This week

I have been enjoying my new green smoothie-breakfast routine

 

 

I love starting my day with a boost of chlorophyll and alkaline loaded foods and my current fave is spinach, kale, celery and some variety of fruit (berries, pear or apple) and a little fresh ginger. Sadly I have been using my Kenwood blender as my Vitamix broke after just THREE uses (I know!). Fortunately a new one has arrived today and sometimes we just need to accept that not everything works perfectly first time round, fingers crossed we have better luck this time round.

 



 

The kids have been enjoying making their smoothies and all I need to do now is to figure out how to change the colour of spinach and kale (there goes the chorolphyll!) so it can be added to their smoothies, fat chance I reckon!

 

 

We have enjoyed lazy mornings in pj's, no time pressures, no routine and its been bliss. There's been an obsession of walking  around in Mum's heels and wanting to put make-up on whilst listening to ' Let it go' (can I blame Frozen here?!), I promise it has nothing to do with me in my usual attire of heals and a pinny (oh he can but dream on!).

 

 

 

 

I have been glaring at this pile of books in the kitchen that I need to sort through, but its been glaring back all week and I suspect the trend might continue a little longer. Do you have this book cluttering tendency around your kitchen? We have them scattered around all over, but somehow it all blends in, this pile however (a result of book overflow in other areas) is now blocking the door, so it really is time to sort it out. Maybe next week...

 

 

 

Oh yes spot that The Great British Sewing Bee book there, it's so exciting that it is back on our screens and I can't wait for it to start 'unravelling'.

 

There has been lots of drawing and making

 

  

reading and baking

  

 

 

and even a little more 'raw' experimenting

 

We had our first trip to the garden centre for this year and for once the owner roped the kids in to do some chores, whilst I could leisurely peruse the packets of seeds. How is it that the kids are so happy to do 'jobs' for other people yet all I need to do is mention the j-word to send them running in the opposite direction?!

 

 

I enjoyed an evening sorting through seeds and making plans. I'm a girl who likes a good plan and these sorts are the best!

 

 

 

We have enjoyed some glorious and sunny days, mornings mostly with rainy afternoons

 

 

 

 

but it was not all grey, this gorgeous original painting was my latest find at the charity shop, I must say I chuffed to bits!! 

 

and last but not least I have been enjoying these gorgeous Protea and fynbos all the way from SA courtesy of my special man!

 



 

I hope you have enjoyed your week/half term, sadly there has been no time for crafting, but that will all change next week when these little monsters return to school. There's a little DIY on the cards for the weekend, but more on that another time.

 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

 

 

 

 



Valentine's treats - little Drawstring Bags and gorgeous Raw Chocolate Hearts

Happy Valentines sweet readers. I hope you have all enjoyed a day filled with love.

 

 

 

Yesterday we made some cards for Daddy

 

 

 

and today I made some little drawstring bags for my two little sweethearts

 

 

  

  filled them with some yummy treats. They were pretty easy to whip up and for the first time in my life I used bondaweb, yay! I then hand stitched (blanket stitch) the little hearts in place using embroidery thread.
 

 

 

 

for my big sweetheart and myself (nothing wrong with a little love for oneself!) I made some yummy raw chocolate valentine's hearts seeing we are both flying high on our sugar free diet. Since starting our sugar free diet in January, we are slowly becoming the worlds biggest raw chocolate fans and we can safely say that we HEART raw chocolate. I had heaps of fun playing with my latest recipe

 

 

 

The slice is not only pretty to look at, but also filled with a whole bunch of goodness. I made it using delicious almonds, which is great for brain functioning (and boy do I need this!) and has the added bonus of being an alkalising food. Our diets are generally far to high in acid producing foods such as animal foods like meat, eggs, poultry and dairy and optimally we should follow a ratio of 60/40 alkaline/acidic diet. Having a diet that is too acidic will affect mineral and vitamin absorption and also affect energy production at a cellular level, so having more of a plant based diet can only be a good thing!

