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Day Two | MULU Raw | Jumbo chocolate chip cookies, no dehydrator

Posted by 2 · March 23, 2012

Day One's winner of Pulsin' brownies and Beond snack bars is Steve Andrew! Steve's answer to 'If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?' is 'Plum'. Congratulations Steve!!!

ELEVEN DAYS OF RAW CHOCOLATE GIVE-AWAYS

TODAY'S PRIZE: Mix box of MULU raw chocolate bars and buttons

3 x Mulu Dark with raw cacao nibs 68gm

2 x Mulu Silk 74gm

2 x Mulu Dark 74gm

8 x Raw Chocolate Buttons 22gm

worth £28.95 (US $46)

www.muluchocolate.co.uk

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MY REVIEW

Mulu Dark with raw cacao nibs ingredients: raw cacao mass, raw agave nectar, raw cacao butter, raw cacao nibs, sunflower lecithin, bourbon vanilla, (cocoa solids minimum 67%)

Mulu Silk ingredients: raw cacao butter, raw agave nectar, raw cacao powder, sunflower lecithin, ground vanilla, (cocoa solids minimum 65%)

Mulu Dark ingredients: raw cacao butter, raw agave nectar, raw cacao powder, sunflower lecithin, ground vanilla, (cocoa solids minimum 70%)

Mulu Raw Chocolate Buttons ingredients: raw cacao butter, raw agave nectar, raw cacao powder, sunflower lecithin, ground vanilla, (cocoa solids minimum 58%)

I absolutely love the simplicity of just five ingredients in MULU products. Five best ingredients in the world of chocolate making and Mulu picked them all and married them in a way I love to enjoy my chocolate.

But there is so much more to these bars. The packaging is just gorgeous- my boyfriend Elliot being in marketing taught me to appreciate the right fonts and colours for specific brands- I have NOTHING to criticise Mulu for! The square shape of their bars also adds to the enjoyment experience, because not only is it already different by being raw and vegan, but Mulu is not trying to be anything like their non vegan conventional chocolate counterpart. Also you can break them up into little squares and have a whole plate of mini chocolates to serve at dinner parties. So many possibilities!

When choosing my favourite, logically I would have to go for the Dark with Cacao nibs- it does after all have it all- the smoothness of a chocolate bar, the added crunch of texture and the richness of cacao, but I'm going for Silk! This bar really hit the spot for me on my constant quest for creamy, 'milky', indulgent chocolate!

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RECIPE SUGGESTION:
NO DEHYDRATOR JUMBO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

2 packets MULU's raw chocolate buttons

1 cup cashews

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

3 Tbsp coconut butter/oil

10 drops natural vanilla extract

1/4 tsp himalayan sea salt

Process the cashews in a food processor until broken down

Add the remaining ingredients apart from chocolate buttons and process until well combined

Lay out a teflex sheet or another non stick sheet/tray and divide up the mixture into five equal portions onto it

Form balls from each part of the mixture and flatten them into pancakes

Use your hands or a soft spatular to smooth out the edges of each cookie

Gently press in the chocolate buttons, slightly tilted so they can set in the 'dough' [Note I chopped some buttons into halves]

Transfer to the fridge to set for an hour

Store in the fridge in an airtight container

How do you like the recipe? If you do, just wait till you see another 21 in my eBook Seduced- Raw Chocolate Recipes to get very excited for! Available to download in seconds! More please>>

________________________________________________________________________

HOW TO ENTER TODAY'S GIVE-AWAY

Your entry is 3 steps away:

1. Go to Better Raw's Facebook page and 'Like' the page if you haven't done so yet

2. Click the 'Share' button on today's Facebook announcement for the Give-Away and paste this into your status "I just entered this awesome chocolate give-away, you should too!" and click 'share status'

3. Click the 'Comment' button on today's Facebook announcement and answer this question "If you could only grow one thing in your garden, what would it be?"

The terms: All three steps must be completed for your entry to be valid. Competition is open to everyone worldwide, I will post anywhere. You must be a Facebook user, sorry no answers will be taken into consideration if posted elsewhere on the internet. There are 11 prizes to be won, one prize per day. Today's entry is for today's prize only, please come back again tomorrow to enter for a different new prize. Winners will be chosen randomly.

4 comments

Day One | Pulsin' & Beond | Chocolate sauce

Posted by 2 · March 22, 2012

ELEVEN DAYS OF RAW CHOCOLATE GIVE-AWAYS

TODAY'S PRIZE: Mix Case of Pulsin' brownies and Beond snack bars

12 x Pulsin' Raw Choc Brownie 50gm

6 x Beond organic raw chic bar 40gm

4 x Beond organic acai berry bar 40gm

worth £33 (US $52)
www.pulsin.co.uk

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MY REVIEW

Pulsin' Raw Choc Brownie is a luxurious snack of dates, cashew butter, raisins, peruvian raw cacao, almonds, brown rice malt, cacao butter, brown rice powder, vanilla pods. sea salt and green tea extract.

