Sunday 27 February 2011

A Motivational Start +

I watched this first thing this morning and WOW what a GREAT way to start my day!!
Check it out!



Also, here is a link for a couple of FREE E-books. Click: Raw Food Diet Way

Thursday 24 February 2011

Strawberry Powder....

...weigh in and a present.

I have noticed that some raw food online stores are selling Strawberry powder and because I had a few strawberries that needed using I decided to dehydrate them and grind them down to make my own strawberry powder. I will use this in raw icecream, cookies and maybe try making a fudge with this in. I also dehydrated a few raspberries.....WOW! These fruits take a long time to dehydrate.
















Below, a present from my hubby. It arrived today, I am rather excited about this.
















Diana Stobo 'Get Naked Fast'
More recipe's, a new DVD, ALWAYS GREAT to have DVD'S! Also Diana's book etc Oh! And nut milk bags, I needed some new nut milk bags...BRILLIANT!
I am still waiting for another little something, cant wait!

The dizziness is still there but not quite as bad, as soon as it has gone I will be able to start exercising. I am hoping it is going to clear up a lot quicker than it normally does!!

The weather today is rather nice, the sun is shinning which is unusual as it is dull so often lately. I LOVE it when it is sunny, I don't like it being too hot, cool and sunny does me.....PERFECT!

I have been good with my raw over these past few days and I am enjoying it and NOT craving the processed foods. Once I get over those first 3 or 4 days of not eating anything processed then I just don't seem to think about them or crave them, I actually start and want the healthier, cleaner, fresher foods.

On the scales this morning I have lost 3lb....WOOOHOOO

I might get back later today!

Tuesday 22 February 2011

"Cheese & Wine"

I made the cheese last night and it has been fermenting all night and today. I am going to add Garlic and Herb to it because it will be exactly like a Boursin cheese. I cracked open a bottle of the Kombucha I bought last week or so and I have to say that this is a nice Kombucha, all that was missing was some raw crackers.





















My dizzy spells have come back these last couple of days and showing no signs of letting up. The last time I had dizzy spells it lasted 5 weeks and another time they lasted 7 weeks....5 and 7 weeks of dizzy spells, 1 day is bad enough!!! I have been to my GP about these but I have trouble with my ears and it is to do with that.

Monday 21 February 2011

Raw Haul

I received more raw goodies this morning and over the last couple of days...I have such a generous Husband!
I bought a Pie bar from Raw Living last week and it was SOOO delicous I just had to buy some more...YUM! I ordered a few other bits and pieces at the same time.
















Also this morning I received my 5kg bag of Wheat Grass and Purple Corn Flour.





















This should last me some time, infact I still have some left in the other 5kg bag which has lasted for AAAGES!

Here are a few more pics. This pic is for the goodies I ordered and received from Vivapure. I placed an order with them last year and it took some time to get here but I found out that they had just started trading and were experiencing a few hiccups but I ordered again last week and this order came with no problems, so I will be using Vivapure again!! It is good to find a company that stocks products that are harder to find here in the UK. Coconut Nectar, Dulse Flakes. Oh! I ate the Chocolate Tree Cookies, so I took a pic of an empty packet...teehee but it lets you see that Vivapure stock Chocolate Tree products.
































I love Durian! Hence 4 cans. I also bought some bottles of Kombucha, I know I make my own but I wanted to compare and I can be lazy!
















Last but not least....check out that 1kg bag of Sundried Tomatoe's....FAAAAANTASTIC! It can be hard to find Sundried Tomatoe's that are not packed in oil and they are SOOO expensive for a tiny bag of them so when I found these, well, I wasn't NOT going to buy a bag.
More Irish Moss. After finding the Mayonnaise recipe on You Tube I just don't want to be without Irish Moss so I can make the mayonnaise whenever I want/need some.

Well then, I think I can safely say that I am well stocked up for the next couple of weeks.
I am still waiting for two more orders to arrive.

Today, I am washing laundry, I have already cleaned my floors this morning.
That is all for now, I may be back later today.

Saturday 19 February 2011

Willow Tree &....

The results from the pH test.
On Thursday morning I done the test for the acid levels in my body. I had to take two tests to get the result. The first strip read 6.50 which is a tad low and my second test read 7.25 which is a teeny tad high, the best reading to have is 7.0 - but anyway, I would say that these readings read an average of 7.0 so that is about right which I am very pleased about! So I am not acidic....YAY!!

