Living Food Junkie

Oh my Lavender!

2011-07-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

We are going lavender crazy on our little farm as you can see....

I'm holding about 18 bundles in my arms and even though it looks like it was easy to carry, I assure you it wasn't. What do you do with so much lavender? Every year this happens to us..what to do with it? Last year we dried it all and took off the buds for chocolate baking and sachets. The year before I made tons of lavender wands but it was very time consuming. I've always wanted to try making the bath bombs or essential oils, but haven't ventured out their yet.

This year I've decided to create something that actually saves us a bit of money, lavender dryer sheets! To make them you can use any cloth you wish, I'm going to use old t-shirt sleeves and pant legs. Fill them up with some lavender, sew shut and throw it in the dryer with the rest of your clothes. They are good for about 10 drys and I have a lot of old t-shirts and lavender...this should last us for the entire year! Supposedly your clothes turn out great, not over powered by the lavender at all. Going to do this in the next few days, so I will post the project once we are done!

What would make try making with an abundunce of lavender?

Enjoy the weekend!

Vegetable Bean & Lentil Soup

2011-07-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

This turned out wonderfully delicious even on a hot day! We sat outside in our patio chairs, enjoyed watching the sunset and devoured some amazing soup. Sometimes when I have one or two ingredients I run an Internet search to find something healthy and child-friendly to make. My main ingredients today were beans and lentils. I also wanted it to be low-calorie, flavourful, healthy and stocked full of veggies. I saw a lot of recipes for black bean soup...gave them all a once over and decided to just create my own soup in my crock pot. Best thing about recipes like this are that they are versatile. I used what I had in my cupboard and fridge and you can use what you have, so don't be discouraged if you see something on the ingredients list that you don't have.

Vegetable Bean & Lentil Soup

Ingredients:
2 medium onions
2 celery stalks
4 overripe tomatoes
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables(corn, peas, carrots, green beans)
1 cup of kale
1 can of black beans
1 cup of dry navy beans
1/2 cup of dry lentils
4 cups veggie stock
4 cups of cold water
1 package onion soup mix (optional: you can choose to do 8 cups of veggie stock instead, I was just using what I had on hand)

~Spice mix~
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Makes 15 servings!

Turn your crock pot on low. Dice all the veggies and put them in your crock pot. Add the canned black beans. Then add your vegetable stock, water and onion soup mix. Finally incorporate the spices into the mix.

If you are using dried navy beans and lentils like I did you have to soak them in water for 3 hours and typically boil them for another 1.5. I did this as the rest of my soup was cooking in the crock pot, then added them during the last hour of cook time. You could also just get canned beans, but remember canned means a lot of salt, dried beans have hardly any.

Let your soup cook for 5-6 hours in the crock pot. Then use a blender to puree 10 cups of your soup. If you are using an upright blender do only 1-2 cups at a time because hot soup means steam can force your lid to pop off. Leave the other 5 cups of soup chunky. Pour the blended soup back in with the left over chunky soup and mix them together. It turns out amazing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love how low calorie this soup is...I plugged the ingredients into a recipe creator and I came out with:
15 servings at 1 cup each
84 calories per serving
16 carbs
0 fat
5 protein
4 fiber
400 sodium (This could be reduced if you used no canned beans and strictly veggie stock)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The review from the family was positive! The hubby had 3 cups worth and loved every bit. Although at this moment he is lying here beside me stuffed and complaining he ate to much! Scratch that now he is sleeping, so remember only a cup or so will do you. I had 1 serving and felt totally satisfied.

My 4 year old is a bit unsure about beans, luckily we had a few parenting tricks. We told our little one that his favorite superhero loved this soup because it gave him the energy to go exploring and run fast. Our little guy hesitated, but then gave it a couple bites..said yuck and then ate more! Got to love that he really wanted to not like it because of the beans, but then ate it because it tasted so good.
My thoughts on this recipe are to enjoy it while you are camping or hiking like us! When the weather starts to cool off in the evening and you can sit outdoors and keep warm. It will keep you full for quite some time and that always helps while outdoors.
Enjoy your long weekend! The weather has finally picked up here, so we've been busy enjoying it.

Ginger is my new best friend!

2011-06-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know a lot of people blog about smoothies and everyone has a recipe or two that they love. Personally I'm addicted to smoothies all year round and I love experimenting with flavors. I have my favorites, but this recipe is the best smoothie I've ever made. It should win a smoothie award, if there is such a thing. What made this smoothie different from others is that it included ginger root, which I was a bit nervous adding. I love ginger in recipes, but in a smoothie?! I realize now that as long as you have a balance of sweet and creamy, you can't go wrong with adding ginger. Don't hesitate, just try, you will be pleasantly surprised! Without further wait, I present...

Mango-Melon Ginger Smoothie

1 cup frozen cantaloupe

1/2 cup frozen mango

1/2 cup of soy milk

1 medium banana

1/2 tsp of grated ginger

Throw it all in a blender and blend it up! This serves 1 person :)
You end up with a sweet, tangy, creamy smoothie. The sweetness from the cantaloupe and mango really balance the creaminess of the banana and soy milk. Then you get hit with a nice kick of ginger that is not overwhelming at all. If it was overwhelming my 4 year old wouldn't have gone near this smoothie. Check it out...We smile a lot when we drink smoothies!

I had to make another batch because he wanted his very own smoothie in his special smiley face cup. He gobbled up his and half of mine!

Then he insisted he take a picture of me this morning with my Mango-Melon Ginger smoothie!

Yum what a great start to our day!

Enjoy!

Farmer's Market Clearance Section

2011-06-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm an avid shopper in the clearance section of the Farmer's Markets. I can usually find throw away tomatoes, onions, cantaloupe, bananas, peppers, apples..geez you name it they clearance it. I try to check on it a few times a week, some days I end up leaving with nothing and other days I have huge bags full. Yesterday I found some gems, two 10-lb bags of tomatoes 1.99/each, 2 cauliflowers .99/each, 2 cantaloupes 1.49 for the pair, 10-lb bag of green beans/1.49...yum! Nothing was damaged just needing to sold before being over ripe.

Today I sliced some chunks of cantaloupe some for the fridge and some for the freezer.We pulled these out of the freezer and snacked on them after being outside in the heat. These were great because they were only slightly frozen from only being in the freezer for an hour.

Speaking of freezers I seriously need to consider buying a deep freeze. With all the vegetables and fruits we are growing in our garden, picking at the local farms and buying at the farmer's market we won't be able to keep up with it all. Need to freeze!

As for the tomatoes..well I decided it was probably best we made a tomato sauce with spaghetti squash noodles. My son's favorite dish! I decided that this time around I would try to make sauce the proper way, which meant removing the skin, seed and core. I typically would just remove the core and throw it all into a pot to cook, but then you get skins and seeds in your sauce. I don't really mind, but I wanted to give the "correct" way a try. I discovered very quickly the easiest way to remove the peel...
Score the bottom of the tomato with a paring knife
After you remove core, let them soak in hot water in the sink.
After 10 minutes soaking you can start peeling the skin, opening the tomato and removing the seeds.
Then put in a blender or food processor
You end up with a smooth, delicious puree!
With this puree you could create dishes other than tomato sauce. Think cold or hot soups, salsas, thick tomato juice, dips, the list is endless..tomatoes are used in so many recipes! As for using it as a sauce I may have to add some store bought tomato paste because we like our sauce a bit thicker. I have the sauce cooking on low in my slow cooker to see if it will thicken. It tastes amazing though with fresh oregano, basil, sauteed onions and garlic! Oh yum, dinner is going to be good!

Lastly, there is a great contest give away happening over at Color Wheel Meals for an Ascenta Health product! Check it out!

Gardening Days Part 2: Raised Vegetable Bed

2011-06-17T14:13:00.001-07:00

FYI: This post is going to be a picture parade!

Our amazing zucchini plants!
We have way more vegetable plants growing, sprouting and seeded than yard plants. First up is our raised and covered bed, which was made with some scrap wood and vapor barrier my dad gave us last year. You can see the post here. We've made a few adjustments to the original design, such as attaching small pieces of wood to hold the plastic frame down. After using this cold frame and growing veggies in it for 2 seasons, we would probably design it totally different. For a starting point, it was a great learning experience.
Here is a picture that we took in the fall. To be honest I was happy to reuse material, but I thought the outer boards were a bit ugly. So an idea started forming...
Here is the after pic! We invited over family and everyone took part in painting the outside boards. Everyone had fun free handing it and painting whatever they wanted.

What you will need to paint your raised garden bed:
-White outdoor primer (paint the outside boards carefully and let dry)
-A variety of acrylic paints, paint brushes, a blanket to put on the ground, a fun group of people and a great imagination!

This is a wonderful project for children with adult supervision of course. It encourages interest in growing fresh foods! My lil one constantly looks out the window or runs outside just to look at his artwork. I didn't realize how much of an impact this would have on him, he just loves that he painted something outside. The added bonus it looks beautiful compared to the boring old wooden boards they once were!

My son's beautiful choice in colors!

My lil one took this pic of me this morning when I wasn't looking! My hair is getting so long you can't even see my face in this photo! I think I was pulling some baby slugs out of the garden (our major pest this year). I'm just grateful they are not those big, ugly slugs! I won't touch those things.

Here are the vegetables in the raised bed...
Green Bush Beans that are constantly fighting to survive against those slugs
Cucumber plants that I had to purchase as starts. I planted Spacemaster seeds, but they never came up.
A lettuce mix that included parsley, basil, swiss chard and 4 different types of greens! This was my first time trying out seed tape, which is basically seeds placed in bio-degradable tissue that you plant out in the soil. Saves you time, plus the small seeds that can be hard to work with are spaced evenly within the seed tape. I had mixed results with seed tape so far. The first growth only grew half the row, but the second growth seems to be sprouting well.
Baby strawberries on the way!
The strawberry plants...with a yummy red berry ready to be eaten!
First strawberry of the season, picked by my lil one. We shared it, and it had amazing flavor!
Since taking these photos a few days ago, I've planted some radishes (only a 20 day crop!) and 2 more lettuce mixes. Hopefully in a couple weeks we will see some sprouting!

So ends the tour of our raised garden bed, up next is my container gardening! I have about 20+ large containers full of veggies!

Gardening Days Part 1: Yard

2011-06-14T02:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my yard and garden! First up is a tour of my yard, which has a mostly perennials and a few annuals planted here and there.
I bought this little ladybug for a $2 a few years back and she is one of my favorite little treasures in my yard.

She sits near the beautiful ivy I planted last year. This spring it's really taken to it's location and has grown triple in size.

Here are a few of my annuals that my son and I picked out this year. We both loved the mix of colors. We planted a lot of them in a very large tea cup planter.

I also have bicycle planters that had annuals, but I neglected them, oops! I think the planter still looks great with nothing planted in it.

Here is just one of my 7 lavender plants. I love this variety, it dries really well without all the buds falling off. This picture really does no justice in showing how huge this plant is.

I also have some very slow growing boxwood plants around the border of our yard. This plant is about 2-3 years old now. I figure in 10 years I should have a nice hedge.

I have my gnomes and garden faeries that patrol the premises. This is my favorite gnome, he is exactly what I picture a garden gnome to look like!

Honey bees are already hard a work, which is great news for a garden!

My zebra grass which is full of wonderful strips and personality.

And finally my tulip bulbs, which come originally from my grandpa who gave many to my mom before he passed away. We planted these out already and I can't wait to see them popping up in the yard next spring!

Veggie Pot Pie with a Whole Wheat Crust

2011-06-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

This was a spur of the moment recipe that I threw together. I'm used to seeing pot pies with chicken, but this one is meat free! It's a vegan recipe, but it is not gluten free. The recipe actually came together because I wanted use a bunch of our baby spinach, since I harvested all of it yesterday. Then the family was wanting pot pie and I thought lets put the two together with a bunch of extra veggies. I love pot pies, I typically cook them in the fall/winter because to me they seem like a comfort food. It's been cold and rainy here the past couple of days so a healthy comfort dish was needed. There are so many pot pie recipes out there, so don't let this one hold you back. Every time we make a pot pie, we just throw whatever we have together and make up the recipe as we go. Add, remove, change anything you want from the veggies, herbs, to the crust :) You'll see that this time around I ventured in trying to different types of crusts using olive oil vs. vegan margarine.

Bottom Crust:
This recipe is a slightly modified version of Betty Crocker's Pat-in-Pan recipe. For the original recipe click here. This is always my go to recipe for a bottom pie crust. I love that I don't have to roll out any dough!

1 1/3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1/2 tsp of Salt
2 Tbsp Cold Water

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix flour, oil and salt till everything is moistened. Then add water and form into a dough ball. Place in bottom of dish and spread dough out to cover entire 9' glass pie plate. Cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
Set aside for 30minutes to cool, as you prepare the filling.

Filling:
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove of Garlic
1 cup diced Broccoli
1 cup diced Cauliflower
1 diced Onion
5 diced Baby Potatoes
1 cup Frozen Mixed Veggies(corn, peas, beans, carrots)
1 bunch of Spinach
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Vegetable Broth
1 cup of Soy Milk (Or whatever milk you prefer)
Dash or two of sea salt and pepper
Any herbs of your liking (We used oregano, rosemary and thyme)

Sautee garlic in olive oil for a minute or two on low heat. Cook all veggies except the frozen mixed vegetables and spinach. Let the veggies cook until the potatoes feel tender then add the frozen veggies and spinach. Once the spinach wilts, sprinkle the whole wheat flour in and mix. Then add the vegetable broth and milk. Stir and cook for 20 more minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes to thicken. Then add to bottom pie shell.

Top Crust:
This recipe is also a modified version, this time it's Betty Crockers Single Pie Crust. It's basically the same as the bottom crust, but instead of oil you use shortening. In our case we used a vegan margarine. Worked out well!

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1/3 cup vegan margarine
2-3 tbsp of cold water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in vegan margarine with a fork or two knives. Sprinkle with cold water, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened. Gather pastry into a ball. Add extra tbsp of water if the dough seems crumbly.

Then roll out pastry using a floured rolling pin. Place rolled out dough on top of filling and pie plate. Use a fork to seal the edges. Then take a knife and score the top of the dough 2-3 times. This will let steam release as it cooks. Cook the veggie pot pie at 400F for 20-25 minutes till the top crust is golden brown.

Let it cool for 10minutes and then dig in! So delicious!

The bottom olive oil crust was definitely meant to be a bottom crust it held together well, yet was still soft. The top vegan margarine crust was meant to be a top crust, it was flaky, soft and tender. Remember you could always purchase your pie crusts, but homemade is always better! You know what ingredients go in it and lets be honest these two pie crusts are really not that hard to make.

Enjoy!

My belated birthday and staying committed!

2011-05-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

Last year for my birthday my family surprised me with "Maggie's Swirly Tart"and how could I not ask for it again! It's beautiful, delicious and for a cake it's pretty darn healthy to eat :)

I think last year's edition was a bit fancier in design, but in terms of flavor both were amazing. After serving it out, I had to take a pic. It turned out to be a really messy shot though, so you get the pretty before pic. All I can say is yum and thank you everyone who celebrated with me!

I turned 29 this year! I can't believe it, I only have one year left till I hit 30! Some of you may know that I want to reach my goal weight by the time I hit 30, which I believe is possible. In total I have lost 48lbs since December and I want to lose another 30lbs by my 30th.

Yesterday I started a new/old fitness challenge, Jillian's 30 day shred. I really love this workout program, it's tough, challenging and short! I have no excuses to not fit it into my day :) I seem to have commitment issues when it comes to workout programs. I have yet to complete a 60 day or 90 day program, but give me a 30 day and I can bust it out. I think this has something to do with being able to envision the finish line easily, knowing that it will end and I will be able to start something fun and new.

It does pay to learn what workouts keep you motivated during your weight loss journey, that way you can focus on staying committed. For example, a lot of people I know have to join a gym and allot a certain time of the day to working out. There are many examples of this, just find what works well for you :)

+Short workout programs (3 weeks-30 days): A lot of programs are set up this way, look up a favorite trainer or favorite exercise and you should find something.

+Long workout programs (60 day to 90 days): I don't know a lot of programs that are this long other than P90X, Insanity and Turbo Jam or Turbo Fire.

+Game console workout programs: There are tons of workout programs and activities on different game consoles. Most are really well done and get you sweating. Plus I always feel like I'm playing a game more than working out. I always do some online research about the workout/game before purchasing.

+Free Internet workouts: YouTube has a ton of exercise videos posted, bodyrock.tv is another great site that posts workout routines for free.

+Gym routines: Join a gym and get into a routine where you stay committed to it for an hour a day. Before work, after work, before the kids go to school, after your partner gets home from work?

+Local community activities: More than likely your community will have some sort of active program happening. A hiking group, running group, fitness challenge, boxing group. Often you can find these advertised at local gyms, community centers, community track. Just watch prices they can range from free to a few dollars to the hundreds.

+Find a workout buddy: Sometimes it really pays off to recruit a friend into working out with you. That way you can challenge, teach and support each other during workouts. It can have drawbacks though, you should really find someone who is just as committed as you.

+Buy your own equipment: This doesn't have to be expensive either. A few weights, a yoga mat, some boxing gloves, the list goes on...

