New Cream filled cookies.

I made some Chunky Choc Chip Cookies and just felt that they needed something extra.. so a made a chocolate cream and filled them.. I think they are amazing. Nice and sweet and gooey.. with little bits of crunchy raw cacao nibs.. Devine!

I have to go and put these on the kitzlivingfoods website before I eat them all.. :)

Carrot Cake with Lemon Cashew Frosting

I have so many organic carrots in my fridge that I just had to do something with some of them. So after making a big batch of crackers I rinsed out my new favourite toy.. My blixer and whizzed up a yummy carrot cake.. This is the first time i've done a raw carrot cake and I was really impressed with how it came out. It's really quite delicious!

Raw Carrot Cake with Lemon Cashew Frosting

It seems the longer it sits in the fridge the better it get.

Here's the recipe.

Cake

Ingredients

3-4 Carrots
1 cup seeded dates
1/2 cup organic dried apricots
1/2 cup sultanas
1/4 cup flax seed - ground
1/2 cup coconut - desiccated
1/2 cup cashews
1 tsp organic ground vanilla bean or extract
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:

chop carrot into chunks and place into a food processor, process until finely ground but not mushy. Add dates and blend until fairly smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until all ingredients resemble the size of course bread crumbs. Then place the mix into a cling wrap line baking tin or container of your choice. It does not have to be a baking dish, you can also use any other storage container, be adventurous, round, square, oblong.. the choice is yours or you may form it up free hand onto a plate.
Place into the fridge to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews - soaked in filtered water for 2.-3 hrs
4-5 tsp agave or to taste
2 tbs orange juice - fresh
2 tbs lemon juice - fresh
Zest from orange and lemon

Preparation:

Rinse and drain cashews then place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Place into the fridge to cool and thicken then spread onto cake. Sprinkle zest over cake to decorate and enhance flavour.

Enjoy :) K

Ultimate Birthday Cake

Now this is a cake..

Happy 70th Birthday Nana.. :)

Yes it's just watermelon, grapes and kiwi fruit.. indulge!

Day 9-10 Finals day - Mind Body & Spirit

Day 9

Thursday mornings breakfast was

Banana & Pear puree with Choci-Jo, goji berries, cacao nibs & cashews

With the usual for morning tea

Kitz Crackers with Guacamole

Which is simply

Ingredients:
Onion
Avocado
tomato
Salt & pepper to taste
Either
Cajun spices
Italian herbs
Fresh parsley & coriander

Preparation:
Dice onion, avocado & tomato and add flavourings of your choice then mix to combine or blend for a smooth guacamole.

A good afternoon just going with it and it doesn't seem to be too hard but I think he is looking forward to some cooked food. Afternoon tea has turned into raw cake with a green tea or dandelion tea which is a bit of a favourite right now. Dinner was a cauli couscous and blended salad. Some medjool dates after dinner snack while watching TV.. rugby finals coming up so Footy show tonight definitely.. :)

Day 10

Another breaky of

Blended pear and pineapple with Simply Granola.

after a good swim and run at the beach. It all seems to be going well again today although it is becoming obvious that he is over it now and ready for some cooked food. He had the usual crackers and guacamole for morning tea, left over dinner for lunch and the cakes and fruit in between.

Today is the last day and it was decided when he started that he would end it tonight as we have family arriving and it has been organised that we will be having dinner together.. mmm Pizza!!! can you believe it.. breaking 10days raw with cooked Pizza. So for dinner he had 1/3 of a light beer.. Yes!.. and about 3 pieces of pizza, some seafood and a gourmet vegetarian. They where fairly good pizzas .. as far as cooked pizza goes anyway. Good quality home cooked type pizzas that have been given the heart foundation tick.. mmm that's debatable too.. but worth mentioning I thought.. :)

I think he has done really well and there has defiantly been a lot of good come out of the whole experience.

Positives have been:

• Cloud lifted - much happier and approachable
• Motivated - getting a lot done on so many levels. Business and personal.
• Empathy for others who have to restrict their eating for weight and health issues
• More relaxed with life
• Clarity - can see more clearly what he really wants to do on many levels
• Realisation that what he has and what he thought to be not what he really wanted are actually the things he is enjoying.

And for me

• he has no smell.. now he doesn't smell bad, it's just a smell, now there is NONE!! that's nice.. :) as I have very sensitive smell as do most raw foodists.
  
• I can be really open and honest with him all the time, I do not have to put up a guard or sneak around wondering . 'what's on his mind?'
• The kids are finding him more fun and approachable
• I loved the person he was for the last 5days.. it was just fantastic. I felt a real connection and we do get on really well anyway but I loved that he had made a effort to try what makes my life so fantastic.. he was just so happy, energetic, motivated and I could see him gaining clarity on so many levels.. things that has been troubling him for many years where getting sorted out.
• Lots of little things where getting done around the house.. :)
  

The negatives have been

• He is getting a bit sick of the raw treats he used to enjoy so much
• detox was a bit uncomfortable . but definately worth it!
• restricted... really missing having more choices and the variety.

