Return of the juice fast, with a twist

So i have been eating not so well lately and my body is not feeling so good because of it. I was also pleased with the weight i had lost because of the juice drinking. I am still drinking a lot of juice but i am eating far to much (out of boredom). I am planning to add smoothies to my diet to get some fats and fiber in my body. I am starting this right now as well. Which is going to be hard as i am going for pizza with my dad, but i will get by.

So here is the plan for the net 4 days

Wednesday (complete)

8:00 - Strawberry, cashew, honey and raw cocoa Smoothie
11:00 - Apple, cucumber, silver beet, ginger juice
2:00 - Fig
3:00 - 2 handful of dates and cashews
6:00 Strawberry, cashew, and cocoa smoothie (with heaps of ice mixed in!! It-shirts really hot here)
8:00 I ended up eating half a vegan pastry. Oh well!

I also want for an hour's walk :-)

Tv in the air conditioning and a nice icy drink!

Thursday

8:00 Handful of dates
11:00 Green Juice
2:00 Pine apple and ginger juice
5:00 Green Juice

Friday
8:00 Pineapple, carrot and ginger juice
11:00 Banana, avocardo, honey, cashew and flax seed smoothie
3:00 Cucumber, spinach, celery, apple and lime
6:00 Banana, honey, cashew and flax seed smoothie

Saturday
8:00 Chocolate, avocado, banana and date smoothie
11:00 Juice in a water bottle with heaps of ice
6:00 Banana and date smoothie

Sunday
8:00 apple
11:00 Juice in a water bottle with heaps of ice

I WILL STICK TO THIS! (This post was more for my sake and a little motivation to keep it up)

Walnut and Cranberry Pumpkin Triangles

As with all my recipes, this has been tried and tested on many non-vegans or non-vegetarians. This was a major hit! I served these for a light lunch for 8 people. These are very freezable and i will be eating these right through the exam period.

Serves 4 (8 triangles) It is very easy to make more or less.

Ingredients 

1/4 large butternut pumpkin (1/2 a small one)
2-3 sheets of vegan puff pastry (in Australia we have Borg's which i buy at the grocery store)
Handful of dried cranberries
Handful of walnuts (crushed)
1/2 Cup cashews
Sage
Parsley

Method 

1. Soak the cashews in water for 2 -3 hours (if you don't have time don't worry too much) 
2. Cut pumpkin and bake in over for 1 hour at 180c (350c), or until soft.
3. Whilst pumpkin is cooking blend together cashews, sage and 1/2 water until smooth.
4. Next blend the pumpkin into the cashew mix until smooth (or you can mash the pumpkin)
5. Add the parsley, cranberries and walnuts, and mix in
6. Cut the puff pastry into squares and then triangles
   
   
   
    
7. Place some of the mixture on one triangle and cover and seal with another. (you can brush the edges with water because this makes them seal better)
8. Freeze the triangles as you make them (they puff up more if you cook them from frozen)
9. Bake in over for 15 mins, or until crisp
10. Serve

Herb Nut Pate

Holly cow, this is delicious and good for the cows! Finally i found alternative to soft cheeses, or a delicious addition to any platter that doesn't contain dairy or soy.

I introduced this to my dairy loving friends as "nut pâté" as vegan "cheese" would most likely turn people off. This was adapted from several recipes and it turned out beautifully, everyone who tried it loved it. 

Ingredients

2 cups cashews (raw, unsalted)
Sage and thyme or other herbs that you like
1 tbs Lemon juice
1 ts Salt 
1/3 cup Rejuvelac ( i will explain what this is below) 

Equipment 

20 cm x 20 cm of thin cotton (or you can use a clean chux wipe)

Blender or food processor 

Bowls

Rejuvelac 

Rejuvelac is basically the enzymes from sprouted grains. Some people say that it is very good for you as contains probiotics. I used buckwheat to make mine, but many other grains will work. They must be whole, uncooked raw grains though otherwise they will never sprout.

1. Rinse 1 cup of grains
2. Soak in water for 1 hour 
3. Lay on a wet paper towel 
4. Rinse grains every 8 hours until they begin to sprout (this took about a day for me, but the temperature was very hot)
5. Once they sprout place in a mason jar with 1.5 cups of water and cover 
6. When the water is a white color (this only took a few hours for me. If the water smells not very nice you have left it for too long) 
7. That's it!

Herb Nut Pate

1. Soak Cashews in water for 3-5 hours
2. Blend cashews with rejuvelac until smooth 
3. Place in a bowel and cover with cloth 
4. Leave the bowel out of direct sunlight for 1 day (2 days if the temperature is cooler)
5. Blend again adding lemon juice, herbs and salt
6. Shape into desired shape and place on the piece of cotton (or other breathable fabric)
7. Sprinkle with extra herbs and wrap up the mixture 
8. Leave out of direct sunlight for 1 day (or 2 if it is cooler)
9. Unwrap and enjoy!

All the beautiful nuts are heaps better for you than cheese and there are no animal fats! Its also very inexpensive to make and looks and tastes amazing!

Detox week

Now that Tough Mudder is well and truly over I've decided to have a long over due detox week, not only for my body but my mind as well.

So here is the plan for the next 6 days.

Sunday

Eat a clean, fresh, vegetarian diet. (I'm going out for lunch for my grandmothers birthday so a vegan meal may not be possible)

Juggling for 30 mins
Mediation for 30 mins

Going to drink lemon water and peppermint tea for dinner to start to flush out the toxins

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Going on a juice fast, drinking only fresh vegetable juice and herbal tea. Maybe I will have some carrot sticks if the hunger pangs get to much!

