Happy Thursday!

Hello there!

Well, I survived my yoga retreat weekend thankfully although I was exhausted at the end of it.  I am noticing that I sleep more and that I really have to conserve my energy much more than before.  For example, if I decide to sweep the floor AND make a meal, then I will surely need a nap after that, LOL.  For some serendipitous reason, my body has been craving much more raw food.  During the yoga retreat, we ate a mostly macrobiotic vegetarian diet with LOTS of bread!  The portions tended to be quite small, and even though I knew it wasn’t optimal for me, I partook in the bread and felt awful for it.  I guess my body is just crying out for some light detox and fresh foods.  I am not going to complain, I am really enjoying it!

To me, summer means fruit!  Just look at all this bounty!  All organic, as well, from the Maharishi Vedic Agriculture farm here in Spain!  So delicious!! Not pictured is another watermelon which I promptly ate half of and juiced the other half, a kilo of figs that had to go in the freezer immediately and about a kilo more of peaches which were really soft.

Fuji apples, limes, lemons, cantaloupe, watermelon, cherry tomatoes, apricots, nectarines, peaches, paraguayos (donut peaches), bananas and avocados.

I want to share my breakfast yesterday.  I had a similar thing today, as I loved it so much!  Now, the idea of buckwheat porridge isn’t new to me, but I have always been partial to oats.  At the moment, oats really wreak havoc on my blood sugar (again, the joys of pregnancy!!) so I decided to give it a go.

Raw Buckwheat Porridge

• 1 cup sprouted buckwheat
• 2 tbsp. lucuma powder
• 1 tbsp. tahini
• 6 drops vanilla stevia (or 1 tbsp. other sweetener)
• 1/4 cup almond milk or water

Place everything in a food processor and process until smooth.  Top with thawed frozen berries and bee pollen. (Today, I used sliced banana and chopped peaches and that was delicious too!

Today, I decided to break out one of my cookbooks, so I chose Raw Taste Sensations, from Unlimited Health Café and Shop in Amsterdam.  I decided on Beetroot and Apple in Ginger Sauce and Cucumbers in Creamy Dill-Mustard Sauce.  We had those two dishes for lunch along with another little side salad of beet greens, cherry tomatoes and olives in a hemp oil/lime juice dressing and some of our home-made sauerkraut and lacto-fermented pickles.  I DID have a picture of our beautifully colored plate, but my camera ate it!  😛

I’ll leave you with a picture of my ginormous belly while I go sip on some more Green Chai Yogi Tea. Yum!

thanks for stopping by!

Back to the old school…

…superfoods, that is!

 I wouldn’t say that I am one of those people obsessed with superfoods, making elixirs that end up costing something outrageous like 20 dollars per blenderful.  But on the other hand, I do think that they have their place in a conscious diet.  

Ideally, it would be amazing to get all of our nutrients and trace minerals from the produce that we eat, but we have to be realistic about the fact that our soil is seriously depleted of these necessary trace elements (yes, even in organic food!)

Another objection that people generally have to superfoods, and one that I understand and struggle with myself is the whole local foods being ideal vs. superfoods being sourced from across the globe.  Again, I think it is always best to balance idealism with a balance of pragmatism.  Absolutely, each geographic area on this planet has it’s own indigenous superfoods and it is not explicitly necessary to eat suma from Brazil, ashwaganda from India, goji berries from China, mesquite from Arizona and chaga from Russia if a person lives in Western Europe, for example.  Living in Spain, there is an ABUNDANCE of wild edibles and herbals, which to me should be considered superfoods.  My husband and I routinely collect nettles, purslane, chicory, rosemary, lavender, pine pollen  and more, depending on the season of course!

On the flip side of that, we DO live in a global society, however much we may dislike that fact.  That does have it’s advantages.  I absolutely adore the flavors of Thai food, and some of those ingredients are simply not local to me.  Does that mean that I shouldn’t enjoy it?  Of course not!  I think the same is true for superfoods, when they are sourced as ethically and sustainably as possible.  I truly believe that the world IS facing some massive structural changes, and that we will in our lifetimes undergo  radical changes to our lifestyle, necessarily resulting in a return to more local economies.  But for the moment, I think that we have been given a special gift in that we are able to pick and choose the most nutrient-dense and delicious foods from all over the globe.  

