Day 61 - Oh. My. Sainted. Aunts.

Delicious does not even come close.

The edited highlights are :

* Boris Lauser is a raw food genius.

* Real raw food is amazing

* I need a job that pays around 6,000 € monthly after tax, so that I can hire Mr. Lauser as my personal chef / raw food instructor.

Damn, that was delicious!

My only criticism - there wasn't enough of it!

.....

To start with, we were served with a welcome drink. Mango and fermented something. Boris kindly told us all about it, I cannot remember anything except that it is very good for you. Admittedly, it tasted a bit gewöhnungsbedürftigt

The first course looked great - a two-colour asparagus creation (something like a mousse) with a side salad and an orangey source (ingredient not colour).

Wonderful. I love asparagus. And the peeling-chopping into small pieces-then eating thing isn't happening.

The second course was an aubergine and Saubohnen quiche. I have no idea what Saubohnen are in English - or England - but they look like broad beans (oh I just checked Leo, they are broad beans). Whatever. When did you ever eat beans and actually enjoy them? Well, on Wednesday night I did! Delicious. The quiche - I would never have guessed that it wasn't cooked - was amazing. And I love aubergine and have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms from them also. But now I have been inspired and I am going to marinade the one I bought today in Alnatura as soon as this blog post is finished... :-)

The third course the selection of nut cheeses and different kinds of bread. Mindblowing.

So, this was my strategy for eating. I tasted a little of each of the four cheeses and three slices of bread (I can no longer remember all of them I had my clear favourites, the rest paled into insignificance - which btw is only testimony to how great my favourites were...) I ranked each of the breads and cheeses very quickly and then ate them in reverse favourite order.

People my word for today is: Olive bread and Cashew Nut Cheese.

Wow.

And then a long time nothing.

Boris if you are reading this - I do not want to learn how to make the cheese myself. I want to be in enough supply of it to be able to bathe in it! I have tried to imitate your olive bread today. Ich bin gespannt....

Finally, the fourth course, an absolutely delicious moussy-type desert. Made by Melanie - another excellent raw food chef. The bits of chocolate sprinkled over the top were particularly mind-blowing.

I got to take another portion of pretty much everything home with me and enjoy the whole experience again the next morning. I can now look the remaining 40 days of my raw food experiment squarely in the eye and with confidence. I know how raw food can taste.

Bring it on.

Thank you Boris for rescuing me from almost certain insanity.

Day 59 - Gourmet Dinner!

Oh joy!

I am going out to dinner today - to a place that caters for raw foodians!

Boris Lauser - apparently some kind of raw food genius - is holding one of his regular private dinner parties tonight. We are already booked in. The timing of this could not have been better.

I am on a bit of a food strike -

I have stopped eating raw bread and green salads - cashew nuts and bananas will also bite the dust soon. Avocados are slowly coming back into favour.

I am so looking forward to Boris working his magic - I desperately need to eat something more inspired than "Feldsalat".

Check out the menu: http://www.balive.org/b-alive/dinner-club-20th-may/

...and watch this space :-)

Day 57 - Top Tip

My top-tip for weight gain:
Do not go on a raw food diet.

Day 54 - Mini Kebabs

I still do not have a dehydrator - apparently a wonderful device which helps raw foodians to move beyond salads and smoothies to something almost resembling cooked food.

It is on its way...

Meanwhile, I turned the oven to the lowest possible setting, "warmed it up" and then turned it off again after 15 or 20 minutes. As it was cooling down, I prepared the kebabs.

I am guessing that by the time I put the kebabs in the oven, the ideal temperature of 40-43 degrees celsius had been reached (you can set this temperature exactly on a dehydrator).

The kebabs were delicious.

--

1. Cut chunks of one courgette and one red pepper, slice around 15 mushrooms in half
2. Put the vegetable pieces on cocktail sticks (if you are anal like I am, make sure everything is about the same size and that the vegetable order is maintained on each stick), and put these on a tray lined with baking paper.
3. Prepare a marinade by blending together ca 100 ml of olive oil, 1/2 clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon of raw agave syrup (the raw foodians substitute for honey and sugar - I use it practically everywhere), a little chili, a little fresh ginger, a little salt.
4. Pour the marinade over the mini-kebabs and put the tray in the oven.
5. Leave the whole thing for as long as possible (in a dehydrator it would be there for about 2 hours at 43 degrees celsius)
6. Enjoy...

