This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert, Dr Young trained blood analyst and highly qualified nutritionist, reveals to us his delicious alkaline Christmas menu.

We have been bombarded with questions from customers asking what an alkaline Christmas menu looks like and Gareth has given us a great insight into his alkaline Christmas menu 2010!

Gareth’s Alkaline Christmas Menu 2010

I was half way through a consultation yesterday, when my patient suddenly stopped and looked at me and said (in a slightly concerned fashion) “it’s Christmas next week”. She really is motivated to give alkalising a go, but the thought of the repercussions of asking for a vegetable based Christmas meal, suddenly seemed to bring into focus, some of the social and cultural challenges that lay ahead of her.

There’s a higher national divorce rate around Christmas than at any other time of year. Combine that with the potential challenges of bringing family members of different ideologies together around one table and it’s best to remember “tis the season to be jolly” and maybe consider negotiated (peace keeping!) solutions.

I’m pretty lucky when it comes to Christmas lunch or dinner. We often spend Christmas with my wife’s family and they’ve been vegetarian for decades. Having a big salad with a special vegetarian main course, doesn’t even raise an eyebrow in their house.

A really Special (Turkey Free) Meal

If you are having a celebratory meal on the 24th or 25th and you want to turn vegetables or plant food into something a bit special here are some ideas:

Starters:

• Winter soups (e.g. carrot and coriander or minestrone)
• Crudités (sliced raw vegetables) served with humus or pinto bean dip

Main course: Recipes for these are below

• Spanakotyropita (Greek spinach and cheese pie)
• Nut roast. (A friend made this from the recipe below recently. It was mouth wateringly delicious!)
• Serve with large salads

Dessert:

• If you are feeling really (really!) keen you could make raw mince pies with cashew icing (the recipe is in the winter 2008 edition of Get Fresh, which you can order here
• There’s a recipe for dairy free coconut ice cream below, that you could serve with a whole meal mince pie or organic Christmas pudding!

My best seasonal wishes for a happy and harmonious festive season.

Gareth

Gareth’s Alkaline Christmas Recipes

Spanakotyropita – Greek Spinach & Cheese Pie (Serves 6-8)

Cook and serve in an oven dish approximately 40 x 28 x 8 cms*. Oven at 110 c for 40 minutes.

Ingredients

1 kg. spinach
3-4 tbsp. chopped fresh fennel
1 large onion, finely sliced
300 g. feta cheese
500 g. filo pastry
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 beaten eggs (ideally free range, grain fed)
salt & pepper
110 g. melted butter
5 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Instructions

Clean spinach. Drain and squeeze excess water off. Shred spinach. Sautée onions, then add shredded spinach to pan.

Stir over a medium heat to ensure spinach is covered with olive oil. Cover & cook for 5-6 minutes. Add salt, pepper, parsley and fennel and leave to cool.

Crumble feta into beaten eggs. Drain spinach (if needed) & mix with eggs & feta. Add further seasoning to mixture, but not more salt (feta is salty!). Unfold filo pastry on a flat surface.

Place oven dish(*) on top of pastry to measure it. Be aware filo shrinks in the oven!

Oil base and interior side of oven dish with melted butter. Coat 8 individual sheets of filo pastry and lay them in the base and up the sides of the oven dish to form the base of the pie. Spread the spinach filling evenly over the base.

Lay (rather than press down) 8 layers of (melted butter) coated filo pastry over the filling. Coat the top layer well and cut through all the top (not the bottom!) 8 layers of filo with a sharp knife to form serving sized squares (#).

Cook in preheated oven (1100 c) for 40 minutes, until pastry is puffed up & golden.

Remove from the oven and, cut through the pre-marked lines, right to the base of the dish and serve individual portions.

Sarma Melngailis’ Coconut Ice Cream (Serves 6-8)

Ingredients

1 ½ cups coconut meat
1 ½ cups coconut water
¼ cup (or less) of agave syrup
3 tablespoons coconut butter
½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice
Seeds from ½ vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Purée all the ingredients in a blender, until smooth. Place the mixture in a covered serving bowl in the freezer. (If you have an ice cream maker, chill the mixture from the blender then process according to manufacturer’s instructions, before placing in freezer).

