Saturday Morning in the Kitchen With Angela: A Story About The Origins of Vegetables

The Origin of the Mighty Vegetable

The basic vegetables that we mainly use in America seem to have originated primarily in the upper Andes — Ecuador and Peru as well as Bolivia and upper Chile. The basic vegetables would include; white potatoes and sweet potatoes, yams, maize, numerous beans including Lima and navy beans, pumpkins, squash, peppers, and many others.
The exact origin of the vegetable is a mystery, because people were always on the move, spreading seeds wherever they went. Archaeology has indeed confirmed that foodstuffs moved quite easily from one place to another, with such exotics as rice turning up in sites in Germany and England.

Throughout history, many have wondered about the Garden of Eden mentioned in the bible. Eden was said to be somewhere in ancient Mesopotamia. Although we know little about Eden, Mesopotamian peoples left vast heaps of cuneiform tablets that reveal detailed information about the vegetable plants they once cultivated.

Many thousands of years ago the climate was different than it is now. This hot and dry climate may have served as a perfect environment for growing their vast vegetable gardens. The cuneiforms revealed a visual distinction that evolved between cultivated and uncultivated ground. The vegetable gardens of Eden were enclosed by walls. These walls may have served as protection from wandering livestock. It is clear from most of the records, that vegetables were commonly grown around date palms or fruit trees.

Archaeological remains (mostly seeds) from this region also support what is documented in clay tablets. Tablet inscriptions also point to another feature of vegetable culture that suggests highly developed horticultural practices: specialization. There are numerous references to the “cucumber place” or to the “garlic place,” which implies that entire beds were devoted to one type of vegetable and that in many cases this was the sole crop raised by the grower. Garlic was especially valued in this respect and even was used as collateral in financial agreements. In texts where a year-to-year continuity can be reconstructed, it is evident that a garlic place may change into a chard place, so some system of crop rotation must have been in effect. This concept of agricultural specialization was thought to have been perfected by the Phoenicians and codified by Mago, whose great work on agriculture (lost in the original Punic) was highly respected by the Romans.

There is a large body of published material on the history of gardening in ancient and pre-Islamic Egypt. Unfortunately, there are no books devoted exclusively to vegetables. The fine gardens of ancient Egypt were enclosed like those of Mesopotamia and contained trees, flowers, even ponds for fish and ducks. Vegetable gardening however, was something the peasants partook in, so vegetables were considered unfit for upper class society. Garlic for example was thought to be part of the value judgment placed on vegetables during that time period. Many Roman satires mention garlic as a food only fit for galley slaves and peasants or as something eaten only by soldiers going off to war.

The most priceless garden record is a parchment drawing of the garden plan of Cloister of St. Gall in Switzerland surviving from the early 800s. It provides a detailed look at how the Roman kitchen garden became transmogrified into a source of both food and medical plants. Most important, they are organized into rectangular raised beds. This is one of the earliest references extant to this common garden practice, but it was not unique.

The Hortulus of Walahfrid Strabo, abbot (from 838 to 849) of the Cloister of Reichenau on an island in Lake Constance, makes reference to a similar number of plants, again arranged in raised rectangular beds.

Although, it is unclear where the vegetable originated, one thing is clear, the vegetable has been around for thousands of years and let’s hope it is here for many more.

The Heirloom Vegetable

My favorite and most frequently used vegetable belongs to the heirloom family.The heirloom vegetable is a variety that has been handed down from the past. Heirloom plants are plants that have been preserved more or less intact since they were developed.

One of the most appealing features of the heirloom besides its remarkable flavor is that it belongs to the community, and an exchange of this food (as well as its seeds) is viewed as a strong link in the commonality of people and a link with nature, especially since the plants are pollinated by natural means out under the sky.

Heirloom vegetables were developed to meet the agricultural needs of specific soils and environments and therefore do not require the same economic investment in fertilizers and insecticides as hybrid varieties. They are also strengthened by an inherent genetic diversity lacking in hybrid sorts—a built-in mechanism to prevent massive crop failure. This appeals to organic growers, and the surprisingly rich flavors of plants raised in this manner have gained many converts in the food community at large.

Veggie and Fruit Art!

Vegetable carving is an ancient art of Thailand once practiced by the women of the royal household. It consists of transforming vegetables and fruits into beautiful floral forms. Ordinary knives (this gives hope to the lay person) directed by the royal women’s creative genius turned fruits and vegetables into works of art. These lovely creations were used as banquet table decorations for important gatherings.

