(A beautiful sunny day in Paris. Morning)
(Elliot and Tanya are waiting to collect their hired car at Gare du Nord Station to drive to Mont Saint Michel)

Avis Lady:  Your car is ready, please sign below
Tanya:        Oh, it says here there is a mileage limit of 250km per day with up to €0,80 per km fee after that. We are driving all the way to Normandy. And tomorrow we are driving back again.
Avis Lady: You will be fine, it is about 230km to Normandy from Paris
(Elliot and Tanya eagerly prepare for the scenic drive)

GPS:        There is 380km to your destination
(Brain calculations, followed by cursing sounds)


This was one of those rare times, that I wish I wasn’t so quick at maths. All those tunnels to get out of Paris didn’t really help much either, as the GPS would lose signal and get us making U-turns on more than one occasion... “€1.. €2 ..€3..” turned into a song. And then the chorus to this fun song came at every Toll stop (we sung the chorus often).


Ah well, I’ve been dreaming of seeing the Mont St Michel castle ever since Elliot and I moved to the UK over a year ago. In our unsuccessful attempt to get there when in Paris last year for all kinds of reasons (no cars available, all train tickets sold, no accommodation vacancy), we decided to give it another go in a ‘much in advance pre-organised’ fashion. A year of wait and €400 drive later, just getting there made everything worth it.

Mont St Michel was a rocky tidal island of French Magic. I couldn’t quite stop jumping from excitement, incase that’s not evident from photos.


If you have been to France, I don’t have to remind you twice about how much cheese there is- every menu, fridge and supermarket shelf has the most unbelievable choice of cheeses...accept...Raw Vegan. The inspiration of Mont St Michel will now forever be imbedded into my new recipe...




This recipe has the creaminess of Cream Cheese and the tanginess of Cottage Cheese and is so divine, it's hard to believe there are only 3 simple ingredients!

Essentials
Blender
Colander
Cheese Cloth/ Nut Milk Strainer/ Nylon Mesh
Plate
Bowl
Something heavy to weigh down the bowl (I used dry peas, but dumbbells or jugs with water will also work well)

Ingredients
1/2 Cup Macadamia Nuts
1/2 Cup Cashew Nuts
1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp Pure Water (or just enough to cover all the nuts when in blender)
Optional: Herbs and Spices

-Blend everything together (If you are not using a high speed blender, you may need to occasionally stop and scrape the mixture off the sides back onto the blade. Pulse from time to time, making sure there is always some mixture touching the blades). Make sure the nuts are well ground and the mixture is creamy

-Place the colander on a plate (this will stop the whey, which will be strained out in the process, from making a mess on the table). Place cheese cloth inside the colander

-Pour the mixture onto the cloth (on the right, you can see the consistency is blobby, not liquidy)

-Place the bag inside another one, or if you only own one- try turn it over itself, just as long as no mixture can escape when placing a weight on top

-Place whatever you decided to use as a weight on top and put the stack in a place away from draughts (mine is inside the dehydrator with trays out)

-Walk away for 24 hours. (I must admit I can never just walk away and readjusted the weight from time to time to squeeze more Whey out and also tasted the cheese in the process, but 24 hours seems to be the perfect time)


-Transfer to the fridge for half an hour to harden, shape into logs and then roll into any herbs or spices you like (I had one log in Cracked Black, Red Pepper and Paprika and the other log in a Mix of Dried Herns including Thyme, Marjoram, Parsley, Oregano, Sage and Basil)

My very first UK Music Festival experience... now I see what all that fuss is about!

The tree hugger in me just couldn't wait to get out to open nature for three full days of festivities, but the princess in me dreaded the showerless camping. In the end, it turned out that music was what everyone came to V Fest for and with an event so well organised, there is very little one can complain about.

If you've ever had the opportunity to see Calvin Harris live (pictured right), you'd know how quickly he can make the top of your list. He was certainly my favourite, so much so that I didn't even stop and think to video.

My own first runner up was Florence and The Maching, she was sensational and here is a clip..



