In the light of the global March Against Monsanto taking place next week, there has been some discussion this week on Pick n Pay's Facebook page about the labelling of genetically modified products.  They maintained that they have started labelling  so I went to one of their stores today to find out.  And true to their word, all maize has been labelled - not prominently of course, their house brand is the most clearly labelled of the lot. Now if only people understood what that means... 

According the African Centre of Biodiversity though, this level of labelling is not sufficient as it is misleading.  Just goes to show how little we the public know about this whole subject and how complex it is.  We can be very lucky that there are unsung hero's and watch dogs out there that are keeping a very close eye on all these proceedings.  Thanks ACB!  You are amazing.  

Decided to go out and buy a nut cheese and pesto that I saw demo'd in a course recently.  
Spat both of them out instantly!  Revolting.  I will not be putting this stuff in my body again thank you. I'll just make my own so they taste like the ones on the course.

The quest to avoid GMO foods means you need to have new toys to help you adjust to this new lifestyle to make food interesting.  These things are not cheap, (juicer, dehydrator, Vitamix).  My turn. I bought the cheapest one first - a Sprya-Gyra. I went by memory from a course I was on. I wanted to make the sweet potato pesto salad that was so great on the course I attended.  

This can't be right.  Stop process, head for Youtube for instructions.  The video makes it looks really easy of course.  Look how clean her workbench stays.  Try again.  Slightly better results and get some "pasta" out.  Two potatoes only made this much though :

Mm, what to do with these big chunks and bits.....?

I know!  Dehydrate them! Sliced them thinly as I could and put them onto foil.  Seeing as I don't have that toy yet, into the oven they go at 40 degrees.  Will see how they turn out in 12 hours or so. (Only second attempt ever at dehydrating in my oven.  Kale chips made this week, blog to follow).

In the meantime, add pesto to sweet potato "pasta", and voila!  Done.  Had to add some olive oil cos it was a bit dry.  Pop mixture into fridge to chill and think about life.

It's definitely not as easy as it looks and is going to take some practice.  Food needs to be in the exactly right shape or position or all hell breaks loose.  You need a plan B for all the leftovers that disintegrate from it, dehydrate, recycle them, chop them up and add them to the dish.