Recipe: Garlic Roasted Eggplant Salad & Reboot Summary

Today was a really interesting day! And pretty great. My tummy is having some hassles adjusting it seems, so I ended up starting the day with a juice anyway (just didn't want anything else) and even though I had a fairly small amount to eat, really wasn't hungry for dinner either.

Day 8 Summary:
Food:
Breakfast: Juice of 2 x pink lady and 2 x granny smith apples
Lunch & Afternoon Tea: Garlic Roasted Eggplant Salad

This was super delicious, and the recipe is below. After two serves of this - yes I came back for seconds for afternoon tea  ;) - I was feeling really full! My tummy was pretty rumbly and a bit sore in the afternoon also, I think maybe just the adjustment to the little bit of garlic, oil and salt in this recipe might have been to blame.
Dinner: Green smoothie with 2 bunches english spinach, 2 large bananas, 1 tsp cacao and 1/2 tsp maca

Exercise: 
I did fit in a brisk 30 minute walk with the children this afternoon, it was really lovely to be out in the beautiful fresh air. Thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Gratitude: Some of you may have seen on facebook, my gratitude for today was for my "mistakes" for helping me learn and grow and become the person I am today :).

Recipe: Garlic Roasted Eggplant Salad (Vegan):
* Serves 1 person as a main meal.
* This recipe IS a little fiddly but its WELL worth the effort! :D
Ingredients:
2 M-L Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced
1 TBSP Chopped Parsley
1 TBSP Tamari/Noma Shoyu/GF Soy Sauce/Liquid Aminos

1/2 a large eggplant, sliced in 1/2 cm slices (8-10 slices)
2 cloves garlic
1 small pickling onion or 1/4 large brown onion
Sea Salt
Cracked Black Pepper
2 TBSP Olive Oil

1-2 tomatoes, sliced in 1/2 cm slices
8-10 leaves fresh basil

Method:
1. First preheat your oven to 160-180ºC. Then set the mushrooms to marinate: slice mushrooms and dice parsley, and place in a small bowl, pour Tamari over and set aside to marinate.

2. Prep the eggplant: Lay out the slices of eggplant on a cutting board or tray, and sprinkle each slice with a little salt, rub the salt into the slices. Leave to sit for approx 15 minutes, then flip over the slices and repeat on the other side. Leave to sit for a further 15 minutes. Then rinse the slices of eggplant and dry between sheets of paper towel. *This breaks down the eggplant a little so you don't get that rubbery texture, you should notice the slices are softer and floppier after doing this.

 3. In your TMX or food processor, finely mince the garlic and onion for 5 seconds on speed 7. Put this into a small bowl  or ramekin and add olive oil, mix.

4. Lay the slices of eggplant on baking paper on a cookie tray. Using a teaspoon, spoon a small amount of garlic, onion and oil mixture onto each slice of eggplant, spread evenly over each slice using the back of the spoon. Sprinkle with a little good quality salt and cracked black pepper.

5. Bake eggplant in oven at 160-180ºC for approximately 20-30 minutes or until you see the onion and garlic browning, and eggplant goes nice and soft.

6. Arrange slices of eggplant around a round plate, place a slice of tomato and a leaf of basil on top of each piece of eggplant, and place marinated mushrooms in the centre of the plate. Serve and enjoy! :D

I hope you all had a lovely day! Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Maybe pop by my FB page and let me know what YOU'RE grateful for?

Love and Health,
B xxx

Creamy Raw "Risotto" with Dill & Bacon and Spinach Quinoa Pilaf

I've been finding it hard the last couple of weeks to feel motivated to come up with some interesting things to say, recipes and pics for you. I've had this vicious cold which seems to be going around and it really knocked me about - time for me to get high-raw again methinks - and its hard to feel energetic about anything when your head feels like its full of cotton-wool, your nose won't stop running, and your cough could be mistaken for a vicious dog barking!

HOWEVER! I did manage to snap a pic of those Kale Chips I made a while back, so here's the final product: (They were so yummy I'm amazed they lasted me two days - what restraint I showed! hehehe)

They are a PERFECT on-the-go snack for raw foodies - I just threw these in a ziploc bag and there you go, instant delicious and healthy snack to take with you! (The recipe is here btw)

I also made my very first attempt at a mock rice/rissotto type dish, which I've been wanting to try out for a while - I've seen a few recipes around and had a think about how I'd do it in the TMX and it turned out pretty well.

Creamy Raw "Rissotto" with Dill (Raw Vegan, Dairy-Free)

1. First make the "Dilled Sour Cream": Soak 3/4 cup of sunflower seeds in water at room temperature for 2-4 hours. Rinse then drain. Add seeds to TMX along with small handful of fresh dill, (or 1-2TBSP dried dill), 1-2 tsp sea salt, 1/2 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar, 10g Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and 100g water. Blend all ingredients for 1 minute on Speed 9. Scrape down the sides of bowl and blend for a further 1-2 minutes on Speed 9 or until a smooth, creamy texture is reached.

2. Quarter two medium carrots and chop in TMX for 5 seconds on Speed 5.


3. Add 1/2 a head of cauliflower (broken into florets) and 1/8 red onion (optional) and chop for 10 seconds on Speed 4. This should result in a rice-like consistency.

4. Add the Dilled Sour Cream (should be approx 220-250g) and blend for 15 seconds on reverse and Speed 3, scrape down sides of bowl and blend another 10secs if needed. Serves 1-2 ppl.

