Optimum 9400 Review!

I have found my new love!!!!!! Welcome to the Family Optimum 9400 :D

I've officially entered into the world of the High Speed Blender....known as The Optimum 9400 a.k.a Froothie! I was so excited for this little gem to arrive that I might have gotten a little too excited when the courier dropped it off! Carefully unpacking my new blender in anticipation, I was just in awe of how beautiful this blender is and it was love at first sight!

Isn't she just the prettiest, the shiny black finish is like a classic car and the hand dials and switches reminds me of a vintage radio, this my lovelies is my new favourite kitchen appliance and I am happy to display her in my kitchen for all to see! 

I have definitely had my fair share of blenders in my life, I had a cheap and nasty one that didn't last long and then I shelled out a couple of hundred for what seemed like a more sturdy one that was a great blender when I first bought it several years ago but has since lost it's seals so it leaks like a sieve.  It's not high powered enough to even break down a banana unless you let it blend for 3 or 4 minutes and by that time it's leaked so much that half of my smoothie was on the bench :(

Since my discovery of green smoothies and more plant based food I thought it was time for an upgrade. I looked into the Nutri-bullet and through searching reviews on that I found Froothie! The reviews on this blender absolutely blew me away and I knew immediately I wanted one and would love to be part of the Froothie revolution.  So I have become a Froothie Ambassador and I will be doing a series of recipes with this amazing machine that you can look forward in the months to come.

There are certainly your fair share of blenders out there and I think if you are using a generic blender or a Bullet for your smoothies and it's working then it's helping you on the path to a healthier you and that is the the most important thing. However, for those interested in something that can do so much more than just a standard blender or a bullet will ever do then listen up as to why the Optimum 9400 will probably change your life!

The blades are commercial grade, they can even blend paving stones into dust in just seconds!!! Now I don't imagine your or I will ever be grinding up rocks but it just goes to show how powerful this motor is at 2238 watts, 3 horsepower and 44,000 rpm, that's some serious power right there.

This blender while extremely powerful is a lot quieter than any other blender device I've ever used, it feels so smooth and seamless yet it blends ice and frozen fruit with ease in seconds, no little bits left floating around your smoothie!

I really love the pulse function as it ensures you won't "over process" your foods especially for making nut flours. One of my favourite design features is the rubber cushion pad, it's easy to line up, no little arrows or locking techniques that can be very annoying!

So I've had my Froothie for a couple of weeks now and I am rather impressed, I've made soups, nut butters, dressings, almond milk and plenty of smoothies! I noticed that I am using it daily, if not a couple times a day! Clean up is a breeze, you just squirt some detergent with some warm water then blend and boom it's clean!!!

In terms of price I think it is really affordable, while many of the commercial blenders like the Vitamix will set you back at least $1,000 which I'm sure is worth it, I don't imagine most people will spend that much on a blender. The Opimum range starts at $325, this one I'm reviewing is $499.

Powerful Industrial High Speed 2,238 watt Motor!
5 Year Domestic Warranty!
Precision High, Med, Low & Pulse Functions
Heat-Resistant Polycarbonate Jug (BPA Free) - Wet & Dry Applications
Approved by FDA, UL and the European Commission for Food Safety
30 Day Money Back Guarantee!
State of the art Two in One Stainless Steel 6-blade cutting assembly - Crushes ice, nuts and fruits in seconds

This Froothie Machine is so incredibly versatile!!! 

You can make:

Raw Desserts, Ice Cream and Frozen Fruit - Use the tamper to make homemade ice-cream with frozen berries, banana, mango etc..
Green Smoothies, Fruit Smoothies, Fresh fruit juice and Cocktails - it will easily blend unpeeled and uncut whole fruits and vegetables so you don't loose all the fiber.
Nut Butters, Nut Flour, Nut Milk
Hot Soups - the blender will heat your soup through friction heat (5-7 minutes)
Spreads and dips, chunky or silky smooth!

Just a wee recipe for this green smoothie that I love! It's so refreshing :D

1/2 cup coconut cream

1/2 cup coconut water

1 whole green apple, core and all
Handful of spinach
1/2 frozen banana
1/4 avocado
1 lime, peeled

Handful of Ice!

