Choose Raw not War!

Catering!

2010-07-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo!!

Sorry for the lack of communication these days, my family and I are going through a very rough patch due to a devastating happening and would appreciate any positive vibes sent! :)

Meanwhile, I am still getting on with life! ;) And recently I catered some raw finger food and green juice for the opening of my friend's yoga centre! Yay! :D
The event was on Sunday, and I only got told 3 days before on Friday so a simple menu was in order! :)

The menu was:
- Marinated Veggie Boats with a raw peanut sauce (lettuce boats with spiralized beetroot topped with marinated veggies drizzled with a raw peanut sauce)
- Spring Onion Cream Cheese Dip
- Sun-dried Tomato & Coriander Humous Dip
- Hot Onion Carrot Crackers for dipping
- Chopped veggies (courgette, bell pepper, celery) for dipping
- Green juice (see 'unexpected twist 2) below!;)

It went so surprisingly well! :D I was so nervous but everyone was coming up and complimenting me and asking me if I sell my food or if I could cater for them or where they can order it! XD Wooo! :D:D I met some lovely people there, too!

2 things unexpected twists happened while making the food!:
1) I was looking for some red bell pepper to put in the cracker batter and I found a long red one! Yay! I sliced it ALL in but then my hands started burning!!!! Ahhhh, it was a jalapeno pepper! Of course with a WHOLE red one in there it would have been too spicy for even any 'expert' hot pepper eater! XD So I picked out most of the slices but it left a reaaally nice background "kick" in the flavor!
2) I was planning to make my 'Thai Green juice', made of spinach, coriander, apple and pineapple. But as I had only 3 days to plan everything, on the Sunday market (I wanted to get the juice ingredients as fresh as poss) but there was noooooo pineapple to be seen! So I had to find a replacement quick! Peaches, figs, nectarines apricots and all the season fruit the like does not juice well - so, I was left with... melons! I choose the yellow Canary melon and the Tiger melon (I think there called that, anyways :) and it went PERFECTLY! :D I liked it even better than the pineapple one!!! Yum, my new fav juice! :D

Raw peanut sauce (almond butter, garlic, ginger, lime juice, agave/dates/maple syrup, sea salt, curcuma) before the curcuma was added! Possibly the best sauce ever according to my mum! ;)

Sun-dried tomato Humous in the making! :D

With crackers to dip!

the Cracker batter!

Marinated veggies for the veggie boats!! :D

Spiralised beetroot mixed with poppy seeds for the veggie boats!

Green juice!

***************

Random pics that I took from one of my latest walks along the lake!
The sky was sooooooooooooo beautifull!!!!!!":D:D

Freedom!!!!!!!

2010-06-08T02:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's been an AGE since I've posted last!
But I have FINALLY FINISHED MY EXAMS!!!! I have still got lessons till the 17th but after that I am on holiday!!!

Wooo!!!!!

The weather last week was beautiful, but now it is raining... typical! When I have to revise it is sunny! ;)
But I did take some breaks from study to go out... On Saturday it was Environment Day down at Nation at the UN. It was awesome! Lots of stalls and Greenpeace was there! Here are some photos!:

Really cool lady on stilts! :D

I have been feeling that I really want to get active about the environment, so next year I am joining Greenpeace as they have monthly meetings (they stop for the summer hols)! Yay!

I have been enjoying the sun despite being cooped up at home to revise and went swimming in the Lake (Lac Léman) at the Bain Des Paquis with my neighbour and mum. So refreshing! But I did end up gashing my foot on a rock and it was bleeding everywhere! But 3 days later it has already nearly healed! The power of raw, eh! :D

A crow perched on the lighthouse at the end of the pier at the Bain Des Paquis

Baby animals are abounding and on the lake there were several mother swans with their chicks! So adorable! Some pics I took:

Near the train station, Geneva, Switzerland

Summer is a coming! :D

How to make raw Essene bagels!!

2010-05-10T02:25:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo!!

I've been trying to upload these photos for so long, but for some reason Blogger won't let me upload any photos! (it just comes up with an error!?). But anyhow, I found out I can upload pics through Picasa, but only maximum 4 at a time... hence more than one blog post for this!

These bagels (and loaves) are actually quite easy and fun to make - just a bit time consuming because of the dehydration :) My mum and brother adored them!

You do need a juicer with a blank option to make the smooth paste. Unless you don't mind it a bit chunky, then you can try it in a food processor!

1) Soak your chosen grains over night (I choose rye, spealt and barley) in pure water, or untill they are soft

2) Sprout them for 1 day, rinsing them a few times

3) Drain & mix in a bowl. Add seasonings/flavours if you want. I added: garlic, sea salt, cumin and a few dried chopped figs

4) Pulse/mix in food processor untill sticky

5) Put mixture through a juicer (Greenstar or something like that) with the blank option

6) Form as many bagels/loaves of 'bread' as you wish, yet not too big otherwise it will not dehydrate properly!

(continued on previous post! :)

Raw Bagel sequel! :)

2010-05-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

(continuation of next post!)

7) Dehydrate at 105° until firm and crispy on the outside... mine even 'rose' like real bread! (I can't quite remember how long it took, but definitely not less than 10 hours!)

They are soft inside and crispy on the outside :)

I served this raw bagel to my mum and brother with avocado slices, onion sprouts, tomato slices, spinach, shredded cabbage, drizzled it with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and topped it off with a raw dehydrated sweet potato chip and a slice of lemon! :) Phew!

Success! :D

Photos!!!

2010-01-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!
(typing this from a friends Mac, so sorry for any mistakes or whatnot... Im a PC girl!;)
My computer has crashed and has been broken for a while now (not the hard drive, thank god!) which is why I havnt updated but until its up and running, if you are interested in my looking at some of my India pics, then I have an 2 albums full of them on my facebook:)
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=141595&id=527367174
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=141593&id=527367174

When I get my computer back I will post the album I had with all the raw food relevant pics too :) (didnt put them on facebook).
Eeeekk, getting late and I have school tomorrow!

Hope you had/have a wonderfully magic week!

IN INDIA!!!

2009-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hello!!!

(Before I start, I would like to apologize for any bad grammar, as I am on a Mac but usually use a PC!;)

NOTE: I have got photos of everything (literally, knowing me ;) I write about here that I will download hopefully tomorrow and post here :)

I am now in Mumbai, India! After day 1, it is only just sinking in that I am really here!

Heres the deal:

Me and David left Geneva Friday morning, heading towards Mumbai. BUT we had 2 plane stops to make, one including switching planes! Our plane was left late, which was a little worrying as our plane change at Kuwait was very tight, leaving us only 45mins to switch plane.

The plane was absolutely MASSIVE! I had a window seat, luckily, as I looove looking out! We had TVs on the back of the chairs in front of us BUT at first mine wouldnt turn on, and Davids worked perfectly but after a while mine turned in but wouldnt change channel and wouldnt turn off and David stopped working completely! LOL! Oh well, just means more time to enjoy reading my book and to sleep!...

BUT what we didnt know is that the plane also stopped at Frankfort, Germany to refuel and pick up more people. It stayed there around 30mins! When we finally arrived at Kuwait, we had to run to chatch out next plane to take us to Mumbai! Luckily, we went the only ones (4 others) and a man with a kind of golf car thing speed us to our gate to board (it was so fun! :D)

Then, we finally boarded the plane, and hoped that the next one would have working TVs ;) ... but no such luck!

As we flew over Bombay, I swear I thought we were going over 6 major cities (it was dark by now, as all I could see was a swad of lights) and kept saying, wait, is this STILL Bombay... it is ridiculously HUGE, absolutely colossal!!! As we got lower, i made out roads, stretching off into the horizon, the cars, formed out of their front lights, packed ludicrously close together going back ALL the way of the road!

In total we spend more than 13H on the planes!!!!!! We were very grateful to stretch our legs afterwards!!! ;) We got to Mumbai at 1:15AM (suisse time), being 5:45AM Mumbai time. As I came out of the airport, the heat and humidity hit me hard! And also the SMELLS of India are SOOO different, inside, its kindof like being transported back to the 80s, as most of their furniture is from then. Outside, at first I almost had to block my nose! One word: pollution!

A shover picked us up to go to the Hotel.

As we arrived at The Leela Kepinski 5* hotel (which was only 10mins from the airport) I was dumbsmaked! The entrance is all marble, there fountains, live music, shops, a spa, a gym, etc, etc.... Let me explain: we didnt pick this hotel out of the blue! Davids dad is a Hotelier and owns/manages it, and very kindly invited us to stay. I was quite anxious about this, as I was told that the stark juxtaposition between povety and the rich. As I am typing this in a luxurious air conditioned room, after all Iv seen today (read below) I cant help but feel guilt as I am cosy, safe, and clean, having just gratefully taken a beautiful shower with clean, running water whilst I saw in town others living in the slums, literally covered in filth, no clean water, no air conditioning.... it fills me with pain as my nature is to always want to help people.

First thing we did when we got to the hotel was SLEEP! We though we were just going to take a 1H nap, as we slept on the plane, but we ended up being wiped out for a full 5H! Good, we felt good after that! :)

We then made arrangements to meet Davids dad and his dads girlfriend downstairs for Lunch (although my body clock was fixed for breakfast!). I got a bit nervous about meeting Davids dad actually, I don-t know why, I just wanted to make a good impression. I suppose I just though he would think I am bonkers for eating only raw food!

We got downstairs, me with some raw cookies I had brought for them and went to the outside restaurant place. OMG let me tell you, it was just beautiful the way they had made outside... fountains with lilies, a plant wall (I loved this!), it just seemed paradisal! But I knew, from looking out of my our room window, that it only looked like this at this 5* hotel, like they had constructed an idyllic Garden of Eden to suit the Westerners stereotypical image of India! As from our window, the view presented me with quite a different story! The street we packed with cars, taxis and these 3 wheeled rickshaws, all amongst numerous people weaving themselves around the moving vehicles to get to the other side, no structured 'zebra crossings' here! Dust rose and permanently elevated from the ground, filling the small spaces between rough run down buildings towering ubiquitously.

So sitting outside with Davids dad and Dongmey (his dads girlfriend), my confidence rose from the warm welcome they gave to me. they asked me what I wanted for breakfast, pointing out and complimenting a meat based dish on the menu. After saying I was vegan, they grinned at each other and then commented "well, your in the perfect place!" refering to the fact that a large percentage of inhabitants are vegetarian and there are plenty of vegan options. However, when I pointed out that i ate no cooked food, there faced dropped a little! But they were very interested, asking genuinely curious questions, and David chipped in saying how good he felt on the 3 week juice feast we did! :)

I choose to eat (well, it was the only thing on the menu I wanted to eat ;) a fresh fruit platter (making sure to ask for it sans sauce), and when they asked me what to drink, I asked if they had any fresh coconut water, and to my utter delight they said 'Of corse!!!' When the fruit platter come, I was sooo happy!!! It wasn't just made up of squared apples and pears in a bowl, there was a big triangle cut of papaya, half-flowered shaped watermelon and melon, fresh figs and pineapple, all presented beautifully on a plate!!! YUM! I also continued to gratefully drink 3 more glasses of coconut water! :)))))

After a lovely lunch, David arranged for his friend, Mansi, to come meet us at the hotel. We went upstairs to get ready to go out, and then went downstairs to explore the shops below!... Encountered another culture shock, as the owners of the different shops all were asking us "how about this, would you like to come and see this, im sure you need this.... ect". But what I have noticed is that everyone I have encountered here are such nice and smiley people! We then went outside again, as it is cooler (and really quite cool, i might add!) inside and much warmer outside! I took plenty of pics ;)

When Mansi came, she hugged me so warmly that I liked her immediately.. she truly is such a nice person!!!

As we were walking to take a Rickshaw, on the 'pavement' were holes which revealed mounds of sewage... but you didn't just have to look, the smell was strong enough.... As soon as we exited the hotel gates, I stared seeing dogs EVERYwhere, most of them thin and unowned. :( While walking on the pavement, my heart and throat tightened as I had to walk around an injured dog, lying on the pavement. I was starting to get overwhelmed. I had tears start in my eyes as I saw the glimpse of a motionless skinny dog underneath a parked car. I looked behind us, the traffic pouring past, with a fury of beeps, noise and dust. We had to wait for a rickshaw and as we were waiting a bunch of beautiful young children ran up to us. It was a heart warming and a heart breaking experience at the same time. I suddenly regretted taking my camera out (probably a sign of wealth in their eyes, I especially dont want to look like a rich tourist, that I certainly am not). But these children, their faces lighted with their grinning smiles showing their gapped, yellow and missing teeth, warmed my heart with their grin. They pointed to my camera, I asked if they would like me to take a picture of them and pointe the camera to them. They all joyfully leaped together to all be in the picture, widening their smiles on their faces. I show them the picture of them and they laugh hysterically, asking me to take another one. Their mother comes along, and I get her in the picture, too. A smile appeared on her face as I showed it to her. Then, a Auto Rickshaw appeared, and I said goodbye, wishing I could give something to these children begging for something to eat, but not knowing what to do.

