Juicing Update and Super Fruit Haul

Juicing update

Today is the last day of a 10 day juice cleanse. It started on Tuesday 13th with a colon cleanse and an integrated kidney cleanse followed by a 6 day apple and carrot juice fast/feast.

It has gone well and I adapted to it fairly quickly. I actually really like carrot juice and intend to carry on making it over the next couple of days as it has such a smooth texture and it tastes great. The apples give me a terrible ache if I drink too much and I haven't learned when to stop to avoid this! I will write a post specifically for this though, including all of the benefits that I have experienced.

Super Fruit Haul

I want to share what Steven and I bought at the fruit and veg market today.

We filled the car

Gorgeous heirloom (or heritage) tomatoes

I wanted to have a picture with it all!

We went shopping on Monday for bananas, so I have included them in today's list. Here is what we bought and how much it cost.

Fruit 
5 Bananas - repackaged - approx 18kg - £5/box = £25
4 Mangoes - one seller charged £4/box = £8
                  - the other seller charged £2.50/box = £5
Lemons - £7/35 fruit 

Salad/Veg
Cucumber - £3.50 - 12
2 Courgette - £1/5kg box = £2
2 Celery - £6/box = £12
Carrot - £2.50/12.5kg bag 
2 Romaine lettuce - £5/10 heads = £10
Tomatoes (we went a little crazy!)
     - 1 baby cherry (organic) - £3/6kg box
     - 1 baby plum - £3/5kg box
     - 2 standard - £3/6kg box = £6
     - 1 heirloom - £6.50/3kg box
     - 1 French tomatoes 6kg - free - we were told £1 as they are very ripe, but they didn't actually charge us for them!

Total fruit = £45

Total veg = 48.50

Grand Total = 93.50

This shop will last us 2 weeks and is for 2 people. We don't normally buy that many tomatoes (Steven gets about 10kg and I get 5kg), but this juice cleanse has really made us want them. When we saw the heirloom tomatoes we just had to treat ourselves as we have never had them before and you cannot turn down French tomatoes for £1 (well technically free!). I am salivating at the thought of having a sauce over courgette noodles.

The courgettes were only £1 because they wanted to get rid of them. You cannot argue with that price. I am going to be making so many courgette noodles this week! 

Luckily Steven has 3 fridges to keep the produce, so here is where we store them at his flat. (If you only have 1 fridge, I recommend you get another one asap! Use gumtree, freecycle, ask your friends or keep your eye out in case someone leaves their old fridge out for the iron man)

Fridge 1 in the hall

Fridge 2 in the kitchen

Main fridge in the kitchen, the bottom is a freezer

Cupboard in the hall to store the fruits and veg that can survive without a fridge!

All produce was bought from New Smithfield Market, Manchester. It is a lot better than Liverpool so if you're in the North West you must visit. 

I am looking forward to eating celery the most and then trying the heirloom tomatoes. 

If you have any questions please ask!

Jennifer x

Shoptastic Saturday

I have been to the wholesale markets in Manchester more recently so I've not been keeping a record of my shop due to storing it at Steven's.

This week we got some really red and ripe tomatoes for £3 for 5kg, the tastiest I've had. Bananas are also really hard to get cheap due to a crop disease so they're £17 a box. I've been going to Aldi and buying two boxes from there instead at 69p/kg (16kg boxes).

Courgettes have been around £3.50-£4 for 5kg and I bought the most gorgeous round lettuces for £3.

I'll be going to the Liverpool market next weekend, I shall report on that next week so stay tuned.

Jennifer x

Tasty Tuesday

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday!

You do not have to wait any longer, today I will be sharing my Raw Vegan Lasagne! I am waiting for a decent photo editor, so my photos look very noob-like :P

For those who do not know about the Raw Vegan lifestyle it is basically the consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, etc (preferably organic) that have not been cooked above 48 degrees Celsius. Ideally people on this lifestyle are aiming for 100% raw, but it is very common that people are raw for breakfast and lunch but eat a cooked vegan dinner. Once you embrace this lifestyle you will reap the benefits such as more energy, feeling lighter during exercise, having more endurance and have glowing skin! 

So, this raw vegan lasagne is uncooked, cold/room temperature and packed with a whole lot of love, because remember "fruit and veggies love you back"! Next time you pick something up that is processed, high in fat or from a "fast food" shop say to yourself that you may love what you're about to eat, but it definitely does not love you back.

I think this will work best if I list the ingredients, tools and instructions for each section and at the end do one big instruction for putting it together. Oh and this serves one very greedy, hungry belly.

Ingredients/Tools/Instructions

Pasta sheets

• 3 courgettes/zucchinis (the only ingredient I measured haha)
• Mandolin slicer
• Peeler
• Knife

This is completely optional, but I peeled the courgettes because they were not the freshest! Once peeled slice in half length ways and very carefully use the mandolin slicer. If you do not own one then you could very very carefully slice the courgette thinly with a knife but please be very careful!!!

Place the slices to one side and keep the left over bits that are too thin to use as a layer.

Sliced courgette

Tomato sauce

• A lot of tomatoes - I filled up the food processor with 2/3rds tomatoes
• Sun dried tomatoes - preferably soaked (the longer the better)
• Spring onion - I like this a lot, so I used 5 stems! I'd say 2 or 3 are enough
• Fresh basil - put as much or as little in as you with but I used about 25-30 leaves
• Fresh rosemary - same as basil, use as much or as little but I used 3 long sprigs
• Walnuts - I used about 5 just because I had them to hand
• Food processor/blender
• Sieve
• Bowl
• Chopping board
• Knife

Wash your ingredients then if you are using large tomatoes chop them up a bit as well as the spring onion, then add everything into the blender and blend away. It's up to you whether you want it chunky or smooth. My blender does not get anything smooth so I had chunky bits which add texture! Place the sieve over the bowl and drain the excess liquid from this mixture.

Put to one side.

Sauce blended - tomatoes blend down to next to nothing!

Sieve away - if you like it slightly runny add some juice back in

Creamy sauce

• Half an avocado
• Spring onion
• Left over courgette
• Basil (optional) - about 5-10 leaves 
• Rosemary (optional) - 1 sprig
• Blender
• Knife

If you are just making this for one person cut up half an avocado, mine was about 64g, which is about 9.5g fat.

Place all of the ingredients into the blender (that you will have to wash!) and blend until it is smooth and creamy. You may need a little bit of water if you want it less thick but I did not add any.

Place to one side.

Putting it all together

So you should have made all of your components for this tasty meal, now all you need is one deep dish.

I started by putting 2 layers of pasta on the bottom and then the tomato sauce followed by another layer of pasta and then the creamy sauce, tomato sauce, pasta, creamy sauce. I got about 2 layers in my dish because it was a beast of a dish so perhaps if you have a thinner but equally deep dish you'd get more layers. Have fun with it, I certainly did. I am a naughty chef because I was eating as I was going!

Bottom two layers

Added tomato sauce and another layer of pasta before the creamy sauce

Looking like it came straight out of the oven!

Who needs a separate plate when it's all for ME!!! :D

If you want me to be more specific I suppose I could make it again :P but for me, making dishes is one big experiment, which is why I am very loose with measurements because we all have different tastes and as much as I love basil that I could use almost half the plant you may only want 5 leaves.

I hope you do make this and do enjoy it. I mainly got inspiration from Kristina, but if you google "raw vegan lasagne" you'll find soooooooooooo many recipes.

Tomorrow is Wishful Wednesday and I'll probably be wishing for this meal ;)

Much love

Jennifer x