“What if your new definition of success was authenticity?”

These words from my mentor Cora sent chills down my spine. This was closely followed by the challenge to “turn it off for a week”.
Turn off my need to be always ON, playing a role for whomever I may be speaking too, or whatever group I am in at the time. Turn off the need to be the funny one, the intelligent one, the great mum, the awesome wife. Turn off the need to be on form constantly and to play “Ali”.

I felt a little teary eyed, excited, and like a weight had lifted off my shoulder.
So authenticity huh ? Up until now my definition of success has always been a great marriage, nice house, respect, lots of friends, gorgeous clothes……..and on it goes. I have all those, but funnily enough you still want more.

What if the true meaning of success was looking inward, finding the answers within yourself and being who you truly are?

My definition of success changed today.
Whats yours?

PHEW. Anyone else feeling a bit overwhelmed lately? It has been pretty darn busy for us lately with work, study, blogging, kids and attempting a social life, and things are starting to take a toll on my energy levels. I am really really tired. So tired in fact that I have made a few decisions about my diet to try and attempt to get some of my energy back.
You may remember a while ago I blogged here about listening to your body, and then last week I talked about tuning in to your intuition. My intuition has been telling me loud and clear that I really need to up my protein intake big time, or I won’t be able to keep this pace up.
I have also been learning a lot lately in my nutrition study at Institute For Integrative Nutrition about the theory of bio-individuality – the concept that no perfect way of eating works for everybody, and we have been encouraged to really experiment and listen to our bodies over our year of study.

Soooooooooooo

I have decided to try adding a little bit of fish and some organic eggs to my diet, and see if this improves my over all energy levels.
I considered eating a little dairy, but this instantly causes my eczema to flare up, so that is simply not an option.
I have absolutely no doubt that a vegan diet can provide everything you need to remain healthy, but right now I am struggling to do the ground work and preparation require to maintain a varied healthy vegan diet.
I am not sure whether it will help, how long I will trial it for, or even whether I will be able to stomach it, but I firmly believe in listening to your body and it’s individual needs, and intuitively this is where I feel I need to be right now.

I will keep you posted!

Question: What foods do you find help you most when energy is flagging?

So here’s a confession. I am a control freak. In fact I am such a control freak I try to control my control freakism. If I had it my way I would pre plan every discussion, meeting, encounter and situation so it would go the way I wanted it to. In the past I would imagine upcoming events and discussions and try and envisage every possible scenario or conversation that might occur.

There are plenty of us out there. Outwardly we look very confident and in control, and possibly a wee bit on the bossy side. But I will let you in on a little secret – most of us share the same thing underneath it all.

FEAR

Deep down us control freaks have a very similar fear that we don’t even like to admit to ourselves – that something might happen and we won’t be able to handle it.  So here is what I have been trying lately, and boy it has been working a treat. I have been practicing letting go of control of future situations. Weird huh? It ain’t easy to start with, but it gets better. Here is what you do.

• Imagine a situation that is coming up, and you can feel yourself over analysing
• Literally hand it over to whatever you believe in – God, your inner guidance system, your intuition, the universe, whatever works for you. Say it out loud -” I hand this situation over, knowing it will work out for the best.” (roll with me on this one if it sounds a little hippy)
• Let it go. It will work out for the best and you can handle it.

It was tricky for me at first to believe that I had the inner wisdom or guidance to cope if I stopped  pre planning, but I learned a few things.

• If I am going into a situation without any pre conceived idea of how it must go, I am much more relaxed.
• Often the outcome turns out in a completely different way than I would have imagined if I had forced the situation, but it is actually a better outcome.

I am not saying don’t be necessarily prepared by the way. If you have a presentation coming up, or a job interview etc - do the preparation you need and be as up to date on information as you need to be. Then hand it over and don’t try to force the outcome.

Weird? Wacky? I don’t think so. Give it a go a couple of times when you notice yourself desperately trying to control an upcoming situation, and see what happens.

You can handle it.

cheers

Ali

It’s Monday Meal Day!!
For your gastronomic delight Mark whipped this up for us last night. I was busy studying, so I asked him to do some searching on the Internet and find something gluten-free, dairy-free and vegetarian. I must have him well trained as he mosied over (without gritted teeth this time at the various food restrictions outlined)  to my go-to site The Healthy Apple and made a variation of Aimee’s Pistachio Orange Pad Thai. He swapped around a few ingredients to match what we already had in the pantry and fridge, and I’ve gotta say it’s a winner!
Here is what you need.

