Howdy everyone! How has your humpday been?

Well it’s the start of our weekend here now and lucky us, we get a long weekend, with the work week starting back on Sunday not the usual Saturday, so tomorrow we are off to Bahrain for some fun, dancing and chilling by the pool.

Today I was busy finalising the finishing touches on my upcoming Raw Food Classes in February/March, so if you are based here in the Eastern province of Saudi, then you might want to have a look at what I’m offering – I’m offering a couple of  new classes including Chocolate Masterclass and Dehydrator Fun! Check them out here!

Also, as I am heading home to Brisbane, Australia late March/April I thought it could be fun to organise a meet-up with other healthy living bloggers/business owners in the region (to put some faces to the names we deal with regularly online) so if you want to be involved, why not register your interest here, no obligation to meet up, just thought I’d put feelers out to see if people were keen.

Tonight’s recipe is based on some more of the ingredients I’m trying to put to good use from the CSA box, and again, it’s another hit. I totally want to marry myself for coming up with this goody!

For my American friends – Rocket is what you call Arugula for translation purposes!

Rocket Walnut Pesto **RAW**

2 cups of lightly packed rocket

2/3 cup of walnuts

2 tsp lemon juice

2/3 cup of nutritional yeast

1/4 cup + 2 T extra virgin olive oil

4-6 cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like your pesto. Also if you are not eating straight away, raw garlic tends to become stronger the longer is sits in a recipe, so bear this in mind. Myself, I’m a garlic monster!

1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan/Celtic sea salt

Place all ingredients, in your food processor fitted with the S blade and pulse until all ingredients are well combined but still chunky.

Will store in an airtight container for up to one week.

I love it on spiralised zucchini which I dress lightly in a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil. If you don’t have a spiraliser you can use an ordinary vegetable peeler to peel strips or else a julienne peeler which works in a similar way, but the strips end up julienned. Just watch your fingers!

I mixed through some delicious sweet organic cherry tomatoes from our CSA box. PERFECTION!

We are almost half way through the month of January, can you believe it. This month is whizzing by.

Speaking of which, I’ve been crazy busy, planning my February program of raw food classes which I am excited about as they are NEW and IMPROVED with a fantastic new venue (I’ll feel just like a TV chef), so for those lucky Saudi Arabian locals, if you are interested in attending or finding out more information, don’t forget to sign up for class information here where you will be the first to know. Last year when I offered classes, they sold out almost immediately, so you will want to be quick!

Even if you are not based in Saudi, and are interested in future classes, you might want to sign up as you all know, I do love to travel and I possibly have some international classes coming up this year (locations not confirmed as yet!) I won’t rule out any destination Regular readers will know WE LOVE TO TRAVEL.

Today’s lunch didn’t happen til around 3pm as I was hooked to this little screen but when I finally pried myself away here’s what I made.

WARNING: The picture does not do this meal ANY justice. Highly tasty!

Simple Herbed Cabbage Rolls **RAW**

Ingredients:

4 – 6 green cabbage whole leaves, lightly brushed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt and left to soften whilst you prepare the filling

2 cups of peeled & grated cucumber

1 avocado

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 green onion stalk, chopped

1 tomato, diced

1/4 cup lightly packed fresh dill, chopped

salt & pepper to taste

Place all ingredients, save for the cabbage leaves, in a large bowl and lightly mix, so that all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

You want to make sure that the avocado is mixed really well and coats all the other ingredients. This will be your filling.

Grab your cabbage leaf and pile on your filling and wrap it up and devour.

I like to wrap mine similar to a burrito like this

but if you have some ripped cabbage leaves, when do your best. We don’t have to be perfectionists here. It will still taste delicious not matter what.

The filling would also taste great with red/yellow capsicum.

Yep, this photo really doesn’t make it look as wonderful as it tasted, but take my word for it!

Great for packed lunches or equally a quick bite at home. Took no more than 10 minutes to make!

Make it and tell me what you think. I had a friend over and didn’t think she’d want any, but she devoured my last one!

