Category: Health & Wellbeing

Warm Apricot & Ginger Rice Salad with Tamari-Splashed Garlic Mushrooms

imageThis was born on a very chilly, wet and windy July day a few days after I had finished a 7 day juice challenge. I had been having salads since, and this was my first fully cooked meal. I wanted something light but warming – it didn’t feel at all like summer – but we had a lot of summer vegetables and fruit so we decided to combine a little of both with some filling and nourishing basmati rice and served with large chestnut mushrooms lightly stir-fried with crushed garlic and tamari.

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Once the rice has been soaked for an hour, the preparation and cooking only takes about half an hour from start to finish.

All ingredients are organic and measurements are as always approximate.

Have a warm dish and a warm plate ready to serve.

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmati Rice, soaked for an hour, rinsed and drained. Cook as normal.

While rice is cooking, prepare:

1-2 or 3 thin slices of Ginger – depending how spicy you want it -chopped finely

1-3 Spring Onions, depending how big or small they are, sliced

5-6 Sugar Snap Peas or Mangetout, sliced

2″ of Courgette/Zucchini, chopped

Floret of Broccoli, thinly sliced

3″ of Carrot, shaved

1/2 Cup Sweetcorn

A few Small Broad Beans

3 Large Chestnut Mushrooms with Stalks separated per person, whole

1 Large Garlic Clove

2 Tsps Coconut Oil

Tamari

Black Pepper

Lightly toasted Pine Nuts

1 Fresh Apricot, sliced

A few Sprouted Mung Beans (optional)

Method

Just before rice is cooked:

Heat 1 Tsp oil each in 2 frying pans

In one, lightly stir-fry all the ingredients on the list up to the mushrooms.

In the other, stir-fry the whole mushrooms and stalks with a crushed clove of garlic and a couple of splashes of Tamari.

Keep everything slightly undercooked with a bite to it.

Place cooked ice in a hot dish and fluff it up with a fork to release the steam. Add some black pepper.

Lightly mix in the stir-fried vegetables, top with, mung bean sprouts, sliced apricot and toasted pine nuts. Place the garlic mushrooms on a hot plate

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The mushrooms have a salty, meaty texture giving you something satisfying to chew.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Cauliflower Oats (Don’t Laugh, It’s a Thing!)

imageNo really.

I know, you thought courgette (zucchini) oats and beetroot oats were pushing it, but Rachel at Healthy and Psyched raised the bar considerably: she challenged me to try cauliflower oats and I am pleased to say I not only rose to that challenge, I reached the bar and leapt over it!

I know it’s weird, but if you change your perspective a little and see oats in the same way as, say, rice which you have either savoury (risotto) or sweet (rice pudding), or even a mixture of both – we put raisins or dried apricots in some rice meals – then it’s not quite so odd.

Not convinced?

Look at the photo, it’s sweet and fruity and has peanut butter too – I love cauliflower with peanut butter (we put it in a casserole with cauliflower and cashews) – and peanut butter goes well with banana too.

You can use whatever berries you want, Rachel used blueberries, I thought raspberries would go well but there was half a pomegranate to use up, so in it went. You could add cacao, if liked.

Cauliflower is a good source of B Vitamins, Magnesium, Vitamin K, Vitamin C; peanut butter and oats also have B Vitamins and protein and more magnesium in the oats – necessary for healthy muscles, preventing cramps, keeping you calm – and the nut milks are equally nutritious as well as sweet and creamy. Pomegranate is a nutritional superfood, with plenty of phytochemicals that help reduce blood pressure. The whole bowl is filled with dietary fibre.

Here goes for the  first attempt: All ingredients are organic (except pomegranate), vegan and gluten-free.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Oats

3/4 Cup Boiling Water

1/4 Small Cauliflower, grated

1/2 large Banana

1 Medjool Date, chopped

1/2 Cup Tiger Nut Milk or Almond Milk (click links to make your own)

1/4 Pomegranate or Berries

1 Tbsp Peanut Butter

A few Slices of Banana to Serve

Method

Soak the oats in the boiling water in a saucepan for a few minutes while you prepare the cauli and get everything else ready.

