Cooking the Books - Honestly Healthy

The cold that has been going around for weeks has caught up with me.  I felt really rough yesterday at work and went to bed at 8 o'clock last night.  I'm feeling a bit better today but not much like cooking, so the meal I had planned to make from this book will have to wait until another day.  So this is not technically cooking the books as there is no cooking involved.   I wanted something really simple and healthy so I chose to make this nut and berry layered breakfast.  I think it would be nice anytime of day, I'm going to have mine for lunch to give me a boost at work.  I made it with Greek yoghurt, but if you are a vegan you can make it with raw vanilla cashew cream.  I also just used blueberries.  I eat a lot of nuts and seeds so had the ingredients in my store cupboard.  You could adapt it to your own tastes.

Here's the recipe:

Serves 2 - 4

100g (3 1/2 oz/1 cup) raw walnuts
100g (3 1/2 oz/scant 2/3 cups) raw almonds
50g (2 oz/scant 1/3 cup) raw pumpkin seeds
50g (2 oz//scant 1/3 cup) raw sunflower seeds
50g ((2oz/1/3 cup) raw flax seeds
1 large punnet of blueberries
1 large punnet of raspberries
1 quantity of raw vanilla cashew cream


Soak all the nuts and seeds for 30 minutes to 1 hour and drain.  Then tip them into a food processor and pulse briefly - just enough to coarsely chop, but still retain their wonderful crunchy texture.

To serve, place a layer of berries in the bottom of a glass, place a layer of nut mix on top, and spoon over a layer of the cashew cream (or yoghurt).  Repeat the layers and decorate with the berries.



Raw Vanilla Cashew Cream

100g (3 1/2 oz/2/3 cup) raw cashews, soaked for 1 hour and drained
60 - 125 ml (2 1/2 - 4fl oz/1/4 1/2 cup) purified or filtered water
1 tsp vanilla extract.


Add 60ml of the water and blend, adding more water as necessary to make a smooth cream, then add the vanilla extract and blend for a few more seconds.

I think it looks lovely in the jars, I would even serve them like this as a dessert for a supper for friends.  It would be a little different everyone opening their jars.

The book is Honestly Healthy - Eat with your body in mind, the alkaline way.  It is written by Natasha Corrett and Vicki Edgson, and is full of 'my sort of food' lots of gluten free, veggie/vegan healthy recipes.

Hopefully I will be back to in the kitchen cooking 'proper' meals again soon.

Chickpea xx