3 Day All Raw Vegan Challenge - Recipes.

Shopping List:
Fresh Produce: Watermelon, Strawberries, Pineapple, Bananas, Fresh Dates, Oranges, Fresh or frozen Berries, Fresh Mint, Lemons, Salad Greens and Baby Spinach/Silverbeet/Other smoothie greens, bag of carrots, 2-4 zucchinis, tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, beetroot, green apple, 1/4 wombok cabagge, red capsicum, onions, spring onion/shallot, garlic, bean sprouts, parsley, other salad vegetables and vegetables for crudites/dipping sticks as desired.
Dry/Bottled Goods: 200g raw almonds, 200g raw cashews, 200g raw macadamia's, 60-100g sesame seeds, small jar pitted kalamata olives, 100-200g semi dried tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, cold pressed olive oil, cold pressed grapeseed oil, nama shoyu (or tamari, or gluten free soy sauce), agave nectar or stevia or other sweetener.
Optional extras: Raw Cacao (from health food store or some good supermarkets), Maca Powder (health food store), Chia Seeds.


Notes: For smoothies, I always blend with a small amount of water and 6-8 cubes of ice on speed 9 for 1 minute. If you feel the smoothies aren't filling enough, simply add in a teaspoon or two of chia seeds - this really makes them super filling and they will keep you going for longer. Each Morning: Drink a large glass of water (300ml minimum) with a squeeze of lemon juice. This will allow your digestion to wake up and get moving prior to your smoothie. Try to drink at least 2L of water per day to keep hydrated and aid your digestion.


Night before day 1: Soak a small handful of almonds in one bowl of water, and a small handful of cashews in another bowl in the fridge overnight. When ready to use them, simply drain off the soak water and rinse them if desired.

Day 1:
Breakfast: Smoothie of Watermelon, strawberries, pineapple and silverbeet (or baby spinach).
Morning Tea: Smoothie of 2 bananas, strawberries, 1 fresh date, and the soaked and drained almonds.
Lunch: Zucchini noodles with Macadamia Pesto (add 100g of water to the recipe to make a pasta sauce consistency), olives and fresh tomatoes.

* To make zucchini noodles use a vegetable spiraliser, if you don't have one, just peel using a vegetable peeler into long strips. Or you could simply chop the zucchini in your TMX on speed 4 for about 5 seconds to make it into a coleslaw type consistency, this also tastes quite nice.
Afternoon Tea: Smoothie of 1 banana, 2 fresh dates, a large bunch of silverbeet or other greens, and the soaked and drained cashews.
Dinner: Large garden salad with Capsicum and Semi-dried tomato dressing.

Capsicum and Semi-dried tomato dip and dressing Recipe*:
Take 1 clove of garlic and mince on speed 7 for 3 seconds.
Add remaining ingredients: 100g semi-dried tomatoes, 1/2 a red capsicum (deseeded and quartered), 120g raw cashews, 20g apple cider vinegar, 20g cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Lock lid into place and pulse on turbo for 2-3 times until a chunky consistency is reached. Set aside half of this mixture as a dip to use in the following days.
With the remainder of the mixture, add 50g more olive oil, and the juice from 1-2 lemons (depending on how tart you like your dressing) with 100g water, and blend all ingredients on speed 6 for 10-20 seconds (depending on the consistency you like).

* This recipe is inspired by the Thermomix Capsicum and Sundried Tomato Dip and dressing from the Varoma Demonstration Recipe Cards.

Night before Day 2: Soak a large handful of cashews in a bowl of water in the fridge over night (for use in two smoothies tomorrow).

Day 2:
Breakfast: Smoothie of watermelon, pineapple, orange and baby spinach.

Morning Tea: Smoothie of 2 bananas, 1 fresh date, a handful of berries, handful of cashews, and baby spinach.
Lunch: Crudites (vegetable sticks) with pesto sauce (leftover from yesterdays lunch) and capsicum and semi dried tomato dip (leftover from yesterdays dinner). I used broccoli, cucumber, zucchini and carrot for mine, but use whatever crunchy vegetables you like! :D

Afternoon Tea: Smoothie of 2 bananas, handful of cashews, 1 fresh date and a big bunch of Ceylon spinach.
Dinner: (this night I didn't actually eat dinner, so here is a suggestion or two) Crunchy salad with sunflower seeds and pepitas sprinkled on top(or other seeds), dressed with fresh squeezed lemon juice and cold pressed olive oil. More crudites with dips. Another green smoothie. Or have some ice-cream for dinner: freeze 2-3 bananas, and then whiz JUST the bananas in your TMX on speed 10 for 1 minute for a creamy ice-cream. Or make a soup from a few vegetables, with a handful of nuts thrown in for creaminess, some fresh herbs and a little salt or nama shoyu, first blend the ingredients with a little water on speed 9 for 1 minute, to turn it into soup, then set your TMX to 37 degrees, speed 6, for 3 minutes.

