Clean Christmas sorbet (using nutribullet instead of icecream machine)

Clear the palate before tucking into the next course with this "I can't believe there's no refined sugar" Christmassy spiced sorbet.

Don't be put off by my poor food photography and photo editing skills.. this is really worth trying! 

(as usual, look away now if vague quantities irritate you!) 

Ingredients:

About a cup of chopped dates if you want it to be as sweet as store bought sorbet

Christmas spice. You can use a wine mulling pack, a teaspoon or so of 5 spice, or make your own like I did with fresh and powdered ginger, a few cloves & cinnamon.

About 2/3rds of a large carton of orange juice (standard UK carton.. I dunno whatever mls that is!)

1 packet of frozen raspberries 

Chop up the dates into at least quarters, chuck everything except the raspberries into a pan, bring to a simmer while stirring then put the lid on it and put it aside to cool.

Once the syrup mixture is cooled, cover and put in the fridge over night.

Strain the syrup and discard the remaining dates and spices.

Blend with the frozen berries. For a nutribullet this takes 2 goes - half of the raspberries and half of the juice each time.

Freeze IMMEDIATELY so that the consistency remains "sorbet" and not "christmassy ice cube"

Allow to soften slightly before serving. 

Vegan Cauliflower "cheese" using Nutribullet

It's been a bit of an Autumney August, so warm wintery comfort food is back on the menu. I decided to try out a high protein vegan cauli cheese recipe that had been knocking round in my head for a bit, and all I can say is DAMN!!! If I actually WAS a full time vegan, I would be winning at it! This is GOOD!

Don't ask me for exact quantities. I don't do that!

Fill large nutribullet cup (or any other blender or smoothie maker, but that's what I have) with Cashews, soak for a few hours or over night then drain. Add about 2 tbs of nutritional yeast, this will give it the cheesey flavour. Add in a Tbs (or more depending on tastes) of mustard seeds and a tsp of Himalayan rock salt and black pepper. Apple cider vinegar…. you need his for the kick, but too much and it's all you taste, so add a small amount first, you can always add more at the end and reblend but you can't add less once it's in! Now fresh water, add a bit, blend, add more till you get the right consistency. What we are going for is like a white sauce consistancy not a thick houmous consistency.

With the nutribullet, for thicker recipes like this you do a quick pulse, take it off and shake, quick pulse, repeat till saucy. Don't leave it on longer than 5 seconds at a time or it'll start to heat up.

Add broken up cauliflower to baking dish and pour over the "cheesy" sauce, making sure all the cauliflower is well coated. You can add in parsley at this point if you like or just garnish afterwards with it. Sprinkle a bit more nutritional yeast over the top for a bit of texture.

Bake at about 200C for about 30 mins, or, y'know, till you stick a fork in the cauli and it's soft.

I don't have an after pic, it was miserable and raining outside and we just got stuck in and warmed up. I'll add one next time we make it.

Nutribullet gluten free raw vegan strawberry "cheese"cake

Firstly, you should know that I rarely weigh or measure, so if my vague quantities are going to irritate you, look away now!

There are lots of raw vegan cheesecake recipes out there but the ones I found either used almonds, which I can't eat, or they used the freezer to set it and I wanted to see if chia seeds would do the trick to make a raw vegan fridge set cheesecake.

Ingredients-ish:

Crust
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/2 cup pecan nuts
1/2 cup dates… well, I didn't have half a cup of dates in the cupboard like I thought I had, so made up the 1/2 cup with dried apricots and prunes.
1/2 tsp himalayan rock salt
1 tbs coconut oil

"Cheesey" part
about 2/3 a supermarket punnet of strawberries
1 tsp vanilla essence
about 1/3 cup chia seeds (I had no idea how much chia to use to set it, so this is just a guess)
250mls coconut cream

I blend the chia seeds. I've never tried them the unblended "frogspawn" way.

Blend crust, squish into cheesecake tin, blend cheesy part, pour in over crust, fridge-it for a few hours or overnight. Eat. Share. Don't share… will leave that one up to you!

Thoughts about childbirth from a step aerobics class.

Once again I find myself compairing exercise to childbirth, this time in a step class with a new teacher as I marched on the spot instead of following her instructions to do static stretching at the start of the class. I look around, I'm the only one not static stretching. I know that I'm not the only one who prefers to only static stretch at the end of the workout because at least three other women in the step class warmed up in the same spin class as me before hand, and like me, pedalled through the end of class stretching before going upstairs to step.

So why was I the only one not stretching? Why am I looking nervously at the teacher hoping she doesn't notice me? Am I braver than the others or is it because I'm safely tucked in the corner of the back row? Would I march through it if I was at the front under her nose? Some of the women at the front look like they're very into their fitness, I cannot be the only one who has read up on static stretching and prefers to only do it at the end can I? Why did I just opt out rather than ask for dynamic adaptations?

We follow fitspiration social media pages and keep abreast of the latest developments in health and fitness, make online scrap books about the correct way to stretch and the most effective way to work out, then get face to face to a "professional" and stop listening to our bodies and trusting our own judgement.

Maybe it was because the teacher changed that week! Eureka! that must be it! because with our regular weekly spin teacher in the previous class we were in familiar territory, and four of us pedalled through the stretching. Then about five minutes later, when put on the back foot by an unexpected change of instructor and unfamiliar class structure, only one of us opts out. It wasn't the teacher we were expecting, it wasn't the class we were expecting, it is usually a weight based class.

Which is where birth plans fail us. We write a plan for our ideal birth in our ideal setting with our allocated childbirth team. Then maybe we write a few plans for what other scenarios we have been informed about.. but no one can learn all the possibilities of childbirth in nine short months so what happens when our actual birth isn't one of the possibilities we have imagined?

So maybe what we need, is not an attempt to condense a midwifery degree worth of potential scenarios into a few hours of antenatal classes, but antenatal assertiveness classes?. And I am not being anti establishment here, I don't mean "how to say no to whatever the professionals tell you"… just simply how to make sure you understand and are well informed, maybe how to ask "does it have to be done right now or can we re-assess it in 30 minutes?". Or "I don't know anything about that procedure, can you tell me more?". After all, the midwives and doctors HAVE had longer than us to learn all the possible outcomes of childbirth, they have the information, what we need is to be able to express when we are in unfamiliar territory so we can access their knowledge and make informed choices.

As for the gym. I may have opted out this time, but I didn't question it. I didn't ask for dynamic adaptations, and I have previously suffered a bad sprain doing an exercise that felt unnatural and uncomfortable at an expensive boot camp so I learnt the hard way.

Maybe body autonomy has to be learnt way before antenatal class. Perhaps this is a parenting issue not a pregnancy issue. Today I will try to give my children my rationales for whatever I ask them to do. I will try to eliminate "do what you're told" and "because I said so" from my vocabulary. I will applaud their questioning my demands rather than letting tiredness cause me to express frustration.

Onwards and upwards.