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp almond butter
2 tsp agave syrup
1/3 cup gluten free soy sauce
juice of two limes
juice of two oranges
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 chopped onion
1/2 tsp minced garlic
2 cups mung bean sprouts
1 packet pad thai noodles
1 small bunch of spring onions
small handful pistachios
zest of one orange
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil

Directions:
Prepare the pad thai noodles as per instructions.
In a mixing bowl combine the almond butter, agave syrup, soy sauce, lime juice and orange juice.
In a wok or large pan stir fry the garlic in a splash of olive oil, then add the onion and stir fry until lightly browned.
Add the almond butter mixture, chili flakes, bean sprouts and noodles. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens.
Serve into bowls, and sprinkle chopped spring onions, orange zest, a handful of pistachios and fresh basil.

Serves approx 4 adults.

Super simple, and so good!

Enjoy
Cheers
Ali

Question for today: Who is the cook in your family? Do you have a partner or family member that is happy to cater to your dietary needs/restrictions when they cook?  

Well hello there! You may have noticed there has been a distinct lack of blogging happening from over here over the past few weeks! I missed you !

I have good reason I promise you. First we went on holiday over Easter to the lovely sunny Hawkes Bay, and then left the kids up there with their grandparents and came home so we could get work done. It is the school holidays, so organising childcare can be a bit tricky. When we got home, I  decided to use my time sans kiddies doing some good hard thinking about my blog, and upcoming health coaching business and where they are going.

I am a big believer on listening to your intuition on things like this, and my intuition has been telling me loud and clear that it was time to make a change.

What Ali Did Next has been my baby for a year now, and I have loved every minute of it, but I now also have my studies at the Institute For Integrative Nutrition, and my coaching business which will come from that. So after a lot of soul searching, and some great chatting with my gorgeous coach Kris Britton ………..I have decided to combine it all together. I have planned for a while to call my business Nourish, with a focus on helping women to learn to nourish their bodies, minds, and souls.

It will take me a while to make all the changes I need to make on the website – tech stuff is not my forte (Any experts out there do let me know!!) For now, I have the same domain name, but I am moving to Nourish Body Mind Soul when I can. If you are a fan on facebook you will see the new change in name there.

I really hope you come along with me for the journey, I am sooooo excited. I cant wait to share recipes for the Body, Mind AND soul with you.

Cheers

Ali

Hey team. If you read this post last week, you will have kind of figured by now that I love little bird products. I had the pleasure of reviewing some of their sweet treats last week and LOVED them. This week I have sampled a savoury (is that what you call something not sweet ) treat and I am equally excited.
What I love about little bird is that their products are raw, gluten free, sugar free and vegan – and they are delicious!

My new absolute hands down favourite product has to be these SuperFoods Salad Clusters pictured to the right of the photo, made from sea vegetables ( kelp, korenga, sea lettuce) activated nuts and seeds.
All ingredients are discussed on the back of the ultra stylish pack, and they include

• Activated almonds
• Activated Pumpkin seeds
• Activated sunflower seeds
• Activated sesame seeds
• Korengo
• Kelp
• Sea lettuce
• Tamari
• Spices

But what are the benefits of sea vegetables I hear you say? I am glad you asked!

Sea vegetables happen to be  some of the most nutritionally dense foods available. In addition to important mineral such as iron and iodine, sea vegetables are rich in trace elements such as zinc, boron, tin, selenium and chromium, just a few of the trace minerals badly missing in out modern diets. As an added bonus they have almost the full range of amino acids!
On top of all that sea vegetables are known for their anti inflamatory properties, and are said to maximise metabolism and help boost immune system function.

We added a couple of rather large handfuls of Superfoods Salad Clusters to our salad for dinner tonight, and the crunch and flavour was downright delicious. Tomorrow I will be taking the rest of the packet to work to snack on during the day.

You can visit the their website www.littlebirdorganics.co.nz to find stores that stock their product. They retail at $9 NZD for a 150g bag

Pure raw goodness

Thanks little bird!

