Lavender Strawberry Ice-Cream Hearts | Raw Vegan Nut-Free

I recently taught a class on using essential oils in cooking, as part of a 2 day Diploma in Organic Essential Oils course that I teach with NHR Organic Oils. 

I have been working with essential oils for about 18 years in my work as a skincare formulator and tutor and teaching this aspect of oils reminded me how much fun they are to use in food; not just the oils but the hydrosols too (Hydrosols are the aromatic distilled waters that occur as a by-product of essential oil distillation). So last night I was feeling creative and wanted to make a fancy new dessert (yes, I love my sweet food!) and decided to indulge my olfactory glands with the addition of some organic essential oils.

Lavender-strawberry ice-cream heart with strawberry, rose & orange salad

Ingredients for the hearts (to make about 4 hearts)

4-5 bananas, sliced and frozen overnight
Large handful of organic strawberries
4-5 drops of organic lavender essential oil*


Ingredients for the strawberry side-salad
1 punnet of organic strawberries
the finely grated zest of half an organic orange
1 tablespoon of organic rosewater*

*only use certified organic essential oils and hydrosols in food

1. Make the ice-cream hearts
Put your frozen banana slices into a food processor and pulse until they become frozen crumbs. Leave for 5 minutes. Pulse again and use a spatula to push down the banana crumbs as they try to creep up the sides. Keeping resting and pulsing until it becomes much softer and then you can turn the power up and let it whip itself into lovely creamy soft-scoop ice-cream.

Now throw in handful of chopped strawberries and your lavender oil and blend until smooth.

Transfer your soft ice-cream to a silicon baking tray that has heart shapes, like this one:

2. Make the strawberry, rose & orange side-salad

Finely chop an entire punnet of juicy organic strawberries. Finely grate the zest of half an orange. Add the zest and strawberries to a bowl and drizzle rosewater over them. Mix well and set aside for a few hours while the ice-cream hearts firm up.


To serve
Add a heart to a shallow bowl or plate and arrange to strawberry salad around the heart in a pretty manner. This is a super-healthy dessert that you can enjoy anytime. I had one for breakfast this morning!

Strawberries are very rich in Vitamin C which is an essential nutrient for collagen production, eat this dessert to get younger by the mouthful.

Enjoy!
xoxo Star

Fragrant Moroccan-Inspired Fruit Salad with Rose

I love this time of year as all the delicious orchard fruits like nectarines, apricots, peaches and cherries are making an appearance. Armed with a kitchen stocked to the rafters with delicious fruits I created this delightful fruit salad with the middle eastern fragrance of orange zest and roses, the decadent caramel sweetness of fresh dates and the mouthgasmic juiciness of pomegranate jewels, nectarines and cherries.

Ingredients (to serve 1 fruitarian as a main meal or 2-4 people as a starter/dessert/snack)
4 ripe juicy nectarines
30 or so sweet ripe cherries
3 fresh fudgy dates
Half of one giant pomegranate (or 1 normal-sized one)
1 UK Tablespoon of organic* 100% natural rosewater
Grated zest of 1 organic** orange

*most rosewater found in shops is fake and made of synthetic chemicals, order organic from a respected aromatherapy supplier such as NHR organic oils to make sure.
**only use organic oranges for zest as they haven;t been coated in wax and/or pesticides

To assemble
Stone the nectarines and slice into little pieces
Stone annd destalk the cherries then chop into halves
Stone and slice the dates into tiny pieces
Break open the pomegranate and remove the little jewels

Place all the fruit in a large mixing bowl and then add the freshly grated zest. Drizzle in the rosewater and give everything a good stir. Set aside in the fridge to let all the flavours combine.

Serve in cute bowls with a sprinkling of grated zest and fresh rose petals if you have them (I lack a garden sadly).

Eat. Enjoy. Swoon.
*mouthgasm*

Pina Colada: Alcohol-free and 100% delicious

I used to love throwing sweet juicy cocktails down my thristy gullet, but not since I became a living, breathing example of organic rejuvenation. There's no place in the Facelift Diet for skin-shrivelling booze!

