Going Green

The more I read, the more I listen to and the more I feel I know that green juices are fabulous.  On Monday night I watched my friend's 4 year old downing a gloriously fresh green juice. A most wonderful sight.

I'm really passionate about juicing and about the health benefits of getting fresh food right there and then, live enzymes straight into the body - so much so that recently I've been round to two friends places running through juicing with them.  It feels great to be spreading the word and seeing other people get really excited about this as well.

One of my favourites (the Monday night juice) is pretty much Jason Vale's Turbo Charge Smoothie (or how I make it from memory now anyway so may not be identical) and is as follows:

1/4 pineapple (skin off)
2 apples
handful of spinach
stick of celery
1/4 lime
1/4 cucumber

Push through the juicer (sandwiching the other ingredients between the two apples).

Pour into the blender and add:

1/2 avocado
handful ice cubes

Blend.  Pour into glass.  Clean juicer (so much easier if you do it straight away).  Drink and enjoy the juicy goodness.

I'm unquestionably loving this, my favouritest* soup at the moment...

...vegan, wheat free, great for you, delicious, warming and divine. In my opinion - and if you like the ingredients I suppose. Oh and so simple to make for a quick and easy, nutritious dinner.

I tried to save some for a friend to try and am disappointed to admit I was unable to. There's a great excuse to make it again very soon though!

It's from Jason Vale's 'Juice Yourself Slim' which is jam packed with fabulous recipies - juices, salads, soups as well as lots of making sense stuff around eating, lifestyle and more.  It's great to follow as a week launch of more healthy eating ashould you feel you need it and then to use as part of your daily life to lead to a great, energetic, nutrient rich lifestyle.

So without further ado - the recipe:

Sweet Potato, Coconut and Chilli Soup

2 medium sweet potatoes
1 small red chilli (seeds removed)
2 spring onion stalks
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 can of half fat coconut milk

Peel the sweet potatoes and chop into small chunks
Chop the chilli and spring onion stalks into small pieces
In a large saucepan heat the oil, add the vegetables
Gently sweat the veg over a medium heat for 15 minutes then add the coconut milk and simmer for 15 minutes
Remove from the heat and using a blender, blend until smooth
Pour into a bowl and enjoy!

*I know it's not a word but it really, really should be.

Red Root Soup (my new second favourite soup)

Tonight made myself a tasty, tasty dinner and in the spirit of sharing I thought I would divulge my recipe.  It's become my new second favourite soup (I'll share my new favourite when I make it later this week but can't take the credit for that one).

Where possible I like to use organic vegetables - I get mine from the brilliant (IMHO) Riverford - and whilst I'm on that topic, I'd say that the best advice re organic I've been given is to buy as good quality veg as you can afford.  I think it's worth the little extra for the quality, taste and lack of nasties - and find Riverford very reasonable and great service too.

So for my Red Root Soup (to serve 2 with a little left for seconds) you'll need:

2 beetroots
2 sweet potatoes
1 butternut squash /small-ish pumpkin
1 medium red onion
2 cloves of garlic
Handful of green leaves eg watercress/spinach/rocket
1 pint of water
1 veg stock cube
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sesame seeds

Chop the onion, squash, sweet potato and beetroots, peel the garlic cloves and add all the vegetables to a large pan with the oil. Sweat over a medium heat stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the green leaves to the pan and continue to sweat for a further 5 minutes.

Dissolve the stock cube in a pint of boiling water and pour over the veg in the pan. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Blend in the blender or use a hand blender to mix.

Serve topped with toasted sesame seeds.

Enjoy.

And then one thing just kinda led to another...

Wow! What a year.  About a week and a year ago I decided to set myself a goal of learning 3 new skills over 3 consecutive months (largely to see if I could as well as learning things I'd been meaning to for a while).  Struggling to decide on what the third one should be (too many options as opposed to not enough) a friend suggested I did a whole year of it. What's a girl to do? Of course I did it.

I've learnt lots both from the skills/interests I've looked further at but lots, lots more and here I just wanted to mention the way I'd noticed so many of the things I've done have led me done interesting, relevant but unexpected paths. 

Back to the beginning.  I think the idea was initially inspired by the gorgeous, tactile, beautiful colours and textures of the yarns at Purl and Jane and I wanted to learn how to do something with them. Other than making pom poms or crocheting miles of chain together. So on the 29th November I turned up to one of the early Yarnaholics Anonymous evenings for a lot of concentrating and to rekindle something I could do when I was 7.

My first project in wonderful Mirasol Hacha yarn

Knitting was followed by mindful meditation which seemed to deepen my joy of life, smooth out issues and create a sense of calm and happiness (although I did already feel fairly joyful, calm and happy it seemed to further enhance that).  My can do, experiment a bit and see what happens attitude led to this year saying yes to the great north swim.  That in turn led to needing to practice open water swimming which meant I joined the local triathlon club. Watching the men's triathlon in the Olympics with the club saw me getting recommended Chrissie Wellington's autobiography, which, inspirational as it is was merely a stepping stone for me. Next stop Born to Run and my journey into barefoot running. Leading neatly into Scott Jurek's Eat and Run and my excitement about the health benefits of a plant based, vegan led diet.

