‘Duh’ recipe: Little Heaps of Harmony

Hello lovelies! How have you been this Self-love Sunday? I hope you have been giving yourself the attention you deserve :) My day has been spent yoga-ing, breakfasting, best-friending, preparing for a ball I’m attending this Friday (you’ll see more on this!) and last but not least, blending up some scrumptious goods! All Delicious, Uncomplicated and Healthy of course (previous duh recipes, here, here and here).

First up I made Teresa Cutter’s (aka The Healthy Chef) banana-coconut bread. I was basically looking for recipes to use the last of my coconut flour, and was drawn to this baby instantly. Due to my gluten sensitivities I hadn’t had banana bread literally in years. Biting into this made me ridiculously happy.

While that was baking I got experimenting. My hypothesis – “If I blend some nuts and dates with whatever ingredients I’m feeling, I’ll produce something pretty damn tasty.” My experiment was a total success. I created two types of balls – the first Green Goddess offers a more earthy veg flavour, and the second one has chocolate, cos’ how could I not make one without chocolate. I experimented further by adding some orange essence I found. Hello Jaffa balls! They actually taste exactly like the Emma & Tom’s bars you can get in the supermarket. But better because they’re cheaper.

Little Heaps of Harmony

Base:

1/4 cup almonds
1/2 cup soaked dates

Green Goddess:

1 TBSP spirulina powder
1 TBSP hemp seeds

Jaffa Joy:

1 TBSP raw cacao powder
1/4 tsp orange essence

1. In a food processor, blend the almonds until a crumbly consistency.

2. Add dates to the processor. If making the Green Goddess, add the spiruina, or if making the Jaffa Joy, add the cacao and orange essence. Blend until all ingredients are combined and formed into a big ball of ‘dough’.

3. Using a teaspoon of the mixture, roll mixture into six balls. If making the Green Goddess, roll balls in hemp seeds to coat.

4. Refrigerate!

It’s as easy as that. I called these Little Heaps of Harmony because they are just that – each flavour works in harmony with one another, and each Heap works in harmony with your body as it agrees completely with its wants and needs.

Giving your body what it wants and needs? That’s totally something worth doing on Self-love Sunday.

xx

Self-love Sundays

Sunday has typically been known as ‘a day of rest’. Today, this label cannot be so assuredly applied. With people working more, retail opening hours extending and the constant overwhelming presence of social media, disconnecting ourselves from the fast-paced way of life that consumes the majority of our week can be challenging, if not seemingly impossible. But what if we were to force ourselves to rest? What if we had a reason to practice rest that reached far beyond any reason to carry our minds and bodies in its usual monotonous, occupied state?

What if Sunday was instead known as ‘a day of self-love’?

Here’s what I think would happen: There would be less anger and hate. Less uncertainty of who we are. Health would flourish. Frames of mind altered. And the sweet, Sunday vibes would just be flowing.

My favourite way to absolutely chill

Take a moment to think about yourself. That is, how you train your mind, treat your body and nourish your soul. It is most likely that you will notice definite room for improvement – improvement that can only present itself with the application of devotion purely to your own self.

The idea of Self-love Sunday came to me by accident. My beautiful best friend Alana and I decided to commence yoga first thing each Sunday morning (I have tried yoga on and off for a while, and only very recently have I been able to experience a feeling of completely being at one with myself during a session – it’s changed my life). We follow this by treating ourself to a nutritious breakfast at a really nice cafe’. It really is the perfect Sunday morning! I leave my afternoons to do whatever my mind-body signals. By evening I feel such inner and outer radiance!

Give yourself the challenge of conducting your Sunday around yourself. Here are some ideas of how you can spend your Self-love Sunday:

~ Calm your mind and gain perspective with yoga and/or meditation;

~ Recognise your own worth by spending time with those who make you feel it;

I can always rely on A to make me feel good about myself. We’re constantly uplifting each other!

~ Nourish yourself and take the time and consideration to consume food that provides you with the nutrients that will allow your body to sing. I love the saying “Why would you put Diesel in an Unleaded vehicle?”, as this begs the question, “why would we fuel our bodies with a substance not made for it?”. The right fuel will put more power in our engines and will ensure a more smooth and efficient drive!

~ Feel refreshed and pamper yourself. Notice how paying extra attention to your body makes you feel. One thing you can do is give yourself a massage. This is something regularly practised in Ayurvedic healing, to keep the body healthy, nurtured and balanced. Sesame oil is considered the best oil to use. Go here for a step-by-step guide to Ayurvedic self-massage.

