Soup for lunch?

Today's lunch was raw tomato avocado fennel soup with sprouted bread and cashew cheese:

Tomato fennel soup:

Blend 3-5 tomatoes, 1 fennel, 1 medium avocado, 1 glove garlic and 1 tbsp tamari sauce. Top with alfa alfa sprouts.

Cashew cheese:

Blend handful of cashews with 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast, 1 glove garlic and season with himalayan pink salt or celtic sea salt. I added some chives for extra flavour.

Mango and raspberry green smoothie:

1 mango
handful of frozen (or fresh) raspberries
handful of kale or spinach

Green smoothie heaven

Dear journal, it has been over two weeks since I wrote last. I'm sorry. Anyway, it IS hard to find time, I admire all those mummy bloggers out there. Finding a spare minute between looking after 6 weeks old baby and a toddler in terrible two's is not easiest. Talking about easy, I have started with Tracy Hogg The Baby Whisperer's E.A.S.Y routine. So hopefully life will be more predictable soon, and the Y stands for You-time meaning I might find a minute for blogging now and then. Of course it doesn't help that I don't have my laptop at the moment, it's been sent for repair.

So, how has it been with raw food? It's been ok, could be better. I have been drinking my green smoothies every morning, and raw salads for lunch most days. Evenings are the hardest as I cook "normal" food for hubby and toddler so I have been eating that as well - including meat. Today has been good: mango blueberry spinach smoothie for breakfast, coconut water for snack, and Simple Salad by Katie Wood for lunch. Plan is to have Greek salad for dinner.

I've been trying to upload some pictures from my mobile, but it doesn't seem to work. Will look into this.

More updates soon!

Another go

Our little girl is going to be a month old tomorrow - time flies! Also my husband goes back to work after being home with us and being a great help, not sure how I will manage without him being here 24/7! And on top of all I've decided to give another go with raw food transition, starting tomorrow. Is it a good time to start now when I'll be on my own with a month old baby and an active toddler? Time will show. I guess this is as good time as any other. 

So the plan is to start with Natalia Rose's raw food transition - no radical changes at once, but a more gentle and sensible transition. It still means leaving out lots of "baddies" such as bread, processed meat, cow's cheese - all my favourites. I also need to make sure I get enough protein as I'm breast feeding. I'll do lots of juicing and green smoothies to get plenty of nutrition from fresh fruit and vegetables. I'm under no illusion that it's going to be easy - I do give in to temptations very easily and when I'm stressed I often choose the easy, not so health options. And I'm bound to be stressed looking after 2 kids - at least until I get a hang of it.

I'm hoping that I'll also have more time to keep my blog journal about the progress, even if it's just a quick update from my mobile.

To start off, here is a delicious raw food ice cream recipe I made few days ago, courtesy of Raw Mums:

1 frozen banana

1 fresh banana

1-2 cups of frozen cherries (or blueberries or strawberries)

handful of fresh cherries, pitted and halved

agave syrup for taste

Blend frozen banana and cherries and fresh banana in blender until smooth and creamy, adding some agave or maple syrup. Serve with fresh berries on top, delicious! Any left over can be frozen to be eaten later.

She's here!

Our little daughter Lily arrived exactly on her due date: 1 July. She was in hurry as well, from first contraction it took only 5 hours and out she was!

Pain and food

I'm in pain! My problem-free, healthy pregnancy has turned into a bit of a nightmare. I have SPD - Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. I have problem with walking, standing up and sitting. So basically laying down is the preferred position, which is not the most practical. I'm still working, one more week to go, and 4 weeks until due date. So not long now.

With this in my mind, the food is not high on my priority list. I feel that I can't plan what I should eat, which is a must for healthy eating. The mornings still start with green smoothies, but after that is basically whatever is easiest and least effort (read: least walking to get to). I try to have avocado and some healthy bread for breakfast. Lunch - ready made salad from shop or vegetarian sandwich or left overs from home. Dinner - something quick like a pasta or rice dish. Far from being high raw, I'm basically "ticking over" so to say. Then when I take the time to ponder about it, like now, I do find myself procrastinating again: I'll start with more raw food after the baby has come. So that's the plan for now. I might change my mind, maybe once I stop working and don't have to do anymore commuting, sitting hours behind the desk and so on, I might get motivated to add more raw food to my diet again. We'll see...

I'm back!

I’m back! Yes, it’s been a while, but as I mentioned in my last post, things have been happening. Among other, less important things, we are expecting. Yes, another baby! Being in week 34 I feel okey-ish. Second trimester was great though, felt full of energy and content. It hasn’t been this way all the time though, first 4 months I was nauseas, lethargic, hormonal etc. Which was the main reason for the pause in updating this blog. Another reason for the break was that I was just too busy, working full-time and looking after extremely active toddler. So I had these bad guilt feelings every evening when I went to bed without updating the blog, but once I took the decision to take a break, these feelings disappeared.

