Girl On Raw » Mexican http://girlonraw.com Girl On Raw Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:40:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 My ‘Real’ Mexico http://girlonraw.com/2010/05/my-real-mexico/ http://girlonraw.com/2010/05/my-real-mexico/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 09:41:32 +0000 Girlonraw http://girlonraw.com/?p=2249 In 2005, I left my comfortable life in Australia to move to Glasgow, Scotland. On my way, I went on a month long holiday to Hawaii, Los Angeles then to stay with my Aussie pals who were living in MEXICO. This is the inspiration behind my Holy Guacamole Dressing.

This was one of the most incredible vacations of my life. Not only did I have the most wonderful hosts (thank you so much to the Suarez and Cowell families for opening your home and your family) but I was able to see the ‘real’ Mexico and enjoyed every single moment.

The journey didn’t come without any drama of course, when I landed in Mexico City Airport to meet with my friend Dallas (who was from Australia but 15 years earlier had lived with the same host family as a student on exchange) I discovered I had missed my connecting flight to Tuxtla, with none until the following day and I had no way of contacting Dallas. At the time, all I could think of was a statistic that someone had told me without me verifying, was that someone was kidnapped everyone minute in Mexico City. I cried and begged the airline staff to put me on any flight that day, as people were expecting me, and I even pulled out the “I’m a flight attendant, put me in the jump seat, I don’t care”.

Eventually I found Dallas, and his fluent español put me at ease. And then we boarded our flight for Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Dallas with the pups Puppies! Piñatas at a local market in San Cristobal Markets San Cristobal Cantina time! The worm I ate Our guide at Tonina Mel & Me at Tonina Palenque Dallas grande piña colada Margarita and tortilla chips Aqua Azul Aqua Azul Too cute! Making Baileys balls for Christmas Christmas Eve Christmas Fun at the ranch The puppies daddy My favourite Mexican pasttime Horse at the ranch Dallas chillin The ranch Dallas and puppy Cooling down at the ranch Robyn & Dallas The biggest bull I ever met Mel feeding a calf The bull! Relaxing with the pups Blue heeler puppy Holy Guacamole Dressing

During my time in Mexico

  • I lived with the locals
  • made friends with 12 Australian blue heeler puppies,
  • I partied in San Cristobal and ate hot dogs from a street vendor in the early morn
  • bought dried bananas off local children at Agua Azul after swimming in the crystal blue waters
  • toured temple pyramids at Tonina and Palenque archaelogical sites
  • fell in love with the idea behind cantinas. Pay for your beer, get your food free :)
  • enjoyed a traditional large family Mexican Christmas, that included opening presents and feasting on Christmas Eve until midnight, followed by karaoke
  • a relaxing stay at the family ranch to recover from Christmas festivities.
  • met the biggest bull in the WORLD
  • enjoyed an evening horseback ride
  • ate a worm
  • had a snooze or 2 in a hammock
  • Took a truck drive out to the fields to gaze at the stars with my Mexican family and some wine.

Never did I have a meal I didn’t enjoy whilst in Mexico, and although Mexican was my favourite food prior to my visit, this was AUTHENTIC Mexican and usually made by the family’s housekeeper. Our main meal was usually around 4pm in the afternoon with a light supper around 10pm. Yep, everyday I looked forward to lunch :)

Holy Guacamole Dressing

1 avocado

1/3 cup of cilantro (coriander)

1/4 tea cumin

2 T lime juice

1/8 tea chilli powder

1 clove garlic

1/4 tea himilayan or sea salt

1/4 tea agave

3/4 cup water

Blend until smooth and pour on your favourite salad. I like romaine, corn, tomatoes, red peppers, cucumber and garnish with organic blue corn chips. It’s creamy and very decadent.

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Hidy ho peeps! How goes it in your part of the world?
For those of you just joining here, the Vegan Mofo III is to celebrate World Vegetarian Month and you can read more about it here. Each blog post I write for the month of October will have this banner (and so too will plenty of other Vegan and Vegan friendly blogs out there in the blogosphere)
I was up late last night for no exciting reason, so I slept in but made it out to hit the mall again with one of the crew to show him the sports store I scoped out on the weekend. But not before I could make myself a GREEN SMOOTHIE.
Cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, a lemon, 3 apples, 2 kiwis, 1 banana and a knob of ginger oooh and the spirulina. I drank some before I left and took a To Go mug in case I got snacky on my venture to the mall.
I was keen to pick up a Heart Rate Monitor and my co-pilot some pilates stuff for his wife. I lucked out and according to my dad (who runs a gym back in Oz) I got a SWEET deal.