+Get outside: This can be weather permitting but, start running, biking, hiking, walking the track...the list goes on :)

Those are just a few of the ideas I have been using to keep my workouts interesting and fun. One month I'll commit to a short workout program and if weather permits I'll also run. Another month I'll join a local ladies swim class and walk the track. I hope these examples will help you because they sure have helped me stay motivated :)

On to my funny Popeye find...

We are harvesting a lot of spinach from our garden, which I love! Every morning I'm out their picking my daily smoothie, juice and/or salad base. Anyways, I saw this shirt the other day with a picture of Popeye flexing his muscles that said "I eat spinach, not drugs!" If it had been a girl's tee I would have bought it on the spot and worn it while working out! Too funny!

It's spinach time!

2011-05-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's spinach harvesting time in my garden! Granted it's been pretty cold here and now we are finally getting some warm weather. We are just lucky our cold frame has been working it's wonders and our baby spinach is ready for eating!

I just love baby spinach, don't you? My soon to be 4 year old loves it in a smoothie like this...

Spinach-Strawberry Smoothie
1 cup of Almond milk or Soy milk
1/2 cup of Strawberries
1/2 cup of Raspberries
1/2 cup of Baby Spinach
1/2 cup of ice

Blend it up! Makes 1.5-2 servings :) Tip: You could use frozen strawberries and/or raspberries and then you don't need to use any ice!

I thinned out my spinach by picking a bowl full. Made a couple salads, plus the two smoothies (no way my lil one and I share a glass, we each have to have our own..hehe).

There is something rewarding about growing your own food, even if it's just a leafy green, easy and quick to grow. I can't wait to pick our cucumbers, beans, zucchini, varities of lettuces and herbs, strawberries and blueberries..geez summer hurry up and get here!

Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

2011-03-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

I love black bean burgers and I've tried quite a variety of them. What is fun about these burgers are their versatility. Everyone seems to have their own "secret" ingredient and of course their own special way of cooking them.

Some extra add-ins I've tried, which are all delicious btw...

+cinnamon
+curry
+ginger
+peppers (spicy and mild)
+Worcestershire
+miso
+tomato sauce
+quinoa
+rice
+vegan cheese
+salsa
+garlic
+cilantro
+corn
You see..the list goes on forever!

Cooking Methods:

+BBQ!(Seems most popular)
+Oven Baked
+Pan Fryed with Olive oil
+BBQ then Oven Baked (The combo, as I refer to it)

What was my secret and method of cooking?

My secret ingredient happens to be rolled oats! Although I shouldn't really claim rolled oats as my own secret ingredient of choice, my mom has been putting rolled oats in burgers ever since I was a kid. This was my first time however pairing it with Black Bean Burgers. My method of cooking was oven baked, still a little to cold to bring out the BBQ.

Black Bean Burgers
1 can of Black Beans
1/2 an med. onion
4 mushrooms (diced)
1/2 cup of oats
1 garlic clove
1 tsp of cumin
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Hot Black Bean Burger Option: Add some diced jalapeno or your favorite hot sauce to the mix!

Rinse the black beans and then put them in a food processor. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend! Once it is a good paste consistency, divide up the batter into 4-6 burgers depending on size. Place on a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 375F oven for 1 hour. Flip half way through cooking time.

Now comes for the toppings...this is endless too! I personally love to top my burger with avocado, tomato, and lettuce!

Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet potato fries have become extremely popular around here. I see them in restaurants, in the frozen aisle in grocery stores, and even at some concessions! We really love them in our house and during this season they are super cheap to make yourself.

1 large sweet potato
1 tsp of olive oil
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the sweet potato and then slice into strips length wise. I have this awesome kitchen tool that makes wavy fries, that I have to share it with you. I bought it for 2 dollars at a grocery store, awesome find!

Place fries in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper. Mix it up and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375F for only 15 minutes. Check on them every 5 minutes to flip over. These little gems can burn quite quickly compared to a regular potato, plus they will not turn out as crispy, but oh my are they ever good!

What is your choice of secret ingredient and special cooking method when making homemade burgers?

What is your favorite french fry? I love homemade types of any kind, whether russet, sweet potato, yam or jicama(raw style) :)

Protein Snacks

2011-03-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

Went out to the track this afternoon..these snacks came in handy when we were finished with our C25K and interval training.

Everyone seems to have a recipe for Protein balls, bars, snacks, etc... This recipe came from Bodyrockers.tv They have some really great workouts, recipes, community following, so check them out if your into fitness. I stumbled across them through a suggestion on a forum post and I'm glad I did!

I couldn't resist trying out their recipe for protein balls (you will have a laugh at their description of them). What I love about this recipe is it's a quick, easy and nutritious snack. If I'm on the go I can grab one out of the fridge, if it's after a workout I can get in some extra protein and a pick me up. They are convenient, basic and healthy..what more could I ask for! :)

The basic ingredients...

I've experimented with the recipe, adding or removing ingredients, but the three basic ingredients stay the same (peanut butter, coconut and protein powder).

In this batch...

Here are some idea's of what you could add to your batch:

+Natural almond extract
+Natural mint extract
+Pumpkin puree
+Different spices (Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc...)
+Dried cranberries, dried peaches
+Chocolate protein powder
+Plant based protein powder
+Spriulina powder for extra nutrition (took some getting used too! lol)
+Cacao nibs! (YUM!)

Thinking about adding your favorite dried fruits, nuts, extracts and spices can really make this recipe your own little favorite!

Enjoy! :)

What's your favorite ingredients to add to a protein snack?

Maggie's Weight Loss Vlog #1

2011-03-06T00:19:00.001-08:00

Here is my very first vlog, it was super fun to make, so feel free to giggle and laugh along with me. The run down of this week's vlog episode:

-An introduction to me
-The purpose of the vlog
-My weight and my weight loss history
-Before and after pictures of my progress thus far
-A brief mention of my workouts
-And of course the "Tip of the day!"

Hopefully this video plays well for everyone, it's uploaded through Youtube so it should work well. Next episode I plan to address what I eat, more detail on workouts, plus some other fun stuff :)

Enjoy!

My vlog idea...

2011-03-03T11:29:00.001-08:00

Me! Right before my week 2 Day 5 of the Couch to 5km running program :)

I have been so focused on my health lately that I've been absent in terms of writing in here. I've been thinking about adding some video to this blog. I thought it would be pretty fun to do a few 4 minute videos of my everyday health and weight loss journey. I would love to look back at the videos to see how far I have come, but most importantly I want it to help others in similar situations. I know watching other health and weight loss vlogs I've been able to relate, be inspired and encouraged by their hardwork and changes :)

I'm pretty sure i'm going to try it out, see how it goes..might be fun and it would let me focus on both food, recipes, exercise, health, and weight loss :)

What do you think?

I love you day ♥

2011-02-14T16:59:00.001-08:00

What's your Valentine's story?

This morning I woke up to post-it notes all over the kitchen, bathroom, living room and everywhere else I looked. Each one had a sweet message written to me about why I was loved ♥ It eventually led me to a card and Valentine's hedgehog stuffie holding a heart! I felt very special and loved today ♥

For my boys I decided to make some raw chocolates, which I have not made in quite some time. You can find the recipe I used for the chocolate here. The chocolate really works well in the molds and it does not take long before they are done setting. This time around I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to try out different fillings.

~Chocolate Strawberry Smooches
~Chocolate Almond Kissables
~Chocolate Peanut Butter Love Bites

I basically poured a little bit of chocolate into each plastic mold, covering the sides and then threw it in the freezer. Once the chocolate hardened I spooned in a bit of whatever filling and back into the freezer it went. After a few minutes I pulled the chocolates out of the freezer and poured more chocolate on top of the filling to eventually fill the mold.

<---Here is the Chocolate Peanut Butter Love Bites ready for more chocolate to be poured on top! Each chocolate surrounds a whole natural raw almond
Chocolate covering a strawberry puree filling (To make the filling whip 4-5 strawberries in a food processor till they are a saucy consistency)
Chocolate cups with a natural raw peanut butter filling

You may have noticed the Coconut, almond and date mix in the ingredients photo, this was used for the truffles. I couldn't resist making truffles...rich, soft and delicious!

This recipe is basically the same as the one above, I just add about 1/2 cup more cacao powder. This seems to give it a thicker consistency, perfect for rolling out truffles.
Step 1: Tablespoon of Truffle Mix
Step 2: Almond Filling
Step 3: Roll into a Truffle
Step 4: Cover in a Coconut, Almond and Date Mix
The finale, a few pieces of each in a heart shape container for my sweethearts ♥

Mornings

2011-02-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

Every morning I tell myself this, sometimes I listen and sometimes I don't. Yesterday my body and mind did not listen. I was exhausted all day, so I went to bed knowing that I would be able to at least get 8 hours sleep and I ended up getting 9.5! Oh how I love sleep in mornings :)

After stumbling out of bed and doing all those toiletry type things, I usually pick out a favorite tea :) I sometimes do coffee, but you will more likely catch me with just a glass of water.

This is my new tea set up, I used to have them lined up over my stove, but thought this was a cute nook in my kitchen to use for them. Right now I just have my favorites:

Organic Chai(my absolute fav!)
Herbal Lemon Zinger
Herbal Cranberry Apple
Vanilla Chai(not a fav but others enjoy)

My Morning Fruit BowlLayer your favorite fruits, I keep it simple by only adding 2-3 types of fruit. My mix included:

+ 1 Banana
+ 1 Kiwi
+ 5 Strawberries

Then add your favorite nut butter, I chose a natural peanut butter. There is something about natural raw nut butters that are so much better than the processed, added sugar types, but then again that is usually the case.

+ 1 Tbsp Peanut Butter

Then I sprinkle on some toppings. This morning I chose a tablespoon of my favorite topping mix:

+ Almonds
+ Coconut (Shredded/dry)
+ Dates

I take about equal parts of each and mix them in a food processor till they are crumbly. Be careful when adding your dates because if you add to many it will become a nice dough mixture perfect for a pie crust. I usually make about 1 cup of the mixture and store it in a jar. I typically use it up during the week.

Here is an estimate on the nutritional break down of this meal (toppings included):
291 Calories
50 Carbs
9 Fat
7 Protein

It's a yummy, long lasting start to a day, which I love if I know I'm going to be working out before lunch.

Enjoy breakfast everyone! I'm off to eat mine :)

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Mommy Blogger E-Book

2011-02-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

I am really proud to share with you an e-book project I was part of....

"Mommy Menus-A compilation of kid menus submitted by health conscious moms", is a beautiful book brought together by blogger mom's from all different walks of life. I've had the chance to read through this entire book, read each of the mom's bios, review and tried some of their recipes and it really is a wonderful addition to my raw and health conscious collection of recipe books.

This book was created by Rawkinmom from Color Wheel Meals and Rawkinmom's Blog. She contacted me a few months ago to see if I wanted to be one of the mom's part of the project and I of course said yes!

Here are more details from Rawkinmom herself...
"Each mom submitted their blog/website information, a detailed Bio about themselves, and a recipe for a Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert, and Drink. They also provided pictures of some of their creations. The result is an amazing and inspirational E-book.

I would love for you to receive this valuable E-book so I have priced it at only $12-this is less than a fast food meal for a family of four-these recipes may change your families life and health forever!"

Here is the paypal link if you are interested in checking out this fabulous e-book!

Enjoy all you wonderful parents!

Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer Elite!

2011-01-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

I really do love juicing, but this Christmas I was not expecting to find this under our tree!!!
This juicer is one of my dream appliances for my kitchen. I used to drool over the infomercials, uhh not that I watch infomercials haha. Anyways, I love this juicer! It makes the best juice I have ever tasted, not to mention squeezes out ever last drop of liquid from whatever you are juicing. I don't know if you can see it on the box in the picture, but it also makes soy, almond and rice milk. I have yet to try it, but it's on my list of things to do.

Last night I was reading some news headlines and I came upon this!

"Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down, eat well and pump iron for decades before diet and exercise became a national obsession, died Sunday. He was 96." (The Record)

The link will take you to the actual article. The man was 96 years old and a fitness icon. Thank you Jack for encouraging people to exercise and live healthy lives :)

It seemed fitting that my lil one and I would make our favorite juice this morning.

The ingredients:

Juice the apple, orange and pineapple. I sometimes add 2 apples to this recipe or an extra orange. Whatever I have more of really :) Just remember to peel the orange, otherwise you will get a very bitter juice. You can also juice the apples whole, however there is conflicting research about whether or not it's healthy to consume apple seeds. I usually cut them out, just to be safe.

The juice..mmmm

Here is an action shot for you :)

If you want to take your juice one step further like we did this morning, than pour it all into your blender.

Add one med-large banana or if you prefer 1/2 cup plain yogurt.

5 cubes of ice or 1/2 cup of crushed ice.

Blend till smooth!

The final result! Delicious!
2 common questions?!
There are 2 questions I am always asked about this juicer. The first is "Do you really get more juice?" The answer is, yes! The infomercials claim it makes about 30 percent more than other juicers. To be honest I was surprised, I thought it would be more. I guess my old juicer was just that horrible!

The second question is, "What's clean up like?" Clean up is easy, I just remove any pulp and rinse. I was concerned that the filter and blade would be difficult to clean, but I don't even need to take a scrub brush to it. I just rinse everything in my sink and give it a wash and dry. Takes me about 5 minutes.

To end this post I think this quote is appropriate and oh so true...probably more truth behind it now than ever in North America.

“The only way you can hurt the body is not use it. Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it’s never too late.” -Jack LaLanne

When a blogger is away...

2011-01-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Happy New Year!

This winter I took a hiatus from blogging. I was uninspired to write and I pressured myself into thinking that I HAD to write something on here. It was a vicious cycle, so I decided to shut the blog down for the winter. Over the break I have came to the realization that this blog is for me, its purpose is to make me happy. I shouldn't feel like I have to live up to any one's expectations but my own :) I created this blog as an outlet for me to begin with, so why would I want to change that.

So here we are into the middle of January 2011! With most new years everyone sets out resolutions. I usually don't make any because I think that I could make resolutions to "change" something in my life anytime of the year and stick to it. This year, well last year, particularly December 1st, I decided that I needed to jump start my weight loss and get into shape. Yes the dreaded "lose weight, tone up" resolution. To be honest even though I eat healthy it was easy to go over my daily calories and just maintain my weight. I joined myfitnesspal.com and started tracking my food and exercise. I've been at it since December 1st and so far have lost 12 inches from my chest-waist-hips and altogether 17lbs. I'm really happy with the results and am determined to continue.

One of my very best friend's Caleb and I hiking in cold December weather!

I'm trying to eat about 75-80% raw, clean food a day. That 20-25% that isn't raw are made up of things like cooked vegetables, yogurt, oatmeal, grains (multi grain bread, wraps, shredded wheat), warm soups, protein shakes, and on occasion a salmon fillet. Sometimes my daily food intake is more raw than other days, but it all depends. What makes me happy about this is that I feel really great and not deprived. I also have money in my wallet. I was having some financial issues in terms of funding a really high raw lifestyle for my whole family especially in the winter. I'm pretty confident in saying that once the summer harvest hits we will be able to spend and consume more fresh, clean food.

This blog will continue to be about fresh healthy food, but also continue to be about my journey towards becoming a heathier, happier me.

~Maggie

Halloween Projects

2010-10-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

Took some time off blogging for some much needed R & R :) Did a bunch of things that needed doing, read a few great books, did a bunch of projects with the little one, created a few recipes (more of that to come!) and spent some time with the hubby :) All is going great, recently we've been decorating the home for Halloween! I got really into this year because my lil guy is 3.5 and what better age to decorate, create and just have a bunch of fun!

Our first project was our Scarecrow! He is hay/straw free (in case of allergies) and costs zero dollars to make! You won't have to spend a nickel on this guy, just use what's around your house. We had a bunch of preschoolers walk by with their teachers and they were giggling and yelling "Yay, Halloween Scarecrow!" It will be a hit with the kiddies!

