Raw Amaranth Lembas Bread

Have you seen a film called “The Hobbit”? If you seem it, you probably remember the Lembas bread. This bread also called Elven bread or Waybread in the Common Speech. It’s a special food made by the Elves. The bread was very nutritious and was used for sustenance on long journeys. When I think about this bread and about nutritious value, I am very sure it was raw bread. To keep all vitamins and enzymes alive, raw plant foods should have not been heated above 40 °C (104 °F). Second what came to my mind – grains, of course Amaranth 🙂 Amaranth, known as a ‘wonder grain’ is actually not a grain! They are seeds from the plant ‘Amaranth’ and is completely gluten-free. It’s very high in protein, calcium, fibre, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and iron. It was a staple food of the Aztecs, and was used as an integral part of Aztec religious ceremonies. The word amaranth comes from the Greek word amaranton, meaning “unwilting”, “unfading” from the verb marainesthai, meaning “wilt”). Amaranth is very nutritious grains, very old and also has yellow color like Lembas bread.

I made this bread to eat with my salad and with avocado spread. One of my Japanese friends is very big fan of Hobbit movies and when she tried this bread, she told me, yes, this is it! 🙂 Continue reading →

Why You Should Soak Nuts Before Eating Them?

Do you eat your nuts without soaking them? If so, you should know it’s not good for you. All nuts, grains and legumes have phytic acid. By soaking nuts, you are breaking down phytic acid. If you eat nuts that haven’t been soaked, phytic acid binds to minerals in the gastrointestinal tract and can’t be absorbed in the intestine. And many bound minerals can lead to mineral deficiencies. Also, all nuts have enzyme inhibitors that are very hard to digest. By soaking nuts, you neutralize all enzymes and allow them for proper digestion. Other reputed benefits soaking nuts and seeds will begin the sprouting process which bumps up their nutrient profile considerably.
Every time after I bought my nuts and seeds, grains and legumes I soak and dry them in a dehydrator to keep ready to use anytime. You do not have to do same of course, maybe it’s easier for you to soak nuts before you will use them. Also if you eat grains, always try to soak them minimum for 40 minutes. Phytic acid is bad not only for digestion, but also for your teeth. All nuts have different time of soaking. Than harder are nuts, then the longer time of soaking. For example, almonds should be soaked around six hours or more, but soft cashew nuts should be soaked not more than two hours, they will change to violet color, what is not good. One more terrific reason to soak nuts, especially walnuts and almonds, have a much more appealing taste after they are soaked and rinsed. 🙂

You can easy find raw nuts in Japan in online shops and also in some health food shops and markets. Raw is “Nama” in japanese, simply search kanji 生. Unfortunately, not all raw nuts are really raw in Japan. To check if they are raw I usually sprout them. For example, I could not sprout raw almonds from Costco. You can find organic raw nuts at the Lohas online shop and Alishan. But if you dont mind about not organic nuts, you can go to Ameyoko market near Ueno station in Tokyo and find Kojima-ya nuts and dry fruits shop.

Don’t forgets to soak your nuts before you eat them!

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What kind water do you drink? Blue Solar Water

blue-bottle What kind water do you drink? Our bodies are 70-90% water, so it is critical to pay attention to the quality water we put in! I live in Tokyo, where tap water is not fluoridate (thanks a lot!) and pass through very high-tech filters. Therefore, tap water in Tokyo is enough clean for drinking. I do not think it’s clean; it still contains chlorine, etc. Therefore, I buy Japanese bottle water every month to feel safe. Some people I know here buying very nice famous water from Hawaii, but I believe the water must have a minimum of minerals. You can find many studies about this. Many scientists agree that sodium and minerals from mineral water make only problems for our health and generate stones. Japanese water is almost clean, very poor in minerals and I am glad about this 😉 Continue reading →

Sakura Festival in Tokyo

The end of March is my favorite time of year, time when spring is coming and sakura trees are blooming. Breathtaking beauty of Sakura! People go outside for walk and picnic under sakura trees. There is Sakura Festival near my apartment house every year (last weekend of March). In front of my house there is so nice street with old sakura trees. I took some photos and video of this festival to show you how people here celebrate a sakura blossoming. Continue reading →

No Eggs for Easter

We’ll be celebrating Easter very soon. One of the first things that might come to your mind when you think of Easter symbols is most probably the egg. This is also the case in the Orthodox tradition. The biggest joy of Eater Sunday for many people simply comes from enjoying a food – eggs and sweet Easter cake – that they did not eat for the past 6 weeks during lent. Lent – the period of fasting before Easter — is practiced in Ukraine much as it is elsewhere. I make a Raw Easter Cake for my family and No Eggs for Easter. These eggs have a lemon flavor, but you can make your favorite taste and decoration. You can make them different colors or chocolate as well. If you like to sculpt, you will definitely like this recipe 🙂 Kids really love to make these No Eggs for Easter, let them help you 😉 Continue reading →

Raw Green Peas Warm Up Soup

I don’t make raw soups often, but this winter was so cold for me and I was looking for something warm up and fat. Avocado is maybe the best fat in raw food diet. I have very bad and very quick reaction for any kind of fat! I love nuts, but unfortunately my skin is very sensitive to fat and next day I usually have all my face with acne. I had skin problem for all my life and was so happy to get off from this problem after started a raw vegan lifestyle. But as you can see not all raw food is healthy and good for us. This is how I learned to listen my body. After too much fat my skin is terrible, look like teenager 🙂 Luckily not all people like me. Therefore, I don’t eat nuts and avocado daily, only sometimes and only a little. Try don’t mix any kind fruits and sweeteners with fat! Yes, all raw food cakes and other gourmet raw sweets are not good for our health. But, we are people and need sometimes something wrong and unhealthy 😉 I think its fine to have a piece of cake sometimes for Birthday, Christmas or other special event. Cakes are fat and warm, but I wanted to make a soup. Using an avocado and coconut milk makes this soup so warm and creamy! Fresh or frozen green peas give this soup amazing color and taste. I prefer to add a little fresh mint leaves to give a very specific cool flavor. This short video about how we make our green peas warm up soup. Try it and maybe it will help you to warm up in still cold evenings.