It’s been a little slow start to the year for us, we’ve just been chilling at home, planning our next holidays unpacking from our holidays, and thinking about our goals for 2012 whilst enjoying the weather as the cold snap has departed. Yes it does get cold here in Saudi

Last year, Pat and I both talked about doing our own Vision Board’s (a la The Secret) but never got around to it, but this year I am determined to get something down on some kind of board or goals list (which I usually do anyway) as I’ve got plenty to look forward to this year, some of which include:

• a special person’s first birthday
• ramping up my raw food classes both here in Saudi and possibly abroad (maybe Australia, Dubai & Bahrain) sign up here if you want to be informed of upcoming classes & workshops
• becoming a Raw Food Coach via Karen Knowler’s awesome programs
• bringing you a lot more raw food recipes via the blog which means more kitchen time for me
• a couple more ebooks in the works!
• more recipe and how to videos
• a couple of fitness related goals
• introduction of a family page on the website – for baby product related reviews & discussions plus more

Just to name a few – phew!

So whilst I slowly get my hands dirty back in the raw food kitchen here, here is a simple recipe I put together to follow our simple veggie chilli dinner I made the other night.

EASY Raw Blueberry Softserve

{Bad iPhone photo!}

Ingredients

2 frozen bananas

1 cup of frozen blueberries

optional – splash of almond milk [especially if you are not using a high powered blender like a vitamix - will help get things moving]

garnish – fresh fruit, I used pitted fresh cherries

1. Place bananas, blueberries and almond milk if using in a blender, until smooth.

2. Garnish with fresh fruit.

You can use other frozen fruit like pineapples, strawberries, mangos, kiwi fruit so have a play around.

Here’s one my mum made the other day of nectarines, kiwi fruit, passionfruit, banana, pineapple, orange, strawberry, blueberry and coconut flesh.

What are your plans goals for 2012? Do you like to think big or break them down into monthly goals?

Bahrain City Centre Mall

One of the things that often stops people from eating more raw food is the prep time it takes to make some of the more gourmet meals, but PLEASE do not let that stop you!

What I’d like to point out to you is that even if you are dehydrating something and it won’t be ready for something like 8-12 hours, usually the prep time leading up to it is minimal – ie felafel, kale chips (below), macaroons, raw spaghetti & no-meatballs etc. so all it takes is a little pre prep and forethought and really, eating raw or more of it, shouldn’t take you any extra time and can sometimes save you time as opposed to cooking up a storm of cooked food – including the greasy washing up afterwards that you avoid by eating a raw or mainly raw meal!

Here are some other tips I use to help me on my way to eating more raw in my diet:

• Pick a day in your week to meal plan. You can be as precise as planning it to the day and putting in on the calendar or on the fridge, or just planning 5 main meals for the week and you can pick whichever meal you feel like at the time, on the day, if you prefer to be flexible. That leaves you 2 meals to either eat out or eat leftovers of one of the other meals you made extra of.

• Stick to one of your favourite breakfasts and/or lunch for the whole week and change it up the following week with a new idea, or mix up a combination of 2 or 3 choices if you get bored easily. Some idea are green smoothies, juices, chia puddings, fruit salads

• Choose a day of the week for whipping up some food for the following week. Things I like to pre-prep are make 2 or 3 different salad dressings and place them in glass jars or sauce bottles ready for use. I also like to fill up all 9 of my dehydrator trays with crackers, wraps and snacks (kale chips, felafel, balls) for the week ahead. And usually I will make 2 or 3 raw sauces or dips to use with raw vegetable pasta (zuchinni, carrot, beetroot, cucumber etc) so they are ready for use. I sometimes cut up my salad veggies and have a large bowl of salad (undressed) sitting in the fridge for me to help myself for a few day, all I need to do is serve it up and dress it with a dressing I made earlier. I usually pick a Friday (our Sunday – last day of the weekend) or Saturday morning (our first day of the working week) after I have done my grocery shop for the week.

Cheezy Kale Chips

2 bunches of kale – destemmed and ripped into bite size pieces

3 cups chopped carrots

1 cup of nutritional/savoury yeast

1/2 cup of soaked (1-2 hours) cashews

1/4 cup water

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T lemon juice

1/2 T cumin

2 T tamari/wheat free nama shoyu

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt

dash of cayenne pepper

Blend all ingredients save for the kale in a high speed blender until smooth to form the cheezy sauce.

Pour cheezy sauce over the bite size kale pieces and use hands to cover and massage kale, ensuring every piece is covered well.

Place the kale pieces on a dehydrator teflex sheet and dehydrate for 8-10 hours on 115′F.

When kale is done it should be crunchy, so if not, dehydrate for a little longer until crunchy but not overdone.

Try not to eat all the kale chippies BEFORE they are done!

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can make these in the oven, bake on low heat until crunchy.

