Really messy Raw Rainbow Sushi! Raw nori sheets stuffed with jicama 'rice', red bell pepper, carrot, yellow bell pepper, long beans and purple cabbage. With a little (not raw) wasabi and Bragg's liquid aminos at the side.

I must brush up on my sushi rolling skills!! They're flimsier than popiahs -_-

I used a knife to cut the jicama into rice-like bits, because my food processor just turns it into mush! But I really should have gotten the jicama a little drier! The nori got all soggy -_-

I brought it to school for lunch yesterday. Ate a banana too. My first fully raw school lunch! :) A little on the light side; I had more fruits a lesson later.

I got these nori sheets from iherb. Other than costing a bomb, the taste and texture are quite similar to regular unseasoned nori! Of course, you'll probably get much more health benefits from this. :)

An alternative to raw nori would be thinly sliced (lengthwise) cucumber or zucchini! I'll try that another time.

 Or you could make un-raw Rainbow Tofu Rolls.

I julienned the carrots using a julienne peeler from Daiso (a $2 shop)! It took some effort to get long, thin carrot strips but I'm not complaining - I've been looking for one for ages! Can I expect a spiralizer to appear there next? ;)

 Have a lovely day!~

 Chocolate, Sea-salt & Almond Swirl Wholewheat Yeast Bread! I had a slice topped with avocado, strawberries, raw tahini, cacao nibs and black pepper. And had more slices with banana :)

This turned out quite well, I think, albeit a bit dry (so it's best when dipped in plant milk or topped with fruit)! I used my Basic Wholewheat Anyhow Bread recipe and added 2 tbsp raw cacao powder to half of the dough (after first rise) and 2 cracks of black sea salt to the other half. And sprinkled chopped, raw soaked almond between the layers before rolling!

So glad with how the layers turned out! :) I can actually peel the layers out and I LOVE that! I didn't add any sugar so it wasn't a sweet bread ('chocolate' is kinda an exaggeration, its more like 'cacao' lols), and it has a slight savouriness from the salt.

The dough after first rise. I sprinkled it with flour because usually the surface of my bread get quite sticky after the first rise.

And no, I don't (and have never) tried using any starters for my bread... I'm a really amateurish bread maker!

It took me ages to knead in the cacao powder!! I had to add a few splashes of hot water too. Perhaps it's better to add it before the first rise.

This shows the chocolate layer pasted on the sea-salt layer (okay this makes it sound so salty but trust me, it's not!) with chopped soaked walnuts pressed in on top. I sprinkled on a bit of hot water between layers and on the top layer so that they'll stick!

As you can see, it looks super lumpy because I couldn't be bothered to pull out my rolling pin! So I just use my fingers hehe.

I used a tiny loaf pan, bought at Daiso. And this is a new wooden board bought at Chatuchak during my trip to Bangkok! 60 baht only :D (a little over SGD$2).

Love the swirls!

Chocolate, Sea-salt & Cinnamon Swirl Wholewheat Bread

Makes 1 small loaf (3.3 x 6 inches, bought from Daiso)

Ingredients

• 250g wholewheat flour + more for dusting
• 2 tsp instant yeast, quick rise is best
• water, slightly warm to touch
• 2 tbsp raw cacao + a little bit of hot water
• 2 cracks sea salt
• large handful soaked raw almonds, chopped

Method

1. Add flour and yeast together.
2. Gradually add in water and mix well. Add until it looks like it still needs more water. Knead with hands. Add more water if really needed.
3. Form into a ball and leave in a warm place, until doubled in size.
4. Punch the dough down. Place onto a floured surface. Divide dough into 2.
5. Into one part of the dough, knead in the cacao, bit by bit. If dough gets too dry, add a little hot water to the cacao before incorporating it in.
6. Into the other part of the dough, knead in the sea salt.
7. Roll out both doughs, with a width roughly similar to the length of your baking tin. Dab a little water onto the sea salt dough (or the dough you want to see on the outside) and press on the cacao dough until completely adhered.
8. Dab more water onto the cacao dough and press on the chopped almonds. Tightly roll the dough and form into a roll that will fit your baking pan.
9. Place dough in lightly oiled baking pan. Brush the top with a little water and press in some more almonds/ nuts if desired. Leave to rise for at least an hour, a few hours more is best.
10. Bake at 180 deg C for about 45 mins. The bottom of the loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Leave to cool completely before cutting.

