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Recipe #2 of the Mountain Rose Herbs Recipe Contest
Culinary ~ sKY::s Super Green Superfood Smoothie
 Smoothies are a cre8tive force that I tinker with almost every day, and rarely do I duplicate the same ‘recipe’, as I tend to blend whatever I have available.
The quantities in the smoothie can vary depending on how many you will be feeding and how green / sweet you like your smoothies. And if you don’t have some of the ingredients, don’t fret! Mix and match whatever you can that appeals to your sense of taste and adventure.
Vita-Mix Smoothie Ingredients:
- 2 – 5 cups liquid (I tend to use water or Almond Milk) but Juice, Herbal or Green Tea, Soy /Nut Milk and yogurt are options as well
- 1 frozen Banana
- 1 peeled Orange
- 1/2 cup frozen fruit such as Blueberries, Strawberries, Mango, Pineapple
- 2 tablespoons Hemp Powder (or Protein Powder of choice)
- 2 handfuls fresh greens (Spinach, Chard, Kale, etc)
- 1 tablespoon Chia Seeds (awesome protein source)
- 2 tablespoons Flax Seed
- 2 tablespoons raw Cacao Nibs or 1 tablespoon raw Cacao Powder
- 1 tablespoon of Bee Pollen
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup Aloe Vera Juice
- a pinch of cardamon, cinnamon and sea / Himalayan salt
- a splash of vanilla extract
 For the adventurous, add:
- a few Dandelion Leaves
- 1 teaspoon Spirulina or Blue Green Algae
- 1 tablespoon of Maca Powder
- 1 teaspoon Açaí powder
- 1 teaspoon hemp and/or coconut oil
Try to source ingredients which are organic and/or as local and fresh as possible.
Blend all ingredients in a highspeed blender (placing solid or frozen ingredients in last – we use the Vita-Mix and LOVE it!).
Secure lid and blend. If necessary, add more liquid to reach the desired consistency. Serve immediately. One super-healthy, super green smoothie.
Experiment with quantities and varieties of fruits and veggies. I suggest that you give yourself permission to be a discerning alchemist. Take notes as you go to what succeeded and what ingredients were not so desirable. Let your taste-buds be your guide. Most of all, have fuN experimenting, and savour the healing and healthy experience of nourishing your body with goodness!
PS If you are interested in learning more about raw foods and where to find the Superfoods I live by, shoot me an email and I can forward you more information! Mountain Rose Herbs is a good place to start but I have other sources as well, and if interested in a Vita-Mix, you can get free standard shipping through me (anywhere in North America) and save  !
Recipe #3 of the Mountain Rose Herbs Recipe Contest
Body Care ~ Blossoming Orange Hair Cleansing Rinse
I’ve got pretty fine hair, and I find that some shampoos can leave my hair feeling weighted or flyaway, dependant on many factors. So I came up with a wonderful smelling hair rinse that helps to stimulate and cleanse the hair ~ scalp, especially if I’m finding it greasy and unmanageable. The only warning: don’t let this hair rinse get in your eyes. It sure stings s lot!
Ingredients:
For a 100ml bottle of hair rinse, which will give you about 5 hair washes ~
- 20 ml Apple Cider Vinegar
- 40 ml Orange Flower Water (if you are having difficulty finding this, look at an Indian food market)
- 40 ml Spring Water
- 12 drops Petitgrain Essential Oil
- 4 drops Bergamot Essential Oil
Combine all the ingredients and shake well before each use. Use on freshly shampooed and conditioned hair, leaving the cleansing rinse on for a few minutes. Wash out with with cool or tepid water.
  Walkerton Ontario. Does the name sound familiar? 10 years ago this month, Walkerton was hit with an E. Coli outbreak within the local water supply that devastated this community and rocked our province / country. It also made Walkerton a household name. A first world country with E Coli water contamination, killing people? Impossible! Unfortunately not so. This sleepy little hamlet is only 15 minutes away from where my Father’s farm is (and where we are currently), and for the last 25 years, this has been the home of my Aunt and Uncle. Tonight, we visited Doris and Craig in Walkerton. Currently, this sleepy little town probably has one of the cleanest water systems in Canada (they replaced EVERY water pipe et al after the catastrophe). Not soon thereafter, another outbreak occurred in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Makes one wonder about the officials and Provinces who are allegedly monitoring the quality of our water source. Don’t even get me started on the Harris Government cutbacks. The source of Walkerton’s bacterial infection occurred from farm runoff into the town’s adjacent well that was known for its vulnerability. Shameful really. And I think back to the YEARS of hassle that my family who lived there at the time (my Grandparents resided in a nursing home where my Brother-in-Law also works) went through. As often as any bathing form was desired, Doris and Craig had to pay for a 11km taxi ride to Hanover in order to accomodate their needs. Shipped in bottled water was used for at least 2-3 years (for cleaning, dishes, drinking, etc).
