My take on Gena’s Raw ‘Peanut’ (with not a nut in sight) Noodles. 

I dressed julienned cucumbers, zucchinis, red capsicum with Gena’s dressing served atop baby spinach leaves and garnished with green onion.

Hit up JuiceMaster in Dubai Mall for a Turbocharge smoothie

And a shot of wheatgrass.

Cucumber & lemon juice at Organic Foods & Cafe

And their roast pumpkin salad which was supposed to come with garlic croutons and pumpkin seed dressing but was served with a bottle of balsamic dressing. Wasn’t until I asked the waiter they told me AFTER I had started eating. Poor service I’m afraid.

Also saw a guy there pile up his plate of hot and cold buffet items and not have enough money (it’s charged per plate weight) so his headed back to the buffet to scrape some of his plate off whilst the staff watched :S  Another reason NOT to eat from a buffet people!

Mixed berry green smoothie (not that green tho!) – almond milk, strawbs, raspberries and blackberries, handful of spinach, couple of pitted dates and 2 bananas.

Made in a non vitamix - EASY! Just a little chunkier, but of course you must always chew, not chug  your smoothies anyway.

Monster Salad with left over ‘Gena’ dressing.

Wonder what I will make for my pal tomorrow Maybe a raw lasagne or a watermelon gazpacho!

Congrats again to Halona for the giveaway win. How exciting. Your prizes are on their way to you Halona.

Today I had a productive day in the kitch, with a little helper I asked to join me, as a potential assistant for some upcoming workshops I plan on doing in the coming months.

But

We had a fail. Haha, I can laugh now but oh it wasn’t pretty.

Let’s just say I looked away for a second, and then all of a sudden, where there should have been cheezy sauce batter ready for my broccoli chips (for dehydration) there was a GREEN sludge in the vitamix!

I asked my friend why it was so green, and she said “you told me to put hemp in” and pointed to the spirulina.

Oh the ingredients you take for granted when you’ve been eating raw for some time!

So folks, hemp seeds are, well a seedy, yellowy/light greeny kinda colour, and spirulina is something quite different, being an algae.

I think I saved it by playing around with a few ingredients, but let’s just say when these guys get out of the dehydrator, they’re going to be super green superfoody chips.

Let’s hope they taste better than they look!

We also made a whole batch of detox juice for the next few days.

We made some almond milk, then a green smoothie – my fave at the moment.

Green & Gold

(so named after my country of birth and my home of Queensland where pineapples and bananas ‘usually’ grow in abundance)

2 cups fresh pineapple

2 frozen bananas

2 cups almond milk

1/2 cup packed fresh/frozen spinach

optional 1 Tablespoon hemp powder

Blend and serve

And we ran out of time to make the ice-pops I had in mind, but they’re on my to do list for tomorrow, as the temperature here soars.

I finally got my mumsy one piece swimsuit to start taking Manus to the pool for some swimming lessons – it’s a good idea we don’t wear bikini’s on camp at our pools here. Even though they are westernised compared to outside the compound where we MUST wear an abaya, we are kinda frowned upon by the lifeguards when we wear our ‘kinis.

Anyway, time to head off to get this kid off for bed.

Any funny or disappointing kitchen fails for you lately, you’d care to share?

I’m a bit late in posting as last night we went to a beach party and although it was fun, it is really starting to heat up here, so I’ll be living indoors when that happens. We do live in the hottest part of the world!

So onto the entries…enjoy!

Tanya (my sister in law’s) post Zumba refuel Banana Berry Bang smoothie  - 1 cup almond milk (pic above), 1 frozen banana, handful of frozen berries & a tblsp chia seeds!

I Live in the Springtime Smoothie

Strawberry Fields Forever Smoothie

Cacao Truffles all from Marlie

Samantha’s cookies & smoothie

Carolyn’s carrot ginger pate stuffed in cucumbers.
She didn’t write down the recipe of this item, but did post about it her blog.

Alej’s Raw Yoga Motivation Chocolate and Coconut Orbs (longest name ever).
They contain raw nuts and seeds (cashew, almond, sunflower seeds, walnuts… anything I had in my cupboard), dates, raw cacao powder, and shredded coconut. Sometimes I add goji berries.
I usually make them when I lack motivation to get out of the house and go to Bikram practice but I know I really need to. Well, they always do the trick.

