RAW Chocolate

4 handfuls of cashews – soak in filtered water for 2 hours
4 tablespoons of agarve syrup
2 tablespoons cacoa powder
4 tablespoons of cacoa butter

I blended the cashew nuts first – then added the other ingredients slowly. Take care in blending as this mixture might get warm ( thus destroying good nutrients)

If you leave the cacoa butter out on the bench for the same amount of time you are soaking the nuts – it will be soft enough to easily blend in.

Spread into tin and put into fridge for a few hours to set.
Cut into squares and put into airtight container keeping in the fridge.
I am not sure how long this keeps as it never lasts more than a few days here.

This is not a super sweet recipe – nor is it rich - It turns out like a very creamy milk chocolate and melts in your mouth.

Chocolate Dream Cream Pie

Chocolate Dream Cream Pie


A delectable dessert or a treat - in VERY small slices.

I have kept it in the fridge and put plastic wrap to keep the other vege smells out of it. I think this would be really good with a small serving to cashew cream on the side. perhaps next time I might make a dark chock topping or a raspbery sauce for the top.... hummmmmmmmm guilt free ( well - at least its not a toxic mix of processed dairy and preservatives.. but don't get me started!)

BASE

2 Cups of almonds
2 tablespoons of agave

FILLING

4 cups of cashews - soak for 1 hour
1/2 cup of agave
1/2 cup of cocoa or cacao powder
3/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of cacao butter


METHOD

Base: In a high powered blender or food processor, grind almonds until they are like little bread crumbs. Add your agave and whizz until it becomes sticky. Mine got a bit too stiff – so I mixed by hand. Care needs to be taken that you don’t heat the mixtures.

Press into the base of a springform pan. I only have a really big one and a very small one.. so mine turned out fairly flat – but to be honest – its so rich you don’t want a huge helping

Filling: Put all of your ingredients for the filling in your blender. Blend and keep stopping to push the ingredients around. This is a really thick mixture so you do not want it to blend for very long or it will get hot. I started it off slowly and built the speed up to get creamy.

Pour into springform pan and refrigerate until cold. (about 2 hours). It is sooooo dreamy . I am thinking I might use less cacao butter next time.

I made Adrian a small caramel one and a large one out of this mixture.


Variations:
You can add either cocoa powder or cocoa nibs to the base for a real choc flavour.
add peppermint oil , use the zest of an orange for a jaffa flavour or omit the cacao powder and use mesquite for a caramel flavour

OR - Omit all cacao products and add lemon juice and some salt for a cheezecake flavour.

Day 3

It started to hit home about having nothing hot or cooked with the kids. Its hard to try and reason with them about our new food choices - so I know we need ot get our food a bit more attractive for them.

I also passed a few tests I guess. I went shopping and walked past the bakery.. and didn’t buy anything. There was also a sausage sizzle – and the smell almost sent me mad! ( but I bravely walked straight on past....)

Mid afternoon I was feeling really munchifous – Adrian had opened some salted peanuts – who knows where they had come from – and I had eaten two handful before I could extract myself away. However, we all pulled through the day with flying colours. Headaches are gone and feeling pretty good.

Breaky was a fruit shake, lunch was fruit pieces and vege sticks with the left over brazil nut pate and some rice cakes. Afternoon tea was a platter of fruit and vege sticks and cubes of chocolate. ( see pici)

Dinner was a chill free Pad Thai – which was outstandingly yummy.


Here is the recipie.

Pad Thai – mild chilli free

Make in 3 parts

First - Glaze
Half cup cashews
Quarter cup sesame oil
Half cup of soy sauce or namu sheu
Half cup line juice
Tbsp maple syrup
A little water – to make thinner to suit how you like it.

Bled the lot and set aside – can be kept in fridge
and spoon glaze over Snow peas bell peppers Beans, celery – any crunchy vege.

Dressing
1 Tbs sesame seeds
Half cup sesame oil
6 sun dried tomatoes in oil
2 roma tomatoes
quarter cup of rice wine vinegar
quarter cup of apple cider vinegar
blend well.


Vege Base
Spiraled wide ribbon noodles of zucchini ( we used 1 large zucchini)

To assemble:
Put noodles in bowl
Layer bean sprouts ontop
Place marinated veges
Top with bean sprouts
Dollop of sauce
Garnish with cashews

Day Two

Day 2

Green power with green shakes is our mantra at the moment. Adrian corrected me last night too – we are aiming for healthful and lifegiving options – not die hard 100% raw. Its like attempting perfection – its impossible and you get discouraged – so you give up…

Here is Age's Purple Power drink we had mid morning.



Lilly liked it and Morgan drank some –but thought it tasted a bit strange – they coped with a little bit and that’s all you can expect. with new tastes - it important that they are introduced to things and not forced - next time they will drink more.

I was really surprised – like totally shocked at the taste. It tastes like a green apple – the tart delicious ones that I really love. Adrian’s reaction was that it “wasn’t unpleasant” – but drank the whole thing. We had this for mid morning snack. I can only imagine all the fantastic cleansing things its doing to my body.

Heres the Recipe
1 head of pak choy
2 ripe plums
1 cup blueberries
2 cups of pure water.
Blend thoroughly.

Lunch was a fruit shake and a mixed plate of fruit pieces, nuts and vege sticks AND some raw chocolate... heres a pici of the kids tucking in.. yum



We had fruit (mango and peaches) for mid afternoon snack.

Dinner was carrot, celery, capsicum, sliced tomato and olives. I made a brazil nut pate ( a bit too much salt but very tasty) and a guacamole.

Brazil nut pate:
Huge handfuls of raw brazil nuts
Table spoon on crushed garlic
Large squeezes of lemon ( about 2 lemons)
Tablespoon of Himalayan crystal pink salt ( I’d use less next time)
Water to keep blender smooth.
Blend slowly adding water to keep paste smooth and thick.

We added rice cakes with this and spread the pate ontop and laid tomatoes and olives on top.

Given that the rice cakes are the only real cooked item today – we did pretty well I think.

For desert we had raw chocolate squares and Muscat grapes.

The kids did whine a bit tonight and asked for something hot for dinner –but once they started in on the pate all was forgotten.

Just before bed as a treat for all they have done today ( lots of weeding and bushwalking) they had a small (like a table spoon) of icecream.

My raw chocolate recipe:

1 cup macadamias soaked overnight
1 cup of cashew soaked overnight
Maple syrup – good slurp ( you can get raw and organic – but its very hard to source. I had run out of argarve syrup and yucon – which is usually what I would use. Honey tends to be too sickly in this.)
1 cup raw cocoa powder
1 cup raw carob powder
1 cup of raw cocoa butter

Blend the nuts together first with small quantities of water till as smooth as you can get.
Add the powders and the cocoa butter ( melt over very low heat if you are not totally 100% raw – this just speeds things up.)

We both have detox headaches. I felt very hungry mid afternoon – so ate a bunch of grapes. Although not stressed about getting 100% every day – was happy that we kept to our plan today.