How about this view right? From our chair lift less than 100m from our chalet.

Back in October, we began discussing the possibility of a snow holiday, as Pat has wanted to ski Lebanon or Iran for the past couple of years but the seasons are so short and the windows of opportunity just didn’t work in with our vacation slots.

Then when we decided to visit my home sick sister for Christmas in Paris, we thought why not check out the snow, as the world famous Alps were not too far away – well ok they were at least a 9 hour car ride from Paris, but still, it’s all relative.

Yep Manus gets a little hot in his baby carseat, so we strip him off and here he is on a quick toilet stop having a play with daddy.

Skiing in Scotland 2006

Me not being much of a skiier – I’d only tried it 3 times before in New Zealand’s North Island, Australia’s Perisher, and Scotland’s limited ski area, I wasn’t really that fussed, but Pat, was keen to try out his snowboarding skills. Well, he is a keen kiteboader and surfer so his talent translates well to the snowboard.

In the end, friends of ours, also from Saudi, got in on the idea, then at the last minute, my sister and her French husband decided to join us for a week of ski/snow/boarding action on the world famous slopes of Tignes les Brevieres.

As our holiday was planned very last minute, Pat did some finger surfing on the web and found the last place available for us to stay which slept 7 adults comfortably and included breakfast to our rooms each morning and a 3 course dinner wine included everytnight – just what you want after an exhausting day on the slopes – someone else to cook – they even offered different options for dietary requirements.

And some fun for Manus during the day  

What a luck out Chalet Chandons was. A budget conscious but not light on the service, British run establishment that offered long stays work for cheaper rent, so essentially the staff that looked after us, were also guests and usually fellow skiiers/boarders on the slopes. So after their work was done for the day they were free to hit the powder.

Even though we stayed in their other Chalet (Hattiers) it was a mere 8 minute walk to Chalet Chandon each night for dinner at 730pm where we were sat with other guests, most of whom were returning from years past.

The thing that amazed me about how this place was run, was that everyone seems to be so happy, hardworking, friendly and happy to help out. Also for a place that relies heavily on temporary seasonal staff, everything seemed to run like clockwork with the daily operations from the delivery of breakfast, cleaning of the rooms, to even the occasional routine verandah sweeping after heavy snowfall (we had 2 days of snowfall and the rest of the days were sunshine!)

So back to my virus. Since leaving Saudi the week prior, all 3 of us had been fighting off sniffles and on arrival to Paris, it turned into chesty coughs (we put it down to the travel). Then on the day we departed for the Alps, I had a slight fever, and on arrival to the snow after the 9 hour car journey, I had a crazy fever, and my aches were keeping me in bed with 3 bed covers on!! Manus survived with just a chesty cough and Pat has only started to feel the aches and pains now, but after a quick visit to the medical centre in neighbouring ski resort Val d’Isere, it was determined I had a virus and was prescribed saline solution for my nose and panadol (which I was taking already). Manus was over the worst of it, and I thought Pat has survived it as he was hitting the slopes hard from day one, whilst I stayed in bed. Will no appetite and no energy, I was relegated to watching from our chalet window until day 4! But then I made up for it!

We were a little anxious to see how a 9 month old would cope in the snow, and how much fun it would be for any of us, but rugged up right in a snow suit and thermals, he really enjoyed playing in the powder.

If you are interested in where we stayed in Tignes, check out Chalet Chandon here and chat to Nicky or Kat and don’t forget to tell them that I sent you! They were fabulous with us, and Kat even had a little boy around the same age as Manus .

Our snow gang!

I’ll be back onto the raw posts next week, I’ve got plenty in store for you in 2012!

Our heads are a little sore over here, we had a farewell party to go to and stayed out a little later than expected, but whilst at the party I received an awesome email that I was so excited to share with you all just in time for this Fab Friday giveaway!

Regular readers of the blog will know how much I adore my Tribest Personal Blender, even as much as my lovely Vitamix. And here’s why:

• Great for travel. This baby has not only seen me through my days as a career flight attendant on the road, making sure I keep up with my green smoothies in my hotel room, but also has been on our vacation to Cuba, where green leafy veggies weren’t always available so we used fruit from the breakfast buffet blended with Vitamineral Green to keep us going through our daily salsa classes. It’s the perfect size to pack in your suitcase

• Ideal for grinding seeds and nuts for raw desserts or throwing flax into your smoothie.
• Salad dressings. Not only is this baby used every time we travel in our household (which is alot) but the Personal Blender comes in handy when making salad dressings which I do several times per week. The BPA containers with lids are also perfect for salad dressing storage.