The experience of riding in a R ickshaw was something in itself! Gripping onto David as it awkwardly sped out towards the heard of cars in-front. For the fist few minutes on my first ride to town, I was so scared I might fall out, I wriggled myself closer to the middle of the seat. But after a while, I forgot about this doorless car as my attention was driven to focus on the mass of pollution filling my lungs as we drove packed like a shawl of fish close up to the other cars, taxis and trucks. I also felt a little self conscious at first, as I felt everyone who saw me was staring at me, but I began smiling and waving at them and they smiled and waved back! :) But I was very excited when I saw tons of market stalls with fresh fruit around!! :D

It took around 1H to get to the part of town we wanted, and along the way I was in utter AWE, literally speechless most of the journey as I absorbed through my eyes a whole different world, culture and environment. Perhaps I shouldn't be, but my heart wretched as we drove past the slums, spreading over a vast amount of space, but over-towered by high rise buildings. We passed a MASSIVE plastic bottle mound, exposed just on the side of the road. This is what I find so shocking about Mumbai: nothing is hidden, everything is exposed. First, we visited a bookshop, as David was on a mission to find some certain books. The PRICES were absurdly LOW... minimally half price, if not MORE... most were 5CH (around 5dollars) or under... I was tempted to get a whole load but restrained myself and told myself to be patient. Instead, I just got what a needed: a notebook for study notes which cost 160Rupees which is around under 1CH.

We then met up with Munsi's friend, Puja, a really lovely and kind lady. We then went to A JUICE BARRR!!!!! I was SOOO excited! They had ORGANIC wheatgrass shots! I had a fresh fruit salad, with a shot of wheatgrass (accompanied with a piece of pineapple) and a wheatgrass-orange-pineapple juice.. YUM!!! I was so buzzing with happyness! :D

The others had various other juices on the menu anddd.. a chicken wrap :/

We all started talking about raw food, I explained why I am began and dont eat cooked food and we also talked about our juice feast and they were REALLY REALLY interested and said they wanted to start a juice feast NOW! ;) Plus, when I told them I could make raw cakes, raw cookies, raw 'cheeze' ect ect wich had no dairy, no sugar no refined foods....their mouths DROPED TO THE FLOOR! David mentioned how eating a raw food diet can elevate the symptoms of may 'incurable' diseases such as diabetes, Puja was VERY excited, as her had suffers from type 2 diabetes and said she was going to tell him to eat raw food and juices :D

At dinner we stayed in town and I was SOOO DELIGHTED in the presence of these people that I was not timid AT ALL about asking for raw food at the restaurant... and I was thrilled to see on the menu ' Fresh Juices' and 'Fresh seasonal fruit platter' they all helped me, and all waiters were very accommodating... I ate a yummy lettuce, baby tomato and bell pepper salad, with a fresh melon juice.

We then went to another outside 'restaurant' as they wanted to try some Indian food, but at this place they had NOTHING for me to eat, and I regretted I did not also eat a fruit platter at the pther restaurant, but i didnt really mind...BUT I asked for lime water and as they gave it to me, I had a suspisious feeling about it, which was justified when i took a tiny sip... It was SUPER sweet... ERG... SUGAR! I asked if they had put sugar in it and they nodded enthusiastically as if it were a good thing... Mansi kindly asked if I could have one withOUT sugar, and a sudden quizzical expression took over the waiters face.. 'no sugar?' :)

Eeek, its getting really late here, so I am going to quickly wrap up the day... Very sadly, as we we (they;) were eating, Mansi go the news via a telephone call that her 'Guru' dance teacher had died :( She went out to make a couple calls, and came back in tears :( We went back after that, also because it was getting lateish and I wanted to attempt to do some studying when we got back. But we got back around 10PM, I was exhausted, I had a shower (I felt dirty from all the pollution) and decided to update my blog as a releasing and relaxing exercise! :)))

But must go to bed now, as we are planning to get up EARLY so as I can do a few hours study before we zoom off to town!

Have a life-changing day! - I know I did,

interest in raw food

Off to INDIA... TOMORROW!!!!

2009-12-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Chirimoya love! :)

Hello dear ones!
I know, I know I have been naughtily absent these last couple of weeks... as usual, a lot of stuff going on, including exams this week, but among the normal lerks a last minute trip to INDIA!!!!!!!
And I am going for a MONTH!

I really can't quite believe it myself!... Will be flying to Mumbai tomorrow morning, staying a few days there, then going off to an Ashram nearby to do meditation and yoga, then off to GOA by train to stay 1st at an eco retreat centre Bhakti Kutir (http://www.bhaktikutir.com) for around 2 weeks, where I will be working on an organic farm, and also in the kitchen of their organic café to do some raw food! We will then be off to another retreat center The Lotus (http://www.lotus-yoga-retreat.com/) where David will be giving a yoga retreat and I will be doing raw food demos (OMG I am SO nervous!)!!!

And no, I'm not going alone! I am going with my dear flatmate David! His social bussiness AOM is funding the entire trip for me as it is a WORK EXPERIENCE trip more than anything! For this, I am eternally grateful and in awe of his genersity! But it WILL be the FIRST time I have been away from my parents for xmas! I will miss them sooo much, and my brother too!

It is quite daring as I have more important exams after the holidays and I am coming back just 3 DAYS before them!!!!!!!!! BUT I guessed that this is a one of a lifetime oppotunity and it would be ungrateful to let it down.

I will post piccies asap, as I will have certain internet for the first few days at least... but I need to go finish packing now!! :D

Hope everyone is having a mind boggling, love-filled day!

Dragon fruit

Two of are growing kitties! :)

Check it out!!! :D

2009-11-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1Z4snq2Jo

Carrot & Sweet Potato Chips! 1

2009-11-13T05:36:00.000-08:00

Hey all! :)
(I'm going to do a series of posts, as for some reason it is only letting me unload 4 pics per post! :o)
Lately, as carots and sweet potatoes are abundant at this time, we've been making stacks full of carrot and sweet potato chips!

I cut the veggies on a mandoline...
But you not limited to just carrots and sweet potatoes! Try with beetroot, turnip, celeriac... mostly all the root veggies you can think of!

Personally, I prefer mine plain, with nothing on them, but my mum likes it when I dip them in olive oil mixed with a little sea salt before I dehydrate them! :)

The sweet potatoes don't take too long to dry.. just pop them in over night and they will be done in the morning!..... mmmmmmm they are SOO good!.. I can finish off a whole tray by themself!
THe carrot chips have a more earthy taste, which I don't really like by themself, but I love them in salads and whatnot, really gives a nice crunch! They also take wayyyyyy longer to dry for some reason, like a full day or more!

In the dehydrator :)

These photos don't do them justice.. they really do look pretty!

Ahhh, that's better ;)

:)

Catered for TWO raw dinners!!! & SCORED on persimmons! & Home made sun-dried tomatoes and Pulp Crakers!

2009-10-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

Wooow it's been a while since I last posted!

I've been quite busy, as per usual, and have recently catered for my first Raw Dinners ever!! :D
...

Briefly put, it was a "MEGA success" (as said from my client!)! :D

EEee, I'm soooooooo happy about them...
"well, how about some pictures!?!?" you might say....
Of core, I NEVER go with out taking photos! :D

Some things didn't go as planned...
BUT in the end, it turned out even better that way!!! :D
For example, I had planned on using Kale for the salad, BUT just THAT WEEK I needed it, the one place I can find it - an organic stall on the market, they say that they've STOPPED growing it in till it gets colder!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh! I was so distraught!!!! :P
But, I knew that spinach had the same effect when you massage it, it gets wilted, so instead I bought 1kg of spinach to use.....

It worked PERFECTLY, and went better than if it was kale, as it was lighter and the dinner was already somewhat 'heavy' from the raw pizza and pesto pasta.
AND, another thing was the 'pizza' crakers.... the ones I made specially for the dinner were to crunchy and just fell apart!.. But luckely I had some other raw crakers I had just made days before that were PERFECT as pizza crusts :D

Yay! It was the first time I have catered for a proper raw dinner... it went so well!!!
And 2 nights in a row! :D 2 dinners for 7 people each time!
Here are some (lots) of piccies of the food and making it ect...! XD

On the menu was (all raw, organic):
Thai Green Juice (pineapple, spinach, apple, coriander)
Wilted Kale-Turned-Spinach Salad ;)
Pumkin Seed Pesto Pasta
Tuscan Pizza
Peach-Pear Chocolate Layered Cake

Raw Vegan Parmesan

Putting on the 'frosting' :)

I took the cake to the clients house withOUT decoration as we planned that the kids there decorated it!.. They did a FANTASTIC job! :D...

It doesn't look like a lot of Wilted Spinach Salad, but this was a BIG bowl! :))

Freshly grown Rocket sprouts for the pizzas!

Marinated Dehydrated Mushrooms for the pizzas!... SOOO GOOD!

Making the Green Juice at the clients house with the kids!

Checking my check list on the way out :))

Gave the client a yummy gift of raw crackers :)))

The Pumpkin Seed Pesto!!

Deshelling the walnuts!

These are the pizza crusts I used:

My clients gave ME a WONDERFUL gift of my now-favourite bag!!....

***

YAY!!!!!!... PERSIMMONS are in season!! :D

ANDDD...........
CHIRIMOYA!!!

OMG! :D

YUM!

I found a place on the market where I can get 20 persimmons for just 8CH!!!!!!!!
Normally they are 7CH for 3!!!!!
I'm in heaven ;)
But.. Ooops... they don't travel that well!...

I spotted this elastic band heart while washing up :D

Still crazy about tomatoes!...

And another heart! ;)

I also did a 5L juice delivery to a yoga center :))

And, with the pulp with all the juicing we've been doing lately, we've been making a TON of Pulp Crackers!!!!

Have an AWESOME day!!!!!!!

Stephen Hawking lecture !

2009-09-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Heyy!!!

Wow, we went to see Stephen Hawking on Tuesday, as he was doing a lecture here at one of the universities in Geneva!!!

It was about 'The Creation of the Universe'.......

Unfortunatly, there were SOOOOOOO many people they had to split them up into 10, yes 10!!!! different conference rooms with a sceen, and so only a certain number of lucky people could see him in 'person',
but still, it was amazing how he talked through a box, I still don't know how it works!
The lecture was in English of course, but I still couldn't understand some sentences, as it took a while to ajust to the voice of the box,
but it was amazing as the lecture was really humorous and inspirational!
Here are some pics:

Other news: We are starting our Juice Feast tomorrow!!!!!! woooooo!
It's so cool, read about what happened today here. :)))))

wow, it's getting confusing writing 2 blogs at a time!! ;))

Juice Feasting!

2009-09-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

Hello :)))

My mum, my flatmate and myself are all setting off on a Juice Feasting Journey!
Please, follow us if you want on a blog I created especially at: Follow Us Juice Feasting!

I'll still be blogging here about other stuff :) but I will be putting most stuff related to our Juice Feast on the other blog :)

Have a Juice day!

Going to Indiaaaaaaa!?!?!? ...And Tomato Snob!

2009-09-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!!!
Ahh, I'm finding it so hard to find time to post recently! Sorry!

We've now kindof settled in our new appartement, which we are sharing with a flat mate (who we knwo already... suchhh a nice guy, he started up the Raw Food Meetup we go to every month:)
Being in the city has it's downsides, like pollution and no garden BUT I have to say that I am LOVING the fact that there are markets EVERYDAY somewhere here in Geneva!! Heaven!! :DDD

Eeeeeeeeee, I might be going to Goa, India this Winter, but it's still not confirmed, so I'll update you when it is and why I'm going and what I'll be doing ;)

Other news!
I got my haircut!!!.. and I already regret it :( !!

