But before you check out the winner on the video, with all this inspiration around I’ve been getting busy in the kitchen.

Onion Bread – recipe up soon

Green Smoothie – Almond milk, pineapple, frozen bananas, spinach and hemp

More tomatoes for dehydrating – this time I am going to marinate them in oil

Spicy Zuchinni Noodles – recipe coming up this week

See you tomorrow

My thoughts on diet and nutrition are very non judgemental and non biased and I don’t believe the way one person eats, should necessarily be the way everyone should eat to obtain optimal health. I believe there are healthy vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores (meat eaters) just as there are unhealthy ones and the way each person approaches their own diet is very individualised.

I speak more about this in the video below, but I would love to hear your thoughts too on your food philosophy for great health.

Also, I made this video post before I had the chance to see Fran from High on Health’s video blog here on “Are You Putting Yourself in a Healthy Box?” which totally relates to what I am trying to communicate here. Also whist you are there, check out my guest post on How To Curb Food Cravings – just don’t forget to check out the video first below The best of a bad bunch of thumbnails were available….bit goofy!

For more info check these links out:

• Diet ‘Labels’ and Where Do You Fit In?
• The Great Health Debate Audio Event

In today’s video I demonstrate a smoothie with hemp. Hemp seed is a relatively new addition to my diet but it truly a wonderful raw superfood for many reasons:

• supplies more levels of iron than red meat or flax seed
• greatest source of protein in the vegetable kingdom
• hemp is NEVER genetically modified
• is an ideal balance of omega 3 & 6 fatty acids
• can be purchased in seed, oil or flour form – seeds can be hulled or unhulled.
• can be assistive for people with high cholestrol, blood pressure, blood sugar obesity, constipation, fatigue & depression
• also great for weight loss as it provides long term appetite satisfaction (similar to chia seeds)

In the video I say we only need 4 teaspoons a day – I meant 4 tablespoons – I ALWAYS  get tablespoons and teaspoons confused!!!

Vitamin C consumption always enhances the bodies ability to absorb iron when consumed together so the following recipe although includes plenty of iron in the hemp and spinach, the berries compliment perfectly by providing the Vitamin C needed.

Iron & Protein Packed Smoothie

2 frozen bananas

1 cup of strawberries (fresh or frozen)

1 cup of raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1 cup of packed spinach (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup of hemp seeds (mine are hulled)

3 cups of water

If you are in Australia, you might find it a little hard to get hold of hemp seeds, oil or flour but here are some suppliers:

• Santos Trading
• Pure Delight Hemp

If you are in Saudi or Bahrain, I have found hemp protein powder brand name V-Pro (hemp flour) in the compound commissary, Lulu in Saudi and also in Al Hosra in Bahrain.

Here is the Chocolate Ice-Cream post I promised you a few days back in honour of Hannah who is not a big coconut fan but sure loves her choccie!  PLUS you don’t need an ice-cream maker (but if you do!)

I hope the anticipation was worth it

Watching it back I realise I’m a bit of a dork and need alot more practice at this…plus I was worried Dad would come home half way through and see his kitchen turned into a novice film studio

You can find the ingredients list below the vid. Grab a bowl of popcorn, sit back and enjoy

**ATTENTION** In the video I say, 1 cup of raw agave, when in actual fact I MEAN 1/2 cup!!!

Raw Vegan Chocolate Ice-Cream

Ingredients

1 cup of cashews (soaked for 2 hours)

1/2 cup of young coconut meat

1/2 cup of raw agave*

1 1/2 cups of water

1 T vanilla extract

1/2 cup of raw cacao powder

pinch himalayan or sea salt

Method:

1. Place all ingredients in high speed blender until smooth

2. Place in freezer safe container and place in freezer until frozen, taking out of freezer periodically to stir the mixture and aerate. Alternatively place in an ice-cream maker according to instructions

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the next stage in the Breakfast Parfait – The Mango Ginger Custard Just been doing quality assurance on it tdoay

Also, the song from my video has been in my head all day, and my bud Caroline sent me through Katy Perry’s story behind the song here. I told her not to send stuff through to me like this whilst pregnant as it made me cry. She said the same thing as she’s not preggy so see how you hold up!

It’s been a while since I Video posted, so thought why not share with you what I do with my left over almond pulp from all my almond milking I’ve been doing lately.

This video steps off from this one here, where I show you how to make your own nut milk.

Enjoy!

Apart from realigning my body clock since arriving and getting settled into my parents new holiday like home, I’ve not been up to too much.

However I’ve had time to go source some yummy foods that aren’t so easy to get where I live in Saudi, either because they just do not grow, or there just doesn’t seem to be the demand for it – YET!

Check out some of my goodies here:

Then it was time to show my parents some RAW FOOD LOVE. But not before I got my mum to work:

Then she was excited to show me what she had done with my ebook I had bought from my soul sister! Shhh don’t tell her I put photos up of her in her PJ’s!

Dinner was an adapted version of Gena’s Peanut Satay Noodles

Oopsy on the too much dressing.

I also made a batch of my favourite Arabic influenced Fattouch Salad minus the bread (I made this for my final assessment at 105degrees) – I just need to type it up for y’all then I can share it with you!

Following morning I made my dad his first green smoothie served in a champagne flute!

Mum has tried them before and like ANYTHING I make she just loves. Don’t you just love mums! Dad wasn’t converted – YET! But will see.

I told him it was a hardcore green smoothie for a beginner (silverbeet, water, frozen bananas, dates, lemon juice & a pinch of salt). I promised him I will make him a yummy strawberry milkshake when I get the ingredients this week.

Some of you may have already seen my earlier video where I was using a Joyce Chen Spiraliser available here.

But since then I have upgraded to a more sturdy and more professional model which I feature in this video, but failed to mention the model – World Cuisine available here .

If you are reading from Australia or UK drop me a comment as I also have stockists I can put you in touch with

Here is a small sample of some photos that were taken on Thursday night by my good friend Chris Odukwe (who did an amazing job and is also available here in Saudi so check his stuff out!) Here are some more photos from the gallery if you want to take a peek.

I have more photos on their way, so stay tuned.

Also I have been in the kitchen, filming some more video posts (coming soon), and thought it would be fun to share this one with you. Yep, I can be pretty goofy at times

Girl on Raw – Bloopers from Girl on Raw on Vimeo.

Here is my promised video of myself and Greg (one of my classmates here at 105degrees) getting curious with opening a durian fruit. Have you ever tried one before? If so how do you eat yours? I think I might like to try mine in a smoothie or a pudding!

Also, one of my favourite films to watch is Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days and on Friday, I listened to this inspiring interview with Gabriel Cousens (one of the program leaders of the Reversing Diabetes program at the Tree of Life in Arizona) and wanted to share it with you.

Click here to go to interview

Although this information isn’t all that new to me, I do love reminding myself why I am on this path with Raw Food and also how we can not only treat disease but also prevent it. This is of special interest to me, because my mother is pre diabetic and so many members on her side of the family are diabetic. Hope you enjoy!

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Trailer

I’m back in Saudi now for a little while but am fighting off the beginnings of a cold – the flying has finally caught up with me. After a 16 hour journey from Texas to the land of the sand, I finally got to my own bed and have rarely left it to try and keep this cold away. Advice I have been given is to keep hydrated and not to eat, but will see how that goes. Plus I’ve been pumping in the vitamins (C, Echinacea, Zinc etc)

In lieu of a post today, I’d thought I’d share with you a basic video on how to make nut milk. Most raw foodies are all over this process, but this is for my non raw foodie friends who been asking me how/what is nut milk. Enjoy!