True beauty just exists

True beauty comes from nature. Humans can create wonderful designs, but nothing compares to nature's own creations. Billions of years of practice... Who can compete?

Humans create grand things to show off and get admired, hired and remembered. Nature creates beauty all over the world, much never to be seen by any human, without any need to show off or even to exist very long. Just simple, sheer, perfect beauty. Over and over again. Without anyone paying or asking for it. Made just to exist, to bring life and continue on.

It surrounds us, but how often do we stop and take part of the beauty around?

Such a delicate design gazing up to the sky

I got struck by the beauty right now when I was going to look after my plants. It may seem as a boring rainy day, but when you look up close you see the beauty and get aware of the life that the water brings and the beautiful scenery.

All dressed up in diamonds of raindrops

Fruity lemon salad

Start your meals with fruit and if you can't choose which fruit or don't have enough of one type of fruit - just have them all in a fruit salad! 

Make sure that the fruit combines well. In this one I used oranges, nectarines, apples and bananas. Works for me! 

I love fruit salad and sometimes, like today, I put some chopped fresh mint and squeeze lemon juice all over the fruit.  I think it makes it extra yummy! 

Raw Tabbouleh

This summer it hasn't been easy to grow anything. It has been so cold and we are weeks behind. The only plants that have turned out well are spinach and parsley. 

I really like parsley and it is so good with all its nutrients like iron and calcium. Make sure to smack in those greens! 

Perfect with a lot of parsley since it is the key ingredient in Tabbouleh, the tasty classic lebanese dish. Raw tabbouleh is often made with cauliflower but I think cauliflower can give a quite dominant taste, and I didn't want that. I used zucchini instead, and it was so good! 

Here is my recipe. Serves one person that doesn't eat large amounts of food (me) so make more if you're going to serve more people. 

Raw Tabbouleh

1 zucchini

1 green onion

1 clove of garlic

Fresh parsley, as much as you want

Fresh mint, as much as you want but I used much less than the parsley

Juice from a lemon

Cherry tomatoes or other tomatoes of your choice

Bring out your food processor and process everything except the tomatoes and the lemon. Make sure to cut everything in chunky pieces first. Also make sure to not process it too much. Put in a bowl. 

Then cut the tomatoes in pieces and add to the bowl. Then mix it together. Cut the lemon and serve it with the tabbouleh so you can squeeze as much lemon juice as you want to when you are going to eat it. 

You can serve this to anything you want or just eat it as it is. I just ate it as it was and found it delightful! 

Fresh Food Festival - lifeboosted!

A week ago I was in Denmark at the Fresh Food Festival. I've been thinking about how to sum it up, but I don't really know how to. Maybe because I still don't yet know how it will effect me in the longrun. It has actually been one of my best experiences ever, at least concerning personal development.

I didn't really know what to expect when I went to the festival. I was a bit nervous at first actually. Thinking that everyone there would be hardore raw vegans, promoting the raw vegan lifestyle and ban everyone and everything else. It turned out not to be like that, of course! What was I thinking? There were wonderful people of all kind - young, old, vegans, raw vegans, non vegans, vegetarians, non vegetarians. People new to this lifestyle, and those who are totally living by the 801010 lifestyle. The thing everyone had in common I guess, was that everyone was interested in improving their health. It felt a bit weird to not be the only weird eating person around, and I L-O-V-E-D it!

I was also a bit starstucked. I have never had a special idol in my life, and this will probably be as close at it will get for me to having idols. To me the raw vegan community is a bit of a fantasy world in a far away land, and not really real, as I've never met a raw vegan in person before, and the people I've seen on Youtube has felt quite far away, in a made up futurelike world. And now they were there! The founder of 801010 was there - Dr Doug Graham - and his wife Rosalyn Graham, and then Anne Osborne, Chris Kendall, Marina Grubic amongst other great speakers. It was so great to hear them give their inspiring talks and get the chance to talk to them. I actually got some personal advices from Dr Graham. I'll keep them in mind and try to live by them.

The talks were so good, and much more focused on personal development and self love than raw-vegan-must-live-up-to-speeches. Everyone can benefit from the talks, raw vegan or not. I would actually say that everyone should attend an event of this kind at least once in a lifetime.

The food we had during the festival was great of course! Honey mangoes for lunch three days in a row. Awesome! Never tasted honey mangoes before. Had never tasted fresh durian, mangosteen or fresh jackfruit either. There is obviously some nice fruit out there, in far away land. Durian I might say has some strange impact on me. I was a bit skeptic about the taste, but now I have been craving a bite for the whole week, and I probably will not have a bite for a long time...

Overall the festival feels like a lifechanging experience, and I want to go back next year as it feels right now. Now I want to keep the experience of the festival as close as I can for as long as I can so I will keep this lifestyle up, and make better choices for me and the world.
 

Roadtrip - The east coast

Many things have happened and I've been on the roads for 3000 km these last weeks. Still some places to go! Right now I'm on the east coast, close to the city Kalmar. I'm staying in a cabin in the countryside with my parents. It is a really nice place, vegetables grow outside and there is a cherry tree here. We also have an apple tree here but it is way to early for apples here yet. We've picked some cherries for snack though. The farmer doesn't seem to mind. It is also ok to eat from the lettuce outside. Cannot be at a better place! 

In the days we're exploring the surroundings by car. We've been to the city. Kalmar is a really great city in the summertime. It even has its own castle!

And today we've been around in the countryside. Sweden has a tradition of making high quality glass, and this is the area where that history has its sprung. Seen a lot of masterpieces today! 

Roadtrip - Music festival!

I'm on a roadtrip to the southern part of Sweden. On my way to work actually, but along the way I make a stop to attend the Bråvalla festival. I hope I will hear a lot of great music and eat some nice vegan food at the festival! 

We're staying at a hotel, so it is kind of a fancy way to stay for a festival, but I prefer to not sleep in a tent a the festival. Not my cup of tea. So this morning I almost emptied the bowl with fruit salad at the breakfast and now I'm carbed up and ready for a long day at the festival! 

I try to eat a lot of raw food, but I do eat other foods too. The raw food gives me the best energy though. I like that it seem to get more and more easy to get your hands on vegan food at festivals. 

I'd better go to the festival now. 

Raw Bounty

At last I'm at my home for awhile. This spring has been crazy! Travelling all the time for work. And finally I'm home, for a couple of weeks.. then some more work and then... vacation! I'm so exited for the summer.

When I'm away from home I don't get to eat things I like to all the time, but then it gets better when I finally do. For some time I've had cravings for Bounty bars. I've never done Raw Bounty but I thought in my mind that it would be quite easy and tasty. Yesterday, when I went through my groceries I found some grated coconut and decided to give it a try, and it turned out really yummy!

This is my recipe. I have just estimated the amount since I actually didn't measure the ingredients, so maybe you have to add something or have less of something, but it should be quite right.

Raw Bounty
3 dl grated coconut
1 dl agave
a pinch of vanilla powder
3-4 tsp coconut oil
Blend the ingredients. Form into bite size pieces, and put in the freezer for a while.

For the chocolate cover:
4 tsp coconut oil
4 tsp raw cacao powder
4 tsp raw carob powder
1-2 tbsp agave
a pinch of vanilla

Let the coconut oil melt on very low heat. Add the rest. Then dip the freezed coconut bites in the chocolate, it is a bit messy, but what a nice mess it is. Double dip if you want the chocolate cover to be thick.

Then try to let the Raw Bounty sit in the freezer until the chocolate cover has hardened. A couple of pieces accidently jumped into my mouth before they reached the freezer. Accidents can happen...

Enjoy! I will!