Fruit and Veggie Superfoods

I just had a half of a papaya show up at my door. How cool is that?.. have I mentioned lately that I love my neighbourhood?!! So I a eating my papaya and a green smoothie as I type this. (kale, chard, banana, pineapple, pear, blueberries & flax seeds) I was going to post a picture of the beautiful superfood flower chocolates I made Mon evening.. but now I a down to 3... no, 2 & I wanted to take a picture while the plate was full. They are soo good.. I will just have to make more & post it later. But I was thinking how I often go on & on about superfoods; gojis & cacao & ginseng & other herbs, algaes etc.. but a lot of the everyday fruits and vegetables we eat could be considered superfoods also. Here are some great ones - this is fro the Blend-Tec website,, I was looking up blenders for work last night.. we may be getting a proper blender soon. I have been using a 30$ blender there for the past year. Green smoothies may not be as fine but they are totally doable & very delicious even in the cheapest of blenders.. trust me, I know!!

Fruit & Veggie Superfoods

Avocados are known as nature's butter and help prevent heart disease and some types of cancer. Avocados have about a quarter of the calories of total fat as dairy butter. By weight, they provide more heart-healthy monosaturated fat, vitamin E, folate (the plant source of folic acid), potassium, and fiber than other fruits. Yes, it is a fruit! It's the number one fruit source of the cholesterol-lowering phytosterol, called beta-sitosterol, which helps prevent certain types of heart disease and cancers, including prostate cancer. Avocados also help protect your eyes from cataracts and from age-related macular degeneration. They also have a reputation as an aphrodisiac!

Blueberries are known to prevent and reverse abnormal, physical and mental decline. Despite their small size, one cup of blueberries contains only 80 calories and a whole pint gives you about 180 calories, so they're a dieter's best friend. Referred to as the "brain berry," blueberries are packed with tannins, anthocyanins that have been linked to prevention - and even reversal - of age-related mental decline and anti-cancer effects. They are one of the most potent antidotes to oxidate stress, a process that ages you.

Broccoli fights cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions. It has two powerful cancer-fighting substances. First, sulforaphane gives cancer-causing chemicals a one-two punch. It destroys any carcinogenic compounds that you've ingested, and then it creates enzymes that eat up any carcinogens left over from that reaction. Sulforaphane also kills the bacteria H.pylori, which causes ulcers and greatly increases the risk of gastric cancer. Second, broccoli boasts indole-3-carbinol which helps your body metabolize estrogen, potentially warding off breast cancer. Broccoli may also inhibit the herpes simplex virus from reproducing.

• Preparation Tips- I eat broccoli raw, lightly steamed, juiced, and in the form of sprouts which magnify broccoli's potent healing powers.

Cinnamon helps normalize blood sugar. Cinnamon is a highly versatile flavoring as well as a carminative that relieves bloating and gas. Adding cinnamon to food, especially to sugary ones, helps normalize blood sugar by making insulin more sensitive. Cinnamon's most active ingredient is methylhydroxy chalcone polymer (MHCP), which increases the processing of blood sugar by 2,000%. It is also thought that it may help ward off diabetes and obesity.

Coconut and coconut butter (also referred to as coconut oil) has been used as a food and medicine since the dawn of history. Unlike saturated animal fats found in meats and dairy products, coconut butter is a raw saturated fat containing mostly medium-chain fatty acids which the body can metabolize efficiently and convert to energy quickly. Coconuts may help lower cholesterol and regulate thyroid function.

Flaxseed is known as "Nutritional Gold" and is a rich source of essential fatty acids. It's used, not only for food, but also for making linen. Essential fatty acids are shown to be therapeutic and protect against heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, many skin diseases, and others. Flaxseeds also help eliminate toxic waste, strengthen the blood, reduce inflammation, accelerate fat loss, and reduce depression.

Garlic keeps the body chemistry balanced. Herbalists and folk healers have used garlic to treat myriad diseases for thousands of years; it has been intensively studied in recent years, with hundreds of scientific papers published in medical journals since the mid-1980s. Garlic is a rich source of unique sulfur compounds that keep your body chemistry in balance. Major medical universities around the world have found Aged Garlic Extract (also known as Kyolic) to be effective in its ability to resist and fight cancer, cardiovascular disease, other respiratory ailments and infections, and fatigue.

Grapefruit protects against cancer and heart disease. This fresh fruit eases constipation and improves digestion by increasing the flow of gastric juices. Deep inside the white rind and membranes of this fruit lie bioflavonoids, citric acids, and pectins - compounds that protect against cancer and heart disease. Some people with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other inflammatory disorders find that eating grapefruit daily seems to alleviate their symptoms. The pectin content of grapefruit juice helps reduce fever and soothes coughs and sore throats. Make grapefruit your first course to help prevent overeating.

