More Food! ;)

Hey hey,

How are ya all going? I've been super stressed out with uni lately, works all starting to pile up and I've got a 2000 word philosophy essay due on Friday... gaaah

But anyway, last week at uni I had an hour off to relax in the sunshine with my jar of apples!

A couple of people eating their hot chips gave me some weird looks, but I think apples in a jar is a great idea! If you're like me and don't like eating apples without cutting them because you know you are wasting more than you eat, cut them up, but em in a jar and squeeze some lemon juice over them (stops them from going brown and keeps the fresh!) and then you have crispy apple pieces to snack on throughout the day - perfect!

The weather in the Southern Hemisphere is getting chillier now so to warm up I love to cut up some sweet potato, sprinkle them with a little sea salt and bake them in the oven at 200 degrees until there soft but slightly crispy. Serve it with a little guac and that's it - yum

Annnnnnd my final food recommendation - zucchini pasta!
It's SO simple to make and tastes wonderful, not to mention is healthy as well and can be enjoyed by both vegans, vegetarians and omnivores a like!
I don't have a fancy spiralizer so I just grate one to one and half zucchinis on the biggest holes on the cheese grater.
The first time I made this I made a sauce by blending together a few sundried tomatoes with some cherry tomatoes and a small clove of garlic and then topped it with the cashew "Sour Cream" that I linked to in my Raw Vegan Taco post

Then the second time I tried something different and made the raw salsa also from the Raw Vegan Taco post and mixed it all together because I loved that dressing, and it went really well and was so gooooood!

Ok I lied I guess that wasn't my final food recommendation but this isn't really a recommendation - just sharing my yummy breakfast.

I picked up VitalGreens powder which contains a kabillion different super things in it to help you achieve your vitamin needs for everyday plus a couple extra super food things. 2 tsps of that with 2 frozen bananas and 200mL coconut water and you've got a fab and easy green smoothie! Paired that with some mixed berry porridge for a great breaky!

That's all from me this time! Have a great week everyone!

Danni

x

Healthy Vegan Pancakes

Good morning! (or whatever time of the day you're reading this at)

Now I have to admit, because of this sudden change of weather in Sydney, the cold is making me want nothing more than something warm to eat, and of course there isn't exactly anything on the raw vegan menu that fits into that, so I've caved in a little and strayed off being raw for a couple of meals. This morning I made some lovely vegan pancakes and I'd love to share the recipe for anyone who might be interested... they're pretty healthy, too, so non-vegans might also want to use this recipe for a tasty morning treat!

Healthy Vegan Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup non-dairy milk of your choice
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar (or other natural sweetener of your choice)
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add wet ingredients and mix with electric mixer until combined. If the batter seems to have an overpowering taste of the baking powder, don't worry, it's normal and when you cook them it will disappear!
3. Cook them on a non-stick frying pan and flip when the face down side becomes golden. Make sure they cook all the way through
4. Serve with maple syrup, fruit, or whatever else you want to top it with and enjoy :)

...and there you go! totally simple and easy! I used sea salt just as a healthier alternative to table salt, and I also used low-fat soy milk however I would have preferred to have used almond milk but we didn't have any and I'm too lazy to go to the shop and get some... haha, and also I use extra virgin olive oil for the oil. Hope the recipe works out for you all and feel free to comment and let me know how it turned out for you!

Also, here's a pic of my banana raspberry coconut smoothie in my new jar, totally cute:

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday and a great weekend!

Danni

x

Day One

Happy Easter everyone!

So today was day one of both my raw vegan diet change and my SkinnyMe teatox! So far so good, too! I'm especially impressed with my efforts to avoid chocolate at this time of the year :P

RunKeeper is a fantastic app,
recommend it to everyone!

I'm just going to do an outline of how my day went and what I ate.