Here is a pic of my Willow tree. It is still in a pot at the moment but I will get it planted in the garden very soon, it can actually be grown in pots anyway, so it is fine in the pot for now.





















I have been buying a few more bits and pieces so I will get a pic of those on here tomorrow and Monday.

The weather has been rather dull today which doesn't help with my depression and my eating so today has been a bit hit and miss but I am determinded to get my dehydrator cranked up this weekend.

Night Night for now

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Some Buys

Yesterday I was so busy and in and out all day that I just didn't get time to update.
We got up bright and early yesterday morning and went grocery shopping before the pushing and shoving started. Straight to Asda for one big grocery shop. When we got back I unpacked everything and put it all away because I wanted to go to Costco also to stock up on fresh produce and I didn't want to be falling over groceries that still needed to be put away when I got back with yet more groceries from Costco. I always do a big shop at Costco.

Costco and another big fruit and veg shop done. I love Costco and the produce is excellent!
My fridge is now well stocked up and YES all of it will be eaten and not just by me, my family love salads. Adam and my OH also take salad sandwiches to work and college most days.





















Citrus, avocado, cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, nuts, romain, tomatoes, mushrooms, fruits, courgettes, aubergines, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers, celery etc etc I have to have the full fat milk, margarine etc for the family.

I always like to go to Tesco and the Nutri Centre on the way back from Costco (the Nutri Centre is inside of Tesco)
I got my Sweet Onions and a few other things from Tesco and some bits and pieces from The Nutri Centre.
Here is a pic of Tesco and the Nutri Centre buys yesterday also the Cool Oil and nuts from Holland & Barrett which I bought a few days ago. I also managed to find the Udo's oil in the Nutri Centre, pleased about that!!


















I have been looking for larger jars for when I am making my Kombucha tea, I also have been keeping my eye's open for stainless steel bowls....AT LAST! I found these items in Tesco.....FAB! I also spotted a box grater, I already have an electric box grater but this grater will be quicker when I need something done quickly. I did actually buy 4 of the jars but I am using one of them for the rejuvelac.

I also bought a GORGEOUS Willow tree from Tesco which I will show you tomorrow.



















Here is the box grater.












Here is my Rejuvelac which will be finished tomorrow evening. I am going to make Grezzo Cheese using Rejuvelac, recipe is from Allisa Cohen's new book.





















This morning I received an order from Raw Living.

















I bought a Zapper which has a lot of health benefits. It is meant to eliminate parasites in the body and I am thinking because I am tired all the time could that be the reason? This Zapper is also good for Candida and lots of other problems so surely I can only feel good by using this little thing. I am going to put it on the sole of my foot tonight (kept in place by wearing a sock)
I also bought pH strips to check the acid in the body.
As you can see I also bought Lecithin, Cacao Butter, 3 YUMMY jars of Rawtella....YUMMMMMY! And I decided to try the NEW Naked Pie bar.

Back tomorrow with more pics and a pic of the Willow tree.
Night Night

Monday 14 February 2011

Another Busy Day

Another BEAUTIFUL bright and sunny day....BLISS!! My Daffodils are starting to grow.

Yep, another busy day.
When I got up this morning I had my Banana for Breakfast then took my Multi Vitamin pill. I had 2 more loads of laundry to do so I set that going..... All caught up now.
After setting the washing machine for the laundry I then checked emails and read the blogs etc that I like to read and then I done some general tidying around.

Last night I got my Wheat Grain soaking for the rejuvelac, I also have sprouts sprouting, I want to keep a constant supply of sprouts.

I am hoping to get out for a fresh supply of vegetables etc tomorrow so I decided to give my fridge a good ole clear out and clean......1 hour or so later and all done, well, it is an American fridge freezer so it is rather big hence the time it took. I took all the shelves etc out and took the glass out of the shelf holders to give them a good clean also so now it is all ready for fresh produce.

I think that is all for today, well I did say I would try to come back daily even if I have little to report.

