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!?

The home of my dreams (or something very close to that)

I was thinking it would be nice to imagine how my ideal home would look like. So this post is going to be about how it's going to look like ( if you want a more in-depth experience of this post, play this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dqVDQ-lF4Q while you read). I started with a condition not to be judgmental to my likes ('oh, this is a house for an old lady', or a big family,etc..), just look for exciting things for ME.  I surfed the internet and found some pretty amazing interiors and exteriors. Shall we start with the house? How would it look like? I'm not sure whether it's the influence of the movies, but I found myself imagining a traditional American type of house. Something like this

Traditional Home Office design by Austin Architect Tim Cuppett Architects

Where to go next? I'm not sure, but this attic room is so cozy and so likeable, don't you think?

Traditional Home Office design by Austin Architect Tim Cuppett Architects

Having friends around for a tea in this lovely green atmosphere or watching a movie, or listening to some really good music while taking a bath next door. Love the colours, green, dark brown, and the gentle blue in the carpet. And it's wood. I can totally see this room fitting into the house above by its size and its style.

It's time to go to bed.

Contemporary Kids Beds design by Other Metro The Land of Nod

I know it says for kids, but the colours (and I'm very much into colours, yes colOUrs and not colORs) are so good for dreaming while sleeping or awake.

You get up, through a hallway that's got everything- a soothing blue color, a thin tree, and a clock.

Traditional Entry design by San Francisco Architect Heydt Designs

and out. Sit, enjoy the view, and a cup of tea or a smoothie right here, on these swinging chairs

Traditional Porch design by Burlington Architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

or on this cozy couch

Traditional Garage And Shed design by Dallas Media And Blogs Sarah Greenman


After a great start of a day, time to do something creative and that's the space to do it

Traditional Home Office design by Burlington Architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

Just enough light, but not too much to be distracted from whatever you are focused on that day. There are shelves and cupboards, and a basin to wash your brushes or make tea, and a big table for your work.

Inspired to cook something?

Traditional Kitchen design by Burlington Architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

Love the wooden table, the cupboard, the gas cooker, the brightness, wooden floor. This kitchen invites to be cooking lots of healthy and delicious meals.

And this could be my garden house in a big and a half wild garden by my house where I would store nuts, apples, pears, flowers and herbs for teas and baths for gloomy winter days.

Traditional Garage And Shed design by Other Metro Media And Blogs Emily Winters

Gardening

The very beginning of getting into gardening is a really exciting time. Maybe even the most exciting. I'll tell you later, when I'm through to the next stage:)
To my mind the most important thing is to observe, and having lots of free time I definitely have time for that. I keep checking on the seeds and seedlings  that I've planted several times per day to see how they are doing, maybe they need water, more soil, more sun, less sun, etc... All the decisions I make and the strategies I employ are mostly inspired by my own intuition. I guess it's a bit like having a baby and when it cries you have to try different things to see what it is that he wants.
As well as learning gardening from doing it (which I think is the best way) I, like a new mother, look for helpful sources that give all the answers to your questions. Here I found some worthy websites. This is a forum for people growing from seeds. Even though I haven't been using permaculture in  gardening yet, I think it is the way to easy and pleasant gardening. Since I have got only the balcony for growing my stuff, I found this link about balcony permaculture quite helpul, and I surely will be trying things out.  And here is Cecilia's blog on many things, permaculture, but not only, which is really inspirational.

And for the end, here are my little pepper seedlings, they grow just a bit higher than that, and you can use them as a herb in salads, sandwiches, etc... It's the most observed plant in my balcony garden so far, but it's not doing as well as I'd like it to. Or maybe I'm a too demanding mother. If I leave them in the balcony, they dry up quickly, if I cover them with a plastic bag, they start having white fuzz around the stem. I left them for couple of hours without the cover and the fuzz seemed to disappear. So much care and time for such little seedlings.

Restarting my blogging:)

As this blog was born from the idea of growing things, gardens and the like, I stay loyal to this idea and continue blogging about these things.
I went around (almost around, ok, maybe just half the circle) Lithuania, my home country, and visited some eco communities. I happened to visit one couple, that gave me some nice seeds to grow. And here I am, planting all these seeds and waiting with curiosity what will grow out of them. Right now I've just sown couple of Figs and a Ginkgotree (I think that that's how it's called). Anyone ever tried growing those? Advice would be appreciated! I got some soil from the forest, cause I thought that the soil would have more of what it takes for a tree to grow.

And while we are waiting for these seeds to grow here is a photo of my lovely tomatoe seedlings. I am so proud of how beautifully they have sprouted. In some squares there are more than one seedling. Does anyone know if it's healthy for tomatoe seedlings to be replanted when they're as small as the ones in the photo?