• Preparation Tips- Whenever possible, choose pink and red varieties because they are more nutritious than white grapefruits.

Kale may help prevent breast and lung cancer. It also helps prevent age-related macular degeneration of the eyes and aids in fundamental processes of cell circulation and respiration. Kale is also rich in folate, iron, zinc, potassium, and magnesium. Few vegetables compare to kale when it comes to its nutritional beauty.

• Preparation Tips- Juice kale with other green vegetables and herbs (such as celery, Swiss chard, collard greens, romaine lettuce, cucumber, parsley, beet tops, etc.) and add some carrot and apple for sweetener. On an empty stomach, this superior fresh-juice tonic will revitalize your cells and body in minutes.

Kelp is a stellar, nutrient-dense sea vegetable. It is also known as Laminaria and contains a natural substance that enhances flavor and tenderizes. Kelp works as a blood purifier, relieves arthritis stiffness, and promotes adrenal, pituitary and thyroid health. Its natural iodine may help normalize thyroid-related disorders, like overweight, and lymph system congestion. It may also help eliminate herpes outbreaks.

• Preparation Tips- Next time you want a seasoning, instead of salt, reach for kelp granules. I enjoy them plain and mixed with cayenne or garlic (available at health food stores).

Lemon is an alkalizer for the body. Of all the citrus fruits, lemon is the most potent detoxifier. It kills some types of intestinal parasites, such as roundworms, and dissolves gallstones. Limonene, the volatile oil responsible for the distinctive lemon aroma, helps treat some forms of cancer such as breast cancer. If taken in the morning, lemon juice is known to improve liver function and has been used to help eliminate kidney stones. Lemons also help relieve colds, coughs, and sore throats. Too much lemon juice, however, if left on the teeth, can erode tooth enamel so rinse out your mouth with pure water or brush your teeth after consuming lemon juice.

• Preparation Tips- When a recipe calls for fresh lemon zest, which is the grated outer peel, make sure it's from an organic lemon or else it might have been waxed or sprayed with chemicals.

Mushrooms help boost the immune system. Mushrooms are low in calories and rich in minerals. Shiitake mushrooms may help fight cancer, infections, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Shiitakes boost the function of tumor-fighting interleukin-1 and cancer cell killers known as T lymphocytes. They may also lower cholesterol and blood pressure and are an over-all rejuvenation and anti-aging food. White mushrooms and portobellos are a good source of selenium, which may help prevent prostate cancer, and slow an enzyme used in the production of estrogen, which may promote cancer in postmenopausal women.

Parsley detoxifies and rejuvenates the body. Nibble on a few leaves when you want your breath to be sweeter. Parsley is our best source of the volatile oil apiol, which improves appetite and digestion by increasing blood circulation to the digestive track thereby enhancing absorption of nutrients. It helps prevent kidney stones and various urinary tract ailments and is effective in slowing the aging process, reducing depression, lowering cholesterol, strengthening the kidneys, and detoxifying the cells.

• Preparation Tips- Include parsley when you make fresh juices or chop it and add it to grains, salads, soups, sandwiches, and whole grain pasta dishes.

Tomatoes are an internal sunblock. It's an important part of the antioxidant defense network in the skin and, in combination with other nutrients, can raise the sun protection factor (SPF) of the skin. Eat tomatoes to enhance your skin's ability to withstand the assault from the damaging rays of the sun. According to a review published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1999, study results were strongest for prostate, lung, and stomach cancer, although there's some evidence that tomatoes protect against breast, ovarian, and other cancers too.

Quotes - Pure, clear rmind, Peace & Happiness

Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don't worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes, You must not be attached to the coming or the going. ~Zen Master Seung Sahn

If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion. ~Lin-Chi

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act wih an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. ... Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable. ~Buddha

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photos by Andrew Kime

Cranberry Scones

Wow! This is exciting..this is the first picture taken with my new camera uploaded onto my blog. These are the cranberry scones that I made at work on Saturday.. 2 variations.. the ones on the right have carrot pulp in them ..but i actually preferred the ones on the left.

Mi-san is trying to stay all or primarily raw.. but I noticed one downfall is the muffins that they bring into work sometimes. I remembered making these scones a long time ago & how good they were and was thinking they may be a good alternative. The recipe is adapted from a Boutenko recipe but I keep changing it.. that's the fun with recipes. Not to mention that I want to try other variations.. orange/walnut, cacao/goji, blueberry/banana, strawberry/pecan, mango/macadamia...

