Catching Up....

I know I know! I've been terribly slack with the blog this week! But I do have a good excuse - our baby (Jon, just over 16 weeks old) has a nasty little cold with a blocked nose and has been waking quite a few times a night for the past week. So we've been just a little tired in our house, not to mention that he's extremely grouchy during the day and needs a lot of extra love and care, so that doesn't leave Mummy much time to hop onto the computer! Which makes it hard for me to blog, OR to do my uni work (which starts today, so I'm having to MAKE the time this week) or really achieve anything in a day apart from feeding myself and him and doing a bit of tidying and a few dishes.

The good news is that I did get out walking 4 times last week (or maybe five, not sure), despite being deathly tired every morning! Woohoo! Saana went with me most times and it was really great having some alone time with her and being playful and energetic, and at the same time looking after myself - a two-for-one deal! :D

The bad news is that I've been all OVER the place with my eating the past week :(. I at least had a green smoothie for breakfast every day except yesterday, and for morning tea most days as well. I've been trying out reducing my nuts and oils and trying to eat more fruit - here's my fruit for just a few days:

I have been making some awesome tasting smoothies though! Some of the combo's I've had the past week are: apple/grape/spinach, orange/pineapple/silverbeet, banana/date/berries/silverbeet, watermelon/orange/pineapple/baby spinach, pineapple/fresh mint/baby spinach, watermelon/frozen raspberries/silverbeet. One I made the other morning when I'd run out of greens was just apples and grapes, it was super sweet and sooooo delicious.

Another one I made was pineapple/strawberries/mint/silverbeet which just looked so bright and colourful even before blending I had to take a snap.........

Yummo! My mouth is watering just looking at that pic! So I guess I did okay in that I ate a whole lot of delicious healthy fruit and a fair few salads. BUT the afternoon's and evening's I've been just terrible! I've been having mad cravings for salty, fatty and starchy foods, so at night or in the afternoon I've quite often been snacking on pizza with fresh pesto, bread with homemade peanut butter, just generally starchy, fatty, salty foods! Then I've also been eating some custard (as I make it at demos and it smells so good, then I go home and make some more and binge on that!) As a result of this I've been having more cravings, more hayfever, and energy and mood swings like you wouldn't believe!

After about my 5th day of feeling like crap (yes, I swore, sorry!) yesterday I decided enough is enough and I'm going to master this! So this morning I've had a smoothie of orange/grapes/baby spinach for breakfast, then I had a banana/date/berry/baby spinach one for morning tea, and I was still hungry so I've also just had a big bowl of these two salads: Beetroot Salad and Broccoli Salad (both from the TMX Everyday Cooking cookbook)

I'm already feeling much better than I have the past week - this morning my hayfever has abated already (other days its been lasting until noon at least) and I'm feeling more awake and just "with it", how awesome is it that you get such instant rewards from putting the right fuel into your body!?!?

So here's my plan for the week: Big green smoothies for breakfast and morning tea (and afternoon tea too if I feel like it) for lunch and for anytime that I'm feeling like bingeing I'm going to stuff myself with salads and more fruit, and eat a regular meal at dinner times with Saana and hubby. In addition to that I'm going walking/jogging at least 5 times this week!

Just to let you know that now I'm starting uni, and my tmx business is starting to take off, I'm going to be pretty busy (plus the athletics for Saana and hockey season for me are both starting) so I won't be able to keep up my previous pace of blogging every couple or every few days. I will try to blog twice or at LEAST once a week though!

I'll leave you with some gratuitous cuteness courtesy of Saana dressing up her little brother!

Hehehe! He's going to hate me for that when he's older isn't he?

Love and Health! B xxxx

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

Green Smoothie Challenge Continued....

Hi All! We're up to 21 people who've joined us on the 30-in-30 challenge and I've heard from a few of you and you're LOVING the smoothies and finding you've got more energy and are finding them quite filling so far! Such great news, its so exciting to be sharing something like this!

