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A few weeks ago I was contacted by Gourmet Raw to see if I would be interested in reviewing some of their products. As I love my raw foods I was very excited to give them a try! They sent me their range of brownies and raw crisps:

Gourmet Raw Brownies

All of the raw brownies are made from a range of high quality organic raw foods such as dates, cashews, buckwheat, coconut palm nectar and cacao. They all come in at between 200 – 225 calories per brownie. The different flavours include:

• Carob Hazelnut
• Cacao Cashew
• Cacao Mint
• Cacao Cocobanana
• Carob Orange

Full lists of ingredients and nutritional info can be found on the Gourmet Raw website.

I really loved all of these brownies. They have a much more realistic fudgy brownie texture than any other raw brownie type bar I’ve tried. I also love that these contain a range of ingredients. Its easy enough to make your own raw brownies with a few ingredients but the careful blend of raw organic ingredients in these is something special. I particularly loved the carob hazelnut brownie:

It tasted like a Nutella brownie but infinitely more healthy! What I liked about these brownies is the same thing I love about all raw desserts - that they taste indulgent but are actually good for you. I enjoyed these as a dessert, a mid afternoon snack with a cuppa and even for breakfast on a couple of days. Some people might find that the calorie count is a bit high for the size of the brownie, but you have to remember that these are made with whole raw ingredients and will be much kinder to your body, despite the calories than a fat and refined sugar cooked brownie would be.

Raw Crisps

The packets of raw crisps are also made from a range of high quality raw ingredients such as buckwheat, flaxseed, veggies like carrot and beetroot and lots of herbs and spices. Each bag comes in between 150 – 180 calories. They are available in the following flavours:

• Beetroot
• Red Pepper
• Spicy Thai

Full lists of ingredients and nutritional info can be found on the Gourmet Raw website.

I found these crisps surprisingly good! I wasn’t sure what to expect, I’ve tried other raw crackers which have been pretty thick and dense but these are fine and crispy – they actually reminded me of those ‘squares’ potato crisps you can get. I used them as a salad topper…

Beetroot crisps

…and also for snacks:

My favourite flavour by far was the red pepper crisps, they tasted fantastic! These would also be wonderful dipped into hummus or salsa. I thought that you got a pretty reasonable amount of crisps in each bag too. I think these are a great product for adding more wholesome raw food into your diet, especially if you have a crisp addiction or crave savoury foods sometimes like I do.

Both the crisps and brownies are a really fun way to add some variety to the usual salads and smoothies if your trying to eat more raw.

The products are sold direct from the Gourmet Raw website and are also available in some health food stores. They are £1.99 for a brownie or a bag of crisps (sold in packs of 10 brownies or 12 crisps via the website). Now I think a few of you will be looking at that price and thinking its pretty expensive which it is, but as I often say, very high quality organic products are always going to cost more than low quality processed foods. I think we all have to look at the cost of products and decide what is a priority for us individually. However to make them a little more affordable, the guys at Gourmet Raw have offered us a great discount code:

I think these are brilliant as special treats, I will definitely be getting myself a box of the hazelnut brownies because they are gorgeous!

Another thing I really loved about the website is this FAQ’s on raw food and the fact that you can email them with feedback, ideas and questions. As they say in their FAQ’s everyone can benefit from having more raw food in their diets, you don’t have to be 100% raw or even any where near that to experience better health.

Have you tried any Gourmet Raw products? What did you think? Do you purchase any other packaged raw products? What’s your approach to eating raw foods?

Hi everyone, happy Friday! Hope your all ready to enjoy the weekend. Loved reading your comments to my Green Smoothie post, if anyone would like to join in with the 7 days, 7 smoothies challenge please feel free!

I’ve had a great couple of days off which have been spent doing my favourite pass times: shopping, cooking, eating, reading and exercising!

I started Thursday morning with a home workout. I decided that I wanted to get my workout completed early and as my gym doesn’t open until 9am on a Thursday I checked out my DVD collection and went with Davina Fit: Top Fit and MTV Yoga which gave me a total 1hr 15 min workout. I was starving after this but luckily I had prepared breakfast in advance:

My Vanilla Chia Wheat Germ Breakfast Pudding with two chopped white nectarines, yum!

