Nut bars

I came across with this recipe while visiting a friend and between discussing the benefits of aloe vera she gave me one of these bars and I got addicted. I immediately asked her for the recipe and I decided to give it a go.
I changed few things because I added few things to my taste.

These bars are packed of flavour with the mix between nuts, coconut, orange and the special touch is indeed the rose water, that although is optional I totally recommend to try it.

These bars make a perfect snack for lunch boxes of adults and kids.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of honey (I used a bit less than 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup of raw almonds (roughly chopped) 
• 1/2 cup of pistachios (roughly chopped)
• 1 cup of sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup of shredded coconut 
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1 Tbsp of fresh orange juice 
• 2 tsp of cinnamon 
• Pinch of salt 
• 1Tbsp of rose water (optional) 

Let's do it:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 C and line a square ceramic dish with baking paper, allowing excess paper on the sides 
• For preparing the nuts (almonds and pistachios) you can place them in a cutting board and roughly cut them with a big knife, or you can put them inside of a kitchen towel and beat them up with the cooking roll or a meat hammer (a nice way to release stress). Either way, you want to have big chunky pieces of nuts so don't put them in a food processor
• In a bowl mix all the ingredients with the exception of the honey and mix them well 
• In a saucepan pour the honey and allow it to warm up but not boil. You will see that the honey becomes liquid
• Pour the honey in the mixture and stir well until the honey is well combined and coated all the mixture
• Pour the mixture to the ceramic tin and spread homogeneously and press to form a compact layer 
• Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown 
• Remove from the oven and let it cool down in the ceramic dish in room temperature. When the mixture is almost cooled, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting it in bars. If it's totally cold and refrigerated makes it easier to cut without breaking in pieces
• Remove the baking paper carefully and place it in a cutting board. Cut the bars in the desired size
• I wrapped each bar in baking paper and tied with kitchen string. This makes it easier to remove them from the container and even eating them without get sticky fingers :) 

You can keep the bars in a container in the fridge for 2 weeks easily...if they last that long :) In here they lasted 4 days...ups!! 

Time of preparation: 30 minutes (10 minutes of preparation plus 20 minutes baking)

Quantity: Depends on the size of the bars that you want. For me it gave me 8 rectangular bars but you can make the double if you prefer small squares.

Today I leave you an awesome band from the 90's that was probably the band that lead me into the world of alternative music and even now when new bands arise and are widely listen,  the old ones still have their legacy and The Breeders will keep their legacy for someone that used to listen the 90's alternative rock music. 

Have a nice day! 

King fish in sweet potato "bun"

Today I started my day with a Mysore practice, I am starting slowly to go through the primary series without stressing out.

Yoga is not about rushing to get into the pose, instead is about enjoying every step, every achievement and about learning to stand up after falling. 

Mysore is such a lovely practice but it involves a lot of commitment to the practice and awareness of our own limits. 

Although yoga philosophy defends that we should release our body from all the toxins and become vegetarian, is my option to not chose to go through that path :) not that I am a meat lover but definitely I like fish and I truly believe that we can get most of our nutrients through real food without daily supplements or protein powders. 

Today I prepared some king fish that you can easily find fresh in here, and although is not a fat fish is reach in Omega-3, selenium and in lean protein. 

Most of the time when we cook something in the stove, like fish or meat, we loose a lot of the good fat that drips to the ceramic dish. So lately I use sweet potato as a kind of "bun" under fish or chicken breast to absorb all the fat, in this way I am increasing the absorption of vitamins present in the vegetables and fish that I will eat.

Some people are not aware that eating vegetables with fat helps our body to absorb their vitamins improving the gut health.

Those diets poor in fat won't help you in anyway the body, beside all the side effects that they have in terms of energy and muscle draining, the fact that you don't add any fat to your diet will avoid your body to absorb most of vitamins present in the food. 