Yesterday morning I had about half a pineapple in my smoothie - we got the pineapple only the day before and it was already half rotten just one day later!!! - with a heap of fresh mint and of course baby spinach, ice and a little bit of water. This smoothie is definitely in my top few to wake up with! For some reason I find the combination of pineapple which is nice and ripe and the fresh mint to be SO delicious and invigorating! It's better than a double-shot of espresso! Seriously people! :D

This mornings turned out looking almost exactly the same as the one above LOL so I didn't bother taking a pic, I had 1 green apple, about a cup full of green grapes, baby spinach, ice and about 50ml water. Again, super sweet and soooo refreshing! Loved it!

Both days my morning smoothie has been my usual combination of banana, berries, nuts, ice, water, and I added a date and cacao yesterday, but not today! I'm a creature of habit and I really like this combo so much I don't think I'm going to get sick of it any time soon.

Today was a pretty busy day too, so I needed all that awesome green energy! At Mums and Bubs group this morning I made some baby food in my Thermomix to show the Mums - they were all really impressed btw! YAY! Then I was only home for an hour or so before running out again to get Saana from school, and she was "staaaaaaaarving" so as soon as I got home the TMX was hard at work again! For our afternoon tea we made a Berry Blue Bannana Choc Sorbet (TMX Sorbet from the Everyday Cooking cookbook with two teaspoons of Cacao added, I used half banana, and half blueberries as the fruit) which was completely delicious......

Then we made some berry and yoghurt popsicles so they're ready for tomorrow afternoon's snack, they're from the Everyday Cookbook also, and I'll put up a picture of those next blog post (they're not ready yet!).

Then after getting both kidlets off to bed (with a huge amount of help from hubby!) I was feeling the need for some comfort food so I whipped up some pizza dough in TMX and a batch of my Macadamia Pesto to have on top so I'm chowing down on this little treat as we speak:

I'll probably pay for having all that gluten tomorrow but I'm soooo enjoying it right now!!!!

My goal for the rest of this week is to go walking at least twice between now and Sunday! Stay tuned....... Love and Health! B xxx

30-in-30 Day 8 and GF DF Anzac Biscuits!!!

My goodness babies can be hard work! Tonight I'm completely exhausted as our 3 and 1/2 month old woke up screaming his little heart out at 3am this morning (poor thing had rolled over and got his foot caught between the rungs of the cot!), fed and went back to sleep by around 4, and then woke up for his normal feed at 4:30am!!!!! I was sitting at the dinner table just about falling asleep in my bowl wondering why I was so tired when I remembered that little fact! Cute little thing, he's started rolling over (onto his side mostly) so we're not wrapping him anymore, but he likes to hold the wrap and put it over his face to go to sleep, so cute!!!

This morning I had another throw together combination made up of leftovers that needed to be used! Pineapple, grapes, baby spinach and a handful of fresh mint with ice. This made a really juicy style smoothie and man that mint just really wakes me up! :D

For morning tea I had a really purple one as I used raspberries, blackberries (a nice big handful), two bananas, baby spinach, ice and about 50ml water. It was sweet AND slightly tart and completely delicious!!

Now we're a week in I'd really love to hear how all of you are finding it? How is your energy level? What combinations are you enjoying? Are you noticing any difference in how you feel each day? Please let me know as I'm so curious to see if everyone feels the same sort of instant results I've felt since starting this!

