What you need:
Half a mashed banana
125g of gluten free flour (I like Doves Farm)
250ml of almond milk (or if you are using almond cream then do half cream and half water)
What you do:
Mix all the ingredients together until smooth. Heat up a non stick frying pan with a little oil. When pan and oil are hot, spoon a ladel of mixture into the pan and move pan around to make it as thin as possible. Leave a few mins until cooked, then toss onto other side. I love my crispy so let it brown a little...
Serve with any fresh fruit, I like with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. To sweeten it further then add maple syrup.
]]>You can find them in Co-op, Sainsburys, Waitrose and Ocado.
White Rabbit do lots of other gluten free items too, like Macaroni cheese, Lasagne, Risotto and even Tiramisu! All are delicious and taste like the real thing!
Lucy x
https://www.whiterabbitpizza.co.uk/
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I recently ordered their multi-surface cleaner and I love it! Smells good and unlike some other eco-friendly products on the market, it does a really good job too! I used it on my kitchen surfaces and they have never looked so clean!
Sustainability is at the heart of the Bower mission and the aim of their products is to reduce waste, specifically plastic waste. You can buy their products as a one off, or subscribe and have them delivered to your door regularly.
I can't recommend them highly enough!
Lucy x
ps my posts are not sponsored in anyway.
]]>The more over ripe the bananas the better, so it's a great way to use up those black ones that have been lurking in the fruit bowl for a while!
It's also gluten-free - but feel free to use normal self-raising flour you prefer. I also like to add a bit of extra fruit to the mixture just before baking, try adding anything from glace cherries, raspberries, peaches, strawberries etc etc.
What you need:
4 bananas, mashed up really well into a pulp (the more mashed the better)
100g of softened butter
200g of caster sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
250 gluten-free self-raising flour (I like Doves Farm)
2 level teaspoons of gluten free baking powder
a glug of olive oil (just adds a nice bit of moisture to the cake
Fruit slices of your choice, my favourite are peaches or raspberries
What you do:
Beat all the ingredients together until smooth and pour into two lined loaf tins. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees centigrade for around 35 mins until a knife comes out clean --- watch it carefully, I much prefer a cake under cooked than over!
ENJOY WITH blueberries and yoghurt and a nice cup of tea,
Lucy x
]]>Happy watching, Lucy x
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I like this recipe by BBC good food...I do recommend the food thermometer to get the toffee just right! You can buy them from Amazon for a fiver here.
Enjoy, Lucy x
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They are called complete proteins. Buckwheat is one of them. I've never really had buckwheat (it's not often on menus) but after reading about it, and being a vegetarian that struggles to get enough essential amino acids, I thought I would try to incorporate buckwheat in my diet. The plan was to eat it savoury initially, but then I thought I would experiment and try it for breakfast... and to my surprise it was absolutely delicious!
I am not exaggerating when I say this porridge has been a complete game changer for me. I had a few months of feeling sluggish, tired and feeling really hungry alot of the time, and since I have been eating this I have been feeling so much better! Having it for breakfast means that I am full and satisfied until lunch and beyond and don't end up snacking mid morning.
Don't be fooled by the title, this does not taste like usual porridge! It's a much grainer and nuttier taste that might be a suprirse at first and might take a little getting used to, but then you will absolutely love it as it will make you feel so much better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oROoqlQBO0M
Lucy x
]]>Lucy x
]]>Lucy x
]]>Enjoy!
Lucy x
ps this is NOT an ad! I just love them!
]]>Lucy x
]]>Lucy x
]]>Bringing up kids is wonderful & often so rewarding in so many ways...but it is also much tougher than I thought it would be. There is always so much to think about and do all the time, and it seems whatever age the kids are there are new challenges to be faced, boundaries to be put in place, skills to be taught and so on. It's just about manageable when they are well, but when they are ill it's really, really difficult! Often I feel pushed to (& beyond!) my limits, and I have to dig very deep into resilience reserves.
But has it always been this hard or is it getting more difficult? It strikes me that the way we now bring up children, with just one or two parents in a house with the kids, is not how evolution intended. For the vast majority of our evolutionary history (the last 200,00 years or so!), there was no means of getting anywhere other than by foot or horseback, so we used to live in close communities with relatives all around. It wasn't just the parents that looked after the children, it was also the aunts, uncles, grandparents, the cousins and so on, who were all just on the doorstep (literally!) that helped out too. This meant that the responsibility was shared across many people. Not only taking the strain off the parents, meaning they are less tired, less grumpy (!) but totally advantageous for the children too who would have had a much stronger sense of stability and access to a much wider ranger of knowledge of skills and experience from being brought up by more people.
