Blender Blunder!!

My beloved blender died a few days ago...r.i.p blender...it served me well for 2 full years, its just unfortunate that it was no longer able to keep up with the abuse that I threw at it. It was used daily, and in the beginning I would use it to make smoothies using soft fruits like blueberries and bananas. Towards the end of its life however, I was throwing in frozen bananas and other frozen fruit, I could hear the blender struggling until one day, on a sunny afternoon in Doha, the bottom of the blender split. It was the end. Im without a blender and have had to use a handheld device in  temporary replacement until we decide what to do. Hubby jokingly thinks I destroyed it on purpose in order to get a blender upgrade! Cheeky!! Especially as I recently went to a Thermomix demonstration, which, by the way, looks like an amazing piece of German equipment!! I have however heard amazinng stuff about the Vitamix. O what to do *sigh*

In other news... I have some sort of throat infection. Probably lovingly given to me by my little man. He's had conjunctivitis and an ear infection so we have been house bound for a few days. Anyway, not really wanting to load myself up on parecetamol, I decided to try and take a more natural route.  I've read many times that cinamon and honey in warm water is supposed to be good for the throat.  I have been replacing the honey for lemon, it tastes very pleasant. I've also been making fresh orange juice and watermelon smoothies, all of which give temporary relief. I'm hoping that this will fight the infection ASAP as we have little family getaway next week :-)

TTFN folks xx

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. ...

Gluten Free Day

Hey all.

So after following House of Vegans, Kirstiie's (www.houseofvegan.wordpress.com) gluten freeness on facebook, and reading about the positives that have come from eliminating gluten, I decided, on a whim to give it a go for 24 hours. I got my son (who shall be named W) involved too. Although he is only 20 months old, he seems to have major buddha belly at the end of the day. I understand that it's quite normal...but seriously,  it's huuuuge. I just wanted to trial it and see if elimination changed that. Also, I think he is possibly prone to allergies as he was covered in eczema at 6 months old.  He was put on a dairy and soy free formula and the eczema cleared almost immediately. He eats dairy now...but he wont drink milk on its own and refused it from 12 months...I see this as some sort of unspoken message that he was trying to tell me something. I'd like to add that W has a raspy chest all the time. I don't know whether this is because of desert living, sand in the air, which is heavily polluted (Qatar's air pollution is six times over the permissible limit) or whether it is something else, it doesn't really effect him on a day to day basis, but I don't like to hear it :( .

I had planned to cut out dairy from his diet for 24 hours too.

I also appreciate that 24 hours is probably not long enough to see major results and I am sure there is some sort of detoxification process that comes with it. But I just wanted to see if we could actually achieve 24 hours without too much trauma.

So being quite underprepared for this last minute decision, my first challenge was breakfast. It came as a smoothie/soft serve type of breakie. It consisted of frozen bananas, strawberries ground seed and goji berry mix and water, all thrown into the blender. The frozen bananas make like a soft ice creamy/frozen yogurt type of texture. It went down well...so far so good.

We then went shopping, to get a little bit more prepared, and we came back with LOADS of stuff. Gluten free muffin mix, gluten free bread mix, flours, falafels cereal. I was pretty impressed with myself and thought this was going to be a breeze!!

Lunchtime!! Brocoli and chickpea soup with a side serve of grilled Polenta. I really enjoyed the lunch. I'm not too sure about polenta, but it was edible. W spat the whole thing out and refused to eat any of it!! Grrr

Grilling Polenta!

Dinner, went even better...not!! I made a goooorgeous roasted pepper and carrot humus and put it on top of a baked sweet potato. I thought this was going to be a winner as it was all very sweet tasting....nope, spat out and refusal to touch any of it!! In a desperate attempt to make sure W went to bed on a full tummy, I made him a bowl of gluten free puffs (like rice krispies) with almond milk, topped with coconut palm sugar....he had 2 bowls!! 

Roasted Pepper and Carrot Hummus

By the end of the day, we were both fed-up, tired and grumpy!! This wasn't the flowers in your hair,  running through fields with the long grass running through your fingertips type of day that I had imagined... bundles of energy, lot's of laughs...nope, instead it was hard work, lot's of tears, and not a lot of fun...and to top it off I felt bloated!! O dear!!

So here is what I think went wrong!

First of all, W was teething, this became more and more apparent during the day, with his rosy red cheeks, and when this happens he's not really interested in food, especially cooked food.

Secondly, this was day 2 of Daddy being away. He always gets irritable when Daddy isn't home (does this happen to your kids?)

Thirdly, we had a couple of days of very early wakings (4.30...WHAAAT!!?) probably because of his teething, so we were both VERY tired.

and Fourthly, W just WOULD NOT take a nap that day. He was adamant and I was too tired to fight it in the end, so he had been up for waaayyy too long, and this also makes it harder to get anything inside of him!! 

I think I had basically set my expectations really too high for this little man and to have expected such a dietary change so suddenly was a little unfair. I also timed the change awfully. Tiredness, grouchiness, teething all contributed to the bad day we both had. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed everything I made (it was all from scratch!) but had circumstances been different, then maybe it would have been easier.  I also forgot to mention that during the day, I gave W some cheese as he was tugging at my leg going 'cheese, cheeses, cheese,' and as he hadn't eaten much I decided to give him some.

On the positive side, I had noticed that W wasn't raspy, even though it was a windy day and sand was blowing everywhere...there was no rasp!! So that is something to think about!! 

So, today has been 2 days since the DAY! And although, I have pretty much remained gluten free, I have decided that I will make slower changes for the rest of my family, for example, tonights dinner, Sweet potato curry with Quinoa...although W spat it out and only had about 2 mouthfuls, it's a step in the right direction. I, however, am trying to keep going,

although I did have a small piece of bread today...ooops!!

The Garden

I thought it was about time that I updated you all on our little balcony project. It's all growing amazingly and the more I see growing, the more excited I get. It's funny because I know where food comes from, I know it grows on trees or out the ground, I know it grows from seed etc, but I've gotten a whole new respect for food now that I have actually SEEN it grow from nothing!! I'm fascinated when the tomato plant flowers, and then turns into a tomato, it's just an amazing moment and a reminder of just how spectacular mother nature really is!! Love the planet people...it's here to protect us!

Anyway, here are just a very few pictures of what's happening in our jungle-



Mixed Lettuce Leaves

 

Pak Choy

 

Rocket 

 

Carrots, Garlic and Sunflowers

  

Tomatoes

 

 

We also have a whole heap of other stuff growing too. Basil, Chives, Mint, Coriander, Lemons and Peppers. I'm thinking we are going to have a challenge on our hands now that it's rapidly warming up here in Doha and who knows if anything will actually survive the summer heat. We are already watering like crazy, but it's worth it...there is a beautiful smell on our balcony once everything has been watered, which reminds me of home...or anywhere green for that matter! MMMM...