Today I thought I'd try to do a little creative baking, so I grabbed out my Mother-In-Laws recipe for Anzac Biscuits and tweaked it to make it Choc-Chip, Wheat Free and Dairy Free, using spelt grain and almonds. But after making it I've decided to do it again slightly differently, as this first batch came out a little drier than I'd like, and I'd like to make it completely Gluten Free. So here's the recipe for the (hopefully) more moist Gluten Free, Dairy Free Anzac Biscuits:

Ingredients:
160g Soaked almonds (soak overnight, then rinse)
80g Coconut
100 Oats (you could also soak these to make it even more moist)
80 Rapadura
120g Coconut Oil
20g Maple Syrup (or Golden Syrup or Honey)
1/2 tsp bicarb soda dissolved in 1 TBSP of boiling water
*Optional - choc chips or dairy free choc chips to sprinkle on top

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a baking tray or slice tray.
Mill almonds in TMX on speed 10 for 1 minute.
Add remaining ingredients and combine in TMX on speed 6 for 6 seconds to incorporate.
Mix on speed 7-8 for 1-2 minutes or until ingredients start to stick together nicely.
Press mixture into slice tray - making sure to pack it down nice and firmly.
If adding choc chips, sprinkle over the top and press them in slightly.
Bake approximately 10-15 minutes or until slightly browned on top.
Allow to cool slightly, then cut into squares and enjoy!

*I'm going to try to make a raw version of this recipe eventually too!

Hope everyone is doing well on the Green Smoothie Challenge, please do touch base with me either here or via Facebook and let me know how its going!

Have a lovely Valentines Day!!! Love and Health! B xxx

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

30-in-30 Day 3!

So some great news, last I checked we were up to 18 people who've joined this challenge and are enjoying green smoothies each day for breakfast (or morning or afternoon tea!)! A few of you have shared your smoothies with me and they sound really delicious - sometimes I think my imagination is a bit limited, so I love to hear what other people are throwing together in THEIR blenders!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to start my day with a different combo: Butter Lettuce (couldn't get baby spinach at my local shop today, EEK!), frozen raspberries and watermelon to start the day! Will let you know how it goes! (And try to get a good pic)

For morning tea I'm going to soak some almonds overnight and have banana, mango and almonds for something different, I think i'll put plenty of ice and make this one more like an ice-cream/thickshake. Pics to follow tomorrow too!

What are you blending up???!!!!

In further Chookie's Cookin' news, we're having a Thermomix cooking class at Millaa Millaa tomorrow night and we're showing some ideas for lunch boxes, so I just whipped up these mini-quiche to take along as a quick, easy and reasonably healthy lunch-box item. Originally Vicki Brown (my best friend) showed me how to make these mini-quiche using rolled out white bread slices as the cases, I've tweaked the recipe a bit and made it TMX ready as well as using TMX pizza base as the crust instead of bread (less preservatives and additives that way). Here they are:

Mini Quiche:
Ingredients:
BASES:
1 batch of TMX Pizza Dough
FILLING:
1 clove garlic
1 sml or half lge onion
2 rashers bacon, rind removed
20g olive oil
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 pk (250g) cream cheese
4 eggs
200g milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C, grease a 12-hole muffin tray. Roll out individual balls of pizza dough into circles approx 1/2 to 1cm thick and line muffin holes with dough.
Mince garlic, onion and bacon in TMX on speed 7 for 3 seconds. Add oil and saute for 3 mins on speed 2. Add all the other ingredients, and blend on speed 6 for 30 seconds. Pour egg mixture from TMX bowl directly into the muffin-holes lined with pizza dough.
Bake for 15-20 mins or until light golden brown on top.

*Once cooked you can freeze these and just grab out one at a time (or how ever many you need for kids lunch boxes).
*Modify by changing out the tomato and bacon for mushrooms and spinach, fresh herbs, or other fillings to your taste.
*I did it this way because there are no chunks of food in the quiche this way - I have a fussy little girl who sometimes won't eat it if there are little pieces of onion, tomato or mushroom etc.

Have a lovely evening and I hope your day tomorrow is awesome (its sure to be a great START, with a green smoothie! ;)). Love and Health! B xxx

30-in-30 Day 2!

Hey there everyone! How did you all find your first day (or not for some of you who were already doing this) of having a green smoothie for breakfast??? Did you enjoy having it? Did it give you energy? Were you hungry soon after or did it last you a while? I want to hear your first impressions!

