Vegan Tahini Fudge

Yesterday the wonderful Chloe Watts (AKA My Happy Body) and I ran another very lovely Day of Happiness. We laughed, we cried, we yoga-ed, we gong-ed, we wrote, we ate! And it seems our food is proving to be almost as popular as our yoga & gong baths! Our food yesterday took on a Moroccan theme (for no other reason than Moroccan food is delicious!), with a vegetable tagine as our lunchtime meal and vegan tahini fudge as our afternoon treat. The tagine recipe I'll save for another time, but the tahini fudge is one I can't keep to myself any longer! We used the Hemsley + Hemsley cookbook for the recipe - it is ridiculously simple and quick to make.

Ingredients:

Half a cup of pitted, soft dates
110g of light Tahini paste
2 tablespoons of slightly softened coconut oil (but not melted)
Sea salt flakes
Sesame seeds
Desiccated coconut

Method:

1. Blend the dates, Tahini, softened coconut oil and sea salt flakes in a NutriBullet (or similar mechanism)
2. Scoop this blend into a flat dish, and smooth / gently press with a spatula
3. Thinly slice 2-3 dates and lay neatly onto of the smoothed blend. Finish by sprinkling with sesame seeds & desiccated coconut.
4. Place in freezer for at least half an hour. It can then be kept in the fridge.
5. Cut into fudge shape pieces and enjoy a delicious treat!

This is such a simple, delicious and nutritious treat choice - it's perfect if you want something a little sweet that isn't too naughty. When it gets soft I think it tastes a little like cookie dough!

Please do let me know if you give it a go - I'd love to hear what you think!

Sending love & light,

L x

Autumnal Dish: Spicy Potato Vegan Curry

The days are becoming shorter, the weather cooler. It's official: Autumn is here. And it's this time of year that we seek food to warms us, comfort us, and to make our hearts happy! But if you're like me, you still want to eat relatively healthily for most of your meals.

Therefore, for the October edition of the Day of Happiness retreat with the lovely My Happy Body (AKA Chloe Watts), I decided to find a comforting, healthy, delicious recipe for our guests to enjoy. After a quick Google, I found the recipe for the most gorgeous Spicy Potato Vegan Curry on the All Recipes website. Whilst cooking it I changed a few ingredients to make it my own, and needless to say we had some very happy guests (just what you want on a Day of Happiness!). The success of that meal, combined with various friends asking me for more veggie recipes, meant that I just had to share this one with you.

Original picture source from All Recipes

It is super easy, cheap, filling, and most importantly tastes amazing! So without further ado, here's what you'll need:

3 x potatoes diced & cubed
3 x sweet potatoes diced & cubed
1 x bag of frozen peas
1 x yellow onion
3 x garlic cloves
2 inches of fresh root garlic
2 x cans of chickpeas
2 x cans of chopped tomatoes
2 x cans of coconut milk (I used Coconut Merchant)
4 tsps of ground cumin
6 tsps of curry powder (strength depends on your tastebuds, but I used medium)
4 tsps turmeric
6 tsps Garam Masala
Coconut oil
Sea salt to flavour

(This set of ingredients will serve at least 6-8 people - with leftovers! - and can be easily scaled up or down to suit your needs). 

How to:

• Peel, dice & cube your potatoes, sweet potatoes & ginger root. Peel & chop your onion & garlic cloves. 
• Boil your potatoes & sweet potatoes for about 15 minutes. Drain & allow the steam to dry. 
• Whilst your potatoes are boiling, melt your coconut oil in a pan (alternative oils can be used) and cook your chopped onions until they are soft & translucent. 
• After about 5 minutes add your cumin, turmeric, curry powder, garam masala, ginger & salt.
• After about 2 minutes add your chopped tomatoes, chickpeas, frozen peas (boil these for 5 minutes before putting in) & potatoes. 
• Pour in the coconut milk & bring to a simmer. 
• Simmer for 15 minutes before serving.
• Can be served by itself, or with rice (we used wild & brown rice). 

Et voilà! A delicious dish PERFECT for the Autumn!

Do let me know if you decide to give this one a go, I'd love to hear how you get on. 

Love & light,

Lucy x

Strawberry, Cashew & Coconut Bliss Balls

To me being Beautifully Healthy most definitely involves treating yourself from time-to-time. And it’s even better when those treats are homemade and (dare-I-say-it) good for you… These little Strawberry, Cashew & Coconut babies are the perfect treat for weekends, with a cup of green tea, post-work out, or for no reason at all other than they taste insanely good. Seriously, they are delicious (my boyfriend will confirm that if anyone has any doubts!), and they’re also full of energy, super quick to make, no-bake, and only require 6 ingredients! So whatcha waiting for? Grab the ingredients and get whizzing!

Ingredients:

1 cup of cashew nuts

½ cup of dried strawberries

6-8 sticky dates (preferably medjool as they’re super sticky!)

