I know it's been a while but I've been either too busy or just indecisive about what to post. pregnancy does take it's toll as all my Sistren know, so forgive me for not posting in a while.
But while I've been away I've been focusing on my health and really improving my livity - it's one thing to know what is right from wrong, and another thing to BREAK the unhealthy cycle which is simply just the easy routine of things. With this baby I find that I can't stand to eat much of the cooked food I am used to, and I find it hard to be at the stove for longer than 30 mins because the heat overwhelms me. I'm also dealing with shortness of breath and faintness due to a low pressure in my blood - even though my blood count is good. So I realized that it was time to put all my knowledge on true ital which is to say fresh uncooked eating, into practise, and let go of the old favourites - at least to some extent. it's not to say that I'm totally raw cuz I'm not, I'm just at the stage of really trying to implement more fresh foods into my meals and one cooked food meal a day.
I know I have posted youtube videos about cooking the vege stew and making soya but I really want to cut down on my intake of these foods and provide better tutorials- soya is actually not something I eat often, being pregnant made me start cooking it more, and the fact that my princess liked it - she's an extremely picky eater. In reality Ital is fresh uncooked or lightly cooked foods, and it's important that I and I RasTafari raspect this truth and get ourselves out of this cooked food funk we all find ourselves in these days. there are so many vegetarian foods on the market now, but the reality is that the real ital has always been fruits and veges with the occasional ground provision and pea stew. so this is my aim, that even with cooked food it will be limited to pea stew or soup and provision -hopefully. I'm not a big eater of rice, I eat instead grains like bulgar wheat and cous cous but even the grains are hard on the body and break down to sugars. like potato and wheat do as well.
and I find that smoking herb, though I've loved it for years, allows us to keep this bad habit because when the hunger hits, we want to eat something sweet and something heavy which are often not the right foods.
I've stopped smoking now as I did while carring my first baby and after learning about how it toxifies the blood when met with fire, am not sure I will start back, but may just juice it in my smoothies -yes! even though we use it as sacrament, this is not to say that it's not damaging to the nerves and brain, i want to use it beneficially not to just attain the Ites. I know I wrote about the hebrews using it and the burning fire, but the hebrews used it ceremonially as a communal fire not spliffs and they also used it in oil and rubbed it on the crown to gain the effect. though it has become tradition doesn't mean it's beneficial to the body, and the reason why some people have "gone mad" from use is not because herb is bad for you, but because burning it is bad for you in combination with a very poor deficient diet - they didn't eat enough or nutritiously, and their nerves were in the end shot because of the toxicity of the smoke to the blood and brain and lack of nutrients.
So far it's mainly been fruits I eat - though that has been difficult money and availability wise I've been managing to get a nice variety of fresh fruit: pawpaw, pineapple, apple, plums, kiwi, blueberries, strawberries and banana mostly. the berries are hardest to come by however. obtaining fresh food or being able to afford it is about choosing it over other types of foods, which really is good budgeting and common sense lol.
In the morning I juice a smoothie with any combination of the above, and mid morning i have a bowl of any of the above because i like to just eat fruit not always drink it (plus I havent gotten a juicer yet which is a must!). I drink coconut water whenever the kingman stops and gets me some. Our tree is finally at a bearing stage but with the dry weather i saw it's first nut blossoms have dried up! I'm hoping that by next year it will be producing coconuts to my delight.
as of today I started with the raw vegetables. I made a bulgar wheat salad and some hummus which I will share here. and in preparing my patchoy for the salad, i had a sip of the green juice and loved it, so I will be making my first green juice tomorrow.the lime really makes it nice.
the vegetable juices are best in the morning and afternoon, more for lunch, and then the meal like salad or my cooked food comes around 3 pm and after. but i still eat fruit in between, all day.
So this is the start of my journey to incorporate more fresh food into my daily livity, in hopes of not only curing a few health issues i've had for most of my life, but to really embrace ital to the fullest as it is key to having a true Iritual connection with the earth and with JAH. fresh food is cleansing and the best type of food for the body, it reduces the amount of energy the body spends in a day on digestion, allowing energy to go to the mind and creative irits. eating cooked food, dairy and all the wheat and dead animals makes the body work harder and makes it spend all day digesting, as these foods take up to 5 hrs to digest! so treating the body best with Ital allows it to really open up, and the mind to really be clear and free to do and create positive vibrations. I hope all sistren will join me in taking steps to becoming Truly Ital. I am inspired by those sistren who are already doing it, and who have already given up things I haven't. one day at a time though, with knowledge and positive power!
now onto the Bulgar Wheat Salad.
½ cup bulgar wheat
1 cup water
Saffron
Cumin
Powdered ginger
Dry basil leaves
7 leaves Green leafy vegetable – i used patchoy
1 stalk celery
15 grape tomatoes or 1-2 large Tomato
1 large Cucumber
½ Lemon/lime
1 leaf Chive
5 pieces of fresh Rosemary leaves
Onion optional
Heat the cup of water to boiling, add in 4 dashes of each of the cumin, saffron, basil and ginger.
Take off heat and add the bulgar wheat. Cover and let sit for 30 mins. Drain off excess water. Let it cool before mixing with salad.
Chop green leaves, celery, chives, rosemary, half a lime in blender. mine gave a little trouble to get all chopped but it worked out okay.
Dice tomato and cucumber into small pieces.
Mix all together with bulgar wheat and voila!
it was very tastey! I tried to make some tacos with romaine lettuce and my first attempt at hummus - was messy but I fulljoyed it lol - the leaves weren't big enough
for the hummus here's what I did - the coconut oil gives it a distinct flavour, maybe next time i will try olive. I opted for coconut because I know it's better for you than the others.
Hummus
2 large spoon full of coconut oil
Juice of 1 small lime
1 1sp cumin
2 dashes ground ginger
1 can peas with ¼ of water still
1 clove garlic
blend it all together!
