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
Showing posts with label Raw Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Raw Food. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Monday, 11 June 2012
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
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
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
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
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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
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
Monday, 26 March 2012
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
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
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
"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!
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
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!
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
Monday, 5 March 2012
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!
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
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
Saturday, 3 March 2012
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
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
Sunday, 19 February 2012
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
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
Sunday, 12 February 2012
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
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
Thursday, 2 February 2012
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
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
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
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
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
My Microwave is Annoying me......and other assorted musings
So, I know, two posts in one day is a bit much, but I've just had so much rattling around in this head of mine today and yesterday, and I feel like I'm learning and growing and changing at such a rate of knots lately that one post today just won't do it!
Firstly, my microwave is sitting there on the bench in the kitchen, taking up a big chunk of my bench space and its just.....annoying the heck outta me!!! I'll explain more (and ask for advice) about this later.
For now more of the yummies I made (with my daughters help) yesterday, and what was on the menu in the casa of "going raw" today! LOL
I mentioned in my last post that yesterday afternoon my daughter and I made this awesome chocolate chip cookie dough from Chocolate Covered Katie, all I did was mix it up in the Thermomix instead of a food processor, and for a FIRST, my daughter LOVED it!!! Hurrah!
It's really gooey and just totally scrummy, the first "healthy" snack I've turned out since starting on this journey that my daughter hasn't turned up her nose at.
So, today's breakfast was another green smoothie-juice (I've decided to use the term "smoothie" if its a thicker type, and "smoothie-juice" if its still the whole fruit and veg rather than actually juicing, but is a thinner juice-like consistency). It was kind of a "what have i got in my fruit bowl that might go together" smoothie-juice and you know what? It turned out so awesome its going into regular rotation!
I think I'll call this one "Monster Green Slime" just for fun and cause its sooooooo darn green! LOL
Ingredients:
2 Green Apples, quartered (no need to remove seeds or skins if using a TMX or other powerful blender)
1 Cup Green Grapes
2 Cups Baby Spinach
8 Large Ice Cubes
1/2 to 1 cup water (as always, to your desired consistency)
Method:
Combine all ingredients in TMX on Speed 6 for about 10 seconds then scrape down the sides with spatula, then whiz up on speed 9 for another 30 seconds until nice and juicey.
This was so refreshing (not to mention completely delicious) I was ready to BOUND out the door about 2 minutes after drinking it, what a BRILLIANT way to start the day!
My mid-morning smoothie was another variation on my berry/nut/banana smoothie. This morning I wanted to try some Maca powder as I just finished watching the DVD's from Uncooking101's "Home Study Course - An Introduction to Raw Food Made Easy" and Eva mentioned that Maca, in addition to its other benefits outlined here, has quite a nice malt-type flavour. So I thought the combination of Maca and Cacao would not only give my power smoothie a nice energy boost, but would also taste pretty great, and oh I was SO right! LOL
Mid Morning Power Smoothie:
Ingredients:
1-2 Bananas
1/2 to 1 Cup Frozen Mixed Berries of your choice
1/3 cup raw cashews or almonds (soaked preferably, but if you don't have time its pretty good with just raw nuts)
2 huge handfuls of baby spinach or other greens
8 large cubes of ice
Water to your desired consistency
Today's added ingredients:
1 tsp Raw Cacao powder
1/2 tsp Maca powder
2 fresh pitted Dates (I only use the dates if i'm putting Cacao in as they're not necessary to sweeten the smoothie ordinarily, only to counteract the slight bitterness of the Cacao)
Method:
Blend on Speed 6 for 10 seconds then scrape down sides of bowl and blend on Speed 9 for about 1 minute. Serve and garnish with a berry or two as desired and enjoy! :)
Then for lunch today I had another awesome Slaw (the reason I'm having Slaw type salads is I can't honestly be bothered chopping up veggies the traditional way most days, and I haven't got my spiraliser to turn the veggies into nice noodles yet!) made with the dairy free sour cream from yesterday's post, mixed with a Raw Mushroom and Walnut Pate based on this recipe but modified to my personal tastes:
Ingredients:
2 Cloves fresh Garlic
200-230g soaked Walnuts (soaked for 4-8 hours)
200-230g raw Mushrooms
2 TBSP or 20g Tamari/Nama Shoyu/G.F Soy Sauce
2 tsp fresh or dried Thyme
Black Pepper to taste
20g Olive Oil
1/4 to 1/2 shallot
Handful fresh parsley
Method:
1. Mince garlic in TMX on Speed 7 for 2-3 seconds.
2. Add remaining ingredients to bowl and combine on Speed 7 for approximately 10-15 seconds or until your desired pate-like consistency is reached (some people probably prefer larger pieces, others would prefer a creamier consistency with smaller pieces).