This is basically& roughly the recipe I used- it will still undergo some modifications, like chopping up the cranberries, there were too many & they were too sour kept whole.. but all in all these are delicious.. & I have eaten lots of them in the past few days!

Cranberry Scones

2 c almonds- soaked, then rinsed,drained and processed(ground)
2 c flax seeds - ground
2 c apples - processed(pureed)
2 c raisins
1 c pineapple - chopped
1 c cranberries (orig recipe, pic above, had 2 cups) - pulse chopped in processor
1 c juice or water - opt, if needed to mix easily
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c honey
dash salt

Mix all ingredients together.. drop by large spoonfulls onto teflex sheet and dehydrate at 115 degrees for a few hours, remove from teflex onto mesh screen and continue dehydrating for another 4-6 hours.. will still be experimenting with various times.. but I think this is a good general guideline.
Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day, Gassho- Respect & Gratitude

This is my first Father's Day without my Dad here on the material plane with me. I am dealing quite well with his death.. I am not sad. In fact, this may sound strange but I almost feel closer to him. It is an honour to be his daughter..I know he is happy and close to me. I wish a special Happy Father's Day to my Dad, and especially to my husband- who is also a great Dad. .. and to all the fathers and even to all the men out there for their father potential and for caring and nurturing and loving all of us, all of us women and children. ~Gassho~

"People often ask me how Buddhists answer the question: "Does God exist?"

The other day I was walking along the river. The wind was blowing. Suddenly I though, Oh! the air really exists. We know that the air is there, but unless the wind blows against our face, we are not aware of it. Here in the wind I was suddenly aware, yes, it's really there.

And the sun too. I was suddenly aware of the sun, shining through the bare trees. Its warmth, its brightness, and all this completely free, completely gratuitous. Simply there for us to enjoy.

And without my knowing it, completely spontaneously, my two hands came together, and I realized that I was making a gassho.* And it occurred to me that this is all that matters: that we can bow. Just that. Just that."

~Eido Tai Shimano, Zen Master, quoted in A Listening Heart: The Art of Contemplative Living, by David Steindl-Rast, p. 83

* A gassho is the gesture of raising the hands palm to palm to indicate respect, gratitude, humility, or all three.

The Sprout Farm, long flights, Chia and the best breakfast ever, again

I just got sent this picture of the sprout farm, the production room in back where I work at Toronto Sprouts. Justin is at the front packing.. and Simon is way back kind of hidden, on the phone. As an aside, it was sad yesterday, there were tears.. it was Veena's last day.. she is off to India today, moving back home, her husband is a diplomat and they have been here 4 years - she had worked at Toronto Sprouts almost that long. There are lots of changes going on at work ..but that really seems like a perpetual thing.. not sure what it is about that place, but you definitely live in the moment around there!

Mom, you finally get to see the back! I had forgotten to take her into the back when she was here last month. & Thats too bad.. because she's really into growing her own wheatgrass & sprouts at home. but, well, here it is. : )

Mom is in England right now. I tried calling but haven't spoken to her yet. I am really curious how she is doing.. staying raw there. She had her gojis and cacao & seeds, etc. all packed when I last spoke to her. It'll be interesting to hear.. she's 100% raw now, or at least has been.. she's an inspiration! - Especially living in NB, where raw is very rare!

I am eating this great snack right now that Mom & I created one morning. We were going to the health show.. waking up late & wanted to leave pronto to get down & hear a speaker (Victoria or David or Brian Clement) & I poured some chia seeds and cinnamon into a little bowl & kept dipping my banana into it.. & I made one for her.. it was like a grown up raw version of the Lik-A-Maid's (s/p?) - yk, that toxic killer kids powdered candy that comes with a candy stick which you suck on & dip into.

Chia seeds are called the runners food.

The Magic of Chia - from Menu4Life

For centuries, Native Indian Peoples in the Americas have used chia seed as a staple food. Aztec warriors of Mexico subsisted on chia seeds during their battles and hunting expeditions. Indians of the Southwest would eat as little as a teaspoon of chia seeds during a 24-hour march. Indians ran from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean to trade turquoise for shells, carrying only a pouch of chia seed for nourishment
.
Sustained by chia seed, the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico hunted by running their prey to exhaustion. In 1997, a 52 year old Tarahumara Indian, Cirildo Chacarito, won the Nike-sponsered 100-mile run in California.He completed this astonishing feat in a time of 19 hours, 37 minutes and three seconds. He beat a field of hundreds of competitors with more than an half- hour lead, wearing only his home-made tire tread shoes, to Nike's embarrassment.

more info on chia available at the Menu4life website.