Before, just a few days ago:

I readlly liked it long, i don't know what got into my head, but suddenly i wanted it cut and mum convinced me that i needed a cut since i havn't had one in over a year!

so my mum booked an appointment with Tony & Guy, of all places!
I brought my own organic shampoo, said my scalp was really sensitive to chemicals, so they didn't put any of their freadful animal-tested, chemically laden products onto my hair :)
The man who cut my hair was English, was really nice, BUT all he did was trim my hair (fair enough, i said i wanted to keep most of the length) and cut reaaaly simple fringe. It took 15 minutes. BUT heres the thing: it cost 140CH!! ... and thats with 20% reduction as I'm a student!!!
I mean seriously, it would have been oookay if it was like this maga complicated amazing cut, but REALLY all i had done was a TRIM!
it was kinda funny cuz after 10 mins he was like, Okay! I'm done! and i'm like, What!?!!
Anywhoo I'm gong back today to get a FREE additional haircut, as I complained (nicely) :S

So, I'l post an update piccie on how my hair tonight later :)

UPDATE: the ubouve bit was written last night, so here's my new hair ;)

Okayyy, so, I think you have an idea about my hair now ;)

Anywayyyyyys,

Oh, about the Tomato Snob... :)
Well, recently tomatoes have been all the rage here at the markets!!..
And cuz i kindof know ALL of the stalls at ALL of the markets I know where i can get the really yummy ones really cheap!! ;) ... all ORGANICALLY grown of corse ;)
All different kind of Heiloom types and all!!!
YUMMM!
Recently I've been getting my favorite Rosé de Berne for 1,50CH a kilo!!!! (=€1/kl) thats NOTHING!

SOO, what I've been having for breakfast, luch, and dinner (if I have it... last few weeks haven't had many dinners.. feel sooo much better when I don't have dinner!) ISSS.. a reallyyyy yummy LFRV salad mix! And I STILL havn't got bored of it XD
I put in...

-ALL kinds of tomatoes, my fav atm are : Rosé de Berne and the Green Zebra type

-Raw Fresh Yellow Sweetcorn, OH MY GODNESS!!! This stuff is heaven on a cob!!!!! I've shared it with numerous people and they are CONVERTED, they said they'lle NEVER cook their corn again ;) really guys, it TASTES like it has butter on it, it's sooo creamy and nutty! mmmmm ;)

-Chives, havn't had this in a while, but am putting it in all my salads for the moment ;)

-Sometimes a LFRV sauce made of blended tomatoes, raw medjool dates, basil from the balcony and sometimes either an orange or a mango or a peach :) YUMNES!!!

Hehe, our flatmate spotted a 'mold mouth' on one of the cherry tomatoes and made an awesome face out of it! XD

It's a Jekle and Hyde too... one side it's smiling.....

and one side it's frowning XD

I looooooove our new flat and for my mum and our lovely flatmate I've been making a LOAD of raw treats :) yay!:

grr, i din't write down the recipe - and these were a mega hit! - but I can rember vaguely what what in it...
cinnamon apple bars: processed in a food processor and then frozen: apples, goji berries, almond butter, lucuma, cinnamon...

Yumpots!...
almond butter, macadamia butter, mixed in a bowl with lucuma, agave nectar, cocao nibs, goji berries, crushed hazlenuts :) then frozen in silicon mini cupcake things :)
OMG... this is mum's ULTMATE favorite, and she usually doesn't like sweets!!! she said these were heaven :)...

A lovely friend from yoga invited us for dinner...
it turned out to be a crazzyyyyy evening XD
It was really nice, I bought some produce and made a lovely salad out of tomatoes, fresh corn and chives... and everyone was pinching dtuff from my plate saying how good it was XD

Here is (from left to right): David (our flatmate), Heike (lovely yoga friend), my dad XD, and me :)

From right to left: my mum, David, Heike, my dad

And THEN we found Huan (she's German, so it's a German name :), the mannican!!!
Ohhhhhhh, what fun we had!!!!!!!!.....

Ohhhh, and she had a head stand stool!!!!!!
Omg, so cool ;)
we all had a go!....

haha ;)

Here are some local photos of Geneva I took when we were in town/having a swim in the lake... (well, not litteraly while swimming, but by the lake ;)

Jet D'eau

This was such a cool band ;)

Ohhhh, some awesome friends from the raw food potluck invited us round to pick some peaches from their garden!!!
Of corse, we couldn't say no to that! ;)

And they really kindly gave us some Irish Moss!!!!
Ohhhhh, I'm so excited to play around with this for the next raw potluck ;)

Okay, since it takes SOOO long to organise the photos in this post, I realllyyyy can't be bothered to move these photos up ;) sorry! :)
So, here are the yumy tomatoes that are being gobbled up by none other than.... myself ;)

And some more Raw treats I've made for people:

sorry, I don't know why this is upside down!

Made this for my dad's raw lunch :)

Enjoy the end of the sun while it lasts!!!!
:)

Been very busy!!!

2009-08-22T02:38:00.000-07:00

Helloooo!!!

Sorry, I've been naughty and not updated!! ;)
Buuuuuut we are MOVING and I'm changing school atm so everything is quite HECTIC!!!

But, I did think it a bit mean of me not to at least post some pics, soooooooo... :)

Here are some more of Spain:

This is in the town we stayed in on the 2nd weekend of our 2 2/1 week visit to Spain . We visited a friend, Enrico. This is the well where most people wash their clothes and get their drinking water in the little village. :)

This is some yummy yummy peaches we got on the way back on the airport :)

This is the view from my and my brother's tent at the 'WWOOF'ing Finca/farm we stayed at!!

They had loads of plum trees ;)

Recent photos in France:

YUM! Plum vines from the market!! :) They're purple inside, yummy :)

We love organic tomatoes :) These were all gone in 3/4 days :)

My first yellow tomato on my balcony! :D yum!

YAYYYY!! Massive 12kilo water melon :DDD
Perfecttttttt, as it's been SOOOOOOOO hot here in France!!!!
This was eaten in 2 DAYS! :)

Yum, all lovely produce from the market plus the watermelon above :)
Figs, apricots, nectarines, peaches, reine claudes, bananas, tomatoes.... YUM! :)

FIGSSSS!! :D I'm crazy about figs :D

Soo, HOPEFULLY, I'll be able to give a PROPER post about my experience in Spain!!!
Should be soon, as we are actually moving in TODAY!! and I'm starting a new school THIS MONDAY!!!
Wish me luck :D
Hop your all having fun x
Ahhhhhh!

BACK!!!!!

2009-08-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hey!!!

I've been back from gorgeous Spain for 3 days now, but have been and still am soooo busy!!!!!!
I have been choosing which school I attend next year and I am stuck in a dilemma which is making me crazzzzzzy!!!

Anywho, I WILL update on Spain and recent happenings soon, with LOADSSSS of piccies!!!!!

But, meanwhile, just because I hate posting without pics, here are some of Spain!! :)

Hope everyone is having a fab summer!!!

WOW! Cherries Galore, raw cherry jam and, update on my Bacony garden!!

2009-07-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

Helloooooo!!

Ooooooo, I've got exciting news!!!!!!!!
I'm off to Spain to WWOOF!!
YAYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm leaving on Sunday to Malaga with my brother (he's 23 :)!!!!
WOOOO!!
Hmm, I'm not sureee if I'l be able to blog while I'm there BUT
don't worry! I'll take PLENTY of photos to update you guys when I'm back!!

We're going for 2 1/2 weeks!! Untill August 6th...
Although we haven't bought the flights back yet!! :S
Well, I probably wouldn't mind not coming back! ... XD

Oooo I looove the markets on Satadays!!..
This is one of my fav stalls:

They don't treat any of their produce, and their stall always looks soo beautiful..
They have THE best figs!!!!!

Ops! I forgot to post these photos of our mulberry adveture at a friends house a few weeks back!!..
Here is our bounty!

OMG Pink mulberries re my FAVVVVV EVER!
They taste like, CANDY!! Liquid sugar!! YUMMMMMMMMM!!!

She also ad goosberries and cranberries in her garden.. SOO pretty!! :)

I made my brother some raw truffles to send him through the post, as he was going to a festival and wnted something healthy to eat.. and yummy :) He loveddd these:

They're Ani Phyo's recipe of Donut holes (dried pinneapple, almonds, sea salt, vanilla, dates, dried coconut), except I just rolled them up and covered them in coconut shavings :)

MY DAD'S RAW LUNCHES:
I've got into a habit of making my dad (who works from home) a raw lunch most days :)
They are gourmet raw, which I tend not to eat anymore as an 80/10/10er, but my dad loves them!! And their MUCH healthier then what he WOULD have... :)

Raw Lasanga

Ooops sorry It's the wrong way round!!..
Raw Spegetti ... spiralized cougette with a raw cream cheeze sauce (cashews, garlic, water, lemon juice, sunflower seeds) served with Onion Carrot crackers and an extra side saladd with a sauce of the left over Marinara sauce form the Lasagna :)

Ermm, I don't know what to call these! ;)
They are just slices of cucumber slathered with the raw cream cheeze, olives, chopped red bell pepper, and some mint... one has also got some raw pesto on (almonds, basil, olive oil, garlic, sea salt) and one has got a sun-dried tomato paste

Raw pizza.. made with the same sauces as the lasanga but on raw Sesame Sunflower seed crackers topped with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, tomatoes and basil :)

Ooo, and it was recently my god mother's b-day, so I made her a raw lasagna :)
She LOVD it!
(I followed Ani Phyo's recipe :)

Made my mum and dad breakfast in bed :)
They each got one of these fruit salads with a green/beetroot juice:

Oooo yes, about those cherries ;)...

We went to a friend's house a few weeks back who had a MASSIVE cherry tree!!!

We picked SOOOOOOOOOO many.....

Probably more than 15kilos!!!!!

We had soo many, and they were VERY ripe, and so had to be consumed QUICK.

Even me, who eats ALOT of fruit, could not possibly finish of this! XD

So, we came up with stuff to do with them....

We...

DRIED THEM...

I'm not a fan of dried fruit but.. YUMM! These make THE BEST fat-free courgette pasta sauce!!!!!!!!!...
For the sauce:
-1/2 small cucumber
-3 medium tomatoes
-handful of raw dried cherries
-optional: coriander, basil....

YUM! OMG! THE BEST.. you can even eat it as a soup!!! It's SOOO good!!!

At first, I had to pick them BY HAND!!!

I had to do this for MOST of them ... untill we got a cherry pitter!!!...

.... MADE RAW CHERRY JAM!

Yes!! It's possible... and VERY VERY YUMMY!!!!!
Recipe for Raw Cherry jam: (I use a small 150ml cup)
Base: - 1 cup (arounf 10) deglet noir dates, - 1 1/2 cups pitted cherries
Blend in Vitamix untill smooth
Add: around 4 cups more pitted cherries
Proccess in base untill chunky

We made ALOT of jam... which went VERY quickly!! :)

...MADE FRUIT ROLLS...

These are a yummy treat.. great for travelling!
I am bringing these to Spain with me!
They were made with: cherries, banana and dates

.. MADE CHERRY SMOOTHIES!...

OMG SOO GOOD! has the same ingredients as the fruit rolls! but in Smoothie Form ;)

Our lovely friend we went to get the cherries from, kindly gave us some MASSIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE home-grown beetroot!...

They had a lovely garden!!!...

They were growing MELON!!!!!
Ahhh, I wish we had a garden!!!!!! :)

Well...... Here's how my BALCONY garden is going!!...

From Flowers.....

To forming ickle tomatoes!!....

To coming out as cherry tomatoes!!..

These are my big toms growing!!:

Yay!!!!!
None are ripe yet, but they're getting there!!!!!

Arg, you can't quite see it in the pic, but this green juice juice is PURPLE!!..
How? Purple cabbage!! :)

We went to a friends and had a Juice Party!!...

YUMMY Flat peaches from the market!!!:

YUM!

Just a quick post to share an article :) :

2009-07-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

I'm always excited to see articles in magazines against meat, or about veg*nism.. and I just thought I'd share this one about the detrimental effects that meat has on the environment :)

(Click to ENLARGE :)

From the Newscientist magazine

Newsflash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ohhhhhh, I just HAD to blog about this straight awayyyyy!!!...
I just wanted to share a revelation :D

It's a miracle!!!! My dad is officially 2 VERY LARGE steps more to being VEGAN!...