~ Slow down and get amongst nature

There are so many ways you can show yourself some love. No matter what is on your schedule, this Sunday, make some time for you. Come Monday, you will be rejuvenated, fulfilled and positively shining from the inside out  xx

Recipe: The ultimate bowl of nourishment

Feeling a bit ew? Is your body screaming “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE SHOW ME SOME TL-FRICKEN-C”? Well, tell that bod of yours to scream no more, because I have the perfect meal for you.

Mung bean soup, or dahl, is highly popular in the Ayurvedic health system. Considered highly detoxifying, it is often consumed when cleansing – making it very ideal if you haven’t exactly been treating yourself all that well. According to the well-known Ayurveda practitioner Sebastian Pole, mung beans clean the tissues, strengthens the eyes, tonifies the heart, drains dampness and clears toxic heat from the body. I used whole mung beans for my dahl, soaking them overnight, in order to reap more of its benefits. All other ingredients in this dish also provide mass amounts of nutritional goodness, and make for a truly satisfying feed. I grabbed my recipe below from Vogue UK, here. It made about 7 servings, some of which I have frozen and the rest of which will be consumed for an easy lunch all week.

Mung beans, soaked overnight to provide AMGAP (As Much Goodness As Possible, obviously)

The veg component

Spice, spice and all things nice

Mung dahl

500g mung beans (soaked overnight in double the amount of water and covered)

1.5L chicken stock

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons ground coriander

6 cardamom pods, bashed up

1-2 tablespoons coconut oil

4 large onions, sliced

1 x 2 inch piece of ginger, grated

6 cloves of garlic, minced

4 carrots, chopped

2 large celery sticks, chopped

3 handfuls of coriander, stems chopped finely

1 tablespoon Tamari and 2 pinches of Himalayan salt

Spinach to serve

1. In a large pot, bring the stock to the boil. Drain and rinse the soaked mung beans and add to the stock. Simmer with the lid on (you will add to this in 20 minutes).

2. While that’s simmering away, dry fry the spices in a deep pan for 1 minute. Keep stirring so they don’t burn! Meanwhile, smell those delightful aromas.

3. Heat the coconut oil in the same pan and add the sliced onion. Cook on medium for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (I added a bit more coconut oil halfway through as there was a lil bit of burning starting to happen. Just use your instinct).

4. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a further 5 minutes, regularly stirring.

5. After the mung beans have been cooking for about 20 minutes, add to the pot the diced carrot and celery, the contents of the fry pan, Tamari, salt and chopped coriander stalks. Combine, put the lid on and let simmer on medium for another 15 minutes. Stir once or twice and add stock if needed, to prevent from sticking to the bottom of the pot (like mine did a bit, oops).

6. To serve, stir in lots of baby spinach and garnish with coriander leaves.

7. Eat it. Sit back and listen to your body say ever so gently, “thank you”.

This will be thoroughly enjoyed after escaping my desk to do a yoga session tomorrow. It’s safe to say that I’m certainly looking forward to lunch time!

xx

What can you achieve in 200 days?

200 days until summer in Australia, and counting. Winter hasn’t even fully reared its head yet my thoughts are already on hot days spent outdoors whether at the beach or with friends drinking mojitos in my sunshine. Thinking of this as only 200 days away makes it seem alot closer!

This has got me thinking – imagine how much can be achieved in 200 days!! Alot I say. And here’s a list of such things I will aim to do – my ’12 in 200′. I was initially going to do 20, but realised that this isn’t exactly a simple amount to keep track of. I’ve split them into categories, these being ‘Health & Fitness’, ‘Wellbeing’, ‘Career & Money’, ‘Creativity’ and my favourite… ‘Adventure’. As I present these over two posts, I hope it gives you some ideas and inspires you to get the wheels in motion to be the person you want to be and live the life you want to live… in only 200 days! I’d love to know what features on your own list!

Health and Fitness

1. 2 x 12 week challenges

I got this idea scrolling through an instagram account on fitness and immediately got my fitness buddy onto it. We’re in the process of each setting ourselves fitness goals to achieve at the end of each 12 week segment (theres a 1 month gap in between) and will continuously support and encourage each other throughout the entire process. My first goal? By the first week of August I will weigh 3kg more and have abs as hard as steel.

2. Enhance my cooking repertoire – every fortnight

I’m one of those people who will just cook what I already know because its ‘easy’ and doesn’t require too much thought. But when I do make something new I always feel so accomplished and happy that I’ve somehow enhanced my cooking knowledge and skills (unless of course the dish is a complete failure – but practise makes perfect!). I’ve definetely noticed a lot of meal repeats lately. I generally eat the same things for breakfast and lunch every day. Setting myself a goal of cooking something new every two weeks means that in 200 days, I will have 14 dishes added to my repertoire. That’s definitely encouraging some variety!