Then for the slaw I just threw one carrot and one quite large zucchini into the Thermomix (quartered first) and chopped them for around 5 seconds on speed 4, then scraped down the sides and did another 5 seconds on speed 4.
Then I made a well in the slaw mix, scooped some of the Pate into it and drizzled some dairy free sour cream over the top, mixed it all together and chowed down! Yummo!
So that was the raw part of my day - dinner was a lovely steamed stuffed chicken breast and steamed vegetables with my family, but the way things are going, soon dinner will be something raw and veggie TOO - more on that in future!
So back to my microwave annoying me! I don't know why but suddenly its really bugging me, probably because of this new consciousness of what I'm putting in my body, i just don't see the need to nuke or deadify things anymore! So it's annoying me that its sitting there on the bench taking up space where I could have nice clear bench space for prepping all my lovely fresh foods, and also tempting me to use it.....So, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with it? I'm not quite ready to completely get rid of it because I think hubby might have a heart attack if i just dropped that bomb on him all at once, so an alternative???? Til next time!! XXX
Firstly, my microwave is sitting there on the bench in the kitchen, taking up a big chunk of my bench space and its just.....annoying the heck outta me!!! I'll explain more (and ask for advice) about this later.
For now more of the yummies I made (with my daughters help) yesterday, and what was on the menu in the casa of "going raw" today! LOL
I mentioned in my last post that yesterday afternoon my daughter and I made this awesome chocolate chip cookie dough from Chocolate Covered Katie, all I did was mix it up in the Thermomix instead of a food processor, and for a FIRST, my daughter LOVED it!!! Hurrah!
It's really gooey and just totally scrummy, the first "healthy" snack I've turned out since starting on this journey that my daughter hasn't turned up her nose at.
So, today's breakfast was another green smoothie-juice (I've decided to use the term "smoothie" if its a thicker type, and "smoothie-juice" if its still the whole fruit and veg rather than actually juicing, but is a thinner juice-like consistency). It was kind of a "what have i got in my fruit bowl that might go together" smoothie-juice and you know what? It turned out so awesome its going into regular rotation!
I think I'll call this one "Monster Green Slime" just for fun and cause its sooooooo darn green! LOL
Ingredients:
2 Green Apples, quartered (no need to remove seeds or skins if using a TMX or other powerful blender)
1 Cup Green Grapes
2 Cups Baby Spinach
8 Large Ice Cubes
1/2 to 1 cup water (as always, to your desired consistency)
Method:
Combine all ingredients in TMX on Speed 6 for about 10 seconds then scrape down the sides with spatula, then whiz up on speed 9 for another 30 seconds until nice and juicey.
This was so refreshing (not to mention completely delicious) I was ready to BOUND out the door about 2 minutes after drinking it, what a BRILLIANT way to start the day!
My mid-morning smoothie was another variation on my berry/nut/banana smoothie. This morning I wanted to try some Maca powder as I just finished watching the DVD's from Uncooking101's "Home Study Course - An Introduction to Raw Food Made Easy" and Eva mentioned that Maca, in addition to its other benefits outlined here, has quite a nice malt-type flavour. So I thought the combination of Maca and Cacao would not only give my power smoothie a nice energy boost, but would also taste pretty great, and oh I was SO right! LOL
Mid Morning Power Smoothie:
Ingredients:
1-2 Bananas
1/2 to 1 Cup Frozen Mixed Berries of your choice
1/3 cup raw cashews or almonds (soaked preferably, but if you don't have time its pretty good with just raw nuts)
2 huge handfuls of baby spinach or other greens
8 large cubes of ice
Water to your desired consistency
Today's added ingredients:
1 tsp Raw Cacao powder
1/2 tsp Maca powder
2 fresh pitted Dates (I only use the dates if i'm putting Cacao in as they're not necessary to sweeten the smoothie ordinarily, only to counteract the slight bitterness of the Cacao)
Method:
Blend on Speed 6 for 10 seconds then scrape down sides of bowl and blend on Speed 9 for about 1 minute. Serve and garnish with a berry or two as desired and enjoy! :)
Then for lunch today I had another awesome Slaw (the reason I'm having Slaw type salads is I can't honestly be bothered chopping up veggies the traditional way most days, and I haven't got my spiraliser to turn the veggies into nice noodles yet!) made with the dairy free sour cream from yesterday's post, mixed with a Raw Mushroom and Walnut Pate based on this recipe but modified to my personal tastes:
Ingredients:
2 Cloves fresh Garlic
200-230g soaked Walnuts (soaked for 4-8 hours)
200-230g raw Mushrooms
2 TBSP or 20g Tamari/Nama Shoyu/G.F Soy Sauce
2 tsp fresh or dried Thyme
Black Pepper to taste
20g Olive Oil
1/4 to 1/2 shallot
Handful fresh parsley
Method:
