Naraya Cooking Health Recipe

if that glass of juice isn't beautiful - i don't know what is. look at my kale!!! finally it has grown. dinosaur kale might be my favourite food. seriously. check out how amazing it is.



as far as my body goes - like i said, i feel great. i have been quite warm today though. a lot of perspiration. i'm making sure to drink tons of water and get plenty of sleep. i'm also spending time outdoors and walking around. in the next few days i'll be getting into meditating, painting and reading. can't wait!


the contrast of bright colours in my juice matched my dress :) i did some dishes, then went to tutor a student. i walked all the way home like i usually do and felt totally fine, it's about 5 kilometers. in fact, i have more energy today than normal.

i made my second juice for dinner around 6 PM. it was made of:

1/2 cucumber
huge handful kale
1 orange
1 apple
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
3 carrots
4 sticks celery
chunk of ginger
& love!


at this point i'm loving every moment of this fast and am really excited for the next eight days. we'll see if that opinion changes... i'm also keeping in mind that after this i am going to be doing my 21 water fast. so if i ever feel deprived with just the juice (hasn't happened so far though) i'll just remember that in a week i won't be able to have anything! so it makes juice fasting seem like a piece of cake. raw vegan cake.

today has been great so far. last night i had three amazing friends show up at my door unexpectedly, so we had a party. what does a party mean? it means the lost boys, pho noodle soup, animal collective, and lots of laughing.


so much laughing we kept my dad up, actually. then today i slept forever - that means until 2 in the afternoon. you know i'm really a cat. after my deep slumber i took a shower and laid out in the backyard to dry off in the sunshine. (side note: i've been listening to grimes all day - she's so good, perfect background music for today.)


i did some stuff around the house and was finally starting to get hungry so i made my first juice of the fast! it was made of:

3 carrots
4 sticks celery
handful strawberries
1 orange
1 kiwi
1 bell pepper
1 apple





i am actually more of a smoothie-lover myself (addicted to green smoothies for life. what's up, kale.) but all it took was one glass of fresh juice to get me right back into juicing! for a period i made veggie juice every morning but i got tired of it. i love fiber and when you juice - you take out the fiber. however, sans fiber has it's own benefits: you get lightning-fast absorption. i'm talkin' like 15 minutes, people.

 
in any case, juice fasting has probably saved lives. ann wigmore really popularized juicing and especially wheatgrass juice in the 60's. she showed people juice fasting and raw food could cure disease and rejuvenate the chronically ill. you go, girl.

there's even a documentary about one man who pretty much saved his own life with a juice fast. he went from being "fat, sick and nearly dead" to at the peak of his fitness. here's the link. this doc is so inspiring!!! i loved it. through this juice fast and my 21-day water fast, i also plan to do a lot of reading, writing, painting, yoga and meditation.

time to get back to who i am!


look what i found today! the summer's first strawberry! oh my goodness. i gobbled the little fellow up and promptly ascended into heaven. please, grow your own food if you can - it will be the most luscious, flavourful food you will ever eat.


for dinner, i had a similar juice of carrots, celery, an apple, an orange, strawberries and a bell pepper. but i also added a tomato and a chunk of ginger. it was actually glowing, i think. i feel on top of the world right now! we'll see how tomorrow goes.

these tarts are so cute. you can't resist them. it's funny how whenever you decorate things with fresh fruit they become more appealing. our bodies know what they want!


i thought i was only going to be able to use the kiwi we had in the house but just as i was about to decorate them my mom came home with fresh, locally grown, organic strawberries! perfect.

you know i'm obsessed with chocolate, so today my goal was to make something without it - for once in my dang life. it looks like there's chocolate in the crust but that's just the skin of the almonds, prunes and raisins.

the filling is like a cashew custard i suppose. it's actually just cashews,  maple syrup, vanilla seeds and nut milk. oh ma gad. too good. i was eating spoonfuls.


the light was great in the kitchen today so i took lots of photos - hope you don't mind ;) i think these would be fun for a garden party. it is finally getting to be that time of year! imagine bringing them out on a cute little tray with some fancy drinks or whatever and impressing all your friends... mhm. do it.


