My Beautiful World

I titled this post “My Beautiful World” not because my world is perfect, in fact it’s far from it. My life is as full of as many disappointments and cracks in the pavement as the next person and there are many missing pieces. But lately I’ve been focusing on the things that make me joyful and realizing that the odd little bubble I live in isn’t so bad after all.

My world like yours is a work in progress, it’s me trying to find all the pieces that fit and letting go of the ones that choose not to fit. I could be sad about the ones that don't fit, and I have been sad, but I’ve come to realize that their absence creates space for other things that I love to expand.

I'm working on filling my world with the things that make me happy. My 'happiest places' are my doggie Miss Charlie, being creative and my obsession with organic gardening and healthy eating.

I’ve learnt that this life is about surrounding yourself with the people who let you shine the brightest and allow you to be the best person you can be and letting go of the people who dampen your flame and squash your spirit.

Everyday I’m learning to be grateful and to be joyful for the life that I have. So much of our lives is a choice and sometimes you just have to step up to the plate and go for it. I'm learning to step up, taking small steps each day to get to the place where I want to be. I'm working towards being bold enough to take the giant steps, to celebrate life by being the loudest drum and dancing with hands in the air!
  
I'm forever creating my beautiful world

Gluten Free Apple Crumble

I've just had one of those moments where I needed dessert. Perhaps it was because dinner was a little while ago or because I was watching someone cook dessert on Masterchef. Whatever it was I had a desire that needed to be fulfilled. Given that I'm gluten and lactose intolerant and on a clean eating path there's no processed goodies in my house. I've refused to buy I cream ever since I realised how many chemicals were in it and I haven't quite got around to making the raw ice cream I've been dreaming of. So what was tonight's answer?

Today I stocked up on fresh produce and there are plenty of apples in the house for juicing so I decided to create my food intolerant version of Apple Crumble with an Almond Milk Custard. Given the time and the fact I was using Apple I went easy on the sugar side. Not much was needed anyway with the sweetness of the apple. The crumble was created with flax meal, chopped pistachio and almond. I also added some craisins that were in the pantry to add a variation in flavour. Once constructed it was drizzled with honey before baking in the oven for 15 mins. 

I made this dessert for one person so if you are making it for more people you'll need to adjust your quantities accordingly. It's also easier if you make it in a rammekin or small dish

Here's the recipe

Apple Crumble

1 apple per person 

2 tablespoons flax meal

8 almonds 

8 pistachio

1 tablespoons craisins

1 tablespoon honey

Chop the Apple and place into a rammekin. Sprinkle craisins over the Apple and then top it with the flax meal. Chop the almonds and pistachios and sprinkle over the top. Drizzle honey over the whole thing. Place into an oven heated to 180 degrees and bake for 15mins.

While the crumble is in the oven you can make the custard. It only takes 5 minutes so you can leave it until the crumble is almost cooked.

Almond Milk Custard

This recipe will easily serve 2. If you are cooking for one you can either indulge or save some for the next night

150grams almond milk

1 egg

10 grams unrefined cane sugar or coconut sugar. I used rapadura

10 grams gluten free cornflour

Vanilla

Place a saucepan on kitchen scales and measure 150grams almond milk. Add the egg and whisk well.  Add vanilla, sugar and cornflour and whisk well again. I normally whisk it til it foams a little. Place over a low heat and whisk until it starts to thicken. I like my custard to be thick but still runny so once it starts to thicken you don't need to continue with the heat for long. Remove from heat and whisk well to ensure a smooth conistency. 

Remove the crumble from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Because of the portion size you can serve it in the rammekin. Pour some custard over the top and enjoy

Garden Update

 I haven't shared about my garden for a while now. It's still an ongoing and ever growing project. Lately I've been watching a lot of documentaries on FMTV about sustainability and our foodchain. I'm more than a little concerned about not just what goes into our food but also what goes on it when it's growing. Now I've been juicing daily I try to buy as much organic as I can afford, which is usually the items on the list that absorb the most nasties in the conventional growing methods like celery and the ones that you can't really wash residue off, ie Kale. The last thing I want is a glass full of pesticide. So my answer to this has been to look for ways to increase my growing space.

