Peanut butter cookies

Homemade biscuits are simply the best; they are easy to make, taste really good and are healthier than other commercial biscuits you can find at the store. You can be sure that you are not having any artificial flavour, colour or any preservatives, in fact you can satisfy your cravings without even feeling any guilt.

For these peanut butter cookies you will need:

• 1 big egg
• 1 cup of multipurpose organic vegan flour (about 220 grams). Any type of flour including self raising flour works just as well, I just wanted to avoid baking soda/powder and all those kind of chemicals.
• 80 ml of natural peanut butter
• 30 grams of brown sugar 
• 150 grams of oats
• 80 grams of unsalted butter. Coconut oil is a healthier alternative. If you have some in your kitchen, heat two table spoon of coconut oil until it is almost liquid. I am always using coconut oil instead, it is healthy and leaves a nice taste to the cookies as well, unfortunately I was running out of coconut oil.
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt

 Start by preheating your oven to 180 C.

Into a bowl mix the butter (or coconut oil) and the sugar, then add the egg. Stir until you have a nice homogenous creamy texture.

Add the dry ingredients to the preparation one by one starting with the oats, then flour and last but not least the salt. Work out your arms a little by string the mixture once again until you reach a creamy texture. Finally, the last ingredient going into the preparation is the vanilla extract.

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Roll a teaspoon of dough into small balls, place them on the baking tray and with the back of a spoon flatten slightly.

Before putting the tray into the oven, you can sprinkle some cinnamon on the top of the cookies.

Place into the oven and let it cook for 15-20 mins.

Bon appétit!

Yoga; a spiritual, physical and mental practice.

" Yoga is the journey of the self, trough the self, to the self." - The Bhagavad Gita.

Yes. Being healthy involves having a regular physical activity, however this does not mean you have to go at the gym five days a week. Although having a six pack and a firm round booty looks incredibly good, you don't necessary need to have them in order to be healthy and conformable with your body. If the gym is what you like, what motivates you, then go for it. It's not the case for you? Don't worry, there are hundreds of other activities that you can try. Hiking, running, cycling, walking, paddling, dancing, swimming, pilates, zumba, yoga, the list never ends! Remember, it can be anything that keeps you moving, that makes you feel good and that burn some calories.

I recently wanted to try out new things that I might like, so I have started yoga! Yoga is not only an excellent physical activity for burning some calories but it is also an excellent way of travelling within your own soul. It is a true spiritual journey.

This activity lists a good amount of advantages:

- It is a stress reliever: I have been trough quite a lot of stress recently and I really feel like yoga is helping me to make a break into this stressful life. During but also after the seance I feel so relax, and peaceful and my mind is only full of good thoughts. 

-It is spiritual: I know it sounds crazy, but yoga is a spiritual activity and you can feel it during the class, specially if like me you have the chance to have an outdoor class and an amazing professor. During one hour you communicate with your soul, you learn to be more comfortable in your body and accept who you are. The spirituality gives you inner strength to overcome difficult situations as well.

- You are relaxing and working out at the same time: Yoga is composed of slow movements, and lots of alternating poses. You can feel your body working slowly and relaxing at the same time. Yes, you do burn a lot of calories by doing yoga and you don't even realise it.

- Having to go to classes is a good motivation: Having to attend classes at a certain time in a particular day is much more motivating compared to doing it at home in front of a screen, where you can easily be lazy and skip the activity.

-It improves your flexibility: yoga is definitely a way of improving your flexibility thanks to the different poses.

Some people complain about the pain, or the difficulty of the exercises. It might be a bit hard the first one or two classes if you are not used to do any physical activity. But don't give up! It will quickly become easier, it is not because you can't do it the first time that you won't be able to do it the second time! I personally didn't get any body pain, but it is probably because I do quite a few regular physical activities. 

A healthy body + A healthy mind = A healthy life

Stay motivated, you are on the good track!

Q for Quinoa

The quinoa is an absolute must have, and not only because of it's cute name! This delicious and healthy grain is naturally gluten free and therefore excellent for those trying to loose weight. Quinoa contains more protein than any other grains but is also rich in fibre and iron as well as naturally low in fat. I was so happy finding out about the quinoa as it is not only good for the health but is also very tasty, I thought it would only be fair if I share it with you.