I have to try to be quite quick tonight (eek!) as despite all the great fresh food I've been having I AM feeling a little run down, and I think that's because I've been staying up a little too late at night, and then getting up at 4 or 5am with the baby!

So tomorrow morning I'm going to have this Green Monster Smoothie:

It's just baby spinach, green apple and green grapes, with ice and a little water, its so sweet yet tangy and refreshing, delicious!!!

For morning tea I'll have my usual banana/berry/nut combo, for that recipe just have a look at yesterday's post. Tomorrow for me it will be banana, raspberries, cashews, one pitted date and a little cacao (about 1 tsp).

In further news, can you tell from this picture what I got in the mail today???!!!!

YES! My Spirooli finally arrived, now I can turn veggies into these gorgeous noodles for raw pasta's galore! For tonight's dinner I had these raw carrot and beetroot noodles covered in a raw pizza/pasta sauce that I made for last nights dinner (pizza's of course, regular style for hubby and child, and a more salad style one for me). Here's the sauce:

The light is not great as it was getting dark, its actually a pale orangey colour. Anyway here's the recipe:

Creamy Raw Tomato Pizza/Pasta Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/16 purple/salad onion
1/2 to 1 clove garlic
2 large fresh tomatoes, quartered
80g sunflower seeds
30g red capsicum
Handful fresh parsley
1 TBSP fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
2 TBSP fresh oregano (or 1 TBSP dried)
2 Dates, pitted
1 tsp salt
Juice of half a lemon
30g olive oil

Method:
First place onion and garlic in the TMX bowl and mince for 3 seconds on speed 7. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine for 30 seconds on speed 7. If necessary, scrape down sides of bowl and continue processing on Speed 7 until its as smooth as you like. Spread on cooked pizzas bases, then top with your favourite toppings. Or spoon onto some veggie noodles and enjoy a lovely raw pasta dish! Last night I had half of my pizza with this raw pizza sauce, rocket, proscuitto and parmesan, and the other half with raw vegan pesto, rocket, olives and sun dried tomatoes:

I had the one with proscuitto because I felt like I wanted that gourmet proscuitto type pizza, but in the end funnily enough, the one I found the richest in flavour and the most satisfying, was the vegan one! LOL!!

I hope you had a truly fabulous first day of green smoothies and are looking forward to more yummy goodness in the days to come! Love and Health to you all! B xxx

And We're Off and Running!

WOW!! 30-in-30 is off to a flying start! Already so many people have agreed to try having Green Smoothies for breakfast for a month, we are already up to around 10 people and I only started this at lunch-time today! So awesome!

So a few people have asked for ingredient lists etc. First here's a basic shopping list to get a few most-used items:
*A large quantity of Baby Spinach (to give you an idea of the quantity, I'm the only one in my family who has the green smoothies, I have two a day - breakfast and morning tea, and I go through the regular sized bag of baby spinach from woolies or coles in about 3 days)
*Large bunch or two of Bananas (if they ripen too quickly, you can freeze them and use them in the smoothies frozen, this adds a creamier texture anyway!)
*Frozen Mixed Berries (of your choice of course)
*Oranges
*Apples
*Pineapple
Optional Extras:
*Fresh Dates (to add some extra sweetness if you're feeling the need)
*Raw Cacao powder (this is just Cocoa in its raw form, much richer, waaay better for you and just.....moorish, you can get it from the health-food store and while its a little more expensive, you will probably only use a teaspoon or so every other day so it lasts a while)
*Raw Almonds or Cashews or both (not 100% neccessary, but I highly recommend stocking some nuts as they add some oomph to the smoothie, so particularly good for those who find just fruit and greens to be not filling enough, they also produce more of a "milky" taste and texture so makes it more like a milkshake or thickshake)
*Fresh Mint (optional, but really adds a refreshing zing to some of the combos I make)
That will get us through the first few days, and I do tend to wing it, according to what I find at the shop that looks good to me that day, some others that I use frequently are:
*Mangoes
*Fresh Berries in season
*Green Grapes
*Whatever takes my fancy at the grocers! ;)

