Prepare Raw Foods

June 6th, 2011 by Yuri 4 comments »

Skills To Prepare Raw Foods

prepare raw foods

For the most part, there are not a great deal of skills needed to prepare Raw foods. That’s the beauty of them – a little chopping, peeling or blending, and you’re done!
However, there are a few extra Raw food skills that you could take the time to learn, which will increase your repertoire of Raw meals, and enable you to make an increasing proportion of your meals Raw.

Learning how to make your own nut milk is a great start when learning how to prepare Raw foods. Some of the benefits of making your own Raw nut milk include:

Extremely quick and easy to prepare, so you can enjoy fresh, warm milk each morning
Environmentally friendly – no carton to throw away
Can be flavoured to your own taste
Kids love it

These recipes are adapted from recipes by Joy Houston of The Delicious Revolution.

How To Prepare Raw Foods – Nut Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup nuts (almonds work great, but you can experiment with other nuts and seeds)
7 cups water (adjust to make more or less creamy)
1 fresh vanilla bean, or few drops vanilla extract
Dates to sweeten if desired
Other flavouring as desired e.g. Raw cacao for chocolate milk

Method:

Blend everything together in a high powered blender such as a vitamix, for a couple of minutes until a creamy, frothy consistency is achieved
Leave to strain through a nut milk bag or a mesh produce bag, which can be bought cheaply on the internet

Once the liquid is strained you will be left with warm, creamy, delicious nut milk.
This recipe will make around 1.5 litres of milk, which can be stored in a glass container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
You will also be left with the pulp from the nuts, which can be to prepare Raw foods desserts if you have a dehydrator.

An even quicker way to prepare Raw foods nut milk

If you don’t have enough time to make this recipe, but still want to make your own nut milk, then there is an even quicker way to make it.

Simply whip up a batch of Raw nut butter with some dates, vanilla extract, agave syrup and water.

There is no need to strain this milk, so it is ready in seconds.
This milk will not have the exact same consistency of nut milk made in the traditional way, but is still much better than using boxed milk.

4 comments »

Posted in Raw Food Recipes, Raw Foods

Tags:

Healthy Living For Students

June 5th, 2011 by Yuri No comments »

How To Guide To Healthy Living For Students

healthy living for students

Healthy living for students can be challenging.
Money and time are often tight, and long hours spent studying can leave you mindlessly reaching for fatty and sugary snacks for energy.
The typical student lifestyle is often heavy on alcohol, take-outs and partying. All of this can lead to many people gaining significant weight during their student years, which can be very difficult to shift.
To avoid having to go through the pain of trying to lose the weight gained during an unhealthy student lifestyle, why not make a commitment to living healthily during your student years? By incorporating some of the principles of a Raw food diet, you can not only eat economically and prepare healthy foods quickly, but you will also have abundant energy which is bound to have a positive effect on your grades. A healthy, well nourished body will also be able to withstand the rigours of student life much more effectively, so you will still be able to “burn the candle at both ends” whilst feeling the effects far less!
Here are some top tips to living healthily as a student:

Healthy Living For Students Top Tip # 1

Make eating healthily fast and hassle free.
As a student, you have a busy life, and most often need to grab food on the go.
Set aside one afternoon a week to prepare healthy food for the week ahead.
For example, chop and freeze bananas that can be thrown in smoothies later in the week.
Prepare a batch of healthy salad dressing that can be tossed over salads throughout the week. Mix together nuts, seeds and cacao nibs to that you can grab a handful of whenever you need some energy.

Healthy Living For Students Top Tip #2

Make healthy eating the economical choice
There is a popular misconception that eating healthily is expensive. But if you add up the cost of take-outs, ready meals and other convenience foods you will see that eating healthy can actually be much more friendly on your wallet. Buy healthy ingredients in bulk whenever possible to save both money and time. Do some research to find out which stores offer discounts to students, and use price comparison sites to find the best weekly deals. Ordering your weekly groceries online can also prevent you impulse buying and making unhealthy choices. Write out a list and stick to it.

Healthy living for students does not have to be difficult, time consuming or expensive. With a little forward planning and organization, you can eat both healthily and cheaply as a student, by incorporating some of the principles of a Raw food diet.

No comments »

Posted in Eating for Energy, Food For Thought, General Nutrition

Tags:

Teaching Children Healthy Habits

June 1st, 2011 by Yuri No comments »

Teaching Children Healthy Habits

teaching children healthy habits

When it comes to teaching children healthy habits, especially when it comes to eating, most parents feel that they have an uphill struggle on their hands. However, we are born to instinctively make the right choices when it comes to food. It is only when we learn unnatural eating habits that are bodies become conditioned to desire unhealthy foods.
The best way of teaching children healthy habits is of course to start from birth. However, if your children already have unhealthy eating habits, it is still possible to turn things around.