I spent the morning getting all the grocery shopping done which included a trip to the farm shop, green grocer, Tesco and Sainbury’s – yep, there’s some stuff that Tesco do cheaper than sainsbos and some stuff I just prefer from sainsbos so I did both!

Lunch was some raw wraps made with spring green leaves, sunflower seed butter, carrot, pink lady apple and basil. I also had 4 clearspring sesame tamari rice cakes on the side:

I love these wraps they are amazingly tasty and filling!

Mid afternoon I fancied a big green juice so I juiced up 1 pear, 3 romaine leaves, celery, cucumber, broccoli, spinach and lemon, it was delicious!

Dinner was an awesome Buddha bowl. I combined roast kabocha squash, edamame, quinoa and chopped parsley with a lemon juice, braggs seasoning and cool oil dressing and served it up on top of some steamed broccoli and purple sprouting broccoli with shoyu. I also added some viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds:

This was so so good, I adore kabocha, nothing else comes close to the sweetness and texture of it, delicious!

Dessert was two raw vegan brownie bites topped with coconut flour ‘icing’:

Delish! I also had two unpictured fiji apples.

This morning I was up and off to the gym. I did 1 hour of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine. Oh, and that’s 1 hour total, not one hour on each! I think the way I write that can be misleading sometimes, I do 15 minutes on each machine for a total 1 hour workout. I finished off with my abs and core exercises.

Breakfast was the first green smoothie of my Green Smoothie Challenge:

Apple Pie Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 5 large kale stems (with thick stems removed) – or greens of choice
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 pink lady apple, chopped
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used sun warrior)
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/2 cup of rice milk
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• water to desired thickness
• 1/2 – 1 tsp of xanthan gum (optional but adds thickness)

Topping

• 1 tbsp of almond butter
• 1 tbsp of granola (I used viva pure raw apple granola)
• cinnamon

Add ingredients to blender in order listed above, blend. Top with the almond butter and granola and a dusting of cinnamon, devour!

This really did taste like apple pie, so lush! I loved the drippy almond butter on top.

James had the day off too so we headed to Newcastle – I got the most gorgeous ultra skinny jeans and coat from H&M, pics to come over the weekend! I also got stocked up on my favourite yogi teas and soya beans from the health food shop. We were going to have lunch in town but ran out of parking time so when I got home I threw together a tasty salad containing lots of mixed green leaves (spinach, romaine, lambs lettuce and parsley) carrot, red pepper, cucumber, sugar snaps, spring onion and spicy roasted chickpeas and a peanut lime dressing (1 tbsp of peanut flour, lime juice, water and shoyu):

I also had an orange. Later in the afternoon I had another green juice. Dinner was leftovers of last nights Buddha bowl with spring greens instead of broccoli.

Last week I said that I had came up with a recipe using the leftover pulp from making my sesame milk – and here it is!

Raw Chocolate Sesame Tart (makes 4)

• 1 cup of leftover sesame pulp (from making milk)
• 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder
• 1 tbsp of agave syrup
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil, melted

Combine all ingredients and divide mixture between 4 tart cases with removal bottoms. Store in the freezer until needed then remove from tart case 10 minutes before eating, enjoy!

I served mine with some fresh strawberries and figs, it tasted fab!

I really enjoyed my big grocery shop. I was due one as the last time I really properly stocked my cupboards was October. I like to do a huge shop to stock up then I just work my way through everything. As well as the store cupboard type stuff I also got a fantastic haul of fresh produce from the farm shop and green grocers:

 

Yep, this filled my kitchen!

I’m looking forward to some delicious meals using this stuff for the coming week. I was also pretty good and stuck to my list apart from buying two new items:

Hemp milk:

Carob flakes:

Both spotted on Jessica’s blog. I had a taste of the carob flakes and oh my word they are so good! Have you tried hemp milk or carob flakes before? What did you think?

Do you do a monster grocery shop every so often or do you just get things in each week? I love having fully stocked cupboards then just picking up a few fresh items when needed.

Any exciting plans for the weekend? I’m out for one of my best friends birthday’s on Saturday night along with the usual family visits and my long run. I’m not looking forward to the clocks going forward, it always messes with by bio clock!