Mmmmm Roasties. For us kiwis it is getting closer to winter, and in winter I love nothing more than a good roast dinner. As I don’t eat meat, the vegetables have to be pretty special so I am always try to think up new ways to present them. This was last nights effort, and I have to say it was pretty darned good (if I do say so myself). Roast veges always taste great with herbs, but we threw in some roasted chickpeas as well to add some crunch and protein.

I searched my favourite blogs to come up with a roasted chickpea recipe and found this one over at Healthy Crush.

For the Roasties above you will need:
Kumara
Pumpkin
Carrots
Red onion
2 cloves garlic
4 stalks (is that what you call them?) Rosemary – leaves only
1 handful of sage
Extra virgin olive oil
Rock salt

Directions:
Prepare the chickpeas as per Healthy Crush directions above
Heat oven to 180 degrees celcius
Peel and roughly chop vegetables. I prefer mine quite chunky
Peel and finely chop the garlic
Slice red onion finely
Spread vegetables evenly out over a baking tray and coat in olive oil.
Sprinkle over rock salt to taste
Sprinkle over rosemary leaves, garlic and sage
Mix vegetables lightly to ensure coated in herbs and oil and bake until tender for approx 45-50 mins. This will vary according to oven, and size of the vegetable chunks
Lightly mix and turn vegetables once during cooking to ensure even cooking and that they don’t stick to baking sheet
Just before removing from the oven, mix through the roasted chickpeas and turn oven to fan bake to cook for a few more minutes.

Enjoy

Cheers

Ali

Question: What herbs/spices do you use when roasting veges? Any delicious recipes for me?

My definition of pure delight? A houshold full of gluten free, vegan, dairy free, fussy eaters finding a box of goodies on the front porch from Little Bird Organics. I reviewed some Chocolate macaroons a while back from Little Bird Organics, and life hasn’t been the same since, so when this gorgeous pack of treats arrived, excitement ran high. This deserves two posts, one for the sweet treats, and another for the savoury.

Little Bird Organics has a great tagline : “A little birdie told me food should be three things: mostly raw, definitely organic and full of goodness.”  Everything I want in my food!

Today I wanted to tell you about the Macaroons. In particular, the Strawberry and White Cacao Macaroons – you are drooling just thinking about it, admit it. These could quite possibly be the prettiest wee cakes ever, and contain Raw Cacao, Coconut, Coconut Oil,  Vanilla Bean, Vanilla Extract, Agave , Freeze Dired Strawberry and Himalayan crystal salt. These tasty morsels are scrumptious. You know you are on to a good thing when your carnivore husband who looked at you in undisguised horror when you offered him a raw, vegan treat now raves about them and offers them around to guests. There are five macaroons in the retro cute resealable pack, and I would suggest you really only would need one, as they are seriously sweet and rich.

The second sweet treat for today is actually a healthy breakfast item- Macademia and Berries Grawnola. I swear once you taste this, your tastebuds will refuse anything else. The gluten free grawnola is made of Sprouted buckwheat, Macadamia nuts, Sprouted sunflower seeds, Coconut, Linseed, Currants, Strawberry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Pineapple, Lemon, Agave,  and Himalayan crystal salt. Mix the crunchy grawnola with the zingy bite of the berries, and you won’t want it to finish.

I was going to take a clever photo of this in a cereal bowl today to show you, but unfortunately my husband snuck off with it and took it to work where he proceeded to snack on it all day.

Now I will admite that price wise this is at the higher end of the price range for breakfast cereal. It is $14.90 NZD for  a 350g bag. But it is way better for you than any packaged sugary cereal in the supermarket, and much tastie than any other gluten free cereal I have tasted from my local organic store. I believe you can’t put a price on quality organic food, so my family will be regularly stocking up on this for sure.

So, I am off for a cup of tea followed by a yummy treat from the Little Bird unbakery (how cool is that).

Stay tuned for next week’s review………..

Enjoy

Cheers

Ali

Oooh SAFFRON. I write that in capital letters because using it to cook makes me feel very exotic and more than a little flash! I wonder if using exotic spices makes me a real cook yet? This dish is so simple to make, and really delicious. I adapted it from Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Life.

Do note that whole wheat couscous is not gluten free.

