Liquid Fast Day!

Liquids seem to suit my digestive system, and i used to have smoothies and juices for most meals except dinner. I am not sure why i stopped really - but i became more bloated and i am now back on the liquid wagon. I do miss solid foods, and am not against having solid snacks and dinners. I just feel i need a few days of pure liquids to detox right now

This morning i was in a rush! I got up a little later than i had planned, so quickly did a few core exercises and rushed to go prep my breakfast and lunch to take to work with me. 

Breakfast was a hydrating and cleansing green smoothie. With shock horror - coconut water. Haha. I love the stuff. When cleansing, you want to increase the water. So in juices and smoothies you want to choose fruits and veggies with a high water content.

Cleansing green smoothie

2 Stalks celery

1/4 cucumber

1/4 rhubarb

2 handfuls spinach

200ml coconut water

  

Lunchhh was delicious. It is unusual that i have fresh berries around as i normally buy frozen for cost / convenience. But my mum has been staying with me for a few days and went shopping - Result :) 

A stable for most my smoothies is Bananas. They work as a blending agent but also help you to carb up. Grapes have a high water content and lovely natural sweetness so they needed to join the gang.

Strawberry, Banana & Grape Smoothie

1 Large Banana

5-10 strawberries

1 handful red grapes

100ml coconut water

100ml almond milk

I am unsure what to have for dinner tonight. And pudding! ( or i will make a big mother of a smoothie and have a dinner / pudding smoothie all in one). That sounds like a plan.

Maybeee i will make miso soup, and then a small cocoa & chia smoothie. 

Far too many options. Whoever said vegans have nothing to eat!?

I have a long day at work today so i better get busy. 

<3

Carrot & Apple Juice, Berry Smoothie & Sprouted Quinoa Pizza

The aim today was to start a liquid fast. Purely for the fact that i feel my body needs some rest and a little detoxing as i have become quite bloated recently and feel a little sluggish. I need to get my energy back and kick-start my body again.

I had liquid meals for breakfast and Lunch, but remembered that i had some quinoa sprouting which needed to be used today otherwise i would have had to just through it away. Which i wasn't okay with doing! So i made myself a non liquid dinner tonight, which was a really tasty pizza. Full on liquid fast starts tomorrow!

Breakfast was Carrot & Apple Juice. I love the taste of carrot juice, it has to be one of the faves. To properly detox, you are meant to cut all fiber out from the diet. Hence why i am liquid fasting, rather than juicing as i still want to keep my fiber. However, when it comes to juices such as carrot & apple, the pulp isn't that great to drink. I do have an actual juicer machine, but it is at the back of a cupboard and a nightmare to clean. I ended up blending the ingredients, and then putting it through a sieve, so only the juice came through.

Carrot & Apple Juice 

2 Carrots 

2 apples

50ml coconut water

1tsp ginger

1tsp turmeric 

For Lunch i made a fruity & creamy smoothie. It was immense. I now stick to using coconut water as a base for most of my drinks.

Beautiful Creamy Berry Smoothie

2  Large Bananas

1 cup of mixed strawberries, raspberries, blueberries

200ml Coconut water

1tsp vanilla essence

( i wanted to add some mixed spice too but i didn't have any )

Now THIS is a pizza. Pizza is something i would not normally even imagine eating, but a friend on instagram uploaded a picture of a pizza using a Quiona base. So i thought i would give it a go. Unfortunately i had started to soak my quinoa long before i decided to liquid fast, but, i have to say it was worth the fast fail!

I couldn't believe how crunchy and tasty the base was. I will deffo be making this again in the future :)

Sprouted Quinoa Pizza

150g Quinoa - soak for 8-24 hours

2tsp Cider Vinegar

salt

pepper

2 tsp mixed herbs

Topping 

Tomato pasata

veggies of your choice - i used mushrooms, olives, sweetcorn, tomatoes, spinach & nutritional yeast

Soak your quinoa in water for 8-24 hours. Drain, and blend with cider vinegar, salt, pepper and herbs. It will for a thick white looking paste / dough. Place the mixture onto a lined baking tray, and shape into a large circle. You want it to be about 1cm thick. 

Cook in the oven for 10-15 mins, then carefully flip over and cook the other side for 5-10 mins. Put the tomato pasata, and the toppings onto your pizza and cook for a further 5-10mins.

The First day of Summer

Well, Almost.. It is still early April and so I guess it is technically spring. But the weather! A few days of sunshine and out come the mini skirts, tank tops and sunglasses - and my freckles!

My morning started by a good 40 min session of yoga-type exercise. I am loving yoga, however, at the moment I am still making up moves as I go along! I already have a few aches and pains in muscles I didn't even know existed until now, so I must be doing something right. I have never been an exercise junky. I have always loved to dance, and keep relatively fit but I am really learning to get in tune with my body now, and listen to what I need as well as want out of life. I have spent a good few years waisting precious time not knowing who I was, or where I was going. If I stopped thinking so intensely about what I wasn't doing, maybe I would have done something a little more productive than worrying about what I could be doing. But I got there in the end. I want a Healthy mind, Healthy soul, Healthy body. Yoga seems to relax my body and mind and even though I may not be world class at all the moves just yet, it is certainly doing a world of good.

I tend to have liquids up until lunch. I normally start the day with a green tea before I workout, and then some kind of delicious vitamin goodness smoothie. Today - as it was almost summer! or as sunny as an English summer can get, I smoothied with a bunch of amazing Summer berries. Now of course as it is not real summer, I had to go with a selection of last summers frozen berries. This smoothie is slightly different normal, as I pile bananas in EVERYTHING! Bananas are fantastic at blending ingredients together, and in my opinion are just great in every aspect! However today I made a conscious decision to make a banana free smoothie, and it was pretty damn GOOOOD!

Almost-Summer Berry Smoothie

1- 2 Cups of Mixed Frozen Berries - IE Strawberries, raspberries, red currents, blackberries

250ml Coconut water  (or a dairy free Milk if preferred)

2 dates ( or 1tsp of fruit sugar)

1/2 tsp of fresh grated ginger ( dried will be okay too)

BLEENNNNDDDD :)