Day 3:
Breakfast: Smoothie of pineapple, orange, mint and ceylon spinach.
Morning Tea: Smoothie of 1-2 banans, 1/2 cup berries, ceylon spinach, 1 date, 1-2 tsp cacao, and 1/2 tsp maca. (Add chia seeds to make it more filling if desired)
Lunch: TMX Beetroot Salad (200g Beetroot, 1 green apple, 1 m-l carrot, a handful of parsley, 20g cold pressed olive oil, and lemon juice to taste, chopped on speed 4-5 for 5 seconds.) Celery sticks with Capsicum and Semi-dried tomato dip from Day 1.
Dinner: Asian style salad with Sesame Soy Dressing: First make the dressing according to this recipe, take out and store half the dressing, and leave half the dressing in the TMX. To make the salad, place large sections of wombok, with quartered red capsicum, shallots and a handful of bean sprouts in your TMX, on top of the dressing, and chop on speed 4-5 for 5 seconds or until your desired consistency is reached. Then lay some fresh salad greens onto a large plate, and place this mixture on top of them in the centre of the plate. Garnish with a little more red caspicum and shallots.

*Note: I can't eat cabbage as it gives my baby a stomach ache so the base of MY salad is bean sprouts instead of the wombok, but its much nicer with wombok, also my grocery store was out of red caspsicum so I had to use yellow.

Dessert: Smoothie of 1-2 bananas, 2 fresh dates, a handful of cashews, 2 tsp of cacao.

I hope this helps you plan your days, this is just what I did for my three days, of course you may want to vary this, and there are some great recipes all over the internet for lovely raw dishes. I like to keep things pretty simple and keep a stock of things in the fridge like the pesto and another dip or pate or two so there's always something on hand to grab without having to go to a lot of trouble.

Please let me know if you want any more information or advice! Tell me how you're finding it - remember you have to let me know ONCE YOU"VE COMPLETED THE CHALLENGE in order to go into the draw to win the DVD's or my ebook!

Love and Health, B xxx

3 Day All Raw Vegan Challenge with Prizes! ;)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health! B xxxx

More on Green Smoothies, and Weight Loss "Secret" # 2

Hello out there! :D

I'm feeling super energetic today, despite getting next to no sleep (for some reason Jon decided to wake AT LEAST every hour last night! urgh!), and do you want to know why? Well I'll tell you! Because two days ago I decided to challenge myself to go three days ALL RAW VEGAN! This is kinda a big deal for me because I've been eating "high raw" for quite a while, with some days better than others, like everyone. But I've only ever done ONE day entirely raw vegan before!

I don't really know why this is, other than its hard to undo a lifetime of habits (for me its a HUGE addiction to starchy carbs, I just LOVE my breads, pasta, rice etc) even when you KNOW you'll feel better for making the change.

So on this 3 day challenge I set for myself, so far so good! I've been all raw for two and a half days now so its looking like i'm going to succeed, YAY! I am feeling generally lighter, slimmer, my tummy feels flatter (you women out there will understand what I mean), and I have heaps more energy than usual. After today I will do a post on my 3 day all raw challenge, what I ate, recipes etc, and possibly have a challenge for you too readers! (Don't be scared, it'll be fun, really!! ;))

So onto yet another post on one of the loves of my life: GREEN SMOOTHIES!!! The past few days I've been having a lot of conversations with people about green smoothies, the why, how, etc. SO, I thought I'd reiterate and clarify some basics in regards to green smoothies, and also some tips and tricks I use to make them more palatable, and also more visually appealing to some of those fusspots out there who don't like to drink it because its green!

GREEN SMOOTHIE 101 GUIDE:

What is it? A green smoothie is a smoothie made from fruits and vegetables (and sometimes nuts and a few other ingredients i'll tell you about), ice, water and some leafy greens. The leafy greens can be: baby spinach (the best for beginners as you can't taste it in the smoothie), beetroot greens, different lettuces (lambs lettuce works well), silverbeet, other spinaches (I just got some Ceylon Spinach at the organic store yesterday and its lovely in them) anything that is green and leafy and edible!