Do you have any holiday plans coming up? We are leaving for Paris in less than two weeks so I am busy whittling down our grocery supplies and planning our travel snacks/supplies. We are going to spend Christmas with my sister and her French husband and his family, then heading off for some snow fun for New Year.

If you are travelling and wondering how you will stick to eating raw, you should check out my eBook where I detail how I managed when I was a full time flight attendant travelling all over the world and right now is only $7US!

Now onto one of my favourite ingredients that I just never get enough of, especially here and that is kale.

When I return home to Australia, my local fruit and veggie shop always keep a box aside for me (or the butcher) as up until recently it’s not really been that popular for consumption and is mainly used to dress butcher’s meat displays or as a garnish.

I know those who do enjoy kale, usually steam or sautee it in garlic, but I’m hear to tell you that the hardy little buggers can and are eaten raw and enjoyably so. [Edited to add: if you suffer from thyroid issues, it is suggested you still eat your cruciferious vegetables like kale, cabbage and broccoli lightly steamed, however please speak with your doctor about this]

For the uninitiated, kale leaves are related to the cabbage family and are very tough leaves so it’s very hard to imagine chewing on them enjoyably, however I can show you a way to ensure your kale raw to the point where you begin to crave it!

Step 1

Usually your kale will come in bunches on their spines however, I purchased both in bunches and chopped up in a ready made salad and for this demonstration I will use the pre chopped kale.

If you are using the bunches of kale, rip off the leaves from the spines (they are too hard to eat) and keep them aside for some juicing. Then rip all your kale leaves into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl.

[Mine has a little carrot and cabbage in it, no big deal]

Step 2

Sprinkle a little salt and olive oil onto kale. Now I used about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 1/4 teaspoon of himalayan sea salt. Never use table salt! Himalayan or celtic sea salt are my recommendations ANYTIME you use salt. You don’t want to over do the salt but you want enough that you are able to break down the cell walls of the kale to start releasing water.

Step 3

Massage!

This should take a few minutes, and you really want to ensure very piece is slightly coated with the oil. You will know you are done, when the kale reduces but over half and become much softer to touch.

See how little that whole big bowl of kale was after massaging?

Then it’s time to dress with a dressing of your choice and add some other ingredients. Some of my favourites are a cashew cheese, raw caesar dressing (I’ll post that later this week), pine nut parmesan, avocado and fresh jalapenos.

But today I’ll share with you my delicious sesame dressing, with paired nicely with this kale salad and fresh sesame seeds.

Sesame Dressing

3 T water

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 T brown rice wine vinegar (you can use standard rice wine vinegar if you don’t have brown)

1 T sesame oil

1 T tamari/nama shoyu

pinch of black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together until well combined.

When dressing salad, don’t over do it. Pour a little, toss and taste. If you need a little more gradually add in. Store leftovers in a jar in the fridge, will last for a week or so.

This dressing also tastes delicious on a seaweed salad.

Want to read up more about kale? 7 reasons kale is the new beef 

Want another way to enjoy your kale? In a smoothie

And when I saw the Kensington Pride mangoes for sale at our local supermarket this week, I bought up a couple to remind me of the summer I am missing back home right now.

Eating them on their own, in smoothies, raw custards, and in one of my favourite desserts Thai Sticky Rice with Mango are just a few of the ways to enjoy the delicious fruit.

And whilst my sister reminded me last night, that mangos are hardly eating locally whilst I reside here in Saudi, I asked her what can I eat that is local? Well that’s a little unfair as the months get cooler there is plenty more available locally here, however we still do rely on a portion or our foods to be imported. Sad but true and not ideal but we deal with it.

Anyway I digress. Regular readers of the blog will know of my affinity for all things Thai and now I am not flying away for work regularly, I do miss my frequent trips to the land of smiles for cheap foot massages, endless summer fruit and this dessert. If you like anything coconut, salty sweet and Thai, then this is the dish for you.

Thai people traditionally enjoy this dessert a little saltier but I think you will agree this is very delicious. The saltiness certainly brings out the sweetness of the coconut palm sugar and the coconut milk.

Thai Sticky Rice with Mango

Adapted from here

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Sticky Rice

1 cup of Thai black sticky rice soaked for 1 hour then rinsed – available from most Asian supermarkets or the Asian section in your usual supermarket, you can also substitute with white glutinous rice

1 cup of coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt

2  1/2 tablespoons of coconut palm sugar – you can sub with agave, sucanat or real sugar

2 sweet juicy ripe mangoes

Garnish: black or white sesame seeds

Steam black rice for 1 hour. I used the top steamer of my rice cooker and filled my nutmilk bag with the rice so they didn’t fall through the holes.

