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About Ina Melny

foodie photographer vegan minimalist psychologist make up lover obsessed with beautiful things

Chocolate spread

Delicious, healthy, raw chocolate spread made with just 3 ingredients. With avocado and dates, vegan, dairy-free, no butter or oil, no added sugar.

Chocolate spreads are unhealthy

A healthy chocolate spread? How is it possible? If we only use healthy ingredients to make our spread from scratch, it will turn out super healthy. Not using any oils, processed sugars, dairy is a good plan for a healthy recipe.

Chocolate spread with dates and avocado withr aw cacao

How about the sweetness

A chocolate spread has to be sweet, right? Yes, but there is a workaround for this particular recipe, we are gonna use the healthiest sweetener there is, dates. Dates might not work in every single recipe as a sugar replacement, but here, the soft medjool dates are perfekt. Date are not only sweet, they also add a caramelly flavor to the spread.

Is cacao unhealthy?

There are many opinions on the health benefits and dangers of cacao out there. If you don’t wanna use cacao, use carob instead.

Avocado Chocolate Spread

Published:
      Blender

2 ripe
avocados
4
medjool dates
3 EL
cocoa powder
Blend together till smooth and creamy.

Share with your friends! They love what you love!


All you need for this recipe





Apple pie

Who doesn’t love apple pies? And this raw vegan version of an apple pie is not just delicious, it’s even healthy. A super healthy no bake apple pie.

Why this raw vegan apple pie is better than any other pie

Raw vegan cakes and pies are not as hard to make as baked once, but still take quite some time to prep. Here, I wanna share a quick and easy everyday raw vegan apple pie recipe that you will wanna make every day and it will not eat up much of your time. It’s one of these recipes that are faster to make than to eat.

Apple pie

Published:
      Food processor fitted with an S-knife and a slicing disc.

8 soft
apples
1 tbsp
almond butter
4
Medjool dates, pitted
1 tbsp
cinnamon Cylon
Thinly slice 4 apples. Mix 2 apples , almond butter dates and cinnamon into a thick sauce and combine with the apple slices.


raw vegan apple pie

It’s that easy to make an apple pie

You definitely don’t have to be a raw food chef or to buy expensive exotic superfoods to create a dessert you can enjoy daily. The very first homemade apple pie I remember eating at my 3rd cousin’s. She baked when I visited her family many years ago. It was, as cakes usually are, a vegetarian cake and being a vegetarian back then, I tried a slice. She advertised it as the most effortless and quick recipe she had ever baked. I took her around 40 minutes to wipe it off. I can’t quite remember the taste of it, but it was a fluffy dough with a thin layer of apples on top. I ate up the apples, they were the best. No wonder my fav apple pie nowadays is made without the dough entirely.

It’s not a birthday cake

This pie is basically just the filling of an apple pie, which is the best part of a pie for me anyways. Surprisingly, I completely lost my passion for apples over the years are rarely eat any, but this apple pie convinces me to eat 3-4 apple in one sitting every time I make it. This apple pie is what it is, it doesn’t pretend to be anything else, anything better, anything fancy. It is simple and honest recipe and has the potential to become a stable dessert or even to replace lunch.

Q

What are your favorite pies? Is it an apple pie, a pecan pie or a creamy raw vegan cheesecake? Let me know below.

more raw food

Eating raw vegan since 2013, I love the raw food diet and share some of my fav raw recipes here.
What are your fav raw food recipes, please share below!

The Food processor I use to make this pie

Кухонный комбайн

С разными насадками.

Кухонный комбайн

Дешевый, с резалкой, теркой и шинковкой.


Date, Agave, Honey? What is healthier

Dates are a healthier sugar alternative. It is better than agave or honey. Not that we are considering honey as a possible food, it’s a product bees invested hard labor in to have food for themselves and who are we to steel it, right?! Back to the date, dates are the best.

Watch the video on a comprehensive comparison of the popular sweeteners. Or read the original study if you want the information first hand here.



A good blender is simply irreplaceable.

Dehydrator turns fruit into delicious healthy treats.

If you like veggie noodles, you should get a spiralizer.

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food processor

food processor i use

My Food Processor

A food processor is a very useful tool in the raw food kitchen. I use it for veggie rice, cake bases, and for grinding and cutting veggies. Therefore, I got a food processor fitted with an s-knife (sabatier blade) as well as with different cutting and shredding and slicing discs.