Why have it? Most people know that leafy greens are SUPER good for you! They contain so many great nutrients that our bodies need to thrive, and most of us don't get enough of them! Another thing is that those of us who DO consume a lot of leafy greens usually do that in the form of salads (which are great, don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of salads) but we're not actually chewing the greens enough to reap the full benefits! What happens when you have greens in a salad is that you don't chew them enough to release ALL of the goodness, so many of the nutrients etc pass through our bodies without us being able to use them to their full potential. So by blending them in a smoothie, you are essentially pre-chewing them, breaking them down so the body can instantly access ALL the goodies in them as soon as you drink your smoothie! I believe this is one of the principle reasons I get such a rush of great energy for a couple of hours after I have a smoothie.

How can you do it "right"? There really is no WRONG way to have a green smoothie. A few things to note when starting out though: I personally don't think dairy belongs in green smoothies (or in our diets at all). Especially not the commercially available, homogonised, pasturised milk and yoghurt available at the supermarket. In my opinion modern dairy is an irritant on some level to MOST people's digestion and sinuses, and it causes mucus build up and ear infections. I don't think cows milk is meant for humans, and I've read too much about what is done to the cows and to the milk to still have it. "It should be noted that approximately 75%, some say much higher, of the world’s population is lactose intolerant." Sourced from this article: Why Dairy Products are a Bad Idea So skip the milk or yoghurt!

Experiment with different combinations of fruits and vegetables to suit your individual tastes. A couple of great smoothies for beginners, because they taste really sweet and delicious and you really CAN"T taste the spinach are: Pine Orange Smoothie and Banana Berry Nut Smoothie found here. Another great one is the Pink Paradise Smuice found here, and just add some leafy greens to it.


A couple of tricks: 1) If you are feeling like a little bit of a sweet fix and you don't find JUST the berries and banana and spinach to be sweet enough, just add one FRESH date to your smoothie and its instantly deliciously sweet (a friend who tasted mine yesterday was SURE there was a heap of honey in it, and was amazed to find it had NO honey, and only ONE date!) don't use dried dates if at all possible, because you need to use many more to achieve the same sweetness, fresh ripe dates are just so sweet! 2) To give your smoothie that creamy thickshake type texture and taste, add a small handful of raw nuts into your smoothie - I find that cashews or almonds work the best. It's a really great idea to soak your nuts the night before (just enough for your smoothie) because this activates the enzymes in them, and also makes them sweeter and softer, so they blend easier and are easier to digest. To soak simply cover them with water and leave to sit overnight at room temperature, then drain off the soak water and rinse them, and throw them in your smoothie! If you've forgotten this step, use cashews as they are pretty soft alright and work well without soaking. 3) To turn your Banana Berry Nut Smoothie into a to-die-for CHOC Smoothie or even a choc malt smoothie, I do recommend getting some Cacao (raw cocoa, found in most healthfoods stores and SOME supermarkets - the Atherton IGA actually stocks it!), add a teaspoon of this to your smoothie and voila! Chocolate! For a malt type flavour you can also add about half a teaspoon of Maca. I only do this occasionally (maybe twice a week), so it doesn't bother me that the Cacao and Maca are a little expensive! 4) If you're funny  about how your food LOOKS (I honestly don't think a green drink looks unappetising, but there are lots of people who do!) a few tricks: Put plenty of red berries in it to make your smoothie come out a nice purple colour, 

do blueberries and you'll get a chocolate coloured smoothie. Put a fair few nuts, not too many berries, and a little cacao, and you'll get a light brown milkshake looking smoothie. 

There are plenty of options like this to make your green smoothie not ACTUALLY green! There's a great one here at Uncooking 101: Cherry Green Smoothie.


So I hope that helps those of you out there who're new to this whole green smoothie business! If you have questions or want some more information, please feel free to ask me here or on FB! I want you all to have every single bit of info that will enable you to try these! :D


On to my weight loss "Secret" number 2 - please read my previous post in regards to the disclaimer, as it goes for this too! This isn't really a secret either, it's so simple and easy!


WEIGHT LOSS "SECRET" NUMBER 2: MOVE YOUR BODY!!!!! If you currently do no exercise, start walking. When I started walking it was at a snails pace (a very leisurely stroll) and I only went for 5 minutes. But then each day, or every couple of days, I'd increase it by a minute, or a few, or five, or ten, and soon I was power walking 45 minutes a day, 5-6 days per week. If you currently do a little exercise, find a way to do a little more, or vary your exercise. Get as much incidental activity into your day as you can - park further from the shops and walk, or if you're close enough, walk to the shops! Take the stairs instead of the lift, go about your housework like its a workout - seriously this one is super (think upper body workout when pegging out the clothes and getting them in, abs and legs whilst doing vaccuming and mopping, etc)! You'll be amazed at the difference this makes. I like to say "Energy begets energy", because I've always noticed if I make the effort to get out of bed that little earlier and go for a walk/run/yoga/whatever, I seem to have MORE energy for the rest of the day, not less! It seems the more activity you do, the more energy you have! And I'm ALL about extra energy - or haven't you noticed? Hehehe! :P


Well I think I've about talked myself out for now! Stay tuned tomorrow for ALL the dirt on my 3 days all raw vegan and the challenge I've been working on for you!