Scarecrow Project

Materials:
1 long sleeve plaid shirt
1 pair of pants (jeans, jogging pants, etc)
1 pair of boots
1 pair of gloves
1 old hat
1 brown bag
Black marker or crayons
A couple pieces of string
Newspaper

Directions:
Tie the end of the plaid shirt with string and then start stuffing it with crinkled up newspaper till it feels full. Set aside and then stuff the pants with crinkled newspaper till full. Use the brown bag and marker/crayons to draw the scarecrows face. Then stuff the brown bag with crinkled newspaper and tie the end of the bag off with string.Decide where to place your scarecrow either indoors or outdoors, on a chair, stairs, ground, etc... Prop your scarecrow up carefully, boots, pants, shirt, gloves and finally his head and hat. I placed ours on a chair so it supports him well. Then add some decorations. We collected pretty leaves and scattered them around the ground and on him. We also placed some creepy crawlies and spider webs, that I had purchased for a dollar. Enjoy your scarecrow!
~~~
I spent only about $20 dollars on decorations this year, which is amazing considering I had no decorations at all! The main part of our house and our front porch is all decorated! I shopped around and tried to buy everything at 50% off. I captured a sneak peak of our home for ya. I tell ya there sure is some spooky stuff happening! :O

Happy Halloween everyone!

Berries, Apples and The Fair...Oh My!

2010-09-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Leftover Berry Crisp! MMMMmmm
I have so much to share from this past week and weekend. First up this delicious Berry Crisp! I officially did my last blackberry pick last week. The berries were either over-ripe or a bit under-ripe, not like in August where almost every berry was perfect. The squishy over-ripe berries were great for the berry crisp though.

Before I give you the recipe I have a hilarious story to share. I was picking the berries when I started hearing voices coming from the corn field behind the blackberry patch.

I see these 12-13 year old boys destroying someones corn crop. Throwing corn, ripping the plants from the ground, stomping on them, so I had to do something! I kept thinking about what if that was my crop, my hard work and my income. I hear them talking about how "badass" they are for sneaking in to the field, so I hide behind the blackberry bushes and yell out "hey there are little boys ruining the corn! Hunny call the owner and the cops they are trespassing and destroying property." They heard me, got very quiet and then bolted. As they were running away their cool, baggy jeans started falling down. Oh it was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen! I officially felt old and awesome!

Okay back to this recipe, which was made on a whim and AMAZING! The best part about this recipe is it can either be baked or eaten raw. It's delicious both ways!

Maggie's Lovely Berry Crisp
2 cups of Blackberries
2 cups of Blueberries
2 Peaches (optional)

(Topping)
1 cup of Almond Flour
1/2 cup of Dates
1/4 cup of Coconut
1/2 cup of Sunflower Seeds
1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

Directions:
Place the fruit into a oven safe dish. Then use a food processor to blend the toppings together. The topping mixture shouldn't be a super sticky consistency, so be careful with how many dates you use. Once done use about 1/4-1/2 the topping mixture to coat the fruit. Then take the rest of the topping mixture and spread it on top of the fruit, making an even top layer. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes or until the topping becomes brown/crisp. If you choose to eat it raw, then forget about baking it and dig in or place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to let the topping mixture mingle with the berries.

Note:I also tried this recipe using Rice Krispies as an alternative to almond flour and it worked great. I was all out of almonds and Rice Krispies worked amazingly well. You can also play with these measurements, since I threw everything into my food processor and the measurements listed are estimates.

Apple Harvesting
A couple days after blackberry harvesting we went apple picking! My cousin's neighbor was generous enough to share from his tree. There were so many apples hanging off the tree we didn't have to use the ladder we had brought with us. My sister and I picked for maybe 30 minutes and were able to harvest three big boxes of apples.

We don't' know what type of variety this apple is, but they are crisp and tart, perfect for pies and dehydrating. Speaking of which I used the dehydrator for the first time!
Apple Chips
If you are going to attempt this then I recommend you read a dehydrating guide, just in case you run into problems that I do not cover in my directions. I know I had a lot of questions that needed answers when I attempted this.

Directions:
Wash, peel, core and slice apples into 1/4-1/2 inch thickness. You can do this by hand or you can use an apple peeler/slicer. It can be easier, since slicing the apples is a bit tricky in terms of keeping them a similar thickness. While processing your apples place all slices into a bowl of water/lemon juice. The lemon juice helps delay discoloration. Once done drain and rinse the apple slices. Place them on a dehydrator tray. Dehydrate for 8-12 hours at 115 degrees. I did this just before bed and woke up to apple chips! If you are unsure whether your apple chips are dry enough for storage, take a chip and tear it apart. If you see any liquid then they are not dry enough for storage. If they are crisp and/or leathery they should be fine.

Note: Some dehydration guides tell you to blanch the apples in hot water before dehydrating to cut down on the drying time. We didn't do this and they worked out fine. I might try this step next time to see if there is much of a difference. Also other recommendations are to dry the apples at a higher temperature, but I wanted to keep it lower to not kill the enzymes.

This was an experiment for me and my guy, since we had never made apple chips before. We cut about 3 Excalibur trays worth of slices, which made about 3 full mason jars for storage. As of last night they were all gone! Delicious, and flavorful!

The Fair
A playful baby goat
We had our local exhibition/fair over the weekend. We spent about 5 hours there on Saturday and had so much fun. I really think it deserves it's own post since there was so much to see and do. I'll give you a sneak peek though....
We toured the animal area and saw lots of demonstrations on how to properly care for farm animals, which was nice to see. Then it was off to the fair rides, where my lil one was fearless and tried out 5 different rides! Then we viewed the exhibition hall where there were competitions for everything and anything.
From the longest zucchini and I swear it was as long as my leg!

To the make an animal out of locally grown vegetables. I loved this teddy bear! So cute! It's made with potatoes, ripe and unripe blueberries and cherry tomatoes.

Until next post :) Enjoy!

Garden Pests and Harvesting Lettuce

2010-09-09T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have a caterpillar problem in my garden! They are known as cabbage worms and are one of the most common insects to attack veggie gardens in Canada, United States and Mexico. There are 3 different types of these caterpillars and I have the “Imported Cabbageworm.” They are velvety to the touch, bright green, a thin yellow stripe down its back and it produces green droppings on the plants as it eats.

Where did they come from?The cabbage white butterfly! You will see them often in early spring to late fall. They are easy to detect because they don’t particularly fly, rather float with the air currents. They typically are white with a black spot on each wing.

What do they eat?
Everything! Well almost…. They especially love the brassica family, everything from broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and leafy greens.

How do I know I have them?
I realized I had some sort of pest because there were holes chewed through my lettuce, kale and broccoli. Some of the leaves were even skeletalized! Often the holes were chewed from the center of the leaf and in some cases whole leaves were being eaten. Look for them on the back of the plant leaves. Once they grew larger, I found them sitting on the top of the leaves. The larger ones also produce large green droppings, so you will realize that you have a caterpillar somewhere on that plant.

How do I remove this pest from my organic garden?
Basically check your plants often. Since I already have them, I am now checking the back of the leaves every afternoon/evening when they most commonly eat. I then remove them from our garden. I also check for tiny white specks on the back of the leaves, which are most likely the eggs. I will probably do this for the next 2 weeks. I have a small garden so this can be seriously damaging to our production. On the other hand, I have only found about 10 small caterpillars (no bigger than the width of my pinky finger) and 2 larger ones (about 1 inch long), so I consider myself lucky in terms of how bad it can get.

Another old gardener’s trick that I learned from a dear friend of mine with 70 years of gardening experience said to sprinkle flour on your plants. Do this after it rains or in the morning after a dew. The caterpillars will eat the flour, become bloated and die.

If you do have a serious problem with them you could purchase bacillus thuringiensis from a garden center. It is a biological/naturally occurring bacterial organism that is non-toxic to humans and animals, and is often used by organic growers. Caterpillars are just repulsed by it! You can purchase it in a dust or spray.

How can I prevent it from happening?

Since this was my first time planting a garden in this location, I did not realize how avid the white butterfly was here. Next time I will probably put floating row covers, or nylon netting overtop of my plants. This would prevent the butterfly from being able to lay eggs on my plants in the first place. Also rotating your crops is a good idea every season.

I hope our garden will survive this infestation. It’s pretty far along in terms of its growth, but one of our kale plants has been hit pretty hard. Once these caterpillars eat most of the leaves the plants cannot photosynthesize and eventually die. I’m going to try the ole sprinkle flour on the plants trick and see if this works. Wish me luck!

Harvesting Lettuce
In other news I was able to harvest some of our “cut and come again” butter lettuce! Not that you want to hear about food after reading all about caterpillars, but the lettuce was delicious, soft and buttery :) A couple tips for picking this "cut and come again" lettuce:

~Always pick the outer leaves of the plant. They are usually the biggest and more mature.

~Once you think a leaf is big enough to eat, then pick it! This will encourage more growth from your lettuce.

~Pull the leaf downwards to harvest the leaf, opposed to pulling on the leaf.

~If you do end up cutting most or all of the lettuce leaves then leave about an inch of growth on the plant and it should grow back again in time.

~I usually get about 4-6 harvests off of each lettuce plant through out the season. The lettuce leaves usually keep in the fridge for about 3 days. They are so young and tender that we usually eat them before they get a chance to make their way into our fridge.

I hope you harvest lots of your own lettuce, rather than deal with pesky bugs in your garden! Happy Veggie Gardening to you all :)

Weekend Projects

2010-09-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

We have been working on a couple family projects here at our place this long weekend. I usually try to come up with a couple small activity or projects for me and the lil one to do during the week. This weekend's project were:

The Excalibur Dehydrator Project (which was mostly my own project)
The Garden Label Project

The Excalibur Dehydrator Project was downsized a bit to mostly just clean up. Everything seems to run fine, it was just really needing some love. Although I did realize I have a weird quirk! If I don't really know where an item has been it's whole life I have a hard time using it. For example, I would probably never want used couches or bed mattress unless I knew the previous owner. I'm okay with 2nd hand clothes, plates, knick knacks, but there are certain things that give me the heebies jeebies. A friend of mine said, "maybe it's because you will never really know how clean it is!" Could be true, but I know for couches and mattresses I worry about bugs travelling into our home. As for the dehydrator I feel like I keep having to give it another cleaning and scrub before I use it. What is with me!?

Here are some before pictures

And here are the after pics...

It's in pretty great condition and run smoothly. Excalibur sure knows how to make a dehydrator! I'm thinking of making some dried apple slices for my first run through, since apples are just hitting the harvest season here.

The Garden Label Project is something my lil one and I have been working on. This is a great project for the kids! All you need are a few of those paint sticks you get free at any paint supply store, non-toxic paint, and some paint brushes. I let my little one get creative and choose whatever colors he wants for the stick/label itself. Once it's dried I use a small paint brush to write the vegetable's name. If you have older children they could totally do this project all on their own.

Supplies:
Paint sticks
Non-toxic Paint
Paint brushes
News paper (to protect the surface you are working at)

This label is actually one I worked on myself, since my lil guy's are still a bit damp. Pictures to come soon! His are so pretty because he blended colors together, it reminds me of sunsets and the ocean.

Other than projects we've been enjoying our long weekend by staying indoors. The fall weather has hit us, so it's rain, rain and chilly weather!

Welcoming Fall...

2010-08-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

Last post in August, which means it's September and that means fall is around the corner in my part of the world. I guess I always associated September with the fall season because of school. School means summer is over. The equation September + school = fall season! I don't know about you but I LOVE fall. It has so many wonderful aspects to it. I can't wait the 20 or so days till fall is technically here so I'm making a post today.

To me fall represents a time of change...as spring to most represents a time of re-birth. In fall we see changes from leaves changing color to the weather becoming colder/rainier. I also see warm sweaters to cozy up in and tea to sip on.Then there are the pumpkins to adore...and the gourds in all their shapes and sizes.Who can forget the fall harvest...including cranberries...yum!We are lucky enough to have a Cranberry Farm in our area. I checked it out a couple weeks ago after blueberry picking. They had the most delicious cranberries I have ever tasted! I am going to buy some of there fresh cranberries once they are harvested this September. I am so excited!

Speaking of fall harvests, our garden is starting to grow, grow, grow! And check out the cold frame my hubby built. He designed it this way so that our vegetables could grow taller with the cold frame still on, plus it opens and closes really easily. The only problem we had today was a little bit of rain water pooling on one side. I caught it before anything happened.

My garden has changed incredibly in a matter of a couple weeks. It's amazing how fast these little one's can grow. They have doubled there size since I planted them! In the front of this picture is broccoli, to the left is kale and in the very back is butter and romaine lettuce. I still have to plant my spinach. I need to get on that!

Change is really hard for lots of people including myself. I'm not a huge fan although I don't mind small changes here and there. It's when a bunch of things change all at once that can make it hard to deal with. Maybe that is why squash, gourds and pumpkins are all at their peak that time of the year. Comfort food, hello :)

This September will be a bit of a change for our family, because my guy is going back to school. Just to finish up a few classes and then he graduates with his degree. He hasn't been in school for a few years now, so this will be a huge adjustment for him. As for myself and my little one it will be an adjustment too, meaning we won't see him as much and also having to give him quiet time to do homework. I think this change will be good for us. My guy will be able to complete something he has been wanting to for a long time and we can move forward in our lives together.

Now go enjoy the last 20 days of summer and ask yourself what changes are happening in your life this Fall season?

Food for Thought

2010-08-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Food is fundamental part of our life and for most of us food is about pleasure, happiness, comfort, excitement, fun and fundamentally speaking survival. Food is also involved in our friendships, love and social interactions. I’ve been thinking recently about the food I eat and my state of happiness. I say state of happiness because I believe it is on a continuum or metaphorically speaking a roller coaster. I have ups and downs to my happiness and sometimes the ride stops all together and I get on the sad train. For me the sad train is also known as the SAD (Standard American Diet) train. I have definitely seen a correlation to my happiness when I’m eating high amounts of fresh vegetables, nuts, fruits and grain. My body feels healthy; my digestion is routine and painless. My state of mind is happy, my moods are enhanced and I feel good about being in my body. I can go for a long time without feelings of sadness, frustration, self-loathing or doubt. It’s usually when something effects my environment in a certain way that I find myself feeling upset. When I find myself eating foods that are processed within the day I am feeling tired, sluggish, and soon enough unhappy. Unhappy with how my body feels, unhappy with the pain in my joints and organs, and unhappy that I feel miserable.
From theses experiences, I believe the foods I eat give me short term or long term happiness. Short term happiness is usually from foods that release sugar in to the blood stream quickly meaning candy, fast food, foods laced with preservatives, soda, bottled juices, etc... Long term happiness comes from eating foods that are grown from the earth and sun meaning vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc...I’ve realized that I need to consume the best quality foods to have the best quality days. Since our bodies are in a continual state of repair as we age, we need the best possible energy to aid this process. The food we eat and the environment we live in are both essential in giving our bodies energy. Since I’m the owner and caretaker of my body I am going to without a doubt try to provide myself with foods that aid in replenishing and repairing my body.

Do certain foods make you happy? Have you seen a difference in the way your body and mind feel when you eat certain foods?

Here are some funny food quotes I’d thought I’d share:

High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash. Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us? ~Annita Manning

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry

Plant a radish, get a radish, never any doubt. That's why I love vegetables, you know what they're about! ~Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt

Love Food :)

2010-08-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

Working on a new post about loving healthy, fresh food! I was playing with my food this afternoon and this happened!

New Commenting System & Update

2010-08-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd let everyone know that I am putting in a new commenting system, so if you notice your comments have disappeared don't worry they will reappear within a few hours :) Hopefully this new system will be better and I will be able to individually reply to your comments!

Hope everyone is having a fun weekend :) I've been busy the past 3 days helping a friend sort stuff for the garage sale we had today. I sold a few of my own things and splurged some of my cash on straight from the garden produce from a neighbors veggie stand :)

Did I also mention I scored an Excalibur dehyrator!
It's an older 2500 model, but it was free, so how could I go wrong. It's a 5 tray system, runs well, but it just needs some love. I'm going to make a project out of re-conditioning it...there will be project updates!

xoxo
~Maggie

Top Ten

2010-08-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd do something a little different today and post my top ten list. I dreamt about doing this, which I think is hilarious and pathetic. Don't I have anything better to dream about other than blog content?!?! I guess not :)

These are in no particular order, rather they are all things that are making me happy at the moment.

1. Our Fall Garden

Our fall veggie garden has been planted and it's beautiful. The picture shows that we made a simple raised garden bed. We might do another raised garden bed with some stone/concrete slabs we found when digging out the yard for this veggie garden. It will probably be a flower or herb bed :D
Butter Lettuce
I planted quite a few veggie starts including kale, broccoli, butter lettuce, and romaine. There is about 24 plants in total planted. I hope to plant from seed some spinach, since it's only a 30 day crop. It's amazing that it can take only 30 days to grow spinach. Kale

2. Gardening Tips
I love learning about new and especially old ways of gardening. I find learning the old tricks of trade are really the most useful :) Here are some of the things I've learned from preparing a raised garden bed for this upcoming fall season...

If you are placing your bed on lawn or soil than you only need to add about 6" of soil mix. If you placing your raised bed on top of concrete, hard clay, or anything the roots of plant can't penetrate than you need roughly 9-12" of soil :)

We used a mix of our own compost, peat moss, and store bought organic topsoil. Try to find out where your soil is from and if it's been sterilized. Super important, so that your plants don't catch disease.

For fall planting know when the first frost of the season hits and count back from there to know when you should be planting. For example first frost hits mid October for us, so we will be planting our 30 day spinach crop anytime before mid September. Check out the above picture to locate your frost season in North America :)

3. Saving Plants

The little one and I did a wander through Wal-marts garden section and the plants were looking so sad being at many were at end of the season. We found these little guys though and rescued them! Four beautiful, small oregano plants, for only 50cents! We couldn't leave them behind and look how wonderful they look potted up together :) I've already used some in a soup and it was perfect in flavor!

4. Blueberry Basil Limeade
This has to be one of the most decadent juices I've tried. It would totally suit a special dinner or party. I think the basil gives it such a nice twist! I found this recipe on Gone Raw. I increased the basil, blueberries and lime in this recipe because I found it to watered down at first. Once I did that it was spot on, so you might want to decrease the water :) Just play with it and you'll find what you like best, so worth it!
Here is what I did...

2 cups of blueberries
6 large basil leaves
1/2 a limes juice
1/2 teaspoon agave (or whatever sweetener your prefer)
2 cups water (or less to your desired consistency)

Blend it up and serve over ice and garnish with some basil.
This juice of course does not have to be for special occasions like I mentioned before. It's a great everyday juice. My lil one LOVED it! He gulped it down and wanted more after :)

5.Spending Time doing Nothing
This is something I try hard to do! That sounds odd, but seriously when do we really do nothing these days. The past four weeks for us have been busy...I guess all of August has been non-stop, no wonder it's going by so fast. A couple nights a week my lil one and I will watch a special movie together that he has picked. Well last night it was Winnie the Pooh. This used to be one of my favorites as a kid, I'd always ask to watch it. It surprised me when I didn't remember the ending very well, which is a conversation between Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. Don't worry this does have a point! Their conversation revolves around remembering to do absolutely nothing sometimes and just enjoy what is around us.

"Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering" -Winnie the Pooh, A.A Milne

6. My Son's Cowboy Garden Project
Here are pic's...

It's coming to end this little garden. We've been enjoying it for a couple weeks now, picking here and there. We've been adding it to salads and toppings on veggies. My lil guy LOVED this project and I would totally recommend it to any parent. What's great about it is that everyday they get to watch it grow, water it and the sense of accomplishment is priceless for sure. In the end we get to eat the sprouts yum!

7. Breakfast
I've never been a huge fan of breakfast, but since incorporating smoothies, green juices and fruits/nuts I never want to skip it! I actually look forward to breakfast, not the clean up though. Who likes cleaning up their juicer, really?!
Here are some pretty picture's of breakfasts that I usually have during the week :) Fruit and Nut Breakfast Bowl with Blueberry Syrup
Blackberry/Blueberry Oat Milk Smoothie
Zucchini-Romaine Green Juice

8. Wire Jewlery
I love making making wire jewlery. I used to sell it online on artfire.com, but I found it wasn't really worth the fees per month, in comparison to how much I was selling. I did make some profits though, which paid for materials. Once I started working I totally stopped making new pieces because my time was so limited. I would have had to sacrifice other important things in my life to be able to do it, so away it went. I started making a few more pieces again, here and there. Mostly for myself or if a friend asks. It's something that I do enjoy doing because it's instant satisfaction.

Here are a few more of the pieces I've made :)
9. Blogging

I enjoy blogging because it's a medium in which I can express myself creativly through food and my life expeirences. I also found out quickly that it's a great way to connect with people, make new friends and be part of community of my interest. There is no way that I would be able to part of a large food community like this if I weren't online blogging. Another reason I blog is because it's my "me time." It's something that is seperate from being a mom, wife, friend, etc...I feel like I can be myself with no titles, roles or labels that I carry during the day.

There have been down-sides at times to blogging. Have you ever got sucked into the vortex of reading blog after blog, until you realize that you spent 2 hours just reading about other peoples lives. There are a couple blogs I have stumbled upon that leave me feeling like I am an ametuer blogger. These blogs tend to have perfect photos, good content, strong opinions and seemingly high education on varying topics. They leave me feeling inadequate, like their is no messy life behind their blog.

I am currently taking an online course that at one point will be discussing how women often compare themselves to other women. I guess in this case bloggers comparing themselves to other bloggers. Even though I have been blogging since 1999 having my own personal journal, I never felt as though I had to meet up to others expectations. Why do I sometimes feel this way now? Probably because I have moments where I compare myself to the seemingly perfect blogs. Leaving myself feeling the need to meet some expectation. Haha when did my blog ever become that important!

I realize I should take a look at the positive aspects of this situation. I should learn from these bloggers, appreciate what they have to share and I should learn to NOT compare myself to others. I also try to remember why I have my blog for the reasons I previously mentioned. That takes a lot of the pressure off and takes me out of that inadequate place.

Do you ever feel inadequate about your blog? Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself to other bloggers?

For some great blogging humor, check out these comics...they make me smile and laugh :)

10. Blog Awards
I was surprised and grateful when two bloggers decided to pass on awards to me.

Thank you so much blessedmama for the Happy 101 award! The award works this way, I list ten things that make me happy (done!). Then I pass on the award to ten blogs that make me happy :) If you've already received it and I mention you than just enjoy how much I appreciate your blog!

