Hey! Stormy Grey Bank Holiday Sunday here! Think we were spoilt last summer and the Irish weather has returned to it’s normal cloudy setting. So I haven’t even gone out yet today and it is 3pm in the afternoon. On the upside I leisurely browsed for a good yoga routine to follow and found a great one! Side stretches… “Oooo” I hear you say with wondrous excitement! Indeed it is wondrous- I am stretched in places I didn’t know needed stretching… I actually feel taller! Certainly more awake after the headstand at the end- nothing like blood to the head to make one think a bit clearer!
So I was browsing through Yoga videos, thinking I may share what I end up following since it is world yoga day! ( a bit controversial in India – so I have read ). I had a bit of a blah week health and energy wise – summer bugs trying to take me down! So my yoga practice was a bit intermittent and more restorative in nature. I wanted to follow a more energising routine to-day. So “Power Yoga” it was. It really felt a bit like a gym work out at points during the first half and to be honest I don’t think my energy levels were quite up to the level I thought they were. That said I feel stretched, warm and relaxed having done it!
If you want to get your circulation going and work on your strength as well as flexibility this would be a good one to follow.
I feel so on trend with my post! It is Women’s Day today, which is a day for reflecting on Women’s rights, how far some places have come and how far some places have to go. I have come back and edited this post as I did actually reflect today. I feel less light hearted about now. I have thought about women’s rights in Ireland and the recent history we are still dealing with. I have come across some uplifting stories from friends online, people praising women they love. Posts of women lead action around the world past and present, and some saddening stories and statistics. It makes me want to be more active, I hope that feeling doesn’t wain with the day.
This post is a restorative yoga one, all about being gentle and loving to your body. It seems my womb was even more in tune with Women’s Day than my mind! I have trawled the interweb many times searching for a good practice for during menstruation. Finally I found one, you just need pillows. I used cushions too. Though a gentle and almost comforting routine I still felt I was getting the most out of the poses. I am sure it would be a lovely practice for bedtime, or if you are just not in a place for a more rigorous routine. I think it would be good for guys too, though Adriene does address us viewers as women!
So I made these chocolate brownies during the week. Super fast and supremely easy! Mint, vanilla and chocolate such a delectable combination…that said if you are not a paid up member of the “Mint Lovers Club” you can always add orange zest and a splash of juice for chocolate brownies with a fruity twist!
You will need a 9inch (22cm) squared cake pan, you can use smaller for a higher rise. I like them bite size- what make it more complicated to eat?!!
Minty Chocolate Brownies Vegan & Gluten free
Two generous dessertspoons of organic coconut oil
Two teaspoons of cashew nut butter
Half a teaspoon of peppermint extract or four drops of culinary peppermint oil
Half a cup of unsweetened almond milk
A third of a cup of a good quality raw agave
Two teaspoons of vanilla powder or extract or two pods
A scant third of a cup of rapadura /sucucant sugar
A third of a cup of pure cocoa powder
A rounded teaspoon of arrowroot powder
One and a half teaspoons of baking powder
Half a cup of ground almonds
Half a cup plus three dessertspoons of fine maize meal
A quarter teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt or good sea salt
35g(1.25oz) of chopped up 70% dark chocolate
A quarter cup of warm water (boiled and left to cool a bit)
Method
Preheat your oven to 170C (fan) or 340F. Line your tin with paper and lightly grease with some coconut oil.
Grab a medium sized bowl and put in your vanilla powder/ pod (if using extract add it to the wet instead), sugar, ground almonds, maize meal and salt. Press out any lumps. Get a sieve and sieve in your cocoa powder, arrowroot and baking powder. Mix them all together evenly. Set to one side.
Chop your chocolate, it does not have to be super finely chopped as coming across the odd chunk is an extra treat! I used an organic one that has some wild harvest beans in it too..swanky. This is to be sprinkled on top of the brownie batter. Measure out your warm water.
