Food Friday!!: Coconut Rice

I am so so so so sorry I haven't uploaded a Food Friday recipe in weeks! I have been pretty busy, not sleeping well, away (in the forest) and...well....I'm back now.

Today, I am going to share with you a recipe for my beloved coconut rice. It is and easy to prepare and cook and it tastes SO SO GOOD!

Bon Appétit!

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Moving to London + My Plans + My Lifestyle + More....

Picture got from UrbanPath

I am in the kitchen eating something that I don't feel I should call a 'curry,' but was inspired by the idea of making a curry. What I made was completely oil-free and yet, it's perfect. This got me to think about my life next month and the months/years following that.

Honestly, I haven't felt my best this summer as I am living with family and my family doesn't eat the healthiest of foods. I really miss feeling awesome all the time and always being full of energy. I also miss cooking for myself and sorting out what I eat through out the week and having access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

I haven't mentioned this on any of my blogs, but next month, I'll be moving to London and I plan on eating even much more healthily than I did back when I was in the west country. I plan on eating more raw foods than I did before and I ate at least on raw meal (usually dinner). I plan on waking up in the morning and having a melon for breakfast or a bunch of mangos or a papaya filled with clementines, apples, berries and passionfruit, coming back from school or wherever, in the afternoon and having more fruits or a nice, healthy home-cooked meal and having a huge fruit and veggie salad for dinner.

The thing is, London is an expensive place. This got me to think of how I can continue this lifestyle and make it even healthier without being broke often. I started looking at nearby farmer's markets, looking for a nearby Morrisons, online stores that deliver fresh and organic produce to people living in London, such as PlanetOrganic, et cetera. All of this could still be very expensive.

Here's where my curry-like dish comes in. Some of the ingredients I used were frozen. Therefore, this meal cost less than a pound and was also relatively quick to make and the ingredients had already been chopped up (and had nothing added to them). As some of you know, some frozen produce tend to be cheaper than the same products, but when they have not been frozen. Also, freezing produce prolongs its shelf-life and keeps the food fresh and with its nutrients longer.

So, I have decided that I am going to purchase quite a number of frozen produce and for the items that are cheaper to buy not frozen, I will purchase and keep them in a freezer till I need to use them. I have also decided that I will buy quite a number of unripe produce if they are on sale and ripen them at home and of course, eat out and order food as little as possible too.

If I do order food as I know I will some times because I know I did it this past year and I wasn't even an architecture student then, I will order and support vegan restaurants such as Juicebaby.

I plan on 99% of what I eat being vegan. Why I did not say 100% is because I know that if I go out with friends, if I can't find a vegan meal on the menu and wherever we're eating can't make the food vegan (for some reason), I will eat vegetarian food. Also, I don't plan on telling my family that I might be going vegan as they still haven't accepted that I am vegetarian and haven't accepted how I eat yet and my grandfather actually offended me yesterday when he said something about "how I should eat." So, if I can cook my own food while with family, I will and if I can't and there happens to be vegetarian food available, I will eat as a vegetarian.

So, yeah, I've finished eating my curry-like dish and I think I've pretty much said all I thought to say in this blogpost (and more) so, I'm going to end here.

I will upload a few more posts this week.
Talk to you then.

~Sammy

Update

Hey!

So, here's an update on.....me:

Okay! So, I completed Cassey's challenge. Y'all knew I had taken it on. HOWEVER, what you didn't know was that I also took on a 30 day 6-pack abs workout. It lasted for 32 days instead of 30, so yeah, they lied to me, just like Insanity did :(. ANYWAYS! I completed that 30 day hoohaa, but not with a faint 6-pack. I didn't really expect to have it in 30 days, but it would have been awesome to. My arms, legs and core did become much stronger and toned during the days I did Cassey's challenge and these 6-pack workouts which is awesome so, yeah.
I slacked for about a week and a half after completing the 30 day 6-pack abs workout series. However, I'm back to working out. I've taken on the P4P abs workout in the 'how to get a six pack' series and it's going okay so far. Well, I just started it today. It doesn't take up much of my time, which is awesome because I have other things to do like draw and study besides keeping fit, healthy and getting that faint 6-pack.