German fruit and vegetable papyrus is based on which fruits and vegetables are in season. The paper makers hand cut and process each sheet, pressing the vegetable matter to remove moisture generating an extremely thin sheet.

Are you inspired yet?

Not many of you know that I make old fashioned hand made soaps. I often use all kinds of things from the kitchen, garden, and farmer’s market. My favorite for this time of year is peppermint from my garden and cranberries!

Have fun with your veggies. After all, there are so many to choose from! The farmer’s markets are just bursting with all sorts of marvelous goodies in season right now.

Tis the Season to be Green…..

Tis the Season to be Green…..

What do you think of when you hear the word “holiday”? For me the holidays represent spending time with friends and family and creating lasting memories. The holidays can be one of the least eco-friendly times of the year. I’ve been thinking of ways that my family can reduce, reuse and recycle this holiday season. I know we hear these words all the time, but they definitely ring true during the holidays because the amount of “stuff” we consume is enormous.

Tis the Season to be Green with a Few Holiday Ideas……

•If you are thinking of sending Holiday greeting cards, why not send electronic greeting cards to those with email addresses. You’ll save considerable money on cards, stationery and postage.

•During the holiday season you may want to consider a potluck instead of preparing the whole dinner, or have each person bring a certain course rather than doing the whole dinner yourself, this will save you more time to enjoy your family and friends.

•Shop green for the holidays. If you are shopping for holiday gifts, why not shop over the internet and have the gifts sent directly to your friends and family. If shopping online check out The National Green Pages™, which is a directory listing nearly 3,000 green businesses, http://www.coopamerica.org/

•When shopping for clothing, buy merchandise made from organic materials. You can buy recycled items such as furniture and jewelry. Giving family and friends reusable items is a great way to be green. I love to give our friends and family reusable cloth bags as eco friendly gifts, you can never have too many. If you like to touch and feel the presents you buy for friends and family buy from locally owned stores and craft markets featuring local craftspeople. While most people get ready for “Black Friday”, why not spend that day donating old clothing, toys and canned goods to local shelters and food banks.

•Reuse all cardboard packaging and peanuts and other Styrofoam packaging that comes with gifts as these items will not de-compost in a landfill but can be used over and over again for packaging and shipping.

•If you are shopping for a Christmas tree, think sustainable. What about buying a live tree that can be replanted once the holiday season is over. If you are entertaining the thought of a cut Christmas tree, look for an organic tree or one that was grown without pesticides or chemicals that can be mulched or used as compost. Although most artificial trees are not recyclable, you can reuse the same tree year after year.

•Let’s conserve the amount of energy we consume during the holidays by switching out any old Christmas lights and replace with energy efficient LED lights. Even though the lights are energy efficient, turn them off at night and use a few less lights this year.

•The best organic food is what is grown locally. Eating fresh seasonal foods that are local in your area will bring variety to your dinner table. Here is a wonderful website that will allow you to find local farms in your area, http://www.localharvest.org

Take time to celebrate with friends and family and create lasting memories for a lifetime.

Happy Green Holidays
Tracy

Ms. Gill’s Green Smoothie Elementary Class

A while ago, Melinda Gill won a Home Study program through the Chidiet website and Jim Carey’s promotions. We asked her to provide some updates on her experiences and learning. Here’s the first update we’ve had from the trenches! Sounds like she’s had her nose in books!

Here’s the feedback on a fantastic experience she had with her elementary school class and green smoothies.

Hello Ladies!

So here goes the first installment of my CHIdiet experience.

After having a couple of months to begin to digest the information I’ve studied so far in this course, I know that I have only scratched the surface of all it entails. The information is very detailed and wide in scope. It begins with talk on enzymes, chlorophyll, and the life of Ann Wigmore. It goes on to talk about how to set up your raw food kitchen, benefits of this lifestyle, as well as how to transition to a raw food diet. Eating simply and sleeping well, drinking pure water and the power of thought are all touched upon…and this is just the beginning.