The moment I picked up this brownie in its packet, I knew it was going to be dense and chewy- it felt nice and heavy for the packaging it was it- exciting! I was right- dense, sticky, chewy and chocolatey, the way a brownie should be. Most of all I loved whole almonds all through the brownie, so pretty much every bite had a nice crunch to it as well, makes everything so much more fun!

Beond Acai berry bar ingredients: raw dates, raw almonds, raw raspberry powder, raw acai powder, raspberry flavour. Beond Raw choc bar ingredients: raw dates, raw almonds, raw cacao powder, raw raisins, raw agave nectar.

The raw choc bar has actually been my recovery food after running for well over a year now, so you can imagine my delight when Beond agreed to participate in the competition. It's pretty filling for a small bar and I love everything about it- the texture, chewiness and of course the taste. The Acai Berry Bar is simply ridiculous! I don't even know what to say. My favourite raw snack bar on the market!! It is so juicy, soft, chewy, sweet and tangy all at the same time. It also just melts in your mouth and disappears far too quickly. Top marks!

The winner will be mega pleased that's for sure!

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RECIPE SUGGESTION: SIMPLE RAW CHOCOLATE SAUCE

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/3 cup cacao powder

1/2 cup pure water (or better yet for a milk chocolate sauce version- nut milk)

1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract

1/4 tsp himalayan sea salt

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth

Serving suggestion: warm up the brownies and sauce in a dehydrator and serve or blend the sauce for a while until it heats up slightly. [Also you do get much more sauce than is pictured, so do serve your brownies in a whole bed of it, or if any is left over, just add nut milk and whizz it up into a smoothie]

How do you like the recipe? If you do, just wait till you see another 21 in my eBook Seduced- Raw Chocolate Recipes to get very excited for! Available to download in seconds! More please>>

________________________________________________________________________

HOW TO ENTER TODAY'S GIVE-AWAY

Your entry is 3 steps away:

1. Go to Better Raw's Facebook page and 'Like' the page if you haven't done so yet

2. Click the 'Share' button on today's Facebook announcement for the Give-Away and paste this into your status "I just entered this awesome chocolate give-away, you should too!" and click 'share status'

3. Click the 'Comment' button on today's Facebook announcement and answer this question "If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?"

The terms: All three steps must be completed for your entry to be valid. Competition is open to everyone worldwide, I will post anywhere. You must be a Facebook user, sorry no answers will be taken into consideration if posted elsewhere on the internet. There are 11 prizes to be won, one prize per day. Today's entry is for today's prize only, please come back again tomorrow to enter for a different new prize. Winners will be chosen randomly.

5 comments

Where does chocolate come from? (VIDEO) Plus Give-Away Announcement!

Posted by 2 · March 17, 2012

Exciting times ahead guys!

We are nearing Easter time and all my fellow chocolate lovers know exactly what thaaaat means!

It's a seriously delicious time coming up and I've teamed up with my favourite (no joke, I handpicked these, you'll see why) companies to give you a chance at winning their most popular raw chocolate bars, truffles, snacks, brownies and products.

Just look at some of what could be yours...

Five Reasons you don't want to miss this competition:

1. Every single day for ELEVEN days you will get a chance to win some incredible raw chocolate bars and products.

2. All companies are handpicked by me personally for their tastiest, best quality, vegan, healthy and conscious ethics and ingredients!

3. Not only that, but every single day I will be posting a RAW CHOCOLATE recipe for everyone right here on the Better Raw blog.

4. The competition is open to anyone, no matter where you live in the world. I will ship anywhere!

5. Do you really need another reason? :)

So are you ready to have the most chocolatey, most indulgent, rich and satisfying, but completely guilt free time? It kicks off on March 22nd!

Make sure you go here http://www.facebook.com/BetterRaw and 'LIKE' us on Facebook to take part. I will keep you in the loop with all the ELEVEN DAYS OF RAW CHOCOLATE GIVE-AWAY announcements!

Have you wondered where chocolate comes from, how it grows and how is it extracted from the cacao pods to get you cacao beans, nibs, butter and powder? Watch the little video I shot while in Ecuador...

If the video doesn't automatically play, then click here: http://youtu.be/2PhUVpz1nkk

2 comments

Three course raw food dinner experience (feat. superfood crackers)

Posted by 2 · March 05, 2012

Hey everyone and Happy Monday!

I woke up this morning with a really really good feeling, every cell in my body full of electricity and sparkles, butterflies and cacao. I even got my skipping rope out and skipped in my PJ's in our back yard. Weird is my middle name!

I just feel this week is going to be AMAZING and if it's not, I'm going to MAKE IT amazing! No idea why I feel like that, but does it even matter? Don't question happiness, just roll with it.

