I am not a very superstitious person. I am always the first to open umbrellas inside or to bring bananas onto a boat. There is one thing I am somewhat inclined to believe in though and that's Karma. You get from the Universe what you put out into the Universe. Good things happen to good people and the like. Pay it forward etc etc. I would say I believe this 90% of the time.
This morning was that futile 10% where I just didn't know what to believe anymore.
I thought I had built up a good wee buffer of good Karma. I had done a good deal of fundraising efforts for a friend, I had helped save the stock from my flooding fruit shop, I even gave up my seat for an old dear on the train the other day. None of this could have prepared me for this morning.
My alarm went off at 5.25am as per usual. I put on my gym clothes, went to the loo, zipped up my bag but as I sat down to go put on my trainers end socket of my extension cord found its way beneath my buttock. You know how people curse you to stand on a lego? Well I challenge them to plant their muscly bum onto an extension cord. Holy sweet mother, I have never sworn so silently in my life (the flatties were still sleeping). Even as I write this 15 hours later I can still feel the welt throbbing. It is going to look impressive tomorrow that is for sure.
So after the gym I waddled over to the supermarket where I was wanting to be uber proactive and bought extra yoghurt for my breakfast in anticipation for running out later this week. I drag my 3kg of apples and 1kg of yoghurt and oats up the hill to work. I unpack my bags at my desk and balance my yoghurt tub on top of my lunch and oat containers. As I walk into the kitchen my yoghurt falls (in slow motion) smack bang onto the linoleum. Its like an egg that smashes onto the floor. Yoghurt is projected in all directions. It flies everywhere, including up the trousers of two innocent male bystanders. Its a blood bath. Fermented dairy everywhere. All I can do is stop and stare and the $6.49 worth of Greek yoghurt that now lies in a blood splatter-esque fashion on the ground. I stare at this splatter for a good thirty seconds before I let out a wimper. One man has splattered dairy right up to his bum. I later find out he has to go home to change pants. I feel so bad. Luckily my friend laughs at me but then throws a towel at my stunned face and helps me clean up. I manage to salvage a third of the tub, the plastic container split in five directions. This serves me right for buying the competitor's yoghurt brand.
I then start cooking my oats. Whilst they are cooking I go about transferring my yoghurt into a more structurally sound container. I hear the beeper of the microwave. I panic, 3 minutes was too long without a stir. I open to the door to see my worst nightmare. An eruption of oat and chia bubbling and spluttering over the base of the microwave like the magma of a lahar. Half of my breakfast gone. By the time I transferred it to a clean bowl and cleaned up the mess it was cold. If I cooked it anymore in the microwave it would have been solid. I persevered, waste not want not right.
I finally sat down at my desk half an hour later. I had a bruised bum, an empty tub of yoghurt, a tiny bowl of dense cold porridge and low and behold, a floury apple on the top. Little else could make my morning worse. I dare not tempt fate though, after all, it was only 8.30am.
Universe, what have I done to deserve this?!
This salad is full of goodness. If you eat it good things will happen to you like glowing skin and good health, it probably wont protect your yoghurt stash though. I got invited to a barbecue over the weekend, yes a winter barbecue. We cooked things on a barbecue in the dark. I was expecting everyone would bring sausages. Sausages don't really go with the whole junk free June vibe I decided to make a slightly different salad slaw to every other Tom, Dick and Harry. This trusty raw energy salad is a staple for my Mum during the summer months. It is adapted from the book Ripe Recipes by Angela Redfern. By adapted I mean I throw in the same ingredients but paying no particular attention to the quantities specified.
To make this salad the easiest thing to whip up, use your food processor. It took less than a minute to grate all the things that needed to be grated. The processor method also makes it less likely that you will get beet juice on your clothes. Less likely but not a guaranteed escape.
I rocked up with my salad and without fail containers of coleslaw and about 200 sausages had already arrived. Come dinner time my salad was demolished. Win.
Raw Energy Salad
Oh so loosely adapted from the recipe found in Angela Redfern's
Makes around 10 serves
2 large beetroot, peeled
4 large carrots, peeled
1/2 cup sultanas
1/4 sunflower seeds, toasted
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
Juice of a small juicy orange
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon runny honey
Sprinkle of salt
Large handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped roughly
Grate the carrots and the beetroot either by hand or in your food processor then transfer to a large bowl. Toast the seeds in a fry frying pan until lightly golden and crisp. Transfer these to the bowl of beetroot and carrot. Throw in the sultanas and the chopped mint. Toss together so everything is evenly mixed through. Shake together the orange juice, pomegranate molasses, balsamic vinegar, honey and salt in a jar. Pour this over the salad and give it one good final toss. Leave to chill in the fridge for an hour or so. sprinkle over a few extra toasted seeds and garnish with a sprig of mint before serving.
Enjoy x