HurRAW!

"What often happens is that we label ourselves as the feeling: "I am sad, I am angry, I am happy" instead of "I feel...", which is a very different experience. It's not who I am; it is what I am feeling. And it's okay to embrace that feeling and let it flow through you, without resistance." -An interview with one of my favourite naturopaths Petrea King in this month's Australian Yoga Life.

Today I am feeling optimistic and content. What about you?

There is a constant influx of amazing new products at Essential Health and it’s easy to lose track of what we’ve got on the shelves. Once a week I will feature one product/brand to keep everyone (including myself!) in the loop. Please welcome...

*THE ESSENTIALS*
Let’s face it, we unintentionally ingest our lipstick and lip balm. Some sources say up to 4.5 kilos in our lifetime! A lot of red lippies contain nasty chemicals like lead and are also tested on little bunny rabbits. Sad face. Along comes Hurraw! lip balms that arrived to us on Thursday.

-Organic
-Vegan
-Raw
-Hand made in small batches
-Preservative free
-Premium fair trade ingredients
-Non-GMO
-No animal testing
-Gluten free
-Natural flavours and colours including black cherry, earl grey, cinnamon, blue chamomile, lime, almond and grapefruit.

So basically, it’s so natural you could eat it! We have the chai spice and coconut flavours in stock at the moment (clearly I did the order)! They are from the States and are $7.95 each.

Top 5 Things I LOVED This Wk:

1. Cooking everything in coconut oil. This wk: spelt spiced apple cake, vegie patties, roasted vegies for lasanga, fried eggs for nai goreng, haloumi and green apple slices.
2. Getting caught in a down pour when on a beach walk. You’re instantly soaked to the bone within 30 seconds and all you can do is smile and embrace the experience.
3. Having a candlelit blackout on Friday night. Quite romantic.
4. Sleepless by Flume. I swear I just love it the more I listen to it.
5. My 89 year old client who gives me gardening advice brought me in a photograph that he took especially for me of his vegie garden. Bless!

Clear out one of those corners/drawers/cupboards in your house where you dump stuff. You know the ones I’m talking about. For me it’s the corner of our breakfast counter where I throw down my bag, lap top, files, bra as soon as I walk in the door. So much so that my husband has named it Emmy’s corner. You'll feel better without the clutter :)

So I woke up this morning... and found that Essential Health Coffs had cracked the 500 likers!! 502 in fact! Wowzers!! Thanks peeps!

Have a gorgeous week and remember that every day is a fresh start!

Emma the Naturopath xx

Address: Shop 24 Boulevard Arcade, Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450
Email: carrots_and_apples@hotmail.com
Phone/fax: 0266 514 533
Facebook: Essential Health Coffs

Is that a zucchini in your pocket?

I am quite notorious in my house for sneaking in “surprise” ingredients into mine and my future husband’s food. I’ll often present him with an odd coloured smoothie, funny shaped muffin or an exotic new dish and enthusiastically announce “Guess what’s in it!”

He’s had turkey meatballs instead of beef, wombok cabbage omlettes and random wheat free, gluten free, dairy free, raw, vegan cheesecake made with silken tofu (which he couldn’t even tell the difference)!

So this Christmas we are in charge of dessert and I remember having a sensationally decadent chocolate cake in North Fitzroy one night and wanted to try and recreate it... Oh yeah and it had ZUCCHINI in it!!

Here is the recipe we’re using from naturopath Petrea King’s cookbook Food for Life:

Ingredients
· 300g dark Lindt chocolate. Chopped
· 200g unsalted butter
· 5 eggs, separated
· 1 cup raw or brown sugar
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 cups hazelnuts, whizzed in a food processor until fine
· 1 cup zucchini, grated
· 1 cup wholemeal flour
· 1 teaspoon baking powder
· Chopped hazelnuts, grated chocolate to serve

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC.

2. Brush a 22cm round cake tin with melted butter or coconut oil. Line the base with baking paper.

3. Gently melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan stirring until smooth.

4. Using electric beaters, whisk the egg whites until stiff.

5. Place the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a medium-size bowl and using the electric beaters (no need to wash from whisking the eggs), whisk until creamy.

6. Fold the hazelnuts and zucchini through the chocolate mixture until well combined.

7. Fold in the flour and baking powder, then using a metal spoon, fold through the stiffened egg whites and pour into the prepared cake tin.

8. Bake for 1¼ hours or until skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.

9. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

10.Decorate with chopped hazelnuts and grated chocolate.

Merry Christmas boys and girls xx