Add the grated cauli, the banana, the chopped date and the milk

This bit is important:

Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, to ensure the cauli is cooked.

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(If you’d like it extra smooth, you could blend it with a stick blender)

Pour into a bowl either on top of frozen berries of your choice, or just add fresh berries, peanut butter and slices of banana for the topping in whatever fashion your creative juices dictate.

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It really works! Go on, who’s going to be first to give it a go? If it makes it easier, adding the cauliflower gives you 1 of your 5 a day veg and it is soooo filling – this bowl filled me up until mid-afternoon. It’s far more than I would normally eat that early in the day.

I said to my husband that there was enough for two, but he didn’t take me up on it, he suddenly remembered he had a bike to fix!

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Leslie Kenton’s Sandstone Loaf

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I first had this in the summer of 1986 when my friend and I discovered ‘Raw Energy’, the book and the philosophy. It was a beautifully sunny summer (remember them?) and we spent many days eating our raw creations in her garden – with the occasional glass of white! I think this may well have been the first thing I made with my faithful Braun Multipractic Food Processor, bought that summer and still going strong.

*

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I altered the amounts and some of the ingredients each time I had it, but this one is relatively faithful to the recipe, although I prefer more seeds to give it a bit more of a bite and we used coriander instead of parsley. Leslie often used to use vegetable bouillon powder in her raw savoury recipes, we didn’t have any so we improvised and used some dried King Soba instant organic miso soup! You could also use nutritional yeast.

You can make it as smooth or as coarse as you like, depending whether you would prefer it as a pâté or spread, or more like nut roast to have with salad.

(You could use almond butter instead of tahini for a slightly different flavour, but it would need to be fairly runny).

As always, the measurements are very approximate, you can never stipulate the size of a carrot for instance! So, go with what looks right and taste as you go along.

All ingredients are organic.

The recipe is Raw, Vegan and Gluten-Free.

Makes enough for 4 or 5 for a light lunch. Will keep about 3 days in the fridge and can be kept in the freezer too.

Ingredients

2 Chunky Medium Carrots, roughly chopped

1 + a half Celery Stalks (with leaves if they have any), roughly chopped

1/4 Cup Almonds + a few extra for serving*

1/4 Cup Pumpkin Seeds*

1/4 Cup Sunflower seeds*

1/4 Cup Mixed Sunflower + Sesame seeds*

Large Tbsp Tahini

1 Small Onion, finely chopped or a few Spring Onions

Handful of fresh Parsley or Coriander or herb of your choice

1 level Tbsp Organic Miso Soup powder or Nutritional Yeast or 2 Tsp Vegetable Bouillon Powder or 1 Tsp Chilli Flakes

2 Tbsps Grated Beetroot

Method

Process the carrots and celery until well homogenised. Set aside in a mixing bowl.

Finely grind the almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Add to carrot mixture.

Coarsely grind the mixed sesame and sunflower seeds and add to mix with tahini, onion, fresh herbs, powder and beetroot.

Stir well, add seasoning to taste.

Spread in a square dish, press and smooth it down if you want a pâté or loosely roughen the mix if you want some texture.

Garnish with fresh herbs and almonds or toasted seeds.

Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

I had it on a bed of mixed rocket salad with thinly-sliced cucumber and tahini/lemon juice/water dressing.

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*https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Mum’s Birthday Trip Out – A Day Late

This isn’t a sad tale – it has a happy ending – but I need to set it in context, so please bear with me.

imageThe 16th July is a sad day in our family as it is the anniversary of the death of my brother, aged 22, in a terrible accident far away from home. It is also a day that is slap bang in the middle of several family birthdays, mine and my son’s included, which makes it difficult to celebrate them without an undercurrent of guilt and sadness.

