CHARLOTT'ES LIVING HARMONY WHOLEFOODS
Interview with Recipes!

Charlotte Wirnsberger has been a living harmony wholefood chef for over twenty years. She first began her career in Natural Therapies studying Shiatsu, Kinesiology, Macrobiotics, Nutrition and Meditation. She holds regular macrobiotic, gluten free and vegan classes regularly around Sydney.

Abolitionist: Charlotte’s Living Harmony Wholefood Cooking Classes uses no dairy, no animal products, sugar or refined foods. Is that correct?

Charlotte: In the cooking courses you will learn how to create wholesome and nutritious meals that support and heal your body, mind and spirit. Discover how to turn organic vegetables, whole grains and other natural products into delicious meals. The simple, easy to prepare recipes will encourage regular use of healthy, whole foods in your diet. The menus are free from all animal and dairy products, sugar and refined foods. It will benefit your health and tempt your taste buds. Courses are held throughout the year and each one emphasises the most harmonious foods for the season in which it is held:

Winter dishes are warming and comforting Springtime menus are designed to rid the body of excess weight and toxins from the heavier winter months Summer time foods are light and colourful Autumn menus help to keep us clear and free from colds and the flu.

Each day of the course you will experience how to prepare a 3 course meal specifically designed to support you in the current season. Also learn how to make yummy desserts without refined sugar. You get recipes for all the dishes prepared in class and than we all sit together and enjoy the food.

Receive nutritional information and advice based on the wealth of knowledge and comprehensive experience Charlotte has accumulated in the areas of whole foods, macrobiotics and natural therapies.

I think for many people life has become very complicated, stressful and disjointed, in the same way as their eating habits. So many foods on the supermarket shelves or even some in health food shops are full of chemicals and harmful substances and lacking in nutrients and goodness.

That’s why I think it's so important to go back to using unaltered whole organic grown foods that are in season. Prepare them probably with love and than enjoy the same food together with your family. A well balanced diet will create harmony in your body and by sharing the same food with your family it will help to create more harmony and peace in your relationships as well. When you are more balanced, your health will be better and than it is a lot easier to deal with the ups and downs of life that we all have to go through.

 I always get very positive feedback. Students enjoy the food as well as the atmosphere in the cooking class. Food is a very social thing and students make friends in the course very fast exchanging there ideas and often recipes. I get a lot of my students through word of mouth. People are often surprised how easy it is to cook good, nutritious food.

I get a wide range of people coming to my classes, from ages of 17 to 80. Some of them have been vegetarians or macrobiotics for many years and need some new ideas and inspiration with their cooking.  A lot of them are not vegetarians, but want to learn how to cook more wholesome foods, others may have found out that they have some serious health problems and want to change their lifestyle as well as eating habits.

I think we all have some health problems at different stages in our lives, not even macrobiotics are a 100% well all the time, although they may do better than people on a typical western diet. It is very encouraging for me that there is a far greater awareness and understanding out there in the community how our environment and food affects our health and well being.

 How does a Westerner understand acid and alkaline, ying and yang, raw and cooked and the energy dynamics of macrobiotic cooking?

 Well that is a very difficult question to answer as many people have a different understanding than others. Some have a good idea about acid and alkaline foods. Others have a good understanding of yin and yang and a lot of them have different believes about raw and cooked food. I also find when people are interested in those subjects that it is not so difficult to grasp all those different principals. The most important aspect for the understanding to sink in is to experiment with it and than see what positive changes you can create in your life; if it is only theory than it has no weight and conviction. My understandings of all those ideas have come through experiences not book learning or taking on someone else's belief system.

Name some of your specialties.

I feel all organic unaltered food cooked with love and attention is special. To name some of the dishes: pumpkin and tofu pie, curried vegetable strudel, lentil and quinoa patties, wholemeal pancakes, filled with sprouts, asparagus and basil sauce, hazelnut mousse, tahini and fruit cake, apple crumble, carrot cake. These are just a few examples.

Eating by the seasons and sourced at locally produced outlets. Your views?

Well I think it's very important to eat according to the season and get your food as locally as possible. Food that grows in your own environment will be much more supportive for you. For instance eating tropical fruits in a cold climate is very unsupportive, more so if you are a vegetarian, it will cool the body down to much. On the other hand if you on a heavy meat diet, some tropical fruits consumed in the winter will help to balance the strong yang food.

How can your nourish and sustain in a way that is environmentally sound and non-injurious to the planet and the delicate life support system within which we all live including the non-human animals?

By consuming only organic grains and vegetables in its whole and unaltered state you will support sustainable safe farming practices, by not degrading and poisoning the soil and so creating a safe environment for plants, animals and humans to live in. The farm animals - livestock damage our environment a lot, at the same time we treat a lot of those animals in a very cruel way. If we consume the grain ourselves instead of feeding it to the live stock to get the meat from it, we could feed 19 more people, so we waste a lot of our resources. That is without considering the extra pollution we create in the environment and in our body and all the suffering the animals have to go through, so we can eat them.

Advise us on how to cultivate the art of cooking?

 I think it is important that you enjoy cooking. When ever you do something with love, you will be a lot more creative and the outcome will also be a lot better. One can also get some ideas from cook books or go and join some cooking classes, exchange recipes with friends. Don't cook when you really stressed out or very angry and upset, you will put all these energies into your food. Take a bit of time out to settle yourself, if you are very emotional. When you feel calm and peaceful, people eating your food will become more like that to.

RECIPES

Pumpkin and Tofu Pie

Crust:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
sea salt
4 tbsp oil     
about 3/4 cup boiling water

Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients first. Than add the oil and enough boiling water to make the pastry. Let it rest for 1 hour. Roll out the pastry and line a greased pie dish with it. Bake on 170 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes.

Filling:
1 bunch bok choy
5 cups pumpkin - cut into cubes
4 sprigs of fresh coriander
2 tsp grated ginger
sea salt
300 g hard tofu
2 tbsp sunflower seeds

Method:
Bring a small amount of water to boil, add ginger, pumpkin, cook for a few minutes and than add salt. When pumpkin are cooked, strain off any  liquid that may be left. Puree tofu, pumpkin, coriander in a food processor. Slice bok choy and sauté in oil. First add the bok choy than the pumpkin mixture to the pastry shell. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds and bake on 170 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes.

Chickpeas and Lettuce Salad

1cup chickpeas - soaked overnight
1 stick kombu
1/2  lettuce
2 tbsp grain mustard
1 tbsp umeboshi vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp parsley - finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp brown rice vinegar

Method:
Cover chickpeas with water, add kombu and bring to boil. Cook on low heat until soft, for about 1 hour. Strain any liquid off. Mix mustard, umeboshi vinegar, oil and parsley and combine with hot chickpeas. Let it cool down. Wash lettuce and combine with rice vinegar and lemon juice. Serve chickpeas on top of the lettuce.

Hazelnut Mousse

1 pear
1 cup apple juice
1/2 cup soy milk or rice cream
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp rice malt
vanilla essence
1 tbsp agar flakes
pinch sea salt
fruit for garnish

Method:
Wash and slice the pear, combine with all the ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer for about 8 minutes. Let the mixture cool down and puree. Put into serving bowls and garnish with fresh fruit.

Contact: Charlotte's Living Harmony
phone: 02 9787 3063
mobile: 0419 628 235
email: healing@charlotteslivingharmony.com.au
Web address: charlotteslivingharmony.com.au