Bondi Beach Looking
 Lovely This Morning

Woke up at about 9:15am, quite late but I was up late last night dueling wizard on Pottermore (Harry Potter nerd over here!). When I got up I went and made myself my first cup on the loose leaf SkinnyMe tea mix! I put the leaves in a tea infuser, although you can just leave the loose and drink the tea, which I might do tomorrow. The taste was pleasant, it's like a very kind of grassy green tea I guess, not sure how else I can describe it. After I finished my tea I went for an 8km slow jog down to Bondi Beach. As you can see in the screen shot from my running app, I did it in 1 hour and 9 minutes which for me is extremely slow, but that's ok because I actually haven't been for a run in a week or more which is not so good. But on the bright side this is the furthest I've ever run before! So I'm pretty happy about that. As you can see my average pace was 8:11 minutes per kilometre, and 4:58 minutes per kilometre was my fastest pace during the hour. For not having done any exercise in the last week I'm pretty happy and this progress. Since starting uni I've unfortunately slacked off exercising because I'm still getting used to this new schedule. The key is organisation so I just gotta sort out everything and I'll be back on track very shortly.

When I got home I prepared myself breakfast. I soaked some bircher muesli the previous night in organic, natural almond milk and in the morning I blended up some frozen raspberries and coconut milk yoghurt together and added it to the muesli, with fresh strawberries and blueberries on top. To accompany this I made a banana-blueberry smoothie which was yum! Here's a pic:

Yummy! My bircher combination needs a little tweaking but overall it was good and really filling too!

For lunch I had a salad made up of spinach, kale, cherry tomatoes and avocado, dressed with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Also really filling!

Annnnd for dinner all I had was a few slices of watermelon, one granny smith apple and the water from one young coconut. It sounds like not much however I felt that what I ate from the rest of the day was still fuelling me and I really wasn't that hungry but it also filled me up surprisingly well! I just haven't felt starving at any point in the day at all which is really good because I guess that means my body isn't craving anything that it might not be getting enough of :)

I've just finished drinking the Colon Cleanse teabag from SkinnyMe tea and I don't know what all the fuss is about it not tasting nice - it's definitely tolerable and it didn't strike me as having a particularly strong taste at all or anything, I thought it was quite pleasant actually but maybe that's because I'm mad about any and all tea all the time haha! I soaked it for just over a minute to start off.. I'm a little nervous about tomorrow morning but I'm sure it'll be fine, I'm getting up an hour or so earlier than I would normally though just to make sure.

Anyway that's all for today, hope you all had a wonderful easter!

Danni

x

An Introduction

Hello to whoever may be reading this!

Let me start off with an introduction - My names is Danni, I'm 17 years old from Sydney, Australia, and I'm about to make the journey into raw veganism.

On February 15 2013 I made the switch to vegan. Though influenced predominantly by ethical reasons, I was also seeking to benefit my health. I previously made an attempt to be vegan in 2012, however gave up around 2 - 3 months in. This time, the time just felt right and I organised myself to stick with the change and enjoy it. 

Towards the end of 2012 I discovered a new found love for health and fitness. For the first time in my life I loved exercise and wanted to strive towards becoming better and better. I joined a gym and also went for runs, working out a total of 3 - 5 times a week. 

With the new year I began to fall in love with an active and healthy lifestyle even more, and now I'm really determined to push myself and create the best possible version of myself, and continuing to push my fitness level to a place it's never been before.

At 5'1 and approx. 49kg (give or take a kilo), my journey is not about weight loss. I've always been a petite build and haven't ever struggled with my weight. This is about how my body feels on the inside, which in turn will also reflect on the outside. 

This Sunday (March 31st 2013) will mark day 1 of raw veganism for me and I couldn't be more excited. It just feels so good to give your body food in the purest of form, and you can feel your body reward you for this through clearer skin, more energy, and just life. 

I wanted to start this blog to share my experiences and track my journey, as well as hopefully inspire other people to join in on this healthy lifestyle. I plan on posting recipes and food inspiration posts as well as tracking my body's progress in fitness and health.

I have big plans for the future, including either a half or full marathon in July, so I'm looking forward to updating this blog and looking at my progress in the future.

Danni

x