Vital vegetable broth

It makes me so happy to introduce you to this vegetable broth. It really represents what I think about food and healthy eating.

 I found the recipe for it in a 'Nutrition in essence' book, written by a nutrition consultant  Sarah Bearden. I would really recommend reading this book, as it has so much information about food and your body and some recipes too. The broth can be used for soups or drunk on its own. According to the author, people said they have better sleep,  more energy, better skin and 'experienced a soothing effect on the nervous system when they consume this broth daily'.

If you have a medium sized pot use just a third of the ingredients given and that will make the broth that you will use up in seven days if you drink one cup a day.

2 medium yellow onions
4 leeks
7 celery stalks
4 red potatoes  (had white potatoes, as red ones weren't in season, but it worked well)
2 sweet potatoes
12 green string beans (or runner beans)
1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley
1bay leaf
4 cloves of garlic
12 black peppercorns
4 whole allspice
1 tablespoon sea salt

I also added some more veggies because I found them in my fridge: fresh thyme (adds a lot of nice taste and smell) and some cabbage with the core.

My broth before cooking

1. Wash and roughly chop the vegetables into large chunks. Do not peel- even keep the skins on the garlic and onion.
2. put all the ingredients into a large pan.
3. Fill the pan with filtered water to cover the vegetables and to just a few inches below the top of the pan.
4. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for at least two hours.
5. Strain it using a colander, if you have line it with muslin and store it in a fridge.

And that's how it looks after- beautiful clear colour, full of health

My food philosophy or foodosophy:)

Ok, there's no reason to hide- I love food!!!!

Food is super important in my life, and it is so in other people's  lives, even if they don't realise it. It affects so much of how we feel, what we think, what we do, etc... 

What I think  about food and how I eat is how I look at life and how I live. I prefer simple food, few ingredients, ideally seasonal and locally sourced.  But not everyone can have dairy, let's say, and so they end up drinking almond milk, which isn't local at all at least here in UK. If that makes them feel better and healthier- that's brilliant. Health to me is at the very top of all food and cooking. And it's all about finding the right balance between eating healthy, as much local as possible, fresh, and unprocessed food. 

I tried being vegetarian and vegan several times in my life, and have got back to eating meat and fish. I try not to eat meat too often, and I try to eat more fish, cause it feels healthy and if you know how it can be very tasty. 

I'm just finding out how important it is to eat quite a bit in the morning, keep munching until lunch,  have a big meal for  lunch and eat very little in the evening. Never ever underestimate breakfast. Trust me, your body will be thanking you for this. And with the right planning it is not so difficult to achieve. Most importantly listen to your body and how it feels after each meal.

Ok, so here is my breakfast idea. I'm sorry this is not for vegetarians, but it's quite healthy and filling. 

It's quite simple- buckwheat, which I usually buy in Polish shops. It's toasted, that's why it's brown. You can get green buckwheat from big shopping centres here in UK but it takes more time to cook it and in the morning that makes a difference. And then there's prosciutto which is super tasty, is filling, and not that damaging. The combination works very well, is tasty and filling. It might not be for everyone,  but it works for me, and so it might work for you too.

Hope to hear your comments:)

p.s. As I 'finished' this post, I kept on writing it in my mind. There were so many things I still wanted to share. So here are a few more things I believe about food and eating:

• It's better not to get very hungry before you eat, because it's easier to make a wiser choice of what to eat then.
• Don't get upset if there is some food that isn't ok to eat. Accept that as part of who you are. Then research a lot  about the food that you can eat and do include as diverse ingredients as you can into your diet. That will help you forget about the food that isn't good for you. 
• One more thing. Chewing is at least as important as what you put into your mouth. It will feel so much better when you chew everything slowly. 

Granola again

While browsing Facebook, I found a 'With love from Brooklyn' community page. Many posts about interesting places to eat in Brooklyn. And one article about granola in New York Times. Didn't know granola used to be a hippie food, that makes me like it even more!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/dining/granola-is-sowing-its-wild-oats.html?ref=dining&_r=0

Have a read and try some crazy granola ideas.

How to make a perfect granola?

Just to be clear, I do not answer to this question at the end of the post:) But I'm gonna say that I attempted at making one, and it turned out to be a bit burnt. I left it in the oven at about 176C for 10 minutes first and then for another 25min checking every 5 minutes and stirring it.

Now I know that I'm going to put almonds lastly, maybe even after the oven,  because they taste most burnt, almost like those sunflower seeds with black shells. So that was a bit disappointing.

The ingredients of my first time granola were- oats, almods, honey, mango, cinnamon. You just melt the honey and then mix oats, almonds and honey. Add the fruits at the end, and I would say add the nuts and seeds at the end. And really add a lot of cinnamon if you like it, cause I could barely taste at the end. And also add any spice that you find attracted to even if it's savoury. Like someone suggested here http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/how-to-make-the-best-granola-ever, you can add such things as Rosemarie.  Just fill your morning with delightful smells and you will have a great start of the day!

And then I had it with my own-made almond milk, which a friend ordered for me from http://tree-harvest.com/. This is how it all looked at the  end

Pretty isn't it!?