Wednesday 26 August 2009

Alfalfa Juicing and digital radio!

This is an entry about alfalfa and how great it is in juice. I have got alfalfa growing down now whereas I used to get quite a few failed attempts! I think my mum keeping an eye on it whilst I am at work helps! She has a nack with making things grow. I am also managing to time the next batch to be ready for when the previous one runs out. All these habits and routines take time to really start to work smoothly but they always do if you persevere!!


I usually use at least half a tray in my juice, sometimes a whole tray.











I love juicing in the morning and when I am singing and dancing around to my dad's digital radio it is even more fun :)

Raw Vegan 'Tuna' and Sweetcorn Salad

This is the same as the Sunshine Salad but without the red pepper. The sunflower seeds in it reminded me of tuna and of course the sweetcorn reminds me of, well, sweetcorn!

Salad:

4 tbsp peas
8 tbsp sweetcorn
8 tbsp sprouted sunflower seeds
3-4 handfuls of shredded round lettuce.

For the dressing, hand blend together:
1/4 avocado
1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 medium tomato
pinch of himalayan crystal salt

Mix well together. Serves 1.

You could also leave out the lettuce and have this as a sandwich filling on buckwheat bread. Now that would be awesome.

Raw desert idea

I am currently formulating ideas for a raw banofee pie and was going to try it tonight but didn't have a lot of time. So I came up with this really easy desert instead with some of the ingredients I plan to use. Try chopping up a banana and mixing it with a few tablespoons of raw sprouted buckwheat and a tablespoon of Carley's Rainbow Nut butter. Mash together a bit with a fork, add a bit of agave syrup if you have a really sweet tooth. Topping with a few cacao nibs is also good.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Wales on Thursday!!

Chris has asked me to do a green juice demo at the retreat this weekend! I am a bit nervous but I can do it. Can't believe I am going tomorrow!!

Yesterday was my last day in full time work at the supermarket and when I left I felt a bit emotional, not because I was sad to leave but because of the uncertainty of what will happen after my 2 week holiday when I come back part time whilst I am doing my teaching course. It just hasn't all sunk in ... I am not feeling excited about going back to uni at the moment. It is like an emotional blockage. I want to move to Brighton and find work work in raw food and invite opportunities to me, but can't bring myself to do it as I can't seem to make a decision not to do teaching. One of my best friend last night said I am lacking direction and I think he is right in part - I do have some direction but am lacking in focus. I feel like I need to focus on teaching or raw food, and if I choose teaching, raw food will lose my attention. I know I will continue to eat this way - it is so normal for me now it's not even a question - I am just worried I won't experiment or blog so much. I think I need to make a decision to do teaching and make time for raw experiments. A good friend has said he will help me keep focussed. And I have started to get the feeling things will become clearer on the retreat...

Anyway, I am going to Brighton again today (funnily enough) to meet a friend and while I am there I think I should get some more raw chocolate ... !! Everything truly did feel right in the world when I ate it!!

Sunshine Salad

I made this last night. I got the idea of peas and sweetcorn from some salads I had in Brighton (the sweetcorn from Manna of Brighton)I am into my salads at the moment with thick creamy dressings ... hhhm


Salad:
Round lettuce shredded
Handful sweetcorn
Handful peas
Half a red pepper cut into small pieces
Sunflower seeds

Dressing: blend with a hand blender:
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 tomato
2 tbsp lemon juice
very small pinch of salt

Mix enough dressing with the salad to cover well. A serving spoon is enough for one bowl of salad. I had some left over which will make a great dip if I mix some onion in. If you're not a fan of tahini (it can be a bit clawing on your throat) use less and use more avocado.

Monday 24 August 2009

Experiments

Well, I spent an hour (or two!) working on some new recipes. I made the base ingredients in separate bowls and experimented mixing them together.



The green stuff is:

100g spinach
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp almond butter
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Put all in the food processor and pulse slowly. It was so so creamy and delicious and lovely on it's own as a side. I think mixed with cauliflower and buckwheat and it will make a super filling salad or accompaniment. A lot of things I've been making recently seem to work better as accompaniments than eating loads of it for a main meal.

I tried the same thing again with 150g spinach and adding garlic, but then you could taste the bitter edge on the spinach which I didn't want and the garlic just made it too different... but it could be a good base for the Sag Paneer if I add onion too... So anyway lots of ideas which I won't bore you with til I have the final recipes. (Recording them more for my own benefit than anyone elses!)