The use of the sunflower seeds to make the sour cream, and the carrot makes this a really affordable dish, and it tasted pretty great too! :D

I've also been whipping up some fabulous Green Smoothie's (as per usual, for me the day isn't off to a good start until I've had my green smoothie!). Recently I've been enjoying a lot of watermelon in mine, and I've also added two organic raw powders that I alternate between - one is a green powder of Spirulina, Chlorella, Wheat Grass and Barley Grass, the other is a power berry one (pomegranate, acai berries, goji berries etc). I just add a tsp of one of these to my smoothies for the extra nutrients, and the green powder especially seems to make a big difference to my energy! Here's Jon after enjoying some of my Kale/Pineapple/Fresh Mint/Green Powder smoothie which was breakfast yesterday: (Aren't they just the bluest eyes you've ever seen??? Perhaps I'm biased......so sue me! :P)

Another experiment I had which turned out to be delicious was also Risotto-related - I wanted to make a savoury dinner risotto type dish which was gluten free. I'm a HUGE fan of risotto in general - its always so delicious and super easy in the TMX, but regular risotto can often leave me feeling bloated and heavy in the tummy, whereas a gluten free version doesn't give you that heavy feeling. So I made a pilaf using Quinoa instead of rice, which came out just great:


Bacon & Spinach Quinoa Pilaf:


1. Cut 50g parmesan or pecorino cheese into small cubes and grate in TMX for 10 seconds on Speed 9. Remove from bowl and set aside.

2. Rinse TMX bowl, then weigh 200g of Quinoa into the rice basket, sit into TMX and pour 1200g of water over. Cook for 17 minutes  on 100°C on Speed 3. Remove rice basket using spatula and set aside the cooked quinoa in your Thermoserver or other bowl.

3. In TMX bowl dice 2 shallots, 2 cloves of garlic, and a handful of parsley for 3 seconds on Speed 7. Add 150g chopped silverbeet (including stalks) or spinach, 150g bacon pieces, and 30g Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Saute at 100°C for 5 minutes on Reverse & Speed 1 with MC Off (to allow it to sweat).

4. Return Quinoa to TMX bowl, add 1tsp-1dssp TM Vegetable Stock Concentrate (depending on how salty you want it) and 150g boiling water and cook for 4 minutes at 100°C on Reverse & Speed 1½.

5. Pour pilaf into Thermoserver and stir through most of the Parmesan/pecorino cheese leaving some aside. Serve out and garnish each bowl with a little parmesan and chopped parsley like so:

* For a vegetarian or vegan option, I would substitute some mushrooms instead of the bacon, and perhaps use Nutritional Yeast Flakes (2-3tbsp) instead of the cheese. You would also need to increase the stock to compensate for the saltiness of the bacon.

This recipe makes enough for 3 main serves or 6 side-serves.

I hope you enjoy the recipes, and as usual, if you have any feedback or questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment here or on my Facebook Page.

Love and Health, B xxx

Recipes: Raw Beetroot Soup, Seeded Pizza Bread

So last Sunday was Mother's Day - I hope all you Mum's out there had a lovely day and were spoiled rotten! My daughter brought me a lovely green smoothie of baby spinach and oranges for my breakfast in bed, it was so sweet.

Then we went for a picnic lunch by the lake with my Mother, Saana, Jon and myself. It was just lovely, cool with a nice breeze but not too cold. I made a delicious and healthy picnic lunch of three deeps, some crudites and some seeded pizza bread, which I thought I'd share with you. It's based on the regular pizza dough from the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook with some adjustments. It's a lovely thickness - just a midbase, quite crunchy on the outside with a soft seeded centre, perfect for dips!

Seeded Pizza Bread:

Ingredients:

280g water

2 tsp dried yeast

20g oil

1-2 tsp salt

500g bakers flour

1 TBSP chia seeds soaked in 3 TBSP warm water

1 TBSP linseeds

1 TBSP sesame seeds

Method:

Place water, yeast, oil, salt and chia seeds in TMX bowl and blend for 6 seconds on speed 6.

Add all flour and other seeds and blend for another 6 seconds on speed 6.

Place dial onto the locked lid position, and set the timer for 2 minutes, then press Interval and stay with the machine while it kneads the dough.

Check the consistency of the dough before turning it out, if its a little sticky, just add a little more flour (approx 50g) and knead for a further 30sec to 1 minute.

Turn dough out and shape into four similar sized balls, allow to rise for 20 minutes, then roll out into pizza bases.

Top pizzas with your favourite toppings, and bake for 10-15 minutes. Or to use for dipping bread, roll out into the desired thickness, then spike the dough halfway through with a fork all the way around, and bake approx 10 minutes at 180-200C.

Everyone loved the pizza bread with dips for our Mother's Day Lunch (well except Jon, because he's still drinking milk, lol!). To top off my day my Mum and Saana gave me a beautiful bunch of flowers, which I arranged in a bowl of water for our table when I got home. They turned out so nicely I just had to snap a pic, of course. ;)

At the moment I'm participating in Uncooking101's 21 Day Raw Food Jumpstart (you can find info at her website: uncooking101.com) and I'm finding it just fabulous! As part of our program for this week we needed to try some cold soups, after trying a few from the recipes I decided to have a go at my own based on one of my fave ingredients: the humble beetroot! The result turned out looking and tasting so vibrant!

Raw Beetroot Soup:

Ingredients:

1 tsp cumin seeds or ground cumin

1 small clove of garlic, with core removed

120g cashews, soaked for 2-8 hours, NOT drained

1 medium beetroot (250g approx)

20g lemon or lime juice (I used kaffir lime juice)

130g water (or more to your preference)

1 tsp sea salt

2 TBSP fresh parsley

small sprinkle of diced shallots and parsley to garnish

Method:

Grind cumin in TMX for 1 minute on speed 9.

Add garlic and mince for 3 seconds on speed 7.

Add all other ingredients (except garnish) and blend for 1 minute on speed 9.

Check consistency - I made mine quite thick so I could use it for a dip with vege sticks as well as a soup, if you prefer it to be more of a soupy consistency, add at least 50-100g more water.

