Sun-Dried Tomato Dip

I love when the smell of homemade potato wedges fills my house. Especially with rosemary sprinkled on top. Sometimes I use normal potatoes other days I use sweet potatoes. I love both.

The only problem is that tomato sauces or dips from the shops often have nasties in them such as additives, colours and so forth. Homemade is generally a better choice because you are in control of what goes into your food. It also gives you freedom. Freedom to combine different flavours you might never have tried before. The freedom to add health foods to your food.

In this tomato dip I combined fresh tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. I made my own sun-dried tomatoes in my dehydrator but you could also buy them if you don't have that option available to you.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup re-hydrated sun-dried tomatoes
• 3/4 cup fresh chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 1 clove garlic
• 1-2 tsp fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

1. To re-hydrate the sun-dried tomatoes cover them with water while you add your other ingredients in your food processor.
2. Add all ingredients apart from the tomatoes into your food processor and pulse together.
3. Discard the water and add the sun-dried tomatoes.
4. Add the fresh tomatoes.
5. Process until it results into a rough dip.
6. If you prefer you can add a little water in order to make a smoothie consistency.
7. Serve with some freshly made wedges out of the oven.
8. Enjoy!

Please share this recipe with your friends and family and let me know how you liked it in the comments below.

 P.S. For the next three days you can purchase my cookbook by paying what you can afford. I have set a minimum price of $3 to cover my costs. Click on store in the header or on the side menu. My hope is to reach as many people as possible and inspire others. Your self respect and self love is reflected in the choices you make. Enjoy!

 

Back from my travels plus Berry Protein and Poppy Seed Smoothie!

It has been a while since my last post because I have been away traveling for three weeks in Europe. We spent a few days in London, which we absolutely fell in love with. We stayed in Notting Hill just around the corner from Jamie Oliver's restaurant. The food was so good that we ended up going there multiple times. Below is a picture of one of our meals there; an amazing Thai curry that we enjoyed there.

 

Another one of our favourite places was Wholefoods in Kensington. So much choice in different foods from around the globe including freshly prepared. Above Wholefoods there is even a raw foods restaurant called SAF but you can also buy there amazing raw foods cakes in Wholefoods. We loved the raw hazelnut torte and the raw tiramisu cake! One word: Amazing!!!

 

After our stay in London I spent a few days in Wellingborough at the Juice Academy run by Jason Vale. This is part of my Natural Juice Therapist course and amounts to half of the course which I am required to do in order to become qualified. I am now working towards completion of the other half of the course and at this stage it is my goal to complete this before we go to run the New York Marathon closer to the end of the year. I would highly recommend the academy, it is great to be with so many like minded people and the energy is out of this word! Jason is one of the most energetic and passionate people I have seen and loves to share his knowledge.

The final stop was Germany close to the Black Forrest where we enjoyed lots of time with my husbands wonderful family and also caught up with our friends there. We loved every moment of it and came back with lots of beautiful moments or memories to treasure. This is the gorgeous view from my parents in law's balcony: such a beautiful way to wake up and enjoy my breakfast!

As promised here is my delicious berry and poppy seed smoothie recipes that I created yesterday morning to spice up my breakfast to try something a little different.

Ingredients

• 30g sunflower seeds
• 30g oats
• 3 tbsp poppy seeds
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 100g frozen acai puree
• 1 orange, peeled and cut in quarters
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp green powder (spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass or if you prefer a blend)
• 1 MC water

1. First grind the sunflower seeds, oats and poppy seeds for 30 seconds on speed 10.
2.  Add all other ingredients and blend for one minute on speed 10.

 Did you know that poppy seeds?

•  in Aryuveda are an all purpose tonic
• can prevent kidney stones
• contain iron, phosphorus and fiber

Please let me know how you like this recipe and any suggestions for future blog posts.

Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas Fruit Tree

How do you like my fruit Christmas tree? I wanted to do something different for this year's family get together at my auntie's place; something a little healthier. I originally got the idea from Fully Raw Kristina by watching one of her videos on how she made a tree using fruit and fell in love with the idea!

Here is Kristina's video

Some pictures of me making this super delicious fruit Christmas tree:

 

First I put together the pineapple base and put a pear on top using toothpicks.

I had cut of a layer of the pineapple to make the star using a cookie cutter.

For the first layer I used grape tomatoes and attached them to my going to be tree using toothpicks.

Next I added some delicious kiwi fruit slices to my tree.

The next layers were red grapes, followed by strawberries.

A layer of cucumbers.

Some juicy cherries.

And green grapes as the last layer for my fruit Christmas tree.

Last I attached my star to the top of the Christmas tree.

My finished fruit Christmas Tree! 

Merry Christmas!

What are your favourite healthy Christmas recipes?

Sexy on Raw Australia Tour

On Thursday night my hubby and I went to the Sexy on Raw Tour with Philip McCluskey and Julie Ann-Booth. First Helen Frost, a leading nutritional educator in Perth, gave an education to nutrition and the importance of including more living raw foods and not prepackaged foods that are literally dead. She explained how to restore balance to our bodies and the formula to stay healthy where one of the most important things is to drink our daily amount of water because only a small amount of us do this on a continual basis.

Julie then gave a cooking demonstration and made some delicious dishes for that particular night such as Asian inspired cabbage salad, a raw sweet potato salad, a raw corn chowder and a mango and berry dessert of which we got to try all of them in the break. They were just amazing especially the sweet potato salad was unbelievable and I never thought I would love raw sweet potato that much. A rep from ladyship also showed us how to make an easy green smoothie to help get our daily greens which everyone got to taste later; yummy!

But Philip was my personal favourite and so inspirational. For those of you that have never heard of him he tried about 30 different diets because he weight over 180kg approximately and none of them worked. He then switched over night to a raw food diet and lost over 200 pounds this way. He is now passionate about educating others and helping others to achieve the outstanding level of health he is now enjoying. He also shared his experiences on success in all areas of life and his beliefs.

Overall we had a great night and even Manuel said that it was great. I would strongly encourage anyone to go and check out his Australian Tour; he is simply amazing!

www.sexyonraw.com