Hey Good day guys!

I just wanted to invite all of you who will be in the Vancouver area at the end of this month to come and check me out at Organic Lives!  I am going to be giving a free lecture on how to transition to veganism;

Learning to be Vegan

29-Feb-2012

Ali Washington, our Urbanfruitbat, will join the OrganicLives Education Centre on Wednesday, February 29th at 7:30

Workshop Details

WHAT: Ali Washington on Veganism
WHERE: OrganicLives, 1829 Quebec Street, Vancouver
WHO: Ali Washington, Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Certified Yoga Instructor
WHY: Ali has a passion for helping people reach their highest health potential; as a registered holistic nutritionist and certifed yoga instructor, Ali believes that optimal health is possible for everyone.  She works one on one with her clients in order to create lifestyle plans that are best suited for them.
WHEN: February 29th, 2012 at 7:30pm
HOW (MUCH?): Free

To Register, Click Here

About the Workshop

Teach us about veganism; Ali will go over exactly what you need to know in order to safely and healthfully transition to a vegan diet.  She will cover all hot topics of vegan nutrition including how much protein you really need, and where to get your calcium and iron.  Come armed with all your questions!

About Ali Washington:

Ali Washington is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, as well as a certified yoga instructor, with a passion for helping people achieve their highest level of health and potential.

Ali’s passion for food and health started at a young age, due to the fact that she suffered from chronic stomach aches that no medical professional was able to figure out.  She started taking matters into her own hands, researching health and nutrition, along with starting to cook for herself. Eventually she was lead to veganism and yoga, which became her magic bullets to health.  She admits that she has tried every diet out there, and that this new animal free lifestyle, full of compassion and love for all beings is what truly works for her.

In her nutrition and yoga sessions, Ali focuses on the individual.  She believes that while there may be a perfect diet for all humans biologically – mentally, spiritually, emotionally and practically, people need to find what is going to work for them.  She believes that health and wellness is fluid, that there is no “good” or “bad” just what you need right now in this moment.  Ali loves to teach people to shop and cook, and it is her ultimate goal to educate all her clients enough, so that they can go off and be stunningly healthy without her help!

Ali writes a blog at http://urbanfruitbat.wordpress.com, where she strives to show the public that eating a vegan, whole foods based diet is accessible, fun and easy for everyone.

Here is the link if you want to register!

http://organiclives.org/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=80231

Much love,

<3

Hello and good day to all!

I know, I know, I have been slacking.  But I am back and that is all that matters!

I have been super busy getting my footing in my new job at Semperviva yoga studios.  It is amazing and I love it.  Everyone there is so friendly, warm and intelligent.  I love my new job.

In other news, I got older.  That is right people, even when all you eat is fruits and greens, your birthday is still going to come every year. This year was extra lovely for me.  Here is what went down;

I was first treated to an outing with the fam to Whole Foods;

Guess which is mine. Go head.

Baby Sister was there;

Look at those sweet glasses.

I was shocked and amazed at My Loves food choices;

He got all the things that had potato. All of them.

It was so nice to just sit and be all together.  I feel like this is becoming more and more rare around our house, as everyone seems to be getting busier with time.  As a side note, never attempt to eat a melon with plastic utensils.  I may or may not be speaking from experience here, that most of your melon will end up on the floor.

After we feasted there, we trekked home and Baby Sister surprised me with the best thing in the whole world;

AAAHHH MMMAAAAA GGGGAAAWWWDDD!

It was an all fruit ice cream cake!  Complete with two passion fruit, a papaya and a kombutcha.

Cake. Glorious cake.

She made it out of frozen bananas, blue berries and strawberries.  I was so stoked; as you may or may not be able to tell;

Can you believe it?

I ate that cake and was so happy.

The next day it was time for birthday celebration part two!

We got on the train;

We are skilled at group photo taking

My Love was a little sleepy;

Wake up Boyfriend! It is my Birthday.

And proceeded to have the most traditional of candle ceremonies;

Wow! Durian aflame!

Is this not what everyone does on their birthday?

Daintily, so as not to stab myself.