Being a teacher by trade, my thoughts kept turning back to how I could introduce this raw food lifestyle to my students without turning them off the idea of eating healthier. They are a group that lives on sugar, processed foods, and the traditional SAD diet. I have a new class this year and they were not fully aware of how I eat, or why. I am very open about what I eat and they see me in class, eating my raw, fresh, ripe, organic fruit and salads. They also see me with various concoctions – warming chia pudding, and the like. Something they haven’t seen me eat is my green smoothie. I began bringing my green smoothie jar to the school instead of drinking it at home in the mornings…I wanted to pique their interest, and pique it did! They’ve always been curious about how I eat and I always tell them, if they ask.

The green smoothies were really the turning point! Every day they’d ask what I put into it and wanted to smell it and were so extremely curious about the whole idea of eating a drink that was so green. In fact one student asked if I had my “Shrek” drink, when it was missing from the desktop that day. We’d been enjoying “Fruitful Fridays” each week, where I bring in a different fruit for the students to try. The students bring in fruit to include in our Friendship Fruit Salad and we all have our class meeting while learning about a new fruit each Friday as well as enjoying a great fruit salad that we all made together. The first week we did that, the students made me swear not to tell their parents that they “enjoyed eating healthy” or else they’d be made to do so by force instead of choice…a valid point! However if you make this type of food available and tasty, they are bound to make a good choice!

Because of their interest in the green smoothie, I decided last Friday morning to bring my Vitamix to class and have a demo on how to make a green smoothie. The students were aware that I was going to do this and were full of anticipation when I opened the classroom door that day. First, they could not believe how huge the blender was, then their eyes became as big as moons when they saw how much kale I had ready to put into the drink! It was amazing how interested they all were! They are so impressionable at this age and this seed of an idea that was planted that day will reap rewards in the months and years to come.

I told them about the benefits of each food that I put into the blender. We made a very simple smoothie. Here’s the recipe I made which fed the class a small dixie cup each:

Dixie Cup Delight Green Smoothie

• 2 cups blueberries
• 2 bananas
• 2 apples
• 1 stick celery
• 4 huge leaves of kale
• 3 cups of water (or more to assist in blending)

The blueberries made the smoothie more blue than green, however the colour helped a lot of them around the idea that there was so much green in there in the first place. We talked about the blender as well, and how it breaks up the cell walls and does the “chewing” for us so that the nutrients are more bioavailable.

Then it was the moment of truth: The Taste Test!!!

I began pouring the drinks, not really knowing what to expect but figured the great taste of the smoothie would encourage even the most finicky in the class. Some comments made include:

“I can’t believe there’s like a whole salad in here, you’d never know it!”
“It doesn’t taste bad at all!”
“If I didn’t see you put those greens in there, I’d never know they were there, it tastes so good.”
“I have to get the recipe!”

There were so many positive comments made that morning that I had each student write a testimonial on a cue card for me to reference. Here are some of what the cue cards said:

“I was not nervous to try (the smoothie) but it was better than I thought it would be.” – Rhylan, Grade 7

“When Ms. Gill was putting in the fruit, it looked pretty good. But when she blended it it looked bad. It smelled like bananas and when I took a sip it was very good.” – Kody, Grade 7

“Before I tasted the smoothie, I was concerned about what it would taste like. After I tasted it, it was delicious! It tasted like blueberries and bananas with a hint of a peppery taste. I would like the recipe” – Michael, Grade 7

“I would like the recipe! Watching it blended, I almost didn’t try it, it looked slightly unappealing. And well, it kinda was. Drinking it tasted ok but there was a bit of an after taste. Overall, pretty good!” – Rozi, Grade 7

“When I saw my new teacher eating a raw green smoothie I thought ‘Wow, what is she eating?’ So we asked her and she said she was a raw foodist. Now if you told me I would be trying some, I wouldn’t have believed you. So I was pretty nervous when I got a cup full of “slush”. I took a sip…tasty, but yet kind of bitter. I love my smoothie. Yes I would like the recipe.” – Mitchell, Grade 7

“While I was watching Ms. Gill make it, it kind of looked like “unmentionable” and I also thought it would taste like that, but when I tasted it, it was “greenalicious”, yummy, yummy! Yes I would like to try it again!” – Simran, Grade 7

“I really liked this drink because it was really good and I would love to get my mom to buy the ingredients so I can have more.” – Matt, Grade 7

There were only two students out of 29 that said they really didn’t like the smoothie but would be open to trying different combinations if we ever did this again…which we are!

