Quick Fix: Every Occasion by Alyce Alexandra

It has been a while since I trawled through a cookbook. Blame it on a busy life with too many commitments, or perhaps I needed to coast for a while. But now I have the perfect book to refocus my attention.

 I am reading Quick Fix:Every Occasion by Alyce Alexandra with recipes specially designed for the Thermomix. I love the concept of a quick fix as it ties in so neatly with simplifying my life. This cookbook is sure to help as many recipes can be completed and on the table in less than 30 minutes.

First cab off the rank has been the Zucchini Cupcakes recipe which encouraged me to play with extra flavourings. All I bought was a zucchini as I had the remaining ingredients or easy replacements. A little too much kefir yoghurt in lieu of sour cream made the mix a little too moist but resulted in delicious cupcakes with the addition of pecans contributing to the richer flavour.

After the nice light taste of the zucchini cupcakes, next I played with the Spicy Pork Balls recipe. Despite careful weighing, I managed to add a titch too much liquid again which led to a fortuitous discovery. While the pork balls were in the oven, I cooked some leftover mix in a frying pan. I have made rissoles in the past with limited success because they never held their shape. But this recipe mix worked beautifully in the frying pan which means that I can now add rissoles as an option for my dinner. Eating the balls with a dipping sauce was a pleasure with the herbs and other condiments combining to produce a tasty treat.

I have often enjoyed some cooked quinoa with fruit for breakfast. So imagine my delight when I found the Quinoa Salad recipe and realised that I had all the ingredients on hand, with the slight adjustment of replacing parsley with young celery leaves. My taste test went down well with the addition of nuts and dried fruit providing bursts of flavour along with a refreshing tang from the mandarin segments.

The cookbook is a delight to browse through with recipes grouped in three different ways at the beginning of the book to assist with meal planning.  All angles are covered with special symbols used to highlight dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options. Clear instructions along with a photo opposite each recipe help make the decision to indulge. Alyce’s recipes provide a memorable taste sensation while combining familiar foods. This cookbook is a keeper.

For more details about Alyce's cookbook, visit the website: Alyce Alexandra Cookbooks

Raw and Beyond

I remain interested in raw food even though I probably only eat half of my food raw. There are some foods that are so much easier to digest in their cooked form, including potatoes and some of the crunchier vegetables like broccoli and cabbage.

Hence my interest when I found the book Raw & Beyond by Victoria Boutenko, Elaina Love and Chad Sarno. They initially discuss their experiences with raw food which led them to adopt a high raw approach to their meals by including some cooked foods.

I can understand how they have arrived at this position. In my brief foray into playing with raw gourmet recipes, I found some of the resulting creations were a little too strong or sweet for my taste buds.  While I enjoyed a subsequent dalliance with the 80/10/10 diet, feeling great after multiple high fruit meals, I found it difficult to continue with the diet although I still enjoy a moderate fruit intake.

So it has been fascinating to touch base with where these raw foodists are at now. Of particular interest has been the extensive range of recipes which support their high raw approach.

Early in the recipes section, I noticed instructions for making Merlot Pickled Onions which I prepared and have been enjoying over the last couple of days. Out of curiousity, I googled the recipe name and found it on this web site with the note that the recipe has been reprinted by permission of the publisher. This is appreciated as the recipe provides a simple approach to a task that can sometimes feel a little complex.

I am looking forward to checking through the rest of the recipes in this book in my search for little gems. Finding this book has sparked my interest in playing with alternative approaches to raw foods. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

Cool and Empty Thoughts

I need a happy thought, one that will send me back to sleep when I wake up in the early hours of the morning.

I have been on a mission for a number of years to work out the magic ingredients for a good night’s sleep. I thought that protein free dinners might have been the answer which I have subsequently proven wrong. I now believe that once we restrict coffee and alcohol to before 6pm then it is a matter of temperature control and de-stressing.

I once used to sleep much warmer than I needed to and sometimes woke up in a light sweat. Now I’m reading online that it is best to sleep in a slightly cool room. This surprises me and yet my experiences over the past few months are proving its validity.

Towards the end of May when I would have been sleeping snugly under a doona, I only needed a sheet and sometimes one or two blankets. Now in July, I only need a light doona and bedcover which is again in contrast with past practice.

When I settle in for the night I ensure that my bedding is appropriate for the weather. I wait for a few minutes to see whether I become too hot or cold and adjust accordingly.

So having cottoned on to the need for temperature control, I’m left with how to de-stress before retiring for the night.

If I go to bed with an active mind, then I experience vivid or unpleasant dreams. Watching comedies or something funny on TV before I prepare for bed generally leads to an easy entry to sleep. A smile on my face works wonders.

Having a happy thought to lull me back into slumber seems like a good idea but I find that if I attach to any thoughts after I wake then I’ll be awake for some time. In the past, I would get up and make myself a cup of tea, after which I was able to go back to sleep. I now believe that this helped mainly because my body cooled down while I was out of my bed.