You could also use a proper Thai bamboo steamer or a Chinese bamboo steamer and line it with cheesecloth. Be aware that the colour from the rice stains so be prepared to have a purplish/black nutmilk bag afterwards.

Whilst rice is steaming, place all other ingredients on stovetop on low and mix until well combined.

When the rice has finished, place in a large pan so the rice is spread out as much as possible

and slowly pour 1/2 the coconut mixture over all the rice, ensuring you do not saturate the rice. The rice should still be firm softer than before steaming but the idea is that the coconut liquid will be absorbed into the rice. You want to basically cover the rice but have no puddles of liquid. You may end up using a little more of the liquid but unlikely you will use it all.

Cover and set aside for 10 minutes to absorb the liquid.

Sauce

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt

2  1/2 teaspoons of coconut palm sugar

1 teaspoon of corn flour mixed with a small amount of water

Place all ingredients save for the corn flour in a saucepan and gently heat until well combined. Add the cornflour mix and stir until sauce is thickened.

To serve

Slice bottom off mangos then place on cutting board and peel skin from the top to the butt of the mango with a chef’s knife. Then cut off both cheeks as close to the seed as possible. 1 cheek per person. Slice each cheek into bitesize pieces and plate.

Then fight over eating around the mango seed.

Serve sticky rice beside the mango and top with sauce and garnish with sesame seeds.

And because it’s so delicious expect to receive a bunch of flowers the following day from your husband to say thanks

Do you have a food that you used to dislike and now it’s one of your favourites?

Are you looking for a non dessert/sweet recipe to utilise all that almond pulp/flour you have left following your almond milk making?

Well look no further.

Hannah brought me some delicious raw felafel when she came to visit on my recent trip to Australia, (so delicious I scoffed it all before I had a chance to take a photo nevertheless see what the ingredients were.)

So last week I played around with my own recipe and it took a few attempts but here is my version of raw felafel.

Raw Felafel

1/2 cup of soaked and rinsed sesame seeds {make sure you soak the sesame seeds for at least 2 hours but not longer than 7 hours and rinse thoroughly. This will remove the bitterness and reduce enzyme inhibitors}

1 cup of almond pulp or flour

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of loosely packed coriander/cilantro leaves

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon tumeric

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt

small dash of cayenne pepper

2 dates soaked in water and keep soak water

Place all ingredients save for soak water in a food processor fitted with an S blade and pulse until well combined. You want to have all ingredients well mixed but still have most sesame seeds intact. It doesn’t matter if you have processed a portion but you want to retain some chunkiness.

Once well combined, add 1 tablespoon of soak water and pulse. The mixture should be able to hold together when formed into a ball, if not use a little more soak water.

When your mixture is able to hold together but not too wet, form into balls or felafel shapes and place on your dehydrator sheet and dehydrate for 10 hours on 120′F.

Check that you don’t over dehydrate your felafel as they may end up coming out with the consistency of dog kibble You want them to resemble real felafel  - slightly crunchy on the outside crumbly on the inside.

Garlic Tahini Sauce

4 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons nama shoyu/tamari

2 tablespoons of water

1 garlic clove crushed

Whisk all ingredients together well (I just blended all mine up in the tribest personal blender to give a smoother texture) and serve on top of your felafel

I’d heard of the Paleo diet a great deal as hubs and his friends here on camp are big into crossfit and I believe they two are connected, plus since both hubs and I visited a naturopath in Brisbane earlier this year, I had been reading up on this way of eating.

Although the Paleo (or caveman) diet does include meat & eggs (not vegan) there is some cross over with a raw food diet. Paleo’s believe in eating as a caveman so with food as natural and unprocessed as possible and they don’t believe in eating grains or legumes (which really cannot be eaten raw anyway unless sprouted) which bodes well with raw foodism too.

As I have mentioned before, the great thing I love about the raw food philospophy is it is not an all or nothing diet. You don’t need to be a 100% raw to reap the benefits and EVERYONE can get more into raw food.

The Paleo diet sits well in our household as hubs has been on a detox diet to assist his sinus problems which included removing wheat and dairy and some kinds of foods – I keep promising a post on this later, and I will for sure with more details.

