Friday, June 28, 2013

I am a Waldorf Parent

I am a Waldorf parent which means we are supposed to be a media free household.  I've touched upon this before briefly.  For the most part, D does not partake in any media.  She definitely doesn't watch TV on a daily basis.  When she was younger and she was sick, yes, we would like her watch some Kai Lan or Sound of Music DVDs but only when she is sick.

Sometimes, Daddy will let her watch some funny YouTube videos (though he has not done that in a while).  He does let her watch videos of her as a baby, though.  That can't be too harmful right?

In any case, I am a big fan of the media free!  To quote an article by

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Nut tacos!


Well, hello!  Welcome back.  Hahaha!  I've been lax in posting lately.  We went off to San Francisco to visit family and while I was up there, I chose to spend my spare time catching up on Game of Thrones (season 1!) instead of posting.

Now I'm back.  I just made some Nut Tacos = Raw food for my family last night.  D chose to wrap her tacos in red cabbage, and G and I had two tacos.  One with kale leaves as wrap and the other with red cabbage as wrap.  Both are quite delicious.

Ingredients for nut tacos:

1 c. soaked nuts (can use almonds, walnuts or pecans)
1/2 c. raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. turmeric
cracked pepper
1 bunch of cilantro
2 tsp tamari sauce
1 tsp finely chopped jalapeno pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or chile powder
3 Tbs water (for moisture)

Put all above ingredients in a food processor and blend until good texture.

Then you will need:
1 to 2 heads Romaine or Boston lettuce (or red or green cabbage leaves or spinach leaves or kale leaves or nori sheets)
1 medium chopped tomato
1 diced avocado
1 handful of fresh pea or bean sprouts
1 lime - for its juice

Scoop nut meat onto lettuce leaf, add tomato, avocado and bean sprouts.  Sprinkle with lime juice.

Makes for a very beautiful and delicious meal.  Errrm...I did not have any tomatos or lettuce leaves or pea/bean sprouts so I made a red cabbage slaw to go with our tacos.  We had the red cabbage slaw over the weekend at Yank Sing and it was really good.  Luckily, a search on the internet brought up the recipe!  Again, I loves the Internet!  The recipe linked here does not show lemon zest, but our salad was topped with lemon zest and I think that is what makes the dish extra special and flavorful.

For the nut meat portion, I also did not a) soak my walnuts nor b) have any cilantro.  So, instead I added some chopped red onion to the mix to give it a little bit of kick and moisture.  It turned out quite yummy!!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Whoa...detox



Wait, did I just congratulate myself on Tuesday for a job well done on fasting? Wow, did I have a doozy of an evening Tuesday night.  During the evening I think I drank a little too much water because I was getting up every hour to go to the bathroom.  Zzzzzz...and then when I woke up in the morning, my body was sweating and my hands were shaking.  I was so woozy.  I am told those are symptoms of detox. Which probably is a good sign!  Now, had I planned properly and not gone on my fast on the two days where I actually had client meetings, I may have been able to detox some more or at least handle myself properly. Instead I raced to the kitchen to make myself a very satisfying watermelon smoothie.  Aahh, so delicious - filtered water, juice of one lemon, meat of one small watermelon, a pinch of pink himalayan sea salt and some mint sprigs.  YUM!  And then I just continued to drink green juices and water for the rest of the day.  Whew, I made it.  :o)
Can't wait to do this again...in a few months.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Stiggly Cleanse


I've mentioned in a previous post that I am on a cleanse...today was my fasting day.  I feel pretty proud that I fasted today, went to a meeting at a client's and was perfectly put together despite only having water all day, AND I prepared a lovely meal for our little D and did not take one bite of the deliciousness.

Dinner for D tonight was spelt grains cooked in chicken bone broth and roasted cauliflower and kale.  Yum, right?

Can't wait to get back to food...even just smoothies.  Many other stigglyites fast for more than 24 hours. I don't know how they do it.  It's just rather, how should I put it, b-o-r-i-n-g.  Who wants to just drink plain ole boring water all day when there is so much more to be had out there?  So many appealing flavors?

Right about now, I'm feeling a bit light-headed and really just want to take myself to bed so that tomorrow will come sooner. Tomorrow, I'm going back to said client so hopefully, I will be just as put together as today.  I will come off my cleanse with a glass of watermelon smoothie - filtered water, watermelon, juice of a couple of lemons and some sea salt. I might throw in some mint.  I will be sure to drink this first thing in the morning so as to make sure I don't have any adverse effects before jumping into a car.

Boy, do I feel accomplished!  See ya tomorrow!

Monday, June 10, 2013

And in support of my sugar phobia...


I just learned, thanks to the blog 100 Days of Real Food that stevia, despite what we've read is not a natural form of sugar.  (Are we surprised?)  The plant is, but once they process it into packaged stevia, then it's not natural anymore and is actually quite bad because of the additives.  Not that I was using it...

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Acrylic yarn...AHA use!

Having just had dinner at a friend's house, I learned that acrylic yarn crocheted in a circle approximately 5" in diameter can serve as a very eco sponge!  WHAAAT??!  YEAH!  For reals!  She showed me.  She cleans all her dishes with the acrylic disk and it just takes all the grease off.

A google search brings us to the MAKE magazine blog that informs us these disks are called Tawashis and the reason why this "sponge" works - the synthetic fibers act as microfiber and acrylic attracts grease.

Friday, June 7, 2013

I covet

(photo pulled from Lemlem website)

Came across this coverup via Daily Candy (thaaanks!)  I love this coverup and covet it for summer.  Oh wait...maybe it won't look that supple on me since I am not a size 0...do you see how thin that model's legs are?  Yeah, not so much my legs.

Never mind.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Carrot tops


Look at that bunch of yumminess!  Carrot tops should not be overlooked.  They are a delicious green veggie that can add a punch to your dish. I just chopped up a bunch to add to my lentil soup and it was so good!  Gave the soup a fresh "healthy" flavor!

Green Goddess Goodies tells us carrot greens are rich in protein, vitamins and minerals. They contain 6 times the vitamin C of the root and are a great source of potassium and calcium.  The greens are an excellent source of chlorophyll, which has been noted to purify the blood, lymph nodes and adrenal glands...

Try it!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Backyard fun

Ooh, I just came across this entry on Daily Candy. Easy backyard fun. I think I'm going to have to do this one day this summer in our backyard!