A Couple of Minutes With Kara

Just over a year ago, while I was looking through the Instagram of Ariel Kaplan (Imogen Willis from Neighbours, or going a bit further back, Lisa from The Saddle Club), I found a comment from an account called "greengirlsgang".  They were a group of gorgeous young women from Melbourne and Brisbane who joined up over a mutual love of health, happiness and good food.  For a few weeks, they introduced themselves and shared a few plant-based recipes (such as Ally's banana and blueberry ice cream, which is very yummy) and met up to discuss their plans for the group.  Unfortunately, they are now on hiatus for health reasons.  One of the introductions described one of the group as "a self proclaimed 'human encyclopaedia of Lizzie McGuire episodes'" (one great show - I rewatched all the episodes in the summer holidays last year, I have a pin of the cartoon Lizzie that I got at Disney World when I was 11, and I realised in November that Lizzie McGuire is probably my fictional soul-twin).  This girl is Kara Ready.  I've only spoken to her a couple of times, but we brought down a Twitter troll who was denying gender inequality together, we're both feminists and LGBT rights supporters (and Lizzie McGuire lovers), and she gave me some great advice when I was struggling a few months ago with tiredness and not eating enough.  I'll let her introduce herself in this little interview.

Name:

Kara :)

Age:

22.

Where in the world are you from?

I live just outside Melbourne, Australia in boring ol’ suburbia.

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

2015 marks the year that I graduated from my journalism degree and entered the big, bad world. I’m very passionate about media and the journalism industry so at the moment I’m spending a lot of time working on my community radio show, writing for magazines on a volunteer basis and just generally figuring out the type of journalist I want to be. I’ve discovered that not knowing where I’m headed- although very daunting at times- is half the fun of getting there.

What is your food philosophy and lifestyle?

I follow a vegan lifestyle and it’s something that I’m very passionate about on an environmental and ethical level. I guess you could say that at its core, my philosophy is to do as much as I can to avoid hurting others in every aspect of life. I’ve always felt that way but it wasn’t until late last year that I realised my eating habits didn’t align with those beliefs- so I changed to a cruelty free diet and lifestyle and haven’t looked back!

This wonderful vegan Chinese restaurant in Melbourne basically outlines my reasons for being vegan. We don't need to harm other for our food :)

How long have you been following this lifestyle and why?

I have been vegan for just over 6 months now and was vegetarian for 6 months before that.

What is your favourite fruit [or vegetable]?

My absolute favourite vegetable without a doubt is potato, preferably sweet potato but regular ol’ white potato is a winner too. Sometimes I genuinely think I could eat nothing but potato for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.

Food wise, what country have you enjoyed visiting the most?

I absolutely adored my trip to India for a million different reasons and the food probably contributed to about half of them. The flavours, the variety, the fact that whole foods make up a very large part of their diet. It was just heaven and every Indian meal I’ve had since back in Australia has failed to match up.

Helping to make roti bread in a Sikh temple in India. I love the community and culture behind their food!

What are your views and tips for health and happiness?

This is such a huge question and one that I receive quite often on Tumblr because so many people struggle with it. I think my first tip, and perhaps the most cliché one, is to listen to yourself- your body, your mind, your thoughts and try and teach yourself to respond to them with kindness and compassion. When you can be open, honest and supportive towards yourself and how you’re feeling, your perspective starts to change because you allow yourself the room to make mistakes and learn from them without beating yourself up and dwelling on it. Health and happiness go hand in hand- I really think that when you master one, you master the other and that’s a beautiful thing.

Plans for the rest of 2015?

2015 has been a bit of an adjustment year for me so far as I’ve just graduated from university and entered the ‘real world’. This year has predominately been focused on writing as much as possible and searching for a job that will make me happy to go to work each day. Overall though, I’m just taking everything as it comes at the moment and trying not to put unnecessary pressure on myself by pretending that I ‘should’ or ‘need’ to be doing more than I already am.

My go to recipe is-

Easy vegan strawberries and cream smoothie!

The best thing about smoothies for me is that you don't need to do much weighing or measuring and can instead just chuck everything into the blender as you go! Perfect for lazy meals or snacks when you can't be bothered preparing something.

This recipe is for a yummy strawberries and cream smoothie using only 3 ingredients. Don't be afraid to add in more than what I've written- I've made versions of this with almond milk instead of water, cherries as well as strawberries and I frequently double the ingredients if I'm feeling really hungry or halve them if I just want a snack.

Things you'll need-
- 2 frozen bananas
- 2-4 fresh bananas [or more depending on your hunger!]
- A couple handfuls of frozen strawberries
- .5-1 litre of water
- A blender!

Blend all the ingredients together until you get the consistency you like. I like mine to be thick and creamy but if you want yours a little bit thinner just add more water! I told you it was super easy!

This recipe is also great because it can be made into a delicious summer nice cream for those warmer days! If you want more of a thick, ice cream consistency, just swap out the fresh bananas for frozen ones and take out the water and you're good to go! For now though, in this awful Australian winter, I think I'm just going to stick to my smoothie...

