Lets still Love Ourselves with Holidays Approaching

With the Holiday Season approaching I am aware that for many of us, the added pressure of family visits or being their guest, can have an additional emotional toll when it comes to food;  for some of us, we just want "to fit in", not "cause waves" 'keep everyone happy" by serving them food you know they love, even if it isn't particularly healthy or in line with our own ethical choices, & the addictive list of emotions that surface (of being "different") can be quite long!
In the meantime we forget about loving ourselves, our healthy choices and the life style we are working towards implementing! The need to explain, appear different from everyone else, jump through every hoop to please everyone, looms, as more & more people flow through the door......can anyone relate to this? "Fear" raises it's familiar head, what will people think, will they still love me, will they tease & berate me, criticize my choices, even judge what I choose to serve them in our home......
discussions like.... " breakfast, I'm soo hungry, I usually like eggs with bacon shall we poach them...well actually I haven't got any eggs or bacon! or.... "shall I light the BBQ, where's the steak"..."oh so you don't eat meat, well I had better help you fix the cheese platter"...well No, there's a nut cheese over there, a dip & some veggie crudites! "I'm hanging out for a beer, have you another frig somewhere that houses all the alcohol?" Well No, we can make up a delicious fruit punch! "Perhaps it's time we all had a meal in town"! Yes, that's fine but it's an 80 km round trip, do you still want to go!
These are conversations that we can be so fearful of having ; we can even have beliefs about what is socially acceptable and what is seen in some households as "normal" living.Some of us even find ourselves avoiding these friends or family in such challenging situations.
I remember my brother & family coming for a holiday not so long ago & his comment  on leaving, was...."well, we did survive the food & no alcohol in the cupboard; I know you went to a lot of trouble in preparing meals but it's certainly not the way I would eat from choice!" My fears were certainly realised in this feedback!

Eating healthy food does not mean a carrot stick or rabbit food. Including more fresh living foods in our diets will bring its own reward, we don't need to be fanatical about it, and I don't believe we have to necessarily be 100% Raw; this becomes a personal choice.


I would like to thank Raw Pleasure for this article; I think you might find it interesting & I wonder how many of us have contemplated on the points mentioned in this article; I know it is an area I have explored & I am still working on the addictive emotional components that sabotage my best intentions at times.

Eat Raw Because You Love Yourself

Written by Jennie Murphy

Recently I had an interesting chat to a lovely gentleman who said he ate raw because he hated his body. My heart twisted as he spoke because I knew how he felt. I too have hated my body despite the fact that it's a miracle in itself. This man hates his body because it has pimples and is weak among other things. "Will you eat raw if you get clear skin and become strong?" I asked him? "Probably not" he responded. "Once I'm strong I'll always be strong" and he seemed to conveniently forget that he also  "hated" (such a strong word!) the acne. I marvel at these people who have such confidence in themselves that they cannot imagine how it feels to dislike  yourself intensely.  The message I have here for you all, is to eat Raw, not because you hate your body, but because you love it and, dare I suggest that you love yourselves as well. Love it for it's ability to release toxic muck via the skin. Love it because it still struggles to get you through the day even when starving for nutrition. Love your body because it heals so quickly. Love your body because it wants you to do well. Take it to the next level, love yourself enough to eat optimal foods. You are not missing out. If you go to your Mum's or a friend's place and they're all eating junk while you're eating a fruit platter, or a salad meal, or a raw version of what  they're having, they are missing out. Not you. They're missing out on vital nutrition. They're missing out on the flavours of fresh whole foods. They're missing out on health and vitality even if they don't know it. You eat Raw because you Love yourself. It's as simple as that. Even if you feel like you hate yourself, you don't.  Somewhere down deep, you love yourself at levels you can't imagine. Otherwise,you'd be continuing with your slow  suicide of over processed, toxic crud the powers that be allow corporations to label as food. Embrace that feeling of  loving yourself, eat Raw and enjoy life. <3 Jennie xx

Raw Food Milkshakes........Yum...Yum

I loved Milk Shakes as a child, they were only ever a treat for special occasions, whereas these days with home blenders, little ones (and big ones too!) can enjoy a delicious creamy indulgence whenever the mood strikes and it is reassuring to know that the ingredients are full of nutrition and not causing mucus to form in the body from using dairy products like cows milk, icecream and yogurt. Bananas always add creaminess in any recipe and if you like a strong flavour of fruit you can reduce the nut milk content by adding more water & less milk before blending in the fruit.

