The Green Parent
Raising kids with conscience
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Nov 28 2011
Raw Christmas puds
Christmas is a time for all the family to enjoy the luxuries of life. Long walks, good company, roaring log fires, and of course plenty of good food. So when your diet is a little bit different from those around you, how do you make sure that you still can enjoy the fine things in life? For those who are on gluten free, dairy free and vegan diets, Christmas can be a little challenging. Raw Lisa, a little company based on the North Devon coast, has some big ideas about maintaining a healthy diet throughout the festive season – while still enjoying some luxury.
“There is no reason why eating our favourite things should be detrimental to our health” says Raw Lisa founder, Lisa Sture. Lisa turned to a diet very high in raw foods five years ago when she started to experience fatigue and general low energy. “I loved my new diet and felt fantastic on it. But when it came to my first ‘raw Christmas,’ I felt left out of the festivities at the dinner table.”
Following the success of her ‘raw bakery’ range – a range of bread replacement products including onion flatbreads and seed snaps – Lisa is launching for Christmas this year the UK’s first Raw Christmas Pudding. “I gave the pudding its first trial run last Christmas and served it with a raw vanilla custard. Everyone round the table was asking for the raw pudding over their shop-bought and I knew I was onto something.”
So is it a high-raw diet good for you? Much of it is in the way food is prepared. Temperatures over 118 degrees destroy much of the food’s nutritional goodness, including the enzymes. This means that the body has to work hard to digest any cooked foods as it needs to produce it’s own enzymes. Research is now suggesting that the body has a finite amount of enzymes and over a lifetime the energy used to digest cooked food takes it toll on the system.
Raw food alternatively, is a complete food in that the enzymes are intact and the body does not need to work overtime to digest. That sleepy feeling after eating a large cooked meal is replaced by vitality and the body can find other, more fun things to do with all that energy (board games anyone?).
The Raw Lisa Raw Luxury Christmas Pudding is the first product of this kind and is suitable for everyone to enjoy. Made from completely natural ingredients that are ecologically sourced and agro-chemical free, including fresh Medjool dates and cardamom, it is prepared by hand using a dehydrator, rather than an oven. This process ensures that the pudding’s nutritional content is maximized and, most importantly, that the enzymes in the raw ingredients are kept alive. So this pudding is not only delicious but also good for you. And because the nutritional content of the food is so well preserved, smaller quantities are generally eaten.
The lovely folk at Raw Lisa have a Reader Offer for Green Parent readers: Order any Raw Lisa products from the Raw Lisa website and receive a 15% discount. Just quote Raw Green Parent when you place your order. Enjoy!
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Nov 23 2011
Christmas Offers
ETHICAL GIFTS
Free delivery on fair-trade chocolate orders over £20 – Code: Green Parent
Free gift worth £7.50 with first order of child sized tools and toys to inspire – code: bbnGP011
20% off first order of beautiful traditional toys – code: TGP
10% off multicultural musical instruments and gifts – code: B1WOODEN TOYS
Free wooden toy for every reader
15% off first order of great wooden toys and more – code: GREENXMASETHICAL CLOTHING
Save 25% of all organic cotton baby clothes this winter – Code: GREENPARENT11
Save 20% on beautiful fair-trade fashion for newborn to 12 year olds – Code GR20
Save 15% on natural wool clothing for babies – code: GreenParenAW11
Save 10% on personalised organic clothing for children aged 0-10 years old – code: GP10
Save 10% on organic clothing for kids from Scandinavia – code: GPAW11NATURAL BEDDING
15% off merino wool bedding for babies – code: GREEN89NATURAL BEAUTY
20% off orders of natural therapeutic skin products for babies and children – code: Greenparent
Just £100 for 12 Beauty Boxes – one a month for the next year – packed full of green goodies. the perfect gift!
15% discount oN handmade organic skincare – code: GPDEC11
10% off natural and organic skincare and beauty gifts – code: GREEN11BABYWEARING
15% off handwoven fair-trade and lambswool slings – code: GP
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10% off slings and baby wearing accessories – code: GP10REAL NAPPIES
10% off entire range of natural nappies and accessories – code: GRP11
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10% off award winning brand of washable nappies – code: GCP11NEW CAREER
10% discount off baby massage and yoga teacher training – code: Green ParentTagged as:Bookmark: -
Nov 04 2011
Raw Food Delights
One of my beautiful friends is a raw foodie who makes us delicious goodies, such as her speciality flaxseed crackers, bursting with italian flavour and an incredible chocolate shortbread. Those in East Sussex might be lucky enough to find some for sale in Sunny Foods, Eastbourne or Brighton. You can also find her online where she provides a coaching service for those looking to improve their health, plus a recipe book containing some of her most tasty creations. I have recently come across another lovely lady, Lisa Sture who makes her own treats and sells them at Raw Lisa. I have some of her fab sounding breads and crackers to try today for lunch. Anyway, these gorgeous treats have inspired me to get a bit more creative with raw foods again (rather than just turning to the same recipes over and over). Here are a few of my favourite raw food recipe books to get your juices flowing.