Plus I had some photography fun




Plus I am going to Wales on Thursday for the raw retreat! I am getting really excited now. I really need some new ideas as well because I feel like I'm a bit stuck with all the same ingredients at the moment ...

Also I didn't go running tonight ... the excuse was I felt exhausted still from a night out on Saturday, and the head ache, and the wanting to have time to experiment in the kitchen and not get to bed late... excuses excuses...
Am still beaming at the thought of my Brighton+raw cacao day on Saturday. By the way, the Sag Paneer is still a work in progress ... I tried it again with ground cashews but think they would work better whole. The Russian Salad is also a work in progress which I am going to do a little bit of work on tonight! But first I have to go running ... I haven't been for about a week for one reason and another and I still can't be bothered tonight! I have a headache but hopefully the run will help that. I had a couple of glasses of wine on Friday night and enjoyed them but I think the detoxing is only just happening now, as I only really started drinking lots of water on Sunday. Anyway enough procrastinating I am going running.

Sunday 23 August 2009

Brighton!

I had such a great day in Brighton yesterday! Decided to go shopping there for some general Brighton feel-good factor, then found out Kate Magic was doing a talk on Cacao so signed up for that. My friend also came to event and we went to Manna after - my first trip there and it was great. The food was wonderful. I had some 'Be the Change' chocolate on the way home and felt so happy.

So I got well dosed up on cacao yesterday and felt the effects well into today - I just lay in the sun all afternoon and listened to some of my favourite music and felt completely happy about everything and it felt really good. I also had an urge to get some felt tips out and write some of my favourite things in fancy colourful writing which was very therapeutic! Like being back at school doing my art homework.



Had a huge green juice this morning with perhaps a bit too much kale and it was really really dark green!!

I made one of my fairly new salads tonight - all the salad dressing is half an avocado, one tsp of almond butter and 2 tbsp lemon juice, blended up with the hand blender. Use round lettuce and use the leaves when they are washed and drained but not bone dry and mix the dressing in well. It is a really creamy dressing and very filling. I also made some more homous - I really can't get enough of homous and carrot sticks at the moment!!!



I really want to move to Brighton and get into the raw food movement!!!!!!

Thursday 20 August 2009

I had to do the last two as separate posts because they are both so amazing in their own right!! I had the carrots and homous for a starter and the pudding for desert tonight - the main course was a long tasting session of some ingredients I was messing around with - I ended up with something that was getting pretty close to a raw Sag Paneer!! Will experiment more tomorrow and post the recipe!!

Carrots and homous



For me, it is the raw simplicities that are to die for. This is one of them. Whole, fat carrots dipped in Kate Magic's homous from Eat Smart Eat Raw. I could eat it all day...

Heaven in a little pink bowl

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Something different for a change

Don't get me wrong I was quite happy eating much the same every day, but it was in the back of my mind to try some new things and then suddenly I had a whole dinner with loads of things I haven't had for ages, plus one new thing - Pak Choi! (Pak Choi Salad recipe is a separate post under Recipes) I have never tried Umeboshi paste before (I will check the spelling tomorrow!) although I have had a jar in the cupboard for ages. It is amazing. Very strong tasting and you only need a little bit. So very pleased with this. I thought mushrooms could be incorporated well in to Chinese theme but I am not feeling overly inclined to eat these at the moment... found out from some produce department info from work (a benefit of working in a supermarket) that they need horse manure to grow... is that vegan, out of interest? I'm not ethically against the use of horse manure, but still don't fancy it...

Anyway, I was very pleased with this salad for a completely new invention! And my sister liked it too : )

So I had that for supper, and I also had loads of homous with carrot sticks (which tastes sooo so good) followed by some sneaky teaspoons of almond butter and buckwheat.

I am eating quite a lot of 'heavy' stuff at the moment (if you click on the 'Brian and Anna Maria Clement' link you will know what I mean) but I am feeling really good on it and I don't think it is suppressing my emotions or anything like that - right now things seem clear and I know what I want and how I feel about certain things, like boredom, frustration, impatience, anticipation, excitement, etc. I feel like I've put on weight and running is still going steadily. So I think I will stick with this diet for the time being. I still love my very filling breakfast and like to finish the day with something similarly filling, but knowing what to have for lunch is difficult - as I am usually not hungry I have a salad but I don't always feel that great afterwards, almost like it would be better not to eat at all. I did say I wouldn't eat when not hungry!! Maybe I will try not having lunch and see what happens...

