High fat low carb is hard!

I shot myself in the foot today. Apparently I should be avoiding high GI foods, so the tasty mashed banana and avocado I had for breakfast wasn't ideal. I also ate 1 medjool date. It caused a huge sugar craving and I ended up eating the ripe champedak that has been in my company since the orchard visit over a week ago. 

To compensate I bought a fresh bottle of coconut oil (the one from Bali is on its last drop) and I added it to my salad, I took it like medicine and I added it to the coconut water I had from the coconut stand (first I poured the water into my sports bottle and ate the fatty thick meat mmm). However, my carbs have been seriously high! My ratio for the day is 73% fat, 22% carbs and 5% protein. 

I think it would be much easier if I had a blender so I could whip up some nut cheeses, milks and sauces. But I am doing my best. I managed to control my sugar cravings, however, I don't think it's the best diet for travelling in tropical countries even if I am aiming for ketosis. Firstly, it makes me hot. I'm pretty sure nuts are heating foods. Secondly, there's so much to prepare like soaking the nuts at the right time. That's one thing I make sure I do, soak and rinse nuts. 

I've decided that tomorrow I will finish the avocados and almonds and after that I'll be back on fruit. I want to eat tarap so I hope I can get some before I leave on Saturday. I visited the market today and I don't remember seeing any. Also ripe bananas were scarce too! I have no idea what's going on at the market but it appears since I gave up fruit for a few days they stopped catering for my desires! 

PS I cannot access Instagram at this hostel, which sucks but it's actually nice to take a break from it! 

Bali Blog :: Taksu Spa

I am sat in the restaurant of Taksu Spa and the views are just incredible! The trees are so tall they cover the sky, they're all so green I feel like I'm in a jungle and there's running water both inside (a stone wall waterfall) and outside (the river). I am so relaxed here and it feels so right. 

I just had the raw lasagne and wow it was both a masterpiece and an incredibly tasty dish. I actually took the time to savour this dish, chewing slowly, closing my eyes and just tasting all of the flavours. My mouth is covered in the remains and I do not want to wash it down with anything. I really wanted to grab the plate and lick it, but Taksu is slightly more up market so I just used my finger to get the remaining sauce instead! 

I can see avocados on a tree that must be over 30 feet tall. I don't know how they harvest them, but I assume in a storm you'd want to be wearing a helmet to avoid being smashed in the head with one! Just looking at the tree is causing me to smile uncontrollably and then I almost had a laughing fit. This place just brings out that inner joy within me. I am so glad I came here tonight. My instinct was right :) 

I actually ordered a second meal, zucchini pasta with marinara sauce and this tastes just as incredible. The flavours are strong and I can tell there's olives in the dressing (something I'm not a fan of, but in this sauce it is OK). I am trying to go slow but Italian food has always been my favourite so I usually inhale it! 

Bali Blog - happiness, friend, raw food cafe, plans

I hope you enjoyed yourself on Thursday having a jolly time with friends, family, loved ones, or on your own. The festive period is usually pretty positive for most, but for some it can bring up bad feelings. 

I hope that you're all aware that happiness or joy is our natural state of being and that anything else we may feel is an external influence. Therefore, we choose to be unhappy, sad, angry, frustrated, stressed, etc. Once you understand that you are not the body and it is actually a vehicle then you will understand how you can be happy without external influences affecting you! 

So what's been happening with me? 

Well I'm in raw food, spiritual heaven in terms of location. Ubud has so many raw restaurants and cafes offering raw dishes it's just incredible! There's not even a shortage of fruit here either. I am finally able to say I like the mangoes despite the perfumey taste. My taste buds accept the flavours now. And there's so much yoga, meditation, qi-gong, tai chi, etc that it might take a month to visit one new class everyday. (I've not taken any yet...) 

I have eaten out everyday with the exception of my second day in Ubud because I had a dodgy stomach. It was very easy to stay home that day because of how I felt, but since then I have been moderately OK. I do wonder if I eat out too much but then I think about going to Borneo, Malaysia and Thailand and I think about the lack of raw restaurants and in Thailand lack of good salad options so I'm making the most of it whilst I can! 

I was in Alchemy and someone approached me and asked if I am Braless and bananas... I was a bit surprised at first! It absolutely made my day though and I thought about Joe Best because he had the same thing happen during his trip to Bali. It's an amazing feeling being recognised, like someone actually watches my channel or views my photos other than my family! 

Her name is Beverley and she looks incredible. I must admit I was shocked when she showed me how overweight she was because she is so slim now, her skin was golden brown and she looked healthy. There were no obvious signs that she had ever been overweight and in my opinion this just proves how powerful a vegan diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables can be. 

We didn't have a lot of time together, but the time we had was quality and well spent. I really enjoyed talking about so many things to do with spirituality, our experiences with raw food, the sexiest raw vegans ;) and life in general. She kindly invited me to visit in Sydney (as well as let me use her yoga class card and gift me food and a knife!) so I may very well end up in the land down under soon! 

I hope that this new friendship will be a long lasting one because we just had so many similarities and the conversations were always interesting. Bev said that I have helped influence her through my channel (and through meeting me) and just how I am trying to live life so I find that to be one of the biggest achievements I have made in life. I just want to help others help themselves. 

Today I went to Sunday Dance and it wasn't as good as last week. I didn't feel the music as much. The music is upbeat but the DJ doesn't mix well and some of the songs he plays just seem to stop dead continually throughout so one minute the dance floor is jumping, the next it's still. 

