Every day ISN’T a Rainbow!!!

- Aka Some days are Diamonds, Some days are Stones (in the words of John Denver)

A couple of days ago, I had a rotten, crappy, down, moody, growly, grumpy, plain ole shitty day! A day where I woke up feeling low and went downhill from there. You’ve all had one of those, right?!?

Original photo here: http://pastorhobbins.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/bad-day.jpg

Then the lovely voice in my head got started and made me get even grumpier and more down on myself! I hated everyone and everything, especially myself! Then I tried to talk myself out of the funk (you know how we do that – “You shouldn’t feel this way, snap out of it already, stop being such a grumpy cow!”) and the pressure of feeling like I shouldn’t have this bad mood or bad day made me feel even worse!!

And that, my friends, is the rub! I’ve encountered this a lot lately, people who advise or think that all day every day should be rainbows and light. A lot of the time the message is you should never have a bad mood or bad day, you should change how you think about that person/situation, and take a lesson in love and light and peace from every situation! Blah Blah Blah!

So I decided to speak out and admit that you know what, sometimes we have days that just suck! Days where you’re in a funk and you can’t immediately learn from it or turn it around or make it all about peace and rainbows! AND THAT’S OKAY!

Sometimes the lesson is to own your emotions, to not beat yourself up because you’re down, to live in that moment and acknowledge that yes, that person or situation has really pissed you off! Because there is power and growth in this too! Owning your emotions is one of the most powerful things you can do. And it is SO freeing! For myself, I gave up trying to “snap out of it” and just allowed myself to feel down for a while. I had a whinge to my husband and a couple of friends, and by the end of the day, guess what? I FELT BETTER!

At the end of the day, after chatting to a friend and having a long hot bath, I made a conscious choice to have a positive thought in my head before I went to sleep, and VOILA! The next day was great! :D So don’t be afraid to feel down occasionally, it really is alright!

Love and Health,

B xxx

Why I'm Quitting Sugar & Omelette Recipe

Recently I've been reading and hearing a lot of buzz about sugar. And while I've been eating "better sugars" for quite a while now (I can't remember the last time I had white processed sugar), there's some argument that sugar is sugar is sugar. So generally it has a similar affect on our blood glucose regardless  of whether you're using honey, agave, dates, rapadura etc. Obviously it's better to use more natural whole foods rather than refined processed chemical-laden white table sugar, but an argument can be made that its a good idea to limit ALL types of sugar.

So having discussed this topic and read about it at length lately, and having experienced continual energy and mood swings whilst still eating pretty healthily, I thought I'd give it a go!

I've just read Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar ebook which is fantastic, and that's the program I've chosen to follow. A couple of friends are joining me: Emma from The Healing Space, and Jodi from Hot Pink Chilli both decided to jump on board and we'll all be running updates and keeping each other motivated and on track, so you can follow our progress or join us via any of the three pages or facebook pages. :D

There's a link on the right of the blog if you want to purchase the ebook and jump in yourselves!

So in the spirit of Week 1 which is to simply CUT BACK on sugar, this morning I made a delicious, filling savoury breakfast:

Quinoa & Chia Seed Flat Bread with Herbed Omelette (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free):

For the flatbread I simply used Quirky Cooking's Recipe for Quinoa & Chia Seed Flat Bread. This recipe is INSANELY quick and easy and has a fantastic flavour for something that's so minimal fuss, LOVE IT! :D

After getting the flatbread in the oven I made my Herbed Omelette:
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
1/8 red onion

fresh basil

fresh oregano

1/8 red capsicum
2 eggs (free range organic or RSPCA approved eggs - I've found Yamagishi eggs here which seem to be quite humane)
1 tomato
handful baby spinach leaves

Method:
1. Place garlic, onion, basil, oregano and capsicum in TMX and dice for 3 seconds on speed 7.
2. Saute this mixture for 3 minutes on 100ºC on speed 1.
3. Add eggs to the TMX bowl and beat for 30 seconds on speed 5 to allow mixture to become light and fluffy.
4. Line your Varoma with wet baking paper (just wet it under the tap in a ball then squeeze off the excess, you can't use the cheaper varieties of baking paper for this or they tend to fall apart). Chop tomato roughly and sprinkle through the top of the Varoma, and also sprinkle your handful of baby spinach in.

