Local Farm |

Posted on: Friday, August 31, 2012

As readers of this blog will know, I am an advocate of including as much raw food in my diet as possible, particularly important for endo warriors who need super dooper nutrition mainlined into our poorly systems!

As a family we are part of a lovely local Farm Club, and currently on the plot is an abundance of chard. I love this recipe from Raw Diva Tera Warner (another blog I cannot recommend highly enough) which uses chard and peaches for some super sweet green smoothie action which will send some nutrient dense yumminess your way.

Check it out:

Green Smoothie Recipe: Strawberry & Peachy Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries
(leave the green tops on)
2 peaches,
sliced and pitted
1 frozen banana
4-6 leaves of chard,
roughly chopped
1 cup of fresh orange juice
or coconut water
or spring water

Directions:
Put the fruits at the bottom then the greens and add the liquid.
Blend and serve.

In your smoothie the peaches and chard are providing fibre, potassium, Vitamins C and B3, E and K, , betacarotene and small amounts of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron and zinc, anti-oxidants, Chard also helps to regulatie normal blood sugar levels, perfect for endo warriors with hormonal imbalances.

I posted this recipe in a Project Endo daily email this week, and fellow endo warrior Cath had some great advice for making green smoothies: “I drink a green smoothie (around 300-500ml) everyday and have been even before I got diagnosed with endo. It’s amazing what they do for your hair, nails, skin and more than anything your energy. What I like to do is buy a whole bunch of ingredients from the markets (chard, kale, spinach, cos/romain, pineapple, banana, peach etc etc etc) plus frozen berries and make up a few different flavour combinations. (spinach & banana / banana berry, tropical kale etc etc). I make enough flavours to last a 1 to 2 weeks. I blitz just the produce ingredients and pop them into zip-lock sandwich bags and freeze them. Then when I want to drink one I pull it out of the freezer break it up (they generally don’t freeze 100% solid) and blitz it with water or coconut water. It takes about 30minutes prep on my day off but means I don’t have to wash my blender everyday!!! I really feel the difference if I skip a day or 2. “ Catherine Nichols, Project Endo warrior.

I am going to give this a go, and have also signed up for the Green Smoothie Challenge, a free email support for enjoying green smoothies. Want to join me?

Posted on: Thursday, May 10, 2012

Wow it has been a busy one lately, I can tell you! We have joined a local Farm Club as a family and I have been really enjoying life down on the farm…feeding pigs, looking after baby ducks and chicks, and meeting new people. It’s a really amazing place, and the girls love the animals and getting muddy in the puddles! ☂ We are off to Cornwall this weekend so I am looking forward to catching up with my lovely friend Tracey from Vert PR, and going for some blustery windswept walks. Oh, and the Doombar of course. My amazing yellow Sorel boots arrived just in time to come along for the ride, I think they will be perfect for some Cornish walking! ☂ I have had a terrible and trying 10 days or so with my endometriosis pain and being run down and tired, but I am back on my feet just about and commencing my training for the 2 events I cam doing in Autumn for Endo UK. My fundraising gear has arrived, and I am starting to get sponsors. Don’t forget you can sponsor me here. ☂ A HUGE thanks to my confidence coach Mike Sullivan who has donated a phenomenal amount to the cause, and enabled me to travel to Brighton and continue to raise more funds. Mike is just brilliant for one to one coaching and I thoroughly recommend you follow him on Twitter @121_coaching and say hi.☂I have also been sent a tub of Bootcamp in a bottle which I am really keen to try. I approached the owner who has kindly sent me some product. I also have 4 £5 off vouchers if any of you Diva Readers would like to join me in trying it. Bootcamp in a bottle is a meal replacement shake with bentonite clay, physsilium husks and vitamins to help detox and weight loss with zero calories. I plan to use it in between meals to stop snacking or maybe to replace one meal a day. Want to try? Leave a comment below and I will randomly select 4 for the vouchers. ☂ I am using My Fitness Pal app at the moment too, to track my food intake and exercise in order to make sure I eat correctly as I train. My Fitness Pal is brilliant, and fans of WeightWatchers and Nutracheck rejoice it is FREE to use and is just as effective. Come and find me on there if you want to track progress with me. ☂ I am presenting at Cyber this Saturday, so I am really excited and thrilled to be involved in such an amazing event.☂ I did a guest post over on my friend Caz’s blog, Mojito Mother – go and check it out! What have you been up to this week? x