Junia’s Strawberry Watermelon Mint Green Juice

Last night’s party was fun, but unfortunately the humidity REALLY kicked in and for an outdoors party, it really wasn’t very pleasant for our baby so we left kinda early. Bummed.

I loved reading all your entries for the Me Raw:You Cooked giveaway and I reckon that most if not all of you, would really get a real kick out of reading the book. It’s great to see that we’re all in this together

It was also nice to ‘meet’ some of you newer readers. Stay tuned for next weeks giveaway, it’s gonna be big

Before I get to the winner, I thought I’d share with you my unusual smoothie for the day – don’t worry, I will be blogging more raw unblended foods in the upcoming future (my kelp noodle and seaweed video is almost ready to post), smoothies are just the easiest for this busy mama for now.

Today I made my smoothie with broccoli. Yep, broccoli

Oh and mango, strawberries, ginger and water.

It was actually suprisingly yummy

1 whole mango

2 cups of broccoli florets

1 cup fresh strawberries

1 cup of water

1 cup of ice

1 inch of ginger – peeled

BLEND. Not quite a green smoothie in colour but yes in name. The fruit masks the broccoli so well and the ginger gives it the right amount of kick

I’ve been craving raw broccoli heaps lately, just been crunching on it – usually for a midnight snacky.

Then it was time to hit this…

JELLY legs!!

But I remembered how good a great tracklist is. On the upbeat songs I really went hard and on the slower beats, tried a bit of recovery.

So any suggestions on your favourite workout songs? Maybe I can put together a mix tape courtesy of you guys?

Planned on a walk with the dog and bubs today but we fell asleep instead. There is always tomorrow.

So for the winner of the ebook, as usual, I used a random name picker out of all the entries via comments and came up with this winner.

Drumroll please….

Woo hoo. Congrats Marty. I’ll forward your email address onto Emma and get you on your way with your book

Thanks again for everyone for your interesting stories with your entries.

Sorry I’ve been away a while, I didn’t think I’d be away from you this long (I bet the mothers out there are smiling), but my main focus has been my new boy, as we’ve been working on his weight gain (he’s a little on the lower side due to my low milk supply) so I’ve been working alongside a wonderful lady and nurse from La Leche League who’s been volunteering her time with me almost around the clock!

It’s been more tiring that usual, but it’s all for a great cause! So please bear with me whilst I get a semi-routine back.

I’ve not had much time in the kitchen, so I’ve been relying on hubs bringing home dinners from our dining hall (yummy stir fries thank you!) plus fruit are great snacks for throughout the day and course plenty of water.

But one thing I’ve missed (and is bound to be helpful with my milk supply!) is this!

1/4 cup of hempseeds, 2 cups for water, 2 frozen bananas, 1/4 cup frozen packed spinach, 1 cup of frozen strawberries, 2t Vitamineral Green powder, 1T coconut butter, 1T raw cacao powder and a splash of agave!

Served 3 (but hubs and I always share half the third serving!)

I LOVE THIS STUFF!!! I eat it off the spoon. Has anyone got any recipe ideas for it also? Other than smoothies?

Oh and hopefully this week I’ll share with you one of my favourite recipes using these guys

I bought a whole lot of them when I ordered my shipment of raw products for my store. I ate my body weight in them when I was at 105. So yum. Have you tried? Favourite recipes?

Now onto my next Guest Post from the lovely fellow Aussie, but residing in my neighbouring country of Qatar, Nicole van Hattem.

See you soon!

__________________________________________________________

Here we are playing happy families

And I am so excited to report that have finally ventured back into my kitchen….

Although these coconuts (I have about 12 in my fridge from pre baby days – it’s lucky they last so long!) have seen better days (notice the mould?!) they were still a wonderful base for my FIRST GREEN SMOOTHIE in a month! Yep, that’s right! I’ve not had a green smoothie in ages and when I finally made this I vowed to bring them back into my life!

The GREEN Avocolada (adapted from Matthew Kenney’s Avocolada)

What better recipe to make than a variation on my favourite pre pregnancy – I loved this smoothie to pieces until I fell pregnant, then you couldn’t pay me enough to drink it!