Final reason I didn’t feel updating was that I had completely fallen off the wagon, as they say. I couldn’t go on my raw food journey anymore. I just couldn’t face another green juice or salad, couple of times I actually threw up my green smoothie. And the constant hunger was just too crippling to be ignored, and the only things that seemed to tame it were carbs. In any form. Toast, yes please. Pasta, mmm. Mashed potato, yummy! Even white baguette went down without much further ado. Funnily, my evening cravings were watermelon and ice cubes, but somehow I didn’t think these 2 items, even though falling into raw food category, would amount into much blogging.

So what has changed? I feel almost normal again (well, except ever bulging abdominal area and other pregnancy "side effects"). And this means I have no excuse not to eat raw food again. Of course I’m not doing any drastic dietary changes during my pregnancy, but I have slowly started to eliminate the “baddies”. And introducing the “goodies”. My long life lover Mr Cheese is being pushed aside for Mr Green Smoothie, and I have even started to juice again. My Oscar has been looking very sad...

I have been reading a lot. Raw food blogs. I’ve been looking for this inspiration, success story, something, to give me this kick in the back I need. I found one great blog – Earth Mama, which has inspired me a lot. It’s a pity the blog has been discontinued, but in a way I can understand. I guess once you’ve done it, once you have reached that ultimate goal, being high or 100% raw without much effort, what else is there to write about? You could use it as a recipe blog, but the most interesting, captivating part of raw food blogging is still the transformation. Before and after pictures? Yes please.

I still haven’t figured out what stops my own transformation, but it obviously has to be in my head (let’s put the preggie hormones aside for now). I have all the knowledge. I have the tools. I have the means. So what’s lacking? The will power? This single incident that will be the final push? The re-gigging of the brain?  I don’t know. But I’m determined to find out. And write about it. For my own benefit as much as yours. Maybe I’ll be your inspiration one day. Maybe…

So here my journey begins again…

Taking a break

I guess it's best to let you all know that I'll be taking a break from blogging. I haven't written anything for a while, and I've been feeling a bit guilty about that. So it's best to take a break and then continue when I feel ready for it again.

Reason? There are few, main one being that there are things happening in my life at the moment that take all my energy and thoughts, leaving little for anything else. I may tell you all about it one day. And also I'm taking a break from raw food for a little while (not from green smoothies though, these are too good to be without them). I'm hoping I'll have a new start with raw food next spring/summer, for now I'm trying to stick to vegetarian cooked food (must confess some meat has been sneaking back in to my diet again).

Come back and have a look at my blog after new year, I'm hoping I'll be in writing mood again by then!

XXX

Raw till dinner

Indian summer! It has been rather nice and warm outside, 20C for this time of year is definitely above average. So I've been trying to consume more raw food again, with various results. The-green-smoothies-for-breakfast-routine is most definitely a keeper, rest of the day is more of a hit and  miss. Some days I've been high raw, some days rather low raw. Like yesterday I had marmite toast for mid-morning snack, savoury hemp pancakes (by Gillian McKeith, delicious and filling, not foldable though...) with organic cheese for lunch and salmon for dinner. By evening I felt like I had swallowed a brick, so to compensate this I started the day today with 1 litre of green juice, followed by 1,5 litres of green smoothie, then 1/2 melon and raw salad for lunch (see recipe below). I felt rather proud of myself, and no bloated belly. But then it was time for dinner, and hungry husband coupled with slightly grumpy toddler meant something more substantial than raw salad was needed, so it was fish and potatoes with steamed vegetables. 

So I can definitely do "raw til dinner", but will I ever be able to go 100% raw? Not sure, but I'm not too worried as long as I eat as much raw food as possible during the day. 

Today another raw "uncook" book arrived, by high profile raw foodist Ani Phyo. Her book Anis Raw Food Kitchen - Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes has been praised as great source of easy and tasty raw food recipes. I had a quick look and there are quite few I'd like to try, and today I had one of her salads for lunch. I was worried a bit about the onions, but after marinating they are quite mild. Both me and Maya loved it!

Wilted spinach salad with marinated onion in mustard seed dressing 

Serves 1-2

Marinated onions

1/2 smallish yellow onion, sliced

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos or Nama Shoyu (in worst case, light soya sauce will do)

Pinch of black pepper

Mustard seed dressing

1 tbsp soft dates or agave syrup or maple syrup or raw honey (I used honey)

2-3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar 

3-4 tbsp of virgin olive oil

1 tsp of mustard seeds

1/2 tsp of seal salt

Salad

Couple of handfuls of spinach

1-2 carrots, julienned

Pinch of ground black pepper

To marinate onions, combine them with vinegar, pepper and Braggs and set aside while preparing the salad. For dressing, mix all ingredients in a bowl (if using dates, soak them in little water for 5 minutes and then mix the dates and water until syrupy). Place spinach and carrots in a bowl, pour onions and marinade over, toss a bit and then pour the dressing over, toss again. Serve the salad with some freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!

