Beautiful breakfast... delights to wake up too.

Ground Natural Active Almonds pureed with fruit, coconut

& goji berries, covered with Strawberries and Grapes

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I am not really a morning eater but find it easy to have something light like fruit. Waking up early to a new day and heading off to my kitchen window that overlooks the ocean is a favourite part of my day. I make green smoothies and a different type of one of the suggestions below each morning for myself and my husband.. the kids always have a green smoothie. Here are some examples:

Green Smoothie with Mango, banana & Pineapple Bircher
• Green Smoothie
• 2-3 Fruit Salad - V-Slice or mondoline 2 to 3 different fruits into a bowl and mix in a little coconut, ground nuts or seeds or chopped dried fruit. Or just by itself
• Large bowl of Melon
• Pureed fruit with Kitz Granola - place fruit of your choice into a blender, blend until smooth then pour into a bowl and cover with your choice of Granola.

Choci-Jo with pureed fruit,

goji berries and cashews

Fresh grated coconut with grated apple,

 sultanas, Apple Cinnamon & Agave Walnuts.

Three Fruit Salad with pureed banana,

 strawberries and Buckies

And for the special Sunday morning treat.. which is something I think we all deserve at the end of a good healthy week.. is my little Flaxcakes with cashew cream, organic apricot and fig spread, agave and bananas.. pile them up like pancakes.. have with a smoothie of freshly blended Mango, pineapple and orange and not only will your senses be delighted but your body will be completly nourished ready for the busy week ahead..

ENJOY  :)

What you think about, You bring about!

How many people do you know .. or you may be one yourself that constantly think of going on a diet.. a weight loss diet.

Just thinking about it brings on all sorts of negitive feelings, deprivation, failure, lack of enjoyment, restrictions, constantly thinking about what you will have next, am I doing it right?.. it just goes on and on. And what ends up happening..you have to do it all again because it just didn't last!

Now, if you tell yourself that you are going to Be 'Happy & Healthy'.. how does that make you feel. I don't know about you, but it makes me feel great. Enthusiastic, motivated, excited, happy, long lasting.. And the truth is, if you eat healthy and do some type of movement.. lets call it exercise! the result will be that you will be 'Happy & Healthy' and your weight will go to where it is supposed to be. And because it is a life time change for the better it will last forever and you will never have to think about the 'D' word again.

So write a list with all your favourite healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and that's the exciting food you are now going to live on.. sounds like healthy fun to me. Tomorrow I will put up some of my favourite healthy meals that make me excited about eating healthy. Enjoy! :)

Amazing Summer time salads

We have some of the best fruit and vegetables available to us in the this country.. I can't believe how lucky we are, or how lucky I am. I am in heaven with a house full of wholesome fresh produce. The choices are amazing and we should all be embracing it.
I have a bad habit of finding something I like and then having that same thing everyday for months on end. Not good.. I'm always very happy doing it but I do think I should be more adventurous. I move with the seasons.. when papapa is in season I eat it in abundance. So I suppose it's not that bad because I am eating seasonally which is the best way to eat. I always have a large salad for dinner including lots of greens with a variety of non sweet fruits such as tomatoes, zucchini etc and I also love mushrooms which are a good source of B12 for me. I have been doing a bit a sprouting lately too. Something I used to do a lot of but stopped for some time as it starting to upset my stomach. Now I have them accassionally and only in small amounts. I just love alfalfa, fenugreek, lentil, mung and pea sprouts. Sprouts are the ultimate Live Food!.. full of life, nutrition and sunfilled energy. It is always my treat when we go away to buy the Crunchy Combo available in the supermarkets.. Other than that I never buy them as you do run a risk of them containing mould.

Alfalfa, mung, fenugreek & lentil with Pea Sprouts below

So getting back to the Salads I made up a beautiful Carrot, Sultana & Coconut salad yesterday for my daughter and her friends.. it was always a favourite of mine as a teenager and in my early 20's, I remember buying it from a little Health Food Cafe in my lunch hour. I just dress it with freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice. If you let it sit for about an hour the flavours combine and it is just a treat.