Perhaps it's because of the awesome food and company we had this weekend? Speaking of which... I wanted to share with you a Three Course Raw Food Dinner idea, as I often get asked what to make for guests. These last few days we had Elliot's sister-in-law Jen visiting us, so I organised a wee little dinner party to welcome her to London Town.

Britney and Jen with kombucha mimosas

It was also a good excuse for me to come up with a brand new cracker recipe. I do love my special Chia Seed and Sun-dried Tomato crackers (even Girl on Raw's Robyn Law blogged about them), but sometimes change is on the cards. I'm glad it is, the new creations are definitely worthy of the blog- so smooth, crisp and crunchy with a superfood bite!

Scroll for the recipe and check out what we ate:

THREE COURSE DINNER MENU

Drink- Kombucha mimosa

(as seen in 'Festive- The Best Raw Food Christmas Recipes')

Starter- Superfood Crackers and Guacamole

(recipe for crackers and guacamole below)

Main- Raw Food Luxury Pizza with Probiotic Cheese and Sauerkraut

(pizza as seen here, cheese and sauerkraut as seen here)

Dessert- Refreshing Peppermint Ice Cream

(as taught in my Raw Food Sweet Sensations class)

SUPERFOOD CRACKER RECIPE

Spread as thinly as possible

For the essentials

Blender

Dehydrator

Teflex sheets

For the crackers

1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked 2 hours

1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hours

1 cup chopped pineapple

1/2 cup sundried tomatoes

1 large courgette/ zucchini, chopped

2 tsp himalayan salt

1 tsp chlorella powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 garlic powder

Pizza bases and crackers onto mesh after 8 hours

Rinse the buckwheat well. It will need a few washes to get the gooey water thinned out.

Pour out the water from sunflower seeds or better yet- feed it to your house plants.

Put all the ingredients, including the seeds into a blender and blend to a paste.

Divide the mixture in half and spread over two teflex sheets of your dehydrator. Spread it with a soft spatular, until really thin.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees F for 8 hours, turn over onto mesh trays and peel away the teflex sheets.

Return to the dehydrator and dehydrate for another 10-12 hours.

Cut off the rough edges and into equal sized crackers.

Keep in an airtight container, serve with fresh guacamole (mashed avocado, chopped tomato, chopped onion and lemon juice).

Here we are, so relaxed we didn't even make it to the dinner table:
Elliot, Britney, Jen, me (Tanya)

5 comments

Cheesy Creamy Carrot Salad- Raw Food Recipe

Posted by 2 · February 23, 2012

Last weekend I was very blessed to have been invited for a very special day of meditation at The Nutri Centre in Regent's Park. This gorgeous centre is one of the world's largest suppliers of nutritional products and my favourite wellbeing book store in London. They even stock my DVD Raw Food 101!

The day was lead by a wonderful spiritual guru Andrew Smith, who is the author of The Revolution of 2012- The Preparation and The Revolution of 2012- The Challenge.

We all brought with us a healthy treat for a shared lunch. I must admit I didn't even stop to contemplate on what my contribution was going to be. This recipe has been a hit in all of my Beginners to Raw Food Workshops, Retreats, and more recently on so many blogs across the internet raving about it after watching the DVD. The only regret I had was not being prepared enough to take a better picture of the salad to show to you guys here. The photo really does it no justice at all :)

CHEESY CREAMY CARROT SALAD

As seen on Raw Food 101 DVD

For the Dressing/Dip
1 cup cashews, soaked 2-8 hours
1/2 cup pure water
1/2 red bell pepper/ capsicum, de-seeded and chopped
1/8 red onion (small slice)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp tahini
1 tsp himalayan salt
1 clove garlic

For the Salad
5 large carrots, shredded
optional: sundried tomatoes, adzuki bean sprouts, mung bean sprouts, lentil sprouts

-Blend cashews with water first
-Add the rest of ingredients and pulse until creamy (use the tamper of your Vitamix blender)
-Add a little more water if needed
-Put all the grated carrots into a large bowl, pour the sauce on top and mix it all in
-Transfer into a nice serving dish and sprinkle with the optional extras
-Nom nom nom

If you like this recipe, watch me demonstrate the making of it step-by-step, as well as another 19 super scrumptious recipes on my DVD Raw Food 101- Your first steps to the healthiest lifestyle ever. The DVD is divided into there chapters: Intro, Equipment, Smoothies vs Juices, Milks and Calcium, Superfoods, Sprouting, Fermenting, Dehydrating, Sauces and Flavours, Quick Meals, and Sweets. The recipes are of course all deliciously raw and include nut cheese, superfood shake, 'meat' balls and spaghetti bolognaise, crunchy granola, chia crackers, raw chocolate and many more!

1 comment

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