RECIPE: HEALTHY BALLS

HEALTHY BALLS

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 10 medjool dates pitted
• water
• 5 tbs dessicated coconut plus extra for coating the balls
• dark chocolate chips (your choice how much, I chuck in a handful)
• 2 tbs tahini

METHOD

1. Blitz the oats, 6 dates, coconut and tahini in a food processor.
2. Add the other dates one at a time and a few drops of water to help bind the mixture.
3. Remove the mix from the processor and stir through your chocolate chips.
4. With damp hands use a desert spoon to gather some dough and then roll into balls, once ball is formed roll it through the coconut you saved for coating and repeat until the mixture is all used up.
5. keep the balls in the fridge, they should keep about 2 weeks ( although mine never make it that long!) enjoy!

RECIPE: SLOW COOKER BEEF GOULASH

SLOW COOKER BEEF GOULASH

INGREDIENTS:

• 500g Stewing Beef diced
• Brown Onion chopped
• 2 Carrots chopped
• 2 Capsicum Green or Red chopped
• 2 cloves of crushed Garlic / or 2 teaspoons of minced Garlic
• 2 x 140g tins of Tomato Paste
• 1 Tablespoon of Paprika
• Season with salt and Pepper
• Sour Cream (to serve)
• Rice (to serve)

METHOD

1. Add all the ingredients above (except the sour cream and rice) to the slow cooker and mix together to combine. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours

2. Serve with rice and top wit a dollop of sour cream and enjoy!

• You could make this dish spicy by using hot paprika
• You could try serving it with crusty bread and add potatoes to the slow cooker mixture or switching the rice for mash potato.
• This will comfortably serve 4 adults and will allow leftovers for 2 adults and 2 children

RECIPE: LAMB TABOULI

LAMB TABOULI

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive Oil (just a dash)
• 500g Lamb Mince
• 1 Red Onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Cous Cous
• 1 Chicken Stock Cube
• 1 cup Boiling Water from Kettle
• 2 Cloves Crushed Garlic / or 2 tsp Garlic Paste
• 2 tsp Allspice
• 1 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 2 tbs Lemon Juice
• 1 cup Flat Leaf Parsley finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Mint finely chopped

To Serve

• Baby Spinach Leaves
• Flatbread or wraps
• Hummus
• Tatziki

METHOD:

1. heat oil in a pan med-high heat add onion and cook, stirring until soft (about 5 mins). Add the lamb and cook breaking it up until browned ( about 5 mins). Meanwhile combine Cous Cous with the stock and boiled water in a bowl just covering the Cous Cous with the water allowing it to soak it up

2. Add Garlic, Allspice, Cumin, Cinnamon and Fennel Seeds and cook, stirring for about 30 seconds or until mixture is fragrant. Remove from the heat.

3. Fluff through the Cous Cous with a fork ensuring it has soaked up the liquid and then add it to the mince mixture, along with the mint, parsley and lemon juice. Stir the mixture to combine the ingredients.

To serve we like to have the mince mixture in a big bowl on the table along with the Spinach, bread and dips and we help ourselves to make our own plates up. This serves our family of 2 adults and 2 children quite well and there is usually some mince leftover, this would feed 4 adults easy and is a great easy dinner party option!

Taking Down Tree & Acknowledging My Feelings

Every year the Christmas tree doesn’t tend to make it past the 27^th of December in my house. December rolls around and the house is made to be lovely and Christmassy and I bask in the weeks of Joy and Chaos that is Christmas. I love it. As soon as it is done though I need to get everything away, rip the band-aid off and it is as though it never happened. Admittedly I feel stressed by the post-Christmas mess and I believe this fuels my desire to completely clear the house.

Almost naked tree

This time the tree made it to New Year’s Day! This is unheard of in our home. I have certainly behaved differently this time. Each day since Christmas I have done little bits around the house in a bid to tidy up. New Year’s Day we had an at home tidy up day and I got some stuff done including taking down the tree. Instead of rushing, I just got it done calmly and dare I say, mindfully. As I did so, I felt a little sad that Christmas was over but sad in a good way if that makes sense. Sad it is over but a little hope and excitement as I remember we have next Christmas to look forward to.

I took a little time to recognise my feelings and then moved on once I had acknowledged this. It is very typical of me to avoid any feelings coming my way, to distract myself to not take stock of them. This always blows up in my face with a whole mish-mash of emotions bowling me over at once when I feel most vulnerable or run down. A bit like when you haven't done the washing for a week and the hamper is overflowing.

I bought myself a pack of Blom Cards and along with some help, I found a card that suited where I currently stand, to name my feelings. I felt as though recognising the feelings I had taking down the tree was a great putting into practice of what my card was all about. It is really the first time I took on the task of what was on the Blom Card. I decided to try and allow myself to recognise when I feel certain feelings as they organically occur. Rather than seek out moments to recognise my feelings, because I would be distracted into looking for feelings rather than getting on with my day. Although a seemingly insignificant a task, taking down the tree turned out to be a good exercise me, in my own way I understood how to identify, name my feelings, and let them go.

Happy New Year Guys!

Fi xx