Green Smoothie Talk

Morning guys!

I used to do more ‘tea talk’ posts in which I didn’t lecture y ‘all on the importance of greens or start a friendly discussion about food combining, or the importance of nourishing foods over filling foods, but simply had a nice chat about what’s going on in my mind & life! Only, I drink Green Smoothies now in the morning as opposed to tea, hence the title .

Continuous Cleansing

I’ve been meaning to share something quite incredible that’s been going on for going on three weeks now. In the past three weeks, not only did I not get one zit, but also my mysterious eczema/rash cleared up! Like I have mentioned in the past: the skin is truly a mirror of our internal health. Surely some fine lines, dry patches, a few zits now and again or other ‘mysterious’ skin conditions aren’t the worst signs of ill health, but nevertheless they are a good indicator of our bodies’ overall well-being! For some years now I had a few rough patches around my shoulders/arm pits and although they never bothered me, ever since I became more aware of this skin/health paradigm I became very conscious of them, wondering what it could mean. As one of my goals for the 21 day cleanse I listed I wanted these spots to dissapear because that would surely be a sign of the body detoxing out old crap. During the cleanse they only dissapeared for a period of 2 days, right after my colonic, only to reappear again. About two weeks ago though, I noticed they were completely gone, and they haven’t come back since either!

This, together with being 100% zit-free for the first time in… ever?, made me feel I’m onto something good here. You see, when I embarked on that 21 day cleanse I was very new to the world of cleansins and detoxing. The more I learn from others and experience myself, the more I begin to realize how vital it is, for everyone, to cleanse. Please note I am using the verb ‘cleanse’ here, not the noun ‘a cleanse‘. Doing a cleanse/detox, aka following a specific outlined program for a certain amount of time, can still be very beneficial for some people. Surely, it greatly helped me reform my diet and eat much more fresh vegetables. However I suspect that for a lot, doing ‘a cleanse’ will simply be a quick-fix strategy followed by going back to their good old eating habits.

Ongoing cleansing means slowly but surely eliminating toxins and acid-forming foods from our daily diets (like alcohol and animal proteins), putting in stuff that facilitates cleansing (like enzymes), and making sure old waste that eventually begins to let loose can be expelled (like taking a colonic and making sure our diets are rich in fiber). Cleansing is an ongoing process without a clear-cut end.

Quitting the dairy made a tremendous improvement in my skin, but it was never 100% clear (I’d say it made an 80% improvement though!). Of course this didn’t bother me after at least a decade of suffering from having pretty bad skin, but these last few weeks I have come to realize there’s even more room for improvement. And I love how I can sort of measure my progress by monitoring my skin!

Changing My Religion

Lately two topics have also been a lot on my mind: soy and agave. In the past I have touted both soy and agave as pretty healthful products. As for soy I have learned long ago that processed soy products (and products that contain processed soy, which is a lot..) are far from healthy, although there is quite some confusing information out there. The same goes for agave, although this one is even tougher to figure out and there’s less scientific information about agave.

Since reading up more on these products I have definitely changed my mind on their perceived healthfulness. . For now I’ll say: use processed soy products (soy milk, yogurt, protein bars and powders, soy-based veggie burgers) very sparingly, if at all. The same goes for agave. I still use the latter since it’s so friggin’ delicious (or rather, addicting?) and can’t find the perfect sub.

I always promote a continuous learning process too. Our thoughts and beliefs shouldn’t be a constant, in my opinion, but subject to change. We all grow continuously because we keep learning and experiencing new things, and our outlooks on life may change over time as well. I see veganism as a good example for this. I ate meat and dairy for 22 years, until the time came I learned new things, and my perspective on life changed, so the time came to alter my behaviors.

New Recipes!

This is a really cool new recipe I came up with by accident! I had been reading up on the wonderful healing properties of Turmeric (geelwortel) and saw this awesome product: Nutmeric. Nutmeric is almond butter mixed with turmeric, black pepper, garlic and honey. I decided to make my own since, of course, this isn’t available anywhere near us here in Holland, until halfway I looked in my beloved Vitamix and was struck by a stroke of genius.

Nutmeric Spice
* 1 cup almonds (120 grams)
* 2 T turmeric
* 2 T agave (or other liquid sweetener)
* 1/2 t garlic powder
* pepper & salt

Preheat oven to 180 C / 375 F. Coat the almonds with the agave and spices. Line an oven dish with tinfoil and roast the nuts for just 5 minutes. Add to food processor and process to a fine flour.

This is such a lovely tasting and vibrant looking condiment! I can’t get enough of it, either by the spoonful or tossed on a large salad, and even fruit! It’s very flavorful and healthy too, some nice calcium and protein from the almonds and turmeric is boasted to have all kinds of healing effects (nutrition 101 post soon!). Try and look for organic turmeric though!

This was a super amazing new salad creation!

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
* mixed greens
* cold-pressed olive oil, lemon juice, pepper & salt
* cooked chickpeas
* 1 carrot
* sundried tomatoes
* olives
* capers (optional)
* raisins
* pecans
* nutmeric spice

Spritz a small amount of olive oil on the greens and add a little lemon juice, pepper and (optionally) salt, toss. Rinse & drain chickpeas throroughly. Add rest of (chopped) ingredients.

Super Quick Chocolate Dipping Sauce
* 4 T (raw) cacao powder
* 2 T coconut oil, softened
* 2 T agave (or other liquid sweetener)

Heat the coconut oil au bain marie. Add cacao and agave and stir vigorously until a chocolate paste has formed. Consume immidiately. If you store the rest, the coconut butter will firm up so you’ll need to reheat before eating.

Other recent eats:

Friends prepared a lovely vegan dinner for me: rice-stuffed eggplant (coincidentally, I recently discovered I like eggplant :p).

Another baked sweet potato. For a semi-large potato, I heat the oven to 200 C, cover the potato in coconut oil, wrap it in foil, prick some holes, and bake it covered for 45 minutes. Then, I remove the foil and bake it for a remaining 15 minutes. Delish!

ChocoCado mousse prepared with regular instead of raw cacao powder (I’m out, the horror!). Verdict: indefinitely better with raw cacao powder!!

Banana + apple topped with nutmeric spice!

That’s it for today! What’s new with you guys?!

Tip of the day:

Never drink (black) tea with/around meals! The compounds in black tea interfere with iron absorption, something you do not wish. The same goes for coffee, FYI. Rooibos tea and herbal teas are ok.