FOOD! Now, now, so I was craving a whole pineapple, honeydew melon, papaya or watermelon so, this girl, on her way to the train station to pick up her ticket (after running some other errand in town), stopped by Morrisons and bought a pineapple. I like cut that pineapple down the middle, got a spoon and ate right out out of the pineapple. No need for plates and other hoohaas. It was yummy and satisfied my cravings.
Also, Morrisons delivers to my school now, which is awesome. However, it means that I would be a bit more lazy as walking down to Morrisons and walking back with heavy bags in both arms was my weekly long walk, exercise thing. I do have to admit that it is easier and less time-consuming for me to just order now as I am getting busier, but to compensate for losing that long walk, whenever, I have the chance to walk anywhere, I do. For example, I visited Musgrove hospital (I wasn't ill, in need of a checkup or anything like that) and I called a taxi because I wasn't sure of how to get there. So, a taxi dropped me off over there. When it was time to leave, I didn't call a taxi, I decided I was going to walk as I had recognised an area we drove by on our way to the hospital so, I found that area and then, because I thought I might get lost and the way we drove down there wasn't the safest for walking, I took a much longer route back to school. It was a nice walk that led me over a river (pedestrian bridge) and through a park and it was refreshing. Another example is when I need to run errands in town like to go to the bank or pick up emergency items and stuff like that, I would rather quick walk than call a taxi and lastly, when I have the chance to run from place to place in school (usually in the evening), I RUN.

Back to talking about food, I'm still eating a lot of fruits and veggies and whenever I check my inner eyelids, I see that I am far from being anaemic again. I love my fruits and veggies and thanks to them and God, I have been healthy and I did not catch the bug that had been going round in school and in case you didn't know this, I share bottles, spoons, forks and cups with people.

So, yeah! That's the update! :)

Getting back in shape

Hey everyone,

So, the Christmas and New Year holiday is a horrible time to stay in shape, right? And if you have work to do during the holiday....yep!.....and if your family doesn't eat like you......heck yeah! Staying in shape is pretty much impossible.

I haven't checked how much I currently weigh. However, from looking at my body, especially from side-view, I knew I had gained a couple of pounds. This holiday, I have had quite a bit of dairy (and yes! I have suffered from my milk allergy, boohoo), I haven't had as much fruits and vegetables as I would normally buy back at school as I haven't done my own grocery shopping since I got home and I have just been forced to eat things I normally wouldn't eat. Yeah, so the weight gain was a pretty unhealthy one.

Guess what! If you're not happy with what you see when you look in the mirror or how you feel, you need to work on it. So, 6 days ago, I started working on getting back in shape and I am seeing the results already. I took on Casey Ho's 30 days Flat Abs challenge (I'm on day 6 now), I have done some belly dancing, pilates (I usually would do the a day of the challenge followed by some pilates then some cardio), a latin inspired dance workout.... I feel good after working out and that's awesome.

I'm also drinking more and more water and in large mugs. I have a mug that takes up to 3 cups of water and I drink all that at once and prefer to use that mug whenever I'm drinking water to ensure that I drink a lot of water during the day. As a snack, I have come to love eating circular slices of apple with either cayenne pepper or cinnamon sprinkled on them. When there are clementines around, though.....oh my.....I run out of count with how much I am eating. I LOVE CLEMENTINES!

Another thing I did (before I actually fully got back to working out daily) is to drink a lemon and cayenne pepper tea. Basically, I just squeezed out the juice and every thing inside (apart from the seeds) of an entire lemon followed by a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, then another teaspoon, then....you can tell I love my pepper :) and then poured some hot water over it, stirred it all up and drank it. I started drinking this before actually reading up on it because I knew of its detoxifying properties (and I had heard about it, the word, 'pepper' stuck out to me so I wanted to try the drink), but here's something I read up on it to summarise what it does:

Lemon is a natural detoxifier as vitamin C transforms toxins into digestible material. In addition to vitamin C, lemons are also packed with antioxidants and electrolytes including potassium, calcium and magnesium. Lemon is also known to stimulate the liver’s natural enzymes by helping to oxygenate the body.
Cayenne pepper stimulates the circulatory system by opening the capillaries, aids digestion, and helps regulate blood sugar. Furthermore, and very importantly, it increases the temperature of your body and kick-starts your metabolism, which, yes, can help you to lose weight over time. ~ By Nadia of Body Unburdened

So, yeah, I stopped drinking the lemon and cayenne pepper mixture (I ran out of lemons, boohoo), but I am still working out and drinking a lot of water to flush out nasties that get into my body and I am seeing some pretty good results.

~Sammy

p.s Heading back to the west country soon. Can't wait to go grocery shopping on Saturday and get all my fruits and veggies (and lovely lovely Medjool dates! :) )

Juice Bar

Picture from SuperJuiceBars.com

Hey everyone!

Okay! So, first of all, this is not a sponsored blogpost. I am simple letting you all know about a wonderful place because I can't keep it to myself. We should all be healthy and happy together!