Do you know anyone that lives within spitting distance of any family members? It just doesn't happen any more. Now we can get on a train or plane and go anywhere, and partly because the grass is always greener (!), and partly due to employment opportunities, most people end up miles, if not hundreds or thousands of miles of away from their family members. My parents are 300 miles away, as is one of my brothers and his family, and my other brother and are relatively near in London, but that is still 2 hours away! This is not because we don't get on, we are extremely close, it's just that life has just taken us to different places to settle down and bring up children.
Imagine how much easier your life would be if your siblings and your parents were all so close by that your children could walk to their houses within seconds and help out with childcare whenever you wanted!
All you need:
- a cup of frozen mango chunks (available from most supermarkets)
- a banana (adds sweetness and smoothness)
- a good handful of spinach
- a good slug of apple juice (to cover all the ingredients)
- a blender (I have a nutribullet)
All you do:
- bung all the ingredients into a blender and blend unti smooth. Enjoy!
Extras:
- for an extra zing, add some lime juice at the end
- for some heat, try adding some raw ginger and blend
- for extra protein, try adding chia seeds
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Today (2nd Feb 23) is Time to Talk Day. And to celebrate talking more openly about Mental health, today I will be donating 50% of all my sales to MIND charity.
Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. Happening every year, it’s a day for friends, families, communities, and workplaces to come together to talk, listen and change lives.
If you want to learn more about to help someone who is struggling, I really recommend this Mental Health First Aid Course run by MHFA which I did the other day. If you do the course then you will be a qualified Mental Health First Aider too!
Time to talk day is run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, in partnership with the Co-op.
We know the more conversations we have, the better life is for everyone. Talking about mental health isn’t always easy, but a conversation has the power to change lives.
So how about making space in your day for a conversation about mental health today.. ask a friend, family member or colleague how they REALLY are.
Lucy x
]]>Here are what I will be having this week, and a link to the recipe for each.
MONDAY: Minestrone
TUESDAY: Leek and potato
WEDNESDAY: Curried cauliflower
THURSDAY: Sweetcorn soup
FRIDAY: Pea soup
I usually have a bowl of soup with some cheese biscuits and a little slice of apple and cheese, delicious!
Lucy x
]]>1) FIT FLOP WELLIES. I got them for christmas and they are just the best wellies EVER! They are super comfy, kind of springy inside, and looks really stylish too! They look so good I would wear them out in London (not just round a muddy field!). Can't recommend them enough...
2) SOUPS!. I have been making a different vegetable soup for lunch every day and not sure why but they have been making me feel happy! I've loved thinking of a different veg to make one with every day, they are really easy to make and super healthy too! I made the following; leek and potato, butternut squash and ginger, chestnut, minestrone and celeriac, I'll do a seperate blog on this next week!
3) HOOVER. I got a new hoover for christmas too and it's incredible! It's super light, cordless and bagless and does a great job! It's called a GTech MK2 and you buy here if interested. A bit of a boring one, but we all need to hoover, and why not use one that doesn't break your back & does a really good job?! I now look forward to this previously tedious task!
4) TRAINERS. I bought a new pair of these trainers from Zara and love them! (Pictured below). Will look so great with all my light coloured joggers.
5) PARENTING PODCAST. I have been continuing to listen to this amazing Peace and Parenting podcast that I featured here the other day. It really is so good & has empowered me as a parent & is really helping to make our family life more harmonious! I listen to it in the car on the school run which help pass the time in traffic!
Lucy x
Ps none of my posts are sponsored in any way
]]>Rich in antioxidants and nutrients, it offers impressive health benefits, such as improved digestion, bone and heart health, as well as possible anticancer effects.
What you Need
1 celeriac
1 onion
1 garlic clove
Veg stock
Nutmeg
Celery salt (if you have it)
Dash of cream
Dash of honey or syrup (or half a teaspoon of sugar)
What You Do
Cut the ends of the celeriac off and peel it (or chop the outside off). Chop the onion and garlic. Fry the onion and garlic in a dash of olive oil until softens. Add the chopped celeriac and add veg stock until it just covers the ingredients. Add half a teaspon of nutmeg and celery salt. Bring to the boil then simmer until celeriac is soft. Blend in a magimix or with a handblender. Add a little honey or sugar to taste. Add a little dash of cream... and enjoy!
Lucy
]]>MAGNESIUM: I swear by this stuff. I take 2 capsules before bed every night. I use this one. (Best to check that magnesium doesn't impact any of your existing medications if you are on any before taking this).
WHITE NOISE: I play white noise all night. In the summer I use a fan, in the winter I play it on my phone via an app called White noise. You can download it for free and choose from different sorts of white noise! I like the bathroom fan....