Just about to swim a mile at Ulswater.  This year we're planning a 3.8k swim there.

A road trip and friend's birthday earlier in the year had resulted in my doing some training on food intolerance testing and now, following inspiration from Scott and more, December's planned for yoga month has been overtaken by my beginning diplomas in both nutrition and kinesiology.

I've still lots I haven't done that was on my initial lists - pilates, yoga, French, rollerblading - as well as more I'd like to have done more of during some months. However as an exercise, taken on with a sort of 'who knows what's going to happen' I would have to say it's been one of the most enriching, fabulous, exciting, unpredictable things to try out. Who knew I'd have made the centre pages of the Guardian back at the beginning, on the 29th November last year? I would have to say I'd no idea but the experience that led me there was a magical, life affirming, restoring faith in humanity-type-of-thing and a wonderful appreciation of the simple joys of life.

A little like my year really.

Low Cost Clinic Success

It was fantastic to have a full session at my turn with our new low cost clinic run by the homeopaths at Craven Clinic.  My January session is nearly full whilst there are still a couple of places on my session in December.

It's great to be able to offer this service through the clinic and I would ask as a favour that you are able to share the information about the clinic with friends and family so that as many people as possible can get to know about us, that we're there and that the low cost service is available should they need it.

Low Cost Homeopathy Clinic opens in Skipton

It feels like it's been ages in the pipeline but am excited to say we're now running our low cost Homeopathy clinic from Craven Clinic, Skipton.

Currently available the first and second Tuesday morning of the month between 9.30am and 1.30pm and one Friday afternoon a month 1.30-5.30pm. The cost is £25 for an initial consultation and £20 for a follow-up appointment.

The low-cost homeopathy clinic has been set up by three experienced homeopaths: Linda Gartland, Jonathan Coles and Emma Colley, and aims to make homeopathic treatment available to as many people as possible. The clinic offers our usual high quality service, but at a reduced cost, to make it more affordable to people who might not otherwise come for treatment.   

A holistic, non-toxic, non-addictive form of medicine made from natural sources, homeopathy helps the body rebalance and strengthen itself both physically and emotionally and can be used alongside conventional medicine.

The clinic offers consultations to people of all ages for a wide variety of short and long term conditions, including asthma, eczema, arthritis, migraines, digestive disorders, hormonal problems, sports injuries, stress and anxiety related conditions.

Patients will always see the same homeopath for their treatment and will be offered up to six sessions (more by negotiation), generally on a monthly basis. 

For more information call 01756 796690 or email info@cravenclinic.co.uk

Juice ahoy!

Time for a spot of juicing I think.  I've done juice detoxes for about 3 years now since a friend introduced me, or more importantly to me at that point, my sister to the joys of juicing.  She followed the Jason Vale 7lb in 7 days plan and looked so fabulous I decided that I wanted some of that for myself!  My sister followed the program much more to the letter than I did, doing the recommended excercise and looked, well, simply glowing.  I followed the juicing recipes, ran around after a 3 year old and felt fantastic.  Following us later my mum took part in it, got rid of headaches (along with using Homeopathy also) and lost an amazing 22lb (not all in a week I'd like to add) and felt brilliant.

The 7lb in 7 days a great one to start off with, whether you're looking for weight loss like my mum or detox like I was. It's especially important I feel to read the book first, to make yourself aware of the benefits, what you're gaining by cutting out certain foods (sometimes I think we can identify with the 'diet' mindset and focus on the lack instead of the gain involved). 

One of the big up-sides of Jason's work I feel is the education element.  There were many things I probably hadn't questioned or given much thought to before reading his books, and having been involved in healthcare for the past 9 years I would guess I'm not the only one in the country.  Take milk for example (and please bear with me - I'm a relative newbie to the argument), but really - why are we all drinking gallons of the stuff?  Surely cows milk was only intended for baby cows just as much as human milk was made for our babies.  Fair play to the restaurant in Covent Garden who produced the breastmilk icecream

and really - why was it banned (later unbanned) when we're as a nation downing gallons of stuff made for another species - and one with four stomachs at that?   And, if we need all that calcium to get by then how on earth do the biggest mammals on this earth cope with merely a plant based diet?  Don't get me wrong - I've not (yet) given up dairy but have significantly reduced it as a result of reading Jason's books. 

Scott Jurek may be the one responsible for that bigger change to come, after reading his brilliant Eat and Run, the first autobiographical recipe book I've ever read, I've been inspired to move towards a vegan based diet....

So here goes for Autumn - and in keeping with the just gone summer theme, the day after a wonderful full moon pool party I've chosen the Ibiza Detox  for initially 6 days of juicing.  It's the first time I've followed this plan and so far so good - the juices are easy to make, require slightly less variety of ingredients but are tasty and seem well planned.  Similarly to Mr Vale's programs there's a follow on so a total of a 3 week plan for you to follow should you desire.

Here's to a happy, healthy Autumn for everyone... juice ahoy!