I have been off from work for 3 days as our nanny is on holiday, and I have really been enjoying spending time with Maya. She's been having her toddler conversations with me, stringing together 4 word meanings already. And of course, copying almost anything I say. It's now I can see that trying to continue with OPOL (One Parent One Language) approach is going to be a challenge, as she speaks mainly English and it's often easier to respond in English. Especially when she asks: What's that? (sounds: sssat). But I'm determined to talk Estonian to her and I'm now reading bed time stories to her in Estonian (thanks Karin for the books!).

Off to bed now, I'm back to work tomorrow...

Cold weather and raw food

It’s cold outside! Well, maybe not today, but the weather is definitely getting colder. And this is my first winter on raw food journey. I feel already now that it’s going to be a struggle, as I’m not lover of cold food when I’m freezing – my winter favourites are hot soups and spicy casseroles. So I'm going to still have them, but the soups and casseroles will be vegan and vegetarian this winter.

We’ve had to make some adjustments with our food shopping as very high part of our income will be going to childcare in a month time. I’ve been keeping track of our food bill for few months now and it’s high. Being on organic high raw food diet is not cheap, that’s for sure. So I’m now doing weekly menus, shopping lists and I’m also hoping to do most of the shopping online to avoid the impulse shopping I’m prone to when in supermarket (and I sooo hate supermarket shopping, too many people). I’m trying to make simple, quick meals during the week, and then have something nice at weekends. Breakfast is still a green smoothie, then some snacks at work and for lunch salad or vegetarian meal. My goal is to get the food bill down at least 30%, if not more. 

When I have time (which is not very often) I try to read other raw food blogs and information about raw food on the net. It's amazing how much different views there are about raw food, which is very confusing. One says that fruit is best and should be a major part of raw food diet. Other says that fruit is not good, it feeds candida and all sorts. One says supplements and superfoods are the key for successful raw food diet, other says that no supplements should be consumed as it puts stress on liver. One says that good quality mineral salt is ok to consume (not table salt), other says that all salt is dangerous. One promotes green juices, other green smoothies. Some say that only 100% raw food intake is the only way to be true raw foodist, others say that steamed or roasted root vegetables and whole grains are the key for successful high raw food diet. So what should one do? 

After some googling and referrals from other raw food blogs, I got myself e-book by Frederic Patenaude: Raw Secrets . I haven't read it yet, but he claims to be able to bring some light on all this confusion and also help to overcome fall-backs. He even has a chapter about how to to stay raw in cold climates. Will be interesting, will let you know what I thought once I've read it. 

Our little green warrior still managed to get some nursery bugs despite my superfood feeds and has been having snotty nose and been a bit off food. She's been eating lots of green stuff though - raw spinach and salads, vegetables and bean sprouts and seaweed and fruits. It is such a good feeling when ones children are happily eating lots of healthy food, so I hope this phase lasts for a long time, if I'm lucky, forever!

Green toddler in making

So I’m back now. Back to colder weather, but healthier food! Portugal (Algarve) was great, but I didn’t manage to eat much healthy food except some fruit in the morning. The food was ok, not great, but I guess it’s typical beach resort food – grilled/fried fish and meat, pizzas and burgers with fries, rather boring salads – they had iceberg lettuce, tomato, onion and olives on the menu which could be called raw, and even olives are not raw as such… And lot’s of Sangria and Capirinhias were consumed, which taste great but are definitely not healthy! 

Now it’s back to reality – work, menu planning and laborious food shopping. Yes, I hate every minute of it, and online shopping is not making it any easier, have tried. Plus you cannot really buy fruit and veggies online; you’ll just get out-of-date, horrible stuff. Note to myself - must find a good organic veggie box company who can delivery after 6 pm…

My plan is to start my raw food transition all over again; I guess I’m still a bit of novice to manage to stick to raw food when on holiday. I read loads of raw food blogs for tips of staying healthy on holiday, but all that knowledge was suppressed somewhere in back of my brain as soon as I entered the airport. I did pack fruit salad and raw snacks for flight, but fruit salad goes slimy and horrible in the bag so most of it had to be binned.

So this week I've been getting up extra early (5.30!) to be able to do my green smoothies AND juices, I've had 3 large glasses of banana, pineapple, kale smoothie with added hemp protein powder every morning after few glasses of green lemonade. Maya's been having almost a glass of smoothie too, well done my little green warrior! For breakfast I have been having sprouted bread with goat cheese or Marmite toast, lunch raw salad and dinner cooked vegetarian or fish dish. I've also noticed that my carb cravings are back, hence the Marmite toast... Must add more good healthy protein to the diet again.

My little green warrior went off the food when on holiday, maybe it was hot or maybe she was tired of all the sandwiches, grilled chickens and fries (on the Infant menu, as it was called) she was offered. She did eat salad when I had it and olives, also fruit, especially oranges, which are nice and sweet over there. Luckily she seems to have got her appetite back again, and have been enjoying lot's of vegetables this week. Her favourites are sprouts, but she also likes raw salad onion (she calls it "spicy") and avocados. 