Yummy chopped chocolate-
You will need to melt the wet ingredients, so get a perspex bowl and put over a saucepan of lightly simmering water, it should fit safely and the water should not be touching the base of the bowl. Pop in your coconut oil and cashew nut butter first and once they have melted add in your peppermint extract, agave and almond milk. Once it is all melted together and your kitchen smells minty fresh take it off the heat.
golden melted gooey goodness
Use an oven glove or towel to pick the bowl up and pour the lot into the middle of your dry ingredients. Fold the gooey mixture together – gently does it. You don’t want to knock air out, we are making brownies not bread! 🙂 When combined (no big lumpy flourier bits and a uniform colour) Pour the (quite runny) batter into the cake tin. Quickly now- no dilly dallying- sprinkle your chopped chocolate ontop and press in ever so slightly. Pour your water over the top and put into the middle of your preheated oven.
Upside down chocolate brownie slab…is it just me or is that an upside down face?
It takes twenty five minutes, fast…but you have to wait a good ten minute before removing it from your tin. I was impatient and as you can see by the picture it stuck a little. Gluten free equals handle with care. Once cooled a bit you cut it into bite sized chunks! Ta-Da! Brownies.
HmmmMmm rich minty chocolate brownie
O and here is the Yin Yoga I did this evening. Lovely gentle Yoga practice for the start of the week. Not crazy push yourself advanced- but is in the holding of even the most simple pose that you find the beauty of a yin practice.
Hey there! I wanted to share the Yoga practice I followed to-day. I have a bit of a head cold and woke up stiff and sniffly. So a crazy cardio intense flow really was the last thing I wanted. I did a little of my own warm up, some vinyasa flow with sun salutes and hamstring stretches. Though if you did not wake up feeling like an un-oiled version of the Tin-man, you could probably just head straight into the video. I especially enjoyed the counter poses. I am feeling flexible, floppy and actually quite rested after my routine. Hope you enjoy it too. I am off to make a wheatgrass shot with ginger, lemon and cayenne pepper. I’m going to kick this head cold’s gluteus maximus!
Hour later Edit!
So I decided to add said juice! Calling it The Cold Buster which may be a little optimistic… to say the least. This will make three decent little juices (half a cup each), I will have another juice later, and be good and give one to my partner too!
The cold buster! Note Tiny sprinkle of cayenne.
You will need…
A four inch in diameter bundle of organic whestgrass
A third of an organic unwaxed lemon
Half an organic pear (I ate the other half ‘cos it was so ripe and delicious)
An organic unwaxed apple
A nub of organic ginger (about the top of your baby finger)*
One small organic carrot
A tablespoon of organic apple cyder vinegar
A double shot glass measure of water kefir (you could use raw kombucha too)
A pixie dust TINY sprinkle of cayenne pepper
You may well use cayenne all the time in cooking, but is a different matter when drinking it. You really feel the heat- a little goes along way, great for the sinuses. It has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
*organic is especially important with ginger as sometimes it is irradiated.
Happy New Year! Thought I would start the new year off well stretched, perhaps you would like to join me? It is more intermediate than beginners, but you can always choose how far to go in a pose. I found it a good challenge. I am still using the sitting room door as my spotter for headstands 😉 I certainly won’t be doing it parks like this lady, unless there is a paramedic handy- or I am in a bouncy air filled castle. Next trend in Yoga? Bouncy Castle Yoga? You heard it here first!!!!
Will be adding another post to-day, for my New Year’s Eve Seasonal Chestnut Chocolate Pie! Off to have a wheatgrass shot first.
Yoga for a sunny Sunday. I am not claiming that the Yoga will make the sun shine… more pointing out the weather…Unusually sunny November morning, made extra special by the fact it has been cold and or rainy for a couple of days. I made it fabulously warm by leaving a ring on my hob on (again) so a hint of Bikram (again) too! 🙂
I am posting two videos, the first is a warm up that gets into the spine and the second a lovely one to follow- an overall wake up including opening up the hips. I have to do a pigeon pose in my routine or I feel I have not done yoga. Is there a group for pigeon pose addicts? Can expect to find myself find myself dropping pens at work in order to fall into pigeon pose to pick them up?
Here is the follow up one!