Serve up in your favourite bowl, garnish with the greenery and enjoy! :D

Soon I will be sharing a Mediterranean Vegetable Quinoa recipe, but its still in development (read: I had a great inspiration last night but it turned out sooooo salty it was inedible, so back to the drawing board!) and once I get clear of my To Do List (which is about as long as my daughter is tall!) I will be putting out my Chookie's Cookin' Great Green Smoothies recipe ebook. So stay tuned, and please leave me some comments and feedback on what you'd like to see on the blog!

Til next time, Love and Health, B xxxx

Getting back on the wagon......

Helloooooo lovely people!

So it seems like its been FOREVER since I did a blog post! But I'm determined to get back into the swing of things now - not just with the blog, but with my raw food journey, weight loss, Thermomix, parenting, just everything, lol. I went on holiday for two weeks and then needed the next two weeks to recover from my holiday, so all sorts of things have been left to slide, but no more!

So the past few days I've been working on getting back into mostly raw food, as while on holidays I splurged and ate/drank all kinds of things that I know are not so great for me - don't we all do that? One green smoothie I did make while I was away I will share with you because it was sooooo sensational I can't wait to get my hands on some more kale and some pomegranate to make it again! Seriously it was THE best one I have ever made, bar none! :D

Recipe: Sweet and Tangy Green Smoothie
Ingredients:
2 cups kale
200-300g watermelon
100-200g pineapple
seeds and flesh from 1 pomegranate
large handful ice

Method:
Place all ingredients in Thermomix or blender and blend on speed 9 for 1-2 minutes or until nice and smooth and juicy! Enjoy the sweet and tangy deliciousness. Sorry I don't have a picture for you, I drank it all before I thought of taking a pic!

Another quick recipe I'd like to share with you (and one I DID snap a picture of) was this fabulous salad I made the other day:

Recipe: Monster Salad with Minted Lime Dressing
Salad:
Ingredients:
6-8 large leaves of iceberg lettuce
1 large tomato
1/2 medium cucumber
1/2 large red capsicum
1/4 red onion
1 medium avocado

1 Serve of your favourite veggie pate (I used Uncooking101's Sunny Carrot Pate)

Method:
Chop lettuce and veggies and arrange prettily, making a fan of the avocado slices and sprinkling the red onion on top (I layered lettuce, then tomato, then cuc, then capsicum, then avo, then onion). Place a nice ice-cream scoop of pate on the top and drizzle with Dressing.

Minted Lime Dressing:
Ingredients:
70g fresh lime flesh (approx 3 limes or kaffir limes, peeled and deseeded)
sml handful fresh parsley
sml handful fresh mint
60g Apple Cider Vinegar
60-80g Grapeseed Oil

Method:
Place all ingredients in Thermomix or blender and blend on speed 9 for one minute. Drizzle over your monster salad and pate and enjoy! This dressing is VERY tangy, so if you don't like that zesty lime flavour reduce lime flesh to 40g or just use the juice from the limes instead of the whole thing.

That's about it for NOW! But there will definately be more to come in the following days and weeks, and I will be working on that Great Green Smoothies ebook to have available for you as soon as I can!

Please have a look on my facebook page I have an exercise in self-love going on there at the moment which I hope will be really special!

Love and Health, B xxx

3 Day All Raw Vegan Challenge with Prizes! ;)

Hello Everyone! I'm so excited to be offering another challenge! :D

I was so inspired and energised by my self-challenge to do 3 days all raw vegan that I ended up doing 4 days in a row all raw vegan and it was really fantastic!

As promised here is a breakdown of my 3 Days All Raw Vegan:

Day 1:
On Waking:  1 large glass of water
Breakfast: Watermelon, Strawberry and Pineapple Green Smoothie
Morning Tea: Banana, Strawberry and Almond Green Smoothie
Lunch: Macadamia Pesto Zoodles with Tomato and Olives
Afternoon Tea: Banana and Cashew Green Smoothie
Dinner: Salad of Lambs Lettuce and Watercress with Capsicum and Semi-dried Tomato Dressing
Throughout the day I drank approximately 3 litres of water and tried to do a lot of incidental activity.

Day 2:
Waking: Large glass of water with fresh lemon juice.
Breakfast: Watermelon, Pineapple & Orange Green Smoothie.
Morning Tea: Banana, Berry & Cashew Green Smoothie
Lunch: Crudites with Pesto Sauce and Semi-dried Tomato and Capsicum Dip.
Afternoon Tea: Large Banana, Cashew and Date Green Smoothie
Dinner: No dinner this night as I was at a Demo until really late.
Throughout the day I drank about 2 Litres of water and stayed nice and active.

Day 3:
Waking: Large glass of water with lemon juice.
Breakfast: Pineapple, Orange and Mint Green Smoothie
Morning Tea: Banana, Berry and Choc Green Smoothie
Lunch: TMX Beetroot Salad and Celery Sticks with Semi-dried Tomato and Capsicum Dip.
Dinner: Asian style salad with Sesame Soy Dressing
Dessert: Choc, Banana, Cashew & Date Smoothie
Throughout the day I drank approximately 2.5L of water and tried to be active around the house.

So now the FUN PART! Because I found this challenge to be reasonably easy to achieve and I felt SOOOOOO fantastic as a result, I've decided to extend the challenge to my readers! :D

So I'm challenging you to try 3 DAYS ALL RAW VEGAN! I will post recipes for EVERYTHING I ate for the 3 days I did this, so you can simply follow those (I'm including modifications) or do what YOU like! The only rules are NOTHING COOKED, and NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS for the entire 3 days! :D Just wholesome delicious fresh fruits, vegetables, salads, nuts and seeds.