My parents have finally STOPPED buying and drinking milk
"It makes sense after all this time... NO, no more milk" is what my dad said.
This. Is. Groundbreaking.
My dad is the type of guy who is known to drink milk straight from the carton!

Plus, he went out to a restaurant tonight with friends to a place where all the meat is organic and free range and said he took one bite of meat and stopped. He knew that it would be his last.
He said this surprised him because he was actually looking forward to a little bit of guilty 'pleasure'! But he said he just couldn't take one more bite. WOO!

Well, actually, my dad admitted to committing to 100% vegan at home now (WOOOO!), but he says the difficulty comes when going out and when with friends.

Well, It'ul get there!
I'm so proud :D
haha

I've rubbed off on him after all :) :D

My dad's lunch of raw vegan Pizza! made by me :) :
(Ani Phyo's black sesame bread, raw seed cheeze, raw tomato sauce, olives, tomato, sun-dried tomato and onion :)

Food For Free!!!

2009-06-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo again! :D
It's been a while!
Sorry!

But.. GOOD NEWS!
I'm on HOLIDAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
WOOPP! :D:D

I've been trying to be productive everyday...
I've got tonssssss of photos to show you guys!

First of all... FOOD FOR FREE!
It's that lovely time of year where FRUIT trees are blossoming!
Here are some of the treasures that I've been picking.....

Cherries!.. These are the sour kind, but I also found plenty of the sweet ones!...

I'll try and find the photos, so I can post them on my next post!

Arg, I've got loads of photos of foraging which I can't find atm :(
But I'll posts them next time :)

MULBERRIES!
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!
They are to live for!

There are a few different varieties I've found (we've got, like 7 TREES RIGHT OUTSIDE our apartmement!!!!)
... white, pink (my FAV!), and black! YUMMMM!!!

Okay, no I didn't forage these bananas, though >.<

Haha, all these bananas were GONE in 3 days! :)
Magic! ;)

Oohhhh, found an apricot tree near me, hope to be back there soon.......

We went to a garden centre called Botanic (ohhh, I love going there ^_^! haha,m so fun looking at all of the things I could grow... PLUS, they've recently changed to ALL organic!! wooo!)..

Pretty flowers :)

Arg, I wanted to get sooooo many plants!
They had fig trees, kiwi plants, abricot trees, blueberry & raspberry plants

MELOOONNNNNNN!!!
THIS>>>>

....Is my FAVVV kind! It seriously tastes like marsypan to me!! :)

Ohhh, and following a youtube video, Rocket Composting (REALLY good idea, btw! Thanks Yardsnacker!) I did my own compost goo a few weeks back...

And looking at my plants now, I can say that I think it really helped my plants!!

(On the next post, I will update on my balcony garden... which is giong veryyyy well!! YAY!)

Did I mention my brother visited a few weeks back?
Ohhh, it was sooo lovely to see him!!
And the best bit? He was REALLY motivated to change his lifestyle/diet!!
Ahhh, I was over-the-moon happy!! :)

His B-Day had also just been, so me and mum made him a RAW chocolate Brownie cake!! :)

... Which he gobbled up with joy ;)

More pretty flowers which were at the garden centre..... :)

:)
Oh, and I also went to Aqua Park with some friends... I'll post the pics up next time as they're still on my phone :) It was awesome!

Picture Post Update!! :)

2009-06-06T04:21:00.000-07:00

Ahh, sorry.. I thought I posted this yesterday!!!

Okay.. So, I've got quite alot of pics to share!!! :)

These first ones are of a animal RESCUE zoo we visited nearby, where they 'rescue' animals that 'real' zoos don't want any more, and they even rescue animals that have been part of scientific experiments! ...

They had a few fig trees, too!! All had figs on them, but not the edible kind apparently...
Although they looked ripe, they were all dry inside :( What a shame!!!

ANDDD WEE FOUND A CHERRY TREE THERE!!!!
Note alllllllll of the cherries were ripe, but some were!
I was SOOO excited :DDD -- It was my first time in AGES picking fruit off the tree!!
YUM!

Unfortunately (for the animals!), it was located right next the the airport, and so every 20 minutes or so while we were there, a noisy air plane flu (sp???!) over us...

However, the place was reallllyyy nicley done up as best the owner could (he was really nice, too!), and it was all greeeeen and loads of gorgeous flowers!..

And this AMAZINGLY friendly crow!!!....

ANd absolutely GORGEOUS 'wild' cats... I did feel a bit sad that they were in small enclosures though :( ... but they are much better

I just wanted to cuddle him! ;)

(this is a wild boar) :)

********

YUMMMM!!!!! WATERMELON!!!
YAYYYYYY

This watermelon was absolutely GORGEOUS!
Just look at the patterns and swirls!!!

Pics of walks :)

Found an apricot tree :D
..Hmm, planning to come back to it in a few weeks time :)

Watermelon smoothie!! YUM!

My rocket plants flowered!..
Pretty, but it stopped them from growing the rocket leaves!!! :(

I built my own shelves from all of these date boxes I had!!!! haha!!
Recycling and reusing is the way to go!!

ALL I used is the boxes and toothpicks!!!
No glue, no complicated things, just made 'em with things (2!) I had around the flat!
:D

My FAVVVVVVV (or 1 of!:) smoothies:

Simply Cantaloupe melon blended!

More mangos ;)

I love these pics from a recent late walk...
The dark deep blue clear sky was just magical..
The pics don't quite capture it, I could have just stared at that sky all night!!

Glad to be back :)

IM FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!! ;)

2009-06-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE FINISHED MY GCSE EXAMS!!!!!
:DDDDD
I'm soooo relieved, and thank you all so much for the support!!! :)

I'm over the moon not only because I've finished my English exams, but because my BROTHER and DAD came over from England on Thursday!!!! :DDD YAY!

I WILL UPDATE WITH PICS AFTER I COME BACK FROM THE MARKET ;)

Love you guys!
Glad to be back :D

Hallooooo!

2009-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys that I havn't posted!!!!!!!!

But just to say that I will BE BACK!!!!!... with lots of pics... SOON!

I've got my exams starting next week, so I'm avoiding the internet like the plague, as once I'm on it, I'm on it for hours!!! :P

WISH ME LUCK!!!
XX

Long-ish -- and colourful! -- update!!

2009-04-27T11:15:00.001-07:00

Sorry!

It's been a while again!!!!

Ahhhhhhhh, My exams start in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before I went for a walk tonight,
I thought "Wouldn't it be funny if I met my mum on the way back coming back from work",

and then "Nahhh, that won't happen!"...

Well, well, well, guess you was just coming into the parking while I was... :)

Syncronicity, you showed me wrong! ;)

We have a (temporary) circus set up across from our appartement :(

And they have animals - including 'exotic' ones!! :( NOOO!!!

I'm bummed out, because they are all chained up!!!!! (you can't really see the chains on the photos, but they all have a certain restricted - and very small - space/length/radius that they can go in) :(((((

While I was walking past, I just wanted to untie them!

They looked so unhappy.....

I did a GORGEOUS yoga workshop last weekend!

It was brill!... 3 hours on Sat and 2 hours on Sun (It was meant to be 3 h again, but we got the timed muddled, so I only made it to the last 2h!)

I loved it!

Woooooo, my plants are GROWING!!

And I'm growing some new other stuff aswell.... (I'll take pics to show you guys next time :)

Physalis and yellow tomatoes are the newest additions.. and they are already starting to come out!... I've also got cherry tomatoes, lots of parsley, rosemary, spinach, rocket, chives, mint.... YAY!

The mountains were lovely today!!!!!!

Other pics from my walk today:

FIGSSSSSSSSSS are flowering on the treeeee!!!!!!!! YUPPEEEE!!!

The pic below was taken LAST WEEK!:

Look how much it's flowered!!!

We also stopped by a local organic farm shop... there wasn't much in terms of fresh produce this time round but we got some more herbs (chives and mint) to plant ...:)

my mum and grandma :)

A few days ago, we went for a lovely walk by the lake....

I love lilac!!!

me and my mum! (:

Love you mum!

YUM!!!!! I made this SUPER delicious smoothie a few days ago....

Only 2 ingredients!!!!!....

made with a sugarloaf (white flesh) pineapple and (raw-- I get Dr Martins) coconut water!!!

(1 medium pineapple to 1, 500ml bottle of coconut water)

It is SUPER yummy!! Sooooo sooo super yummy!!!

BUT WARNING!!!!:

It may be SOO super yummy, you have over the amount your mouth can bear!!!!... Mm mouth was BURNING all day after a few cups of the stuff!!!!!!! OUCH!!!

Greeeeeeeeeen juice:

(this is from last week, havn't had any this week... I've just been munching on whole lettuce heads this week!!!!....

seriously, I've been LOVING mono romaine lettuce and endive!!!! SOO good! :)

I cannot get enough of tomatos!!!!

Why are they so expensive though!?!? :(

YUM! RIPE bananas!

OOOooooo! On my walk last week, I encountered a really cute geco (sp?) , which just stayed in the same position for AGES, while I took photos! ;)

So cute!

Hehe, I love deformed tomatoes!!! :)

This is just before a storm hit!:

Monster lemons!

2009-04-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

Look at these monster lemons!!!
I peeled them like an orange they were soo big! :)

Hehe, we stopped the car to take a pic of this view!:

They're Buffalos in the pic. They look so sweet and fluffy! :) I love all the flowers in the grass, and the mountains behind!

Well, the sprout bush died :(
It was getting a wee bit big!

It still looked pretty though, like one of those draping/hanging plants :) LOL! :)

The roots were so big and thick!!!

I made this raw spaghetti and sauce for mum and grandma.. they LOVED it :)

I LOVE organic STRAWBERRIES!!!
mmmm, we got sooo many to feed all of us :D

I organised the fridge! :)
We had soo much food... and the next day it was nearly all gone and the fridge was nearly empty! Seriously, food goes in a second!!!!

Yum, made a yummy salad...
-stawberries
-peas
-corriander
-chives
-asparagus (YUM, but WAYYYY too expensive!!!)
-tomatoes
-lemon juice

It was nice, but my tummy didn't really enjoy the combination..
I've been eating mono-meals lately, and feel wayyy better when I do. I prefer to drink my greens in a green juice, and savour the fruit by itself. YUM :)

I was spoiled on the weekend... I ate lots of mangos :)
(most of them weren't that good though :(!!)

The trees are blossoming!

We went on a lovely walk by the lake (Lake Léman/de Genève).

Too use up all those carrots we got (12 kilos!!), I made some carrot/apple/celery juices! yummy! :)

We got bunches and bunches of celery to juice up!!!

Blood :)

I looooooved orange juice (with bits), soooo good!!

OOooops, I made abit of a mess :)

Haha, looks like there was an accident here!!

Made this for my grandma, she gobbled it up :)

My arms got a good workout (and are still getting!) a good workout during this juice feast, as I made ALL the juices (I use a vita-mix with a nutmilk bag!)!! :)

I love taking photos of nature!! Here are some I took last year :)

YUM! Dragon fruit!

YAY! IM BACK!!!!

2009-04-12T07:35:00.000-07:00

Helloooooo! :)
MY INTERNET IS BACK!!!!!!!!! :D
There's sooo much to catch up on, I'm just going to throw some pictures at you :)

Last week, my grandma, my mum and myself went on a juice feast!!!!!
It was awesome!
We did it for 5 days full, but were still drinking around 1-2-3 L of greeeeeeen juice a day!

For my grandma, it was brilliant for her fibromyalgia... she has NO PAIN NOW!!!!! (And she went off ALL her meds during that time!... not on purpose at first ;), as she forgot them in Holland, but she found SHE DIDNT NEED THEM!!! She also has an unusual type of arthritis (not inflammatory).
However, she has started taking them again, because she has been getting not-so-nice withdrawals from the drugs (they are opium/morphine based)... like at night she didn't sleep much because it felt like ants were all over.. yeah, not so nice!
But she says she will SLOWLY try and ween herself off the drugs/medication. As long as she stays (mostly) raw, she has no pain. I'm soooo happy!!!!

For my mum, she lost 5 pounds in 5 days, and she felt BRILLIANT. She said she would have carried on (she enjoyed feeling light and not thinking about eating) if we hadn't run out of produce ;)

For me, it was a nice head start into 80/10/10. I haven't had overts in about 2 weeks now, and I feel better than ever! (I know juices arn't strickly 80/10/10, but for now, I'm feeling brill with green juice :)

My mum and my grandma are RAW NOW! :) woohoooo!