Please note I was provided with a Froothie Optimum 9400 as part of my role as brand ambassador and this post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase through Primal Journey then I will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!  If you’d like to know more about Froothie or this machine in particular, please visit the Froothie website for more details.

Beer Crate Gardens

I swear I've turned into a domestic goddess since we bought our first house, I have discovered a love of growing my own herbs and vegetables and I have even started growing my first Rose!!!

Hubby built me a couple of really large garden beds which have been wonderful for growing Broccoli, Swiss Chard, perpetual spinach and tuscan Kale through the winter and my herb planter boxes have been growing coriander, italian parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary, garlic chives and pineapple sage.

Now that it's spring I have planted some cos lettuce, butter crunch lettuce, celery, bok choy, more swiss chard, yellow courgette (zucchini) capsicum and chillies.  I ran out of room in my garden beds so I decided to use beer crates after seeing them on Instagram, I planted snow peas, strawberries and a whole lot of herbs, lemongrass, sage, basil, spicy basil, coriander and parsley.

So to make the beer crate gardens I used a good quality polythene (Mitre10) and used a staple gun to line them, don't forget to cut plenty of holes in the bottom for drainage!

The bottle store sells these for $6.90 each and they usually make you take the empty bottles with you, suffice to say we probably looked like alcoholics with the 6 bags full of pints I left out for the recycling today ;) 

These are my Red Dublin Bay roses which I am very proud of! I have never grown a rose in my life and thankfully these are very hardy! They will climb much bigger than this so I will need to sort out some trellis for them to climb up :D

Any gardening tips are very much appreciated for this newbie ;) Do you garden and what sort of things do you plant?

Site Redesign

Welcome to my new blog! The amazingly talented Tillie from Hello Tillie and The Poppy Creative has completely overhauled my site so that it is easier to navigate as well as being much more aesthetically pleasing. My blog has been running for 5 years with the basic blogger template so it was well overdue for an upgrade, I am absolutely thrilled with the work that Tillie has done. Tillie has been an absolute gem and wonderful to work with, especially when I changed my mind several times it was never a problem for her. Tillie has such brilliant design ideas, I feel lucky to have had the pleasure of working with her.

I have a new focus for my blog which is timely with the change of my site design. I love blogging and while it certainly has it's ups and downs it has been a therapeutic outlet for me for over five years now and I have met some really amazing people that I feel lucky to call friends. I chose to stay with the same name, I had thoughts of changing it months ago but after going back and forth between ideas I have decided that Primal Journey is here to stay.

My focus these days is less about weight loss and more about nourishment. When I began my journey all I wanted was to be healthy and when the weight dropped off my goal changed and all I cared about was that number on the scale. I'm happy to say that I've maintained my weight loss within a 5-10kg range and I think that's pretty amazing considering I initially lost 42kgs over five years ago, with the statistics stacked against me I technically should've gained all my weight back with interest!

So the future of my blogging is about maintaining a healthy body, mind and spirit and living my best life. To me that means nourishment not punishment, movement like walking, yoga and weights, work life balance, prioritising sleep and wind down time before bed with no technology, I've become a keen gardener, growing vegetables and roses, I never thought I would say that!

I am learning not to define myself by my body, a number on the scale or the size of my clothes, it's HARD!!! I've been that girl who lost 42kgs and I let that define me for a really long time. Underneath all of that is so much more, and my future is not going to be dictated by how I look.

So on a lighter and fresher note you can look forward to more nourishing recipes, they may not always be considered "primal" but they will always be made with real food! Positive body image, my love of fashion and interior design!

I thank you all for sticking around for so long and I hope I can continue to inspire and encourage you all to live your best life x

Change of focus!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have started working with Kate Callaghan from The Holistic Nutritionist, Kate is a real sweetheart full of knowledge and has opened me up to a few home truths about many choices I have made in the past which has lead me down the path to poor sleep, energy fluctuations, migraines and digestive issues just to name a few.  I have been very low carb for many years and this has unfortunately taken it’s toll on my body.  My cortisol is all over the place, I wake up dragging my feet and crawling through the day only to find myself ready to clean the entire house at 6pm when I should be winding down for the night.  