This one is similar to the one I use in Germany and while traveling in Europe.
This one I used while living in the US and Costa Rica.



I'm Ina

In in love with raw vegan recipes. Raw food is not only super tasty and easy to prep, it is also incredibly versatile and exciting. Give one of my recipes a try.

blender

My Blender and fav Jars

I like the Blendtec blender for its powerful but dull blades. It is easy to clean and it is safe. The big jar is perfect for smoothies and soups. The twisted jars are perfect for dry ingredients for making raw breads, cakes and crackers. I’ve used it for half a year now and am pretty happy with the results.

There are some significant shortcoming like with every other appliance, but compared to all the other blenders I’ve tried so far, it’s the best for me at the moment. However, I do not recommend or promote this blender due to various shortcomings.

Take a closer look on amazon:

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Raspberry caramel cakes

raw vegan cake

Raspberry no-bake cakes

Published:
      Blender, Food Processor

Crust

1 cup
almonds
4
medjool dates, pitted
Combine using a food processor into a crumbly mixture.

Jam

1 cup
raspberries
10
medjool dates, pitted
Puree using a blender till jam-like consistency.

Caramel cream

1 ⅓ cups
cashews, soaked for 2h
6
medjool dates, pitted
Blend till creamy.
Gently transfer the layers into flat glasses. Decorate with raspberries.


raw vegan cake caramel cake





raw vegan cake raspberry

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Amazing Falafel Salad

Rawesome Cheesecakes

Great Raw Burgers

Delicious Bolognese with raw Parmesan


raw vegan cake cup cake treat cashews


A good blender is simply irreplaceable.

Dehydrator turns fruit into delicious healthy treats.

If you like veggie noodles, you should get a spiralizer.




Chocolate Milk

Sure, you can by vegan milks at a store, but it’s so easy to make your own raw vegan milk at home. Plan-based milks are not only tastier and healthier than cow’s milk, they are also so versatile and fun to make.
We used to love chocolate milk. The taste, the sweetness, the flavor of cocoa. Not the unhealthy ingredients of it or the animal-cruelty caused by the milk production for sure. So here is an amazing hemp-based alternative. It is healthier and even more delicious. There are so many more good non-dairy vegan substitutes for milk we will share with you this year!

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What are some good non-dairy vegan substitutes for milk? homemade chocolate milk vegan raw with hemp

Chocolate Milk with Hemp

Published:
      Blender    

2 tbsp hulled
hempseeds
1 tbsp raw
cacao
2
Medjool dates
500 ml (2 cups)
water
Blend all the ingredients in a high speed blender till smooth.

Where do we find our raw ingredients?

Some health food stores sell them, but we prefer buying them online. It’s usually cheaper and saves time looking for them at a store.

raw milk dates raw food dates
raw cacao milk vegan raw milk hemp
hemp raw protein milk

Dates

Order dates online here.

Raw Cacao

And here you raw cocoa powder.

Raw Hemp

Get your raw hemp seeds here.




Date, Agave, Honey? What is healthier

Dates are a healthier sugar alternative. It is better than agave or honey. Not that we are considering honey as a possible food, it’s a product bees invested hard labor in to have food for themselves and who are we to steel it, right?! Back to the date, dates are the best.

Watch the video on a comprehensive comparison of the popular sweeteners. Or read the original study if you want the information first hand here.



A good blender is simply irreplaceable.

Dehydrator turns fruit into delicious healthy treats.

If you like veggie noodles, you should get a spiralizer.




Where to buy organic in Barcelona

Organic-friendly Barcelona

Before traveling to Barcelona, we searched for organic options online and new there are organic shops, but we had no idea there so many so great fully organic shops, vegan stores and raw vegan foods. We hope we can help you to plan your shopping in Barcelona. If you are not from here, keep in mind that some shops are closed during the noon, some till 5pm. On a Sunday, the stores will be closed as well, also check for national holidays to avoid surprises. We didn’t get the chance to go to farmers markets, maybe there were not so many during December when we were here, or we just were overwhelmed with the other shopping options. If you find an interesting organic market, let me know in the comments below.


Ecocentre Supermercado Vegano




Ecocentre Supermercado Vegano is a fully vegan and organic market in central Barcelona. They have lots of staples and vegan specialty products like vegan cheeses, vegan milks, organic supplements and superfoods, raw vegan snacks and vegan ice cream. They don’t sell produce, so we buy mostly snacks and ice cream here.