LittleMissBaker: This is my youngest sister's blog. She found something she is passionate about and I hope it leads her down a healthy, happy path.

Contagious Health: Melissa is compassionate, intelligent and fun blogger. I always look forward to her recaps, pictures and stories :)

What Run's Lori: Lori is insightful, inspiring, funny, exercising, delicious food making goddess!

The Way: Elle has one of my favorite blogs. She discusses important topics from health, wellness, spirtuality :) I love reading the articles she posts!

Bites and Bliss: A dedicated daily blogger! I admire those folks :) I feel like I get to follow her through a journey of healthy eating, exercise and life.

Raw Food Inspirations: I always try Pam's recipes, because she knows whats delicious!

The Raw Butterfly: Raw Butterfly is gentle, loving and kind. She posts helpful information and beautiful photos.

The(Teen)Age of Raw: A wonderful blog full of beautiful photos, stories about her life and eating raw as a teenage woman.

Rawkinmom:Love this blog because it's eating raw vegan through another mom's experience. Her family is amazing and she is so knowledgable :)

Rawdawgrory:I stumbled across this blog and I'm so glad I did. Rory is hilarious, educated and has amazing recipes. Not to mention him and his family are on a trek across the USA, talk about a journey :)

The rules for this award are, thank the person who gave you the award. Tell 7 things about yourself. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers you've recently discovered and you think are fantastic!

Thank you to Vegan And So Forth for the Versatile Blogger award!

7 things about myself

1. I have 3 sisters, but no brothers! Always wanted a older brother growing up :)
2. I have a degree in Social Work, my focus is in the mental health field.
3. I have moderate scoliosis aka my spine is curved. I have the typical S-shape curve, that you often see associated with scoliosis.
4. I broke my left wrist when I was 10 and my right ring finger when I was 12 both were during school related activities!
5. I do not have cable television. I watch movies in the evening sometimes, other than that the only shows I follow are HBO's True Blood and Grey's Anatomy.
6. I grew up living with my parents and grandparents. We lived on a large property where my grandparents had large gardens, and fruit trees.
7. I've travelled by car/truck, bus, train, ferry boat, passenger plane, canoe, kayak, hike, walked, ran, biked, but never by commercial airline!

I'm going to do what others have done with this wonderful award and pass it on to any of you that read my blog that have not recieved it. I know quite a few of you have, so if you havn't please do so because you deserve it :)

Writing dilemas

2010-08-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have been writing a blog post over the past 2 days! I am usually able to get in 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there...it drives me a bit nutty doing it this way though. Unfortunately, the full time it takes me to write a post (an hour or so) I typically do not have in one sitting. I feel like one post takes days..wait it does! hehe :) Anyone else have this issue too? What do you do to stay focused and not frustrated?

Hopefully my post will be up today sometime, no promises though :)

xoxo
~Maggie

Flowers & Granola

2010-08-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

I've been busy the past couple days enjoying my flowers and trying out some different bluberry recipes.

Here are a few pictures of what's been happening in my kitchen...

Blueberry-Orange GranolaBlueberry-Orange Granola Bars
Blueberry-Orange Donut Bits
I made three food options from the same recipe, which makes this recipe super versatile. The granola is delicious with milk, the bars are great for on the go, and the donut bits are just a healthy treat!

Here's the recipe:

(The Dry Mix)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup almond
1 cup oats
1 cup buckwheat groats
2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (mixture of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg)

Blend everything in your food processor separately, except for the spice. This makes it easier to ensure that the seeds, oats, groats or nuts have broken down into small pieces. Add everything into a bowl. Add the pumpkin pie spice and mix.

*Note: If you don't have all these ingredients, use whatever you have in your cupboards. That's what I did! I'm sure these would be great with pecans or walnuts, or maybe some coconut!

(The Wet Mix)
1.5 cups dates
Orange Juice from 2 large oranges
2 tbsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries
Blend the dates, orange juice, and vanilla in the food processor till smooth. Add to the dry ingredients. Then blend the blueberries in the food processor and add to the dry. Mix everything!

Either form into little balls and place into the fridge. I let them harden for a 2 hours in the fridge and they were ready to eat! My lil one really enjoyed them this way :)The granola and the bars both need to be dehydrated for about a day or so. I knew my granola was done when it was crunchy and had very little moisture. I took the bars out at the same time and am storing them in the fridge since they do have a bit of moisture left in them. This makes them chewy and delicious :) As for the granola, it's my favorite way to eat this recipe. It's so good with milk and berries!

Give granola a try, it's much easier to make than I thought it would be. Hope everyone is having a great week!

And if you havn't checked out Bitt of Raw then you should because she is having an awesome giveaway! The deadline is August 27 to enter and believe me you want to enter for a chance to win!

I'm in blueberry bliss!

2010-08-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

I switched it up yesterday, and decided to go blueberry picking with my mom, sister and my lil one.

Before I talk about that though, I should mention the rest of my week. I wasn't online much because I was staying at my parent's place. My parents were needing me to help them with a few things, so my lil one and I just camped at their house for the week.

We spent a few days searching used book and thrift stores. In which I was able to find a great juicing book! "Juicing!" By Judi Olstein, has recipes for juices, soups, sorbets, marinades, sauces, entrees, and salad dressings. It's quite different and only cost $2.00! I'll let you know if I make any of the recipes.

One morning I was looking at some of my sister's book and discovered she had a great smoothie book, which she purchased at the same bookstore I had found my juicing book at. Can you guess the price? Only $2.00!

"Smoothies for Life!" by Daniella Chace and Maureen B. Keane, gives a review of almost all the ingredients they use to make up their recipes. They give you alternatives to milks, talk about supplements, and even give you grocery lists for ingredients. This book is informative and at the same time had me laughing. The names of some of the smoothies are hilarious.
While reading this book, I stumbled upon a recipe for Oat Milk. I've never tried or seen Oat Milk before, so I thought I'd give it a go.

"Oat Milk"
1 cup of Oats
1 cup of water
Blend ingredients in a blender until creamy. Pour everything into a nut milk bag and squeeze out all the milk into a bowl. Wash the blender and create whatever smoothie you would like! This makes about 1/2 a cup of Oat Milk.

I made my own smoothie recipe, since I had to use what was on hand. I named it after the "short blonde bombshell", since they didn't seem to have brunettes involved in any of their recipe names. They did have a recipe for redheads called "Hot redhead with a secret!"

"Brunette Bombshell"

1 banana
1 peach (sliced)
1 cup of blackberries (picked by me and frozen)
1/2 cup of Oat Milk

Blend everything in a blender. Pour and enjoy. Makes 1 serving :)
Oat milk is something I will make again. The book recommends that it's best in smoothies and I would agree, since it's a pretty strong taste. I could see it working as a great substitute for milk in baking though. My lil one loved this recipe and said the drink tasted like a muffin! Too funny :)

Back to blueberry picking! We started off the morning being greeted by this little guy outside my parents house. We don't have any poisonous snakes here, let alone many snakes at all. This one just omits a nasty smell as defense, lesson learned as a kid. We all just looked at him and he looked back at us, until we all were bored.

Then we were off with $40.00 in each of our pockets, hoping to pick around 20lbs each. The farm we've been going to for years has the best price we can find at $2.00/lb u-pick. There are not many other u-pick blueberry farms around here, other than a 1 hour or more drive away. This farm is really beautiful and has helpful staff on hand. They supply you with buckets, let you drive right down to their patch, allow well-behaved children, and even sell little recipe books! They have around 1400+ bushes and a couple different varieties of blueberries. Really small blueberries for baking or those yummy big ones we buy in stores. We picked the big ones!

It was quite a hot morning, but we were able to pick just under 40lbs in a couple hours. Don't mind me looking like a sweaty farmer! I love those straw hats, they always make me feel like a farmer :) I had one, but wasn't wearing it in this picture. I think my lil one wanted to try it on.

My lil one even picked half a bucket and he was so good at just picking the "blue" ones. He loved being there because the blueberry patch was like a maze he could walk through. We all were way to hot by noon, so we packed up, purchased our berries and drove down to another farm. Before we left we admired the farm's horses! They were beautiful, friendly and hungry!

The other farm we went to sells their produce on the side of the road. Love veggie stands! This farm's main attraction is their corn maze and pumpkin patch.
I bought myself 2 green zucc's, 2 yellow zucc's and one of those green pumpkin looking squash. I still have to find out the name of that one. In the picture if your wondering what's under the white cloth, it was a bunch of beets on ice :) They also sold other produce, but were sold out for the day :(

Once we were home our afternoon was filled with...

Rinsing blueberries in cold water
Sorting blueberries in bowls
Preparing blueberries on cookie sheets to go into the freezer!

My guy made some blueberry jam last night as soon as he was home from work, and who knows what else I'll make with all these berries! I'm sure blueberry, zucchini and don't forget blackberry recipes will be a plenty on this blog in the near future :) I also wanted to mention that my son's "Cowboy Garden" is thriving, we have lots of sprouts growing! A few of you messaged asking how it was going, so I'll be posting a picture next post :)

I wanted to ask you, how much does it cost to pick blueberries at your local u-pick farm?

Trying new things...

2010-08-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

I usually find myself wanting to try out new recipes or projects, that many of you amazing bloggers write about. I appreciate how much effort everyone puts in to share with their readers. I love that sense of sharing and learning within a community. This weekend I took the time out to try out one recipe and one project from the blogging community and had a blast doing so. I really want to try to take more time to do these things because not only is it fun, but I really discover new tastes and creativity.

Here is KATH's Classic Oats recipe, which was the best oatmeal I've ever had! It's been rainy and cold here the past couple days, so everyone in the family appreciated this one. I substituted organic cow's milk for almond milk and it turned out delicious. I loved the banana, flax and vanilla in this recipe :) Yum!

Then we topped it with blackberries (of course), homemade peanut butter, and mini chocolate chips. My lil one loved decorating the oatmeal. Yay, super kid friendly :)

The project that we worked on was an activity that I found at Raw Mom Blog. I love Ruth's ideas, they are always fun for the kids and for parents too! Thinking about it now, i'd probably do her projects even if I didn't have a child.
"The Cowboy's Chia Garden!"
I helped my lil one collect soil from our composter, which was exciting! There was so much of it, I can't believe how fast it's breaking down and turning to soil. Awesome!!! Then he decorated and placed the chia seed paste in the garden :)

Originally the project calls for a fairy for your garden, but I didn't have any small fairies on hand and my lil one LOVES this teddy bear cowboy statue. I'll take more pictures as the chia starts to sprout.

The best part about this project was that he was able to do every step himself, with my direction on what to do next. He was so happy and excited! He ended up wanting to make another one, so instead of using a planter tray like the project asks for, we used a frisbee!

The rest of our weekend was filled with family visits and blackberry picking when it wasn't raining.
Did you try anything new this weekend?
~Maggie

I'm in blackberry bliss!

2010-08-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

We went blackberry picking yesterday morning. We were able to pick about 10lbs in an hour, which I thought was great since we were battling the thorns and prickles for the juicy berries.

Evidence we were battling the prickles..well evidence my guy was battling the prickles and thorns, while I took some pictures. I found this picking spot near a school and community track. I'd seen children and their grandma's picking here last year, so I figured we better get a jump start on the blackberry season.

The bushes behind our house are definitely not getting as much sun as these guys are, since they are basically all green berries still.

Even this patch had a lot of green and red berries, so I think we did hit the start of the season. This means blackberry picking for all of August! And meeting new friends like this lil blue guy...
I'm assuming he is a blue dragonfly. He was so tiny, not even the length of my pinky finger, super friendly though. He just sat there watching me, for awhile and once my guy came near he flew away :(

We were done after about an hour, which was a good thing since the humidity really started getting to us. The air quality was really poor here yesterday and so far this morning due to all the forest fires.

Here is our haul for the morning, found a couple spiders trying to catch a lift home with us. The garden in our backyard welcomed them.

My guy immediately started making blackberry pie crumble to bring to my parents later that evening and I immediately started processing and freezing.

Then I started looking up blackberry recipes, share with me if you know of a great one! :) Does anyone else find it sad that when you use any search engine, type in "Blackberry", and you get no sites, articles or images of the actual food. You just get flooded with cell phones aka blackberry info...ugh :S

Anyways, I have plans for a blackberry cheesecake, a blackberry sauce, and a blackberry chocolate :) As for yesterday we threw some in a fruit salad, made a crumble, and some smoothies. Oh yum! Is it bad that we had raw blackberry pie crumble for breakfast this morning? Nah think not :D

~Maggie

Outdoor Dinner

2010-08-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ate dinner outdoors tonight under a tree and it was a dinner for two! Our lil one went to visit family for the evening. Before that I took the lil one to get his haircut, which he loved! Oh he looks so cute with his new haircut :) We ended up basically spending the day together at home because it was just to hot and humid here :( We would have been sick if we had gone hiking in this kind of weather, plus I worry about the lil one dealing with the heat.

Dinner was pretty good. I'm not the biggest fan of cauliflower mash, but i'm trying out different recipes to get it to my liking.

Marinated veggies with cauliflower mash and rustic vegan bread :) I included the links to the recipes, which i've posted in the past. As for the cauliflower mash...

1 head of Cauliflower
1/4 cup of Olive Oil (you may want to use less)
1 clove of minced Garlic or garlic powder
1 handful of fresh dill (chopped)
Dash of salt and pepper

Place all ingredients in the blender and puree until it's a smooth and creamy like texture. I found it to be quite a strong cauliflower taste in it's raw form. I think next time i'm going to cook the cauliflower so that it's not as strong in flavor. It makes about 4 servings.

Well i'm off to enjoy a movie and visit with the family. Hope you enjoyed my three posts a day adventure. I'm not to sure I could do it everyday, considering some days get so busy and it can be hard to concentrate. It was fun today though!

~Maggie

Snack Time and Lunch Time

2010-08-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

Had a snack before we went out to do some errands with a good friend :) Glad I did because it was so humid outside and even worse in our car that I probably would have been dehydrated. MMmmm gotta love me some melon!

I bought some black beans, kidney beans, and nectarines...that kinda rhymed! Thought about eating a nectarine at lunch, but was sidetracked by super salad guy!
Can you make out his smile, nose, eyes, eyebrows and hair? Salad is just more fun when you decorate it, although I do like tossed salad too! I guess it's the mom in me making faces out of things I eat.

Lunch Time Salad included...Cherry tomatoes, green leaf lettuce, cucumber, a couple of cherries, raisins, and avocado. I also had some dinner leftovers a mixture of sweet corn off the cob, roasted zucchini and green peppers. It was yummy!
My HUGE mason jar of water. It may not look huge in this picture, but trust me. This is a trick I play on myself, so that I know at the end of the day I've drank enough water. With regular size glasses I could easily drink a whole glass during a meal and then I'll forget to fill it up again or a little later. This way I have a couple glasses of water all poured into one. Plus this jar is so huge that I can't try to ignore it.

Off to do something fun before the day is over...see you around dinner :)
~Maggie

Breakfast

2010-08-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today I thought about doing a KERF inspired set of posts, meaning a post for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus details on my day. Originally when I started this blog I decided on no real format. Just to blog about whatever livingfood related topics I found of interest. Recently I've been trying to make the decision on whether or not I want my blog to be...

a. Recipe or topic driven with a bit of personal reflection. Basically my favorite livingfood recipe or topic of the week and why/discussion. Similar to what it is now.

b. Food and recipe driven, but with my daily happenings/events. More like a journaling and recap of my daily/weekly life that includes the foods I've eaten and recipes I've used/created.

The reason I've been thinking about changing it up a bit is because I notice that a lot of the blogs I enjoy reading are more towards the personal format; however, there are my go to blogs whenever I just want a great recipe quickly and easily. Ahhh decisions.

Anyways, on with breakfast...

This was the left over filling from my Lemon-Lime tarts!

1/2 cup of Lemon-Lime Tart filling (see previous post for recipe)
1 medium Banana
5 Cherries
1 tbsp of Chia Seeds
1 pinch of Lavender (harvested from my garden)
1 tsp of shredded Coconut

It was delicious! I ate it way to quickly :(

Today I am hoping to go for a hike somewhere, I have an idea about one i'd like to try but I'm going to see if my guy is up to it. Can you believe that I'm the only one awake this morning. My lil one and my guy are still sleeping beauties...it's been such a relaxing morning...

See you around lunch!
~Maggie

It started with a lemon...

2010-08-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

What do you do with a big bag o'lemons? (That just so happen to be 50% off..costing me a dollar!) There are just way to many options out there, but I decided to go with something I've never tried making before.....Lemon-Lime pie tarts!

This recipe is great in so many ways. First off, it's INEXPENSIVE! I find that a lot of raw desserts are too expensive on my budget. Secondly, it was easy to create! This only took me about 15 minutes to make and it would have been faster if I didn't soak the raisins. Thirdly, it's a great summer dessert. It's super refreshing on a hot summer day and not one of those super sweet desserts. Last but not least, I think this pie filling can be used in different dishes. Try it as you would yogurt or pudding, sprinkle with some granola, berries, or nuts.

I should also mention to the mom's reading this entry that my lil one, LOVED these. I was surprised because I thought he might not like the tartness from the lemon and lime, but he smiled and said yummy! The crust does balance the tartness of the filling, plus the addition of sweetener to the filling helps :)

I found this recipe on vegweb.com (I love this site)..here is the link to the original recipe Lemon-Lime Pie. I made a few additions to the recipe, and of course made mine into tarts :) How fun!

Lemon-Lime Pie Tarts (my altered version)

(The Crust)

1 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup raisins (soak these for 10minutes prior)

1 tsp Agave
Process the sunflower seeds, raisins and the agave in a food processor. I didn't need to add any water to bind it, I just gave it a few minutes of processing till it was sticky. I pressed about a tbsp of crust mixture into each tart shell.

(The Filling)

3 frozen bananas

1/2 an avocado

2 tbsp coconut oil (liquid form)

1 tsp of Agave

Juice of 1.5 lemon

Juice of 1 lime

Place all the filling ingredients into blender and blend until smooth. Pour a little bit into each tart shell and place in fridge or freezer. Top with some lemon zest or a banana slice.

This makes about 9 tarts, although I did have some filling left over so I could have easily made 10. There wasn't enough crust filling to make a 10th though :( Next time I'm going to add just a little extra of each ingredient to the crust filling.

Now to share these with some friends and family to get some reviews. The reason behind making them into tarts was so I could transport them easily :)

Enjoy!

~Maggie

Summertime

2010-07-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

Just finished my part of the e-book project! Just little tweeks here and there, but it's done :) Hopefully the other mom's involved had as much fun as I did! Thanks again to Rawkinmom for letting me be part of this project :)

Now i'm off to town to take my lil one to a parade then the beach! Should be fun :) Then it's back here, to look over my recipes one more time and then send it off. Summer is so busy, but i'm managing to find time to create some recipes, hike, play at the river and befriend butterflies :)

~Maggie

Vegan Baking Recipes

2010-07-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well it's finally happened...the weather has turned itself into the summer season. I like to keep the temp down in our place if I can and since we don't have air conditioning it makes it a bit more work. I have to place fans in specific areas, open a close windows depending on the air flow to try to optimize. It's actually kinda silly and fun! Summer sure is busy, busy! I have a couple things on the go, plus life gets involved in there and before you know it I have no time for things I'd like to be doing. *coughs* blog posts *coughs* Anyways, I'm sure your all in the same boat or in a boat since it's summer time!

I'm going to be posting some lovely vegan baking recipes today that are not raw. You might want to try these out when it's not as hot out, so your house doesn't heat up, unless you have AC! Feel free to totally change and manipulate the ingredients in these recipes, that's the fun part of it all, yes?!

I warn you, these are the best pancakes I've ever tasted in my entire 28 years!!! So delicious that I did not add any toppings to them at all, no raw syrups, fruit, nut butter..nothing! They are so flavorful, and my lil guy LOVES them :)

Blueberry Chia Flax Pancakes by Maggie(livingfoodjunkie)

1/2 cup of applesauce
1 cup of nut milk

2 tbsp of lemon juice

1 cup of Whole Wheat flour (or whatever flour you would prefer)

1/4 cup of ground flax
1/4 cup of chia seed

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 of baking soda

1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2-1 cup of blueberries

Combine nut milk and lemon juice and let it sit for 5 minutes, to make like a "fake" buttermilk. In mixing bowl, combine applesauce, and the buttermilk mixture. Add in brown sugar, salt, baking soda, flax and mix well. Add in flour, mix well. Fold in blueberries. Pour onto a non stick pan or griddle by 1/4-1/3 cup fulls. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Makes about 12 servings. Roughly 130-140 calories per cake :)

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Foccacia Flat Bread by maggie(livingfoodjunkie) No pictures sorry! :(

4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp raw cane sugar (or whatever sweetener you prefer)

1 1/4 tbsp baking powder
1 cup warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp dill (dried, if using fresh just add more to your liking)

1.5 tbsp Italian seasoning

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Knead to a dough consistency for 5 minutes. Roll out dough till its about an inch thick. Lay flat on a large cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees until brown, roughly 15 minutes

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Rustic Bread by Maggie(livingfoodjunkie)

5 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

4.5 tbsp of quick active yeast

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp chia seeds

2 tbsp poppy seeds

3 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tbsp flax seeds

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

3.5 tbsp of raw cane sugar

2.5 tbsp of coconut oil
2 cups warm water

Combine 3 cups of flour and remaining ingredients (except the warm water) in a mixing bowl. Once all ingredients are combine then add the warm water and mix. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix until it forms a doughy ball. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes. Place back in mixing bowl, cover and let rise 30 minutes. Once 30 minutes has elapsed, pound the dough with your fists and knead again for 5-10 minutes. Shape into whatever bread form you desire (braid, french style, etc...) Cover again and let rise for another 30 minutes. Then bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

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So there ya have 3 vegan baking recipes I've used a few times for breakfast, lunch, dinner and have brought to potlucks.

Hope you enjoy!
~Maggie

Farmer's Market Shop and Summer

2010-07-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to say that these are all local goodies that I was able to find today :) All grown at local farms near us. Cherries, tomatoes, corn, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, nugget potatoes, green onion, green & yellow zucchini, dill and cilantro were all in my local food pile.

Here is the not so local pile, friends from New Zealand, USA, Mexico and other area's of Canada were present. With all the fresh veggies and fruits in the house I'm excited to try a few new recipes I've found on your blogs! Thank you btw for sharing such inspiring recipes :)

Things have been busy the past couple weeks. We finally got a heat wave, so there has been a lot of swimming in the ocean, playtime at the water parks and lounging in the sun with good eats. I'm so exhausted today, because our weekend was filled with everything I just mentioned from morning till late at night. Mix that with heat, laughter, and running after little ones equals being tired today even after a decent sleep.

With all the busy days I've been making a lot of meals to go. I've been keeping things simple the past couple weeks. Easy peasy salads and dressings usually with a side of fruit.

I've also been exploring marinated vegetables...

Marinated Vegetable Salad

1 cup of chopped Broccoli
1 cup of chopped Cauliflower
1 cup of sliced Carrots
5 Radish bulbs (sliced)
4 ribs of chopped celery
1/2 cup of diced purple onion

Throw it all in a bowl and mix!

Marinade

2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
Fresh herbs (I used some Oregano)

Just throw the marinade into the bowl with the vegetables and mix :)