This has really thrown me for a loop both physically and mentally.  Kate is focusing on increasing the nutrients in my diet and increasing the plant based carbohydrates both vegetables and starchy vegetables that have been missing for many years in order to help my hormones and heal my gut health.  While I have only begun working with her and I don’t have any “shout it from the rooftops” moments I feel like I am on the right track.  

Because of my history with strict ketogenic dieting and Intermittent Fasting I have done a lot of damage as I used it for too long because I lost sight of long term health for short term weight loss.  I tell you this not to scare you but because I hope it might help you to do your own research.  I thought I was doing the best thing for my body at the time but it turns out it’s just given me even more health issues.

My blog will be taking more of a direction away from weight loss and more of a focus on health, nutrient dense foods, recipes that I will be creating and a focus on healthy body image and fashion!  I understand as a result of this I may lose some followers that are purely following me for weight loss advice and that is ok.  My direction these days has evolved into focusing on health and I hope most of you will stick along for my continuing journey as it evolves.  

Many people in this world of weight loss blogging are experiencing a ‘honeymoon’ period and for the first couple of years everything is wonderful, very rarely do you see weight loss bloggers in it for the long haul that are authentic.  From the beginning I have been candid about this entire process for over five years and the future of my blog is no exception.

My blog is also undergoing a bit of a makeover so it will be much easier to navigate! Thank you all for continuing to follow me and I hope you will enjoy what is still to come.

Sweet Treats!

Quinoa Fruit and Nut Bars


Makes 12

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa flakes
1 cup almonds, whole
¼ cup desiccated coconut
1 slightly heaped cup of dried apple
1 slightly heaped cup dried cranberries
1 slightly heaped cup dried apricots
½ cup fruit juice
¼ cup mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds (plus a little extra to garnish)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a baking tray place the quinoa, almonds, and coconut. Mix together using your hands and spread evenly over the tray. Bake for from 6 to 7 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool.

In a processor add the toasted quinoa mix, the dried fruits and seeds—and blitz until finely chopped. While the motor is still running, pour in the juice and keep it running until it starts to come together.

Line an 8-by-10-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Tumble in the mixture and press down evenly and firmly. Sprinkle on top some extra sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and press those down as well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight before slicing. Simple.

What I do is slice up the completed slab of mixture after it has refrigerated overnight, and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. That way the bars are ready to take to work for snacks or to put in the kids' lunch boxes.

Adapted from He Needs Food




Raw lemon and coconut truffles


1 1/2 cups unsweetened desiccated coconut
plus 1/2 cup for coating
1 cup ground almonds
4 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
4 tbsp honey
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
a pinch of sea salt


In a food processor, add all of the ingredients. Blend for 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture starts to mix together like a dough.

Use your hands to form small balls.

In a separate bowl, add the extra coconut. Roll the balls in the coconut until well coated then transfer to a plate. Place in the fridge for at least half an hour to set.


The truffles can be kept at room temperature, but I find they are best kept in the fridge.



Makes around 25 truffles. Will keep for 3-4 days.
recipe from petite kitchen



CHOCOLATE BRAZIL NUT TRUFFLES WITH DATES & ORANGE ZEST

Ingredients

1 cup brazil nuts*
1 cup dried figs
½ cup cocoa or cacao powder
Zest of two oranges
Juice of half an orange

*Most types of nuts would work well.

Method

Add the brazil nuts in to a food processor, and then process until ground in to a dense flour. Add the remaining ingredients, and continue to process until the mixtures starts to come together like a dough.

Use your hands to form small balls.

In a separate bowl, add the extra cocoa powder. Roll the balls in the cocoa until just coated, then transfer to a plate. Place in the fridge for at least half an hour to set.

The truffles can be kept at room temperature, but I find they are best kept in the fridge.

Makes around 15 truffles. They are best kept in the fridge. Will keep for 3-4 days.


**I rolled in coconut and omitted the figs and tend to use medjool dates with a little prunes mixed nuts and even some almond meal.