Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Candida woes & detox

I've talked before about needing to do a candida detox and diet regimen again. I did it about a year ago and it helped but the candida came back in full force during my pregnancy. I was having a hard enough time eating for the baby and me anyway without restricting my diet with an Anti-Candida regimen, so I decided to wait until I had BB to do it again.

Well, having an infant is a full time job! I am just now getting to where I can even think about detoxing. I went to my Naturopathic Doctor last week and he advised me to do the detox and diet as soon as possible. But I'm a very busy person and it's summer! We have trips planned for the next two weekends. I would feel like I was missing out if I was doing the detox while we're out of town. I know this isn't what I should do, but I'm going to start on the Anti-Candida Diet after I get done with my trips (I also found that Dr. McCombs has some tips for vegetarians/vegans doing the regimen).
I don't have a lot of xgfx options where I live and we're going to big cities where I will have tons of options.

But once I get back on Monday August 1st, no more excuses!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

My life is insane


I had a baby boy April 4th, 2011 =]
He weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces and was absolutely perfect (I'm biased of course!)

...and then I somehow managed to still graduate university yesterday! It's been a crazy 2 semesters. I was pregnant, sick, worked two jobs, and went to school full time. I started back at classes 2 weeks after having the baby so that I could finish on time.
I'm worn out!

The health issues that I mentioned previously but wasn't wanting to be specific about was the pregnancy and related complications. We didn't talk about the pregnancy because of being so worried and stressed out. It was a bad pregnancy experience but I had a wonderful labor and delivery. And of course nothing came of the complications, Baby B was even born late! We're so happy that everything turned out well and now we are enjoying him thoroughly.

It's my first ever Mother's Day! And I've spent it cuddling with my little bright eyes <3

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, aunts, and godmothers everywhere

Monday, February 28, 2011

Raw coconut pie filling/pudding

Meat of 1 young Thai coconut
Water from 1 young Thai coconut
2 dates
1 tbsp chia seeds or chia gel
1 banana (I prefer frozen)
Blend it up! Eat it as is for a pudding or pie filling or you can freeze it and it takes on a sorbet texture.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Banana Milk

I've been enjoying this recently. It's super easy to make especially if you're like me and keep frozen bananas handy =]

1 cup raw almond milk (or store bought, or whatever type of milk you prefer)
1 frozen banana (non-frozen is okay but it's much more delicious if you use a frozen one)
Stevia to taste (or whatever sweetener you like)
Cinnamon to taste (optional)

Blend and pour!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Oprah's vegan challenge, other peoples recipes

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the vegan bloggers out there watched the Oprah episode yesterday about the 7 day vegan challenge. If you didn't watch it, you probably heard about it. I'm torn with how I feel about the episode. I think that the exposure for veganism is great. So many people have seen that episode-and will see it- who didn't even know what a vegan diet was. This is great. And the fact that Cargill allowed cameras inside their factory farm is huge. People need to be able to see where their food comes from. There was good information on the episode from Kathy Freston about the vegan diet. That's what I like about the episode.

Now what I wasn't so fond of was the fact that Cargill didn't allow everything that happens to be shown. If people are going to eat meat then they should know exactly how it goes from being a live animal to a steak on their plates. But maybe that's just how I feel about it. I also wasn't very fond of Michael Pollan's input on the show. I have read Omnivore's Dilemma and I found it extremely informative. But I would appreciate it if Pollan wouldn't go on Oprah and advocate meat, which is exactly what he did. Yes he eats meat, and yes that's his personal choice, but he says that he only eats humanely raised meat from small farmers. I wish he would have clearly stated this on the show. He did mention the plight of small farmers and how they need support but he didn't go so far as to talk about his own personal choice to only eat meat from these types of farms. Instead, he talked about how some meat in the diet is fine which will lead viewers to think that Pollan is saying the fast food hamburgers they've been eating are fine. This is also my very personal opinion but Kathy Freston takes an extremely welfarist view on animal rights while I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I'm not to the extreme that some militant activists are, but I'm definitely not a welfarist. So when Freston said that eating meat was alright, it irked me. I know that the general public responds well to acceptance and I understand why Freston takes that approach, but you can express your views on animal rights and veganism without preaching or being pushy.

Still, it's about exposure, so I'm happy that Oprah aired this episode.

The other day I made some more of Averie's No Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls with High Protein Option. I've been avoiding peanuts and peanut butter though so I used homemade almond butter instead. Delicious!

I also made another recipe from a blogger. I made the Pecan Spice Delight Cookies from Kristen's Raw. I shaped these into balls as well and stored them in the fridge like I do the cookie dough balls. These were really good! They would have been great for a raw dessert option over the holidays.

I've been attempting (again) to incorporate more raw foods into my diet. I feel a lot better when I do and find that my digestion is easier. This has resulted in me drinking a lot of smoothies. Delicious! I'm trying to work towards eating mostly raw foods but the weather here makes it hard and the fact that we don't have organic produce. It is very limited. We have a wonderful farmer's market during the spring and summer but the selection disappears once winter is here.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Oh my...

I've come down with the flu. The doctor has ordered me off of school and work this week until Monday 1/24. I haven't been this sick in years. The illness I had last month was nothing compared to what I have now.
That combined with the fact that my mom made me a lot of food to live off of before I became sick to help with my busy schedule has made it to where I don't have anything to post about. I'll be back when I get better!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Vegan iri dofu from JustBento.com

For dinner tonight, I made a recipe I've had my eye on for awhile.
Just Bento Vegan Iri Dofu
I followed the recipe with some minor modifications. I didn't use sesame oil because I don't cook with oil very often, I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce, and I added zucchini, onion, and snow peas. I served it on top of brown rice.
This recipe was successful. Very yummy and light yet filling. I didn't feel overly stuffed afterwards but satisfied.


I have been working all day for the past few days so I've been packing breakfast and lunch. It was nice to be able to cook some tonight, but it's back to packing food tomorrow.