The only grains he can eat now are rice (a no no on a Paleo diet) or certain kinds of beans and legumes (ie kidney beans are not allowed on his detox but adzuki are.)

I limit my grains anyway but since having researched more on the Paleo or caveman diet, I have thrown them out altogether. I’ve never been big on rice anyway (only in sushi or brown if I am cooking it at home) and I try to limit my gluten (wheat) due to celiacs disease which is prevalent in my family (although I have been yet to be tested positive.)

Anyway it is worth checking out for yourself. I think a diet rich in fresh wholesome fruits vegetables, seeds and nuts, is always a better choice over processed machine made foods, and of course if you are choosing eggs and meat, poultry & fish, always aim for wild, free range and organic if possible in your region. A great book to read further on this is the Omniovres Dilemma.

Paleo Porridge

2 servings or 1 large serving

Even though I usually aim for raw till dinner, it’s been REALLY chilling on up here in the Arabian desert and would you believe it is even raining today and has been for a couple of days!?

I had been craving a warm porridge type breakfast and with oats (grains) out of the question I decided on quinoa.

Quinoa pronounced KEEN-WAH, is actually an ancient seed, not a grain, perfect for the caveman-hunter/gatherer diet (please note some Paleo’s do not include buckwheat, amaranth or quinoa as part of their allowed foods).

I was first introduced to quinoa in my London corporate office days, when I used to work for Ernst & Young and the staff cafeteria produced better meals than some restaurants I had patroned.

Incidentally this porridge I tried to recreate was in reminiscence of my early winter mornings at my office on the Thames where I would grab my take away soy porridge and stewed apples from the cafeteria, following my early morning spin class and sit at my desk and begin the morning reading my emails with my hot cup of goodness.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of quinoa – soaked and rinsed. Some quinoa has not been cleaned and can have a bitter taste if not rinsed properly. This is the saponins which are natural forming protection from birds and the environment. If you soak your quinoa and rinse until the water clears you should be golden.

1 cup of almond milk blended with 2 dates for sweetness

1/2 t of pumpkin pie spice

Place almond milk and rinsed quinoa in a pot and bring to the boil, then place on simmer until the quinoa has ‘popped’ and all the liquid has soaked into the seed, similar to cooking cous cous or rice.

Stir through pumpkin pie spice and enjoy either warm or cold like a pudding.

Optional: baked apple on top would just set this off.

Good news I’ve been enjoying ‘moving’ whether that is jogging with the pram, or walking and talking with friends, and I’ve already started releasing some kgs, but I’m not weighing myself, I am just going by how my clothes feel and some of my old clothes are beginning to fit again. I have faith that it will all come together, with some smart food choices, a little planning and some fun movement.

So onto a fun and easy recipe.

This recipe is mainly for my non American friends, who keep hearing about the pumpkin craze all over the blogosphere and want to create some of the recipes but have no idea what Pumpkin Spice is.

I had the pleasure of sampling my very first Pumpkin Pie last week at our Thanksgiving dinner we were invited to and just had to recreate the flavour to be used in smoothies, breakfast porridges (chia, oats, buckwheat, quinoa) or any other way you can come up with.

Of course in Australia, where I hail from, we don’t really eat canned pumpkin like all the other recipes I keep seeing all over the interwebs, we usually have fresh pumpkin year round and we have many varieties, like Queensland blue, jap, and butternut (I think Americans call this butternut squash – but really it’s a pumpkin to me!)

And this recipe does NOT include pumpkin. Basically it’s a spice mix you can use for pumpkin pies or anything else you wish to take on the same flavours, but feel free to mix it in with your pumpkin for sure. And it  is very seasonal – delish in anything Autumnal/Fall or Christmassy. If you want a yummy raw pumpkin pie recipe, which tastes very close to the cooked version but doesn’t even contain pumpkin, check out Gena’s here.

I’ll be posting a Paleo porridge that uses this spice mix later.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nuteg

Mix thoroughly and keep aside in a glass jar or plastic baggie for later use.

Smells divine.

I’ve been overwhelmed and excited by the interest and sales in my debut eBook Travelling in the Raw which launched last week and this was largely the reason for my absence from blogging. Thank you to those of you that have already bought it, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

So I’ve been absent and I promised you kombucha and raw vegan felafel. All I can say is, they are  coming

I find whenever I promise something on the blog, life throws me a curveball and other priorities crop up, and being a mummy to an almost walking 8 month old add to the spontaneity of my life.

