Aubergine Winter Stew, Flatbreads & Tzatziki

aubergine_stew.jpgSlow Cooked Aubergine Spicy Stew

This was so delicious I feel hungry just writing about it again!  Delicious slow cooked aubergine in spices with a hint of chilli.  You could adjust the recipe if you like your food hotter in taste or perhaps add a freshly sliced chilli in there also.  The tzatziki on the top went so well with the spiced food and the breads were great for dipping into the sauce and dip.  A little salad such as tomato and cucumber would work well on the side.

– Start by chopping all the aubergine into small 1cm style pieces (obviously you don’t need to get the ruler out) then chop the onion into small pieces and grate the garlic and ginger.

– Stir fry the coconut oil, aubergine, onion, garlic and ginger for a few minutes until lightly cooked.

– Add the lightly cooked aubergine etc. to the slow cooker, add the spices, tomato paste, honey or maple syrup and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

– Adjust the necessary settings on your slow cooker and cook until soft, around 4hrs.

– Serve with fluffy rice, tzatziki, flatbreads and salad.

Tzatziki Dip

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This tzatziki dip is so fresh and garlicky tasting it goes really well with the cooked aubergine and the raw garlic is good for fighting all sorts of bugs.

  • Scoop the yoghurt into a bowl.
  • Grate the courgette and garlic into the yoghurt.
  • Squeeze in the lemon juice, salt and pepper, chopped mint and stir.
  • Sprinkle with chopped mint.

Wholemeal Flatbreads

flatbreadtzatzikiThese flat breads are a lovely warming addition to the aubergine stew and are great for dipping into the dip and sauce.

They are so simple to make, I’m sure there are better ways but all I do is add a few cups of wholemeal flour to the kitchen aid with the dough hook on (you could hand mix and knead) and a tsp of sugar, season with salt and pepper, add warm warm water and mix until a dough is formed.  Leave for an hr and roll into little balls, flatten to desired thickness and lightly cook in a tiny amount of olive oil or coconut oil in the frying pan.

If I’ve missed anything or you have any questions please drop me a comment.

Love and blessings!

Angie x

Maca Porridge, Banana & Almonds

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macaporridge.jpgMaca Porridge with Almonds and Banana

A real nourishing treat for the winter months!  There are no particular measurements for this recipe please adjust to taste and requirements.  You can also soak your oats in almond milk over night which I find makes them more enjoyable, but you don’t have to.

Cook up the oats with water or dairy free milk of choice, I would use Organic Almond Milk.  Once off the heat add a dash of Organic Vanilla Extract, some molasses and some live coconut yogurt to thicken.  Spoon in a tbsp or two of maca powder and stir, add some chopped almonds and drizzle some high quality maple syrup over the top.

If you would like further information on some of the more unusual ingredients and where to purchase them check out the links below.  I always purchase my ingredients from these people they are trusty suppliers and Indigo Herbs in particular is produced in the UK and is of a really high quality.

Health Benefits:

Maca Powder – https://macapowderbenefits.net/

Molasses – https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/other/health-benefits-of-molasses.html

Maple syrup – https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/maple-syrup.html#Nutritional_Value_of_Maple_Syrup

Links to buy ingredients:

Meridian Organic Molasses 740 g

Organic Peruvian Maca Powder – 500g (Certified Organic)

ORGANIC maple syrup – Grade A (Dark, Robust taste) – 1 liter (1,35 Kg) – BIO maple syrup

Please note maca is not recommended for very young children!  Enjoy! 😀

Love and warm wishes in the winter months!

Angie xx

Cacao & Apple Spiced Porridge

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Cacao Spiced Apple Porridge

A real nourishing treat for the winter months!  There are no particular measurements for this recipe please adjust to taste and requirements.  You can also soak your oats in almond milk over night which I find makes them more enjoyable, but you don’t have to.

Cook up the oats with water or dairy free milk of choice, I would use Organic Almond Milk.  Once off the heat add a dash of Organic Vanilla Extract and some live coconut yoghurt to thicken.  Spoon in a couple of tbsp of raw cacao to taste and stir.  Divide into bowls and top with the chopped apples, chopped brazil nuts and raw organic manuka honey or maple syrup for a complete vegan option.  Sprinkle with some mixed spice and additional cinnamon and enjoy!

Please don’t feed the raw honey to under 1’s and the cacao is not suitable for very young children.  Please google the latest research on this!

Such a hearty treat for all the family!  Please note cacao is not recommended for very young children!  Enjoy! 😀

Love and warm wishes in the winter months!

