Organic

Committing to Organic

Apr 08

Our first meal from the organic delivery.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I did the figures on how much we spend on fresh produce at the supermarket on a weekly basis, and based on our findings, we decided that it was high-time to take the plunge – to commit to a regular organic fruit and vegetable delivery.

The commitment isn’t just financial of course – it’s about making the most of every box of leafies that arrives at our door – learning how to prepare the plants we aren’t familiar with – finding new favourites – and, yes – eating out a little less.

To talk bald figures – we knew that if we committed to an organic delivery that cost $250 a week or less (the fruit and veg portion of our standard shopping budget), whose contents could make meals for the entire week, we would be saving a stack of cash (note: for two people, we eat a shit-ton of vegetables. That metric is no exaggeration). Plus – the value would in fact be far greater, because we tend to only really be able to find decent conventionally farmed fare at our local super.

We decided to go with Organic Empire. We’ve experimented with fruit and veg delivery companies before, but I have to say that this so far trumps our experience with the others. I met Angela the owner briefly, at a business event, and ran into her again at her stall on World Vegan Day in Melbourne last year. She’s doing amazing things – she really is – including growing a lot of the business’ own produce.

Please find pictured our first delivery. No – seriously. Each subsequent arrival has been nothing less than as spectacular as this. And you want to know how much moolah we part with on a weekly basis to get this magnificent harvest? Between $105 – $125. Which literally means we save over a hundred bucks on supermarket shopping each week to get what we need to feed (and juicify) us – and often more.

I know that people often feel a little hesitant when thinking about taking the plunge with organics (I know that I certainly did). There are a lot of fears that the produce will be full of bugs or soil or… well, you know – other random organic matter – but to speak with utter honesty, the quality of the produce we’ve received from Organic Empire has surpassed that of the conventional crap we buy at supermarkets – and has all been clean, well washed upon arrival and has kept gorgeously all the way through until the 7th day of the week (when we toss all the vegetables we have left over into a big pot and make a hearty stew or soup).

I’ve been recommending Organic Empire to my friends (a lot) lately and don’t hesitate to recommend them to you, too – they’re a good business with stellar service and a truly great product.

- MZ. x

Current obsession: coconut water

Mar 13

I’ve replaced my daily takeaway coffee with a daily coconut water. And boy is my body ever cleaner and happier for it. The number of coconut waters gracing the market now is something extraordinary. My local is usually never short of Cocobella. I also luurrve C Coconut Water and Dr. Antonio Martin’s CoCo Juice

Peppermint Magazine (pictured) does a great li’l writeup of this insanely healthy bevvie in their latest and greatest issue yet (imho) – Autumn 2012. I had the pleasure of meeting Pep’s Deputy Editor, Tess Curran the other evening and I have to say that I’m really rather excited the previously mostly-Brisbane-based publication going to be corresponding now from Melbourne, Australia. No matter where you are, howevs – if you’re not into Peppermint Mag yet, go there. It’s a leading voice in sustainable style – zero BS.

- MZ.

Brunch at Ceres: Soba Salad

Mar 12

We trotted along the Merri Creek Trail to Ceres for brunch yesterday. It’s like going on a secret hike through the wilderness (lite) to get there, and I love having to climb up the bank like a little otter (or platypus) and pass through the bike workshop to arrive at the café.

They’ve got to do something about the wait times for food on weekends there, but it’s a nice little sojourn if you’re not in a big hurry. And the green veg & tofu soba salad (not to mention the Australian bush-spice chai) was really worth it. Really.

- MZ.

My name is Philippa, but you can call me Phil…

Feb 08

Photo by Catch/Compose Photography

About ten years ago, I used to think that anyone who bought recycled toilet paper was a bit of a hippy.

The extent of my interest in sustainability was putting out my recycling bin each week, and even then I didn’t separate paper from plastic. I was living in a bit of bubble, where I didn’t really think about the world around me but all the while was wondering why my life wasn’t much fun and I didn’t seem to be all that happy. I spent most weekends inside, watching DVDs with the blinds shut, and a couple of blocks of chocolate for company. It was an unconscious life, in every sense of the word.

Keep reading…

Feb 03

Gorgeous greens - image from our fabulous new friend: Wellness W.A.