I have been reading a book by Tenzin Palmo called “Reflections on a Mountain Lake”. Tenzin Palmo is a Western Buddhist nun who lived and meditated in a cave for twelve years. Her book was formed from a series of talks that she gave in the late 1990s and includes a discussion about the value of meditation and how it can help clear the mind.

Clearing the mind is exactly what I need to do when I wake during the night. I have always found meditating difficult.  However if I wake during the night I can generally clear the mind and go back to sleep. The only time that I might have some trouble is if I haven’t dealt with any stress I have been feeling, but I’m finding that most times I can ignore any thoughts that might arise and return to sleep.

So now I do three things to enhance my sleeping pattern. The first is to watch something funny before going to bed to lighten my mind, the second is to ensure that my bedding is just right and the third is to empty my mind if I wake during the night. My new regime is working well for me. I’m sleeping comfortably with a calm and happy mind. This is cool!

Raw Hummus

 

Hummus is always a pleasant addition to a nibble or a meal. This raw version based on a recipe from the book “12 Steps to Raw Foods” by Victoria Boutenko can make a nice side dish or stand as a meal on its own. It is deceptively simple to make and perfect as summer takes hold.

My first attempts to sprout chick peas always ended in failure. But then I was set straight at a demonstration by  Roar Food. Instead of rinsing twice a day as I have always done for other legumes, I needed to rinse at least 3 or 4 times a day. Just to be on the safe side, I rinse whenever I notice the jar on my sink.

Making the hummus is easy once the chick peas have been sprouted. Here is a Thermomix version of the recipe.

Recipe ingredients:
Chick peas sprouted for 1 to 2 days
Tomato
Basil and other available greens
Condiments to taste - garlic, salt, lemon juice

Instructions:

Blend all ingredients in the Thermomix on speed 4 for 15 to 30 seconds.

Food Matters

I’ve been travelling along comfortably for a while now, enjoying my breakfast of fruit with some cooked brown rice or quinoa, a large salad at lunch time with some cooked beans or chick peas, and a cooked dinner. I enjoy eating bananas as a snack, and have a vague memory of mentioning that I also enjoy a cappuccino – be it cow’s milk or alternatives such as rice or oat milk – just about every morning.

My Mum and I saw the movie Food, Inc. recently which reminded me of all the reasons that I avoid processed food, minimise the amount of animal protein in my meals, and endeavour to grow some greens and tomatoes to contribute to what I eat. There were parts of Food, Inc. that were somewhat confronting, but as I had previously watched the Fast Food Nation dvd which had similar themes, I knew what I was in for.

Then I noticed the Food Matters dvd at Wrays Organics and on the spur of the moment decided to buy it. I could be forgiven for expecting something similar to Food, Inc. or Fast Food Nation as both movies look at the food that we eat and what happens to that food before it reaches our plates.

But Food Matters is different in that it looks at how the food we eat affects our health. The dvd indicates this with the subtitle being a quote from Hippocrates: “Let thy Food be thy Medicine”. A significant part of the movie is taken up by discussing the importance of raw food, which I was more than happy to listen to after having spent a few months towards the end of last year romping through most of the recipes in Thermomix’s Rawlicious booklet.

I’ve had a lot of input since I first started playing with this little booklet. I’ve dabbled with what could be the standard raw food diet which includes nuts and seeds and even tried sprouting grains unsuccessfully. Then I moved on to the 80/10/10 diet with a high fruit focus and one meal each day including a large salad. Now I’m seeing members of my family following the Paleo diet which advocates a significant amount of animal protein along with fruit and vegetables (excluding root vegetables). I can see benefits in all these ways of eating and have started to incorporate more fish or organic meat into my diet to see if this makes any difference to my overall well-being.

I can’t help wondering why this isn’t easier. My grandmother lived till she was 90. She cooked most meals and had a few processed foods along the way in the form of shop-bought biscuits and cakes, but these foods didn’t form the major component of what she ate. It’s also possible that the ingredients in these products back when she was eating them might have been a bit more natural than what they are now.

The most significant advice I’ve heard from the FoodMatters dvd is to have 51% or more raw food at each meal. I’ve easily been doing this for my breakfast and lunch over the past six months, but have definitely failed the test at dinner time as I’ve recently become accustomed to eating my dinner cooked.

Actually, I should probably ask 51% of what! Is that 51% of the weight of the food I’m eating, or 51% of the calories? I could use this as a delaying tactic but have decided to go with the recommendation provided with the 80/10/10/diet which looks at the percentage of calories.

Most of what I have for dinner comes from the Food Connect box that I pick up each Tuesday. I believe that potatoes are the only item from Food Connect that can’t be eaten raw, so have good reason to think that it wouldn’t be that hard to meet this 51% criterion. It’s just my dinners that I need to reconsider and my cooked dinners that might be the hardest habit to change. The phrase “What to eat” has never been more pertinent.

Vegetable Lentil Soup

I bought a slow cooker some years ago and then promptly ordered two cookbooks from Amazon. One of the cookbooks has since been passed onto Lifeline for their next Book Fest while over time I have developed some preferences from the other.