Haha, I took a pic of this specially to show you guys!! ;)
It's DURIAN ESSENCE!!! I found it in an Asian store!!!!
Haha, sooo, some people really do like the smell ;)

My parsley is growing very nicley... this pic is of a few weeks back! It's much bigger now!
I'm also growing other herbs, rocket, and spinach all on my balcony!!
I'm also about to plant some tomato seeds to grow! D

woooooahhhh, this is all the ORGANIC produce we got to start the juice feast :D... there's MORE in the car!!!

Omg, yaaaaaaay organic strawberries are back!!!!

Eeeeee, my t-shirt from Peta2 arrived!! I love it :D

Haha! We left bean sprouts to sprout and they're turning into a bush!!! :D

mmm, lettuce/apple/cucumber/ginger green juice for a friend!

WOOOOP!

2009-04-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Omggggg!!!!!!!! It's been soooooooooooooooo long since my last post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would have posted MUCH sooner, but my internet has been - and STILLLLL is - down!!!!!!!! :(
Not to mention how busy I've been.....
BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
I got the results and papers back from my (mock) GCSE exams I did that I was talking about in my last post and.............
IM SOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got A* (the highest grade) in most of them, A's in the rest, and 1 B+ (which I wasnt suprised as we hadn't studied that part in a year!!!)
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

And my most recent essay I done got 40/40 (A*)!!!!!! :D and I did an oral on Wednesday and I got A* 39/40 AND i just got back this other piece of writing I did this week and I got A*!!!!!!
:D
Im soo happy! and I did the oral on Animal experimentation!!! (:

Plussssss... sorry nif im boring you already with this school stuff ;)..... I got an average of A* (this is all for English btw:)!!!!!!! yayayayay!!!!!!!

*Breath*

Okay... haha, sorry about that :)

Ahhh, I have to hope off now, as I'm in an internet café!!!... So unfortunatly no pics in this post :(
I hope my internet will back on sometime next week (or hopefully sooner!!)
Thanks for being so patient!!! :)

Iv got soooo much more to say when I get backkkkkkkkkkkkkkk (:!!!!!!

Have an awesome day!!!!!!

(PS.. AGNES:: soo sorry havnt repley to your email yet, I will do when my internet is back on!!!!!!!)

:S

2009-03-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

Please bear with me!!..
I've just completed the second of my three English mock GCSE exams!!!...
ahhhhhhhhh (:

The next (and LAST!!!) one being Thursday....
Wish me luck :D
It's getting warmer hereeee!!.. Yuupeeeeeeee!!!!

I will update soooooon!

2009-03-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry people!
I've just been reeeeeeealy busy!
I'll update soooooooon though! :D

Get up and jiggle!!

2009-02-18T10:50:00.001-08:00

Right, I have made it a (very late x-mas) resolution to dance to at least one song a day!!
Well, okay my dancing is really only me jumping up and down, 'head banging' like a rock star, and flapping my arms around like I'm about to take off.
It still makes me feel good! ;)

It really has made me feel much better these last few days.... It gives me a few moments to 'go wild' ;)

I've been abit down lately what with school, exams coming up and we are also having a bit of a money problem too. Bleg.
BUT, of course, we all learn valuable lessons on the other side, so... I'm looking forward to that bit ;)
And I know we are going to get through it.
Not life threatening or anything.
I know, I should really be looking at the positive sides of live.
Hmmm, thats hard sometimes.

Ha!, who says we can't jiggle our way to happyness? ;)

My favourite song to dance to atm are:

So what, by Pink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bNDr1A6dTU
It really gets you jumping!

Get Shaky, by The Ian Carey Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQtBmMn6obk
... A good one to shake your bum to ;)

Imagine One Day, by Grace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncYXDRlHHkA
This is a really beautiful song

So... no excuse, Get Boogying!!

YUM!
I have a new veg snack favourite!!...
Runner Beans!!

I've found that they taste the best when peeled out of the 'shell'...

It's a bit tedious, but it's sooooooo worth it!!

mmmmmm...

Abouve is the outer layer being peeled of,

and below is the bit you eat!

It's simply scruptiuos!

I'm still enjoying my yummy orange smoothie daily :)

I went on a lovely walk today.

The sky was blue and cloudless.

The mountains looked beautifull... something I really love abou France/Switzerland....

This is the Jura from our balcony:

All white with snow...

if only that massive antena wasn't in the way!! ;)

Hmmm, I've been really feeling like going on a juice feast again!

Soo.. once we get organized and save up a bit, I think I may enter the realm of juice feasting again.... ;)

♥HVTD!:)

2009-02-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry, It's been a while since my last post! :)
♥ And I wanted to say Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day! ;) ♥

Yay, I'm happy because..
1) My mum has given up smoking!! :D I am SOO releived. Hopefully it will last (:
2) She is really giving it her all for the raw way of life!..
A few days ago, she asked me to take her 'before' picture!
I'm soooo lucky to have a mum like her! ♥

The 80/10/10 way is treating me very well! :)..
Except, I have adjusted it abit:
- I still do green juice
- I am using up my raw vegan supplements (enzymes, algae ect..)
-I've only technically been on 80/10/10 starting a few days ago as we bought a box of gorgeous organic avocados (they were really cheap €18 for a box of 24+!). They were all ripening pretty fast, so I gobbled them up! :D hehe :) (not all over a day of course... but I did have, like, 3 a day:)

I have found one of my new favourite snacks ...
Orange juice soaked dates!
.. Although, usually I can only manage to eat a few of them, because my teeth have always been sensitive to either reallyyy sweet stuff, and only really cold stuff. We'll see if this improves! :)

Mmmm, oranges are all the rage with me at the moment!! :)
I'm going through like 2kg a day!! Ekk... not good for our budget!! :S

Ohhhhhhh, I'm excited...
I am going to be CATERING a Raw Food Lunch for a Yoga group!! :D
Woop woop!
The lunch is on the 28th of March. :)
Any ideas of a LIGHT (the lunch is IN BETWEEN yoga sessions) raw food dishes I could serve!? :)
They have sessions every month.
This month.. the 28th of Feb, I'm going to bring Green Juice to the group! :D

My mum absolutely LOVES the nut milk I make her!!

All it is is (raw) Almond milk that I make by blending soaked almonds with water and then straining it through a nut milk bag, a spoon full coconut butter, a dash of vanilla and voila! :)
A healthy milk alternative! :)

Ohhhhhh, I had the loveliest mango over the weekend!!!..

SOO juicy and ripe!! :D
...
Bon Appétit! :)
Spread the L♥♥♥♥ve :)

Ohhhhhhhhh!

2009-02-09T03:29:00.000-08:00

blegggg, I was meant to get my braces off today, but they pushed it back because some of their equipment isn't working or something :(((((( grr!
Now I'm getting it done on the 4 of March! D:

Anywayss, about my friends coming over!!!!!!........
I AM SO RELIEVED!!!!!
It went SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than expected!!!
They came one day late (Saturday afternoon, instead of Friday evening) because of the snow in England, and their flight got candled.
I was actually glad, but NOT in a mean way!, that they came one day later... I think that it would have gotten a little too awkward at eating times...
It doesn't help that I'm shy! >.<>

These were the view from the car.

These are from the ski lifts!

Our skiis! (Oli snowboarded)

This merry-go-round looked beautiful in the snow!!

They are gone now... they went early this morning.
I made them raw macaroons and chocolates to try, and they LOVED them!! :D
I also made them some green smoothie in the morning and they found it DELISH!
yay!

These are the raw chocs just coming out the freezer. :)

my hands after rolling the macaroons! :)

There were a couple of uneasy moments though....
Like last night, after skiing we stopped at a restaurant to eat in the mountains.
gahhh, yes, yes, I am quite picky and try to only eat organic food - besides, they didn't HAVE anything I could eat there anyway! Even ALL the salads were loaded with bacon, cheese, croutons..... GAH! And I didn't want a salad were these things were just picked off either! Soo.... I just said I wasn't hungry... In the end it was FINE.. I just kept TALKING, LAUGHING, and made sure there were no silences so they could'nt focuse on me NOT eating!! ..
Well, it worked... we had a great time...
It was just that they had a fondue (eg, cheeeeeeese, greasy cheeeeeeese)
and it just gets a bit bleg when they start commenting on how good the food is...
and I just have to keep quite...

The other thing is that, when friends come over, my mum's eating gets really bad.
I KNOW I should'nt 'tell' people what to eat, and I usually don't.
BUT when it's with my family, it's that much harder.
:(
She finds it really easy to stay off meat and eat largely raw daily, BUT this weekend when our friends were over she eat sweets, BACON, HAM, and LOADS of processed icky cheese.
And I can't HELP but feel slightly (understatement) disappointed.
No, maybe it's not disappointment, but it's HARD to watch your loved ones stuff them self with POISONING 'foods' (especially when it involves killing animals.. eg meat :(. :(
I just love my mum too much, to be able to let her destroy herself through eating these foods!!!!
gfgfsdfshdfksdfhiwfdk dfhkjdfh.
!!!!

ANYWAY! :D
All in all, it was really good, and I'm sooo glad!!!

And I made mum lots of YUMMY raw stuff today because even she admits she like, and feels SO much better eating raw!! :D
....
Like...

Green juice!! :D

Yum, I havn't had dates in quite a while, because I was once eating tooooooo many of them and eventually got put off them..
I tries these the other day....

and was surprised to find that even just after 2, it was wayyy to sugary and sweet for me!

I also made mum some marinated mushrooms to put in her salads..
omg! she eat them ALL up!
She loved them!!

marinated (in raw olive oil, touch of sea slat, wheat-free tamari, a little pear syrup), then lightly dehydrated mushrooms

I've been trying 80/10/10 these last couple days, and WOW!
I feel GOOOOODDD!!!
... Not to mention the food bill has gone down!!! :D

.... Help! ....

2009-02-03T06:46:00.000-08:00

Not too much going on around here... Yet.
Next week my mum's friend and his son are coming over from England for a couple of days. They are very close friends to us, and I love them dearly, but I'm still a little a little nervious about, well, the food bit!
I know, I know, I shouldn't be embarrassed about my lifestyle...
ah, but sometimes....
These are friends that we've known for YEARS, and infact, it isn't Ally (the mum) who I'm worried about AT ALL -in fact, I even found out that she has attempted to go raw before! And is very excited to talk to me about it!!
I mean, that would be all fine and dandy if it was just her coming...
but it's not!
Oli (her son - short for Oliver) is so cool! But, I feel really stupid when I talk about health with him and my other old England friends (I lived in England for 10 years and just (re)moved to France/Switzerland 2 years ago)........
Because these are the friends that I got drunk with every weekend.
These are the friends that would scoff down junk food with.
So, I just feel so... out of place with them now.
And I don't want too.
So, I'm really nervous about eating in front of him!!!!!

Gahhh, I hope I'm making sense? ;)

Hmmm, any advice?
I'm just going to try and keep it light.
And smile alot.
And only talk about health and whatnot to Ali when Oli isn't in the room! ;)

Beh.. Oh yeah, were going up in the mountains too.
Eek! No blender! ;)

Anyway, to put some brightness into this post.... :)

Mmmmm, try this:
Blend 2-3 lovely whole organic oranges (peeled, obviously ;)with a little water (preferably in a high-speed blender) and to jazz it up.. add a liiitle squeeze of lemon juice too! :)
It's so yummy and fluffy!
A nice change to the typical orange 'juice'! :D

hehe, No, I don't wear a towel on my head out ;)

Totally disgusted!!! :(

2009-01-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, this kind of this just makes me so mad, and it makes me think how inhuman and proves how disconnected with our natural alignment we have become....

Me and my mum went to the Old Town (in Switzerland, Geneva) to go to a presentation about the Marutiré (it's like the equivalent of A Levels) that mum has persuaded me to think of as an option to do next year.... and anywayyy, mum got the date wrong ;) so we ended up walking around... and there are plenty of little boutiques around there (all of them were shut as it was late).
So anyway, I looked at the display at one of these little shops... and was HORRIFIED to see a dead animal scarf with a HEAD looking back at me....

Grr, I was so upset :(
My mum said we should email PETA about them ;)
But then.. even worse, on the same shop's display, they had a poster saying 'animal du soir' (animal of the evening) showcasing different types of fur coats for different occasions. :(

I wish that shop was open so I could of given them a real telling off! ;)

I mean, this sort of thing should be illegal!!!!!! :(

Vengence!!