5. Pour egg mixture over the tomato and spinach in the Varoma. Add water to the TMX bowl (about 1L) and set Varoma on top. Cook for 20 minutes on Varoma temp on speed 1-2.

As always hoping you're all well wherever you're reading this! Come pop by my facebook page and say hello, or even get really brave and put your hand up to join me in quitting sugar! :D

Love and Health,
B xxx

Chocolate Chia Porridge (Dairy Free)

WOW! It's been a CRAZY hectic mad whirl of work, study, family, illnesses, more work and study here the past couple of months! I've been totally delinquent in my blogging! So sorry all!

So I've enrolled and started studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition - soon I'll be ready to take on clients as a qualified Health Coach - its SUPER exciting!! :) But extremely time-consuming! There's so much to learn and I'm loving every minute of it. If any of you are interested in a career where you help people live their best lives as your job, check it out at: http://www.integrativenutrition.com/ and tell them I sent you! Or contact me. I've also met an amazing amount of wonderful new friends through this course and am constantly learning from my co-students! A list of some great new blogs and pages I've discovered will be at the bottom of this post.

For those of you who are interested in all the health and nutrition information, I will be starting up a website and a blog very soon for the Health Coaching business, so when that's ready I'll let you know. From now on Chookie's Cookin' is going to be solely healthy Thermomix Recipes. Other tips and tricks and info will be on my other blog and site.

But the good news is that I'm back with something really easy and super delicious and sooooo good for you! ;)

I first saw this when we were doing our Thermomix stall at the Atherton Show this year when Jo from Quirky Cooking showed me how she makes her version. She found the original recipe at Homemade Healthy Happy here and following is my version.

Chocolate Chia Porridge with Strawberries and Bananas (single serve)

Ingredients:

2-3 TBSP Chia seeds

1 cup almond milk + extra to pour over (I use Quirky Cooking's Rice Almond Milk)

1 tsp cacao powder

1/4 tsp maca powder

1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste

Sliced strawberries

Sliced bananas (mine were from the honey farmer - organic local sugar bananas!)

Small handful raw cashews

1-2 tsp raw organic honey (from the farmer up the road! :))

Method:

Stir together the Chia seeds, almond milk, cacao powder, maca and vanilla bean paste, and leave to soak for 45m-1hr (if you leave it longer its not a problem).

Slice fruit and stir through with nuts, and top with extra almond milk and honey drizzled over.

There really is no limit to how creative you want to get with this. You can sprinkle with goji berries, add cinnamon, cacao nibs for crunch, other nuts and seeds such as sunflower seeds and pepitas, drizzle with coconut cream. Or you could soak the seeds in fresh apple juice, and stir through shredded green apple, silvered almonds, sultanas, some kefir or CoYo (coconut yoghurt) and honey for a Bircher inspired wet Chia muesli (which I plan to have VERY soon!).

Some awesome new blogs/pages I've recently started following:

Co-Inside Wellbeing: http://co-inside.com.au/ - Curtis and Candice Aiken are just so fantastic and vibrant, love this page!

Happy Healthy Abundant: http://jianiteo.com/ - Jia is amazeballs!!! She's so inspiring and enlightened.

Nourish Co: http://nourishco.com.au/ - Rebecca's company is just beautiful - taking care of companies with heart who are taking care of others! Mindful marketing at its best! 

And a beautiful collection of inspiring pictures at The Love Yourself Challenge: http://theloveyourselfchallenge.tumblr.com/

Have a fabulous weekend!

Love and Health, 

B xxx

Recipes! Choc Rhubarb Crumble with Raspberry Coconut Icecream, Creamy Vegetable Soup, and Baby Food! :D

I've been really busy just around the house with the children the past two days, making delicious healthy food for myself and them, playing, playing and playing some more! :D I've been really inspired in the kitchen the past couple of days so there are some scrummy recipes coming up in just a sec!