How to make your own Nut Milks

Makes: approximately 1 litre
 1 cup of almonds or any nuts of choice
 3-4 cups of water (dependent on desired consistency)

Soaking nuts for a period of time in clean pure water is advised to neutralize the enzyme inhibitors present
and also to remove any dust and dirt residues. Different nuts require the following soaking times: -
Almonds: 8-12 hours
Pecans: 4-6 hours
Walnuts: 4 hours
Cashews: 2 hours
Brazil Nuts / Hazelnuts /Macadamia Nuts / Pine Nuts / Pistachio Nuts: No soaking – Just rinse

Method
1. Rinse and soak nuts of choice in pure water for between 8-12 hours.
2. Rinse and drain the nuts.
3. Place the nuts and volume of water in the blender and blend til fine & creamy.
4. Pour mixture through a nut milk bag, squeezing the milk out into a suitable sized jug or bowl.
 If you don't have a nut bag, soft gauze, a strainer or even a new stocking could be used. Nut bags are available at most health food outlets
5. Store in glass bottles in the fridge and use within 3 days.

 Strawberry Milkshake

• 2 cups strawberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup nut milk
• 3 frozen bananas
• 1 teaspoon honey (or alternative sweetener)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Blend!

Chocolate Milk shake:

• 2 bananas (of which 1 being frozen)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 nut milk
• 1 Tablespoon cacao powder
• 1 pitted Medjool date
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Blend!

Banana Milkshake

• 6 bananas (4 fresh, 2 frozen)
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tablespoons hemp seeds 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 
• ( substitute nut milk if you do not have hemp seeds) 

Blend!

                                     
                                                       

                                                   Thank you to the Internet for these three photos

Think easy

I know that sometimes the biggest hurdle to overcome in changing to a healthier diet is how to find the time to prepare fresh food.
Here are some tips that may make eating healthy food easy:
1. Eat simply. Eating delicious, raw prepared foods are great, but try thinking a little simpler. A nice big crispy apple with raw almond butter or pate, delicious figs for breakfast, or a green smoothie of 1 mango blended with ½ bunch of parsley. Eat simply for breakfast and lunch, and save prepared foods for dinner.