Vanilla extract

Sea salt

Desiccated coconut

Method:

1. Use a blender to grind up the cashew nuts so that they’re almost like a powder…
2. Add the dates to the cashews and blend some more…
3. Add the vanilla extract, sea salt and dried strawberries and blend again!
4. Once all of the ingredients are properly mixed together roll them into a ball size of your choice and roll in desiccated coconut
5. Pop them in the fridge to harden slightly (or straight into your mouth!)

6. Enjoy the nutty, strawberry, coconut goodness feeling guilt-free and utterly content! 

I found this amazing little recipe on Pinterest via the betterwithcake.com blog, and the original recipe uses freeze dried strawberries instead of normal dried strawberries. I’m sure her way is better, however I’ve not yet been able to find freeze dried strawbs in any supermarkets or health stores near me so went ahead and used the normal ones. As far as I’m concerned the recipe still works with the normal dried ones, although I think they’re a little stickier than they would be with freeze dried ones, hence I decided to roll mine in desiccated coconut to reduce the stickiness and also because I freakin’ love coconut with almost anything!

So this weekend if there’s one treat you whip up in the kitchen why not try these little balls of bliss? I can guarantee that you won’t be disappointed!

Namaste y’all!

Love Lucy x

Yoga Teacher Training Week Two

So I'm not quite sure where this week has gone, but apparently I'm now half way through my 200 hour yoga teacher training course! 100 hours down, 100 hours to go!

Week Two has been pretty full on - lots more yoga (of course!), many more breathing techniques, too much veggie curry, and trying to stick a rubber tube up my nose and out of my mouth as this is apparently a traditional yogic cleansing technique! Needless to say I failed miserably at that challenge. We do have two more sessions on cleansing coming up this week, so I'll let you know if I'm at all successful...

On a physical note, after two full weeks of yoga I'm already feeling stronger and more flexible - it really is amazing how quickly the body can adapt to intensive and persistent training. I wouldn't say I've lost any weight - there's too much curry available for that! - but my body has noticeably adapted to the physical challenges of the course. I'm pretty sure there's a few muscles that are looking slightly more toned!

Continuing along the food thread I've maintained a completely vegetarian diet for the whole two weeks. We get to eat out at the weekends but I've decided to see how my body reacts to having no meat for an entire month. So far my tummy has been really happy and I haven't missed it much at all, however I'm pretty sure that when faced with a fry up on my return to the UK I'm not sure I could turn it down. The food at Kranti Yoga Village is incredible - most mornings I have vegan porridge with loads of fruits and cinnamon, and then lunch and dinner is usually curry with veggies - it is all absolutely delicious and freshly prepared. However one thing that my fellow yogis and I have been craving is fresh salad, as that's not as readily available here, but luckily around Patnem and Palolem beaches there are some amazing salad places and so Sunday lunch has been replaced with salad! - we really are wild! We're also all off the alcohol (another thing that I shan't be keeping up when I get home!) so when we occasionally do make it out of the yoga village for a night of dancing in the sand we order in the fresh juices - I can highly recommend pineapple, ginger and mint. Seriously delicious.

On an emotional level this week has come with some challenges. One of the main lessons we've had to learn is to not be afraid, and to not turn away from difficulties. This is a tough one as every day we're faced with new asanas (postures), new information, and new philosophies. And then you naturally begin to think about challenges that you've faced before you came out here - many of us on the course have faced quite a few of them - and this was what made me crack during a slow flow class on Tuesday. The theme of the class was "be who you were born to be". I know that sounds a bit hippie and possibly a bit obvious, but actually if you think about it for a moment it's a really lovely message. So many of us spend time trying to be clones of other people - copying famous people, wanting to be like our friends, imitating our idols - and if we're really honest none of this fulfils us. And why is that? It's because we're not being our authentic selves. We spend so long seeing the beauty in others that we don't see it in ourselves. And if we don't see it in ourselves then how can we share that beauty with the world? The world needs you to be you. It's your responsibility to be you. The world needs YOUR beauty. And that's what got me in the slow flow class, I had my first cry of the course - not because I was sad but because I was proud. Not so long ago I was afraid and I did have some difficulties to face, but I took them on and I beat them. I did this so I could be true to myself, and I can tell you hand on heart that I have never been more certain that I'm now living how I'm supposed to. So really I had already taught myself the lessons that we learnt this week, but I wanted to share that with you as if I can do it, then you can do it too. Don't be afraid, don't turn away from difficulties, and you will overcome them to become who you were born to be.

So what's next for the course? Well, by Wednesday this week I have to have my first lesson fully planned ready to practice for my assessment in the final week where I'll teach it to 10 of my fellow students. My theme for the class is going to be on heart opening, but I'll share more of that nearer the time. I also have to get my anatomy knowledge up to scratch (thank goodness I took A level Physical Education!), learn the majority of the Ashtanga yoga primary sequence with Sanskirt names, as well as get my head around the various yoga philosophies... It's going to be a busy but amazing week.

As with last week I'm having trouble uploading photos via my iPad, but if you want to keep up-to-date with my trip then do follow my Instagram account: lucyvictoriajackson

So remember: be who you were born to be. You are you, and you are beautiful.

Namaste!

Love Lucy x