I finally took the step I've been wanting to, as I'm feeling awake and with it again after being in a bit of a slump for a couple of months. I've enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to follow my passion to become a Holistic Health Coach! I'm so excited to get my materials and start studying officially on the 16th of July, but I've already started listening to lectures and I'm LOVING it! The ethos of the school, the way the course is structured, the people involved, all just so great, so like-minded! I just know I'm going to treasure this year of learning there! This was today's gratitude too btw, I'm so grateful to have found IIN and to the people who inspired me and keep me inspired on this path I'm on!

For the Reboot days 9 and 10 I've continued to have green smoothies, vegetable soups, delicious big salads, and more green juices and smoothies. I was a bit naughty today, it was SO COLD here this morning, I had a cashew milk hot chocolate for breakfast (not really in my plan for this week) and I did have most of my daughters Choc Rhubarb Crumble tonight too! But I'm not going to beat myself up, 90% of what I'm eating in a day is nourishing me in a fabulous way!

On to the delicious recipes!

Choc Rhubarb Crumble with Raspberry Coconut Ice-cream (Dairy-Free, Vegan)

* Note, the combination of the rhubarb with the chocolate crumble worked for ME, but for my other taste testers (Mum-in-law and hubby!) thought the combo wasn't totally fantastic, so an option is to leave out the Cacao from the crumble!

Rhubarb Crumble:
For the rhubarb:
600g rhubarb, peeled and roughly chopped
100-150g sugar (depending on how sweet or tart you like it)

1. Chop rhubarb in TMX for 10sec on Speed 5.
2. Add sugar and cook for 15 minutes on 100ºC on Speed 1.
3. Strain excess liquid if necessary, spoon rhubarb into 4 ramekins.

For the crumble:
40g sugar
10g cacao (optional)
60g coconut oil
120g quick oats

1. Mill sugar (& cacao if you choose) for 10sec on Speed 9.
2. Add coconut oil and quick oats, and cook for 3 minutes on 60ºC for 3 minutes.

Spoon crumble over the top of the rhubarb, place on a tray and bake in the oven on 180ºC for 20 minutes.

Raspberry Coconut Icecream:
* Just on a personal note, this icecream was SOOOOO good, I wanted a bucket full of it! LOL
20g sugar
100g frozen raspberries
350g frozen coconut cream
1 egg white

1. Mill sugar for 10 sec on Speed 10.
2. Add raspberries and mill for a further 10 sec on Speed 10.
3. Add coconut cream and egg white and mix for 1 minute on Speed 10, using the spatula to push mixture onto the blades if necessary.

Serve the crumble with a generous scoop of icecream on the side and enjoy!

Creamy Vegetable Soup (Dairy-Free, Vegan):
* With this cold weather we're having, who doesn't want a delicious soup?!?! The semi dried tomatoes and the paprika go so nicely with the veggies in this one, it was so good we had it for lunch AND dinner! ;)

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
3 large leek leaves
60g semi dried tomatoes
20g olive oil

1/2 large parsnip, peeled and chopped
1/2 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1/2 med sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 stalk of celery including leaves, chopped
1/2 a red capsicum
1-2 tsp paprika
handful flat leaf parsley
handful fresh basil
1 TBSP TM vegetable stock concentrate

800-1000g water (depending on how thick you like it)

1-2 packed cups of baby spinach or chopped english spinach

Method:
1. Mince garlic, leek and semi dried tomatoes in TMX for 3 seconds on Speed 7, then Saute for 3 minutes on Speed 1.
2. Add all other ingredients except water and spinach, and puree for 30 seconds on Speed 5.
3. Add water and cook for 10 minutes on 100ºC on Speed 1½.
4. Put chopped spinach in the bottom of your thermoserver or serving bowl, and pour soup over, then stir through and serve.

Just a final quick note on baby food, if you haven't already, read this post I did earlier in the year about baby food (plus there's a delicious hot chocolate recipe there! hehehe). In a quick addendum to that post, I have recently had great success with my bub with oats. He just loves the flavour when I make this for him with some pureed fruit and pureed spinach!

Baby Porridge:
Grind 100-200g quick oats in TMX for 10-20sec on Speed 10. Store in an airtight container and use as needed.

