Raw Food & Healthy Eating Scotland

Rawfood, vegan, vegetarian, plant based & healthy eating in Scotland

Raw Vegan Organic Cacao Lotion Bars

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I decided I was going to have a bash at creating some raw vegan organic cacao DIY moisturizing lotion bars. It turns out they’re ridiculously easy to make! I may never buy lotion bars again…

What’s a lotion bar you may ask??

It’s like a bar of soap that you rub on your skin, but instead of washing you it moisturizes you. Like body lotion in solid form.

Raw vegan organic cacao goodness for your skin

I love these kind of bars for taking with me while I’m travelling as they’re less likely to make a big mess in my suitcase if they somehow come out of their packaging en-route.

So I decided I’d make one batch of general skin-pampering lotion bars, and one batch of mosquito-repellent bars for any sunny holidays I may find myself on (my Holy Grail is to find the perfect natural organic bug-repellent).

While I was checking out recipes online (Wellness Mama is well worth checking out for tons of cool recipes) I noticed they all seemed to include beeswax. Now, the thing about beeswax is that it melts at a pretty high temperature, which makes the bars extra-solid, which isn’t really necessary in our ‘not so tropical’ Scottish weather. So I decided to omit the beeswax, which also meant they would be vegan. Bonus!

Most recipes were usually including shea butter too, and I would have definitely used this cos it’s lovely, but I didn’t have any to hand.

I used a combination of raw cold pressed organic coconut oil and raw organic cacao butter for gorgeous silky-smooth bars that nourish the skin without any chemical nasties.

I thought it would be a good idea to also add a little oil that stays liquid at room temperature, to make the bars a bit softer and easier to glide on to the skin. Because let’s face it, in this country you need a chisel to prize your coconut oil outta the jar in the mornings.  I used hemp oil and evening primrose oil but you could just as easily use other oils such as olive or jojoba.

Bear in mind though, if you take these on holiday somewhere hot, they’ll get all melty and turn into a thick luxurious lotion. While this feels gorgeous on your skin, it’s not quite so gorgeous spilled in your case all over your new holiday clothes. So take them in a good sturdy container, and keep them in the fridge if you want them to stay solid.

Skin pampering raw vegan organic cacao lotion bar

Ingredients:

1 cup cacao butter
1 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons evening primrose oil
10 drops each of the following essential oils:
Ylang ylang, lavender, frankincense, clary sage, patchouli

Mosquito repellent raw vegan organic lotion bar

Ingredients:

1 cup cacao butter
1 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons hemp oil
8 drops each of the following essential oils:
Eucalyptus lemon, tea tree, peppermint, citronella, cinnamon

 

Instructions (for both types of bar):

Melt the cacao butter gently over a very low heat (careful, you don’t want to cook it), then once it’s about half melted add the coconut oil. Once they’re both liquid, remove from the heat and add in the other oils. Stir everything around, then pour it into some silicone moulds, or any other spare containers you have lying around. Then leave it to chill and become solid.

And that’s it. Told you it was easy didn’t I?!

The bug repellent bars can double as deodorant bars too (and even toothpaste!) due to their lovely fresh scents.

So there you go – your very own raw vegan organic skin nourishing bars! Let me know how you get on!

And one more thing – please try to resist licking yourself in public, it’s a tad uncivilised 😉

Lisa x

Green Superfoods Juice for the ultimate raw morning

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green smoothie

Ever wish there was a way you could supercharge your diet and banish junkfood cravings, before you even have breakfast?

Sometimes it’s a good idea to look at success strategies for other aspects of life and apply them to your eating behaviours.

Motivational coach Brian Tracy has a strategy for success in business that he calls ‘Eat that frog’. The basic premise behind this is very simple: that thing that you need to do today – that important, but difficult thing – is often the thing that you put off the most in favour of the other easier tasks.

So in terms of business/career, an example of this might be that you put off writing another chapter in your book in favour of scrolling through social media or checking your emails for the 17th time.

The book writing just doesn’t seem as fun as checking Facebook.  But the book writing can bring you much more gain, in the long run.

Brian Tracy recommends that you start off with the most difficult task and just get it done. In other words, ‘Eat That Frog’.  Simple, yet highly effective.

I was thinking about this the other day as I made my morning juice and I realised how useful it is to apply that same concept to your dietary routine. I’d recently seen a very insightful Instagram post by Patrick Queen from Euphonic Health, who mentioned the importance of getting your important micronutrients in first, before you move onto macronutrients (eg carbs, fats etc).

It really resonated with me, as I noticed how I’ve fallen into a pattern of doing this quite naturally, by making what I call my ‘superjuice’ every morning. This consists of a green juice which I then blend with various superfoods. I feel it really sets me up for the day.

