Category Archives: Health

The best chai of all time

I’ve had quite a few requests from you for my chai recipe, seeing I rave about it all the time. Here goes!

Medicinal Chai tea recipe

I love adding vanilla to my chai mix, it gives it a sweet aroma plus it’s my favourite spice/ smell of all time. Chai is great for soothing digestion, improving blood circulation, treating colds and flu, and improving energy levels. It really is like making your own custom blend medicinal beverage except it taste great. This particular recipe fixed my cold, so quickly! By the end of the day I was feeling good again…

Ingredients…
1 star anise
8 cardamon pods (but I always put in more)
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cinnamon quill (or 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon)
8 peppercorns
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 bay leaves
1 of 2 slices of ginger (I add a lot more but I’m a total ginger fan! And I can deal with it suuuuper spicy)
8 cloves
1 tablespoon orange peel
pinch of grounded nutmeg
2 teaspoons rooibos tea
1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 and a half teaspoons black tea (omit if you want it caffeine free)
2 cups of water
2 cups of fresh milk

Method…
Add all the ingredients (except tea leaves) to 6 to 8 cups of water and boil in a saucepan. Turn on low heat to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes then turn off the heat and add tea leaves. Let sit for a few minutes then pour through a strainer. Sweeten with honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar or stevia and dust with cinnamon powder. Other milks you can use are almond, soy, oat, rice.

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Cardamom Pear and Apple cake

Soft, spicy… it actually tasted a bit like a chai infused cake. Cardamom has to be one of my favourite spices… and it’s healthy! It’s good for bad breath, headaches, anxiety, settling your stomach and according to the principles of Ayurveda, cardamom helps balance the three ‘doshas’ or ‘defects’ in the body. In Ayurvedic science there are 3 body types characterised by three types of ‘dosha’ . Cardamom is a healthy spice that balances all the three ‘doshas’ and helps you stay healthy. So, its health benefits are all encompassing for all body types.

What you’ll need:

250g coconut oil, softened
1 cup unrefined brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
3 eggs
6 cardamom pods that have been soaked overnight
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup milk
1 pear, soft
1 apple

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease and line an 8cm-deep, 19cm (base) square cake pan with baking paper.

Squeeze the cardamom seeds out of their pods into the mixing bowl and discard the pods.

Using an electric mixer, cream coconut oil, cardamom seeds, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating to combine. Add half the flour. Stir to combine. Add half the milk. Stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.

Slice the pear and apple and place them evenly on the bottom of the cake tin. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar or cinammon.

Serve and enjoy x

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I served the cake with a side of organic natural yoghurt, some grated ginger and chia seeds.

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Poached Fruit for Breakfast

According to Ayurveda, the perfect breakfast is fruit. Ayurvedic eating recommends a cup of hot water with a tablespoon of lemon juice in the morning to help with elimination. It also gets digestive juices flowing and helps in the cleansing of the digestive tract. The perfect breakfast in Ayurveda is a fruit, to be followed with some warm cereal or whole wheat bread with some honey or almond butter. Ayurveda proposes it is always better to eat warm cooked foods for breakfast as it helps wake the digestive fire.

I cooked my apples, pears and rhubarb in coconut oil with ginger and cardamom. So warming and light. I served it with a side of yoghurt, honey and chia seeds and a delicious freshly brewed coffee!

Happy Wednesday everybody :)

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Basil Hummus

I must say, this idea, which came out of nowhere, was genius. The apartment smelt of sweet fresh basil and it was just what I needed for a weekday dinner. The good news is, it’s easy!

Soak a cup of chickpeas overnight before boiling them as it makes them quicker to cook. Boil until they are very soft and add 4 tablespoons of tahini, as much olive oil as you need until it’s soft, a bunch of basil, sesame seeds, a clove of garlic, a spoon of yoghurt, sea salt, pepper and mix it, baby!

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Served on some sourdough bread- nothing better!
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Chai Energy Balls

Chai is one of my favourite things in this world. Its warming mix is just what I need on a cold day but also on Spring days like today, when the weather can’t make it’s mind up and goes from hot to cold. This is very bad for my vata, when the weather changes a lot, and chai helps me keep in balanced and feeling grounded.

The chai I’m talking about is an ancient Indian spiced tea, traditionally known as Masala Chai and is said to have dated back some 5,000 years ago. Its unique flavour comes from a blend of Ayurvedic herbs and spices. Ayurveda is the traditional Vedic Indian medicine which means “knowledge for life” and is said to be the sister science to yoga. Yoga has so much theory intertwined, it is considered a “science” or body of knowledge.

Chai helps fight off colds, keep you warm and provide immunity.

You can re-create other recipes that are based on the concept of chai, like chai cakes and these chai energy balls. They are like my amazeballs, but an ayurvedic version of.

You will need:
300g of dates
as many cardamom pods as you want (I put in a bunch as you can see in the photo, it’s one of my favourite spices and it’s not overpowering in this mixture)
a big chunk of fresh ginger, skinned
a couple of teaspoons of cocoa
a pinch of nutmeg
two tablespoons of coconut oil
almond meal and desiccated coconut

soak the dates and cardamom pods overnight. Take out the pips of the dates and put them in a mixing bowl. Squeeze out the seeds of the cardamom pods and throw away the pods. Put in all of the other ingredients, apart from the almond meal and desiccated coconut and blend until completely smooth. I sometimes put in a shot of good quality coffee to make the flavour richer. Add in the almond meal and desiccated coconut until the mixture is firm enough to roll into balls.