Hello, lovelies. Welcome to the “Re-Nourish” edition of Living Clean. Today’s installment is your foundation kit of your-body-is-a-temple-already rituals, ingredients and tricks of the cleansing trade to get you really re-nourished, deeply refreshed and hella re-energized. So, crack open a coconut water, and let’s get started.

Green Juice

The number one thing I would instill in you as an absolute must is green juicing. It’s certainly something I’ve got to get back into (yeah – I’ve totally fallen off the wagon, friends) – whenever I go green first thing in the morning, every morning, I don’t catch so much as a sniffle (even when the worst bugs are floating around), my energy shoots through the roof, and well – let’s just say that when I say “it’s cleansing” I really, truly mean it.

You can use most green veggies that are good raw – everything from broccoli stalks to spinach leaves. Make sure that when you add your fruit component, that it’s roughly a third or less the amount of vegetable that you juice (apples & kiwi fruit is great, and I’m quite partial to a bit of watermelon at this time of year…). This ensures your blood-sugar doesn’t spike too quickly first thing. Fresh lemon and ginger will give your juice a detoxification supercharge.

The Singaporeans know how to juice.

Here, I’m borrowing a pre-loved recipe from a previous post of mine, because it’s still my absolute, 100% favourite.

The Lean Green Clean

1/2 cucumber (or whole if Lebanese) – peeled if not organic
2 x celery stalks (include the leaves)
2 cups of baby spinach leaves
1/2 – 1 lemon (peeled)
a good thumb-sized knob of ginger
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves

Sometimes if we make too much, I pop the remainder into an old agave bottle or jar, whack it in the fridge, and leave it to enjoy later onwards in the day. It beats a 3pm caffeine and sugar jolt hands-down. We use the Breville Ikon/Juice Fountain Plus, which is roughly the equivalent of this one.

Salad

Eat this shit. And lots of it. But seriously now, in my very humble opinion you can salad up at every meal while you’re cleansing (and beyond, my darlings) and not feel like you’re in any way in denial.

When I was a very young actor graduating from drama school, and on a get-trim-fast-fest while still needing to maintain incredibly high energy levels throughout the day, I had the best “breakfast salad” routine down.

Hot-to-trot “breakfast salad”

Soak half a cup of raw, organic nuts in chilled, filtered water overnight to “activate” them (or get them in the sprouting state). Cashews, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds & pepitas are amazing for this – but go nuts (oh, sorry) and experiment with other favourite if it takes your fancy.
In the morning, smash your nuts up manually – just a tiny bit – until they’re a little rough and chunky.
Chop up a serve or two of raw fruit (in season, of course). The lower glycemic-index versions are best. Apple, peach, pear, nashi, melon, kiwi… play around and combine a couple if you like, depending on what’s available.
Grate some fresh ginger. Not too much – you don’t want to be overwhelmed. But it should be enough to give your salad a good kick up the patootie.
Mix all that good shit up together. You can add a squeeze of lemon juice if you like.
If you feel like you need a bit of solid oomph, you can ladle a good spoonful of natural (unflavoured & unsweetened) soy yoghurt on top. But this is optional, and not nutritionally essential, ’cause you’ve got such nummy goodness in those blissfully activated nuts.

And as for lunch and dinner?

Really, this is all about picking fabulously fresh, organic-where-you-can, and most definitely in-season produce, and combining as much raw with lightly cooked ingredients as possible. Aim for 60-100% raw veg for at least lunchtime, if not dinner too (a little lightly steamed veg is totally fine, if you’re struggling to ease yourself onto raw, btw). Your body will definitely thank you for it.

The other awesome thing about raw and par-cooked vegetables is that they fill you up way faster than crap that’s had the shit cooked out of it. Give it a burl for a few nights, and you’ll find you’re not running back for seconds anywhere near as fast as you used to!

Quick tip: If you’re used to creamy sauces and salad dressings, a wildly delicious and hella healthy alternative is to use chickpeas (or just plain supermarket-bought hommus if you’re in a hurry), cashews and sesame seeds (or tahini) in place of the scary dairy. Talk about protein pack!

Cashews will need to be soaked for a couple of hours, chickpeas cooked (a can is cheating but totally acceptable if you’re short on time or patience, and would otherwise struggle with the chick), and sesame seeds or tahini paste can be thrown in with either as you prep you paste.

You just need a hand blender, a food processor, or a mortar and pestle and some awesome cardiovascular fitness.