Negatives for me

• I needed more input into the types of meals he wanted, that would have helped to make it much more enjoyable as I have been on raw food for so long that I like very simple things that are not suitable enough when first starting out on a raw diet.
• The first few days where a little stressful and we tried to sort it all out, he didn't want to complain about anything so he didn't hurt my feelings and I was getting annoyed that he would not put a bit of effort into helping to decide and prepare his meals.. while he was also detoxing!
  

He said he was a bit worried about how he would feel after the pizza dinner but he drank a lot of water with it and after it and said he felt OK. Oh.. I forgot to mention that he had about 2-3 chocolate cupcakes that I made for me nieces 8th birthday.. :)

:)

love K xxoo

How it going now?

Nearly a week after finishing and he is still doing very well, eating very high raw but enjoying his healthy cooked food. We have had some dinner outings in the last week with family here and good healthy choices have always been made. No alcohol except for last friday night 1/3 bottle beer so that's great. There has been a bit of Chocolate mud cake as we have had 4 birthdays to celebrate in the last week.

Day 8 - Mind Body & Spirit 10 days raw

All going great! Beach was a bit windy and the ocean a bit choppy but still managed a swim.
Here is breaky that was waiting for him on his return

Fruit Salad Ambrosia with
Kitz Cinnamon Agave Wanuts

Same ole same ole for morning tea. Left over Couscous Salad for lunch and some new cookies for afters!

Chewy Bircher Cookies

With this horrible dust storm we have got here today he is very busy going to Fire Calls. They say that the fire alarms are probably going to be going off all afternoon! & I hope there are no traffic accidents as visability is poor.. :(
I made a new cake that was inspired by and online blogger, it is an

Almond Vanilla cake with a goldenberry, cherry filling with a Berry Frosting..

The dust storm made day really weird and almost depressing by the late afternoon. But Craig's day was still fairly productive, got a bit done on the business and a few more fire calls. Seems to be fealing great other than that as mood and energy levels are good. Although he did have an afternoon nap.. but then so did I - lets call it a power nap!!

Raw Pizza

for dinner on Kitz Pizza Bases went well followed by some Exotica Mix.. Goji, cashews & cacao nibs! Then later a dandelion tea with some more Berry Nice Cake with Berry Frosting..

PS. I don't know if I mentioned it but after Monday's gym session he said he'd had a great session, felt very strong and uped his weights.. :)

Day 7 - Mind Body & Spirit 10 days raw

Normal start to the day.. nice breakfast of

Banana, pear & apricot raw bircher Muesli..

Guacamole and Crackers for morning tea, then a large

Salad with notmayo, almonds and crumbled Kitz 4-Seed crackers,

Raw Banana Cake & choc cake for afternoon tea and a new dinner creation I came up with after perusing another of my cooked foodie mags for inspiration.. ..Curry cauliflower couscous, blended carrot, broccoli & tomato salad with rocket and avocado with an orange vinaigrette dressing

We had a good talk this afternoon and Craig is really feeling great!.. :) He is now finding it a lot easier and can see that there are a lot of things he will continue to do. He really wants to cut right back on bread, feels he will decrease his meat consumption even more and he will not go back to his decaf coffees as he is finding the green tea more enjoyable.
Personally I have noticed that he is a lot more positive and constructive. He is getting a lot of work done for his business .. things that he has talked about doing to years are finally getting done and I can see he is enjoying doing it and feeling great about it! Sami-Jo & I talked about it this morning and she also feels that his temperament is much more relaxed. We can say things to him that we probably would not have before and it's much more fun..
He had a hearing test this afternoon that gave him a bit of a shock.. his hearing is not good. The specialist feels that it is caused from swimming in the cold water each morning. And as getting ear plugs is quite expensive he went a bought a swimming cap to wear.. ( I will sneak down to the beach one morning and get a photo to post, should be hilarious!! lol)
So another day done and dusted on a really positive note.. it's great!.. :)

Rocket & Macadamia Pesto with Zucchini Pasta & Italian Sundried Tomotoes

Pesto

Ingredients:
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup macadamias
50g Rocket
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation:
Process garlic and nuts until finely chopped. Add rocket, oil & lemon juice and process until smooth.

Pasta
Ingredients:
2 zucchini's - spiralised
1/2 cup Italian sun dried tomatoes - recipe follows
1 tomato
2 mushrooms

Preparation:
Place the pasta ingredients into a bowl and add Pesto and stir. You can then place it into a dehydrator for about 1 hr stirring every 20 mins until warmed through and the veggies have softened. If you don't have a dehydrator you can place in the sun or just not worry about it!
To serve top with more rocket, chopped tomatoes, mixed Italian herbs and freshly ground pepper. Enjoy! :)

Italian Sun dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons Italian or mixed herbs
About 1/4 cup water.

Preparation:
Mix all ingredients together that place into a sterilised jar and let sit for about 24hrs before refrigeration.