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.