I get my chia seeds from Nujima

But now I am off to breakfast #2, in detail here
but basically ground pumpkin seeds, pistachios & almonds - mixed with cut up strawberries & blueberries and a banana which has been mashed & mixed with a bit of water, maple syrup & cinnamon. It's so good!
& yes, you could add some chia in there.. I will go try that.
(afternote; I actually added1T of cacao & some goji berries)

I am off to a dinner theater event tonight with Mi-San, a friend of ours wrote the script & is acting in it. This should be interesting..

Have a wonderfully brilliant and sustainingly humorous, random, which is never really random, adventurous day!!! Live the moments! .. & above all Be happy! : )

Pure consciousness, Pain and Suffering, Living Everything

Thoughts

Maybe this is all just a dream.. pure consciousness. Everything we take as physical is not really.. it's just a thought. I woke up thinking about dreams.. and how we are made in the image of God. & if we dream, then He must dream.. Maybe our day is His dream & our night is our dream.. which is still also His dream. ..Have I lost anyone yet? Think about it.

I read this yesterday & ave been thinking about it - Pain and Sickness are the result of wrong decisions we have made in our lives.

Live Everything

I want to beg you as much as you can, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Perhaps you do carry within yourself the possibility of shaping and forming as a particularly happy and pure way of living; train yourself to it - but take whatever comes with great trust, and if only it comes out of your own will, out of some need of your innermost being, take it upon yourself and hate nothing.

By Rainer Maria Rilke from Letters to a Young Poet

pics courtesy of Andrew Kime

Reusable Bags - No More trash! ( ..or at least reduce, please)

I just found these great hemp shopping bags!

I want to order them but know time is limited this morning.. such limited computer time - I'm so amazed I even get this blog written. But the Reusable Bags site is great.

The plastic bag issue is one that rings strongly for me. The amount of plastic bags polluting our earth is astonishing. In fact:

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.'

They pollute our planet & use up our precious resources (petroleum - which is nearly gone completely from the Earth!) Using up all of a single resource doesn't seem like a good idea to me.. it's not like it just when it's gone there's no more so we'll have to find something else.. the Earth works synchronistically.. sometimes I think of taking all the oil out of the planet like taking all the lube out of our body.. it could be useful to move our joints and well, just to move in general. It's just a common sense thing.. isn't it???

Is no one out there thinking?
In any effect, the least we can do is stop using plastic bags as much as possible. Let's wind that one down somewhat.. but I realize ultimately it's the system that needs to change. However, we create the system.

'Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.'

'Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.'

There is hope!:

'In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.'


This site is one I came across yesterday. Say No to Trash!

This site is about a couple's (Sarah McGaughey and Kyle Glover's) attempt to eliminate their household garbage production.They have attempted since 2004 to be garbage free for a whole month and actually achieved it earlier this year.

'We are looking for people to join us-you can make your own rules, we just want support. Plus being garbage free is time consuming and it would be great to have a community to share tasks with (I’ll make the rice milk, crackers and hankies, you make tortilla’s, bread etc.)

This is Inspiring!!!


They share some great ideas on being garbage free.. or at least reducing waste.

It's great.. under Trashless Toronto there are all these places in my neighbourhood ( work neighbourhood, that is) Kensington market and the Annex. I am so blessed - love where I work, love where I live (Beaches)! I love the pic of raccoons in the heading - so applicable - I've had to clean up garbage from raccoons getting in more than once.. they are all over the place around here.. They come right up on the back deck.. In fact, last week, one came right into my kitchen when the back door was open & no one was around and took a mango.. and left the peelings for me to clean up after it out on the deck! Sheesh..

ps. Raw is great for reducing waste!

Mercury retrograde, Superfood Chcolates and my new Camera!

Let me start off this post by telling you that mercury is going into retrograde soon.

June 15 - July 9

I've posted about mercury retrograde, so I won't get into it too much, except to say that it is a strong phenomenon in the sky that happens about 3 times a year. ..and whenever I say 'O, it's mercury retrograde' people kind of look at me like I'm an alien. But it really is something that you can feel.. and I don't think I am special & feel it more than others.. it's just that I know about it & know the signs to pick up on. I can tell it's happening almost exactly 2 weeks before it takes effect. ..which makes sense.. it's not like it just goes from spinning forward to backwards the next.. it takes a bit of time to slow down, come to a stop and start rotating the opposite way.
So what happens.. things screw up!
like my brother doesn't send me the cables to the videocamera, then he does but not with the cd that goes with it.. I can't get the driver downloaded, ..I lost my cacao butter.. and had everything out last night to make chocolates. I substituted hemp & coconut butter, but the whole reason I was getting everything out was to experiment with the cacao butter. I still have no idea where it went to.
But, OMG, these are really good!
I'm eating them for breakfast.. Mmmmm
Made with raw cacao, hemp & coconut butter, agave, raw organic powdered vanilla, maca, reishi, ginseng, camu camu and dash celtic salt.
& they are so pretty.. put them in a flower mold I had & put them in the fridge overnight & just pressed them out this morning.