Angie xx

 

 

Whipped Shea Butter Cream

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Organic Whipped Shea Butter and Almond Oil Recipe

This luxurious hand and body cream is amazing for the winter months.  The entire recipe consists of only two ingredients and its really easy to make.  It is particularly good for dry chapped hands, dry skin on your face and for any eczema or psoriasis you may have.

You will need:

A food processor

Storage Jar or Tin

Piping bag

Organic Cold Pressed Almond Oil (3-4tbsp)

Organic Shea Butter (1 1/2 cups)

I put about a cup and a half of shea butter into the food processor and blend on low power until smooth. 

Keep the machine running and add the almond oil into the shea a tbsp at a time, this will fluff up into a thick cream.  Add more almond oil if nessecary until you get the consistency you are after.  Keep checking, it literally takes a few seconds of blending to fluff up.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into your suitable container.  This will keep for a long time!  I would say about 6 months to a year.  Check it before use if its been a while. 

The cream is brilliant when used overnight after a nice relaxing hot bath.  I apply the cream to my hands throughout the day during the winter months to prevent cracking and dry skin.  I also add my own essential oil blends but please do your own research when it comes to essential oil use.  I add the oils after the initial shea blend and additional oils and butters can be added to the cream too.

It is important to use Organic Ingredients where affordable as they are so much kinder to your skin, the environment and the producers of such ingredients.  Also look out for Fair trade options for your ingredients as this will ensure you are putting your money towards good causes, small farms, cooperative groups etc. and helps to support those who need it the most.

I hope you enjoyed the video below and I would love to hear of your experiences with this cream, please drop me a comment or two.

Peace, love and blessings to you!

(!!!You should always test new products on your skin before use and list ingredients/check allergies before giving as a present!!!)

Easy Green Smoothie Recipe

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Super Easy Green Smoothie Recipe for Beginners

green_smoothie

A few people asked me for some easy smoothie recipes so I created this quick smoothie recipe that can be adaptable to the seasons and to your nutritional requirements by using different super food supplements.

The recipe for the easy green smoothie and the building block style ingredients are as follows:

Base Ingredients – 2 Bananas or avocado or pears (those are my favourite base ingredients, but you can experiment with other fruits, I find the bananas are good because they bind everything together.

Seasonal Berries – A small bowl of seasonal berries of choice, I like using strawberries, red currants, black currants etc.

Greens – A large handful or two of seasonal greens, home grown if possible.  I use kale, spinach, Cavolo Nero kale, salad greens etc.

Seeds – I like to add in 1 or 2 tbsp of seeds or a blend of seeds to my smoothies for a variety of health benefits.  Some examples are chia seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower etc.

Superfoods – I always add in a super food powder, usually 1 tbsp of whatever I feel I need nutritionally at the time.  I use spirulina, super mushroom blend, maca, goji berries, elderberries, acai berry, matcha etc.  The list is pretty huge!  Lets face it though they are just normal foods, but are special for their high nutritional content.  There are so many on the market so please do some research on what you require.  You can also skip this if you wish.

Dairy Free Milk – I use dairy free milk and always try to keep things dairy free in the kitchen because I feel better when I eat less dairy.  There are loads of dairy free alternative milks on the market now and you can also make your own, home made milks are usually nutritionally better for you also.

Ok so that’s a basic recipe which I use and tailor around my nutritional needs and seasonal availability!  I also like to add a small piece of ginger or tumeric root now and again.  I hope you enjoy experimenting with it and if you want to see the finished product check out my short video below.

Love, Angie xxx

 

 

 

 

Nettle Garden Fertiliser – for Free!

Nettle_fertiliser

Who wants free organic garden fertiliser?  Me!!!  Ok so this garden fertiliser is really easy to make, all you need is a bucket, some gloves, scissors and a tonne of nettles.  If you don’t have nettles in your own garden you can source them form a nearby source, they grow really well and are known as weeds due to the vast quantities they grow in.  You can source them near a water source if you don’t have them in your own garden.  Be careful not to source them near areas that are sprayed or at road sides for obvious pollution problems.

Nettles are a really rich food source for growing plants, especially leafy ones.  They are also greatly beneficial to our health but thats for another post.  This fertiliser is quick to make and easy to use.  There are two methods, the first method includes filling a small cup full of nettles, covering in boiling water and straining into the compost bin.  The water can be used in a ratio of 1:10 parts of water to feed the garden.

The second method is longer and is the method that I am creating due to the higher potency of nutrition as a result of a longer soaking.