I do like what a few of you have been saying in regards to digestion and giving your body a bit of a chance in the morning to wake up and get going. That's the reason I always start my day with a lighter, juicier smoothie using the more watery fruits such as oranges, pineapple, grapes, berries, watermelon etc. I always wait until mid morning (around 9:30 or 10am) to have the more substantial and filling smoothie using bananas and nuts.

As a note, all my quantities are just to serve ONE person, so if you're making it for more, obviously double or triple the quantities. :)

So tomorrow morning I'm going to start my day with this one:

This smoothie is simple: A large handful of baby spinach or greens of your choice, two oranges skinned and quartered, a round of pineapple skinned and cut into chunks, and 6 large or 8 small pieces of ice. Combine ingredients in the TMX or blender on Speed 6 for 10 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl and lid and then blend on Speed 9 for 30 seconds. No need to add water to this one as the orange and the pineapple make it really juicy anyway!

Then I'm going to plan ahead and soak a handful of Almonds overnight for my morning tea smoothie:

For this one: A large handful of baby spinach, one banana, a handful of almonds (if you've soaked them that's great as they'll be sweeter once you drain the soak water off, if not its fine but you may need to add one pitted date for sweetness if your banana isn't super ripe. If you don't have nuts at all just leave them out but you may want to add an extra banana to make it more filling), a handful of frozen mixed berries, 4-6  ice-cubes and a little water (1/4 cup up to about 3/4 cup depending on what consistency you prefer, I don't add much water as I like this one to be a meal in a glass and I like it nice and thick). Once again, use Speed 6 to combine ingredients for about 10 seconds, then scrape down the bowl and blend on Speed 9 for 30- 60 seconds to achieve your desired consistency.

As a heads up, the day after tomorrow I'll be using some green grapes and apples, in case you want to grab some! :D

Thanks for joining me on this fantastic project! Good luck to all and please let me know here or via Facebook if you have any questions or comments or there's something I've overlooked (I hope not though!!!). Love and Health! xxx

30-in-30!!!

Hi Everyone!

So I have just had this cool idea whilst driving home from dropping Saana off to school, and its all thanks to Kate Walker!! ;)

Kate recently contacted me on Facebook asking about how I make my green smoothies (without exotic ingredients, LOL!) and she and her husband are going to start having green smoothies for breakfast too! I thought it was so cool that by me talking about this, it has inspired someone else to give it a go - perhaps they had already heard of green smoothies etc and now after reading how great i'm finding them, it was just that extra little "push" they needed? Who knows! But regardless I think its just awesome!

So here is my little brainwave: how about we try to SPREAD that love? I'm going to start small and ask that 30 of you, my friends, family and followers, make the choice to join me in having a Green Smoothie for breakfast each day, by the end of 30 days, so 30-in-30! All you need is a blender, some leafy greens, some beautiful fresh fruits (and nuts too if you like) and a positive attitude! To join me in this, leave a comment on my blog, or on my wall on Facebook, or email me and let me know you're joining in, and lets see if we can have 30 of us by the 6th of March!

All you need to do: 1) Start whizzing up and enjoying your own Green Smoothies for breakfast each day. 2) Start feeling totally awesome in the morning and always being "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed"!!!

3) Contact me by commenting on the blog, or via Facebook or email, to let me know you've joined the 30-in-30 project!

What I will do: 1) Continue posting daily or at a minimum every 2nd or 3rd day on this blog, and in particular; 2) Post information about Green Smoothies, why drink them, benefits, how to, etc 3) Provide ideas/recipes for different flavour combinations for your green smoothies! 4) Keep track of the number of people joining and be your "Green Smoothie Cheerleader"! LOL :D

Love and Health! xxxx

*Yawn* It was a long weekend!

