Year: 2013

Gwyneth Paltrow shares her favourite wintery recipes with us!

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Oh, today we’re in for a treat! Gwyneth Paltrow this week releases her latest cookbook It’s All Good in Australia and – hoorah for us – I’ve been very lucky to be granted a sneak peak and an extract.

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Perhaps she’s wearing makeup that makes her look like she’s not wearing makeup…either way, the shot is hot and fresh and pervily captivating.

Gwyneth and I are very much on the same page with food and lifestyle stuff and she contributed a recipe to my I Quit Sugar cookbook. You might recall her last cookbook, My Father’s Daughter, was a rippa…but it used sugar in the recipes; this time around, Gwyneth has switched most of her recipes to xylitol, rice malt syrup and stevia. We’re straddling a revolution, I tell you!

She’s also a fan of slow cooking. Anyone who follows my style of eating here will no doubt love the lamb tagine. The recipes are also hit with a “Vegan”, “Protein Packed” and “Elimination Diet” so you can choose your own adventure, with various modifications specified. Clever, hey?

But over to Gwynnie and her nouriture…

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Sweet Potato + Five Spice Muffins, recipe below. © It’s All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow, Grand Central Publishing

Sweet Potato + Five Spice Muffins

Gluten-free baking is not for the faint of heart. At first as we tested this recipe, we produced heavy or bizarrely textured muffins, but we finally hit the nail on the head with the perfect mix of ingredients. These muffins are super-tasty and are always a smashing success in my house.

Makes a dozen (vegan) muffins

  • 1 large sweet potato
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
  • ¾ cup xylitol
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups gluten-free flour (if the flour doesn’t include xanthan gum only add 1 teaspoon)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1½ tablespoons Chinese five-spice powder
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Prick the sweet potato a few times with a paring knife or a fork. Bake until soft (when a paring knife can cut through with zero resistance), about 1 hour. Set the sweet potato aside until it’s completely cool.

Peel the sweet potato, discard the skin, and mash the flesh in a mixing bowl with a fork. Whisk the olive oil, almond milk, xylitol, and vanilla into the sweet potato. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, five-spice powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

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7 tips my dentist wasn’t meant to tell me

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I have a dentist. His name is Dr. Ron Ehrlich from the Sydney Holistic Dental Centre. He gets it. He doesn’t eat sugar. He does exercise in the same way I do. He is actively engaged in the wholefood movement and shares more than just a fill-in with his patients. Over the years he’s shared some fabulously open-minded tips for wellness. I figured all my friends here would benefit from hearing them, too. It’s definitely stuff a dentist generally only shares with their friends…Over to Ronald…

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Image by Greg Guillemin

1. Grind your teeth?  Try to correct your breathing.

Ninety-five per cent of us don’t have enough room for the 32 teeth we have in our mouths.  Not having enough room for your teeth means your airway is not as big as it could be and it’s now recognised that grinding is most often linked to “sleep disordered breathing” including snoring and sleep apnoea. So working on breathing through the nose helps for lots of reasons – including reducing the incidence and effect of tooth grinding, which results in premature wearing or cracking of teeth, broken fillings, headaches, neck aches or a sore jaw.

Which brings me too…

2. Forget mouthguards: tape your mouth shut at night.  Serious!

Try using Micropore (3M) tape over your mouth….yes, I’m serious. You’ll be amazed how something so simple can make a difference. Using the 7-8 hours of sleep to practice breathing through your nose evens out your breathing and stabilises your body chemistry. And because it improves sleep and evens out your breathing, by that same reasoning it also helps reduce the grinding of teeth. [I tried four different – expensive – mouth guards, all of which didn’t stop me from grinding, before trying this tape method. It’s the ONLY thing that’s ever worked and costs a few dollars a month! – Sarah.].

3. Getting mouth ulcers? Avoid grains.

Mouth ulcers (aphthous ulcers) are a common problem. They are an autoimmune response. Try avoiding all grains for a few months. Grains produce a protein called zonulin (…look it up), that causes leaky gut that results in a whole range of autoimmune conditions.