Check out the tomatoes! They are just a bit bigger than cherry tomatoes but looking good

Pak Choi Salad

I bought some Pak Choi with a vague idea for a Chinese inspired salad using ginger, and this is what I came up with:

Serves 2:

4 little Pak Choi (chopped to medium sized pieces)
handful of green beans (medium chopped)
lots of corriander

Optional
sprinkle of mung bean sprouts
round lettuce (the kind with soft leaves, not crispy like Romaine)

Dressing
1/2 tsp Umeboshe (?!) paste
1cm cubed Ginger (use the garlic press)
1/4 clove Garlic (use the garlic press)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

whisk together using a mini beater and mix well with the salad veg.

Monday 17 August 2009

This morning's juice



Here is what was in this morning's juice. (Didn't use all the ginger or all the alfalfa pictured!) Actually I ended up leaving the courgette out as I had loads. It was super tasty today but kind of subtle too which was surprising.

One of my tomatoes has started to go red which is exciting! Might start to see a return on my investment soon then!!! I also have a pepper plant now which I can't remember if I've mentioned? Will put a photo on next time.

My order of tahini, nut butters, dulse, nori sprinkle, coconut chips, sunflower seeds arrived this morning!!! I love it when I get stuff delivered. It made me think would've been cool to video unpacking it - maybe I'll look into how to put videos on here. Probably videos of me making food might be more interesting though! I started sprouting some chick peas the other day so now I can make homous with the tahini, haven't had that for ages. Yum. And I can't wait for bananas with rainforest nut butter...... heaven. And my mum gave me another reflexology treatment this morning too, I am such a lucky girl.

I started making a raw scrap book yesterday. It was fun cutting and sticking but I wanted to be in the sun at the same time, but it was a bit windy!! So a little tricky.

Beside raw food, (I do do some other stuff lol) I went to Bognor Rox music festival at the weekend - saw a band called Hakuna Pesa (I think?) who, strangely, I have randomly seen before at an open mic night in Chichester - didn't know who they were then. Not sure how to describe them, probably ska/sca? but with a reggae kind of think going on as well. Really really good.

Also still working on the Russian salad. Tried it without the almond butter but it definitely needs it with.

Last but not least, Life-Force Foods retreat in Wales is coming up very soon, so I am really looking forward to that now. (Can't believe I only have 1 week and half a day left of full-time employment!!) Then I am going to Vienna to visit my best friend from uni!!!!!!!!!!!!! So so so excited. So I will be blogging my raw tales from Austria of course : )

Friday 14 August 2009

Ups and downs

A whole week and only 2 posts? Not sure what happened there. Anyway, I should be in bed but just had to get some things down - I had a great couple of days of no sugar (plus an early night) and I really noticed a difference - don't know it if it is a coincidence but today running felt great and when I got home after 20 minutes I set off again to go once more round the block! I had dahl for supper and everything was great, but then about 10.30pm I felt starving!! So I was really disappointed. Determined not to have cooked porridge, I settled for raw stodge of buckwheat and raw brazil nut butter, followed by a cup of peppermint tea to try and make my stomach feel content. It has kind of worked. Just hope I can sleep now, as I think late night eating (which tends to be bananas and/or raisins) doesn't help!! This is something I really want to work on as I feel that really will be a new corner turned for me with raw, if I give up sugar binges in the evenings. Plus the raisins I have aren't even raw. I swing between a week of not doing it followed by a week of doing it it frequently. I am trying not to let this niggle overtake the positives, and I really don't want to obsess about it, I just thought today that the difference is so worth resiting the cravings for!! I will write more about the positives soon - I have an update on the 'Russian' salad recipe after experimenting by adding beetroot...

Wednesday 12 August 2009

gratitude : )

Those 'nakd' bars are bad news as I can't seem to eat less than 3 at a time!! Banana Bread and Coco Loco flavours are my favourite.

Anyway, I just had a really long chat on the phone with a friend and want to put it on here because I always come away from speaking to him feeling 100% better than before we spoke! I've been feeling bored and impatient and he has made me see what there is to be grateful for. Gratitude is so important, I have been forgetting this recently!!