• A new use! Baby Food! Since Baby M has begun eating solids, I’ve been using the blender to make his baby food (both cooked and raw) in batches and the power of the blades is able to provide silky smooth steamed vegetables and fruit puddings like banana and blueberries.

The Tribest Personal Blender comes with one Blending Blade,  one Grinding Blade, two 16 oz BPA Free Blending Containers, two 8 oz BPA Free Grinding Containers, one commuter sipping lid, three Regular Lids.

I even went ahead and purchased 2 more XL cups for on the road smoothie making which get plenty of use.

Lucky for you guys, you get the chance to own your own. Tribestlife have generously offered one lucky Girl on Raw reader their own Tribest Personal Blender 250 valued at $US65.25.

All you have to do is answer the following question is the below comments to go in the draw to win:

“What would be the first thing you would make with your Tribest Personal Blender?”

The giveaway will be open until Midnight GMT Monday, 19th Sept, where a winner will be drawn randomly and announced on the blog on the following Tuesday.

Bonus entries will be given when you tweet the following and return to the comments section to say you did!

“@girlonraw & @tribestlife are giving away a Personal Blender here http://bit.ly/njFJoD”

Entries are open world wide which means if you live in the US you will receive a 110v and if you live elsewhere you will receive a 220V (the one I have). Perfect.

If you are interested in what other wonderful healthy life products (ie you’ve got to check out their latest dehydrator the Sedona. I’ve not used it but it looks pretty snazzy!) TribestLife have to offer you can sign up for their catalogue by emailing service@tribest.com or check out their website here or check www.tribestlife.com

Good luck!

Love my Aussie Boost Juice juice – I had the Two & Five Juice oranges, apple, carrots,

piece of celery, beetroot & a Vita Booster

Weird! But kinda good :S

A whole aisle of organic foods like quinoa, nutritional yeast, baby food etc, despite the white processed sugar on the end of the aisle

Greens galore!

So much organic produce!!!

Aloe vera

Agar agar – my thinking: this is IRISH MOSS

Love dried chillies

Wish I knew what mushrooms/funghi these were…maybe a tonic tea could be made with them?

Regular readers will know…I LOVE coconuts! I could swim in their water and build a house of the coconut meat

De-husking the coco’s

Garden Mall

Petronas Towers they were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 until surpassed by Taipei 101, but remain the tallest twin buildings in the world – Source

Also really sad to hear of Amy Winehouse’s death, may her torment now be over.

I’m still here in Dubai, holed up with my gal, making and enjoying some really clean eats.

Yesterday I was a crazy lady and I headed over to the Mall of Emirates on a Saturday when everyone and their nanny was there! (my friend lives closer to Dubai Mall which I much prefer but thought I’d check out Mall of Emirates for a change of scenery – this is where the Ski Dubai indoor ski slope is at too!)

After a morning smoothie, I met another friend of mine for lunch at Chop Chop.

I ordered the same salad I had in Bahrain a couple of weeks ago, but this time it was twice the size for the same price. Alright!

Since my eats have been much cleaner I’ve not been eating as much, so for the rest of the day I munched on cherries and a couple of bananas and called it a day!

Today I woke up and made another smoothie. 

• Almond milk
• 2 frozen bananas
• 1/2 cup of blueberries
• 1 T coconut oil

Lunch was my favourite ever salad!

• Rocket (Arugula)
• Baby Spinach
• Shaved Fennel
• Ruby Grapefruit
• Lemon Love Dressing (available in my free ebook by signing up here)

Dinner was a part raw/part cooked easy to throw together pasta

Julienned zucchini ‘pasta’ RAW – used my mandoline as I didn’t pack my spirooli/spiraliser

Topped with a jar of spicy pasta sauce that I added fresh mushrooms and capsicum and heated on the cook top.

Time for Dessert!

Strawberries & Chocolate

Used the recipe from here but added a bit of water for a thinner consistency.

IT WAS A HIT!

I’ve got 3 more days here before hubs arrives then we are off to Kuala Lumpur, so I’m trying to think of more raw food delights to spoil my friend. Any suggestions?