Greenzilla is a new vegetarian cafe at Star Vista! I went with mum today for lunch. It's actually more of a fast food stand and not a cafe as I expected it to be. It's a tiny 'island' with a small seating space near the counter!

They mainly sell handmade burgers ($5.90 each, served with non-vegan coleslaw), with an option of a set meal ($11.90) which comes with a salad and a drink. As you can see they've different buns for every burger! How interesting :)

It seems like the salad is different for each burger set. They have their salad ingredients pre-chopped and displayed in the glass case.

Mum and I shared a Tofu Fusion Burger Set and a Spices Underground Burger ala carte. They've a variety different sauces, but only the BBQ sauce is vegan, so we had that for both burgers. I wanted to get the Minizilla Set, which has 3 mini burgers (Tofu Fusion, Herbshrooms, Royal Mushroom) but sadly they were out of the mini buns. Oh well, that's a good reason for me to go back! :)

We had it take-away, because I find sitting at the counter very odd and lacking in privacy. It's also kinda dimly-lit there (or at least at that time it was) and the table is green. So it's not very good to take pictures. Yes I'm picky about this. :x We brought it to the food court to eat.

The packaging is really of good quality; I love the prints and the font, and that the name of the burger is on the box! :) Though it's really kinda a waste, for the burger has a wrapper too! :/

There's a few drinks you can choose for the set. They're all kinda healthier than soft drinks usually sold at fast food joints! I got this Sparkling Organic Blood Orange Juice Drink. I'm a sucker for glass bottles. It just makes everything more... high-class? Haha. (I kept it though I don't know what to do with it since the opening is too small for smoothies or fruit. :x )

Tofu Fusion Burger in the foreground and Spices Underground Burger in the background (comes with non-vegan coleslaw).

This is the Spices Underground Burger. The patty is made of 'smashed roots vegetable fiber and soy' and it comes on a wholemeal bun. This was quite yummy! It was supposed to have some (non-vegan) creamy sauce but it's replaced with BBQ sauce. Actually I can't quite tell if I'm tasting the sauce or the patty (I don't have very discerning tastebuds). But I liked the soft, chewy texture and it was flavourful!

The bun was soft and fluffy, which I guess appeals to the masses since bakery buns are like that too. But I prefer it to be... harder and crispier? Probably because I like bread crusts and refrigerated bread! Lols. I think toasting the buns will make it better! :) I wonder if we can request for that.

This is the Tofu Fusion burger, where the patty is a bean curd marinated overnight in different herbs. It comes with a very interesting looking charcoal bun (it tasted normal), and BBQ sauce. I took this after mum had a couple of bites lols. I think the tofu was a bit too small for the bun!

Both mum & I prefer the Spices Underground Burger more than the Tofu Fusion Burger! I would've loved it if there was much more veggies in the burger!!

Sparkling Organic Blood Orange Juice Drink. Though it has no sugar added, it's sweetened with fruit juice concentrates so I wouldn't exactly consider it healthy. But it was yummy! Not too sweet, with a slight bitterness. :)

This is the fruit salad that comes with the Tofu Fusion Burger. It has dragonfruit, pineapple, strawberries, honeydew, apple, guava, alfalfa and coral lettuce. The dressing is non-vegan thousand island, by the way. They've also have a vegan sesame dressing but I'm not sure why we weren't served that! The fruits are mostly quite fresh, and the veggies weren't limp or wilty, despite being kept in that glass case. :) But the apples are soaked in salt water and tasted quite salty. :x Lemon juice would've been better!