Of course, having become a Thermomix advocate means that I’ll do my best to convert any recipes I find in a competitive cookbook to work even better by using the Thermomix. And that’s exactly what happened when I cooked a modified version of a recipe for Spicy Vegetable-Lentil Soup from the cookbook “America's Best Slow Cooker Recipes” which I worked out could no longer be obtained from Amazon but is still listed there. 

I started out thinking I’d make this lentil soup in the slow cooker, but as I perused the ingredients and instructions, I realised this was a perfect candidate for a Thermomix conversion. Naturally I replaced some ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. 

Recipe Ingredients:
half a cup of red lentils
1 inch ginger
1 clove garlic
chopped onion
½ tsp cumin seeds
Granny Smith apple peeled cored and diced(90g)
2 medium carrots peeled (370g – well maybe they were large!)
chinese bok choy chopped (50g).
½ tsp of Thermomix stock concentrate
½ teaspoon curry powder
600ml water

Instructions:

Wash the red lentils and set them aside.
Process the ginger and garlic for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Push the ginger and garlic down into the lower section of the bowl.
Add onion, cumin seeds, Granny Smith apple, carrots and chinese bok choy.
Process the mix for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Add stock concentrate, curry powder and water with the soaked red lentils.
Cook in the Thermomix for 20 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 1.
Blend the mix at speed 6 for 10 seconds.

Yummm... It’s been a while since I’ve made this soup and it has always been in the slow cooker. I previously blended the soup at a higher speed which gave it a creamy consistency. This time around, I’ve deliberately blended it at a lower speed so that the consistency of the lentils will show through. I really enjoyed eating this soup. It tasted delicious and I promptly went back for some more.

This made a lovely dinner after which I set a new resolution to troll through this cookbook to see if there are any other recipes that I’d like to convert to the Thermomix.

The Paleo Diet; Osteoporosis

Over the past few years, I’ve been reading about what we are meant to eat. The 80/10/10 Diet book first looks at what we would eat in nature without the use of fire, containers, tools or refrigeration and reaches the conclusion that we would be frugivores, living primarily on fruits with the addition of tender greens. Another book that I’ve had on my shelf for years is “The Yeast Connection” which mentions the “cave man diet” as a basic elimination diet that avoids any and every food eaten more than once a week.

An interesting take on the question of what we eat has been to compare us with our next closest living relatives being two chimpanzee species and gorillas, with the DNA of gorillas being 98% to 99% identical to that of a human. After writing the international bestseller “Easy Way to Stop Smoking”, Allen Carr later followed up with his book “Easyweigh to Lose Weight” in which he considers what wild animals including gorillas eat.

Now I’m reading the book “The Paleo Diet” by Loren Cordain which looks at what our Stone Age ancestors ate. The book recommends eating lean meats and fish, fresh fruits and non-starchy vegetables. I like the fruit and vegetable focus of the diet, particularly considering my interest in the 80/10/10 diet which has a high fruit and green salad focus.

I’ve only just started reading this book and already I’ve found information relevant to me. There’s a helpful discussion on osteoporosis. It seems that one of the greatest benefits of fruit and vegetables is their ability to slow or prevent osteoporosis. A group of scientists found that the people who ate the most fruits and vegetables had the greatest bone mineral densities and the strongest bones. This is good news for me as I’m currently eating lots of fruit and vegetables which will help my bones after being diagnosed with marginal osteoporosis in recent years.

The author then makes the point that it is not only how much calcium we take in that is important, but also about how much calcium we excrete. If we take in a low amount of calcium while excreting a low amount of calcium then it is possible that we will be in what is called “calcium balance”. But if we load up on foods or medications high in calcium but lose more calcium than we gain, then we will fall out of calcium balance. From what I’ve heard on a number of occasions, the more acidic our diet is, the more calcium we’ll lose from our bones in order to balance our body.

I can see good points in the Paleo diet, particularly with the focus on vegetables and fruit. But I can’t help wondering about the sustainability of a diet that includes a significant amount of lean meats and fish. Plus overall I feel much more comfortable focusing on fruits and vegetables with a small serving each day of brown rice or quinoa with my breakfast along with some chick peas with my salad while eating an egg or some fish perhaps once or twice a week.

I’m so glad that I continue to examine alternative ways of eating as all of this input helps to finetune how I’ll structure my meals into the future. However I suspect this is an ongoing journey that I’ll be on for a long time to come.

Miracle wrinkle fix?

I know I’m only just over 50, but I have noticed a few wrinkles that seem to be settling too comfortably on my face. If I pull the skin surrounding my nose and mouth back towards my ears, I can see how cosmetic surgery came about. But I made a decision a while back that I wouldn’t do any unnecessary surgery, so a few nips and tucks around my facial orifices or on my forehead are out of the question.

Under normal circumstances I would decide to be comfortable with who I am no matter what. But the face is the piece of us first presented to others around us, and I suppose I’m the same as everyone else in wanting to present the best me possible, at least most of the time.