2009-01-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

Green juice is back!!!!! ;)
Mwhahaha....

On a nother note... we nearly got burgled (sp?), I got locked out of the appartement (Okay okay, and YES it might have been me that accidently locked myself out), we had to get a locksmith the but locksmith couldn't even bloody open the door (but he made up for it with his humour :) and we had to have the handle and lock taken off... and other things... but more about all of this later :)

Have a nice dayy!
;)

Encore!

2009-01-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

Hellooooo!

Hehe:)
Seeing as I eat so many lettuce heads, we bought a whole crate of 12 and got 10% off :)

Yay, my mum is going on a juice feast with me the week after next!!
Can't wait!!

YUM! I've been eating 1-3 heads a day! :O

OOhhhhh, exciting news:
I'm going to try and do a Raw delivery service!! :)
I've already done the menus & stuff, I'm going to put some up in my local health food stores soon, and bring them along to the next raw potluck! :)
Exiting!!!!!!!

Ohhhh, so I made these fudge truffles for a friend.......

This was it before I rolled them up n stuff:
FUDGE! :D

Ingredients:

Place ingredients in blender:

MIX!:

Make sure it looks like fudge!: ;)

Pour into a container:

YUMYNESS!:

My mum LOVED this amond milk, she said it was so creamy and soothing! :)
(it had coconut oil, vanilla and some agave)

Mum was feeling unwell yesterday when she got back and said she had a headache and the chills, so I made her a PURE shot of ginger juice! OUCH!
She felt IMMEDIATELY better, her headache and her chills diminished!... but I had to go get her some coconut water STRAIGHT away, because that stuff is HOT!! :)

Bbrrrrrrr, It's cold here!!!!
Have an awesome day!! :D

Macaroons!

2009-01-11T00:31:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Oh, a lovely friend was kind enough to bring me back some raw stuff from her trip to the US this winter hols! (:

ohhh, look at that colour!! :)

The sprouted flax powder seriously tastes like short-bread!! >.< Hehe, my raw inventory is growing! :O

Ooohhh, and my mum (who is now Okay :) brought me back a really wierd-but-cool looking Lebanese Chirimoya!... Yum, yum!! It was delicious!!!

(usually, chirimoyas have a smoother skin, but this one was lumpy!! :D)

mmmm, it was PERFECTLY ripe! *drool*
(;

I also made some Raw Macaroons for mum and dad...
they are ABSOLUTELY CRAZY about them!! (:
(they know how to make them by heart now! :P)

The recipe is originally adapted from Raw Food, Real World:
It's practically coconut flakes, a sticky sweetener (I used organic pear syrup because we didn't have agave)
and then add either ground almonds (to make blonde macaroons)
or cacao powder (to make choco macaroons)
Opps, I forgot to add that these were then dehydrated until they became crispy on the outside, but still chewy on the inside! :)
:)

:)

2009-01-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys, I know I promised to update on Saturday,
but I've just caught up with school! :(
Will do soon though! :D

There's a lot of pictures to show you!...

YUMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A New Page!

2009-01-02T15:14:00.001-08:00

Yayyyy!
I'm back :)
...
I'll update tomorrow! (:

Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy Winter Solstice before I go!!

2008-12-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hello!!!!

I just wanted to say
Happy Winter Solstice
before I go off to Holland!!!!!!!
I'll update when I get back... With lots of photos! .D

Bleg, I've got loads of homework to do..
Not fair!
:S

My (rented) skis!! (:

I went skiing on Sunday!...
More details when I get back
:D

Hehe :) Skiing goggles!!

WORD OF WARNING!!!!!!!:
Do NOT, i repeat do NOT blend Kakis (persimmons) with ANYTHING!!!!!!!
(Or at least mango!)
I'll tell you about this sad event when I return!! ;)

HAVE AN AMAZING DAYYYYY!!!!!! ..
no..
HAVE AN AMAZING LIFE! :D

And...Go have a green Smoothie!!

On Holidayyy!!!!

2008-12-19T10:59:00.000-08:00

Hellooooo!!!
YAYYYY!!!!!!!!!! I'm on Holidayyyyyyyyy!!!!!
WOOOOOO!!! :D:D
*sigh of relief, joy, and liberation* :P

Okay.... Calm down now ;)

EEeee, I'm going to Holland / The Netherlands (My grand parents live there)
for Winter Solstice (Christmas)!
And my christmas present????
Well, I asked for nothing, BUT as my mum insisted
(I am easily persuaded.... ;)
I am getting a BIGGGG, and I mean BIGGGG
box of fruit from Orkos!!!!!!! ... Of course not ALL for me!!! (;
I feel SO grateful!

It's getting send to Holland, and
OF COURSE I'm going to take photos of it!! :D
... I'll post them when I get back as we don't have a computer there...
I am getting a WHOLE durian!! :D
for my Christmas diner/lunch centre piece :D

What else?
YAY! my dad's hereeee!! :D
... I feed him his Bday Raw cake!!...

This is before I decorated it...

And after!...

He LOVED it!
I'm so happy!
I asked him how it was, but he was too busy going
"mmmmmm, ahhhhhhh, ohhhhhhh"
(:

Yummy grenadine (sp?)...

Yummy mango concoction!...

Yummy beetroot avo soup ...

Sorry, I keep saying yummyyyy all the time..
I just can't help it!!
It's just that the food I eat IS
SOOO YUMMY!!
:D

Hope you guys have an amazing, amazing Winter Solstice/Christmas/Hanaka or whatever you celebrate! :D ....
I'm off to make some home-made Christmas cards!! :D
(and of course using recycled paper!!!! :D)

At last!!!

2008-12-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

Eekkkk! This is gunna be one long post! Hope you don't mind (;

This post is gunna have ALOT of pics!! So get ready!...
Sorry It's been so long! :S
All my teachers are cramming as much homework, essays and tests in before the holidays as they possibly can! (;...
Last night at 12PM I finished my 4000 word essay on SHAKESPEARE!!
(actually, it was 4,240 words :) that was due in for today about Macbeth....
AND did my oral presentation.... and got an A* WOOP!
(I was SO incredibly nervous,
but once I got up there in front of the class, it was surprisingly easy & fun! ;)
I'm SOOO glad that's all over and done this!! XD

Okay.. Onto the post!!
Right, this was the post I was MEANT to post last Saturday, but was too busy....

Me and mum have signed up to helping a cat sanctuary! We help out cleaning ect... last weekend was the first time we went. We were meant to go yesterday too (it's every weekend) but we were too busy ): There are kittens, cats, and they've even got these really lovely, really fat pigs! that they saved from the butchers! :D They are SO sweet.... Ohhh, we spotted at least 3 RAW books in our health food store!! Even one form Kate Wood (Kate Magic)!!... all translated in French! It was quite disappointing though because NONE of them had ANY photo's of the most beautiful raw food!!!! So, one of my next projects is to print a RAW recipe and information book in French, with LOTS of beautiful and wonderful pictures!! as I feel it's a really important aspect as raw food is SO worthy!! :D

Okayyyyyyyyy....... now back to the present...

I have been making LOTS of YUMMY raw food for mum!!!

Above stuff are something like a raw pizza/thingy type things that, i'm glad to say, she absolutly LOVED!

This is a mum's raw sandwich she took to work for lunch (:

...I'm still juicing most breakfasts but I'm eating raw soups and smoothies for the rest...
I now seem only attracted to liquidized foods!! ...
Maybe it is just a phase XD
But my body feels only like really simple foods...
no oils, no dehydrated foods ect
(but I must admit, I've been enjoying a few soaked RAW cashews in my soups, ever since I tried my first RAW cashews a couple days ago.... more on this in a min ;)
But like seriously, even if I look at a mango, I'm like..
"Mmmmm, that would be nice blended!!"

The only other foods I feel i want to eat without blending is..
raw sauerkraut! YUMMMM

But I must admit that this is because
I tried to blend some in in my raw soup, it tasted delish
but I couldn't finish it so I put the rest in the fridge,
for like only 4 hours and it started to ferment!!!! :(
It went all fuzzy and felt like soda in my mouth and I had to throw it out!! nooooo!...
Well, lesson learned!! XD

Ohhh, it's so cool!!!
As I'm juicing alot still
(not everyday though... I keep running out of produce!!),
and I really feel bad throwing all that pulp away...
WELL I found out a really good way to use it ALL up (inspired by a post on gi2mr about using the pulp in raw burgers)..
Raw bread!!!!

This is just ONE 'flavour' I even made PURPLE bread from a base of beetroot juice!!
(It was a real hit at the raw food potluck!! ;)

So I've been making STACKS for my mum!!!!
She has NOT got an excuse to go out and get (cooked) bread now! XD
haha! (;

All I do is add raw olive oil, a little raw Celtic sea salt, and if desired some herbs/died herbs to the pulp..
and if you want to make it REALLY fancy, add in olives or tomatoes.. the possibilities are ENDLESS!!
I've found that this works WAY better than ANY raw bread/cracker recipe I've tried!!!
Plus.. it LOOKS (mostly:) like bread,
it FEELS like bread,
and according to my mum.. it tastes BETTER than bread!!
haha! :D

Exciting!!!!!!!!
I received a lot of orders from the internet recently....
Like this Keimling one that I ordered to make my dads RAW BDAY CAKE!!
(See below for more details :)
...
Ohhhh and they sent us some free raw truffles!
YUM!!!!!
and like they were THE best I've EVER tried!!!!!
XD

2.5kg RAW cashews!!! (they were on sale!!! :)

Ohhh, I also got an Amazon Herb
order, which is AWESOME!
I received dygestive enzymes, and Aquazon
(a mix of Klamath Lake fresh water algae, Aphanizonemon flos-aquae (AFA) and South American marine algae (SAMA)) amongst other things...
Its soooo coool!!... The algae stuff GLITTERS!!
This is what it looks like stirred in coconut water...
(I'm so proud of this photo! :D :P)

What else have I been making??
Wellllll, it was my Dad's on the 8th!
He's in England at the moment for work :(
but as I thought he would be coming back last week
(but he couldn't make it :(... but he's coming this Wednesday! :)
I made some raw chocolate.....

Anddd a raw cake!!!!!
I'll go through the stages I made it in...
BTW.. I'm SO sorry about these low-quality photos...
It's the awful WINTER light (or shall I say lack of it)
that makes me need to put the flash on....

Anywayyy.. Here's the cake tutorial!:

The Base:

Made of sliced bananas :)
To make the cake a lil' lighter (;

First Layer:
Mango choco/coconut layer going on base... YUM!!!

Here it is spread out.Then I added more sliced banana on top :)

Then, I added the Second layer: kiwi coco (:

Here it is spread out (:

Thennn came the Third layer: Bery something-or-rather (;
Btw, it was actually purple this layer... but it didn't come out in the pic cuz of
the flash! ):
Here it is in the blender!:

Here it is spread out.

And then here is the whole cake without the icing/frosting.
It didn't get that hard as I didn't freeze it, I just popped it in the fridge for a couple hours (overnight)

Now comes the frostingggg!!!! yayay!!

Here it is nice and smooooooth!

Here it is just spread on :)

And again....

I will post a pic of it when I have finished decorating it....
I haven't done that yet, as it's going to be eaten on Wednesday :)
Can't wait!! :D

Btw, if anyone wants the recipe, just ask!
And I'll post it up (:

Here are just some pics of food served over the last few days :D

This mango was to live for!!!

Yummy green juice!!!!

This was the cheeze (sprouted sunflower seed cheese) before it went in the dehydrator....And this is after!:

Finished product!:
Yet another raw pizza for mum!!
To me, the cheese looks real! :O

This is some raw, sprouted home-made cashew butter
YUMMMMMMYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

Random raw foodstuff things:

:DD
It's nice to be back!!

Okay!

2008-11-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

It's okay, I'm still here, still alive! :P
This is just a really quick post to say that I will be updating soooon...
there's a lot to say!
I'm just SO busy at the moment!!!....

YUM! Looks radioactive! (;

(P.S Agnes - SO sorry... I just haven't found the time to reply to your comment... I will hopefully soon though! :D And DW, of course I'm not mad at you!!!! :P)

EMBRACE IT!!

