Oct 30, 2011

5 Fruity Days Away


I remember writing down a list of things/goals/experiences/whatever you'd like to call it, at the beginning of this year, kinda like a manifestation-putting-it-out-there type thing, of a bunch of things I wanted more of during 2011. One of them went like this - "I will enjoy a few short inexpensive holidays".

Well, a retreat away in April, a week in Cairns to visit my sister, a Queensland Ferrari trip in August, trips to Melbourne for Botanical Cuisine tours, art gallery visits and delicious food, road trips out to Bowral... I've been doing pretty good I think! But the year is not quite over yet as last week I flew up to Maroochydore to meet my man for 5 days of sun, surf and of course, good food!

Whenever I travel food is usually one of the highlights. Be it at amazing cafes, making scrumptious at-home dinners with friends, or (my favourite) chowing into a box of local organic mangoes (or whatever else may be in season). And last week was no exception.

Day 1 - 
I flew into Maroochydore Sunday morning and was greeted with big hugs from my man, and a raw bliss ball from a friend of ours. Thankyou! Great start to my day :) Then after we managed to pack my gear into the already full car, we headed off and away into the fresh mountain air for some grounding, connection and walking with each other and Mother Nature.





And from there we drove out to Maleny which was probably another 20minutes. There is a vegan cafe there which does a good lot of raw food and I've wanted to get there ever since I first heard about it. It's the Kind Living Cafe. And I'm gonna keep you all hanging on that until my next post coz trust me - I'm gonna need the space for my photos :)

Winding back down to the coast, admiring any and all views, fresh air, and simply being in the company of my man, we later arrived where we were staying for the next 3 nights. Friends of Brock's; Faith and Troy greeted us with open arms before we whipped up some dinner, had tea, long chit chats on the deck and then I was ready for bed - yep I crashed before everyone else.


Day 2 - 
Morning swim. Oranges for brekkie. Then adventuring!
Brock, Faith and I drove up to Noosa for a look-around, a coastal walk, and a day out in the sun. We wandered along the coast for about an hour or so, and then spotted a whale off shore having fun throwing himself about for us to see. 

Walking the Noosa Coast

Noosa Coast

Once we had worked up quite an appetite we decided to head to Raw Energy!! A new-found favourite of mine (see more mouth watering pics from my August trip here) we relaxed sipping on smoothies and raw balls (of which I am obsessed!). A real hippy, colourful, healthy vibe, it's definitely my kind of a place! 

Just chillin'

Raw NRG and Jungle Juice Smoothies with The balls

Goji Chocolate Ball

Then back home again, put our feet up for about half an hour before the 4 of us walked up the beach, around the lighthouse and home via suburbia. Then Faith and I were in the kitchen again!! I demonstrated how to make a raw lasagna and raw balls (using limited ingredients last minute), and Faith made an incredible salad using mango, cherry tomatoes, red onion, fresh herbs... a recipe I am lucky enough to use for my recipe book coming out soon!

Nice big piece of lasagna

Faith's amazing salad

Our mish-mash creation tasted really good!


And the following night when Brock and I were out for dinner, Faith managed to re-create her own lasagna and come up with her own raw balls recipe. How cool is that?!?!

Day 3-
A cruisey day to ourselves, Brock and I hit the road and let the winds take us to wherever we ended up! Brock wanted to head into the hills a bit more so we ventured along, stopping at fruit stalls for delicious cheap Qld bananas and avocadoes, and NT mangoes. Drove past The Big Mower (yep, only in Australia right?), along outback roads, and ended up back in Maleny late afternoon for a cup of tea, some black sapotes (yep I was yelling OMG too!), and a little raw choccie :)

Papaya trees
View from the top
Cameraman Brock
One of my favourites! Found at the co-op in Maleny

Then we drove as quick as we could to meet other friends for dinner up in Noosa. Brock and I munched on organic carrots and avocado (a favourite combo of ours) whilst Bridget and Brad had their fish and chips, fruit salad and thai vegies.

Day 4 -

After a bike ride and a beach run, Brock and I left Buddina and headed north. Our destination was Bargara, on the coast east of Bundaberg, and where we wanted to stay that night. It's about a 3hr drive from Buddina if you go straight up but we managed to do it 6hrs! First stop - Raw Energy! Yeh baby! We had to get our daily juice fix (even though it's not exactly a 'daily' thing all the time) - and raw ball.




 Then we were off and away again! Just driving and turning off wherever looked nice really.


First detour - a scenic tourist drive that was appearing to take us into the middle of nowhere and further away from where we wanted to end up! Of course I'm getting a little antsy and thinking "great, we'll be so far from the main road now", while Brock hadn't a care in the world. But when a bend in the road turned into this ... 


...all my worries disappeared and I was in total bliss. We were in fact at the end of the road with the only way out being from the way we came in. Part of it looked like a scene from a James Bond movie as there was a big concrete wall of a dam, but away from that, it looked like a postcard from somewhere in Europe (it reminded me of a little place in Switzerland called Interlaken). And it was as peaceful as you could imagine.


We decided to crack open our fruit box and dig into some bananas, mangoes, and a little left over kale, tomatoes and mushies we had from the previous day, before a stretch and reinvigoration to get back on the road again.
Kale sandwich

Local bananas - so good

We got into Bargara after dark, munched down on a truck load of oranges, then found a little piece of grass to sleep on with our sleeping bags, under the stars... until the rain started to sprinkle down on us. Luckily we had sorted out our "if rain comes plan" earlier and simply got up and walked a few metres over to a balcony of a holiday home not being used! Sneaky but we hit the jackpot waking up to this at dawn -

Day 5 -


Palm trees above our heads, ocean views, the sweet scent of salt air, delicious morning breezes, and the warm embrace of your loved one. Awww :) I didn't want to move. I'd be quite happy still sitting right there actually!
Brock and I got up and went for a run/walk before a swim, and then I prepared a birthday breakfast for my man (ie. pulled the box out of the car). Papaya, mangoes and bananas were on this menu!


