Making life easier

Tonight I made dinner for everyone in about 10 minutes. Half of it was raw and all of it was vegan.  More gratifyingly every bit was eaten and was loved.

This post falls into one of those top tips for eating well and staying healthy whilst still having a life.

I really am amazed at how many people seem to resent spending anytime in the kitchen preparing food or those that think that raw food is time consuming and difficult in comparison to cooking.

The key to doing anything well and efficiently is preparation and flexibility. Oh and you have to care. If you don’t care then it is really hard to motivate yourself to do anything. If you do care, if you are into eating yummy things and feeling great then it is really easy to take a few steps towards making raw food fast food.

Our dinner was Roast Vegetable soup with Raw Pizza bread.

Now clearly the roast vegetable soup was cooked, in fact it was cooked weeks ago. The roast veges were planned leftovers from a huge vegetarian roast that included fennel and loads of sweet potatoes and pumpkin. They went straight from the table to the blender, were joined by a bunch of fragrant basil and then into the freezer.Done. Ready to be a meal in a minute.

The raw pizza bread was assembled in 5 minutes from standard staples I have in my fridge.

I keep a thick raw marinara sauce in the fridge always- I cant imagine not always having some on hand. It takes 10 minutes to make in the blender and you can use it in vegetable pasta, lasagne, as a dip, dressing or spread or as a base for soup.  It is easy to tweak flavours with chilli or other spices.

I also always have a raw basil pesto and a nut cheese. They keep well, they take no time at all to make in the blender and you can eat them with anything.

Tonights pizza base was Kamut essene bread and although it wasnt exactly like junk food pizza none of us expect it to be like that. Given that junk food pizza bears no relation to proper Italian pizza or real food for that matter I hardly think it is something I want to emulate anyway. We buy our essene bread from the local healthfood shop and try to buy different grains each week or two.

I smothered the essene bread in marinara sauce, basil pesto, tiny pieces of tomato and onion and a finely pureed nut cheese.

I grilled them just to warm them as it is the middle of winter here and served them on the side of the fennel and roast vegetable soup.

The whole thing was a 10 minute job of assembling and warming and completely delicious.

Things you care about are easy to prioritise, things you value you will find time for. If you say you would love to (fill in the blank) but there isn’t enough time then you really dont value it. Everything you ARE doing, ARE finding time for mean more to you.  That can be challenging for some people to hear- they will protest that they really do want to exercise/ eat good food/ meditate/ what ever it is,  but the truth is it just doesnt mean enough. Until it does. Your life depends on it.

Rejuvelac

For the lovely Renee I promised to put up a recipe for Rejuvelac.

Rejuvelac is made from fermented grain and has amazing probiotic properties. Rejuvelac is also rich in protein, carbon hydrates, dextrose, phosphates, saccharin, lactic bacteria, saccharin yeast and other stuff. Thanks to the fermenting process, Rejuvelac enhances digestion. It also features high levels of Vitamins B, C, and E, as well as enzymes. Vitamin E is good for your youthful good looks ahhh, now you’re interested.

You can sprout rejuvelac from various things but here is a recipe for rye berry rejuvelac.

I got some lovely biodynamic rye from my local healthfood shop, about $15 for a huge bag that I will be distributing amongst my friends. Note to all- co op your weirder ingredients, get good prices and make new friends…

Recipe:

3/4 cup of dry rye berries/grain

filtered water for soaking

Method:

Soak the rye in water for 12 hours.

Drain and discard water.

Rinse grain and sit in a sprouting jar at a 45 degree angle to sprout for 24-36 hours, rinsing at least twice a day.

The sprouts should have tails of 1-3mm long.

Add 6 cups of water to your sprouts, cover with a loose cloth and leave. Let the rejuvelac ferment for 48 hours in a room temperature of 68-80 degrees F/20-26C. in low light. Ferment longer if a stronger rejuvelac is desired.

After two days of fermentation the rejuvelac should be done. Drain the liquid from the other stuff.

The liquid, your rejuvelac, will have a nice fermented aroma. At this point, taste it. It should taste slightly sour. If it tastes watery or bland, you have probably not had the room warm enough or there might not have been enough sprouted grains used. If it tastes bad then it may have spoiled. Rejuvelac may spoil if it is fermented too long. Don’t drink it if it isn’t fermented enough or if it has spoiled.

You can make a second batch by using the sprouts and repeating the add 6 cups of water step but this time just ferment for 24 hours. After that compost the grains.

Keep your rejuvelac in the fridge, it will keep for 4 days at least.

As well as drinking it, adding it to smoothies and generally replacing water in any recipe with it you can use rejuvelac as a starter for nut cheeses, essene breads and the like and you can make rejuvelac with wheat, quinoa, oats, barley, millet, buckwheat and cabbage.

