Celery Salmorejo with soy sprouts / Salmorejo de apio con brotes de soja

It's the second time I make this soup, but this time it surprised me with its great taste as not only I put celery sticks, but also the leafs, which gave it a great savory taste contrasting with the sweetness of the sprouts.

Ingredients:
6 plum tomatoes
6 celery sticks with their leaves
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
3 leaves of basil
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Blend and serve in a warm bowl topped with handful of soy sprouts and enjoy with love and joy!

ESPAÑOL/SPANISH

Es la segunda vez que hago esta sopa, pero esta vez me ha sorprendido su maravilloso sabor, ya que ademas de los palos de apio, le he añadido también las hojas, lo que le dio el sabor salado en contraste con la dulzura de los brotes.

Ingredientes:
6 tomate pera
6 palos de apio con sus hojas
1 o 2 dientes de ajo
3 hojas de albahaca
2 cucharadas soperas de aceite de oliva
1/2 cucharadita de sal

Bate y sirve en bols calientes y termina con unos brotes de soja and disfruta con amor!

Oven Baked Veggies with quinoa

Oven baked veggies with quinoa

Make the vegetables with my recipe for OVEN BAKED VEGETABLES
And add some boiled quinoa and voila and healthy main course!

Haz las verduras con mi receta
Y añadele quinoa hervida y voila un plato principal!

The dawn of a new era

                      We've all been bombed, throughout the last few months with news on the end of the world, the change of an era and the end of the Mayan calendar and the consequent jokes on the various social medias, some of which, I must admit, were really funny.

                     The truth is, nobody knows the truth, and personally I hope it is the beginning of a new era (some says our DNA spiral is also muting) when we all become better beings, respectful with the environment, the most vegan as possible, helpful with others, positive and fearless, I hope for a world in which money isn't as important as someone's hearth BUT in which there's no extremism from the "natural, vegan, healthy" who openly dislike and attack whoever doesn't agree with them.

                     I believe in a society where everyone lives by his own moral standard and respects everybody's point of view.

                     Now, moral issues on the side, the picture was taken driving downhill on the cost in Southern Spain, opoosite Africa and the Atlas mountains. I had been looking at it for about 5 minutes, enjoying the light and the peace of the moment, when I decided to stop to take some pics. These are the best.

I have done some research and the round element on the right is Venus, visible in this part of the world at sunrise, but the funny thing is, it wasn't visible to the eye, I only discovered it when I later looked at the pics.

Have a great day everyone!

Cinnamon Green Smoothie

Ingredients: 2 bananas, 3 pears, 2 handfuls of spinaches, 1 cup of orange juice, 1 Tbsp cinnamon ( I love cinnamon, if you're not too keen, reduce the amount to 1 tsp)

Blend on high and enjoy with joy!

Ingredientes: 2 bananas, 3 peras, 2 puñados de espinacas, 1 taza de zumo de naranja, 1 cucharada de canela ( a mi me encanta la canela, pero si te resulta demasiado fuerte, pon media cucharada)

Pon la batidora al máximo y disfruta con amor!

The ORANGE juice that cheered me up

When I woke up this morning I wasn't depressed, but haven't been feeling my best in the last week.

The temperaturas have dropped and my body took some time to adjust, so I kept feeling hungry, kindda sad and cold.

I had been trying to get back on truck onto juicing (and failed), tried with Beck's with some of my fav for lunch (and failed, as I kept having too much) and as a result the scale was showing an increase of 100/200 grams every day, instead of loosing them.

So I decided to switch from smoothie or fruit salad for breakfast to fruit juice and the result was amazing, only after 10 minutes of drinking it, I felt better, I felt full and moreover I felt happy.

Now, most of you will ask: what exactly did you put in that juice???

Well simple and easy:

3/4 of a pinapple (I left the rest for my son's afternoon snack)

1 Golden Apple

8 carrots

Throughout the rest of the morning I kept feeling full and happy, also not so cold as I put on an extra layer of clothes (couldn't care less if I looked bloated, as was nice and warm). 

I kept drinking wáter and got back the nice feelings you get on the raw food diet: power, energy, fullness that I recently experienced on the last liquid only detox that I did early in the month between New Year's and the 3 Kings, when I lost 2 kg in 4 days that I had put on over a 4 days long weekend. For lunch I had a

TOMATO ROCKET SALAD:

1 beef tomato

5 cherry tomatoes

5 sundried tomatoes (in oil)

10 black olives

1/4 red onion

2 hadfuls of rocket

parsley, oregano, olive oil and balsamic vinegar

It's one of my favourite salads and when not detoxing I add 1/2 can of red kidney beans.

After making the juice this morning I got down to clean the juicer and the left over pulp looked very appalling so I put it in a box and took it with me to work.

I added some oatmeal, chia seeds and cinnamon poder making it a very healthy and money saving snack . I could only eat half of it, so that it's in the fridge ready for tomorrow

Now it's nearly dinner time, I had a tea a while ago and I feel absolutely great and ready for

DINNER consisting of Green Juice:

6 carrots

3 cucumbers

8 celery sticks with leaves

so hopefully am back on track for good #StartClean2013 and #HealthysELF

And how are you doing?