Now, this green superfoods juice wouldn’t win any fans, taste-wise. It’s not sexy, it’s not sweet, and I’m sure a lot of people would hate it. I personally think it tastes ok, but I’ve got used to it over time. After all, tastebuds get used to whatever you ply them with, pretty much.

But I’m not drinking it for taste. I’m certainly not going to be taking it around to a pot luck any time soon to win people over to the joys of the raw food diet. I simply see it as my morning fuel.

Believe me, I’d be very happy to have a raw chocolate bar for breakfast instead. It’d be tasty and sweet and give me a bit of a buzz. But in the long-term, it just doesn’t feel anywhere near as good as that boring green juice does. With my green superfoods juice fuelling me as I go through my morning I feel centred, calm, and satiated.

So, to apply Brian Tracy’s ‘Eat That Frog’ concept to your eating habits, start off your day with the most nutritionally dense food you can. For me it’s that green juice. For you it might be something completely different. Hopefully you’re not taking me literally and actually eating a frog for breakfast.  But whatever it is, start with it, and you’ll reap the benefits over the day, and over a lifetime.

So how do you make a green superfoods juice? I won’t give you any specific recipes, because everyone has different nutritional needs, and when it comes to superfoods there are so many different types out there that the best idea is to research what you think is best for you.

For me personally, I’m naturally a very ‘up’ type of person whose mind is always on overdrive, so I find it’s really helpful for me to stay away from anything stimulating.  So even though things like coffee, raw chocolate, green tea etc are often thought of as superfoods, they just don’t work for me.

Perhaps this is why the greens suit me so well, as they give me a nice calming magnesium boost.

But to give you a general pointer, I usually start with something like a head of celery, a cucumber, an apple, a handful of sprouts or microgreens, some leafy greens like spinach or lettuce, and a small piece of ginger.

I juice all these then add them to the blender with a big spoonful of green superfood powders such as chlorella, kelp, tulsi, etc. I also add in some (pre-soaked) Irish moss and a good quality wholefood supplement. I might also add a spoon of pre-soaked/sprouted seeds such as chia, flax, sesame etc.

I tend to go through phases with my superfoods, using different ones depending on whatever takes my fancy.  Here’s a picture of one of my typical green superfood juices, from my Instagram page (feel free to follow me for more raw recipe inspiration):

Green smoothie

Green Superfood Juice

So – what’s your favourite raw super-breakfast? Let me know below!

Buckwheat bread raw vegan recipe

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salad with buckwheat crackers

Buckwheat bread is a great raw vegan staple food.  It’s one of those things you can make in bulk then keep for whenever you need a quick tasty snack.  Buckwheat is very high in nutrients and very low in price, so it’s a real store cupboard essential for when you’re on a budget.

Not quite a cereal, buckwheat is a sort of wanna-be grain that’s related to rhubarb and sorrel.  Gluten-free and a good source of high quality plant-based protein, it’s an excellent grain substitute for people who want to avoid gluten.

Quite bland in flavour, once soaked and sprouted it lends itself just as well to sweet dishes as it does to savoury, so there’s no end of combinations you can try with it: porridge, pancakes, crackers, or just throw some into your smoothie.

Buckwheat side-effects and how to minimise them

Even though buckwheat is not a grain, it does have the same protective mechanisms that all up and coming baby seeds have – ie antinutrients such as leptin and phytates (it basically isn’t all that keen on being eaten).

Buckwheat in particular also contains fagopyrins which can cause allergic reactions when consumed in large quantites.  So it’s a good idea not to go over the top in your consumption of them.  However, there are some good workarounds when it comes to minimising antinutrients, such as sprouting them, and also adding in a fermentation element.

This recipe includes both sprouting and fermentation, so it’s one of my favourite ways to eat buckwheat.

How to sprout buckwheat

Buckwheat will sprout really easily as long as you have a good quality supply of seeds.  Just soak the seeds in a jar of water over night then drain them the next day (they will be quite slimy… this is due to the formation of mucilage during the soaking and sprouting process – yes, not the most appetising-sounding thing in the world, but it’s quite good really).

Rinse and drain twice daily for about three or four days; until you see some little tails poking out, then it’s ready to be transformed into… well, whatever you want really!  You can use sprouting trays to make the process a little less fuss.

This buckwheat bread recipe is transformed into pretty pink deliciousness by the addition of fermented beetroot.  It also really pumps up the nutrition factor with lovely live probiotics, so it’s all good.

How to ferment beetroot

My basic guide to fermenting any kind of veggies: chop them up, chuck them in a glass jar, fill the jar with salty water, put the lid on, and ignore them for a bit.  It’s pretty slap-dash, but that’s really all there is to it.

