It takes about 30 minutes so planning ahead really helps. I think to myself, “What would I like to eat today?” and set about soaking nuts or taking salad leaves out.

And if it all gets too hard, I just eat cooked veggie food, though I must say that is not really happening much at all. I am surprised that going through my third winter, I have had a mini breakthrough of sorts. I no longer want something warm in the morning if it is cold out (below 5 degrees C). I usually drink hot water upon waking and then have a green juice. Perhaps it’s because I have gone through so many permutations of “changing things up” during winter that I feel the best starting my day with a green juice and being raw till dinner. Habit is quite a force to be reckoned with…

Also on hindsight, I was too hard on myself in the past and one should never force oneself to eat or drink anything you don’t want to. It’s been said before, but wanting to be raw will come naturally if you keep to it more or less.

How was your Xmas? Mine was lovely with family, presents, and lots of food.

I have been raw as much as possible and it hasn’t been too hard because we are staying with the non-raw fiance’s mother – there’s a blender and a fridge so it’s been a breeze so far. I’m keeping things very simple with only green smoothies, juices, and salads.

I did get a stash of raw cereal and bars but have only dug into the bars as snacks. My cooked dinners in Sydney tend to be very heavy so I naturally gravitate to much lighter eats in the day. It helps that it is summer here so my body is not craving for more solid meals.

But I do have a photo of a very yummy chocolate chia pudding I made before i left Toyko. It has the same base recipe as this one here, but I added two more soaked dates to make it sweeter. I topped this with chopped banana, kiwi (weird but it goes well with chocolate), and blueberries.

I had been into this pudding and the strawberry one lately for an energizing breakfast after a large green juice.

Perhaps winter made me crave for something a bit heftier and admittedly I was consuming more cashews than usual.

Right now I am indulging in mango, watermelon, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, and beets – all of which are expensive in Tokyo but in huge abundance here…how lucky am I right now?