I AM GRATEFUL
From Café Gratitude in San Francisco and LA, this book is stuffed full of delights to tickle Californian tastebuds. And mine too. Each recipe in this book has an empowering moniker, such as I am Beautiful. Some of my favourites from here that I’ve rediscovered recently include “I am Spirit Teriyaki Almonds” – delicious sweet and sour nuts, with ginger, garlic and dates, great for a party, “I am Bueno Spinach Tortillas” – a winner with the kids as lunchtime wraps and a truly decadent “I am Magnificent Chocolate Mousse”. Filled with sumptuous photography and recipe titles that make you feel all loved up, this book is a real pleasure to own.LIVING FOOD FOR RADIANT HEALTH
Elaine Bruce’s authentic guide to using fresh and raw foods is a brilliant introduction to live food cuisine. Packed with advice and inspiration, Bruce is a powerhouse of information. She trained with Dr. Ann Wigmore and now runs the Living Foods Programme in Shropshire. The best aspect of this book is how it encourages readers to set up their own sprouting/growing area for live greens at home. She really inspires you to revolutionise your kitchen. Love it!RAINBOW GREEN: LIVE FOOD CUISINE
Gabriel Cousens is the director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Centre in Patagonia and huge on the raw foods scene. His approach combines ayurvedic medicine with raw foods and this book is a bountiful collection of great recipes to help you eat as nature intended. I like the fact that he uses very few grains in his dishes and relies more heavily on seeds rather than nuts as this suits my ayurvedic type. A useful book with plenty of information besides the recipes. Not for you if you like glossy images of what you are making though, this only has a few.NAKED CHOCOLATE
David Wolfe and Shazzie have combined forces to manifest a love letter to the cacao bean. This beautiful book is packed with info and heaps of recipes (including savoury delights). Some of my favourites include chilli con cacao, chocolate pizza (oh yes!) and little fudge cakes. This is my go to book in the winter months when I need a little extra boost of energy. Many of the recipes are superfood rich so they provide you with a healthy buzz when you most need it.RAW MAGIC
Kate Magic has put together a selection of recipes for the revolution. And the revolution will be full of love, light and magic. And it will not be televised. And there will be much enjoyment of super foods. This is my favourite of Kate’s books, although others such as Eat Smart, eat Raw or Raw Living, might be better starting points for those just discovering raw foods. This book iOS packed with superfood delights and my all time favourites have to be Best Ever Breakfast Cereal, Buzz Cake (packed with bee pollen) and Superbeing Tea. Yum!RAW: THE UNCOOK BOOK
This is the only raw food book in our local library but I guess we are lucky to have even one. When I first started getting interested in raw foods about seven years ago, this was one of my first sources of inspiration. My mum bought it for me for my birthday many years ago. I love the outlandish recipes, some of which are crazily complicated and over the top. I love the imagery of author, Juliano leaping around in brightly coloured dungarees. But best of all, I love that there are plenty of recipes in here that aren’t too complex and that make fabulous tasting raw delights. That’s what keeps me coming back, time and again to the old classic favourites like this and Nomi Shannon’s Raw Gourmet.Happy healthy eating!
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Oct 20 2011
Seasonal celebrations
I’ve been putting together a series of activities for my daughters based on the changing seasons and I thought I’d share my inspirations and sources in case anyone else is looking for ideas.