~~~

Hope everyone is enjoying summer!
~Maggie

Weekend Soups

2010-06-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend I made a couple soups I thought I would share. The first soup I've posted before, which of course is one of my favs! Ani Phyo's "Raw Sweet Corn and Cashew Chowder," you can check my previous post on it here. I thought I would share the recipe, but I actually found it on Food & Wine. It also gives you the nutritional information, which is always nice.

It really is a never fail soup recipe and the best part is how fast I can make it. Plus cilantro as the garnish of this soup is so refreshing, so if you have it on hand, use it! I didn't have any on hand this time around, but I did add some cayenne powder and a splash of olive oil. It's a nice option if you want a little heat.

The other soup I made was "Kreme of Mushroom Soup" by Rod Rotondi. I will admit I'm not a huge mushroom soup fan. I usually find that mushrooms can make a meal very rich and my stomach cannot handle it. This recipe, although mushroom rich, I was able to digest and handle without the stomach ache. It was nice, since I do enjoy mushrooms.

Serves 8-10 (I cut this recipe in half)
Ingredients
1/2 cup soaked cashews
2 cups soaked almonds
2 cups water
2/3 cup nama shoyu(substitute tamari or 1/2 cup miso past to make gluten free)
4 cups of fresh button mushrooms
2 medium cloves of garlic
Hot water for heating

Put the nuts and 2 cups of water in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the nama shoyu, mushrooms, garlic and blend. Before serving, heat the soup by stirring in very hot water in a 1 to 1 ratio of hot water to soup. The soup should be thick and creamy.

For the garnish I made my homemade marinated mushrooms recipe. This is a versatile recipe, just think about adding it to soups, pastas or on burgers. YUM!

Maggie's Marinated Mushrooms

4-6 Crimini Mushrooms (sliced thinly)
1 small clove of garlic (cut into small pieces)
1 tsp Namu Shoyu
Sprinkle of pepper

Place everything into a bowl and mix. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer depending on your taste. Then place in the dehydrator on low for 30mins or so. They will still be soft, but able to hold onto the garlic and seasonings. I found this step works well especially if your using the mushrooms for soup garnish :)

Enjoy!
~Maggie

Donut Bits

2010-06-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

As a parent of a 3 year old, I find I am often showing, teaching, explaining and learning right alongside my lil guy. He is always willing to explore and discover what he can do. There is never a time where he doesn't want to make a big, fun mess, whether it be with his toys, blankets, books, crayons or with food. The best part about making a mess is showing him how to clean up a mess. It's fun seeing him learn and grow up into a little person. The other great thing about making a mess is that it can create some of the most memorable crafts, foods and memories.

This recipe is for when you want to have a bunch of messy, fun in the kitchen with you little ones.

"The C Donut Trio"

From left to right is coconut, cacao, and chia :)

The overall census was that coconut and chia were the favorites.

This recipe was inspired from two Ani Phyo's recipes(Donut holes & Lemon coconut bars). I made adjustments and voila here we are...

Donut Bits
2 cups almonds
1/2 tsp of sea salt
1 vanilla bean or tsp of vanilla extract
2 cups dates
1/4 cup shredded coconut
zest of 1 lemon

1. In a food processor, mix the almonds, salt, and vanilla. Once its processed into a fine powder, then slowly add you dates. Mix it up! I let my lil guy measure the ingredients here. Be sure to supervise the processing part, sharp blades and all.

2. Place mixture into a bowl. Mix the coconut and lemon zest into mixture.
This is a fun part for the kids, let them mix in the coconut and lemon zest with their fingers. Using their hands they get to feel the sticky texture and have a lot of fun. After it's mixed, feel free to lick your fingers clean!

3. You can use an ice cream scoop or just use your fingers to grab blobs of dough.

Let your kids roll and form little donut bits.

4. Choose any toppings you might have to roll your donut bits in. We used shredded coconut, cacao powder and chia seeds. This makes about 20-25 donut bits, depending on the size you roll :) I placed each of the donut bits on a cookie sheet and stored them in the fridge. They keep for about a week in the fridge.

Let your child be creative with the toppings. I asked my lil guy which he topping he wanted to roll his donut bit in, cacao or coconut and he replied "Both!" The result was delicious! I never would have thought of it either. Leave it to his imagination :)

Other Variations

You can also make these into cookies by forming them into a ball and making a thumb print in the middle of the ball. Add some raisins or carob chips for toppings.

I used two coconut donut bits as pancakes the next morning. Just flatten the dough with your fingers and top it with some banana slices and berry compote.

You could also use the dough as a pie crust. If you don't want the lemon and/or coconut taste then omit the second step in this recipe :)

Have fun and make a mess!

~~~

Free Give-Aways!

Fresh Local and Best is giving away an all-clad 12-inch stainless steel frying pan!

What Runs Lori is having a blogirthday celebration giveaway!

Rawfully Tempting is giving away Medicine Flower Vanilla Extract!
~Maggie

Sunny days

2010-06-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

Past few days we've been enjoying the sunny, warm weather by exploring our little town of a city. We live in a pretty small city compared to most, so it's easy to forget that there are little gems that we haven't discovered yet. On our list so far have been murals, gardens..lots of gardens, thrift stores, and parks. I think in the past two days we've spent 7 dollars and that's because we shared some lunch at a cafe. It's can be so simple to find inexpensive or free activities, especially in the summer. We just have to go for a walk around town, visit a park/trail, bring some essentials with you and suddenly you have a day full of free fun.

We discovered these fun summery murals down an alleyway. It wasn't really a discovery in the sense that I have seen them quite a few times, but for some reason when murals are painted down alleyways it just always seems new or different every time I see them. We also found a herb garden someone had planted down an alley, so we walked down a narrow little path and enjoyed every minute. Then we did some thrift store window shopping, and I say window shopping because no one ended up buying anything. I guess it wasn't our lucky day to find a small treasure or two.

(My lil one at the community garden)

We've also been going to a local park the last couple days, where they have a nice playground and waterpark for my lil guy to play on. There are also beautiful totems, community gardens and ponds. Needless to say I've been getting a great big dose of vitamin D, minus a sunburn, thankfully :)
On to our foodies...It seems that salads have been on the menu lately and why not!? They are easy to make, always taste different and you can basically use any vegetable you have in the fridge.

"Hale Kale Salad" (Recipe by Rod Rotondi)

1 bunch of Kale leaves
1 medium Avocado
1 Lemon (juiced)
1/2 tsp of salt
Dash of cayenne peppe (I omitted)
Handful of raisins (my own addition)

Put everything together in a bowl and begin mixing. Squeeze the avocado with you fingers and work it into the kale. Once everything is coated enjoy!

We took this on our picnic and it kept quite well. The salt breaks the kale down making it softer, so the longer you wait to eat it the softer the kale seems to be.

"A Sunny Fiesta Salad" (Recipe by Maggie, livingfoodjunkie)

We made this one up ourselves and basically it's dice up what you have in the fridge. No measurements here, since you can estimate what you might need or have :)

(The salad)
Corn
Red pepper
Cucumber
Zucchini
Pineapple
Avocado
Green onion
Carrot

(Seasoning/dressing)
Dash of Chili powder
Zest and juice of a Lime

As I was eating a bowl of this I started craving some raw crackers or chips, we didn't have any on hand though :( Then I thought how great would this be as filling for vegan or raw burritos! It has a "meaty" enough texture with some crunch, plus all the different flavor components makes it perfect. Next time I think I'll try it out :)

~~~
Next post is going to be raw kid-friendly recipe that my lil one and I made last night! It's dessert, snack or anytime you want a treat item..yum!

