COOL CUCUMBER DAY

Some days are just cool, calm and captivating. A day like that deserves a RAW feast.

K.A.L.C Juice (kale.apple.lemon.cucumber)

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale, stems removed
1 whole lemon
5 small red delicious apples
1 medium size cucumber

Juice all ingredients and enjoy. I really loved this, it was an incredibly satisfying breakfast.


For Breakfast little Miss decided to make a ice cream, her absolute favorite thing for breakfast.

Nina's Breakfast Ice Cream

Ingredients:

3 frozen bananas, peeled, cut in halves and frozen overnight in zip-lock bag
1 cup almond milk (she used the left over almond milk we made from a few days ago)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put in a high speed blender and blend until it starts to look like soft serve ice cream. You may have to move the contents around with a spatula to get it going. Serve as is or top with fruits and/or nuts.


Cool Cucumber Salad

Ingredients: 

2 large cucumbers, sliced into1 inch thickness

Dressing:

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 small lemon
dash of salt (optional)

Mix all ingredients well together and drizzle over cucumbers. Sprinkle a dash of black pepper over salad and garnish with some julienned beet root.


And for supper I came up with this refreshing soup, hmmmm...

Refreshing Cucumber-avocado soup

Ingredients:

2 large cucumbers, Peeled with just some skins left
1 ripe pear
2 small Haas avocado
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tbsp agave nectar
1-2 sprigs of fresh mint

Pour all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend till creamy. VERDICT: I LOVE IT!

www.berniceangoh.com

Remember to EAT & DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH, YOU'LL THANK ME LATER!

D'lectable Vegan Cheesecake

I was wondering yesterday how I could make a cheesecake without my food processor :( and I decided not to give up no matter what. I was going to make my cheesecake, food processor or not! I definitely couldn't make a Raw Cheesecake because I had to grind my cashews but then I remembered that I had some Tofutti better than cream cheese in the fridge...ding, ding, ding IDEA!!! I wanted a raw crust and obviously could not make my regular raw crust without my 'S' blade food processor so I came up with a cool recipe that worked, talk about DETERMINATION!


D' lectable Coconut Cheesecake (Vegan)

Raw Crust

Before it went into the oven. Nina came up with the idea of decorating it like this :)

You want to lick the computer screen don't you?

That warm chocolate sauce added another kick to it, YUMMMY

Next time I will use a smaller pan so the 'cheesecake' part of it can be thicker

I got my fix, you can have yours too :) This should keep me good for the next few weeks;)

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut macaroons
pinch of salt
6 Tbsp organic maple syrup (I use the organic grade B maple syrup)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until sticky and starts to formed a dough. Press dough into an 8' pan and set aside.

Cheesecake Filling:

2, 8oz containers of Toffutti Better Than Cream Cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients very well in a bowl. Set aside for about 5 minutes to let flavors and sugar set in. Mix again for another 2 minutes or so and then pour over crust.
Bake in 350 degree oven for about 35-40 minutes.
Remove from oven and put in the fridge to chill for about 1 hour.
Serve with warm chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce:

1 Tbsp cacao powder
1 Tbsp organic grade B maple syrup
1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

Okay, I came up with this recipe on the spot and the whole time I was keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it tastes half decent enough to eat and not waste--If it was horrible.

VERDICT: I LOVE IT!!!

Now I can make different variations out of this. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Also, I warmed my chocolate sauce just a touch before drizzling it over my cheesecake, the contrast between the warm chocolate and the cold cheesecake was MOUTH WATERING!!! YUUUUUUMMMMYYY!!!

I did my hair on the eve of Christmas, took me only  5 hours

These are called 'Urban Twists'

This hairdo is so 'me': trendy

Remember to EAT & DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH, YOU"LL THANK ME LATER!

WILL YOU COME OVER FOR TEA?

This Christmas I got a beautiful gift from my father and mother in-law. So permit me to brag about this wonderful woman (my mother in-law) for a second. I feel blessed that we are so close and that she knows what I like. She is one of the sweetest people I know, so soft spoken (like me) and loves, loves pink. Anyway, she and Nina had been holding on to this surprise for a while but nothing prepared me for the uniqueness of this gift and yes, it's all organic too: (and oh, the pretty pink antique tea set is a gift from her as well)

THIS TEA BLOOMS!

Flowering teas is what they are, different flowers, different colors, awww, too cute,  it starts off as a very small bud and then slowly expands to almost fill the glass jar, how cool is that? The perk of having a mother in-law who loves you and knows what you like :)

My beautiful tea set all so PINK!

Just had to drop a cinnamon stick in there!

BEAUTIFUL

I feel like a princess every time I drink from this set

My little Ninashka, modeling the tea set and tea for mommy :)

Well, thanks for joining me for tea today. Hope we do this again soon.  Here are a few smoothies we've been enjoying for breakfast.