Carrot Sultana & Coconut Salad

And for dinner I had a amazing Zucchini Pasta salad with finely chopped tomato, mushroom, celery and red onion with a dressing of the same with some fresh garlic, chives, ginger and basil.. it was heaven!!

Followed it up with a small feast of mango's.. about 6 decent sized NT mango's.. what a great night!

Zucchini Pasta Salad

LIVE.. LOVE.. LAUGH

ENJOY!!  :)

More cakes.. more bliss time.. :)

Chocolate Banana & Berry layered Torte

I just love it when there is an excuse to make another gourmet raw cake! The girls are staying in a beautiful appartment right on the beach for Sami-Jo's 21st celebrations and Guess What?  They all love raw food creations.. how good is that! I am having a wonderful time making up stuff for them that they really seem to be enjoying. Wow, even the boys seemed to really like the torte last night. How good is that. We all made sure though that they didn't know what sort of torte it was.. :)

The bottom is a thick cakey crust of walnut, dates and cacao nibs with a hint of vanilla, then a creamy banana cashew layer, followed by blueberries covered with a thick layer of rich chocolate avocado mousse finishing with a Cashew cream top.

For afternoon snack I had made up some raw sushi and in the rush forgot to take a photo of it. It came out wonderful and the girls devoured it. Along with some little Vanilla Fig cupcakes with Creamy Apricot frosting they where all kept well nourished. Pre dinner consisted of Kitz Crackers with Guacomole and fresh sliced tomato.

Vanilla Fig Cupcakes with Creamy Apricot Frosting

It was a fun night. Here is a pic of the girls in the late afternoon before they glitzed up for dinner..

Happy 21st my love!

Chocolate Velvet Torte for my babies 21st

I can't believe it.. my first born has turned 21! What happened, it all just went so fast. The great thing is she just love raw food especially the desserts so I can always have fun making her a raw cake for her birthday. Forgetting that I had an appointment yesterday afternoon I left myself half and hour to make this cake for her, no time to get a recipe so with an idea in my head off I went. And. YEAH! she loved it so much she said it was the best cake she has ever had. She wants me to make another for her dinner party on Friday night.. but I have bigger plans for that. Will post how it goes. :)

This cake has a crust with raw cacao nibs in it giving that rich choc taste with a tiny crunch and a smooth velvety chocolate filling made with avocado then covered with blueberries.

21 today!

Some new stuff and specials for the festive season

Great ideas for Kitz Living Foods products

With all the fun of Christmas about to happen I want to make sure everyone can have a great time and join in the festive fun which includes eating delicious food.. just don't tell your friends and family it's good for them.. funny thing that isn't it how some people feel that the only way you can get enjoyment out of food is if it is, well.. I would call it processed rubbish!!

But not all of us, I know that you guys are all like me and love feeling great! The only way to stay like at is to eat a fresh healthy diet, gets lots of fresh air and movement, live in the moment and to enjoy our friends and family.

I have always wished for health and happiness.. because to me with that I have everything! It means that the rest of life is great. Remembering to thoroughly enjoy the simple things in life is such a blessing. Things like a super sweet rockmelon that reminds me of caramel, and good run where I have an abundance of energy and just want to go for it, peace and quiet to recharge my batteries, waking up early to prepare green smoothies and fresh healthy fruit salad granola's for my family then us all sitting down to enjoy it together, dinners together with great conversation, treks out into the country to do a nature walk or a 10km canoe trip to a lovely location for lunch.. these are that things that fulfill me.. :)

So to help keep everyone on track with delicious snacks for this special time I am going to be offering some great special on the Kitz Living Foods website plus some one offs special runs of some new products I want to make for everyone to enjoy..

Chunk Special

This week it is the Chunk special with choc chip goji, pineapple pepita and almond, fig and macadamia and the banana, date and walnuts all for the price of just 3, buy for and get one free. There are also the new Almond choc chunk cookies with the chocolate cream filling which have nearly run out.

Chocolate cashew cream filled almond choc chunk cookies

Fresh air, family and fun

We've just spend a wonderful couple of days away from civilization with 2 of our kids.. the eldest and the youngest.. oh and our new pet bird.. Maggy.. she's a baby Magpie that fell out of a tree in our back yard, her brother never made the fall.. he's now deceased.. :( So we have been hand feeding Maggy and she is going from strength to strength.