Hope you have all had a great week and enjoy your weekend!

Hi everyone, hope your having a wonderful Sunday. I’ve had the best weekend!

I enjoyed this lovely soya latte with raspberry syrup at one of my favourite cafes Intermezzo in Newcastle

I started the weekend with a quick run, as usual I just went out and ran with no idea of distance or pace, I think I probably did about 3.5 miles. When I came home I made a smoothie:

This contained spinach, cantaloupe melon, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca, ground flax, water and ice then topped with some Kashi crunch. I hadn’t been planning on starting my green smoothie challenge until today but I couldn’t help myself!

Then I got ready for my day out!

OOTD: floral jacket: Warehouse, striped dress: Tu @ Sainsbury’s, belt: Dorothy Perkins, black quilted bag: Topshop, tights: M&S, ankle boots: New Look

I was also excited to show everyone my finished tattoo!

I’m so happy with it, I know tattoo’s aren’t for everyone but I love them and this one means a lot to me. I’ll explain the meaning behind it soon! I think its pretty tasteful and delicate and I love the colours.

Once we got to town we went to Olive and Bean for a bit of brunch:

I had granary toast with peanut butter and jam and a large soy latte and James had the continental platter. You can’t beat good old peanut butter on toast sometimes!

After that we had a look round the shops and went to see The Hunger Games at the Tyneside Cinema. I think I’ve posted a pic of their screen before but I just love its old fashioned style so much:

I really enjoyed the movie and thought they did a pretty good adaptation of the book. I also indulged in a little budget friendly shopping, I got a neutral coloured blazer and a bright pink sleeveless top from H&M and a fab pair of boot cut jeans from a charity shop for £4! After that James got the train home and I went to my parents. Its my wonderful friend Kate’s 30th Birthday today so me and my other best friend decided to surprise her. I fancied a drink so thought I would stay at my parents which is closer. My friend Claire bought Kate this epic cake:

Oh and yes, I did enjoy one of those cupcakes and a large slice of the cake (of course it wasn’t vegan but I’m enjoying my more flexible approach to that right now) plus a few glasses of Cava, Southern Comfort and lots and lots of crisps and chocolate. We had a great time! I’ve been friends with those two for over 17 years and they are the best friends ever, we had such a laugh just chatting and catching up. This morning I paid for both the alcohol and the sugar with a nasty hangover, but nothing a green smoothie can’t fix!

That was a very cleansing green smoothie with spinach, chinese pear, celery, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ginger, maca, ground flax, water and ice. Along with a pot of kuricha green tea it sorted me out a treat!

It was lovely that both my friends commented on how much better they thought I looked with a bit more weight on and they were happier that I seemed to be more relaxed about eating ‘unhealthy’ foods and enjoying myself :-) At the end of the day I have to keep reminding myself that I eat healthily 90% of the time and a few drinks and sugary foods enjoyed with my friends is one of life's pleasures!

Today I’ve just been enjoying chilling out. I made myself a lovely big salad for lunch with romaine, cucumber, red pepper, sprouts, basil tofu, olives and home of my green goddess dressing:

I just love that tofu!

So I have started my green smoothie challenge – one green smoothie a day for at least 7 days. As I was saying on Friday I just feel the need for them at the moment and after recent indulgences I think my body will appreciate it. Like I said if you’d like to join in the challenge let me know and I can link back to your posts. Here’s some green smoothie recipes for you and my ultimate green smoothie recipe. I’m also feeling very attracted to salads and simple Buddha bowls right now while at the same time really wanting to do some baking! I think I’ll be enjoying the baking next weekend :-)

Have you had a good weekend so far? Do you have a favourite cinema or cafe? What kind of foods are you attracted to at the moment?

Over the last few months, what started as a casual flirtation has grown into a full blown romance. It started with a few spinach leaves here and there, moved on to experimenting with kale and then eventually climaxed with a full size head of romaine lettuce…

Topped with coconut flour sauce, gojis and cacao nibs, yum!

…yes, I am officially head over heels in love with green smoothies! Here’s why:

• They taste awesome
• They are incredibly filling
• They are extremely nutritious
• Their ingredients can be changed to offer almost endless variety

Green smoothies are now my ultimate comfort food – I love to make them thick and eat them from a bowl – I find them much more satisfying that way. I also have a habit of chugging smoothies down in 5 seconds when they come in a glass!