Hey, I got a camera this weekend!!! soon I can take pics! yay, I'm excited.
However, it's still in the box, because my daughter who went to buy it for me picked out the one next to the one I was thinking I wanted & had mentioned to her (they were the same price) easy mistake - & hey, mercury!
Now I am trying to figure out if I want this one anyway, instead.
It's really nice too.. I spent 2 hours on the internet comparing, reading photography forums.. I can't decide.. they both have good features..

It's this Canon Powershot SD800 IS

(the one I wanted) vs the Canon Powershot S3 I3 (the one Kaiya picked out) and the one I think I will end up with.


I was thinking of just a little point & shoot compact camera.. but now I am getting used to the idea of a bigger one.. and they are just coming out with an S5 IS.. which is really nice also! Ahhh.. decisions, decisions.. & maybe I should just accept the gift & not spend so much time deciding. (I think it's mercury that makes me skeptical.. bad time to make decisions.. everything is so screwy & decision making skills are at a low!)

anyway, one day I will have my own photos & videos to post.
Astrologyzone has a great mercury retrograde link, describes the effects it has on us really well!

Mercury pic from http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/mercury/images/Mercury_mag.jpg
Camera photos from www.dpreview.com - which is a great site for cameras.. the girl at Blacks recommeded it, they do side by side comparisons.. it didn't really help me, but it's cool & helpful.

Raw is #5! Raw for 30 days, Donna Karan's 10 day Well-being Forum

I have just heard that the Raw diet is the #5 diet in the world!

This doesn't surprise me & it is only going to get more & more popular.

One of the main reasons this is going to happen is because of the internet.. people talking, spreading their stories of healing and health. People are looking for answers, looking for cures.. and this is the only diet-lifestyle that I have heard of that heals the body so completely. ..and it isn't hard to realize.. because it's the Truth. Nature heals, the body will heal itself if it's left alone. Natural foods help heal. There is a very deep part of ourselves which recognizes this truth, regardless of all the confusion the mind can bring to things.. figuring out why it works.. if there is enough protein, minerals, enzymes, etc. Down deep it makes all the sense in the world. coupled with all the success stories of cured diseases that are accumulating every day and posted all over the internet it's really quite inevitable.

I heard the movie 'Raw for 30 Days' will be released in January. This will be huge. In it, they take 6 middle aged people who eat average American diets and have Diabetes and put them on a Raw diet & within 30 days they are all off their insulin. You can see the trailer here.

Donna Karan - Raw Fashion designer and social activist in NYC has a very interesting blog. Check it out!

excerpts from Alison Rose Levy’s blog article on Donna Karan’s 10 day Well-being Forum and what some of it’s notable speakers had to say:

"This forum is treating the current medical situation as the disaster that it deserves to be treated as," affirms Professor Robert Thurman of Columbia University. "We admire doctors because they deal with sick people -- it's very heroic. Doctors are like the fire department -- they run to the site of the emergency. But the question is: what can be done to prevent emergencies? The majority of diseases aren't accidents."

"We doctors act like gods," offers Dr. Mosaraf Ali, who founded the Integrative Medicine Centre in London. "But it's up to you to do the right things, like eating healthy food, doing yoga, and being mindful, because unless you do, I promise you one thing: we doctors will mess around with your lives."

"Americans spend two trillion dollars on health care. Eleven billion of that is spent on cancer, and we spend six times more on soft drinks."

“Most of commercial television and all of the morning television shows are brought to us by the pharmaceutical industry.”

"There is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a system that makes a profit from suffering. There is a fundamental disconnect," urges Dr. Robert Schiller, Chairman of the Beth Israel Department of Family Medicine. "We have to have a dialogue about core issues. We have to get people who are responsible to the table and say enough is enough."

"Let's first of all admit that we are the people that have brought the planet to the verge of extinction by being obsessed with money and turning medicine into a commercial venture," suggests Thurman. "Instead of more high tech machines and more high tech drugs, and more high tech failed government agencies, we need the need the help of cultures who never lost their connection to the natural life processes."

"First you need a change in consciousness, …

It’s totally worth the read!

pic from www.mercant.com

raw workshop - Stoveless Cuisine, essential oils, food news - pesticide guide

I went to a raw workshop last night - Alexie Bracey of Stoveless Cuisine

It was great.. we got to watch her prepare and try Black Forest Brownies, Carob Hemp Balls, A Durian & Berry Mousse,Power Energy Bars and a Mango Tart with a Macaroon Crust.