2008-11-25T12:32:00.000-08:00

On this juice feast journey, my thoughts have been unstoppable, and flowing in abundance.
This is just a lil' post to what I've been going on in my head. It feels better to get it down (or in this case, to type it up :)

Some of it may seem like jumble.
I apologise.
It's late, but I was dying (living :) to get this thoughts out of my head so I can have a good nights sleep!! (:
And I'm having a bt of a rough time in school at the mo'.
I'm confused about why it's really worth going...
Anywayyyyyyy........

There is a crisis going on, and humanity is in chaos.
In school, they should be teaching us how to grow organic gardens, how to pick wild food. THIS is the information we need for NOW and the FUTURE.

What we are learning now, what the school curriculum, the institutional systems are feeding us, 'teaching' us might be useful in the world that WE have created, and I am NOT talking about the REAL world; nature, but the artificial, synthetic universe that is DETERIORATING.
We won't need to be able to count how much money we have to put in our banks to save out arses to pay our ever-growing high rents, or to buy stuff we don't need to impress people we don't like. This is not SUSTAINABLE.

The general population is just WAITING to hear someone on the radio saying 'It's okay, everything is fine and dandy'. There waiting upon someone, or something to set everything straight. But it will not come. They're waiting for the government, or an authority to come up with a perfect plan. But they don't know what the fuck to do! THEY, the PEOPLE, US need to do something. we are the majority. WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.

In the natural universe (not the matrix we are in right now) do we see other animals, other species DESTROY the planet? They are doing what they are MEANT to be doing naturally. Everything is is order. The planet needs them. Plants need them. They are entwined and essential to the eco-system.
WE are NOT doing what we are meant to be doing naturally. Everything is in DISorder.
And we are NOT needed by the Earth. If the whole of humanity were to disappear tomorrow, the world would do perfectly fine without us. In fact, it would do BETTER.
And this is what (most) people don't get. We ARE NOT IN CHARGE. We may like to think so, but just look at us now. Natural order is coming around to bite us. And we must EMBRACE it!
Follow the flow. Get back to our roots. LETS MAKE THINGS DIFFERENT. We need a change. A long-lasting, sustainable change.

This IS possible. We can reverse the inexcusable damage we have done to NOT ONLY OURSELVES, but all things. We have not only put ourselves in shit, we have been greedy and made everything else jump on board our sinking ship too.
So lets see things differently starting today! Lets turn a new page. But don't wait upon other people. have confidence in yourself, and believe YOU can make a difference.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, that feels better to have let it all out!!
(: That was a little deep (:
Sorry, I know some of it doesn't make sense.
But I just wrote down what I am/was feeling.

But of course!! I have to add some photos!! ;)

Here are some pics i took a while ago in the summer:

Right, I'm off to get some sleep!! (:

Foire De Geneve

2008-11-21T10:22:00.001-08:00

Heyy! Ah, sorry it's been ages!!

I'm still on the Juice Feast!! Woo!
Phew, there's a lot of days to catch up on! (:

First I'll start off with what I drank on Day 8 (19th Nov):

- 20ml ginger juice!!!! - OUCH! I heard it makes you warm up... I felt like I was on fire!! (:

- 650ml beet/apple/kale/ginger juice

-water (250ml)

-300ml coconut water

-900ml cucumber/celery/spinach/lambsquater lettuce/apple juice

-350ml coconut water

-1L cucumber/beet/apple/ginger/kale juice ... YUM!

-water (250ml)

-750ml celery/cucumber/ginger/purple cabbage/lettuce juice diluted with 100ml coconut water (:

This makes a total of 4,050 L juice! (including coconut water, not including water)
YAY!!! I make the 4L mark! (:

What I drank on Day 9 (20th Nov):

- 200ml water
-1L cucumber/apple/ginger/celery/purple cabbage/lettuce juice diluted with coconut water, 100ml
-150ml water
- 650ml parsley/purple cabbage/ginger/apple/orange juice... YUM!!!
-700ml coconut water
-100ml water
-900ml beet/kale/ginger/apple/cucumber

This makes a total of 3,350L of juice. (including coconut water, not including water)

What I drank on Day 10 (21st Nov):

-200ml water
-950ml cucumber/parsley/apple/ginger/lambsquater lettuce/celery juice
-700ml coconut water with 2 tablespoons spiralina mixed in*
-250ml water
-350ml coconut water
-900ml beet/celery/cucumber/apple/ginger/kale juice

This makes a total of 2,900L juice.
Not very much today but this is because I had to stay in school ALL DAY! without going home, and I ended at 5:30 so I didn't really have time to make a lot of juice.
Hence the * (coconut water and spiralina) that I took to school with me in my SIGG bottle! (:

What I drank on Day 11 (22nd Nov):

-250ml water

-50ml coconut water

-1L beet/cucumber/celery/apple/kale/ginger juice

-850ml celery/ginger/kale/lambsquater lettuce/apple juice

-2tsp FRESH, local bee pollen

-800ml beet/apple/lettuce/cucumber/ginger juice with 500ml coconut water (:

This makes a total of 3,200L juice.(including coconut water, not including water)

And so far what I've drunk on Day 12:

-250ml water (:

Okay, theres so much to say! (:
...
It's SNOWING here! (or was yesterday), and it settled too!
But it's frikin' freezing!!

Yesterday evening, we went to the 'Foire de Geneve' which is like this big thing showing the best of what all of the shops in Geneva have.
They had a health section, and thats were I stayed most! (:
And I got a free massage!!!!
It was soooooooo nice!! mmmmm, I love massages!!
They had all sorts of exercise machines we could try out.
The power plate was fun!!

Apparently, lying on your back, with your legs up in the air for 30 SECONDS on this thing, is like doing 900 SIT UPS!! Wow!!

Ohhhh, and I found out in my local health store that they have RAW sauerkraut!! Mmmm, mum got some for herself.
Ah, yesterday while I was doing all my homework, I had a really strong craving for the sauerkraut, and I felt too lazy to go and make a juice.
But I stuck to it and made a lovelyyy green juice, and craving completely went away! (:

Oooo, and I've noticed my eyes are clearer and lighter!
They already went from hazel brown to bright green from when I turned raw vegan.
And now, they've got a sort of blue rim! (:

Yesssssss, my mum came up to me recently and went
"Aj, I think I need to go raw"
:D:D:D
Well, I told her I thinks it's better if she gets the hang of vegan first with a lot of raw food, so if she falls of the 'raw wagon' she wouldn't go and binge on dairy and CHEESE.
But really, she's already doing so well.
I'd say she is at least 60% raw and sometimes maybe even 80%, but I think it will be the goats cheese and bread that will be last to go for her! (:

Me in a massage chair at La Foire de Geneve.
It was SO high-tech... and cost 12 000. :o

Ohhh, how do you guys like the new blog makeover?!
(:

Wooo! Juice feast day 7!! Ceeelabrate good times, come on!

2008-11-18T09:28:00.001-08:00

One week on juice feast already gone by!
... and still going strong!
Wow, It time goes fast....
Hmmm, produce does aswell! (;

YAY! Coconut water is back in stock! (;

Oh, and I just noticed that I wrote most measurements in ml, when I meant dL... Sorry!
EDIT!: no sorry this is wrong.. I did mean ml. haha! It's confusing!

Right, What I drank on day 6 (18th Nov):

-400dL water with lemon juice

-600dL mixed salad/pear/beet/red pepper/ginger/purple cabbage juice - YUM!!

-550dL celery/apple/mixed salad/ginger/lambsquater lettuce (durr! ;)/cucumber juice with coconut water... YAY!

-50dL water

-300dL coconut water

-800dL celery/beet/cucumber/ginger/mixed salad/spinach juice

-500dL coconut water

-300dL coconut water

-spoon raw honey

-200dL coconut water... haha, I'm going a bit crazy on this stuff! ;) YUM!
-1L water with lemon juice and raw honey =YUMNESS!

In total that makes of 3,250 L of juice (not including water, including coconut juice)
Ahhh, still under.. Oh well, I think I had enough liquid though, as I didn't count the litre of water with lemon juice and raw honey! (:

mmm, this is the mixed salad. It was lovely and fresh!

I'm trying to ween myself off of raw honey. It's one of my 'trigger foods', referring to Mat Monarch's interview on Rawkathon; I loved that interview..Thanks!!
It's fineee in small, CONTROLLED amounts, but sheesh... once I start there's no stopping me!!
I can eat half a kilo of raw honey in a day... so yeah, I'm going to *try* and stop for a while, in till I know I can be satisfied with just a bit. (;
Another one of my 'trigger foods' is almond butter, mixed with raw honey no less!! haha!
Mmmmm, but it's soooooo good! (:
So, I'm not going to buy any more raw honey for a while.... we'll see how it goes (;

What I drank on Day 7 (!!!):

-100dL water

-100dL coconut water

-700dL celery/cucumber/ginger/lettuce/spinach/tomato/purple cabbage/apple juice

-350dL water with lemon juice and raw honey (this was the last bit of raw honey left in the jar!...mmmm this mixture was good though! :)

-1,1L celery/orange/apple/mixed salad/ginger/cucumber/purple cabbage/lettuce/red pepper juice

-600dL cucumber/spinach/apple/ginger/orange juice

wow, this juice was amazing and brighttt green! (:

-650dL beet/apple/kale/ginger juice - YUMM!

That makes a total of 3,5L (not including water, including coconut water)

Cheers!

Day 5!..

2008-11-13T11:33:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I'm laughing histerically as I write this...
I found out what the alien white specks were on my clothes...
JUICE PULP!!!!!
... I always wash my nut milk bag with hot water and whatnot and then I flap it out to flick all of the water off...
and I guess some of the pulp backfired on me, hence the 'alien' specks!!!
Hahaha!

What I drank on Day 3 (the 14th Nov):
-1 small glass water (around 150ml)
-1 glass coconut water with lemon juice (around 150ml)
- 900ml celery/parsley/tomato/coriander/cucumber/apple/beet juice

-250 ml apple/avocado/Sharon fruit/orange juice... YUM! *

-500ml coconut water
-spoon raw honey...
-Glass of water (250ml)
-800ml apple juice (with skins)
-150ml carrot juice (I made 800ml but couldn't finished it!... so I added it to my next juice...)
- 1,2L carrot/celery/apple/pear/lettuce juice
-Glass of water (250ml)

A total of: 3,950 ml of juice (including coconut water, not including water)
Hmmmmm.... Still just under... It's rather cold here, so I'm not that thirsty...

* As I didn't plan this juice feast I ended up with 2 ripe avocados which I just added to my concoctions and strained through the nut milk bag like any other juice ... I hope this counts as juice?..
It was thicker than usual, but I'm guessing that's just from the oil/fat of the avo?

What I drank on Day 4 (the 15th Nov):
-Small glass water (150ml)
- 500ml apple/pear/lettuce/avocado juice
-650ml cucumber/celery/apple/lettuce juice
-1,5L Cucumber/red pepper/apple/ginger/celery/parsley juice
-Water (250ml)
-870ml beet/apple/ginger/red pepper juice
-Water (250ml)

This totals: 3,520L... I'm still finding it difficult to drink the minimum of 4L of juice a day!

I went for a lovely 5K run with a friend that day...
It was wonderful...
Near the end, we stopped at this stone block/bench without a back and she showed me how to do different kinds of ab exercises etc....
One of them was to lie on our backs with out legs up in the air and flap our arms.
Our bums were facing the road, and lots of cars were passing...
Its so funny to see how people react to anything out of the norm..
I just waved at them while I was doing this... Very funny!!...

What I have drank so far today on Day 5:
-Water (500ml)
-1,2L parsely/cucumber/celery/red pepper/ginger/apple juice

(It's 9AM here...so this is only breakfast)

I am loving the ginger in my juices... I don't put a lot, just enough for a lil' kick (;

It's quite weird... I'm not missing solids at all...
Just the odd little desire, like when I cut the avocado in half, I felt like I wanted to eat it
But that's really about it!

Right, I have to get on with Homework...
Mum has been nagging me to get off the computer for the past half an hour!
(;

Day 2 (:

2008-11-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, just a quick post of what I'v drunk today, as I need to be getting on with, *gasp*, even more homework!! (;

Ahh, I'm still not drinking as much juice as I would like to, thanks to my gruellingly long school hours... Start at 7:55 and end at 5:30 with an hour and a half for lunch break (I walk home).
And tomorrow I only have one hour break, which means only 20 mins at home!! ahhh...

Right, Enough whining!!