Regards the boredom, I need something new in my life!! I have the day off tomorrow and want to do something creative which is not necessarily making a new recipe. I had a brain wave to make some changes to my bedroom which always makes things feel a bit different somehow (and I might even go clothes shopping hehe) sounds materialistic but I want to spend some money on some new things!! Me and my dad are also going blackberry picking (need some blue/purple food in my life) and my mum is going to give me another reflexology treatment. I had one on Sunday too. I am so lucky, just got to stop moaning and being impatient!!!!!

".... Salad"

Well I seem to be eating the same thing all the time so I decided it was time to try something different. I came up with a new salad - ok it still has much the same ingredients as I keep eating, but it is still different!! At least it is another way to get my broccoli in me. The quantities aren't very accurate yet, most of my recipes start out that way, but I am working on it. (It doesn't have a name yet either, but I am working on that too!)

In the food processor, carefully process into quite small but not too small pieces:
Broccoli
Spinach
1 large tomato

Then process a small onion separately and add that in

Fro the dressing, with a hand blender, blend
1 tbsp almond butter
1/2 tsp brown rice miso
1 whole tomato
lemon juice
a tiny bit of agave if desired

Mix together with a bit of buckwheat. The appearance and mouth feel reminds me a bit of that russian salad with egg and beetroot ... I think the buckwheat gives it the density you would get from the egg. Hhmm will try it with beetroot next time (not egg obviously)

Thursday 6 August 2009

Nut butters

I have about 3 jars of raw nut butters in the fridge, which I have done nothing with but eat with a teaspoon since I got them at the Fresh Network event with the Clements ... I really need to think of how to incorporate them into a meal! I did have a banana with rainbow nut butter (macadamias, cashews and brazils I believe) spread on it the other day - it was magic. I tried adding a tablespoon of brazil nut butter to some dahl mixture in an attempt to make it into a dip, but it wasn't that great - would rather have eaten the butter just as it is! Will have to keep thinking.

Cauliflower curry



Another variation on a theme:

1 and a half avocadoes
1 tbsp coconut oil
5 tomatoes
1 tsp dried corriander
Blend all in a blender

2 deseeded tomatoes
1 very small onion (about the size of a golf ball)
handful of spinach
Food process all into small pieces

Mix contents of blender and food processor together.

Chop up small bits of cauliflower and half some cherry tomatoes and add to the sauce. Serve with sprouted buckwheat.

Sandwiches for tea

I gave up sandwiches a long time before I had even heard of the raw diet - I went on a wheat-free diet and when I reverted back I always felt so gross and sick in the afternoon after a sandwich for lunch that I couldn't eat them. Now I am loving them again!!! They are so fun to make.
So I set myself up a little raw deli - guacamole, salad and a random lentil dip - made with left over dahl and thickened up a bit with more lentils and added garlic - it was a bit too runny for the sandwich but ok.
Then I had a wrap with my flax tortillas I made by just blending up soaked flax seed with onion, tomato and lemon juice.

I had come home from work feeling really like I just wanted someone to make dinner for me, and the sandwiches seemed like a quick option, which they were, but I still ended up enjoying myself, messing about taking photos, etc.! I couldn't ask for a better hobby, as I've got to eat, and I've always prepared all my meals pretty much from scratch ever since I went to uni, so if food wasn't my hobby I probably wouldn't have time for one!

I've got to get more sleep tonight as I woke up for an hour and a half last night and couldn't get back to sleep. Have realised I seem to be in a pattern of going to bed too late and am generally not feeling my best a lot of the time. I also need to drink more water!! My head feels a bit thick a lot of the time - I keep thinking back to the time when I was at uni and was consciously drinking 2 litres a day and I felt great. Don't know why I am not doing this at the moment - I am blocking myself from doing it somehow and want this to change!

The interesting thing is that I am feeling less and less inclined to eat cooked food; I really feel I have turned a corner with it as I can really notice the difference when I do eat it.

By the way, I bottled out of giving blood tonight. I let my mum talk me out of it - she was worried I might feel faint all of a sudden when driving home so I agreed. I was also worried they might try and force feed me tea and biscuits afterwards as I've heard they tend to do ... somewhere in the back of my mind I do seem to be a bit worried at the moment that I am going to eat something non-vegan ... maybe it's something to do with the Lee and Perins episode ...

Wednesday 5 August 2009

Banana-flavoured Rice Pudding

This took literally 5 minutes to make, including washing up. That's my kind of pudding.

Recipe, for a modest portion for one.