Poor me! LOL J/k.. How lucky was I? hehe, whenever I use the word lucky I always think of Napoleon Dynamite "Luuuccccckieeeeee!!!" : ) ..and I seriously was! The food was all so amazing.

People were wondering if we'd be able to sleep.. eating maca, cacao, spirulina and all those superfoods at night. But my title of Nocturna was deemed worthy once again.

Alxie uses essential oils a lot. Like soaking gojis in water with drops of lemon oil before using them. My mom does this too.. uses essential oils in her foods. esp cinnamon, orange, tangerine, lemon, basil. You can soak dates in oj and tangerine oil.. put cinnamon oil in a nut crust..
Living Libations puts lots of essential oils in their bars: jasmine, ylang ylang, rose, lavender, even frankincense and sandalwood.

I have to get ready & go to work.. & I'm taking the long way there.. going to the wold's biggest bookstore 1st.. I get to go in late today, I love Fridays! such a relaxing morning..I got to sun gaze, talk to some friends, catch up on things.. but now I have to move.

But one more thing - something else Alexie mentioned was the Food News website. This site keeps you informed on pesticide usage.. which fruits & veggies have the most chemicals on them. I had been here a long time ago but it's good to revisit these places. Things change. It used to be that strawberries were the worst for pesticides now they are #6, peaches are #1 with the highest pesticide load - 42 different pesticides were found on them. They have a printout guide of the worst & best - the dirty dozen and the cleanest 12. Important info to know!

Have a spectacular day!

Show us your food

I found these pics fascinating. I just wish they had a picture of the food contained in a raw kitchen.. how beautiful would that be!!!

(afternote- june17,07 - These pics are from a photo essay by Time Magazine Online. Photos are taken by Peter Menzel from the book Hungry Planet. Jinjee and Storm have posted a picture of what their family eats here.)

My current painting series 'Every Flower has a Right to Bloom' is on display now at Toronto Sprouts

Finally, I have some pics of myself to post here. My good friend and neighbour Dawn, also raw.. most of the time, took these of me and my flowers just before they got whisked downtown to work, Toronto Sprouts - 720 Bathurst - where they will be on display.

Store hours are Monday - Friday 10 - 6, Saturday 11 - 5. Come see them and you can visit me. I work most of the hours with the exception of Friday mornings and Mondays, my day off.


I am writing a bio to go with the show today. ..and I made a bubbleshare slideshow below to show the paintings (Thanks Valerie for the idea!). Maybe I will have my bio to post tomorrow. Things are getting done quickly around here.





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Cape Verde

I was thinking about why I come here and write this blog. I certainly don't need to, I have a million other good things going on..not to mention a full time job and a family. It was mentioned to me that maybe I should focus more.. or at least give something up. My mom wonders about me.. trying to do all the things I was doing before I was working .. gym, yoga, hey I am actually even painting more. & that really takes a lot of energy. But for some reason.. this blog almost seems bigger than me. Every morning I wake up feeling great and happy to be alive and I always, whether I intend on coming here or not, end up here. I think I am just so appreciative at what this raw lifestyle has given me that it is just my little way of giving back.. in case anyone out there reads this & gets inspired. I love my life. I love it more since going raw than ever before.. Life is more colourful, more beautiful, freer, happier, more blissful and flowing.

I am water.. actually, today I am an island.. or at least on an island. Cape Verde.

Cape Verde is a set of 10 very cool little islands located 450 km off the coast of West Africa.

What to eat in Cape Verde? Eat locally - bananas, mangos and papayas!
Blend them all together with a bit of ice (& optional bit of honey) for the best smoothie ever!

Cape Verde is also home of one of the best singers ever!

Cesaria Evora - Petit Pays

Forcasting rain & weather lore, violet bottles, om reunion project and Severm Suzuki "I am Only a Child"

I love weather lore. I just heard a new one.. someone commented that it was going to rain because the flies were flying low.. & the lower they fly the more it is going to rain.

I am looking some up:
The louder the frog, the more the rain.

Mackeral skies and mares tails make ships carry lowered sails.

A ring around the Moon is a sign of rain & the larger the ring, the nearer the rain.

If the leafs are turning up, a storm is brewing!

& get this! Crickets can tell the temperature-just count the number of chirps per minute, add 10, and divide by 4 . Crickets chirp faster as the temperature rises.