In all, I find that the food at Greenzilla is not bad in taste and affordability, and I'd definitely go back to try the Minizilla Set! :)

I think Greenzilla is the last veg eatery in Star Vista, now that Frunatic has moved out (not closed down though, phew!) and the Jelina Vegetable Garden (?) stall in the food court has closed ;_; (and I've only found out about it today; they've got other outlets though). Mum says that it's because I've had most of my meals at home and didn't go and support them LOL.

Greenzilla

The Star Vista (beside Buona Vista MRT)
1 Vista Green Exchange, Singapore 138617

B1-43
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday, 10am-10pm

Another Outlet:

Block 221 Jurong East Street 21, Singapore (601221)

Rainbow Pizza! (Actually I name things rainbow when just I can't decide what to name it :x ) A wholewheat chia thin-crust (not that thin, but as thin as my fingers could press it) pizza, topped with spicy tomato sauce, lemon-wasabi tempeh, red bell pepper, carrot, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, french beans, brown shimeiji mushrooms, nutritional yeast, purple cabbage, parsley and black sesame seeds.

I used leftover dough from my Basic Savoury Chia Crackers for the crust, which has no rising agent so it worked out well as a thin-crust! Though next time I shan't be lazy; I'll use a rolling pin to make it thinner.

For the spicy tomato sauce, I blended 1/2 large ripe tomato, 1/2 medium red bell pepper, 1 medium chili (de-seeded), and about 2 tbsp beetroot shreds in a food processor. Then, I left it to strain (drink/save the juice!) and mixed the thick sauce with 1 tsp nutritional yeast, a dash of cayenne, and a crack of black pepper. 

The lemon-wasabi tempeh was surprisingly good! I didn't steam the tempeh beforehand (it's usually recommended if you're baking tempeh) but it didn't turn out dry and tough. :) I coated the tempeh in real wasabi, lemon juice, a crack of black salt and dried parsley.

I spread out the sauce on the pizza dough and baked for 8 mins in a preheated oven at 200 deg C, before adding on the other ingredients (except the purple cabbage, parsley and black sesame seeds) and baking for another 20 mins at 180 deg C.

Serve with a large salad and it's a quick and easy lunch for 2! :)

Raw Carrot Cake with Lemon 'Cream Cheese' Frosting! With a rim of raw tahini, squiggles of raw chocolate and lemon zest & carrot shreds.

 

This is inspired by Fully Raw Kristina's Raw Carrot Cupcakes that I've been wanting to try for ages! So glad with how it turned out! I feared that it would be too sweet or that it wouldn't hold together, but it's just right. :)

 

I tried to keep it as low-fat as possible, but I'm not sure how mine compares to Kristina's in terms of the fat content. Most likely more, though without the flaxseed meal and more almonds, I don't think the cake can really hold it's shape!

 

As you can see, the cake's texture is really... uneven and coarse :x My tiny food processor thing was dying trying to pulse the carrots! I had to pulse the ingredients separately and gradually mix them in, bit-by-bit, to pulse again. I can imagine that it'll be a breeze to make if you've got a good food processor or high-speed blender!

Actually this texture isn't bad; it gives it more bite! :)

 

I used a bit of nutritional yeast in the 'cream cheese' (which I have to admit isn't the best vegan cream cheese you can make, so feel free to use another recipe!) and I was wondering whether it's accepted even though it's not raw. But it seems like some raw foodists use it!

Love how the slightly sour frosting complements the sweetness of the cake!

Someday I'll improve my frosting-piping skills!

