Thank you so much for attending the workshop. I was so inspired by your energy and enthusiasm and all the questions! Here’s my wrap up of the morning.
Here’s my wrap up of the morning for you to follow through to some recipes but remember – everything on the day was improvisation. WHY? Because I want you guys to start feeling your way through cooking more. You do not need a recipe to make beautiful tasting things. You need to free yourself up, get adventurous and think “hmmm if it’s too sweet, I need to balance with sour” or “If it’s too mushy I need some crunch” and so on. Life is exciting when the rules fly out the window and you get to write them yourselves – vegetables, being no exception!
Key reminders
- Be generous – don’t hold back on adding abundant amounts of ingredients you LOVE!
- Balance is everything whether you’re talking texture, variety, flavour. The epic salad post on the blog linked below will help you with your frame work on that front.
- Don’t give into the temptation to feel overwhelmed about what you ‘should’ do re organics, getting in a certain amount of veggies, making fancy things every night. NO. Go at your pace with what you feel comfortable implementing. As soon as you’re comfy with the new thing you added, then take the next step again. Slowly does it = sustainable change that feels good!
- Both raw and cooked foods serve their purpose and some nutrients are more bioavailable when cooked, some when raw so key is to move through ways of preparing things, and variety of produce so that you’re getting the best of all worlds overall.
What we made?
Salad 1: A slaw with a half head of purple cabbage, 1 bunch mint, 1 bunch parsley and 3 carrots. The dressing was the I Can’t believe it’s not Slaw dressing linked in the recipes.
Salad 2: Smokey chicken breast leaves, seeds, dried currants and baked Brussel sprouts. The chicken breast was cut small, sprinkled with salt and 2 tsp per breast of SOUTHWEST SEASONING and pan fried in olive oil. Brussels were roasted in the oven with generous olive oil on 180 for 30 minutes. Add salt at the END otherwise it draws water and makes them soggy. The dressing was a simple olive oil and squeeze of lemon.
Salad 3: Roasted vegetables with parsley, pumpkin seeds and coriander (if we’d had any!!!) Roast sweet potato was done in oven for 30 minutes on 200C, Broccoli was done for 20mins (cut the little florets in half through the stalk so that they cook properly) DO NOT OVER CROWD TRAY = soggy! The eggplant was cut into long wedges, salted for 10 minutes and then patted dry. Then cooked on 200C for 25-30 minutes. All veggies were coated well in olive oil. 1/4 -1.3 cup per tray. Heart healthy, go for it! Then we added goat’s cheese to finish and a big squeeze of lemon. No extra olive oil was needed because of the roast veggies.
Salad 4: Simple Greens with peanuts, dates and Brussel sprouts and Asian dressing (recipe for dressing is below in the cabbage salad recipe at the end of that one) So we did half rocket, half baby spinach, generous mint and parsley. Then we did a couple of handfuls of roasted peanuts, 10 fine chopped dates and 1 cup of roasted Brussels. Topped with the dressing. Simple and delicious!
What combinations will you come up with!? Can’t wait to see and feel free to tag me over on instagram @lowtoxlife when you make things. I love to see!
Recipe resources I mentioned from the blog
I can’t believe it’s not slaw – creamy dressing.
Crunchy cabbage salad with zesty Asian dressing
And we have a whole category on veggie love with pages of recipes heroing vegetables cooked and raw!
Other resources that came up during Q&A
- Consider doing the REAL FOOD ROCKSTARS e course to go deep into your understanding of food, food systems and cooking / shopping / learning how to prevent disease and chronic issues.
- Organics: Best to buy leafy greens, apples, pears, berries and zucchini organic where possible.
- Meat: Chicken / Pork organic where possible (buy whole birds to save money, pork belly and mince instead of fillets and cutlets) and beef / lamb pasture raised and fed.
- Overwhelmed about where to start with organics: Choose your 3 highest volume fridge / pantry items and just start there, so that could be milk, bread and carrots for example.
- A2 protein milk is generally much easier on the digestion for humans, BUT if you suffer chronic congestion of the ear / nose / throat, consider cutting dairy as a trial.
- Move from packets to produce over time – organic packets are SO expensive and much better to eat a produce-rich diet anyway.
- Japanese knives. Found these guys selling the real deal. Not the prettiest website, but there you go – Christmas is around the corner!
- Cobram Estate Olive oil available at the supermarket – Great smoke point if you like cooking with Olive oil and a spray-free property.
And lastly, join me on the blog http://www.lowtoxlife.com/
On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lowtoxlife/
On Instagram @lowtoxlife
Or you can SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE (or on stitcher or castBox for Android)
And to book me for future events, pop an email to my assistant Elise [email protected] if you fancy! As you can tell, I can’t shut up about food empowerment!
Happy cooking!