I'm also making sure that she gets lots of superfoods: besides green smoothies, sprouts and avocados she also has black-strap molasses, bee bollen, raw cacao, maca powder, Linwoods organic milled flax, sunflower, pumpkin seed and goji berry mix on her breakfast etc. I'm hoping this will boost her immune system, important now when she has started the nursery, where all the viruses are lurking around. She started on Thursday, 2 days a week, I’m really hoping she will not go through all the horrible illnesses she had last time she was at nursery. In fact, she hasn’t been ill since she stopped going to nursery, except chicken pox, so I’m treading this whole thing a bit. But on the bright side, the nursery is lovely, they have home cooked food with lot’s of variety (even quorn and other more unusual foods), lot’s of activities and the rooms are age divided and not too crowded. The first two day's have been success, they love Maya!

Have to go now, I promise to start taking pictures soon again, the blog looks a bit bleak without them...

Holiday

We're off to holiday tomorrow, going to Portugal, so I won't be here for a while. I've been off this week as well, and it has been bad in food wise, I've been eating almost as in "old days". Still having my green juices and smoothies, but it doesn't seem to help me to not want cooked food. Oh well, I'll start again after our holiday.

I've been trying not to think too much what I'll be eating in Portugal, I've never been there and have no idea what's available. Won't be having any smoothies, that's for sure..

Will update when back, have to sleep now. Byeee!

The ups and downs

What a yoyo week it has been! In food wise. Monday I started the day with green smoothie, and continued the day fairly well - huge sprout salad for lunch and baked salmon with veggie and couscous mix for dinner. Then on Tuesday I had no desire for smoothie at all, so I had toast for breakfast. I then ended up having vegetarian sandwich for lunch and as I got home late, I didn't have time to cook any proper dinner. I threw a pie and few chips into oven for my hubby, and ended up having huge salad with couple of chips (couple=10). Naughty, I know. But it proves the theory that if you start day healthily, you're more likely to stay on track of healthy food rest of the day. 

So yesterday to "balance" the naughtiness, I started the day with 1.5 litres of green juice (recipe below), continued with 1 litre of green smoothie and for lunch I had sprout and seaweed salad with salmon sashimi (I only managed to eat couple of pieces as that particular salmon tasted extremely raw fishy and not very pleasant!). I didn't choose sashimi because it had raw salmon in it (I'm not THAT dedicated raw foodist yet), I just fancied sushi, and wanted to opt out the usual rice that's in most of the sushi. For dinner I had rice noodle and tempeh stir fry with loads of veggies. It was my first encounter with tempeh, and I must say I like it (not keen on tofu though). This particular one was organic marinated tempeh from Planet Organic. Like tofu, tempeh is made from soybeans, but tempeh is a whole soybean product with different nutritional characteristics and textural qualities. Tempeh's fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of protein,dietary fiber, and vitamins. Guess who spat it out at dinner table?

This morning I was in hurry so had to skip the green juice, but had lovely protein green smoothie. Roasted halloumi and quinoa salad for lunch from my favourite salad bar - Tossed. When thinking what to have for dinner, I just felt I had to have mashed potato! Don't ask me why. It was so good. I tried to ignore the accusing stares from Kate Wood, Victoria Boutenko, Natalie Rose and other raw food author's books from my book shelf while enjoying my mash, but they seemed to shout at me: that is not raw! Get those organic carrots out from fridge instead and dip into raw almond butter NOW! :-)  But I did have over 1 litre of green smoothie this morning, so I wasn't phased. 

Wednesday's Green Juice

1 smallish or half of large head of romaine lettuce
5-7 leaves or large handful of kale (I used purple kale as it's in season now and easily available)
1 unwaxed, organic lemon, skin on (if waxed and not organic, then peel it)
2 apples (organic if you have, I didn't so I scrubbed them hard)
2 organic carrots (easily available and cheap)
1/2 organic cucumber
1 stalk of organic celery

This yields 1,5 litres of delicious green juice.

Blackcurrant Green Smoothie

250 g Blackcurrants
Handful of frozen mango chunks (or use fresh mango and ice)
Juice of 2 large oranges
Handful of organic spinach
Couple of dates for sweetness
1 Tbsp of maca powder (optional)
1/2 Tbsp of bee pollen (optional)

The verdict? Still quite tangy and sour, could've done with more dates or maybe a splash of agave syrup. It was also quite thick, almost like a pudding, so more orange juice or maybe water would've been nice. Otherwise a great smoothie, no trace of spinach neither in taste or colour (gourgeous purple colour!), so excellent for those who gringe when hearing the words Green Smoothie.

Peachy Protein Smoothie

3-4 peaches

2 smallish frozen bananas (or fresh ones and ice)

4-5 kale leaves, stalks removed

1 Tbsp of hemp protein powder

1 Tsp of raw cacao powder

200-300 ml water

Happy blending!

