The Sweet Things in Life - Chocolate!!!

We had planned for this blog to be a video blog but due to technical issues we will just use words and photos because we did want to post one blog before Christmas. All we can say is it has been an insanely busy week (as it has probably been for everyone!).
So this is what we got up to this week:

TED - Dessert
We spend Christmas with our families every year, and their dietary requirements are quite different to our. We are vegetarian and on TED (and have been for several months). So this poses an issue for us when it comes to meals. Thankfully our family are all lovely and thoughtful and cater for our vegetarian needs. However, dessert is often overlooked as dairy, processed sugar and gluten are often used. So this year we have decided to make dessert for ourselves and also share how delicious TED desserts are with those we love. So today we have made a Choc Mint Slice - TED style!! (recipe is on the website).

Choc Mint Slice!!

YUMMY!!!!!

TED - Christmas Presents
For Christmas this year we came up with the idea that it would be more thoughtful to make something for our friends and family - especially relating to TED so they can experience the amazing benefits and foods the earth provides us with. So we decided to make them all Chocolate Balls, but in different flavours.
The base ingredients for all the chocolate balls are: almonds (ground), cacao powder and maple syrup. Then we added the following to come up with 3 amazing and delicious flavours:

Coconut - coconut oil and shredded coconut

Peanut - 100% natural peanut butter

Crunchy mint - a few drops of peppermint essential oil,

 cacoa nibs for crunch and mint leaves to garnish

We than presented these in lovely Christmas boxes:

 TED - Dog Chocolate
All of this lead us to coming up with some chocolate balls that are suitable for dogs to eat, as we didn't want Atlas to feel let out. So we came up with some treats that we can give Atlas as a reward or on special occasions. Most of the dog treats you can buy are processed and are just as bag as processed dry and tin foods. Introducing - Doggie Carob Balls:

Ingredients: carob powder, almonds (ground), water

The finished product :)

The first try =

SUCCESS!!!!

"YUMMY!!! I want more!!"

Dogs can eat nuts, but only in small amount, the same goes for carob. These treats are very small (the size of an Australian 5 cent piece) and we plan to only give Atlas 1-2 per day at the most.
So just because it's Christmas doesn't mean your dog should miss out on healthy and delicious chocolate as well.

We hope you all have a very Merry and Safe Christmas surrounded by loved ones :)

Love & Light xox

Processed Pet Food - The Vicious Cycle

In this blog I want to write a bit about processed dog food i.e. dry food and canned (wet) food. In our research before we put Atlas on TED it didn’t turn up much beneficial reasons to feed your companion processed food besides the obvious one of convenience. But who would sacrifice the health and wellbeing of our companions just for a quick and easy meal...

Processed pet food was first introduced in Australia in the 1960’s and most likely earlier in America and Europe. Prior to this time diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disease and diabetes were almost unheard of as well as allergies like rashes, runny eyes and nose.

There are 2 major problems with processed food and then a score of other smaller issues:

·        *The first major problem is the fact that dry and wet foods (mostly dry food) are full of fillers to bulk out the food to make it appear like there is a lot of food and fill the dog up. However, the fillers are cooked grain, which are completely un-digestible and just come out the other end. If you put your companion on a raw food diet you will immediately notice the difference in stool size and smell. A raw food diet produces tiny stool and virtually no smell. These cooked grains also bind to essential nutrients and make them unavailable.

·        *Major problem number 2 is the fact that both wet and dry foods are cooked to increase shelf life and is a part of the canning process in wet foods. Any beneficial fats and oils are destroyed and the liver does not know what to do with these changed fats and just stores them in the body. Also the cooking of food is widely known to significantly reduce the nutritional content of food. This is also true for important enzymes and biologically active essential fatty acids (EFAs). All processed pet foods are disease promoting as they lack appropriate EFAs. I have also talked to many people who don’t feed their animal companions processed pet food but cook their food at home using things like rice, pasta, cooked mince and chicken and cut up veggies but this is not much better from the processed food as:

1)      The food is cooked so nutritional content is reduced by as much as 60%

2)      The cut up veggies are not nutritious as cats and dogs have a much shorter digestive tract than humans due to the fact they primarily live of meat (this is more so for cats than dogs as I have seen numerous vegan diets for dogs, cats MUST eat meat).  To make fruit and veggies to the nutritional standard of animals in the wild, these fruit and veggies must first be completely pulverised by using either a food processor or juicer. Grating or finely cutting up the food is not good enough.