They also sell vegan shoes, cookbooks, cleaning products and natural cosmetic produsts here. Definitely worth a visit if you are looking for organic and natural food, beauty products and alternatives for meat and dairy.




The Living Food


It’s a fully vegan and organic shop with lots of specialty products you won’t get anywhere else. The selection of vegan supplements is exceptional. We always find amazing raw vegan treats, chocolate, cookies here.

Our absolute favorite product here it their artisanal raw vegan cheese. They have quite a few different varieties ranging from fresh spreadable cheese to harder aged cheese. An absolute paradise for vegans, raw vegans and everyone interested in good food.

More about The Living Food and their amazing vegan cheeses here. You can try the cheeses at the raw vegan restaurant Petit Brot.




The Framers


Might be a little hard to find as the shop moved a couple houses further, check their Facebook for opening hours here.

We love shopping at this organic market, it has this farm-to-table feel to it. Great variety of seasonal organic produce and affordable prices. They have fruit that other chain markets don’t have. All produce is always organic, some other products might not be, better to ask.

They have a bulk section where you can shop zero waste style. For the produce, they only have plastic bags, so bring your reusable one.

Reusable produce bags

El Manà Supermercat Ecològic

A small organic store close to Sagrada Familia. Small selection of fruit, more local vegetables. Vegan products and raw freeze dried fruits and veggies.

Didn’t take any pictures inside the store the first 2 times we went as I was planning on coming here regularly. Though it was the nearest store to where we stayed, we ended up shopping at Molsa instead.


Molsa

We had one Molsa shop near by and loved it. The fruit and veggie section was great. Everything was fresh and the variety decent. The shop is all organic and sells many vegan products like milk, tempe, tofu as well as staples like organic beans and pasta.




We also went to another Molsa store and the produce there was also great, they had a produce fridge with berries, that the other Molsa didn’t have. There are more stores of this chain across Barcelona, google them to find the nearest one.


Obbio



Obbio is one of the larger organic stores in Barcelona. They have a great variety of fruits, veggies, greens. As well as a big range of vegan products. The produce was on the pricier side, but the variety was much better than at smaller stores.

The speciality are raw nuts and raw nuts butters. Also, the bulk section is incredible.


Veritas



Many stores across Barcelona. Great produce and many vegan products.

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Veganoteca



A fully vegan store sells the raw ice cream that we love, all kind of vegan meats, cheeses, milks. Also found natural vegan beauty products I’ve never seen before anywhere.


Lidl


Looking for organic at a discounter is pretty much the last resort for 3 reasons: the variety is limited and 2 of 3 fruits might be sold out and if not, the fruit is extremely unripe. Second, everything is in a plastic dish and then wrapt in plastic and more plastic. And third, it’s more expensive than at the organic store. This aside, the Lidl we went to in Barcelona had some organic fruit ad veggies one could survive on for a week. They also had lots of organic staples, even soy milk and tofu, beans, carbons beans, rice, potatoes and pasta.



Organic Market


A large beautiful store. Fruits, veggies, all kinds of organic products. We found raw vegan chocolate here.

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El Cau Cooperativa


A fantastic local produce store. We couldn’t shop here often, it was to far from where we lived, but if we stay nearby the next time, we definitely go there regularly! Fresh local organic produce and the prices are good too.


Vega Raw Orgànic


A vegan store with a restaurant. Lots of to-go options and ice cream. Some raw vegan snack.

Thank you so much for reading.
If you found this interesting or helpful and would like to give back, I would be more than happy to receive one virtual smoothie from you.You can paypal me one right here.
Thank you so much for being here.
Hope to see you again, soon.
Much love, Ina.

Barcelona

Restaurants


Petit Brot

Raw vegan restaurant in Barcelona.

Organic


Where to buy organic in Barcelona

Before traveling to Barcelona, we searched for organic options online and new there are organic shops, but we had no idea there so many so great fully organic shops, vegan stores and raw vegan foods. We hope we can help you to plan your shopping in Barcelona.

Flea Markets

Barcelona has unique, stylish, hipster and huge flea markets to offer. We are very spoiled flea markets enthusiast and wouldn’t recommend coming to Barcelona on a quest for awesome antiques, but once you are here and have couple of hours on the weekend and nothing better to do, try your luck here.

