Mango and Lemon Balm Rush

I love waking up to a new day, able to have time to do my stretches and some QiQong. With that in mind, I always like to have a healthy nutritious breakfast and today I was in the mood for a juice. I made a one of a kind juice filled with loving sweetness that awakened the body, nurtured my soul and cleansed the mind. I love it when everything works in sync.

It's amazing how something so simple can have an enormous affect on a being. I included lemon balm because it is one of my favorite herbs growing up and drinking it's fresh hand picked tea. Lemon balm is good for the nervous system, as it reduces stress of any kind calming the body and mind. I used cabbage and carrot for their source in Vitamin C, and Mango for it's phytochemicals and nutrient properties. All in all they seemed to work quite well, giving both the sweetness and consistency of the juice.

Mango and Lemon Balm Rush



Ingredients

A leaf or two of a Cabbage
Mango
Fresh Lemon balm herbs (Also known as Melissa officinalis; in the mint family)
Banana (I used half a banana in the end)
Half a carrot

What you'll need to process it all

A blender, vitamix or a food processor. Anything that works well for chopping up vegetables and turning it into a liquid base.

Method

Pour half a cup of water into your blender. Chop up carrot, cabbage leaf(s), mango and fresh lemon balm herbs, and put it in the blender. Turn it on, and watch it blend for a minute and a half.

Taste to see what it's like, and then add half a banana to give it more sweetness. Blend for final 2m.

Feel free to add or subtract ingredients, and play around with it for your own taste.

Et voila - Your juice shall now be ready.

Enjoy~

Raw Chocolate Truffles

This Easter I decided to do something different and make my own raw chocolate to give to others, and I happened to fall in love with them all at the same time!

My favorite kind of chocolate is raw, delicious and good for your health. I have been making raw chocolate for about a year, but hadn't tried the truffle variety yet, not until now!

The thing about making raw chocolate truffles is that you can include any ingredient you like in them, with just the basic ones provided. There is endless possibilities on how you end up coating them, and that is part of the fun! Whatever you love you can include, and of course you don't have to stick to just raw. Unlike processed chocolate eggs that can be quite unhealthy, these raw chocolate truffles are the opposite, healthy and packed full of antioxidants.

Ingredients

100g Pecan Nuts
8-12 Pitted Dates (soaked in warm water)
2 Tsp Desiccated Coconut
3-4 Tbsp Raw Cacao Powder
2 Tbsp Agave Syrup or other natural sweetener.. I used Sweet Freedom made from apples, grapes and carob. 100% fruit.
Extra Raw Cacao Powder, desiccated coconut, crushed nuts and other ingredients for the coating

Directions

Soak the pitted dates in warm water for about 5m. Blend the pecan nuts, coconut and dates in a food processor. Add the raw cacao powder and your natural sweetener together and blend. Place mixture in a bowl and mix everything well. Roll spoonfuls of the mix into round balls and roll in desired ingredients. I rolled mine in desiccated coconut, cinnamon powder, crushed nuts, cacao powder and a little bit of coffee.

This recipe makes around 30-40 truffles, depending on how big you make them.

Chill the truffles in the fridge from 30m-1hr. When ready, get them out and enjoy!

I put mine in little recyclable plastic bags with hearted seal stickers and gave them away to family and friends around Easter time.

Raw chocolate mousse

If you are like me and love chocolate, but don't enjoy the regular and bitter bars, you are going to love this recipe!

I have been saving an avocado just to make this recipe, and I managed to find a variety of on-line recipes for it. I decided to try this one over at the healthy eating site and just tweaked it accordingly to taste and texture.

Overall I managed to make enough to pour into 6 ramekins, which is about two full bowl servings.

Ingredients

1 avocado
1 banana
Half a cup of soaked medjool pitted dates (including it's water)
5 teaspoons of raw organic cacao
1/2 vanilla extract
1/2 ground cinammon
Pinch of sea salt

Method

Place all ingredients in a blender, and then mix until all ingredients have been processed and the texture is smooth and creamy. Add extra desired ingredients if needed to suit taste.

Et voila, and enjoy! :)

Home made Fresh Almond Milk

As you have noticed I enjoy Almond Milk. With that in mind I have noticed that it is fairly expensive to buy a carton of Almond Milk, and with added ingredients. I have yet to find an all natural organic carton of Almond Milk, that just contains pure almonds for the milk. The ones I have tried all seem to contain natural sweeteners such as agave. So with that in mind, and the packaging itself to add to landfill, I thought I would be better off making home made almond milk. I did some on-line browsing and discovered that it is quite simple to make almond milk at home, and I went one further step, and just made pure almond milk; my original intention.

Materials needed

A cotton bag, or muzzling material. I used 100% cotton muzzling material, uses for cake and jam making. It proved very successful. Any material which is good for squeezing out liquid and keeping the original ingredient, say the pulp of a fruit.



Bowl of some kind for the almond milk to be drained into whilst muzzling the excess of almonds

A blender

Glass container or plastic container to store almond milk

Almond Milk

Ingredients

A glass/cup/bowl of almonds soaked over night (24hrs)
7 glasses of Water
5-8 dates for sweetening (optional-I did not use any myself)

Method

Fill a blender with 7 glasses of water.



Add almonds to blender and mix for about a minute, or until the almonds have fully blended.



Once finished, pour the milk from the blender into a bowl through the muzzling material or cotton bag.



I managed to stretch my muzzling material around the bowl so that I could pour in the almond milk. Eventually once enough was sieved through the cotton material I tied the material around so that I could maintain the pulp, whilst still draining some of the milk out carefully.



