Tag: mayonnaise

Getting better

Why would ‘better’ be something we have to go out and get?

Surely it should be with us all the time, but the same wording is used for ‘getting’ ill – as if it is something we shop for at the supermarket

Well

Perhaps it is something we get.

Most of us spend most of our lives living with some kind of low grade inflammation all over
This is what we consider normal and it gets worse with age
We have gotten so used to it we think it’s normal

We eat junk, we know it’s junk, we eat rubbish, we know it’s rubbish, we turn our noses up at fruit, we refuse to eat vegetables and we have phobias about eating salads.

We are all addicted to sugar, fat and refined carbs, and wonder why we feel vaguely sick all the time.

Stop messing about, you know why you feel sick all the time. You eat crap! You pay no attention whatsoever to the quality of the food you put in your mouth, half the time you don’t even know what it is!
You just shove the fastest, easiest, nearest crap into your mouth and assume all will be well, just like everybody else, till, when you are fifty you find yourself on a gurney being rushed into surgery for a bypass.

Welcome to the western world where your diet will kill you.

Having just reached a similar point myself I know where that place is, being hospitalised is scary.

Going out and ‘getting’ better is where it’s at.

Get yourself a better diet, get yourself healthy, get yourself fit, get that feel good factor into your life now – start now by eating your veggies before you die.
Get your head round it, get rid of your junk addiction and start eating real food.

I thought I had a fairly healthy diet, mostly vegan mostly plant based, I loathe meats anyway so I don’t eat them. I hate milk, I’m not keen on greasy stuff or sweet things I don’t eat sweets as such, but I slip often enough to make my diet pretty damn useless anyway, so I need to clean up my act.
Recently I was eating bars of chocolate, white buns with jam and clotted cream, tiramisu, mayonnaise, prawns and fish slathered in oils and even some meats like roast beef. I was completely off the rails.
Then came the easter celebrations and plates full of filled eggs and devilled eggs and other dishes made with eggs, french cheeses, white bread, jams and clotted cream and serious overdoses of chocolate.

I ate everything. I overate.

No wonder I ended up in hospital with stabbing pains in my guts the day after, the DAY after!

I did it all to myself,

I know what to do now. You know what to do too, you do, you have always known, but you don’t listen to it, you only listen to your food addiction and every day you make the easy wrong choice, and you know you do. Even in the face of your own addictions, your own habits, your own routines, as well as advertising, the misinformation, propaganda and the immense social pressure we are all under, change anyway.
Start anyway.
Just like me you need to change your diet before it kills you.

get better
get healthy

 

 

 

Vegan mayonnaise

recipe

I’ve mentioned it often enough. My vegan mayonnaise recipe. So here it is. I eat this almost every day. It keeps well in a closed jar or pot in the fridge and there are many variations. Mayonnaise is a good basic recipe which can be changed and tweaked for different flavours. Add garlic and it becomes aioli, add herbs for freshness, add spices for curry flavour or a chilli hit. The choice is yours. Change the kind of oil you use or the kind of sweetner, the vinegar or citrus. Use orange instead of lemon, or use lime, or white balsamic vinegar. The variations are endless.

Dare to experiment, you will soon find the one that works for you.

There are two ways you can mix this. The newer one is to throw it all together with the oil on top and stick blend it in one go. This does not work so well for me. I use the slow method.

First add all the ingredients, except the oil. I give this a blend first to get a soft frothy little mixture.

Then using a stick blender I slowly add the oil and mix it all carefully so it does not split. Do not rush.

Aquafaba. I use the water from a tin of chickpeas, but it can be the water from any kind of tinned beans. Or if you boil up your own beans after soaking them overnight you can try cooling and using that aquafaba. After much experimentation I have found that tinned chickpea water works best for me.

The original recipe calls for a 1/2 tsp vinegar white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. I use all lemon juice

Vegetable oil, Avocado oil, peanut oil sunflower oil. I have found that sunflower oil works best for me. I never use rapeseed oil.

Mustard, here you can use any kind of mustard you like, Dijon is my favourite.

The original recipe calls for maple syrup but any kind of sweetner will work, honey or even crystal stevia. I now use a powder or icing sugar.

1 cup sunflower oil.
1/4 cup chickpea aquafaba
1/4 tsp fine table salt
1 and 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp icing sugar

technique.
Mix all the ingredients except the oil and give it a light whisk till it lightly foams.
Slowly drizzle in the oil mixing well all the time to create a soft thick mass.
Put the mixture in a pot or jar with a tightly closing lid and keep in the fridge.

Good luck, Mayonnaise can be tricky!

Lazy Sundays

Out on the water, the yacht, white on blue, crystal clear water in all directions.

The wind rustling my hair and the sails bold as the boat silently cuts the water to our favourite lagoon.

It’s time to open the picnic basket and the cooler. What did we throw into it early this morning with sleepy eyes and a dormant brain before rushing off to the lakes.

Bread, fresh from the bakers, the mad dash to the shop on the way to buy warm baked rolls just out of the oven. Fresh fruit and a knife, tomatoes, cucumber and mayonnaise, lots of green stuff. It looks like I just emptied out the vegetable drawer in the fridge and threw everything in there. Now, when hunger strikes it’s time to make up something to eat, now we find out what we forgot. Now we realise we don’t really want to be this healthy and would prefer to eat something vaguely unhealthy but there is no choice.

I slice juicy melon, the scent hitting us in the heat of the day as we throw out the anchor. I fill the rolls with salad things, they have gone slightly chewy. We are in a silent bubble, the distant sounds of revellers on the beach, children jumping into the water, chugging engines seem unreal, snaches of music and the soft lap of water on the keel create a dreamy haze.

No wasps here.

We ravenously tear at chunks of bread with our teeth, slices of cucumber and tomato spill onto our hands dripping onto the deck. Did we forget napkins and tissues again? This feast washed down with bottles of icy water from the cooler. A delicate pink wine, fresh and cool or a cold beer. I can feel an afternoon headache coming on but I don’t care. The sun beats down and turns the water into a million diamonds. It’s all simple, quiet, delicious.

We ruffle the water with our sticky hands then settle down to some serious sunbathing for the rest of the afternoon saving the punnet of strawberries for later.

This is the life.