By Andrea Cullen
June 17th 2014
My mum makes a rocking ratatouille and it was often the fail safe go to side-dish to dinners when I was growing up that was inexpensive and healthy. I could never make ratatouille like mum does; I still can’t!
So, I am into week 2 of my holidays here in Dungarvan and I am absolutely blissing out on all this me-time. I am sleeping deeply; eating well; walking 8 to 12.5km most evenings while balancing absolute silence in nature with listening to a mosh of Esther Hicks “The Vortex” and music ranging from Coldplay to Tiesto; reading a couple of books (Allowing by Holly Riley, The Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis, A Histry of Ireland in 250 Episodes by Jonathan Bardon and Kryon Letters from Home) and well also doing plain nothing but what I WANT…… just as it should be!
“If doctors prescribed ‘me-time’ there would be a whole lot less illness.
It is in this sacred me-time that we find ourselves, our answers, our path, our BEING and our hearts…. when you connect back into yourself and open yourself to nature and your inner voice you can only feel love… head to toe….”
Regarding The Vortex; I have the audio book and I believe that this work has the power to transform your life; if only this was available to us in school instead of learning the lessons the hard way!
Here are a selection of iphotos from my ramblings… oh and yes; the new Coldplay album Ghost rocks… a bit more mellow than previous works however.
The first collection of photos are from my evening rambles around the bay here; and the second collection from my trip to Ardmore and The Cliff House Hotel….. I have written more about my holidays here last year in this blog
So, are you looking for a healthy, low carb, nutritious and most importantly tasty option to flour and corn wraps? Well this is your answer…..
Sushi Nori sheets
Sushi nori sheets are very low in calories (approximately 5, yes 5 calories per sheet), are robust enough to contain a proper filling and are sufficiently satisfying to replace the traditional wrap…They also contain much valuable nutrition in the form of magnesium, selenium, iodine, antioxidants, and fibre. The following is taken from Clearspring UK’s website
Here is another meal that is so simple any student should be able to fix this in a hurry.
Seems simple to me!!
By Andrea Cullen
When I cook; I am time spare and I aim to make things as healthy as possible. This invariably means adding in unusual health foods to normal meals to create something that is giving me more nutrient bang per mouthful. Not everyone is as adventurous as me; for example you COULD make a red lentil Dahl as it says on the label or you COULD add seaweed, celery, or other ingredients such as spinach or nettles depending on what you have available to tweak your recipe to something even more nutritious awesome. Go for it!
This is an example of how ANY meal can be amended to include more nutritious foods without making things too complex… even something like mashed potatoes can be improved on by the addition of spinach or herbs…. get inventive; you may surprise yourself!
“You are beautiful and you are perfect”.
If you asked your soul, this is what she would say; that you are beautiful and perfect.
Remove the filter of society’s belief system – the external loudspeaker telling you that you are too fat, too skinny or too something-or-other; and that you must conform, control and manipulate your body and your food. For too long you have made this YOUR voice. A voice that punishes you for indulging, controls what you eat, when you eat, how you eat and that beats you up for not beating yourself physically up…. and when your own voice weakens what do you do? You pay someone to tell you all these things in the form of a therapist or trainer to shout at you even more; or you buy a book or magazine or a product that reminds you that you are so far from perfect.
Your inner being KNOWS you are already perfect; and sees your beauty – open your eyes and see from soul. Your physical body knows her needs – nourish intuitively, eat when you are hungry, move for joy, exercise for play and feed your emotions with awareness, love, allowing and creativity.
Begin a voyage of self-trust – and let THIS be how the next generation learn self-love.
It is only with self-love, acceptance and self-trust that you can truly then become at peace with food. And with this peace and trust comes an intuition for what foods you need and when. With this self-love comes a knowing of what it is that you crave and what level of rest or activity your body requires. With this love comes an awareness and connection to what real nourishment means and how natural foods satisfy… and only then… can your appetite be satisfied…
Trust in your body…. she is utterly amazing… and will tell you her needs…
So in truth…. becoming healthy and eating well… starts with loving the self, and how you speak to yourself.
So how do we love our bodies? I asked myself this question this morning.
Deep within you DO love your body and appreciate its perfection. You do NOT have body issues until you are reminded (aware) of everyone else’s and media body issues and comparisons and then you question how you conform, how much more you should control your body and so you start on another rampage of dieting, restricting, exercising, comparing… and comparing and comparing.
There is a peacefulness within that comes with trusting in yourself and there is a part of you deep within that already sees who you are…. trust in this… and embrace her needs… and then… all things will fall into place with how you treat and nourish your body. When you quit restricting only then will food satisfy, when you drop the rules then there will be no more battles…when you stop fighting yourself only then will your body stop fighting back…I guess in a sense your body is like a toddler…. so love it like one!
With love
Andrea
follow this link to Dan Sainbury's latest writings. These are highly recommended for my clients: If you follow the link to Dan's site you will read that he has a powerful…
By Andrea Cullen
Whatever about other people I have this problem for myself. The perpetual problem of what to eat and do I have all the ingredients in the press!
The following recipe will rock using regular potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash or other seasonal root vegetables.
In small to moderate portions root vegetables are an awesome addition to the diet. Even the poor ‘spud’ isn’t as bad as it is made out to be:
May 15th 2014
So now that I am getting adventurous this is my third take on Nettle Soup. This time I placed a lot more focus on nettles as the main ingredient; however typically I have added in the kitchen sink of ingredients to make this jam-packed with nutrition…. After all why stop at just one vegetable when soup is your chance to get in a heap of veggies!