I'm giving you all until Easter to try this, so you have from now until the end of Thursday the 5th of April to enter into the draw (I'll make the cutoff 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time). To qualify to enter you need to at least ATTEMPT to go 3 days all raw vegan. If you do all three days you can enter to win the DVD "Hungry For Change" - have a look at this website for further information: Hungry for Change. This is a remarkable and amazing film which is truly eye-opening and inspiring, you'll LOVE having this at home to inspire you to healthy eating any time you're feeling a little challenged (of course I'm getting myself a copy too!). You'll also be automatically entered to win a copy of my ebook "Chookie's Cookin' Great Green Smoothies" full of delicious Green Smoothie Recipes (one for every day of the week) plus tips and tricks to make green smoothies work for ANYONE! For those of you who may try the challenge but only last one or two days, don't worry, you'll be eligible to enter to win my ebook also, but not the DVD.

So to clarify: Go three days all raw and LET ME KNOW and you'll go in the draw to win the DVD "Hungry for Change" AND a copy of my ebook "Chookie's Cookin' Great Green Smoothies", and if you only go one or two days all raw and LET ME KNOW, you'll be entered to win a copy of my ebook.

Later today I will post all the recipes for my three days, as well as a shopping list to help you get organised!

Let me know if you're going to join this challenge and if you need any more information! I'm super excited to see how energised and fabulous you feel after doing this! :D

Love and Health! B xxxx

Hot Chocolate, Baby Food, 30-in30, and all that jazz! :)

Well I've been DYING to share some things with you for a few days now, and I just had to make some time to sit down and actually blog it!

First of all this morning I had a delicious green smoothie of green apple and a handful of grapes, I didn't have any baby spinach and didn't feel like silverbeet in it so no leafy greens, but it came out green nonetheless and was lovely and sweet and refreshing! Then for morning tea I was feeling like a little indulgence so I made some of this guilt free Hot Malted Chocolate! Thanks to Quirky Cooking who gave me the original recipe for Creamy Hot Chocolate (Dairy Free), which I have tweaked to my personal tastes (and to make it a Malted version).

Cashew Milk Hot Malted Chocolate
Ingredients: (Makes 1 Mug)
50g raw cashews
300g water
10-20g raw cacao powder, or cocoa or carob powder
1/2-1tsp Maca powder
Rapadura, Agave Nectar, Stevia, Sugar, Raw Honey, Pure Maple Syrup - or whatever sweetener you prefer - to taste (I used about 20g of raw sugar as I'm currently waiting for my order of Rapadura to arrive, WOE!)

Method:
Grind the cashews in the TMX for 10 seconds on speed 9.
Add 300g water and mix for 1 minute on speed 8.
Add your cacao, cocoa or carob, maca and sweetener of choice, then cook for 5 minutes at 70-80 degrees on speed 4.
When its finished whizz it up for 15-30 seconds on speed 8-9 to get it a little frothed up. Enjoy a lovely warming cup of super creamy and indulgent Hot Malted Choc - without the guilt! (or the hayfever in my case! LOL)
*If making for more than one person, just double or triple the recipe, and extend just the cooking time for about 2 minutes. :)

So next I wanted to tell you all about baby stuff in the Thermomix! As I go along I just keep realising there are more and more things that I can use it for! :D

So I started out by asking Jo from Quirky Cooking how she thought I would go about making my own rice cereal for bub (as Jo's my go-to healthy food guru!). I really wanted to have a better option than rice cereal out of a box for bub. She suggested I soak some brown rice and then grind that up. I experimented a couple of times and here's what I ended up with:

How to make Rice Flour for baby Rice Cereal:
Ingredients:
300g Brown Rice
Water
(Yes, that's IT!)

Method:
(this is a tiny bit fiddly, but I think its worth it to be giving bub whole foods free from additives and preservatives!)
Place brown rice in a container with water to soak for 12-24 hours (the longer the better I tend to think).
Strain water from rice, place rice into a baking dish and bake in oven at about 100 degrees C for a couple of hours until its dry. (You can't make flour with wet rice!)
Mill rice in TMX for 1 minute on speed 10.

To make this into rice cereal you can just mix it up with a little boiling water from the kettle, and some pureed fruit or veggies (see below). Or you can cook it in the TMX as per the Everday Cookbook on page 163. The reason I went to the trouble of soaking the rice then drying it out was so that its easier to digest and doesn't really NEED to be cooked. :)

Taste and texture wise this turned out pretty much exactly like supermarket bought rice-cereal, it just looks darker because well, I used brown rice! LOL (brown rice has far more nutrients than white rice, thus the reason for using brown rice). The ONLY drawback that I can see from doing it this way is that the supermarket brands are fortified with Iron which growing babies need (although i'm wondering how our grandparents and great grandparents managed to raise healthy children without fortified rice cereals? Interesting thought!). My solution to the Iron issue is simple: I never mix up plain rice cereal for my children ANYWAY (have you tasted it by itself? ewwwwww), I always add some pureed fruit or vegetables to it, so to make sure he's getting enough iron, I'm simply going to steam then puree some baby spinach and add that to some apples and the rice cereal, and voila! Iron-fortified NATURAL baby rice cereal! *Pats herself on the back* :) hehehehe

I also made some baby food in the TMX last week and have been meaning to post my method on here for anyone who's interested. I made pure sweet potato puree, and apple puree as its best to start kids on puree made from just one fruit or veggie at a time.

Fruit and Veg Baby Food in TMX:
Place water in the bowl of the TMX to just cover the blades.
Peel and thinly slice your hard veggies such as pumpkin or sweet potato and place them in the rice basket.
Peel and core your apples or pears and chop into large chunks and place in the Varoma (you can fit 2kgs of fruit in here EASILY).
Set time to 20-30 minutes (depending on how soft you want the food prior to pureeing it), temp on Varoma setting, and speed 1.
When its finished steaming, set aside the varoma, pull out the rice basket with the veg in using the spatula, and tip the water from the bottom into a jug - keep this water!
Tip the veggies from the rice basket into the TMX bowl and add a little water (about 30g to start with).
Puree for 30 seconds on speed 7-8. Check the consistency, then add more water and process longer if you want it smoother/thinner.
Do the same with the apples from the Varoma, although you might want to do them in two batches, and apples need far less water, even none at all sometimes!
Freeze in ice-trays or small containers and use as needed.

