What a stunningly beautiful day it was today.  This is the view of one of my favourite parts of the garden just after 6am.  It really is a riot of colour and due to get even better.

Having enjoyed the garden I went inside and logged on – I was working before 6:15 as I was working from home today.  Certainly beats 3 hours a day commuting.

I made an amazing breakfast today.

I started it last night by soaking a the almonds overnight in water.  As soon as I got up, I soaked some dehydrated coconut, dried apricots and raisins in water. Blackberry and Apple Pudding

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 cup of almonds, soaked overnight in water
• 2 punnetts of blackberries
• 1 apple, cored (not peeled) and cut in to chunks
• 4 dried apricots                       }
• Half a cup of raisins                } Place in bowl and just cover with cold water for an hour
• 1/4 cup of dried coconut        }

Method

1. Rinse the almonds and set aside
2. Place the blackberries and apple in the blender
3. Add the dried fruit with their soak water and the almonds
4. Blend until smooth

This is more Autumnal than Summery but I suddenly had a fancy for blackberries so ordered them.  Having basically juice fasted for a few days, I wanted a really substantial but very healthy breakfast.  So this was it.  It made 2 portions and Harvey and I both really enjoyed every scrap.  It was literally bowl licking good.

Today I tried my new kitchen gadget.  The Spirali-Spiral-Slicer, made by Lurch and bought from my favourite Super Foods site, Detox Your World.  It was £29.95 which seems good value to me for the fun we had with it and the fun I plan to have with it! You can select different blades to slice veggies but I wanted to create spirals from courgette and carrot.  I made thick courgette spirals and skinny carrot spirals. Some of the spirals are really long! Lara was here for lunch and while I spiralled she made the dressing for the Asian Spiralled Vegetable Salad I fancied for lunch.  This was inspired by Shazzie’s Oooodles of Nooodles recipe I found on her blog.  No quantities were given so Lara estimated them.

Asian Spiralled Vegetable Salad

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 3 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 3 tbsp Tamari
• 1 inch cube fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Half a red onion, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 courgette
• 1 large carrot

Method

1. Mix together the Sesame Oil, Tamari, ginger, garlic, red onion and sesame seeds
2. Spiral the courgette and carrot
3. Combine the vegetables with the dressing and mix well

You could eat it raw – it was delicious as it was but Lara wanted it warmed through (as Shazzie suggests) so we popped it in the Dehydrator on the lowest setting and went for a dog walk for 45 minutes.

We then sat in the sun for 15 minutes and both really enjoyed this delicious bowl of spiralled vegetables with Asian style dressing.  Shazzie added kelp to hers but I didn’t have any but I will try it next time. I wanted to use my new gadget again at supper time so I did!  I showed Harvey how to spiral a carrot.  You are left with a long stalk which he called “the mushroom” and asked if he could eat it.  Yes my darling, you may eat raw carrot 🙂 He then wanted to know what else he could spiral so we tried a cucumber.  Anything that makes a child want to eat more vegetables has to be good! Having spiralled a carrot and cucumber, I decided they would do instead of pasta and set about making a pasta sauce.

I had a packet of Tapas ingredients left over from Harvey’s birthday tea.  There was some Salami, Pepperoni and lots of olives.  I fried an onion, added the chopped up Tapas ingredients, 2 large tomatoes, a huge handful of kale and some fresh sage. Then served it on top of the spiralled carrot and cucumber. It was absolutely delicious.  Salami and pepperoni are not very healthy but there was only a little bit and the rest of the meal was really light.  They added a delicious richness to an otherwise very light and healthy meal.  Harvey did have some wholewheat spaghetti too but thanks to the spiralling, he ate far more vegetables today than usual and that has to be a good thing.

So 10 out of 10 for the Spirali-Spiral-Slicer.  Good value.  Good fun.  Good results.

I also went to Weight Watchers; I have lost 4.5 pounds since I last went so I am very happy.  I was depressed at the end of last year.  In March 2012 I had lost 4 stone.  Just for one week though as my weight slowly but surely crept up after that.  I can confess now that I actually regained 1 stone and 10.5 pounds !!!  Yes, 24.5 pounds back on.  It has taken a while to lose it but I am nearly back.  I have 2.5 pounds to lose and I am back at my 4 stone loss.  I am really pleased I have managed to lose it and not completely go out of control, which is what I have always done in the past.  I really do feel I am learning to naturally eat healthily.  I have bad days and even several bad days in a row.  But never bad weeks and months any more.  I am far more aware of what I eat and why, thanks to writing my blog.  And thanks to other people’s healthy eating blogs, which continually inspire me to eat good food.

I am looking forwards, onwards and downwards.