I don’t know much about how it works etc yet but as I am getting more and more into my training, I am wanting to gauge how my performance is and whether I am under or over working. Should be interesting to see the results!!!

I also got a beginners Yoga set. I already have a mat at home and although I don’t consider myself a complete beginner, I really do need a bit more practice and this kit came with a block and straps so cool :)
So we are sitting on the bus heading home, and I pull out my super Green Monster, and yeah I got a few strange looks, but I didn’t care. I love it, it tastes good and gives me plenty of energy for my hard session at the gym tonight.
I headed off for a double session at the gym again – don’t you just love the afterglow following a workout? An hour of Body Pump tonight and 50 minutes of RPM/Spin directly afterwards. Yeah I was a mess but still felt so good to walk home in the light rain feeling fitter and stronger. I am getting addicted to this feeling! And the feeling of my jeans starting to fall off me :D
After a shower (of course) I headed down to the lounge for 1 of these
and decided after my hard work out a margarita and Mexican was in order AGAIN:
Margarita minus the salt thanks!
I just have a thing for Mexican….and had some news today that we have to leave sooner than we thought so now I am trying to cram so much in before we leave.
Dinner was at a different Mexican restaurant to last week and this time I had another tortilla basket with pumpkin, beans, mushrooms and marinated tofu, sorry you cannot it see it that great but it tasted good and had plenty of greens.

It was extra spicy and delicious but I still think I have to back to the other one before I leave to have their avocado salad…am sooo drooling for it.
We tried this delicious Tequila which came in a champagne glass as it is not for downing very quickly. I only had a tiny sip, but it really tasted good. Not cheap though we soon found out when we were washing the dishes after getting the bill ;)
Question time: one of my old work colleagues and friends from my banking days years ago sent me this question today.
Q – Hey Rob,

thought you might be able to help me. I need a pick me up in the mornings (that’s not caffiene LOL) and I thought you being the juice extradonaire, you might have a great recipe for a novice like me. I”m not a huge vege juice fan, but I am open to trying it. I need something quick to do – even prep the night before would help. for work, i’m out of the door at 7am!!


A – Well seriously you have come to the right place because I love the taste of coffee and used to use it to give me energy in the mornings and gym workouts also, but seriously I have not touched it in forever since I discovered GREEN smoothies. Kristen from Kristen’s Raw got me onto them over 2 years ago, and all it was at the time for me was one or two bananas, handful of spinach and water to taste blended up. Sounds gross for someone who has never mixed the two together however to be honest (and this is coming from a real foodie who doesn’t like feeling deprived of taste or pleasure) you don’t really taste the spinach. And the more you have it the more you can add. As you get more used to it, you can begin to experiment. Today my smoothie has cabbage, zucchini, apples, a lemon, cucumber, 2 kiwi’s and 4 dates blended with water (the dates are a GREAT way to sweeten it all up) but really you hardly taste the veggies and it a great way to get your daily amount of greens and vegetables, when otherwise you may not have had so much. I am still amazed with how energetic this liquid gold makes me feel. It is way more powerful than coffee and that is exactly what I used to say when I first got into it. Not much preparation is required (to be honest, I much prefer to blend things than juice as the clean up and prep time is much easier) but when I get home I will be cranking up the juicer for some veggie and fruit juice too :) Here is a GREAT link that my friend sent to me yesterday. A great way to get started and has some really interesting info: The Green Smoothie Challenge.
Hope this helps! Time for sleep. I have a big (fun) day planned tomorrow but very busy.
See you tomorrow :D
Edit: I just remembered that supplements in your Green Smoothie can be great energisers too. I really find spirulina powder makes for a nice green rich colour and I really think contributes to my higher energy due to it’s amazing power. Other additions could be flaxmeal, cacao powder, maca and rice protein. But I like to keep it simple so just starting out with fruit and veg is a GREAT start :)
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