 

I also added some delicious coconut oil, a 'cure-all' superfood that offers all the healthy fat we need and more and for a little bit of fun I threw in some chia seeds, which is not only a great source of protein and omega-3 fats, but also loaded with calcium, manganese and phosphors. It also adds a lovely 'crispy' texture to this chocolate heart. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here is what you are going to need

 

150g ground almonds

40g cocoa powder

15g Linwoods faxseeds, almonds, brazil nuts, wallnuts & Co Q10

70g dessicated coconut

20g chia seeds

30g dried cranberries

150g coconut oil

2-3 tbsp. of rice malt syrup

 

Add all the dry ingredients to your food processor or mix by hand. Melt the coconut oil and rice malt syrup by putting the oil in a bowl over hot boiling water (double boiler method). Once melted add it to the dry mixture mix it all together thoroughly, then put it in a lined flapjack tin and refrigerate. Once it has set, which shouldn't take no more than 20-30 minutes use your heart cutter to shape or just cut into squares. Keep refrigerated.

 

 

 

If you don't have the Linwoods mix, just increase the desiccated coconut by 5g. Also, if you don't have rice malt syrup, you can use honey or maple syrup. It will be interesting to know how you get on with this if you're up for trying, so please let me know.

 

 

 

 

Hope you all enjoy a weekend of sharing the LOVE.

 

I HEART you all!!

Hannapat

xoxo

 

 

Healthy Fruit, Nut and Oat Bar - a recipe

Today I want to share a fabulous recipe that I experimented with this week. I was hoping to do a great big post all about sugar, but it seems that I lost my tussle with time, so it will have to wait for now.

As some of my regular readers will know my current fad is reducing the amount of sugar we consume in our diets and this little experiment is nothing short of a really healthy alternative for a snack that is not only filled with good nutrients, but also pretty low of sugar, especially fructose. I know what you're thinking right now, but surely fructose is good for us!! The answer is yes it can be if taken in the right form, but if I am honest I think that generally speaking we are all pretty ill informed about this subject matter. Unfortunately I don't have time to go into any detail tonight, but I promise to shed a little more light on this subject during the next couple of weeks, but for now here is the recipe for anyone interested. I promise you won't be disappointed.

 

 



 

Healthy Fruit, Nut and Oat Bar

Ingredients

1 cup organic puffed rice (no sugar added!)

1 cup gluten free oats

1/2 cup shredded Coconut

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 brazil nuts

1/2 pumpkin seeds

1 cup dates (I use madjool dates)

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup nut butter

2-3 tbsp. Rice Malt Syrup

 

Method

 

I use a general cup measurement, so there is no need to be concerned about the differences that comes with some interpretation of cup measurements.

 

Simply measure out all your dry ingredients and process them all together in your food processor. I prefer a fairly processed mixture, but this is really up to your own preferences. I want the kids to eat it, so I don't really want big chunky pieces of nuts and dates peeping through. Then add your dates, as mentioned I used madjool as they tend to be a little softer, but if yours is hard, you can always soak it for up to an hour before you want to make this. Whilst it is processing, melt the coconut oil using a double boiler method, therefore just putting the oil in a bowl hovering over simmering hot water. You loose a fair amount of the nutrients if you melt it directly, so use this method instead. For the nut butter, I use this nut butter which is a blend of peanuts, cashews and hazelnuts, but you can just use peanut butter or any nut butter of your choice, or you can simply make your own if your food processor has the capacity to do it. Add the nut butter to the oil mixture and then add your rice malt syrup. I specifically chose rice malt syrup as it is fructose free. It has the consistency of honey and taste a little like a mild golden syrup with a hint of malt, but it works a dream.

 

Rice malt syrup is made through cultivating organic brown rice with enzymes in order to break down the starches and then cooking it until it becomes a syrup consistency. It therefore contains carbohydrate, maltose and small amounts of glucose, but no fructose whatsoever, which makes it a really good substitute for honey or syrup.