In the meantime, I get plenty of requests and emails asking all sorts of questions, and the latest was did I have any pre workout breakfast ideas that are healthy?

Even though I am not a fitness professional, the timing of this question was impeccable as I had recently pulled out of the cobwebs, a book I first purchased for the hubs when he was flirting with the idea of competing in triathlons.

Thrive – The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports & Life, by Brendan Brazier. Brendan is a professional ironman triathlete and the guy behind Vega - the raw wholefoods product line.

As I’ve recently returned to regular work outs again, post pregnancy, I have been paying extra attention to how I fuel my body both pre and post exercise, as my work out routines have been slowly increasing in intensity, as I vow to get my pre pregnancy glow back

Whilst I strive for a mainly raw diet, I do like to keep updated with new research or philosophies to ensure I can feel and look the best I can, now and in old age, but sometimes get confused with conflicting information that bombards our senses.

I was finding my endurance during runs and strength training to be waning, and started to question if I was fuelling myself correctly.

Body for Life tells you to work out on an empty stomach, other training techniques tell you to eat something before you train, so what was I supposed to do? If I worked out on an empty stomach, my workout session suffered, if I ate something light, what should I eat, and was I only then burning off what I had just eaten and not my stored fat I am trying to lose?

Brendan talks about pre exercise snacks in Chapter 4, and breaks exercise down into 3 levels: level one high intensity for shorter time, level two moderate intensity between one and three hours, and level three lower intensity lasting more than 3 hours.

Most of my activity whether it is strength training, running/jogging, walking, home workout DVD’s, is usually level one or two.

Brendan suggests the best fuel is a simple carbohydrate of which the healthiest is naturally, fruit. Dates (which hello hello, grow in abundance here in Saudi) are his favourite choice as they are rich in glucose and once this is consumed it does not have to be converted and is sent straight to the liver for instant energy.

Of course there is fructose which is also present in fruit, has a lower GI than glucose which means it takes longer to start to work once consumed but it burns for longer, giving prolonged energy. He says bananas, mangos and papayas, as well as being high alkalinity are also high in fructose providing both immediate and longer lasting energy – which is why my bananas pre work out snack are ideal!

He also notes that coconut oil is often overlooked as a quick energy source. As it contains medium chain triglycerides, these too, go straight to the liver for an instant power boost.

For level two activities, he suggests bumping up the nutrient ratio in the pre exercise snack to contain a small amount of protein and essential fatty acids. If placed in the right ratio, they will not only digest quickly but also provide sustained energy for a longer period of time, whether your exercise is vigorous or not.

Examples of vegan sources of protein could be hemp , pea protein, brown rice protein powders and essential fatty acids can be found in ingredients like ground flaxseeds or almonds.

So bearing all that in mind I came up with this recipe to munch on prior to my level one training – usually walking or running.

Fitness Fudge

adapted from Brendan Brazier’s Direct Fuel Bites

I have made three versions of this, all delicious. See if you can come up with your own, and let me know how they taste!

Chocolate 

1/2 cup of lightly packed dates

3 tablespoons of coconut oil

zest & juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons of cacao powder

1/4 teaspoon himalayan or celtic sea salt (rocks are best as they give the fudge delicious salty crunch!)

Cinnamon Donut

1/2 cup of lightly packed dates

3 tablespoons of coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice

1  1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder

1/4 teaspoon of himalaya or celtic sea salt (rocks are best as they give the fudge delicious salty crunch!)

Mint Chip – one of my all time favourite recipe flavour combinations

1/2 cup of lightly packed dates

3 tablespoons of coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of peppermint extract

2 T cacao nibs

1/4 teaspoon of himalaya or celtic sea salt (rocks are best as they give the fudge delicious salty crunch!)

Method – same for each recipe above

Place all ingredients in food processor and process with the S blade until it rolls up into a sticky ball. You may need to knead the ball down and process a few more times to ensure all ingredients are thoroughly mixed and almost smooth. You still want a slight texture but want it to resemble fudge as much as possible.

The mix will be almost a caramel consistency and very sticky once fully combined.

Place the mix onto a piece of cling/plastic wrap  and gently shape into the thickness and size of a block of fudge.

Wrap up and place in the freezer, where you will store it. It should take half an hour to firm up.

You can slice off bite size pieces direct from the freezer prior to your work out, but I’ll warn you, you might just want to eat them anytime of the day!