Oh, nearly forgot: our little angel has been in monster mode again this week, I start to see pattern- one week nice, one week not so. Tomorrow is my last day at work before 2 weeks leave, so it will be nice spending some time with Maya, complete my to-do list for which I never have time for and then go for a short beach holiday with K, K and K. Can't wait!

Good morning routine

I recently read that good morning routine sets your day - if you have healthy breakfast you're more likely to eat healthily rest of the day. I think it's probably true, during the week when I have my green smoothies for breakfast I find it much easier to stick to raw or vegan diet, than the day's I have a toast or similar. It's especially noticeable at weekends as I tend to have "normal" breakfast with my family - Marmite toast with cheese or scrambled eggs on Sunday's - I'm then more likely to eat cooked food, this weekend I even had chicken. I still try to have my green juices, usually before dinner, so at least I don't miss out on my "greens" completely. 

Haven't been at gym this week as I sprained my ankle last Friday, I fell down the stairs. My ankle is still swollen, not as painful any more, but definitely not ready for any form of exercise yet. It's a shame as I just started to get into the whole going to gym thing.

As for our little angel, that's exactly how she's been this week. It's unbelievable how the mood swings with toddlers, one minute a tantrum throwing monster, another minute a giggly adorable cute little person. She's so trying to speak now, and can string 3-4 words together: Mummy sit here! =) And the mixing of 2 languages, which was of course expected (we are doing OPOL - one parent one language, I speak Estonian with Maya), but still interesting to hear. Only 2 more months and she'll be 2 years old!

I haven't managed to take any food pix again, and I haven't tried any new recipes, so that's a bit boring. But I have been shopping a bit, here are few goodies:

Shazzie's Raw Cacao and Almond Spread

My new hair care range - John Masters Organics. I got Zinc and Sage Shampoo, Rosemary and Peppermint Detangler. Love it!

Just some thoughts

I can't believe, my carb cravings are almost gone! If it's green smoothies or added hemp protein, not sure. Maybe both. I'm starting to love my green smoothies now, it took some days to get used to them. I've had 3 large glasses of green smoothie every morning this week. I finally got my Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko (I've tried to order it twice and delivery company failed to deliver) and I'm looking forward trying some of her receipes. Maybe this:

1 mango

1 kiwi

1 cup collard greens

2 strawberries

1 sprig of basil

1 cup of water

or

2 ripe peaches

1 grapefruit, juiced

1 cup kale

3/4 cup water

or if you can get ingredients, this one sounds interesting. Makes 2 litres.

1 cup dandelion leaves

1 cup spinach

2 cups strawberries

3 mangoes

1/4 pine needles

2 cups water

So what have I been eating lately? As said, I have over a litre green smoothie after my morning glass of water. Then around 9.30ish I've been having bowl of organic cinnamon blueberry flaxseed cereal with hazelnut milk -  so delicious. Hazelnut milk is my favourite nut milk at the moment, it goes really well with coffee too. For lunch I usually have a salad with piece of sprouted bread. One day I had a vegetarian ciabatta as I thought I needed some carbs because I was planning to go to gym in the evening. It didn't give me the energy I thought it would, so I will not do that again. Then in the evening I usually have a cooked vegetarian meal. I did try a savoury green smoothie (or cold soup?) for dinner one night, but didn't like it. Green smoothie for me has to have fruit in it, at least for now. 

On Wednesday I finally got out my bike. It's been in shed for 2.5 years, since I moved from London. I used to bike to work, but since the move I haven't had chance to use it. But now I have no excuse, instead of taking the car to gym I can use my bike. 

On another note, it's been lately a bit mentally exhausting at home. Maya is in a some sort of terrible two's at the moment, and everything needs to be challenged. And the screams and the tantrums are never ending. Latest thing is complete refusal to eat sitting in her chair. Only way she eats her dinner is either on my or daddy's lap. And the sucking of thumb that started last week, at the age of 21 months? Why?

I've started to take camera with me to work again so I can take food pix again, and I promise to be better on updating more often here. My next goal is to be 100% raw 1 day a week, haven't set a date yet, but hopefully soon.

My greenies and a thought about cravings

I haven't forgotten my blog, it's just been one of those weeks when you just do not want to open your laptop at evenings after long day at work, spent behind a computer.

Anyway, the past week or so has been ok on food wise. I've been drinking loads of green smoothies, over a litre every morning. I've started to find my own favourites now, some recipes below. It hasn't taken off my hunger for breakfast completely, but I'm having much less as the smoothie does keep me full for much longer than green juice used to. I still try to have my green juices in the afternoon before dinner, if I have time.

I have been craving though. Yes, this irresistible feeling when you just have to have something now! I have been craving for carbs - wholemeal toast, mashed potato and wholemeal pasta. One evening my dinner consisted of just mashed potato and nothing else. So weird! I have been trying to find more information about cravings, and there seem to be two main theories about cravings - one is that cravings are an emotional and hormonal imbalance and other is that we get cravings due to mineral/nutritional deficiencies. I think it's probably both. Cravings for sugar is a sign of deficiency of chromium, cravings for chocolate might be magnesium deficiency and carbohydrate cravings is funnily enough  protein deficiency!  I've been thinking for a while to buy raw, vegan protein powder to add to my smoothies, so I guess I have even more reason for this now.