Omega Tapioca (Raw Banana Chia Pudding)

You have probably heard how important it is to get enough essentials fatty acids (EFAs) in your diet. Some good food sources containing omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids include flax seeds, leafy green vegetables and walnuts. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to obtain enough of these fatty acids on a daily basis. Recently, an ancient seed has regained popularity due to its high nutritional value – Chia seeds. You can now find Chia seeds online as well as in many health food stores in Japan. The seeds are easily digested and do not have to be ground to be used. In Mexico, the seeds are mixed with water and a little bit of lime or lemon juice to make a drink called “Chia Fresca.” Whole Chia seeds can be sprinkled on your salads or other dishes. Seeds can also be ground and mixed into smoothies. The seeds can be sprouted and used in salads. Also Chia seeds are soaked in water (for about 30 minutes) to form a gel. The seeds soak up to nine times their weight in water. Therefore we often use soaked chia seeds to make raw puddings. If you cant find chia seeds, you can replace them with basil seeds. I often use coconut milk to make this chia pudding, but it’s also delicious with nuts milk and seeds milk as well. You can add your favorite fruits, nuts, granola or chocolate, I often use simply bananas. This short video below showing how I make it and you will surprise how similar it looks to tapioca. I named it Omega tapioca, because it looks like tapioca and has a lot of Omega 😉

How to Make Easy Raw Coconut Milk?

When I say “coconut milk» almost people will think about canned coconut milk which is not raw and often has preservatives. So what is coconut milk? Many people confuse coconut milk with coconut water. When you open fresh coconut, you will find coconut water or some people call it coconut juice. And coconut milk is a mix of coconut water and coconut meat, flesh. To make a raw coconut milk it’s easy. Place the coconut flesh and coconut water in a blender, adding three to four cups water blend until the coconut and water forms smooth slurry. And what is if you don’t have fresh coconuts, like me? Well, I can find coconuts online and very expensive, so its better think we don’t have fresh coconuts in Japan 😉 However, I am glad we can easy to find and buy dry coconuts flakes here. Therefore I often use dry coconuts to make our coconut milk. My son loves it and I use it for many recipes. In video below you can find how we make raw coconut milk. Other two videos are our favorite recipes with coconut milk. If you didn’t try a coconut milk yet, take a minute and watch our video, learn how to easy make it. Also you can use this milk for many cooked recipes as well.

Raw Food Restaurant in Tokyo “Rainbow” ❤ レインボー・ローフード

How are you? I hope you are fine and raw food makes you happy and healthy! Today I want to share with you our second video from our project “Raw Food Restaurants in Tokyo”. We are planning (me and my friends) to visit all raw food restaurans, juice bars and other healthy shops and markets in Tokyo and near Tokyo. We want to show you what we have here in Tokyo and how we can live and enjoy our raw vegan life here in Japan 🙂

This video we made at the “Rainbow Raw Food” restaurant, which is near Ebisu station. They moved to Ebisu around month ago, its a very popular place for vegans and foreigners. This place is also popular becouse one japanese fortune teller works there (you can find him in this video behind our table) :)) Rainbow has english menu and also english website: rainbowrawfood.com I think this restaurant is very simple and cheaper than others. There is a nice Hawaii design and music. You can find a lot of nice books about healthy lifestyle here (english and japanese). Also you can buy raw chia seeds. Menu is very simple, so if you are a raw vegan with long experience and interesting in raw gourmet food, maybe you will not very exiting, but anyway its so nice to have a chance to enjoy with living food and your friends outside sometimes ; )

If you like this video, please “like” it and we will be so happy if you leave a comment 😉 If you want to join us next time, please free to contact me 😉

How To Live Long? Japanese Happy Healthy Long Life Secrets ❤ 100歳まで生きたいですか？

I want to share our gladness, this month we had a Birthday party of our grandmother, 90 years old! She is so healthy and looks amazing for her age. She can speak, hear, walk, eat, meet with friends, go out for walk, go to museums and shopping. What a secret she has to be so healthy in her 90s? She is able to walk, eat, hear, speak and go for shopping with friends. Well, she didn’t use any cosmetic, no sport, no big sickness, worked hard all her life from 15 y.o.! She had happy, but not easy life with stress and drama. Her secret is not only a food, but also her a very positive thinking, she always smile and laugh a lot. You can easy to see how nice person she is in this short interview I took at the party. Sorry, this video is not about raw food at all, but its about Japanese traditional food, which was destroyed after World War 2. So she is one of those long life Japanese people, who was born before war and didn’t eat any bad and junk food. I hope you will like this video and if so, please don’t forget to leave some comments below. Thank you so much!

With Love from Japan!

Tonya Ogino