Who said that clean eating has to be boring? Learn with Victoria Kruse how to eat well while thinking sustainably.
Victoria Kruse is a sustainability and wellness mentor. She was born and raised in a small town in New Zealand, surrounded by nature and rich biodiversity, and has always eaten homegrown and seasonal food. She is a chameleon with many talents and much knowledge to share. She worked in numerous fields before reinventing herself through learning and experience to become a mentor for sustainability and wellness in the resort industry.
Falling in love with a resort general manager led her on an adventure through Asia Pacific’s top hotels and to her current dream destination, The Maldives, where she has had free rein to develop her current resort’s holistic approach to wellness and sustainability. As the creator of the ‘Wellness Your Way’ initiative, Victoria has developed recipes and shared with guests her philosophy of eating well for health and a more sustainable planet Earth.
Sustainability and the importance of taking care of our planet have taken on a more significant role during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is an important topic for discussion. Victoria grew up in a small town and had a childhood that included homegrown vegetables, freshly caught fish, and farm bought eggs and meat. “My family were early proponents of sustainability initiatives, well before sustainability was a buzzword,” she says.
In her household, her mother used to save plastic wraps to reuse, and her father repaired anything that was broken in the house, and she adds: “fate forgive us if we ever ripped gift wrap on presents, we had to remove the tape carefully so it could be used again.” All these details from Victoria’s childhood helped to form her ethos as an adult; work hard, look after things, fix problems, nurture nature and care are some of her tenets.
Transmuting these ideas to her life now, she shares some attitudes we can implement as responsible custodians of the planet we live on. “As a resort, we have taken some conscious decisions that we believe are small but significant steps forward,” she says. “We chose to select our suppliers based upon factors including how they treat their animals, from incubation to despatching.”
It is essential for them that the food they serve does not contain hormones or antibiotics. And also, that the animals that are consumed lived as nature intended, eating the foods that are natural to them, such as pasture grass for sheep and cows. The fish are caught in a way that means stocks are sustainable for years to come and that the local population, that relies upon them for their diet, also has access to sustainable stocks. “We also recently released what we believe to be the most ethical burger available in the Maldives. It falls into my personal eating lifestyle – ethical, local, gluten-free, homemade and keto,” says Victoria.
Almond Flaxseed Rolls
(these are the buns to accompany the latest ethical burger)
Ingredients:
1 cup ground almond
¼ cup ground flaxseed
5 tbsp psyllium husk
1½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3 egg whites
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Method:
Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and reserve. Beat the egg whites until foamy, and add the apple cider vinegar. Add dry ingredients to the egg white mixture and combine. Add one cup of boiling water in two parts and mix. Leave for five minutes until the water absorbs all the ingredients. Use wet hands to form the dough into six buns. Place on a baking tray and bake for 50 minutes in an oven set at 180° Celsius. Almond Flaxseed Rolls
@victoria_maldiveswellness