It's About To Start

Yep! I am going to be doing another 30 day challenge starting 1 APRIL 2010 which will hopefully put pay to any cooked and processed food cravings I still have.

I have been preparing flavoured water kefir, yep, flavoured water kefir, that is something I haven't done before, strawberry flavour is what I have double fermenting at the moment, I will be trying more flavours. I am going to be flavouring my Kombucha tea also. I am hoping to dramatically reduce or better still, cut out my coffee drinking. I am hoping to drink more coconut water, I will have to buy some cartons of coconut water in bulk.

I am going to dehydrate a lot of sweet foods tonight such as, banana crepes, flax crackers, cookies etc. I also have about 5 brown coconuts, so I will crack them open, clean them, shred them and dehydrate them so I have dehydrated coconut on hand ready to make other recipes with. We can't get the young Thai coconuts here in the UK but doing my brown coconuts this way enables me to be able to make the recipes such as the coconut cream pie from Cafe Gratitude...BRILLIANT! I made this about 3 weeks ago and it is YUMMY!

Tomorrow evening I will fill my dehydrator with savoury snacks such as savoury crackers, marinated and dehydrated onions and mushrooms, sweet onion bread, tortilla, corn tortilla chips, burgers, kale chips etc. I am also going to be making sauekraut.
A lot of these things can be frozen.
My aim is to NOT be caught out hungry and so I want lots of snacks on hand. I will of course be eating loads of fresh foods such as, fruit, salads, vege wraps, nori rolls etc. I am also going to make lots of different salad dressing and mock tuna, spreads, patés etc.
I am also going to sprout more. I have wheat grass growing at the moment and alfalfa seeds.
I will be starting some gardening and planting of veg this or next month. I bought some new large pots/tubs last year so I should do better this year at growing. This is my second year of growing my own veg so I can only get better at this this year....surely!!...teehee.

My failings have always been due to not being very well prepared, well, I should be well prepared with everything from the dehydrator by 1 April.

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Nice Day

Got up at my usual time this morning - 6.00am.

I decided to colour my hair this morning, so at 7.100am there I was with a dark brown colour all over my hair, I have gone slightly darker recently, one snag there though, it doesn't half show the grey roots more which look whiter with the darker hair.

At 11.00-ish am I decided to take a walk into town, I was looking for an angled spatula, a small icecream scoop and an Orange squeezer press type thing....NOTHING! None of the local shops had any of these things but I still came home with some new gadgets which are here:


















A cool Snap n Slice. This will be handy for those quick single items.

I then bought a:






UV Sterlizer, FAB for mattresses. I do vacuum my mattresses with the attachment and I like to occasionally steam them but we have a memory foam mattress topper on our bed and of course I don't want to steam that, so this UV Sterlizer should be good and just to know it has had some sort of cleaning, bacteria killing done on it. It is also good for the loo's etc but of course I will still clean with the detergents but to top up with extra bacteria killing will be good.

The weather has been quite nice today although it was drizzling this morning and it hasn't been very bright today. I'm sure the weather forcasters said it was going to be bright, sunny and warm all week except Thursday when it will rain but it has been virtually the opposite all week with rain and overcast all week, lets hope it is still the opposite and it is SUNNY tomorrow.
I have noticed the birds singing loads lately, I LOVE the sound of the birds singing, one of my favourite sounds.

I have had 2 lots of headache tablets today and I still have a noggin ache, hopefully it will be gone soon.

I should be back tomorrow or later if I have anything to report, must think about getting some gardening and seed planting done soon.

Mothers Day

Got a lovely suprise today. This afternoon we opened the front door and baby Michael, our Grandson was standing there clutching a gorgeous little teddy bear and card....SOOOooo CUTE!! I then looked at Ebby and Ellie and they too were standing holding cards and pressies for me for Mothers Day.....Awwwww, I should have took pics of them all.