 A few weeks ago I resurrected my old raised garden bed that I bought when I was at my last house, it's been in pieces since I moved nearly 2 years ago. Today its a bed of kale

 This bed contains curly and tuscan kale and was planted about 3 weeks ago and so far there has been really good growth and no bugs. It's had a dose of organic fertiliser and a couple of applications of seasol. 

Apart from a bed of Rocket in a kids sandpit clam shell everything else is growing in pots. I'd always been under the impression that I needed to plant in full sun. I'd had my eye on a particular spot of garden along my fence but was worried it was too shaded. But a bit of gooling at the weekend informed me that leafy greens don't need as much sun and will tolerate shade. 

I'd been a bit lazy with pulling out the grass that had grown into the existing garden so I decided I could accomplish 2 things in choosing that spot. No more grass in the garden bed and a perfect growing spot. I laid cardboard down on the spot a couple of nights ago to start killing the grass and today I built the garden. Several bags of potting mix, and compost along with some shredded paper and garden edging I have a new garden bed and this is the result ...

 It contains lots of yummy greens for juicing.

 Across the front I have planted curly leaf parsley.

 Then behind that in rows from left to right there is 

 white stemmed silverbeet

bok choy

rainbow chard

   I planted some rainbow chard in a big pot when I planted the kale and it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in the results between the pot and the bed.

I also planted some english spinach a month or so a go and have been picking and enjoying it for a few weeks now

It's planted in a galvanised wash tub that's had holes drilled in the bottom for drainage. It was a great way to recycle a tub that had been a display years ago when I had a shop with my sister. The spinach from this patch is the sweetest I've ever tasted. I love eating it straight from the garden.

There's lots happening in the greenhouse at the moment too. Loads of coriander and parsley along with chives, mint, wheat grass and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes started flowering again a few weeks back so I've moved them into the greenhouse to keep them warm and see what happens.

 
 I can't wait for everything to get to the point when I can start harvesting and eating all of these lovelies and share them with my family.
 

Saladspiration - the BIG Green Salad

I've been busy watching videos on FMTV and learning heaps. The other night I watched 'The Healing Effect' which focused on a policeman in the US and his vegan lifestyle and how he quietly influenced those around him. One scene featured him in a vegan restaurant where he ordered the "five o bowl", a huge colourful bowl of salad and nuts. It was with that image in mind that I opened my fridge and started creating my 'BIG Green Salad'

What's in it? you ask.... um kind of everything!

kale, baby spinach, lettuce, rocket, cabbage, parsley, coriander, broccoli, roasted sweet potato, swiss brown mushroom, tomato, carrot, red capsicum, pepitas, toasted sunflower seeds and quinoa. All tossed around in a splash of garlic oil.

I served it with some marinated pan fried organic tofu and homemade hummus. 

The salad was super tasty and has kept me nourished for a couple of meals. I have to admit that I'm a little addicted to hummus at the moment. I recently found a note book where I'd written the hummus recipe from Mollie Katzens  'Moosewood Cookbook' we'd bought as a present for our mum in the 1980"s.  Back then both my sister and I were vegatarian, and already interested in raw food and juicing. After 12 years of being vegetarian I returned to eating meat in the late 90's.

Tonight I added roasted beetroot to the salad and served it with a Free Range Chicken Burger created from a recipe on the 'I Quit Sugar' blog which I adapted slightly.

Taking It Up A Notch

I've been seriously interested in Nutrition for a few years now and one of my goals is to study online with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in the US. In the interim I'm reading and learning via books and blogs but last month I hit the jackpot via an email from Kris Carr. It contained a link to the Hay House World Summit. 

I've heard about the summit before but never fully realised what it was about. This time I followed the link and was blown away. Over the course of 4 weeks 100 interviews and several videos were released to view and listen to for free. I jumped in with both feet and listened to  Mike Dooley, Melodie Beattie, Cheryl Richardson, Louise Hay and many more. I also watched a documentary called 'Hungry for Change' which looked at the obesity epidemic and how processed foods and so called diet foods are causing not only obesity but also significant health issues in society. You'd be inclined to think that with advances in science and technology that we would all be getting healthier but this is not the case. Health simply comes down to nutrition and eating a natural diet. The calorie laden nutritionally deficient processed foods are leaving people obese and undernourished. It's little wonder why as a society were becoming sicker.