Here's what I had today (in order):

-2 glasses of water (around 500ml)

- 650 ml celery/lettuce/apple/cucumber juice

- 1 glass coconut juice (around 250 ml), with lemon juice

- 1 glass water (around 250 ml)

- 1 glass coconut water (around 300 ml) with water

- orange/frozen raspberry juice!! * (juice of 5 oranges and 300g of raspberries - made around 3 glasses, 800ml)

- 800ml lettuce/celery/cucumber/apple juice

- 1 glass water (around 250 ml)

- 1 1/2 glasses coconut water (around 375 ml)

- 1 l beet/celery/lettuce/apple/cucumber/red pepper

-1 spoon raw honey (;

Soooo, thats around 4,375 L (;
Yummy, I enjoyed all of these juices so much!!!
I'm sooo glad that I'm pursuing this!!!

* OMG, this was SO goooood!!:
But really... IT HURT making it!!!... (frozen raspberries)..
I use my Vita-prep to make my juices, then I strain through a nut milk bag...
My hands got SO numb, I had to swap and run them under water!..lol!

Okay, so the weirdest thing happened to me last night...
I was thinking about aliens (A gi2mr thread got me thinking about them)
and all night I felt kind of... watched upon, and slightly uncomfortable.
In the morning around 4Am I look out side... I see a full moon.
So then, I go to the bathroom and guess what I find out?
I'm like covered with blotches of, I can't really explain, I don't know what it was..
little white patches... EVERYWHERE...
my face, hair, clothes... SO WEIRD!
I've never thought about aliens... maybe because of the way they characterise them in cartoons with the original saucer ship etc... I've only really thought about them jokingly, taken for granted..
I don't really know what to think of it!...

Feeling great....

2008-11-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hey!

Okay, so here's what I had over the WHOLE day (without breakfast):

- At least 600ml coconut water, with a few drops lemon juice in each glass.. mmmmmm

-3 BIG glasses juice made with beetroot/spinach/red pepper... diluted with coconut water (;

- 4 BIG glasses juice made with celery/red pepper/cucumber/apple/spinach ... YUM!

-Oh, and - naughty me...- a spoonful of raw honey... :o

-and, of course, water.. around a litre

I think this totals to around 3 litres of juice and coconut water (not counting water)...
I felt SO good today!!!!
Even though I didn't drink much... this was only for the first day...
I plan to juice more and drink up! (;

My parents were totally open... I was so surprised!!
Mum was a bit concerned at first, but I explained all about it etc...
I even invited them to join me!! -
They said they would on the Christmas holidays, when they'll be carrying (more ;) 'excess baggage'! (;

Awesome, Dad was listening to Radio 4, when they announced 'The person with the smallest Carbon footprint in the UK'. Guess what???... She's a RAW VEGAN!!!!!!! woo! (Well, it's logical really ;)
The interviewer was like "So if you don't cook your food.. what do you eat?"
hahaha!....

Woooooo!

Juice fast/feast

2008-11-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

Helloooooooo,
Well, I have decided to go on a juice fast/feast.
(Starting... Today!)
Okay.. The reasons being:

-I never ever feel hungry anymore. And any food is starting to get unappetising.
- And I always get bloated after I eat anything solid
-To allow my body a break

So I just would like to rebalance myself, my body, my emotions.

Any tips or advice would be appreciated! (:

I'm planning to do it for at least a week.
But who knows, this might turn into a month or even a full
92 day juice fast/feast.

Okay, so I'm not sure whether it will be a juice fast or feast.
I don't want it to break the (mum and dad's) bank (feast),
but I certainly don't want to be stuck in bed
and I still want (and need) to be functioning for school (fast) etc.
I'll just drink when I feel inclined to (?)

I'm going to tell my parents upfront that I'm going on a juice fast/feast, as I have
a short history with what they call anorexia, so when they see me 'not eating'
they freak out.

So yeah, I think it will turn into a juice feast, if money allows it...
Ah, I really dislike how everything revolves around money!
Here is a quote that I love and agree with:

"Money is central to our lives. Yet money is not of central importance. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the lasting values that make life worth living"

I'll (try to) type out everything that I'm drinking.
http://juicefeasting.com is a brilliant and useful site.
They recommend taking bee pollen, so I might do that.

Well, since I'm skipping breakfast (It's only 6AM here in France!!) today,
I'll tell you about the fabulous green smoothie I had the day before yesterday...

It was sooo green, it looked like it was glowing! (:
It was awesome! (;

-1 (orangey/lemony type thing)
EDIT!: Orangy/lemony type thing means a pomelo. Haha, I forgot the name but forgot to change it before I posted this! (;
-1/2 of a cucumber
-little bunch of curly parsley
-little bunch coriander
-around 400ml young coconut water (I use Dr. Martins :)
-1/4 or an avocado

Have any of you been on a juice fast or feast?
What was your experience!? (:

Ooooooo, fruit!

2008-11-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

Yayyyyyy! Good news!! I won a drawing competition (for my age category) for Orkos.
My prize?? A biggggg basket of amazing FRUIT! wooooo!!

Ah, I loooove receiving packages!!

Here is the drawing I sent in:

This is scanned
The theme was Bees & Honey. Perfect :)
Hmm, I'm not that good at drawing bees or flowers, but it was a looot of fun!! (:
(I love drawing)

Eeeeeee, it feels good to have won something!!
I honestly can't remember the last time I won something!!! Haha :)

So, take a look at the fruit we got! There were two massive, massive avocados!!!! We also got Jack fruit, Cempedak, chirimoyas, sharron fruit, 4 different kinds of mangos, sapotes, cacao beans, papaya, and more!!

This is the Cempedak, it smelt like durian (but much less strong - it wasn't too overwhelming ;) but I think it tastes really nice, so does my dad... but my mum realllyyy doesn't like it, to say the least!

Jack fruit - YUM! It kind of had a lemony smell ;)

Cacao beans!!

Oh my, I love mangosteen!!!!!!!

Cacao is purpleeeee

Wow, so we did order some extra stuff as well. We would have ordered some real young coconuts (wild) but they ran out!! :(
We ordered some raw cashews.... on their site, they say they have strickt rules for keeping all of their products under 40°. But of course, I asked the guy on the phone aloooot of questions! XD (You have to ring up to order)
So, apparently, their cashews are truly raw and hand-opened, with a special nut cracker thing.
But there was one thing that made me think. Here it is: THE PRICE. They cost 7 euros for 500g, and that's nothing for raw cashews (on Shazzie's site they sell a 450g pack for arounf £14!) Is it too good to be true!?

I don't know if you can just tell by looking at the cashews to see if they are truly raw or not, but here are some pics. I got the cashews with the skin on (Don't ask me why ;) and after I soaked them, I peeled the skin off. This is what they looked like:

I've never seen this little tail thingy on cashews before, but maybe that's just me. (:

What do you guys think!?

Ohhhh, and I made the besttttttt cream everrrrrrrr (the recipe is from David Wolfe's book). It's nut free and only oneee ingredientt! :
Chirimoya!

It is soooooooo amazing! Plus, if you add a bit of avacado (one which has yellow coloured flesh - ehg, sorry to use that word! :) to the mix, it turns out like custard!!
Okay, there is a slight catch. It takes ages to de-pip the chirimoya. But anyway.. it's soooo worth it!!!! For a little bowl like the one pictured, I needed two of them!

Yellow coloured avocado ;)

So maybe just make a portion for yourself the first time ;) It's not the best dish to make for a pot luck! (:
Yesterday I eventually went to see James Bond: Quantum of Solace, after walking arounf for more than 3 hours (dw, I wasn't alone :) of trying to find a cinima where it wasn't full, and after getting trapped inside a shopping mall... haha, don't ask :) It was sooooo good... I totally disagree with the critics who said that only the first part was good. Hmmm, maybe I found it so interesting because I was drooling over Daniel Craig. The first James Bond movie I saw with him in I thought, beh, he's too old.... but after this movie, PHEW! He's hot! ;)
(EDIT: Maybe I'm still delusional from winning?)

Ohhh, one last thing. I will share with you my breakfast i've just had :)
2 cups green (actually, it was red/pink :) smoothie.
I was sooooo happy to see that my health food store has Pure Organ ic Coconut Juice again!! It was gone for ages, and it's completely raw ect !! Wooo!
Okay, so my smoothie had (for tree people EDIT!.. Ooops, I mean three...)... two bananas, about 300g frozen berries, 3/4 big handfuls of spinach. YUM!

Ooo yesterday I had the nicest little bowl of yum!

Hmmm, if only I can remember what I put in it! I was out of greens (Oh nooo!)
Ah yes, okay I think it was one half of a big papaya, one massive mango, and as many frozen raspberries as you wish! ;) And blend!

Ah, sorry - this is a loooong post again! :D

Cakeeeeeeeee!

2008-11-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

I think I might start typing up what I eat. I would have already done this, but I'm just too lazy to think back :)

Sooo, let's see... For breakfast I just had 2 glasses of Green Smoothie consisting of a gigantic mango (like really, one of the biggest I've seen!!), a whole head of lettuce, some extra spinach, and a few frozen raspberries. (All ingredients are organic). Ah, yes. I also sprinkled on fresh, local bee pollen.
This made a looooooot of smoothie. I gave a glass each to mum and dad. They LOVE Green Smoothies! (;

On the political side of things, I'm glad Obama won!! (ahh, I can't stand Palin...)
Hmm, although I did fall for his joke on April Fools when he said he was vegan.... What a shame he's not! We need someone like that in 'power'!
I was thinking actually, that if even just a group of raw foodists got a chance to be in 'charge', that they would and could end most of the global problems (:
Haha, does that even make sense, what I said?
Sorry, I'm just rambling ;)

Ohh nooo, none of my own photo's today....
So I'll leave you one i pinched off the internet, only because it looks so delicious. (:
YUM! This is a good.looking Raw cake! Who said raw is boring, eh?!
This photo was taken off http://www.gaiastable.com/news/2007/06/scrumptuous-veg.html

Gladiator Guy!

2008-11-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Mmmm, I think one of my new favourite fruits are Chirimoyas (thanks rost0037 for the name! :D), they are delicious. Please, if you haven't tried one, act today and go and get one! You deserve it!

Okay, I admit it: I didn't make any raw Halloween treats. Instead, I agreed to go to the pub with my dad and brother. Hmm, I only approved to go because it's Smoke-Free! ;) Actually, it's a pretty nice place to hang out.

Andddd I beat their arses (asses :) at Pool!!!!!!! Haha!
Okay, I didn't exactly win but I came pretty darn close. Not bad for my first time, eh (ah, I hope it's not just 'beginners luck'!).

Ohhh, we also went to an old friends house, and she has loadsssss of fruit trees!! Of course, most of them had no fruit except a fig tree! Yayyyyy! Mmmm, they also have a Mulberry tree, and they said we can come back in May for those! ;)

My mum was talking to the lady (Claudine) about my diet and such, and she was reallyyyyyy interested! - especially about green smoothies, surprisingly ;) She even asked me to come back and do a demo for her, and that she will pay for the produce!! Woooooop, how cool is that?!!

Me with a different friend, Cara, in mum's friends garden (:

Awww, Claudine had such a cute dog that seemed to like washing a lot, as practically the whole time we were there, he staying in the washing bag! (;

Claudine's mum is a very successful statue maker (is that how you say it?), and she has an array of statues' in her garden. In fact, in India, there's a whole public park dedicated to her with all her statues in! They're also scattered around all over the place around where I live.
Here are just a few photo's of many that were there:

After, we went on a walk in a rural park/public grassy place and I found a persimmon tree!!! Okay, the tree it might have actually been in someone's garden as I found out afterwards (signs are confusing) but anyways, I never even knew they could grow here!! :O
Unfortunatly, they weren't yet ripe.

I'll have to come back for them.

My brother has left now :( But before he went we go to go to this Martial Arts thingy, where they show off. It was Very good. Most of it, anyway. We didn't stay for the whole thing, as it went on in till 1AM, no joke! (it started at 6:30PM).

Before it started

We meet this Gladiator guy there who was meant to go on scene, but unfortunately we left before we could see him on stage.
Gladiator guy and my brother.

Gladiator guy getting a drink... as you can see, I'm distracted by shiny objects

Oh oh, cool news! They have raw crackers hereeee!!!!!!
hm, except I read an interview of the person who owns them and he thinks he invented them. Ha! If only he knew.....

Thanks for reading!