 I debated whether to drink the tap water tonight when Dori and I sat down to play a game of 2-handed Euchre (the boys were intensely focussed on the hockey game between Philadelphia and Bosten). Imagine when the day arrives that safe potable tap water no longer exists? With the ramifications of our declining clean fresh-water supply, how will we cope as a planet, let alone a once unfamiliar hamlet in the middle of South Western Ontario? How does one build up the confidence in our country’s water supply when more and more chemicals, hormones and pharmaceuticals are showing up in OUR tap water! I can’t fully imagine what will happen to the water supply in the Southern US states with the BP oil spill tragedy that doesn’t seem to be coming close to any successful solutions or containment.  And the beauty of water …. it travels the WORLD through our eco-system … we are one global climate system, one living and breathing planet. This affects us ALL. Time to ditch the plastics and water bottles (whose sources are just as questionable as our tap water) and come up with solutions. Living in an RV has truly shown me the importance of tapping in to a clean and safe potable source for our water, as we tend to travel with it countrywide within our fresh-water holding tank. Water = precious commodity. Let’s start thinking about what we’re putting in to our water … we are TRULY what we eat AND drink. And any change that you desire must begin with yoU!
Do you make a frequent trip to your favourite coffee shop [insert emporium of choice here], but feel somewhat guilty about the disposable cups you might use each visit, only to be pitched and unrecycled?
This is an AWESOME way to recycle used coffee (paper) cups!
I’m a huge fan of saving Mother Earth, in every way I can, even if it means saving each and every coffee cup that per chance I might use (I tend to reuse my stainless mug for hot drinks).
Here’s a startling and scary fact from an article put out by Dalhousie University [Halifax, Nova Scotia]:
“In 2005, Americans used and discarded 14.4 billion disposable paper cups for hot beverages. If put end-to-end, those cups would circle the earth 55 times. Based on anticipated growth of specialty coffees, that number will grow to 23 billion by 2010 enough to circle the globe 88 times. Based on hot cup usage in 2005, the petrochemicals used in the manufacture of those cups could have heated 8,300 homes for one year.” WOW. A frightening statistic indeed!
Did you ever wonder why the coffee giants in this world haven’t hopped on board the Green bandwagon / train?? Turns out, that there have been almost no eco-friendly alternatives (and I say almost because, at our wedding, slaDE and I bought compostable coffee cups for our guests to use, from a company called Green Shift™ out of Toronto, Ontario). In fact, ALL of our dinnerware at the potluck wedding feast was biodegradable (corn or potato starch based), with composting stations set up everywhere = NO WASTE.
In a normal conventional hot beverage cup, its inner surface is lined with a petroleum-based plastic (polyethylene) to prevent leaking, and thereby making it non-recyclable or compostable. This fact alone makes me wonder what interaction there is when a petroleum derivative is heated up = ingesting refined hydrocarbons.
Do the Earth and your body a favour … ReDuce, ReUse, ReCycle!
 Country living. If you have the perception that life out in the country is laid back as a snail with no worries or stress, I’d like you to experience life with my Father for a day. He lives out in the ‘boondocks’ as one might say. Farmland as far as the eye can see. Long stretches of highway with intermittent towns. Urban life? Distant and surreal. However, growing up on a farm, I am all too cognizant of the realities of farm life.From sunup to sundown, there are perpetual tasks to do. Trimming of trees, landscaping of lawn, garden and trees, tending of animals and building of fences. Just a few of the tasks on my Father’s farm(s). I’m finding that the time for a speedy walk in the morning is a luxury for many!
And at the end of the day, exercise is plentiful with the daily farm chores, sans the morning walk. And for the past week, numerous hands have aided in building the new fence surrounding the west-wing paddock. Hoping to move his horses from the other farm, Dad has taught himself the art of building fences, gleaning from techniques of the local Mennonites. Beautiful pine posts have been purchased, 500 in total. The Mennonites farm the trees from outside sources and process them, stripped of bark, barren in all their beauty. And one by one, fencing wire is strung between the stoic posts, which are augered and planted at 20 foot paces. It’s been a week-long process, with rotating handymen / women to lend aid in building an otherwise unnoticed countryside phenomenon. In the evenings, musical communities have come together, jamming on a variety of instruments to the tune of Old Time Country. Hard to believe that in the middle of nowhere Dad’s farm is a creative haven of activity, with a music room to boot! Unending pace, fresh clean air, glorious brilliant stars, nature views that make my heart pitter patter. So happy to return to this place I call home. A farm girl I am.
 Building fences, forming communities, shaping relationships, founding musical freedom. Life doesn’t get much better!