Social media:

Tumblr: eveningdreams.tumblr.com
Instagram: @kara.ready
Twitter: @kararready

Rainbow Salad with Chocolate Dip

Last Friday (26th June 2015), shortly after I published my post for last week, it was announced that same-sex marriage has now been legalised in all 50 states of the USA.  Although I'm UK-based, where legislation to allow same-sex marriage was passed in July 2013 and came into force in March 2014, I think that it's a great step for Americans to be granted this right as well.  So many couples have been negatively affected by their relationships not being acknowledged by the American government and in some cases, the medical system.  One example of this that I have been reading about is Shane Bitney Crone, who was prevented from seeing his partner, Tom Bridegroom, who had accidentally fallen from a friend's roof.  Crone and Bridegroom's 6 year relationship was not acknowledged by the hospital or the government, thus Crone was not considered as "family" when it came to knowing about Bridegroom's condition.  Unfortunately, Crone was also banned from attending his partner's funeral by Bridegroom's parents, who threatened Crone with violence should he attend the funeral.  I hope that this step forward will prevent things like this from happening to anyone else in the future, but with so many countries still to legalise same-sex marriage and some to even decriminalise homosexuality, there is still a long way to go.

However, to celebrate this (and a late Pride weekend), it could be fun for a Pride party to prepare a rainbow assortment of fruits on a plate for guests to dip in chocolate.

Ingredients

A handful or two of strawberries
1 orange
1 banana
1 green apple
A handful or two of blueberries
A handful or two of purple grapes
Approximately 50-75g good quality dark, dairy-free chocolate

Instructions

1. Wash and prepare all fruits – a sieve may be useful here. Remove skin from orange and banana, and cut both these and the apple into slices.
2. Place all fruit into a large bowl or plate.
3. To make fondue, break chocolate into pieces, place into a bowl and heat, either in a microwave or in a saucepan filled with water over low heat for a few minutes.
4. Dip fruit pieces in melted chocolate to serve.

Strawberry and Kiwi Smoothie

On Monday morning, I headed to Student Central for my student radio show and came across the Health Fair (there seems to be a lot of things like this at the moment).  I didn't have much time to spare, so I went straight for the stand where there were trays of smoothie samples.  I tried a Watermelon Wonder smoothie (the recipe for which will come next week) and a Strawberry and Kiwi smoothie.  We were also given questionnaires which had the question of "How would you define healthy eating?"  I would define healthy eating as eating lots of fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water, but also treating yourself in moderation to things like chocolate.  How would you define "healthy eating"?

Ingredients

apple juice, chilled
1 banana, sliced
1 kiwi, sliced
frozen strawberries

Instructions

1. Gradually add each ingredient to blender and pulse until mixture reaches a smooth consistency.
2. Enjoy!

Berry Smoothie

First of all, a belated Happy New Year!  Second of all, it's the middle of exams here and everything's a bit of a mess, but after my deadline this afternoon, I have nothing until my presentation next Friday morning, so I'm going to give myself some time over the weekend to do a few non-academic things that need doing, such as writing a letter about an exciting little project that is coming up in February (the Food Festival), putting more stuff together for that, planning a few more radio shows, and catch up with a little bit of reading (which has been taking a back seat lately).  Thirdly, my only New Year's resolutions are to eat even more fruit and drink more water than I do already, and to sing, dance and enjoy life.  Tying in with the eating more fruit thing, yesterday, as well as three tubs of fruit (apple slices, oranges and grapes) during the day, I also rode the Sustrans smoothie bike that was at uni this week and made myself a yummy berry smoothie to drink while I was revising!  Here's how you can make it at home without a bike:

Ingredients (to make one cup)

1/2 a banana
a handful or two of mixed berries (e.g. raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, strawberries), chopped
a "glug" of apple juice

Instructions

1. Gradually mix all the ingredients together in a blender.
2. Once the mixture has reached a smooth consistency, pour into a cup and enjoy!

Summer Berry Salad

 

One late Saturday morning, I ended up in the kitchen about half an hour before lunchtime, filling a bowl with delicious fruits, taking them back to my bedroom with me, sitting on my bed in my denim shortalls, and eating them while reading an old Lizzie McGuire book. I think I then filled my plate with a rainbow-coloured assortment of fruits for my lunch – more strawberries, oranges, slices of Golden Delicious apple, green grapes, more blueberries, and purple grapes. The salad below is bliss. Quantities of ingredients are not given because I just wash however much fruit I want without measuring it out – just eat however much you want!  This was several weeks ago now, and I'm dreading having to give up these fruits for the winter again ... why can't they be available at a good price all year round?

Ingredients

Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Cherries

Instructions

1. Remove stalks from strawberries and cherries, wash all fruit (it may be a bit easier to do this using a sieve and running water over the fruit) and dry.
2. Cut the strawberries into halves.
3. Throw all the fruits into a bowl and enjoy!