Happy sunny days to you!
~Maggie

Chocolate Mishaps and Pasta Goodness

2010-06-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

(Tonight's dinner: Zucchini-Pineapple Pasta)
Sometimes not following a recipe and just going with whatever flavors you think will compliment each other turns out to be a delicious meal. There have been times where I've added too many of one ingredient or flavors that just weren't meant to be. When I make those kind of mistakes (lets call them that) I try to mend them by either adding a few more ingredients or creating a different dish with my mistake. I'm not a fan of wasting food and to be honest I can't afford to waste food, who can!?

Tonight's dessert was created due to a "mistake." I made a mistake while un-baking this chocolate treat. I ended up adding too much raw honey, which overpowered the flavor and made it lose it's truffle like texture. Instead of feeling disappointed, since the ingredients for this recipe are not cheap, I tried to work with what I had. Feast you eyes on....

(Tonight's Dessert: Oreo-Brownie Ice cream)
In a food processor, I added a couple frozen bananas and a few little pieces of my chocolate mistakes. Blended it until ice cream consistency and threw on a few crumbles of chocolate to top it off. It was a delicious, rich, chocolaty dessert! It reminded me of oreo ice cream with chunks of brownie mixed in, hence it's name. I'm just happy something delicious came out of a potential "waste" of raw chocolate goodness.

Even though I had some bad luck this afternoon with the chocolate, tonight I made one of the best dinner's I've ever had. Go figure :) Tonight's dinner had four easy components...

1. Pasta Noodles
1-2 cups of spiralized zucchini (you can use squash, carrot, or whatever you prefer)

2. Marinara Sauce (A recipe that I have memorized from "Raw Food Made Easy" by Jennifer Cornbleet.)

1 ripe tomato

1 red bell pepper

1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove garlic (optional, if you sensitive to raw garlic)

1 tsp of dried Oregano

1 tbsp of fresh Basil (I used dried basil)

Blend everything together in a food processor until it creates a nice sauce.

3. Veggie toppings

I used a handful of...Mushrooms, kale, carrots, green onions, and sundried tomatoes.

Basically take whatever veggies you have on hand that you enjoy on pasta and throw them in the food processor. Pulse a few times, but don't go to far that it becomes watery. You want a diced consistency.

4. Pineapple Marinade
This totally made the dish. Cut up chunks of pineapple, squeeze half a lime, add salt and pepper. Mix together all in a bowl!

Assemble the dish in layers like in my photos or blend it altogether. I blended my dish together after eating about half of it and oh my it was even better! The pineapple's citrus flavor with the sauce is so amazing.
~~~~

I guess what I learned from being in the kitchen today was to not lose hope. A culinary mistake can turn into something new and wonderful :) Oh and I rock at making raw pasta dishes!

Enjoy your eats!

~Maggie

Why Raw?

2010-06-18T22:37:00.000-07:00

It's because of meals like this...

This was tonight's dinner and it was fantastic! Basically create a salad with any toppings of your liking and add this amazing creation of a dressing/salsa...

"Parsley & Chia Seed Salsa"(Recipe by Maggie, livingfoodjunkie)

1/2 cup Parsley
1 Tomato (diced)
Handful of Green onion tops
Zest and Juice of 1 Lime
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp Olive oil
Sprinkle of salt & pepper

Mix everything together in a bowl and serve.

We should have made a double batch because this was soooo flavorful and refreshing :) The best part about this recipe is that it's versatile. It's a great salad topper, but it's so much more! I'm going to add sprouted quinoa the next time to create a "Sprouted Quinoa-Chia Seed Tabouli." I'm also thinking salsa, so scoop it up with some raw crackers. Any other ideas?

Why Raw for me and the family?

I grew up and worked on farms dedicated on seeding, planting and harvesting vegetables, so eating living foods is second nature to me. Like a lot of other people though we were caught up in the convenience of processed foods, especially in the winter. Our family was eating the typical SAD diet. We balanced our meals between all the food groups, but we ate a lot of processed foods (breads, jam, crackers, soups, pastas, juices, chips, cookies, chocolate, etc...). In result, my guy was underweight and I was carrying some extra weight, especially after I had our little one. We were also rollercoasters of emotion, often having "blah" or sad days and never feeling overly joyed or happy throughout the entire day. The emotional part really played into my eating habits and negative body image. It was a horrible, vicious cycle. This all led us to talk with a nutrionist, do our own research and of course be inspired by individuals like Glamour Hippie. By October 2009 we changed how we ate foods.

We now typically eat 90% living foods every day, sometimes it fluctuates depending on our situation, but we try to stay up there. Of course we've seen the health benefits of eating this way. Personally, my major health benefit is feeling more comfortable with my body. It's not only the weight I've lost (36lbs lost), but it's the way I feel mentally about my body image. I think since my body feels healthy, my mind and spirit feel healthy. It's been a journey and I'm glad I chose to be on it. For my guy it's been more difficult to stay high raw, but its a process he is going through. The happiness and bliss each of us feel eating raw has helped us be better partners, parents and people :)

Why did you choose raw foods?

~Maggie

Tropical Dreams

2010-06-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

"Tropical Dreams" (Recipe by Maggie, livingfoodjunkie)

1 cup of frozen tropical fruit (mango, pineapple, grapes)

1 frozen banana

1 orange

1/2 cup of cold water

Mix it up in your blender!

~~~

My dream inspired this smoothie! Last night I dreamt I was running through the jungle and the humidity was so intense that I kept searching for water or something to drink. Eventually I find this raw food/smoothie stand out in the middle of tropics and fruit is being picked fresh off the trees. Oh what a wonderful dream it was, so I decided that I would have to somewhat recreate a tropical smoothie :)

Just a quick post today, my lil guy is getting cranky with me because he wants to go to the market to buy bananas and apples. I guess it could be worse, he could be asking for junk food. Yay, for my lil guy for loving his fruits and veggies!

~Maggie

Motivation and Inspiration!

2010-06-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

(Me and my lil guy on his 3rd birthday, June 12th 2010)

What happened to the month of May? It seemed to be the shortest month so far this year in terms of me keeping busy. One of our very best friends came to visit for a couple weeks in May, which was so much fun. We wish he lived closer, so we could go on many more adventures together! I just looked at the calendar and now we are half way through June?!

Unfortunately, being to busy and having too much fun led to me becoming sick. I ended up with strep throat, which I seem to be extremely susceptible to catching. I'm still not 100%, but I feel inspired and motivated today. After being sick for so long you begin to forget what it is like to feel healthy and happy. Today I started to making a mental list of everyday things that inspire and motivate me. These things make me feel good to be alive and healthy!

Here are a few...

~Catching up on the raw community blogs I follow.
~Taking a walk in the summer sun! Love that vitamin D :)
~Giving my lil guy hugs and kisses.
~Making a raw food dish, whether it be a new recipe or a ole' reliable one!
~The feeling of accomplishment after cleaning the house. This may sound pathetic, but really how often have you felt a small twinge of happiness after the dishes were put away, laundry was done or your room was cleaned?! I just like celebrating that it's done and I can move on to other things!
~Talking on the phone with a good friend.

If at any point today you are feeling overwhelmed, nervous, angry, sad or just wanting to give up, then make a mental list of everyday things you can count on to bring you to your happy place. Oh yeah, and then go do them!

Stay happy and healthy!
~Maggie

Make your own juice :)

2010-06-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

(Orange juice, freshly juiced by my juicer!)

I thought it might be a great idea to talk about store bought juice. I love those catch phrases you see on the sides of supermarket juices, such as freshly squeezed, home squeezed, home-style, fresh from the orchard, natural blend and the list goes on. The fact of the matter is the juice you buy in the cartons/containers are not freshly squeezed in YOUR home and depending on the brand it isn't a natural blend either. Let's face it though, sometimes depending on whatever situation we may be in, we feel the need to buy a carton juice. I know sometimes I do if I have a lot of guests and juicing for that many people feels daunting or not in my budget. This is a rare situation for me, but it has happened.

The following are some of my thoughts on cartoon juices and why I do prefer to juice myself...

1. Many of the juices that we think are quite healthy to drink are loaded with sugars. If you are going to purchase a supermarket juice, first thing you should do is check the nutritional label and it's ingredients list.

2. Many juices we buy at the supermarket are not 100% juice, they are actually diluted with water. The ratio of water to juice is much higher than we think. Now why would I be wanting to buy a bottle of juice that is 70% water, when all I want it real juice!?

3. You are hoping to get some vitamins in your diet quickly and easily. The fact of the mater is many of the vitamins, anti-oxidants and minerals where lost in the making of these juices. Sadly, you are really consuming extra calories that you could have had with a nutritious snack or an actual juice you made yourself.

4. Be careful of coloring agents! Some drinks promote themselves as juices, but really they are containing little to not any juices at all. They really just have a coloring agent in them that makes them look like there is carrot or orange juices in the bottle.

My advice would be if you are going be purchasing supermarket juices, is research the different juice companies and see what they put in their juices. It's so easy to just plunk a juice brands name into google. Research, research, research! My better advice is to juice your own vegetables and fruits. It's fun, easy and you can make your own variety of juices. Lastly, my best advice is to just eat an orange, apple or whatever juice you were going to buy. This way you get the fiber and everything that vegetable or fruit as grown to give you.

Hope this helps the next time your in the market :)

~Maggie

Fun with Colours

2010-05-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I decided it would be fun to get my 2.5 year old in the kitchen with me. At the moment he is really into picking out the differences in color. His favorites in our kitchen were red and yellow fruits, so we made a bowl of each. I made a bit of game out of prepping our snack, which taught him color, taste and texture differences.

The Fruit Fun Game

1. Ask your little one to pick out their favorite fruits. If you have a well stocked fruit selection more than likely there will be at least two fruits of similar colours.

2. Lay them on the table and then ask them which piece of fruit is what color or vice versa.

3. Once they colour co-ordinate (lol) the fruit, start chopping and dicing it into pieces (parental supervision here).

4. My little one really likes being part of every step, so this is a good time to ask them to put the pieces of fruit into a bowl (seperating the colors).

5. Once complete, start snacking!

6. Wait...we are not done yet! This part is even more fun, ask your little one what each fruit tastes and feels like after they eat it. This can help add new words to their vocabulary and help them recognize differences in taste and texture.

The great part about our game was that you can do this with vegetables too! My little one wasn't really into trying out different fruits. He immediately thought based on appearance that certain fruits wouldn't taste delicious. Keeping things fun, like color co-ordinating their favorite colours and letting them take part in the preparation of foods helps encourage them to try new foods.

In case you were wondering my little one ended up picking out...

Red: Strawberries and Watermelon
Yellow: Mangoes and Oranges

Now go have fun with your little ones in the kitchen!
~Maggie

Happy Birthday To Me!

2010-05-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's my 28th birthday today and so far it's been pretty great. This morning I was spoiled with presents that totally relate to my love for hiking :) The three things I received were items I'd been looking at for awhile, but never mentioned to my guy. How he knew..I'll never know..i guess he knows me well! I got a camel back, which is a back pack with a bladder you can fill with whatever beverage you would like as you jog or hike. A small 1st aid kit that I thought was a case for my camera that is how small it is. I really wanted one of these since we are hiking with our little guy a lot and you just never know what can happen. I also was given a polar heart rate monitor watch, which is great to keep in me in my target heart rate zone :) All awesome gifts :)

I then went to the spa and used my gift certificate given to me at Christmas for a manicure and pedicure, which was really nice. The best gift though was when I came home and my little guy showed me what he and his daddy had made me...

Maggie's Swirly Tart

You might recognize the ingredients for the crust, which is similar to Ani Phylo's recipe for Lemon Coconut Bars.

(Crust)

1/2 cup of almonds, chopped

3/4 cup of dates
1 vanilla bean

1 tsp sea salt

Zest of 1/2 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon (roughly 1 tablespoon of juice)

1/2 cup of dried shredded coconut

In your food processor, chop the almonds and coconut into small pieces. Then put the remaining ingredients in the food processor and blend until it starts creating a dough ball. Press in the base of your pie plate or pan.

(1st & 2nd layer)

3 Kiwis

1-2 Mangoes

The 1st layer is kiwis which you may want to blot the base of them on a cloth before placing them on the crust. This way it helps prevent the crust from going soggy. We didn't have a problem with the crust getting to soft or wet. The 2nd layer is mangoes, be creative and decorate.

(3rd layer)

3 fresh peaches or 1 can of peaches, rinsed (if out of season)

1/4 cup of dates

Blend the peaches and dates in a blender till smooth. Pour the puree over top of the mango layer.

(Fruit Toppings)

6-10 strawberries

2-3 mandarins

Decorate the top layer of your tart any way you like. Get creative and have some fun with it.

Well I'm off to enjoy the rest of my day! Hope you try out my Swirly Tart because it's so delicious! The fresh fruit with the sweet crust and puree is a great spring/summer dessert.

Enjoy!

~Maggie

Rice Wraps with Orange Vinaigrette Sauce

2010-05-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner was rice wraps stuffed with a medley of veggies and a homemade vinaigrette. It took me a couple stores to find the rice wraps, but they are becoming more common to purchase in grocery stores. I used to buy mine from a small Asian market, but I've moved away since. If you live near an Asian market I recommend you purchase the rice paper there, because it's usually better priced than the big box grocery stores.

The other thing you're probably wondering is if rice paper is raw. Well it isn't, but it's extremely thin and the basic ingridents are rice, water and salt. I treat it like nori, sometimes my local store is out of unroasted nori sheets, so i do purchase the roasted variety. I think that as long as i'm stuffing either the roasted nori or rice paper wraps full of nutrient dense veggies i'm going to be okay with eating it. It's up to you and what you feel is best for you :)

"Rice Wraps"
1 sheet rice paper
4 thin slices of red pepper
2 thin slices of avocado
A handful of veggies julienne (celery, carrot, broccoli, cabbage, onion)

Soak the rice paper in warm water, once it softens lay it out gently. The paper can rip easily. Place your veggies on the center of the wrap, then fold the bottom edge over the veggies. Next fold each side of the wrap and roll upwards. I wait a few minutes before cutting the wrap in half. This lets the paper dry off giving it less chance to rip or fall apart. Seve with your favorite sauce.

"Orange Vinaigrette Sauce"
1 Orange
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1tsp of red wine vinaigrette
dash of chili powder

Mix all together in a bowl and serve.

Enjoy!
~Maggie

The Green Machine :)

2010-05-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't been feeling emotionally well the past couple days, a lot of ups and downs. I think it might be that for whatever reasons, cooked foods and a little bit of dairy snuck into my diet. I've notice that since eating highly raw living foods going back to cooked foods can sometimes be very pleasing, but in the long term not so much. The long term affects are really brutal on me, physically and emotionally. I am feeling better today, but I credit the greens for this and the sun!

Check out my greens for the day...

First my every day green juice :) I've given this recipe here before, but it is such a great combo that I'll share it again.

"Everyday Green Juice"
6-10 pieces of Romaine Lettuce (or any green you have on hand)
1 cucumber
1/2 a lemon
1 large apple or 2-3 small apples

I've been making it this way for so long I forgot that my old recipe called for a pinch of ginger! I'll have to start adding ginger again for that extra bite. Silly me :D

Second and certainly my new favorite soup is the Cream of Spinach Soup. This recipe comes from Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food made Easy.

I am a super picky person when it comes to raw soups. I have made quite a few that haven't turned out, mostly my own concoctions. It takes a bit of practice to get what makes a delicious raw soup. This recipe nails it hands down. It incorporates veggies, spices and fats to make it a creamy bowl of goodness.

"Cream of Spinach Soup" (Serves 2 or 1 hungry person)

1 handful of spinach
1/2 a cucumber, peeled
1 tomato, cut in wedges
1/4 cup water (I used warm water and my soup ended being room temperature, rather than cold)
1 avocado
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons of Namo Shoyu or Soy Sauce
1/2 teaspoon of salt
dash of Cayenne Pepper
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Blend everything till smooth. Adjust seasonings to taste.

This was so satisfying and tasty. I totally recommend it to living food beginners to the accomplished.

As you can see from my soup pictures, I'm outside enjoying today. It is so warm outside I almost think that spring might have left us for the day and summer decided to visit. Yesterday, since I was feeling well I stayed inside and cleaned everything. Our house is spotless, at least for a few hours. Anyway, my point is today I'm outside enjoying the sun, eating greens and feeling HAPPY!

Enjoy yourself today :)
~Maggie

Energy Bars!

2010-05-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm baaaack! The past week or so my little family has been feeling under the weather. I fought pretty hard to not get it, but it attached itself to me anyway since I was taking care of the boys. I did notice that since I've been eating a very high living food diet my symptoms from a cold or flu are definitely not as horrible as they were before I ate this well.