As you can see it was a very successful endeavor. Afterwards, the students asked if we could do a green smoothie every week. I said we could call it our “Smoothie Start to the Week”. The students will bring in 25¢ every Monday morning to help offset the cost of the ingredients and we’re going to have a green smoothie each Monday morning to get our week off to a good start. So in our class, we will begin the week with a green smoothie and we will end the week with a fruit salad. Baby steps, is all I keep thinking. As I absorb more information through the CHIdiet course, I will slowly incorporate this in my teaching in a fun and informative way.

The message to take away from this is that children are open to trying these things in the right circumstance, but the long term change has to include the the whole family. I especially liked the comment Matt made about getting his mom to buy the ingredients so that he can have more. It’s true, I can plant the seed, but kids need encouragement and help at home too. I can only hope that his mom WILL buy him the ingredients and that he will enjoy green smoothies for a lifetime!

This gave me another great idea! Get the parents involved! That leads leads me to my next adventure…the PAC (Parent Advisory Council) meeting. Stay tuned and we’ll hear how that one goes.

In simple green goodness,

Melinda

Ms. Gill’s Green Smoothies Class: Getting Kids Hooked on Healthy

A while ago, Melissa Gill won a Home Study program through the Chidiet website and Jim Carey’s promotions. We asked her to provide some updates on her experiences and learning. Here’s the first update we’ve had from the trenches! Sounds like she’s had her nose in books! 

Here’s the feedback on a fantastic experience she had with her elementary school class and green smoothies. We’ll be posting this on the Green Smoothie Blog as well, where you can check out a lot more recipes and inspiration about Green Smoothies! 

Hello Ladies!

So here goes the first installment of my CHIdiet experience.

After having a couple of months to begin to digest the information I’ve studied so far in this course, I know that I have only scratched the surface of all it entails. The information is very detailed and wide in scope. It begins with talk on enzymes, chlorophyll, and the life of Ann Wigmore. It goes on to talk about how to set up your raw food kitchen, benefits of this lifestyle, as well as how to transition to a living foods diet. Eating simply and sleeping well, drinking pure water and the power of thought are all touched upon…and this is just the beginning.

Being a teacher by trade, my thoughts kept turning back to how I could introduce this lifestyle to my students without turning them off the idea of eating healthier. They are a group that lives on sugar, processed foods, and the traditional SAD diet. I have a new class this year and they were not fully aware of how I eat, or why. I am very open about what I eat and they see me in class, eating my raw, fresh, ripe, organic fruit and salads. They also see me with various concoctions – warming chia pudding, and the like. Something they haven’t seen me eat is my green smoothie. I began bringing my green smoothie jar to the school instead of drinking it at home in the mornings…I wanted to pique their interest, and pique it did! They’ve always been curious about how I eat and I always tell them, if they ask.

The green smoothies were really the turning point! Every day they’d ask what I put into it and wanted to smell it and were so extremely curious about the whole idea of eating a drink that was so green. In fact one student asked if I had my “Shrek” drink, when it was missing from the desktop that day. We’d been enjoying “Fruitful Fridays” each week, where I bring in a different fruit for the students to try. They students bring in fruit to include in our Friendship Fruit Salad and we all have our class meeting while learning about a new fruit each Friday as well as enjoying a great fruit salad that we all made together. The first week we did that, the students made me swear not to tell their parents that they “enjoyed eating healthy” or else they’d be made to do so by force instead of choice…a valid point! However if you make this type of food available and tasty, they are bound to make a good choice!

Because of their interest in the green smoothie, I decided last Friday morning to bring my Vitamix to class and have a demo on how to make a green smoothie. The students were aware that I was going to do this and were full of anticipation when I opened the classroom door that day. First, they could not believe how huge the blender was, then their eyes became as big as moons when they saw how much kale I had ready to put into the drink! It was amazing how interested they all were! They are so impressionable at this age and this seed of an idea that was planted that day will reap rewards in the months and years to come.

I told them about the benefits of each food that I put into the blender. We made a very simple smoothie. Here’s the recipe I made which fed the class a small dixie cup each:

2 cups blueberries
2 bananas
2 apples
1 stick celery
4 huge leaves of kale
3 cups of water (or more to assist in blending)

The blueberries made the smoothie more blue than green, however the colour helped a lot of them around the idea that there was so much green in there in the first place. We talked about the blender as well, and how it breaks up the cell walls and does the “chewing” for us so that the nutrients are more bioavailable.

