Entries from January 2009
January 27, 2009 · 1 Comment
‘I should be eating organic, but it costs too much money’
This is the statement that a lot of my friends say when talking about the food we buy, eat, and wish we could buy. I have recently decided to buy as much food, veg, meat organic as possible. Yeah, it’s more expensive..well actually it’s not that much more expensive. Perhaps a bit more, but I mentally feel that it is justified.
Justified or not, we’re all trying to watch our pocketbooks.
So which foods ARE and which foods ARE NOT worth it when buying ORGANIC?
Top 12 food YOU SHOULD buy ORGANIC.
- Nectarines– 97.3% of nectarines sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Celery – 94.5% of celery sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Pears – 94.4% of pears sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Peaches – 93.7% of peaches sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Apples – 91% of apples sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Cherries – 91% of cherries sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Strawberries – 90% of strawberries sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Imported Grapes – 86% of imported grapes (i.e. Chile) sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Spinach – 83.4% of spinach sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Potatoes – 79.3% of potatoes sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Bell Peppers – 68% of bell peppers sampled were found to contain pesticides.
- Red Raspberries – 59% of red raspberries sampled were found to contain pesticides.
The above list was created by United States Department of Agriculture. Interesting stuff.
Top 12 foods you SHOULDN’T be as worried about buying NON-ORGANIC
- Asparagus
- Avocados
- Bananas
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Corn (However, almost all corn is genetically modified)
- Kiwi
- Mangoes
- Onions
- Papaya
- Pineapples
- Sweet Peas
Again this list is based up the United State Department of Agriculture’s Research.
Here is another link that provied a more comprehensive overview of all types of foods that you should buy organic all of the time.
Another website with the YES and NO foods when organic buying.
Either way, it is worth it to put money and effort into comparing these lists and websites to find the foods which you eat and see if they pop up on the same YES or NO lists for organic buying. Potatoes surprised me..interesting. Good to know though.
Happy food buying!
An organic nectarine I bought. Probably the best nectarines I’ve ever bought…amazing.
Categories: food/diet · health · list
Tagged: dairy, fruit, list, meat, nectarine, organic, organic food, produce, vegetables
January 26, 2009 · 1 Comment
The NYTimes has published an article today Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk:
After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less.
I love it when good research comes out supporting my never-ending ‘I am not going to drink any more coffee’ failure. Drinking coffee is good for the brain! Yippie. I’ll have another Americano please!
Categories: health
Tagged: benefits, coffee, dementia
Happy AUSTRALIA DAY everyone! Yeah, you’ve got it..4th of July for Aussies.
Had a great dinner last night. We over to my bosses house, isn’t that weird? It’s like that in Australia..formally informal. Anyways has roasted potato and sweet potato, with BBQ steak. Oh and this fabulous salad with cucumber, cherry tomato, olives w/ balsamic dressing and fresh mint. YUMMYY. For dessert was fresh fruit salad w/ natural yogurt and a sprinkling of brown sugar.
My friend, Nicole who’s American, and I were commenting on how Australians do a much better job..than most Americans, at making a dinner well-rounded and light. I don’t know. But there were so many fresh things in the dinner last night..nothing with tons of cheese..NOTHING WITH CHEESE OR BUTTER OR MILK. Just honest plain, simple food. As it should be!
This morning started off with a six egg white scramble w/ zucchini, yellow capsicum w/ chickpea/spinach veggie dogs. Topped off with two pieces of homemade (I made it from a box) gluten/wheat free bread w/ 1 tsp of ghee. Yummy brekky. Will hold me over until I get to the party for Australia Day today.
For this party, it shall be interesting. Tons of medical students..who are my age–25 
Partying. As I have said before I am still trying to find my social group. It’s hard…well maybe I pysch myself out, because so much of the Australian cultural revolves around lazy days of drinking. Fair enough, but I am not a huge drinker at all. It’s weight thing and also I find that I don’t like to drink just one glass–addictive personality perhaps.
For the party I made Overnight Pasta Salad. YUMMY!
I also made Vanilla Cinnamon Cupcakes!
Well, I am going to do a bit more blogging…and then probably some facebooking 
A 60 minute Power Yoga from yogadownload.com and then head to the PAR-TAY! Happy Australia Day!
