Since I arrived from holidays I am trying to do some HIIT every day, beside my daily yoga practice and some days I just don't find any motivation to the HIIT...even if it 15-20 minutes is just hard and sometimes my head is in yoga...sorry I can't help it.
However if there is something that I am enjoying even more, it's my breakfast after these sessions.
Recently a friend asked me to post some chia puddings and I never thought about it, and actually I tend to do them once in a while for breakfast or as a afternoon snack...they are so yummy!
Ingredients:
For the chia pudding:
150 g of raspberries
4 Tbsp of chia seeds (I used the white ones)
3 Tbsp of shredded coconut
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)
1 cup of almond milk
For the topping:
fruit of your choice (I chose mango)
blueberries
laminated almond or coconut
mint leafs
Let's do it:
In a deep bowl you start by smashing the berries with a fork
After smashing the berries you can add, the shredded coconut, the chia seeds and the vanilla extract and mix well with a spoon
Add the cup of almond milk and mix well until you get a homogenous mixture
Pour the mixture in 2 small glass jar and don't forget to close them with the lead. After you can place them in the fridge overnight
I topped the chia pudding with mint but I also add some smashed mango, coconut chips and poppy seeds and blueberries as I am working in adding a good amount of anti-oxydants especially in my breakfast.
I hope you try this one and have fun adding different things on your topping, you can even add shredded dark chocolate :)
Today I leave you with Angus & Julia Stone that is a folk indie pop band from Australia formed by sister and brother. I came across with this band in 2007 when I was living in Azores and for really long time their first album was all the time playing in my car and iPod.
After my 100 Hours course of Integrative Anatomy and Hatha Yoga, I arrived home missing my comfort zone and especially my kitchen. I started by browsing through few blogs and I like to sneak around in "Green Kitchen Stories". They have really nice vegetarian dishes and although they use several things that are not part of my diet, I like to go and get some ideas to apply to my own recipes.
I came across with this bread which I decided to name muffin bread, as I baked them in muffin tins, but you can also make them in a normal loaf pan.
These muffin breads are perfect snack for lunch boxes or for a quick breakfast.
One of the ingredients of this recipe is Psyllium Husks, you really need to have it to prepare this. I never found this in Oman but you can order it online, like Amazon. I advise to buy the powder one instead of the whole option. Psyllium is a form of fiber and It’s most commonly known as a laxative. However, research shows that taking psyllium is beneficial to many parts of the human body, including the heart and the pancreas.
There is a lot of bread recipes under ketogenic or paleo diet that are made with psyllium husk due to is benefits, especially to healthy gut.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp psyllium husks powder + 1 1/2 cup /350 ml water
1/2 cup of almonds
1/2 cup of hazelnuts
1/2 cup of sesame seeds
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of flax seeds
1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds
1-2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp of melted cold pressed coconut oil + extra for greasing the pan
Let's do it:
Mix psyllium husks powder and water in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes, it will get a thick gel consistency
Measure all the nuts and seeds and place in a food processor and pulse a few times, do not grind just coarsely chop
Place in a bowl, add the salt and coconut oil and stir until well combined
Add the psyllium gel and mix it with your hands
Set aside for 1 hour
Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 175 C
Grease the muffin tin or the loaf pan with coconut oil
When 1 hour passed, pour the content to the muffin tin
Place in the oven for 45 minutes
Remove from the oven and let it cool down before you slicing it
Today I leave you Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the extraordinary Ravi Shankar and sister of Norah Jones.
I started to like to listen Indian Sitar music at the same time that I embraced my yoga practice in a daily day basis. Suddenly I saw myself practicing under the sound of Sitar music, allowing my body and mind to flow.
Eventually most of you will not like this music but just try it. In my humble opinion listening world music makes us more rich and open minded to the cultural differences of the world.
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.
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.
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!
This past weekend was really good fun, we had a easy and chilled Friday at home finishing the day with a sunset skateboarding and walking around with friends, while on Saturday we spent the full afternoon kitesurfing until the sun was almost gone...life is great :)
Today I decided to spend the morning in the kitchen and instead of going to the yoga studio I decided instead to do yoga at home. I am starting to love more and more my own home practice, my space, the silence and the sounds of my bubble.
After holidays and keen to be back on the track, I started the day preparing some snacks to have them in the fridge and among other things I prepared some layered smoothies of mango and blueberries...they are yummy!!
They are really easy to do and the recipe doesn't differ a lot from the ones that I originally do. However these ones makes a even more colourful breakfast :)
Ingredients:
1 medium to large avocado
1 can of organic coconut milk
1/2 mango
1 cup of blueberries (I used organic frozen ones)
Let's do it:
Cut the avocado in half
In a blender pour half of the avocado, the half mango and half of the coconut milk and blend it for 30 seconds until smooth
Pour the mix into individual glass jars and put them in the fridge while preparing the other layer. Is optional to put some chia seeds but if you choose to add them just pour 1Tbsp in each jar and mix well with a spoon without spreading the smoothie around the sides of the jar to allow the other layer to seat perfectly. This layer needs to be 10 minutes in the fridge before receiving the next layer on the top
Is important to rinse the blender cup to make the second layer
For the blueberry layer just had the remaining half of the avocado, the rest of the coconut milk and 1 cup of frozen blueberries. Blend for 1 minute as the frozen blueberries needs more time in the blender
After 10 minutes of the mango smoothies being in the fridge, you can remove them and gently pour the blueberry layer on the top. I advise you to use a spoon to this step.