From “Raw food, Real World”

Rose Elliot’s Brazil Nut Roast En Croute (Serves 6-8)

This recipe is a bit of a faf, so I’ve only attempted it for special occasions. The results however are well worth the effort…

Ingredients

1Lb of puff pastry, optional egg or milk to glaze

For the Nut roast:

2 large onions, peeled and chopped
2 oz butter or vegan margarine
1 Lb brazil nuts, finely ground
8 oz fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 eggs (optional)
A good pinch of grated nutmeg, ground cloves and ground cinnamon.

For the stuffing:

8 oz of fresh white breadcrumbs
1 oz chopped parsley
Grated rind of one lemon
1 teaspoon each of dried thyme and marjoram
1 table spoon of grated onion
3 oz of butter or vegan margarine

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

To make the nut roast, fry the onion in the butter for 10 min until soft but not browned.

Remove from the heat and add the rest of the nut roast ingredients. Season.

Make the stuffing by adding all the ingredients together and season.

Roll out the pastry on a floured board to a 30×35 cm/12X14 Inch rectangle.

Form the stuffing into a sausage about 25 cm/10 Inch long and place down the middle of the pastry. Pile the nut roast over the stuffing, covering it up completely.

Fold the ends of the pastry up to enclose the nut mixture completely. Tuck in the ends, then place on a damp baking sheet, join side down. Mark a lattice design on the top.

Make one or two steam holes and brush with milk or egg if using. Bake for 30 mins.

From ‘Rose Elliot’s vegetarian cookery’ cookbook.

Merry Christmas!

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Mail | Web | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | YouTube

From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

Alkaline Christmas – oxymoronic?

An oxymoron is a literary effect created by placing words of directly opposite meaning next to each other – which you probably knew. So when Christmas comes, is it really best just to forget the whole alkalising thing and wait until the 1st January to hit the alkaline de-tox button?

It may seem that enjoying the festive period is at odds with alkalising your blood and body tissue, but here are five tips that might help keep you somewhere near the rails, if not necessarily totally on them all the time!

1. Ho, Ho, Ho: I have been told that it is no coincidence that Santa’s coat has the same colour way as a popular fizzy drink. You can however do your bit to keep Christmas more alkaline by making sure that you do plenty of ho, ho, hoing (!) yourself. Laughter is one of the most alkalising activities you can indulge in. It deepens your respiration rate and promotes the release of a cascade of feel good chemicals in your body.

   In 2002 people in white coats (scientists!) actually researched what was the funniest joke in the world. So just to get you going and “in the mood”, here it is.

2. Post credit crunch Christmas Lunch: After a year of financial turmoil most organisations have had to become supremely efficient in order to survive and prosper. Often this means cutting out middle men. Suppliers going direct to market. Companies selling through the internet.

   So maybe Christmas lunch 2009 is the time to cut out the nutritional middle man, if you haven’t already! A turkey’s diet is 80% grass and plant foods.

   Hmm, Gareth, grass for Christmas Lunch? Probably (!) not, but you can have an incredibly tasty, alkalising and nutritious meal based, like the turkey on plant foods and nuts and (sprouted) seeds. Remember how tasty adding avocados, salt and fresh herbs can be.

3. Family harmony: Ok, so you might think that’s great, or worth experimenting with anyway, but what about the rest of your family for whom alkalinity is something that they learnt about when they were 9, in chemistry classes and would really rather forget. A stand up row about what you are going to have for Christmas dinner is likely to be fairly … acidifying! Evangelism is probably more likely to end in a “food fight” than happy families.

   Quietly choosing as many vegetables as you can from a shared meal might help to keep the peace.

4. Presents: If you’ve made steps or leaps with your own health this year, people are likely to be a little bit curious. Actually taking action might be a bit ….. scarrey! Sprouting jars and seeds are a great present for children (suitable caution with the glass ones). They love to watch things grow. Tubs of green powders, books, blenders, juicers or even a microscopy session could be a great way to show someone that you care about them.
5. Hangover cures: So what about if all goes Pete Tong and you wake up with the Christmas church bells going off in your head? Well my recommendation would be a glass of water with a scoop of pHour salts. Maybe chase that down with a bottle of green powder and alkalising drops.

So Energise people, however you are celebrating at this time of year, I send you my very best wishes and hope that you enjoy (very alkalising!) the festivities.

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Mail | Web | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | YouTube

From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...