The Waldorf Green Smoothie contains apples and celery.  These actively help to protect and cushion the joints.  They also improve bone strength and reduce cholesterol.  Pears stimulate the white blood cells, which help to remove infection from the body.  Spinach assists in the production of red blood cells and regulates heartbeat and blood pressure. Use healthy, natural ways to nurture your mind, body and soul.

The Waldorf Green Smoothie

2 small apples
10cm stalk of celery leaves
1 banana
1 ripe bosc pear
2 handfuls of spinach
Approximately 1 litre of water

Blend well.

The Queen Victoria Market has three organic fruit and vegetable shops.   Garden Organics is my favorite. Karen gets up at two thirty in the morning to select the freshest produce for the day.  Now that’s commitment!  Rain, hail or shine the Garden Organics team are working around the clock. 

I love that Karen really cares about quality.  Since my stroke, we have brought most of our fresh produce for our green smoothies and other meals, from Garden Organics.  Quality organics is well worth the investment when it comes to your health.  I know it made a big difference in how I have recovered.  The value and selection of seasonal produce is fantastic.  The staff are great and really committed to making sure you get the very best service.  Garden Organics is located at Queen Victoria Market, I Shed Stalls 71-77, Therry St, Melbourne, Australia. www.gardenorganics.com.au

Queen Victoria Market Details

Location: the Queen Victoria Market is on the corner of Elizabeth and Victoria Streets in Melbourne’s CBD.

Opening hours:
Tuesday & Thursday 6am-2pm
Friday 6am-5pm (General Merchandise to 4pm)
Saturday 6am-3pm
Sunday 9am-4pm
Closed Mondays, Wednesdays & Public Holidays

Free Parking:  Attention Early Bird Shoppers! Park at the Market and exit before 10am (8am Saturday) and it’s free!

]]> http://cheekychimpsmoothies.com/garden-organics/feed/ 0 http://cheekychimpsmoothies.com/the-yellow-submarine-green-smoothie/ http://cheekychimpsmoothies.com/the-yellow-submarine-green-smoothie/#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:19:43 +0000 CheekyChimp http://cheekychimpsmoothies.com/?p=2892 Continue reading →]]>  

This gorgeous green smoothie recipe is made entirely of yellow fruit!  The pear, pineapple and banana work so beautifully together.    The pears help to lower cholesterol and support the immune system. The pineapple strengthens bones and relieves the symptoms of colds and flu. Banana protects the heart and help to lower blood pressure.  Bok choy is loaded with vitamins A and C, folic acid and calcium. Spinach assists in the production of red blood cells and regulates the heart beat. Great little winter smoothie perfect for promoting health and healing.

The Yellow Submarine

1/4 fresh pineapple
1 banana
1 ripe bosc pear
1 handful of bok choy
1 handful of spinach
Approximately 750ml of water

Blend well.

My fantastic graphic artist Scarlett Rugers just sent me a picture of her first green smoothie.  I’m calling this one The Book Worm!  It is always great to see people taking that first step and realising how delicious green smoothies are.  It is as simple as adding a few of your favourite fruits and a handful of leafy greens.  Knowing that it is really healthy is just an added bonus!

Scarlett helped me bring my book cover to life.  It was brilliant to see her interpret my ideas I was thrilled with the results.  Check out her handy work here!  Here’s Scarlett’s recipe for you.

The Book Worm

1 cup of water (more if desired)
2 cm slice of pineapple
1 banana
1 handful of silver beet
2 mint leaves
1 teaspoon of chia seeds
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Steve Maraboli

“One man spend his day creating a world for others to enjoy.  How will you spend today?”

Nikki Mennel

Check out today’s Apple Green Smoothie, it’s nothing short of delicious!

Apple Green Smoothie

2 small apples
1 banana
10cm stick of celery
2 large handfuls of rainbow chard
Approx 750ml of water

Blend well.

I was recently asked to present to a corporate sponsor of the National Stroke Foundation. It was a real honour to be asked to speak to over 130 people.  It is by far the largest group for me, to date.  I wanted to share with them not only the signs and how to avoid stroke but also what it feels like to actually have a stroke.  This the journey I took them on to give them an insight into what my stroke felt like, for me.

“Imagine standing on the waters edge. In front of you, water stretches as far as the eye can see.  The water is still and calm.  Standing on the bank, you are surrounded by people.  They are talking and laughing and in that moment, life seems normal.

As the stroke begins, a small boat appears on the water in front of you.  You carefully step into the boat and sit down.  You calmly begin to drift away from the shore.  You notice that everything seems very peaceful around you.  Everything starts to move very slowly.  As you look back towards the shore, you can no longer understand what people on the bank are saying.  A few minutes pass and you realise you have drifted a long way from shore.