So I dabbled by rubbing Nui coconut oil into the questionable parts and when that wasn’t helping used moisturiser gifted by a friend. Application of the coconut oil seemed to soften one particularly deep-set wrinkle while the others seemed to be sitting on the sidelines watching. The moisturiser made incremental improvement.

I’ve played with various topics over the years including aromatherapy and growing herbs, so I have a few books on these topics in my bookshelves. When I flicked through “Fragrant Pharmacy” late last year, I found a reference to pawpaw being used as a facial mask. So whenever I ate pawpaw, I rubbed the inside flesh of a piece of pawpaw skin all over my face. It felt adequate as a face mask, but results didn’t eventuate.

Last week I flicked through the first edition of “The Herb Book” written by John Lust in 1974 and found a reference suggesting that “Egg-white mask, used as is or beaten, tightens and tones skin”...

Whenever I’ve cracked an egg throughout the past week, I’ve rubbed any remaining egg white onto my face. The first sensation is that my face feels tight which lasts for a little while and then disappears when I smile or move my face. I don’t mind the tight sensation disappearing as I’d rather my face be able to do what it does naturally. But what I’m noticing is that there are small changes in the wrinkles I’m concerned about.

I know I’m not the first one to notice the benefits of egg white. I’ve googled “egg white face mask” and have found a site supporting its use as a facial mask with some people suggesting that lemon juice or honey be added to the mix. A second web site supports the use of egg whites as a face mask while commenting that its use for tightening the skin provides a temporary fix. Even so, the slight changes I see when I use it are enough for me to continue with my experiment.

Now if I can just remember to use the remaining egg white or pawpaw skin on my face every time I have either at hand, then that truly would be a miracle!

Sleeping Patterns; Food Enzymes

As I was still emptying my fridge of 80/10/10 non-compliant foods, I decided to conduct an experiment. With a tin of sustainably fished tuna and another of similarly fished salmon, I wanted to know if eating this fish might affect my sleep.

I decided to conduct this experiment after I had enjoyed the best sleep that I’ve had for I can’t remember how long – from 10.30pm to 6.30am where I stirred briefly but went straight back to sleep – which just happened to be the night following my last post.

The next day I ate similar food to what I had posted including some quinoa for breakfast and a cappuccino, except that my night-time salad comprised lettuce and tomatoes from my Food Connect box along with the tin of tuna. I had a fitful night’s sleep waking just after midnight and again at regular intervals after that.

The following day I ate similar food including the quinoa for breakfast and the cappuccino, but this time my night-time salad included some extra ingredients from my patio including basil, mint and parsley along with the tin of salmon. And I had a similar night’s sleep waking just after midnight and a few times afterwards.

To be fair, in the past I always enjoyed a half or a third of such tins on a meal, so perhaps what I ate each dinner was really too much for my system. But what I ate was no more than what I would have eaten if I had gone out for dinner.

Anyway, the following day I ate again in a similar way but with no fish at dinner time. My sleeping pattern that night was from 10.30pm to 4.30am and then 5.30am to 6.30am, and since then I have enjoyed a couple of nights sleep going through to 6.30am – but only after days with no animal protein. So I’m reaching the position that eating fish at night-time might affect my sleep that night. But I still need to check how eating fish earlier in the day might affect me. 

The timing of meals and eating has become another item to investigate. I have read on the internet that it’s best to finish eating by 7pm at night, but there are some people who finish by 2pm in the afternoon. As I trawl the web right now, I’m reading that 5pm is a good time too. 

I rather like the idea of finishing eating earlier in the day. I understand the concept of food needing time to move through the stomach and also that we need to finish eating at least a few hours before bedtime. So I’m working towards making my last meal for the day as early as possible and in the meantime ensure that it is earlier than 7pm.

This afternoon I’ll be collecting two boxes from Food Connect – a Family Fruit box along with a Mini Mixed box. My first order from Food Connect was the Mini Mixed box which was enough for me at the time. Since I’m now predominantly on the 80/10/10 program with its fruit focus, I believe I can handle both boxes but will use up some of the vegetables in the mixed box by making soup for my Mum. However I do wonder whether eating all this fruit is sustainable. If we all decided we wanted to eat this way then I’m sure the farmers wouldn’t be able to cope, or perhaps over time their focus would move away from other crops onto fruit. So I am mulling about how I’ll proceed into the future.

Just to make things more complicated, I’ve become fascinated with Food Enzymes. As I keep trawling the internet and the local library for information on raw food, the word “enzymes” keeps appearing, and finally I’ve found a fascinating book that can explain it all to me.

"Food enzymes for health and longevity" by Edward Howell, published in 1994 and based on a book by the same author first published in 1946, is recognised as a classic and provides ample evidence of how important the enzymes are that we are either endowed with at birth or that we assimilate when we eat raw food or take enzyme tablets.

