Week 23 - Glorious Fraser Island!

Well, I'm back!  What an awesome holiday, I cannot explain how great it was to be buried in the middle of an island wilderness for a week and enjoy all of God's amazing creation!  The sky, the water, the trees, the wildlife (whales, manta rays, fish, dingoes, birds, turtles), the friends, the fabulous food, the amazing sunsets and seeing my hubby and kids sooooo happy.  Just priceless!

And even tho I happily enjoyed myself while away, it was with a great deal of relief I got home to discover I had maintained my weight.  I didn't do any "purposeful" excercise throughout the whole week, but  there was plenty of walking, climbing sand dunes (awesome calf work-out) and just constant activity;  so I didn't feel like I had taken it too easy.  There were a few glasses of wine throughout the stay, and way too much coffee, and some other special treats - like beer-battered freshly caught fish, pancakes with bacon & maple syrup, and LOTS of sausages - but all nicely balanced with lots of salads, some fruit smoothees and lots of good wholesome meals, thanks to all the pre-prep!  I must include this amazing recipe that my friend cooked for us while we were away - a few things in it that I don't ususally imbibe in (due to Candida rules), but overall - very healthy!

JAPANESE BEEF BROTH

150ml white wine
100ml soy sauce
100ml mirin
100ml water
2 cm fresh ginger peeled & grated 

Simmer all the above ingreds for 2 - 3 mins and then add in 1 white onion finely sliced and simmer for 5 mins till onion is soft.  Add 500g rump steak very finely sliced or shredded and let simmer a further 1 - 2 mins till just cooked.

To serve, layer baby spinach leaves around your bowl, top with some steamed rice and then ladle over some of the beef broth.  Can be garnished with chopped cherry tomatoes or cucumber, sliced avocado, or grated carrot.  Finish off with some pickled ginger and a drizzle of japanese mayo. 

It was so delicious and utterly filling!  The hubby absolutely loved it too.

I got pretty sick just before we left - yep, sure sign of stress.  Got a cold and have had an awful week of interrupted sleep thanks to the coughing and congestion.  During the day wasn't so bad, so could have a rest occasionally which is not usually possible when not on holidays.  Am still feeling a little foggy and sniffly now I'm back, but I suspect it will gradually disappear.  The other thing I noticed when I got sick was that I broke out in pimples - eeek!  I don't know whether this was the way my body was coping with trying to get rid of the toxins, but it was awful.  I am so not used to it and it took all week to heal up again.  I am sure there may have been other contributing factors too.  I have been drinking a lot of coconut water and smoothees lately, and I reckon my body could be adjusting to that too.  It is such a delicious and nutritious drink, and I really prefer using it in my smoothees instead of milk.

Anyway, I am currently on my juice fast, I started on Sat night and will hopefully go till Tues night (when we have people coming for dinner!) so will blog about it as I go.  See you all!