Easter/Spring menu for two

...and the story of my journey (the short version) of finding the healthiest diet :)

My whole adulthood I've been extremely interested of good and healthy food. Especially the last few years I've heavily studied different kinds of diets and tried to find the one which is really meant for us humans and what our bodies are designed for. Well now I think I've finally found it!

My search for ultimate health started a bit before Christmas 1999. I was in high school at that time and extremely stressed and my stomach was constantly upset. Then I heard from somewhere that leaving meat out of my diet would help. Well I did that and started to feel much better! Rather soon after that I also ditched the fish and other animals from my diet and was feeling fabulous! Same time I started to get more aware what is really happening in the animal agriculture and besides getting better health I also got much better conscience :) Around 2003 I started to wake up from the milk industries brainwashing and my vegan journey began...

I still didn't always feel great and had some pains and flu's etc. and I began to think that this can't be normal. I've also been always heavily against pharmaceutical medicines (had to eat them too much in my childhood!) and been thinking that there has to be a natural way to cure illnesses! Late 2010 I came across with Alicia Silverstone's book 'The Kind Diet' (I warmly recommend it as a first step towards a better life!) and that finally opened my eyes to see what horrible poison for example white sugar and flours are to our bodies! Soon after I also got interested about the raw food movement.

So now I've been 99% free from all refined foods for about two years and been flirting with raw food about the same time. Last fall I started to think even more profoundly the REAL NATURAL human diet and have now come to the conclusion that the ultimately best and most natural foods for humans are fresh, ripe, raw and organic fruits and vegetables and small amounts of seeds and nuts. (In nature humans also ate some insects and small reptiles, but we can also live perfectly fine without them:)) With this final conclusion the greatest help has been Dr. Douglas N. Graham's book 'The 80/10/10 Diet'. I highly recommend it to everyone who is interested of a really healthy life and not just a symptom free life! Especially if you're suffering of excess weight, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, candida, high cholesterol, chronic fatigue, heart disease etc. or just want to get great results in any sports!

So here is my suggestion for a healthy, light and delicious holiday menu. I wish you all a happy and cruelty free Easter/spring time!

Aperitif

• 2 pomegranates
• 2 oranges

Use a juicer or citrus press to make the drink or do like I do:
Take the pomegranate seeds out and put into a blender. Mix high for few seconds. To get the seed pulp away pour the mixture through a strainer to a bowl. Peel the oranges and put to the blender with the pomegranate juice and mix high until a smooth drink. Serve instantly.

Coriander tomato soup

• 600 g tomatoes
• 300 g celery
• 200 g broccoli
• 1 dl fresh coriander

Cut all ingredients into smaller pieces. Put everything into a blender and mix high until smooth soup. Add water if needed, but don't make too watery!

Minty mango salad

• 200 g lettuce
• 1 avocado
• 1 sweet pepper (100g)
• 1 mango (400g)
• 2 tangerines (200g)
• 0.5 dl fresh mint

Wash and chop the lettuce into plates. Peel the mango and wash the pepper and cut both into slices. Cut the avocado half, remove the stone and pull the peel away (this should be easy if it's perfectly ripe!). Place the avocado in the center of the plate and 2/3 of the mango and all of the sweet pepper around it. Peel the tangerines and put into the blender with the rest of the mango and mint. Mix into smooth salad dressing. Pour some of the dressing into the middle of the avocado and rest on the salad. Enjoy! (I'm totally in love with this salad right now! :))

Cacao tangerine pudding

• 2 bananas (200g)
• 10 fresh dates (125g)
• 2 tbsp raw cacao or carob powder
• 1 dl water (or more if needed)
• 2 tangerines

Put the bananas, dates, cacao powder and water into the blender and mix until smooth. Pour the pudding into bowls and stir in peeled and sliced tangerines. Devour with joy :)


Here is nutritional info (by fitday.com) of this meal for those who are interested:

In the beginning the only little bit challenging thing with this diet is to eat enough! Because fresh raw food contains plenty of water one must eat much more than 'normal' dehydrated food and first it might be a challenge for the stomach. For me it only took about one week to get used to it, so no big deal at all in the end! :) Only issue right now is the fact that Wolfi hasn't got keen on this diet yet, so sometimes I have to do three different kinds of meals: raw for me, 'normal' vegan food for Wolfi and spice free vegan meal for our girls. Hopefully this will get much more simpler one day... At least I feel great and I'm full of energy, so maybe Wolfi sees these positive things one day and might start to consider my diet more seriously... I can only hope ;)