Raw Carrot Cake with Lemon 'Cream Cheese' Frosting
Makes 1 tiny cake, about 4 inches in diameter & 1.8 inches in height

Cake

• 120g pitted medjool dates (about 8 medium)
• 120g carrot (1 medium)
• 50g soaked almonds
• 3 tbsp flaxseed meal
• 1 tbsp psyllium husk
• slice of ginger
• dash of cinnamon & nutmeg

Frosting

• 50g soaked cashews
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
• sweetener if desired, though not necessary

Method

1. Blend all ingredients for the cake together in a food processor.
2. Blend all ingredients for the frosting together in a food processor.
3. In a small springform pan, scoop in 1/2 of the cake 'batter' and smooth out the surface.
4. Spread about 1/2 of the frosting onto the cake.
5. Add on the rest of the cake 'batter' and smooth out the surface.
6. Refrigerate cake and rest of the frosting for at least 2 hours (I left mine overnight).
7. Pipe on the rest of the frosting before serving. Enjoy!

Mango-Chia Fruit Pizza. Fluffy Mango-Chia oat cake topped with mango, strawberries, kiwi, vanilla tofu mousse, hemp hearts, cacao nibs & dried mulberries, and drizzled with chocolate ganache & raw tahini.

I was planning to make Mango-Chia Oat Pancakes, but the weather was so hot and I just didn't have the patience. So I baked it instead! :) It was delightfully delicious!

Mango-Chia Oat Cake
Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in food processor)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp chia seeds
• 1/3 cup pureed mango
• 1/2 cup water (or milk of choice)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• stevia or liquid sweetener if desired (not really necessary, especially if you're piling on the fruits!)
• dash of cinnamon & nutmeg

Method

1. Mix together the first 3 ingredients (dry ingredients).
2. Add in the remaining wet ingredients.
3. Leave to sit for about 10 mins as the mixture thickens.
4. Pour into a well oiled pie pan and bake at 180 deg C for about 25 mins. Cool before removing from pan. Top with desired fruits and enjoy!

A creamy, tart filling with a chewy, sweet crust. It's amazingly yummy, despite the minimal amount of ingredients used!

Firstly, form the crust. It's just made of dates and almond pulp, leftover from a batch of almond milk. Almond meal would probably work too! It needs some improvement for it didn't hold together very well, but other than that it's simple to make and I love the subtle almond aroma!

Then, add in the strawberry chia jam. The chia seeds give a nice, crunchy texture. Strawberries and lime seem to go well together too - and red & lime green look so pretty together! :)

Next, pipe in the lime filling. I used regular limes for this instead of key limes, though feel free to use key limes! I used stevia as a sweetener, for the lack of any raw sweeteners. It's a bit too sour by itself, but the sweetness of the crust balances it out perfectly.

Either smooth out the lime filling or leave it as it is. I topped mine with more strawberry chia jam and almond pulp sprinkles, and garnished with a slice of lime.

It can be eaten immediately, but it's best to leave it in the freezer for 2 hours so it won't be too soft. The crust needs more nuts I think, perhaps I'll try making it again next time! :)

 

 

Raw Key Lime Pie with Strawberry Chia Jam Filling

Makes 2 tiny pies

 



Crust

• 3 large medjool dates
• ~6 tbsp almond pulp (make sure it's relatively dry) or almond meal

Jam filling

• 3 large strawberries
• 1 level tbsp chia seeds

Lime filling

• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 4 tbsp water
• juice & pulp of 1 large lime or 2 key limes
• 2 tsp psyllium husk
• 1/2 tsp lime zest
• 11 drops plain stevia (or 1 tbsp liquid sweetener), or more to taste

Method

1. Crust: Pulse pitted medjool dates in a food processor until it forms a paste, then incorporate in the almond pulp. Amount of almond pulp use depends on it's dryness. Divide 'dough' and press into small tart pans.
2. Jam filling: Blend strawberries and stir in the chia seeds. leave to sit for at least 15 mins.
3. Lime filling: Blend all ingredients together.
4. Fill crust with the jam, then pipe or spread the lime filling. Leave in the freezer for 2 hours. Enjoy!