Then it was the moment of truth: The Taste Test!!!

I began pouring the drinks, not really knowing what to expect but figured the great taste of the smoothie would encourage even the most finicky in the class. Some comments made include:

“I can’t believe there’s like a whole salad in here, you’d never know it!”
“It doesn’t taste bad at all!”
“If I didn’t see you put those greens in there, I’d never know they were there, it tastes so good.”
“I have to get the recipe!”

There were so many positive comments made that morning that I had each student write a testimonial on a cue card for me to reference. Here are some of what the cue cards said:

“I was not nervous to try (the smoothie) but it was better than I thought it would be.” – Rhylan, Grade 7

“When Ms. Gill was putting in the fruit, it looked pretty good. But when she blended it it looked bad. It smelled like bananas and when I took a sip it was very good.” – Kody, Grade 7

“Before I tasted the smoothie, I was concerned about what it would taste like. After I tasted it, it was delicious! It tasted like blueberries and bananas with a hint of a peppery taste. I would like the recipe” – Michael, Grade 7

“I would ike the recipe! Watching it blended, I almost didn’t try it, it looked slightly unappealing. And well, it kinda was. Drinking it tasted ok but there was a bit of an after taste. Overall, pretty good!” – Rozi, Grade 7

“When I saw my new teacher eating a raw green smoothie I thought ‘Wow, what is she eating?’ So we asked her and she said she was a raw foodist. Now if you told me I would be trying some, I wouldn’t have believed you. So I was pretty nervous when I got a cup full of “slush”. I took a sip…tasty, but yet kind of bitter. I love my smoothie. Yes I would like the recipe.” – Mitchell, Grade 7

“While I was watching Ms. Gill make it, it kind of looked like “unmentionable” and I also thought it would taste like that, but when I tasted it, it was “greenalicious”, yummy, yummy! Yes I would like to try it again!” – Simran, Grade 7

“I really liked this drink because it was really good and I would love to get my mom to buy the ingredients so I can have more.” – Matt, Grade 7

There were only two students out of 29 that said they really didn’t like the smoothie but would be open to trying different combinations if we ever did this again…which we are!

As you can see it was a very successful endeavor. Afterwards, the students asked if we could do a green smoothie every week. I said we could call it our “Smoothie Start to the Week”. The students will bring in 25¢ every Monday morning to help offset the cost of the ingredients and we’re going to have a green smoothie each Monday morning to get our week off to a good start. So in our class, we will begin the week with a green smoothie and we will end the week with a fruit salad. Baby steps, is all I keep thinking. As I absorb more information through the CHIdiet course, I will slowly incorporate this in my teaching in a fun and informative way.

The message to take away from this is that children are open to trying these things in the right circumstance, but the long term change has to include the the whole family. I especially liked the comment Matt made about getting his mom to buy the ingredients so that he can have more. It’s true, I can plant the seed, but kids need encouragement and help at home too. I can only hope that his mom WILL buy him the ingredients and that he will enjoy green smoothies for a lifetime!

This gave me another great idea! Get the parents involved! That leads leads me to my next adventure…the PAC (Parent Advisory Council) meeting. Stay tuned and we’ll hear how that one goes.

In simple green goodness,

Melinda

Healing Your Stomach: Green Smoothies And Supple Yoga Moves

It feels good to bottle health for family and friends. Today, I bottled one green juice and two green smoothies for a friend who was recently hospitalized for stomach-related issues. Since being released, she hasn’t had much of an appetite, so I figured fresh green juice and/or the green smoothie would be the perfect food for her to sip on to assist her healing journey.

The top bottle in the picture shown here is of the juice: kale, 3 apples, 1 pear (because I ran out of apples), 1/2 lemon.

The bottom two bottles are of the smoothie, which turned out silky smooth. The ingredients used to make that were:

• ~ a couple handfuls of Kale
• ~ a handful of Parsley
• ~ two Pears
• ~ a few slices of Pineapple
• ~ half an Avocado
• ~ about 1 teaspoon Cold Pressed Olive Oil
• ~ about 1 teaspoon Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar
• ~ Water (didn’t measure — maybe a cup or so)
• ~ dash of Cayenne Pepper
• ~ about 1 1/2 teaspoons Agave Nectar*

*note from the editor:

we strongly recommend whole dates and fresh fruit over agave nectar.