I did remember to take pics of my GORGEOUS Mothers Day pressies.














The Teddy and the card on the right is from my Michael. Ellie and baby Michael made the little pink pot, and the Roses and the other cards are from all the kids....BEAUTIFUL!!

As I said yesterday my OH bought me the NEW and latest Cuisinart for Mothers Day.


























With a 20 year guarantee for peace of mind as well as so many great features, the Cuisinart Elite Food Processor is the answer to all your needs and wishes in the kitchen.
This luxury model comes with three different bowl sizes with SealTight technology, the new Cuisinart BladeLock System for effortless pouring and attachments made of the finest quality: dough blade, 2 x chopping/mixing blades, adjustable slicing disc and reversible shredding disc.
Features:
Cast metal multi-bowl food processor
Extremely versatile with multi-bowl options (3.8L, 3L, 1L) for more efficient processing
Commercial grade induction motor, automatically adjusts power to maintain optimum processing speed
Safe to use BladeLock system, locks blade in place for effortless pouring
Features Cuisinart exclusive SealTight technology, keeping processed foods and liquids within the bowl that is being used
Adjustable slicing disc lets you slice ingredients from 1mm through to 6mm
Reversible shredding disc for fine or medium results
Large and small chopping/mixing blades and dough blade tackle all of your food processing needs

Specification:
Finish: Die-cast metal
Product Weight: 9 KG
Motor: 1500
Watts Voltage: 230
Volts Frequency: 50 Hz
Packaging Dimensions: H: 403 mm W: 330 mm D: 521 mm
Product Dimensions: H: 440 mm W: 190 mm D: 260 mm

I am so spoilt....teehee such fun.

I whipped over my floors this morning with my NEW little sweeper and it certainly has brought the pile up on the carpet floors and it of course whizzed over the kitchen, bathroom and downstairs loo floor, so it is going to be great for in between my daily morning vacuuming and cleaning.

The sun is shinning today and it is fairly warm-ish, Summer is coming!!!
My OH has cut the grasses and he is now washing the car, he wont let me help because it is Mothers Day.......awwwe he is a gem!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL THE MAMMIES OUT THERE!!! XX

Back tomorrow

What A Day!!

I was up at 5.30am, showered, hair and makeup done and in Asda at 7.30am......2 hours to get myself sorted I hear you say......errrrm - YEAH! And the boys and OH....teehee
Got home about 8.45am, job done! ANNND before all the pushing and shoving from the bad mannered folk that fill the place at weekends, yep! I hate shopping so much at weekends that I would much rather be up and out during the early hours.

When we got back from Asda my OH took Adam to 'Grainger Games' store for a couple of games we said we would get him, another job done.
We, well, I wanted to go to Costco, we go every month, so off we went. We got into Costco about 10.00am where I bought a nifty little rechargeable floor sweeper which will be great for when the boys make crumbs on the floor and also for them to keep on top of their bedroom carpet, teach them early so when they grow up they too will know that they must keep their own homes/spaces clean. My Michael is like that now, he hates mess and cleans up when there is a mess. I teach my boys to clean up after them and to keep on top of their own space.
Whilst in Costco I also bought LOADS of gorgeous, healthy, yummy fresh produce i.e. Medjool Dates, Tomatoes, Grapes, Blueberries, Courgettes, Aubergines, Mushrooms etc etc.

Home about 1.30pm WOW! Nearly all done until all of a sudden my OH decided to ring around stores in Newcastle to find me the Cuisinart Elite for me for mothers day.....Awwww! Fenwicks in Newcastle have it AND with 10% off for now, SOoo! Off to Newcastle we went. During attempting to get parked in the spiral carpark our car started to overheat......AAARRRGGHHH! Panic stations but then I panic about anything at a minutes notice. My OH as usual stays so calm, just as well because I panic enough for both of us and more.....teehee It is manic trying to get parked in Newcastle at weekends and so many folk were just going round and round looking for spaces, the same cars kept passing me while I was waiting for my OH to pop into Fenwicks to buy me my NEW Cuisinart. Oh! Did you know that Sarah Fergusons (Duches of York AKA Fergie) daughter goes to Newcastle University? We didn't see her in Newcastle...teehee and if we did she would be surrounded by body gaurds no doubt.

