Raw weekend

Last weekend I attended a karate seminar in Joensuu, Finland. At the same time I experimented how does it go to have heavy trainings and only eat raw food... Well it went perfectly fine! In three days I had 7 x 1.5h trainings (+ plenty of overtime!) and I never felt too tired or even too hungry! I think I had even much more energy than when I've eaten warm food before trainings. So now I'd like to share with you some of the food recipes which I used there. I had my new personal blender with me so that it got properly tested before the big trip.

I'd also love to tell about the seminar itself, but I guess not many of you readers know much about karate, so I spare you from that :) Just want to say that it was definitely the best so far and Sensei Bob Nash is the greatest teacher ever! :D Looking forward to meet him again...

All recipes are for one person and I only used raw and organic ingredients.

Morning smoothie

• 1 grapefruit
• big bunch of lettuce or spinach
• 1/2 banana
• water

Put all ingredients to a mixer and mix until very smooth. Add desired amount of water.

I recommend to drink this first and after about 30min. enjoy the rest of the breakfast. This sort of smooth/slow start is good for the digestion.

Chocolate oatmeal

• 4 dried plums or dates
• 1 dl rolled oats
• about 2 dl water
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds or soaked sunflower seeds
• 1/2 banana
• 2 tsp cacao powder
• (1 tsp of each: maca, lucuma and soy lesithin)

In the evening put the plums, rolled oats and water to a mixer and let soak over night. In the morning add the rest of the ingredients to the mixer and mix until smooth. Enjoy for example with blueberries.

This picture was taken on our Lapland trip. This really is my favourite raw oatmeal recipe!

Tomato soup

• 2 sundried tomatoes (preferably not in oil!) + 1 dl water (soak 2-4h)
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds (soak 2-4h and rinse well!)
• 3 big tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• about 1 dl of peeled and diced zucchini
• 1-2 tsp spice mixture which contains pepper, paprika, coriander, mustard seeds and garlic

Put all ingredients to a mixer and mix until smooth. Add more water if needed.
To get variations... Use hemp seeds (no need to soak) instead of pumpkin seeds to make more creamier soup. Use bell peppers instead of zucchini and experiment with different kind of spices. To get more filling soup add some boiled chickpeas or other peas (semi raw soup).

Energy balls

• 3 dl walnuts (preferably soaked and dried)
• 1 dl coconut flour
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 2 tbsp date syrup or maple syrup

Put the walnuts into a coffee grinder or good mixer and mix until almost butter. Put the walnut butter and the other ingredients into a bowl and mix until a smooth dough. (I just use my hands!) Roll the dough into bite size balls. These do survive in room temperature for few days, but I recommend to store them in a fridge.

Grated salad

• 2 carrots
• 1 small turnip
• 1 apple
• raisins & soaked sunflower seeds or other seeds
• canola oil & lemon juice

Peel and grate the carrots, turnip and the apple. Add some raisins and seeds and sprinkle over some oil and lemon juice. Mix well and let marinade for a moment in room temperature. Enjoy and remember to chew well! :)

~ Ilta