Ok – there’s LOADS more to it.  There’s whole books written about the subject, including this excellent one:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Fermentation-depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X

Funny enough, one of my next blogs was going to be all about fermentation, but then my esteemed pal Patrick Queen beat me to it.  He’s done a much better job than I would have done, so I’ll take the lazy option and just link to his one instead.  See the master at work:  https://www.euphonichealth.com/recipes/2018/3/4/saerkreut  

So here’s my recipe for buckwheat bread.  You can substitute different seeds and add different veggies etc.  Just play around with it because there’s really no limit to what you can do with buckwheat.  Ok there probably is quite a limit.  It can’t make you invisible, for instance.

Pink Buckwheat Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups sprouted buckwheat

1 cup flax seeds (soaked overnight)

1 cup sunflower sprouts (sprout the sunflower seeds for two or three days, in the same way as you would the buckwheat)

1 cup fermented beetroot

1 onion

Method:

Process all ingredients using a food processor (add a little lemon juice or water if necessary), then spread the mixture on dehydrating trays.  Dehydrate for a few hours until the ‘bread’ starts to look a little firm.  Score some lines across it (for ease of breaking into shapes later), then turn over and dehydrate for another hour or so.  If you don’t have a dehydrator you can use a cool oven with the door a little ajar.

I want to experiment this year with planting buckwheat out and see if I can grow some buckwheat flowers, as they are much-loved by bees.  And I’m all about keeping the bees happy.

Have you had any success with growing buckwheat plants?  Let me know in the comments below, I’d be happy to get some tips!

Celeriac Coleslaw Recipe

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raw salad celeriac coleslaw

Celeriac – it’s one of those vegetables that just isn’t very pretty, no matter how you look at it.

My favourite description of it has got to be by Joe Hind from the Soil Association, who describes it as “a cross between a brain and a dirty little alien”

raw celeriac

Yep! Pretty spot on!

But however it looks, I like to use it when it pops up in my veggie delivery box, as it’s a good honest local food that’s high in dietary fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K, phosphorus, B vits, and potassium. With that little repertoire I’m sure you can forgive its old gnarly appearance.

But what exactly do we do with it? If you eat cooked foods, it can be treated in a similar way to a potato, and the most common recipes I’ve seen are for celeriac mash.

As a raw foodie, however, I like to keep my root veggies crunchy. I often chop up celeriac and juice some along with apple, carrot and ginger.

I also like to grate and marinate it, like I did in the following coleslaw recipe:

Celeriac Coleslaw Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup grated celeriac
1 cup grated red cabbage
Half an apple, grated
Handful of hazelnuts, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon hemp oil
1 teaspoon wild garlic powder (optional – I still have loads left over from some wild garlic I foraged last Spring so I pop it in everything!)
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients, cover, and leave in the fridge to marinate for a few hours, or overnight. The lemon juice adds a lovely tang. This coleslaw goes really well with mashed avocado (but then again, anything goes really well with mashed avocado!).

Here it is on the side of a courgette noodle and tomato salad. It really livened it up and gave it a nice crunchy texture.

raw salad celeriac coleslaw

Have you been brave enough to try celeriac yet? If so, what are your favourite ways to eat it? Let me know in the comments below!

Fruit and nut raw fudge

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raw fudge for valentines

I love making raw fudge as it’s so quick and easy.  It’s one of my favourite things to take to a pot-luck or to share at parties etc, as ‘cooked foodie’ people appreciate it just as much as rawbies.

I thought I’d share my latest raw fruit and nut fudge flavour with you – this one is nice and light and really melts in the mouth.

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup raw coconut flakes (or you can use ready-creamed coconut – just bear in mind this isn’t raw)

1 cup goji berries, soaked for 1 hour in the juice of 2 oranges

1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped or ground

Half a cup algorobba / lucuma powder

2 tablespoons carob / cacao  (I use carob as I’m sensitive to cacao, but cacao will give the fudge a much more authentic chocolate taste)

1 tablespoon vanilla powder

1 tablespoon raw honey or sweetener of your choice

Gently warm the coconut butter until it turns to oil.  I use a double boiler for this but you could use any warm surface.  In the food processor finely grind the coconut flakes.  Add in the algorobba powder, the carob/cacao, and vanilla and mix.  Transfer this mixture to the coconut oil, making sure you keep everything warm so the oil doesn’t turn back to butter.  Stir in the goji berries, nuts, and honey.

Spoon mixture into a tray and flatten down.  You could also use ice-cube trays – you can get all kinds of different fancy shapes these days if you want to make individual sized portions.

Cover and leave in the fridge overnight to set (or in the freezer for an hour if you can’t wait that long).

I hope you enjoy this raw fruit and nut fudge.  You can adapt this recipe in so many ways by using different dried fruit and nuts, and adding different natural flavourings.