Now, I’m about to send my friend this blog entry suggesting she also “Thread the Needle” as a way to massage her abdominal organs and rejuvenate her entire system. What a nice complement to her green drinks!

“Thread The Needle?” she’ll ask.

~ On all fours in Table position (hands about shoulder width apart), begin lowering the right temple to the floor while “threading” the right arm under the left arm. (The left hand is planted on the floor.) Feel a nice stretch behind the shoulder. Hold for a few seconds while inhaling and exhaling through the nose.

~ Return to all fours and repeat on the opposite side.

To increase the stretch, raise the non-threaded arm toward the ceiling and hold for a few breaths.

Feel renewed now, Michele?

Green drinks and stretching! Does healing “medicine” get any purer than that? Why get a needle when we can just “Thread the Needle”?

Green Hugs & Blessings,

Penny

from the Raw Mom blog.

Saving Made Simple

Regular Raw Mom readers, and subscribers to Raw Mom Tidbits, will know that I have an interest in finance (and with a financial advisor husband, it’s a fairly regular topic of conversation in our house). I’ve even created the Raw Mom Financial Serenity Budgeting Toolkit, which is a fantastic, free gift from me to you – I created it, based on my own budgeting system, to help you face your spending reality, thus empowering you to take control of your money.

I have been bursting to tell you about an absolutely amazing budgeting website, one that I’ve known about and used for a couple of years. It’s called Simple Savings, and was set up by an Australian couple. Basically, it’s full of thousands and thousands of fantastic ideas for saving money!

It’s a very generous site, with many tips available for free. You can sign up for a free monthly, highly entertaining and inspiring newsletter, and when you do this you also receive the free weekly “Hint of the Week”. The site also has heaps of other free resources.

However, if you want access to over 13,000 tips, all categorized, you can sign up for cheap, cheap, cheap membership to “The Vault”. The tips come from fellow subscribers to the site, and are vetted, edited and categorized before being placed on the site. Main categories include Friends & Family, Finances, Home, Entertainment, and Transport, with many, many subcategories under each of these.

I’ve come across some fantastic ideas since subscribing to The Vault – such as making rainy days at home with children fun (and cheap, without going out) by giving such days a “color” theme. For example, we all wear red clothes, eat red food, have red placemats, draw pictures of things that are red… Through The Vault I’ve also found out about fabulous websites such as www.naturalstrategies.com.au, a site that provides environmental tips (which naturally work towards improving your finances), and the handy http://www.askthebuilder.com, which gives plenty of advice on doing your own household repairs. I’ve also learned of one family’s tip for cheap weekend outings, by having “$20 Saturdays” – with whatever outing they take, the whole family has to work out how they can make it all happen for under $20. Another great tip is to keep razor blades in a small dish of olive oil, as this means that the blades don’t rust between each use, so they therefore last much longer (I’ve found that this works better for razors that don’t have a lubricating strip).

Being an Australian site, quite a few of the tips relate to Australian stores and websites. However, most of them are general tips, with anyone in the Western world being able to apply them to their everyday lives. There are quite a few tips that relate to food – and while I don’t agree with many of these (some promote unhealthy, cheaper substitutes for junk and other unhealthy foods), there is heaps of information on healthy eating options, and organic gardening.

The site is also full of wonderful stories from people who have turned their lives around (including people who have suffered crippling debt), with some choosing to reduce their working hours with the savings they’ve made, enabling them to spend more time with their families. Even if you’re on a good income, and can afford a good quality of life, there are heaps of ideas here that can help you rein in unnecessary spending, and secure your financial future. The ideas can help make you more creative (and environmentally aware), looking for enriching ways of living your best life possible – without always praying to the god of consumerism.

To make sure all your favorite Vault money-saving ideas are kept in one place, you can print them out and keep them in a binder.

I really wanted to tell you about this site, and I’ve been waiting for the right time – Christmas is coming (say no more), the world’s financial markets are in a state of upheaval, and there’s currently a sale on Vault membership! So this is the perfect time!

Yearly membership to The Vault is usually only AUS$47 (about US$31), but until Monday December 1 (AEST), it will be ON SALE for only AUS$27 (about US$18). So, if you live on the east coast of the US, you have until about 8am Sunday November 30 to sign up at the discount rate. Click here to check out the site. But, honestly, even at full price the membership is a bargain.