I am trying out a new product which is sold in a violet bottle - which is not only cool looking but keeps out the sun's harmful rays. Not only that.. it lets the beneficial ones in. The sun is made up of all different types of rays - from the harmful UV rays to very beneficial life-giving rays. By drawing in the good rays the violet bottle actually expands the life force of the contained substance.
Egyptians kept all of their precious liquids in only 2 types of containers; they used either violet glass or gold. Violet glass is great for keeping essential oils, mineral complexes, herbal formulas, tonics, potions.. etc.

btw - The product I am trying is not even out yet.. I can't even find it on the internet. It's basically a mineral complex. It will be out soon & if it's really great I'll def let you know.


The Om reunion project- Re:Treat will be gathering this year from Monday June 18^th through Sunday June 24^th.

It will be a week long outdoor celebration of community, sustainability, alternative energy, and independent artistic expression.

Re:treat is a membership-based, community-driven gathering, which is located in rural Ontario. I hear this year it will be in Huntsville. 'We have found that a smaller gathering creates an intentional space, allowing for more meaningful communication and deeper connections. This year we expect a maximum of 600 people. Become a member of the community! Membership is open and available to all who wish to participate! '

If you wish to attend Re:treat, you must become a member in advance. The membership is 50-60$ depending on how soon you get it. There are no tickets sold at the gate and nothing to buy once there. Everything is volunteered, from their promotion, artwork & website to helping at the retreat, kitchen duty, bonfire or swim guard, cleaning up etc.



This is a great 6 minute video!
13 year old Severm Suzuki gives a talk to the UN.
Take the time, it's totally worth it.

I am Only a Child

Crimson & Clover - Strawberry and Pecan Salad

For Christmas when I was 6, in grade 1, I got a turntable and a bunch of records.. one had a bunch of pop songs on it. I still remember some of the songs.. the Archies - Sugar Sugar, the Animal's - House of the Rising Sun, Steppenwolf's - Born to be wild, the Lovin' Spoonful's - Do you believe in Magic.. but Crimson & clover was my favorite song .

It still makes me happy when I hear it. : )

Crimson And Clover

(T. James/P. Lucia)

Ah, now I don't hardly know her
But I think I could love her
Crimson and clover

Ah when she comes walking over
Now I've been waitin' to show her
Crimson and clover over and over

Yeah, my, my such a sweet thing
I wanna do everything
What a beautiful feeling
Crimson and clover over and over

Crimson and clover over and over
...

Strawberry Pecan Salad w/ poppyseed dressing

1 head red leaf lettuce - chopped in bowl with
10 strawberries - sliced
handful pecans

Dressing:

1/4 c agave
1/4 c olive oil
1/8 c apple cider vinegar
2 T tamari or shoyu
2 T red onion - chopped finely
1 T sesame seeds
1/2 T poppy seeds
dash paprika
salt to taste

The dressing is my raw version of Willa's amazing recipe, which was made with sugar & worcestershire. It translates to raw quite well. Thanks Willa! .. It' s delicious.

My Bizzarro moment of the day - listening to Jim talking about the Gardiner being closed because of the Becel Ride for Heart event.. I burst out laughing.. sorry, but just the thought of a ride to support heart disease being supported by Becel seems hilarious to me.. whats wrong with this picture? .. and then I look out the window, driving through Little India and see the Mona Lisa restaurant - specializing in Pakistani, Indian and Chinese food (what.. no Italian?) and listening to Paul Anka crooning his version of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit on the radio. Whoaaaaa...!!! weird & wonderful moment.. life can be so surreal sometimes! Enjoy every wacky moment!!! : )

pic from http://www.flickr.ch/2006/09/

Thoughts: cells, Blue and full spring moons, plants, pearls and toothpaste

Things and thoughts and ideas which I have found interesting recently..

- Every cell has a brain. Each one is actually thinking and communicating with our brain.. each one of the trillions of cells in our body.
- The average cell keeps track of 100,000 chemical reactions a second.

- It was a blue moon on the 31st.. technically it was last night, .. but I guess it was close enough that they were calling it a blue moon. A blue moon is when there are 2 full moons in a month and it's the second one. My friend was saying he couldn't think of something he wanted to do just once.. I was thinking about it.. I can't either.. everything I want to do, I want to do it more than once! ..so much for doing something once in a blue moon.

& from an e-mail:
'Back to the Full Moons: According to Djwal Khul-The Tibetan Master, the spring is the time of 3 most influencial moons. They are when the life force reawakens (Nature), is poured out (Buddha), and refined into a higher vision and understanding by the World Teacher (The Christ). The first is the full moon of Aries/Libra where we attune to Nature, the second is the full moon of Taurus/Scorpio or Wesak. This moon is associated with Buddha and celebrates the anchoring of compassion to lessen the suffering for all those on Earth. The third full moon (this full moon) is the full moon in Sagittarius/Gemini and represents the Christfest, where the World Teacher takes this energy of compassion and multiplies and distributes it throughout the world in various ways

- plants breathe from the underside of the leaf. We were washing plants leaves at work & someone said they can't breath if they get all dusty.. but actually they breathe from the underside & absorb sunlight to create photosynthesis from the top.. but equally important to be clean.. they really liked that, they were so happy afterward, you could just feel it!