This recipe was kindly shared with me by the creator, Matthew Kenney himself but this version I put some spinach in it.

Click here for the original recipe.

Then I baking soda washed these ripe ‘maters. I buy them by the boxful when I see them. Just wish they were organic.

I eat some and throw the rest in the dehydrator overnight.

I threw some fresh tomatoes on my salad for dinner last night with red capsicum and Lemon Love Dressing. Click here to sign up for my free ebook if you want the recipe plus 4 others

Meanwhile, Pat’s been trying to work out the baby carrier. I think he’s done a good job eh?

So onto my 3rd guest post!

Tess Masters is the BLENDER Girl and another of my favourite bloggers (she even went to 105 last year and visited my culinary school) and LOVED it.

We’ve created a wonderful online friendship and hopefully one day we will meet in the flesh too. Isn’t the blog world awesome for making friends? Have you ever had the chance to meet any of your bloggy/social media friends?

Thanks again Tess for being a part of this guest blogger series. I love your work!

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Tess Masters, AKA, The Blender Girl is an actress; presenter; voice over artist; budding cook; enthusiastic story teller; environmental warrior; self respecting devotee of all things green and natural; and most importantly, a champion of the miraculous blender, mixer, and food processor.

On her blog, healthy blender recipes, she shares her passion for whole foods with healthy allergy-friendly vegetarian recipes and humorous stories about her life. All of the recipes are gluten-free and refined sugar-free; and many are raw, vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and soy-free, utilizing fresh organic ingredients and natural sweeteners and flavourings.

Tess currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she is working in animation, video games, commercials and audio books, as well as presenting TV specials.

Her alter-ego, The Blender Girl has been featured in publications and online sites all around the world. She is a regular columnist for Super Living Magazine in Australia; and will soon be seen in a series of online videos for Chow.Com.

Check out her latest feature on Chow.Com

I was absolutely thrilled when Robyn approached me to do a guest post for her gorgeous blog, Girl On Raw. After all, we culinary “girls” have to stick together.

Robyn has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement for me ever since our s’blended internet friendship began over a year ago. Kellie (a mutual friend) and I had just finished performing in the Australian production of August: Osage County. Kellie, a fellow foodie, thought Robyn and I would have a lot in common, and made an introduction through Facebook. She was right, and we hit if off immediately, sharing our passion for whole foods and raw “uncooking”.

I was immediately struck by Robyn’s passion and cheeky spirit; and I continue to be blown away by her tenacity and generosity of spirit. This is an opinion shared by many in the raw food community. A fact I discovered when I visited 105 Degrees in Oklahoma City. Robyn had written to me raving about her visit there, with an infectious enthusiasm, that saw me grabbing for my car keys and taking a 5 hour road trip from my home in Springfield, Missouri to check out what was so special about this place.

I attended a rawkstar degustation meal hosted by Matthey Kenney, Ani Phyo, and the 105 degrees team; all of whom sang Robyn’s praises with genuine sincerity. It was clear that she had made quite an impression. I was proud to know her, and even more grateful for all of the raw food knowledge that she had shared with me. As I write this, I am reminded of the famous words of Maya Angelou, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give”. Robyn lives her life by this philosophy.

I dream of the day that we “raw girls” finally meet in person, to swap recipes and stories over some fabulous raw mocktails! Robyn, I wish you joy and happiness as you move into this glorious new chapter in your life as a mother. I cannot wait to officially welcome that gorgeous little bubba into the world.

We all know that is the only thing you have been baking of late!

So, in honour of his birth, I thought that it was only fitting that I share two of my favourite raw “green” recipes. My garlic kale chips and key-lime mousse will ensure that we can all be “gorgeously green with envy”.

So firstly, let me tell you about the kale chips.

My litmus test for any of my raw vegan recipes is to feed them to my friend Joann, who proudly professes “I don’t eat healthy!” If she sticks her snout in my trough without any complaining, and returns for more, I know I have a winner. During my last visit to see her in Arizona I brought some of my kale chips as a snack. When I woke up the first morning to find half the bag empty, and a note that read “I need this recipe!!!!!” I knew I was onto something. She did attach a disclaimer – “the kale gets stuck in your teeth! You have to floss, but it is so worth it”! Suffice it to say, the rest of the bag was devoured in a New York minute, and she has ordered a dehydrator with much excited anticipation.