***Important update: the AUS$27 (about US$18) special price for Vault membership has been extended to Tuesday December 9, 2008 (AEST) – so if you live on the US east coast, you now have until Monday December 8 to take advantage of this great price.***

If you’re after loads of ideas for saving money, I do recommend signing up. They say that you can easily make back the cost of the membership with savings from your very first purchase. It really is a phenomenal resource. In fact, I think it’s so good, that last Christmas I gave a few family members and friends memberships to The Vault as Christmas presents! (Generously, Matt and Fiona, the creators of the site, renewed my membership for free, for doing that!)

Perhaps this could be a wee gift to yourself this Christmas?

IF YOU WANT HEALTH, WATCH YOUR MOUTH

I know how busy you are, but like I always say, ‘If you are too busy for your Health, then you are WAY TOO BUSY!” For two minutes, take a few deep breathes, relax those shoulders that are up by your ears, and just let go, and relaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx…….BREEEEEEEEEEEATHE!

We live in EXTREME TIMES- the most EXCITING, TRANSFORMATIVE TIME EVER IN OUR HISTORY!All the VEILS have been lifted for those who choose to see.We NOW have all the Knowlege, Technology and Spiritual Grace to literally create SUPERIOR HEALTH, UNCONDITIONAL JOY & ENDLESS MIRACLES now and forever.You can remember being a KID, and how EVERYTHING was bigger than life, exciting and delicious…If you are into getting out of the boring, the mediocre, the STRESS and into Mastery, Manifesting, being set free by FORGIVENESS and COMPASSION, experiencing the BEAUTY of Nature, SPONTANEITY, PHYSICAL and EMOTIONAL VIBRANCY, and whatever else YOU want, (only you knows what your heart REALLY desires) ALLOW me to share what I have learned and experienced to assist you on your journey. Isn’t it time life got ridiculously and outrageously fun again?

So check out my OUTRAGEOUS, PASSIONATE, TIRADE I gave with Tera who gave me full-throttle to just LET GO and tell you personal stuff, precious pearls, simple strategies- all kinds of tools to put in your parenting tool-belt!

Health just isn’t all about what you eat- it’s also about WHAT’S EATING YOU?

When we are stressed, feeling isolated at home all day with very demanding little people who out-do us in energy and whining or tantrum capabilities, we often find ourselves LESS THAN elegant in our responses. I give examples from my own life. And we either strive to cope by over-eating, eating crap, or even saying/yelling words that aren’t helpful to anyone,especially ourselves.

So, why not find some time tonight to curl up in a comfy chair with a cozy blanket with a mug of fresh ginger tea, and relaxxxxxx and enjoy mom-talk that goes into over-drive, with a ton of insight and inspiration to re-inforce and bolster you for the heroic and sacred task of YOUR Motherhood.

With Love, Raw Mom Shannon

Healing Medicine: Green Drinks & Threading the Needle

It feels good to bottle health for family and friends. Today, I bottled one green juice and two green smoothies for a friend who was recently hospitalized for stomach-related issues. Since being released, she hasn’t had much of an appetite, so I figured fresh green juice and/or the green smoothie would be the perfect food for her to sip on to assist her healing journey.

The top bottle in the picture shown here is of the juice: kale, 3 apples, 1 pear (because I ran out of apples), 1/2 lemon.

The bottom two bottles are of the smoothie, which turned out silky smooth. The ingredients used to make that were:

~ a couple handfuls of Kale

~ a handful of Parsley

~ two Pears

~ a few slices of Pineapple

~ half an Avocado

~ about 1 teaspoon Cold Pressed Olive Oil

~ about 1 teaspoon Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar

~ Water (didn’t measure — maybe a cup or so)

~ dash of Cayenne Pepper

~ about 1 1/2 teaspoons Agave Nectar

Now, I’m about to send my friend this blog entry suggesting she also “Thread the Needle” as a way to massage her abdominal organs and rejuvenate her entire system. What a nice complement to her green drinks!

“Thread The Needle?” she’ll ask.

~ On all fours in Table position (hands about shoulder width apart), begin lowering the right temple to the floor while “threading” the right arm under the left arm. (The left hand is planted on the floor.) Feel a nice stretch behind the shoulder. Hold for a few seconds while inhaling and exhaling through the nose.

~ Return to all fours and repeat on the opposite side.

To increase the stretch, raise the non-threaded arm toward the ceiling and hold for a few breaths.