2. Buy your salad greens regularly so they remain fresh & enticing. A lot of markets even carry prewashed baby greens such as arugula, spinach and mixed greens. This makes it really easy to open a bag and throw a salad together if you are in a rush. Better still....visit your veggie garden just before a meal!
3. Shop at the local Farmers Markets. Farmers bring produce fresh picked and ripe most of the time so you can buy your food at its tastiest, ripest and freshest. The flavors are so great that you will enjoy these foods all by themselves, with nothing on them. Think big juicy heirloom tomatoes.
4. Make fast salad dressings with tasty oils. There is an amazing array of delicious, exotic oils that now fill the markets such as pumpkin seed, almond, sesame, macadamia, hemp and walnut oils all cold pressed, not forgetting Olive oil which is a favorite for many people. Just drizzle a tablespoon of oil, some lemon juice and a little Himalayan salt, then mix your greens well, top them with sprouts, sliced avocados, cucumbers, celery, red pepper,tomatoes and some sunflower or pumpkin seeds, and you've got a healthy, easy salad.
5. Mash an avocado with some raw sauerkraut and spread on a flax cracker. I love this dish! Just take 1 avocado, mash it with ½ cup of your favorite store bought or homemade sauerkraut and eat it like that or spread it on a cracker.
6. Use presoaked nuts/seeds. Ever find a great raw pie or pate' recipe and wish you didn't have to wait for the nuts to soak? Here are 2 solutions. 1. Keep a couple cups of your favorite nuts such as almonds always soaking. You can keep them in water in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. When you are ready to use them, rinse them to freshen them. 2. Soak up to a few packets of nuts overnight, rinse them well, then dehydrate them at 105° until crispy. (About 36 hours for almonds, 24 hours for walnuts or pecans and only 8 hours for pumpkin or sunflower seeds). Let them cool and store them in an airtight container. When you need them for almond milk, just plain snacking' or a recipe, they will be ready to use.
7. Pick one or two days a week to do your food production. Make the majority of your prepared foods on that day such as flax crackers, nut/seed pates, veggie burgers, almond mayo, pizza crusts, pesto, perhaps a frozen desert etc. which will keep for the rest of the week. Then on the other days, you have a foundation on which you can put your fresh fruits and veggies. Ideas: Make pasta sauce on your food production day, and on a non-production day, make a green salad and spiralized zucchini on which to put your sauces and dressings.
8. There are some great Raw Food Books readily available these days or otherwise try the internet for ideas. I like to save recipes I come across that I would like to try, there are squillions to choose from!
9. Make eating healthy & fun, not a chore. Your energy and mood will improve with each healthy meal, making life more fun and light. If you eat pizza, so what? I'm sure you had a perfectly good reason for eating it. Now, take a deep breath, send lots of love to the pizza in your tummy, and move on!

Storing Fresh Food

I live far from "a close & quick drive" to the shops, & it has been a long time in me discovering the easiest and freshest way of storing food bought from the markets.

Nuts, Seeds and Grains are best stored for up to 3 months in a glass jar in the cupboard. I personally prefer to store these in a second refrigerator I bought or in the freezer as a back up. If they are soaked and dehydrated, they should not be frozen.

Dried Fruit is best stored in the refrigerator to prevent bugs from hatching. You can also freeze dried fruit with little or no effect on its vitality, since it lacks water.

I find for absolute freshness, spices should be replaced every 6 months, and stored in clear glass jars in your cupboard out of the light.
Fresh fruit is best at room temperature as the flavors seem to be much better. If you put these in the refrigerator, put them in a separate drawer with fruit only, as the gases will make other foods possibly go bad.
Vegetables are best stored in green plastic bags found for sale in a lot of produce sections. They help the vegetables to last much longer than regular plastic bags. If you store in any type of plastic bag, make sure the end is closed to prevent wilting; a piece of paper towel in the bag soaks up condensation & keeps the veggies dry. If you can fit your veggies into a glass container with a lid, that is always best. You can revive wilted herbs by placing them in a glass of cold water like a flower. Mushrooms need to be in a paper bag to avoid sweating.
Glass is always the best choice when storing food. In a personal experiment, I found that strawberries lasted 2 times longer when stored in glass on a paper towel, instead of their plastic container.
Even large salads can be stored in a sealed glass bowl. They look beautiful, and you can see them smiling at you in your refrigerator.
Always store your food in clear glass rather than plastic containers if you can, and label it with the date. There are lots of glass storage sets with plastic resalable lids available at a variety of stores.

Freezing destroys some of the nutrients in fresh food because of its water content. Some recipes can be frozen and defrosted and still be delicious. Some examples are raw burgers, raw apple pie, raw cheese cakes & sweet treats or anything that has low water content. Dried fruits, nuts, seeds and grains are fine frozen because they have no water.
Refrigeration - I like to go through my refrigerator at least once a week to prevent fresh foods from spoiling. I never know what's hiding back there!
I think bench/countertops are great for foods you really want to eat like fresh fruits, and raw snack foods in glass jars. If you can see them, you are more likely to make a healthy choice.

Labeling is important to keep foods rotated and fresh and to remember what that little "is it a seed or a grain or what?" thing is, especially in the freezer. Using a piece of masking tape or store bought label, write the date including the name of the item on the front edge of the container, this helps when looking for a specific made up dish or food in a hurry.