1/2 banana
3 tbsp liquid coconut butter (coconut oil)
3 tbsp sprouted buckwheat

Blend the banana and coconut oil together with a hand blender. Add one tablespoon of buckwheat and blend thoroughly again. Then add the remaining buckwheat and pulse with handblender only a little bit more, so it stays fairly lumpy.

100% raw, another desert creation and a dream about cheese!

I had no cooked food whatsoever yesterday and this morning I felt great just with my green juice then breakfast about 10.30 again. I am truly starting to notice real differences in for when I sneak in cooked food - it really doesn't make me feel good at all. I also had an early night and slept really well last night. Will go to bed early again tonight as I don't start work til 9am tomorrow, so extra time in bed, yay.

Ran out of lemons today so juice tasted quite different, but good, with lots of alfalfa, celery, cucumber, a few beetrop tops and spinach. I had chilli and flax crackers for lunch, then dahl, (for which I used tomatoes as I ran out of lemons!) courgette, celery, and the last of the chilli for supper. So no cooked food again today either, yay!

I am doing really well avoiding acidic food - but - tonight I had the time so I just had to give my raw rice pudding idea a go!! Therefore I ate a banana. (I have put the recipe in a separate post under Recipes.) It turned out even better than I imagined, as I had a brain-wave whilst making it. I decided to use blended buckwheat to thicken it rather than more banana, which would have overpowered the taste and been too sticky. The texture was amazing!

I think next time I will make more so I can use a proper blender, and it will probably taste really good after thickening in the fridge and serving cold as well. I want to experiment by leaving out the banana and still trying to get the right thickness and sweetness, and I'll try vanilla flavouring too. Can't wait to try it again. Better sprout some more buckwheat. I can't seem to get enough of it at the moment! I now serve it with my tomato and coconut curry and with chilli as if it was rice - it just seems to complete the meal. I wonder if you can eat too much of it... It does take loads of rinsing which is not so great for the water usage. Eating all these sprouted beans and donated veg is saving me a fortune, so I am waiting for the next miracle which will mean saving on water too!!

I went for a jog this evening before supper and it was hard work! I think it was because of the heat. But I did it. I really tried hard tonight to use it as a time to 'just be' and let thoughts come to me, and also spent some of the time trying to focus on and visualize some of the things I would like.

I had a dream last night about eating macaroni cheese in a kind of self-service cafe. There was nothing much else to eat and I was feeling slightly under peer pressure - it's all a bit hazy now and I can't remember if I ate it or not. I think I had a mouthful or two and then stopped - like I did in real life at work last week with some white rice from the staff canteen. It had hard uncooked bits in which was gross, which was lucky as it stopped me from eating it. So I went down to the shopfloor and got an avocaco and banana and mashed them together with a fork. Everyone thought I was mad. Until I showed them photos on my phone of apple crumble and raw sandwiches and they were pretty impressed!! And I think it mades them begin to think that maybe I am feeding yourself properly after all.

Back to the dream though - I think I am developing a repulsion for dairy products. Maybe because cow's milk is the non-vegan cooked food I've read the most about. Even the thoughts of eating fish, eggs and even chicken don't seem to have the same effect (although beef and pork do). I was never a fan of cream or milk, (although I had milk on cereal for years), I have always eaten cheese in moderation, and I used to eat loads of yoghurts as a child. As I was tidying up the yoghurt aisle at work today, the thought of eating one made me feel very strange. I always wanted to like Muller Rice but never did - now I have my own recipe - have just thought now, I can add other fruit flavours too! Woop!

Tuesday 4 August 2009

The reason I was up so late last night is because of bad timings with the dehydrator... I imagine it will get easier now I have a few staple things I'd like to start making more regularly. I'm not too fussy and nothing will come out of it that doesn't taste good, but it can be a bit tricky to make things really good, like the bread.

I felt starving this morning even for a while after my breakfasy which wasn't nice but it settled down and I was happily ready to eat at lunch time and at dinner time. I am not sure why sometimes I am hungry in the morning and sometimes not. Probably to do with late night eating...

Anyway, the good news is I now have a variation on The Raw Chef's buckwheat bread, some flax crackers and tomato tortillas. I must write down recipes with quantities as none of these were as good as the last time I made them, in taste or texture. Had a tortilla tonight filled one with a variation on Kate's chilli, with a green salad. Wrapped it into a little triangle a bit like a samosa, and it was great to eat something in a different way, and, of course, very tasty.