Love and Health, B xxx

Weight Loss & Energy "Secret" Number 1!

I know, I know! I've been delinquent again in getting to the blog! But I have a good excuse! I promised that I'd be putting up my weight loss "secrets", and prior to doing that I had to do a LOT of thinking and musing to make sure I put this in the right way!

So firstly let me start with a disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or a health professional of any sort, I don't claim to have done extensive research on this topic other than my own experience and reading over the years. So these things I am going to tell you are purely from my OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and are my OWN BELIEFS! Before embarking on any change of diet or lifestyle change, please consult a medical or health professional! :)


So with that out of the way lets jump right in to MY first "secret" of weight loss (AND increased energy)! The reason I put quotation marks around the word "secret" is that it's really no secret at ALL!

WEIGHT LOSS AND INCREASED ENERGY "SECRET" NUMBER 1: EAT MORE FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES!!!!!


"Really? Can it be that simple?" I hear you asking! YES!! It's really that simple! And here is why: When I first started to lose weight it WASN'T purely about the weight loss, it was also about the fact that I was tired, ALLLLLLL the time and I hated feeling that way! I wanted to have the energy to run around with my daughter, and I wanted to be healthier and lighter so I could get pregnant and then have the energy to cope with a newborn! So my very first step was simply to incorporate MORE fresh fruit and vegetables into my diet! At first it was baby steps like having baby spinach and tomato with my egg and toast instead of plain, and making sure I had salad on my sandwhich for lunch. But after a very short time it turned into having fruit smoothies for breakfast and morning tea, and HUGE salads with lunch and dinner. The crazy thing is, that as soon as you start to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, your body goes "THANK YOU! That is JUST what I needed to feel better, have more energy, heal these various little niggles that you have! And here's some extra energy to show you how much I appreciate you giving me the right food!" and pretty soon you're actually CRAVING some spinach and tomato, or a big plate of orange and apple, or a huge crunchy zesty salad! It really is AMAZING!

I believe the reason for that is simple: our bodies are ALIVE, therefore when we eat food that's ALIVE, our body recognises it, can assimilate it and USE it much more easily! Then the time and energy our body would waste on firstly trying to RECOGNISE our food, and then figuring out what to do with it, is left over in the form of increased energy! :D So if you want to lose weight and feel the added bonus of a TONNE more energy, simply EAT MORE FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES! If you don't change anything else, I believe this one thing will make a HUGE difference to your health! Give it a try and see if it works for you! I'd love your feedback!

Today I started my day with a delicious green smoothie of 2 green apples, about 150g of fresh watermelon, a huge handful of baby spinach, a little water and ice. Wow it was so delicious and now i'm raring to go! :)

I'm off to a TMX demonstration now, but more tips in the days to come! (And i'll try to snap some yummy pics and get some more recipes up too!) Love and Health, B xxx

"Creamy" Herb and Garlic Dip, Pesto & More! ;)

I've been meaning to get a post up for days and days now, and I've just been busy with kids, study, Thermomix, and of course cooking (and uncooking too!)! So here's a few things I've been making and thinking about the past week or so!

Firstly I put up a picture of my dinner the other night - Quirky Jo's delicious gluten free foccacia style pizza base (recipe here) topped with Mushroom and Onion and with a little pesto, and of course the Pink Paradise Smuice I had with it! 

With the pizzas I made up the recipe from Quirky Cooking, and after rising I just sprinkled some finely sliced onion and mushroom on it, then baked it. I just had this broken up with a little of my homemade macadamia pesto and it was just divine! 

I also felt like something sweet and energising with dinner that night so I had this beautiful Pink Paradise Smuice (Smoothie-Juice ;))

Pink Paradise Smuice

150g frozen watermelon cut into chunks approx 2 inches in size

2 oranges skinned and halved

1 round of pineapple cut into large chunks

1/2 a tray of ice

Simply throw all ingredients in the TMX or blender then blend up for 1 minute on speed 9.