3. Be informed

This can be applied to anything you’ve been wanting to learn, don’t confine it just to health and fitness!

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t 100% certain where my quad’s were until a couple of weeks ago. When referring to them I’d just point at them and say ‘this part’. Yeah human bio (or any science for that matter) was never my strong point. It’s slightly ironic that I so carefully plan my gym workouts and schedule so I can sculpt my body but really, I don’t actually know enough about my body to be as successful as I can be.  So I want to get researching. I’ve been telling myself to do it for ages, but now I’m putting my foot down and giving myself 200 days to grasp an understanding of how my body works in order to get it in the shape that I want.

Wellbeing

4. Change a bad habit (or 9)

I use the concept that it takes 10 days to change a thought and 21 days to change a habit. You could break 9.5 bad habits in 200 days! (Although that’s probably a bit unrealistic).

I’m certainly in the midst of the thought changing stage in regards to my swearing. For reasons unbeknown, I have suddenly become more aware of my swearing, particuarly the effect it has on my mood. If I’m slightly angry about something and I verbalise it by using pretty vulgar language, I actually find my anger rise significantly. This proves that my mind has negative associations with these words, which therefore supports the reason why I shouldn’t be using them! Don’t do things that make you unhappy people.

5. Motivate others

One quote. Every day. That’s what I’ll be putting on my big whiteboard at work. I’ve been doing it every now and then for the past few weeks, and it’s so great when I get people coming into my office in anticipation for what I’ve put up. It makes me feel really good knowing I have had even the tiniest positive influence on someones mindset for the day. Which leads into number 6…

My favourite quotes, on my bedroom wall for me to repeat every day.

6. Inspire others

This one is directly linked to this blog. I will consistently utilise it as a vehicle for expression and by doing this, I hope to send nothing but mega positive vibes to my audience (that’s you!). I’m a big believer of staying true to yourself and that through the power of positive thinking, anything is possible.  I do hope this shows and that it could possibly inspire you somehow, even if in the smallest of ways.

Okay so in 200 days I will be at a healthier weight with rock-hard abs and thus feel healthier. I will know how to cook 14 more dishes and thus have more variety in my diet. I will actually know what the heck is going on with my own body and thus know how to treat it. I will be swearing less and therefore be less angry.  I will be experiencing extreme fulfilment with the knowledge that I am making an active effort to motivate others (any myself!) and inspire others to live life the way it should be lived.

Watch out for my final 6 achievements within the next couple of days! And remember – I LOVE feedback. Tell me what’s on your mind :)

I will posting my progress throughout the 200 days on this blog and also via instagram. Follow me at @tessacp if you like! 

‘Slice of heaven’ cake (clean & gluten-free)

Excuse me while I DIE AND GO TO DESSERT HEAVEN where I’m sure there are angels singing praise for this cake. And everyone’s really happy there because well, it’s heaven, but also because they can eat this baby without feeling too guilty due to its clean ingredients and pleasing quantity-to-satisfaction ratio. Habitants of dessert hell (they would eat what Cadbury passes as ‘chocolate’) would be really jealous of its wonderful flavours and moisture (I hate that word but it has to be said).

Confession: before making this, I don’t remember the last time I ate chocolate cake. Or any cake for that matter. Alas, my gluten intolerance and healthy stance on food has steered me clear of such things. So imagine my joy when I stumbled across this recipe! I suppose you could say I was ‘singing to the heavens’. Ahem.

Coconut is being used so much in healthy cooking nowadays and I’ve been using coconut butter/oil for my grilling for quite a while now. The difference to normal oils? Well how it was first explained to me was that when you heat other oils to a certain point their nutrients are depleted. Coconut oil however has a higher resistance to heat and retains all its goodness. It has healthy saturated fats, which are  converted into energy rather than being stored as fat. It is also said to be a great booster to metabolism. On the flour front, not only is it gluten-free, but it is also high in fiber and protein. The addition to both of these coconut ingredients in this dish gives it a taste that reminds me of one of my favourite traditional Aussie desserts – Lamingtons :)

Okay so, the recipe… I can’t give you. Well, I COULD, but it would totally go against what I believe is fair when it comes to copyright. So instead I’ll simply lead you to the original owner of the recipe below and offer you an insight into its process by way of photographs.

Dry ingredients

Plus wet ingredients

Plus a 15 minute stint in the oven

Equals happy food time.

Go here to view the full recipe for these slices of heaven xx