But the sexiest thing is, you can make delicious 'mocktails' using yummy facelift foods, not only booze-free but rich in beauty nutrients.

Try my recipe for Pina Colada

 

You need:

1 juicy ripe pineapple (is your pineapple ripe? - video)
2 juicy limes
Coconut water from 1-2 green coconuts of one small carton of coco water

To make:

Top and tail your pineapple and cut off the peel. Cut the pineapple into long wedges and then use a knife to remove the woody core. Add to blender.

Juice the limes andd add the juice to the blender

Pour in the coconut water and blend until it is a creamy, dreamy tropical smooth drink.

Serve with ice and lime wedges for the ulitmate 'me time' beverage

Enjoy!

Top 5 luxury raw food recipe blogs (food porn alert!)

I love trawling through other peoples recipe blogs, especially healthy raw foods. There are some geniuses out there who create tantalising morsels of yumminess from simple ingredients like fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables. If you enjoy healthy juicy foods but still like to create fancy dishes, check out these blogs - they are my favourite top 5:

1. Uncooking 101
Created by Eva Rawposa and contributed to by many others. This blog features a 'recipe directory' to die for. Recipes are catagorised into: Raw drinks | Raw Breakfasts | Raw Breads and Crackers | Raw Dips and Dressings | Raw Snacks and Side Dishes | Raw Soup | Raw Salads | Raw Entrees | Raw Desserts

uncooking101.com screenshot

2. The Raw Chef Blog
By Russell James aka The Raw Chef. This is a good site for those Cordon Bleu wannabes, Russell makes some 5 star raw foods that look like they are created for royalty! I don't make complex recipes like these personally but I love to drool over the stunning photography. If you love 'Food Porn' you will love this site.

TheRawChef.com screenshot

3. Sweetly Raw
Heather Pace's blog is like peering into a high-class chocolatier/cake boutique. Not only is the girl deliciously gorgeous herself but her puddings and treats are to die for. She also sells some wonderful ebooks, I have her ice-cream one which is not only full of the best raw ice-cream recipes I have ever seen, but its also beautifully designed too. Although I don't eat these kinds of raw foods (too rich for me) I do love her creativity with raw foods and presentation.

SweetlyRaw.com screenshot

4. Golubka
This is a food blog with feeling, a rich weaving of life, food and culture. Golubka features some really decadent looking treats and has created some lower fat versions for the health-concious (raw gourmet foods are notoriusly high-fat). I love the stories that go with each recipe and the feeeling of being immersed in their family life. There are even special cute raw recipes for children and babies.

http://g0lubka.blogspot.co.uk screenshot

5. The Happy Raw Kitchen
This blog is really down to earth but still features really gorgeous recipes. You must try her raw version of Ben & Gerry's Cherry Garcia ice-cream - it's on my to-do list!

http://thehappyrawkitchen.blogspot.co.uk screenshot

I hope you enjoy drooling over these blogs as much as I did.

Caramel Apples with Fat-Free Vanilla Ice-cream | Gluten free, Dairy free, egg free, vegan

This is an unbelievable delicious and decandent dessert, you'd never realise it was fat-free, vegan, raw, nut-free and created from 100% fruit (ok apart from the cinnamon).

I sometimes have this for breakfast because health is yummy at anytime of the day.

This recipe calls for some preperation the night before, so have a read though before you attempt making.

You need
Apples about 2-3 per person
Dates (soaked overnight) about 2-3 per person
Bananas (ripe!) about 2-3 per person
Raisins about a handful per person
Oranges (freshly juiced)
Cinnamon
Vanilla (fresh pods or natural extract)

You will also need a food processor

Prep the ice-cream:
Peel, slice and freeze your bananas overnight. That's it.

Prep the apples and caramelise them:
Peel, core and slice your apples then place in a mixing bowl. Next place you soaked dates into the food processor with enough OJ to whizz up into a runny sauce. Add some cinnamon and blend again.
Pour the sauce over the apple slices and mix thoroughly. Add your raisins and mix well again.

Leave the bowl in the fridge overnight. The sauce will 'cook' the apple making it soft.