The part that I’ve appreciated reading the most is that eating raw food is very helpful to us because after we’ve eaten some raw food the enzymes are still intact in the food and help to predigest it, thus leaving our body’s enzymes free to do other important work. However cooking food at a significant temperature destroys the food’s enzymes.

I’ve been reading the book while helping to see my Mum through withdrawal symptoms from the heavy duty drugs that she has been on for shingles. Note to self: in the future, if I am experiencing significant pain and believe I can handle the pain, don’t take heavy duty drugs as withdrawal from them can be challenging. 

My Mum went through a fasting phase because she didn’t feel like eating anything, and then she started feeling so nauseous that she needed to go into hospital. It just so happens that a section in the Food Enzymes book explains what she might have been going through. 

It seems that most people who fast go through what could be called a healing crisis where they feel nausea and vomiting. Because we eat so much cooked food, the enzymes in our bodies spend most of their time helping to digest the food we eat. When we fast, the body’s enzymes can now work on healing our body by repairing and removing diseased tissues through the various elimination means.

The book appears to me to be more oriented to medical practitioners as it discusses research conducted in the same or similar fields. However, there are sections at the beginning and end including two interview dialogues along with a summary of the salient points that helps to explain the reasoning in the book. So I’m very pleased that I borrowed the book from the library.

However it didn’t give me the definitive guide for a healthy way of eating that I’m looking for, despite being very happy on the 80/10/10 diet program, as the main recommendation for people on cooked food seems to be taking enzyme capsules. So I’ll continue trolling the web to see what other ideas might come up about what appears to be a very important topic. 

From week to week, I never quite know what little snippets of information might catch my attention and influence what and how I eat. I feel like I’m on a treasure hunt, with good health as the prize.

To be 80/10/10 or not...

Have you ever seen something that you know is really good and would provide wonderful benefits but when you looked at it some more you wonder whether it’s the best fit for you…

I’m starting to feel that way about the 80/10/10 diet. Actually, I feel funny when I write the word “diet” because this feels more like a lifestyle than a diet. While listening to the Raw Healing Patch radio show on Blog Talk Radio, I also heard them mention the word “lifestyle” as well in relation to “80/10/10”, so I’m not alone.

I’m not playing with this way of eating to lose weight as I’m slightly underweight and while some people who might be following the 80/10/10 diet aspire to be or are super-fit athletes, I don’t fit into that category either. I’ve just had a fascination with food for some time now.

What concerns me most is the amount of fruit that I need to buy to sustain this lifestyle option, and also the amount of fruit/vegetable waste going out through the general rubbish bin.

I’m eating 1.5 to 2 kgs of fruit a day along with a significant quantity of greens where I’ll blend a whole cos lettuce or some silverbeet leaves with other ingredients to make up a green juice. I’m buying extra fruit every second day if not daily just to keep myself going.

I’ve completely stymied my worm farm by feeding them way too much fruit and vegetable scraps that are taking them longer than a week to get through, so now I’m putting out my general rubbish bin much more often.

But on the positive side, I do feel really good when I am predominantly 80/10/10. Over the weekend I planted out 4 punnets of lettuce seedlings and then went back to get the same number of celery seedlings and didn’t have a problem with getting them out onto my patio in one day even though I needed to wash out 4 trays and the accompanying perlite pebbles. And then I weeded part of my backyard as well. I was a bit surprised at how much energy I had on the day.

It’s not that I can’t handle the way the diet works. I’ve always liked numbers so it’s no surprise that three weeks after I started dabbling with the 80/10/10 diet, I’m still logging my progress on the Nutridiary website.

Seven days out of the past ten, I’ve met the 80/10/10 requirement and on those days have been 79% raw or better. The remaining three days were weekend days when I was with family or friends, so perhaps this was no surprise also.

While I’m considering whether/how I’ll continue with the 80/10/10 diet, I’ve started reading another book. What feels like many years ago, I read about Food Combining and found the concept very interesting. I even had a food combining chart on my wall that my sister had given to me. But I never really took the principles on board.

Since the 80/10/10 book recommends following the food combining rules, I’ve borrowed the book “Food Combining for Health: Get Fit with Foods that Don't Fight” from the library and all of a sudden I’m starting to understand what it’s telling me, particularly since I’m going through it. This book helps to explain what happens when I break the rules, which I tend to do.

I really thought that I had given the chart away but I’ve just checked in my store room and it’s still there! This is great news as I suspect that I’ll end up with what I consider are the best bits of the 80/10/10 diet along with some concepts from the China Study book while ensuring that I follow food combining rules. This feels like I’m making it a little complex right now but I’m sure I’ll end up with something that suits me and my worm farm while being able to minimise how often my general rubbish bin goes out. I can’t wait!

The 80/10/10 Diet

I’ve almost finished reading the book “The 80/10/10 Diet” by Douglas Graham and have trialed the diet today by eating according to the 80% carbohydrate, 10% fat and 10% protein rule.

I like this way of eating. I’ve had a sweet tooth since I was a young child and I’m finding that I have no noticeable sweet cravings when I eat a significant amount of fruit. Who would have thought it would be so easy to fix that problem!