Day 51 - White Teeth

Whatever you say about my weight, my diet, my conversation - one thing that cannot be denied: raw food is great for teeth. They have never been so clean and white!

Day 45 - TIRED!

I don't understand it.

I keep reading testimonies from other raw foodians which go something like this:

...Eating raw gives you an amazing boost in energy. I used to get tired around 2 or 3pm during the day. Now I simply don’t have that problem. When I do get tired, it doesn’t last nearly as long and an orange or apple will recharge me within a few minutes... I’ve slept better than ever while eating raw. But most importantly, I don’t wake up feeling tired or groggy anymore. On most days, I wake up feeling full of energy...
Taken from: 10 Reasons Eating Raw is Healthier For You and the Planet

Why do I not feel this way?
I simply feel exhausted all the time.

I am trying:

- drinking more

- B12 & Iron supplements

- eating & snacking as much as I can

And maybe I will just need to persevere, as it is likely that I am anaemic, and this will not correct itself overnight. I have also had lots of emotional stuff going on, and probably also because of this, I have been feeling tired for several months . But still. I have been 100% raw for almost half of the experiment timeframe now. The gal I quote above, was saying this after only 30 days (or perhaps even less).

How can I get my energy back? Somebody?!

Day 43 - Creamy Tomato Soup

I am getting the hang of this raw food thing :-)

This is my very own hommage to Cream of Tomato Soup...

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes
1/2 paprika
1 clove of garlic
a little chili (how hot can you stand it?)
a little salt
a handful of pine nuts
juice of half a lemon

put the whole lot in a small food mixeror blender, add some warm water (adjust the amount according to how thick the soup should be)

mix away...

pour into a white bowl, garnish with fresh parsley & take a photo of it...

Day 41 - Energy & Weight Gain

Raw Shaz 2011 (self portrait)

Check it

I was in a restaurant yesterday ordering some food and it was the usual - what do they have that is raw? Hmm looks like salad again.

The way I order salads now is to give a standard intro:

"Please could I have number 7, but without the meat/fish/eggs and no dressing or sweetcorn, but could I have olive oil and vinegar?"

(Varies depending on the exact menu to hand).

Sometimes it requires me to repeat myself a couple of times. At which point I ignore the bit after dressing. Sometimes it goes smooth like a baby's bottom. Then I get adventurous and add:

"Do you have mushrooms? Raw? Could I have a couple of those? But not tinned, and not fried or anything. Just plain raw mushrooms. Thanks!"

But yesterday I went a little too far and I added:

"I am on a raw food diet".

I guess she only heard the word "diet". And she says: "You are on a diet? What more do you want to lose? There will be nothing left of you!"

I joked and said something about how I was proof that the diet worked really well and you should have seen me before I started, and laughed a little.

The truth is, her comment did hurt me a bit.

See, I have always been underweight and I have found it either irrelevant or slightly embarrasing, depending on how many comments I draw from others (always other women).

But it seems, since I have gone raw, I have lost even more weight. And my guess is I am around 53 kilos right now. Seeing as I am 1.76m, this is not very good - even for my standards. So I am on a mission to gain weight. Which is a challenge if you are a raw vegan (ha, especially a reluctant one!).

I have been researching and you know what I came up with?

Mind-blowing really. The most effective way to gain weight is to eat more and eat frequently.

Who would have Adam-n-Eve'd it.

I will also be emphasising:

• Increase my protein intake - Sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds
• Increase my carbs intake - fresh fruits (and dried fruits), fresh vegetables (esp. leafy greens) & wholegrains (eg raw bread)
• Increase my fat intake - cold pressed oils on sandwiches, salads etc.

If anyone has any other clever tips, please do comment! Thanks...

Day 40 - Meet Jeff

www.jefftherawfoodchef.com