Lost & Found

Encants flea market

Fleadonia

Port Antic

Museums


Barcelona is has an incredible and rich art scene you should not miss out on. Here are the museums we’ve visited.

Miró

CCCB

Picasso

MNAC

MACBA

Antoni Tàpies

Places


Coming soon

Free Stuff


Our favorite free experience was going to the Christmas Mass at the Santa Maria del Mar on Christmas Eve
and at the Sagrada Familia on Christmas Day.

Barcelona Books


Museums in Barcelona

Best art museums in Barcelona

Fundació Joan Miró




Created by Miró himself, Fundació Joan Miró offers an incredible overview of Miró’s art throughout his life. We loved the incredible building, that took us on a long art walk inside and outside.
The museum has an very useful audioguide, it’s not free, but totally worth it. It has explanations to many paintings, as well as several walk and supplemental information you will only find out if you play with the audio guide around.

More about my experience and more pictures here.

More information on the museums website.

CCCB


At the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona we enjoyed the most insightful multi-media exhibition “After the End of the World” on environmental challenges our planet faces now and will in the future.



More about my experience and more pictures here.

More information on the museums website.

Museu Picasso of Barcelona





The Museu Picasso holds a beautiful collection Pablo Picasso’s early works. Not many interesting later work, but definitely worth the visit. The audio guide is very helpful, it’s not allowed to take pictures inside the museum.
More information on the museums website.


Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya






More about my experience and more pictures here.

More information on the museums website.

We went to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya for it’s collection of Modernism Art, the Building and the view were worth visiting this incredible museum as well. They have a good app with helpful explanations, don’t forget the headphones, you won’t be able to listen to the audio otherwise.

MACBA



Exiting contempo­rary art exhibitions.




More about my experience and more pictures here.

More information on the museums website.

Fundació Antoni Tàpies





The Fundació Antoni Tàpies has some major works by Tàpies’ on display, the temporary exhibition of the time of my visit was the incredibly insightful photography series by Susan Meiselas documenting the Nicaraguan war. The museum has an app with lots of supplemental materials for some exhibitions, so don’t forget your headphones and ask ask for the app, it was free at the time of my visit.

More about my experience and more pictures here.

More information on the museums website.



Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya



More information on the museums website.

We went to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya for it’s collection of Modernism Art, the Building and the view were worth visiting this incredible museum as well. They have a good app with helpful explanations, don’t forget the headphones, you won’t be able to listen to the audio otherwise.

Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)

At the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona we enjoyed the most insightful multi-media exhibition “After the End of the World” on environmental challenges our planet faces now and will in the future.


More information on the museums website.

“After the End of the World is an exhibition about the Earth of 2017 irreversibly transformed into the Anthropoceneplanet after two centuries of human impact on natural systems. But it is also an exhibition about how we will reach the world of the latter half of the 21st century, and about our society’s responsibility to the generations who will be born and grow up in it.”
CBBB

“This civilization is over. And everybody knows it.”
McKenzie Wark

“Marxism can include nonhumans – must include nonhumans.”
Timothy Morton

FUNDACIÓ ANTONI TÀPIES

Fundació Antoni Tàpies





The Fundació Antoni Tàpies has some major works by Tàpies’ on display, the temporary exhibition of the time of my visit was the incredibly insightful photography series by Susan Meiselas documenting the Nicaraguan war. The museum has an app with lots of supplemental materials for some exhibitions, so don’t forget your headphones and ask ask for the app, it was free at the time of my visit.
More information on the museums website.


Fundació Joan Miró

Created by Miró himself, Fundació Joan Miró offers an incredible overview of Miró’s art throughout his life. We loved the incredible building, that took us on a long art walk inside and outside.

The museum has an very useful audioguide, it’s not free, but totally worth it. It has explanations to many paintings, as well as several walk and supplemental information you will only find out if you play with the audio guide around.

The museum is easily accessible by the bus, buy your bus ticket beforehand at a metro station. We always get a 10-trip-ticket, it’s half the price of the regular bus ticket and you can share one ticket.

More information on the museums website.
The Fundació Joan Miró was created by Miró himself, at first principally with works from his own private collection.

Discover more about Miró’s life and work, get a book





Flea Markets in Barcelona

Best flea markets in Barcelona

Barcelona has unique, stylish, hipster and huge flea markets to offer. We are very spoiled flea markets enthusiast and wouldn’t recommend coming to Barcelona on a quest for awesome antiques, but once you are here and have couple of hours on the weekend and nothing better to do, try your luck here.