They don’t always turn out green – try adding berries!

See the fantastic Green Monster Movement for more info on green smoothies and for hundreds of variations!

If your a newbie try the basic green monster – spinach, banana and milk – you can’t taste the spinach!

Here’s the formula I use for constructing a fab green smoothie:

• Take one decent blender (if your using anything other than spinach and any ice or frozen chunkier fruit like banana then you probably need a reasonably powerful blender) and add:
• Greens – kale (leaves striped from the stem), spring greens (thick stem removed), romaine lettuce (or any lettuce really), cabbage (thick stem removed) rocket / watercress (gives peppery taste), sweet pea shoots, spinach, swiss chard, pak choy. You can also add other veggies such as cooked beetroot and avocado. Start with a smaller greens to fruit ratio until you get used to them, then increase.
• Fruit – any fruits that take your fancy! Frozen banana (take a ripe banana, chop, place in bag and freeze) adds wonderful creaminess, as do lots of other frozen fruits. I like to combine a frozen fruit and a fresh fruit plus ice if needed.
• Liquid – water, non dairy milks such as soy, rice, oat, coconut, coconut water, cooled brewed tea (I love chai, jasmine green tea and fruit teas), fruit juice
• Add ins – here’s where you can get really creative and up the nutrition and taste factor: Protein powder – add a scoop of your favourite protein powder, Cocoa powder / raw cacao powder, Nut butter – obviously peanut butter is my favourite! Could also add a handful of nuts, ‘Super’ foods – maca, mesquite, ground flax, carob, chia seeds, hemp seeds, matcha green tea, spirulina etc, Spices – cinnamon, ginger etc, Gums – xanthan gum adds thickness, guar gum adds creaminess, add 1/4 tsp at a time, Ice cubes – extra chill and thickness factor
• Toppings – again, go nuts! (er, literally): Whole or chopped nuts, seeds, coconut, dried fruit (goji berries are my fave), granola, muesli, cereal, more fresh fruit, maple or agave syrup, nut butter (or nut butter sauce swirl), cacao nibs

I now find that I just crave green smoothies – if I don’t have one for a few days I really feel it! They make me feel satisfied, healthy and nourished. In fact I think for the next few days I’m going to be setting myself a little challenge: 7 days and 7 smoothies – yes, a green smoothie each day! This isn’t so much of a challenge really, I’m looking forward to doing it! I have some creative ideas for combinations of difference ingredients that I can’t wait to try. As I’ve been attracted to eating more raw foods having a green smoothie a day is going to be a great way of doing this.

Have you tried a green smoothie? Are you a green smoothie fan? What’s your favourite smoothie ingredients?

Happy Friday! Have we all had a good week? Mine has been excellent…

Last week I had mentioned that I was looking forward to an event at work. The project that I manage was funded for a set period of time and it is finishing at the end of March (I work for a charity). Luckily I still have a job after this time, at least for a few months, but we wanted to hold an event to celebrate the project and decided to put on an afternoon tea with a bit of a 1940’s theme. We hired in lots of vintage cake stands, tea pots and tea cups, decked the hall out with red, white and blue bunting, had spring flowers on the tables and even had some entertainment from a lady singing old music hall songs by Judy Garland and Vera Lynn! It was a fantastic event…

I was a bit let down on the catering, I had been told they were going to make me some special vegan cookies but they hadn’t. I was still happy though as I got some hummus salad sandwiches and soya cream filled brandy snaps (I had those times at least 10!) Plus I shared a couple of pots of green tea with my colleague. Of course as it was 1940’s themed we all decided to dress up:

OOTD: vintage dress: Beyond Retro, black peep toe shoes: Office

I tried to do my hair in a 1940’s style with a ‘victory roll’ at the front, not sure how well I managed it but I was happy with how it looked considering I just did it myself in 15 minutes! It was just a fab event and everyone that attended said they had enjoyed themselves!