1. Mince garlic in TMX on Speed 7 for 2-3 seconds.
2. Add remaining ingredients to bowl and combine on Speed 7 for approximately 10-15 seconds or until your desired pate-like consistency is reached (some people probably prefer larger pieces, others would prefer a creamier consistency with smaller pieces).
Then for the slaw I just threw one carrot and one quite large zucchini into the Thermomix (quartered first) and chopped them for around 5 seconds on speed 4, then scraped down the sides and did another 5 seconds on speed 4.
Then I made a well in the slaw mix, scooped some of the Pate into it and drizzled some dairy free sour cream over the top, mixed it all together and chowed down! Yummo!
So that was the raw part of my day - dinner was a lovely steamed stuffed chicken breast and steamed vegetables with my family, but the way things are going, soon dinner will be something raw and veggie TOO - more on that in future!
So back to my microwave annoying me! I don't know why but suddenly its really bugging me, probably because of this new consciousness of what I'm putting in my body, i just don't see the need to nuke or deadify things anymore! So it's annoying me that its sitting there on the bench taking up space where I could have nice clear bench space for prepping all my lovely fresh foods, and also tempting me to use it.....So, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with it? I'm not quite ready to completely get rid of it because I think hubby might have a heart attack if i just dropped that bomb on him all at once, so an alternative???? Til next time!! XXX
Sooooo Much to Say, So little TIME!!!
Well today I'm feeling like I don't know where to start!! We had a huge weekend with my Mum's surprise 60th Birthday party on Saturday night (I made those fabulous dips for it, and also made up a Beetroot Salad, some Coleslaw, and a lovely tart Broccoli salad which everyone loved). Mum was super surprised and had a really great time so it was all worth it!
Then I had to rush back from Cairns to Atherton Sunday for my very first Thermomix demonstration! It went really well despite my nerves and a few beginners jitters and hiccups and the hostess really loved it! So not bad for a complete newbie!
So onto the raw food "thing" that I keep going on about lately. I have to tell you it's EXTREMELY addictive, the more raw fruits, veggies, nuts etc that I eat, the more my body seems to be craving it. After splurging a bit at Mum's party on Saturday night (I had quite a lot of dips with cream cheese in them and a bunch of cooked canape's, plus a bit of steak and some mudcake!) and then having cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner Sunday (circumstances dictated, although I DID manage to sneak in some salad at lunch time and a fresh squeezed OJ at breakfast), I felt like rubbish yesterday and also this morning to a lesser extent! I woke up yesterday with red itchy eyes and a runny sneezy nose and it lasted until mid-morning. Today I was a little better, a little headache and a runny nose but it cleared up after only an hour this morning.
Yesterday morning I had a green juice of a huge bunch of baby spinach, 3 fresh oranges and some ice, it was so light and refreshing, just what I needed when I was feeling all sinus-y! Morning tea was my usual banana/nut/berry power smoothie followed by this totally delish Creamy Pesto Carrot Slaw for lunch:
Now this one was a little complicated, I have to fess up, but I was in the mood for something creamy and pesto-y and I just wouldn't be denied so I put the extra effort in.
So first I made up a dairy free sour cream based on a combination of Jo's from Quirky Cooking found here and Eva's from Uncooking101 here. Here is my Thermomixed take on it:
Ingredients:
50g raw cashews
50g sunflower seeds
100g pine nuts
(Soak these seeds and nuts overnight to make them softer, for an even creamier texture and to activate the enzymes in the nuts, I hadn't planned that far ahead so I put them in unsoaked)
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp onion powder
1 clove garlic
Juice of 2-3 lemons (to taste, I like mine really tart)
250 g water
Method:
I'm lazy so whilst some ppl might mince the garlic first I didn't!
Combine all ingredients in your Thermomix, food processor or blender. Blend on Speed 9 for 1 minute, scrape down the sides of the bowl and blend again on Speed 9 until a nice smooth creamy consistency is reached. This does keep in the fridge for a few days so I made up quite a large batch.
