Showing posts with label Flax Seeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flax Seeds. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 March 2014

My Sunny Saturday trip to Costco with Mum & Dad...

I woke up this morning to be faced with a specific scenario…. NO BLUEBERRIES! Oh dear, how will I get my antioxidents for this morning? No worries should arise. Just simply breathe and remember ‘I will handle it’. Instead I amended my usual breakfast of fruit muesli and bulgar wheat by substituting the blueberries for the frozen raspberries instead. It was quite a nice change I felt which was practically the same as my ‘usual’ =]

I planned to try out distilling my very own water using the simple tools of:
1. A large saucepan and lid
2. A tuna tin
3. A glass bowl
4. Ice cubes
I followed the instructions via Wiki How on the procedure on how to do this without a special chemistry condenser set which would cost me over £100 to afford =[

I followed the instructions and let it bubble. After simmering for a couple of mins (15) I believe to have collected about 150ml of water into the bowl which I had placed into the saucepan. I let this cool a tad before funnelling it into a clean spray which my dad had let me have from his selling stock. To this water I added around 3 tbsps of Organic aspall cyder vinegar. This was directed through the free people website (http://blog.freepeople.com/2013/10/apple-cider-vinegar-benefits/) as a good organic beauty product to use for the hair.
“Apple cider vinegar is an excellent way to remove excess build up from your hair, whether it’s from styling products or contaminants in your water. This is due to the presence of acetic acid, the main ingredient in apple cider vinegar. In addition, it will balance your hair’s pH level, promote hair growth by stimulating the scalp, treat dandruff, and give your hair extra bounce, body, and shine!
To make: Combine 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar with 1 quart of distilled water in a container and mix well.
To use: Shampoo your hair as you normally would, and rinse well. Apply the mixture (a spray bottle works great for this), leave it on for just a few seconds, and rinse with cold water to lock in the shine. Don’t condition afterwards – there’s no need, and doing so may negate the benefits of the rinse. You can use this rinse about once a week.”

I was happy to have tried this out and I look forward to using it on Sunday (BATH NIGHT =] haha).
Next I got myself ready to see on  my calendar I had planned to try out one of my many projects that I have going around in my head – ‘Tissue paper transferring of sketches’. I remembered last week when visiting my Auntie that it was my baby cousin ‘Rupert’s’ 2nd Birthday this year in May which immediately flicked a light bulb in my mind as to what I could get him for this celebratory occasion. I thought this project might run in line with my intentions to proceed and have its use if it manages to work out. Therefore, I had found an image which I like of Rupert and my Auntie and decided to work on the basis of this and experiment with my ideas. In addition, I have also been thinking of a recent patient I had crossed paths with, ‘Verity’ who I felt was a very inspirational person when I met her in hospital and I wanted to give something back to her. I found two lovely images of her on a photoshoot and wanted to try my idea again for this to see whether it works.

I set up my little station in the lounge and doodled with a fine permanent pen onto tissue paper and then onto some watercolour paper I had. I was in the lovely company of my father and I think it was nice to just ‘Be’ and sit in the lounge with much of my focus on drawing; waiting until my mother had returned back from her morning run with Charlotte as I wasn’t sure whether she had taken her house key. In the end it seems that she had – but no worries about the time issue as I was happy I had managed to get completed 2 images in about 2 hours.

Cleared up my stuff and then got ready to proceed to my next destination ‘Costco’.
On my list, all I was looking for was frozen blueberries and Rouwse Honey.


immediately went to analyse the cost costco proposes for their Apple Imac desktop computer. £1079.98
I believe this is the cheapest place I am able to buy this product which would complement my, yet to be constructed, new corner desk. 
Coincidentally, I noticed whilst browsing the aisles the appearance of the 'Blendtec' demonstrators. I am also hoping to get one of these in the future some day as I believe their product would be very ideal for me in the kitchen. This product was around £250 but that is not the bundle set that I had found online. Or perhaps I should go with 'Vitamix'?

I got my frozen blueberries and honey for mum and frosties for dad and then headed over to look at the books to which I noted seeing a post by Sarah Wilson to say that her 'I quit sugar' book was available at costco - to which it indeed was! =] I also found one for 'Honestly healthy' which had lovely looking recipes to try to which I noted to follow on twitter. My final discovery which I was happy to stumble upon was the new range of products costco were now offering to traders - 
1. 1.5kg Organic Coconut oil!
2. Organic milled flaxseeds!
3. The chia Co Black chia seeds!