- ok, this one is crazy. I couldn't believe it. There are no real pearls anymore.. or almost no more.. extremely rare. All the 'real' pearls you see are actually cultivated in a lab, by man.. still using an oyster & everything but man puts the little speck of sand in there etc.. there are none that are made straight from nature.. how sad is that? Simon knows a pearl expert who says they haven't seen a real, naturally made pearl in over 25 years!

On CNN this morning they are sending out a warning for people to check their toothpaste and to throw out any toothpaste made in China. The have found at least 10 brands which have diethylene glycol - a sweet, syrupy poison (anti-freeze) in the ingredients, sometimes 3-4%. It's found more in the bargain, dollar store toothpastes, not the name brands.. but I just read in an article from www.mercurynews.com ' The Panamanian government last year inadvertently mixed the poison made in China into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine, killing at least 100 people,..' I didn't even hear of that one.

My toothpaste is made in Utah. I use Young Living Thieves Dentarome Ultra. I love it.. different taste though, but I love it now. The Thieves essential oil blend contains clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus radiata and rosemary. This blend was created based on the historical tale of 4 thieves in France who protected themselves from the Black Plague with rosemary, cloves and other aromatics while robbing victims of the disease. ( When captured it is said they got a lighter sentence in exchange for their secret recipe!)

Purple bottles? maybe next time.. it's green smoothie time now!!!

Have a great day.. keep it special, keep it real, keep it mindful..but ultimately keep it awesomely triumphant! Be excellent to each other and party on! (air guitar here) lol ..peace out!

We can make choices - Be the change - Farmer's markets

I think one of the big reasons why people are going raw now is that it is a choice we can make. With the world spinning out of control, the problems seeming so much bigger than us.. this is at least one thing we can do. We don't have a choice about a lot of things going on out there... but we do have a choice as to what we put into our bodies. We do have a choice in what we products and what foods we buy.

Be The Change

It's market season (not that all year isn't) but it's especially so now with all the seasonal markets opening up in addition to the ones which operate year round. One of the best ways of getting fresh produce is buying from farmers markets. Everyone benefits with this buying strategy.

• Farmers markets offer a place for new farmers and businesses to offer their products/produce with little overhead and risk.
  
• By selling directly to the consumer they retain most of the profits for themselves instead of splitting it with grocery chains or distributors.
• We get the good conscience of supporting local companies/growers, and sustainable, organic, free range, free trade practices.
• Markets build community. It's a great place to meet neighbours and people. There is lot of activity, people talking, socializing, sharing - talking about recipes, gardening, saying hi, kids playing- people are generally always happy and smiling here.
• Markets provide food for the soul - there is often live music and the scenes are fresh and colourful, often filled with diversity and ethnicity and movement.
• People commune and share food together.. people of different cultures, different ages and backgrounds - we become expanded and grow with new opportunities.
• We become reconnected with the source of our food and therefore with the earth and our roots.
• Local businesses often benefit as people shop more int he vicinity on market days.
• Buying produce locally reduces food travel miles and is better on the environment.
  
• & did I mention the food is usually very healthy and tastes the best?!! This is where you buy the best, the freshest and most nutritious foods!
  

It's amazing to see so many new markets opening up this year!

New Markets in 2007

• Brick Works: 550 Bayview Ave (Between the Prince Edward Viaduct
(Bloor/Danforth) and Pottery Road)
Saturdays, 8 am - 2 pm,
opening Saturday May 26 to October 27

• Liberty Village: (Liberty St - Atlantic Ave)
Sundays, 9 am - 2 pm,
openingSunday May 27 to October 28

• Trinity Bellwoods: Northwest corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park, 1053
Dundas St West (Dundas and Shaw)
Tuesdays, 3 - 7 pm,
opening June 5 to October 30

• Withrow Park: 725 Logan Ave (in Withrow Park)
Saturdays, 9 am - 1 pm,
opening this Saturday May 26 to October 27

• Woodbine Centre: 500 Rexdale Blvd (at Hwy 427)
Fridays, 12 - 6 pm,
opening June 1 to October 26

• Wychwood: Church of St. Michael and All Angels, 611
St. Clair Ave W (at Wychwood)
Saturdays, 2 - 5 pm,
opening August 18 to October 6

A list of all markets in Toronto from the FoodShare website