Spoon a couple of teaspoons of the oat cereal into baby bowl, add a couple of teaspoons of fruit or vegetable puree on top and some pureed spinach (for iron), then stir in a tablespoon or so of boiling water. * Note: DON'T pour the boiling water straight onto the oat cereal or it will go clumpy, put the puree on top of oats THEN mix the water in. My 8 month old just loves the texture and flavour of this one! :D

Love and Health,
B xxx

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

28 Day Reboot - Week 1 Summary & Week 2 Plan

I DID IT!!! :D I have successfully completed week 1 of my 28 Day Reboot - the 7 day juice fast.

It was a challenging week without a doubt. For the first two days I felt weak, light-headed, a little woozy and by the afternoon of the second day I had a whopping great headache! However, after that it got easier and easier. It was like my body adjusted (pretty quickly all things considered) and the second half of the week was pretty easy to maintain. By day 5-7 there was a definite craving for solid foods, but it was more of an emotional or psychological craving than an actual physical craving, so wasn't too hard to resist.

What I learned: This is a FANTASTIC way to cleanse, give your digestive system a break, lose a fair chunk of weight healthily, and boost & nourish your body with a bunch of fabulous micro-nutrients. I also learned that I DO have willpower when I choose to exercise it! On the 6th day I went to Cairns and took my daughter to a movie and was easily able to resist the temptation to have popcorn or other snacks/junk food. That felt really good, really empowering! :D I also lost 3kgs by about the 4th day, I haven't weighed myself today to see the total for the week, I'll do that in the morning and get back to you!

Tonight I rewarded myself by breaking my fast with a delicious dinner out. I had baked barramundi with a fresh salad and lightly steamed vegetables. I tell you I was soooooooo full! I'm still feeling full almost 3 hours later! Just goes to show how quickly your stomach shrinks, and how unnecessary a lot of the "filler" foods we take for granted actually are - I'm specifically thinking about the starchy carbs most of us think are imperative to a main meal like rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, etc.

So my thinking for the 2nd week of this Reboot is that after doing that fabulous juice cleanse, I don't want to jump straight back in to eating just anything. I want to continue the cleansing benefits from the first week, and keep my diet really clean.

So for Week 2 - Days 8-14 - Food: I'm going to continue having ONLY fresh fruit and vegetables, with the difference being I'm going to EAT them! LOL This means I'll still be having a green smoothie or green juice for breakfast, and probably a juice for morning and afternoon tea as well. For lunch and dinner I'm going to have salads, lightly steamed vegetables, vegetable soups etc. I'm also going to allow myself small quantities of condiments such as Nama Shoyu (or gluten free soy sauce), apple cider vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper, herbs, perhaps some semi dried tomatoes and olives, the occasional avocado, and very small quantities of cold pressed olive oil (to make dressings and flavour soups etc). I'm hoping that this will ease my digestive system back into coping with solids again, but also continue the cleansing benefits of eating just fruits and vegetables.

Week 2 - Days 8-14 - Exercise: Last week I didn't manage to exercise at all, but I'm okay with that, considering the major changes my body was coping with, I decided to cut myself some slack and not expect too much! For this week I'm planning to do light exercise (such as a brisk walk) 5 out of 7 days.

Week 2 - Days 8-14 - Emotional Health: My friend Vicki brought this aspect to my attention last week when we were discussing this program. I do tend to get really fixated in the physical sometimes, and forget that my emotional state is every bit as crucial to nurture! For the first week I really felt like I just needed to focus all my energy on completing the juice cleanse and dealing with detoxing, but for the second week I do want to start focussing on the emotional side of things as well. So for this 2nd week, I plan to try to spend a few minutes each day on gratitude. Taking a leaf from Eva's book (from uncooking101.com, check it out, she's super awesome!) I am going to take just 5-10 minutes per day to quickly jot down a few things that I'm grateful for. I'll post my daily gratitude on my FB page, so if any of you are following this, and you DON'T see my daily gratitude, please nag me! ;)

If any of you are keen to try this plan, please let me know and feel free to ask any questions either here or on my FB page. I'd love it if some of you joined me! :D

See you in a day or two!
Love and Health,
B xxx

28 Day Reboot - Day 5 Summary

I'm pretty used to this now! I don't physically feel hungry or light-headed any longer. What I AM struggling with at the moment, is after 5 days of liquid meals, my mind and emotions want to CHEW stuff! So whilst I do feel physically sated most of the time (except if i go a little too long between juices), the emotional/psychological cravings for solid foods have started (and how!).