Sit back and relax and enjoy your delicious and pretty pink smuice! :D (Or you could throw some greens in it for some extra oomph and voila its a scrummy green smoothie!)

I also made up a few salads to have on hand in my fridge so that I wouldn't go looking for easy UNhealthy snacks. I find if I have a few really great crunchy healthy salads with a couple of different dressings in the fridge ready to go, I can eat those until I'm busting and know that I'm nourishing my body instead of hurting it with excess fat, sugar etc. So I made up the salads, and I made a lemon basil vinaigrette and then thought I'd see if I could make a Japanese recipe I have for Sesame Soy dressing. I didn't actually have all the necessary ingredients for the authentic recipe (such as rice wine vinegar and sesame oil to name a couple) but I thought I could get close to how it should taste, and it turned out way better than I expected! Just like the real thing!

Japanese Sesame Soy Dressing:

Ingredients:

1/2 med brown or white onion

60g sesame seeds

60g vinegar

60g grape seed oil (or other lightly flavoured oil)

20g soy sauce or tamari

20g sugar or other sweetener

Method:

Grind the sesame seeds in TMX for 1 minute on speed 10.

Add onion and mince for 10 seconds on speed 6.

Add all other ingredients and blend for 1 minute on speed 9.

Mix into your favourite salad and enjoy - this goes particularly well with a chinese style salad of wombok, finely sliced red capsicum, bean sprouts etc. Also with daikon but good luck finding quality ones here in the Far North! Those of you down south, if you can get hold of daikon you want to shred it either in your tmx on speed 5 for about 10 seconds or grate it and have just that with this dressing - sounds strange but its delicious, and that's the way they eat it in Japan!

Then today I went a bit crazy with dips - I made a trio of dips! One was to practise for my Varoma Demos with the TMX which is a red capsicum, sundried tomato and cashew dip. The other two were my own creations and both turned out so well I simply have to share them!

The first one I made was because at our demos we make the Creamy Herb and Garlic Dip from the Everyday Cookbook and its always a huge hit. So that got me thinking, I wish I could have that dip without suffering from hayfever for a couple of days afterwards (as the original recipe has cream cheese in it and dairy makes my hayfever go crazy)! I had heard of and seen and tasted creams made from cashews before so I thought if I just made a "cream cheese" from cashews, then added the rest of the ingredients, that should work, and it turned out pretty well!

Creamy Dairy Free Herb & Garlic Dip (foreground of above picture)
Ingredients:
200g Cashews
60g warm water
1tsp salt
1-2 cloves garlic with the centre removed (this takes the bitterness out of the raw garlic, but leaves all the great garlic flavour, you don't have to do this if you don't want to, it tastes fine with using whole garlic cloves!)
2 Shallots quartered
Handful fresh parsley

Method:
First make the cashew cream "cheese": First mill the cashews for 10 seconds on speed 9 to make a fairly fine powder.
Add water and salt and blend for 1-2 minutes on speed 8 or until a cream cheese type texture is reached.
Remove this cashew cream cheese and set aside.
In your clean bowl, mince garlic, parsley and shallots for 3 seconds on speed 7.
Add your cashew cream cheese mixture back into the bowl and blend for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Enjoy with some rice crackers or my fave - veggie sticks - especially zucchini and carrots! :)

The final item for tonight (and then I have to get to bed, urgh!) is my Raw Vegan Macadamia Pesto (pictured at the back of the above picture). I have been tweaking and tweaking and tweaking this for weeks now, so if you've seen the other incarnations on my blog sorry but this one really is the BEST! I'm finally happy with it, and we had 3 others taste test at our TMX meeting tonight and everyone really loved it (EVEN Jo! :P) so here it is:

Raw Vegan Macadamia Pesto:
Ingredients:
1-2 cloves garlic
Leaves from 2 x 50g packs of basil (approx 40-50g of basil leaves)
100g raw macadamia nuts
Handful of parsley
Handful of baby spinach
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar
40g Cold Pressed Olive Oil

Method:
First mince garlic for 3 seconds on speed 7.
Add all remaining ingredients and pulse on Turbo for 3-5 pulses.
Scrape down sides of bowl and pulse a few more times until the desired texture is reached (some people like it chunkier, I like mine medium).

That's it from me tonight as its WAAAAYYY past my bedtime and I'm about to fall asleep at the keyboard!

Over the next couple of days I'm going to do a series of posts on my top "secrets" for weight loss and increased energy! I've also still been thinking of running another challenge, so stay tuned for details!

Love and Health, B xxx

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health! B xxx

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

Hi All!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health, B xxx

Deep Breath, Push Reset!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Love and Health! B xxx