Experimenting with gluten free vegan

It might sound a tad tricky to begin with, but it's not so difficult once you get the hack of it and you're mentally strong.

Yesterday I had I successfull gluten free vegan day and was so inspired that I decided to use AA methodes and take 1 day at a time and reward myself daily for what I accomplish.

I felt powerful, happy and in control: a strong minded being can successfully control his/hers body

Last year I had a raw vegan juicing spring summer, when I also learnt how to water fast and control my hunger, in fact everything was under control, I was steadily loosing weight until the temperatures lowerd and body started craving hot foods (mainly soups and stews).

I must admit I gave in and gained back 2 kg of the 10 I had lost, but instead of mortyfing myself I said: hey, you had a slip up, but think what you were eating last winter (pasta, sweet smoothies, healthy but very high in calories) and how you've learnt to control hunger and cravings and all the progresses you have made.

It's all very mental and psychologic, as, as well as losing weight, the vegan gluten free diet boost my energy ( I need all I can get as I lead a very active life ) and makes me feel great.

Sometimes, however, is not just hunger but craving of certain foods, confort foods. If I am tired I tend to crave carbs in the form of pasta and pizza (I am Italian and I own an Italian restaurant with hubby and he's a wonderful chef, plus all the food there is homemade)

Some people crave sweets and apparently is worse, so that I have to consider myself lucky.

I always try to look at the bright side of life in all aspects and, although, changing one's way of being and of relating to certain kinds of foods is difficult, switching habits isn't impossible, so I will keep up the work and as I said take it slowly one day at the time.

And how are you doing with your 2013 goals? Getting better in the area of switching to healthier eating habits?

HOW  TO FEEL FULL ON A VEGAN GLUTEN FREE DIET IF YOUR BODY ONLY FEELS FULL WITH CARBS?

Although you might think it's going to be all based on salads, juices, smoothies, that however colorful tasty and nice in spring/summer, now need to be replaced or accompanied by more filling foods.

So in our aid here come the old fashiond bowls of stews with GLUTEN FREE grains and cooked with very little oils.

you can get any of your favourite recipes and adjust it to low fat gluten free vegan by

Choosing from any of the below as a whole or in flour 

• Rice
• Sweetcorn
• Quinoa
• Millet
• Amaranth
• Bucktorn
• Sorghum
• Teff
• Oatmeal (low in gluten but not gluten free)

 and create your own great filling (both physically and mentally) bowl

Sprouting / Germinando

    

I am sure you have all heard of the benefits of eating sprouts, some call them "dinamo of light" and as well as incorporating them in your diet by adding them to raw soups and salads, let me stress the importance of the source of the sprouts thelselves.

If they're not organic you might as well save yourself the money and the effort and considering the price of organic, a good solution is sprouting at home.

I have thrown away lots of sprouts before finding the right way.
I have followed different techniques: mason jars, alluminium tray with a net on top, sprouting bags, but invitabily all of them would go bad after the 3rd day (when they're actually meant to be edible) and one day, all of a sudden, I was browsing through the shelves of the natural shop I alway go to and my eye fell onto a "sprouting station" valued at 25€ and reminded me of a striainer.

I put my thinking cap stright on and as soon as I got back home got out a striner and a bowl and I tried with soy seeds.

Having succeeded I went to the pound shop and bouth an extra strainer (1€) and as per bowls, I bet in every household there are about 5 bowls too many, in which case you needn't spend any extra money, let alone a 25€ sprouter in which you can only do 1/4 of a handful of only one seed at a time.

TECHNIQUE:

Bearing in mind that seeds multiply 3 times when sprouted, take a hanful of seeds (to start with I suggest soyu or lentils, as they're the easiest to sprout) and put them in a 1 litre mason jar topped up with water overnight.

The following morning rinse throughly and transfer them to a striner with a bowl underneath as they drip.

Twice a day you have to water them, so fill the bowl (containing the strainer with the sprouts) with water, let it sit for 1/2 and hour, then throw away the water (perfectly usable to water the plants, flush the toilet, etc.) , rinse throughly and let them sit in a warm and darkish place. (At this stage the only important thing is that they don't get direct sunlight                                                                                                                                                

Here you can see the different stages of development of the soy sprout, after 24 hour you should start to see the white bit of the bean, which is the beginning to sprout.

Here, after 3 days, they're edible, and if you have enough patience, you can remove all the green bits with a table spoon (I can usually manage 50% of it, then I go mental)

What I do, after day 3 I take half a handful every day for my salad and let the rest grow.

When there's a little left, I start soaking a new batch.

And then below it's about as big as they get, in about a week, afterwards they start to get dry.
So if you have some left over, store them in a air tight container and put them in the fridge

                   

Here above are the 2 stages of lentils.

It is very important to rinse the sprouts very well and throughly and move them upwards in the strainer so that they can all breathe and grow.

HAPPY SPROUTING EVERYONE!