I gather the sense that all of this nutrition research which has been discovered is finally being promoted for consumers to buy as 'the new norm' as paleo diets become more and more popular around the web. Reverting back to clean eating and natural whole products rather than products the manufacturers have pumped full of artificial chemicals which the body responds to as it being 'foreign'. Hence the rise in cancers, allergies and rare diseases! In addition to the fact that 'sugar' has only now been identified as something which should be something to be aware of and promoted as something to limit in the diet - obviously the prime source of fuel for fueling all cancer cells!

But anyhow, I believe this to be a rather positive approach which costco are taking to help local traders sell products worth buying  - health.

Returned home to quickly have lunch and then pop up to my nan's to see Auntie Vikki and Rupert. Tia and Wendy were also present and so I just sat in my normal 'fireplace' spot to listen to what people had been up to this past week and then I couldn't help but do some research on my ipad. I didn't want to be rude, I just can't help it when a seed in my mind is planted and needs to be seen to. I had a green tea offered to me by my nan .

I noted some interesting posts on twitter for 'sign' purposes Feb 5 - March 7th...
36 lessons | Zen habits
Chemistry Picture | Bristol University
Healthiest Cup of Tea | Cosmo
Foods nutritionists reccommend
What foods are in season
Celebrating the hotel breakfast at home
 I have way too many ideas and plans that I find it hard to focus on one at a time. This is very frustrating. @prettygreendaisy
Best foods for your heart
Did you know taking a hot bath gives you endorphens? Add candles, an essential oil and a copy of Healthy for a relaxing Sunday treat. - healthy magazine
You are what you eat | Free people
98% of the people we asked would NOT put cheap fuel in their car if it damaged the engine. Yet 80% said they make bad food choices daily!?! @greenpowderuk

Yay! We've just heard from @AnthropologieEU that the new Bath store is opening in May!

 Working on a project and already have ideas for the second version. The first one ain't even done yet >.< gahh @prettygreentea

Ruby & Ed - 
Cosy feet

Creating a spring atmosphere | Free People
Desktop calenders | White Stuff
EdibleBristol
Avoid Overeating
Chia Seeds
Enchinea effectiveness
Quotes from powerful female figures
How to talk to a friend with an eating disorder
10 ways to boost confidence
Oil Pulling | Free People













Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Really Lovely Oatmeal cacao nib cookies with chia seeds! - My first vegan baking attempt - HIT!

Lovely healthy Oatmeal cookie!
Made Six Cookies


Hey hey good looking, What you got cooking...


Oh my! Well I would love to say I created this wonderful recipe all by myself but I have to admit that I did not! It was a recipe I had only stumbled upon whilst browsing on pinterest and the photography of the cookies was so beautiful I just had to try them!

Oatmeal Cacao nib cookies with chia seeds - ~adapted from cooking malangery 

I chose to half the original recipe as I just wanted to try them out. In addition, I didn't have any hemp seeds available so I omitted them from the original recipe - but I was quite excited that this recipe gave me an excuse to try baking with flaxseeds! =]

Ingredients:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 Tbsp water, cold
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cups Plain organic flour
1/2 cup jumbo rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 Tbsp flax seeds
1/2 cup chocolate cacao nibs

Quoted Healthy Fact of Chia Seeds: 
"Long recognized as an excellent source of nutrition and energy, hemp foods have been used by humans for over 12,000 years all around the world, and continue to be one of the top-rated superfoods."

Method

1. Heat your oven to 180'C.

2. In a large bowl combine the peanut butter, coconut oil, sugar, and vanilla.

3. In a separate small bowl combine the ground flax seed, corn starch, and water (or soy milk). The corn starch will want to get kind of clumpy. Stir it up a bit to keep that from happening. 

4. Then add the vinegar, let it sit for just a second or two and pour it into the peanut butter mixture. Stir well.

5. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients: 
flour, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until combined. 

6. Add the chia seeds and give the dry ingredients another little stir.

7. Now stir together the dry and the wet ingredients. If the mixture seems a little bit too dry, feel free to add another tablespoon of water (or soy milk). Then add the Cacao nibs and stir everything one last time.

8. Make 1 – 1 1/2 inch balls (I used a ice cream scoop for ease) and placed them an inch or so apart on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. 

9. Bake anywhere from 10 – 12 minutes depending on your desired crunchiness. (Due to the size of my cookie dough I left mine to brown in the oven for ~ 20-25 mins.

"Note: The cookies come out of the oven on the puffy side, but just wait a minute or so and they’ll deflate. After they cooled they were the perfect cookies – crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside." --> Oh how these were a success =]

I packaged them all up with labels and ready for the family to try when they came home.
My mum had one before she went running training due to the goodness of the chia seeds and she could not believe they were vegan!
"They taste so good Bee!" - She took one with her for her friend who had text her later on that night to say "OMG those cookies are amazing!"
I'd say that's good for my first try of vegan baking =]