Raw Blueberry & Ginger Pudding for Breakfast or Dessert! and Eating Super Clean-What’s in My fridge & pantry?

Do you ever have days where you want something that tastes indulgent but you want to be mindful of what that is cuz you know you are in the mood for a bit of a binge but you don’t want it to happen? I have become so conscious of what I eat, avoiding unhealthy foods, all for the craving of wanting that energizing feeling, and not because I think I’m not allowed or that it’s cheating to eat other wise, it’s what I prefer.  It’s become a way of life after 2 years.  But some days I remember how yummy certain things tasted since I haven’t eaten an alkaline diet all my life.  But again, I don’t really want to eat those things or put them in my body but I would love something similar that I know will satisfy me in the same way taste wise but will energize me and truly come from a wholesome, pure, unprocessed food source.  I would have to say that this recipe comes pretty darn close.  I feel like I can eat a gallon of this without tiring from the flavour and I know that it is a great choice in many ways.

The simplicity of this recipe is nice, no huge list of fancy ingredients.  And preparation is a cinch.  In minutes you have a wonderful dessert, breakfast or afternoon snack, even lunch.  I think it would make a nice holiday dessert thus I photographed it in a pretty vintage footed dessert cup as well as a nice scalloped bowl for one large serving-that’s how I devoured it!  No one was home so I didn’t have to share!

Raw Blueberry & Ginger Pudding
Yield: approx 1 1/2 cups
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 small avocado
juice and finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon or 3 tbsp juice and 1 tsp zest
1 tsp freshly fine grated ginger (freezing the ginger prior to grating works well)
5 tbsp filtered water
3 drops liquid stevia
1/2 tsp agave syrup
Method
Place all ingredients in blender and combine well until mixture is smooth and creamy.  Alternatively, use a food processor and whip it well with the S blade.
Adjust sweetness as desired.  Spoon into serving dish and enjoy.  Since the blueberries are frozen, pudding will become watery as they thaw, thus serve immediately after mixing. Enjoy for breakfast, lunch, dessert or a healthy snack!
What does it mean to really Eat Clean?
After 2 years I know how necessary it is to make most of our food choices, clean choices.  It means more effort to source produce and products that are pure, unprocessed, and locally grown without chemical intervention and then find a creative way to make this food yummy to enjoy.  Looking back on our grocery cart 2 years ago versus today’s haul is a real contrast.  And I really thought compared to most we ate healthy since 90% of our meals were home cooked.  The items that we no longer buy or very, very seldomely buy, are numerous.  The pantry and the refrigerator have taken on a whole new look.  If I could only renovate the kitchen to have two fridges side by side (honey…..a sub-zero would be nice!) I would be in heaven.  Thank goodness for the 2nd fridge in the garage!  With the amount of produce we go thru for a family of 5 it can be tedious digging thru deep crisper drawers hunting for the basil or the parsnip even though they are see thru drawers!  We have increased our intake of vegetables 10 fold.  They don’t all fit in the crispers!

I often get interesting looks at the market as I depart with armloads of veggies from those behind me buying 3 only items.  I love going to the market or the grocery store to stock up on veggies.  It feels so good knowing that I am feeding us all with a tremendous amount of pure food.  Even if the kids decide they want mashed potatoes for dinner (the starchy veg-but they luuv it) it’s real food. It’s not a frozen pizza or TV Dinner.  I’m not saying that my kids don’t sometimes yearn for some of the things that their peers might have for lunch but they absolutely know the difference between a healthy meal and a not so healthy meal and they recognize that they are well most of the year versus friends who are constantly off school due to illness.  They love their udon soup! They still get to have pizza day at school -much to my chagrin-cuz they want to be a part of the experience of not having a boxed lunch everyday and join in with their friends.  I have to have some moderation for them.  But pizza isn’t clean food, is it?

Cleansing food, especially vegetables, that nourish and don’t leave a messy residue of acid and toxins like clogging food, is the aim.  The next best thing on pizza days is to load up with extra clean foods for other meals of the day and supplement with greens or chlorophyll to help keep a balance.  If I can instill this sense of awareness and balance I think clean food will become the norm and the “go to” with the occasional pizza days in between. My 5 year old now tries to bargain suggesting that if she drinks an extra glass of chlorophyll or eats another 1/2 cucumber can I have……!  It cracks me up but it also warms my heart that she is so aware of the need to balance. If you are a parent you well know what our kids are exposed to that influences their desire for the incredibly unhealthy foods, from TV to birthday parties (these can be frightful), other kids lunches, grocery store aisles or just the check out stands. Halloween and Christmas don’t help either. I want my kids to not feel like their family is sooo different and that they can enjoy being social with food. Instead they are being educated and influenced to make good conscious choices instead of just downing a bag of Fritos, completely unawares.

