The Beautiful Green

La Belle Verte

Finally, a film that presents the quirks of our modern and frantic living in a very humorous and simple way. This film doesn't "try" to make you laugh, you just do so because you can see yourself in it. La Belle Verte/The Beautiful Green (1996) is a French film written and directed by Colin Serreau which tells a beautiful story strongly encompassing the need to bring a spiritual balance of ecology, love and compassion to today’s world. It is about awakening and reawakening to ourselves and to what is important in life. We have become so disconnected from the earth and from ourselves and somehow we need to find a way back, to find a balance and perhaps to simplify things or at least to realise some simple truths. Originally in French, the film's protagonist is Mila who is half earthling and half alien! She lives on a planet far away from ours which is much more spiritually advanced and ecologically balanced than ours. They have already been through, and survived, an industrial revolution, different political systems, borders and money among other things and have ended up being a spiritually advanced race of peace loving raw fooders, skilled in the arts of telepathy and teleportation. The alien planet wants to send a representative to Earth to check on its developments and gauge the energy levels there. 

They send Mila who is 150 years old and has five children; encoded in her brain are two telepathic programs designed to restructure the thinking of destructive humans. The first is a fairly mild program designed to inspire the humans to rethink their world and begin asking some difficult questions. The other is far stronger and rapidly indoctrinates subjects with lofty utopian ideals and makes them deeply aware of themselves.

Mila lands in Paris and is unnoticed but for the sudden, inexplicable power surges and outages that occur whenever she sends a telepathic message to her alien cohorts. Instead of eating, Mila draws energy from holding newborn babies.It is while holding an orphan infant in an obstetrics ward that her Earthly troubles begin. Feeling deeply for the baby's plight, she confronts the ward's head doctor and when logic fails, lets one of her programs work on him. He sees the light and begins helping her to save the baby from the welfare workers. He reawakens to the beauty in life. 

You can see the whole thing on YouTube here or buy the Dvd on amazon here.  Please stick with this utterly amazing (must see) film that highlights the many unfortunate flaws of the Human race. As well as being extremely funny, it's incredibly insightful and thought provoking. 

Getting those greens in where you can

The idea of dulse seaweed  in your scones, or for that matter courgette may not seem appealing, but trust me these are delicious, especially with a soya cheese (or cream cheese) spread on top. My son usually rejects anything green but he gobbled these down like there was no tomorrow.

 Dulse and Vegetable Scones

(adapted from the same recipe in Daphne Lambert and Tanyia Maxted-Frosts book "The Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook)

12 oz Self raising wholemeal flour ( or gluten free flour like rice)

1 oz vegan spread

2oz Butternut squash (or carrot) optional- both versions are delicious.

1/2 pint Soya or rice milk

1tsp baking powder

1 tbsp chopped dulse ( i only had nori in the cupboard so used this instead finely chopped)

2oz courgette grated ( or 4 oz if not using butternut squash or carrot)

My additions: sprinkling of extra herbs like oregano, 

           one spring onion finely chopped and 2 eggs to bind the mixture.

Perfect for lunch boxes

Fruity Flapjacks

These are so delicious that a tray of these yummy flapjacks don't last more than a day or so in our house. They are perfect for lunchboxes and in my case just munching at home with a big mug of tea while i work.

Fruity Flapjacks

(adapted from Annabel Karmels recipe)

200g oats

30g raisins

30g sultanas

30g dried cranberries

(For the dried fruit i used half raisins and half apricots, chopped)

30g dessicated coconut (i used 60g)

85g butter (or Vegan spread)

4 tablespoons of golden syrup ( i used 4-5 tablespoons of honey)

110g brown sugar (which can be omitted and they taste just as good, only better for you)

Quarter teaspoon of vanilla essence

and i also added 1-2 handfuls of the Linwoods milled flax,sunflower,pumpkin,sesame seed and goji berry mix

Method

1)Set oven to 150 degrees C/300F and line a large tin with baking paper.

2)Melt butter, syrup (or honey/dates*) and the sugar if you are including it, together in a pan. Add this mixture to all the other ingredients that you have prepared in a mixing bowl and mix together.

3)Press down firmly into the tin and bake for 35-40 mins until golden and a little crispy.

N.B To prevent crumbling:

a) Don't cut them into squares until they are almost cold (chilling them in the fridge first can help), particularly if you've only used honey to sweeten them or b) Add a handful of dates* (destoned and chopped) when you heat your butter and honey as it makes the perfect syrup and keeps the flapjacks together perfectly.

MMMMMMMMMMM !

A sunday smile

Here is a beautiful song to start your day by the group Beirut, aptly named 'A Sunday smile'.

Check out their other songs on You Tube as there are many gems.

A mission worth having

In his speech on winning the Ted prize, Jamie Oliver speaks passionately about the obesity epidemic and how he would like to solve the problem by educating people about food. His wish is to create a movement that will inspire people to change the way that they eat, to teach children practical food and cooking skills and provide basic training for parents and professionals.

"Every child should be taught to cook in school, not just talk about nutrition all day. Good food can be made in 15 minutes. This could be the first generation where kids teach their parents" Jamie Oliver

I was lucky enough to be taught about food and how to cook by my mother and grandmother and to have a wealth of fresh food available that we could pick or dig up straight from the garden as my father is a phenomenal gardener, producing a huge array of vegetables and fruits in the garden at home. We were also taught how to cook at primary school, although i think my secondary school did very little, if anything, on that front. One would think that this would be an essential life skill that all schools should teach regardless of what the parents are doing at home. Surely that is what schools should be for- teaching our children essential life skills that will enable them to be healthy and to succeed in life. Somehow i think that is being lost in the drive to get better and better results in subjects that although important in some ways may be missing something in terms of providing us a solid foundation for living in the world and evendare i say it, for getting a good job.

For more details on the movement and how Jamie Oliver plans to go about achieving it see this link: www.tedprize.org/jamie-oliver/

Home is wherever there is you

This live version of this song by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (sung by lead singers Alex and Jade) just sums up how i feel about my darling husband. He is my home wherever we may live or wherever we may end up. Apart from the lyrics i just love the energy and joy of this song.

Inspirational music

Sometimes you just need to dance things out to make sense of them. Turn the music up loud and forget everything else but the music and the emotion it brings forth. Here are a few to get you going and some to chill to too which were recommended to me recently by a friend, thank you Rachel:

" You've got the Love" Florence and the Machine

"Dancing in the Dark"  Amy McDonald

"Lights" Ellie Goulding

"Every Time you go " Ellie Goulding

"Something good can work" 2 Door Cinema Club 

"Last Request"  Paolo Nutini

Enjoy XXX