The Thermomix is ALSO a steam steriliser! Place all your bottles, dummies etc in the Varoma, put about 1L of water in the TMX bowl, and put on for 15 minutes on Varoma temperature on speed 1, sterilising DONE, AND you can use the water for formula bottles too! :D

Okay I'm going to have to pull up here as Jon has just woken and wants some time with Mummy! Coming next time I have recipes for some delicious raw vegan salad and dressings, a raw vegan pate, more smoothies, and who knows what else!

By the Way the 30-in-30 Green Smoothie Challenge is officially a success! We reached 30 people who've joined last night! :D Don't forget to comment on this post in order to be entered into the draw to win Harvvey Diamond's book Fit For Life, Not Fat For Life!

Love and Health! B xxx

30-in-30 Extension and PRIZE!!!!

Hi All!

So we're currently up to 25 people who have joined me (officially) on this green smoothie challenge - which is to have a green smoothie for breakfast every day for 30 days! My goal was to get 30 people to join my by tomorrow, EEP! Seeing as though we are SOOOOO close to my goal, I've decided a couple of things: 1) I'm going to extend it until this Friday and 2) I'm going to giveaway a prize if we reach our target by Friday.

So here's what to do: Tell your friends, family, colleagues, anyone about what you are doing and ask them to join us! Also, if you've already been doing this but haven't told me OFFICIALLY by commenting on the blog or on facebook saying something like "I'm in!", please do so, so I can make sure you're counted!

My smoothie this morning: two oranges, a green apple, a big bunch of baby spinach, a big handful of ice, yum! So refreshing! I was bouncing off the walls after this :D

If you're new to all of this, please read the first post 30-in-30 and also this one, which has a shopping list for beginners, then read on in date order forward from there to now! ;)

Last but not least, comment at the bottom of this post, or on this post's link on my Facebook page, to be counted to go in the draw to win a copy of Harvey Diamond's book "Fit for Life, Not Fat for Life" which is the book that got me started on this whole journey in the first place and is a sensational read, period. I'll draw this by random selection on Friday evening by 9pm Brisbane QLD time. YOU HAVE TO COMMENT TO ENTER PEOPLE!!!

Baby food, sterilising bottles, etc all coming up in my next post later today or tomorrow!

Love and Health, B xxx

Deep Breath, Push Reset!

I've been facing some challenges just on a personal level this week......

Firstly everyone in our family got sick, Jon, myself and my husband with a cold, then Saana (my 6 year old girl) had a bout of gastro so we were up all night Sunday night with her being sick, poor thing! I've had KILLER hayfever every day all day this week :(, and Jon had his immunisations this week which made him a little grouchy and have a slight fever also! Here's a pic of him looking not so impressed with the world LOL!

He's still super-cute though! (I suppose I could be a little biased, hehehe)

So, with all that, I felt tired and lousy most of the week, so I didn't get out walking, and I ate comfort food (bread and risotto and pasta etc), and then I didn't have any energy, so i didn't go out walking, and I ate comfort food.....etc etc etc - you get the picture!

Are there any of you (women in particular) out there who get into these sorts of cycles as well? Or is it just me who falls into these bad habits and finds it hard to kick back into gear again? If you DO get into these kinds of ruts, have you discovered any tricks or ways of motivating yourself that really WORK to get you back into the groove of eating right and exercising? Cause as I've said before I KNOW I'll feel so much better if I make that extra effort to go for a walk, and to resist those cravings, but knowing and doing are very different things!

Okay, now for the fun and positive stuff! :D

This week my TMX has been busy cooking up all sorts of delicious things as per usual! I've had some wonderful smoothies this week as always. I have a lot of apples so they've been featuring heavily in my smoothies, and I also had a few nectarines. One smoothie I made turned into a kind of sorbet as I put some banana, nectarine and a date in the freezer ready to take out with me, and then forgot them, so in the afternoon I blended those up with some baby spinach and it turned into this rather lush ice-cream treat:

There was heaps of this so I had one bowl then and there and froze the other, and I'm just having that with my breakfast smoothie now! :)

A few nights ago I experimented with the standard thermomix risotto and made up a Bacon, Chicken and Leek Risotto that turned out so delicious I just had to share this photo on FB, so as promised here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 medium leek roughly chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion (cut in half)
2 shallots with bases and tips trimmed, quartered
Handful Parsley
2 rashers of bacon with rind removed
200g chicken
40g Olive Oil
300g Arborio Rice
2 TBSP TMX Chicken Stock Concentrate
1100g Water
*Salt, Pepper and Parmesan to taste if desired

Method:
Place leek, garlic, onion, shallots, and parsley into the TM bowl and mince for 2-3 seconds on speed 7.
Add Bacon rashers and chicken and chop for 5 seconds on speed 4-5.
Add Olive Oil and saute for 3 minutes on reverse and speed 1 & 1/2.
Add remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper, then cook for 17 minutes on reverse and speed 1 & 1/2.
Pour into Thermoserver or large bowl, mix through about 50g of grated parmesan cheese (grate your own in the TMX) and leave to sit for 5 minutes, then serve and enjoy! :)

Thursday afternoon Saana and I felt like whipping up a sweet treat so we made the Torte Caprese (flourless chocolate almond cake) from the TMX Everyday Cooking for Every Family Cookbook. This time I made it exactly as the book said and it turned out really nice, although a tiny bit dry, so next time I will cook it slightly less on a slightly higher temp. Also the topping in the book is delicious, but I found it a little too rich, so next time I will just whip about 100g of cream until its nice and thick, and grate some chocolate in the tmx, and just top it with the cream and sprinkle with the grated choc. Warning: this pic is soooo delicious you will probably want to make this cake right away! ;)

A note on 30-in-30 - we have just a few days left and we're still only at 22 people who've joined me, so if you've been doing it and you didn't tell me, or you can just get a friend or two to join in before the 6th of March, that would be great! I'd really like to reach the target of 30 people!