Categories: thoughts
Tagged: Australia Day, cupcakes, Pasta Salad
Vanilla Cinnamon Cupcakes
20-24 cupcakes
1 box of vanilla cupcake mix
2 c. powdered sugar
2 TB softened butter
1/2 TB milk
1 TB vanilla
1 TB cinnamon
1. Make cupcakes according to box. I always reduced the amount of liquid by a little bit. I like my cupcakes dense!
2. Frosting: Mix together all ingredients with a spatula or a mixer. Depending on how thick, thin you like it adjust.
Easy!
Categories: dessert · recipes
Tagged: cinnamon, cupcakes, vanilla
January 26, 2009 · 1 Comment
Overnight Pasta Salad
15-20 people
750g (24oz) penne, spiral, macaroni..what ever type of shortened pasta you want
2 bottles of full-fat Italian dressing
1 jar (290g, 10 oz) of sundried tomato strips in oil
1 jar of black olives (490g, 16 oz) drained
1 cucumber, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic pressed
1/4 c. white balsamic vinegar-add 1/2 and see how you go
pepper to taste
1. cook pasta to al-dente. Meaning it’s a little bit chewy..just a little bit. You don’t want to overcook it. The pasta is going to sit all night, so it needs to be able to maintain it’s shape while soaking in the dressing
2. After cooked, run the pasta through cold water to stop it form cooking and cool it down
3. In a large bowl add 1 bottle of Italian dressing, onion, cucumber, whole jar of olives drained, the whole jar of sundried tomatoes including the oil, 1/2 of balsamic, pepper, and garlic.
4. Add pasta to the mixture. Stir well
5. Cover over night, mixing before you go to bed
6. In the morning add one more bottle of Italian dressing and more balsamic if needed.
7. Before serving you can add about 250g of feta if you’d like.
This recipe is so easy. I love it.
Categories: recipes · side dish
Tagged: balsamic dressing, cucumber, feta, garlic, Italian dressing, olives, pasta, Pasta Salad, pepper, picnic, recipes, sundried tomato
I haven’t posted much this weekend..sorry. It’s been an interesting weekend, but I finally FINALLY feel, in my heart, that I have ‘turned’ the corner. The I have gotten over hurt, pain, and binging…Thank God for Yoga.
I went on a walk this morning. I looked at my outfit and didn’t care. I just wanted to get out. I take the route with hills on it, because it gets my heart a pumpin..just little bit. Anyways, there’s this place in my town called Monument Hill. It’s the highest spot around and it has such a great lookout.
I decided to take my shoes off, do some mountain/warrior/plank poses. It felt so good to be up in the morning doing yoga, holding poses, and knowing what I was doing (well sort of). If felt amazing.
Came home and made a pasta salad (sundried tomatoes, olives, Italian dressing, fresh garlic, cucumbers, pepper) for Australia Day parties which I am going to tomorrow. It’s going to be super fun, it’s like 4th of July for Americans. I am also bringing vanilla cupcakes with vanilla cinnamon frosting–all homemade of course.
Am off to the markets. Can I just mention that organic fruit is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than anything at the store!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a good day. Namaste.
(I would have put some pictures up..maybe later..computer not working)
Categories: thoughts
Tagged: cupcakes, frosting, organic, walk, yoga
Yummo…I LOVE VIETNAMESE FOOD. I am so lucky, there’s this amazing restaurant down the street from my work that has the best lunches ever. Not only are they reasonably priced, it’s all fresh food–again no camera. But here’s what I ate from google. It’s called Pho Ga. Chicken Noodle soup basically…but with fresh mint and chili…so good.
After lunch, I was blessed to have a co-worker who got some cheesecake at this local vegan bakery. Amazing. I usually HATE cheesecake. American Cheesecake is WAY too dense for me and it makes me want to gag. But for some reasons in Australia they make it lighter..and I can stomach it. I had about two bites..that’s all that I wanted, but I actually enjoyed them.
It’s so hot here, hot and muggy. Have a full-on weekend. Don’t know if I’ll blog..not access to internet…but hopefully I will. If I don’t, I’ll keep typing it all up and post it all next week. It’s Australia Day on Monday..NO WORK!
Am off to Friday yoga, then perhaps some sushi of some sort..not too sure. Have a good and safe weekend!
Categories: thoughts
Tagged: cheesecake, pho ga, vietnamese food
GOOD MORNING!
