Info all Articles

…is how I’m feeling today. There’s just something about a new baby in my life that fills me with happiness! Here he is:

I know all new borns look the same but baby Daniel is gorgeous!

This morning I hit the gym for a great workout. I fueled up with a small snack before I left:

An orange and a tasty bear blueberry fruit yoyo. I must have been feeling good this morning as I decided to stay on the treadmill past my planned 30 minute run. I ended up running 6.8 miles in 1 hour – the longest I’ve ran for well over a month. I felt great! I did a mixture of long and short speed intervals. I then did 30 minutes of steady state cardio on the cross trainer and step machine.

This morning I made home made almond milk for the first time! I followed Jo’s directions which can be found here.

I soaked a cup of almonds in 4 cups of bottled water in the fridge for 24 hours. I then added the soaked almonds and the soaking water to my blender and blended for a few minutes:

I then poured this mixture through some cheese cloth laid in a strainer. This gave me about 4 cups of gorgeous creamy unsweetened almond milk at a fraction of the cost I’d pay in the shops! You could add sweetness to this by adding agave syrup or a couple of dates at the blending stage.

I had some with my breakfast in a recipe inspired by this blue green latte. I made a fresh juice using 2 kiwi, a pear, cucumber and a couple of cabbage leaves then added a cup of almond milk plus some matcha green tea powder (from Teapigs) and some spirulina powder. I used my milk whisk to combine everything:

I also had a bowl of berry porridge made with 1/2 cup of power porridge, 1/2 cup of oat milk, 1/2 cup of water, a little oat bran, some frozen mixed berries and sweet freedom natural sweetener. I topped it with a few mixed seeds. My ‘green latte’ tasted fab!

After making the almond milk I decided that I didn’t want the leftover almond pulp to go to waste so I decided to make some healthy cookies! I used this recipe using the almond pulp, a mashed banana, cacao powder, agave and a few dried cherries then cooked in the oven on the lowest heat for two hours (as the original recipe requires them to be dehydrated). I turned up the heat for the last 30 minutes just to finish them off.

I had two of these for my afternoon snack while I was out visiting the baby and at my best friends little girls 3rd birthday party (yes I’ve had a day filled with young children running around!). These taste ace, you would not think they were so healthy! I also ate two unpictured apples.

When I got home I had the leftover serving of my Warm Butternut, Lentil and Fig salad but instead of adding the figs and pine nuts I used cranberries and walnuts.

Yum! Dessert was a delicious smoothie:

Cherry Blossom Smoothie (in a bowl!)

• 1 sweet apple (I used a jazz apple), cored and chopped
• 1 cup of frozen cherries
• I small punnet of fresh blackberries (frozen would also work well)
• 1 cup of almond milk

Blend all ingredients and serve!

I added a little xanthan gum for extra thickness and topped with a couple of flaked almonds. This tasted divine!

Have any of you ever tried making your own nut milk? I was surprised at how easy it was. If you haven’t made it before would you be tempted to try?