From my earlier posts you'll see that I've been on the right path for a while now but watching 'Hungry for Change' has kind of kicked it up a level for me. I've had a few months where I wasn't really caring for myself very well. I was drinking more wine than I normally would and eating a little too much sugar and processed foods, and not drinking enough water. I'm gluten intolerant so the level of processed foods I consume is much less than the average person but even with a slight increase it was showing in my skin. But more on that in a minute.

After the summit ended I wanted to know more so I bought the 'Hungry for Change' book on Kindle and started reading. I then discovered that the authors have a website called FMTV it's like Netflix for health and wellbeing. They have a 7 day trial so I signed up and watched 'Food Matters' and 'Fat Sick and Nearly Dead' 

OMG how much I've learned all ready. In the last few days I've introduced 2 things. And if you watch 'Hungry for Change' you'll hear them say if you add things in then eventually you wont want the bad stuff. If you deprive yourself it's harder to give things up. But if you add the good stuff in eventually the bad stuff just leaves.

David Wolfe suggests starting each day by drinking 1-2 litres of water before you have food or coffee. I now go to bed with a jug of water and a glass beside the bed so that as soon as I wake up I can start drinking my water. 

The other thing I'm doing is juicing again.... lots of dark leafy green vegies to give my body a regular micro nutrient boost. My juice consists of organic celery, kale, spinach, cos lettuce (romaine), rocket (arugula), parsley, coriander (cilantro), carrot, beetroot, apple and lemon. I put this all thru a cold press juicer and make enough for a couple of days. It stores really well in an airtight jar in the fridge. And I've even found a use for the pulp... I've been making raw wraps with it. I put the pulp in the thermomix with an organic zucchini and some flax meal and then spread it out onto dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for a few hours. The wraps are very tasty.

This was today's lunch 

Pulp and Zucchini wrap with homemade hummus, tofu,

 baby spinach and homegrown rocket and coriander.

I was so inspired that today I went to the nursery and purchased some more coriander, parsley, coriander and kale seedlings.

Oh and after only 3 days of juicing and 2 days of drinking a litre of water first thing my skin is already looking better, and the horrid dark circles under my eyes have started to disappear.  

If you are interested in your health then I'd highly recommend either watching or reading Hungry for Change. It features some of the leaders in the health and wellness movement. I've included links above for the people I've mentioned as they are a wealth of knowledge in their individual areas.

Wise Words

I loved this post from Lisa Messenger this morning on Instagram

Lisa Messenger is a recent addition to my list of people who inspire me. A couple of months ago I happened to turn on the TV and stumbled across an interview with Lisa on 'One Plus One'. If you haven't heard of Lisa yet check out the interview and her magazine 'Collective'

We all need role models in our life, people to inspire us to achieve and stretch ourselves.

Who is your role model? Who are the people in your life that inspire you to stretch yourself and achieve your dreams.

 

Quote #2

photo: libby gardiner c 2015

Quote #1

A favorite quote from one of my favorite books, 'All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindegarten'-Robert Fulghum

Easter Bunny

Being gluten intolerant the Easter Bunny generally misses my house, but not to worry because I just made a fresh batch of really delicious RAW CHOCOLATE :)

Happy Easter!

Marinated Prawn Gnocchi

If you've read my earlier posts you may have come to the conclusion that I like to cook. Actually I love to cook, if I could spend everyday playing in the kitchen I'd be a very happy girl.

Yesterday was shopping day and I bought some prawn meat and decided to marinate it overnight in a mix of garlic, chilli and olive oil.  When I got home this afternoon a quick scan of the fridge and the presence a tub of light ricotta on the top shelf helped me decide that it was a gnocchi night. I make my gnocchi with gluten free flour so its very light and as it turned out was the perfect accompaniment to my prawns. 