Being Active: Today I had the chance to hit the gym for the first time in over a year and I felt like it was my birthday being able to get out and have some time for me. Baby M was having  a nap so my friend was happy to watch him whilst I hit the treadmill (the humidity here is shocking right now) and I did some weights and came back feeling a million dollars. I’m sure I’ll be feeling it tomorrow though. What’s your favourite way to get moving?

Hope you liked the first in the EASY series, coming at ya every Monday. Don’t forget to put down your feedback and/or experiences as we go along. We can keep each other motivated along the way.

Yesterday we packed up our lives for the next 5 weeks of being on the road.

Random sidenote: Love my new Ergo – so does my back!!!

First stop Dubai

As my dad says, “Considering the amount of time his mummy has spent on a plane you would expect excellent behaviour….”

I’m chilling with my girlfriend here in Dubai for a week, then hubs and I hit up Kuala Lumpur to visit some friends, then it’s onto Australia. So exciting.

Today I’m thinking of shopping for food supplies as I’ve brought some kitchen equipment (never leave home without it!) to raw-i-fy my friend. She has recently gone vegetarian so I’m excited to show her some dishes. I’ll share with you next post with what things I’ve brought on the road with me.

Right before I left Saudi, however, I made a very quick, easy and tasty cracker (by accident).

I’ve not worked with whole flax seeds before, I usually mill them into a flour/meal to make breads or throw into smoothies, but I’ve never been a big fan of their ‘flaxy’ taste in dehydrated products.

I was soaking the seeds to make into a more complex recipe then when I came back, I had realised they had turned into a jelly.

With a major hankering for cinnamon lately, I elected for a sweet cracker version.

They didn’t disappoint. I finished off the whole lot within hours of them being complete in the dehydrator.  I had to force myself to save a little for hubs to taste test. To which he exclaimed “You could use these for dips and stuff!”. Totally!

Try to always use use golden flax (brown tastes nasty) and it’s been noted not to consume flax if pregnant or breastfeeding (doh for me! Only just realised this AFTER I had it). Apparently flaxseed can act very similarly to the hormone oestrogen however there is no known clinical studies on the risk to pregnancy.

Oh and warning, eating too much of this stuff may make you F-A-R-T

Easy Flax Crackers

(makes one dehydrator tray)

1/3 cup golden flaxseeds

1 cup of water

add ins (cinnamon, maple syrup, sea salt, cumin, curry, garlic, herbs etc)

Place flaxseeds in a large bowl and cover with water for 4 hours.

The water will become like jelly.  Decide on add ins. This time I chose 3 T maple syrup, 1/2 tsp sea salt and lotsa cinnamon.  Mix thoroughly.

Spread mixture on paraflexx sheet to about 3-5mm thickness and dehydrate for 2 hours on 140′ then 8 hours for 110′. If you don’t own a dehydrator, use greaseproof paper on a shallow baking tray and bake on lowest heat setting with door open til they are crunchy.

I didn’t score mine so when they were crispy I simply broke them up into irregular pieces.

Then EAT!!!

Maybe I’ll have to come up with some easy raw dips to make for a savoury version? Any ideas?

I worked on a low cost airline, prestige and also VVIP – that’s Very VERY Important Person aircraft.

Now I’m a mum, I’ve been able to experience the other side as a traveling mum.

Having had a background in career flying before, it’s given me a little background as to how to be prepared so here’s a few tips I’ve employed for my journey of traveling with an infant.