Day 5 Summary
Breakfast Juice: Pineapple, mint, english spinach
Morning Tea: Vegetable broth made with garlic, shallot, leeks, bok choy, shitake mushrooms, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt - this was cooked and then I strained off the liquid and just drank that. A nice change from cold juices!
Lunch: Watermelon, pineapple, english spinach
Afternoon Tea: Celery, lettuce, tomato, red capsicum, cucumber, lemon
Dinner: Vegetable broth made with garlic, red onion, red capsicum, tomato, celery, carrot, english spinach and 1/2 tsp vegetable stock concentrate.
After Dinner Juice: TBA - tonight I will probably have a "dessert" juice using pine and orange or something along those lines

Cheats: 10 cigarettes :( Still no exercise but thanks to some advice from Em, I'm not too worried about the exercise for this week anymore, as my body needs to rest and detox and heal during this phase.

Looking forward to catching up tomorrow.
Love and Health,
B xxx

28 Day Reboot - Day 3 and 4 Summary

I've actually had a pretty good couple of days. It seems my body has adjusted and is running quite well on juice.

Day 3:
On Waking: 1L Water
Breakfast Juice: Orange, pineapple, green powder, english spinach
Morning Tea Juice: Beetroot, carrot, apple, lemon, parsley
Lunch Juice: 1/2 large cucumber, 2 stalks celery, 2 tomatoes, lemon, red capsicum
Afternoon Tea Juice: Orange, pineapple, watermelon, english spinach
Dinner Juice: Orange, pineapple, english spinach

Cheats: Too many cigarettes (I actually lost count but I think it was about 12) :(

I was much more active in general, doing work around the house and spent most of the day either on my feet or driving, without feeling light-headed or having a headache.

Cleansing: Lets just say there's movement at the station! Its obvious that a lot of stuff that has been stuck in my digestive tract is being cleaned out. It all very easy and comfortable though! Just have to keep up the water.

Day 4:
Breakfast Juice: Watermelon, lime, raspberries
Morning Tea Juice: Beetroot, carrot, apple, lemon, parsley
Lunch Juice: Spinach, orange, passionfruit
Afternoon Tea Juice: Pine, Mint, Baby Spinach
Dinner Juice: TBA (or I might not have another one tonight, will see how I feel)

Cheats: 6 cigarettes

Once again I had a fairly active day spending most of the time on my feet. I'm feeling pretty good now except for the smoking. Really going to make the extra effort tomorrow to stop!

So far I've learned that I can't do too many juices that are just vegetables in a row - that's when I seem to get dizzy and low energy etc. I guess pure vegetable juice just doesn't have enough calories to keep you going for very long. I've been trying to alternate fruit and vegetable juices, or at least make sure the spinach in my juice makes up at least 1/3 of the juice. I also learned that despite the fact that I don't feel thirsty, as all I'm doing is drinking all day, I DO still need to drink a decent amount of water - 2L approximately. This helps with keeping me feeling full and I haven't had a headache or dizzy spell since I started concentrating on drinking more water.

If any of you are also trying this out, I'd love to hear how you're doing so far! :D

See you tomorrow,
Love and Health,
B xxx

28 Day Reboot - Day 2 Summary

Today was really tough! I had a massive headache all day and felt very low energy. I'm feeling a lot better tonight, so maybe the worst is over! I've discovered that I can't do JUST vegetable juice very easily - working on that!

On waking 1L water.
Breakfast Juice: Pink grapefruit, English spinach, 2 x pink lady apples
Morning Tea Juice: Orange, Watermelon, english spinach, 2 x passionfruit
Lunch Juice: 1/2 large cucumber, 1 stalk celery with leaves, 1 wedge lemon, large bunch parsely, 1 green apple.
Afternoon Tea & Dinner Juice (both were the same): orange and pineapple.

Cheats: 5 cigarettes :( (but better than yesterday, so we're making progress), 2 small pieces of bruschetta type bread with approx 2 tablespoons raw vegan pesto. (In the mid afternoon I was feeling so faint, and had such a massive headache, I felt like I was going to pass out)

Exercise: No walking but I did do all the washing, folding, ironing and cleaned the house so can I count that? Housework-workout? LOL

Wish me luck for day 3!