Smash em up, season to taste (tamari, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt, cumin powder… play around with flavour as you will). Et, voila: healthy creamy dressing and/or sauce.

Water.

Not much to say about this really, except drink up. Have a good stainless steel or glass flask on your person at all times with chilled, purified water. Stay hydrated throughout the day. A squeeze of lemon and a sprig of mint, or slice of cucumber can zazz things up a little if you’re getting tired of plain H2O. Whatever makes it easiest to get roughly 1.5 litres of it down your hatch every day – do it. You’re going to need to stay incredibly well-watered as you’ll be flushing out a f**kton of toxins as you cleanse, and you’ll need lubrication to wash them away with. *Slurp.*

Supplements.

Yep. This is really a consult-your-doctor one, but I would say that if your diet’s been a little hairy in the past and you’re struggling to add the fruit and vegetables back into it in the volumes required to pick your system up off the floor, a daily multivitamin (a good one, and vegan-friendly of course) for at least a month or two won’t hurt. Once your diet is richly packed with a wealth of seasonal, organic and raw fruits and vegetables however, you can probably rethink your need for this one.

It’s commonly recognised by most medical professionals that those eating a plant based diet are at a higher-than-normal risk of vitamin B-12 deficiency (it’s the only nutrient you can’t get from plants alone). Hell, I was put onto this stuff when I was still a flesh-muncher. You can get tested for deficiency (it’s not a bad idea all round), but it’s not one that I’d ignore at any rate. Ask your doctor or naturopath what the best route is for you.

Then there’s bacteria. The good type. The stuff that you commonly find in yoghurt. Well, the great news is that you can get non-animal-based capsules of good bacteria/flora to work wonders in your digestive system, and keep your gut-work happy.

In addition to these three reasonably essential puppies, for gut cleansing, it’s worth checking out psyllium husks and aloe vera juice to aid in the, er… release of solid toxins that have built up in your intestines. Yummy.

And finally, other supplements to consider are zinc (especially in cold and flu season), vitamin D, and magnesium. Spirulina (a superfood seaweed) also rocks my world. And as always, check it all out with your health care professional first – or at the very least, the qualified naturopath in the health food store. Seek out a good intergrative doctor, and you’re set for life.

Breath.

Yeah. You do it without thinking. It keeps you alive. But while you’re transitioning to a life of living clean, begin to give yourself the gift of big, deep, conscious breaths. Detoxing is about so much more than just dumping crap out of your body. It’s getting the toxic evil ju-ju karma out of our lives, too. The junk-food of the soul.

Breath helps to clear this. Take in big, deep, hedonistically gorgeous gulps of it. Close your eyes and drown in your stillness. In the midst of chaos, the horrors of peak hour, on the verge of a fight, when you’ve eaten something you wished you hadn’t, on a day you just haven’t had a break and it’s breaking you, stop. Close your eyes and breathe. In, two, three, four, five. Pause. Out, two, three, four, five. Pause. Repeat.

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Okay, so we’re really on our way here.

On Monday: a treat! That’s all I’m saying! Except that it will be a whole cocktail of fun… I’m saying that, too.

And then next Friday, we’re going to batten down our Living Clean hatches and set some grand and juicy goals.

Until then, mes chéris, Santé!

Ming-Zhu. xx

Jan 30

Bonjour, et bienvenue! This is the first *official* post in the Living Clean project. To find out what we’re up to, click here to read the introduction.

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So, the first thing we need to do in order to start Living Clean is to…

Detox. I know, I know. Lots of people feel hairy around the edges about this word (you might be one of them), conjuring images of tasteless fluids, carrot sticks and lots of toilet time.

I’m here to tell you it needn’t be that bland or extreme – at all.

A good detox (or cleanse as I prefer to call it) begins with strategically cutting out the crap that’s making its nasty rounds through your body, keeping you from sloughing off any excess baggage, and holding you back from supreme amounts of energy and vitality. It can sometimes feel like a bitch to begin with, but the rewards are humungous.

[Please note, before we go any further - I am not a certified nutritionist or a medical expert. Any ideas I might suggest should be taken by you with your own circumstances most earnestly in consideration - and - that before embarking on any new program you should consult your own doctor or team of medical experts.]