What’s in my fridge you may wonder? Well here’s a list of the regulars.
almond milk
coconut water
homemade salad dressing
organic Annie’s ranch dressing- for my teen who will eat lots salad if we have this
Udo’s Oil- omega oil for smoothies
hemp nuts
lots of assorted raw nuts & seeds
vegan buttery spread (to replace butter now and then)
raw almond and sunflower butter
vegan parmesan cheese
organic mozzarella occasionally-the only dairy product–ever
organic ketchup sweetened with agave
organic salsa
olives
Veggies- at all times and always organic based on availability
2-3 diff lettuces
zucchini
lots of carrots
celery
lots of cucumbers
parsley
mint
cilantro
basil-when I can find it
beets
cabbage: red and napa
sweet peppers: red, orange, green, yellow
tomatoes (we keep these on the counter)
kale & or chard
jicama-when I can find it
kolrabi-luuv this!
bok choy
broccoli
sprouts-sunflower, pea, mung, garlic, onion
green apples
oranges
organic berries -when available
lots of lemons and limes
lots of fresh ginger
organic free range chicken 2x’s per week excluding me- I’m Vegan now:)
fresh local fish, for my husband once in a while
and lots of seasonal additions for veggies- I get a little insecure when the fridge isn’t full of all these!
Regular pantry items
lots of spices & good sea salts
fresh garlic, shallots, onions
braggs liquid aminos
organic heirloom tomato sauce-in a pinch
cold pressed raw oils: olive, coconut, avocado, grape seed, hazelnut, almond, avocado, sesame
pasta: quinoa, kamut, brown rice
grains: brown rice, wild rice, kamut, spelt flakes, buckwheat
seeds: quinoa, chia, millet
flours: chickpea, almond, spelt, coconut, brown rice,
legumes,tinned and dried: lentils, chickpeas, white beans, pinto beans,
herbal teas
Annie’s rice pasta mac and cheese- this is a treat for the kids now and then
rice crackers & cakes
sweeteners: agave syrup, stevia, maple syrup, cane sugar (for very occasional use)
cereal: organic oat free granola, puffed millet, puffed kamut, rice flakes
dried unsulphured organic fruit: blueberries, gogi, raisins, cherries, cranberries, golden berries, dates
sprouted grain bread with hemp or flax
organic multi-grain tortilla chips- this is a treat
The fruit bowl is always heaping with avocados, lemons, apples, kiwi, some bananas and what’s fresh, local and in season. We minimize the super sweet fruits like bananas and pineapples and mangoes.
Gone are these items that we used to buy
milk, deli meats, eggs, cheese, most condiments, yogurt, juice, soda, coffee, prepared deli items, peanut butter, butter, flavoured chips, cookies, lots of crackers (esp. fishy crackers), sweet cereals, muffins, canned veggies, soups, all sugars, vegetable or canola oils, vinegars, granola bars-this was a biggie!, fruit gummies and leathers–and there’s more but I can’t remember it all. Basically it’s the inside aisles of the grocery store plus red meats, dairy & eggs. (Pretty serious, but we feel immensely better for it!) I’m sure there’s a few things I’ve missed but this is the just of it.

Essentially what we’ve done is eliminate all pesticides, chemicals, dyes, sugar-real and fake, bad oils, trans fats, carcinogens, hormones, antibiotics, yeasts, fungus-mushrooms, mold-fermented products, most animal products, additives of all sorts, and the broken down processed foods that are no longer very nutritious, nor close to their original state. Clean food. That’s it. It’s what people used to eat every day, all the time. Our food chain has strayed so far that we may seem weird, to some, to be eating this way. It’s the way to eat if you want energy, longevity and an absence of sickness and disease.

What does your pantry and fridge look like?  Do they make you smile or do you feel like you could do an over haul? Now’s a great time to pull out some things and maybe donate to the food bank that is always in need during the holidays-throw in some healthy stuff too!  I put some not so healthy, non-perishable pantry items in the earth quake kit so I didn’t feel so bad replacing them with the good stuff.

What’s your intake of clean food?  What percentage of fresh veggies and fruit do you aim for? What’s one thing you could do different this week? I hope today’s recipe will be a good replacement for something snacky that you might have chosen and will satisfy you instead, making you feel good about a tasty treat.
Enjoy the week, snack healthy and I’ll be back soon.
Julie
ps. this is what’s in the freezer!