The Raw Chef Blog

It’s pancake day, not that it means much to a raw foodie. I do remember the taste of pancakes though, I had the batter mix down to an art, despite my lack of traditional chef training (I’m not including my years working in Burger King as a teenager, here).

I used to love pancakes - lots of lemon and sugar, and occasionally some jam. But I don’t miss them now (I think it’s a shame I’m so good at making them but my talent doesn’t get used - I could even double-toss!). I’ve been asked if I have a recipe for raw pancakes, but I have to say that’s where I draw the line…

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You know the drill: You realise there’s more options out there, there’s a different way of doing things. You embark on a healthier lifestyle, you embrace the lifestyle, you even think it’s a great idea to tell all your friends; you can’t understand why everyone doesn’t know about raw food, “it’s like, the answer to everyone’s problems, man.”

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A couple of weekends ago I was treated to a display by the Red Arrows who were doing their thing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. I’m fortunate enough to live just a few minutes away from Goodwood so found myself enjoying a spectacular show out of my bedroom window. At one point the planes were so close to my house that I could actually see the pilots inside as the flew over my roof!

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Close your eyes (clearly you’re going to have to read the rest of this first!).  Imagine an 80 year old man or woman (depending on what sex you are) in front of you.  What does she look like?  Does he have grey hair?  Is her skin wrinkled and marked?  Does he look 100 rather than 80?  Is she bent over in an awkward hunch or standing up straight?  Does he speak slowly with a laboured thought process or does he speak freely and easily?  Is she using a walking stick, is she incapable of walking altogether?!!

Stop reading and do this simple exercise before reading on.

Done?  OK, read on… 

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"Dance as if no one is watching.  Love as if you have never been hurt.  Sing as if no one can hear.  Live as though heaven is on earth."

Firstly, about my New Year…

Well I ended up going to a night club with some of my friends and becoming one of those drunk people that I was talking about!  It only took a couple of glasses of wine though!!!  I actually had a great time and it was nice to go out with everyone before I leave to live in Cambridge in 4 weeks time.  Even though I ‘fell off the wagon’ I always work on the basis that everything I do is exactly what is needed at that time.  I trust in the Universe and my angels to guide me to things that happen for a reason and provide me with balance.  It’s not always clear what the reason is straight away, but it is always revealed along the line somewhere.  I can think of numerous things that are in my life today that wouldn’t be if things hadn’t happened ‘just so’, things that even seemed painful at the time.  I think you may be able to relate? :-)

During the day on the 31st I did make it to Vita Organic but I forgot my camera so no food shots this time!  Lel bought me lunch but they weren’t doing any raw there as it was going to be so busy, being NYE and all.  So we had a selection from the buffet which is all cooked, but cooked under 100 degrees to maintain the good nutritional goodies.  When I was told there was no raw that day I have to say I was a little bit disappointed but it took over 2 hours to get into London and I wasn’t about to get there and not eat.  It was a reminder about the freedom this way of eating has given me.  I have got the freedom to eat exactly what I want and that included a cooked meal on that particular day, because of the situation I was in…and I really enjoyed it, guilt free!

After the meal we hopped on the Underground (the strike wasn’t as disruptive as they had made out in the media!) to China Town and to my delight, picked up 8 coconuts!  I can finally make some of those recipes that need coco meat!

The effects of a ‘heavy’ night

I didn’t surface from my bed until after 1pm on New Years Day and it really reminded me of those wasted hang-over days that I used to get when I would go out clubbing - yeeeeuuch!  That’s the part I find most troubling now, the waste of a day or in this case, a morning.  Salvaged the rest of the day with making some flax crackers and some quality salad to cleanse myself of the previous nights indulgences.  Also had a really good house clean with Lel and got rid of the Christmas tree which was ‘pooping’ needles all over the floor.  I think i’m going to be finding pine needles everywhere for weeks.  There was a reason that tree was so cheap!  There’s alot to be said for the more expensive ‘minimal drop’ trees, that’s what i’ll have next year.

Deeper effects…

For the next few nights I noticed feeling very uneasy in my house - I felt like I was being watched.  I was downstairs late one evening, on my own , having a satsuma before bed time.  I was standing next to the big glass doors that lead out to the long and dark garden and I felt a wave of fear engulf me.  I just imagined someone in the garden watching me, waiting and ready to run at the doors and scare the life out of me.  It took all of my powers of reason not to get out of there!  I usually leave my bedroom window open at night to let the air in but found myself closing it just in case someone got in…I really sound mentally unhinged don’t I?