My favourite green smoothies at the moment:

Pine-kale

1/2 pineapple
1 banana
handful of kale
200-300 ml of ice cold water (or add some ice)

Calcium blast

100-150 ml raspberries (can also be frozen)
1 banana
1 head of pok choi
200-300 ml water (and ice if desired)

Blueberry pudding

100-150 ml blueberries
1 banana
large handful of spinach
200-300 ml water (and ice if desired)

Happy smoothie making!

Now, need to order some organic shampoo from So Organic.

Green smoothies

When I started to blog I knew it was going to be difficult to find time to update regularly, but this has been the longest blog post draught so far! I just feel exhausted when I get home after long day at work, and many days I don't even open the laptop. When I get home, my evening is filled with juicing, making dinner and Maya's food for next day, playing with Maya and by the time she's gone to bed and I have a chance to sit down and take a breath, I just want to go to bed myself with a good book. And of course I fall asleep within 5 minutes instead of reading that book... 

As for my food intake, it's been up and down again. I'm failing to find a method that really works for me, Rose's levels 5 raw transition diet worked for a while, but somehow it didn't appeal to me for longer than a month. It seems to be same with any changes I try to make to my diet, it lasts about 6-8 weeks after which I really need help to stay on track. So I'm now going to try something else to help my journey towards raw food - green smoothies. I had my first one today - green smoothie with romaine lettuce and watermelon. It wasn't as good as it could be as the watermelon I had was one of those pale ones without seeds, probably genetically modified to become seedless and therefore also tasteless. Have you noticed that only watermelons with lots of dark brown seeds have rich, red flesh with lots of flavour? So note to myself - check that the watermelon I buy is NOT seedless. Or any other fruit for that matter. 

Anyway, my latest plan is to add green smoothies to my fairly healthy, semi-vegetarian diet and see if this helps me to switch more towards raw food. Victoria Bountenko says in her book Green for Life that adding a litre of green smoothie to your diet will help with various health problems and also helps to curb your cravings. I've been having bad cheese toast cravings, I hope to get rid of these with help of green smoothies. 

Here are some recipes:

Blend well following:

8 leaves romaine lettuce leaves

1/3 of watermelon

200-250 ml water and some ice

Blend well following:

2 handfuls of kale

1/2 ripe pineapple

200-250 ml water and some ice 

Blend well following:

6-8 romain lettuce leaves 

1/2 medium honeydew melon

300-400 ml water and some ice

Many raw food books originate from USA and one problem for me has been their different measurements they use in their cook books. One of the most common measurement is a cup. What is 1 cup? If a recipe says 2 cups of water, do you know how much it is? I didn't before but my friend Google helped me:

1 cup = 240 ml = 8 fl oz = 1/2 pint (liq) = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp

Another one is a quart, which I've never heard of before. It's almost 1 litre (0.95 l), so luckily easy to remember. 

I'm now going to look into various greens I can get hold of here in UK (selection seems tiny, at least in supermarkets). Besides the "usual suspects" spinach, kale, broccoli, pok choi, celery and romaine lettuce Victoria mentions greens I've never heard of: arugula, escarole, mizuna, lambsquaters (wild weed) and so on. From now on I'm also going to use beet and carrot tops, mustard greens, collard greens, radicchio and green herbs such as dill, basil, coriander (cilantro in US), fennel, mint and parsley in my green smoothies. Amongst more unusual greens are the wild weeds such as chickweed, clover, dandelion and stinging nettles. On my next walk to park I'll check out these super-greens! 

As always I'm full of enthusiasm when embarking on a new culinary path, I sooo hope this will last. Wish me luck!

Why so tired?

I haven't blogged about food lately, and I must confess it's mainly because it's not going very well at the moment. As you know I started with Natalie Rose's level 5 raw food transition nearly 3 weeks ago, and first week went well. My typical food intake was as I wrote in my post couple of weeks ago, almost exactly as level 5 should be. But then by the end of week 2 I started to feel absolutely exhausted, I started to fall asleep on the train on the way to work which never has happened before! I slept more than usual and quite well at nights so when I felt so drained I just couldn't understand why. Didn't have energy nor motivation to go to gym either. And I was absolutely puzzled - I was supposed have heaps of energy - I was drinking 1,5 litres of green juice every day, eating lot's of raw vegetables and even taking supplements in form of chlorella, Siberian ginseng, milk thistle among others. The whole thing resulted in me going almost back to my "old" eating habits - whole meal toast with cheese for breakfast, coffee a bit later, cooked vegetarian meal for lunch and another cooked meal for dinner. To my further puzzlement I started to feel better.