Night Night until tomorrow

Sunday 13 February 2011

Shopping & Housework

Yesterday, my sister came to visit and she took me to a JTF cash & carry warehouse (my OH had out car) and of course I joined....FAAABULOUS! I am now a member of Costco AND JTF. Whilst in JTF I started spending....naughty! I bought 4 carriage lights for outside my front door and patio door. I bought a guillotine which does straight cuts, wavy cuts and perforation cuts, this will be very handy for James' schooling, I also bought a pair of shoes and other little bits & pieces. I have such trouble with shoes, I HATE buying new shoes because even the softest of shoes rip my feet to bits, I was buying Hush Puppies but these shoes are quite pricey but they are the best and my feet don't suffer with Hush Puppies, I might have to start buying those shoes again.
My OH hasn't installed the carriage lights today because the weather is horrible, it is raining and dull today.

When my OH came home we then popped along to Holland & Barrett's health food store where I bought an oil which is on the same par as Udo's oil, I am still going to order some Udo's oil. I bought some Hazelnuts whilst there so I can have a go at making my own Rawtella...YUM!
After Holland & Barrett we then went to visit my lovely dad who is doing well, he is at home now. On our way home from Dad's we popped into Asda because I needed some Spring Water so I can make some rejuvelac, I am going to make Grezzo Cheese from Allisa Cohens new book.

Today I have been busy none stop! I have cleaned my bathroom and the wall tiles, I have vaccumed the bedrooms and down the stairs and polished my laminate floors and not forgetting heaps of laundry, I now need to get on and make the families evening meal and then I will have a go at starting the rejuvelac and rawtella Oh! By the way I found a Sauerkraut video from the Anne Wigmore Institute, looks good, check it out here!



Well, that is me for now. I will post pics of things I make.

Thursday 10 February 2011

All Is Good

The sun has shone ALLLL day, it has been beautiful and just what I needed!
For the last couple days I haven't felt the urge to fall asleep during the day although I couldn't fall asleep yesterday anyway because I had my grandson, Michael, I LOVE that little tot!
I dozed off on Tuesday unfortunately....grrr I slept for 4.5 hours and when I got to bed that night I slept fairly well again which is very unusual for me because I don't usually sleep too well ANY night whether I have slept through the day or not and no matter how tired I am, so, things are looking up energy and sleep wise because the last few nights I have slept quite well, could it be the increased raw food?

I walked baby Michael to meet his grandad from work yesterday so a little exercise there. I am not starting my Zumba until the week after next, I feel I can be more committed to it then but in the meantime I will be as active as possible. I have been quite active yesterday and today with housework i.e. cleaning the patio doors, loo's, tiles and floors, washing and cleaning laminate floors, stripping beds etc etc.

I weighed in this morning and I am at 197.9lb - could be better!! I am now officially having Thursdays as my weigh in day, I like Thursdays!!

Tonight I am going to make and prepare to make some raw cheese sauces, Almond milk, Almond butter, Almond flour, marinated and dehydrated mushrooms and Mayonnaise, have to say, my last lot of mayo was so beautifully thick...YUM! I must be getting good at making mayo now.

I think that is all for now.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Week 1 - Zumba

Okay, I watched Bill on RFR and he showed how to do his 60 second exercises and so I tried them and PHEW! I really felt it but the worst of it is, I started to feel it after just about 25 seconds, so I came to the conclusion that I SERIOUSLY need to start an exercise programme, it's not as if I am short of a variety of DVD's or exercise equipment is it? I have HEAPS of stuff i.e. treadmills 2 of, electric and manual, vibration machine, leg master, ab roller, gym balls, pilate equipment, yoga equipment, pilates machine etc etc etc and for the DVD's I have Salsa, Aerobics, gym ball, pilates, yoga, belly dancing, step box, zumba etc etc etc the list goes on!!
I have decided to start the zumba programme which is as follows:

WEEK 1

Day 1
Zumba Basics DVD - followed by total body stretch

Day 2
Zumba Basics - followed by TBS

Day 3
Zumba 20 minute Express

Day 4
FREE DAY

Day 5
Zumba 20 minute Express

Day 6
FREE DAY

Day 7
Zumba 20 minute Express

So there you have it. Looks good!