ABC chocolate fudge

This fudge is divine and not what I started out to make.  It was supposed to be a chocolate nut butter of the healthy and yummy variety- it turned out to be a truffle like mix that can be cut into squares or scooped into truffles. It does of course make a great healthy kids snack. Read more

afternoon pick me up bliss balls

More great healthy kids snacks. These soft delicious bliss balls are packed with protein, super foods, EFAs and good fats.  They will get you through the 3 pm lull and you won’t be hungry again in half an hour  like some snacks. Read more

Guacamole

There are many variations on Gaucamole but however you like it Avocados are a great source of good fats, and antioxidants like vitamins E, C and selenium. Plus there are  non-nutrient antioxidants like carotenoids, phytochemicals and polyphenols. These substances aid in removing molecules that attack healthy cells in your body. I know, and they taste fantastic.

Your basic Guacamole

Mash ripe avocados add garlic, lime or lemon juice, salt and diced tomatoes. Season with pepper or chilli and fresh cilantro.

Use as a dip, spread, thin for a creamynutritious dressing and generally use everywhere.  Guacamole doesnt keep very well although the lemon and lime will slow the browning down, make it fresh. It only takes 5 minutes so what are you waiting for?

Winter fennel and orange salad

Here is a vitamin c rich salad for the winter when you can easily get fennel.  Slice it super thin on a mandolin slicer.

1 bunch curly kale
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil or hemp oil
3/4 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch nutmeg
1 cup thinly sliced fennel
1 cup orange, peeled, seeded & chopped
1 tablespoon fennel leaves, chopped

Prepare the kale by tearing out the harder stems toward the bottom of each leaf. Chop them into bite-size pieces and place in a large bowl.
Add the lemon juice, olive/hemp oil, orange zest, salt, and nutmeg. Mix these ingredients together with your hands giving them a bit of a massage to get the flavours going . Add the fennel, orange, and fennel leaves and toss to mix.

Nori rolls

Do you love nori rolls?  They are the nearly as quick as a sandwich and there are endless possibities for the fillings so they make great healthy kids snacks.

You can fill them with whatever you fancy, sometimes I like to stick with a reasonably Japanese style filling, sometimes I fill them with a creamy tahini coleslaw or raw hummus and finely processed cauliflower and fresh herbs. Read more

Raw Hummus

I love hummus on anything but mostly just slathered onto a bowl of finely cut cabbage  or on mung bean sprouts because they make quick filling no fuss salad/ lunch that keeps me going for ages. You can of course do as you please with your hummus.

How about serve as a dip with crunchy vegetables, flax seed crackers, olive oil and a fresh dukkah. Read more

things that make me happy

There are a list of things as long as my arm that make me happy… none of them are to do with consumer items and most are to do with Truth and Beauty.

I am re-reading Brave New World and it is scaring me all over again.  It had a profound influence on me in my teens and again it is reminding me again that the things that drive us and determine our world should be examined on a regular basis.

I am not interested in instant convenience at the price of my health. Not for me, not for my kids.

I am passionately interested in thinking for myself, defining my own reality and questioning the current wisdom around everything, especially food. Why are we fatter and sicker than we used to be? Why does cancer hit 1 in 3 people? Why the obesity epidemic?

My youngest girl and I went to a Chef supply store to check out their vegetable spiraliser.  What I left with, as well as a spiraliser was a renewed enthusiasm for taking time over food.

My daughter chose a couple of things- a ravioli maker was amongst them so that necessated the purchase of a few ingredients and she made her sister and herself ravioli for dinner.  Her sister remarked “isn’t that a lot of effort for one dinner”? Fair comment but the reply came quickly that it was fun. She is 6 and wants to be a chocolatier when she grows up.  I just love that she is making food from scratch and not watching the tv.  This is one of the little things that makes me happy. She said to me “can you hear the sound the cutter makes on the board when it goes right through the pasta”? These are the distinctions that excite me.  When you start noticing the little things, the sounds and smells, the textures and colours… god is in the detail.

Can you bring your child-like delight in the process to your food making. Can you marvel over how amazing carrot is if you turn it into a thousand long thin Angel Hair noodles? Can you be bothered to cut a radish into a rose because someone, even if it is only you will realise that time, effort and love went into dinner and somehow it actually makes the world… your world, a better more loving place.

Truth and beauty my friend… truth and beauty

little pots of chocolate

Sometimes you just need to eat chocolate. Whether it is to finish off a dinner party or because you just have to- no really there are times when you just need to eat chocolate and this is the perfect 5 minute recipe.

When you need a creamy dark dessert that can be tweeked to be more or less complex but essentially takes no time at all then this is it.

Dont be surprised if nobody believes it is raw Read more

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