Juggling for 30 mins
Meditation 30 mins

Thursday and Friday

 Eating a strictly raw vegan diet with plenty of veggies and tea.

Also continuing the meditation and juggling.


I will be posting my favorite juice recipes throughout the week and keep a log of how I am going!

Tough Mudder

My amazing team!

My Tough Mudder expirence was amazing. Everybody on course was so supportive and my team was amazing. For those of you that dont know Tough Mudder is a 20km British military special forces obstacle that is held in many countries around the world to raise money for charity.

If you have the opportunity to participate in this event it is definitely worth it! The pledge is correct in saying that it is not a race, it's a challenge. I faced my fear of heights and electricity on the course and I felt amazing that I completed it when I finished! 

It was tough both mentally and physically, but the atmosphere around you is amazing and I was surprised with what I could do. My team finished in under 3 hours, I never thought I could run 20km in a day, let alone in under 3 hours with obsticals.

It is a difficult course to do and I would recommend strapping anything that might give you some trouble (my knee is giving me a world of pain right now). I did not do any preparation for this event except walking and a little running, and I did not find it that physically demanding that I wanted to pull out at anytime.

I really appreciated the bananas being handed out on course! They made a world of difference.

So what am I taking away from this experience;

1. You can live a mostly vegan life and still do amazing physical activities
2. People are amazing, both mentally and physically.
3. People are amazingly supportive, and you need people to support you to get over obstacles. (I think this is a lovely metaphore for life, and I need to learn that it is ok to ask for help in other situations)

Good times! Thankyou to everyone who was there! You are all amazing!

Cheese

I have had a very long love affair with cheese. Iv always thought cheese is amazing and it is the final food i need to give up to become totally vegan. A few nights ago my friends ordered pizza, i did not order any, but ate a vegan wrap. This didn't stop me polishing off three slices of vegetarian pizza. I keep telling my self that surly cheese is not that bad?

So i started doing my research. Turns out i was wrong.

Background: The history of cheese making

Cheese making has dated back before recorded history. Many myths exist around the discovery of cheese making but the one i like most is that ancient Arabians tided the stomachs of goats filled with goats milk onto their camels and rode out into the dessert and the milk separated and cheese formed. (i will get back to the importance of the stomach later). I must mention that cheese making is also thought to date before this time in Poland as cloth with milk fat residue has been found.

The dairy industry harms cows

I love animals and i believe that cows milk is for calves. The dairy industry do terrible things to cows and calves, like separating parent and child a birth.This separation usually occurs within 3 days, as the longer the calve is with the mother the more distress that will occur. (like having your baby taken from you wasn't distressing enough) They also kill male calves at a very young age for veal as they are not useful for milk. They are fed up on a "milk substitute" as to make sure there mums milk goes towards human consumption.  As well as this dairy cows often live a short.

Cows have a gestation period for 9 months, as soon as they give birth they are often impregnated again as to keep the milk cycle up so they are producing almost all year round.
As well as this most cows do not live for more than 4 years as the milk production decreases and they are culled. There are also other reasons like udder infections and if they become lame.

Cheese production is particularly harmful (and often not vegetarian)

It takes around 10 units of milk to make 1 unit of cheese. That means that the 50g of cheese on your sandwich took half liter of milk to produce. Per capita in Australia it is estimated consumption in 2011/2012 was 13.4 kg that is around 130L of milk per person per year on cheese alone. Source

Not only is the large amount of milk used to produce cheese, but also i was surprised to learn that many cheeses are not even vegetarian. A substance called rennet is often used in the production of cheese. Rennet is found in the stomach of mammals and includes enzymes that coagulate milk and cause it to break up into curds and whey. Rennet is important for animals to break down mothers milk. Rennet from calves stomachs is used to create cheese. The modern method involves placing calves stomachs in an enzyme extracting solution to remove the rennet.

Cheese is bad for you and addictive

Cheese is made mainly casein and fat from milk. It is very high in protein and fat and can be seen as a highly concentrated form of milk. This means that it is not very high in calories, but also very high in other toxins which may be found in milk. This may include hormones, infections, worming injections ect.

Cheese is also very high in saturated fat. In some cheeses 100g contains your daily saturated fat recommendation. This also means that cholesterol is fairly high, so if this is something you are worried about, give cheese the boot. Here is a list of cholesterol in different cheeses.

Casein is a main component to cheese. It is broken down into several substances in the body. Substances produced include casomorphine and opioid peptide. Both of these substances are opioids and have similar effects on the body to morphine or opiates. This is fine if you are a calf as it encourages you to drink more and grow up big and strong, but it is not so good if you are a human. Cheese concentrates these substances and makes it far more addictive than milk.

Another interesting fact that i learnt is that the white layer around solf cheeses such as brie is actually a film of mold that forms. It is not usually harmful, but still its mold.

Good Bye Cheese

I feel that my research has convinced me to say no to next time i am offered mold covered, concentrated cows milk morphine filled with toxins and say yes to better treatment of animals and better health for me.

I will be trying out some different alternatives to cheese over the next week so i will be writing a post when im done.

Most Amazing Healthly "Ice-cream" Ever!!!

Vegan Banana Ice-cream 

I know this is breaking my no non-essential internet rule. But this is essential, it is for the good of all humanity (vegan or health conscious humanity that is)! 

Just had this for lunch, it was amazing. Its really easy to make too!

You will need:

2 Frozen bananas 

Vanilla essence 

Your choice of toppings (i used sugar free chocolate topping)

Put the banana and vanilla in a blender, and blend till smooth.

Spoon into a bowl 

Add sauce

EAT!

Yummo! I ate all of it and don't feel bad at all!

Ok its time for me to get off the internet!