Ingredients:

For the fish:

• Steaks of king fish 
• Orange sweet potato
• Beetroot (raw)
• Salt 
• Black pepper 
• Fresh thyme or rosemary 
• Sage leafs (if you can find them) 

For the salad:

• Orange and yellow capsicum
• Cucumber 
• Orange
• Mint leafs 
• Olive oil 
• Raspberry balsamic vinegar 
• 1 tsp of organic honey 

Let's do it:

For the fish preparation:

• Pre-heat the oven to 170 C 
• Peel the sweet potato and slice it with 1-2cm  
• Peel the beetroot and dice it with a medium size
• In a ceramic dish add some olive oil to grease the bottom and add one slice of sweet potato for steak 
• On the top of each slice of sweet potato add the king fish steak and season with salt, black pepper, fresh thyme and sage leafs. After preparing all the steaks just spread a bit of olive oil on the top of each steak to make it a bit more tender while cooking
• On the same ceramic dish add the diced beetroot that will absorb the rest of the fat
• Cook it for 25-30 minutes 

Note: The beetroot will be a bit raw but is healthier in this way as it keeps a lot of their anti-oxidants properties if is not overcooked. 

For the salad:

• Chop the capsicums in small pieces
• Slice the oranges and cut the slices in quarters 
• Add the mint leafs 
• For seasoning the salad I mixed in a small glass jar olive oil, raspberry balsamic vinegar and 1 tsp of organic honey

Time of preparation: 45 minutes in total. 15 minutes to prepare the sweet potato and fish + 30 minutes in the oven 

I prepared the salad while the fish was in the oven 

Today I am into Missy Higgins that is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter from Melbourne. 

If I am not wrong she has 5 albums but I only know two of them. I like a lot her third album "On a clear night". Her voice is super sweet and I like her folk-rock style, however she has some songs that sounds a bit too pop for me, but honestly if you are reading this you should give a try to her music. 

See you soon :) 

Cranberries&Cocoa Bliss Balls

Bliss balls became one of the biggest addictions in the house, as they are packed with a lot of good nutrients, vitamins and most of all they are raw which keeps the full nutritional value that a lot of times is lost during the cooking process.

I am starting to be a big fan of raw food but I find hard to prepare raw low carb meals as they use a lot of produces that doesn't enter in a low carb meal as well protein supplements that I honestly try to avoid. I tend to use a vegan protein powder in some of my bliss balls because it helps to achieve the desired consistence but I am not a big supporter of several meals and snacks with protein supplements as I believe that is possible to get protein through real food.

For now I stick only to raw salads, desserts and snacks which I am still learning but I am loving it I confess.

I decided to make bliss balls wth cranberries as I am trying to increase in a good way the nutritional value of my snacks and cranberries are really good anti-oxidants that fight the free radicals naturally produced by our body, working as anti-ageing which we all agree that is a good thing :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of almonds
• 1/4 of walnuts
• 1 cup of dates 
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup of sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp of chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp of flax seeds
• 2 Tbsp of coconut oil 
• 1 Tbsp of protein powder (optional)
• 1 Tbsp of raw cocoa powder 

Let's do it:

This method is similar to the previous post of bliss balls

• Start by placing the almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, flax seeds in a food processor and pulse it for 1 minute until the mix looks a bit like a granulated like crumbs 
• Then add the dates, sesame seeds, coconut oil, protein powder and the cocoa powder and pulse for 1 minute more until the if forms a sticky dough 
• Add in last the dried cranberries and pulse for 30 seconds just to envolve them, avoiding to cut them too much
• Use your hands to make small balls 
• Place them in a bowl or airtight container and keep them in the fridge for few days

I leave you today another song of Devendra Banhart. I already posted previously one song of him, I like is voice and his musical rhythm.
This video clip is super sensual that I am really surprised that is available in youtube in Middle East :)  and beside the music melody, the lyrics are beautiful although they are in Spanish.
I hope you enjoy it!

Have a nice day :)