Put them again in the fridge and in few hours they will be ready to eat. They get better if they stay at least 4h in the fridge before consuming
Then just add some berries and laminated coconut or almonds on the top and is ready to go
Time of preparation: 15 minutes to prepare
Quantity: Depends of the size of avocado and mango off course but for me it usually gives me 4 glass jars as the one from the pictures
And because today is the beginning of the week, at least in here, I leave you The Cinematic Orchestra with Patrick Watson.
The Cinematic Orchestra is a british jazz, electronic music group, that when playing live or in studio they have always a band that improvises along. Among few albums I totally recommend "Ma Fleur" and "Man with a movie camera".
The album "Ma Fleur" has Patrick Watson in the vocals and you can find this song "How to build a home" that is one of my favourites.
I found this song super relaxing, emotive and it helps me to stop and breath all the good things in life. I have it also in one of my Yoga playlists.
Is nice to be back after one month off.
I went back home for Christmas holidays and then I went in a kitesurf trip to Cape Town...it was unbelievable, amazing, awesome kiting conditions and good vibes. Is nice to be outside the Middle East once in a while and make sure that there's still life out there :-)
Cape Town is such an amazing place, people are super nice and relaxed and they have such an amazing lifestyle which reminds me a lot the lifestyle in Sunshine Coast in Australia. People wake up and they go kiting or surfing before going to work, at lunch time or after work...basically they go when they want as wind is on 24h and if there's no wind there is all the time swell.
That place is my Disneyland, wonderland, whatever you want to name it...is a kind of watersports paradise.
But beside the watersports they have so many things to do as hiking, wakeboard, skateboard everywhere, loads of yoga studios.
I confess that I didn't went to any yoga studio as my body was only switched on to kitesurf.
We made nice trips along the vineyards, which I totally advise to someone that goes there. South African wine is maybe one of the best ones of the world, their Pinotage is just amazing.
I also came across with so many organic stores, full of produces that I struggle to find in here and so cheap comparing to Oman...I wish to have a kind of shop like that one in here, probiotics, different flours, organic oils, organic produces for body, everything...I bought few things I confess.
Some people spend their money in purses and shoes, I buy organic things and flours :)
But is enough of talking about my holidays and let's go back to the recipe world.
I start by saying that I recently made this brownie to take to a workshop of Yoga and all the yogis loved it...it was so nice to have such a good feedback.
When I started to have a Low Carb High Fat diet I discovered a recipe of coconut brownie but I wasn't really happy with the final result, or it was to dry or I didn't liked the texture...there was all the time something that would make me twist my nose.
After few experiments I think that I am happy with the final result of this one. I achieved the flavour and texture that I was searching for.
This recipe was adapted from one recipe that I have found in Pinterest mixed with one from http://ceyloncoconutcompany.com and although people may think that this has too much coconut I can ensure that you don't even feel the coconut flavour. The dark cocoa powder cut all the coconut flavour so it really tastes like a traditional brownie. And the moisture....OMG....yummmyyyyy :)
For me the hard thing was to find the proper coconut flour as some flours are not really powder and look a bit more like almond meal. So I found one from Sri Lanka really white and in a thin powder, awesome for baking.
Although I try to use only honey, dates or stevia in my recipes, in this one I used organic unrefined coconut sugar. I already tried to replace it with honey and also with Stevia and it wasn't so tasty and the consistency was a bit weird.
I might give a go with honey another time, as I am starting to be a bit more comfortable baking with coconut flour. I have to say that takes a while to get used to bake with coconut flour as it absorbs all the liquids and swells a bit.
It took me really long time to understand the proportions and how to use coconut flour and coconut oil in baking...and I am still learning :)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of dark cocoa powder
6 eggs
1 cup of unrefined coconut sugar
1/3 cup of coconut milk (or almond milk)
1/2 cup of coconut flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of walnuts or pecans (optional)
Let' do it:
Pre-heat the oven to 250 C
In a saucepan combine the coconut oil and the cocoa powder and melt it under low heat. Let it cool down
In a bowl mix the eggs and coconut sugar, coconut milk and pinch of salt
Add the chocolate mixture and mix it well
Add the coconut flour and mix well
Add the nuts previously broken in small pieces
Grease a ceramic dish with butter and pour the batter
Bake for 25-30 minutes
*Note*- I advise you to use a ceramic dish instead of a aluminium tray. I find that the ceramic dish keeps a bit more the moisture of the brownie, while the aluminium trays dry the batter.
Time of preparation: 10 preparation + 30 minute baking Quantity: It gave me 12 brownies but it depends on the size of the squares that you chose to cut :)
Please let me know how it went! I am sure that you will love it.
Today I leave you Portuguese sounds. Sara Tavares is a Portuguese songwriter and singer with deep roots from Cape Verde.
She has an amazing voice and unfortunately she is not really known worldwide but she is good..oh yes she is.
Please listen if you like african sounds...I love African sounds!
I have this song in my yoga playlist :)
Have a nice day and enjoy life as much as you can. Love every second of your life!