I love making gnocchi, whether it be potato or ricotta based. The trick is to not make the dough too dry. Prior to discovering I was gluten intolerant I made gnocchi a few times with normal flour and I have found that it's not only easier to make with gluten free flour but also gives a lighter result.

I found my gnocchi recipe on the internet and then adapted it to be gluten free.

500gm Ricotta
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 large Eggs 
1tsp Salt
1 1/2 cups Plain Gluten Free Flour  (plus 1 cup extra just in case)

Put all ingredients except flour in a bowl and mix until well combined. Then gradually sift in flour until it reaches a workable consistency. It needs to be rolled into a snake to create the individual gnocchi so the consistency should be soft but not so damp that it's really sticky. Flour a board or a piece of baking paper and divide into 4. Take each section and roll into a snake until it's about 2cm in diameter then cut into segments that are 2.5 cm long. Place onto a plate or a piece of baking paper and keep each individual piece separate. Continue until all of the dough is used up. This recipe serves 4 so if you are only serving 2 you can use half the amounts to begin with or you can wrap up half the dough and store in the fridge over night. Another option is to freeze any excess gnocchi once cut, if you are storing it in a freezer bag remember to flour it well so that it doesn't all clump together in the freezer

At this stage I put a large pot of water on the stove and put the gnocchi aside while I started my prawns.

There's no real recipe for the next bit because I made it up as I went along. It helped that I'd been shopping yesterday as the vegetable crisper was full and I had heaps to choose from. And as an added bonus there are still plenty of fresh herbs in the garden. In a deep non stick fry pan I put in a tablespoon of garlic oil* a small bunch of chopped spring onions and some garlic chives, and cooked them on a low to medium heat. After a few minutes I added a handful of broccoli florets and some yellow capsicum and let that cook for a few minutes. 

Next I put my gnocchi into the boiling water. Gnocchi is cooked when it floats to the surface. While the gnocchi was cooking I put my marinated prawns in the fry pan and turned the heat up little. 

After a couple of minutes the Gnocchi was floating and I removed it from the pot with a slotted spoon, when the prawns were mostly cooked I threw in the gnocchi and added some fresh chopped coriander and a twist of lime.

As soon as the prawns were cooked it was ready to serve, with a pinch of Himalayan salt and some more chopped coriander. 

 Yum!

*garlic oil - where did I get it? I made it. I have a jar of peeled garlic in the pantry it's topped up with olive oil to keep the garlic from spoiling. It has several benefits, when I can't be bothered peeling garlic there's always some ready to use. I can stock up on garlic when I find good Aussie garlic at a reasonable price and not have to worry about it drying out. And it gives me the most amazing garlic infused oil to cook with.

 

Being Mindful

This is my third attempt at writing this post. It started out somewhat differently because I've been thinking aloud as I tap away on my laptop trying to get to what I wanted to say and I have no doubt that it will evolve and change as I write. You see things have happened recently, 'life has happened' and it led me to the following thoughts.

Sometimes things happen in life and you get dragged along in the tide unable to change what's about to unfold. There's no point in 'what ifs' or 'what you could have done' because it will all ultimately happen as it is meant to happen. You simply have to sit back and let it!


The difficult part is to allow even the painful things in life to unfold without resistance and somehow in the process find some peace by being able to shut out the internal chatter that ultimately causes anxiety. The kind of chatter that defeats you.

In the last couple of years I've been exploring the practice of mindfulness and I have been finding it really helpful to shut out the internal chatter and find a peaceful place within.

I'm constantly on a journey with this, but I find as I get older and the more I learn it's easier to be mindful and find a peaceful place in the middle of my thoughts, even if just for a few minutes. 

It's essentially about being present, in the 'now', finding a moment to breathe and that being all there is in that moment. Just focusing on the sensation of breathing. When you focus on your breathing its easier to shut out the noise of your thoughts. 

It's a practice that also helps you be aware of the internal chatter because we are so used to it simply being there and we dont realise that we don't need to listen to all of it. Mindfulness teaches you to not only quiet your thoughts but enables you to choose which ones you want to listen to. And it enables those of us who suffer from anxiety to identify it and and avoid the descent into the pit.