There was one candle left, My Love was happy about that;

One Boyfriend. Yes.

And with that, I wished my 22 year of life fare well, as I ushered in year number 23.

I know it is going to be a good one, because I have to love of My Baby Sister and My Love to keep me warm.

<3

Hey Folks!

Now, I know you know how much I know that I love green juice.  It is savoury, full of vitamins and minerals, and tends to make me feel good all around.  Like I have mentioned before, it is amazing for stripping heavy metals and other waste material from your body, as well as re mineralizing your system, helping clear digestion and even your respiratory system!

I have come up with a new formula for juice as of late, and it is MUCH greener than the original.  I tell you what, if you are a green juice beginner, you may want to go with the celery, cucumber, ginger, parsley, cilantro lemon deal I used to do.  If you are ready for a real hit of green, give this juice a one two punch.

Start with your stuff;

Clean clean clean your stuff!

My new juice is made from spinach, kale, cilantro, parsley, ginger, lemon and some times garlic.

The kale is high in vitamin K, as well as many many many other minerals.

The spinach is amazing because it is full of chlorophyll, minerals and is an easily digestible form of complete protein!

The rest of the stuff is just plain great.

Herbs are amazing.

I do a tonne of herbs.  Cilantro and parsley are very supportive of liver and kidney function.  If you have dark circles under your eyes, or yellowing of the skin or whites of your eyes, you may want to consider adding these two herbs to your diet.

Then all you do is pass it through the Champ, or your equivalent;

So much foam.

You can also do this as a smoothie, if your digestion is hearty!   I like it as juice though.

All bottled up and ready to go to class with me!

So, what is your most favourite green juice, or juice, or smoothie as of late?

<3

Hey Friends!

I Hope that your new weeks is off to an amazing start!  I am still not believing that it is the last week of January already.  And you can’t make me.  Anyways.  I have officially started training for my new job this week, and it is AMAZING!

For those of you who don’t know, I am now at Semperviva, the place I have wanted to work the entire time I have lived in Vancouver.  Just goes to show you, if you want something, and you bug people enough, they will give it to you.  Yes, that is my life lesson offering for the day.  Bug people until they give you what you want.  I have never claimed wisdom.

As for my weekend past, it was very nice.  Full of rest and fun, as well as My Love and My Baby Sister.  What more could a bat ask for?

There was lots of fruit as well;

Fruit plates to make a girl smile. Mangoes.

In ice cream form as well;

Sherbet? No. Just fruit.

I believe this one was pineapple, honey dew, strawberry, cantaloupe and banana.  Yes.  I am a glutton.

All mixed up.

Spread with the lines on the top all professional like.

I also had the worlds smallest Prickly Pears;

Look how friggin small!!!

And the worlds smallest Lemon;

Is that even a size? I mean really.

There were pancake refugees a foot;

Banana chocolate chip.

As well as copious amounts of Scrabble.  Yes.  We are nerds.

Pillows and Scrabble, what more could you want?

Baby Sisters starting line up;

Why don't you tell us how you really feel?

Green juice was had by all.  I have a new recipe I will share with you this week!

You go Champ, You go.

With the crowning glory of Durian night.

We also re-organized the living room. You like?!

What did you do this weekend?  Anything fun planned for your week?

<3

Hey hey hey and happy Friday to you my friends!

I hope your week was fun, and that you weekends are all looking awesome.

My week was cray-zay.  I decided to leave my old job, and have found a new one!  There was a tonne of hopping around to interviews and shadow shifts and meetings, but in the end, I am now at the job that I originally wanted before we even moved out here from Calgary!  Yay.  Life is beautiful and amazing and always works out.

Anywho, with all that commotion, and since it is now the dead of winter and fruit is not at its most amazing, I have been feasting on plenty of ice creamy treats.  Let us have a gander, shall we?

First, I had to freeze all my fruits;

Well, you can't just throw it all in there without doing something with it, now can you?

So when it was dinner time, all I had to do was put it through the Ol Champ!

It looks psychedelic. But it is mostly just honey-dew.