There are of course many other ways to use surplus  fresh food before spoilage; soups, juices, smoothies all use quite large quantities of fresh produce, & some of you may preserve your surplus or bulk buys by fermenting, drying, cooking or bottling.

Fermented Foods

THE BASIC TECHNIQUE in making  Fermented Vegetables; they are delicious & Good for You!    Not pickled, fermented! Raw cultured vegetables are powerful super foods and include sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles and many others. There is a major difference between the foods eaten today as compared to long ago. Years ago, fermented vegetables were used as a way to prevent spoilage in food. They were also used on the voyages of Captain Cook to prevent scurvy with his shipmates. The main difference today, as compared to long ago, is that cultured vegetables, such as pickles and sauerkraut have been pasteurized, thus in part, destroying the many strains of the health promoting bacteria and naturally occurring enzymes that help with digestion and a slew of other things. These foods are so powerful that in Asia, where they were experiencing the bird flu, they fed an extract of kimchi, a fermented food, to 13 infected chickens – and a week later 11 of them had started recovering. Many times when I or someone close to me has been sick I have given them a tablespoon or two of cultured vegetables and watched the remarkable speed of their recovery. Many people find the hardest part of fermenting vegetables, is getting started. I learnt a number of recipes whilst training as a Raw Gourmet Chef, so I have continued to experiment; the variety & flavors & textures can only encourage the adventurist to make them regularly.  At a very basic level, fermentation is controlled decomposition. Instead of allowing food to spoil, we introduce a preserving element such as salt. This directs the food towards fermentation rather than rotting.Vegetable fermentation happens through an anaerobic system in which the  naturally occurring lactobacilli of the food, create lactic acid, preserving the food and not allowing so called "bad bacteria" to exist.This bacteria can not exist in an acid environment. With this in mind,these are the conditions we must create in order for vegetables to ferment.  Submerged Vegetables. Whether your vegetables are self brining or not, they must be kept covered in brine in a sterilized jar in order to prevent mould & encourage lactic acid production. I also use salt as my fermenting agent but some may use yogurt or whey if they are not Vegan. Salt is a preservative and improves the flavor and texture. Temperature. In traditional Cultures, foods were fermented & stored in moderate temperatures often in a root cellar or by sinking the fermenting vessel into a hole in the ground. This is obviously not necessary, a cool spot around 60-80 degrees F. is ideal. Now that I have explained the ideal conditions for fermenting, we can use any number of vegetables through one of two techniques...self brine or added brine. Self-Brined Fermented Vegetables Vegetables that are fresh and have not been dried out, cabbage & carrot are a good examples, can actually make their own brine when salt is introduced and the cabbage is massaged; the salt draws the water out of the vegetable thereby creating it's own natural brine. In this case the vegetables need to be finely shredded, increasing the surface area for the salt to penetrate & draw out a large amount of liquid. Always remember the vegetables must be covered in the brine. Sauerkraut is a fine example of this process, grated carrots & ginger or grated cucumber relish. Added Brine Fermented Vegetables Not every vegetable shines when it is finely diced or shredded. Many vegetables like cucumbers, carrots or zucchini cry out to be left whole or in chunks. That is where added brine comes in. If salt was simply added there is no way they could produce enough of their own liquid to cover them. Creating a brine to pour over these larger vegetable chunks & submerging them completely in the salt brine, is quite simple. This allows the anaerobic environment necessary for lactic acid to proliferate. A good rule of thumb for a brine is 3 tablespoons of a good quality salt to 2 pints of water. This brine can then be used to cover any number of different vegetables. Cucumbers, peppers, celery, tomato chunks, garlic, onion, carrots, or even chunks of cabbage; in fact any surplus vegetables you may have in the garden. Shredding can be a bit tedious, so simply pouring over a simply prepared brine is often the easiest option & just as delicious although the texture  will obviously be different.  Here is another idea. Many fermented sweet potatoes have been cooked and mashed. I like to keep them raw preserving the beneficial bacteria on the skins which are killed in the cooking method. Leaving the skin intact encourages natural fermentation with only the addition of flavorings & salt. Take 3 or 4 sweet potatoes & wash off any dirt before thinly slicing. Combine with 1 1/2 inch piece of grated ginger, 1 diced large onion, 1 teaspoon of cayenne powder and 3-4 tablespoons of salt If you pound this mixture a little with a potato masher, this encourages the release of juices. If you can't cover the vegetable mix with its own juice you may need to add some made up brine. Cover & store in a cool place to ferment for 5-10 days before placing in the refrigerator. If you place a lid over the submerged vegetable, release regularly, as the alcohol buildup will cause it to burst out; burp the jars regularly to save this gas build up.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers grow on vines, I just love them and seem to find them delicious in almost any dish. They are excellent in salads, soups, green juices and smoothies. I also make a dressing which is very nice; Use lemon, garlic, mint, oil, avocado, salt & pepper & pour over some sliced cucumbers....wonderful for lunch on a hot day, alkalising, rehydrating & refreshing !