The next day, when in the mood for pudding divide your caramel apples up into bowls and then make the ice cream

Vanilla Ice-Cream
Simple add your frozen banana slices to your food processor until you have 'crumbs' then leave to stand for 5-10 minutes. Pulse again then rest, pulse and rest until you have white soft 'mr whippy' style ice-cream. You may have to use a spatula to keep pushing the banana back down into the processor. Once it is all soft and 'ice-creamy' add a good splash of vanilla essence or the scrapings from inside a vanilla pod.

Serve immediately before the ice-cream melts

Low Fat Healthy Mince Pies (not just for Christmas!)

I have a confession. I LOVE mince pies. I used to be able to eat an entire 6 pie box and it wasn't even christmas! These days I am much healthier and no longer stuff my gullet with refined sugar, white flour and suet (yuk!) but I still like to make 'treats' for myself and I get a kick out of re-inventing old favourites into healthy versions that will actually feed my skin and make me vibrantly healthy.

Traditional mince pies are far too high in empty calories, fat and gluten for me to offer them as a 'facelift food', luckily it is possible to make a super-healthy-just-as-tasty version. It's not quite an enclosed pie but its a delicious substitute made with almost identical ingredients (dried fruit, apple and citrus). I call it the Mince Pie Pudding and here is the recipe for you:

Mince Pie Pudding

Ingredients

10 dates soaked overnight in enough water to cover
8 small apples peeled, cored and sliced
3 oranges juiced with a citrus juicer/lemon squeezer
Ground almonds (1-2 tsp per person)
Cinnamon powder - about 2-3 tsps
Nutmegs
200g raisins/sultanas

How to make

1. First make a sweet n spicy citrus sauce by processing together the soaked dates, orange juice and cinnamon. It should be the consistancy of a creamy salad dressing - of too thick add more juice, if too thin add another soaked date or two. Add as much spice as you like!

2. Once the sauce is nice and smooth, add your apple chunks, raisins and grate about a third of a nutmeg into the processor, now gently pulse the machine until your have a chunky blend with visible pieces of apple (albeit rather small pieces).

3. Next get as many ramekin dishes as you need and place 1-2tsp of the ground almonds in each ramekin. Tamp down firmly the ground almonds so that it forms a kind of 'pastry' on the bottom and is firmly held together. Now pile on your 'mincemeat' and fill the ramekin.

4. Place the ramekins in the fridge to firm up for at least an hour, remove from the fridge once firm and chilled and enjoy. As a certified mince pie fan I guarantee you will love these healthy festive puddings.

Rejuvenating Coconut Spinach Soup

This super-nutritious soup is very easy and is literally a green smoothie that's quite thick and eaten from a bowl as soup.


Ingredients

To serve 1

    Half a ripe Hass avocado
    Coconut water from 1 or 2 mature coconut(s)
    2 -3 large handfuls of organic spinach
    Fresh coriander to taste
    Juice from 1 lime
    2 sping onions
  

To make

Put everything in a blender or processor and blend until smooth. Add more coconut water if it's too thick and adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Serve in soup bowl and spinkle a finely chopped spring onion on top.

Facelift Food Facts
Coconut is hydrating and is isotonic; contains the same electolyte balance as the body fluids

Spinach is rich in the mineral Iron which is an essential nutrient for oxygen transportation to the cells and skin cells

Avocado is a great source of Vitamin E - one of the main skin nutrients

Luxurious pineapple pancake dessert | fat-free, raw vegan

This decadent dessert is really simple. You need:

1 fat pineapple slice per person (removed skin and hard core)
1 scoop of Sexy Fat-Free Raspberry Ice-Cream per person
1 handful of your favourite juicy berries per person
A handful of raspberries (fresh or defrosted frozen) person
2 soaked dates per person

First make your raspberry ice-cream following this recipe here and set aside in the freezer to firm up slightly.

Next make a raspberry sauce by pureeing your raspberries and dates into a sauce using a blender or food processor.

Now assemble your dessert. Grab a nice plate and place one pineapple slice on each plate - this is your 'pancake'. Now fill the hole in the pineapple pancake with a generous handful of yummy berries. Take your ice-cream out of the freezer and place a big scoop on top of the berries. Now drizzle your raspberry sauce over the yummy wonder.