The last couple of days I've been really quite slack in general, as well as with the blog, so for any of you who may have been waiting on a post, apologies! Over the weekend I have just felt so ordinary! I don't know what started it, but Friday I just had no energy or motivation to do anything. Then I think it became a bit of a vicious cycle..... I felt a bit bad, so I ate comfort/naughty food, then I felt worse, and so on!

So that's the bad news. The good news is that my idea of comfort/naughty food has changed SOOOOO radically, that when I looked back over my weekend I discovered that it really wasn't THAT bad after all. For a few examples: Friday afternoon I felt like an indulgent savoury snack, so I whipped up some fresh homemade Macadamia Pesto in my TMX and also a batch of pizza dough and had warm pizza spread with pesto as my comfort food.

Pesto Ingredients:

100g Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese

60g Fresh Basil

1 Clove Garlic

Handful Fresh Parsley

100g Raw Macadamia's

40g Raw Cashews

60g Olive Oil (more or less to your desired consistency)

1/2-1tsp Sea Salt

*Woops I forgot to put the acid here: Juice of 1 lemon or a tbsp or two of apple cider vinegar!

(To make this raw/vegan, just leave out the parmesan/pecorino and add more nuts, or use savoury yeast flakes if you have them)

Method:

First grate parmesan in TMX for 10 Seconds on Speed 8, then add in all other ingredients and pulse 4-6 times or until it reaches your desired consistency. Don't over process, its nice if there are little chunks of nuts in there! 

Then at the drive-in Friday night with Saana I had quite a few of these Bliss Balls from my earlier post. Again, an indulgence for me NOW, but compared to a pack of M&M's or something, really not that bad!

Saturday I started my day with one of my usual refreshing smoothies, this time it was Baby Spinach, Orange and Pineapple...YUM!!

I also had my mid-morning power smoothie of bananas, berries, dates, spinach, cacao and maca. Then for lunch I had some leftover Raw Walnut and Mushroom Pate and some Dairy-Free Sour Cream which I poured over some zucchini ribbons (I just used a regular old veggie peeler to turn the zucc into pasta-like ribbons). Then dinner was some Beetroot Salad, and Coleslaw from Everyday Cooking for Every Family, followed by a small serve of Pasta E Fagioli from the same cookbook. Then the indulgence was at the movies I had some popcorn AND a frozen coke! That WAS pretty naughty, but I console myself with the fact that a frozen coke and shop-bought popcorn now happen RARELY, as opposed to at least a couple of times a week!

This morning I didn't have all my smoothie ingredients on hand so I had a couple of large slices of fresh pineapple, followed by two slices of home-made spelt bread with peanut butter on them (again, this is naughty for me now, but probably would have been a "healthy" breakfast to me not so long ago!). Then we went to the movies again (I took Saana to see The Muppets and it was GREAT btw!) and I had MORE popcorn and was really naughty and had a few of Saana's M&M's this time! Then for lunch we had Sushi Train - really not all that bad in the big scheme of things, but for where I am right now this was a HUGE blowout weekend! 

So tonight I'm feeling decidedly lacklustre! So for dinner I had a bit of Beetroot Salad, and a slice of homemade five seed bread with my own peanut butter on it also. Off to bed nice and early now so I can get a good nights sleep and start tomorrow off RIGHT - with a delicious fresh GREEN SMOOTHIE of course!!!!

P.S. This is a picture Saana drew of me: "That's you cooking Mummy!" she explained to me that the pink items on the far left of the bench are apples, and a carrot, and on the right is me putting a carrot into my "cooking machine" LOL! Funnily enough the Beetroot Salad has carrots and apple in it - amazing how much they pick up on without even being told! Love and Health to all! Night! xxx

I'm so Proud of ME!

I just quickly wanted to share with you all a picture that I just found of myself from two years ago (January 21st, 2010 to be exact), and one of me taken by my daughter today........