My smoothie this morning was Pink Perfection! 2 S-M Red Delicious apples, approx 100g of watermelon, ice and water:

Lastly I discovered some things about my TMX this week that I hadn't even THOUGHT of in regards to baby stuff! So next post will be all about baby food and bottles etc, you can't say you haven't been warned! ;)

Until next time, Love and Health! B xxx

Where are you at the moment?

Hi All! So I know, I know, I've been terribly slack with the blog the past few days! Apologies! I've just been really busy with....well....LIFE! LOL!

Of course I've still been having my green smoothies to start my day (and for morning tea most days as well) . My combos over the past few days have been pineapple/grape/baby spinach, banana/berry/nuts/baby spinach, orange/baby spinach, orange/pineapple/baby spinach, and pineapple/fresh mint/baby spinach. Yes I do notice a recurring theme is the pineapple - that's because they were on special at my local shop for $1 each! So I bought a few cause I just LOVE them! In addition to my smoothies I also made some more Macadamia Pesto on Friday and enjoyed it on fresh homemade pizza with a salad of rocket and fresh tomatoes, Om Nom Nom - I'm a little addicted to fresh Pesto at the moment!

As promised here is a picture of the Yoghurt and Berry Popsicles from the Everyday Cooking for Every Family TMX cookbook (pg 167) that Saana and I made, and a picture of Saana enjoying one! These were a big hit, we'll have to make another batch tomorrow I'd say!

Today I'm really wanting to hear from YOU! Not just how you're going on this green smoothie challenge, but in relation to your eating and lifestyle habits at the moment in general. What I'd like to know is where are you RIGHT NOW on this journey of diet/exercise/lifestyle? Are you a Vegetarian? Vegan? Raw Foodist? Fruitarian? Paleo? 80/10/10-er? Regular Meat and Veg? Other? How much exercise, fresh air and sunshine do you get? How much do you move your body just in incidental activity during the day? What choices are YOU making, AT THE MOMENT, to be a healthier you? The reason I'm asking this is since embarking on this whole healthier eating journey (and NO I'm not willing to label myself at the moment!) I'm discovering that there are a HUGE variety of philosophies just within the Raw Food Movement ALONE! Let alone the many other food and lifestyle choices that are out there, that are not the typical western diet of meats, starchy carbs and a smattering of fruits and veggies! I'm just having such fun reading and learning about all the different options there are out there! And also trying to figure out which one might be best for me personally! So I'd love to hear from you, and hear what you're doing, and what its doing for you!

Another reason this is pertinent to me at the moment, is because when I first started having green smoothies and just eating more fresh fruits and vegetables in general, I experienced an AMAZING surge in my energy levels and general awareness and feeling of being AWAKE to everything that was going on around me. In addition to that my Asthma, Pancreatitis and my Hayfever (a daily torment for me for YEARS) DISSAPEARED! WOW I thought, how amazing is this - I changed what I'm putting into my body, and my body is now THRIVING! And most days I do still have that to a certain extent. HOWEVER, my hayfever has since returned, and is now back to being a daily thing - every morning for at least a couple/few hours I suffer from sneezing, itching nose and eyes, runny nose and weepy eyes! Its just awful! In addition to this I have plateaued with my weight loss and I think I've even put a little back on!

The past few days to a week I've been putting a lot of thought into why this has happened and what I could be doing to improve the situation. I do still have cooked food most evenings, and if I feel like it sometimes during the day as well. One difference is that since I started I've begun to branch out and make (slightly) more complicated raw food recipes using a lot of nuts and seeds and oils. Funnily enough I'm starting to wonder if I was better off when I was LESS educated about raw food and simply had my green smoothies JUST using fruit and baby spinach, and a lot of raw vegetables and salads!?!?! So over the next few days I'm going to try going back to that simpler way of eating - green smoothies still for breakfast and morning tea, but avoiding nuts or added special ingredients (at least not having those extras every day!), and having nice big crunchy salads and raw veggies as my lunch and afternoon snacks. Then I'll have a cooked meal most nights with my family, OR some raw noodles with some sort of raw sauce on them if I feel like it. In addition to this I have been having the odd bit of dairy most days - a bit of parmesan cheese here, a little bit of custard there! So I'm going to try to really clamp down on that again and see if that helps the hayfever!

The other change I'm aiming for is that I'm DETERMINED to get outside and MOVE! Friday morning Saana and I went for a 2km power walk/jog and I felt sooo much more energetic Friday and some of Saturday as a result! I think this is so critical and so easily neglected these days, and I'll be the first to admit I'm the worst culprit! The last thing I want to do is get up even 1/2 an hour earlier to get out and go for a walk, but I KNOW if I find the motivation to do so, my body will reward me for it INSTANTLY! Yet I STILL procrastinate, CRAZY!!!!!

So in honour of simplifying, here's how I started my day today: Green smoothie of baby spinach, banana, frozen blackberries, ice, water and a little cacao (for a sunday morning indulgence!)

And I've just finished polishing off a lovely crisp morning tea of celery and carrot sticks with homemade TMX hommus - delish!

What shall I have for lunch? Maybe some Zoodles with some Mushroom Pate on top? We'll see!

So please comment here or post on my Wall on Facebook (top right of this page to LIKE my FB page!) and tell me where YOU are, what's working for YOU right now? What has worked for you in the past? What are YOUR goals in regards to your food and  health? I'd really really love to hear from all of you! Also please remember to spread the love! We just need 9 more people to join us to make the 30-in-30 challenge goal I set! So tell your friends and family to get with the green too! :D If this challenge works out and there's some positive feedback, I'll have to think up some more challenges in future - and possibly prizes! (there are ideas floating around in this head, for sure! :D)

Love and Health! B xxxx

Just a Quickie!