Next I threw in some leftover Pesto Dip from the Thermomix cookbook Everyday Cooking for Every Family, slightly modified (I prefer a stronger basil flavour, and a slightly wetter consistency, and I love the pine-nut flavour so I added some in, cause for me if there are no pine-nuts its not really pesto!):
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
100g basil leaves
Handful of fresh parsley
100g Cashews
40g Pine Nuts
100g Olive Oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2-4 TBSP of Parmesan if you eat dairy, or substitue 2-4 TBSP of Nutritional Yeast or Savoury Yeast for a dairy free alternative.
Method:
Combine ingredients in your Thermomix or blender and pulse on Turbo for 4-6 pulses depending on the consistency you like.
Next I threw together a Carrot and Zucchini "Slaw" which was just 1 carrot, 1 zucchini, 1/2 a stick of celery with leaves, 1/2 a shallot and 1/4 of a red capsicum all quartered and thrown in the Thermomix and chopped on speed 4 for about 10 seconds, then scraped down and chopped on speed 4 for another 5 seconds.
I then threw all three elements together in a nice big bowl, mixed it up and VOILA, a creamy pesto salad! It was totally delicious and by halfway through the bowl I was so full I had to leave the rest for dinner!
I have more pics and recipes to share (my daughter and I also made some of Choclate Covered Katies Raw Cookie Dough - for the sweetener I used 2/3 cup of Rapadura. And we made some peanut butter, plus there's my awesome juice from this morning, my power smoothie and today's gorgeous lunch!) but I don't want to overwhelm you all in one post so I'll save those for later tonight or tomorrow (depending on when I have time). As always please leave me comments and/or requests for recipes and I'll do my best! Stay happy and healthy! xx
Then I had to rush back from Cairns to Atherton Sunday for my very first Thermomix demonstration! It went really well despite my nerves and a few beginners jitters and hiccups and the hostess really loved it! So not bad for a complete newbie!
So onto the raw food "thing" that I keep going on about lately. I have to tell you it's EXTREMELY addictive, the more raw fruits, veggies, nuts etc that I eat, the more my body seems to be craving it. After splurging a bit at Mum's party on Saturday night (I had quite a lot of dips with cream cheese in them and a bunch of cooked canape's, plus a bit of steak and some mudcake!) and then having cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner Sunday (circumstances dictated, although I DID manage to sneak in some salad at lunch time and a fresh squeezed OJ at breakfast), I felt like rubbish yesterday and also this morning to a lesser extent! I woke up yesterday with red itchy eyes and a runny sneezy nose and it lasted until mid-morning. Today I was a little better, a little headache and a runny nose but it cleared up after only an hour this morning.
Yesterday morning I had a green juice of a huge bunch of baby spinach, 3 fresh oranges and some ice, it was so light and refreshing, just what I needed when I was feeling all sinus-y! Morning tea was my usual banana/nut/berry power smoothie followed by this totally delish Creamy Pesto Carrot Slaw for lunch:
Now this one was a little complicated, I have to fess up, but I was in the mood for something creamy and pesto-y and I just wouldn't be denied so I put the extra effort in.
So first I made up a dairy free sour cream based on a combination of Jo's from Quirky Cooking found here and Eva's from Uncooking101 here. Here is my Thermomixed take on it:
Ingredients:
50g raw cashews
50g sunflower seeds
100g pine nuts
(Soak these seeds and nuts overnight to make them softer, for an even creamier texture and to activate the enzymes in the nuts, I hadn't planned that far ahead so I put them in unsoaked)
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp onion powder
1 clove garlic
Juice of 2-3 lemons (to taste, I like mine really tart)
250 g water
Method:
I'm lazy so whilst some ppl might mince the garlic first I didn't!
Combine all ingredients in your Thermomix, food processor or blender. Blend on Speed 9 for 1 minute, scrape down the sides of the bowl and blend again on Speed 9 until a nice smooth creamy consistency is reached. This does keep in the fridge for a few days so I made up quite a large batch.
Next I threw in some leftover Pesto Dip from the Thermomix cookbook Everyday Cooking for Every Family, slightly modified (I prefer a stronger basil flavour, and a slightly wetter consistency, and I love the pine-nut flavour so I added some in, cause for me if there are no pine-nuts its not really pesto!):
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
100g basil leaves
Handful of fresh parsley
100g Cashews
40g Pine Nuts
100g Olive Oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2-4 TBSP of Parmesan if you eat dairy, or substitue 2-4 TBSP of Nutritional Yeast or Savoury Yeast for a dairy free alternative.