NATURE’S PLAYGROUND
Activities, Crafts and Games to Encourage Children to Get Outdoors
Another beautiful book from Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks, Nature’s playground is packed to the brim with games, crafts and adventures for all seasons. Ideas for autumn include Natural painting, autumn collections, forest mobiles, elf houses, woodland monsters and colourful crowns. Another section is entitled Fun After Dark with ideas for a Halloween feast, games to play in the dark and how to watch moths. I’m gleaning ideas for making family walks even more fun and exciting this autumn and winter and also planning some leafy crafts using material from this book.FESTIVALS TOGETHER
A Guide to Multi-Cultural Celebration
I love the combination lot recipes, songs and stories in this book. This year we’ll be making Pumpkin Pie to celebrate Thanksgiving and making a tree from which we’ll hang cut out leaves, detailing everything that we are thankful for in our lives. We’ll read about Divali and cook an Indian meal together to celebrate. We’ll probably end up henna-ing each other’s hands and listening to some sitar music and perhaps putting on a play with puppets of the story of Rama and Sita. In years gone by we have made lamps and decorated rangoli patterns too. This book contains an incredible smorgasbord of ideas for festivals from many different cultures. It’s quite brilliant!CELEBRATING THE SEASONS OF LIFE
Samhain to Ostara: Lore, Rituals, Activities and Symbols
I love this book; it goes into quite a lot of depth about each celebration and Samhain is no different. Expect to learn about all sorts from singing for the ancestors to how to make gingerbread, building a community altar to the importance of pumpkins at this time of year. Ashleen O’Gaea is the author of several books and she and her husband run their own coven. I love the idea of a reverse spiral dance to mark Samhain so will be borrowing ideas from this book for our family celebrations.THE FAIRY PARTY BOOK
Bringing Magic into Every Celebration Throughout the Year
In this cheerful and fun book, Marina Stern shares her ideas for celebrating every month of the year. Each entry includes some background history and often a recipe or party idea. For Halloween she shares a spiced hot apple juice drink. I’ve used this book for gaining insight into Samhain and why it is celebrated.SEVEN TIMES THE SUN
Guiding your family through the rhythms of the day
Although this book is not specifically about seasonal celebrations, I find myself turning to it again and agin when looking for a meaningful and joyful way to celebrate family life. The book, one of a selection by Shea Darian shares simple rituals, songs and ideas to bring calm, peace or a sense of excitement to different times of the day. Currently I am using the section on celebrating quiet; it focuses on listening and encourages the use of a ‘pause’ during each day when everyone enjoys a time of silent relaxation. Shea suggests activities that might help our children to slow down and take a pause, “Individual quiet time might be inspired by repetitive crafts or simple tasks that help clear a buzzing mind. Finger knitting, weaving a basket or beading a necklace can bathe one in silent relaxation.” I love the gentle inspiration that I receive from reading her words.CELEBRATING THE GREAT MOTHER
A Handbook of Earth Honouring Activities for Parents and Children
This is a wonderful book packed full of ideas for marking the turning wheel of the year. Each of the projects aims to encourage a deeper understanding of earth based spirituality and it has certainly opened up some interesting insights for our family. I love the Samhain activity on discovering your power animal which takes parents and children on a magical journey to meet their special animal. Other projects involve making costumes, creating bean runes to use for divination and how best to decorate an altar for this time of year. Think pumpkins, scattered colourful leaves, candles, nuts, bones and offerings to the ancestors. Written by Cair Johnson and Maura Shaw, this handbook contains a wealth of ideas for family celebrations.The beautiful image that I have chosen to illustrate this post is from an autumn trees tutorial to make decorations for your autumn nature table from Patch O’Dirt Farm. Find out how to make some gorgeous, colourful, gossamer leaves for your home and read more about the family behind the project here.
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Sep 28 2011
free veg box and more
FOOD AND NUTRITION
Looking for gluten free, organic cereals for your children? Get a copy of the latest edition of The Green Parent for 50p off Nature’s Path cereals.
Want to try an organic vegetable box delivered direct to your door? Visit www.riverford.co.uk/greenparent, place a regular order and the third box will be free!
Get a free box of chocolates when you spend over £5 at divinechocolate.com/shop – code: greenpNATURAL BATHROOM
Try a free sample of Weleda’s award winning calendula range at tinyurl.com/weledasample
20% off web orders at pittapatta.com – code: Greenparent
Free delivery on the organic babies range at Green People
Ethical skincare for mama and baby – get 10% off
Organic products for babies, children and their parents – 20% off – code: EMAB2011NATURAL BABIES
Want to learn a new skill? Save 10% on a baby massage and baby yoga training course – Code: Green Parent
Looking for a baby carrier? Save 10% on slings and carriers – code: GREEN10
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15% off beautiful handknitted clothing – code: GreenParenAW11
20% off ethically produced clothing for the whole family – code: GR20LEARNING
Save money on crafts books and educational materials at tarquingroup.com -
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