Top Tips For Teaching Children Healthy Habits

Start Early
Teaching children healthy habits should be started as soon as the child begins eating solid food. Naturally sweet foods such as fresh fruit should be introduced, as opposed to refined sugars, which will only start the child off on a unhealthy route.
This way, the child will be automatically inclined to make the right choices and crave healthy foods.

Educate children about where food comes from
It is a sad fact that many children do not know what a fresh fruit or vegetable even looks like, as they are used to eating them only in processed form. For example, many children don’t know that potatoes are used to make french fries! Involve children in the weekly grocery shop, and allow them to assist with choosing fresh, natural foods. This will spark a natural enthusiasm and interest in healthy ingredients.

Get children involved in preparing their food
Children love to cook and prepare food, and are much more likely to eat something that they have had some input in preparing.
Instilling a passion for being creative with food with encourage children to try out a wide variety of foods that they may have not eaten if they were just put in front of them.
Preparing food with your children is a great way of teaching them healthy habits, as well as enabling you to spend quality time with them. You could even get them their own little apron and chefs hat for further encouraging them to participate in food preparation.

Teaching Children Healthy Habits – Conclusion

Teaching children healthy habits does not have to be an uphill struggle. If it is approached in a relaxed and fun manner, then getting children to eat healthy food is easy. Becoming uptight and stressed over a childs eating habits will only exacerbate the problem.

No comments »

Posted in General Nutrition

Tags:

Raw Vegan For The Whole Family

May 30th, 2011 by Yuri No comments »

Raw Vegan Transition For The Whole Family

Raw veganHere are some great tips on how to include more Raw vegan foods into your diet. This is a fantastic way to sneak more Raw foods into your families diet as well, without them even realising! As you become more used to eating Raw foods, and realise how fantastic you feel, you can make the whole meal Raw.

Partly Raw Vegan Recipes

Invest in a spiralizer – this inexpensive piece of equipment will enable you to create Raw vegan pasta and noodles out of vegetables such as cucumber, zucchini and sweet potatoes.
Top the Raw pasta or noodles with your favourite warm sauce. This is an absolute winner with kids and adults alike!

Served warmed pasta or noodles with Raw sauce, which is the opposite of the meal above! Use regular pasta and noodles and cook as normal. Whip up a delicious Raw pasta sauce by blending any combination of fresh vegetables (e.g. garlic, tomatoes, zucchini and bell pepper work well), along with olive oil, fresh herbs and seasoning. Pour over the warmed pasta.

Delicious Raw rice can be made simply by chopping cauliflower florets in a food processor for a minute or two until it resembles rice. Both the texture and appearance are remarkably similar to rice which the whole family will love. Start off by serving the Raw rice with the rest of the warmed meal – e.g. it is delicious with hot curries or any other meal which is served with rice.

100% Raw Vegan Foods That The Whole Family Will Love

The following recipes are made entirely from Raw ingredients, but are so delicious no one will even notice!

Raw salads – one simple way to increase you and your families Raw food intake, is to serve a huge Raw salad with every meal. As well as the raw veggies and salad ingredients you can also maxmimize the flavour and nutrition of the salad by throwing in nuts, seeds, fruit and oils.

Raw smoothies – Drinking Raw smoothies for breakfast is a great way to ensure that your family is getting super Raw nutrition at the beginning of each day. Experiment with different fruit combinations, and increase the nutritional value of the smoothie by adding “booster” ingredients such as wheatgrass, hemp, linseeds or fish oil.

Raw nut milk – Raw milk is delicious and easy to make. By switching from dairy to Raw vegan nut milk, you will be making a huge step forward for your health. If you plan on making fresh nut milk every day then you will get best results using a powerful blender, and some nut mylk bags Experiment with different flavours, such as almond and brazil. Nut milk can be used in smoothies, and also poured over non Raw cereal as a delicious way of incorporating more Raw vegan foods into your families diet.

No comments »

Posted in General Nutrition, Raw Foods

Tags:

Eating for Energy on the Underground Wellness Show

May 25th, 2011 by Yuri No comments »

underground wellnessUnderground Wellness is – in my mind – the best wellness and alternative health channel on Youtube. And it’s run by my good friend, Sean Croxton.

Sean has done an amazing done job at putting up incredible videos that deal with all aspects of holistic health, nutrition, and exercise.

Needless to say, I was honoured when he asked me to be a guest on his Blog Talk radio show (#1 on Blog Talk Radio).

Here’s a snippet of our interview:

 

For the full interview and more information on what Sean’s doing visit Underground Wellness.

No comments »

Posted in Eating for Energy