Last weekend we did an amazing course with Lina Loo at the Singapore Branch of Light Love Laughter Academy. It was called Ultimate Living Chef and it covered recipes and lifestyle tips for aspiring raw food practitioners. Although we are not vegan, at least not yet, we greatly enjoyed this course and benefited already by seeing an amazing impact living foods have on your body!
Throughout the 3-day intensive program Lina taught us many delicious recipes; she showed us how to make delicious green smoothies, make your own milk and cheese from nuts, raw food breads and how to sprout! We also had a session where we made our own raw cocoa chocolate nuggets, brownies and vegan desserts! Yum!!!
As a part of the program we also had few transformational yoga sessions with Jolyn and Linda, it had an enormous impact on the quality of our brething, flexibility and focus.
Linda holds many interesting workshops and teaches about vegan lifestyle including great tips of where to shop for the best quality organic products and fresh fruit and vegetables. Check out her blog and read articles on food and courses offerings: http://rawfoodlifestyles.com/
If you would like to learn more about this, please contact me! I am more than happy to share more details about Linda’s teachings! You should come and try her delicious recipes yourselves!!!
One of my favorite dishes is lemon grilled salmon with rice and veggie salad! This is also one of the easiest meals to cook, as you need to boil rice, cut vegetables for the salad and put salmon in the oven for about 20 minutes! That’s so easy and quick…
Grilled Lemon Salmon
I usually place a slice of salmon in aluminum paper, sprinkle lemon and lime juice over it, add some herbs and spices, let it marinate a little and bake in the oven for 20 minutes in 250°. It has always worked for me and it tastes fantastic! I like adding garlic sprinkle and Italian herbs on top, as these bring a nice flavor to the fish. If you have green onion you can add it also, it adds a nice aroma to salmon... When you take it out of the oven in the aluminum and put the salmon slices directly on the plate, pour the lemon sauce over it. But I serve it in the ‘aluminum boats’ because the salmon does not get dry as it stays in the lemon dressing throughout the whole meal!
Our recent change in diet made us experiment with food. At the beginning we were a little lost as we couldn’t reprogram our minds to think: these lovely vegetables are your whole meal! Enjoy! Actually, the typical meal has always been: meat + potatoes/rice/pasta + side salad. This is purely psychological… So now we buy products we never even used before but also, use the usual ingredients in a most unusual way. Here’s one!
Skinny Veg Pizza
I used the wraps/flatbread as a pizza base and topped it with tomato sauce, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, carrots (Herve’s invention!), parmesan and herbs. You can add any other veg on the top, depending on your personal taste buds or what you have in your fridge! Too easy? Well, definitely easy, delicious and healthy! And quick, as the prep time was about 10 minutes and cooking, between 8-10!
Tomato sauce: tomato paste, pesto sauce, oregano, Italian herbs, oil of olive.
Cooking tip: as the wrap/flatbread is quite soft, you may place it on the aluminum paper instead of the oven grill directly.
It is amazing how popular culture and media can formulate our views and habits. No news, that’s common knowledge, right? Well, it is easier to go with the crowd, we eat and drink what we want, we buy and wear what’s trendy, we do what’s common and expected of us in our cultures… We have free will to make life choices that can change our future. Do we really?
Recently we changed our eating habits with Herve and eliminated meat from our diet. What the hell? You have been eating it all your life? Well, a little bit of information and observation (have to give credit to Fred for this), and you realize, wow, we are ones of those people following the mass and eating according to the media standards: fast food, meat, ham, burgers, chicken nuggets and wings, milk and yoghurts, eggs… Here’s a thing, that’s just great marketing that works pretty well, but there is little truth about what we really consume while eating those. Good quality meat is expensive so it must be a luxury; we all want to have it, why wouldn’t I eat a lovely steak with my friends? They say milk is healthy and high on calcium, prevents osteoporosis, really? Again, that’s just good PR…
Before the 20th century people cultivated land, lived more active lifestyles and ate plant based foods, there were no cancers, diabetes, heart and cholesterol diseases, metabolism-related illnesses, obesity, etc. Today, we are at a high risk of suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, excess weight, and many others death causing heath problems. Why? Unhealthy shift of lifestyle choices: consuming animal based foods, often in excess, smoking, alcohol, high amount of calories intake vs. very low physical activity, increased use of mechanized transportation and a greater labor-saving technology at home, less physically demanding work, taking up less active recreational pursuits such as TV or computer games, living fast-paced lives that force us to rush forward without thinking of our health and lifestyle. Shall I continue? No need I think…
According to a 2006 report by the Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to air and water pollution, land degradation, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Factory farming requires large areas of land and large quantities of feed, what leads to forest cutting and increased rate of species extinction. What is more, producing a certain quantity of food in meat requires much more water than producing the same amount of food in grain; it roughly takes 60, 108, 168, and 229 pounds of water to produce a pound of potatoes, wheat, corn and rice respectively; a pound of beef however, requires 12,000 gallons of water! Factory farming is also known for its cruel treatment of the animals… (more details: Wikipedia)
Using your link Ivano :)
So going green starts here, in our house, in our kitchen, with our family and friends. Do not let popular culture and society habits take control over your lifestyle choices, this is your life, your body and your future. If eliminating meats can have such enormous benefits to my health and the environment, we choose to go green!
We are a Polish/French couple living in Singapore... Discovering new fascinating yet totally foreign culture; learning new things, visiting interesting places and getting to know the Singaporean lifestyle...
