FREE Fortnightly Recipes and Tips
Published April 21, 2012 | 
Two of the most important things in the world, food and water (and sweet fizzy wine… NO, wash your mouth out Joy, no, not with the wine!). The media is starting to rumble and warn us that food and food production is going to be the common denominator for wars in the near future. 
We need to start growing our little edible patch now and then take self defence lessons in how to protect it. My judo is a bit rusty by about 35 years but if someone threatens my food source beware the power that could be unleashed! 
In the interests of doing our bit for food, 4 of us had a lovely weekend in the Blue Mountains. I picked up Toni, a visiting raw foodie friend from Buffalo, America and we drove up to stay with Tony & Libby, another 2 passionate raw foodies. Put all that enthusiasm for food and non-cooking together and creativity flows along with non-stop conversation about, well about food of course. I hear many of you groaning. I know, but hey, you have to admit that I have found the perfect solution in raw fresh living foods.
I can eat and eat and still maintain this shapely, sexy body of a 20 year old, okay maybe 35 year old. Toni has an amazing figure too and I’ve seen her play Twister! Raw food heals the joints, your flexibility comes back.
We drove into Katoomba and visited the local co-op first to buy 8 bunches of kale, the wonder green that is becoming more popular here in Australia, then the local fruit & veggie shop to fill up the trolley with colour. At the bottle store we chose organic and preservative free wine to complement the healthy food.
The rest of the weekend was a blur of talking, laughing and food preparation. Kale chips were put into the dehydrator, more kale was massaged into a divine salad along with spiralised zucchini and 2 sauces. Breakfasts were sweet fruits blended into porridge, served with hemp and banana.
Lunch was a striking green lemony soup with enough nutrients to wake up any sleepy digestive system and served with Tony & Libby’s signature flax onion bread. Dinner loomed and we voted to have the delicious kale salad again with falafel, tabouli and cabbage salad. Just reminding you all, these are all raw versions of traditional dishes and you thought we just ate cucumber and tomato? 
There are too many pictures to share so I will load the rest up on facebook and those of you, who enjoy staring at food pictures without actually making anything, have fun! 
Buon Appetito!
Published April 13, 2012 | People have been asking, so did we succeed, do we still love each other, do we still want to travel together? At the beginning of this trip one of my goals was to see how we coped in a small space travelling along. We have a dream of retiring from work, renovating a bus and taking off into the wide blue yonder, like so many others. 
So did we succeed on our 24-day trip? Traditional meat eating, loves cooked food Aussie male with wannabe raw vegan fresh living foods South African girl. I mention the South African bit because even though I have been Australian for over 20 years, the paranoia of feeling secure, constantly locking doors and watching strangers with suspicion does not go away (and can drive those close to me nuts).
Hell yes there were moments that didn’t work and times where it did flow smoothly. If you want to test any relationship, go on a trip together! Travel brings out the best and worst in us, a different set of rules. Throw in the extreme diet differences and who knows what could happen.
Our standard phrase of ‘I keel you’ to diffuse tense situations works a treat. You try staying angry at someone when you say it. Watch some You Tubes on Jeff Dunham the ventriloquist with Achmed the dead terrorist and tell me it’s not funny! His ‘n Hers dinners, barbecued veg for him, salad with veggie sausages and lentils for her.
Most women analyse, need and want more. More of what? Well pretty much more of everything! More communication, couple time, special moments, a point to life, reasons for doing things. I asked Geoff:
J: So how do you think the trip went?
G: Good.
J: Anything we could do better, differently?
G: Not really.
J: Did my diet and food choices cause any problems
G: None at all.
J: Well I felt that we could have communicated more, especially at mealtimes when we were in café’s and restaurants, you know, make eye contact and really talk to each other. And because the evenings and nights were cold I was inside the van most of the time with the little heater going full blast. You were outside a lot of the time because you smoke and get too warm inside. 
It was hard for me to stay high raw when you were cooking crispy potatoes & veggies on the barbecue and drinking beer, because then I wanted some and also wanted to drink wine. And making up the bed in the van every night was a frikking pain in the ass although luckily your snoring didn’t keep me awake too often and we had enough blankets. So what do you think?
G: Let’s do it all over again to make sure!
In the end I was the one with issues over talking, food & alcohol temptations, cold weather, security and feeling grumpy about some things. Geoff bless him, had a lovely holiday (even though he didn’t catch a fish), gives me big cuddles and loves me no matter what. So how do you analyse that? Asked Geoff this question and he said ‘Fucked if I know!’
Published March 12, 2012 | My raw goodies have run out! For a lot of the committed raw vegans out there, a solution is always at hand including wild edibles. So far I have not ventured far into any paddocks to see if there are dandelions, purslane and other weeds. Lacking in experience I’m not sure what is edible or not.
(Photo of us in one of the camper van communal kitchens, each of us preparing our own food!)
I know that is a cop out and this holiday is about attempting to stay on my high raw diet while travelling with a die hard meat eating, cooked food diet person especially if we plan to live together one day. Breakfast is easy, fresh fruit and organic muesli. By mid morning my ‘time for a little something’ is kicking in and the ‘I want a cappuccino’ trigger takes over. An emotional trigger which I have refused to deal with over the last 6 years of eating raw. Geoff is usually hungry by then because he only has coffee and cigarettes for his breakfast.
Next best thing is to buy a gluten free option but that usually contains dairy. Lunch is taken in a picturesque location overlooking either the ocean, rivers or mountains, cosy little café’s and restaurants that offer tempting cooked food options and sweet white fizzy wines. Cold weather = warm hot meals. So as you can gather my resolve has slipped. I have had some dinners that were salads with cooked potatoes, not too bad and a magnificent veggie wrap. The quality of food offered in restaurants has been impressive.
Geoff is surveying every lake we drive alongside, we stop at lay byes and he casts an experienced eye over the water and gets excited when he see the tell-tale splash which means FISH! After throwing the line out a few times he has had no luck, the fish have had a look and decided ‘Nah, not interested.’ Smart. Greens and blues of the countryside and waterways, so clean and unspoilt.
Tomorrow is another day to start fresh with living foods, after all that is what I encourage people at my raw food workshops to do. If you have a bad day, start again tomorrow. The benefits are huge and Geoff knows this, he commented on my cough that has returned (from gluten and lactose). When I eat high raw, I glow with good health.
Photo of my delicious veggie wrap looking so fresh and alive, plate next to it Geoff’s with the cooked meal. Spot the nutrients!
Besides the raw ‘n cooked food differences we have, the Campervan life is going fairly smoothly but more about that next time….
fresh living foods, gluten, high raw diet, lactose, raw goodies, wild ediblesStart your journey here....
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