Raw chocolate revolution

What if you didn't have to feel guilty about eating chocolate? What if chocolate could be one of the most healthiest things you could imagine? Does it sound like an impossible thing to you? Raw chocolate is the answer. It's made only from organic and the most healthy and highly nutrient ingredients: raw cocoa beans, cocoa butter, extra virgin coconut oil, raw cocoa powder, lucuma-powder,maca-powder, agave-syrup and organic cashew nuts. If you have some knowledge about superfoods, you recognize that maca and lucuma powder and raw cocoa beans belong to them. They have many amazing effects on your body and mind.

For example raw cocoa contains over 1200 active ingredients, and 10% of it's weight is antioxidants. So it protects our body ia from heart diseases. Raw cocoa contains more antioxidants than goji-berry, blueberry, acai-berry, red wine and pomegranate all together. Isn't it incredible? Raw cocoa is also a great source of vital minerals: iron, manganese, chrome, brimstone, zinc and copper. Furthermore it's an excellent source of fibers. It also has unique qualities, that effect on our brain functions and the feel of happines.

This chocolate is a revolution. It's suitable for everyone, it's delicious, and the most important thing is that it's healthy!! I mean you can eat it and you can think at the same time that oh, this does so many good things for me, I'll feel even better after enjoying this, no hard feelings at all, only pure joy! You don't have to eat chocolate secretly, not anymore, when you eat raw chocolate you can be proud of it.

Did you know that every chocolate is made from cocoa beans? However, the difference between an ordinary chocolate and raw chocolate is huge. Ordinary chocolate contains only about 30% of cocoa beans, all the rest is all kinds of filling agents that have nothing to do with the real chocolate. And the cocoa beans in ordinary chocolate have none of their valuable nutrients left, all of them disappear when the producers manipulate the beans in the process of making chocolate - for example roasting the beans destroys all the important antioxidants and vitamins. And it's very normal that ordinary chocolate contains milk powder, soy lecithin, milk fats, palm tree oil or artificial aromas, that are not so good for you.

So the acquaintance with raw chocolate is very recommendable. I feel so moved by this chocolate, it opened a whole new world to me. I hope you can feel it too, because it's so amazing. I'm really running our of words. Maybe I'll just explain now how you should do it.

It might be hard to find all the ingredients for this chocolate, but I think yo can find them from well equipped organic shops. Draw your attention to the quality of the ingredients, it's very important to use only the best. Choose products that are packed well.

This recipe is a basic recipe, you can add different nuts, dried fruits or berries (e.g. goji-berry), different powders (e.g.spirulina) and spices, e.g. cinnamon, genuine vanilla, mint or chili. Anything you like. It's very easy to make (I was very surprised how easy it was) and it's quickly done. And the result is so pretty, cute little hearts or other chocolates, depending on the forms you use. I fell in love with the raw chocolate, instantly. I can't wait to try new combinations of different flavours - I want to try it with cinnamon the next time.

All the ingredients.

Raw cacao beans.

Extra virgin coconut oil.

Maca-powder.

Agave syrup.

Ingredients:

4 dl grated organic raw cocoa butter

1 big tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 dl organic raw cocoa beans

1 dl organic raw cashew nuts

1 dl organic lucuma-powder

1 big tsp organic maca-powder

2 big tbsps raw cocoa powder

1 big tbsp organic agave syrup

(dried fruits, spices, herbs etc.)

1. Peel the cocoa beans using a knife and nails.

2. Bruise the cocoa beans and the cashew nuts into tiny bits.

3. Melt the cocoa butter and the extra virgin coconut oil in a kettle over another kettle of simmering water, the temperature of the butter shouldn't rise over 40°C degrees.

4. Add cocoa powder into melted butter, add agave syrup and then all the other ingredients. Mix well, with a teaspoon put into a silicone form and cover with a glad wrap. Put into fridge for 10-15 mins until set. It happens quite quickly!

5. Remove from the forms, put on a beautiful plate and enjoy, really, really enjoy because this chocolate really is the one you can enjoy, without any guilt!

My first "green" smoothie and toasts with dates & tahini

There has been a lot of talk about superfoods and raw food. I think it's very interesting and I'm eager to try - although it's difficult to start suddenly eating only raw food. But I think I'm going to try even some of it, because it's very good for your health. This morning I spent time in the internet looking for information about all kinds of superfoods etc. and found that these so called green smoothies are very important in rawfood ans superfood eaters nutrition. So I decided to make my first green smoothie (which isn't very green, because I used blueberries and blackcurrants and they coloured the smoothie).