To make it you will need:
2 carrots cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 leek sliced
1 red onion roughly chopped
1 white onion roughly chopped
2 cups swede cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 spring onions sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons non-dairy butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1.5 cups whole wheat couscous
salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
Place all the veges apart from the spring onions onto a baking tray and coat in extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle over some rock salt
Roast for about 20-25 mins, turning occasionally
While the veges are roasting, bring the vegetable stock to the boil in a pan
Remove pan from the heat, add in the non-dairy spread, cumin and saffron
Cover pan while still off the heat, and leave for 15 mins or so
Remove the roast veges from the oven, and pop into a large pan with the 1.5 cups couscous
Bring the vegetable broth back to the boil, then pour over the veges and couscous
Cover with lid, and leave to stand for approx 15 mins or until liquid has been absorbed
Fluff the couscous up with a fork, and chop some spring onion on top

This would serve approximately 6 people as a side dish.

Tonight I had my couscous alongside wholemeal pita bread with hummus. The carnivores had theirs as a side dish to meat.

So SAFFRON (see the capital letters denoting it’s exoticness again!).

I did a bit of research to find out it’s health benefits. It seems they are numerous! Here are just a few:

It contains many plant derived chemical compounds that are known to have anti-oxidant, disease preventing and health promoting properties.

It contains antioxidants that help protect the body from oxidant-induced stress, cancers, infections and act as immune modulators.

The active components in saffron are used in  traditional medicines as antiseptic, antidepressant, anti-oxidant, digestive, and as an anti-convulsant.

Saffron is a good source of minerals like copper, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, selenium, zinc and magnesium.

And finally, it is also rich in many vital vitamins including vitamin A, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin-C that are essential for optimum health.

Crikey, no wonder it ain’t cheap!!

Enjoy

Cheers

Ali

Question: When can I officially call myself a cook?!

Hey there, so from that title I guess it looks like I am ditching cocaine huh? Nup – never tried it, but I am ditching sugar. Which some major studies have shown recently is as addictive as cocaine!

There are always trends in the blogosphere, and lately the evils of sugar have been trending pretty high. I have been avoiding thinking about it really because I am pretty healthy right? I don’t eat meat, dairy or eggs,  so there is not much else to worry about surely?

But lately articles and discussions about sugar have popped up everywhere, and I kind of figure that after a while you need to take notice and realise the universe is trying to tell you something. So I started doing some research, and yep its time to reduce it. Here are just a few reasons why I am doing it: (note – for now I am talking about refined white sugar and fructose).

Sugar is a highly refined substance that does not appear alone in nature. It looks very similar to cocaine, and it acts like heroin when it hits the brain.

Our genetic makeup has not changed in 130,000 years when sugar was a complete rarity and we are still not designed to eat much of it. Because sugar lacks minerals, vitamins and fibre, it takes extra effort for our body to digest it. It therefore needs to deplete its own store of minerals and enzymes to absorb and process the sugar.

Sugar addiction has been linked to many health problems including

• depression
• mood swings
• irritability
• depletion of mineral levels
• hyperactivity
• anxiety or panic attacks
• chromium deficiency
• depletion of the adrenal glands
• type 2 diabetes
• hypoglycemia
• obesity
• candida overgrowth
• high cholesterol
• anti-social behavior such as that found in crime and delinquency
• anger control issues
• insomnia
• decreased immune function
• aggression
• neurotransmitter deficiencies
• high blood pressure
• heart disease
• asthma
• alcoholism
• acne
• PMS
• OCD
• fibromyalgia
• attention deficit
• cancer
• binging
• obesity
• chronic fatigue
• addiction
• hormone imbalance

Long list huh! And look closer at that list – there are a whole pile related to mood and anxiety. Regular readers will know that before I started What Ali Did Next I had a pretty nasty battle with anxiety and depression which I have largely overcome with hard work . Looking at this list, I can see that my sugar consumption sure as hell isn’t helping me.

Ditching sugar is definitely not about ditching treats! I love treats, and will be finding ways to replace my sugar with other yummy things. Now you can look forward to a whole new wave of recipes.

I have a lot more research to do on the topic, and have a couple of books lined up to read. They are

Junk Foods and Junk Moods  by Lindsey Smith

Sweet Poison by David Gillespie

If you know of any more that I should be reading let me know!

So there you go, I am a little excited, a little bit nervous, but looking forward to feeling even healthier.

Cheers

Ali