So.....some of you know that I school in the south-west of England and well.....I saw a little place called, 'SuperJuice' and it seemed to catch my eye because of all the fruits and vegetables on the menu. So, when a friend felt like drinking something and almost bought a fizzy drink (what some of you call, 'soda'), I said to her, "I saw a smoothie and juice place, why don't we just go there and get something to drink." My friend has been trying to eat and drink healthier so she gladly agreed and we started heading over there. She ordered a cranberry smoothie and I couldn't decide what to order, but I knew I wanted something green so I decided to recall a recipe from back when I first got into green juices and the ladies who worked at the juice bar gladly made a green juice for me following my recipe. I will just say that that juice tasted yummy, my friend tried it and loved it and loved her juice too and the ladies who worked at the juice bar tried what was left in the blender and loved it too! (I felt like asking them to put it up on the menu and name it, 'The Samantha' (and yeah, if for some strange reason, you didn't know, my full name is 'Samantha')). Fast-forward, less than a week later, I headed over to the post office to send off another copy of my portfolio for the school of Architecture (my portfolio originally got lost in the mail) while that same friend went over to Lloyds (the bank) which was about 5-10mins away from the post office. When I was done at the post office, I started walking towards Lloyds, but then just went past it and went over to the juice bar where I saw my friend standing. I ordered a nice green smoothie after not being able to decide what I wanted again and I headed back to school as a happy girl :).

SuperJuice is an awesome place to buy smoothies and juices. They're quick at what they do, clean, and the people who work there are so lovely, sweet and nice, like even if you end up not buying a smoothie, you will leave there happy just from interacting with the people working there.

My advice, if you find yourself in the south west, in either Taunton or Bristol go to SuperJuice! Their juice bar is in town, on the high street in both places.

You won't regret getting something at SuperJuice!

Oh! and they make soups, veg pots and organic porridges too! :)

I love SuperJuice :)

~SammyWithTheBod

p.s You can find Superfood on their website: SuperJuiceBars.com and on Twitter: @SuperjuiceBars

Food Miles

Picture gotten from fifediet.co.uk

Hey!

So, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I'm not totally against food miles and that I said that I will blog about why I am not 100% against it.

Okay! So, food miles is basically a measure of the distance covered by your food from where it is produced to the plate of its consumers and it is usually used to make people more aware of the carbon footprints of what they choose to eat and make them more environmentally conscious and basically "save the planet." This sound awesome, doesn't it? So, why am I not totally for it?

Well, the concept of food miles doesn't take into consideration all that it should do when helping someone judge whether to buy something in order not to promote or encourage businesses and companies that are emitting great amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the environment and consume TONNES of energy. For example, in the case of growing tomatoes here in the UK, WAY more energy will be consumed than if the tomatoes were grown in a warmer place like Spain and then importing it over here. Or...or....(I'm on a roll here!) growing rice in deserts or citrus fruits in Arctic nations. Their energy consumption and environmental impacts will be HUGE compared to if they were grown in a more suitable nation and then imported by the country that requires them. You see, the carbon emissions can be WAAAAY greater producing some of these foods locally!

Another thing is that the food miles of the ingredients in the ready-made foods we eat especially those prepared and consumed locally can have LARGE food miles which means that they can have some pretty dandy effects on the environment (pure sarcasm there). Take for instance a Christmas cake and bread sauce both made and consumed in London. These two can have food miles of approximately 34,000 and 10, 800 respectively. Why? Well.....(OH! I AM ON A ROLL HERE!) with the Christmas cake, the sugar could have been imported from Guyana, the orange from Israel, the nutmeg from Indonesia, the lemon from Cyprus and the nuts from Brazil!! That'll be a food mile of 34, 268 if the ingredients were gotten from those countries to be used to make a Christmas cake which will be consumed locally in London.

Lastly, fair trade. Many of you know what that's all about. Fair trade aims to improve the quality of life of farmers through the selling of their produce. Why wouldn't you want to help them? Especially those who you are way better off than? Huh?

Okay! So, you see some of the weaknesses of this concept that we call 'food miles' and you can see why I am not totally for it.

I still eat bananas from Spain, tomatoes (and pasta) from Italy and God only knows where the rest of my fruits and vegetables (and pasta) come from! I actually do not consider food miles when I go shopping. I do prefer to buy organic produce and fair trade when available, but food miles....I honestly do not look out for them.

Carbon emissions and climate change are a pain, I know, but we can be causing more damage  to the environment producing certain things locally.