The weeks Day On A Plate comes from Tess Masters. Tess is an actor, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, as a presenter and recipe developer, Tess collaborates with leading food, culinary, and lifestyle brands. Away from the blender, Tess enjoys a diverse performance career. She has toured internationally with stage productions, worked in film and television, and lent her voice to commercial campaigns, audiobooks, and popular videogame characters.
7am
I meditate for 20 to 30 minutes, then do some gentle stretching or yoga. I then oil pull for 20 minutes while I answer emails or prepare the ingredients for my breakfast. Once I've rinsed my mouth out, I will have a couple of glasses of lemon water, then a couple of glasses of water with liquid chlorophyll, then 1/4 cup coconut water kefir.
I typically enjoy an alkaline green smoothie or soup for breakfast, depending on the season. I will crack open a coconut and add the meat and water, and then some leafy greens (a rotation of spinach, kale, rocket, silverbeet, beet greens, dandelion greens etc), limes, lemons, grapefruit, or berries, and a variety of superfood powders like wheatgrass, barley grass, camu, acai, maqui, goji, pomegranate, and I will fortify the blend with some MCT oil or other cold-pressed oils like coconut, linseed oil, avocado oil, pumpkin seed oil, hemp oil etc.
I also love adding fresh herbs and dried spices. Cayenne pepper is always a favourite. If I'm making a soup I like making a base of coconut (for immunity and energy), and adding in a variety of non starchy vegetables and greens, with some herbs and spices.
8am
I will go for a walk or a hike, jump on the rebounder, do a yoga or pilates class, or lift weights.
10am
I will often make a high water content snack like chopped avocado and tomato with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, and salt, or raw zucchini hummus with cucumber, carrot, and celery sticks with some cultured vegetables. Throughout the day I drink a lot of water with liquid chlorophyll, water kefir, or alkaline vegetable green juice.
12pm - 1pm
I love to have a raw power salad for lunch with a variety of leafy greens, sprouted nuts and seeds, avocado, coconut, and any raw vegetables I have on hand. I will add some sea vegetables and 1 cup of cultured vegetables, and love making different green goddess dressings with fresh herbs and spices. I love making tabouli, cabbage slaws, and other shredded salads, and I really enjoy raw wraps slathered with fresh dips.
3pm
I'm a sucker for raw kale chips, zucchini chips, or a handful of sprouted nuts and seeds to give me a pick-me-up in the afternoon. Often I will make a gazpacho-style savoury smoothie, and every once in a while I do love a banana coconut maca shake! Yum...
6pm - 7pm
Dinner can be a variety of different things. If I'm feeling like a raw meal I will make a chilled soup and a salad, or make zucchini or beet noodle pasta with a quick green pesto or tomato pepper sauce. I always have raw coconut wraps on hand to make veggie wraps. For cooked, I love steamed and roasted vegetables with cauliflower rice and a killer green or red sauce drizzled over the top. Stir-fries are popular in our house, and a good veggie bake is always a hit. I eat 1 cup of cultured vegetables with whatever I make.
9pm
I often get in my infrared sauna, then have a clay bath or lavender bath to prepare for a restful sleep. I really enjoy turmeric almond milk with cardamom and cinnamon. I like to be asleep by 10:30pm because I always get up really early, and am the most productive in the mornings.
Pineapple Salsa Smoothie
Ingredients : Serves 2
- 1 cup (240ml) coconut water or water
- 2 ½ cups (400g) diced pineapple, fresh or frozen
- 1 cup (43g) firmly packed baby spinach
- 1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped
- red onion, plus more to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped cucumber
- ¼ cup (7g) finely chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped jalapeño chile, plus more to taste
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste
- Pinch of finely grated lime zest
- Pinch of natural salt, plus more to taste (optional, to bring out flavors; see page 38)
- 1 cup (125g) ice cubes (none if using frozen pineapple)
- Natural sweetener (optional)
Method
1 Put all of the ingredients into your blender in the order listed
2. Puree for about 1 minute, until smooth and creamy.
3. Tweak flavors to taste (you may want more onion, jalapeño, lime juice, salt, or sweetener, depending on the ripeness of your pineapple).