 

WOW! Just WOW! Go me! I'm so proud of myself!!! I've lost 36kgs (that's about 80lbs for those of you in the UK and the States) over the past two years through small sensible changes over a long period of time - the biggest ones being simply eating more fresh fruit and fresh raw vegetables and doing some light exercise! There's no going back from here, I'm just going to continue getting healthier and slimmer until I reach my ideal weight (I'll know it when I get there!)!!

So apart from that little shout-out to myself (LOL), I just wanted to share with you a few things about my day: Firstly today was my first 100% raw day ever! It feels really good!

Secondly I managed to do my walk this morning so another pat on the back to me for acheiving that small goal. :D

Thirdly I have a quick recipe to share and a pic of my daughter enjoying our Cashew Milk "Warm" Chocolate!

So here are some Raw Vegan Choc Malt Bliss Balls that I made today:

Ingredients:

350g Raw Walnuts

300g Fresh Dates - Pitted

80g Raw Cacao Powder

40-60g Rapadura 

1 and 1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 and 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

2 tsp Maca

(Rapadura is to taste - I know this is not raw but I don't have Agave syrup or other truly raw sweetener yet and Rapadura is minimally processed so I figure its not so bad!)

*If using Agave Syrup or other liquid sweetener, reduce Dates by 50-80g or this will be too moist.

* If you don't have Maca you can just leave it out and they'll be plain choc instead of choc-malt flavour.

Method:

1. Put Walnuts, Cacao and Rapadura into your TMX bowl and combine on Speed 6 for approximately 1 minute or until really fine.

2. Add remaining ingredients and process on Speed 6 for about 30 seconds, then increase to Speed 7-8 for a further Minute or so - until it all sticks together into a kind of smooth but stiff paste - it will be quite oily, don't worry that's just the oil from the nuts and the cacao.

3. Pinch small amounts (about the size of a large grape) and roll them into balls, store in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for up to about a month.

*This recipe makes a huge batch so feel free to halve the ingredients and reduce the processing time by about 20% if you don't want that many!

*Originally these were from Quirky Cooking's recipe found here.

Saana and I also enjoyed a late afternoon Cashew Milk "Warm" Chocolate (I only heated it to 37 C so it was still raw) made with Cashews, Rapadura and Raw Cacao powder:

I have to get to bed now as I have another big day planned tomorrow! Happiness and Health to you all, til next time! XXX

Just a Quick One

Just quickly popping on to post some pictures of my beloved Thermomix as per Eva's request (founder of Uncooking 101 and the Uncooking School). Poor deprived Americans don't HAVE Thermomix over there!!!

So here's the picture of my one sitting on my newly tidy kitchen counter (no more microwave, HA!), on the right you can see the recipe book that comes with it.

For those of you who may be wondering as Eva is, exactly WHAT a Thermomix is, have a look at the website: www.thermomix.com.au which has just been updated actually. In my own words and opinion: its almost the only kitchen appliance you'll ever need again, for example where you might use a powerful blender, a food processor and a coffee grinder, I just use the Thermomix for ALL of those functions! PLUS it also cooks, steams, grinds grains, mixes, whips, chops, kneads etc etc etc. It's really amazing. It makes life so easy for me in the kitchen, especially now that I'm cooking meals for my family and then making separate raw dishes for myself, it just saves me sooooo much time. The best thing about it though is that I now make pretty much EVERYTHING from scratch using whole fresh ingredients, so no more additives for me or the family! We recently had Saana's 6th birthday party and not a single thing on the table came out of a packet! I made chocolate scrolls (with homemade hazelnut spread in them), mini pizzas, mini sausage rolls, chocolate fairy bread, plus dips for the adults. Everyone loved the food, and even the children enjoyed their raw healthy Bliss Balls that I put in the goodie bags instead of lollies!