Method:

nettle_bucket

You can also use the whole bucket of water and sludge on the compost heap to speed up the process.  One warning – the liquid stinks!  So please keep out of reach of children, dogs, animals etc. and away from neighbours fencing! :-).

If you want to skip all of the above and order a decent feed I would check out the Organic Seaweed that I have purchased before or the //ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=angmilnatliv-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B00DP2AJLA&asins=B00DP2AJLA&linkId=3eea1bd91f1fe85865ece5f35a82bc40&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff“>Organic Plant Food available on amazon.

chicken_nettles.jpg

Happy gardening! 🙂

Brazil Nut Chocolate Cake

brazilnutcake

The recipe for this chocolate cake is really easy and quick to prepare, there is no baking involved and it is made with fresh raw food and superfoods.  Its packed with nutritious ingredients and is a really quick and clean snack for the whole family.  Raw cacao is really nutritious and is well known for its high levels of antioxidants, its widely available online or in your local health shop.  Some larger supermarkets even stock it these days but to be honest you get more for your money online.  Indigo Herbs is a trusty brand and you can purchase from amazon at the link below –

//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=angmilnatliv-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B008KHKUR8&asins=B008KHKUR8&linkId=4c8e716137ec403f6dd3ebc30d9d435f&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true&price_color=333333&title_color=0066C0&bg_color=FFFFFF

The Ingredients

Cookie/cake base:

1 and 1/2 cups of Brazil nuts

1 cup of pitted soft medjool dates (don’t use the ones that have added sugar products)

2/3 cups of cacao powder

pinch of salt

Chocolate Frosting:

1/3-1/2 cup of medjool dates

1/4 cup of honey/agave or sweeter of choice

1/2 a medium ripe avocado

1/2 cup of cacao powder

So the method is really easy, you’ll need a powerful blender or a food processor.  Blend up the Brazil nuts first until they are pretty fine…don’t go to far or you will end up with a nut butter lol!  Add in the dates, the cacao powder and a pinch of salt…blend!  If the mixture is too dry and not clumping together (it depends on the dates) then add a little honey to get a dough like consistency that should stick together in your hand.

Remove from the food processor bowl in small amounts and push through a cookie cutter of choice, keep adding until its about 1cm thick.  Remove shaped piece from cookie cutter then repeat until finished.  To prepare the topping you need to blend the dates in the food processor until pureed, add the agave syrup or honey, avocado flesh and cacao powder.  Blend and scrape down until its completely blended together and looks like chocolate frosting.  Spread on top of the cookie cut cakes and serve with fruit on top.

You can keep it for a few days in the fridge but the strawberries will go a bit yuk! and the icing is made with avocado so best eaten as fresh as possible.  Be warned this cake is so nutrient dense your body will get full quickly so eat in small quantities! :-). Delicious!

Chickens & Composting

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chicken_composting

Our hen coop has been turned into a recycling plant and the chickens recycle all of our kitchen scrap food and garden waste back into eggs and compost.  It’s really important to us to have a good supply of organic compost that we can use in our garden in the future.  I’m strictly against anything that is not of a natural origin when it comes to feeding my vegetable and fruit plants, at the end of the day its my kids that are eating them and I like to think that they are eating something healthy and nutritious.

We are really new to growing our own fruit and vegetable plants but have been trying to implement natural growing methods and no dig systems using permaculture ideas and techniques.  At the end of the day everything is trial and error here in our garden but this spring we did get a good supply of really fertile soil from our last dig in the chicken composting area.  We also found a load of old pottery pieces, glass bottles and a coin dating back to 1918, as far as garden digging goes its pretty interesting around here!

So the first system is basically a large fenced off area in the chicken coop where the chickens are free to scratch around and eat what they like from the food and garden waste.  They enjoy our scraps and they also enjoy the seeds, weeds, grass etc. we throw in there also.  We continue to do this from spring to spring and then dig out what has broken down into really fertile compost.  As you can imagine the chickens also poop all over the area as they forage and this also adds to the fertility of the compost.  It is the perfect natural solution for the vegetable garden.

We also have a simple pallet made compost area in the vegetable garden where we put all sorts of garden waste in.  This might include our grass clippings, weeds, chicken straw waste from the garage chickens and other food scraps that we don’t give to the hens.

Our hens literally do eat anything and everything, there diet varies massively from the organic GM free pellets we supplement them with the super foods in our smoothie and juice scraps. They are very healthy and all of our rescue hens come back to full health pretty quickly once they arrive due to such a healthy and varied diet.