Feel renewed now, Michele?

Green drinks and stretching! Does healing “medicine” get any purer than that? Why get a needle when we can just “Thread the Needle”?

Green Hugs & Blessings,

Penny

Green Smoothie Gratitude: Foods to be Thankful For

Since it’s Thanksgiving let me start off with blessing and gratitude to the Green Smoothie ladies and the Raw Diva’s! I try to practice appreciation and gratitude on a daily basis but Thanksgiving is an especially fun day when you can feel free to express gratitude always and in all ways.  As I made my green smoothie this morning I thought of how grateful I am for my Blendtec that The Raw Divas graciously gifted me with.  I love that thing! As I piled kale into the carafe I thought of how happy I am to have a palate that loves kale and a body that loves the benefits. Then the love for my ingredients just kept flowing, from the raspberries to the maca, to the coconut. Once you start being grateful it is so easy to see beauty in everything around you.  I am a self proclaimed gratitude geek. So I am going to give some examples of how easy it is to be a geek like me.

First off, how excited are we that we have this online community where we can easily access free ideas, opinions and tips about green smoothies?  Green smoothies are such a cheap, creative, fun, and easy way to change your health, habits, diet and life! And look at us, we get to have fun with it all together! No matter where you live or what kind of blender you have we all make it work in our own special ways, yet get to share in a collective of green smoothie fans. I love it!

Today I also want to share some simple, fun facts that I have been picking up on lately. While everyone around you seems to be fighting off the inevitable winter colds, we are already building our immune systems and getting stronger by adding our favorite fruits into our smoothies. Lately I have been making these amazing spinach, pineapple, and raspberry smoothies, only to find later that both pineapple and raspberries are high in vitamin C. I found that the pineapple can benefit you in the same way that orange juice does when we have a cough or cold. Also pineapple contains bromelain, which is an amazing enzyme that helps suppress coughs and loosen mucus. One thing to keep in mind when using pineapples in your smoothies is that the bromelain enzyme will start digesting the proteins in your smoothie, so drink it right away. Raspberries also contain a high amount of manganese, which is an essential trace mineral that helps us in many ways. And don’t forget about those beautiful antioxidants. Another seasonal fruit I have been having fun with is persimmon. They add a nice sweet and mellow taste and help thicken smoothies. Persimmons are a heart healthy food. Apparently they contain higher concentrations of dietary fiber, minerals, antioxidants, and trace minerals in comparison to apples.

These are just a few of the things I have been playing around with lately. Think of the abundance of nutrient dense food that is out there for us to play with.  This holiday, enjoy knowing that you don’t need to have a table filled with turkey, and all the fixings, to be fulfilled. We truly have nutritional abundance in a glass with our green smoothies.

Cheers!

Disa

Celebrating Victory

Every once in a while we are lucky enough to be sent a photo from the participants of our programs. This week, Sherry celebrated her 50th birthday and was surprisingly impressed with how good she felt to have passed over the usual birthday cake tradition for this billowing plate of fruit, sprouts and the love of her family.

Sherry is a participant on our Body Enlightenment System, but she hasn’t even been following the menus! She said just by listening to the advice on the BES calls and listening to Dr. T’s lectures about food, she’s already lost 12 lbs and is feeling fabulous!

She said we could share her good news with others, so here it is:

Good Morning Tera!

I just wanted say thank you for last night’s panic call and for this
program. I am the lady from New York, USA who lost 12 lbs
not using the recipes but Dr. T’s and your advice.

I wanted you to see how I celebrated my 50th Birthday breakfast
in bed, prepared by my husband (who doesn’t cook!) and my
“Health Buddy” (my 8 yr old daughter, Rachel).

Thanks to you, I am not missing a heart clogging cake and preparing
myself for another 50 years, this time around, in good health!

You may share my words & pictures with your followers. I hope this
will encourage those who are sitting on the fence or struggling with
the cooked or junk “demons”.

Thank you from the bottom of my healing body & spirit!

Sprouting sonnets,

Sherry

Congratulations, Sherry! We applaud your determination & persistence and celebrate your success! Hope this birthday is the start of you feeling and looking younger every year as you move toward a healthier lifestyle. I still think cake, however, is not to be over looked at birthdays! Raw food enthusiasts CAN have their cake and eat it, too!

Enjoy life and healthy living! (That’s the way it’s supposed to be!)

Tera