My Wholefood Romance

Easy Pickled Veg for Fabulous Fermentation Week

January 22, 2013 By Meg With 9 comments

Hooray for Fabulous Fermentation Week!! And hooray for Elenore from Earthsprout and Sarah from My New Roots for organising an amazing week of sharing fantastic fermented recipes! Sarah and Elenore are both huge inspirations for me, so make sure you check out their sites for a real treat for the senses. They have cultured (ha!) a group of bloggers to share their love for fermented foods and bacterial goodness, and I’m super excited to be involved!! Sarah has put together an amazing post on kimchee, and Elenore has shown us a perfectly amazing purple sauerkraut.

I adore fermented foods! If you have never tried them before, this is the week for you. Fermented foods are the original probiotic. The process encourages the proliferation of good bacteria, which then bubbles away to produce enzymes, break down phytic acid and proteins, and just generally help us to digest our food.

We should be aiming to eat some of these magical foods every day to maintain a healthy gut and digestive system. Our gut is responsible for 70-80% of our immune system, and if our gut bacteria is out of balance, we start to see problems such as allergies, intolerances, skin problems, IBS, leaky gut and candida, just to name a few. It’s also something to consider if you are a woman who is pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering having a baby as you will pass on your bacterial composition to the baby.

So, get your fermentation on! Some great examples of fermented foods are sauerkraut, kefir, kimchee, kombucha, pickled vegetables, or preserved lemons as I have spoken about before.

Today I have decided to show you a super easy recipe for fermenting vegetables. Eating fermented foods is something that I recommend to patients all the time, but often they can’t take the extra

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Child friendly ‘green’ smoothies, and a Green Smoothie Challenge Update

January 13, 2013 By Meg With 2 comments

It’s day 12 of the Green Smoothie Challenge, almost half way!! I hope that those who have decided to give it a go are noticing the benefits! As a serial ‘kale/orange/ginger/version of’ smoothie junkie, I have found the challenge fantastic as it encourages me to branch out and invent new combos. Probably my favourite this week has been this basil, mango, lemon, passionfruit number below – recipe on the .

The next part of the challenge, starting tomorrow, is to rotate your greens! Whilst I am a kale over-user, typically others get stuck on spinach. Take this opportunity to mix it up a bit and throw in some rocket, bok choy, celery, beetroot leaves, green herbs (basil, parsley, coriander, mint) and cos lettuce / romaine, along with spinach and kale. Rotating them in this increases the diversity of nutrients that you are taking in, making sure you are not missing out!

Image from Simple Green Smoothies

I am a big fan of smoothies for kids. When my little one was small(er), her favourite thing was a blueberry, banana and coconut milk smoothie that I used to make her. It’s a fabulous way of keeping the good fats, vitamins and minerals going in during a time when eating is a bit comme ci comme ca. I am yet to get her to try one of my kale numbers, but she is happy to have a go at this Spinach, Berry, Banana smoothie as pictured above.

And what a fantastic hit of nutrients for little ones! Sure, it’s not exactly green, but it is delicious!

Kids Berry Spinach Smoothie

1 orange
1 cup of berries
1/2 large or one small banana
2 big handfuls of spinach
1/2 cup coconut water or water
Blend, serve, awesome!
Or, make this into ‘icy

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Happy New Year, starting with a Green Smoothie Challenge!

January 2, 2013 By Meg With 1 comment

Happy New Year everyone! I have taken a mini-break from everything, but am back on board and so inspired and excited about 2013! I have a great feeling that this is going to be a spectacular year. Why not start off on a good note and join me in this 30 day green smoothie challenge – starting today! As you already know, I am a huge fan of green smoothies. It is the single most effective blanket ‘prescription’ that I most commonly recommend for patients. Simply by adding them to your diet you can increase your energy levels, improve digestion and elimination, support kidney and liver function, boost immunity, encourage clear, glowing skin, and enjoy a general sense of improved wellbeing. Tell me a pill that does that without side effects and I will eat my hat! In each serving you are drinking in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, fibre, and living plant love goodness!! Think of them as a multivitamin in a glass – but better! In as little as 15 minutes the green gorgeousness is into your cells to nourish, replenish, cleanse and energise – BAM!

And guess what – it’s so our lucky day!! The beautiful people at Simple Green Smoothies have created a 30 day challenge, so that we can all show our outpourings of love for green liquid! Or maybe that’s just me… Either way, get on board! All you need is a blender, some fresh produce, and the will add green smoothies to your diet every day for 30 days. The link will take you to the sign up page where you can download a recipe ebook to get you started – all for free, hooray!

I will be posting regular updates on to keep you inspired and blending away.

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Festive Baking, Wholefood Style!

January 1, 2013 By Meg With no comments yet

Christmas Deer with Nutty Spelt Biscuits and Meringue Mushrooms, a la Jude Bleareau.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that the festive season has been treating everyone well. I gave myself a mini-break from everything, but am back on board and so inspired and excited about 2013! To kick it off, I thought I would present two different but equally delicious ideas. The first, as pictured, is a special Christmas scene based on the one created by the wonderful Jude Blereau. Check out the website for the recipe for the biscuits and the meringues. I used raw cacao nibs through the biscuits instead of the chocolate. They are a fabulous biscuit that is wheat, dairy and cane sugar free. There is also a chocolate ganache to help ‘stick’ everything together, for which I used this dairy free chocolate ganache that is super easy. It certainly makes a nice change from the special occasion cake!

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