I had very broken sleep and even had a nightmare that woke me up in a panic at 4:30am because I thought I was in a computer game, fighting for my life!  From the very little I can remember, I was fighting it out with 10 different characters who all had their own way of killing you.  I managed to beat the huge, Predator-type monster (do I sound like i’m 5 years old?) that had a gun and had trouble battling with the one who, if you looked in her eyes, it meant you had to kill her! :-(

I’m ok now though - back to chasing off burglars and wrestling alligators with my bare hands, just to make myself feel more masculine again!

Needless to say I won’t be over-doing it for a while, it’s good to have these little reminders of why we don’t do certain things anymore though, don’t you think?

Sleep well :-)

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Ok, i’m not feeling tired at all tonight, hence the 3 blog entries!  I think I had a full 8 hours sleep for the first time in weeks last night, and it’s knackered me out!  I actually had to have a 20 minute power knapp earlier.  I think after having that sleep last night, my body was saying, "hey, I like this, let’s have a bit more please".

Post-Christmas shopping!

Spent a bit of time in a shop called ‘Authentic’ yesterday.  As you may be able to tell from the name, they sell all kinds of spiritual goodies and it’s right up my street (metaphorically, not geographically).  They did have some things in there that weren’t really my kind of thing though…I think i’ll leave the ceramic dragons until I meet someone that I dislike enough to want to buy them a Birthday present!  If you know me personally, watch out…..you’re Birthday could be a horrible realisation of how I feel about you! :-)

I did actually pick up a present and beautiful card for someone (wasn’t it Christmas last week?) though and it seems to have been gratefully received.  Also bought some Mystic Mist and Passion Flower incense sticks, and a CD called ‘The Buddha Experience’ which is currently providing me with some beautiful ethereal background tunage. I love this type of music, they do a whole series of The Buddha Experience which I may have to make some further purchases from.

Been doing some research online to find natural packaging for a range of foods that I plan to market next year.  I’ve managed to find an excellent resource for completely natural, biodegradable packaging that’s made from 100% renewable resources so i’m really happy at the moment. :-)

New Years Eve plans

Not quite sure what i’m doing for New Year at the moment.  My house-mates are asking me to go out clubbing with them but I just don’t fancy it to be honest.  I would love to go out with them, but not clubbing, I just can’t get my head around being in a smoke-filled club around drunk people, most of whom won’t even remember the midnight celebrations…I know this from my own experiences so i’m not judging anyone, honest! :-)

I might just take a leaf out of Karen’s book and spend some time with myself, it’s a bit unconventional but i’ve heard that some people actually cook their food, now that seems a little strange to me! :-)  It could actually be the best way to see in what I know is going to be the year of my life (so far).  I think I may go up to Portsdown Hill for midnight to watch the fireworks that you can see going off all over Portsmouth. I went there last year and it was truly breathtaking, there’s a big crowd that gathers there and a real sense of community, which I love.  Strangers even talk to each other - very un-British!

Raw New Years Eve

Planning a trip to Vita Organic tomorrow which should be fun seeing as the Underground workers are going on strike!  It’s only a short walk from Victoria station anyway and failing that we could try our luck with the buses.  As always i’ll be taking pictures of my food before I eat it and i’ll do a mini-review of the place here on my blog.

What i’ve eaten today

Started the day off with an apple, orange, banana, celery, cashew, carrot, lemon, lime, avocado smoothie with Thor’s Raw Protein powder, which tasted a lot nicer than it looks now i’ve written it down!  At lunch I just had some cashews and this evening I had a chocolate smoothie made with the last of my choc powder, :-( maca extreme, bananas, water, dates and avocado.  This evening I finished off my hummus with some pomodorino tomatoes on top of which I then ate some chocolate mousse.  So quite an unorthodox day, food-wise.  I feel like I want to eat about 5 kilos of kale and avo salad tomorrow!

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"In our modern age of Whole Foods and hybrid cars and flat screen TVs that are super energy efficient, …it’s really about living a life that has concern for the planet but also doing it with style, authenticity and just a little bit of personal flair."

Danny Seo

If you’re in the USA you may already know about Danny Seo.  I happen to have come across his website tonight and loved his philosophy so much that I thought i’d share it with you as I felt it draws some parallels with how I feel about raw foods.  This guy is on a mission to save the planet…..with style!  He is eco-advisor to the stars, having advised Hollywood’s top A-listers, recently helping Brad Pitt ‘go green’..  This guy knows the power of celebrity and he ain’t afraid to use it!!!  Here’s what USA Today had to say about him…..

"Say "environment" to Danny Seo, and it’s as if you’ve punched the word into the search engine Google:  Out roars an avalanche of ideas and references that threatens to scramble your brain."