I have to say that it really surprised me, I though that smoothie which includes salad and herbs tastes terrible, but this was actually so good that I could have drank the whole thing! So I'm definitely going to make these green smoothies again, maybe it could become a daily habit...

And the toasts I had to post beause I think it's a very delicious combination (it might sound funny). I really love it and with the smoothie these toasts make a lovely breakfast, light lunch or a little meal in the evening...It's all vegan, full of important vitamins and vegetable fats and everything else. After drinking it I feel very energetic and vibrant.

A nice thing about these smoothies is that you can combine all kinds of ingredients : different greens (herbs, salads), fruits and berries. Anything you want, just follow your taste!

Ingredients for the smoothie:

3 dl frozen blackberries

1 dl frozen blackcurrants

2 large handfus of fresh parsley

2 handfuls rucola

1 kiwi fruit

1 ripe banana

water

1. Put the all ingredients into a blender, chop the bananas and kiwi to smaller pieces and add enough water to make the mixture fluid.

2. Pout into glasses and decorate with fresh parsley.

Ingredients for one date & tahini toast:

1 wholewheat toast (I used Finnish Linkosuo Tuhatjyvä with omega-3 and omega-6)

tahini paste (I used urtekram)

3 dates, sliced into halves

1. Put the toast in a toaster, spread tahini over and then put about three sliced dates on top. Enjoy! (It's so lovely...)

4 super berries smoothie

I had a craving for berries, that's why I had to make this extremely fresh and delicious smoothie on  this dark and rainy evening. Wintertime in Finland is so depressing that you wouldn't survive without this kind of refreshing and healthy as well as good tasting berrybombs. It's a good way to treat yourself, as we know that berries contain a lot of important vitamins, flavonoids, anioxidants and fibre. I used the berries that we had collected in summer by ourselves. This is a very quickly and easily done smoothie, and a quickly disappearing too- it's so good. 

Ingredients:

2 dl frozen redcurrants

2 dl frozen blackcurrants

2 dl frozen blueberries

2 dl frozen strawberries

2 ripe bananas cut into smaller pieces

some hot water, it helps in mashing the frozen berries

some orange or apple juice

1. Put the berries and cut bananas in a big bowl, pour some hot water (not too much) over and smash with a handmixer. You can also use a blender if you want to. 

2. When nicely mashed, pour some orange or apple juice (about 1/2-1 dl, depending on how thick the smoothie is), let stay for a while in the room tempeature so that it sets nicely and isnt that frozen anymore. 

3. Serve from a glass and decorate with frozen berries. ENJOY!

Herby tofu with broccoli, champignons and green pepper

I wanted to cook something really delicious and refreshing. I actually used those ingredients we had in our fridge, and thought that tofu, broccoli, mushrooms and green pepper would be a good match. It tirned out to be very good, and it looked so beautiful, the vibrant colours of green and then the golden brown tofu..Mmm! It's also very healthy, with broccoli which contains iron and good vitamins and with tofu which is a wonderful source of protein and unsaturated vegetable fats which are good for your heart.

And this meal was a real succes, because my brother, who's a devoted meat fan actually loved it, said that it was "surprisingly good" and that it looked "amazingly beautiful". He also wanted to have some more, and I was really secretly screaming hooray in my mind, because he always sais that vegetarian food can't be good! He was clearly wrong. So if you have some meat crazy members in your family, please serve this food to them, and see if they change their minds. I'm sure they will.

I put a lot of pictures about making this food, so that you can see the beautiful ingredients.

Ingredients:

250g alpro soya tofu with herbs, chopped into little cubes

2 big pressed garlic cloves

some soy sauce (about 1-2 tbsp)

olive oil

1 BIG onion, sliced

250g broccoli (use the heads only, save the stem for a soup or something else)

1 green pepper, sliced and chopped

5 big champignons, chopped

1 handful of fresh, chopped basilic

pepper, herbamare salt and ginger powder

1. Remember to wash the tofu under running water and dry it with a kitchenpaper before using it. Warm about one tablespoon olive oil in a pan, add the tofu cubes, soy sauce and then the pressed garlic. Fry until the tofu gets some nice coulour, until it's lightly golden.

2. Take a cast iron pot, or a bigger pan. Warm some olive oil in it (about one tbsp). Add the sliced onion, fry for a while.

3. Then add the sliced and chopped green pepper.

4. Add the chopped champignons.

5. Add the little broccoli heads.

6. Add the tofu, then some black pepper (richly), some herbamare and some ginger. Ready to serve!

7. Light some candles, put the dish on a beautiful plate and eat with fresh salad and a good homemade bread if possible.