Love and Health,
B xxx

28 Day Reboot - Day 1 Summary

Here's a quick summary of the first day of my juice cleanse week:

Before Breakfast: 1L water with juice of 1/2 a lemon
Breakfast Juice: Bunch of Kale, 2 oranges, 1 passionfruit, 1 tsp green powder
Morning Tea Juice: Watermeon, 1 orange, raspberries
Lunch Juice: Celery, Baby Spinach, 1 small slice red onion, basil, parsley, 3 tomatoes, juice of 1 lemon
Afternoon Tea Juice: Celery, beetroot, carrot, ginger
Dinner Juice: Baby spinach, 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 a large cucumber, 2 apples.

Cheats: I broke down around lunch time and had a glass of coke that I had left in the fridge :(
I also had 7 cigarettes. I didn't have my first one until almost 2pm though, so that's a good start.

Today I didn't fit in any exercise.

I've felt pretty light-headed most of the day, with a very slight headache. And I was pretty low on energy. I'm pretty sure these are pretty standard detox symptoms, so I'm determined to persevere and reap the benefits of the cleanse!

Tomorrow my goals are to continue with the juices, and to fit in a 30 minute walk, and to have less cigarettes than today (preferably NONE!).

Have any of you started this? If so please let me know how your first day went!

Love and Health,
B xxx

28 Day Reboot - Day 1-7

Have any of you been slipping back into some bad habits lately? The reason I ask is because I had a conversation with my friend Vicki the other day, and we were talking about how we KNOW what's good for us, we KNOW we'll feel better if we do (insert whatever good habit here), and yet we let ourselves slip out of those good habits and back into bad ones! Does anyone know why we do this? Cause I sure don't!

Having said that, since I went away in April for my sisters wedding in Adelaide, I've been sliding further and further into really bad habits. It started innocently enough - because I was on holidays I ate a few things I know aren't great for me here and there, and drank some alcohol, even had some smokes! :( And before you know it, I was feeling low about having put on a bit of weight and developing some bad habits, so that made me eat MORE bad stuff and not want to exercise etc. So NOW I find myself in this place where I'm eating ALL the wrong things, even drinking soft drinks and smoking again! I have no energy and EVERYTHING is a big chore, I'm not enjoying my life at all! :( I've been wanting to do a cleanse/reboot for a while now, and after my chat with Vicki I was inspired by her idea of doing a 28 day program to get back into some good habits.

So I'm going to run a "28 Day Reboot" for myself, and if there are any of you who have maybe also slipped back into some habits you know aren't great for you, please join me for the ride! :D It's starting tomorrow - Monday the 25th of June! I will put up the outline plan for each week on the Sunday night (I'll run the weeks Monday to Sunday) so you can get prepared, and each day I'm going to log what I eat and do and put it up on the blog - to hold myself accountable. I'll also check in on Facebook each day with how my day went etc, and hopefully some of you will share your experiences with me there too!

For Week 1 - Day 1-7 - Food: I'm going to be doing a Juice Cleanse! That is ONLY fresh fruit and vegetable juices for the entire week (WOW, it's going to be a challenge!). I really think this is a great way to pack heaps of easily accessible nutrition into your body whilst cleansing out all the rubbish you don't need. So for this week all you need to have are a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables, and a juicer, or a powerful blender and something to strain the juice through like a sieve or nut-milk bag. I'm personally planning on having fruit-based juices for breakfast and morning tea, and mostly vegetable juices for the rest of the day. If you have a green powder or spirulina or wheatgrass or chlorella please DO add this into your juices as its AMAZING for detoxing!

For Week 1 - Day 1-7 - Exercise: I'm also going to ease back into some better exercise habits, so my goal for the week is to go for a 30 minute walk at least 4 times in the week. If you haven't been doing any exercise at all, go with this, if you have, perhaps jog or gym for you, but try to fit in at least 4 exercise sessions in the week.