It was my mum’s birthday last Friday, the 15th, she was 86. We usually try to bring her to ours to help keep it special and her distracted so she’s not home alone thinking about Dave. She rarely gets out, other than to the local corner shop and on the community bus to Asda, and misses her trips to the coast and to local markets.

We had planned lunch out, but the weather was awful, typical St Swithin’s Day weather (legend has it that the day he was buried, the heaven’s opened in floods of tears and that’s been the way ever since on this day). It was cold, windy, dark and rainy.

imageSo, Mum opened her cards and presents and was all set to sit at home, do her crosswords and watch the rain. However, my daughter had sent her a garden centre gift card and we had given her a new bird feeder, so we persuaded her to go to the local garden centre and buy some birdfeed and whatever else she needed. She took some persuading, resigned as she was to a quiet day doing nothing in particular, but she went.

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  She has restricted mobility so getting her in and out of the car is quite a mean feat and walking is limited. But she came back pleased to have got her bird feed, a gorgeous purple African violet – the last thing my brother bought her (this one will no doubt go the way of all the others and be dead this time next year!) and some little gifts for her neighbours. My husband made a vegetarian curry for dinner and at her request, they had apple pie for dessert – she didn’t want cake and candles. We hoped for better weather next day.

Nope. The weather gods were busy elsewhere. Husband and I despaired. This was terrible. He had planned a trip to the local canal junction to see the boats, feed the ducks, have an ice-cream. Mum and Dad used to spend holidays on the Norfolk Broads, and despite being a non-swimmer, she loved being on a boat and we knew she would enjoy this.

However, after a couple of hours and with a break in the drizzle, I suggested we take a picnic – we could always eat it in the car if necessary – get in the car and see what happens, if it pours down we can turn around and come home, but at least she will have been out, seen some countryside and would have something to tell her neighbours.

I silently asked Dave if he could help with the weather and we set off in the direction of the canal junction.

Lo and behold, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared and the sun – yes, the sun! – came out. Whoopee! Here are some pics of Mum’s Birthday Trip out, which she said she enjoyed every minute of. She saw the boats, watched the ducklings and had her ice-cream. She was tired, but all smiles at the end of the day.

And I’m sure Dave had something to do with it. Thank you, we miss you.

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Copyright: Chris McGowan

Warm Rice Salad with Ginger, Dulse & Sprouted Mung Beans

imageRice salad, whether warm or cold, has long been a favourite in our house. It is quick – essential here! – nutritious and versatile: you can vary the spices or herbs as well as the vegetables.  If you keep until next day, heat it through thoroughly.

We use organic basmati rice. Brown rice contains B vitamins, protein and fibre. We always soak it for an hour and then rinse, to remove any arsenic (yes, most rice, even organic, contains a small amount of arsenic from the groundwater it was grown in – more or less, depending on where it was grown). Cook it according to your usual method, but don’t overcook it. It wants to be whole and nutty, not splitting or wet and mushy. If you overcook rice, it acts like sugar in the body and you lose many of the benefits of using wholegrain rice.

Dulse is a sea vegetable. These contain all 56 minerals and trace elements required by the human body for optimal functioning, as well as B6, B12, Iron, Calcium and are an important source of Iodine for a healthy thyroid.

Sprouted Mung Beans add protein, fibre, B vitamins and several minerals, as well as Vitamins C and K.

Ginger is anti-inflammatory and spring onions are prebiotics – they provide the nourishment that probiotics feed on to maintain a healthy gut.

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmati Rice, soaked and rinsed, then cooked in 1 and 1/2 Cups Boiling Water, about 25 minutes. Have a hot dish ready to serve it in so that any moisture disappears and fluff it up lightly with a fork.

