La Belle Vie Holistic Living

Made it to Lima yesterday morning after 25 hours of buses. Buses on which I discovered that my stomach was not happy…that was interesting. Been on only water since yesterday and things seem to be clearing up. Hey! My first water fast! I actually am feeling pretty good on it and am going to try and continue it into today. I figure it (along with the massive amounts of purging ha!) will help me process everything that’s happening and that has happened. I’ve been feeling a bit lost lately. I was feeling that way before I left Toronto as well – it was a large part of what spurred my travels. Someone once said to me…”if you don’t have a goal, it’s like not having a destination. You can go out every day and see cool things and do cool things, but at the end of the day you haven’t really gotten anywhere.” I’m a very journey-oriented kind of girl – I like to see where the day takes me. But I am recognizing the need for balance in that and in having a goal – somewhere I am trying to get towa

This March, my housemate Jocelyn of Warriors of Wellness and I have decided to spring clean our health and commit ourselves to our wellness. We're sprouting, rebounding, hydrating, eating awesome food, and setting up a fermentation station. On our counter is kombucha, coconut yogurt, and sauerkraut all in the making. Our fridge is stocked with fresh, delicious foods, and we're cooking and eating up a storm of nutritious goodies. Yesterday I scored some organic kale fresh from my buddy Raul's garden and today I made it to the market bright and early to score some awesome veggies. With this amazing bounty, I ate wonderfully all day, including this unbelievable salad that was as tasty and easy to make as it was healthy. To make 3 leaves kales, chopped finely 1 medium carrot, peeled and julienned or grated 1/4 cup parsley, packed and finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, derooted and minced 1/2 avocado 1 lime, juiced 2 TBSP ground flax pinch salt chili pepper flakes to taste Combine

Welcome to my new bloggerific home, La Belle Vie. I moved over my posts so that you can access all of them from here. I've also just launched a website where you can find out all about my holistic nutrition services, such as personal consultations, healthy eating makeovers, private cooking lessons, and personal meal preparation. Thanks for all your support over the past years! I am so excited to keep sharing yummy food and healthy living tips with you, starting with this raw cauliflower tabbouleh I made the other day! I only really discovered my love for cauliflower a few short years ago. So I'm making up for lost time and trying to find as many ways to enjoy it as possible. At the Sunday market last week, among the 20 mangos we bought (yep. note that a week later, they're all gone), we also scored one awesomely huge cauliflower. One of the first things I made was a raw tabbouleh. Cauliflower "couscous" Using cauliflower as a grain replacement is super easy and a

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks xoxo Salads are an amazing meal option. They offer a variety of tastes and textures and a mega dose of nutrients. They're also super portable and don't require heating, which makes them a great lunch for work. Sadly, many people have an irrational hate for the salad. A hate that stems from the unfortunate myth that salads are confined to two to three ingredients, one usually being lettuce, and that they can't ever be enough to fill someone up, and that they're just for diets and therefore a food you don't really want to eat but do occasionally and grudgingly like it's a punishment. The truth is that salads, with their endless combinations, are a form of culinary art; they require imagination and innovation. And without it, salads are in fact just lettuce with a slice or two of tomato and cucumber, maybe some onion. But do

Last summer I fell in love with parsley. It's not that I minded it before, but I was never a huge fan. Then suddenly one day I'm adding it to my salads and marinated kale dishes. By some miracle, my husband found a whole bushel at loblaws! I heart loblaws. I decided to finally make a tabouleh recipe. I made it with quinoa instead of the traditional couscous for gluten-free goodness, whole grain wonderfulness and that protein punch. I'm currently finishing it up (it didn't last long) and daydreaming about my next batch that I'll make with cilantro, black beans, cherry tomatoes, avocado, red onion, black olives, portabello mushrooms, and jalapenos. To make 1c quinoa, soaked and rinsed (to remove the saponins ) 1.5c water 1c cherry tomatoes, halved 1/2c fresh parsley, chopped 1/2c olives, sliced 4-5 mushrooms (I used mushroom, but cremini would be really nice) 1-1/2" wedge of red onion, chopped dressing ingredients juice of half a lemon 2T olive

I've moved! Please visit me at my new home at labellevienutrition.blogspot.com for more recipes and healthy tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! xoxoxo I love kale. It's one of my favourite foods, my preferred leafy green and the last name of one of my best friends. Kale, also known as borecole, is a a member of cabbage family ( Brassica oleracea Acephala Group ), along with broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and brussel sprouts. Easy to grow and full of nutrients, kale was a choice vegetable for England's Dig for Victory campaign during World Way II. The history of this magnificent leafy green dates back at least 2000 years, when Sabellian kale, the ancestor to the kale we know today, was cultivated by the Greeks and the Romans in the fourth century BC. It was the most widely eaten green vegetable in Europe until the end of the Middle Ages, when cabbage eclipsed it in popularity. In fact, in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 13th centuries it found i

I went to Cuba recently for a very belated honeymoon. And let me tell you, Cuba is no place for vegans. And especially especially no place for vegans who cannot eat gluten. I was very lucky that my hotel at least had an amazing salad bar. And even luckier that I love love love salad. But even still, seven says of salad, 2x a day, everyday...well, it can leave a food-happy vegan girl a little...unsatisfied. And this is coming from someone who ate salad for a year straight. But at least that salad had beans. I think I could have made it through a little better if there had been coconuts, the soy yogurt that's supposedly ubiquitous in cuba, or even cuba's "famous dish" of beans and rice. But, nada. I tried, quite hard and in my brand of broken spanish I might add, to monetarily convince someone - anyone - to send some soygurt my way. No one was having it. And you should have seen the looks of confusion and, dare I say it, concern at my sanity when I asked for beans an

I love beans. They're delicious, full of nutrients and incredibly easy to make dishes from. They're full of fibre, protein, iron and folate. Here's a simple bean salad. You could make this salad from any mix of beans. 1 1/2 cup white kidney beans, well rinsed 1 1/2 cup red kidney beans, well rinsed 3 medium tomatoes, chopped 2 bell peppers, chopped (I like using one yellow and one orange. adds beautiful colours to the salad) 1 cup sliced olives 2 tbsp chives, chopped finely (or coriander) 2 cloves garlic, grated 3 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp cayenne Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl. Serve and enjoy!

Revered by the ancient Incas as the "mother grain", quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is quickly becoming the hot new superfood. Sown seasonally by the Incan emperor with a gold shovel, quinoa has always provided those who enjoy it with its many health benefits. Incan armies were sustained by a diet high in quinoa. Those in Peru, Chile and Bolica cultivated it also for its nutritional value. Although often associated with grains, quinoa is actually a seed related to leafy greens, including spinach and swiss chard. This gluten-free food is fluffy and chewy in texture, subtley nutty in flavour and has an impressive nutritional profile: a complete protein, it contains all nine essential amino acids neede for tissue development excellent source of dietary fibre, iron, magnesium and copper A bitter coating consisting of Saponins keeps birds and other animals from chowing down on the crops. For this reason, and also because little stones and bits of dirts can be transported with it