The past week (23-29 Sept), I've been eating raw vegan, 80/10/10. And it was great! Not as difficult as I thought it would be, and I'm glad that preparing meals was much simpler. I've also eating a whole melon for a meal for the first time! It was a hami melon, and it was soooo super sweet and delicious!

Raw veganism is where people eat plant foods that aren't heated above 46 deg C (115 deg F). From what I understand, under raw veganism there's two distinct categories - 801010 and gourmet. 801010 refers to there 80% of calories consumed come from carbohydrates (mainly fruit), 10% from protein and the remaining 10% from fat. Raw vegan food sold at restaurants (eg. raw cakes, nut cheeses) tend to fall under gourmet raw vegan food (though they're fine in small amounts under 801010). The gourmet raw vegan diet is much much higher in fat, sometimes having 60% of calories from fat! Though it's 'good fats' and all, it's best to not exceed 10% average caloires from fat. If you'd like to know more, I highly recommend Dr. Douglas Graham's The 80/10/10 Diet. Which I'm actually still three-quarters through reading (somehow I don't have much patience for reading non-fiction :x ).

801010 can also be done as a cooked 801010, where part of the carbohydrates come from starchy plants such as sweet potatoes, potatoes or pumpkin etc., though raw vegan 801010 is said to be the optimal diet for health! So that's what I did. I also exercised nearly every day the past week (except lazy Sunday) because since I was being healthy, I might as well just be healthier! :) AND GUESS WHAT. My menses came!!! :') (okay kinda weird to share this here) But I was super super duper happy!! :') I've not shared about this before but I guess I will now. I took Progyluton (hormone pills)  from mid-2011 ('O'-level year) to May this year, because my menses didn't come. I was counting calories and lost some weight back then, so my already irregular menses stopped coming since January 2011. So mum brought me to the doctor (KK Hospital) and there were blood tests (ugh), an MRI scan, womb scan, bone scan and other yucky, expensive stuff. The doctor said that I wasn't eating enough and all (I really wasn't, but I seriously thought I was eating too much) and my body didn't trust me & was shutting down some functions to conserve energy so she asked me to gain weight and I had to take pills. I gradually, reluctantly gained weight (by the way, I wasn't vegetarian then). Okay back to my menses. They came fine when I was taking the pills (eat 1 pill every day for 3 weeks, then during the 4th week my menses will come) (I loved the predictability). But then when I stopped the pills in May (the doctor thought that it was long enough, and I've maintained my weight well), it didn't come anymore :( Only spotting during the next month. And I lost all hope and was considering just getting a test kit for ovulation and accept the fact that it would never come. BUT NOW it's back!! :'D YAY. Usually people lose their menses on the raw food diet, especially on 801010 (it's fine as long as you still have ovulation), but somehow it was the opposite for me! It came on Tuesday, the second day eating raw. Okay, perhaps other factors play a part - I was at one of my heaviest weights measured, and the daily exercise. But this must have played a part. Though isn't it amazing that I chose to do this Raw Week at the correct week?! Such joy! :D I never wanna eat those pills again! I don't expect my menses to come next month, so perhaps I should do this Raw Week thing once every three months? ^^

My parents were like all disapproving of my Raw Week, but with my menses coming it's like hah! my body LOVES this!

I weighed myself before and after this week, and my weight, percentage body fat, skeletal muscle and subcutaneous fat (I use Omron KaradaScan) hasn't changed. Which was slightly disappointing because I've been excercising much more than usual. But I'm glad to know that I'm eating enough! I used the Cron-o-Meter to measure my energy intake (to make sure that I'm eating enough), and I ate extra to make up for the calories burned during exercise (measured using a Polar FT4). I didn't really see any change in my energy levels but I guess I was happier (probably because of the endorphins produced because of exercise, and because my menses came haha). Actually I think I shouldn't have been expecting much because it's only one week after all.