1 Tsp Coconut Organic, Raw Coconut Oil

A couple of thin slices of Ginger, finely chopped

A few Spring Onions, depending on their size

2 decent-sized Mushrooms, whatever type you favour, or a few if small, chopped

A few Sugar Snap Peas or Mangetout, trimmed and chopped

A stick of Celery, with leaves, chopped – reserve half for the green salad

About Half a Small Courgette (Zucchini), chopped

Ground Black Pepper

A few splashes of Tamari – not too much because the Dulce is salty

Some Dulse, snipped into small pieces and soaked for a couple of minutes

A couple of handfuls of Sprouted Mung Beans

Method

  Very lightly stirfry all the ingredients adding them in the order listed, only adding the Dulse and Mung Beans when the rice is cooked and you’re ready to serve.

It takes only 5 – 10 minutes. Try not to overcook, you want some bite to the vegetables and you want to retain as many nutrients as possible.

Mix together lightly with the rice in a hot dish with a fork.

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Serve wth a green salad and a dressing of your choice, with humous, spicy cashew cheese or guacamole.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Juicy Prize Giveaway Reminder – Final Day!

The Juicy Prize Giveaway Ends Midnight Tonight BST!

Get your entries in for 3 Jason Vale/Juicemaster items: 2 Books, 1 Inspiring DVD.

All NEW FOLLOWERS on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Blog (email) will get one entry for each new follow. (Current followers by Reader can subscribe by email or follow one of my other social media accounts to gain entry).

Write #juicygiveaway in the comment box below any of my Juicy Prize Giveaway Posts So I know you wish to be entered.

Links on my Home page.

For full details of prizes and terms click Here.

Don’t forget, Ends Midnight Tonight BST!

Good Luck!

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Zoats: Mark 2 (I like this one better!)

imageWell, only one person had any enthusiasm for the original savoury porridge or Zoats (zucchini or courgette oats), so here is my second try and I liked this much better. I left out the cacao and made it with tiger nut milk which is sweet and creamy (recipe here), but you can use nut milk or soy or rice milk – though the latter will give you a thinner porridge and doesn’t have the same nutritional value. I also used raisins instead of dates to sweeten it, which is what I would normally put in straightforward, everyday porridge.

Courgettes contain heart-healthy potassium, folate (necessary for cell-division), anti-oxidants, B vitamins, iron and zinc.

Have a go, it won’t do you any harm and it might very well do you some good!

Vegan and Gluten-Free if you use gluten-free oats.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Oats

1/2 Cup Tiger Nut Milk or Horchata

1/4 Cup Water

1/2 Courgette/Zucchini, grated

1/4 Cup Raisins

1 Dsp Shelled Hemp Seeds*

1 Dsp Lucuma Powder* (mild, malted flavour)

1 Tsp Wheatgrass Powder (for extra nutrients – optional)

Goji Berries* and Raw Chocolate Mulberry Chips* to serve.

….

Method

As before, add oats, milk, water and courgette to pan and warm imagethrough until it starts to cook, stirring well. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add raisins and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add hemp seeds, lucuma powder and wheatgrass powder, of used. Mix well.

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Transfer to a bowl and add goji berries and raw chocolate mulberry chips, and a little more milk of desired.

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*

I loved this version! Of course, this is only a template, add whatever flavouring and fruit you like and happen to have.

This is such a satisfying breakfast and starts you off with 1 of your minimum 5 a Day veg and fruit.

We buy our tiger nuts from http://www.thetigernutcompany.co.uk/

* http://www.therawchocolatecompany.com/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Juicemaster Retro Super Fast Juicer: Review

 

At long last, after a lot of soul-searching about how I could justify buying yet another juicer (see I’ve Been and Gone and Done It AGAIN!!), I decided to take one for the team and bought it so that I could review it on the blog and maybe help someone choose their first juicer.  Well, that’s my latest story anyway! (The previous one was that it was an early birthday present, but that didn’t wash as I had also said that of my new camera).

It only arrived yesterday, so we haven’t had chance to give it a thorough testing as I wanted to post the review before the discount price ends at the end of the current Juicemaster Free 7 Day Guided Juice Challenge.