Kings of Leon were A-mazing, but perhaps I looked forward to them a little tooo much. Plan B were another huge favourite and I surely surprised myself at how much I enjoyed Prodigy. No, I am still surprised! Oh and there is certainly nothing wrong with Peter Andre.. nothing wrong with him at all :)


With so much time planned to be spent camping, I knew I needed to get some serious dehydrating going on and below you can see my dehydrator full of:
Fruits (tray 1)
Granola Bars (trays 2 and 3)
Nut Clusters (tray 4 and 5)



- Soak Pecans and Almonds overnight. Rinse
- Soak Walnuts, Cashews and Dates for 1 hour
- Process Pineapple, Dates, Cinnamon and Vanilla in the food processer, until the mixture turns into a sauce
- Transfer into a large bowl and manually mix in all the nuts and cacao nibs
- Spread onto teflex sheets and dehydrate at 110 degrees F overnight
- Transfer to mesh trays and dehydrate for a further 20 hours

I can’t remember if I always have been or if it is something I’ve learned to enjoy, but either way I am very much a morning person and just love getting up early(ish) and being really productive(ish).

This Saturday was no different, accept maybe for the fact that I pretty much flew out of bed even before the alarm. My very first Royal Ascot Racecourse experience and I wasn’t about to jeopardise the luxury of time to enjoy the most fabulous dress up procedure.

I had to stop myself from skipping on the way to the station, as I walked there linking arms with the most handsome man. Even those not attending seemed to know the races were on, wishing us to have a lovely day. I felt like a million dollars.

That price tag feeling managed to decrease by a few thousand when we arrived in Ascot and saw some truly spectacular outfits, hats and fascinators and I instantaneously began to plan for next year’s event!

But for now we enjoyed an amazing day with a beautiful picnic to which one of my contributions was “Stuffed Collards and Raw Mayo”. The below picture is actually from previous night’s dinner, which I made for Elliot. Since there was so much left over, the collards seemed like a perfect picnic idea and they went, well, like hot cakes...




For the Stuffing
1 head chopped cauliflower
1 Cup Sunflower seeds
1/2 Cup Quinoa (sprouted 12-24 hours)
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 Cup Raisins (soaked 1 hour)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon

-To sprout Quinoa, simply wash it and soak in water for 12-24 hours. Then drain water
-Process all ingredients in a food processor fitted with an S blade, till it’s finely diced and resembles rice

For the Wraps
8 Collard leaves (aka british greens in the supermarket)


-To assemble the wraps, cut each collard leaf in half and remove the thickest part of the stem. Place 2-3 tbsp rice mixture about one inch from the bottom of the leaf
-Roll the wrap up (similar to sushi or burritos) and place it on a serving platter with the seam side down (I just had these rolled up in a tupperware container, ready to grab and dip into the Mayo, but for dinner I sliced each roll on an angle, as pictured above)

For Raw Mayonnaise
1/2 cup cashew nuts (soaked in water for 1 hour)
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp Olive oil
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika

-Put all the ingredients except the oil in a blender. Blend on the lowest speed. This may take a few minutes, as the nuts break down and become creamy
-Gradually - one drop at a time - add the oil until the mixture starts to thicken. Continue blending until thickened and smooth

For the Salsa
(I didn't include this with the picnic, as salsa can get a little messy, but it is a beautiful dinner addition)
1 Cup Cheery Tomatoes
1 Avocado
1/4 red onion
1/2 Red pepper, deseeded and minced
1/2 Cup chopped fresh coriander
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne

-Chop all veges into small pieces
-Mix all ingredients in a bowl

Ahhh, Long Weekends... There is just nothing quite like getting that extra day, which we all too often wish for. And bless UK for all your banks and the bank holidays that come as part of the package deal, because your gift of that leave-free day is really rather good for the soul.




What brings me to this post though are the splashing around Omega-3’s out there and the question of where a Raw Vegan would get their dose of these essential fatty acids if not from the fish...