EYE MASK: I wear an eye mask every night. It just helps to keep your eyes shut, and block any light out. I like the Sara Milller ones the best, they are super soft and fit just right around the head and don't slip off.
LEARN TO SWITCH OFF YOUR THOUGHTS: okay so this one is a bit trickier and can't be bought from the internet! It also takes quite a lot of training, but if I can learn to do it then so can you! If you wake in the night, rather than letting thoughts come flooding into your brain and keeping your brain whirring, you need to keep the thoughts out until the morning. I have written more about how to do this here.
I hope that some of these might help you sleep a bit better too.
Lucy x
]]>Always feel like you are yelling at you kids?! Always breaking up sibling fights?! Always feel like you are dealing with World War 3 in your family?! If like me, you are a parent who sometimes feels like they would like a more harmonious relationship with their children (!), then you could try listening to these amazing podcasts by Michelle Kenney, from Peace and Parenting. I have only listened to around 4 of them so far, but they have been completely amazing and are already dramatically transforming our family life.
I will provide more of a summary of what I learn over on here when I have listened to a few more, but in a nutshell, she does not believe in discipline, threats, rewards or bribery, instead she says it's all about having 'connection' (a good relationship with your child), and that should be at the core of every interaction you have with them. She believes that children do not learn morality or how to behave well through punishments, instead they learn it from watching us and how we behave and interact with other people. ie Model the behaviour you want to instill in your children. She believes that by having a good connection with your child, you will need to yell less, siblings will fight less and they will be happier, more resilient children as a result. By always threatening and bribing, you will push your child away from you and damage your connection with them, then they will feel isolated and insecure and they will play up more and the bad behavoiur will get worse. They will then repeat that behaviour with family and friends, and then when they are parents. So on a few occasions recently, where I might have shouted at one of my kids and confiscated their phone and then world war 3 will have ensued, I have remained really calm and quiet, and then when they have calmed down, we have discussed the situation and what was not right about their behaviour in a calm manner. I did not punish them or make any threats, which I might have done in the past! It has really worked at diffusing the situation! They have not felt like an injustice has been done and played up further, they have listened to what I have said and we have moved on and the house has been a calmer place. Also, if you are constantly shouting at your kids and take away something they love or have been looking forward to, can you realistically expect them to respect you and help you say unload the dishwasher when they hate you?! You will ask them to help and then they will say no (or worse!) and then this will escalate again...
Its not a perfect solution to having perfectly behaved kids, but that's not a realistic goal anyway! But it has really helped me and our family life so far... I will keep you informed on what I learn! The podcasts are avilable on various platforms including apple, amazon and spotify. I listen to them on Amazon music here, they are free. You can also follow Michelle on Instagram: @peaceandparenting. Hope her advice will help you and your family as much as they have helped me and mine. Lucy x ps incase link above doesn't work, cut and paste from here:
https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/35cfc9bc-65db-44c3-a77c-c03d44e390ca/peace-and-parenting?refMarker=null
- lavender oil, perfect for dotting around on your bed linen, smells wonderful
- blush stick, perfect for keeping in your handbag
- fitflop biker boot / wellies, these look super comfy and stylish too! Love these khaki ones!
- Neom candle, these are such a treat. Expensive so wouldn't buy for myself, but such a nice gift!
- All saints pyjamas, love these!
- a bag from Amelia Rose Accessories, she has just the most gorgeous selection of bags!
- giant glass candle holder, love this one from the white company.
Lucy x
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Lucy xx
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Lucy x
]]>I really enjoy receiving these and they add a little sunshine to my week, and save me alot of time too! Also I feel better knowing that these fruit and veg have been organically grown, I really recommend it!
Lucy x
ps this is not an ad!
]]>What you need:
a butternut squash
a packet of feta cheese, cubed
salad leaves (of your choice, I like the floppy ones best like butterhead)
2 spring onions (or half a red onion if you prefer), chopped
A tablespoon of pine nuts
a pomegranate (or tub of if easier)
For the dressing: 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon salt
What you do:
Chop up the butternut squash. (I find it easiest to cut the ends off, then chop in half (length ways) and then peel it.) You want chunks of about 1.5cm. Put it on a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil and season. Put in the oven at around 190c. Cook for around 30 mins until soft.
Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until golden. (Keep a close eye on them as they burn really easily!)
Put the leaves in a bowl. Add the spring onion, feta cheese, toasted pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and squash once it's cooled a bit.
To make the dressing: put all the incredients in a jar and whisk or shake until mixed.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad.
ENJOY!
Lucy x
ps for a more hearty meal, make some croutons by frying some bread in olive oil and add at the end
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