 Along with his recent favourite concoction of Sun Warrior protein, chia seeds, goji berries, and raw honey.


Served by the beach. Eaten with ones hands. You can't get any better than that!


 Best morning ever! I honestly can't think of a more beautiful awakening I've had - ever!

Me and my man :)

My final day road tripping (this time round), we packed up and headed north again to Rockhampton. I was flying out at 615pm (not 7pm like I had thought, which made the mad dash to the airport a rather stressful one) so we slowly made our way up, got a juice, said our "see you soon's" and that was it!

Is that not the best packing you've ever seen?!?!

I had the best time ever on those 5 days and cannot wait to continue travelling next February! In the meantime, the incredible dishes we ate at the Kind Living Cafe will be up in a few days so be sure to check back soon.

Until then...

Stay fruity xx







Oct 18, 2011

The Future of Food


In knuckling down and doing alot of study at home today I've come across this movie. I'm doing an assessment on the diversity of food and future of nutrition and this movie has proved to be incredibly insightful, educating and mind blowing with facts I was unaware of. So of course, I pass this on to you. There is a 10minute trailer that is enough to pull you to want more. This entire film is 90minutes long.

I'd love to know what you guys think.

Enjoy :)

Oct 16, 2011

A Week of Food Porn


Following on from Melbourne, it appears that (aside from work and studies - oh and my big sis from Cairns is down to visit for the week!!) I've just been eating my way round town!

Whilst nannying last week I took the kids over to Manly and with my sister we had big smoothies and a raw lemon cheese cake - yep check out that colour - at Pure Wholefoods. It's my favourite place down there I love it! Loads of fresh juices and smoothies, and their menu has something for everyone and everything is supper duper fresh and bursting with flavour! But that cake! WOW! I've never seen anything like it and it tasted incredible! 

Psychadelic Cheesecake


 
One mango smoothie and one spirulina smoothie please :)









Then on Saturday night last week (I know, blogs slow to come this week), Brock had a farewell party at his place where we managed to cram close to 30 people into a one bedroom place! Safe to say it was cosy, but alot of fun! We had the juicer going, everyone brought amazing food, salads, coconuts, cakes, olives, fruits bowls, sweets...

And these are the little guys I made. I was following a recipe from Rawmazing here and yep, that's exactly what it was. RAWMAZING! And such a since to make! Mini orange chocolate cheesecakes.They melt in your mouth but are refreshingly soft, sweet and cool, straight from the freezer.


A friend of ours made these delicious little balls. A sticky, chewy, nutty ball with a surprise sesame centre. I've had my fair share of raw balls but nothing like these ones they were so good!

 

And delicious date and almond and date and coconut rolls... 
Yesterday my sisters and I ventured the 1 1/2hr drive out to Bowral where our dad and step mother live. We were blessed with amazing sunny weather, and of course great food.

Me, Lisa, Dad and Nikki

Gail had been busy in the kitchen preparing amazing food as usual. There was a fresh baked spinach and ricotta tart with cherry tomatoes, sourdough rolls, a big garden salad, fresh juices, teas and coffee, avocadoes, and this colourful plate was all mine!

My brunch platter

Fresh OJ a la Dad

Garden salad a la Gail
And that'd be me, Lisa and Nikki being silly buggers

This morning I was up early and ventured to Frenchs Forest Markets with Nikki and Zara. Now if you're a regular reader you'll know I get down there as much as I can and LOVE IT! There are always newbies there, loads of fresh organics, hot food, cold drinks, chemical free facial products, sweet treats, candles, breads, sprouts, buckets of strawberries, cold pressed oils... you name it!

Fresh juicy organic fruits



Zara and Nikki tasting olives


And my beautiful girl Tamara from The Goodness Company (omg in love with their maca truffle balls!!). I made sure I got a fresh Queensland coconut water this morning to stay hydrated - the sunshine was BLISS! Nikki got a bottle of kombucha and I got a piece of their caramel slice which I also love!


Tamara and I

All in all another successful tasty trip down to the markets! Always nice when the sun is shining too :)

Fresh seedlings to buy

Home made jams and marmalades

But hungry bellies call and so we jumped back in the car and rove home for green smoothies made by me! I threw a bunch of oranges in the blender with a truckload of spinach and a handful of dates. YUMMO! Zara and I sat in the sun very lazily enjoying our lazy Sunday, before heading out for a long walk (not so lazy after all!). Back home for some chill time, reading the papers and some trashy magz (love the mind numbing had one a lazy Sunday) and then down to Crows Nest for the annual Street Fair. We walked around getting a tad sunburnt (unaware at the time of course), watching performers, checking out clothing, jewellery, running into locals, drinking fresh OJ and munching on more dates and grapes, having a ball!

Green Smoothie time!

So for now guys n girls, THAT'S ME! I'm starting my new distance learning studies this week so I'll let you know how I go. I'll also be in the kitchen with my sister while she's here if I find the time, and then before I know it I'll be packing my bags again! This time next week I'll be up in Maroochydore! And hopefully typing to you with sticky mango fingers :)

Have a fruity one xx