The best method we have found is the composting area in the chicken pen, this is due to the fact that the compost has additional soil food in it as a result of the constant hen pooping.

Anyway that’s enough about hens, poop and waste, back onto some more interesting subjects soon!  The link to the video is below 🙂

Love and Peace!

Angie xxxx

Home Educating :)

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Sorry friends for being so quiet on  the blog front, I have been so very busy with…well…life!  It’s all good!   In fact it’s all very good but a few  months back I would never have imagined (well I had dreamed plenty) to be stepping out into the world of Home Education.  Yes!…I now educate my two boys at home myself, all day every day!   😄

Personally to begin I thought how on earth am I going to keep up with the school, I’m not a teacher (although I have felt a soul calling to a teacher of sorts for a very long time), am I intelligent enough?…brave enough to stand up against the normal?…do I have the mental capacity to teach two very active yet intelligent boys?  …at home…on my own? …with no school?  …how do I do it?  Those were questions very much on my mind for a long time before I ever made the decision to take the boys out of school.

Shouldn’t young minds have the freedom to think and learn as they desire in the capacity they wish?shouldnt we have the trust that our children can and do learn without the inflexibility of standard teaching methods and rigid subjects?  These were thoughts I’d pushed back for years.

Sometimes we need a catalyst though, something to push us into  dangerous territory, to take risks and go against the grain of social norms.  My sons anxiety symptoms were and are that very catalyst.  Although everything looked normal on the outside he ha did been suffering for over two years.  It took us a very long  time to come to the conclusion it was even anxiety.  We thought he had food allergies, possible asthma, but there were strange behaviours we couldn’t put our finger on like OCD and mood swings after school.  It wasn’t until it got to a point where he just couldn’t attend school without pain in his stomach every day, mood swings after every day at school and just a general unhappy mood.  He was very unhappy and we couldn’t pin point it until one day in the school holidays we clicked he wasn’t suffering from any of the usual symptoms.  They had dissapeared!  It was then that we started researching further and we researched lots!  We came to the conclusion it was anxiety and we started looking at ways we could help him.

I spoke to many people  regarding the issue and couldn’t believe how common Murray’s symptoms were.  I came across many people who had tried and had huge success with homeschooling.  I was still too nervous to go against the grain of society but when somebody local to me put in a request to do the same thing, to withdraw their child from school it suddenly didn’t seem as scary.

After hours and hours of research, reading, speaking with friends and home educating parents I put in our written application.  My son still continued at school but when I collected him one night he was in agony with his stomach pains, which he had suffered from for six months or more and his OCD had gone into overdrive…enough was enough…we took him out for good the next day!  He was almost miraculously better.  He still has his moments but the stomach pains dissapeared almost over night and his happiness returned very quickly.  His brother had been having problems going to school and especially now that his big brother was off all the time.  Once our confidence was  rolling with the home education after a few weeks we thought why not educate both the boys at home together.  We saw the benefits and thought our youngest boy would benefit.  They make good company and are both Lego obsessed.  We tried them together for a week and it worked really well so we added him to our application.  Our lovely girl Maggie decided to stay at school as she gets on really well there and is deeply into her musical studies there.

So what do we do?

We do the typical age appropriate maths and English workbooks, the usual written work and my kids love reading and love all different types of books!  We have been trying to follow thier own interests and let them learn and live their passions.  They get to choose their own reading books and workbooks which makes it a bit more interesting and they also use a selection of apps and online printable resources.  Screen time is limited to a minimum though as we would much prefer they learn through books or outside.

What interests them in learning?

Maggie loves to cook, cooking anything vegetarian and she loves cooking cakes and sweet things which doesn’t do my wasteline any favours.  She is also really into their violin and is really good at reading and most subjects at school.  Murray loves computers, coding and all things electronic, he loves gadgets, robots, things that move mechanically, scientific experiments and has a great interest in the natural world.  Daniel loves science experiments also, he loves animals, being outside and really enjoys making the biggest mess he possibly can in our school time, especially when it comes to art!  We don’t spend too much time indoors though as we have such a rich environment for learning outside that we like to get outdoors as much as possible.  We do not fear falling behind because we are working one to one we get so much work done in our schooling time and our work doesn’t really follow school work, it differs very much although we have a sneaky peek at the curriculum now and again.

We also love art and the boys are really creative and very messy!  We have tried our hand at painting and drawing with beeswax block crayons and we have clay and other art materials in the post.  Art is really important to us and a time to relax and let the imagination and creativity my flow.

