Going away is a good thing for all of us

We’ve been in the middle of our holidays and I’ve hardly been using my “lazy” brain for writing. We have made a total break in our daily routine. No cooking, no washing, nothing else but enjoying every single moment. Walking around the city, discovering new places, restaurants, cafes and spending time with our friends and family.

So where are we spending our holidays? Maribor is our home town and the second largest city in Slovenia, the place where we spent our childhood and where our family and some of the closest friends live.

Despite the fact that Oliver is still a baby, we have arrived to Maribor by car again. The whole journey from England to Slovenia is always great fun. A short two-day stay in Germany (Grossheubach on the Franconian Red Wine Hiking Trail in Bavaria, to be precise) is just a cream on the top of this beautiful  journey. What really warms my heart is seeing our dear friends in Germany and they are one of the reasons for making summer trips to Slovenia. We’ve had so many memorable visits so my dear friends, we’re back next year with further updates

Driving through Austria was on a worrying side, to be honest! Temperature was around 9 degrees Celsius, which is  terribly cold for 24 July and I dreaded the thought of spending our holidays in winter jackets. My husband was just laughing and making jokes about my worries. He tried to calm me down telling me that we would bring good weather to Maribor. He was right, again!

First few days in Slovenia were quite rainy but all of this went away very soon and we’re into summer again. We’ve made a few trips around Slovenia, Hungary and to the spa in Zrece where Milan’s skin acquired a “lovely red” colour (don’t even ask…). In seven days we will be back  in our car travelling to England, but that is far away and there is still so much to see, try and taste.

Timber-framed houses in Miltenberg (Germany)

Balaton lake in Hungary

Cycling adventure in Maribor

Marusa's first tractor ride ever on my cousin's farm

Buffalo farm in Hungary

Buffalo farm in Hungary

Adventure park in Maribor

Famous Bled lake - Slovenia

Cooking without meat, sugar, oil, diary and eggs?

For many people this probably sounds like a total science fiction because, come on, these are main ingredients in our daily diet for crying out loud!

Nah, I’m not into dieting every January for a better start of the year, you know, New Year resolutions and stuff of that kind. I don’t buy diet books and usually don’t do any dieting at all. I think my diet is balanced and we eat pretty much just healthy food. I cook using fresh ingredients with lots of organic vegetables, whole plant food and fruit every single day. So, there is no need to do any special diet at all (or at least I tought so).

But despite all that I’ve bought my first kind of a diet book. It’s called RAVE DIET & LIFESTYLE. My old friend, who just loves experimenting with healthy dishes of all sorts posted the link of this diet book on Facebook. I clicked on the link and the rest is history

I’m just so utterly impressed how simply this book explains the basic principles of eating. I mean seriously, dead easy! The video with the same name Eating is absolutely fantastic feature of the book. They both detail how to eat to achieve the best possible well-being and get this dream of an illness free body. And just sticking to the diet can solve so many “health issues” without any prescription drugs and doctors.

Ok, what kind of a diet is this?

• it’s a detox diet
• it’s a low-fat diet
• it’s a diet to lower cholesterol
• it’s a heart healthy diet
• it’s a high fiber diet
• it’s a low salt diet and
• it’s a diet to kill off cancer.

The author, Mike Anderson, claims that there is a relationship between diet and common diseases  (well, most of us already know this anyway), but the way he explains all this is truly revolutionary. All his claims are supported with medical references from most prominent doctors in the world and their research. Yes, I was totally impressed with all this but when I started reading recipes (there are almost 200 recipes in the book) my first thought was that there is no way everything will be so simple as he claims. But it is!

The book is very clear that if you want to  achieve the top state of your body you have to cut out all animal foods and refined food because both are high in fat, cholesterol, pesticides/toxins, saturated fat and hormones. Most of your normal ingredients should be replaced with whole plant food which is  full of fiber, low in fat – particularly saturated fat, containing low amounts of pesticides and toxins, with no hormones and very high in fiber and anti-oxidants.

By far the most important question for me was what if all these new dishes aren’t “edible”! Well you know, kind of yucky and stuff.

The only way to find out was to give it a try with one of these recipes. There is a really simple recipe for  Sweet potato fries and it seems a very safe and edible option for a start. Seriously, the result is mind-blowing! Absolutely delicious and something really new, at least to me.

Very soon I was braver and started cooking a bit wackier dishes including desserts. Gosh, how surprised I was and still am! So far everything has tasted really good. And you know what, I keep cooking these dishes until someone in the family says “OK, now that’s enough, give us some stake and proper chocolate cake” Though, all quiet on the western front so far!

The next thing you might ask is what the positive effects of eating this way are.

