Month: February 2013

My simple home: how to detox your kitchen

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So last week I introduced you to my latest project: setting up the cleanest, most economical, sustainable, toxin-free home I can. You can catch up here. My Simple Home is my latest campaign and I’m fired up to get people on board, to think about how to make simple, conscious decisions that can have big … Read more

6 clever ways to get more vegetables into your diet

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I’m a vegetable lover. We’re told to eat 5-7 serves of fruit and vegetables a day. I eat way more than this…but I choose to eat my quota in the form of vegetables in the main, with only a little fructose-full fruit. Which is something I had a rant about here. To be truthful, I feel best when I get a good six or so serves of veggies into my gullet most days. This can take some planning and some clever techniques…Shall I share?

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Kale pesto (top) and green eggs – scrambled eggs slurried with kale pesto (bottom). Both recipes are in my cookbook.

1. Vegetable smoothies.

1 large glass = 2-3 serves vegetables

I don’t make vegetables juice, I blend it whole, ergo a smoothie. Some of the Big Benefits of veggies are lost when you get rid of the fibre (as you do when you juice) and it can leave the resulting beverage too sugary (yep, veggies contain fructose too, but less than fruit). I toss lettuce, spinach, ginger (with the peel on), lemon (pips and pith included), turmeric, fennel (leaves and bulb) into a Vitamix (you do need a high-powered blender for this), with some ice and extra water or coconut water and blend until smooth. It’s a meal in a cup and you’re downing 2-3 serves of veggies in one tumbler. I’ll often have this for breakfast (along with some nuts or toast and nut butter or a boiled egg).

If you’re after some extra veggie smoothie recipes click here.

2. Eat veggies for breakfast.

1 cup = 1 serve vegetables

Either as a smoothie, or try my eggy muggin idea (from my I Quit Sugar Cookbook):

Eggy Muggin

  • 1⁄2 cup par-cooked’n’frozen veggies (broccoli or silverbeet works best) or 1 cup fresh spinach leaves
  • sprinkle of frozen peas
  • pinch cheese, grated (cheddar or Parmesan works) or a few cubes of feta
  • 1 egg

Place vegetables in a large coffee mug with a dash of water. Microwave on high for 30 seconds/a minute. Crack in an egg and add cheese. Stir loosely. Microwave again for another 30 seconds/a minute. Done.

3. Veggie fried rice…without the rice

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In case you missed it…

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…I Quit Sugar has been getting a bit of attention lately, since the release of the print edition last week, and, I think, as the awareness of the failings of fructose spreads. For those of you who didn’t catch the clippings in the various media stories over the weekend, I’ll share a selection below. Consider it your light weekend read.

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Matt Preston discovers (and loves!) kale chips at the I Quit Sugar book launch last week. Photo by Sarah Joy Photography – additional images of the launch below.

1. From Booktopia, I answered ten terrifying questions. I loved this interview, which included questions like:

  • What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why? I love this…my interests did shift. As a kid I wanted to be the first female Prime Minister of Australia. I was the eldest of six kids…being influential was in my blood. At 18 I was dreadfully confused. And so I tried all kinds of things for a good decade. At 30, I wanted to be doing something meaningful, communicating and working freely….which is pretty much my life now.
  • What were three big events – in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path? My Year 5 teacher gave me the class prize and said, in front of the school at the end of year “graduation”, that my curiosity was a gift. I treasure her words. They spurred me on. Moving to Sydney when I was 29, from Melbourne. Suddenly everything sped up and made sense. I felt that I belonged. Reading Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Such mindful endurance of hardship…it very much guided me through my own troubles with illness.
  • If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be? To get everyone back to natural appetite and hunger. This would solve obesity and most modern diseases, as well as reduce the environmental impact of processed food.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

2. From the Canberra Times, whose writer declared me too sweet to wage war on sugar, “Quit and

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