I started this ice cream with some Honey dew, and it looked so un-natural that I had to get a pic of it.

I then added blueberry and banana;

So pretty, no?

All mixed up;

Ready to eat with a so small spoon.

I did another one that was strawberry, mango and banana;

That mango looks like sherbet.

I add vanilla extract to most of my ice creams, (that is that brown liquid you see there.)  It adds a subtle after taste that I love;

This one was looking decidedly tropical.

There were a few non-ice cream plates;

Persimmons, can you not stay forever?

Because sometimes you just wanna chew;

The mangoes are getting good again now too.

As always, there were many a juice to be had as well.  This one was not so sure…

What's going on there little juice man?

What do you tend to eat in the winter months, if you are un-lucky enough to live somewhere where there is winter?

<3

Hey guys!  Happy Wednesday!

So, what happens when two bats get things like this;

It is a gift card

And this;

That is a guy wearing a dog, wearing a scarf.

For Christmas?

Bats out on the town!  That is what happens!

This weekend My Love and I decided to try to put our gift cards to good use, so we got out Bat butts onto the regular bus and headed for our first stop;

Be afraid.

The Bay!  For those of you who do not know, the Bay is a large department store.  When I say large, I mean there are like seven floors.  They all look the same, and they are all huge.  Baby Sister and I coined the phrase “Getting The-Bayed,”  which describes what happens to you when you go into The Bay, and then cannot find your way out again because you got so turned around and lost whilst you were in The Bay.

We searched around for a while, whilst My Love tried desperately to keep us from getting The Bayed;

Silly Boyfriend, that is a cup.

We saw some most ridiculous items;

Gordon can't even believe he is trying to sell that.

Who would ever need that?  A triple buffet warmer?  I don’t understand.

Anyway, we wondered and wandered for what seemed like four thousand century’s, decided we did not know what we needed, and left with nothing.

Next, we boarded yet another bus, and went to My Dad’s home away from home;

CAN YOU DIG IT?!

Yes people!  That is the Great Canadian Tier!  What fun we had!

We were far better prepared to shop here.  We already knew what we wanted.

My Love got a boring thing;

It's a weighted vest. Can you contain your excitement?

I got the best thing ever;

Look how stoked she is!

ITS A MINI TRAMPOLINE!!!  I lovelovelove rebounding.  It is so good for lymphatic drainage, as well as being frigging fun.

We stood in the rain to get out loot home;

This happens a lot in Van-City. We do not mind

And we wasted no time getting the partay started;

Can you see the fun?

Seriously. Look at all the fun.

And that was that.  One mildly successful shopping trip.

What did you guys do with your gift cards if you got any?

<3

Hey guys!

I hope you week is starting off swimmingly!!

So, when we got back from our little holiday, our fridge looked like this;

AAAHHHH!! So empty!!

Fortunatly, we are responsible bats around here, and had a freezer that looked like this;

Ahh, so full. <3

So my first meal back in Van-city looked like this;

Fruit whip! Fruit whip! Fruit whip!

I did banana, strawberry, peaches and mango;

Yummyumyumyum

If you are going to be travelling for more than a few days, your fruit will most likely not keep.  So, it is imperative that you have a well stocked freezer!  It is also good insurance for times when you cannot find anything good to purchase.

I did go shopping eventually though.

Pretty good haul

Got lots of grapes for munching;

munch munch

Three melons for one dollar?  I think YES.

You see melons, I see ice cream!

Persimmons are sticking around a little longer;

I will always take these

And some papays made there way into my heart and my belly.

These make me smile

I got a FEW mangoes;

I don't know if this is enough...

And last but not least, that all important bananas.

I LOVE bananas.

Along with all the token juice things, my fridge looked much happier.

<3<3<3

And I was much happier too.

Did you get anything good this week?

<3

The Bat.

Hello and Happy Tuesday Friends!

I hope that you enjoyed the Christmas Carb Fest 2011 recap.

Ok, now it is truth time.  Calgary, where we spent Christmas, is a fruit desert.  That is right people.  A place in the new world where nice, ripe, juicy fruit is just not so readily available.