We attempt piano lessons in our house but do forget to do them, we would much rather be outside on nice days and that is totally ok.  I would rather it was done as an act of passion rather than a forced teaching.  My daughter loves playing her violin and because it’s become a passion of hers she plays every single morning and most evenings.  Let’s face it we learn so much when we desire to do so and when it interests us.

Nature is a wonderful teacher!

We spend lots of time outdoors, walking the dogs first thing in the morning along the road or up the forest track.  A typical walk might involve inspecting the dead badger body at the side of the country road and its continual decay, sourcing our next log or stick for our garden adventures and talking about anything and everything from the different types of trees, qualities of wood, to snakes, fishing and forest animals.  There really is no limit to our discussion subjects, no cirriculum to follow, just pure and simple learning through questions and further study.  If we don’t know how to answer and that can be pretty regular going by the depth of Murray’s questions then we can take it back to our school table for a subject of discussion or a new project.  It’s all very exciting and I am learning lots of new subjects myself.  Learning is exciting and joyful as it should be!  

They will have no friends!

Socialisation!  What about socialisation?!  What on earth will you do, how will they interact with people, how will they learn to communicate?….eh do we live in a cave on the moon?  Are we complete and utter weirdos that we can’t teach our children to communicate with other people and children ha ha ha sorry!  😄  Its one of the most popular questions we have been asked and I was very worried about socialisation too initially but when I realised how often home ed people were meeting up and doing things I thought…hold on a minute…I’m actually gong to have to limit socialisation to actually get some work done and socialisation is actually happening all the time, it’s not just confined to the school walls.  We have friends who home ed all over the place and are meeting new people all the time.  We have a huge family with lots of children around the same ages.  We joined beavers and cubs and we have been making an effort to keep in contact with all of thier friends and hope to continue this into the future.  Socialisation isn’t a problem for us.

Your not going to get any time to yourself?  

How will you cope being with the children all day? …too much trim with them isn’t good for you…eh?…isn’t that what I signed up to birthing three beautiful souls into this world? Didn’t I sign up to a life long attachment of teaching and educating them anyway, even though they were attending school.  We are always our child’s first teacher no matter if they are attending school or not.  They look to us for guidance, support, inspiration and teaching all the time.  The inquisitive mind of a child doesn’t stop at the end of a school day.  They want to soak up knowledge like a sponge, they are always asking questions, always learning.  In fact I wish that they always continue to ask questions and that they question everything in life.  Yes I  don’t have time to do things as I did before but I just schedule my time in differently now and work around it.  Plus we have lots of school breaks here, there are no bells and no rushed lunches.  We just flow with whatever is going on and we work around that.  I am so happy to be doing this, it very much feels apart of me and I’ve adapted from my quiet child free days to a much more interesting and creative environment.  It’s bliss for my creative side!

Our boys have swapped the four walls of school for the expanse of the forest or the long stretched out sandy and pebble beaches up our coast.   Our home school room is in the conservatory where we can see the sun rise and sun set and watch nature unfold as it moves throughout the seasons.  We can listen to whatever music takes our fancy and move with our natural daily rythm.  Alongside our workbooks and reading our learning is running barefoot on wet sand, combing the beach for sea life, climbing forest hills with the dogs collecting precious sticks and pinecones and watching and learning from all the beautiful experiences that Mother Earth 🌏 has to offer us.  If anything we feel at home teaching this way!  I look forward very much to this next chapter in our lives, writing honestly and openly about it and trusting in the unexpected path that has been chosen for us.

Life is our school and life is now our education!  

Peanut butter (vegan)cookies

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Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Seed Cookies 🍪 

Ok so I added the pumpkin seeds in to make them ever so slightly healthy but these bad boys should come with a health warning lol!  A bit too much sugar for my liking but I made them for the boys!  …of course I had to lick the utensils and taste the finished product.  They are dairy free and delicious!  😄

3/4 cups of brown sugar (or coconut sugar)

2/3 cup of rapeseed oil

1/4 cup of almond milk

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

1 1/2cups of white spelt flour

1/2 tsp of baking powder

sprinkle of salt

4 tbsp of pumpkin seeds

2 tbsp of peanut butter

Add all the ingredients into your mixer or bowl apart from the seeds and mix gently until combined.  Add the seeds in last and combine.  Drop 1 tbsp of mixture onto the baking sheet and repeat leaving space between your cookies as they will flatten slightly and bake at 170c for 8-10 minutes until slightly golden.

Enjoy 💋