Almost every processed dog food I have ever looked at claim to make the coat shiny but how do they do it? They do this by using polyunsaturated fats (and lots of it) that is cooked and gives a shiny coat but long term problems include degenerative diseases and autoimmune diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and rheumatoid arthritis.

Processed pet food contains huge amounts of refined sugars and salt which can lead to processed food addiction just like the human epidemic of processed sugar addiction. It also contains chemicals used for colouring and flavouring (notice in some dry food the different bits are different colours, it does not come from a natural source) this is a major cause of cancer, arthritis and allergies.

Phytochemicals found in veggies that number at over 100,000 are not present in processed dog food due to the lack of veggies in the food and then the cooking process. Unlike whole raw foods which contain these in abundance. It takes many years for the loss of these nutrients to be noticed and even then the degenerative diseases that develop are just assumed to be part of the aging process. The world’s oldest recorded dog called “Bluey” an Australian cattle dog lived to be 29!!! He was born in 1910 about 50 years before processed food. Some people may pass this off as a coincidence and that processed food couldn’t possibly be responsible for the massive explosion of disease in our animal companions, but all you need to do is follow the money. Processed pet food sales in the US in 2005 were $14.5 Billion so it’s a very lucrative market and on top of that you have all those visits to the vet to deal with all these health issues which in the same year came to $17.4 billion the whole pet care industry is like a vicious circle designed to maximise profits (see below).

                                                                          

Love & Light xox

ATTY PATTIES!!!!

Our plan is to share with you new doggy recipes, exercise tips and basically just life in general for a dog on The Earth Diet. We do hope to expand to other animals, but we will just keep it simple at this stage. Our goal is to transition Atlas onto TED as we believe that all animals should also be given a chance at living a healthy and completely natural life. At the moment Atlas is suffering from itchy skin (including dandruff), laziness (except when it comes to playing fetch) and he can at times be quite moody. So these are some of the things we plan to focus on eradicating through a natural diet and lifestyle for Atlas.

So tonight was the first night we introduced Atlas (affectionately known as Atty) to something completely new. We researched into foods that are beneficial to dogs and came up with "Atty Patties". The ingredients that went into this were lettuce, baby spinach, cucumber, broccoli, brussel sprouts, garlic, eggs and liver (not at all appetising to humans). This was then topped off with some natural, organic yogurt and olive oil. YUM YUM!!!!

The reason behind these ingredient choices is that vibrant leafy greens are FULL of chlorophyll which helps to produce oxygen in the body, and are essential not only to humans but animals as well.They are also packed full of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
Some of you may have read the word garlic and taken a sudden inbreath of shock because it is supposedly toxic for dogs. In large amount yes it is, but in small amounts (less than 2 cloves in one hit depending on the size of the dog) it is actually beneficial (we have done our research). Garlic is antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal, and essentially is a blood cleanser. We have only added 2 small cloves to the entire batter mix which will feed Atlas for one week.
Eggs are full of essential fatty acids, protein and calcium (if you add the shell as well like we did).
Liver is very high in iron, protein and other nutrients.
Yogurt for probiotics.
Olive oil for Vitamin E (to help with itchy skin!!)

We placed all of these ingredients into a food processor to fully crush the vegetables. This is because this form of processing provides dogs (and cats) with the best way to digest food. Dogs have a completely different digestive tract than humans; it is a lot shorter. They do not have the digestive enzymes to break down fruit and veggies that is not put through a processor (grating or chopping the vegetables will serve no benefit to your dog).

