Choose Raw not War!

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 Organic 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

Wow, I've just finished a whole day of a Anusara Yoga course of 5 hours yoga (with a lunch break in between - I bought my own :), and I just can't tell you how much I enjoyed it!

I was be able to go into a proper Lotus position for the first time! (Someone took a picture of me while I was doing it - Okay, i might be smiling, but OUCH! it ached - but in a goodish way!!!)

I found out about this course on Wednesday at our monthly Raw Food Meet up. David, the founder, is very into yoga, and this month had some very special yogis all the way from Colorado staying at his flat. They were doing a trip around Europe, and Geneva, Switzerland was their last stop.


This was taken from http://www.atelier-yoga.ch/stages.htm

I met Amy, the teacher, at the meet up for the first time before the course.
She is SO amazing and kind and beautiful, and I can relate to her in many many ways.
She turned vegan when she was 15 and was always a little different from the crowd I just felt totally comfortable around her.

She's also doing a yoga retreat in Chile soon.
Ahhh, I wish I could go! (;

There was actually sessions going on this whole weekend, and Friday evening.
I went to Friday's one and today's only, because as much as I would have loved to attend everyone, we just couldn't afford it.
But, wow, just wow! Friday wasn't a very good day for me at all at school and I came back considering even to cancel the yoga. But I'm so glad I didn't cancel!!!!!
I felt SO good afterwards, all of the troubles at school were forgotten, or pushed down.


And today it just kept getting better!!
With Amy's help I managed to do a full back bend (bridge) then go on my tiptoes while in that position and sway myself up to standing. then from standing, I bent back down into the position. I have never been able to do this, and have actually always been scared of doing it. But I put my complete trust in her, and voilà!

This is the 'chant' we sing before starting.
It really does calm you down and gets you to feel all of the vibes from the other people (note: some letters have accents on them, but I don't know how to add the on this). It also really does sound beautiful when sung:

Om

Namah Shivaya Gurave
I honour the essence of Being, the Auspicious One,
the luminous Teacher within and without,

Satchidananda Murtaye
Who assumes the forms of Truth, Conciousness, and Bliss

Nishprapanchaya Shantaye
Is never absent, full of peace,
Niralambaya Tejase
Ultimatly free and sparkled with a divine luster.

Om

The place where the classes were situated were magnificent.




It was so peaceful. Surrounded by vineyards.
I took some pictures.
Of course :)Vineyards!
I tried one, but it was a bit sour


I feel so much more flexible now. But of course, I have to keep it up.
I plan to keep doing yoga classes at least once a week -yay!


Oh, and another wow!
Yesterday at the health food store, there was this amazing fruit.
I've forgotten what it's called, but BOY is it good!
My dad attacked it like a caveman, no lie (!).

That's it for now!
How is your yoga getting along!? :D