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this makes me angry…

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Take a look at the shot below. That there, my dear blog land dwellers, is my mail collection from one day. You’ll note it’s mostly parcels sent in expensive overnight bags and courier boxes. What you can’t see is the amount of guff inside the parcels (I don’t wish to expose culprits): elaborately written press releases, products, books, sugary snacks, padding, bubble-wrap, gimmicky invites (sand in a glass bottle?!) and…tinsel. What none of us see is the hidden costs: the labour, the resources, the carbon emissions to produce and cart such guff around the planet.

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All of which gets me really upset.

Admittedly, the above represented a particularly large dumping. Although, most days entail carting at least 2-3 parcels back from the post office (please note: my physical carting of said guff is not the pivot point of my gripe).

Why does it upset me? I’d like to explain why, as a thinly disguised (and polite) message to those who might be thinking of sending me something some time soon.

In flat out terms: the above is a huge waste of resources. Unforgivably so.

Leaving aside the actual manufacturing cost of the product itself, there’s the work that went into the junior PR staffer writing the release (then getting it checked, legalled etc), the packaging, the postman’s time sorting and delivering the packages, the transport costs, the issuing of a notification in my box, the second reminder when I can’t get to the post office for a few days. And so on. All very well if the product is needed and/or useful. But in most cases it’s not. And these costs – specifically to the planet – devastate me.

Generally the sender doesn’t wear these costs. Their client does. And so there’s too little accountability or conscious thought going into the blind sending out of the guff. This is the unforgivable part.

In addition, it’s a huge waste of my resources. Every parcel in that shot above requires either a polite thank you note or a detailed email to the sender explaining I can’t promote the particular product they’ve sent me as it doesn’t fit with my message or ethics. Which in so many cases it doesn’t because:

I actively and vocally promote minimal consumption.

I get doubly upset that this ethos is not respected. Leaving aside the times the product in question is full of cane sugar or laced with toxic chemicals.

I’m going to soften the blow of my spray at this juncture by saying that often a lot of mindful care and

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How Maggie Beer + Poh use their leftovers (4 clever recipes!)

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OzHarvest has released its first cookbook of “food rescue” recipes, which perfectly marries two things I’m passionate about: not wasting food, and creating simple meals with leftovers. I’ll be sharing a few of the recipes from the cookbook below, but also know this:

for every book purchased, more than 60 meals will be delivered to those in need.

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Neil Perry’s Orecchiette with potatoes peas & pesto, recipe below

There’s a great incentive to get the cookbook if ever I’ve heard one. You can buy the OzHarvest cookbook from David Jones’ stores nationwide, or from OzHarvest online.

Each year, $7.8 billion of food is thrown out and over four tonnes ends up as landfill (stats via Foodwise). And in any one night, one in ten people go without a decent meal. OzHarvest has been the conduit that links the two, picking up leftover food that would otherwise have been thrown out and delivering it to those who need it. OzHarvest has delivered more than 15 million meals and rescued more than 4,400 tonnes of food from ending up as landfill since 2004.

The cookbook includes 120 recipes dedicated to converting your leftovers into simply great meals for the family devised by 40 super chefs, including Maggie Beer, George Calombaris, Poh Ling Yeow, Peter Gilmore, Bill Granger and Neil Perry.

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Her’s a peek at some of my favourites…

Neil Perry’s Orecchiette with Potatoes Peas & Pesto

Serves 4 (image above)

You can buy pesto or make it in the blender, but I promise that if you pound it by hand it’ll taste so good that you’ll never go back to the old ways. Pesto is perfect for using up wilting bunches of basil, and this recipe also uses last

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My simple home: why I chose a latex mattress

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I struggle with sleep. It’s elusive stuff. It’s largely related to my auto-immune disease (although sometimes I wonder what comes first…). I’ve written about my insomnia here, and I’ve shared a bunch of sleep solutions you all sent in here. But at some point I had to look at my bed.