 

Once the coconut oil, nut butter and syrup is thin and runny, add it to your dry mixture and quickly process for a  minute or so just to ensure that it is all properly combined. Line a swiss roll tin or something similar with some parchment paper and scrape the mixture into your tin and then pop it in the fridge for a good hour or a little longer to give it time to set. Once it has set, you can cut it into the desired size, freeze some and keep the rest in the fridge if you like or in an airtight container outside. Personally I kept mine in the fridge, but I am sure it will be absolutely fine outside.  They freeze really well too! I got around 35 slices out of mine, so if you want less you can always half the recipe if you like.

 

  







 

I hope you have fun trying out this recipe, do let me know how you get on please feel free to ask any questions. I would be very interested in your feedback. We enjoyed a few slices during out 'Stitch and Bitch' on Friday and I have to say that this bar has been going down a treat and everyone is enjoying it. Since starting my quest to learn a little more about the implications of sugar to our bodies, I am struggling to find healthier options for the kids for snacks as so many of the so called 'healthy snacks' are loaded with sugar. This makes a pretty scrumptious snack that the kids will enjoy too! As you know nuts are pretty high in fat, so don't indulge in too many at once. I find that one slice gets me through my hunger periods during the day.

 

 

The good news is that our new toy (vitamix) arrived on Friday afternoon and we have already been having heaps of fun playing with it. So far we have made some soup, smoothies, and some ice cream, in fact the kids made their own ice cream, so they are loving my their new toy!

 

 

Before I go I just wanted to say thank you for all your lovely comments about the progress on my Spring throw and first quilt. In fact I finally got around to making the binding for the quilt on Friday and it is now waiting to be hand stitched, not my first love, but it will be worth it!

 

Wishing you all a happy and creative week.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Raw Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake

This week has zoomed by and it has been a super busy one. On Thursday it was my turn to host our fortnightly 'Coffee morning' that the Mums from our reception class started doing shortly after the October half term. The objective of the morning is to raise money for our school and so far we have already raised nearly £150 between a few Mum's, so really not bad going considering that we all get to chat and drink coffee or tea. It is the first time that I have hosted and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I absolutely LOVE tea parties and I think the thing I enjoy the most is the preparation, not that this small gathering required much. I have however had to be very organised as I had a funeral to go to on Wednesday and be there to support dear friends.

 

 



 

 

Fortunately you can make these Flourless Chocolate Brownies a few days in advance and they keep really well for up to a week, and if you like you can also freeze them. They are really delicious and are always a big hit with everyone, you can read more about it here. On Wednesday I quickly made my all time favourite lemon drizzle cake that I wrote about here, and I must say as always this was devoured. The thing that sets this lemon drizzle above any other is the use of ground almonds, which makes it really moist. It is also very lemony, which I love, not that I had a single morsel I will add.

 

Seeing that I am now officially on day 19 of my NO sugar diet, I had to find something that I could eat, so I thought I would have a go at making this vegan raw cheesecake. I have seen various recipes for raw cheesecakes over the years and despite wanting to try it, I have never actually gotten around to it. I must confess it ended up being quite a kerfuffle, but fortunately it is seriously DELICIOUS!! Basically the biscuit base is made up of almonds, dates and melted coconut oil, which was pretty straight forward, but the actual cheesecake, well lets just say a little less so and a little more prone to release a good repertoire of choice language.

 

It seems that my food processor just doesn't live up to the job. You see the cashew nuts, which I will add is an entire bag of 400g (so not the best low fat option!), has to be processed down into a nut butter paste, which was clearly just a little to tough going for my Kenwood Food processor. So in the end I had to blend down the cashew nuts, freshly squeezed orange juice, a few dates, cocoa powder and coconut oil in my teeny weeny electric spice grinder, a couple of spoons at a time, which turned this happy camper into a rather grumpy one.

 

 

 

Every cloud has a silver lining though!! Hubby saw and heard my mutter flowery language under my breath and kindly suggested that we needed to sort this out. You see, I am on a mission and when this girl gets going there is no stopping here. I am seriously looking at my diet and possibly moving into more of a raw food diet. It is slow steps, but I am reading heaps about this and trying to inform myself as best as possible. Despite starting The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt after finishing Bridget Jones's 'Mad about the Boy', I have now been side tracked and am reading Sweet Poison and researching the benefits of raw diets, but more on that at a later date.

