Happy Friday! Any exciting plans for your weekend?

We had a Harley Davidson rally here on the compound yesterday which happens every year, and it’s the closest thing we have to a festival as our friend’s band played with their heavy metal/rock band for 45 minutes at the cricket ground.

It’s pretty much a family day with food vendors, jumping castles and other entertainment, so it was lovely to get out and about.

Our friend Chris, who is a wonderful photographer, and has taken some great shots of my tasting events, happened to snap this quickie of Manus and I (without his hearing protection which we had for when the band played).

Anyway onto some great giveaway news, especially for those of you who are new to raw, or struggling with how to make raw work for you, the gorgeous and talented Tanya Alekseeva from Better Raw in London, has recently brought out this fantastic new DVD called Rawfood 101.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy last year just in time for Christmas, along with some other raw food personalities like:

Matt Monarch from The Raw Food World

My friend Amber from Almost Vegan

And Matt’s wife Angela from Raw Reform, just to name a few!

Tanya’s DVD is concise, easy to follow and full of useful tips and tricks on easy raw food dishes and techniques for the newbie to raw food.

Plus she is the picture of what raw food health can and does look like!

Yesterday for lunch I had her chia seed crackers topped with her tangy sauerkraut and had to fight Manus for the crackers – they are tasty on their own too!

Tanya and Better Raw have teamed up with Girl on Raw to offer one lucky reader their own copy of Rawfood 101 to add to their raw food collection, but if you can’t wait and need to grab your own copy NOW you can order your own here for £15.99 (approx. US $25).

To be in the running to win your very own copy of Rawfood 101 all you need to do is comment below and tell us why you want to win your very own copy of Rawfood 101.

For a bonus entry, you can go to facebook here and tag yourself in on the Better Raw Rawfood 101 photo!

Entries are open worldwide and will close at midnight GMT Sunday 5th Feb, so get your entry in now before it’s too late!

Lately, I’ve been eating a little more simply with my raw foods, because so often I feel the need to make more gourmet complex dishes for showcasing here on the blog, or I am in the theme of making more transitional foods especially when in the thick of doing my classes as what I usually teach is the impressive dishes on how to make raw food more appealing. Plus it is what I am trained in.

But as I’ve mentioned before, usually the longer you have been interested in raw foods, the more simplistic your tastes become, and spending  hours to process, dehydrate, juice etc for every.single.meal. becomes a little tiresome.

So I’m going to start focusing on more simple, quick, tasty and easy raw food meals and dishes over the coming weeks, as for the month of February I will be very busy with the delivery of my classes, and will most like want to eat as basic as possible.

Yesterday I stocked up on plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables – love that feeling of knowing I am all stocked up and can go shopping in my own pantry!

But before I put all my new produce away, I cleaned out my fridge of all the older produce and made some ‘clean out the fridge juice’

A mix of broccoli, green cabbage, carrots, celery, zucchini, apples, pineapple & lime.

Then I chopped up some vegetables for marinating. Oh so good.

Cauliflower, tomatoes, green onions, zucchini, marinated in olive oil, juice of one lemon and Himalayan/Celtic sea salt to taste. Mix it through with hands and let marinate for about an hour. Juicy and yum.

For those of you who missed it, check out my soul sista Kristen Suzanne’s  article cost cutting with a raw food diet on One Green Planet here.

Have you got any raw food simple recipes or ideas to share?

Or any ways to use up old produce?

Sorry to disappear on you like that, but between being in the kitchen plenty coming up with new recipes, testing old ones, planning my raw food launch and classes which begin next week and a slight emergency involving our little munchkin – all is well now thank goodness! I’ve just found it difficult to get on line to share my raw BLT I promised to you!

Anyway plenty of you guessed all the components, but here’s how I made my scrumptious raw BLT last week.

BLT  **RAW**

Onion Bread (otherwise known as farty bread!) – recipe here

Zuchinni & Dill Hummus 

Eggplant Bacon: Used a variation of the recipe I learnt at culinary school but you can also find a delicious version from Gena here and also another in Matthew Kenney’s Everyday Raw recipe book here

1 large eggplant (I used about 6 miniature ones from our CSA box) thinly sliced lengthways

1 T himalayan or celtic sea salt

1/2 dried chipotle chili soaked for 1 hour – keep soak water – if you don’t have chipotle chilli you could supplement with 4 drops of liquid smoke (this is what I used)

2 T maple syrup

2 T olive oil

1 T tamari

2 T apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

Place eggplant slices in a large bowl and toss in the sea salt and set aside for 2 hours.

Blend all remaining ingredients into a marinade.

After 2 hours, squeeze eggplant gently to remove as much liquid as possible and place in a fresh bowl. Cover with marinade and set aside for another hour.

Spread slices across the tefflex sheet and dehydrate for 24 hours on 115′F or until crispy like bacon.

When all components are complete then pile up your bread however you like your BLT. Here’s how I did mine

Oh yeah and don’t forget the fresh tomato and lettuce!

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!

Hi everyone!

If you follow on facebook, you will see that last week I was so excited to receive my first organic box in our CSA (community supported agriculture) which is organic as well! And yesterday I received our second box.

I’m even more excited, because in the 4 years I have been living here, I have found it difficult to find organic produce let alone local and now we have both – at least until the growing season ends (not sure when that is). If you want to check out more about where I shop I wrote about it here and here.

Here’s what our box includes:

3 heads cauliflower
3 heads broccoli
3 heads iceberg lettuce
2 bunches spinach
1 bunch coriander
2 bunches parsley
1 bunch mint
4 ears of corn
1 bunch fresh fenugreek
2 big local lemons (lots more juice)
1 big white cabbage
3 boxes of cherry tomatoes (sweet)
1 Kilo Kousa (local zucchini)
1 Kilo Cucumber
1 Kilo Bell peppers

And what’s even better is they collect the boxes from us to take back and refill for next week, so there is zero wastage!

The above is a little too much for 2 adults and a baby for a week so I am sharing my box with another couple but for the last couple of weeks, we’ve had the whole box to ourselves as they have been out of the country.

One of the challenges I faced with so much produce for our little family was how to wash and store, especially the greens as they can tend to wilt when not stored properly.

As this produce is organic I do not do the usual baking soda baths that I do for un organic fruits and vegetables which I wrote about here.

How To | Washing Your Greens & Herbs To Keep Fresh

Equipment:

Salad spinner

Large bowl/bucket for rinsing or sink

Paper towel

Gallon size sealable sandwich bags

Multiple clean tea towels/dish cloths

Instructions

1. Fill up a large bowl or sink with fresh water (filtered if possible). Side note: our water in Saudi is desalinated salt water and we also have a sweet water tap in the sink which has been treated even futher – I use a US tap filter on the sweet water tap for washing vegetables, cooking water and also drinking water

2. Trim the unusable stems from the herbs/greens and discard (I actually keep these for juicing purposes and wash with the rest of the produce and store away until I make the juice)

3. Place the greens/herbs in the water (most likely in batches as you won’t have enough space for them all!)

4. I usually use my clean hands to ‘swish’ them around in the water to ensure all parts of the leaves are rinsed. Also important to note, especially here in Saudi where our locally grown produce is almost always saturated with sand/dust (product of living in the desert) that you may need to do this with the same leaves multiple times with the produce to ensure they are grit free. Having said that, this box of vegetables has been less sandy than I’ve experienced with supermarket purchased produce!

5. Place the leaves in your salad spinner and SPIN!

6. Place the leaves in a single layer on top of a dish cloth on the bench and gently lie a second cloth on top.

Be gentle as you don’t want to ‘bruise’ your leaves, but lightly pat the leaves through the dish cloth and leave a while to dry. Repeat with the rest of the leaves – emptying your salad spinner of water before the next round. If you are limited on kitchen space you can layer the clothes up like this.

7. I usually leave the leaves to dry from 20min to an hour then check on them. You will most likely need to dab them all again, as you want to try and ensure they are all completely dry before storage.

8. Place a piece of paper towel in a sandwich bag, then place your leaves inside, then top with another piece of paper towel.

9. Before you seal the bag, try and ensure limited air is left within the bag – this will ensure maximum freshness.

10. Enjoy your greens & herbs as you like, taking what you require from the bags, and sealing once again with limited airspace to savour them for as long as possible – my leaves are still as fresh as 1 week on!

NOTE: keep your bags and paper towel (can be dried) for the next week’s goodies.

Sorry if this seems elementary to some, but up until now, I struggled to keep my greens crisp and fresh for long periods of time. If you follow these instructions you will have spinach, dill, arugula/rocket, parsley, fresh for as long as possible.

You will need to do this multiple times if you have as much produce as we received in our box!

I’ve heard of many other techniques for keeping and storing herbs, so what do you do?

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?

How about this view right? From our chair lift less than 100m from our chalet.

Back in October, we began discussing the possibility of a snow holiday, as Pat has wanted to ski Lebanon or Iran for the past couple of years but the seasons are so short and the windows of opportunity just didn’t work in with our vacation slots.

Then when we decided to visit my home sick sister for Christmas in Paris, we thought why not check out the snow, as the world famous Alps were not too far away – well ok they were at least a 9 hour car ride from Paris, but still, it’s all relative.

Yep Manus gets a little hot in his baby carseat, so we strip him off and here he is on a quick toilet stop having a play with daddy.

Skiing in Scotland 2006

Me not being much of a skiier – I’d only tried it 3 times before in New Zealand’s North Island, Australia’s Perisher, and Scotland’s limited ski area, I wasn’t really that fussed, but Pat, was keen to try out his snowboarding skills. Well, he is a keen kiteboader and surfer so his talent translates well to the snowboard.

In the end, friends of ours, also from Saudi, got in on the idea, then at the last minute, my sister and her French husband decided to join us for a week of ski/snow/boarding action on the world famous slopes of Tignes les Brevieres.

As our holiday was planned very last minute, Pat did some finger surfing on the web and found the last place available for us to stay which slept 7 adults comfortably and included breakfast to our rooms each morning and a 3 course dinner wine included everytnight – just what you want after an exhausting day on the slopes – someone else to cook – they even offered different options for dietary requirements.

And some fun for Manus during the day  

What a luck out Chalet Chandons was. A budget conscious but not light on the service, British run establishment that offered long stays work for cheaper rent, so essentially the staff that looked after us, were also guests and usually fellow skiiers/boarders on the slopes. So after their work was done for the day they were free to hit the powder.

Even though we stayed in their other Chalet (Hattiers) it was a mere 8 minute walk to Chalet Chandon each night for dinner at 730pm where we were sat with other guests, most of whom were returning from years past.

The thing that amazed me about how this place was run, was that everyone seems to be so happy, hardworking, friendly and happy to help out. Also for a place that relies heavily on temporary seasonal staff, everything seemed to run like clockwork with the daily operations from the delivery of breakfast, cleaning of the rooms, to even the occasional routine verandah sweeping after heavy snowfall (we had 2 days of snowfall and the rest of the days were sunshine!)

So back to my virus. Since leaving Saudi the week prior, all 3 of us had been fighting off sniffles and on arrival to Paris, it turned into chesty coughs (we put it down to the travel). Then on the day we departed for the Alps, I had a slight fever, and on arrival to the snow after the 9 hour car journey, I had a crazy fever, and my aches were keeping me in bed with 3 bed covers on!! Manus survived with just a chesty cough and Pat has only started to feel the aches and pains now, but after a quick visit to the medical centre in neighbouring ski resort Val d’Isere, it was determined I had a virus and was prescribed saline solution for my nose and panadol (which I was taking already). Manus was over the worst of it, and I thought Pat has survived it as he was hitting the slopes hard from day one, whilst I stayed in bed. Will no appetite and no energy, I was relegated to watching from our chalet window until day 4! But then I made up for it!

We were a little anxious to see how a 9 month old would cope in the snow, and how much fun it would be for any of us, but rugged up right in a snow suit and thermals, he really enjoyed playing in the powder.

If you are interested in where we stayed in Tignes, check out Chalet Chandon here and chat to Nicky or Kat and don’t forget to tell them that I sent you! They were fabulous with us, and Kat even had a little boy around the same age as Manus .

Our snow gang!

I’ll be back onto the raw posts next week, I’ve got plenty in store for you in 2012!

As of yesterday, we are safely and soundly back home here in Saudi, after a wonderful end to our holiday in France when we were unexpectedly upgraded to Business Class (thank you frequent flyer miles!) which was a god send especially for Pat who had to go directly to work on arriving back into camp – a rude holiday awakening for sure!

Even though we were upgraded to the spacious flat bed seats (on Emirates for those of you who are curious), we were still tired from flying through the night, so spent the rest of yesterday trying to reset our sleep clocks and just relaxing.

Then this morning it was time for me to hit up the shops to restock the fridge.

Usually I like to hit up the supermarket on a Saturday (the beginning of our working week here) to begin the week off on the right foot, but obviously our tummies couldn’t wait til then

So here is how our fridge and bench look now

Ready for some raw (and some cooked) yummies.

Also had some unpictured frozen strawberries and mango slices ready for some smoothie incarnations. Did I tell you I’m finishing my next eBook right now? It might just be on smoothies

Being on holiday is always good, but I do love coming home too.

How about you?

When this posts, we should be in our car on our way up to the snow for the next 7 days, so I think we’ll be out of internet service til the New Year. Whatever your plans, whether it is staying at home, planning the year ahead, enjoying time with family and or friends, here’s to 2012, may the beginning be a great start for the rest of the year ahead.

Here are some snaps from our last week in Paree.

x Robyn Pat and Manus

Vin chaud (hot spicy wine) on Champs Elysee

My favourite salad from Relais Gascon, Montemarte

Vegetarian restaurant in Montemarte

Christmas markets

Christmas markets Montmarte – dried fruit

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

Christmas markets near Eiffel Tower

Arc de triomphe

Paris metro

Outside the Louvre

Gingerbread house