~ Ilta

Valentine's treats

This cake will blow your mind! Well, at least if you love peanut butter as much as I do :) I invented this last December when I was all alone at home and feeling sick and miserable... It came out perfect on the very first try and I'm rather proud of myself :) I made this also two weeks ago for my birthday and I think it's perfect to serve on Valentine's Day as well. I'm not a big friend of crusts/cake bottoms, but you can make some easy graham cracker crust for the cake if you feel like. Tip: the frosting alone can be used to make easy candies!

Here is also recipe for the best chocolate ever! I've been testing quite a few raw chocolate recipes found in internet, but quite often they're too bitter, too sweet or too coconutty to my taste. So of course I had to make my own version and this has been a guaranteed satisfaction for over a year already!

Perfect with almond milk :)

Peanut butter "cheese"-cake

• 3 dl unflavoured & sugar free soy yoghurt (this is my favourite)
• 1 dl unflavoured soy cream cheese (Tofutti) or more yoghurt
• 2 dl unsweetened peanut butter
• 1 dl maple syrup
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp potato starch (or corn, tapioca, wheat...)

Heat the oven to 175C degrees. Line an 18cm springform pan with a baking sheet. Mix all ingredients well together and pour into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes and then lower the temperature to 150C and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, so that the cake is solidified also from the centre. Take carefully out from the oven and let set for few hours.

Frosting

• 1 dl strong and hot coffee
• 100 g raw cacao mass (or dark chocolate)
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 dl maple syrup

Add the last three ingredients into the hot coffee and let melt. Stir well and let cool for a moment and then gently pour over the cake. Put the cake to fridge and let set for about an hour. I think this cake is best next day... if you can just wait ;)

The best raw chocolate
makes plenty!

• 400 g cacao mass
• 200 g coconut oil
• 1 dl lucuma powder
• 2 tbsp soy lecithin powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla powder
• 2-3 tbsp agave nectar (All ingredients are raw!)

Boil a pot of water. Measure the cacao mass and coconut oil into a glass or metal dish and put it on top of the hot water. Let melt completely, then add rest of the ingredients and mix well. Let the chocolate cool down for a moment and mix occasionally. Pour into desired molds and put to fridge or freezer to harden. Store in fridge or freezer and take out to room temperature few minutes before serving.

Sweet Valentine's Day for everyone!

~ Ilta

P.S. I've lately started to be interested of even more healthier (and the very original human) diet and just got the 80/10/10-book by Douglas N. Graham... So don't be shocked if in the future my recipes are extra healthy! =)

Maintenance and so

Finally I was able to start the maintenance work at SilberWolf or better said, the R1150GS ;)

First of all, the back frame which I gave to local welding company started to rust heavily. There is a difference in painting and I thought that I could do it good enough. Well, think again Wolfi.
So, I took the frame off and realized that there was some water in - not very nice. Obviously the welder did not do a too good job since I realized a small hole at one of the welding seam. OK, I gave it to Ari and he took it to a colleague who was so nice to fix it quickly. Now the frame is waiting for proper paining.

Just before Pystämettä 2012, I realized that the main bearing in the rear wheel drive was broken and no way to drive 600+km. Since I did not have the tools to change the bearing, yet I had already bought the future rear wheel drive (from a R850GS) I just swapped them. Next day I was able to enjoy the ride.

In any case, this rear wheel drive has already 90+tkm according to the seller. As a pre-caution and a learning I decided to go ahead and change the bearing in there. At the same time, I noticed strange noises (sub-harmonics in certain RPMs) and realized that the 6th gear is now too short. Therefore I wanted to take the gearbox out to be send for maintenance and exchange to the long 6th gear.

This is the result:

Bike with a too tight diet :D

Next step is to change the clutch ... well, that should be a walk in the park now and then the normal maintenance. All the rest are small things to change like lights, batterie, 12V plug and so on.

Next is Ilta's bike.

~ Wolfi