1 when booking your ticket, see if you can pre-allocate your seat with the bulkhead/bassinet seats. Some airlines will overbook these seats so you could end up with your infant traveling on your lap the whole journey rather than having a travel cot/bassinet available to you.
2 ask for an infant seat belt if you are traveling with a child under 3. Some airlines won’t give them unless requested, and some countries don’t even use them!
3 try to feed your baby on take off and landing (bottle or breast). Babies don’t usually have the ability to equalize their ears like we can. Sucking will help ease the discomfort for them
4 pack a sling. Some airlines will allow you to take their pusher/pram right up to the aircraft (or provide you with one complimentary ie Emirates in Dubai) but especially if you are traveling alone, you will need you hands free at some point ie to pull out your passports etc.
5 ensure you have adequate supplies packed in your diaper/nappy bag and include a change of clothes for you and baby. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll understand – explosions happen at any time onto them AND you
6 anticipate baby’s needs. Try not to let the grumbles turn into a full cry (ie try to feed/change him before he’s all out screaming). Usually babies only cry because they cannot talk and tell you what they want. For mine and the passengers sanity around me, I’ll have his food and diapers close at hand!
7 when changing the diaper/nappy in the lavs on the plane, DON’T dipose of them in the toilet bins. Place them in a sick bag (always in the lavs) and hand to a crew member for disposal – preferably not the one eating their dinner EDIT: the Emirates flight attendant insisted I put the soiled nappy/diaper in the lav. 2 other airlines I worked for were the opposite.
8 wear a light scarf that can double as a cover up or pashmina with a cold aircraft or spills down the front of shirt commonplace
9 dress baby in warm clothes. A onesie is a great option as it’s VERY cold onboard
10 ask for help. Most people seeing a mum traveling on their own and are more than happy to lend a helping hand. Only just yesterday, the man traveling next to me offered to hold Baby M whilst I put my seat belt on.

Any others you think I’ve missed?

Hey bloggies

Just a quick note to let you know I’ll not be back to regular posting here til June 13th when I’ll be back from Dubai & Italy, I’m traveling on my own with an infant so I’m leaving the treasured MacBook behind for this guy.

My sister is getting married in Verona, so I’ll be there to give her away with Baby M as my date.

Just happened that hubs couldn’t escort us due to studies and mum and dad couldn’t make the last minute trip from Australia either.

We will all celebrate together anyway down the track I’m sure.

I’ll have plenty to share with you all when I return, including some recipes I’ve been playing with this week and a couple of book reviews and MORE giveaways for YOU

In the meantime, if you’re on Facebook or twitter and not following me yet, I’ll be posting more frequently there.

Bye from M & I

Even if he is ‘Sir Poopalot’ it’s a welcome distraction and I am loving being a mum to Manus Kai.

Also I want to again say thank you to EVERYONE who has poured out so much love to him and our family with the beautiful gifts, cards and well wishes. So many people to thank I just hope I don’t forget anyone – it’s gonna take months to get around to it!

I had all these brilliant guest posts lined up to share with you once I had Manus, but I am finding that being a mum to a newborn (even with grandma and grandpa’s help!) means even having time to have  a shower is a triumph! Any other mum’s in the house know what I am talking about???

Anyhoo, it’s clear that I am incapable of running a giveaway in a timely manner whilst having a bub, so I wanted to let you all know who the winner of the year subscription to Nüde-Food Magazine was…..

Congratulations Steph, could you please drop me an email at robyn@girlonraw.com with your postal address so we can get this sorted for you ASAP.

So as I mentioned I have some wonderful peeps doing some guest posting here til I get back on track, but I’ll be popping in as well over the coming weeks (my online shop should be up and running mid April wahoo!) so stay tuned for more news and I’ll pass you over to my long time pal, Natalie.

Natalie and I only met briefly a few years back through a mutual friend, and since then I’ve also worked alongside her brother at Virgin Blue and we’ve also maintained a virtual friendship through facebook and our blogs, (aren’t online friends wonderful?) and she offered to guest post for me when she travelled with her family to the US and Canada last year as a new raw foodie. Plus she’s also a little ahead of me in the mummy game so she’s been offering me wonderful advice.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bio

Natalie is a Melbourne, Australia based Registered Music Therapist who is currently learning lots about the raw food lifestyle. She has recently started her own blog, Learning To Raw, which can be found at www.learningtoraw.com and facebook here

Family Travelers Exploring Raw

I traveled to the US and Canada in late 2010 with my husband Ron and 10 month old daughter Ruby. As a beginner raw food explorer, I was keen to seek out some tasty raw treats for us while we were away. I’d like to share with you some of what we found…

Raw Snacks For On The Go

We did a fair bit of train travel (from New York to Toronto and back) so we stopped at a local Whole Foods Market in New York’s Union Square and picked up some yummy snacks for the train ride and beyond. While we were in Wholefoods we had a beautiful lunch from their salad bar. I tried kale for the first time, and found some exotic red bananas.

Here are some raw ‘ready snacks’ I found that traveled well. I haven’t found commercial raw snacks like this in any stores yet in Melbourne – but I’ll keep searching!

A live ‘granola’ bar. This was quite dry and chewy with a nutty and earthy flavour. Not my favourite but healthy and filling!

