Saturday 28 February 2015

Healthy biscuits

These are pretty much my own concoction of various healthy ingredients thrown together. The dough was delicious raw and they are pretty yummy when cooked too. 
Here we go:

Ingredients: 
100g whole meal self raising flower
1 teaspoon cinnamon, 
teaspoon of cocao powder 
3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil,
3 table spoons of honey or maple syrup, 25g designated coconut, 
splash of coconut or almond milk if it's a bit dry
Dried fruit and chopped nuts (to decorate)

Simply mix and push the ingredients together until they form a ball of dough
Roll out the dough and cut out shapes and place them on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper. Decorate if you wish with dried fruit and chopped nuts
Bake at 200 in the oven for 10 minutes x

Friday 27 February 2015

Healthy baking...


Since I have been trying to stop eating so much pre prepared convenience food I have been trying out some clean eating baking.
My total favourite is banana bread. It is absolutely yummy and I make about 3 loaves a week. Me and the kids eat it for breakfast and I give it them for supper too. I cannot in anyway take credit for it so here is the link http://thekitchenshed.co.uk/clean-eating-wholewheat-banana-bread/

I have been experimenting to try and make some kind if healthy cereal bar. I tried one concoction with loads of mashed banana and oats but it didn't turn out very well. 

I therefore decided it needed something to bind it together more so I increased the amount of coconut milk, honey and coconut oil and it's actually turned out rather nice. I didn't weigh the ingredients but kind if added what I thought best to achieve a nice consistency. Basically I used:
Oats probably about 150g
Small amount of granola (as this does have added sugar)
Desinated coconut (again small amount as it's high in fat)
Honey (about 75ml)
Coconut oil (about 75ml)
Splash of coconut milk
Dried fruit (handful)
1 mashed banana 

I melted the honey and coconut oil in the microwave then added into the other ingredients in a mixing bowl, smushed them all together and spooned into a baking tray, flattening them out and baked at 200 for 15 mins. 
They taste really yummy :)


Thursday 26 February 2015

It's official

At last I have received my certificate for my Level 2 Beauty Specialist Diploma. I completed my practicals and submitted my portfolio a few months ago but fir various reasons it's taken a while for my certificate to actually come through! 
Anyway I am delighted to have finally received it. It's funny because I have A levels and a degree but I actually think I worked harder for this than I did for either of those not only because I fitted it in with children and a job but because I really really wanted this. 
I am half way through my level 3 beauty massage award and about to embark on a nail qualification tomorrow and of course I have my makeup qualification. My dream would be to combine all these qualifications, my life experiences  plus aspects of my psychology degree, counselling qualification, teaching qualification and passion about nutrition and fitness. I'm just not quite sure how I would do this yet but being a firm believer in fate maybe one day this will all fall into place 

Keeping motivated

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. Since I went back to work after Christmas on January 5th I've managed to keep up my three times a week gym visits. I don't do loads as mentioned in a previous post (although I've now started to include the stationary bike too as it's so easy to just add in to burn some extra calories). 
Anyway here are a few things that have helped me keep at it:
1. Always do the first session of the week - my first work out session is on a Monday after work and I think if I missed that then I would probably miss my other sessions too and soon get out of my routine. 
2. Never miss a session for no reason- I've changed my gym times around some weeks because of my childcare or work commitments but I think once I start missing to simply lounge around or go shopping then the gym turns into something negative. It's the same really with any commitment though like my college course. If I started to skive I would see it to be something negative
3. Motivational music - it helps to have some of my favourite songs to listen to on my iPhone and if I'm feeling a bit demotivated I will treat myself to a couple if new songs
4. Positive mantra- my fav is 'you'll never regret going for a work out' and I also like to check out Instagram for positive quotes and motivational images
5. Eating good food- working out means I can eat more which is good as I love eating . Although now I've started to eat less chocolate and crap and my regards are things like banana bread or a feta cheese omlette. 
6. Being realistic- I hate running so instead I walk on a steep incline on the treadmill which when I have my music on passes quickly. If I was running with my boobs bouncing up and down I'm sure the time would go much slower!!!
7. A nice shower-doesn't sound much but my own shower can only be likened to an old man weeing on my head so a washing my hair under a hot power shower is bliss. Plus it's saving my electricity bill and my time cleaning my shower and bathroom after I've washed my hair in there!

That's it so far... Even though 7 is a rather odd number to end on but here is a picture of my slowly developing six pack