A few days before we were sick we made some delicious energy bars! Well I didn't make them, I came home to a surprise in my freezer. My guy made up this recipe based on the fact that he loves chocolate and needs to consume more calories. I am so impressed by his creativity and the outcome of these bars. They are delicious! I sliced 1 bar into 4 little pieces for a taste, that way I am not consuming a lot of calories. I also let about 5 other people, who are not eating a high living food lifestyle, try a taste of these bars and everyone was impressed. I've even been asked by a couple friends if my guy could make more to bring on our future hiking trips. My guy was also gracious enough to share the recipe so everyone can enjoy!

My Guy's Energy Bars

1/2 cup Almonds

1/2 cup Cashews

1/2 cup Walnuts

1/3 cup Goji Berries

1/2 cup Cacao Powder

1.5 cup Dates

1/2 cup Cacao Butter (liquid form/melted)

1/2 cup Agave

Blend all the nuts, berries and cacao powder in a food processor until powdery (small chunks visible is okay) and begins to stick. Then add the dates, cacao butter and agave to create a sticky, dough like texture. Spread evenly onto a 9inch pan and pop into the freezer.

My guy is so sweet, he even calculated the nutritional information for anyone interested. Based on a 16 bar yield, each bar contains roughly:

342.88 Calories

16.67 g Fat

38.69g Carbs

5.28g Protein

This of course will vary on thickness of bar and size differences in cutting your bars. It gives you a basic idea though, for those interested in a raw energy bar.

Enjoy!

~Maggie

The weekend :)

2010-04-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Having a fabulous weekend! Yesterday we took ourselves to the forest and hiked for a couple hours. Our 2.5 year old went with us! He hiked for about 45 minutes (i'm so proud of him) and then he was tired.

Luckily we purchased this yesterday...

I'm all about checking children's consignment stores and we found this one for $50, hardly used. Brand new this brand and style cost around $200-250, so we were happy hikers. It goes up to about 50lbs, which will probably give us a good use out of it. We are so excited because we can take our lil guy with us on the longer hikes. What makes me so happy is he gets to experience things hasn't seen yet, like seeing his first waterfall.

On our long trek we got a bit hungry and low on energy. We refueled with this mix I made up :)

It includes Goji berries, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, carob chips and raisins. I still can't believe what an energy boost this mix was for us. We burned through the last 45 minutes of our hike, which was a fair bit of an uphill climb.

The hike was so pretty, here are a couple more pics I wanted to share with you :) I love moss and wild mushrooms, they make for great photos!

I've been asked about what I eat when I'm not eating living foods and I thought I'd make my next post about this. After we got home yesterday I made a delicious and mostly cooked dinner, which we ate out in the evening sunshine. I took some great shots of our dinner and will share with you next time :)

Have a beautiful Sunday:)
~Maggie

It's Borscht!

2010-04-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

I had no idea how full of history and influence this soup had on many cultures around the world. There are so many varying recipes, things to add, things to omit that make Borscht unique to every culture's cuisine. One thing in common is how breathtaking this dish is no matter how you make it, the color from the beets are such a show stopper. If you have never tried Borscht I recommend it, and I am not a huge beet fan. Although I am starting to give beets a break and a chance to win me over. Borscht sounds like a complicated soup, or at least that's what i thought. Really it isn't, if you have a high living foods diet most likely you will have most of the ingredients already in your fridge and pantry. I stumbled upon this recipe and luck would have it that I had all the ingredients. If you are wondering what it is like compared to cooked borscht than your in luck because I've tried cooked borscht several times in the past. This recipe is surprisingly similar! I found it to be just as flavorful, yet not sit as heavy as it's cooked counterpart. I brought some over to my family who are not on a high living foods diet, and well they didn't get to try it because my dad ate it all before they got a chance!

Let me share the recipe...

Here is the link to the wonderful recipe I found by Victoria Boutenko(I love her and her family's recipes). I cut this recipe in half and it was still about 5-6 servings. This would be a great recipe for a dinner party or large gathering. I might make it for my birthday dinner party, since the original recipe feeds so many folks without breaking the bank account.

One more thing I wanted to mention for all the beet dislikers out there, which used to include me....

Facts on Beets

-The pigment that gives beets that beautiful color is actually a cancer-fighting agent that has been researched in several studies.
-Very high in the B vitamin folate, which is important for tissue growth. I ate lots of folate rich foods while pregnant to help the baby develop :)
-The greens of beets have a higher iron content than spinach.
-Beets and Swiss chard are in the same family, just different varieties.
-Beets are rich in chlorophyll and vitamins!

Beets do so much more good for our bodies, so eat your beets!
~Maggie

A trip to the healthfood store

2010-04-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

We went to the health food store yesterday and we had so much fun exploring. The store we went to incorporated foods, household & hygiene products, supplements, vitamins, natural remedies and local handmade products all packed into one store. Look at the goodies we bought... My guy said that this was an early birthday present for me! My goodies included a dry brush, cacao butter, spirulina, and bee pollen.

We also bought ourselves some treats....raw bars :) Yummy!

Not seen in the picture was coconut water. I still am getting adjusted to the taste of young coconut water. I enjoy it mixed with a juice or smoothie, but the more I try it on it's own the more I am liking it. Sort of.

I tried the spirulina in a green juice this morning and it was great! I wasn't sure if it was going to taste like it smells, but I can happily say it did not.

Spirulina Green Juice
2-3 apples
1/2 Lemon
Big handful of Leafy Greens
1 Cucumber

Juice it up! Add 1 tsp of Spirulina to the juice, and mix. It made the juice a nice dark green color, so pretty!

I will update if I start noticing some of the benefits. This morning I was very sleepy, until I had my juice. Now I have a ton of energy bursting from my toes to my nose, so I could be seeing a benefit already :)

Enjoy!

~Maggie

Apples and Pears..oh my!

2010-04-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

I mentioned last post about the great deals I found on some produce....Well it's all about apples and pears at our house after my mom found this 2.99 deal. My parents came over to our place the other day and asked how often I use apples to juice. The answer is almost every time I juice! They are so great for there sweetness, so we went out a bought at least 36lbs of apples for 2.99! The catch was that these apples are assorted and some are bruised. That cardboard box was filled to the brim and I've been separating the ones that are bruised to juice immediately.

First juice we made was....

Easy, Peasy Pear-Apple Juice

It's basically a few apples and a few pears. Juice and drink! :) You can also strain it if you like, I found that by the end of the juice it was getting a bit thick from the pear.

My guy was sweet and made a yummy apple pie. I realized that there are only so many apples to juice in day. This recipe is based from ani phyo's book, but with a little variation. You can find her recipe for apple pie here, which she uploaded on YouTube. Our variation was that we purred the apple and spices. Then stirred in raisins and a few small pieces of apple. It gave it that soft apple sauce texture with a crunch.

~~
We still have a lot of apples and pears left over, so if you have any raw recipes to share that incorporate either of those please feel free to share :)

~Maggie

Our weekend

2010-04-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's Monday already! I had such a great weekend that the days just flew by. On Friday we took a day trip to a small island near us and adventured out into nature. We were surrounded by ocean, mountains, forest and beaches. About 90% of the time the only things we could hear was nature itself or people's voices from far off on the water. There was hardly any noise pollution, which to me is like white noise. Once you stop hearing it, you are totally aware that it is around you all the time. I found it so relaxing to only hear the sounds of nature for 8 hours of my day.

This is my favorite spot in the whole world at the moment. I am assuming my favorite spot will change again once I find another :) At the moment though, this is it. I want to lay here daydreaming, reading and then falling asleep :)

We also took a picnic to the beach consisting of all living foods. It was pretty easy, since raw food is the fastest food you can make if you consider just taking fruit or veggies. We did take some fruit, but I also made a big salad and some hummus. I packaged it all in these glass bowls w/lids that I received as a gift one Christmas. They worked so well :) There is salad underneath that hummus i promise! My eyes were hungry :)

I have end this post a bit short. I had planned to tell you about my great produce deals in which I am making endless amounts of juice, but another time. I am actually going into the city today with my family and hopefully we will end up at park :)

~Maggie

Yard Work + Chocolate = A Great Day!

2010-04-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy day for us, we spent most of it outside in the gorgeous weather. We did a ton of yard work, which involved grass cutting, weeding, putting in new patio stones and sweeping up any debris from winter/spring.

At one point in the day I felt this nice, warm breeze and I paused to enjoy it when suddenly this beautiful bird flew about 2 ft away from me. He pecked a bit at our tree and then made his calling before he took off with the breeze again. Such a great part of my day. This little guy is called a red-naped sapsucker, check him out :)

The best part about our day was purchasing our composter! We are so excited about it. Even our lil guy keeps searching for worms, so he can give them a new home. Check it out! Between composting and recycling we hardly have any garbage, which makes us and the earth feel a bit better!

To celebrate we ate chocolate! I made these yesterday, remember my mention of un-baking. In the first picture is the cashew bar and in the second photo is the almond-raisin bar (as requested). They are both so delicious. I was inspired by Joanna, whose chocolate recipe I used. Check out her post here.

Raw Chocolate Bars

1/2 cup of cacao butter (melted)

1/2 cup of cacao powder

2T of agave

Any nuts or dried fruits

Sprinkle of sea salt

To make the shape of these I used the bottom of a brand new muffin tin.

Put nuts in the base of the tins and sprinkle each with a bit of sea salt. Melt the cacao butter, place in bowl and then add the cacao powder and agave. Mix till smooth and creamy. Then take a spoonful of chocolate and pour over the nuts in each muffin tin. Once done, pop it in the freezer for 15-30minutes. After they have hardened they popped right out of the tin.

I also want to make a couple different versions of these, one with mint leaves and the other with orange rind. I think they would be so yummy!

Enjoy your day!

~Maggie

Ice Cream

2010-04-13T12:52:00.001-07:00

I've been slowly building up to this post, by making ice cream once a week as a dessert. I love making desserts from living foods. It still amazes me how delicious a raw dessert can taste..what no white flour? no refined sugar? Awesome! I have two ice cream recipes to share with you in this post.

The great thing about making your own ice cream is you can put whatever you would like in the mix, plus it's fun to make and eat. I figured since I had so much fun making these recipes, my lil one would probably love it too. I can't wait till his birthday party in the summer. I plan to have an ice cream making station set up with tons of fruits ready to go. I also can't forget the ice cream toppings. This is my lil one's favorite part, plus I love how creative he gets to be with his food. His usually includes carob chips and fresh strawberry slices. He always gobbles it up and gets a great serving of fruits :)

Berrylicious Ice Cream
2 Cups of frozen berries
1 frozen banana
Toppings: Goji berries, carob chips, cacao nibs

Mix in a food processor till it becomes creamy and smooth. This can take a few minutes. Eat plain or add your favorite toppings.

Here is another variation.

Blueberry Bliss Ice Cream
1 Cup of frozen blueberries
1 frozen bannana
Toppings: Cacao Nibs

Mix in a food processor till it becomes creamy and smooth.

~~
Be creative with your ice cream. Add whatever fruits you love plus a frozen bannana and your set. Incase your wondering the frozen bannana adds that smooth, creaminess to the mix. Also if you are using citrus fruits just realize that it won't be as sweet of a treat.

There you have it two awesome ice cream recipes made with a food processor not an ice cream maker for those of us without one.
Enjoy!
~Maggie

P.S. Stay tuned because it's "un-baking" day in our house and something really yummy is being created!

Sunny weather and rainbow salad

2010-04-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today was a perfect spring day...finally! The past couple weeks we've been having rain, and major cloud coverage, making the days seem dark and dreary. Today was full of sunny weather and we tried to take advantage of it as much as possible. We took our lil guy to a few different playgrounds and played hide-and-seek together like cute little kids. After all our outdoor fun, we were full of energy and vitamin D, so we went to a large thrift store. I didn't find much, it was way to busy. I spent about three dollars, which bought a t-shirt for my lil guy and a nice shirt for me. I love not spending hoards of money on clothing. You can find such treasures at thrift stores, but you really have to make sure you have time to search. Think of it as a treasure hunt!

Speaking of treasure, check out my dinner....rainbow salad!

Tomatoes, avocados, purple onion, red pepper, purple cabbage, and grated carrot.

I dressed it with some sea salt, pepper and lemon juice.

I love rainbows and I love days spent with my family! Perfection.
~Maggie

Silly Pancakes

2010-04-09T11:40:00.001-07:00

I had to post this because we were giggling all morning about them. My lil guy and I were prepping the leftover "coconut cake" mix and started having way to much decorating them. See what I mean...

My two year old loved doing this and so did I. It put a big smile on my face all morning :) This is a great way to encourage children to have fun with food and still be eating healthy.

Silly Pancakes

1 coconut cake

1 tbs of almond butter and 1/2 tsp of honey

Half a banana, carob chips, and almonds

Directions: Spread the almond butter on the pancake and then spread the honey on top of the almond butter. Then decorate with whatever you have. We used banana for the hair style, carob chips for eyes/mouth and almonds for the nose.

Other ideas...

For eyes/mouth/nose: blueberries, raspberries, or nuts

Hair: Slice of fruit, or shredded coconut

~Maggie

Pancakes Please!

2010-04-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that I usually start my day with a green juice made from greens, lemons, cucumbers and apples. Other days I'm in the mood for a morning fruit juice made up of whats in season. If your new or curious about incorporating raw foods into your lifestyle than breakfast is a easy way to do so. Enjoy a fruit salad, a couple pieces of fruit, a smoothie or juice, whichever it may be your going to feel a lot better for choosing it over old SAD breakfast comfort foods (ie/muffins, pancakes, french toast, biscuits, bagels). If you are feeling like it may be to difficult, especially in the beginning, to let go of those breakfast comfort foods, then there is a solution. Try making them out of living foods. Yesterday my lil guy asked if we could make pancakes for breakfast. I thought this was the perfect chance to make a Raw version of pancakes, luckily I had Ani Phyo's recipe for Coconut Breakfast Cakes.

I cut this recipe in half because it makes a lot of pancakes. With half the recipe we were able to make 4 pancakes and I was able to eat about 1.5 before feeling to full to go on. :)

Coconut Breakfast Cakes

1.5 cups of ground flax seeds
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 cup agave
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup water

Put the flax meal, coconut oil, agave, sea salt and water in a bowl and mix well. Form balls and flatten into a "pancake" shape. Serve with your favorite fruit or chopped nuts. Drizzle with syrup. They keep in the fridge for 4-5 days. Optional: Mix blueberries or walnuts into your breakfast cake mixture.

Enjoy your breakfast! There are so many healthy options to choose from that are delicious.
~Maggie

Dinner Time!

2010-04-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

This was our dinner tonight! I am so proud of our dinner tonight because it had three dishes, which were all made from living foods! They were all delicious and easy to make.

I found the funkiest recipe for avocados! The woman who posted this is so inventive, which I love. Check it out Avocado Fries! They are buttery with a crunchy coating. I want to try the same "breading" with zucchini. I can't wait!

I made these tonight with her recipe for Raw Nut Burgers.

Three dishes for us is a huge step, we were usually able to make about one dish per meal mostly due to poor planing and time restraints. This leads me to our third dish which was kale chips, sadly I didn't get a great picture of the kale chips on their own yet. The kale chips I made this afternoon. They just have a couple tablespoons of olive oil, salt and grated garlic. I dehydrated them for 4 hours or so.

So lets start off at the beginning. Yesterday I made Ani Phylo's Black Sesame Sunflower Bread, which is always a great bread for burgers and I also like it as a cracker for dipping in soups. This bread took about 4-6 hours to dehydrate, so it is something you could do the same day as making the burgers :)

The raw nut burger was one of the best raw burgers I have tried. It's meaty, spicy and fast to make! All the other raw burgers I have made take a long time to dehydrate, where as I left this burger on for about 30minutes and it was good to eat! I should note that I didn't have a full cup of walnuts, so I added what I had plus some almonds. It worked wonderfully. The recipe made 4 patties.

Then I added all the fixings! Tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, and red pepper were all in the mix! So good, however after making it i thought "how am i going to eat this?" I went in fork and knife at first, which works well. Then I tried eating it with my hands which was a little messy, but way more fun!

I am so full now :( I couldn't help but eat to much, this was way to good. We have left overs too, which is going to be in both our lunches tomorrow. Go have fun with your food, I know we enjoyed tonight's dinner. We were both so excited and giddy to be making such creative, fun dishes that tasted delicious :)

~Maggie

Fruit Juicing

2010-04-06T11:05:00.001-07:00

The Sunrise
3 Oranges
1/4 Lemon
1 Apple
6 Strawberries
Juice it up, roughly 2 cups of juice :)

This tastes so delicious! I drank it in 5 minutes maybe less. It's a nice balance between sweet and sour tastes. I can't wait to try this in the summer when the weather is really hot, over some ice.

Some of my favorite juicing creations are made simply from fruits, it's not always about green juices in our house. There are a few things I've learned along the way when juicing fruits, whether it be from books I've read or from my own experiences. I've gathered some of my thoughts and tips on juicing to share with you :)

Juicing from my point of view :)

-I try a new piece of fruit, to eat or juice, every week to keep it fun.

-Do not try juicing bananas or frozen fruit, only blend them.

-Use citrus fruits as a base (ie/oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits) and then add sweet fruits to balance (ie/ apple, watermelon, mango, berries, pears, pineapples).

-I only juice 2 cups of juice at a time because it is typically what I can drink in one sitting

-Always try to make juice fresh, you won't lose the minerals, enzymes and vitamins that might have deteriorated while it was being stored.

