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

Hi All!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health, B xxx

Deep Breath, Push Reset!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Love and Health! B xxx

Catching Up....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health! B xxxx

Where are you at the moment?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health! B xxxx

Green Smoothie Challenge Continued....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just a Quickie!

Hi Everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello everyone!

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

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

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

Before!

After! (teehee!)

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

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

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

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

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

Love and Health!!! B xxx