In our travels this winter, we’ve come across a plethora of avocados. Sinfully delicious and oh so healthy for you (next to olives, an avocado is highest in monounsaturated fatty acids ~ 20%). As stated on ‘The Juicing for Health‘ website: “The monounsaturated fats and the wholesome nutrition [of an avocado] helps the basal metabolic rate, and reduce overeating.” Also, did you know that an avocado can: Lower your cholesterol level and increase your immune system? Long live avocados and guacamole!!!
Ingredients:
- 8 large avocados, chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 small serrano chiles, finely chopped
- 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Salt and pepper
- Tortilla chips, for serving
Here are some great rules to follow when looking to make the perfect guacamole:
- Use the ripest avocados you can find. Organic in all your ingredients is great, if you can find these.
- Lemons are for guacamole, limes are for salsa.
- Try serrano peppers instead of jalapeños.
- Skip the garlic.
- Save the mixing until the end.
 In quiet contemplation, here I sit, gazing vacantly at my computer, staring at a gigantic flurry of receipts. What once were monolithic stacks of paper that needed attending to, now are petulant pieces of history littering our precious kitchen table space. I need to sort, catalogue and categorize this mess before entering the data into our accounting program (Quicken). Sigh …. and once this huge task of 10 months of backlog is achieved, I’ll be able to finally get together some semblance of a tax portfolio for our accountant. As you can probably surmise thus far, I’m feeling a tad bit overwhelmed by the involved and time-consuming task ahead of me. Right now, I can’t even give an estimate as to how long this undertaking will take until completion! You see, I kept procrastinating over the winter, thinking that I had plenty of time to compile all the information. But as I have learned about life on the road in our Airstream (especially when we’re moving every other day), life can be so incredibly and blissfully busy! Funny how time has slowly ticked away, bringing us in to May. WOW. The last 6 months literally flew by! Trying to maintain everything with yogaFLIGHT, delving in to social networking (new and familiar), developing other client websites including our own, constantly uploading photos to Facebook, and all the while documenting our journey at RVThereYet.ca as we skydived across the lower southwest corner of the US, kept me consistently busy. I was doing SO well in updating our blog each and every day since the New Year. Now I’m lagging here and there, and once behind, it’s almost impossible to try and catchuP. But in the chaos of it all, I can find self-forgiveness, taking each moment as it comes, one yogic breath at a time, sinking in to the present moment when I have the wherewithal to stop and smile. Ahhhhh, now THAT’S certainly better!
  Life on the farm, is filled with so many acoustic joys . The sound of silence. The morning song of birds at our windows. The musical expression of a Canadian flag, wildly beating a random rhythm against the flag pole, with the wind whistling in sweet percussion. The cadence of my footsteps as I walk through the countryside, oblivious to anything other than nature’s call (and approaching traffic, for my own longevity). The fluid silent motion of 5 Ladies dancing the Tai Chi flow at the local Library. The boring sounds of an auger digging deep holes into the earth, ready for the placement of fence posts. The whisper of a horse’s breath as he slowly sidles up to me, longing for attention or at least a quiet nuzzle. The vibrational cacophony of hammers pummelling tin, fitting a weather vane in place.
Blessed am I to experience life through all of my senses. I can’t imagine a life without breathing in and tasting the sound of visual fluid musical movement. And I am so grateful for all that I am entrusted with. Breathtaking gratitude. A blessing indeed.
 One thing that I’ve missed, living on the road, is my true-blue girlfriends. Surely, I love my husband, and living 24-7 with him in our 34.5 foot Airstream, as we travel North America, is an exciting adventure. But there comes a time that I need the camaraderie and loving comfort of my gal-pals. Whilst hubby went to spend some time with family, I opted to attend my dear friend Lisa’s wedding shower with my other bestest girl Sandy.
Visiting Sandy is always an amazing adventure in itself … as a single Mother, she raises two sets of twins whilst attending school full-time. To me, Sandy epitomizes her lifestyle, with the potential for grandiose chaos, into a seamless juggling act that boggles my mind and puts my own life habits to shame!
I’m certain that the help of her amazingly talented partner (can you say: guitar-builder, wooden ring maker, techno-geek, seamstress, engineer, handyman extraordinaire, etc.) oils the wheels of organization and mobility, but huge kudos to a woman who has to ability to multi-task in astonishing proportions (perhaps that’s why she excels so well in the sciences and maths whilst being a creative eco-conscious force beyond measure). Phew! I’m tired just after writing all of this .
And so the weekend began, with a glorious bike ride through the University of Buffalo — that is until my knee started giving me grief. Put me on a treadmill all day anyday, but once I start to cycle through the motions of knee-bending beyond a certain angle (especially with a bicycle seat that is too short), my years of packing parachutes on concrete floors without knee-pads comes to the forefront. Thankfully, I was able to stop and rest (body pain = time to listen to my body NOW). Tad happily fetched us to transport us home, just in time for the wedding shower. See photos below of a weekend so filled with activity, I am certain that photos speak louder than words.
 
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