Method:
Combine ingredients in your Thermomix or blender and pulse on Turbo for 4-6 pulses depending on the consistency you like.
Next I threw together a Carrot and Zucchini "Slaw" which was just 1 carrot, 1 zucchini, 1/2 a stick of celery with leaves, 1/2 a shallot and 1/4 of a red capsicum all quartered and thrown in the Thermomix and chopped on speed 4 for about 10 seconds, then scraped down and chopped on speed 4 for another 5 seconds.
I then threw all three elements together in a nice big bowl, mixed it up and VOILA, a creamy pesto salad! It was totally delicious and by halfway through the bowl I was so full I had to leave the rest for dinner!
I have more pics and recipes to share (my daughter and I also made some of Choclate Covered Katies Raw Cookie Dough - for the sweetener I used 2/3 cup of Rapadura. And we made some peanut butter, plus there's my awesome juice from this morning, my power smoothie and today's gorgeous lunch!) but I don't want to overwhelm you all in one post so I'll save those for later tonight or tomorrow (depending on when I have time). As always please leave me comments and/or requests for recipes and I'll do my best! Stay happy and healthy! xx
Thursday, 26 January 2012
My "Kinda" Raw Day......
Well this journey of trying to incorporate more raw/living and whole foods into my diet is AMAZING so far, and I'm only a couple of weeks into it!
What I'm noticing currently seems to be the more raw I eat, the more sensitive I seem to be to cooked food!
For example I started today with a lovely refreshing Pine Mint Smoothie:
Ingredients:
* Large handful baby spinach or other leafy greens
* One medium to large green apple, quartered
* One round of fresh pineapple, skinned and quartered
* Fresh Mint to taste (I like a lot as it's what makes this smoothie so refreshing!)
* 100-200g ice
* Water to desired consistency
Method:
Combine all ingredients in the Thermomix (if you don't have one you need to use a pretty powerful blender or food processor) and whiz up on speed 5 for about 10-15 seconds to combine, then scrape down the sides of the bowl and lid, then speed 9 for another 20-30 seconds. If it's too thick simply add some more water until you reach the consistency you like.
This was a great way to start my day, the mint really wakes me up and makes me feel ready to tackle anything!
But THEN I made some cheese and bacon pizza scrolls for my husband and daughter to have as THEIR brunch and they just looked and smelled so good coming out of the oven I couldn't resist eating a couple while they were still warm......so delicious!
But after that I fell into a bit of a carb coma and had to sleep hard! I had a nap for about an hour and a half and still felt tired when I woke up! Luckily I had some of this awesome Raw Walnut and Mushroom Pate leftover in the fridge and I threw together a quick snack of that stuffed in half a tomato with some carrot dipping sticks. It was totally delicious and I felt so much better afterwards!
I haven't made anything for dinner yet so I might just have some nut butter on five seed bread (both made in my trusty Thermomix) as a quick easy dinner, and we'll see how that makes me feel!
What I'm noticing currently seems to be the more raw I eat, the more sensitive I seem to be to cooked food!
For example I started today with a lovely refreshing Pine Mint Smoothie:
Ingredients:
* Large handful baby spinach or other leafy greens
* One medium to large green apple, quartered
* One round of fresh pineapple, skinned and quartered
* Fresh Mint to taste (I like a lot as it's what makes this smoothie so refreshing!)
* 100-200g ice
* Water to desired consistency
Method:
Combine all ingredients in the Thermomix (if you don't have one you need to use a pretty powerful blender or food processor) and whiz up on speed 5 for about 10-15 seconds to combine, then scrape down the sides of the bowl and lid, then speed 9 for another 20-30 seconds. If it's too thick simply add some more water until you reach the consistency you like.
This was a great way to start my day, the mint really wakes me up and makes me feel ready to tackle anything!
But THEN I made some cheese and bacon pizza scrolls for my husband and daughter to have as THEIR brunch and they just looked and smelled so good coming out of the oven I couldn't resist eating a couple while they were still warm......so delicious!
But after that I fell into a bit of a carb coma and had to sleep hard! I had a nap for about an hour and a half and still felt tired when I woke up! Luckily I had some of this awesome Raw Walnut and Mushroom Pate leftover in the fridge and I threw together a quick snack of that stuffed in half a tomato with some carrot dipping sticks. It was totally delicious and I felt so much better afterwards!
I haven't made anything for dinner yet so I might just have some nut butter on five seed bread (both made in my trusty Thermomix) as a quick easy dinner, and we'll see how that makes me feel!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)