They suited me perfectly this morning. After a Sunday lie on it is good to be nice to yourself. These routines are gentle yet I still found I had stretched myself from my baby toes to the top of my head. Later when I am more awake I might do a short faster paced routine to keep my energy up. Hope you enjoy them too! Xs Aissa
Found this deadly (Irish saying for cool ) yoga video. I innocently thought I would follow along. HA! Like that was going to happen! I ended up attempting to do Cobra pose A LOT. Every time “mr super bendy strong guy” did a hand stand I did Cobra. I did do my more simple version alongside his advanced one. I found it worth a watch. It showed how all the yoga poses I do can be combined and advanced upon in an almost dance like manner. So for your inspiration. Or if you are at that level you could practice along to it maybe…
So I was given the generous gift of “Rawsome vegan Baking” by a friend of mine. It is a beautiful book, everything is explained well and concisely. I am not kited out with dehydrators and vita-mixes but there is still a lot I can make or improvise around. One of the great guys I work with was leaving and I wanted to make something. This is always a risky thing to do. To make something for some one using a recipe from a new cookbook (or not cook as the case maybe)!!! It turned out lovely. I made “Avocado Mint Cream Bars with chocolate, two ways” on p.106. My only quibbles were I had to increase the ingredients to fit my tart pan. It says a 9inch square pan or 23cm is fine. I used a 7.5/8inch 20cm round pan and the measurements were definitely short. I had enough ingredients to increase the amounts but it made it a bit stressful. The avocado layer could have been thicker too. It was a little too sweet for me. I often find this though, I should have known to reduce the sweet stuff a little for my palette. Here is a picture
My Rawsome Vegan Life Avocado Mint cream bars
Here is a pic from Emily’s blog of what they should look like! Maybe it was the lack of a proper blender. Either way it tasted nice…even if it was less pretty 😦
The real deal!
http://www.eatgood4life.com/avocado-mint-cream-bars/ Has written up the recipe if you want to check it out. In the original you can use fresh coconut meat instead of a banana. I being blenderless went for the banana option.
Yoga
I went for a more challenging routine today. I had the time, I’m off work today ‘cos it is a bank holiday here. It was good. I was very surprised at what I found hard. About 25mins in there is a pose where you squat and grab hands through one knee and attempt to stand up. The first time doing it you keep your legs in a half bend. I had to come out of the pose! Horror! Horror! My thighs could no take it! (Scotty from Star Trek voice!) But I kept going and attempted the full pose where you straighten your legs. SOOOO much easier. Therefor revealing my need to do more chair poses!
There is precise instruction on options to get into a head stand, also great description of getting into crow. Wish I’d seen the crow one back when I had been attempting it first! I did my head stand against the wall. Though I am getting more confidant and I didn’t lean against it. Glad I did as I wavered and wobbled a bit and needed something behind me! 🙂
And finally juice. Orange that is green Juice
Wheatgrass- a 1inch diameter bundle
Three or four chard leaves
One unwaxed red apple
One unwaxed big orange
Three inch piece of cucumber
Six mint leaves
A half inch piece of turmeric
A quarter inch piece of organic ginger (i.e not irradiated!)
Optional: shot of water kefir
Colours!
This juice was like a trick. It tasted sweet and citrusy orange but was totally green. Enjoyable for that reason alone, but it tasted lovely too!
orange is green juice
Hope that you try some of these things out! Xs Aissa
Hey! Sundays seem to be the day that I share a yoga vid. Accidental routine 🙂 This one is really versatile, you could follow the first eight mins just to have a lovely stretch! The instructor gives options along the way, so if you are a rubber band god you will be as satisfied as the mere mortals. It has some of my fav poses- I can’t do a yoga routine without pigeon and mermaid. I also liked the way it flowed from one move to another quite eloquently. I really felt the benefit of the opposing positions, made me realise I do not do enough of them in my normal routine. Guilty face – is there an emoticon for a guilty face? ]-( – nope that is a sad robot. I digress. Here is the video. Hope you like it. Xs Aissa
VeganEtcetera 