Looking back over Lake Lilly toward the reception and the communal kitchen

First thing we did was go for a swim, that's Craig diving off the diving board. Jordi was great at it doing back flips and all sorts of tricks. Sami-Jo even braved it and jumped off.
The cabins are nice a neat with just a bathroom a queen bed bunks for the kids. With the little verandah over looking the lake it's just perfect. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't have our own kitchen but after going down to the communal kitchen and putting our food into the cool room we realized it was going to work out quite well. We were the only ones there except for 4 WWOOFer's (Willing workers on organic farms) so we had the outdoor kitchen to ourselves.
Hassana is an organic farm stay with cabins and permanent tents. They do individual, family or group bookings.. I would love to do a raw food weekend for a group. Will put it onto the Kitz Living Foods website when I organise it as it will be a weekend for anyone and everyone.. learning, sharing and enjoying fantastic raw food.
Activities include, swimming, canoeing, walking, Katapult (medieval game) farm tour of the organic vegetable garden, chickens (collecting eggs), paddocks etc.

On our way back to our cabin - the middle one on the hill

Craig sitting on the deck of the Sauna on Lake Lilly before breaky.

On Friday after breakfast we did a 10km round trip up the river in canoes to the Art Gallery at Murwillumbah for lunch. After getting our act together with the paddles it was a great morning. Fantastic scenery, great weather and good company all in a quite serene environment.

We tied the canoe's up under this bridge then walked to the Gallery

Walking up to the Art Gallery

That afternoon I rode one of the farm bikes down to Stockers Sidding to check out the local art shop which has beautiful local pottery, knitting, woodwork and handmade jewellery.
Then before dinner we went to have a look at the Glow Worms in an old disused railway tunnel at the end of the valley. It was a eary but beautiful place and the glow worms showed up really well just as it was getting dark.

Walking out of the tunnel

Old disused Wood and Stone house in the Valley

Maggy - Day 1

the Happy Campers!

xx

New Cream filled cookies.

I made some Chunky Choc Chip Cookies and just felt that they needed something extra.. so a made a chocolate cream and filled them.. I think they are amazing. Nice and sweet and gooey.. with little bits of crunchy raw cacao nibs.. Devine!

I have to go and put these on the kitzlivingfoods website before I eat them all.. :)

Carrot Cake with Lemon Cashew Frosting

I have so many organic carrots in my fridge that I just had to do something with some of them. So after making a big batch of crackers I rinsed out my new favourite toy.. My blixer and whizzed up a yummy carrot cake.. This is the first time i've done a raw carrot cake and I was really impressed with how it came out. It's really quite delicious!

Raw Carrot Cake with Lemon Cashew Frosting

It seems the longer it sits in the fridge the better it get.

Here's the recipe.

Cake

Ingredients

3-4 Carrots
1 cup seeded dates
1/2 cup organic dried apricots
1/2 cup sultanas
1/4 cup flax seed - ground
1/2 cup coconut - desiccated
1/2 cup cashews
1 tsp organic ground vanilla bean or extract
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:

chop carrot into chunks and place into a food processor, process until finely ground but not mushy. Add dates and blend until fairly smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until all ingredients resemble the size of course bread crumbs. Then place the mix into a cling wrap line baking tin or container of your choice. It does not have to be a baking dish, you can also use any other storage container, be adventurous, round, square, oblong.. the choice is yours or you may form it up free hand onto a plate.
Place into the fridge to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews - soaked in filtered water for 2.-3 hrs
4-5 tsp agave or to taste
2 tbs orange juice - fresh
2 tbs lemon juice - fresh
Zest from orange and lemon

Preparation:

Rinse and drain cashews then place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Place into the fridge to cool and thicken then spread onto cake. Sprinkle zest over cake to decorate and enhance flavour.

Enjoy :) K

Ultimate Birthday Cake

Now this is a cake..

Happy 70th Birthday Nana.. :)

Yes it's just watermelon, grapes and kiwi fruit.. indulge!