I have also served these up to many of my whole foods bedfellows over the last few years and received rave reviews. But only a declaration of piggy joy from a cream dreamer and self-professed toxic omnivore would qualify as a satisfactory acid test. So thankyou Joann – for supplying the much needed tick of approval that inspired me to send this recipe out into the mainstream and raw culinary world with absolute confidence.

I promise you – these kale chips are to die for! Or at least that is what I have been told by the hoards of happy piggies that have desperately returned to this trough snorting for more.

The secret to this recipe? Tossing through the granulated garlic at the end, after you have massaged the cashew cheese into the kale. This last step just gives it a depth of flavour that is missing if you don’t finish it off this way.

Kale chips are a cinch to make. If you are nut free, or don’t want the expense or added time of using raw cashews, I have attached an alternative blend underneath the main recipe, which is quick and easy, nut-free, and just as delicious. Alternatively, you can toss any variety of kale with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and any herbs and spices of your choice to create all kinds of other delectable flavours. Try some chilli and salt, or apple cider vinegar and sea salt. YUM! Don’t worry if you don’t have a dehydrator – you can slow cook kale chips in your oven on the very lowest setting for about 8-12 hours.

Give these kale chips a go for your next snack attack – toxic treaters far and wide will be green with envy!

Now, the kale chips are fine for a snack. But no celebration would be complete without a really decadent dessert. Don’t miss out on making this quick, easy, rawlicious dessert! It is a winner on every level. It can literally be made in under 5 minutes; chilled and devoured in under half an hour; and requires absolutely no skill whatsoever. Just blend and chow!

This phenomenal recipe epitomizes my “blend and live” philosophy. Best of all – there is nothing bad in it! WOO HOO!

We love to hear that! It is very allergy-friendly for most people – not containing any of the big four – no nuts, dairy, egg or wheat. Just pure Yum Yum Yum!

I have not met anyone who doesn’t love this simple dessert. Vegans, Omnivores, Toxic Treat Tamers, Cream Dreamers and Whole Foods Skeptics all agree – this blend is scrumptious!

I will say that some people are not quite as partial to the extreme tart flavour as I am. This can be easily tempered with a little more sweetener. I am a tart at heart. So the more bite the better! But if your taste is a little more conservative, just sweeten the deal in order to find your perfect blend.

I have made all kinds of variations of this – with just lemon juice, just lime juice, I have left out the rind when I didn’t have the “zest for zest”, and I have to say that this recipe is fail safe! You just can’t mess this one up! My friend Kris and I made a lemon mousse without any zest, in a hurry a while back, that was still delicious. So much so, that we sat on the couch in the privacy of my house, eating it straight out of the blender! Tart pigs indeed!

I will say though, that the combination of lemon and lime, with the rind, lends a depth of flavour that is hard to match. I first became smitten (or should I say bitten) with key lime mousse in the Florida everglades, in a little fishing shack off the river. The mosquitos were eating me alive – I imagined them the size of cockroaches as they successfully gnawed through my jeans! While they were biting through my jeans, I was biting my tongue, trying to prevent myself from ordering yet another and another and another……

This latest raw vegan incantation has a little less bite to the hips, but no less bite on the lips. Trust me – let the tart in you sing, and you won’t be sorry.

I finally understand the true meaning of “sublime”.

Robyn – This one’s for you!

Raw Vegan Garlic Kale Chips

• 1 large bunch of curly green kale – about 8 firmly packed cups
• 1 cup raw cashews soaked in filtered water for 2 – 4 hours
• 1/8 cup filtered water as needed for desired consistency
• 3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast to taste
• 1 whole bulb of garlic (about 8-10 cloves) chopped roughly
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar (optional)
• 4 teaspoons granulated garlic

1. Rip the kale from off the stalks (discard the stalks), wash and place in a colander to drain. You want a little bit of water left on the kale.
2. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Place all the ingredients except the granulated garlic in a food processor until smooth, thick and creamy. You want something like the consistency of hummus. You might need to add a little bit more water.
4. Take small handfuls of the cashew cheese and massage into the kale. I use kitchen gloves for this. Repeat this until all of the mixture has been added and the kale is evenly coated with no large clumps of “cheese”.
5. Toss through the granulated garlic so that it is evenly distributed.
6. Place the kale evenly on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for about 8 hours until crisp.