I had a moment where I just stood still and meditated for a few minutes. It was incredible. I felt the floor bouncing, I could feel the vibrations of the speakers, I could feel people moving around me. When I opened my eyes I just started to well up. I have no idea why. 

That leads me to my sleep last night. I slept so well and I needed it. Yesterday I had a terrible headache. I wasn't sure if it was from the sun, looming thunderstorms or raw food. I slept well and woke up refreshed, but I had such a weird dream. I've not looked into it yet but it's stayed with me all day. I think I still have emotional baggage to work through but it's not family related. It's just strange because I don't feel affected by things anymore, but this dream was about something that happened over 15 years ago and I've never given it much thought until now. 

I plan on going to a lot of meditation classes this week and then some yoga, qi-gong and tai chi. So hopefully I'll learn something useful to help work my baggage out! 

I've just extended my stay in this accommodation until 4th January so I need to either find a new accommodation or visit Seminyak for 6 nights before I get the plane to Borneo, as the place I'm staying is now fully booked. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading. There's so much going on, but I'm trying to keep i1t chilled. Oh today is the first day since I got here that I've not had durian! Shock horror! It'll be nice for a break, I'm definitely getting some tomorrow though! I had an avocado instead and it was so creamy, one of the best I've had and is well up there in the leagues with La Palma. 

Love Jennifer x

Tasty Tuesday

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday!

You do not have to wait any longer, today I will be sharing my Raw Vegan Lasagne! I am waiting for a decent photo editor, so my photos look very noob-like :P

For those who do not know about the Raw Vegan lifestyle it is basically the consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, etc (preferably organic) that have not been cooked above 48 degrees Celsius. Ideally people on this lifestyle are aiming for 100% raw, but it is very common that people are raw for breakfast and lunch but eat a cooked vegan dinner. Once you embrace this lifestyle you will reap the benefits such as more energy, feeling lighter during exercise, having more endurance and have glowing skin! 

So, this raw vegan lasagne is uncooked, cold/room temperature and packed with a whole lot of love, because remember "fruit and veggies love you back"! Next time you pick something up that is processed, high in fat or from a "fast food" shop say to yourself that you may love what you're about to eat, but it definitely does not love you back.

I think this will work best if I list the ingredients, tools and instructions for each section and at the end do one big instruction for putting it together. Oh and this serves one very greedy, hungry belly.

Ingredients/Tools/Instructions

Pasta sheets

• 3 courgettes/zucchinis (the only ingredient I measured haha)
• Mandolin slicer
• Peeler
• Knife

This is completely optional, but I peeled the courgettes because they were not the freshest! Once peeled slice in half length ways and very carefully use the mandolin slicer. If you do not own one then you could very very carefully slice the courgette thinly with a knife but please be very careful!!!

Place the slices to one side and keep the left over bits that are too thin to use as a layer.

Sliced courgette

Tomato sauce

• A lot of tomatoes - I filled up the food processor with 2/3rds tomatoes
• Sun dried tomatoes - preferably soaked (the longer the better)
• Spring onion - I like this a lot, so I used 5 stems! I'd say 2 or 3 are enough
• Fresh basil - put as much or as little in as you with but I used about 25-30 leaves
• Fresh rosemary - same as basil, use as much or as little but I used 3 long sprigs
• Walnuts - I used about 5 just because I had them to hand
• Food processor/blender
• Sieve
• Bowl
• Chopping board
• Knife

Wash your ingredients then if you are using large tomatoes chop them up a bit as well as the spring onion, then add everything into the blender and blend away. It's up to you whether you want it chunky or smooth. My blender does not get anything smooth so I had chunky bits which add texture! Place the sieve over the bowl and drain the excess liquid from this mixture.

Put to one side.

Sauce blended - tomatoes blend down to next to nothing!

Sieve away - if you like it slightly runny add some juice back in

Creamy sauce

• Half an avocado
• Spring onion
• Left over courgette
• Basil (optional) - about 5-10 leaves 
• Rosemary (optional) - 1 sprig
• Blender
• Knife

If you are just making this for one person cut up half an avocado, mine was about 64g, which is about 9.5g fat.

Place all of the ingredients into the blender (that you will have to wash!) and blend until it is smooth and creamy. You may need a little bit of water if you want it less thick but I did not add any.

Place to one side.

Putting it all together

So you should have made all of your components for this tasty meal, now all you need is one deep dish.

I started by putting 2 layers of pasta on the bottom and then the tomato sauce followed by another layer of pasta and then the creamy sauce, tomato sauce, pasta, creamy sauce. I got about 2 layers in my dish because it was a beast of a dish so perhaps if you have a thinner but equally deep dish you'd get more layers. Have fun with it, I certainly did. I am a naughty chef because I was eating as I was going!

Bottom two layers

Added tomato sauce and another layer of pasta before the creamy sauce

Looking like it came straight out of the oven!

Who needs a separate plate when it's all for ME!!! :D

If you want me to be more specific I suppose I could make it again :P but for me, making dishes is one big experiment, which is why I am very loose with measurements because we all have different tastes and as much as I love basil that I could use almost half the plant you may only want 5 leaves.

I hope you do make this and do enjoy it. I mainly got inspiration from Kristina, but if you google "raw vegan lasagne" you'll find soooooooooooo many recipes.

Tomorrow is Wishful Wednesday and I'll probably be wishing for this meal ;)

Much love

Jennifer x