If there’s any downside it is the huge volume of food that needs to be eaten from fruit and vegetable groups in order to fulfill the 80% carbohydrate requirement. Fortunately, it makes it easier that foods that we call vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers are actually fruits so they and others like zucchini and squash can be eaten as often as preferred. Greens are also very important for their mineral content and I need to ensure that I have a significant amount of greens each day.

So here is what I’ve had today:-

Breakfast

5 prunes

300g pears with 105g bananas

Morning tea

Rice Milk Cappuccino

Lunch

190g pineapple, 75g tomato, 320g pears

Snack

100g bananas

Dinner

170g pineapple and 180g grapes

135g pineapple, 180g cos lettuce, 150g tomatoes and 150g capsicum

This amounts to over 2kg of food which is a phenomenal amount for me, however, I must remember that this volume is replacing the bread, cooked grains, beans and chick peas that I have been eating.

I have tallied all of this on the Nutridiary web site which tells me that that the foods that I have eaten today fall within the 80/10/10 guidelines, even including the rice milk cappuccino. However, drinking the cappuccino has meant that what I have eaten today hasn’t been entirely raw.

I do wonder how I’ll go eating this way into the longer term. This week I ordered a fruit box from Food Connect rather than a combined vegetable and fruit box, and I placed additional orders for some lettuce and tomatoes. Next week I’ll do the same again and also request some celery and cucumber. But what I receive from Food Connect won’t keep me going the whole week so either I’ll need to buy extras from organic food stores or else increase the size of the fruit box. There will be heaps more food scraps going into my worm farm and I’m wondering whether it will get swamped.

But overall I feel pretty good after a day of following the 80/10/10 diet. And being 91% raw – it’s a pity about the cappuccino! It will be interesting to see if I lose interest in this daily habit of cappuccinos as I continue playing with eating this way.

I’m having lunch with friends tomorrow and will aim to have a salad but won’t be too worried about whatever I end up eating. I still consider that I’m transitioning into this way of eating and even if I adopt it as my preferred eating regime there will always be times when I lapse. However from what I’m reading, my body will let me know what it thinks about the lapse, so perhaps it won’t happen too often.

New Season Ginger

In the past months I have experienced many new things including real ginger (as compared to the dried powder variety). But it seems not all gingers are the same. Food Connect kindly included some new season ginger and even more kindly mentioned in their newsletter that it needs to be kept in the fridge as it doesn’t have bark and so can dry out easily.

I have generally found real ginger to be quite strong and so haven’t finished a piece very quickly. But this new season ginger seems to be a bit more subtle and I’ve included some finely chopped ginger on both my lunch-time salad and my evening meal and ended up enjoying both. This isn’t at all like me as I have shied away from ginger in the past but now I seem to have found a variety that sits well with me. A web site suggests that for thousands of years, ginger has been used to aid digestion, nausea, menstrual cramps, and flu symptoms, and it's also traditionally been used to treat arthritis and heart conditions. I am really pleased about this as I’m concerned that my sore knuckles could be a precursor to arthritis.

In the same way, I’m pleased with the path that I’m on and what makes it even more comfortable is that I seem to be treading a path already taken by others, even though my path is happening much later…

In 2005, Steve Pavlina wrote about reading “The China Study” which at that time was one of the top 500 selling books at Amazon, with a 4.5 star rating. If I’m reading its current sales rank correctly then it is much lower in the list but still with its 4.5 star rating and it seems to have remained very topical as I have noticed this book mentioned often in blogs or articles that I’ve been reading lately.

One of his most telling statements was that when he ate a whole foods vegan diet (as opposed to a more junky vegan diet that includes refined or processed foods), he could eat as many calories as he wanted and not gain weight. I must remember that I can and most likely need to eat much more as I experiment with this way of eating.

Another interesting comment he made was that many people now recommend giving up dairy before giving up meat as dairy products are among the most unhealthy garbage you could possibly want to put in your body. I’m now 3 days into giving up dairy as I’m no longer drinking cow’s milk cappuccinos and it has been some time since I brought a carton of cow’s milk into my home. It’s too soon to know how well this is working out but I’ll have a better idea a little further down the track.

At the end of 2007, Steve announced he would kick off 2008 with a 30-day trial of eating a 100% raw vegan diet. He mentions his experiences with raw food diets in the past and also about reading books and listening to audio programs from long-term raw foodists, including Dr. Douglas Graham who has written “The 80/10/10 Diet” book. Steve's final post at the end of the 30-day trial made interesting reading.

It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one going through this process. Changing one’s eating habits can be challenging particularly when they emanate from deep-seated, long-term patterns. The best part is that trolling the web shows me that there are definite personal rewards for taking the time to work out what’s best for me.

Basil Pesto

I really enjoy getting my Food Connect box. With the vagaries of weather and other conditions on the farms, one can never be sure that the items in the box will match up with the list published on their web site. But even when it does, I still get surprised as I pull the goodies out.