Yesterday
I noticed we had a red light on our NEW (less than a year since it was installed) gas boiler, so my OH phoned British Gas at 6.30am they said they would send an engineer to check it but my OH had to tell them not to send anyone around until the afternoon because my OH had to go to work and I had to take my eldest son, Michael to the scrap yard for things for his car. I ended up sitting in the car waiting for Michael for 2 hours....pfft - After waiting for over an hour I was starting to get worried incase he had come to harm, scrap yards are dangerous places, so I went into the yard, a man came to help me and after chatting to the man he told me that Michael was still there and that he had got two items he wanted but he wanted more things...I had a feeling I had longer to wait after hearing that, and I did....gotta laugh! The things we do for our kids eh?

I got home for about lunch time and waited for the gas engineer who came at 2.00pm he told us the problem was nothing and fixed it within seconds. Finally I could get the heating back on.

Today we had our grandchildren around for a visit and I have my grandson, Michael for the afternoon tomorrow, that should be fun, it will be because baby Michael is so funny!!

Well, I just wanted to update you of my latest but I am now back daily, I have been missing not updating daily!!

Okay night night for now, back tomorrow.

Thursday 3 February 2011

Today

I found this today and just had to post it.

Audrey Hepburn's beauty tips...
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes..seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. ..... Remember if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you hve two hands; one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

You might also like to take a look at this blog if you are interested in raw and don't know how to plan your meals: Raw On $10 A Day

BACK LATER...

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Yum Yum Raw Un-Baking

I made my raw goodie's...YUM!
Choccies in progress.
















I also made some choccies with a nut filling but I am filling these choccies with a delicous caramel cream filling...Yum.

For the caramel cream watch this You Tube for 'Raw Turtles.'
(if you want me to remove your video from my blog Colleen then just give me a shout)



Here is the end results of my choccies. I have cut one of the nut and one of the caramel choccies in half so you can see the centres.
































Ever so YUMILOUS onion bread. This is my favourite EVER!
















James LOVES these crackers.

Well, I have been raw all day today starting with a green juice this morning, onion bread at lunch time, snacks have been 2 persimmons and a few raw choccies and tonight I am going to make Penni's at RFR Eggless Salad from her 'Revolve To Evolve' e-book...YUM! WOW! All these delicous foods!!

I have done housework today and that is about it.
I will post a pic of my evening meal, eggless salad later or tomorrow.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Little Waster....

"Happy February peeps"
I'm no little waster. I made my green juice last night....2 jars full one of which I had this morning for Breakfast. I kept the pulp from the juice to make crackers with.....no waste there!

This evening I made my hubbies sandwiches for his lunch tomorrow and instead of putting the scraps into the bin or composter I grabbed a lock n lock tub out of the cupboard and I have put the lettuce spines, cucumber and bits of tomato into the tub and into the fridge, I will do this for a day or two and then I am going to make juice with it.....no waste there either.....I do believe I am getting the hang of all this, forward thinking.
I used the veg pulp from the juice last night to make the crackers tonight which are now in the dehydrator and will be done tomorrow. I followed Bills recipe, Bill is a member on RFR. I soaked some Chia seeds added the pulp, 2 mashed up avocado's, hemp seeds, salt, a little water, gave it all a thorough mixing and then spread it onto 3 dehydrator sheets, I think these are going to be lovely! I tasted a tad of the mix and it was delicous! That is the beauty of raw food, foods can be tasted/eaten as is or dehydrated, so tasting is good whereas if I were making a meat loaf for the family then I obviously couldn't taste the mix before it went into the oven because of the raw meat.....I would end up ill....BLEURGH!
I have also put 2 trays of onion bread into the dehydrator, like an oven, we gotta fill those babies up.
I have to say, my youngest son, James loves onion bread and I have also discovered he likes hemp seeds also....WOW! Of course he eats a few hemp seeds and walks away saying "I'm a raw foody now"....teehee

A couple of days ago when I made the raw choccies I had a couple of the choccies that mid morning, after eating them I noticed that I felt wide awake, alert and full of energy, the reason for this I am putting down to the Cacao, so I am going to make some more tonight and maybe have a small mid morning treat tomorrow morning to see if it is the Cacao that is making me alert. I am constantly tired and falling asleep mid mornings and I CAN NOT keep doing that, it isn't right!!

I will post pics of my crackers, onion bread and choccies tomorrow.

Okay, I'm going to quickly make some raw choccies and then to bed.
Night Night