these better be gone by tomorrow because that's when i start my liquid cleanse (i don't know if i'll be able to resist the temptation!) as i said in the last post - i'll be having lots of juice and smoothies, and tea and nut milks as well. after my 10 day cleanse i will going into my 21 day water fast!!! yippie!


anyhoo - time to give you the recipe if you want to make these. as usual, they're super easy and far too delicious to be healthy... yet they are.


fruit tartlets with cashew cream: makes 1 large tart or about 6 small
-
crust:
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup prunes/raisins/dates
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
2 tablespoons flax seeds

cashew cream filling:
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup or so nut milk
3 tablespoons maple syrup/agave
1/4 teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon and ginger powder
seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

to make the crust: pulse the nuts in your food processor until they are crumb-sized. add the other ingredients and pulse until the mixture starts sticking together. you might need to add more prunes/raisins/dates. press this mix into the bottom of a tart tin or several tartlet tins. put in the fridge.

to make the cashew cream filling: blend the cashews into cashew butter then add all the other ingredients until smooth. yummmmmm. spoon this evenly into your tart/tartlet tins and put back in the fridge while you cut up your fruit. decorate as you please - then enjoy!

hello, lovelies. i'm sorry i don't have much to share today in the way of recipes. but i do have an interview on a trendy australian website/magazine! it was really fun to do, and the girl who interviewed me is super cool.




here's some related links that i found. you might like 'em. you might not.

a reliable site with thought-provoking articles.
go veg and protect yourself from modern lifestyle disease.
plant-based diet to beat lifestyle diseases!

sorry in advance: i haven't posted in awhile, this isn't raw, and the pictures are bad. BUT ANYWAY...

i hope your dad enjoyed his day! mine did. it was sunny here for most of the day, some friend's visited, greg made a great breakfast, we bought a new barbeque and grilled veggies, and i made him a cake.

oh... and he got to eat meat -.- hmph! seriously though, if this was 2 years ago... the fact that my dad eating meat on father's day was a big deal and a treat for him would be pretty much unbelievable. i'm so happy we've come this far. i'm very proud of my family.

anyways - cake.


two of my dad's fave things are marzipan and chocolate (two others are beer and BMW motorcycles). so i made him a chocolate cake with marzipan and chocolate frosting. it's baked, but i used organic whole wheat flour and raw sugar. yay!


it was... very good. if you love cake - make this! :) i used a recipe that was already on the blog.

yum. that's what these babies are.

i will admit right off the bat - i didn't make the chocolate chips myself today so they aren't 100% raw in the photos. but as long as you make your own raw chocolate chips (or buy some), you're golden!


i was asked to give a raw cookie recipe so here it is. these are mostly oats with a bit of coconut, almonds and agave (i didn't have any dates!) i recommend using dates if you have them, they're a whole food whereas agave is more processed... still far better than white sugar though ;)

personally, i find these more satisfying than baked cookies. they taste just as good, and the bonus is that they're good for you. nothing to feel guilty about here! i bet these would be good if you dehydrated them for a couple hours, they'd get like baked cookies on the outside. for me though - they were great as is.

i made quite a few so i'll be giving them away to friends and what not. it would've been nice to go downtown and give them to the homeless. last time i was downtown i was bringing some raw brownies to a friend's house and didn't think to share them with the people who needed them more than my or my friends until after i was coming home... dang. next time!

hopefully you're not homeless and so can enjoy them in the comfort of your dwelling today.


in your food processor, pulse oats, almonds and coconut chunks until they're like a rough flour. add all the other ingredients and blend until it comes together. add raisins and chocolate and mix in by hand. then form them into balls and flatten. dehydrate if you desire. hurraw!

before i start telling you about brownies - have you heard the new fleet foxes album!?

every single freaking song is amazing and resonates deep within my soul. that's all there is to say. my friend is going to give me his old record player (so excited!!!! he is the best) and helplessness blues may be the first record i buy. here's a song from the album, it's got a beautiful video to go with it.


on to food. as you may have noticed - i have been eating predominantly salad the past few weeks, and this has yet to stop. all the salads i make are so gorgeous i have to take pics and show you. i don't care if you don't wanna see them. i will force you.