Basil was on the list today and I was delighted when I saw the lovely big bunch even though I’ve been growing it on my patio over summer. You see, I’ve become so used to the cut-and-come-again approach that I’m always just cutting off leaves.

A few years back I planted basil and tomato in the same pot and then completely forgot that the basil was there. One day I noticed how prolifically it had grown but when I tried to make pesto in the Vita Mix that I had at the time, it just didn’t work. So I haven’t really bothered trying again until now.

This time around the Thermomix has helped me to produce a credible basil pesto based on a recipe from a brand new raw book I received today called “Raw Food Made Easy – for 1 or 2 people” by Jennifer Cornbleet. I didn’t have any pine nuts so I replaced it with sunflower seeds which didn’t break down as easily as the pine nuts would have. But I really enjoyed this pesto and was still licking my lips after I had washed the dishes.

I also received the book “The 80/10/10 Diet” by Dr. Douglas N. Graham and have checked to confirm my recollection that his book recommends a low-fat diet and weaning oneself off salt amongst other things including garlic. He very kindly includes an FAQ section on his website that explains his reasoning.

So three of the five ingredients of this pesto are not recommended which is really sad because it tastes so nice. I think that’s a big part of why we eat the way we do, as items like salt, garlic and oil merge together so well into an almost addictive taste. It will be interesting to see where I head as I read through the 80/10/10 book – or as some people call it, the 811 diet.

I believe I need to change what I’m doing as I have sore knuckles on my fingers and a ring that used to fit onto the middle finger has now been relegated to the index finger. This could be considered a precursor to arthritis which won’t happen to me as I’m quite happy to change what I’m doing if I need to.

I’ve decided that I’ll move towards the recommendation in the book “The China Study” to follow a whole food, low-fat, plant-based diet as a stepping stone to the 811 diet. A whole food diet excludes meat, poultry, dairy and eggs, so I am now having cappuccinos made from soy, rice or oat milk instead of cows’ milk. I still have some eggs in my fridge so once I’ve used them up then I won’t buy any more. This will only be difficult when I want to make muffins or bread but I have read about egg substitutes and will experiment with incorporating them.

In the meantime, I’ll take my time to read and consider what I’ll do about the 811 diet. The good part about all of this is that there is no timeline for change which means that I can feel my way along this path and enjoy the journey.

Dinner Options; Raw Zucchini and Corn Soup

So what does one eat for dinner... My standard response in the past would be a stir fry, steamed vegetables or soup. But now I’m looking at how I can become predominantly raw, as in 75% or more raw food most days as compared to the 50% plus raw I do at the moment.

So I’ve just found out that someone who eats 75% plus raw food is called a raw foodist. I’ve had a few labels in the past and I do give some thought to the label that might be assigned if I move in a particular direction. And I can say I am comfortable with a label of raw foodist if I meet the criteria.

I imagine that the easiest way to meet the criteria would be to start most meals from a perspective of it being a raw meal and then allow the occasional non-raw addition to the meal. Or snacks in between meals might be non-raw like the precious mini-muffins that I make for my Mum and myself.

So tonight following on from my success with the raw cabbage and apple soup, I have made some Raw Zucchini and Corn Soup.

Recipe Ingredients:
Chunks of zucchini
Niblets from half a corn cob
Small tomato
Small apple peeled and cored
Thin slice of onion
Dash or two of tamari
210g water

Instructions:
Add zucchini, corn, tomato, apple and onion (which amounted to 360g for me) into the Thermomix bowl.
Add tamari and water. Blend together for 30 seconds on speed 8.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top for aesthetic appeal.

I keep meaning to warm any raw soup I make to 37 degrees C which is acceptable under a raw food program. But I forget and then I find that I’ve really enjoyed the soup as is, which is exactly what happened again tonight. While the apple was the only common ingredient between tonight’s soup and the Cabbage and Apple Soup made the other night, the consistency of the two soups are very similar. I suspect that the types of vegetables used in both soups are very similar. There was a little bit left over after filling my bowl which I happily finished off.

So now I’m considering how I can continue replacing my standard dinner options of a stir fry, steamed vegetables or cooked soup. What I’ve come up with so far are salad, soup or a whole food such as a mango or some grapes.

It’s becoming clear to me now that raw soups are fairly easy and can be basically made up from whatever ingredients are available at the time - or should I say that raw soups are fairly easy to make in the Thermomix. I’d like to think that I can make up an appetising salad after a few years of including salad greens and tomatoes from my patios into my regular lunch-time salad. I’ve included the idea of a whole food or fruit because this idea was mooted by Victoria Boutenko in her book "12 Steps to Raw Foods".

It will be interesting to see what dinner options I’m actually using in a month or two’s time...

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup, Simplified Soup and Jam

My Mum isn’t well. She has overdone things for not the first time. After pulling out sliding wardrobe doors to put some new shelves inside, an annoying pain developed in her hip. Just to confuse matters, some blisters developed on her left foot which happened to be the same side as her hip pain. Perhaps something had bitten her on the foot while she was outside. As a result her foot was throbbing. She was able to move around her home on a pair of crutches, but even then her speed was snail’s pace.