I made some ALMOND MILK yesterday

THIS BLENDER WAS ALSO A GIFT FROM my mother in-law, thanks 'Mema'

Freshly made almond milk

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds, soaked overnight and then rinsed
4 -5 cups of water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dates

Liquefy in a high speed blender and pass through a nut mesh bag or a cheese cloth if you don't have a nut milk bag. Save any left over almond chaff for later to use in pies and biscuits.

BLUEBERRY MOUNTAIN:

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen blueberries
2 bananas
1/2 cup almond milk

BLACKBERRY SMOOTHIE:

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen blackberries
1 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp coconut oil

Here's a photo my daughter took of me while I was working out. It came out blurred. I decided to make use of it and love the outcome.

Till next time, remember to EAT & DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH, YOU"LL THANK ME LATER!

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO UNLEASH THE ENERGY WITHIN

Yesterday I had to cook food for everyone else in the house and something different for me. It is pretty amazing how rejuvenated and alive one feels on a raw or mostly raw food diet. I wake up feeling like I can carry the world, ALL THIS ENERGY! what a difference. I am still mourning my food processor but I will live for the next few days until I can get a new one :)

My two angels having fun

My mornings starts the same, exercise (with my 8 year old trainer, if you think I'm joking come and get a session with her). Eventhough my thighs were sore from her 'Froggies' I still managed to push through and we had a blast. I do add my own exercises in between but I let her have the upper hand (she feels like a pro). Our juice was quite delicious....

SWEET-VEGGIE Juice

Ingredients:

4 carrots
1 cup red seedless grapes
1 whole lemon
2 red delicious apples
3 HUGE handfuls of spinach leaves

Juice and enjoy!

I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge and I had always wanted to make a mock rice, so I used this opportunity to do just that.

Not- rice and nut-sauce

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, (lightly steamed) you can eat it raw but I wanted to steam mine a little
2 Tbsp green onions, chopped
1 heaping Tbsp almond butter
1Tbsp agave nectar
2 Tbsp water
Juice of half a lemon
dash of black pepper
dash of paprika (optional)
dash of salt (optional)

Directions:

Mix first two ingredients and set aside
Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl until it makes a smooth paste. Pour Nut sauce over cauliflower and mix. This was surprisingly quite satisfying and delicious and also very filling. I definitely will make it again. Feel free to make different variations of this and experiment with another nut, say cashews?

For Supper I had a huge bowl of spinach salad, love my spinach, can you tell?

Simple Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

3 cups of spinach leaves
1/3 cup of walnuts
A handful of dried cranberries or raisins

Dressing:

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp agave nectar
1 tsp dried mustard
1 garlic clove, minced

Mix all ingredients well in a bowl, pour on salad and toss. Enjoy!

Okay I made this beautiful veggie juice the other day look what I found after I was done juicing...

Is that pretty or what? what lovely colors...I love beets :) This is what it looked like after I was done:

Looks like blood huh? no worries, no vampires any where close

Here is what I made for everyone else..and yes, they all loved it.

Baked salmon on a bed of raspberry vinegretted (if that's a word) white asparagus and some rice. I may share  the recipe one of these days.

Okay, gotta go, have a great day and remember to EAT & DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH, YOU'LL THANK ME LATER!

Every Disappointment Shows You a New Turn To Take

Happy New Year Everyone and hope your year is going great so far. Mine was going good until my favorite kitchen appliance broke up with me. My 2-in-1 Cuisinart food processor of 8 years finally kicked the bucket! And right when Nina and I were about to make a Raw Vegan Mango Cheesecake. We hadn't even gotten to the cheesecake (cashew and co) part yet and the food processor gave up right in the middle of us making the crust, well, the crust was almost done too. Either way I had to use my my back-up blender to come up with something different for dessert. But first here is how my day went:

My 8 year old Personal Trainer, Nina

I decided to let my daughter be my personal trainer for the morning and she almost killed me, seriously, an 8 year old made me work so hard that I almost cried, I am not joking when I say this, I was aching all over when we were done and the morning after. SHE IS GOOD!!! hahahahahahaha I have to give her that. We've made an agreement for her to coach me in the mornings, also gives us time to spend quality time together, have fun and all while exercising, not a bad deal huh? Then we made a vegetable juice for breakfast, well, for me mostly, the kids decided to do their usual banana/strawberry smoothie:

GOOD morning Vegetable Juice

2 Lbs bag of organic carrots
1 lemon, seeds removed
3-4 Granny Smith apples, cored
2 handfuls spinach leaves

Run all ingredients through a juicer and enjoy. I had a glass of this deliciousness at around 11 am and another around 4pm.