In my quest I've found that there are so many amazing resources online for this including countless guided meditations on YouTube. As well as lots of articles and great books. There's loads of practical exercises you can do too, but ones others find great don't really do it for me, they're not my thing. I kind of like to keep these things simple and uncomplicated otherwise I lose interest!. A while back I found a 10 minute Guided Meditation on YouTube and I've stuck with it.  It's saved to a play list and when I need to be still and quiet my mind, which is usually when I feel myself descending into an anxiety pit, I open the YouTube app on my phone and hit play.  

I could keep writing but I'll leave it there for now. In the process of writing the post above I've learnt more yet again. Part of the journey of my life has been to overcome anxiety and sometime in the near future I'll share some of the other stuff that's helped me. In recent years I've found some really helpful natural therapies, but it's important to remember that we're all wired a little differently and what works for one may not work for all, but maybe bits of it will. It's simply a matter of finding the unique combination that works for you.

And for those that are fortunate not to suffer anxiety, mindfulness can simply offer a few moments of peace in a noisy world.

For now in my mind my goal is to be a bit like the boat in the picture, just floating along on a calm sea. Breathing in and breathing out.......

In the Raw and a little Fermented!

I've been more than a little fascinated with the benefits of fermented foods for quite some time now. There have been a few attempts at making sauerkraut in the last year but the results have usually ended up being consumed by my best friend. But in recent months the whole fermenting fascination has been rekindled by chef Pete Evens 'Paleo Way'. I eagerly awaited the release of his culture for life fermenting kit only to find that it was a little out of my price bracket. So I decided to order some vegetable starter culture online at healyourself.com.au and go back to the good old fashioned way of fermenting in air lock preserving jars. 2 days after I received shipping notification for the starter culture an email appeared in my inbox from The Raw Chef, Russell James, offering the fermented vegetable module of his online Fermentation course at a ridiculous price... so I snapped it up.

The particular course I purchased offered 10 recipes plus access to a bonus 4. They include not only a downloadable pdf version of each recipe but also a video showing either Russell or his colleague Amy demonstrating how to make each one. The trick to creating fermented vegetables that don't grow mold is all in how you pack it into the jar! So simple yet so easy to mess up. Fortunately in my previous adventures I managed to create without mold but didn't have the confidence to eat it hence my best friend being my guinea pig. 

My first attempts in the last week were using Himalayan salt on it's own as a catalyst to ferment then later in the week after my starter culture arrived I started using that. The advantage of the starter culture is that it creates a ferment with a much higher pro biotic content than you would get using salt alone.

Here's some of what I've made so far. It's still all in the fermentation stage but I have sampled and it's already delish and  that's coming from someone whose taste buds previously found sauerkraut to be totally undesirable

The other thing that's happened as a result of this is that I've also rekindled my love of raw food eating and have taken the dehydrator out of the cupboard and started creating again. The Raw Chef has recipes on his blog and I've taken a few of these and run with them. So far this week I've created zucchini tortillas, buckwheat bread, marinated mushrooms, dried tomatoes, cashew mayonnaise and raw macadamia cheese.

Top left: zucchini wrap ready to dehydrate. Top right: assembling the wrap with grated

carrot, lettuce, marinted adn dehydrated mushrooms, macadamia cheese, dried tomatoes 

and cashew cheese. Bottom left and right:all wrapped up and ready to eat 

I'm still eating cooked foods but this has been reduced and I have to say I'm feeling better for it. I'd started eating more processed foods again and as a result my sugar cravings had come back. In the last week I've noticed a distinct decline in my sugar cravings. I'm hoping these will go completely once I start eating the fermented veg and krauts

If you want to experiment yourself and need a little inspiration or guidance the Raw Chef offers a free 10 Recipe eBook, there's a link in the side bar.

Looking for inspiration

I haven't had a lot to say lately so I thought would take the time to introduce you to the new blog of my dear friend Trudy. She has an amazing insights into inner peace and joy. You can find her wisdom at Wisteria Wellbeing.

Photo by Oliver Berghold via Unsplash

  (I found this photo on Unsplash a website that offers free high resolution stock photos.)


Libby :)