Other tastiness from this week includes:

Vanilla Cookie Dough Green Smoothie (spinach, scoop of vanilla sun warrior, scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough spiru-tein protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice) topped with walnuts, figs and bee pollen

Chocolate Cherry Green smoothie (kale, frozen cherries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice) topped with peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs

 Honey and hemp muffin, pear, plain Coyo, honey

Seitan Sausage (made with Italian herbs and sundried tomatoes) with brown rice and broccoli

Stir fried veggies with edamame, ginger, soy and sweet chilli sauce

My veggie chilli with added soy mince and steamed greens

Strawberries and plain Coyo yoghurt (tasted like strawberries and cream, so decadent!)

So lots of amazing eats!

Workouts have just been my usual:

• Sunday – AM treadmill run 5k, 20 minute bike, kettlebell class
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – Yoga class
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – Yoga class
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from ‘Dial it in’ phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I feel like I’m getting into a really good routine now :-)

On my weekend send off love list this week…

Getting ready to be inked!

Yesterday I got my tattoo finished off. Its still a little red so I’m waiting until its better healed before I post a picture but lets just say it looks fantastic and I’m very happy with it! Also…

 The Little Paris Kitchen, not the most vegan friendly cooking show but I love the whole style of everything in it! // Becoming a member of the Diary Free Dream Team – please check it out, I’ll be writing regular articles! // yoga, I’ve enjoyed my classes so much this week

Before I go, next week I’m planning on doing another green smoothie challenge for at least 7 days. I did one about the same time last year and really enjoyed it! This lovely fresh spring weather is making me crave them and I’m feeling the need to get back to basics with some of my eats, to me there’s no better way to start that than with a daily dose of green. If your up for it feel free to join in and let me know if you’d like me to link to any of your posts. I’ll be starting on Sunday I think!

What have you been loving this week?

My weekend starts today and I’m so pleased – I really feel like I need and extra couple of days off this week!

I started my Wednesday at the gym with an awesome treadmill workout. I’ve gradually been increasing my speeds each week so it now looks like this:

• 5 min – 6.0mph (warm up)
• 5 min – 6.6 mph
• 5 min – 7.1 mph
• 5 min – 6.8 mph
• 5 min – 7.3 mph
• 5 min – 30 second intervals 6.8/7.8mph

I was a sweaty mess after this! I then did 30 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core – I’m still rocking that 2 minute plank!

Breakfast was wonderful! I made a delicious porridge with 1/4 cup of oat bran, 1/4 cup of viva pure raw chia super food porridge mix, 1 cup of home made sesame milk, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of blueberries then topped it with 2 tablespoons of cashew butter and a few fresh sliced strawberries:

This was so good, I loved the creamy texture of the porridge and the flavours from the super food mix tasted amazing.

Lunch was a bowl of my Pea, Broccoli and Pesto soup, a RAW Italian cracker, a pear and an orange:

Mid afternoon snackies were some hummus and carrot and cucumber for dipping. Dinner was last nights Tomato Pearl Barley Seitan Buddha bowl with spinach, raw carrot and basil:

Loving this Buddha bowl meal!

Dessert was two frozen chocolate peanut butter avocado cups and 2 chopped apples:

I added a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter to the usual avocado, agave, raw cacao mix and these tasted divine!

I plan on enjoying my extra couple of days off this week getting caught up on a few things around the flat, doing a monster grocery shop, a big cook up and spending some time just relaxing and reading. I have quite a few books at the moment from the Library:

The China Study:

I’ve always wanted to read this as its been referred to on so many vegan blogs. I’ve started reading some of it and its so interesting. It basically discusses a large body of research that shows how eating a mainly plant based diet can help to prevent a range of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Babycakes:

I’m in love with this book already! So many fantastic recipes for vegan baked goodies: cupcakes and brownies here I come!

The Everyday Vegan:

I love Dreena Burton’s Eat Drink and Be Vegan cookbook so fancied checking this out as well.

I also have a book on Vegetarian Sports Nutrition from the lovely Alison to read – I’ve had a quick flick through and know I’m going to find it very useful. I also have some reading to do for the next assignment for my course.

For some reason I tend to enjoy reading cookbooks and more factual books at the moment, I must get back into reading some good fiction!

What’s the last book you read? Have you read any of the books above? What did you think?