I started transition diet again on Monday, but by Wednesday I was feeling tired again, yawning throughout the day. I did force myself to gym and felt much better after but I don't get it. What is going on? Is this toxins leaving my body and draining all my energy? If this is the case, then I should just try to hold out a bit longer and it will go over. Me falling back to oldish habits is just going to prolong the whole process, but it's hard. Wonder if any other raw foodists have experienced anything like this, so far I've just read that many have got almost instant energy kick when transforming from cooked to raw and specially when adding green juices and smoothies to the diet. I do hope it's not only me...

Today I had gazpacho for dinner, so delicious! It's hot and muggy tonight and cold soup was exactly what I needed. I must admit that I cheated though, instead of blending it together myself (it's dead easy!) I went down the lazy lane and bought New Covent Gardens fresh soup.

One more day before the weekend, hoping to go to Farmers market on Saturday to top up my fruits and veggies. Now it's time to sleep!

Meet the nasties!

Just a quick post about the synthetic cosmetic ingredients you should avoid in your skin care products. This means reading lot's of small print on back of your products, as some of the products that call themselves "natural" still contain these chemicals, because the manufacturers get away with this if they have even 1 natural ingredient. Following list is produced by Aubrey Hampton:

METHYL, PROPYL, BUTYL AND ETHYL PARABENS

Used as inhibitors of microbial growth and to extend shelf life of products. Can cause allergic reactions and skin rash. Some studies have shown that these ingredients are slightly estrogenic and can be absorbed to the body through skin. 

DIETHANOLAMINE (DEA) AND TRIETHONALAMINE (TEA)

Often used in cosmetic as emulsifiers and foaming agents. They can cause allergic reactions, eye irritation and dryness of hair and skin. DEA and TEA are ammonia compounds and can form cancer-causing nitrosamines when they come in contact with nitrates. Toxic when absorbed into the body over a long period of time.

DIAZOLIDINYL UREA AND IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA 

Widely used preservatives, works best as biocide in combination with parabens. Can cause contact dermatitis and release formaldehyde which can be toxic. 

SODIUM LAURYL/LAURETH SULFATE (SLS)

A cheap and nasty detergent used in shampoos for it's cleansing and foam-building properties. Often derived from petroleum, it's sometimes disguised in pseudo-natural cosmetics with the phrase "from coconuts". It causes eye irritation, scalp scurf similar to dandruff, skin rashes and allergic reactions. 

PETROLATUM

Also known as petroleum jelly, this mineral oil derivative is used for its emollient properties in cosmetics. It can interfere with skins own moisturising mechanism, causing dry skin - often creating the very conditions it claims to alleviate! It's used widely as it's incredibly cheap.

PROPYLENE GLYCOL

This should be a vegetable glycerin mixed with grain alcohol, both natural. In reality it's a synthetic petrochemical mix used as humectant in cosmetics and even in food (retains moisture, makes firmer creams). It can cause allergic reactions, hives and eczema. PEG (polyethylene glycol) and PPG (polypropylene glycol) are related synthetics, watch out for these on labels!

PVP/VA COPOLYMER

A petroleum-derived chemical used in hair sprays, styling aids and other cosmetics. It can be considered toxic  as inhaled particles can damage the lungs of sensitive persons. So no spraying nasty hair sprays around little children!

STEARALKONIUM CHLORIDE

An ammonium compound used in hair conditioners and creams. Developed by fabric industry as a fabric softener, it is a lot cheaper and easier to use in hair conditioning formulas than proteins and herbals,which are beneficial to the hair.Can be toxic.

SYNTHETIC COLOURS

Used to make cosmetic products to look "pretty", these should be avoided completely. Many synthetic colours can be carcinogenic, so if a cosmetic contains them, don't use it!

SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCES

Some of these fragrances can contain up to 200 different chemicals, which are not listed on products. Some issues caused by these chemicals include headaches, dizziness, rash, skin irritation and even vomiting. If the cosmetics has Fragrance as listed on the label, don't buy it!

The list goes on, but these are the main ones that you should try to avoid. The thumb rule is if you can't pronounce it, avoid it! Do go and have a look now if your shampoo or body lotion contains any of these ingredients. If so, would you still use it? Note that the worst offenders are the most expensive brands - Dior, Clarins, Clinique, Chanel, Lancome etc. There is absolutely nothing good in their products, you only pay for the name. If you want to splash out on your skin care, spend it on natural products (some listed in my previous blog post). 

Time for snooze now!

Be nice to your skin

I have been without Internet for few days, as our modem decided to die, so no blogging for me. But now I'm back and ready to blog some more!

When I was writing about eating organic food, I also remembered that it’s not only what you put into your body that’s important but also what you put ON your body. I have been using body care products that contain only natural ingredients for years now, but there are few products that I have not been able to switch, probably because I haven’t found the right one yet. 

Cleansing 

I’ve been using different natural cleansing products, but my current favourite is Madara Deep Purifying Foam. Madara is produced in Latvia, one the 3 Baltic Countries. It doesn’t contain any harsh ingredients, but is still very effective in cleaning away the dirt and oil from your face and doesn't dry it. 

