ChocoLOVE!

This weekend was a pretty quiet one – on Friday night I cooked up a tasty storm. I made a Curried red lentil stew with vegetables. It was such an easy recipe, and it smelled soooooooo tasty! I made it to take to L-whacks on Saturday night for our dinner.

Curried red lentil stew - YUM!

I also added a small sweet potato and half a red capsicum – I want to eat a variety of vegies whenever possible. I had a small taste when this was all cooked, and it certainly hit the spot. A vibrant stew, with splashes of colour.

Our plans for Saturday night changed, so we ended up eating this for dinner last night (Sunday) – oh boy, it was sooooooooo good! The flavours had developed, and adding some coriander at the last minute gave it an even deeper flavour.

Serving it with brown rice, L-whack and I enjoyed our dinner immensely. I talked L-whack through the recipe, and we realised just how incredibly healthy this meal was. The ‘unhealthiest’ part of the meal was the vegetable oil – all the other ingredients are healthy, natural and so good for you! It was also very filling, so lucky L-whack has some leftover for his dinner tonight (I’m a good girlfriend!)

Next time I make it, I won’t change much at all! You could easily double the recipe, add some other vegies (potatoes, pumpkin, beans etc.) – there is another version with coconut milk, but I think the recipe without is pretty darn good already. Perhaps the coconut milk would make it too rich? It would certainly bump up the fat content.

I recently chatted to a naturopath at Evelyn Faye health shop in South Melbourne. I was just in there having a browse, when she came over to see if I needed a hand, and we started chatting about veganism. She asked whether I had started having spirulina (which is a good source of protein, antioxidants etc.) – it’s known as a ‘superfood’, a label which I am very dubious of, but something I thought was worth looking into.)

Anyway, after doing some research I decided that I would give it a go. It’s hard to find independent information on spirulina, but after reading user reviews on iHerb.com, I decided to try the earthrise Spirulina in powder form (the body absorbs all the good stuff more easily than tablets/capsules).

It arrived in the mail last week (along with my almond & sea salt chocolove……… DROOL!) And I decided to be brave on Thursday morning and give it a go.

It comes in the finest powder form – a beautiful deep forest green colour – and smells absolutely feral. As I didn’t have any juice or similar in the fridge, I decided to brave it and just go with a glass of water. Buh-buom. Bad move. Once the powder hits liquid, it forms into a thicker gluggy type mixture. I kept stirring it – watching it with fear – hoping that if I mix it long enough, then it would dissolve and thin out.

WRONG!

Oh well, just go with it Ess Mick. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. So I took a sip………… I don’t know how, but I managed to swallow that sip – and promptly tipped the remainder of the glass down the sink!!

It was disgusting. My mum actually took a smell of the powder and said she ‘was going to puke’. So as I had 150 servings of it to go (1 teaspoon is recommended serving for first timers, building up to 2 teaspoons a day) – I decided that I would need to mix it with some flavoured.

So on Saturday, I decided to try making a Smoothie. I blended some soy milk, banana, and frozen raspberries and got a lovely pink mix.

Banana, raspberry & soy milk smoothie

Then I added 1 teaspoon of spirulina. Yes, 1 teaspoon and this was the result.

With 1 teaspoon of spirulina!

 Hmm subtle. I think that someone with colour-blindness would be able to tell you about this hue of green!

Anyway, the Smoothie certainly helps the flavour of the green stuff. You can still taste the spirulina, but it kind of blends in with the soy milk & fruit, and makes it drinkable. It’s not my favourite thing, but we’ll see if I get used to it. I’ve made a pact with myself to get through the bottle, see if I notice any difference to my energy levels etc and then decide whether to get more.

Hmmmm green