Lost & Found



Lost and Found is held in an amazing Train Station, what a magical setup for a stylish flea market.
A polished flea market with mostly hipster vintage clothes and furniture. You will get exactly the same hand picked clothes that you get at the vintage stores in Barcelona for the same price as in the store. Quality and condition of the clothes is not very good, mostly cheap brands like c&a rebranded with the logo of the vintage store. The furniture and household items are mostly from the 60ise to 80ies and for a flea market kind of pricey. Nice vibes, music, perfect place to hand out for an hour on a Sunday.
Happes on weekends, for details check out their facebook page.

Encants flea market




Saturdays and on some weekdays

One of the biggest flea markets in Barcelona. It’s held in an beautiful modern spacious hall and is floated with diverse items from antique shop quality silverware to rubbish. On the upper level, there are the more organised stools with antique and new furniture and antique silverware, which I found way too pricey. Downstairs, there are tables and piles of trash and probably treasures, which we couldn’t find the one time we went. Around Xmas we saw piles of cheap figurines for the cribs and dusty Xmas tree decor, there are piles of cheap weathered cosmetics, newspapers, broken electronics. All the sellers appear to be resellers offering a consistent assortelent goods. Missing are the locals, who sell their own or grandma’s stuff. Overall, the market has a charm of a Waste Sorting Plant with a better smell and in a too fancy of a hall. Nevertheless, it was a great experience to see this unique place.

Fleadonia



Sundays.
Hip, clean, well organised flea market in a beautiful setting offers mostly hipster fashion and some antique household items. Prices are high, quality not so great. All professional resellers. More info on Fleadonia facebook.

Mercat Port Antic




Sundays.
Nice small antique market, silverware, art, books. Stunning location by the Marina. More Info on the Mercat Port Antic on facebook.

The Living Food

A vegan shop full of amazing organic treats for everyone

The Living Food is one of its kind in Barcelona. You will find artisanal aged vegan cheeses made of cashews and almonds, the best raw cookies from Czech Republic, raw coconut vinegar from the States, raw miso from japan, superfoods and fruit powders from all over the world and lots of local vegan products such as chickpea tempeh. We will focus on the absolute specialty: the cheeses, but the shop offers so much more.


We love the cheeses

The illuminated fridge caught our eye, we immediately realized we are in cheese heaven. We have tried many different raw vegan cheeses before, but the cheeses here sounded spectacular. We tried 7 different cheeses throughout our stay here in Barcelona and have to share them with you guys.





Blue Cheese

Aged cheese with almonds and cashews.

Our favorite! The texture and the taste are very authentic and delicious.

Semi-aged with Achiote

Made with cashews.

This cheese melts like butter. Super creamy and mild. It’s our second favorite cheese.

Tomato and garlic cheese

Aged cashew cheese with sundried tomatoes.

The aged cheeses are a true specialty, it’s almost impossible to find aged raw vegan cheeses anywhere else as for now. The taste and the texture totally remind of a mild gouda. The cheeses are easiest to cut when cooled in the fridge. After sitting outside the texture gets softer and the taste unfolds. The cheese becomes more spreadable. We enjoy the cheeses either way. We usually eat one half straight from the fridge, the other half half an hour later.

Paprika and smoke

Aged cashew cheese.

The crust is amazing and the flavor mild but with character. The paprika and smoke are well hidden.

Pink Pepper

Fermented cashew cheese with pink pepper kernels.

The cheese is neutral and creamy, the pink pepper adds tons of taste and flavor.

Truffle Cheese

Aged cheese with almonds, cashews and truffle.

Dense cheese-like crust, tender inner part with a mild truffle flavor.

Fresh Tulsi cheese

Fermented almond and cashew cheese with Tulsi.

This cheese is my least favorite, For me, it has a soapy aftertaste that I don’t like.



Coming to the shop, take a good look around and let Santi and Miguel explain you the cheeses and find your favorite. I’m sure you will wanna come back for more. If you’re not into cheeses, let me tell you, I never liked dairy based cheeses, but nut based cheeses are next level.

Vegan cheeses (not particularly raw)

A good blender is simply irreplaceable.

Dehydrator turns fruit into delicious healthy treats.

If you like veggie noodles, you should get a spiralizer.