So for right now I'm off to continue vegging out watching telly and generally being a slob! Tomorrow is GO TIME! (I'll also be stopping smoking AGAIN from tonight, so please pray for me and send me your good energy that I have the strength of will to do that!) So see you here or on FB tomorrow night. :D

Love and Health,
B xxxx

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

Cheesy Herbed Kale Chips (Dairy-free)

So lately the new love of my life is Kale! This amazing superfood which is a form of cabbage, and is a pretty dark green and curly, is packed with all the goodies: High in beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin B6, an excellent source of iron, protein, magnesium and phosphorus, rich in calcium, and also a great source of sulforaphane, which is a chemical known for its cancer-fighting properties. Add all this to the fact that it has a delicious flavour all it's own and you can see why I'm currently super excited about using it!

Last week I planted a bunch of stuff in my garden. I'm so excited because I've been wanting to get in there and get the weeding done and get some food planted so I can eat more chemical-free fresh foods, not to mention the convenience of just going out the back door to get my groceries! :D Thanks to some great help from Jo Whitton's children with the weeding, I have planted tomatoes, beetroot, basil, parsley, dill and of course 2 kale plants. There will be more going in once I get the rest of the garden beds prepped! In the meantime I have found a local store which can order in organic kale for me - so for any of you who are up here on the Atherton Tablelands, you can get it from The Humpy at Tolga - you need to call and order it in, but they can get it within a few days.

I love kale in my green smoothies, its especially delicious when teamed up with pineapple, watermelon and pomegranate into a sweet yet tangy smoothie, this morning I also added a big leaf of it to my Cashew-milk hot chocolate. It was super filling and yummo and I'm still feeling energised almost two hours later!

One other thing that a lot of people make with kale is raw/dehydrated kale chips. I've found quite a few different recipes online. There are some at Uncooking101.com which are great, and also another one I've tried is from SuperKitchenMachine's Blog found here. However what I have discovered is that although the recipes are delicious, I sometimes find the sauce/marinade can overpower the taste of the kale a little - which I love in and of itself. SO my mission was to make a recipe for kale chips which enhanced but didn't completely mask the flavour of the kale. You can use this recipe to make the chips as shown, OR you can simply massage the sauce into the kale, and add some chopped tomatoes, avos and other salad vegetables and some seeds and have a delicious salad.

RECIPE: Cheesy Herbed Kale Chips (Dairy-free)
1. Pre-heat oven to 50C.
2. Take one bunch of kale and rip into 2-3 inch sized pieces and place into a large bowl like so:

(I know I may be a little strange, but isn't it pretty? ;))

3. Pop into TMX (or blender or food processor) 1 clove garlic, 1/4 to 1/2 red onion, sml handful parsley & a few basil leaves (I used about 8 large leaves) mince for 5 seconds on speed 7.

4. Scrape herbs down into the bottom of the bowl and add 2 TBSP Nutritional Yeast Flakes (also called Savoury Yeast flakes, NOT brewers yeast), 1 cup of soaked and drained cashews (140g), 1 large or two small tomatoes, quartered, juice of 1 lime or half a lemon, 1 tsp pink himalayan or other quality salt, a little cracked black pepper, 20g of Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and 100g water. Blend all ingredients in tmx for 1 minute on speed 9.

5. Pour the sauce over your bowl of kale - and now the fun starts! Roll up your sleeves and massage the sauce into the kale quite firmly (as Eva from uncooking101 says - a Deep Tissue Massage, not a light massage ;)) for 1-2 minutes, so that the sauce is thoroughly coating the kale and the kale goes a little limp:

6. Line two baking trays (cookie sheets) with good quality baking paper and spread the prepared kale evenly over them. Pop in the oven and bake for 4 hours at 50C, turning once halfway through. *A Quick Note (added 11 June 2012) - if making these in the oven, if you have a fan-forced oven it will be fine, if you have a standard electric you need to prop open the door of your oven by half to 1cm to let the moisture escape, otherwise you'll just have nice warm limp kale LOL! Even better, if you're lucky enough to have a dehydrator, put it on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for 4 hours.

I don't have a picture yet of the finished product as I'm still (im)patiently waiting for mine to be ready! But I'll add a pic once they're done.