My average calorie breakdown for the 7 days was 88.2% from carbohydrates, 4.9% from protein and 6.9% from fat. My overt fats this week came from a dinner at The Living Cafe (raw burger & raw cake; I just did a rough estimate), 1/4 avocado and a few hemp seed sprinkles. Overt fats are the fats that you can tell are in foods, including oils, nuts, seeds, avocado (and of course meat). While covert fats are the 'invisible fat' found in non-fatty fruits and vegetables (this info comes from The 80/10/10 Diet). I used to think that overt fats just refer to those in oils and solid fats!

I was super excited to to have oats for breakfast today, and I'm looking forward to having sweet potatoes later! :D And I didn't eat any spices or strong smelling foods (garlic, onion) the past week so I'm looking forward to tasting them better.

Though I'm not continuing this, I believe that I'll do this raw vegan 801010 thing again. And perhaps I'll do raw-before-4 a few days each week. Oh yes, by the way it's my holidays so I'm able to eat and exercise the past week. I know that it's possible to do this during the school term (FullyrawKristina has videos on this on YouTube) but it'll be difficult... For there might not be enough time for a big fruit breakfast and I can't imagine lugging 1/2 a watermelon or a bunch of bananas to school for lunch! And it will be weird. Bringing my own lunchbox is different enough already lols.

Here's a look at what I've posted on Instagram last week:

This was almost all of what I ate on the first day. Breakfast was half a large yellow watermelon (about1.5 kg, without skin), lunch was 2 bananas blended with 1 medjool date, topped with 2 more bananas, grapes and mint, with more bananas at the side. 3 oranges for a snack and a salad in the empty watermelon bowl for dinner. The dressing for the salad is made of 1 large medjool date, 1 small banana and 3/4 tomato. I kept it simple for the first day and tried my best to follow all food/fruit combining rules!

 

 Banana, yellow watermelon, strawberries, pear, grapes, pomegranatem frozen blueberries and figs. Probably my prettiest fruit platter to date! :) Though it really breaks many food combining rules, such as: melons should be eaten alone for they digest very quickly, and sweet fruit (bananas, grapes etc. are best to not be paired with acid fruit (pomegranate, strawberries etc.).

Acai-banana Smoothie Bowl. made with 3 medium bananas, 2 baby bananas (all frozen), one scoop Sambazon freeze-dried acai powder and a squeeze of lemon. Topped with another baba banana, pomegranate, blueberries, frozen strawberry, green grapes, mulberry crumbles and mint. You can tell that I didn't really care about proper food combining anymore :x

Veggie Platter with a yummy Caramel-Apple Dip - made with 3 large medjool dates, 1 small apple and enough water to blend.

Papaya Smoothie Bowl! Topped with frozen blueberries, banana slices, strawberry chunks, green grapes, mint, lime, hemp hearts and papaya seeds. Yes, papaya seeds are edible! They've got a mild peppery taste and are good for liver detox.
This was supposed to be a gradient smoothie (or more like puree for I didn't add any water) from red (papaya, banana, beetroot) to orange (papaya) to yellow (banana) but you can't quite see the orange part under the fruits!

Tropical Sunset Smoothie. From bottom up: Papaya + beetroot, Papaya + lemon, Papaya + banana, Banana, Mango + papaya, mango. Topped with frozen banana chunks, pomegranate, papaya seeds, hemp hearts cacao nibs and mint. In total, this has 1/2 large papaya, 2 bananas and 2/3 mango. So very yummy and filling!!

Also, usually I get a stomachache after eating more than a cup of papaya, but this didn't happen at all! So it must've been the other foods that I ate before the papaya that gave me the stomach ache. I also didn't get diarrhea after eating whole melons or a large amount of fruits or veggies.

Raw lasagne. I've got a blog post on this here.

Another fruit platter! Strawberries, grapes, pear, two tiny tangerines, two bananas with date paste, pomegranate and blueberries, with hemp hearts and mint.

Do consider trying out Raw Vegan 801010! It's really not that difficult (especially if you love fruit and are already vegan) and maybe wonderful things will happen to you! :)