On Friday, I’ll go into detail what you can put into your body to support your cleanse, but today’s post is a quick look at the Top 7 not-so-clean habits that creep into the modern, Western lifestyle and wreak their havoc:

1. Cigarettes.

Egh. Gross sticks of death. But wait! I used to be an almost pack-a-day smoker! It’s true. I was a full-time smoker for ten years, my loves and although I like to be all Edith Piaf about life, if there is one thing I regret, it’s the durries. I’ve already noticed the issues it has caused me in ye olde respiratory system, and not to mention the fine lines around my lips (they’re there, okay) that won’t go away no matter how much paw paw loving I give them.

My dad’s got chronic emphysema from his lifetime of cigarette love – he’s about 3 months away from an oxygen bottle and can’t walk more than five paces without falling into a heart-wrenching coughing fit. It’s not worth it, guys. I don’t need to go into masses of details about all the other bad shit it does to you. The ads are enough. Google is there. The plain and simple fact is, if you suck em back, stop or you’ll never be truly healthy, and they’ll probably end up killing you.

2. Alcohol.

Totally fine in small amounts. Toxic in the long-term, in anything beyond small. The trick here is to forgo liquor for long enough to give your liver a real chance at resting and healing (especially if you’ve been on a bit of a festive knees-up), and then when you start to re-introduce the odd social drink, you do it very mindfully and deliberately, rather than going five rounds at the pub one Friday after work, and re-toxing yourself blind.

I will broach the delicious subject of organic, biodynamic and preservative-free options too – but that will be a post of its own to look forward to. For now, it’s time to wean yourself off the wine, beer and spirits.

If you’ve been at it heavily, and can’t stomach the idea of going cold-turkey, cutting your daily intake down to no more than one standard drink a day, no more than twice a week is a good idea (go on – you can do it), and go for a very good quality red wine (antioxidants, baby), or high quality clear spirit like vodka with soda or mineral water (locally made for both is best!). No beer, sweet ciders, sugary mixers or passion-pop, please! Make sure you surround your alcohol consumption with copious (copious!) water, and healthy, nutritious food.

Better still – go without entirely. Aside from the fact that you’ll be able to think far more clearly the next morning, you’ll cut your weekly spending down by a crap load, and your body will be able to heal itself and absorb all the good things from the foods we’ll be eating far more efficiently.

[Teaser: I've got a wildly delicious and utterly decadent, cleansing, alcohol-alternative coming up for you in, wait for it: video form oh so very shortly!]

Matcha Green Tea by Sheri Giblin via Yoga Journal

3. Caffeine.

Arrrchk! Help! I am a caf-fiend! Bad puns aside, I am truly culpable of slippage here, and have found kicking the caf to be one of the hardest things to do in known history. On and off, and off and on, I’ve never consistently been able to manage staying 100% caf-free.

But I’m going to give it another shot – for the sake of giving my body the best chance at getting clean.

The process is one of the slow wean. We’ll take it down to one cup per day (and root out all the evil diet cola!), weaken said single coffee, and then replace it entirely with green tea – which contains a small amount of caffeine – and a green juice.

If all you manage to do is get down to green tea, and not eliminate the caffeine entirely, it’s not something I’d lose sleep over (ah, the bad puns continue). This relatively clean, antioxidant rich beverage is a far healthier alternative to chucking back liters of joe, and if your hit is indispensable, then please let it be in this form.

Oh – and unless you’re working out like Arnie, caf won’t necessarily aid your weight loss, either – it may actually hinder it, as apparently caffeine boosts your adrenaline levels which has the knock-on effect of releasing the panic-hormone, cortisol into your bloodstream, storing fat. Nice. Not.

4. Processed Fat and Fried Crap.

I don’t really need to say too much about this, do I? Chips, onion rings, margarine, cooking oil, biscuits, fatty spreads… Oh, I could go on all day. Essentially all of the things loaded up with saturated and processed fat, or cuisine that is overly fried in this artery-clogging goodness – well, it’s slowly turning your insides into slime.

Biologically of course, we’re wired to crave fat from our cave-dwelling days when it was a long time between wilderbeast. That’s why it stores on our bodies so nice and easily. And f**kit, I LOVE chips. Love. Them.

However, the upshot is, if we wanna get clean, I’ve – you’ve – we’ve gotta cut the fatty crap.