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can place them on baking sheets in the oven on the lowest setting for about 10-12 hours.

Nut Free version

• 1 large bunch or curly green kale – about 8 firmly packed cups
• 2 1/2 Tbsp cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 3 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 3 tsp extra granulated garlic (to toss through)

1. Rip the kale from the stalks (discard the stalks), wash, and place in a colander to drain slightly. You want a little bit of water left on the kale.
2. Stir all of the other ingredients (except the extra garlic) together in a bowl.
3. Massage the mixture into the wet kale.
4. Sprinkle the extra granulated garlic onto the kale and toss through.

Place in the dehydrator on 105 degrees for about 4-6 hours until crispy.

Raw Vegan Key Lime Mousse

• The flesh of 2 ripe organic avocados
• 2 ripe organic bananas peeled
• 8 Tbsp or 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 8 Tbsp or 2/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
• 2 tsps lemon rind (about 2 lemons)
• 2 tsps lime rind (about 4 limes)
• 1/4 cup agave, or more to taste
• pinch of Celtic sea salt

Throw all of the ingredients in your blender, and puree until creamy.

Chill, serve and devour! Yum Yum Yum!

Serves 4

Before I get started just wanted to remind you that you are running out of time if you want to grab yourself Russell James’ Homestudy Program for 33% off plus all the extra bonuses. Go here to find out more!

If you still aren’t convinced you need a Vitamix (or that you would get the usage out of one) I thought I’d document a typical day in the life of MY Vitamix.

Usually I start my day off with some kind of smoothie and I try to make it a green one.

Unfortunately, blueberries win out so the spinach doesn’t get much of a view when you add it on. This is my Berry Berry ‘Greenish’ Smoothie I featured yesterday’s post.

Then it’s on to mid morning where I have taken my almond meal from a previous day of making almond milk, out of the dehydrator.

Time to whip up some almond flour for Ron*

Then I store it in the freezer for another day, another recipe.

Then it’s onto lunch. Salad. Yes please. What has this got to do with the Vitamix you ask?

Dressing:

Lemon Love Dressing Ingredients: Olive oil, lemons, black pepper, himalayan pink salt, and raw honey (from Oklahoma).

This is seriously my GO TO dressing at the moment. I may or may not have eaten the remainder as it set into a pudding in the fridge. Oops!

I’ll share the recipe tomorrow

This dressing rocks with rocket/arugula, fennel and grapefruit.

Then onto dessert. As we didn’t have any frozen bananas at the ready, soft serve icecream was not going to happen, but since the hubs mentioned strawberry milk at the dinner table, I decided to create my own raw vegan version.

2 cups of almond milk, 1 cup of frozen strawberries (seriously, what is my obsessions with the strawbs of late?), 1 t coconut butter, 2 fresh bananas 1 T agave nectar, dash of lemon juice, dash of vanilla extract and pinch of salt.

Strawberry Milk indeed.

Of course each day differs with what recipes I tend to make, however this post is pretty typical of my usage amount, as it never really gets any less than this on a typical day. Dressings, smoothies, ice creams, puddings, sauces, you name it, there is so much this little powerful fella can do. And like my hubs said to me yesterday as we bundled up our old supermarket blender to sell yesterday, it’s no VITAMIX – you’d never go back.

*Later on.

Some yummy eats over my weekend (Thursday/Friday).

Banana Berry ‘Greenish’ Smoothie

2 cups of homemade almond milk

1 frozen banana

1 cup of frozen blueberries

1 cup of packed frozen spinach

1 T hemp powder

1 T raw honey

1 t spirulina

squeeze of lemon

Chased by a good ole cooked breakfast:

His and Hers.

Ezekiel Bread (I think there is a version in Australia at Wray Organic or other healthfood stores?) with a smear of earth balance, baked beans and sauteed tomatoes and mushies with mixed herbs for ME Eggs sunny side up for HIM.

Although I am not celiac (my father is) or gluten intolerant, I do try to limit my gluten intake, however I do find ezekiel bread, which is sprouted wholegrain bread (found in the freezer section of Al Hosra in Bahrain) kinder to my tum tum. I just keep it in the freezer and chip off a piece when needed. They also have burger buns too.

