Eat Well Be Well

Such a simple concept. Eat well, be well. Unfortunately a lot of people just don’t quite get it.
Although I will admit, at the moment I am not well. Being a nanny of a family that gets sick a lot I am in constant contact with new and unpleasant viruses all the time. Considering this i’m happy to say I hardly every get sick. However this time the bug got the better of me. I also didn’t take good care of myself when I felt it coming on, alcohol and a late night gig may have been involved…and no amounts of vitamin c, garlic or horseradish can combat the immune sucking effects of alcohol. (no offence alcohol, I still like you, see you next weekend when I’m healthy again).

I just want to touch on the eat well be well thing once more and then I will tell you about a couple wicked and rad comfort recipes that you should make when you’re feeling icky…
Once again, being a nanny I am at the grocery store quite frequently and often around after school time and I get SO ANNOYED, like seriously lose it when I see the SHIT people are putting in their shopping carts and are intending to feed to their children. These people who would probably do anything for their children. Give them a limb, an organ, their life; but yet they fuel these little innocent beings with poison. Processed lunch meat with fifty ingredients including flavours, binders and preservatives (shouldn’t it just be the one obvious ingredient?!?) processed Kraft cheese, good GOD don’t even get me started on the ingredient list, but did you realise that every. Fucking. Piece. Is individually wrapped in plastic!!!! Oh hey, so there’s this thing, you may have heard about it, it’s called our environment, and it’s kinda about to combust so maybe you’d like to, I don’t know, reduce your use of plastic!!!!!
The ‘fruit’ roll ups, the ‘fruit’ gummy things, the ‘fruit’ sticks…what happened to just good old fashion delicious FRUIT?!?! Oh nooo, my baby much prefers the added sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and artificial colour in the fruit roll up, and it comes in this nice convenient packaging that will end up in a landfill.
The frozen meals, the soda, the packaged cookies, the white bread, white rice and white pasta, the pies and pastries, the hot chips and deep fried crap.
Why? Why why…
I want to do something about it but I don’t know where to start, besides here…I want to go up and shake these people and ask them if they are just completely ignorant to what’s in the so called food they are consuming or if the health of their small child doesn’t really mean that much to them.
I read an article recently about a new study that found that for the first time in two centuries children growing up today have a shorter life expectancy then their parents because of the increased crap in the “food” people are
Consuming. That’s just insane when we are so blessed to have at our fingertips the freshest most beautiful food; not to mention an abundance of clean free water, yet people still go for the sugar laden packaged juices and soda. We have the information and resources to be healthier than ever before and people just waste it.
It’s a vicious cycle, you eat crap, you get sick, you continue to eat crap and you don’t get better, go to the doc, get some antibiotics, TOO easy right?!? Who needs to eat healthy when you can just get some antibiotics that make you all better?!
We’ll save my rant on unnecessary antibiotic use for another day.

Anyways, enough about that for now, on to a couple of ultimate comfort food recipes; pumpkin soup and mac n “cheese”

On thursday night I was feeling really really run down and sick. Lucky for me I have a lovely sister who made me amazing warm soothing pumpkin soup as I sat on the couch blowing my nose and drinking white tea

This pic was actually taken the next day; I had it for lunch Friday as well, hence the sunlight. It’s not the best pic ever but it is the best soup ever!! And really simple…

1/2 pumpkin + 1/2 a sweet potat + a couple of regular potats (or just whatever you’ve got in the way of root veggies hanging around) baked

1 onion, 3 garlic chopped and sautéed in coconut oil with a generous amount of curry powder, paprika, tumeric, chilli powder and ginger

1 can of coconut milk
2 cups of water with a few teaspoons of natural veggie stalk.

Add the baked veggies and the liquids to the onion and spices. Bring to a boil. Simmer. Add to a blender and process till smoothish with a big handful of spinach. Add himalayan rock salt and pepper to taste. I also added dulse flakes (sea vegetable) for extra nutrients.

This soup is so creamy and delicious!!

After resting at home all day Friday drinking green smoothies and soup and heaps of green tea and apple cider vinegar I was finally starting to come around Friday night and all I felt like was mac n cheese! This used to be my fav back in the day. Funny that I should get a craving for mac n cheese today because I realised I have been vegan for one month now!! Yay!! Sosososo happy. My skin is better, stomach flatter, digestion better and conscience at peace.

This isn’t the most nutrient packed recipe but I also had a salad with lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, celery, crunchy sprouts, carrot and purple cabbage with miso peanut garlic dressing before hand. Practicing what I preach here people, eat well, be well.

I wasn’t confident this recipe was going to be very good so only after digging in did I realise that it was definitely bloggable!! So don’t mind the pic…

Now,I did throw in some vegan cheese that I got at the Cruelty Free Shop in Glebe. Unfortunately vegan cheese isn’t mainstream yet and not easy to acquire, especially good vegan cheese. If you don’t have any you’ll want to up the ante on the salt and maybe add some miso??

One more thing…nutritional yeast!! I caught up with a friend from NZ last weekend and he was saying that he loved the blog but there is some ingredients that he’s got no idea what they are, particularity this one that I use all the time…nutritional yeast?! Yep that’s the one!!

**Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast which is sold commercially as a food product. It’s sold in the form of flakes or as a yellow powder similar in texture to cornmeal, and can be found in the bulk aisle of most natural food stores.

It is a source of protein and vitamins, especially the B-complex vitamins, and is a complete protein. It is also naturally low in fat and sodium and is free of sugar, dairy, and gluten.

Nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes

So there ya are!! Sorry I should have mentioned this sooner as I really do use it a lot!!! Grab some at your local health food shop, it’s pretty cheap and really good! Love the extra vitamin B too.

Alright without further adieu…the best vegan mac n “cheese”/potentially just the best regular mac n real cheese!?!

1 1/2 TBS vegan margarine
1 cup soy milk or other alternative
1/4 c brown rice flour
1 TBS corn starch
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 TBS lemon juice
3 TBS nutritional yeast
Paprika, pepper, Himalayan rock salt (don’t be shy on the salt front for this one!)
A couple tablespoons good vegan cheese if you can get your grabby little paws on some! ( I’m going to give this recipe a whirl sans vegan cheese this week so I’ll let y’all know if it’s still as amazing/worth making!)

All you do is add all your ingredients to a pot, pan, whatever and whisk it till its smooth thick and creamy. Oohhh yeahhhhh.

I then poured it on my prepared brown rice pasta with broccoli bits and THEN I put it all in a shallow dish and grilled it till it was golden and BUBBLING!! Ohhh gawwwwd. Serve with tomato sauce. Check out my recipe here for home made tomato sauce/ketchup.

For anyone who read this entire stupidly long post, thank you for listening. And please remember, eat well, be well. Love yourself, love your babies, love your dog, love your neighbours and spread the word, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.