Hi Everyone!

I'm apologising in advance as I don't have a huge amount to discuss tonight so this one will be brief, stay tuned over the next day or two though for more taste-sensations that are good for you!

Over the weekend I had a few really awesome smoothies: watermelon, frozen raspberries, baby spinach and a big bunch of ice, this turned out to be amazingly delish!

Another one (which was so good I had it twice) was 2 bananas, 1/4 cup homemade nut butter (from Jo's recipe at Quirky Cooking, find it here), 2 fresh pitted dates, a little water and a lot of ice. This one was totally divine! I drank it so quickly I forgot to even take a snap of it - TWICE! LOL! I also had plain orange and spinach juice for breakfast this morning. It was awesome as well. :D

In other news I had some fantastic Raw Burritos (inspired by a recipe from Eva from Uncooking101, she's so fabulous, any of you who are interested in veganism, raw foods, whole foods, or just eating even a bit healthier should definitely check out her site www.uncooking101.com), some veggie sticks with mushroom and walnut pate and dairy free sour cream and some dairy free raw slice.

Tomorrow I'm going to try making some dairy free, spelt, choc-chip Anzac Biscuits, so stay tuned for how that turns out!

Again sorry for the short (and not so exciting) post! I'll be back with more zip and zazz tomorrow! Love and Health! B xxx

30-in-30 Days 4 & 5 (Oops, Sorry!)!

Hello everyone!

I have to apologise right off the bat for not posting at all yesterday! I had my hands full with the baby and Saana and then in the evening we had a Thermomix Cooking Class at Millaa Millaa which was really great, but I got home quite late and the baby had trouble settling, so that's my excuse!

I was also really bad yesterday and I didn't have any green smoothies!!! I tell you what I FELT like I hadn't had my green smoothies too! I had WAY less energy than I usually have and I was yawning and ready for bed by about 6pm! So of course today I've jumped back in!

This morning for breakfast I had a smoothie of orange, mango, peach and baby spinach whizzed up with a bit of ice and water. The mango I find gives it a little thicker consistency so this tastes more like a smoothie than a juice. It was really yummy regardless!

Before!

After! (teehee!)

So that got me going and out the door, with WAY more energy than yesterday, I do have to say! Then after dropping Saana to school and Jon to family daycare, I whipped up a few raw treats to get me through the weekend (Raw Walnut and Mushroom Pate, Eva from Uncooking101's Sunny Carrot Pate, and some Raw Dairy Free Sour Cream) all of which took me about 10 minutes, HA! Then I threw together this little beauty for morning tea:

This one has approximately half a cup of raw almonds which i soaked overnight (so much sweeter and creamier that way), a banana, a peach, baby spinach and the teeniest dash of pure maple syrup (about 1/2 to 1 tsp). I blended this one a little longer than usual - about 1 minute on speed 9 in the TMX and it turned out soooo decadant and creamy it didn't feel like it was good for me at all! Hehehehe!

What are you all putting in your blenders? Please let me know, I love hearing what others are doing!

Some of you may have concerns about the cost of drinking alot of green smoothies, so I thought I'd quickly jot down a few things that help with that. It can get expensive, especially if you're using organic fruits and vegetables or you live somewhere that has a limited range! My tips for savings are pretty simple. You NEED to have a really powerful blender (a commercial style one) or a Thermomix, if you're going to continue doing this for any length of time. The reason for this is with a stronger blender or the TMX, all you need to do is peel SOME fruits - the ones without edible peel - and throw the WHOLE fruit into the blender, this way you only need to use one or two pieces of fruit instead of juicing where you throw away all the fibre and just extract the juice, then you'll need 4-5 pieces of fruit to get the same amount of liquid. Obviously this is an estimate and it varies from fruit to fruit! The other thing is just add a little more water and ice to your smoothies, this bulks up the quantity and its free, really nothing simpler! Joining a co-op can be a good idea to buy all your nuts and seeds etc in bulk, and some areas have veggie/fruit boxes that you can have delivered which are often cheaper, but they're a bit pot-luck with what you get in them, so you have to be extra creative! One other thing I do is I look to see whats on special and buy a large amount of it at that time and freeze it - most fruits freeze really well, and keeps it interesting as its a different texture when you add it to your smoothie.

I hope this helps! For money saving ideas I know Jo over at Quirky Cooking is always FULL of great ideas, particularly Menu Planning (which I think is brilliant but haven't gotten organised enough to do yet!).

Love and Health!!! B xxx

My Microwave is Annoying me......and other assorted musings

So, I know, two posts in one day is a bit much, but I've just had so much rattling around in this head of mine today and yesterday, and I feel like I'm learning and growing and changing at such a rate of knots lately that one post today just won't do it!

Firstly, my microwave is sitting there on the bench in the kitchen, taking up a big chunk of my bench space and its just.....annoying the heck outta me!!! I'll explain more (and ask for advice) about this later.

For now more of the yummies I made (with my daughters help) yesterday, and what was on the menu in the casa of "going raw" today! LOL

I mentioned in my last post that yesterday afternoon my daughter and I made this awesome chocolate chip cookie dough from Chocolate Covered Katie, all I did was mix it up in the Thermomix instead of a food processor, and for a FIRST, my daughter LOVED it!!! Hurrah!

It's really gooey and just totally scrummy, the first "healthy" snack I've turned out since starting on this journey that my daughter hasn't turned up her nose at.

So, today's breakfast was another green smoothie-juice (I've decided to use the term "smoothie" if its a thicker type, and "smoothie-juice" if its still the whole fruit and veg rather than actually juicing, but is a thinner juice-like consistency). It was kind of a "what have i got in my fruit bowl that might go together" smoothie-juice and you know what? It turned out so awesome its going into regular rotation!