Lunch was as unpictured baked sweet potato topped with leftover savoury green lentils (that I intended to make into a veggie soup but came out more like a stew), served with one of my favourite salads which I’ll post later Totally forgot to take photos or write down the recipe but I’ll make it again for sure!

Yesterday we rounded out the cooked breakfast with something I’ve been lacking for a while! A juice.

So out came the BEAST!

My Champion Juicer. This juicer is a masticating juicer and not a centrifugal juicer. You can read more about that here.

Some of the ingredients (parsley, celery, carrots, green apples, beetroot) – plus a bit of unpictured ginger.

Always a bit frothy afterwards, so I like to give it a whizz in the good ole Vitamix

Liquid Life.

Delish

Last night I attended my first ever Adult Education class offered on our compound. This course was on Natural Wellness and goes for 4 evenings. It is heavily geared towards eating raw food. Whilst I know quite a bit about this already, I love meeting other people who live this way, and keeping my focus high by sharing experiences, plus I think you are always learning and I certainly walked away learning ALOT last night. I loved that one of her juices incorporates almost everything I happened to chance and put in my juice above anyway. Great minds eh?

The instructor is a geologist on camp who lost her husband to a heart attack and made it her mission to research more about good health. And one thing I really loved that she said and that was no disease is hereditary, but lifestyle is. Diet and cooking styles are. Wow. So true. Next class is tomorrow night.

So finally here’s the Raw Vegan Lime Tart recipe I’ve been promising for a while:

Lime Tart

Base

1/4 cup almonds

1/4 cup of sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup of shredded coconut

10 pitted dates

1/4 t cinnamon Edited to remove the cinnamon!!!! Do not put cinnamon

3 T coconut oil

Process all the above ingredients in a food processor fitted with an S blade until crumbly and sticky. Press into a coconut oil greased spring form pan/s and place in freezer while you make the tart filling. I used two small pans.

Tart Filling

2 avocados

1/3 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice

2 T agave

2 T coconut oil

1/2 t xantham gum

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender.

I used my trusty pint sized tribest (great for travel and small blending purposes).

Pour into tart base and into freezer.

Sparkling grape juice next to tart to show real size

Keep in freezer until ready to serve, cut slices whilst still frozen.

Hey and don’t forget about Russell James’ great deal only available until tomorrow, so hurry and get in fast! Click here for more info!

The tart will begin to soften whilst as room temperature which is why it is important to slice whilst still frozen or partially frozen. Due to the nature of raw food quality and changeability,  you always need to taste test as you go along. Ensure when you are making the tart filling that you taste test whilst adding in lime juice and agave nectar as I prefer a more tart flavour, others prefer more sweet and you want the avocado taste masked completely. You want to make sure the mixture is creamy enough without being too wet, so if you add too much liquid add small amounts of xantham gum to thicken up (you don’t need much at all).

Mines been great, but I cannot shake this crazy cleaning nesting lady, that has an insatiable desire and need to clean house. I don’t think it’s just a pregnancy thing, I think it is also that just prior to me leaving to Australia in October, I dumped all my house belongings in boxes at my husbands house and they were waiting for me when I got home Christmas Day Needless to say we have double of most things so it’s been fun (NOT!) trying to work out what to part with.

Just to clear it up, we ‘couldn’t’ live together in Saudi until we were married, and whilst I was still employed by the same company, I had my own house – only 2 minutes away of course. But when I quit my flying career in September, I had to hand it back and move all my things into our new home. JOY!

So whilst we have been cleaning machines there have been plenty of these:

Green Smoothies. This one is Warming Ginger. Slurp.

This green smoothie is a good ole standby. Almond milk (home made of course <—click here for how to make it!), spinach, banana, 1T hemp powder, 1t spirulina powder and a touch of agave for the sweet tooth of my family.

And I also tested out Ames’ chia porridge on the husbano.

He though I had served him a plate of birdseed but didnt quite mind the flavour. I will win him over, you will see!

Now with all the crazy cleaning madness going on in my casa, I MISPLACED the lime tart recipe. Shocker. So I promise to come across it in the next few days. Promise As I have to make one anyway so I may even need to try again from scratch.