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Image via Favim.com

I’ve been sleeping on a coil spring ensemble for 11 years. I’ve previously been told they ain’t great for you, especially for AI folk – they’re essentially EMF conductors. But I’m vocally and stridently against chucking stuff out just because a product no longer suits my principles or whatever. Thus, for many years it’s been a dilemma – replace or stay and burn?

But this is where I have arrived: my old bed is 11 years old and it’s generally advised you should replace a coil spring mattress after ten. Plus, I need a guest bed (my coil-y one will move into my spare room). All of which- now that I’ve weighed up the various factors – has given me a green light to get myself a new bed.

Please note: In this My Simple Home series I implore you to weigh up your own predicament at every turn as I have above. Please don’t chuck stuff out other than as a carefully considered last option.

I have researched my options for several months now and the Big Fat Conclusion I’ve arrived at is that…

a latex mattress with a wooden slatted base is best.

 

Me, personally, I’ve chosen the Bio Latex mattress from The Comfort Shop, and I’ll explain why.

And just so you know, this is a sponsored post, but opinions are all my own and I researched the topic and approached The Comfort Shop myself. You’ll find my position on sponsored posts and advertising here.

So why latex?

 

It’s 100% natural. Latex – despite the scientific-y name – comes from latex vessels under the bark of the rubber tree. Which means…

It’s best for your health. Latex is hypoallergenic so it’s great for allergy sufferers or for people who suffer from hay fever, asthma and respiratory problems.

Oh, and it’s also anti-microbial. Rubber trees have a protective anti-microbial “milk” to protect it from damage. The milk forms a protective layer to

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Why I visited an abattoir

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I think some of you noticed on my social media outpourings recently that I visited an abattoir in Tamworth. I want to explain why. And how. And what I came away with. For it was a deeply emotional and BIG LIFE thing to do on a sodden Friday afternoon. I hope I can fairly reflect it all here.

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I’m a spokesperson for the beef and lamb industry’s Target100 program, charged with sharing information about sustainable beef and lamb consumption. And before we kick off:

This is a paid role. But my opinions in this blog are my own. And I should highlight that I approached the organisation myself – for information – in the first instance.

For those wondering, this is how I work when it comes to being paid for things.

This topic – meat eating and sustainability – matters massively to me. And I’ve been on a mission to get my head around the issues and the challenges that we all face – whether we eat meat or not.

So why go see an abattoir?

Because I want to make sure I really get what’s going on. If I’m going to rant on the topic, I have to see the full picture. This is where the world is at: we want transparency (because a troll or two will trip us up if we deliver anything but).

The Target100 crew asked if I’d like to see how the whole meat production picture works here in Australia. I said, “Right up I do”. And so we headed to Tamworth. To visit breeders (the Sprys farm), feedlots (where a lot of our supermarket meat comes from), the paddock-to-plate restaurant Graze (this place is worth a stop-off if you’re in the area…they grow, butcher and age their own meat and really know how to grill a rib eye steak), and the Teys Australia abattoir – or processing plant as they prefer to be called.
I can tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Eat meat? Then you must explore.

If you eat meat, it’s unconscionable not to explore where it comes from.
Equally if you don’t eat meat. For a vegan diet also relies on meat. Where do you think the fertilizer comes from to feed your soy and grains?

As a relevant aside, my food philosophy is squarely about sustainability.

We can care about organic v local v grain-fed v pasture-fed v farmer’s market-selected v supermarket-bought. But really, the discussion we need to have is about sustainability – both of the planet and its food systems, and ourselves. Because the reality is there simply ain’t enough food – meat or otherwise – to feed us all. I’ve spoken to

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11 sugar-free Easter tricks (plus free IQS shipping!!)

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A sugar-free Easter…I’ve done a few now. It is possible. You just have to come to regard pre-masticated, additive-addled chocolate confection as a vile non-food and a waste of your salivary glands. Which it is.

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Raspberry Ripple Easter friends, modified from my recipe (below) by The Rogue Ginger and shared on Instagram.