Somewhere inside, you know that you are in trouble. You call out to the people on the bank to get someone’s attention. If you can only let them know, everything will be okay.  They don’t really seem to understand you and go back to their own conversations.  You scream out hoping someone will hear you.  The words coming out of your mouth are making no sense.  You are screaming on the inside, yet begin to fall silent on the outside. The people on the bank are no longer able hear you. 

Frantically you try to wave your arms, but your arms lay helplessly beside you.  You can not move and you can not speak.  You can only watch what is happening around you.  You feel a grey fog start to drift all around and you feel an overwhelming sense of confusion.  You realise you can no longer see the shore and you don’t know where you are anymore. You feel disconnected from reality.

For the first time, you know that you are truly alone, unable to communicate or move. Your body is frozen and your mind is drifting. You understand what it is truly like to be a prisoner in your own body and how frightening that can be.  You don’t know when it will end or if you’ll ever make it back to the shore.  It is a very lonely feeling.”

Anthony Mancini, the CEO of the corporate sponsor had this to say:

“I want to convey my heartfelt thanks on behalf of our team for your address at our meeting on 23 May. The way you combined your personal experience with the facts and urgency around stroke prevention messages was extraordinarily powerful.  Your presentation was simply outstanding and did more to motivate our employees to take action to reduce their risk of stroke than we could ever do.  You have also raised awareness levels to a new high, which will have a powerful flow on effect through the families and social networks of our employees. Thanks again for taking the time to share your story and experience with us.”  

With very best wishes,

Anthony

As you can imagine, stroke was a life-changing event for me.  The reason I share this with you, is so you never have to go through something like this in your lifetime.   This is why both Jurgen and I are so passionate about sharing health, through green smoothies and raw foods.  Create the healthiest version of you that you can be! After all, it is up to you.

I’m please to say that I reached 4pm on the first day before my mind took over.  There were two things that were going through my head.  The first was from a health perspective.  When you fast, toxins are released into the blood and may cause some people to feel unwell.  Feeling unwell itself was not a problem, you can always get past that.  Releasing toxins into the blood did scare me a little.  I understand they need to be released so the body can excrete them, but I was a little worried given my previous stroke.  I am always focused on making sure my blood is as healthy as it can be.  

Tyler Tolman also recommends having someone to facilitate the fast and keep a watch out for any concerning signs.  Unfortunately, I would not have that support during this fast.  It’s surprising how quickly your mind can jump into fear mode.

The second thing that happened was that I realised that I really love food.  I did everything I could think of to distract myself from the second love of my life.  I had removed all the food from the fridge.  I planned my last meal the night before and made sure I was ready to go.  I was really committed to seeing the fast through to the end.  It was now time to come up with plan B.

I went to the markets the following morning and bought fresh coconuts, pineapple and lots of vegies.  I want to do the fast, I just needed to go about it in a different manner.  I thought I’d start with juicing instead.  Jurgen and I had just started learning more about juicing.  We brought a masticating juicer from Target for $99.  We have always be Pro-Green Smoothie, so this was a new area of health for us to try. I am not very experienced when it comes to juicing blends and often find fruit juices way too sweet for me.  I made this one and it’s perfect.  Not too sweet and really refreshing! I’m starting with one glass each morning.

Clean Green Juice

2 small apples – core removed
1 small Lebanese cucumber
10cm piece of celery

I collected the pulp that was left over from the juicer, as I didn’t want to throw way all that great fibre.  The one thing I had noticed over the past two days was that “my elimination process” had virtually stopped.  So toxins weren’t being removed as fast as normal.  I pretty sure this was directly linked to removing the usual fibre in my diet.  It’s amazing how fast the body responds when we change our eating habits.  Later that night, I used the pulp to make a version of falafels.  They were magic. 

Falafels

Pulp from the Green Jungle Juice
½ cup of soaked chickpeas
½ cup of soaked lentils
A splash of garlic oil
Garlic humus
Coriander

You could add extra spices to the mix if you like.  Blend up the all ingredients.  Add a little ground linseed if the mix is too wet.  From into small burgers.  Using a small amount of oil, lightly brown the burgers in a pan and drain on paper towel.  Serve with coriander and garlic humus.  These are perfect served with a green salad. 

So that was day one of the new amended version of my fast.  Instead of starting the fast cold turkey, I’m going to start with juicing and some foods and slowly remove more of the foods each day and see how that goes.  If you are interested in fasting, have a look on Tyler Tolman’s website for more information.  He shares his Self Care Adventure and also The Top 10 Benefits of Juice Fasting.  I found it really helpful on how to do it and what to expect along the way. Fasting – Take 2!

We held our Nude Food Workshop last week!  It was great to see some new faces and some people from our previous Green Smoothie Workshop, earlier in the year.  A quick recap of the menu included Zucchini Salad, Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Coulis and our fabulous Espresso Brownies.  Soups, salads, smoothies and dips were also featured and we are happy to report, none left hungry!  The secret to great tasting raw food dishes? Use fresh organic produce and big flavours.  Yum!