This next picture is with the Varoma (two level steaming tray) that also comes with it:

The Varoma has a large steaming tray on the bottom (put fish, chicken, meat, meatloaf etc in here) and another tray that fits in the top for softer veggies, steamed puddings, eggs, omelets, etc. So you can have say a sauce cooking in the bottom of the bowl, with rice, potatoes or pasta in the basket, then in the Varoma on top you could have meat or chicken and vegetables, with an omelet cooking in the very top, and you have homemade preservative- and MSG-free fried rice, enough to feed at LEAST 6 people!

A close up of all the buttons/functions - temperature settings (set at a certain temp and it maintains that temp once reached) including a setting of 37 C which is perfect for raw but warm soups and warm drinks. Speed dial on the right which is continuously adjustable from 100 up to 10,200 rpm. There's also a Turbo button for pulsing and an interval button for kneading doughs, as well as the timer (it won't cook without the time set so you CAN"T burn stuff, I LOVE that its idiot-proof LOL!) Oh and of course the inbuilt scales, just press the button, add another ingredient, press button again, weigh in the next one!

Last but certainly not least, a quick pic of my Lunch of Luscious Leftovers! Teehee! A gorgeous fresh beetroot salad from my TMX cookbook, with mushroom and walnut pate, and Eva's Sunny Carrot Pate.... It was scrumptious and again, I'm SO FULL!

Oh and just by the way people, I DID get up this morning and went for a 30 minute power walk before everyone else got up, I felt so proud of myself - not to mention much more energetic! xxx

The Crazy Thing Is...........

Lately (over the past week or two) what I've been noticing as I've mentioned before, is that the more raw food and green smoothies I eat, the more raw foods my body craves and the more sensitive I seem to be to cooked foods - in particular dairy and starchy carbs.

For about a week now I've been noticing that about an hour after dinner I'm completely shattered. Of course part of this can be put down to the fact that I'm running around with a school-age child plus a baby all day every day, but that's not ALL of it. The last couple of nights I've just felt so bloated and heavy and then so tired I'm ready to pass out about an hour after having a big cooked dinner with the family.

So................
Tonight I finally had a raw dinner! Woohoo! It's the first time I've managed to find the energy to cook something for the family and THEN prepare a seperate, raw meal for myself! And it's all thanks to Eva at Uncooking 101 (well it's also thanks to my body demanding more of what it seems to THRIVE on!!). Just two days ago I received my Home Study Course from Uncooking 101, called "An Introduction To Raw Food Made Easy" and its sooooo brilliant! (No this is not a paid advertisement LOL) Eva just has this calm, uncomplicated yet passionate way of teaching about raw foods and showing such EASY recipes! I was inspired and thought "It IS easy enough for me to do this!" So tonight I took a little extra time after cooking dinner for hubby and daughter to make myself this delicious Summer Salad with Eva's Vinigarette and Sunny Carrot Pate. The salad is really simple, just some baby spinach, a tomato, some red capsicum (or red pepper for those of you in North America), some shallot/spring onion, and a little celery with leaves all chopped and thrown together. The Vinigareete and the Pate unfortunately I can't share with you as they're not my recipes, but I highly recommend you visit Uncooking 101's site as she does have TONNES of great free recipes as well!

This was totally delicious, filling and completely satisfying and now (about an hour later) I AM feeling the tiredness that comes from a long day, but NOT that exhaustion and heaviness and feeling like I can't keep my eyes open that I've had the past few nights. To sum it up I feel quite awake and aware, just a little tired from being on the go since early this morning.

The other thing that I've been struggling with is getting up in the mornings. AFTER I've had my morning smoothie I'm full of energy, but prior to that, getting out of bed in the morning and finding the energy to go for a walk has been impossible, so lets see how I feel in the morning after having a raw dinner, instead of a heavy cooked dinner. I'm hoping it will be the difference I need to get up just that LITTLE bit earlier and go for a brisk walk! To be continued............ xxx