Toner and Moisturiser 

I've been using Origins Oil Refiner Toner and Matte Scientist Oil Controlling Lotion for over a year now, and I love it. My skin is prone for some shine, but using both the Toner and Lotion have helped a lot, my skin has much less outbreaks and is not that shiny anymore. The toner contains Phlorogine, and algea extract that stops excess oils surfacing on skin. It also contains White China Clay which leaves matte finish. It's pricey, but lasts forever!

Foundation 

I've never been much for foundation, as it feels like it just clogs up my pores. But since I’ve found Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics, I use their mineral loose powder on daily bases. It’s silky and smooth and gives natural complexion. It also hides minor spots and redness, and has even UV protection. And no nasties in their products at all! Don’t forget to buy kabuki brush with your mineral powder, it’s a must. 

Hair and body care 

I must admit I haven’t found my favourite shampoo and conditioner yet. I’ve been using Burt's Bees, Aveda, Green People and Lavera. They are all good, natural products, but for some reason I haven’t stuck to any of these. At the moment I’m using semi-natural hair care products from Ojon, and I like them! Their Thickening range makes my hair thicker and shiny, and it smells wonderful. Now I just have to decide if I want to keep using this brand, it’s not 100% natural, but it doesn’t have too many nasties.  And I use Dr Organics  Lavender shower gel and body lotion, smells lovely and 100% organic!

Deodorant 

This is one of the items I have not been able to switch yet. I have been using Dove’s antiperspirant since I was 19, almost every day as I’ve been very aware of my underarm odour. I tried several natural products few years ago during my Big Switch (when I threw out all skin care products containing any nasties and bought natural ones instead) , but I usually started sweating ans smelling before I was even out from my front door! The sweating is of course important, it’s how our body gets rid of toxins and waste and cools our body. What antiperspirants do is to block the sweating itself, which is not good, as the toxins get trapped in our bodies and can cause bad health issues. Antiperspirants also contain heavy metals such as aluminium and other harmful chemicals, so I defiantly want to get them out from my bathroom! 

So what causes the smell? The common explanation seems to be that the bad underarm smell is caused by bacteria living on our skin. But there is also a different line of thought – that the real reason for armpit odour is the intentional excretion of toxins that your body is trying to get rid of! So if you smell bad, then you need to think what you eat. Apparently red meat is the main cause of bad body odour. As our digestive system is long, the meat stagnates and putrefies in our system, releasing toxins in to our blood stream via large intestine, and out through your eliminative organs, such as skin. Other food groups increasing body odour is refined, processed foods such as white wheat products, sugary products, products that contain saturated and hydrogenated fats. So do get rid of bad body odour you need to – good guess! – switch to Raw Food Lifestyle! So as I’ve been following higher raw food diet (no red meat) for a while now, I though I should do a trial and I stopped using my beloved Dove for a week. I’ve been using Crystal Spring Natural Deodorant and I must say – no smell! I even asked my hubby to testify after a day at work and he confirmed! So switching my diet to raw food might have solved my life-long battle of armpit (and foot!) odour. 

Toothpaste 

Here is another product type that I have not been able to switch. I’ve been using Oral-B Rembrant for years, and I like it. But I had a look in their ingredients, and there are quite few nasties inside the paste, so I need to find a natural tooth paste that cleans well and preferably has some sort of whitening effect. I’ve tried few organic ones, but they either tasted vial or didn’t clean my teeth properly. But I keep looking, if you have any tips, please let me know! I've been looking at So Organic for some ideas, Green People and Lavera seem to be worth trying.

Mascara 

Again, I haven’t found one yet, but then again, I haven’t really been looking. I’m very picky about the brush my mascara must have (I like rubbery brushes as they separate the lashes better, no clumps). I’ve yet to find a natural mascara with good brush, but I’ll keep looking. So Organic  has few mascaras I might want to try, either Nvey or Green People.

Eyes, cheeks and lips 

I'm using one product for all three! Nvey Powder Blush in Peach Pink is my current favourite and can be applied on eye lids, cheeks and lips, I use it on top of my Lavera lip balm. Nvey Eco Organic Make-up is Australian high quality make-up that only contains certified organic plant and mineral ingredients. No chemicals and completely organic!

And of course I use only natural products on Maya - at the moment we have Green Babies range from Green People and for sun protection I'm using Korres Sunscreen Emulsion for children. I haven't managed to "turn" my hubby completely, he's been using his Head&Shoulders forever and seems to have no intention to switch. But I'm not giving up!

Last but not least I'd like to recommend a natural skin care and spa products from my country of birth, Estonia: Joik Spa. My good friend introduced me to their products and I'm loving them! Imagine using Gin and Tonic Soap or Chocolate Face Mask!

Robyn's give-away

A fellow raw food blogger Robyn is giving away few spiralisers and a mandoline on her blog, have a look:

Girl on Raw

Wish me luck!

I'm in process of writing a new post about organic body care, just need to finish it. It's another busy weekend, but I'm hoping to steal a bit of blogging time on Sunday.