Anyway, my point in all of this (after much rambling!) is simply that recently, I have had an intense craving for the very first superfoods that I was introduced to years ago, but which have fallen into disuse in my kitchen- goji berries and maca.  Maybe it has something to do with my body craving specific nutrients, or maybe not, but all I know is that I HAD to have them!

So, I whipped a few things up!  These are what I am calling

Local vs. Global Superfood Truffle Balls

These balls are not especially sweet, so if you have a massive sweet tooth or are accustomed to sugary foods, then I would suggest adding in 2 tbsp. local honey or agave syrup.

• 1 cup walnuts and 1 c hazelnuts ( or 2 cups whatever nuts are local to you- these are local to me)
• 1 cup dried figs (or another dried fruit that is local to you)
• 1/2 cup goji berries
• 2 tbsp. carob powder (carob happens to be grown in Spain- if mesquite is more local to you, use that!)
• 2 tbsp. cacao powder
• 2 tbsp. maca powder
• 1 tsp. crystal manna powder
• pinch salt
• 1/3 cup cacao butter, melted
• 1/4 cup xylitol, for rolling balls in

Process nuts and dried fruit, then add everything else minus the cacao butter to the food processor and process again until fully incorporated.  It will still be quite crumbly.  Add cacao butter and process once more. Roll into balls with your hands, and then roll in xylitol to finish.

Ingredients assembled:

Look at those gorgeous figs from the Alpujarran mountains:

Finished product:

Another recipe I made with the maca is my 

Super Curry Macamole

• 1 large ripe avocado
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. bee pollen
• 1/4 tsp. crystal manna
• 1/2-1 tbsp. maca powder
• 1/2-1 tbsp. curry powder

Mush everything together in a bowl and enjoy!

I loved this on some red pepper flax crackers I made:

That is it for now!  I have to go pack for this weekend, as I am going on a retreat for the end of my Kundalini Yoga teacher training.  We are going to be learning about Ayurvedic cooking among other things, so hopefully I will be able to come back with some new inspiration on Monday!  I made the truffles to take along, so hopefully they will be well received 🙂

Thanks for reading!

xx

Bee Pollen Smoothies

First, I want to get something straight.  I´m a vegan, yet I use bee pollen.  They seem mutually exclusive, and I admit that for years I did not touch anything that had honey, propolis, or beeswax.  I probably chose some products that were less natural or ecologically manufactured out of strict dogma.  It is an animal product, and as a vegan I didn´t want it.

Well, fast forward a few years.  For the first time in my life, I began to suffer from seasonal allergies.  Last year was the first year that it happened and I found myself trying many things that I otherwise would not allow into my body.  I took antihistamines, which worked to an extent but were not great.  I even tried homeopathy, and homeopathic pills are virtually impossible to get without lactose.  I told myself that I was doing the best that I could, but was I?

I have known for a long time that local honey has some profound effects in terms of allergy prevention.  I just did not want to go there.  This year though, before the Spring hay fever blitz begins, I have already begun on a regimen of bee pollen.  And surprise, surprise, I love it!

Bee pollen has plenty of other benefits.  Dr. Gabriel Cousens calls it the “semen of the plant world”.  In his epic tome Spiritual Nutrition, he states :

“It is 20 percent protein(gram for gram, it has five to seven times more protein than meat, eggs, or cheese), is 15 percent brain-building oils and lecithin, has sixty-three minerals and most of the B vitamins, and has vitamins C and E, nucleic acids, 5,000 enzymes and coenzymes, and essential fatty acids…Bee pollen is the ultimate biogenic food and the procreative force of the plant world.”

So, with that, I will leave you with a picture of todays smoothie and the recipeMaca Pollen Smoothie

3 bananas

1 nectarine

1 date

half an avocado

2 cups spinach

2 tbsp. maca

1 tbsp green probiotic powder

Blend until creamy and smooth and top with bee pollen.  Makes enough for two large servings.  I love to eat my smoothies with a spoon now 🙂