-Juice is easy for our body to digest!

-Fruit juice tastes so yummy, especially on ice on a summers day!

My last thought is to enjoy making your juices, whether it be fruit juices or green juices. It's all about keeping it interesting and not going overboard on how much your juicing. Some of my best juices have only consisted of 2-4 ingredients, not that it should stop you from experimenting with lots of ingredients. It's just sometimes simplicity is the key!

~Maggie

Two in One

2010-04-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. The bunny came by and visited my little one, brought him a few coloring books, crayons, finger paints, and other arts/crafts. Lots of fun crafts to make this spring!

We also attended the local museum, which had a scavenger hunt and train rides for everyone all day long. My little one adores trains, so he was in his element. What I loved about the scavenger hunt was the prize in the end. They gave out baby tree saplings to plant, which was such a great idea. We are most likely going to plant ours on my parent's property, so we can continue to take care of it as it grows.

On ward to my two in one breakfast idea!

Yesterday, I wanted some fruit & granola with my green juice. Here was my mixture:

1 Orange

1/2 cup of blueberries
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds

1 Tbl of flax seeds

This morning I decided to make smoothie, and that was when I came up with the two in one breakfast idea. You can have the recipe mentioned for my fruit/granola mixture as a smoothie! The only additions in the smoothie mixture are an organic frozen banana, and 1 cup of filtered water, otherwise I used the exact same ingredients/measurements.

Enjoy it either way!

~Maggie

A stormy day...

2010-04-02T19:44:00.001-07:00

Rain, rain and a lot of wind! Woke up this morning to rain hitting the windows and the wind wanting to blow our house down. Needless to say we slept in and lost the morning to our dreams.

Around noon we decided to head over to my parent's place to do some Easter decorating for tomorrow. On our way there I took some shots of the ocean, its waves and of course the rain. We had originally thought the rain and wind might let up, but we were wishful thinkers. My guy and I wanted to go hiking and normally we probably would if it was a little rain, but this stuff was pouring down so hard it hurt when it hit your skin. I was soaked within 3 minutes of standing in it. I honestly do love west coast weather! :)

I made a green lemonade before we left and it tasted a bit stronger than usual. I bought some local romaine lettuce for 58cents each. I could taste the chlorophyll and its sunniness! This is my little guy proud of the green juice he helped his mama make :)

When we did get home I made myself this...

Tropical Spring Salad
4 leafs of red leaf lettuce
1 tomato
1/2 a cucumber
1/2 orange
1/4 pineapple
2 radishes
Rinse, slice and chop the way you like :)

Enjoy the weather where ever you might be!
~Maggie

Last juice of the feast

2010-04-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

My last juice of the 3 day feast, was a sweet fruit juice. During this feast I realized how much I love making my own juices. I can't wait to make my green juice tomorrow morning, but I also can't wait to eat solid food! I'm reading up on what to eat to gradually bring back solid foods into your system. Tonights juice....

"Sweet Sunset"
1 Pear
3 Apples
1/4 of a Pineapple

It tastes like apple cider! It's quite sweet, but has a tangy taste. I feel like it's a dessert juice :)

~Maggie

Green lemonade with a twist

2010-04-01T10:26:00.001-07:00

It's the last day of the juice feast (day 3) and after a long nights sleep i'm feeling so much better. I'm still a little fatigued, but my sinus and throat issues seem to have disappeared. I woke up this morning wanting a green lemonade with a twist. I've been doing some reading on green smoothies and juices and have come to the realization of how important it is that we incorporate a variety of greens into our drinks. The obvious reason being the difference of minerals, vitamins, etc... that we attain from different greens. The other reason that I learned from doing this juice feast is it keeps things interesting! Incorporating a variety of greens will less likey cause us to get bored with taste and can encourage us to keep drinking a green smoothie/juice a day :)

Green Lemonade with a Twist

1 small head of romaine
1/2 a head of green cabbage
1/2 a cucumber
2 apples
1/2 lemon
1 orange
1/2 cup of fresh pineapple

Juice it up! Makes about 2 cups of juice :)

Enjoy your day!
~Maggie

Juice Feast Day 2

2010-03-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

(Ani's Corn Chowder)

It's day two of the three day juice feast and I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I've had a few sinus problems, a sore throat, and fatigue. I'm thinking that it's detox symptoms, so I'm taking today for rest and relaxation. It worked out well because my guy is home from work today to help me out with our lil one. I decided that since my juice feast was going well (not hungering for food), but I was experiencing some pretty heavy detox symptoms I would eat some raw food.

I made this delicious corn chowder from Ani Phyo's book "Raw Food Kitchen" and it is one of the yummiest chowders I've ever had! We are going to be making this chowder again, especially when fresh corn is in season. The other bonus was that it only took about 5 minutes to make!

Like I said it was rest and relaxation day, so I had my guy instruct me in some yoga moves this afternoon. It felt good to stretch certain muscles that were sore. Once I start feeling better I really want to get outdoors for another hiking trip. This picture is inspiring me to spend more time outside :)

~Maggie

A 3 day Juice Feast

2010-03-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

My little one took this picture, while watching me make my juice for lunch. At this rate he is going to be selling work as a photographer at age 3 :)
~~
I am attempting a 3 day juice fast, with the support and inspiration from fellow bloggers. To see more information about our 3 day juice feast here is a link to Joanna's blog that encouraged/challenged us all.

Here are some of my favorite juices from today. I made about 5 different types just to see what I really liked, and what I would get more juice from. I'll share my top three :)

Morning Juice

"Green Morning Sunrise"
1 pineapple
1 head of romaine
A bunch of Kale
Juice it!
This makes about 2 cups/half a quart of juice. It tasted pretty yummy, I juiced the pineapple first and then stopped to pull out all the excess fiber that was separated. I put it in a container to make a pineapple sauce for my guy's lunch later. Don't waste a thing I say, especially delicious pineapple!

Afternoon Juice

"Carrot-Apple Lemonade"
6 Carrots
2 Apples
1 Lemon
Juice it!
This again makes about 2 cups/half a quart of juice, which is just enough for me to drink in one sitting. I ended up making more of this recipe because my lil guy loved the taste of this and drank about half of cup of my juice! This tastes surprisingly sweet, and the lemon counters the sweetness to make a really yummy juice.

Evening Juice

"Green Lemonade Love"

1 head of Romaine

1 bunch of Swiss Chard

1 Lemon (I use only 1/2 a lemon)

2 Apples

Juice!

This is a recipe I use daily because its my favorite green juice. I can always drink 2 glasses/4 cups of this juice no problem. It makes about 2 cups/half a quart of juice. I credit this recipe to Happy Foody.

I'm feeling pretty good today. The only issue I've noticed is that my sinuses feel like they are either about to get plugged with a sinus infection or cold. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad, well I'm off to rest and cuddle my boys :)

Enjoy some juicing!

~Maggie

Homestyle Minestrone Soup

2010-03-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight I wanted to make a raw soup for dinner, but I let my guy take the challenge on :) It was another rainy day here and soup sounded so perfect. My guy decided on making Ani Phyo's Homestyle Minestrone Soup, from her book "Ani's raw food kitchen." My favorite part of this soup was the sun-dried tomatoes and the spices (garlic, cayenne, salt oregano). I added the last of the pizza seed crackers and drizzled some olive oil. Delicious!

Later we thought we needed something sweet, since the soup was so savory. I made us a banana-blueberry chocolate smoothie.

Ingredients:
2 cups of cold filtered water
2 bananas
1 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup of cacao powder
1 tsp of honey
Blend! Makes 2 servings

Hope everyone enjoyed their dinner as much as we did!
~Maggie

Zucchini Chips

2010-03-29T15:42:00.001-07:00

I made these yesterday as an experiment. I heard about dehydrating zucchini strips from a few different sources and I thought I could try making them for our dinner. They didn't make their way to dinner. My lil one and I ate them as a snack! They tasted really similar to potato chips, crisp, and a little salty. Needless to say I recommend using more than one zucchini when trying this recipe out. It's delicious!

Ingredients:

2-3 Zucchini (I only used 1..not enough!)

1/4 cup of Olive Oil

1 clove of Garlic (chopped/grated)

sprinkle of Sea Salt

sprinkle of Pepper

Mix olive oil, garlic, sea salt and pepper together in a bowl. Peel the zucchini till all the skin is removed. Use a peeler or a mandolin to peel off thin strips of the zucchini. Throw it into the bowl with the olive oil mixture. Make sure all the zucchini is fully coated and then place the strips into the dehydrator. It took only about 1-2 hours for these thin strips to crisp up and be ready to eat!

Great guilt free snack for you and healthy treat for the lil ones :) I'm going to go make some more right now!

~Maggie

Energy!

2010-03-28T13:52:00.001-07:00

Last night I felt like I could have run around the block at my own warp speed at least twice. I had so much energy and happiness flowing through my body. My guy on the other hand was feeling the exact opposite: lethargic, tired and moody. Our moods didn't mesh all to well, so I decided to just go with being present, positive and supportive. I finally fell asleep sometime after mid-night and woke up feeling not as energetic.

I made myself a carrot sunrise, which usually tastes sweet and refreshing!

Ingredients:

5 Carrots

2 Celery stalks

1 Orange

1/2 a Green Cabbage

Juice it up!

This time I added some ginger, but I added too much! Ohhh what a mistake :( It made it spicy and I was only able to drink half of my juice. The rest went down the drain, what a learning experience!

Lunch was a much happier meal! I craved nori again, and this time I had avocado!

Ingredients:

1 raw Nori sheet (untoasted)

4 thin strips of Carrot

4 thin strips of Red Pepper

Broccoli sprouts

1/2 an Avocado, thinly sliced

Line all the veggies on the edge of the nori sheet. Fold the nori sheet over veggies, by rolling the sheet away from you as tightly as possible. Dab edge of nori sheet with water to seal it. Then cut into 6 pieces!

Everyone has to try this, it's fun and so cheap to make compared to buying it from a store or restaurant.

Other than eating really colorful food today, I've been purchasing some upbeat music for workouts :) I've also been chatting to one of my very best friends, which makes this day even better!

Enjoy yours!

~Maggie

Chocolate Indulgence

2010-03-27T13:31:00.001-07:00

Last night we decided to explore the world of raw chocolate desserts. I came across this recipe when I was looking at some raw food websites. The pictures looked pretty delicious and I wanted to "unbake" with ingredients I had never tried before. The recipe for this is online here, but I'll post the directions on living food junkie because I found the instructions were missing a few steps, plus I substituted some ingredients with what I had in the pantry :)

Ingredients:
1 cup raw chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)
1/3 cup cold-pressed coconut oil
1/2 cup raw Cacao butter (expensive ingredient)
1/3 cup Goji Berries
1.5 cups raw Cacao powder
1/4 cup raw honey (the original recipe called for more, but I found it to be way too much. I plan on omitting this ingredient next time.)
1/2 cup Agave
a good dash of quality salt
1 vanilla bean

Mix the nuts and the cayenne powder in a bowl. Set aside.

In a double boiler melt the coconut oil. Remove from heat as soon as it melts. Pour it in the bowl with the nuts. Melt the cacao butter in the double boiler. Remove from heat as soon as it melts and pour in bowl with the nuts. The low heat from the double boiler is to just liquefy the oils not to cook them.

Then add the goji berries, cacao powder, honey, agave, salt and vanilla bean to the nut mixture. Stir everything together and than place in a ceramic dish. It's best to put some parchment paper in the dish before hand because the mixture is quite thick and sticky. Place it in the fridge. It sets very quickly, we ate some about 30 minutes later. Cut the truffles into little squares and enjoy!
~~~

The texture is like a smooth truffle, but also has a nice crunch with the bits of nuts mixed within. The flavor of the chocolate is dark and rich. The cayenne is in the after taste of the truffle, so it leaves you with a bit of heat in your throat. My guy said to leave the cayenne out of the recipe next time so he can eat these faster :) I think these would make a great little gift idea around Christmas time, or if you are having a party/get together with friends :)
~Maggie

Hiking Raw

2010-03-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last post I mentioned date day, which was amazing. We had a great time catching up with each other on our hike. The hike was intense at times with the large hills we climbed, but it was worth climbing those hills to be part of the breathtaking beauty of the forest. It felt so good for me to be physically and mentally out in the wilderness. The forest is so great for rejuvenating the spirit. I was astounded that most of the people we ran into on our hike were running and talking about how fast their times were for every kilometer. Running through the forest, with their heads down, not looking or stopping to see what was around them. Kudos to all of them for being able to run this trails intense 6 kilometers, but I hope for their sake they were able to stop and enjoy the therapeutic essence around them.

Once we were at this point which was about half way through the journey, we stopped by the falls, each ate an apple, chatted and enjoyed what was around us. It was a beautiful moment. The air smelt like watermelon, and the feel of the sun was warm. I only wish I could have felt the mist from the waterfall on my face.

~Maggie

Lunch time smoothie

2010-03-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today is date day! My guy and I are going to go for a hike at one of our favorite spots. I took this picture of the falls a few summers ago, it's one of my favorites. We really enjoy hiking together and are slowly improving our endurance on the massive mountains we climb. Okay so they seem like mountains, there more like large hills on the mountain.

Pre-hiking hunger striked, so I decided to put my smoothie skills to work. I call this Strawberry Mountain, it seemed appropriate.

Ingredients:

1 cup of water
1 cup of strawberries (frozen or fresh)
1/8 of cashews

1/4 pitted dates
1/4 vanilla bean
1/2 a Banana
1 tbsp cacao powder
Blend it up!

This tasted so good, it's now my favorite smoothie recipe! It did not sit heavy like some smoothies can :)

~Maggie

Soup for lunch

2010-03-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's a rainy day and I always crave something warm on a rainy day. I decided it was best to try out a raw soup recipe. I figure since summer is just around the corner, I'm not to sure how long soup cravings are going to around. I scouted some recipes and found this one by Alissa Cohen, the recipe is online so you can check it out here :)

The soup turned out creamy, with little bits of broccoli and a bit of heat from the cumin. I wasn't able to eat the whole bowl of soup as shown in the picture, it was very filling and after awhile quite rich in flavor. I added a some broccoli sprouts as a topping and ended up adding more because it gave the soup a bit of a crunch..yum!

Here are my "seed pizza crackers" I posted about yesterday without all those toppings in the way. I dipped the crackers in the soup and it made lunch all the better :)

~Maggie

Last night

2010-03-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

My lil one fell asleep for his nap around 4ish, so once my guy came home from work we started making some dinner. I was in the mood for some Nori rolls and he was in the mood for some Greek salad, and than we both thought mmm sounds good! It also gave us a chance to play around with some common recipes, but make them more raw :)

I'm so proud of our Nori rolls, so this post is dedicated to their deliciousness!

I made this almond pate, which was a great substitute for the sticky rice. I found this recipe again from Mary Rydman's book "Raw Food Quick & Easy." I was trying to be as optimistic as I could about the pate, and boy was I ever surprised. It was an amazing substitute for rice, it had a wonderful texture. The great part is I have leftovers, which I might try on crackers or bread for lunch.

For the Nori rolls I included the pate, sprouts, cucumber, carrot and red bell peppers. I julienned all the veggies and it turned out great for one of the few times I've made Nori. My only wish was that my avocado's were ripe enough to have included. I love avocado!

Oh and if you wondering why I am awake, guess who woke up at 3am and decided it was time to start the day. A morning full of cartoons, reading books and cuddles with my lil' one in the wee hours of the morning turned out to be a lot of fun.
~Maggie

Pizza Crackers

2010-03-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

Went for a two hour walk with my lil guy this morning. We tried to keep most of walk out of the city and mostly through the park trails. Eventually we made our way to a local store and picked out some delicious looking apples and Swiss chard. Once we were home around 12:30ish, we were so hungry! Luckily my dehydrator had finished drying my "Seed Pizza Crackers", a recipe I was trying out from Mary Rydman's book "Raw Food Quick & Easy." I wasn't quite sure how these were going to turn out because last night when I tasted the spread it didn't seem to flavorful, but as it turns out it had a really nice flavor.

Lunch today consisted of three small pieces of seed pizza cracker,
topped with Swiss chard, tomato, red pepper, cucumber and broccoli sprouts, with pineapple on the side :) I also used some of the dressing I made yesterday to top it off.

I'm also making "Pineapple Coconut Cookies" in my dehydrator. I made them last night along with the crackers. They look like they are going to ready tonight, so maybe a post later!

~Maggie

Good Mornin'

2010-03-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sleepy this morning. I went to bed a little late and had to wake earlier than usual. I had a nice mid-day nap yesterday with my lil 2 year old boy, but in the long run it made it so difficult to fall asleep last night.

I was lying in bed this morning wondering what I should make for breakfast, and my first thought was something easy, with little clean-up. I ended up making a smoothie recipe from Ani Phyo's book, Raw Food Kitchen. I usually don't use recipes for smoothies or juices, because they are fun to create and hard to mess up. This time I thought why not, so here it is Ani's "Very Blueberry" smoothie :) It was delicious and chocked full of good things like dates, cashews, blueberries, water and vanilla bean. Well i'm feeling some energy so it's time to go for a long walk with my lil guy :)

~Maggie