Some of my fruit plates were nice;

Longans never disappoint.

This one was pretty good too, unlike the photo…;

Bananas tend not to fail to hard.

But the rest of it was kinda just under ripe and not that good.  So what did I do?  And what are my suggestions when you are visiting a place that is not fruit-bundant?  I will tell you.

Bunny Rabbit Time

More salad and green juice;  This was because I knew the quality of the fruit I was eating was poor, so it did not have as much nutrition.  I knew I needed the extra minerals and vitamins, so green were a good go to.  Greens juice will also help your immunity, as travel can cause us to get sick a bit more than usual.

Blend it up, whoo whoo

More frozen fruits and smoothies;  Frozen fruit can be a life saver when fresh ripe fruit is at a minimum.  Fruit is frozen at its peak ripeness, so there is a better chance that you will like the taste of it.  Smoothies are also helpful for digestion issues that are common when we travel, and the food is not what we are used to.  I had strawberry, banana, papaya and a dash of vanilla in this one.  It was AMAZING!

It felt like a feast for a king!

Also Durian, Dates and Bananas; Dates and bananas tend to be readily available, high in calories and nutrients as well as being tasty and generally of good quality.  Durian was a saving grace for me, because it was SO GOOD.  Bananas and dates are what I recommend that you gravitate towards when good quality fruit is scares.

There will come a time in your life, when you will have to make due.  And that is ok!  Just know that it is not forever.

So there you have it, my tips for travel.  Do you have any that I did not do?

<3

Friends!
Hello!

I am back!

Ok, I know I am a little late on the Christmas and holiday re-caps.  But I figure, why not drag it out as long as possible?

My Love, Baby Sister and I all traveled far to Calgary to have Christmas with our parents this year.

It was cold.  It was a bit of a fruit desert.  But it was still good to see our friends and families!

We spent copious amounts of time sitting around, doing not a whole lot.  I will not bore you with pictures of that.

What I will show you is Christmas Carb Fest 2011!   It was a feast to be sure.

My Love and I spent Christmas day with his family, and they had the traditional turkey feast for Christmas dinner.  I ate a salad and smiled and was happy.  On boxing day, we meandered our way to my folks place, and we stormed to kitchen making all the carbs a person could want.  Let the drooling begin.

Only humans were stuffed.

We made rice and veggie stuffing, with home-made garlic bread.  My mah almost died. We also made a whole loaf of home made garlic bread.  We spread garlic butter on sprouted grain bread and toast it.   Added to the rice and veg was just under half the amount of garlic bread than there was made.  Nibblers.

There were no vampires around, that is for sure.

Garlic roasted mashed potatoes.  With garlic butter added in. (We do Earth Balance, grated garlic, and herbs.  Yeah,  fat-tastrophy)

Tin foil. We are ghetto. And also did not have to do dishes.

These were roasted yams that I mashed with coconut milk, cumin, paprika, garlic, nutritional yeast and chipotle.  Then I baked them with left over garlic bread crumbs.

Yep. We did it with mushrooms

We made the classic mushroom gravy, with soup stock, coconut milk, herbs, spices and mushrooms.

Earth balance. With a side of carrots and dill.

There were dill covered carrots, as per My Baby Sisters request.

Seriously. Just so much fat. But also lots of "mmmmmmms"

This was raw pumpkin pie.  They all thought it was good, and I was pleased with that!  Blended coconut with spices and dates.

Take over.

We took over the whole kitchen.  It was fantastic.

Those are Papahs hands

The table was set, and plates were filled.

Actual carbs. Hahahaha

I had spinach with basil, and apples with cinnamon.  Because that say Christmas, right?

This is how we say "happy Christmas!"

We sat and took goofy family photos.

I can't be perfect all the time I suppose.

And I only caused burnt to one pot.  I am proud of that people.

I know, I am distracted by the table cloth too.

It was a happy Christmas carb fest.  And everyone had a stomach ache.  Except for me.  But it was a happy Christmas stomach ache together, and that is what it is all about, no?

<3

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.