Fresh green veggies

All ingredients (minus yogurt and olive oil) into the food processor

Whizz whizz

Poured into a bowl and formed into patties

Serve in bowl

Drizzle with yogurt and olive oil to serve!!

 

There you go gourmet looking dinner for dogs, and yes Atlas LOVED IT!!!

Until next time LOVE & LIGHT xox

INTRODUCTIONS - Who We Are

LUKAS:

My passion lies in helping animals and the earth in general. I would like to help educated pet owners on feeding their animal companions natural and unprocessed food, which is the purpose of this blog. I love nature and spending time in natural environments. I am a country person and do not like spending much time in the city. I feel I have always been more connected to animals, than to people as they are carefree, live in the present and are happy with who they are. I have been surrounded by animals my entire life and believe I have had somewhere near twenty pets in my family household I grew up in. I could never imagine not having an animal as a companion, as they bring so much more to your life.

I would also like to mention that I have recently had major depression – and the reason I would like to mention this is because I would like people suffering this and other negative emotions that there is a choice to be happy. I do not remember all that much of my depression but Steph told me a lot of the time I was in a catatonic state and completely unresponsive. She was my strength throughout that period and even though I felt like giving up she never let me. I think she is the most stubborn person I know by far. She helped me to see that being happy is a choice and that if I wanted to feel better I had to choose the path of joy and happiness. Once I started on this road to happiness, I looked back and could not believe that I ever felt that way. I vowed that I would never allow myself to go back to that darkness and I would always look toward the light.

I hope you find this blog informative and inspiring. I wish to show you how to truly nourish the animals that live with you through a holistic and natural approach, with foods that are provided by the earth.

STEPH:

I am a Holistic Healer which encompasses holistic counselling, colour therapy, crystal healing and anything metaphysical. I have helped numerous people in the past, the present and will continue to do so in the future. When someone is having a rough and challenging time or is looking to give up, well this is my message to them:

You just have to rise up above it, see the positive in absolutely everything, don't take anything too seriously and have FUN!!! I have always tried not to victimise myself even when 99% of the population would have, particularly when I was in school it was very difficult for me. But not once did I ever give up. This I think was mainly due to my extreme stubbornness, strength and rebellious streak in not conforming to ANYTHING I didn't want to. I have never once been at the point of giving into the darkness or giving up in general. Although I have been chucked into this dark hole heaps of times in the past, I just immediately jump back out. In life you can choose 2 main paths Love/Light or Fear/Darkness. I have and always will choose the path of love and light. So when the going gets tough I stubbornly stand there and refuse to get going. I instead choose to see EVERY challenge as a blessing, EVERY obstacle as a positive lesson and EVERY setback as an experience to grow from. I have had a few psychics say to me that I am like an arrow that powers along through life and NOTHING stands in my way. I believe absolutely everything is possible and everyone and everything has the spark of love and light in them. You just have to choose to follow the path of love and light, choose to see the beauty and possibilities in every situation and choose to be HAPPY, JOYFUL & ALIVE!!!!

If I sound like a love/light/happiness junkie...well then so be it I say. I am high on love and light and energy, which I haven't come down from in...well ever.I am just so completely passionate about this time on Earth and helping all these people and lost souls and spreading my love and light; raising everybody's vibration.

Remember YOU ARE LOVE, YOU ARE LIGHT...EMBRACE it ALWAYS!!!!”

And ALWAYS follow YOUR dreams!!!!

ATLAS:

I am a 3 year old German Shepherd who loves my family. I am obsessed with playing fetch and would love to play all day if I could J I go for walks or runs every day with my family and get really really excited when I see another dog because that means I can meet someone new. I am very protective of my family and always check the perimeter of our house for any threats on a regular basis. I love mangoes, yogurt and meat; and I dislike lemons and lettuce. I have fun splashing around in water when it is hot, but I hate when I have to have baths L I am also very clumsy (which results in me always hitting my head on walls and running into things) but only because I am so EXCITED to BE, LOVE and PLAY!!