Makes 12 energy balls.

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Weekend Bliss

Spring arrived this weekend- at long long last. I pulled out my lace tops and sunnies to celebrate and got some flowers to decorate the apartment.

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While Spring is here, it’s still important to keep looking after our immune systems as our bodies are adjusting to the change. This is why I had lots of spicy chai tea and an immunity smoothie. For this smoothie you’ll need:

Frozen berries, organic
a cup of fresh green tea
super greens
matcha
a chunk of fresh ginger
turmeric
a spoon of raw honey
a few spoons of yoghurt

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Turmeric needs either honey or some kind of “fat”, like yoghurt, for it’s properties to be activated. It’s a fantastic blood cleanser and is an anti-inflammatory. It’s good for everything really!

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I’m Australian- vegemite on toast goes without saying.

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Ayurvedic Roast – a healthy coffee alternative

For those of you unfamiliar with Ayurvedic medicine, here is a small intro:

Ayurveda is made up of two Sanskrit words: Ayu which means life and Veda which means the knowledge of. To know about life is Ayurveda. However, to fully comprehend the vast s cope of Ayurveda let us first define “Ayu” or life. According to the ancient Ayurvedic scholar Charaka, “ayu” is comprised of four essential parts. The combination of mind, body, senses and the soul.

Ayurveda is a wholistic system of medicine from India that uses a constitutional model. Its aim is to provide guidance regarding food and lifestyle so that healthy people can stay healthy and folks with health challenges can improve their health.
There are several aspects to Ayurveda that are quite unique:

- Its recommendations will often be different for each person regarding which foods and which lifestyle they should follow in order to be completely healthy. This is due to it’s use of a constitutional model.
- Everything in Ayurveda is validated by observation, inquiry, direct examination and knowledge derived from the ancient texts.
- It understands that there are energetic forces that influence nature and human beings. These forces are called the doshas (vata, pitta, kapha).
- Because Ayurveda sees a strong connection between the mind and the body, a huge amount of information is available regarding this relationship.

I stick pretty closely to an Ayurvedic lifestyle and diet as I find it’s what suits my body the best. I am certainly not a Western medicine girl. I was brought up this way and when I look at how healthy and full of energy my parents are compared to lots of people their age this confirms it for me. I have had some Ayurvedic treatments in India and nothing compares.

In my quest for health and keeping a balance in my lifestyle I came across the great site Dosha Guru… I did their online quiz and I get weekly tips from them via email which are really interesting and informative. Now, I am a real coffee lover. I love to indulge in coffee and I take my time every morning when getting ready to sit down with my tea or coffee and flick through a magazine or browse the latest posts on my favourite blogs. The thing is, according to my dosha, vata, too much coffee causes me to go out of balance. It makes me jittery and I don’t feel grounded, when I have too much of course. So when I came across the Ayurvedic roast by Dosha Guru I knew I had to have it. I have it every morning and I feel a great boost and not like I am running on nervous energy like I often am with coffee. What’s more, this mix is healthy. As stated on their website: “Ayurvedic Roast is made with all organic ingredients, starting with fresh roasted barley, chicory root, and rye. On top of these healthy grains, we add our own unique herbal combination which has been used for centuries in the ancient tradition of Ayurveda: Ashwagandha, Shatavari, and Brahmi”. These three herbs make for a dynamo mix and it’s a great start to your day.

I brew it in my Italian stovetop and sometimes put in some cardamom pods in there too as it’s one of my favourite spices. I’m a latté girl so I boil up a cloud of milk to have with it too. Bliss!

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Afternoon Coffee

Afternoon Coffee

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Morning Juice

There is no better way to start your day than with a fresh juice. Full of vitamins, gets your metabolism going and makes you feel bright and alive!

This particular juice was lemon, blood orange and luke warm water. Don’t have cold water first thing in the morning, it’s too hard on your system after sleeping.

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Flourless Chocolate Bundt Cake

I am obsessed with a good flourless cake. Firstly because it’s so moist and doesn’t feel as heavy as flour and secondly because it’s made with almond meal so it’s a much better afternoon snack than a chocolate bar or a regular flour-based cake. This recipe calls for no butter or oil so it’s very low in calories.

ENJOY!

You’ll need:
50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
80ml (1/3 cup) hot water
1 shot of coffee
2 x 100g pkt almond meal
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
3 eggs, separated

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a round 22cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted dairy spread to lightly grease.

Combine the cocoa powder and hot water in a medium bowl. Make the coffee and add the it to the cocoa mixture and stir until combined.

Add almond meal, sugar and egg yolks to cocoa mixture, and stir until well combined.

Use an electric beater to whisk egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form. Use a metal spoon to fold a spoonful of egg whites into cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold in remaining egg whites until just combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Place cake pan in a roasting pan. Pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to reach two-thirds of the way up the side of the cake pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven. Remove cake pan from water bath and set aside for 20 minutes to cool. Turn cake onto a wire rack and remove paper. Set aside for a further 20 minutes or until cooled to room temperature.

If you’re a fan of flourless cakes click here to see another one of my recipes.

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Afternoon Rooibos and Cacti

I love having a cup of fresh hot tea in the afternoon to get me going again. If you’re looking for something caffeine free choose a rooibos or honeybush. Mine are from T2 tea.

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