 

 

I have a great deal to learn though as it seems that raw eating involves large quantity of fat every day and even though this is healthy fat, it is still unnecessary pressure on our livers. It is all a steep learning curve and I promise to share some information here soon for anyone interested. Anyway I digress, back to the silver lining. About three years ago my nutritionist, whom I have been working with since I fell ill, seriously suggested that I INVEST in a Vitamix, with INVEST most certainly being the operative word. After close consideration at the time and few pennies to spare we decided against it and bought a Kenwood blender to replace our then burnt out blender instead. In hindsight we should have saved the £140 we spent then and put it towards the Vitamix, but hey that's life.

 

 

 

So on Thursday after the girls had left I started doing a little research and within a few minutes of watching this video the decision was pretty much made. Even though we can't really afford it hubby was happy for us to make it work, and that is what we will do. So needless to say I am one very lucky and excited girl waiting with bated breath for the right knock on the door, even though I know it most probably won't be here for another week. A girl can be hopeful!

 

On Friday we had our 'stitch and bitch' and it was such a lovely morning. I actually picked up my quilting squares again as I didn't know what I wanted to work on and it felt so lovely to carry on where I left off at the end of last summer.

 

 



Even though it is only in the early stages, it is lovely to see a little progress. Needless to say I am working completely out of my comfort zone, if I have such a thing when it comes to sewing, but this is all new to me and without any training or help, I am just relying on my trusty Quilters Bible by Linda Clements. I must say I do wish I knew another quilter or someone interested in it as a little practical help here and there won't go amiss.

 

 



 

 

I love that both my friend and I always carry our cameras around with us and feel so at ease to snap away at random things without a blink of an eye lid from the other. The fun bit is that we have the same cameras too, and even though we are both pretty clueless we will hopefully learn a little together. I think more and more people take photos of everything, but as a blogger and instagram junkie, it often feels like I have my camera on me 24/7. I love how we get to see the different angles of life through a single lens.

 

 

 

This is a joyous sight that is making me smile every day. I am really enjoying seeing a little more life in the garden and in the home.

 

 

For anyone interested in joining in on my Weekly Bake, please feel free to do so. For my new readers, I generally do a post once a week about some or the other bake. This year I suspect you will largely be seeing healthy options, not a bad thing, but for anyone wanting to join in you can find the button on the sidebar of my blog to add to your blog and you can just click on the link below the post to link up your bake. There is no pressure and that includes myself. My aim this year is not to feel pressurised by anything, so if I miss a week, please feel free to go ahead and blog about it anyway. You can find quite a few recipes in my Weekly Bake and Gluten and Dairy Free Baking section, but now there will be a new section for Raw baking or food. At the moment I am seriously contemplating a 21 day raw food detox, anyone fancy joining in??

 

 

 

So before I sign off, I need to know have you all been watching The Great Interior Design Challenge??? Oh faint!!! I am just LOVING it. It was great watching some familiar faces on there such as Sarah Moore and Ooh Betty. It is so lovely to see the people we follow on our blogs and Instagram and to see them do so well at it. For anyone who has missed it you can watch it on iPlayer. DONT miss it!!

 

I have so many things to tell, but it will have to wait till next time as the family beckons and I think it might be time to play a game of monopoly or something. The wind is howling and it is throwing it down, the fire is lit and I think it calls for a cosy afternoon and a date with the telly later tonight to watch The Voice and hopefully a little time to do a little more crochet on my Spring throw. Tomorrow is Treacle market, but with weather like this, errm, time will tell.

 

That's it for now.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Raw Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake

 Good morning all you lovely people. I hope you all enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable weekend. For us it was a fairly slow one, but with quite a few things to do around the house. We still seem to be in the January clear-and-sort-out mode, which seems to be falling slowly in place. In between it all we have been enjoying some of this gorgeously delicious Raw Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake, by Ani Phyo.