These raw chai spice macaroons were yum! Nice and sweet and soft but quite crumbly. Ruby loved them too!

Raw Gourmet For The Weary Traveler

We spent two wonderful weeks in Collingwood, a small town in Ontario, Canada where I lived for three years in the mid 2000’s. My little town has grown up so much since I left in 2006 – they even have a gourmet, organic, raw food café called Pure.

I was lucky enough to be able to get to Pure twice during my visit. The first time was for a green juice energy boost.

The second time was for a whole meal – yum! I had an awesome raw nachos dish (made with flax cracker ‘corn chips’) and a chocolate ‘mylk’ shake.

Ron had their ‘Gorilla Taco’ with nut meat, veggies and more served ‘gorilla style’ (I love that!) in a red cabbage leaf.

The food was all completely yum, the owners and staff awesome and the business itself is as environmentally friendly as possible.

Although I was very full from lunch, I had to try one of their Irish Moss Parfaits to take back to our B&B for later. I was very impressed with the creamy taste (I had the latte flavour) and texture.

Check it out! Even the take-out cup is compostable!

Go and say hi to the lovely folks at Pure if you’re ever in beautiful little Collingwood. Their website is www.purefoodbar.com

We had an awesome trip and an amazing adventure. Ron got to do a treetop walk and 150 foot high flying fox ride, and I got to spend half a day relaxing with a massage and soak at an outdoor Scandinavian spa – bliss! We were also very fortunate to be able to see His Holiness The Dalai Lama give a lecture in Toronto while we were there – he was inspirational. I highly recommend travel with a small person tagging along – it was a delight to see Ruby experience new people and places. Be sure to do some research before you go about healthy/raw places to eat and shop, and child friendly transport, shopping, restaurants and attractions.

Today for us started with a MASSIVE one of these:

Even better because I didn’t make it!

Gotta get every last drop!

If you want the recipe, check out my juice post over at High on Health here.

Then we hit the shops for some grocery stocking up for my Raw Food Basics Workshops that I’m conducting on Monday.

It’s always a lucky dip finding things here in Saudi Arabia, as sometimes you will find an awesome discovery, only to go back to the shops to find they either moved it or don’t stock it anymore.

Anyway at our local supermarket, Lulu, I found these:

Never seen this model before, but I reckon it would do the trip for making raw veggie pasta.

Mandolines (great for julienne slices and scalloping veggies for things like raw ravioli)

Yay for the hemp seeds! I found seeds! Go get them (in the USA/UK imports aisle) and hopefully they will keep ordering them if they see the turnover.

Hemp Protein Powder (in the organic/diet foods aisle)

ORGANIC – cereals, peanut butters, oats, dried fruits.

Then it was onto SACO the local hardware store and this is what I found:

A travel blender. Not sure of the model or how good it is, but looks similar to a magic bullet or my Tribest Personal Blender. Great for dressings, grinding seeds and nuts, puddings, and of course Green Smoothies at the office or whilst travelling. This model is a 220V and whilst most of Saudi operates on a 220V, our compound is mainly 110V (American standard) but with a transformer you could still make good use of this in your kitchen AND it’s small enough to pack on holiday with you like I wrote about on Vegan Backpacker here. I cannot speak on the performance of this particular model, but if you are local, it’s well worth the nosey.

What are some of the finds you get excited about in your region of the world?

According to Heather “What you probably already know is jet lag can be cured by taking melatonin.  What you may not know is tart cherries contain a significant amount of melatonin.” So if you are like my many flight attendant buddies or just suffer from jet lag every time you travel, you might get some use out of this smoothie. But it’s also delicious too!

This recipe I came up with is below:  It ends up having a frozen yoghurty consistency and it’s pretty decadent as well.

Cherry Coco Jetlag Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 Young Thai Coconut Water and Meat (view How To Open a Thai Coconut Video here)
• 1 ½ cups of Frozen Organic Cherries
• 2 Frozen Bananas
• Juice of 1 Lime
• 1 T of Agave/Maple Syrup
• Pinch of Salt

Blend all ingredients on high in a high-speed blender and serve with a cherry on top!

Serves 3 – 4

I’m outta here as I have my baby shower tomorrow (aren’t I lucky that I get to have 2! One in Australia and one here in Saudi) and preparations are underway for my Raw Basics Workshop on Monday night. Busy Busy.

What are your plans for this weekend?