Why are Omega 3 Fatty acids essential for your diet?

• These polyunsaturated fatty acids are called ‘essential’ because the body can’t produce them and needs to get them from food
• We need omega-3 fatty acids for numerous normal body functions, such as controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain
• Omega 3 lowers bad cholesterol, protects against heart disease and lowers chances of a stroke
• In is even used to treat depression
• New studies are identifying potential benefits for a wide range of conditions including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (Harvard School of Public Health)

So where to get your Omega 3?

• The common answer would be fish, but this is simply a lack of information plus fish comes with its own parasites and diseases
• Most of these essential fats are actually in flaxseed oils, extra virgin olive oil, flaxseeds, hempseeds, walnuts, beans and winter squash
• Flaxseeds are at the top of the list, where a 1/4Cup serving contains 7g, in comparison to Salmon, where a 4oz serving has 2.1g of omega 3 fatty acids. Even a walnut 1/4Cup serving contains 2.3g

And not only are flaxseeds rich in Omega-3, they have plenty of fibre and antioxidant lignan, known to fight disease and prevent cancer, so here are my 2 favourite flaxseed cracker recipes...

ESSENTIALS
-Food Processer
-Dehydrator



½ Cup x whole flaxseeds (or linseeds, same thing)
1 Cup x Water
2 x Tomatoes
½ Cup x Sun Dried tomatoes (soaked for 1 hour)
½ Cup x Fresh Basil
¼ Cup x Organic Olives (pitted)
2 Tbsp x Lemon juice
1 Tbsp x Italian herbs (your choice of dries spices)





½ Cup x whole flaxseeds (or linseeds, same thing)
1 Cup x Water
1 Cup x Strawberries
½ Cup x Blueberries
½ Cup x Cherry (pitted)
2 x Medjool Dates
1 x Tbsp Purple Corn Flour


For the savoury cracker: process the tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, olives and basil in the food processer with an S blade.

Transfer into a bowl with the soaked flaxseeds and add the herbs and lemon juice. Mix
Spread the mixture over 2 dehydrater trays with teflex sheets
 
Dehydrate at 105 degrees F for 6 hours, peel off the sheet and transfer to a mesh tray and dehydrate for another 10 hours
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dehydrate at 105 degrees F for 6 hours, peel off the sheet and transfer to a mesh tray and dehydrate for another 15 hours



 
 
 
Note: This sweet recipe is a mix of crunchy and chewie, almost like a fruit leather, but more ridgit. If you like more of a crunch, add double amount of flax (plus water to soak) and also dehydrate for an additional 5 hours.
 
Oh and if you are not planning on eating either of these straight away, cut or break them up and transfer to an airtight container so they stay crunchy. Yum!

It has been one week today and I am still buzzing!! All those years my friends and I have spent mimicking Carrie and the girls, fighting over who gets to be who, drinking cosmos even when we didn’t like them so much, buying expensive shoes, even when we couldn’t afford them, searching every corner in desperate hope to spot one of them whilst visiting New York and just stalking them, really. I actually truly believed I will grow out of the hype, but as soon as Stacey found out they are in London for the Sex and the City 2 Premier, we were both in Leicester Square hunting for that ideal standing spot with our cameras strapped to our wrists and throats cleared for shameless screaming. Then they started arriving and I felt like a little teenage girl, who had all her dreams come true at once..

And of cause this wouldn’t be a Raw Food blog without some Popcorn for the movies, so here is a super simple recipe: RAW 'POPCORN' 1 x large head cauliflower 3 x Tbsp nutritional yeast 1 x tsp salt -Cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces -In a big container, combine the cauliflower, nutritional yeast and salt until the pieces are entirely coated - put the lid on tight, and then shake shake shake -Lay the coated cauliflower pieces on your dehydrator mesh trays and dehydrate at 105F degrees for 24 hours; they will be nice and crunchy Note: this is obviously not made from corn, so don’t expect it to taste like corn, but it looks pretty much like popcorn when done and tastes pretty awesome too!