This is a nice little recipe that I created the other day after a nice long bike ride. There really aren’t any magic secrets when it comes to making smoothies, as pretty much anything goes into a blender and will blitz with success.
If you are a cyclist the route that I cycled Tuesday past was wonderful! I started in Newport and cycled through Ballinahinch, towards Nenagh, up past the Silvermines, and home via Killoscully and the back road across the Ballyhourigan woods and Doonane entrances to Keeper Hill. If you wish to see this route it is available on mapmyrun.
When making smoothies I do recommend the following rules as a guideline:
This is an easy peasy adaptation of the fast scone recipe that I was reared on; I am Protestant Irish and for some reason when we are expecting guests we bake scones or cakes and we make jam, or a damn good sponge cake or apple tart…. we bake…. I still bake when I am expecting guests; I have no idea why it is automatic!
As a rule I rarely eat carb rich starchy foods like this however, there is always a time and a place for a treat and when you can keep this home-baked and made from real ingredients I say go for it! I plastered home-grown strawberries and cream on mine this evening. Because why not life is too short.
So here goes take two of my gluten-free bread creations. This is a lighter version than my previous bread the Yummy seeded gluten-free bread. It worked, it rocks and it is healthy.
I didn’t add any protein powder this time, for no real reason other than I am running short so feel free to fire in 1 scoop of vegan protein powder (e.g. Garden of life raw protein, Warrior protein, brown rice protein, etc.) to the mix as it will work.
This bread has no added fats or sugar, contains an abundance of healthy and natural fats, minerals, and fibre. Don’t be tempted to omit the salt as it will totally change the flavour. I expected the bread to fall apart given there was no egg or protein powder but it has held together well, sliced well and also frozen well.
This cake was birthed out of a kitchen disaster when I was having problems chopping the cooked oranges in the blender for the original Spanish orange and almond cake recipe when pieces of the plastic spatula ended up in the orange mixture. Needless to say I didn’t want to poison my friends calling over to afternoon coffee so I had to start again. I had no more oranges left so lemons and raspberries came to the rescue!! This is a wonderfully moist and tasty cake, as is the original recipe found on http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/2758/spanish-orange-and-almond-cake.aspx. Both cakes are wonderful for a party and keep fresh for several days; in fact they get better after a day or two.
Wow oh wow I hit the jackpot with this invention! I will do my best to recall the recipe for you as I was cooking for a stress break which means I was getting creative paying no heed to the volumes used and pretty much having a dance off with myself and some tunes as I was baking. Yea… laugh all you like; it works!
This bread has no added fats or sugar, contains an abundance of healthy and natural fats, minerals, and fibre and most importantly it tastes great! I mean really great; I cannot stop eating it. So far toppings have included almond nut butter and smoked salmon with mango chutney so it works with a savoury as well as a sweet twist.
My mum makes a rocking ratatouille and it was often the fail safe go to side-dish to dinners when I was growing up that was inexpensive and healthy. I could never make ratatouille like mum does; I still can’t!
So, I am into week 2 of my holidays here in Dungarvan and I am absolutely blissing out on all this me-time. I am sleeping deeply; eating well; walking 8 to 12.5km most evenings while balancing absolute silence in nature with listening to a mosh of Esther Hicks “The Vortex” and music ranging from Coldplay to Tiesto; reading a couple of books (Allowing by Holly Riley, The Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis, A Histry of Ireland in 250 Episodes by Jonathan Bardon and Kryon Letters from Home) and well also doing plain nothing but what I WANT…… just as it should be!
“If doctors prescribed ‘me-time’ there would be a whole lot less illness.
It is in this sacred me-time that we find ourselves, our answers, our path, our BEING and our hearts…. when you connect back into yourself and open yourself to nature and your inner voice you can only feel love… head to toe….”
Regarding The Vortex; I have the audio book and I believe that this work has the power to transform your life; if only this was available to us in school instead of learning the lessons the hard way!
Here are a selection of iphotos from my ramblings… oh and yes; the new Coldplay album Ghost rocks… a bit more mellow than previous works however.
The first collection of photos are from my evening rambles around the bay here; and the second collection from my trip to Ardmore and The Cliff House Hotel….. I have written more about my holidays here last year in this blog
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Here is some more on Waterford County’s tracks, trails and activities
So, are you looking for a healthy, low carb, nutritious and most importantly tasty option to flour and corn wraps? Well this is your answer…..
Sushi Nori sheets
Sushi nori sheets are very low in calories (approximately 5, yes 5 calories per sheet), are robust enough to contain a proper filling and are sufficiently satisfying to replace the traditional wrap…They also contain much valuable nutrition in the form of magnesium, selenium, iodine, antioxidants, and fibre. The following is taken from Clearspring UK’s website
Soaking time 24 hours (optional and not essential)
Ready in under 30 minutes
Servings: 8; less if you are a hungry beast 🙂
Will freeze for later
When I cook; I am time spare and I aim to make things as healthy as possible. This invariably means adding in unusual health foods to normal meals to create something that is giving me more nutrient bang per mouthful. Not everyone is as adventurous as me; for example you COULD make a red lentil Dahl as it says on the label or you COULD add seaweed, celery, or other ingredients such as spinach or nettles depending on what you have available to tweak your recipe to something even more nutritious awesome. Go for it!
This is an example of how ANY meal can be amended to include more nutritious foods without making things too complex… even something like mashed potatoes can be improved on by the addition of spinach or herbs…. get inventive; you may surprise yourself!
