Nordic Christmas Salad

Celebrating Christmas in the middle of Australian summer requires some alternative Christmas cooking than the heavy winter foods that I'm used to in Finland. I love experienting with the same ingredients, but creating something more fresh to suit the hot weather here.

Here is one of the recipes that everyone seems to love:

Spiced Christmast Salad - Swede, Parsnip, Capers and Cranberries in Lemon Herb Marinade

• 2 swedes (approx. 250g), peeled and shredded

• 2 parsnips, peeled and shredded

• 2/3 cup dried cranberries

• 50 g capers, drained and roughly chopped

• 4 tbsp chopped parsley

• 4 tbsp chopped dill

• 8 tbsp olive oil

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 3 tsp mustard

• 1 large garlic clove, crushed

• 2-4 tsp honey (depending on how sweet you like it)

• salt and pepper to taste

Place the shredded swedes and parsnips in a mixing bowl. Add all the rest of the ingredients. Massage everything together with your hands which helps the flavours to absorb. Ideally store in a fridge for an hour before serving.

Christmas Tastes - The Healthy Way

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. I have to say it doesn't feel the same here in Sydney than what I got used to in Finland with the cold white Christmas times. I can't complain though - still get to enjoy the similar traditions with friends and family here, but in the sun and light. The most important thing to make it feel like Christmas for me is all the tastes and smells of Christmas!

Instead of just preparing the delicious food for our friends and family, Wiebke and I are excited to prepare some yummy Christmas treats for the local community here in Eastern Suburbs, Sydney. This year we are making refined sugar free strawberry and white peach jams, spiced almond cookies and traditional Christmas Stollen (German fruity cake) - all of course gluten, dairy and sugar free.

Spiced Almond Cookies - gluten/dairy/sugar free and vegan

Christmas is known to be the time when we over-eat, indulge in ridiculous amount of chocolate and then feel potentially regretful when starting the New Year (how many times have you made the New Year resolution to lose weight or exercise more!). Therefore, I love to mix up the menu with some of these healthy, nutritious treats to balance it out.

Come and visit us in Bondi Farmers Markets this Saturday, 12 November to try some of these healthy treats!

Reetta xxx

RawBeing Day Retreat- Surry Hills Sydney

Located in an amazing art gallery space in one of Sydney's most popular suburbs, RawBeing is an incredible mix of yoga, meditation, RawFood and Coaching and blissed-out-good-vibes.

Run by AWCoaching, YogaInspirations and PureCooking, RawBeing Day Retreats offers a chance for busy souls to truly unwind, relax, and to focus on body-mind- spirit health.

We were so excited to be part of that day! And it was fully booked. From the moment people arrived, body, mind and spirit became number one priority. By the end of the day we all felt incredibly relaxed and definitely more mindful and present. The team from RawBeing helped us to develop techniques for a healthier mind and body that I have been able to incorporate into my everyday life.

The yoga was absolutely blissful! 

The Food! Of course the food! PureCooking catered for the whole day and also provided a cooking class. Reetta spoke about the benefits of Raw Food and everyone was excited to try the raw food menu on the day.  Lunch was the incredible Raw Pad Thai! And we were treated with other delicious raw food snacks and healthy treats throughout the day. The welcome drink with fresh coconut & ginger and the three different types of amazingly delicious bliss balls absolutely rocked our world!

Check out our upcoming RawBeing Retreat on the 21st of November. More to come soon!

Love,

Wiebke

Sunday 'baking' - Raw Banoffee Pie

One of my favourite parts about settling back to home after holidays, is getting back to my own kitchen again and back to normal routines - one of which is Sunday 'baking'. Or raw food preparing :) In addition to making a little Sunday treat, I enjoy preparing some of my meals ready for the week, like soaking nuts, making bircher muesli etc.

Today's "baking" was a simple but delicious Raw Banoffee Pie. I find some banoffee pie recipes being very complex and taking long time to make. This creation instead is real easy and should only take about 30 minutes to prepare.

Here is the recipe:

Crust:

• 1 cup almonds

• 5 fresh dates

• 1 tbsp honey

Filling:

• 2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)

• 2 tbsp cacao powder

• 2 tbsp maple syrup

• Pinch of Himalayan salt

Topping:

• 1 cup cashew nuts (soaked for 2 hours)

• 5 tbsp coconut cream

• ¼ cup water

• Juice and zest of 1 lemon

• ¼ tsp of vanilla bean paste (or other form of vanilla bean)

• 1 tsp maple syrup

• 2 bananas, sliced

To make the crust, blend all ingredients in a food processor until it binds together. Press out into a 25 cm dish lightly creased with coconut oil. Place in fridge or freezer to set.

To make the filling, melt the coconut oil and stir in the honey, cacao powder and salt. Pour the filling on top of the curst and place in fridge or freezer again until set.

To make the topping, blend all ingredients together (except bananas) in a blender until creamy and smooth. Place the sliced bananas on top of the filling and pour the topping on top. Decorate with shaved raw chocolate, cacao nibs or shredded coconut. 

European summer break

As Wiebke and I (Reetta) are both enjoying our annual trip back home to visit family and friends, we thought it would be nice to start a blog to share our experiences. We have talked about starting a blog for a while, but as writing isn't the greatest passion for neither of us it hasn't been on top of the priority list. However, we are passionate about sharing tips and tricks about health and wellbeing so here we go!

One of my favourite things about Finnish summer is berry picking. There is something meditative about being in absolute silence in the middle of the forest and collecting different types of berries that are so different in taste than the berries we normally get. They are in their absolute purest form in various shapes and sizes. Incredibly beautiful! 

My first catch was 7 litres of blueberries. As I had some overripe bananas that needed to be used I thought I'll add some of these beautiful berries to my banana bread dough.

And the recipe goes:

- 1 1/2 cup gluten free flour (eg buckwheat)
- 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
- 3 ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2/3 cup blueberries

Mix all ingredients together and bake in 180C for about 40 minutes.

Hope you enjoy xxx