On the way back from Newcastle James decides he wants a new X Box game, so we pop back to Asda. We pass Asda on the way home, just as well. After stressing out in Newcastle I had developed quite a headache so whilst in Asda I had to buy a drink to take some headache tablets with. When I went into Asda I needed to pop to the ladies and an older lady went in before me, she MUST have been a man dressed as a woman because when I went into the loo after her it was covered in urine on the seat.......ABSOLUTELY FILTHY DISGUSTING!!!! Or she was just a dirty old lady, sorry but there is really NO NEED to leave a loo in that sort of state!!!!!!!
Did I use the loo after her? I had no choice, I was busting, so I lifted the seat and covered the porcelain seat with extra loo paper before I sat down, I always cover the seat anyway!! Got to make sure I don't have loo paper stuck to my butt though!!....TeeHee I feel so dirty now, shower soon!!

3.30pm HOME at last!! PHEW!!
Have to say, I am going to have a small bag of chippy chips tonight, I know, not raw but it's a one off.

Back tomorrow.

What's Going On??

I get so into blogging and then I go all to pot.....ummm...no excuses but over the last week or so I have been on a downer, not sure if it because my anti-depressants have been reduced or what! But I am keeping an eye on things and if I slip further then during my next visit with my GP I will let him know. My GP did ask me if I felt as though I could reduce them so I know I have the buffer there that if I need to have them incresed again then I can, but to honest I would much prefer to be off them. I will see how things go.

Anyway, my weight on the scales has been coming down but as of this Monday I am getting into the GROOVE! And I am going to be more consistent with my raw meal choices and snacks because I want the scales to continue to come down.....STOP THE YO YOING!!

I am thinking of buying a new Cuisinart, a more powerful machine, a commercial strength machine. I love my Cuisinart that I have now and I would never part with it but the bowl could do with being a tad bigger and it could do with being more powerful although my Cuisinart is the most powerful food processor that I have ever had to date and I have had some....teehee
At the moment when I am making recipes I can only do half size of the recipe but I would like to make the full size recipes and freeze the other half so I always have raw on hand because the thought of making something from scratch more often than not is not very appealing sometimes. I love making raw recipes but sometimes I just want to grab something....I AM LAZY!!....teehee although, "Fresh IS Best!!"

We are popping out tomorrow and I will be stocking up on fresh, healthy, gorgeous produce.

Oh! I wanted to clear the fridge yesterday to make room for my big Costco shop and SOOooo I made a Salad bar. I sliced, chopped and grated....in my Cuisinart...small or not, I LOVE IT!! Anyway, I sliced, chopped and grated Carrot, Beetroot, Cucumber, Sweet Onions, Red & Yellow Peppers (Green Peppers are not ripe) Parnips, Turnips, Broccoli and Cauliflower and I put them into individual tubs with lids so anything remaining could be put back into the fridge to make a meal today (Friday) I also put a bowl of Plum Cherry Tomatoes out. I cooked a Chicken for the family so they could have Salad and Roast Chicken and of course they loved it. My OH had to have Chips with his Roast Chicken though.....grrrrrr
I am going to make a Salad Bar once a week and make some Fakin Bacon and raw Crackers etc for moi and for the family, if they choose to delve into the raw goods that is but if not then I will of course have the hard boiled Eggs, Ham, Chicken, Croutons etc out for them.
I am going to keep the Salad tubs full so Salad items can be put onto plates daily and I can grab my Salad daily.

I will take pics of my Salad bar the next time.

Okay, that is all for now and I will endevour to return and blog daily.