 

 

 

 

Earlier this month, I treated myself to this lovely book by Ani Phyo, as I felt it fitted in perfectly with my new outlook on a journey to wellness. The book if filled with '85 Easy, Delectable Sweets and Treats' all without wheat, gluten, dairy or any processed sugar. Ani Phyo has divided the book into ten sections: Frozen Treats, Cakes and Tartlets, Chocolate and Fudge, Crisps and Cobblers, Puddings and Parfaits, Cookies, Fruit Simples, Sun-Baked Treats, Sauces and Kreams and Sparkling Desserts with Wine and Champagne.

 

 

 

Thus far I have only tried two of the recipes and they have both been very delicious. The first was 'Peacan Pie Cookies', which is very much like the Naked Bar's peacan pie, but definitely a bit yummier. This cake however is in a league of its own.

 

 

The cake is made up of processed dates, cocoa powder and walnuts, which to be honest baffled the socks off me as I just didn't understand how this crumbly mixture was going to hold its own once assembled and iced

 



 

and as it turns out I was right. The idea is that you divide the mixture between two sandwich tins and then set aside whilst you make the icing. Amazingly they held their shape once turned out, but started crumbling once I attempted the icing. So, I figured that I would pop it back in the food processor, add a few more dates and then packed them really tightly by pushing the mixture firmly into place (a bit like working with putty) and then I popped them in the freezer for a good few hours, which seem to do the trick.

 

To make the ganache, you simply process some dates, agave syrup, cocoa powder and some avocado and amazingly

 

you have THE most delicious ganache. This stuff is seriously yummy and the good news is that it is healthy too!

 

 

 

 Once the glitches were all ironed out it was really easy to assemble the cake. The recipe calls for adding a layer of raspberries in between the two cakes, but I was a little worried that it would make the cake soggy over the course of a few days. Having seen how the raspberries behave on top, I think I will give it a go next time as the raspberries really compliment the delicious flavours of this cake beautifully. For anyone interested in trying this recipe, you can find it here.

 

 

 

 

On Friday I had a little 'stitch and bitch' session at home with a friend as we were both desperate to finish some cushions that we had started long before Christmas. It was a really enjoyable morning and seeing that we are both on MyFitnessPal and avoiding sugar, this cake seemed like the perfect treat whilst stitching. I will say that we both thought the cake is much tastier than many other chocolate cakes, even the kids and hubby loved the cake (yes it is all gone!) and for us the thing that struck us the most was that there was no nasty post sugar cravings that you so often get when eating refined sugar and simple carbohydrates. I honestly never thought that I would put the words cake and healthy in the same sentence, but here it is loud and clear and to top it, it is actually really delicious.

 

 

 

 

The good news is that I finally finished this cushion I have been working on for a while. I have never spent this long on making a cushion and I must confess that working with velvet can be quite tricky and therefore calls for a great deal of hand stitching to get everything firmly in place before it starts dancing under the foot of your machine.

 

 

I am really pleased with the end result and love the use of doilies on cushions. I also love the colours of this fabric and I think it compliments this little space beautifully. I still have another one in the same fabric to make, but this time I will take my time and do it properly from start to finish to ensure that pesky un-picker is NOT required.

 



 

 

Before I go I would like to thank each and every one of you who left such supportive and loving comments on my post about my plans for this year. It is really wonderful to know that there is so much love and support out there. So far it has been hard going as it doesn't come natural for me just to be still, so it is a challenge, but then I have always been very fond of challenges, so I will keep that in mind when things get tough. As for the yoga, it seems to be aggravating the shingles in my body, so I am toning it right down to breathing and trying to find ways in which it will work in harmony with my body. For now it is all very much trial and error and it is definitely affecting my health, but the art lies in listening to my body and it is not going to happen overnight. This is going to be a long process, one that will take time to tune in and find the pathways that needs to gel together in order for my body to be in its optimal position whilst my mind follow hand in hand. It is all to easy for our minds just to lead the way without any regard for the needs of our bodies and for me this is most certainly my biggest challenge.

 

 

A big welcome to my new followers, I am so touched that you have decided to stop by and I hope that I will get to know you all a little better over the months ahead. I am also a little behind in catching up with many of your lovely blogs, but it will hopefully happen during this week.

 

Sending you all much love and wishes for a creative week ahead.

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo