I'm Sorry!Hello everyone, I am in fact still alive but have been quite absent for over a week... gasp! I am on holiday at the moment but didn't say anything before I went away because i thought i would still be posting on my trip. Unfortunately, although my nanna does have internet it is a dialup connection and soooooooo slow - I have been spoiled by having broadband for so long, lol!
I have, of course, remained 100% raw and mostly fruitarian for my trip and I have shared some wonderful raw creations with friends and family. All round I'm having a lovely time although I'm looking forward to getting home to my parents and animal companions tomorrow night. Speaking of animal companions, however, I have some very sad news since I've been away - two of my lovely guinea pigs BumbleBee and Brandy Pudding both passed away as a result of suffering heat-stroke in the 42 degree (celsius... that's over 100F, I think) heat. My parents did their very best but sadly I now only have little Placid remaining.
I cannot upload any photos at the moment but I will put some up when I get home - I've made some more things for my Shazzie recipe quest that I want to share. I will post again soon, so please keep checking back, and have a totally awesome day!
The first thing I made with my new blender...
...of course it was a green smoothie, and a particularly divine one at that! I can't remember if I have posted my blender disaster on here or not - I don't think so but I'm npt in the mood to go into the gory details. Lets just say, I got a blender for christmas, it was broken in several respects within a week and we could not get a refund. So I decided to go all out, putting in some christmas money and some money saved up from all the working I've done in the last 2 months and spend $190 on
this blender. I also paid an extra $20 to have it delivered by 'overnight first class' postage so it arrived yesterday and I even got to sign for it! That was so exciting - I've never signed for a parcel before! It got a serious workout yesterday with me making flax crackers, biscotti biscuits, avocado/mango mousse and, of course, GREEN SMOOTHIE! YUMMMM! Pictured is my blender with one of the two large cups (it comes with two large and two small), full of a scrummy green smoothie of wheatgrass, peach, banana, celery and water. Not only was this delicious it was super exciting, because my food processor was never capable of making green smoothies with wheatgrass or celery, as they didn't get processed to a drinkable consistency at all. And ohhhhh wheatgrass is so good! In the background you can see what was left of my little tray of homegrown wheatgrass after I harvested it for the smoothie. IF you have a good blender, I strongly advise you to make this smoothie!
Well, I have many things to do today! Goodbye and thanks for dropping in!
MMMMMM Sunrise Smoothie
Hello, sorry it's been a few days. The truth is I have wanted to post but I haven't had any photos and I hate posting without them, although it seems that people are having trouble seeing them anyway. I haven't figured out what the issue is, I'm not doing anything differently, so hopefully that will be sorted out soon! The reason I haven't had any photos is that I've just been eating fruit the last few days - eg, on tuesday my lunch was 6 plums and 2 apples. Yum, nothing beats fresh, organic fruit!
I had a 100% fruit day with the exception of some borage and dandelion in my green smoothie and some coconut in the afternoon ( coconut is neither a fruit nor a nut, it's in a class of it's own) and it was super delicious. Pictured above (if you can see it) is Shazzie's
Sunrise Smoothie from Detox Your World and it is ohhhhhhhhh, mmmmmmmmmmm, soooooooo tasty!! I didn't eat it anywhere near sunrise (actually much closer to sunset) but I really don't think it matters, it's delicious anytime!
Since I don't have much to share in the way of food, I'll instead tell you about the lovely night I had out with my parents last night. It will probably be of no interest to you what so ever but never mind. I am NOT a sport loving person, either playing it or watching it, except for when the world cup soccer is on and going to see basketball games. My parents and I started going to basketball games about 3 years ago because my dad's company sponsored the team and so they got free tickets. We went to every match of the season (almost) and had an amazing time, it was a lovely family outing. Then in February 06 we moved from our home town of ADelaide South Australia (Home of the 36ers basketball team, so named because Adelaide was founded in 1836) to Perth Western Australia, home of the Wildcats basketball team. And do you think we were going to start supporting another team? Of COURSE not. Adelaide has come here to play the wildcats just twice in the season - I didn't make it to the first game with my parents but we all went last night and it was incredible. We were, literally, the ONLY 36ers fans in the whole stadium and we were driving the wildcats supporters nuts! We came soooo close to winning but unfortunately were just defeated. It was a brilliant game though, and three of our bestplayers were out injured so it was even more immpressive.
The whole experience was dampened a little though, by the fact that a lady sitting a little way away from us actually went to the management/security of the stadium and told them that my dad was being too loud! He is never rude or abusive to the opposing team or anything like that but he has a particularly loud whistle. Apparently the lady had hearing problems and the whistling was hurting her ears. But she was surrounded by 3000 screaming fans! When the management came to ask dad to stop whistling, he was trying to explain to her that he was a heck of a lot quieter than all the wildcats fans, he had to keep stopping because she couldn't hear him over the noise they were making! It was hilarious, although kind of annoying too.
If he had been whistling for the wildcats you can bet she wouldn't complain!
Well, that's mmy little rant about that, lol :-)
HOpe everyone has a great weekend!
Revisiting Juliano
I may be on a Shazzie recipe quest (see
here) but that doesn't stop me dipping into Juliano's RAW: The UNCookBook every now and then. I had a bit of a camera mix up so I can't show you what I made (which is a pity cos it was very tasty) But I can tell you about how amazing it was! This is right back 'in the pocket,' Juliano's amazing culinary talent coming through once again.
I'll just point out that I honestly don't believe I have
ever made a recipe by myself without changing it at least a bit, even if it is just halving it (although it is usually much more). This recipe was called
Durian, Mango, Mulberry, Maple Syrup (or Date) Avo Mousse. So it's kinda an ingredient list in a title, lol. But the durian is optional and I left it out because the only way to eat a durian is by itself as a meal, or maybe in a smoothie (but only using once or two pods that you force yourself to save when you're eating the rest of the durian). The mango is supposed to be frozen ahead of time but I didn't bother with that. And maple syrup is NOT raw so I went the date option there. Oh and I didn't actually measure anything, just threw it all in. The reason I have really been wanting to try this recipe is that I have an ENORMOUS mulberry tree hanging over my back fence from my neighbour's garden, conveniently located directly above the shed and it was COVERED in fruit. Sadly, between me and the stunning rainbow lorikeets, very little now remains. Anyway, although the fruit is delicious as it is straight from the tree, this was the only recipe I've ever seen calling for mulberries, so how could I resist?
The 'mousse' tasted a LOT like mixed berry yoghurt, only a whole lot better! I have a grandma who really needs to lose weight and is always trying to improve her diet, she looooves really creamy fatty dairy yoghurt but I'm going to stay with her soon, I will whip some of this up for her, maybe she'll never eat yoghurt again? One can but dream...
I ate this spread on pak choi leaves, it was absolutely beautiful. I'd better stop, I could rave about this all day! Lol.
Pictured above is one of three Shazzie recipes I made over the weekend, but the only one I took a picture of because the other two were eaten straight from my blender! It is
Cream of Orange Soup and was super duper simple - blend orange juice, lemon zest and avocado, and you're done! I sprinkled a little orange zest on top too, for presentation reasons. It was really yummy, kind of interesting because one mouthful tasted more orangey, then the next was creamy/avocado-ey and so on.
At the organic farmers market on saturday morning I was very excited to pick up an aloe vera plant, and so I absolutely HAD to make Shazzie's
Aloe Super Mousse from Detox Your World. I wanted to serve it nicely and take a pretty picture but then my parents and I decided to go out and have lunch together on the riverfront so I just took the blender attachment full of mousse and a spoon - who says raw food isn't quick? Here is a photo of me and my mum on a jetty
and here is me and dad on the grassy river bank.
Oh and by the way the Mousse was very tasty, I don't know if I could actually taste the aloe vera or if it just sorta contributed to the overall flavour but I'm not really bothered either way, since it was super yummy.
The last Shazzie recipe I made was the
Quick Choccie Thickshake. It was a bit heavier than what i've been eating a lot lately but I halved the recipe and only had a little bit, it was delicious but anymore would have been too much. I drank this striaght from the blender, so sorry but no photo.
Wow that was long! Have a great day!
I'm Finally Free!
Although I haven't mentioned it much here on the blog, I have been working for the past month or so and yesterday I finally finished! Yay! I am going to be busking (I play clarinet) a little to keep bringing in some income, but no more serious work. I'm very relieved about that, I must say!
I've been 100% raw (well, more like 99.9%) for almost six months now, which is amazing me a fair bit (where the heck did that half a year go???) but what is also amazing me is the way my eating has been constantly evolving and changing over that time. This has obviously been greatly influenced by the fact that I am also recovering from an eating disorder at the moment so embracing the concept of eating when I'm hungry, till I'm full, rather than eaating at a set time and only an amount that I feel I can burn off through exercise later, has been very strange. It's exciting too though!
Anyway, the big change that I'm experiencing at the moment is a definite pull towards fruitarianism. I got the book 'Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods' by T.C Fry and David Klein for christmas, and it focuses on the fact that in a historical sense, the only food we are truly designed to eat is fruit. It has been proven through fossil evidence that early humans very frugivores (fruit eaters) and some people use that as a reason for going fruitarian, which is totally cool. However, I've been in a few *heated discussions* in which people say "so what if we ate fruit a million years ago... a million years ago we lived in caves and died when we were 35, now we all carry mobile phones and laptops" etc. And, to be fair, they have a good point there (although there are certainly a number of characteristics of modern man that I would like to see disappear!)
So I don't use the argument of "This is what we are naturally meant to eaat so we should just eat it" - I now say "well, look at society. Some ridiculous percentage of people are obese, 1 in 4 dies of cancer, people are stressed and miserable, colds and the flu are considered common and normal - now look at raw vegans in general and current evidence says we're doing much better. Not to mention raw food tastes AMAZING!!!"
I have had my life changed by going raw and I wish everyone would experience this but sadly they don't seem to want to. But that is their choice and I figure the best thing I can do is show that this is both the tastiest and healthiest way to eat.
ANYway, to get back to where I started - the fruitarian thing - I am just totally feeling drawn towards fruit at the moment. I love it! (Who doesn't, really?) According the 'Your Natural Diet' people who have a diet consisting of more than about 75% fruit are usually happy to call themselves fruitarian, and I think that at the moment I definately would qualify on those grounds - I pretty much just eat fruit all day and then something heavier at dinner. At the moment I can't see myself going 100% fruitarian, because I consider greens (spinach, silverbeet, chard etc) to be very concentrated sources of minerals and other good stuff, which can to some extent be lacking in modern fruit (a result of hybridisation) but I'm not saying anything definite. I am just going to keep doing what I'm doing now, that is, eating what I want to eat!
Before I (finally) finish this post and head to the Organic Farmer's Market (yay, I'm sooooo low on fruit!) I'd better tell you what the picture is above (apart from not very attractive, lol!) It is
Mousse de Naranja from Shazzie's Detox Your World (if anyone knows what that means, please share!) and it is very yummy. It only had five ingredients in the book, those being dried apricots, orange juice, cinnamon, cloves and fresh lavender flowers. I added some fresh apricots, and omitted the cloves and lavender flowers (where the heck do you get lavender flowers?) I don't use many dried spices cos they aren't truly raw, but the cinnamon was a nice touch. It was delish, and had a suprisingly 'moussey' texture. I served it in a savoy cabbage 'bowl' with some mashed banana.
A recipe and more on the Shazzie quest
Hello! I have a recipe for you today, isn't that exciting? It is what I ate for lunch yesterday and was extremely tasty:
Stonefruit Pudding:1/2 a large mango
1 peach
1 nectarine
flesh of (most) of 1 young coconut
Put everything in a blender and blend. Well, you might want to take the stones out of the peach and nectarine first, lol!
I had a bit of an issue with my (brand new, christmas present) blender when I was making this - as I was merrily blending away, there was suddenly one of those horrible electrical-appliance-gone-wrong smells, followed by a very unpleasant noise. I stopped the blender right away, opened it up and found that the rubber seal ring had slipped loose and become tangled around the blades! :-( Luckily it hadn't had the chance to get chopped into a million pieces and ruin my meal but needless to say I wasn't happy. There have been problems with this blender from the start, but when it's actually working it is excellent, so I hope they don't continue.
Anyway, for lunch the day before yesterday I had a meal from Shazzie's DEtox Your World,
Fig Stew. It was perfect because it uses lots of figs and berries, and I have both free figs and berries at the moment! :-) It was nice but not amazing. I think the thing is that figs are
soooooooo amazingly delicious, it is kind of a crime to mix them with anything. Also the idea was to mix the ingredients together and then let them sit for a while for the flavours to blend (ie the 'stew' part) but I couldn't wait for that so I ate it right away. I also left out the cinnamon.
I have to go, I have to work today. Have a great day everyone!
Sharing the Green Smoothie goodness
Good morning everyone! I didn't have any photos to post today so I just took one of the green smoothie that I am drinking for breakfast as I type this. It is super yummy and contains:
beet greens
rainbow chard
frozen banana
mango
water
young coconut water
mesquite meal
The addition of the mesquite meal takes it out of this world! YUMMMM! Anyway, I have my beautiful ratty Bliss (who is 100% raw since moving in with me!) sitting on me and she was exploring the computer desk. I put my smoothie down to type and what do you know...
she wanted to share! When I've finished my breakfast she always get some green smoothie in her bowl (and always devours it) but this morning she apparently didn't want to wait!! Isn't that totally adorable!??!
Yesterday I came up with the best fruit pudding recipe for lunch but sadly didn't take a picture. But don't worry, I'll definately be making it again so I can do it then, lol :-) This is the recipe - so simple, sooooooo good!
1 medium banana
about 6 little apricots
4 smallish fresh figs (hmm, better make that 3 1/2, I had a bite of each one as I went so it's not really 4 full ones, lol!)
Put it all in a blender or food processor, whizz whizz, and you're done! I served it (as I do with all my fruit puddings) in a savoy cabbage 'bowl.' But you can just serve it in a regular bowl, or just eat straight from the blender if it doesn't make it to the bowl!
Have a great day!
The Shazzie Recipe Quest
Hey everyone ... two days in a row, how impressive! Lol! Anyway, I've mentioned it before but I am now making it official - I am on a quest to make every recipe in Shazzie's recipe books! It's a secret desire I harboured regarding cookbooks for some time, but now my secret is out in the open! I love the simplicity of Shazzie's recipes, and their reliance more on fruits and veggies than nuts, seeds, grains or anything else. Although the one section that always causes me problems is the Salad Dressings, because despite the fact that Shazzie isn't a fan of oils and uses them sparingly, one place they always come up is the dressings. So I'm thinking I might just aim to make every recipe in every section except Salad Dressings. I hadn't planned a timeline on this but I just realised that it's January 1st so why not say I want to have achieved my goal by the end of the year :-)
I've been doing pretty well recently, especially making loads of fruit puddings from Detox Delights - pictured above is my lunch from yesterday, which was
Creamy Sunrise served in a savoy cabbage leaf. It is basically just banana, paw paw (papaya), berries and dates. I used mulberries because we have a HUGE mulberry tree covered in fruit, although the recipe actually calls for strawberries.
Hope everyone has a wonderful first day of the year!