Cucumbers are the number four most cultivated vegetable in the world and known to be one of the best foods for your overall health, often referred to as a super food. Pick a handful of firm, dark green cucumbers and blend them into a fresh organic green drink or slice up and add to any salad or soup. Congratulations! You have just ingested one of the most alkalizing of all fruit full of good health.
I didn't know all the benefits of cucumbers until I read this list below, but perhaps my body does, as I love to grab a cucumber as a snack sometimes!
1) Cucumber rehydrates body
If you are too busy to drink enough water, eat the cool cucumber, which is 98 percent water. It will cheerfully compensate your water lost.

2) Cucumber fights heat inside and out
Eating cucumber will get your body relief from heartburn. Apply cucumber on your skin and you will get relief from sunburn.

3) Cucumber eliminates toxins
All that water in cucumber acts as a virtual broom, sweeping waste products out of your body. With regular eating, cucumber is known to dissolve kidney stones.

4) Cucumber replenishes daily vitamins
Cucumbers have most of the vitamins the body needs in a single day. A B and C, which supports your immune system keep you radiant and give you energy. Make it more powerful by juicing cucumber with spinach and kale. Don't forget to leave the skin on because it contains a good amount of vitamin C, about 12 percent of the daily recommended allowance.

5) Cucumber supplies skin friendly minerals
Cucumber is high in potassium, magnesium and silicon. That is why spas abound cucumber based treatments.

7) Cucumber revives the eyes
Placing a chilled slice of cucumber over puffy eyes is a clichéd beauty visual but it really can help reduce under-eye bags and puffiness due to its anti inflammatory properties.

8) Cucumber cures diabetes, reduces cholesterol and controls blood pressure
Cucumber juice contains a hormone which is needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin which is widely spread to be beneficial to diabetic patients. Researchers have found that a compound called sterols in cucumbers can help decrease levels of cholesterol. Cucumbers contain a lot of fiber, potassium and magnesium. These nutrients work effectively for regulating blood pressure. That is why cucumber is good for treating both high blood pressure and low blood pressure.

9) Cucumber refreshes the mouth
Cucumber juice heals and refreshes diseased gums. Get a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for a half minute, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing unpleasant breath.

10) Cucumber smooths hair and nails
The wonder mineral Silica in cucumber makes your hair and nails shinier and stronger. The sulfur and silica in cucumbers help to stimulate your hair growth.

11) Cucumber promotes joint health, relieves arthritis and gout pain
As cucumber is an excellent source of silica it promotes joint health by strengthening the connective tissues. When mixed with carrot juice, cucumber can relieve gout and arthritis pain by lowering levels of the uric acid.

12) Cucumber keeps kidneys in shape
Cucumber lowers uric acid levels in your body and though keeping the kidneys healthy.

13) Cucumber is the number 1 alkalizing fruit
Cucumber is high in potassium, magnesium and silicon which are alkalizing minerals making them number 1 in alkalizing the alimentary canal, blood and tissues.

Eating a cucumber a day will keep the Doctor away!