NB This is a centrifugal or fast juicer not a cold press or masticating juicer. It won’t produce quite as much good quality juice as a cold press machine and you can’t keep the juices for as long. Cold Press juicers are heavier and much more expensive. However, this is one of the better fast juicers currently available.

The Positives: First, the Parts

  • At 3.4 kg, the Super Fast is one of the lightest juicers we’ve tried! Some are so heavy, you’d risk a hernia or putting your back out every time you tried to move it. You can’t always place a juicer where you’re going to use it every day, so it needs to be easily manoeuvrable. We had to return one brand because we couldn’t even lift it out of the box!
  • It is by far and away the easiest juicer to assemble and disassemble. Everything just slots together lightly. No twisting or turning or getting a spoon handle to prise out the basket. With some juicers, if you’re not tall enough or strong enough to get hold of it at the right angle, it can be a problem to pull it out without the assistance of a strongman/woman or resorting to utensils to lever it out (not recommended). This one is so easy. It has an indentation at either side of the unit where you can place your fingers to get leverage and more easily remove the basket.
  • Two big pluses for us are that it has a central cord at the back and it is ambidextrous: the juicer can be placed anywhere within reach of a socket and the bowl goes onto the unit so that it can be used by both right-handed and left-handed people. As a family split down the middle in this respect, I applaud the designers of this machine. We also had to return a different juicer that wouldn’t sit on our counter top because the plug was to one side and we needed it at the other.
  • The Super Fast has a sleek stainless steel bowl and basket.
  • The chute is wide enough to take whole apples.
  • It has a large 2L waste compartment.
  • The switch is an easy to use, well-situated rotating knob at the front that goes from Off to Low to High, and that’s it. Couldn’t be simpler.
  • Like the Cold Press, the spout on the Super Fast has a lid so that you can close the spout to prevent drips when not in action. When we had the Phillips 1861, we had to keep a small glass under it after we finished juicing as no matter how convinced you were that it was empty, there would always be a small pool of juice on the counter top when you’d finished cleaning up!
  • Suction feet prevent it moving when working.
  • It comes with its own cleaning brush.
  • It couldn’t be easier to clean, though you may need to use a toothbrush for the inside of the spout.

Photos show how the Super Fast can be used left- or right-handed, and the cord at the centre back of the unit. 

Slight Minuses, but not deal-breakers:

  • First off, the colour. I chose cream to go with the two other Retro machines, the Retro Cold Press and the Retro Super Blend (both available on the Juicemaster and Retro Juicer websites). The colour of the Super Fast unit doesn’t quite match the other two, although the waste basket is closer,  but this is just about the only real niggle so far. We’ve placed it next to the Cold Press in some of the photos so you can judge for yourself and also so that you can see the relative sizes. Apologies for the shadows, there was no natural light today, another very gloomy day.
  • The locking arms are thick rigid plastic, rather than metal like the Phillips 1861 and although they are robust, I’m a little nervous about how long they will last with heavy use or if they get caught while moving the unit without the lid locked in place. There is, however, a 1 year warranty and Juicemaster customer service are among the best I’ve ever dealt with.
  • None of the parts are dishwasher safe, but it really is so easy to rinse and clean and it is best to wash out juicers straightaway so that food doesn’t dry or build up causing bacteria to form or parts to stop functioning.

One last pointer: if you’re used to starting the Retro Cold Press with the stopper initially closed in order to optimise the complete juicing of all the mashed veggies or fruit in the bowl – then don’t with this one! If you do, it will leak through the bottom of the bowl when it overfills (you can’t see the amount of juice in the bowl like you can with the Cold Press).

Oh, and make sure you peel pineapple before juicing!

Overrall, on first use, we really like this juicer. It is so fast and we didn’t have any trouble either setting it up, using it or taking it apart, while cleaning was a doddle.