Yesterday I posted that I was going to eat kangaroo last night…I did. But in the midst of it all I couldn’t find my camera So no pictures. The next time I make it I will take pictures for you. But to give you a low-down on my Kangaroo salad here it is in layers from the bottom up
2 c. lettuce
1 small tomato chopped
1- 1 1/2 TB of cottage cheese
1/2 of an avocado
1 TB sunflower seeds
1-2 tsp of agave syprup
1-2 tsp of balsamic vinegrette
In a frying pan: 1 tsp of ghee, onion and red pepper (capsicum). Cut 150g (5 oz) kangaroo–could use any other meat, into thin strips. Salt and pepper both sides. The trick with kangaroo is not to over cook it. With thin strips, cook about 1- 1 1/2 minutes per side. Take off heat and let rest in frying pan. I did all of the frying pan stuff first then made my salad, that way it wasn’t blazing hot.
Kangaroo is incredibly good for you. It has 1/2 the fat content as normal beef, and tons of iron. Ladies…I know they’re cute..but they’re even better for you!
The salad was amazing! After my one hour walk in the afternoon/evening sun which created a bit of a sweat I was good to go eating my salad.
I promised myself last night that I was going to get up and do Yoga! I DID! Finally out of bed. Let me tell you, I feel so much better for doing it. I am not as tired as I usually am and man was the workout good. I did the 1 hour Beginners Power Yoga from yogadownload.com. I have to say that having the voice over for the class with the pose guide is awesome. I was sweating and wanted to give up..but I didn’t!
Here’s my oats for the morning: 1/2 c. spelt oats soaked overnight with 1 c. of water and 1 TB of cinnamon. Cook in the morning and add 1 TB of almond butter. YUMMY!
This is the almond butter that I’ve found. All natural. I have to have it in small doses…it can be a lot to take in at once.
The sunflower seed butter that I mentioned the other day. The only thing is that it has added sugar in it. However, it doesn’t make my stomach upset like peanut butter. So I am trying to switch between the almond butter and this one. However, it has such a different and YUMMY taste to it.
I caved a bit at the store the other day. I bought some of these miniature organic suckers. They’re so good and they don’t leave that corn syrup after taste in your mouth. Delicious!
Categories: dinner · lunch · recipes
Tagged: almond butter, candy, Kangaroo, organic, power yoga, salad, sunflower seeds, yoga
Today has been a great day. Woke up at seven, slept for about nine hours. Did a yoga download last night..Power Yoga 1. I think that it might be best to do some more of the beginners classes, because I need to get the poses down better. Don’t want to get into bad yoga habits…have enough bad habits as it is.
Brekky this morning was the usual ginger tea w/ spelt oats w/ prunes, coconut and the new addition 1 TB of sunflower seed butter–peanut butter conisistencey. If you haven’t tired and this have the chance to..get it. It’s amazing
LUNCH–my favourite meal ever! I had a tofu ginger/garlic stir fry with a small mashed sweet potato. I had a bit on my desk and my co-worker goes ‘can I have a bite?’ Of course! Then she kept eating. ‘STOP EATING MY FOOD!’. Hahaha. Made it with ghee..my new favourite cooking thing.
I went to the store last night and wanted to find some sweets that wouldn’t send me into a total sugar meltdown, but gave me that post-meal ‘I need sugar’ fix. I found this natural mint chews. They suffice..one after meals..so tasty.
I am trying out this new bar. I don’t know what it is about Australia but they don’t have the Luna, Cliff, etc. bars that litter the shelves of America. Instead a lot of the bars are nut bars. Well the problem is that as a Pitta I am supposed to stay away from all nuts (almonds sometimes) so having a cashew or macademia based bar is silly. So I found this bar called the Wallaby Bar ‘Pure Fruit’. It’s gluten, wheat, bnuts, GMO, dairy, atrifical additives/preservatives and sugar free. No doesn’t that sound disgusting? It’s actually quite tasty I might add. Seriously it’s so good. Winner!
Will cap my afternoon off with an apple most likely. Then off to Body Pump. I didn’t do any excerise last night..should have but needed to sleep. So it’s the beginning of my exercise go. I needed this past 1 1/2 weeks to get my head sorted and I’ve realised that putting too much pressure to start everything NOW is not healthy.
Dinner is going to be 150 g. of kangaroo, 1 small sweet potato and a salad w/ balsamic most likely. YUMMY! See you tomorrow!
Categories: thoughts
Tagged: dinner, exer, exercise, ghee, Kangaroo, oats, stir fry, tofu, yoga
Yesterday I was walking outside a fly flew into my throat and I think it’s lodged in there…I couldn’t cough it back up. Yeah I know..it’s disgusting.
Anyways, have been super busy at work. Will post more later. Just thought I would share that with everyone. Worth the extra protein…not sooooo sure about that.
Have a good day, will post more later.
~M
Categories: thoughts
Tagged: fly