And lookey what I found in our compound commisary the other day….

Wowee, things are a changing I think! Although I am not familiar with the brand, it is better than nothing for this part of the world. Anyone reading this from my part of the world, this hemp protein powder can be found in the CAKE/BAKING aisle at the Dhahran commisary. Go figure.

Oh and one last thing. Remember I blogged about Sharni from Sharnigans doing her 5km run for the Afghan Women’s Writers Project? Well her run is tomorrow, and she still needs to raise some more moulah. Want to find out more? Click here! Go on, support her It’s for a fantastic cause. I pledged and WON this book care of Sharni and Aussie comic turned cook book writer, Jane Kennedy (random sidenote – I had her and her comic husband Rob Sitch in my cabin whilst working from Bangkok to London a couple of years back – NICEST couple!)

I am so keen to try it out in the near future But cleaning awaits

JUICING

Source

Juicing is a fantastic way to get a bucketload of nutrients as juicers essentially separate the juice from the fibre of the vegetable and the juicers do the chewing for us, which means the nutrients are delivered faster. Oxidisation is quick however, so it is recommended you drink juices as soon as you have made them or in the very least within a day of making. Different juicers offer different kinds of technology for handling different fruit and vegetables. Most of the cheaper supermarket brands (and some of the more expensive like a Breville) are centrifugal which means they spin the pulp very fast, but there are claims that it oxidises the juice much quicker by heating it which damages delicate enzymes.

Breville Juicer – Centrifrugal (Source)

A masticating juicer like a Champion (the juicer I have) or a Green Star, uses a slower motor and is believed it can enable the release of more minerals from hard fibres and keeps more enzymes intact.

Champion Juicer – Masticater (Source)

Juicing tends to speed up cleansing and detox reactions much quicker than smoothies and it is believed that juice which still has some pulp in it, may be more taxing on the digestive system than properly chewing fruits and vegetables, due to the lack of salivation that is produced with proper mastication.

All in all though, my thoughts are any juicer is better than none because when was the last time you sat down to eat a bunch of apples, some carrots, a plate of spinach and some kiwi fruit? Sometimes it is just much easier to juice all of these up and drink the glass to get the goodness.

Juicing is ideal when you are ill, as the nutrients are more condensed and there is no no time wasted in digestion. However if you are juicing and consuming too many sweet fruits,  (even beets and carrots) you can put significant stress on your blood sugar and insulin levels resulting in diabetes or other complications.

BLENDING

Blended foods such as green smoothies, blended salads and raw soups, are digested much easier than solid foods, as it destroys the cell walls of the fruits and vegetables, making the nutrients more available to our body but not as efficiently as juice. Smoothies are much heavier so can keep you fuller for longer and have been known to take away cravings for sweet sugary processed foods. Whenever I feel like a craving for something ‘naughty’ I make myself a green smoothie and it tends to be satiated immediately. I even take my Tribest Personal Blender on the road!

It is thought that blending fruits especially, rather than juicing, with the fibre kept more intact, allows your body to regulate the pace at which the sugars are released into your bloodstream.

Don’t forget, even though you sip your smoothies, DON’T chug them, and DO chew them. The reason for chewing (which seems absurd as you have blended your food into a drink for sipping) is it makes the smoothie even easier to be digested, especially for those who believe Green Smoothies make them bloat up. Chewing your smoothie until it is warm and begins to taste sweeter in your mouth, means that you are producing saliva which will lubricate the sugars and help them to break down in your stomach even better, hence eliminating any bloating feeling you may suffer. Plus it will ensure you don’t suffer any gas 

THE VERDICT:
Whether you choose to blend or juice your fruit and vegetables consider one thing, try and ensure the majority of what you do blend or juice is vegetable, with perhaps some sweet fruit added for flavour or sweetness.

Also I do tend to blend more than I juice, purely due to the effort factor. My blender is way easier to clean (both my travel blender and my Vitamix), I don’t need to cut my fruit and vegetables into as smaller chunks and it just seems more effortless than the juicer. Ideally I’d like to drink more juice, so I’d like to alternate my juicing with my smoothies, but smoothies just always seem to win out.

You can find some of my favourite recipes here. Do you have any favourites you’d wish to share?