The bonus in ordering this product is that currently you also receive all this:

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Since I already have some of these items – the Super Juice Me! Dvd, 28 Day Plan book and a Funky Fresh Juice recipe book, I will be offering these as a prize in a competition, see next post!

Ps. If you’re thinking of buying a juicer and want to compare this with some others, see Which Juicer?

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Tarty Purple Plum Smoothie with Açaí & Chia

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I am doing the free Juice Master 7 Day Guided Juice Challenge* this week, but here is a lovely tasty purple smoothie for the rest of you!

This is a refreshing, but quite tart, thin smoothie that is high in resveratrol, a substance present in purple fruits and veg which is believed to be anti-aging. The quinoa flakes provide protein and minerals as do the chia seeds.

Our plums weren’t ripe but I quite like tarty fruit, however if you prefer a sweeter flavour try adding a medjool date or a little dark maple syrup.

Açaí is a South American fruit that has recently joined the list of superfoods in Western diets. It has a mixed blackberry/cacao flavour. It is full of anti-oxidants.

If your grapes are not organic, be sure to give them a thorough rinse, they are one of the most chemical-sprayed fruits available.

It is best if you pre-soak the Chia Seeds, Quinoa Flakes and Açaí Powder in the Coconut Water in the blender for 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

2 Plums, chopped

Handful of seedless Purple Grapes

1 Rounded Tbsp Chia Seeds*

1 Small Glass unsweetened Coconut Water

1 Tbsp Quinoa Flakes

1 Rounded Tbsp Plain CoYo Coconut Yogurt

1 Tbsp Açaí Powder *

Blend and add ice for a refreshing summer energy boost.

*Still time to sign up, just visit the website:

http://www.juicemaster.com/

*http://www.therawchocolatecompany.com/

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Garden Glove Love: Update

To read the original post please click here.

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A young mother sorts through rubbish in Kathmandu, using gloves from the original Garden Glove Love scheme: photo credit Liesl Clark

Some of you will recall a post I wrote earlier this year about a scheme set up by Liesl Clark of Pioneering the Simple Life. Liesl is a documentary maker and she and her family have close ties to Nepal: they volunteered there after the devastating earthquake and have been involved in various schemes to help local people, including setting up children’s libraries.

Liesl’s family are returning to Nepal this summer and they are taking with them lots of used, new, discarded, odd and paired gardening gloves to give to the child rag pickers. These children and young people support themselves and their families by picking through rubbish tips for recyclable items which they sell to India. They suffer injuries and infections from this work, sorting through sharp rusty objects, glass, faeces, chemical containers and so on.

imageSo often we read about the awful circumstances of people’s lives and feel helpless to change them. This was one instance where I decided this was something that was easily doable. Within minutes we had found 3 gloves in our house and shed.

We composed a letter to our neighbours, which my husband posted, telling them about the scheme and asking them to have a look around their homes and gardens, sheds, roadsides etc. I heard nothing for a long time and thought that was it. I’d failed miserably.

Then slowly, they began trickling in. We found a bag of gloves on our doorstep one morning, we still don’t know who left them, imageand a neighbour brought a bag of new ones in children’s sizes, then the lovely lady who eventually took our piano also brought some. Gradually, we built up quite a collection.

This was the pile that were new or unsoiled.

Then there were the very soiled ones that had to be washed and hung out to dry – a difficult task as it wouldn’t stop raining for more than an hour at a time!

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Eventually, they did dry out and were parcelled up. Liesl has arranged for an archaeologist friend to take them out for us.

And off they went.

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We wish Liesl, her family and Mark bon voyage and hope we have helped in a small way to improve the lives of some of the most economically deprived people. They have welcomed Liesl and her family and friends into their community, taken care of her children, taught them skills and customs, enabling them to experience a different culture and a new perspective on the world. Liesl has made a documentary about their lives after the earthquake. She continues to support them and to highlight their strengths and their needs.

This was the least we could do.

Copyright: Chris McGowan