But not the good fats: we should still definitely be consuming nutrient-rich and anti-inflammatory oils, and good fats in their natural state (like in nuts and avocado, etc). It’s very important to not go 100% fat-free – damaged nerve-endings and all that (and here’s where I point you to Dr. Google for further research). Here’s a good, short little article on the subject by someone who knows a little more about it than I do.

5. Sugar.

Ah, bless it. It really is the devil. Again, our caveperson genes are programmed to crave this shit, and big companies know this and so pump all of their highly processed snackities full of it so you’ll be coming back to swipe for more.

The long and the short of it is that simple (refined, or high GI) sugars converts to fat more readily than complex, unrefined, Low GI carbohydrates that are found in everything from green veggies to whole grains. I recommend reading The New Glucose Revolution, which is a comprehensive study on how different types of carbohydrate affect blood sugar and can regulate energy levels and other things such as our body fat.

In a nutshell, the sugars to avoid here are processed fruit juices, sugar in your coffee or tea, soft drinks, lollies and sugary chocolate, cakes, icecream & desserts… And pretty much most processed foods – if you read the label – you will find contain a form of refined sugar (glucose, sucrose, corn syrup – it’s got lots of evil names, and it’s a good idea to school up on what they could be masquerading as, or better yet – avoid processed foods entirely).

Healthier and now very available alternatives are: agave nectar, coconut sugar and stevia (there are lots of different brands of all of these foods available now). Stevia has the lowest glycemic index of all (it spikes your blood sugar the least rapidly and converts least readily into fat), followed by coconut sugar. So, if you must get your sweet fix, there are plenty of healthier options available. However, once you start really living clean, you’ll happily find that your sugar cravings will descend to an absolute minimum (I can honestly hardly handle sugary foods at all now), and that a piece of fruit will often be more than enough to sweeten up your day.

Whatever you do, don’t go the chemically synthesized options! Saccharine, aspartame, etc. can be worse for you than sugar itself, wreak havoc upon your body, and psychologically make you crave more sweetie things to boot. I even hear talk that it’s a carcinogen. So, most sugar-free “diet” versions of products (particularly soft drinks) are a big no-no.

6. Refined starchy things.

Such as… white flour, white bread, cakes (again – yeah, sorry about that), white rice (opt for brown and/or wild, baby), too many mighty whitey potatoes (go sweet, or those with a lower glycemic index mixed with kumera if you just can’t forgo the spud). And, hey, if it looks like it had to go through some serious-assed milling and buh-leaching to get your starch to the white-as-the-driven-snow final product, then give it a miss. It’s not going to come vaguely close to being cleansing.

7. Animal products.

You know what I’m talking about. Thass’right – the flesh or yield of any living creature. The exception being if you are a baby on the boob (perfectly acceptable, and heartily endorsed from this corner).

Once again, I’m not going to go into details about the pure and utter destruction that animal products can and do cause your body, and what farming and harvesting meat, dairy and eggs does for the environment (not to mention the beasts from whom it’s taken).

If you need ethical reasons as to why going purely plant-based is the sanest idea on the planet, I refer you to PETA, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, The films Food Inc. and PlanEat and of course, Ms. Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet.

But as super spunkrat vegan chef, Chloe Coscarelli says, when transitioning from an animal-based to a plant-based diet, go slowly if you need to – try eating vego or vegan one or two days a week. Wean yourself onto the greens, and you’ll soon look back in deep gratitude.

Living Clean is all about being kind to your body, being kind to the planet, and to other living beings, and giving animal products the shove is the very best thing you can do for all the above in one fell swoop.

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Yeah. I know. That felt like a whole bunch of “don’ts”, right? Trust me – it’s actually not as hard as it sounds. The key is to take it one at a time (and seriously – I’m no saint when it comes to these things – just this afternoon, my sister-in-law handed me a glass of champagne and a delicious vegan cupcake she’d made especially – and who was I to say no?).

But the point is – we can do this. Even if you just use the above as a guide that helps keep you roughly on the straight-and-narrow, you’re off to a great start.

Friday’s article is going to be all about what you can prop your newly clean-bod up with, because of course, when you take things away, you have to replace them with their more nutritious (and delicious) alternatives.

We’ll be talking juices, salads, water and a couple of supplements thrown in for good measure.

And make sure you stick around for Cassie’s next article – coming up on Wednesday – she’ll be getting down and dirty with detoxing your gorgeous locks! That’s right – harmful-crap-free hair care.

Until then, Santé!