Tag Archives: health

Almond milk energy drink

I made this for breakfast yesterday and have been dreaming of it ever since. The almond makes it thick and the date sweet and the cardamom warming.

Almond milk contains more nutrients than other dairy milk alternatives like rice milk. The health benefits provided by this option even match dairy choices. Almond milk works as a great alternative for those with soy and lactose allergies. It is high in protein, Vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, selenium, manganese, and iron. While many dairy farmers have made strides to ensure that their cows are rBGH-free, the practice of injecting dairy cows with growth hormones and antibiotics has not been completely eradicated. If you make your own almond milk from organic almonds you are sure to be avoiding this!

Fresh dates, despite being very sweet, are actually healthy. Everything in measure, I say! Dates contain B-complex vitamins and vitamin C. Dates also contain a good amount of minerals, including potassium, copper, sulfur, iron and magnesium. Dates are a particularly good source of calcium, which helps promote strong teeth and bones. Another health benefit of dates is that they are low fat. In 100 g of dates, only a fraction of a gram is saturated fats. Saturated fats can raise serum cholesterol and lead to blood vessel and heart disease, so eating foods low in these types of fats is part of a healthy diet.

Fennel, known as jeera in India, is recommended to be used in cooking daily. Its actions are: carminative, antispasmodic, stomachic, stimulant, and diuretic. It has proven useful in conditions of: indigestion, abdominal pain, including cramps and gas, diminished agni (which refers to the build-up of toxins in Ayurveda.

You can click here to read about the benefits of cardamom.

Basically, this almond drink is one big vitamin burst and you’ll love it in the morning. Be sure to have a glass of warm water half enough before to get your digestion going.

Here is how you do it:

Soak 12 almonds overnight and peel them in the morning.
In a separate bowl, soak 2 fresh dates, a teaspoon of fennel seeds and around 6 cardamom pods. Pit the dates and get the seeds out of the cardamom pods and discard the pods and blend it all up until everything is completely smooth and even the cardamom seeds have been blended. If you like vanilla you can add some vanilla too.

This is so delicious you won’t look back!

Enjoy xoxoxox

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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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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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Very true.

Happy Monday!

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How green can you go?

My green smoothies look like this. How do you make yours? Tell me all.

It’s Sunday morning here in Paris so I’m about to go make myself my morning green smoothie. YES.

Green smoothie

Green smoothie

Green smoothie

Green smoothie

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Kale Soup

Winter time calls for soup time. This simple recipe is something that you can make very quickly at home and is perfect for a light meal with melted cheese on toast (oops!). This soup is just so easy, see for yourselves….

Here is how I did it:
a bunch of kale
a cup of lentils
vegetable stock
a bunch of spinach

I use organic green lentils and cook them up until soft. You’ll need to then drain the water and put new water in as the base of the soup and add the vegetable stock and any herbs or spices that you wish to use. For this soup I use some garam masala and herbes de Provence. The rest is simple: add in the kale and spinach and when the soup is cooked down and soft, blend it and serve it with a dollop of crème fraîche and the zest of a lemon or lime. Yum!

our apartment

our apartment

Kale soup

Kale soup

Kale soup

Kale soup

Kale soup

Kale soup

Kale soup

Kale soup


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In other news, be sure to like my boutique facebook page Cleopatra’s Bling as we will be announcing a competition this week to win a gorgeous piece of jewelry!

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French Onion Soup

There is nothing better to warm yourself up in Winter than a bowl of steaming French onion soup.
Onion soups have been popular at least as far back as Roman times. They were, throughout history, seen as food for poor people, as onions were plentiful and easy to grow. The modern version of this soup originates in France in the 18th century, made from beef broth, and caramelized onions. It is often finished by being placed under a grill in a ramekin traditionally with croutons and gruyère melted on top. The crouton on top is reminiscent of ancient soups.

Today, it is still a soup that don’t cost a lot to make but is not at all seen as a soup for the poor (not that we care because it’s delicious! It’s just interesting to see how things change with time).

french onion soup oh la la livia

french onion soup oh la la livia

For two people I used:

8 brown onions
Teaspoon of coconut oil
Herbes de Provence
Bay leaves
6 cloves of garlic
Gruyère

Fry up the onion in the coconut oil until they are soft. Now add them to a saucepan with the coconut oil (this doesn’t flavour the soup at all, it’s just the healthy option, see here for details.) Now add about 5 cups of water and keep adding water when the levels get low. Keep it simmering on low for a couple of hours.

French Onion Soup with croutons by Oh la la Livia

French Onion Soup with croutons by Oh la la Livia

For the croutons, I put them in the oven with cheese on them and placed them on the top of the soup.
Delish! Enjoy and keep warm this Winter

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So Why Pomegranite?

This fruit has held legendary powers for countless centuries. I have always loved this fruit but fell even more head over heels in Istanbul where you can get it freshly squeezed on the streets. Click here to see more about this.

Here is why you should get into pomegranites more often:

They are full of antioxidants:

They act as defense mechanisms which fight the harmful effects of free radicals on your body. Free radicals are substances which occur due to exposure to pollutants such as smog and cigarette smoke or as a by-product of the digestive process.  They can cause damage to your cell membranes and the structure of DNA. Due to its high antioxidant content, some say that drinking pomegranate juice can prevent cancer.

They are very high in fiber:

Pomegranates are naturally high in fiber. Fiber can lower blood cholesterol levels, reduce blood sugar levels and help with weight loss, as high fiber foods make you feel more full and more satisfied for a longer period of time. Pomegranates are an excellent source of fiber, containing five grams of fiber if you consume the seeds and pulp.  One pomegranate contains only 105 calories, making it a beneficial, low calorie food.

They keep your heart healthy:

Pomegranate fruits and seeds have been used in traditional medicines for years due to their high content of essential vitamins and nutrients which are great for your heart.

Happy weekend everybody

xxx,

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Roast Vegetables in Coconut Oil

You’re still cooking with olive oil, aren’t you? I thought so. Stop that now! First off, let me explain why cooking with olive oil, and eating other heated oils can be dangerous.

There are many, many different kinds of fats, some of which are more delicate, or less “stable” than others, meaning that they will go off more easily. The three factors that cause fats to spoil are heat, light and oxygen.
No matter how stable a fat is, it will always in the end, succumb to one or more of these factors and putrefy. Unless we’re talking about margarine, but who would ever eat that anyway? (YUCK!)

So why can’t we cook with olive oil? It has a low “smoke point”, which means that it will begin to burn at a relatively low temperature. As soon as any fat reaches its smoke point, it begins to break down and create free radicals – those horrendous, carcinogenic, unstable molecules that damage cells and cell membranes, and are associated with the development of conditions like atherosclerosis and cancer. SCARY right? Olive oil is not suitable for stir-frying, sautéing, or any other high-heat cooking. Pour it all over your salads for sure, but stop using it to cook today. Seriously.

What can you use? Coconut oil. It’s like the God of cooking oils. Coconut oil helps to balance hormones, stabilize blood sugar levels and boost the cellular healing process. It is also known to stimulate the thyroid and reduce stress on the liver and pancreas. This increases metabolism and helps us burn fat more effectively. Additionally, coconut oil increases our energy levels, due to its easy digestive process. AND you can cook with it. Bake, roast, fry, anything! You are free to use it anyway you like. Another freakishly delicious way of using it is mixing it in with my amaze balls. It’s like an explosion of chocolate coconut goodness.

If you want a really healthy and simple meal, roast up some vegetables (any that you like roasted normally) and add some slices of ginger for zing! Add coconut oil and let it roast. You will not believe the taste. MMM.

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