Unprocessed-week one

It’s been a tough week…I’ve had a crohn’s flare up that’s caused debilitating pain and weakness. I’ve been subsisting on green drinks and soup. Luckily green drinks and soups can easily be made unprocessed.

When I get like this, afraid to eat anything much but hungry, it’s easy to start obsessing about all sorts of food. Not only the things that are good for me (juicy meat, salads, roasted vegetables, plump beans) but also cakes and chips and chocolate. Not things I could go to the store and buy this month. But I’ve learnt that chocolate can be made at home. Cakes can be certainly be made at home. So can chips.

The key is using whole ingredients. In her book “Unprocessed”, Megan Kimble writes that chocolate can be made by using only five ingredients:  Cacao powder boiler and cacao butter; honey or agave; and salt and vanilla extract. Melt the cacao butter in a double boiler. Whisk in the cacao powder and let it cool for half an hour, or until it reaches room temperature. Then rewarm it, stirring in honey, salt and vanilla. Remove from the heat and pour it into a sheet or molds. Let it set for at least an hour in the fridge.

Make homemade Larabars with dried fruits, nuts and dates. There are ton of recipes online. Make up your own fun variations

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For a basic loaf of whole grain bread you would need whole grain flour, warm water, yeast, salt, honey and oil. Basic whole ingredients. When I’m buying bread at the store I usually buy Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread, as recommended by Kimble, although I’ve been buying it for months. It contains: sprouted wheat, water sprouted barley, sprouted millet, malted barley, sprouted lentils, sprouted soybeans, sprouted spelt, yeast, sea salt. 

The soups I’ve eaten this week have all been made from the same basic recipe. I cook carrots or squash or broccoli (or any variety of vegetables) in water and vegetable broth until they are tender. Sometimes I soften onions and broccoli and add it too. Season with salt and pepper. Add some herbs like thyme if I’m in the mood. I blitz it with an immersion blender and add more vegetable broth or water if it’s too thick. Adjust seasonings, if necessary. That’s it!

Green drinks offer endless possibilities. Have a look on Instagram or pinterest and you’ll see what I mean. My favourite juice at the moment is cucumber, carrot and apple, with some kale or spinach thrown in. I feel like I need something more filling, I’ll make up a smoothie. Banana, spinach and strawberry blended with almond milk is a classic mixture. Right now I’m loving banana, cherry, cacao powder and spinach. It looks like mud but tastes delicious.

Whole ingredients are foods our bodies know. It knows what to do with it. It extracts all the nutritional goodness and assimilates it. It can digest it properly. Our bodies don’t know what to do with plastic, chemically drenched frankenfood. We can’t live optimally on them. And the taste of real foods is so far removed from processed. 

To take my mind off of all the delicious food that I can’t eat at the moment, I’ve been a knitting machine. I’ve been wanting to learn to knit socks for a long time and have managed to make my first pair. With cables (first time for those too) no less! Now I’m working on a pair of ribbed socks. Getting an early jump on next year’s Christmas presents. Along with the knitting I’ve been watching Bron/Broen (otherwise known as “The Bridge") a Swedish/Danish crime drama. Any other fans of Nordic Noir out there?

 Peace and rainbows

C    xo