Spirulina

I woke up this morning to hear of the devastating news in Boston. Since having W, I often get emotional when hearing such terrible news, probably because once you become a parent there is a silent shift, all of a sudden your life becomes valuable, you have someone to live for. So since learning the impotance of life, I am often left with a heavy heart when others gets taken so needlessly!! And today was one of those days...
So to take my mind off the world news I distracted myself and thought I would try a new 'superfood' in my smoothie. Spirulina!! I have seen this food floating around in the raw food world, heck, even my mamma is using it in her smoothies and tells me how good it makes her feel!! So hubs brought me some back after a UK trip he had a few days ago.
So here is the low down..spirulina is a green blue algae formed mainly in open water ponds. It is what gives the pond that greeny colour. It is called spirulina as it grows in spirals. It is thought that it is so nutritious that man could live on only this and water. It contains all 8 amino acids, iron, zinc vitamin b12, copper, iodine and magnesium. If you are sensitive to iodine then it is advised to avoid this product. It is also a blood, liver and kidney purifier, hence the increased energy when you take this product! So you can understand why this is labelled a superfood.
My plan was to make a cacao and banana softserve with spirulina. And thats exactly what I did.
First of all, the product comes in a powder, I opened the packet and a plume of green dust came out of the packet and the smell was quite overwhelming...I decided it best to just put a small amount in the smoothie. ..half a teaspoon will do!! Wow...it was a very overpowering taste. Quite earthy...but the colour was amazing, such a beautifully bright green colour (before I added the cacao). However, tomorrow I will add less spirulina and take it slow, just until my taste buds get used to this new taste.

In other news. W came home from nursery having eaten all his breakfast and lunch!!  Wohoo...it's been a while since he's eaten everything and at home he has been refusing food, especially his porridge, so I shook up his food slightly (maybe he was sick of porridge). So for anyone stuck for ideas here is what I gave him-  for breakfast he had quinoa, mixed with soya yogurt, blueberries and coconut palm sugar.  For lunch he had avocado with a squeeze of lemon and little bit of salt sandwiches, nut free raw balls (the nursery is nut free) that cosisted of ground sunflower, pumpkin, flaxseed and goji berries, coconut flakes, cocao, raisins and coconut oil. He also had a small bag of dried fruit. To be honest I didnt expect him to eat the sandwiches!! But Wohoo...he did!!
And so to finish off my distraction day I decided to make more raw balls without using any oil!! And I did it!! I wanted a strong flavour...and I did that too!! Here is the recipe..
1 cup of raisins
1/4 cup ground nuts or seeds (I have been using linwoods mixed seeds and goji berries)
1/4 cup cacao
Knuckle of ginger (or as much as you like...this was my strong flavour that I wanted)
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Mix the raisins well. Add all the other ingredients until well blended and then roll into balls. ..simples. ...