I think I'll call this one "Monster Green Slime" just for fun and cause its sooooooo darn green! LOL

Ingredients:
2 Green Apples, quartered (no need to remove seeds or skins if using a TMX or other powerful blender)
1 Cup Green Grapes
2 Cups Baby Spinach
8 Large Ice Cubes
1/2 to 1 cup water (as always, to your desired consistency)

Method:
Combine all ingredients in TMX on Speed 6 for about 10 seconds then scrape down the sides with spatula, then whiz up on speed 9  for another 30 seconds until nice and juicey.

This was so refreshing (not to mention completely delicious) I was ready to BOUND out the door about 2 minutes after drinking it, what a BRILLIANT way to start the day!

My mid-morning smoothie was another variation on my berry/nut/banana smoothie. This morning I wanted to try some Maca powder as I just finished watching the DVD's from Uncooking101's "Home Study Course - An Introduction to Raw Food Made Easy" and Eva mentioned that Maca, in addition to its other benefits outlined here, has quite a nice malt-type flavour. So I thought the combination of Maca and Cacao would not only give my power smoothie a nice energy boost, but would also taste pretty great, and oh I was SO right! LOL

Mid Morning Power Smoothie:
Ingredients:
1-2 Bananas
1/2 to 1 Cup Frozen Mixed Berries of your choice
1/3 cup raw cashews or almonds (soaked preferably, but if you don't have time its pretty good with just raw nuts)
2 huge handfuls of baby spinach or other greens
8 large cubes of ice
Water to your desired consistency
Today's added ingredients:
1 tsp Raw Cacao powder
1/2 tsp Maca powder
2 fresh pitted Dates (I only use the dates if i'm putting Cacao in as they're not necessary to sweeten the smoothie ordinarily, only to counteract the slight bitterness of the Cacao)

Method:
Blend on Speed 6 for 10 seconds then scrape down sides of bowl and blend on Speed 9 for about 1 minute. Serve and garnish with a berry or two as desired and enjoy! :)

Then for lunch today I had another awesome Slaw (the reason I'm having Slaw type salads is I can't honestly be bothered chopping up veggies the traditional way most days, and I haven't got my spiraliser to turn the veggies into nice noodles yet!) made with the dairy free sour cream from yesterday's post, mixed with a Raw Mushroom and Walnut Pate based on this recipe but modified to my personal tastes:

Ingredients:
2 Cloves fresh Garlic
200-230g soaked Walnuts (soaked for 4-8 hours)
200-230g raw Mushrooms
2 TBSP or 20g Tamari/Nama Shoyu/G.F Soy Sauce
2 tsp fresh or dried Thyme
Black Pepper to taste
20g Olive Oil
1/4 to 1/2 shallot
Handful fresh parsley

Method:
1. Mince garlic in TMX on Speed 7 for 2-3 seconds.
2. Add remaining ingredients to bowl and combine on Speed 7 for approximately 10-15 seconds or until your desired pate-like consistency is reached (some people probably prefer larger pieces, others would prefer a creamier consistency with smaller pieces).

Then for the slaw I just threw one carrot and one quite large zucchini into the Thermomix (quartered first) and chopped them for around 5 seconds on speed 4, then scraped down the sides and did another 5 seconds on speed 4.

Then I made a well in the slaw mix, scooped some of the Pate into it and drizzled some dairy free sour cream over the top, mixed it all together and chowed down! Yummo!

So that was the raw part of my day - dinner was a lovely steamed stuffed chicken breast and steamed vegetables with my family, but the way things are going, soon dinner will be something raw and veggie TOO - more on that in future!

So back to my microwave annoying me! I don't know why but suddenly its really bugging me, probably because of this new consciousness of what I'm putting in my body, i just don't see the need to nuke or deadify things anymore! So it's annoying me that its sitting there on the bench taking up space where I could have nice clear bench space for prepping all my lovely fresh foods, and also tempting me to use it.....So, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with it? I'm not quite ready to completely get rid of it because I think hubby might have a heart attack if i just dropped that bomb on him all at once, so an alternative???? Til next time!! XXX

My "Kinda" Raw Day......

Well this journey of trying to incorporate more raw/living and whole foods into my diet is AMAZING so far, and I'm only a couple of weeks into it!

What I'm noticing currently seems to be the more raw I eat, the more sensitive I seem to be to cooked food!

For example I started today with a lovely refreshing Pine Mint Smoothie:

Ingredients:
* Large handful baby spinach or other leafy greens
* One medium to large green apple, quartered
* One round of fresh pineapple, skinned and quartered
* Fresh Mint to taste (I like a lot as it's what makes this smoothie so refreshing!)
* 100-200g ice
* Water to desired consistency

Method:
Combine all ingredients in the Thermomix (if you don't have one you need to use a pretty powerful blender or food processor) and whiz up on speed 5 for about 10-15 seconds to combine, then scrape down the sides of the bowl and lid, then speed 9 for another 20-30 seconds. If it's too thick simply add some more water until you reach the consistency you like.

This was a great way to start my day, the mint really wakes me up and makes me feel ready to tackle anything!

But THEN I made some cheese and bacon pizza scrolls for my husband and daughter to have as THEIR brunch and they just looked and smelled so good coming out of the oven I couldn't resist eating a couple while they were still warm......so delicious!

But after that I fell into a bit of a carb coma and had to sleep hard! I had a nap for about an hour and a half and still felt tired when I woke up! Luckily I had some of this awesome Raw Walnut and Mushroom Pate leftover in the fridge and I threw together a quick snack of that stuffed in half a tomato with some carrot dipping sticks. It was totally delicious and I felt so much better afterwards!

I haven't made anything for dinner yet so I might just have some nut butter on five seed bread (both made in my trusty Thermomix) as a quick easy dinner, and we'll see how that makes me feel!