Raw Food brings the energy of the sun in your body: a beautiful article about Shining Mama in a national Dutch newspaper (Metro)

eating raw food and living close to nature is also possible in the city

It was wonderful to have Ellen Mannens and Floris Sheplitz visiting me one Friday afternoon two weeks ago. 

It was more than "gezellig", how the Dutch say it, it was so nice that we forgot the time and got lost in stories.. (not only mine!)  :-) 

..Until I asked how much time we have left and Floris said, uhm, we have one more half hour of light to make the pictures so you'd better hurry up with that salad :-)

Thank you, Ellen and Floris!

The pictures are very beautiful - and masterful, if you'd know that V was in absolutely no mood for pictures!. 

Ellen Mannens managed to magically turn my looooong innuendo story into a beautifully written concise article. 

A translation in English of her Dutch words is of course in order so here it goes (it is in some places a "free" translation as I have added a few explanatory things):

Title:
Raw Food brings the energy of the sun in your body

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Ioana Voiculescu (45), owner at www.ShiningMama.com and Victor (5)

Subtitle:
Around the table with..
Metro is visiting the readers and asks the question: What is your favorite recipe? This week: Ioana went raw.

"A plant gets it's energy from the sun. Think about what happens when you eat that plant, raw". 
These are the words of our hostess today: Ioana Voiculescu. Four year ago she started eating raw food. About the reason she is very clear: 
"Raw food brings the energy of the sun directly into your body. ".

It takes indeed very little imagination to see the sun in Ioana's appearance: she has shining eyes, a healthy pink flush on her cheeks, she is energetic and enthusiast. Raised in Romania, she was used to a different kind of food at home, with a warm big lunch in the afternoon. 

Four years ago her eating pattern completely changed. 
"I wasn't feeling that good before this change. I was very depressed, I was feeling cold all the time and had a beginning arthritis in my knees because of which I could not carry my son any more. Something'd got to change". 

That "something" had begun with changing her eating habits. 
"I started eating organic food and quite soon I stumbled over superfoods. From one day to the next I went completely raw and eating super foods… That is not something I would recommend"..

The sudden change in her eating habits brought about a spontaneous detox. 
"I got a huge skin rash but other people might get headaches and/or diarrhea. If you'd like to start eating (more) raw foods and superfoods, you'd better start with green smoothies. Fresh green smoothies form even now the basis of what I eat in a day. A further change is that now I only eat when I feel like it and not when the clock or the society says I should.." 

Today on the menu: salad with marinated portobello and raw chocolate bonbons as desert. Because, who says that raw food is nothing to look forward to? 
"And no, you do not have to lose weight if you do not want to. There are enough good fats that you can eat on a raw diet so your body stays healthy and strong: coconut oil, hemp oil, virgin olive oil and let's not forget the yummy avocado. All of them good fats that keep your weight in check."

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salad with marinated portobellos

Recipes:
Salad with marinated portobello.. and raw chocolate bonbons as dessert 
serves 4 persons
Preparation time: 60 minutes

Salad:
50 ml hemp oil
8 mint leaves (and a few more for decoration)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove
4 portobellos
4 handful purslane
4 handful purple curled kale
8 cherry tomatoes
1 red paprika
1 avocado

Mix the hemp oil, the mint leaves, salt and the garlic in a blender until you get a soft dressing. Cut the portobellos in pieces  and soak the in half of the dressing. Leave the portobellos to marinate for at least half an hour. Wash the rest of the leaves and let them dry (or dry them in a salad dryer). Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and the paprika in long pieces. Divide the ingredients on four plates and sprinkle them with hemp oil and eventually with the rest of the portobello dressing. 

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raw chocolate (in this case Shiny Box Duo, see shop)

Raw white chocolate (dessert or snack)
125gr cacao butter
6-10 drops orange essential oil
4 spoons honey
6 raw cashews
a handful cocos flakes 

Melt the cacao butter au bain-marie (careful that it does not boil or raise in temperature too much - above 42-45C is not raw any more). 
Mix all the ingredients in a blender. Pour them in the mold of your preference, (it will be easier to get out if you use a silicon mold) and put your raw chocolate get hard in the freezer. Best to keep this chocolate in the fridge.

Ioana's note: The recipe above and in the article in Metro is for soft raw chocolate, un-tempered. To make properly tempered chocolate that does not melt at room temperature is an art and not so easy to write about in an article or blog.

If you are interested in mastering the art of making tempered chocolate please sign up for my newsletter and I will keep you in the loop with the courses I am preparing. In the picture you see a Shiny Box Duo, you can order them via the Shop.

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