Happy experimenting, and please share your favourite raw fudge recipes below!

fudgin’ awesome

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These are the best things I’ve ever made. Fact. They’re so good in fact I will probably make them every day until I die.  You can mix up the ingredients with whatever you fancy.  Perhaps bee pollen or mulberries…

It’s no secret that I’m not exactly your raw food chef type person.  In fact, if I can’t throw it in a blender chances are I won’t bother my arse.  That said, I’ve really got back in to the superfoods and love jam packing as many as I can in to little treats to keep me going and make me feel kinda naughty.

I made these fudgin’ awesome bites earlier and they’re so good I need to share them with you. Not literally. Hands off! I’m an only child and only children rarely share, especially good stuff.

Fudgin’ Awesome Bites

1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds, ground

1/2 cup cacao nibs, ground

5 brazil nuts, ground

1 tbsp gojis (if you don’t use Heaven Mountain variety then soak for 5 mins)

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp mushroom blend (optional – mine is he shou wu, reishi, cordyceps and lions mane)

1/2 tsp vanilla powder

pinch salt

Grind your nibs, brazil nuts and hemp seeds (separately) using grinder or vitamix.  Add all ingredients to the food processor with S blade until one big sticky ball. You can use vitamix if you prefer.

Pop blobs in to ice cube tray (or spread flat in to a container) and leave in fridge for 3 hours to set.

Marvellous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Longevitea

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So I did a video showing you all the awesomeness that goes in to my tonic herbal tea.  Take note, I’ve not slept in almost 6 months (hello, motherhood) so the video is lacking any amazing information other than showing you the shit.  However, as the baby is officially sleeping (thank the gods) I’ve got a few minutes to type out the ingredients and their benefits.

The thing about lack of sleep is that it’s nigh on impossible to string a coherent sentence together.  The other thing about sleep deprivation however, is that somehow it activates parts of your brain that forgot long interesting words like recalcitrant, reticent, negate and such. The irony being of course that you can’t string a sentence together that uses these fancy new accessible words.

Moving on.

Can we agree that the lack of sleep accounts for this video containing sentences that trail off in to the ether, me mispronouncing things and referring to chaga as a root (hello?).  Whatever.  The tea may give you super immunity and health benefits but it can’t undo 6 months of sleep deprivation.  God I miss sleep.

As I said in the video, Ron Teeguarden’s Radiant Health is a must for anyone interested in tonic herbs!

9780446518987Anyway, here are a list of the ingredients and more info for your reading pleasure…

Nettle – supportive effect on the immune system, the circulation, the urinary tract, nervous system, respiratory tract, digestive system and the endocrine system.  Like I said in the video, not Chinese. Although they probably invented it.

Licorice – increases vital energy, good for digestive and metabolic functions, aids in assimilation of nutrients and builds blood and muscle tissue.

Rehmannia – angiaging, rejuvenating, benefits sexual function and fertility.

Dried Orange peel – good for digestion

Cinnamon bark – good for weak kidneys

Jujube – helps spleen and stomach extract energy from food and drink also a blood tonic

Pau d’arco – anti-fungal, good for candidiasis. Again, this isn’t strictly speaking Chinese. I think it’s South American?

He Shou Wu – strengthens tendons, ligaments and bones, prevents premature ageing, increases fertility.  Will turn your gray hair black. Even if you were originally a blonde… Joke!

Chaga – anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, immune regulator. This actually grows in Scotland. Wish I could find some.  Buy from Chaga King

Reishi – immune regulator, antiaging, lowers cholesterol, calms the mind, eases tension, improves memory, sharpens concentration.

Longan – builds energy, good for skin and sexual function, high in iron.

Astragalus – strengthens metabolic, respiratory and eliminative functions. Acts as an energizer.

Ginseng – adaptogenic, reliees apetite, low sex drive, premature aging, increases physical and mental efficency and concentration

Gynostemma – antifatigue, adaptogenic, slows ageing, reduces fatigue, increases vigour, improves digestion, strengthens the mind, improves sexual function, calms the nerves.

Also added a teaspoon of my own mushroom blend which I made from the Four Sigma Foods range – cordyceps – strengthens body and mind including sexual functions. Lion’s Mane – enhances brain and cognitive function. Also some powdered Reishi and Chaga in there…

Add whatever ingredients you have to a pot, add spring water, bring to boil and simmer for half an hour.

Sorted!

So here’s the vid…

 

orgasmic ice cream smoothies – I Slept With Your Brother and Your Mum Tried To Kiss Me

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Ok so I’ve just discovered making smoothies with ICE rather than water.  Hello?  Where the fuck have I been?

 

I’ve made two of these amazing ice cream smoothies today.  Yes, as part of my detox thang, will fill you in on that later.  Here are the recipes.  This post is gonna have to be super short ’cause I literally have twenty zillion things to do right this second including sending out a newsletter.  Sign up if you haven’t already.  I promise this one is ridiculous. 

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