For Lunch I decided to go for a tasty Nori-wrap

Tasty Vegetable Wrap

4 nori sheets (or lettuce leaves)
1 big parsnips (some people call them white/albino carrots), grated
2-3 Tbsp agave nectar
2 small avocados (Haas), thinly sliced
1/4 cup Braggs Apple cider vinegar
3-4 big carrots, julienned
1 medium jicama, thinly sliced

Directions:

Soak julienned carrots in Braggs apple cider vinegar and set aside
Sprinkle a dash of salt and paprika on sliced jicama and set aside
Double nori sheets, lay on a flat surface. With fingers, lightly smear water all over the sheets (don't have to do this is you are using lettuce leaves)
Start vertically adding ingredients to roll in nori sheets; parsnips, drizzle of agave over length of parsnips, carrots, jicama and lastly avocado.
Roll tightly and use water to seal ends of nori sheet.

This was very delicious and quite satisfying.

For dinner we were going to make a mango cheesecake but disappointment turned into a sweet surprise when our food processor broke down ( Can't do without a food processor, have to get one really soon because I make most of my raw foods and desserts with it)

The- mango- thingy- that -was- meant- to- be- a- mango- cheesecake- but- couldn't

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 cup almond meal (ground almond)
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup dates
pinch of salt

Put in food processor with an 'S' blade and blend till it starts to stick together and form and dough. Press half of the dough 5' pan and set aside. * Since my food processor broke halfway my walnuts were coarse which really gave it a crunchy feel, yummmy!!!*

Mango pudding:

3 cups frozen mango
1 cup coconut flakes, (dry)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp coconut oil
3 Tbsp water

Add all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend till smooth and creamy. Pour a layer of mango pudding over crust and then sprinkle the rest of the dough over first mango layer. Top with the remainder of mango pudding, cover with an aluminium foil and freeze for about 1 hour. I just couldn't wait so I got mine out sooner and it was semi-firm but still wildly delicious.

EAT & DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH, YOU'LL THANK ME LATER!

10 QUICK WEIGHT LOSS TIPS FOR 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

I can't believe how fast the past year went by. I hope you are proud of all you accomplished when you look back, if not don't give up, as long as you believe, are ready to work at it, you will be successful. Here are a few weight loss tips to aid you this year:

1. DRINK MORE WATER: 

-It makes you fuller faster

-Increases your metabolic rate

-Helps flush out toxins from your body

2. LIGHT BREAKFAST:

- Fruits and vegetable juices are great for breakfast, takes very little time to digest but keeps you energized and satiated.

Anti-oxidant galore YUM

3. SAY NO TO SUGAR & REDUCE SALT INTAKE

-Use fruits, dates, organic maple syrup, honey, stevia or agave to sweeten

-If you crave salt, use dulse flakes, braggs amino acids, or dried celery flakes, you can also eat strawberries or mangoes, they have enough sodium to soothe your cravings.
-Himalayan salt is the best quality salt I know and use, unlike regular table salt whose minerals have been bleached out, himalayan salt still has all its elements.

Raw vegan apple pie

4. AVOID DAIRY PRODUCTS (if you must then buy organic)

-Collard greens, broccoli, almonds are all great sources of calcium

-Have big salads with your meals
-http://www.notmilk.com/
-Get the facts on MILK...click here!

Veggie casserole

5. DETOX

-Excess weight is caused by excessive waste in the body and calories the body can't use

-Do a juice fast or the FYR 21-Day detox (ebooks available at top right hand corner of this site)

FYR 'Fire'

6. EXERCISE before you eat breakfast:

-Forces the body to burn fat as opposed to the body burning sugars from what you just ate

Doing jumping jacks with resistance bands

7. AVOID ALL 'WHITE' FOODS and foods that contain them

- White sugar, rice, breads etc

-Substitute that side of potato or rice with some steamed or raw vegetables instead

8. TRY NOT TO EAT AFTER 8PM OR EAT AT LEAST 3-4 HOURS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED

-Teas or water is fine

9. EAT AS MUCH RAW FOODS AS POSSIBLE

-One of the quickest and safest ways to lose weight is to eat more raw foods.

-You could do raw until dinner and then have some cooked food

-Raw-vegan foods include fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts

-Raw food contains live enzymes which are denatured by heat when we cook food

-Live enzymes help cleanse the body and get rid of waste

-Eating 70-80% raw will yield tons of benefits to your health, you only need to try it for a few days to know what I mean

Delicious spinach and banana smoothie

10. KEEP YOUR STRESS DOWN

-Please refer to my blog entry titled 'Stress, the silent killer'

-Most people respond to stress by overeating

LOOKING FORWARD TO READING MORE SUCCESS STORIES THIS YEAR.

EAT & DRINK TO YOUR HEALTH, YOU'LL THANK ME LATER!