I had a lovely surprise from my sister who has given me a recipe book where you fill in the recipes yourself! It is lovely, with dividers, spaces to slot things and pictures of tomatoes on the front! I don't think she knew I have been meaning to put together a recipe book with my recipes in, and this is just the thing!

...I have ideas forming for a 'rice' pudding made using buckwheat instead. Buckwheat is the best thing ever, the possibilities for it seem endless!

I have been tired today so will go to bed in a minute. In fact I have felt tired quite a lot recently because I just can't seem to stop staying up late! Contemplating a 6.15am run tomorrow morning... hmm, not sure, will have to sleep on that decision.

Monday 3 August 2009

No, it's all going wrong!

However I think I can identify some problems - eating when not hungry! Green juice, savoury breakfast, all good. Then I thought I'd better have some 'lunch' before work as I'd had a fairly early breakfast this morning. So I ate when not hungry, then felt that hungry-ish feeling in the afternoon (the feeling I have recently renamed as ILL) and then I had a not very decent supper, some ready salted crisps, then came home from work and started scoffing all sorts of things (including cooked porridge again :( ) about 10.30pm!! Not good. I am putting a stop to this. When I (used to) have what I call my 'unexplained tummy pains' I used to eat porridge, which always felt soothing in a way, but also brought about this ILL feeling which just made me want to eat more and more porridge. I don't know the answer to the pain, but it is not cooked food.

I WILL NOT EAT WHEN NOT HUNGRY. And then if I get hungry and it's not possible to eat, too bad! I will live! Eating when not hungry does not stop the desire for food for any longer than if you didn't eat. It actually makes it worse!!

Sunday 2 August 2009

I love to blog!!!

Another day over and it's been great - had a second green juice in the evening as I have so many greens at the moment - carrot top greens and ginger go really well together! Then made Kate's chilli for supper as I have so much beetroot, carrot and mung beans sprouts at the moment. Got an extra portion for tomorrow, yay.

Am all set to make flax crackers, tortilla wraps and buckwheat bread tomorrow, so I will have loads of food to hand for next week! It's funny how sometimes I feel I have nothing to make a decent meal out of when other times there is so much stuff and it doesn't even feel like an effort to get it all organized! I love it when the latter is the case!!

I have also been really drawn to my angel cards again the last couple of days - the relevance of the cards I've been drawing is astounding. I've had one though which I get quite frequnetly and which always applies: FOCUS - "focus on what you want, not what you don't want." I often find this takes work to do, but once I do it I notice the difference straight away.

And I've said before, blogging helps me focus! I am so glad I am back in the swing. Thank you Google for making it so easy!!

p.s. I have added some more photos and tweaked some of my recent entries so have another look!

Apple crumble: Day 2

The apple crumble was even better on the second day. The topping went a bit softer in the fridge, and I had a little bit of room temperature coconut butter on the side. I think if this was blended with vanilla it could possibly be even better. I also think the top could look a bit more golden and appealing. But all in all I was very proud of myself last night!!

The crumble topping that didn't get bashed up with a wooden spoon was quite like like an oaty biscuit, a bit like HobNobs in fact! I also experimented with a buckwheat and date mixture (which went a bit wrong in the dehydrator after I decided not to bother with the paraflex sheet... never mind, the little broken up bits still tasted nice!) I wanted to start getting into making biscuits/flapjacks, etc. a while ago but never did. Maybe this will happen soon as the ideas are really flowing at the moment, which is exciting! I used to have such a weakness for biscuits.

So now here I am eating my Best Ever Savoury Breakfast (I have now added a photo of it to that post by the way) and blogging. Had fun taking different shots of it this morning, after a run and a green juice. It's nice to take things slow on your day off (in fact it's now lunchtime!) This was my first morning run and I think I'll go earlier next time. I ran along the sea front and it was quite busy at 10.30am, not surprising really as it is a Sunday. My next goal is to get into the habit of going really early before work rather than before supper, then I might start going to bed earlier! I know I can make this happen.

I ate loads of sugary things yesterday, including some Nakd and TREK bars which were on special offer! Today I've got off to a good start with no sugar, so will try and keep it up and eat really well for the rest of the week. I would like to give blood on Thursday, so that can be my incentive - to have my blood as alkaline and as good quality as possible. I have never given blood before, as I have a bit of a phobia about blood, injections, etc. but have got better over the last couple of years. In fact I had no interest in anything sciencey before going raw, but now I find the idea of acid/alkaline blood and cells and things quite interesting!! Anyway, hopefully I'll be ok on Thursday...