These make a great snack, and are pretty filling due to the high protein and fibre content, so they're great to pop into a ziploc bag or container and take on the go with you, IF you can restrain yourself and not eat them all as soon as they're done! :D You can also break them up a little and sprinkle over a salad for a little extra crunch and pizzaz.

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

Housekeeping, plus bits and bobs :)

Hi Everyone!

Just a quick one today with a bit of housekeeping as I'm going away for two weeks as of tomorrow so I'm a very busy girl!

So, an update on my 3 Day All Raw Vegan Challenge - I didn't hear from very many people - I think only two of you let me know you were going to attempt it, and no-one has updated me as to whether they went a day or three all raw or not. Therefore I've decided to put that on hold for a little while, rethink it, and be back after my holiday with an alternative. If any of you could give me some feedback here or on FB in regards to maybe why this challenge wasn't doable or inspiring that would be great! I really want to inspire people to make healthier choices, so if a 1 day challenge or other challenge would be better, please let me know! :D In regards to the ebook, I've decided to hold that a little also as I really want to make sure its as thorough a guide to Green Smoothies as possible for all those noobs out there! What I MAY do is offer the ebook to everyone who attempts my next challenge......will keep thinking on this! :D

A few other bits and bobs: I'm going away for two weeks, 4 days on the Sunshine Coast (my hometown) visiting my best friend Vicki - one of the most awesome people I've ever had the pleasure of calling my friend! Also catching up with my long lost brother Jason, my bridesmaid Bec and her new baby and doing a demo! So that will be a packed 4 days, then we're on to Adelaide for another 10 days for my sister Maddie's Hen's Night and Wedding - sooooo excited to see all the family I haven't seen for so long, and excited to get all dolled up for the first time in ages! I've been told that pictures are NOT OPTIONAL - so you can all look forward to some pictures from the wedding, maybe I'll even find time to blog while I'm away! I'm taking my trusty Thermomix with me so I'm sure I'll still be whipping up some awesome raw treats and smoothies, and probably some other yummy stuff as well to show the family.

On a side note, this week I tried my first attempt at making my own pasta, from a fantastic recipe in a new Thermomix Cookbook called "The Best Of Our Recipe Communities" which will be available through the Thermomix website in coming months: www.thermomix.com.au. Here is how I thought making handmade pasta would look:

And here's the reality:

The process included a very frustrated ME growling at the machine when I'd put TONNES of flour on the dough and it STILL kept sticking to the rollers, so in the end I rolled it out as thin as I could in sections with the rolling pin, then just put it through the fettucine cutting part as it was! It turned out a little thick but still tasted delicious in the end! :D Jo from Quirky Cooking is going to give me a tutorial on how to do it RIGHT the next time I hope! hehehe ;)

In other news I've been having ups and downs with my raw food journey the past few weeks. I still start the day every day with a green smoothie - I wouldn't know what to do with myself without them these days - and most days I eat raw until at least dinner time. I have had a few days here and there all raw but then the other days I've been pretty bad - having crumbed steak and chips at the pub the other night among other things! But I've signed up to do the teacher training at Uncooking101 which I'm really excited about, so SOON I hope to be offering Uncooking101 classes up here on the Atherton Tablelands  - I can't wait. I've also signed up to Eva's 21 day jumpstart program, I'm thinking its just the boost and support I need to get going! For more information on these programs visit the Uncooking101 website: www.uncooking101.com.

Here are a couple of yummy lunches I've whipped up in the past couple of days:

This was my lunch yesterday when I was RACING around doing a million things: A quick salad of mixed greens, tomato, cucumber and green capsicum with a dressing I made the day before (tomato based dressing) and a smoothie of cucumber, celery, parsley, baby spinach, lemon, apple and a few grapes - it was a tad tart as I put the whole lemon in, but I felt great afterwards!

This was my lunch today - a delicious raw brocolli soup from Eva at Uncooking101 which was so creamy and satisfying I still feel full about two hours later - not to mention it was completely delicious! :)

Sorry this is so short but I have a demo to do tonight, and still haven't packed and we have to head to Cairns first thing tomorrow morning to get Saana's dress fitted etc! Here she is with her swanky new haircut:

Must run! Hope you all have a very happy and safe Easter holiday break!!

Love and Health, B xxxx