The last few weeks I’ve been in chocolate mode, putting together my next ebook…yes…a sugar-free chocolate cookbook. I’m not giving away too much yet, so you’ll have to make do with these ideas below for now. Many are based on recipes in my I Quit Sugar book. Which, as an Eastery bonus, you can

buy here from today and get FREE shipping!

* Save $7 if you’re in Australia.

* If you’re purchasing internationally, it’ll cost you a flat $7 for shipping (again, save $7). To anywhere!

* The FREE SHIPPING offer runs from today until April 8.

But to the ideas….

1. My raspberry ripple, with a Lent-breaking twist.  

This fun chocolate bunny (image above) is a great kid-friendly Easter idea. Simply set the ripple in a bunny/chick/egg mould instead of creating a bark, as set out in my cookbook.

Raspberry Ripple

  • 1/3- 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup organic salted butter (be sure to use salted…the saltiness gives it a lovely kick)
  • 2 tbls raw cacao, or cocoa
  • 1 tbls rice malt syrup
  • 1/3 cup coconut, shredded or flakes (for a chunkier version)
  • 1/3 cup of frozen raspberries

Melt the butter and oil (in a pan or microwave…the oil takes longer to melt so add the butter a little after); stir in the cacao and syrup. Arrange the berries and coconut in the moulds.

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a little more catching up

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This week I did my third I Quit Sugar book signing – at Dymocks in George Street, where the book is currently sitting at #2. Damn Jodi and her highly digestible fiction!

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I’ve shared a few of the I Quit Sugar media stories recently, but here’s some more. In case you were wondering what to read this weekend!

1. From Marie Claire, “Back to Basics”,  an overview of the Paleo movement and where sugar fits into this. I outline my position, thus:

Author and media commentator Sarah Wilson calls her sugar-free approach to food as “Paleo-ish” – and it’s gaining huge popularity. “Most people intuitively feel we’re on the wrong track with sugar-based eating,” she says. “But we’re exhausted by competing food messages. People just want something that makes sense.”

For Wilson, nothing made better sense than cutting out processed foods and eating more like her grandparents rather than her Stone Age ancestors. It’s not strict and aside from addressing her debilitating autoimmune disease, it freed her from the “blood sugar roller-coaster”.

“I was constantly worried, trying to resist sugar. I used to be resigned to feeling like crap every afternoon. Now, I realise how toxic sugar can be,” she says.

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You can read the full article here.

2. Sophie Miura at Madison magazine, wrote this great rundown. I was pleased to note the nutritionists she consulted were very balanced in their thinking.

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what’s better for the planet: ebooks or print books?

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I try not to got holier than thou with environmental footprint prescriptives. I try. (Although, when it comes to bottled water, I’m rather unforgiving.) Mostly I prefer to advocate making better choices. And mostly there is a better choice. And small, everyday, mindful things we can all do.

Image via We Heart It
Image via We Heart It

Problem is, there is so much misinformation out there. How about we spend today clearing a few up? Below is a mix of my own tips and some “dilemmas: sorted” courtesy of one of my favourite magazines, Green Lifestyle Magazine.

What’s better: dishwashers v hand washing?

Based on Green Lifestyle Mag’s research, dishwashers work out better. But here’s some tips for both:

  • Dishwashers come out on top – they use less water and are usually better on the electrical energy – when stacked properly and you do a full load.
  • If washing by hand, use two sinks – one full of hot, sudsy water for washing, and another for rinsing.
  • Clean a dishwasher filter regularly for increased efficiency, and, if you can, bypass the drying phase – simply open the door to let out air while the dishes are hot – you’ll be surprised how quickly they dry.
  • If you’re in the market for a new dishwasher, shop by the stars.

Tip I want to share: boil only as much water as you need in your kettle.

Kettles and jugs are one of the BIGGEST suck holes of energy in your kitchen. So many people fill the jug unnecessarily to make one cup of tea. Don’t be one of them!

What’s better: print books versus ebooks?

The e-book appears to be greener (when you weigh up the eco-cost of paper v the energy and tech infrastructure used to make an eReader), according to Green Lifestyle Mag‘s research. Here’s a few notes to help you if you’re new to

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