Once the milk was sieved through the muzzling I put the almond pulp in an airtight container and put it in the fridge. I will use this later as an ingredient in desserts, and it also serves it's purpose as almond butter or powder.

I poured the almond milk from the bowl into a glass container, which will be kept in the fridge for whenever I need it. I used a glass container as it is fresh and undiluted, but you can always opt for a plastic container if you don't have.



Enjoy your freshly made Almond Milk!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I will try my very best to answer. :)

Veg burst; A raw juice

I have been making raw juices for about two months now. My body has opted for vibrant, enzyme-rich and oxygen-rich raw food because it has been in need of a cleanse, AND because it has been in need of pure nutrients in all their natural form; rawness. Did you know that every time we cook our food or buy something that's been cooked and pre-prepared, 70% of vitamins are lost? What happens is that anything that is cooked above 118 degrees F looses it's natural nutrients and causes the chemical changes that create acidic toxins. When the food is cooked all these nutrients and enzymes are killed, thus removing the goodness, the energy of the food.

I have opted to incorporate more raw food into my diet, because I believe my body needs pure living food, that makes my body feel alive. When my body is alive, my mind is clear and I feel balanced and in tune. So, adapting raw into my diet helps in more ways than one, and it's also good fun too! You can create so many varieties of raw goodness by including fresh fruits; Vegetables; Salad vegetables; Leafy green vegetables; Herbs and wild greens; Nuts; Dried fruits; Beans, pulses and legumes (sprouted); Grains (sprouted); Seeds; Vegetable seeds (sprouted); Edible flowers; Mushrooms; Sea vegetables; natural sweeteners (e.g. agave nectar, stevia) and many many more.

As you see there are many opportunities to create anything you wish, using these revitalising foods. Just by adding a juice to your diet, you can serve your body well and feed it the nutrients and vitamins it really needs. I took up a raw24 challenge back in December over at Polly Noble's website, and it expanded my horizons and led me to experiment with an array of raw foods, that I use as when I can. Feel free to check out Polly Noble's website, a lifestyle coach, cancer coach, author and raw food coach, and the raw24 (which is a free e-book) challenge that I took part in. Who knows, you may decide to take it up yourself too!

In regards to juices, you can start with the basics that you like and build from that by including a vegetable with the juice itself. What I have been doing is adding a vegetable like spinach with fruit for the juice, and drink this during the morning because the spinach is a source of high antioxidants and vitamin c and a great energizer in the morning, or even at any other time during the day. As you see yourself experimenting, you also see yourself enjoying it, as when I first tried spinach with a banana, also included a hint of ginger as I love it, the juice was great, and so nourishing and whole. The taste was lovely, and I could not even taste the spinach. What counts is that you are enjoying yourself with the experience, and even if your not, you can always change that, and incorporate something else into it.

I leave you with a juice that I created today. I tend to just pick out vegetables that are in the house, and always add a piece of fruit to it. This juice served as a nutritional lunch.

Equipment needed: A blender/Juicer/Food Processor. Something big enough for juicing.

Veg Burst



Ingredients

2 cups of water (already in juicer/blender)
Half a cucumber
A couple of brocolli branches
1 banana
1 carrot
Some ginger

Method

Pour 2 cups of water into your blender. Chop up brocolli and put it in the blender. Turn it on, and watch it blend for a minute.

Chop up your cucumber in pieces, add it to the blender, and blend. Chop up carrot, and banana, and then ginger and throw it into blender.

Blend for final 2m. Experiment with the taste and see whether you like it. Add or subtract ingredients desired for own taste.

Enjoy~

Simple Spiced Snap pea Omelette

Today's lunch consisted of an omelette and a side salad, what's great about today's meal was that it wasn't just any omelette. I bought a pack of organic golden linseed last month because I found out recently that linseed is the richest source of Omega 3, Lignans and Fibre. Having discovered this I wanted to make use of it in my own diet. (Linseed is also known as flaxseed)

So today, I specifically searched for a recipe that contained golden linseeds and found a way to incorporate it into a recipe. When I am browsing for recipes, I tend to have an idea what I'm searching for, though I am always flexible in approaching the recipe. I enjoy adapting the recipe to what's available in the house, and for the most part modiyfing it to my own specifications and taste.

I leave you with my own healthier and simpler version of the Spiced Vegetable Omelette which I have transformed to a simpler recipe, due to not having some of the ingredients. I have also excluded the mushrooms from the recipe, even though they still remain in the picture.* This version makes a great light lunch, and yet very wholesome. Enjoy~

Simple Spiced Snap pea Omelette

Ingredients

(Serves 1)
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons almond milk
1 tablespoon of golden linseed/flaxseed
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1 ball snap peas
salt and pepper to taste


Place the linseed/flaxseed in a food grinder and pulse the seeds until they are loosely ground.



Whisk the eggs in a bowl using a fork then add the milk, ground linseed/flaxseed, spices, herbs, salt and pepper. Continue to whisk all the ingredients until they are all mixed in.




Use a good non-stick pan to fry the omelette so that you only need a small amount of oil. Add the mixture to the pan and 30 seconds later, whilst the mixture is still runny, add the snap peas. Use a spatula to ensure the omelette remains loose from the pan at the edges.

Let it cook, and still ensuring that the omelette remains loose with the spatula. When nearly cooked fold one side of the omelette over, and leave another minute to cook, et voila. Serve with salad or any other accompaniment if desired.