You can find quinoa in all healthy food stores but also in the healthy/organic section of your local supermarket. So far I only tried the organic white grain, which is the most common type, however you can also find a red and black type of quinoa.

This nutritious grain is a great substitute to rice and can be use in most salads as well.

How to cook it?

The quinoa is really easy to cook and very fast as well. Do not forget to rinse the grain before cooking it in order to wash off remaining bitter coating. For one cup of quinoa put two cups of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Let it cook for 10 to 15 mins, the water should be absorbed by the grain. You can now remove the remaining water and continue with your normal recipe.

You can easily find lots of recipes with quinoa on Internet but I tough I would share with you one of my personal and favourite recipe involving the organic white grain. You can decide to eat it warm or cooler more like a salad if you wish. I like to eat it warm for my diner and keep the rest in a container, placing it in the fridge so I can bring it along with me for the following day lunch. This recipe is just a perfect combination of meat, veggies and grain. It is full of protein, fibre and good vitamins. Not forgetting that this recipe is really quick and easy to do. Oh and it is so tasty!

Ingredients:

• organic white grain quinoa (same amount as in the first picture; about half a glass)
• fresh chicken breast 
• carrots
• zucchini
• corn
• salt, pepper, coconut oil (you can use any other cooking oil if you want to, but this is a much healthier alternative)

The first step as you can guess is too cut all your ingredients in small dice. Then go ahead and start boiling the quinoa in a small saucepan.

While the quinoa is getting ready in the boiling water, heat another saucepan and put a tiny bit of coconut oil. Once the oil is hot enough add your chicken and season it with some salt, pepper and mix  herbs if you want to. Then add the carrots, zucchini and corn together with the chicken and and a pinch of salt.

When you feel like it is all cook, reduce to simmer. Go ahead and check you quinoa. It should not take longer than 15mins to be cook and it should be absorbing most of the water as well. Check the picture below if you are not sure of what it should be looking like once it is cooked.

Remove the remaining water of the quinoa and you can now add the gain to the mix of veggies and chicken. And lastly give it a good stir to mix all your ingredients together.

  Bon appétit.

It's ok to treat yourself

Hi everyone!

Even tough having a healthy way of living involves not eating pastries, you must know that it is okay to treat yourself once in a while with a nice sweet little desert. However I do not recommend eating any pastries for breakfast as they do not contain the energy and nutrients needed, but are full of calories.

Mauritian napolitaine.

These little pink biscuits are one of my favourite, they have been part of my childhood and I'm so keen to share my recipe with you today.

You don't need to be exact in the quantities, feel free to add or reduce the ingredients when needed.

• 2 cups of plain flour (I used the organ gluten free plain flour)
• 1/2 of soft butter 
• your favourite jam
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• about 1/2 of cold water
• a teaspoon of beetroot juice or some mashed blueberries mixed with a teaspoon of hot water (You can also use some food colouring but these are good healthy alternatives)

The first step is to melt the butter and add it to the flour, then you will have to mix it with your hands till you obtain a nice, homogenous, yellow pastry. (Using your hand is very important, you need to have a dry but homogenous mixture) Hint: you must be able to do a ball with the mixture, if you can't do so, add some more melted butter.

Once this is done you will have to spread out the mixture on a clean surface. Make sure it is evenly spread out, a bit like a thick pancake. The next step is to cut little circles out of the pastry, you can help yourself with a glass or a champagne glass. While doing so, don't forget to preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

You can now turn you oven on "bake" and leave your biscuits in for 15 to 20 mins.

Once your little biscuits have cool down, you can turn them over and cover the middle with a bit of your favourite jam. Here I have used a local strawberry jam. Once this step is done you can now pair them.

You can choose to eat them like that, but the traditional recipe of the napolitaine is to cover the biscuit with a smooth pink icing. The icing is done by mixing the beetroot juice (or whatever you are using to colour your biscuit with) with the icing sugar and some cold water until you have this nice, smooth liquid texture. 

Now you have done a mess covering all your napolitaine with the icing, you can go towards the last step which is to put them into the refrigerator for two hours before enjoying your "cheat day" or "non-healthy day" as I call them.

Bon appétit!