Tag Archives: Oh la la livia

Almond milk energy drink

Posted on May 20, 2013 | 20 Comments

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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Posted in Health, Recipes

Tagged almond milk and cardamom, almond milk energy drink, breakfast, cardamom ayurveda, food, health, health benefits almond milk, health benefits fennel jeera, health benefits fresh dates, healthy breakfast energy drinks, home made almond milk, morning energy drink almond milk, Oh la la livia, organic almonds, serum cholesterol, vegetarian

The best chai of all time

Posted on May 18, 2013 | 8 Comments

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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Posted in Health, Recipes, Uncategorized

Tagged ayurvedic home brewed chai, breakfast, cardamon pods, chai for immunity, chai tea recipe, food, hea;thy chai, healthy ayurvedic chai, home brewed chai with milk ayurvedic, making chai on the stove, Oh la la livia, spicy chai home made

Cardamom Pear and Apple cake

Posted on May 16, 2013 | 5 Comments

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

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

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Posted in Health, Recipes, Uncategorized

Tagged ayurveda cardamom, Ayurveda doshas, breakfast, caradmom pear apple cake, cardamom butter cake, cardamom cake, cardamom health, cardamom pods, cardamom seeds, chia seeds, dessert, food, Oh la la livia

CLUSTER RING GIVEAWAY

Posted on May 15, 2013 | 2 Comments

It’s that time again- Giveaway time!
Our new collection will be here in 3 weeks and so we’d like to welcome the Summer by gifting one of you a pretty ring!

To enter:

1. Like our facebook page Cleopatra’s Bling
2. Share this photo and tell us how you would wear this ring- your perfect outfit
3. Instagram it and tag us @oh_la_la_livia and add the hash tag #Cleopatrasbling

Winner will be selected on Sunday the 9th of June! International entries welcome!
Good luck, beauties!

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Posted in Cleopatra's Bling, Concours

Tagged bohemian jewellery Paris, Cleopatra's Bling, giveaway cleopatras bling, Indian jewellery Paris, Oh la la livia, Turkish jewellery Paris

Indian Supermarket in Paris- a clash of two worlds

Posted on May 13, 2013 | 5 Comments

I’m sure you may have noticed that I like India… (Oh you haven’t? Click here). So what did I do? I went and found an epic Indian supermarket here in Paris, got mighty nostalgic, bought lots of ginger and ocra to make myself feel good then went home and fried it all up. I think we can conclude that I should just move to India, would make things a lot easier.

Photos by Meg from De Quelle Planète Es-Tu?
Afghani necklace from Cleopatra’s Bling.

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Posted in France, India

Tagged de quelle planete es tu, food, India in Paris, Indian Supermarket Paris, Indian Supermarket porte de la chapelle, little india in Paris, ocra, Oh la la livia, where to find Indian food in Paris

A long weekend in France

Posted on May 12, 2013 | 9 Comments

May in France is full of public holidays. We were lucky enough to have two lined up on Wednesday and Thursday meaning most companies were closed on Friday. Lucky me, I had a 5 day weekend. I got so much relaxing done… something I had been needing for a long time.

Long, lazy breakfasts.

Reading.

Thinking about my next adventure destination. And starting a fund.

Coffee at La Caféothèque with friends.

Cocktails at Le Kremlin at Pigalle.

With a dear friend.

And Summer garden parties.

Into the night….. By the fire….

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Posted in France, Paris, Uncategorized

Tagged french cheeses, French garden parties, garden parties, ile saint louis paris, long weekend in Paris, Oh la la livia, public holidays

Chai Energy Balls

Posted on May 11, 2013 | 6 Comments

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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Posted in Health, Recipes, Uncategorized

Tagged Australian living in Paris, ayurvedic chai, ayurvedic herbs, cardamom, cardamom pods, chai energy balls, chai for health, chai for immunity, coconut oil, energy balls, ginger, herbs and spices, indian spiced tea, Oh la la livia, raw cocoa balls, vata ayurveda chai, yoga yoga

#3 In My Basket

Posted on May 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

With Spring arriving, but it still being quite chilly, the wintery fruits like pears, apples and rhubarb are still around.

I went to market on Sunday, which is still my favourite activity of the weekend (obviously), and got Swiss chard, rhubarb, pears, fresh basil, sourdough bread and fresh milk.

Tonight I’m going to make Swiss chard grattin. Last night I made basil hommus which was wonderful Sunday soul food – I’ll post the recipe this week.

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Posted in In My Basket, Uncategorized

Tagged australian girl in Paris, basil hommus, cooking, food, fresh milk, hommus, In My Basket oh la la livia, marché couvert des batignolles, market paris, Oh la la livia, sourdough bread, sourdough in paris, Swiss chard grattin, swiss chards blettes paris, vegetarian

Ayurvedic Roast – a healthy coffee alternative

Posted on May 4, 2013 | 3 Comments

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!