Hey, I’m not going to pretend and tell you that I’m healthier now, although I might well be but after 2 weeks of eating we all noticed some interesting changes. My digestion has improved  a lot, I’ve lost some weight, I’m feeling more energetic, we spend less money on food, washing the dishes has become much easier because there is no grease, my daughter who used to crave for chocolate has become less dependent on it and after every meal we all feel much lighter and not brain-dead full like we used to. That’s clearly enough for me to continue with all this and yes, I do experiment with recipes and include various other healthy ingredients as well as the original ones.

Here is one of my favorite dessert recipes from this book. You know, you actually don’t need to diet to eat this lovely dessert. It’s so delicious that you will want to eat it whether you’re dieting or not.

Chocolate pudding:

Makes about 2-3 cups

Ingredients:

• - 2 cups of water
• - 1/2 cup maple syrup
• - 4 tbsp cornstarch or cornflour
• - 3 tbsp cocoa
• - 1 tsp vanilla

Combine water, cocoa, maple syrup, cornstarch and vanilla in a saucepan. Whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until pudding is very thick. Pour into individual serving dishes and chill. Sprinkle with chopped and roasted hazelnuts. I’m telling you, pure heaven.

http://www.ravediet.com/

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2011 is finally here so now I can look back at the past year, draw the line and sum-up how good it actually was.

2010 was a  year  full of ups and downs. It was definitely marked by a difficult and very stressful pregnancy, though at the end everything went really well. So many worries for nothing but then again how could I possibly not be worried amidst all the warnings I got from the doctors! Worries aside, we are blessed with a lovely little boy who has brought heaps of happiness into our lives. My dear Marusa is no longer a little girl but a responsible “big sister” who wants to help her mum with everything. I was working really hard last year and my business has finally started growing. I can’t described my feelings when I opened the mail receiving my first cheque. I am totally dedicated and in 2011 my business will become a decent “money-maker”, period. It was a difficult year for Milan too. Demanding academic job, writing his first book, helping me with websites, inventing a product that will improve lives of so many people worldwide is  a lot of work for one man. It was also a year when we met new people, made new friendships and as a matter of fact a few old friendships were slipping away too.

So, did we do well?

Yes, we did well and I don’t regret absolutely anything. We were a bit tired and needed a few days off but in the same breadth I can’t wait to continue where we left everything two weeks ago. 2011 will be without any doubt the most important year for our family so far and I’m really excited about all the adventures it will take us through.

Happy New Year and all the best in 2011! Let it be adventurous and successful for all!

Love Dominika, Milan, Marusa, Oliver and Fluffy

Summer holidays are over and Marusa is back to school

After 6 long weeks Marusa is back to school. I can’t believe it, our girl has already started Year 3.  She was really looking forward to go back. You know, the end of holidays, it can be quite boring. Well, this summer was very different from a typical summer known to her. Every year we travel to Slovenia and stay there for 4-5 weeks.  But this time round we didn’t go. My late pregnancy stopped us from doing anything exciting and adventurous. Imagine the intensive diplomacy to convince her everything will be as usual – all of us enjoying every moment together.

Spending every summer in our home town Maribor, in Slovenia (http://www.maribor-slovenia-travel-guide.com) means pure heaven to her.  She thinks it is a fairytale land actually! She has always great fun and we can do the most craziest things in a relatively short period of time.  Short trips to mountains, seaside splash, wonderful spas, adventure parks, the best ice cream, great friends  – just perfect summer holidays (photos above say it all).  Could we possibly wish for more??

OK, so let’s go back to the diplomacy I mentioned above. Yep, I was worried that she will be very unhappy because she’ll miss all the fun in Maribor. She proved me wrong,… AGAIN. OK, there were days when she was bored when the weather was a bit too “English” but we live in England after all and the weather here is usually really pleasant!

If we now look back at our “English” summer we can honestly say – brilliant because we enjoyed every single moment of it! Despite my huge bump, swollen legs and sleepless nights we made a few short trips to a beautiful English countryside, swimming in nearby aqua center,  managed regular visits to our fabulous neighborhood children playground, watched some wacky movies in cinema and spent some fun time with our friends. Although, we all agreed spending quality time together as a family was by far the best of all.

But, I have to say it straight, without our great friends here in England Marusa’s holidays would probably end up being boring. It never occurred to me till now how lucky we are to have them around. They have always been on hand to invite Marusa to play with their children, be it at home or away. So, my dear friends thank you again for all your kindness and for being always here when we need you.

Love Dominika

Petite and soo wonderful

From the first moment we have totally fallen in love with this little man.  This cute baby is our son Oliver born only 3 weeks ago. It seems a real miracle to have him around.

My last post was about feeling tired during my pregnancy and complaining about all the discomfort and sleepless nights that I had. Everything has been forgotten despite the fact that we now have even more sleepless nights than ever before. Oliver’s tummy is relentlessly churning away its rumbling song, which of course doesn’t allow him to sleep calmly. You can imagine the toll this has taken on me and my husband. Four hours of sleep per night seems a pure luxury and if you get an additional hour during the day… heaven!

But we all know this won’t last forever so…. put the big smile on your face Dominika!