Low fat raw vegan lasagna

The raw vegan lasagna. 80/10/10 style!

Start by thinly slicing courgette strips, then marinate them in lemon juice + oregano. Optional: cold pressed olive/flaxseed oil

Spinnach pesto layer:
- Rocket, chives
- Spinnach,
- Courgette

Tomato layer
- Red pepper,
- Sun-dried Tomatos + Fresh Tomatos
- Parsley, rosemary, oregano
- Chopped red onion
Optional extras:
- Sliced mushrooms, Sliced olives

Basil pesto layer
- Basil
- Sesame seeds
- Courgette


Blend each group of ingredients, then drain off the excess water in a nut milk bag to concentrate the flavour. Add the herbs / sesame seeds and onions into each mixture for texture.

- Place down and lap over courgette slices, with each pesto layer
- Add rocket / Tomato slices on the top layer

Cheesy style topping:
- Chopped cauliflower
- Shiitake powder
- Celery powder
- Nutritional yeast flakes

Put all ingredients into a food processor until it turns into a well chopped / powder consistency and sprinkle on top.

Lime pickle style salad dressing

Heres a quick salad dressing recipe I came up with to go with a curry vegetable curry. It was really delicious so I thought it worthy of a blog post. Quick simple, healthy and amazing. 

Ingredients:

- Juice from 1 squeezed lime

- 9 Mejool dates

- 1/4 cup of corriander

- Small sprig of ginger

- Water (to make a chick creamy consistency) 

Method: Blend it all up and chop some coriander to go on top. 

Juice Burgers!

So here are my raw veggie burgers created from the left over pulp from my juicer. I added paprika, fresh and dried oregano and sesame seeds. They're delicious! However, I can picture certain pulp combinations not working so well. I used the oven on the lowest setting for about 3 hours, which works well although I think it's pretty close to the threshold for being 'raw'.

I usually put the pulp in the composter and then into my veg beds as it breaks down so fast and makes some of the best rich soil for growing more veg :) 

Insights regarding the fractal zero point of 21/12/12

Recently I've been practising meditation, looking to re discover my innate intuition and to remove fear in as many aspects of my life as possible. Not to sayI'm anywhere near that..I have a whole lifetime of subconscious deprogramming to do but the intent is there. It's easy to get locked into the left brain mind and compartmentalise all things, keeping blinkers on and never connecting dots. And so I think it's important to re learn how to follow ones heart consciousness and see the wider picture. I've found that letting my heart be my guide is a much easier and more enjoyable way to go about your day/life etc but like I say, the mind always creeps back in to make things complex again.

 To anyone wondering about a significant date coming up, here are some great insights. A much more realistic and positive explanation of the so called 'dooms day' 'end of the world'date of the 21st of this month than many other mainstream sources will describe. 

"Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside-down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religion destroys spirituality."---Michael Ellner

I really hope there is a universal raise in consciousness and unity. I feel the pressure of our 3D political, economical, sociological boiling pot of this world is close to critical. The fork in the road is in the foreseeable horizon and we must be responsible for our choice of direction! 

Banana pumpkin pie recipe

So last night I made a gourmet raw meal for our friends Tomar and Kerstin. The desert was my creation after having seeing this recipe recently. I modified a few of the ingredients and it went down nicely. The cool thing is this only takes 15 minutes to make!! And it's low in fat and pretty healthy!

For the pie crust you will need (roughly):

10 medjool dates

1.5 cups of pecans or walnuts

1 tea spoon of vanilla extract

1 pinch of nutmeg

Put everything into a food processor and leave on for a few minutes until you have a dough!

Optional: Blueberries, mulberries etc. This adds a variety of berry flavoured goodness. I'd like to try and experiment with a full berry no nut crust on the next one!

Pat it out evenly into a pie tray with warm water and clean fingers / spoon. This is where I would have added a bed of sliced bananas, that's the next step!

For the filling:

4 cups of pumpkin

4 bananas

10 more dates

Half a Vanilla pod scarped

A small cut of fresh ginger

Goji Berries 

Blend until perfectly smooth. Our Vitamix did this well but I can imagine cheaper blenders struggling a bit. As I said above, add a bed of chopped bananas to the pie at this point. Make sure they're ripe and sweet. I just added a bit of ginger powder to the base here. 

Go ahead and pour the mixture on top. Then decorate with the vanilla bean and nuts etc. Leave it in the freezer or fridge for it to set some more if it's too soft. A thick texture is best and you can eat right away!

The result!

Dr Morse on Spirituality v/s Academics

Dr Robert Morse just uploaded this video tonight. I had to share it, a brilliant speech on Spirituality Vs Academics. It may be a little heavy for a few but it's a great reminder that we live in a very academic world where spirituality and experience are often pushed aside. We all see it everyday, and for sure there is a place and need for academia. However the empowerment and knowledge through spirituality is on a far greater scale. To any atheists watching, keep in mind he is a spiritual teacher, and talks about God in non religious and metaphorical terms. I'll do less of the power phrasing and point you over to the video for a better understanding.

An awesome 15 minutes, watch it all if you have time.

The woody has landed

For the past two months myself and Rory have started to realize our dream of having a wooden training wall in our back room. Winter training was on the cards for some trips next year. The plan was to make it as steep as the room would allow and as wide as possible. Our landlord is very tolerant and relaxed with us and the house as long as we have respect with whatever we do. Since we moved in we've put in shelves and a campus board, modified things in the garden etc and they have been perfectly fine about it. Our wall would require a few screws into the roof on the floor rafters and about 15 x 1cm wall fixings along the back. Nothing we can't easily poly-filler and plaster upon removal.

We were lucky enough to get all the panels we needed from TCA when they modified the wall over the summer. This meant we saved money and a lot of time putting in T-nuts. Simon Brice kindly gave us a few metres of 2x4 beams and Gav gave us a load of wall fixings and various essentials too so with all this help we saved a significant amount. The rest of the 2x4, probably about 40 metres worth, we got for £75. Joe Day gave us a good starting plan and Mike Sowell was a massive help in giving us a hand with some of the technicalities with the tools and plan of action. With all this professional help and guidance we began the build!

First up we had some major amount of prep in the form of belt sanding the large panels. This was probably the most hard work of the entire build, requiring many shifts from us both and a lot of arm endurance. We had to pull a lot of T-nuts out and replace them for good ones. The garden was also coated in an inch of saw dust and ziggy hated the noise of the power tools. A few days later they were done and we moved onto sawing up the ply triangles.

We applied the brackets and made the 90 degree vertical pieces that would go into the masonry vertical wall. We then spent a day drilling and getting all the fixings in as solid and as accurately as possible. There were a few moments when we drilled and only black dust came out meaning less bolts in places, but in all we were happy and it still felt a bit over engineered. Next we secured some ply triangles and made the roof pieces rigid.

Next up was time to put in the overhanging frame, measured with string and sawed in a fairly ghetto fashion and with a few moments of that doesnt quite fit in the way we thought it should, and a bit of creative use with the chisel we had the overhang in. I then went on a mission and the next couple of days I managed to get all the panels on, more supports made on the inside and screw a horizontal across the roof and into the floor rafters above. I then made a small room inside the wall to store bikes and boxes. It came together pretty quickly taking about 7 days of prep and building effort. We need to get a lot more holds and sell a few too. The plan is to make it primarily a woody with with the exception of a few nice bleaustone resin slopers and and mini jugs for warming up. We've ordered some 'Magic Wood' wooden holds, these are the same that we have at TCA and are amazing on the skin and for a good training effect. Check them out there BLOG. More photos of the build on my Flickr