In the past similar problems with her back have been easily fixed by her chiropractor. But after getting an all clear from a back x-ray and as the pain became unbearable, she finally agreed to visit the doctor. After a brief examination the diagnosis was shingles in her foot with referred pain moving up to her hip. Unfortunately the diagnosis came long after the 72 hour time frame within which anti-viral medications can be taken to help clear up the disease.

So my Mum went into hospital for just over a week and has now returned home. While she’s a little more mobile than she was, she is still dealing with the pain – particularly just after she’s been on her feet too long. She’s starting to hear this as a message to slow down.

One way I can help my Mum is to provide some meals and fortunately I have the Thermomix to help me. So I trolled through my recipe books and some blogs that I often visit and found the perfect comfort food – Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup a la Thermomixer.

This time around I have been very obedient and made it according to the recipe, well, with just one variation. I’ve made a note to self to not add any additional salt as I have used Thermomix Stock Concentrate with its strong salt content in lieu of the chicken stock. This soup tasted delicious, in fact enough for me to chow down a second small helping, and I’m sure my Mum will like it as well.

But I had a remaining dilemma. Last week I made some soup which Mum really enjoyed. I modified the pumpkin soup recipe from the everyday cookbook by replacing carrot with potato.

When she heard that I had some cabbage she decided that next she’d like some cabbage soup. So again I trolled through the books and blogs and found a recipe in the "Taste of Life" book by Julie Stafford for a cabbage casserole. Since I still wanted to make a soup, I borrowed the main ingredients of cabbage, onion, apples and potatoes and used them in a simplified version of the pumpkin soup recipe.

Simplified Soup Recipe Ingredients:
700g preferred vegies/fruit peeled and chopped ie cabbage, potatoes, apples
1 onion peeled and chopped
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp stock concentrate (full tbsp of concentrate makes the soup too salty for me)
500g water
pinch of sugar

Instructions:
Add onion and vegies/fruit into Thermomix and chop for 15 seconds on speed 7.
Add oil, stock concentrate, water and sugar and cook for 20 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 1.
Blend the mix for 15 to 20 seconds by increasing slowly from speed 1 to 9.

The resulting soup was an unusual consistency and equally unusual but very appealing taste. My Mum says she has made cabbage soup in the past so it will be interesting to hear her comments after she has tried it.

I’m going to keep trying different ingredients using this simple soup recipe. I have a feeling that when the different vegetables or fruits complement each other then the soup will work, which is why I borrowed this cabbage combination from an existing recipe.

I also use a similarly simplified jam recipe which has produced tomato, apple and now peach jam. To be honest, what I make is probably more like a sauce than a jam as I’m not concerned about whether the jam has set. I tend to put it onto my salads or waffles when I make them, so the consistency isn’t a major issue.

Simplified Jam Recipe Ingredients:
Equal quantities peeled/deseeded fruit and sugar

Instructions:
Weigh the fruit as it is placed into the Thermomix.
Puree the fruit for 30 seconds on speed 7.
After scraping down the sides, add an equal weight of sugar and then blend the mix for 10 seconds on speed 7.
Cook the mix for 40 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed soft.

After it has cooled, the jam goes into the freezer. Because I have used equal quantities of fruit and sugar I can take spoonfuls out of the container straight out of the freezer. So I never have any concerns about the jam going mouldy.

Making jam like this might not be to everyone’s liking, but it certainly works for me.

Comfort Food

I need comfort food – familiar meals – so I’ve just made some pumpkin soup in exactly the same way that I’ve made it in the past while leaving out the step of cooking it for 20 minutes. I had intended to warm the soup at 37 degrees Celsius – which the Thermomix very conveniently has as its first temperature setting – but I forgot to do that which is okay as my taste test has given it the thumbs up.

I was with my Mum over the weekend and she cooked pumpkin soup in her new Thermomix. So the taste and texture of the cooked soup is still relatively familiar. The Thermomix has done a good job of pureeing the raw soup and while raw soup will always have a different texture to the cooked equivalent, it tastes great.

I’m finding that I tend to focus on subtle flavours much more when I eat raw food compared to cooked food. I’m not into rich foods so I’m cautious with how much I add of any herbs, spices or root vegetables such as garlic and ginger.

It’s really helpful that I have 4 books about raw food on my coffee table right now. I’ve bought “12 Steps to Raw Foods” by Victoria Boutenko and “Rawsome” by Brigitte Mars, and I’ve borrowed “The Raw Food Gourmet” by Gabrielle Chavez and “The Power House Diet” by Leslie Kenton from the library, and of course have the Rawlicious recipe booklet. It’s a great opportunity to look at different suggestions for similar meals. One book suggests using orange juice instead of water while my sister sometimes adds a tomato to the pumpkin soup and I’ll try both of these options and even combine them to see how each turns out.