Nature Mamahood

Friday, February 25, 2011

Simelas truth about coconut oil!

Coconut oil has antibacterial, antiviral and antimicrobial properties. Next to human breast milk it has the highest immunity properties of all substances. It is a stable GOOD fat, that helps you lose fat! Gotta love that...
Coconut oil does the following:
* lowers cholestorol
*counters fatigue
* restores sagging skin
* reverses tissue damage
* improves circulation in teh skin
* is an excellent antioxidant
* restores thyroid function
* is a natural tanning lotion
* good for cooking at heat because it is stable and does not become a trans fat
* decreases adrenal stress
* normalises blood sugar levels
* increases energy and
* increases the metabolism which leads to weight loss..... and I can hear it.... HALLELUJAH!

5 Ways to use coconut oil:
1 - Put a tablespoon per person in your smoothie each morning
2 - Make chocolate with it
3 - Use it for roasting and frying
4 - Use it in place of butter or marg in baking
5 - Use it on cuts, skin irritation , hair for moisturizing, for tanning, for dry skin to stop hair loss.

Where to get it :
You can buy coconut oil from any health shop, make sure it is virgin coconut oil and if you can choose a glass jar as you will want to put it in a basin of warm water to make it liquid.
In its solid state it is white and looks like butter, but if you add it to anything you must make it liquid first by placing the jar in warm water and the contents will turn clear and liquid , this can then be added to smoothies or recipes, it will emulsify and not leave you with coconut lumps that you would get if you add the coconut oil in , in its solid form.

Ok gotta run, enjoy!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Advent Tick List

So our advent calendar is up - tick.
Our baby Jesus and nativity scene is out - tick.
Our christmas cards are ready for the postbox - tick.
Transfer addresses to address book - to do still.
Our jesse tree crafts and devotions are under way - tick.

For those of you who don't want to give your kids choccies for advent to start the day off with sugar, we have made our own calendar here where I pop in some sugar free lollies from the health shop or a note to look in a secret hiding place for a gift or a special outing.

For our nativitiy scene we have a knitted and a porcelain nativity that the children love, I have seen on se7en that they have

made a pipe cleaner people nativity which is a great idea, but with nature baba in my arms it is not possible.

The christmas cards were lots of fun, we made Eric Carle inspired paper with textures and painting. Then when it dried we cut out and posted on the christmas trees. Then we glittered and stuck stickers and addressed and they are ready! Included is a family photo with no writing. I am taking the saying "a picture says a thousand words" to heart as I don't have time right now to write in cards with nature baba in my arms.

Aaaah, now to the jesse tree, what a wonderful idea and I wish I had done this as a child. We have used the jesse tree pics and devotionals from here and here and we were inspired by the jesse tree from here

Decluttering Delux

Well I am so motivated by the 20/20 cure that I have been cleaning and decluttering my house like a mad thing and really enjoying it. It is amazing how a clean and tidy home can make us all feel lighter and more in control of our environment to declutter. If you have not seen this 20 day challenge with a daily 3 or 4 minute video download check it out, it will really inspire you to shape up before christmas.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Jo-i's buckwheat crackers

Recently we went for a raw lunch at good friends, we were served these delicious crackers so I had to have the recipe and share it with all of you...

To get your sprouts ready:
Soak 2 cups of buckwheat for about 20 minutes. Rinse and drain. Sprout for 48 hours.
Then put into dehydrator for 24 hours. You will be left with crunchy sprouts. Store in a glass jar.

Crackers:
2 cups crunchy sprouts
200ml almonds
200ml sunflower seeds
1 TBS salt
1 TBS honey
1 onion
Enough water to make a paste.
1TBS of garlic powder

Take all dry ingredients and grind to a powder in blender. Add other ingredients. Spread onto dehydrator sheets or oven pan if you will dehydrate in oven and smear thin. Dehydrate overnight, turn over and dehydrate for a further 2 hours.

Weekly eating

A good friend has asked me to post a weekly menu plan....well I am not ready to do that yet, but it got me thinking to really expose to you what I plan to eat in a week, what we buy at the shops and hopefully as my thoughts get more organised over these series of posts I will get to an actual menu plan!

So what we plan to eat this week:
I always shop once a week on a thursday. I shop at the health shop, woolworths, pick n pay and the Organic Food Zone in Lakeside.
So this week our menu has and does look like this:

Breakfasts:
1 raw flapjacks with nut cream and maple syrup (takeaways from earthshine)
chocolate superfood smoothies x 3
kale green smoothis x 2
Nut milk x 1

Lunches:
Homemade Jo-i's buckwheat crackers (recipe to come soon) with avo, and sliced tomato
Rice cakes for the children with almond nut butter and marmite, avo mashed or tahini and honey.
Orgran gluten-free bread made in my bread machine
Salad for me, Cucumber and carrot sticks for the kids
Fruit

Supper:
organic meat kebabs with baked butternut and steamed spinach.
raw pizza takeaway from earthshine
Corli's flatbread with tomatoes, guacamole, fruit, and rawilicious chewy mushrooms and tuna with a homemade raw mayo for the boys on a platter. (this was a weekend dish)
Hot chips with salad
raw pasta with a nut cheese sauce
organic cornflakes and rice milk (sunday night supper for kids) with banana sliced in and for me and hubby raw carrot soup.
millet and salad with a nut cheese.

Snacks:
Me - nutmilk, tea with honey, fruit, nuts, crackerbread, raw chocolates
Boys - nutmilk, fruit, raisins, raw chocolates, fruit ice cream from my juicer, popcorn or corn chips.