Start the day with a health-boosting refreshing fresh fruit drink.
You need an electric hand-blender to do the whizzing. I use the cheapest, least fancy (about £20) – my most valuable and versatile piece of kitchen technology.
Banana is the base – add fruit such as apple/pear/orange/berries.
Use the whole apple/pear: whizz it up, pips, peel and all. Don’t even peel the apple/pear (especially if organic).
Yes, take stones out of mango/peach/plum/apricot. (Blender blade can’t cope).
Yes, peel the orange.
But no need to de-pith orange. Whizz it up with pith, and pips.
I learned this time-saving tip at a raw food workshop by Kira G Goldy. Kira is also a healer.
She encouraged me to write creatively: “You have all these voices inside that want to be heard.”
As a journalist, a challenge. But her words rung true. I focused on writing and two things have developed from my new intention.
I give courses to facilitate creative writing (and at the same time teach myself as it turns out).
And I have written a verbatim play based on interviews of people facing eviction in the hyper-regeneration of Brixton, and Lambeth council estates.
Verbatim is like journalism because it is entirely made of people’s quotes, like a documentary. The subject – how profit-driven thinking wrecks human lives – is a subject close to my campaigning heart.
The play is a collaboration with Changing Face Collective and director Lucy Curtis.
Where Will We Live? premieres at Southwark Playhouse on 25 – 28 November 2015.
I will need to keep my strength up. Time to make an easy smoothie!
Smoothie recipe for 1 – 2
Use organic fruit if possible. Why organic?
1 apple (cut-up with pips and peel )
1 orange (cut-up with pith and pips)
1 banana (peeled and sliced)
Half a glass of water/milk (dairy/plant) to thin
A dollop of peanut butter and/or coconut oil and/or yogurt for protein and good fats. Or a handful of cashew nuts soaked overnight in water
Optional: ground cinnamon/raw ginger
Blend with a hand-blender in a jug, pour and enjoy.
Ta da!