Facelift Nutrition Facts

Pineapple is an excellent source of Manganese, Vitamin C and Folic Acid. It also contains an enzyme called Bromelain which is a well known anti-inflammatory and can help the body to shed fat.
NB Pineapple alert! For those of us not blessed with a tropical climate be aware that your pineapple will be unripe and very acidic. Please sit your pineapple somewhere warm and allow it to turn completely golden yellow with no green on it at all, the leaves should be brown and crispy too. Only use ripe pineaple unless you like mouth ulcers, sore teeth and a 'geographic tongue'. You have been warned! Watch my 'How to avoid "pineapple mouth"' video


Raspberries are rich in anthocyanins, particularly Ellagic Acid which has been shown to exhibit anti-cancer and anti-tumor abilities. All berries contain fabulous anti-oxidants which are our anti-ageing best friends!

Bananas are wonderful for giving us steady energy from Carbohydrates, they also contain good amounts of the amino-acid Tryptophan which the brain can convert into Seratonin - the feel good hormone. Bananas have an excellent Potassium/Sodium ratio. They are also a high-fibre food which helps keep the colon nice and clean, a clogged colon shows up as puffy skin, outbreaks and urgh the dreaded cellulite so eat those bananas for beauty!

Pink & Fizzy: sparkling grapefuit drink

Pink Grapefuit-ade

Sometimes only a fizzy tipple will do when a lady is thirsty. This is a variation on lemonade which is not only tartly refreshing but deliciously good for you too.

You need:

Fresh juice of half a pink Grapefruit
Dried dates
Sparkling spring water (chilled)

To make:
Soak a few dates (2-4) overnight in water. ( the soakwater ends up being a sweet sticky syrup that is amazing as a sugar substitute). Squeeze a large juicy pink grapefruit and add the juice to a tall glass, add a teaspoon or 2 of date soak water to eat glass and then top up with chilled sparkling spring water.

For effect add some frozen raspberries as cute ice cubes

Sexy Fat-Free Raspberry Ice-Cream

Healthy fat free raspberry ice-cream, made just from fuit? YES!

Who doesn't like sinking their spoon into a delicious bowlful of silky ice-cream? Sadly almost all ice-cream is either an expensive combination of high-fat, high-cholesterol foods like eggs, milk and cream or it is a throat-cloyingly insipid blend of cheap vegetables oils, emulsifiers and flavourings. Both types come loaded with lashings of sugar. Cheap ice-cream is sold by volume not weight (look on the tub, it will say millilitres or litres) which means manufacturers can whip loads of air into it to bulk it up making it seem like more. Plain air was never so sweet or profitable!.

Luckily there is a 3rd option, of the facelift kind. An ice-cream so healthy and oure that you could eat it 3 times a day and it counts as a healthy snack and several of your '5 a day'. Plus it only takes about 15 minutes to make fromscratch! Sound to good to be true? Why not try it for yourself, here's the recipe:

You need:
2-3 bananas (per person)
100g of raspberries (for person)
ie for 4 people you will need 8-12 banans and 400g of raspberries

You will also need access to a freezer and a food processor or high-speed blender

To make:
Freeze the raspberries and slice up the bananas and place in a tub in the freezer for 8 hours or overnight (top tip: always keep some frozen banana slices in the fridge so you can have ice-cream for whenever the mood strikes). When you are ready to make the ice-cream, simply add your frozen banana slices (you may have to prise them apart a bit) and frozen raspberries to you food processor and pulse until a crumb-like consistency. Rest for 5-10 minutes and pulse again. Keep doing this until the mixture suddenly turns into pink 'mr whippy' ice-cream. You may need to periodically push the mixture back down the walls of the processor as it has a habit of trying to escape.

Serve immediately.

This is just a basic ice-cream recipe, you can of course pimp it up with some fruit sauces, chopped nuts (not too many), extra chopped fruit and whole unfrozen raspberries etc. Serve in a tall glass and make the healthiest sundae ever.