In an interview with USA Today Seo says, "My job isn’t to convince you to protect the environment.  I’m also not here to tell you this is cool.  But I am here to tell you this is an easier way to live, and it helps the environment."  What a great philosophy!  As a raw chef my job isn’t to convince anyone to eat the way I do, I just see it as my mission to help people in making it easier to make the right choices, if that’s what they want.

Next year i’m going to be producing a range of foods that you will be able to buy via mail order, here in the UK, that you’re going to love and that will ultimately make it easier for you to eat raw.  My vision is that, before long, you will be able to buy these products in your local health food shop, wherever you live.  I want to make the decision to eat raw as easy as deciding which packet to take off the shelf!!!

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"We have to formulate what we want, be so concentrated on it, so focused on it, and so aware of it that we lose track of time, we lose track of our identity."

"The moment we become so involved in the experience that we lose track of ourselves, we lose track of time, is the only picture that’s real.  Everybody’s had the experience of making up their mind that they’ve wanted something."

"That’s Quantum Physics in action.  That’s manifesting reality."

Dr. Joseph Dispenza

The picture on the left is my Christmas dinner this year, it kind of all came together at the last minute!  I had pesto stuffed mushrooms which I had made the night before because Lel and I got hungry whilst watching Lee Evans’ insanely funny new DVD.  By the time they were done we only wanted a couple each so I had them left over.  I also had Juliano’s raw ‘meatloaf’ which I made in the morning yesterday after slaving over a warm dehydrator for all of an hour!  The salad under the loaf is made up of whatever I had in the fridge. That was a selection of fresh organic green leaves delivered Christmas Eve by my local organic farm, some pomodorino tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, splash of lemon juice and some macadamia nut oil.  I took it round my Mum’s house to join everyone for dinner and i’ve since found out that my Step-Dad was so impressed with how it looked that he’s interested in getting some raw food inside him!  My Mum’s really pleased with that because she really wants to get into it all and feels like she needs some support from him.  They’re both going on a detox retreat to Spain next year so it looks like i’ll be running a meals-on-wheels service until then, hmmmmm, now there’s an idea!!! :-)

My fridge is looking very full with all sorts of goodies at the moment.  I guess it’s the raw food equivalent of left-over turkey.  I’ve got several dips, a chocolate mousse that will definitely feature in a chocolate torte recipe soon (watch this space), some durian that Karen brought down for me, large amounts of greens, the list goes on….

Lel sometimes keeps her fruit and veg in my fridge and was rooting through there this morning to make Dylan (the rabbit) his breakfast.  She turned to me with a bag of kale in her hand and said, "is this yours or Dylan’s?"  You know you’re doing something right when your friends don’t whether the food in the fridge is yours or the rabbit’s!!!

Things seem to be falling into place nicely for my move to Cambridge.  Looks like one of the other instructors with our driving school is going to buy my car from me and take over my pupils.  Once we’re into January i’ll start arranging house and flat viewings.  Very exciting!!!  I really just need to spend a whole day up there and find somewhere on that day as it takes 2.5 hours to get there on a quiet day.

So what’s the ‘grounded and centred’ title about then?

Bought a great new Enneagram book a couple of days ago, it’s called ‘Are You My Type, Am I Yours?’.  If you aren’t familiar with the Enneagram click here to find out all about it.  I can highly recommend taking the test online.  It’s incredible how accurate it is and when you know what type another person is, it can be very revealing how you will interact with them, which is the main subject of this simply written and easy to understand book.

As you may know from a previous post, I am a type seven: The Enthusiast (also sometimes referred to as The Adventurer).  The brief description they give is this:  Sevens are motivated by the need to be happy, to contribute to the world, and to avoid pain and suffering.

Healthy sevens make adventure-sharing, productive partners.  They model generosity, optimism, and cheerfulness, and they inspire those around them to feel good.  In addition, developed sevens are supportive and help loved ones fulfill their potential.

Apparently sevens also tend to deny and gloss over difficulties without addressing the problem.  It’s that part of my personality type that really got me thinking and has provided me with my keywords to take into 2006: ‘grounded and centred’.  This means being grounded in reality and centred in my thoughts, it will also mean that I will avoid being pulled and pushed off course by people or events.  I am naturally a feeling type seven so I should find it relatively easy to stay with my feelings for longer and recognise my fear.  I have come to realise that there are alot of positives in being able to experience joy and pain, pleasure and sorrow.  My question to you as we approach a time that we are all drawn to reflect and think about our lives, is this: What 2 keywords will you take into 2006?  If you could choose 2 words to be your incantation for next year, what would guide you away from your past addictions in every situation?

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